A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENT Topics Page Numbers 1 A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities in Improving Literacy Skills of EAL Pupils Introduction This evaluative essay focuses on reviewing teacher professional development strategies in using assessment for learning (AfL) to improve English as an additional language (EAL) for primary pupils in England.Teaching is a difficult job. Improvement and constant development are therefore necessary to ease the burden of hardworking teachers. As a result, teacher professional development is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions (Wiliam, 2011). Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development is a typical concern in industrialized countries because it is the key to improving teaching. However, William (2011) mentioned that teachers feel inundated as they are continuously ‘bombarded’ with innovative strategies to increase their working efficiency.Keeping teacher professional development in mind, the focus he re also relates to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Globalisation plays a major role in stressing equal opportunities and social equity for all learners. Due to the long tradition of migration trends across the globe, the international concerns also encompass of contextualise social justice for multi-lingual learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). To highlight this matter, a statistic from the Department for Education in 2011 shows an increased in the number of ethnic minority pupils in English state funded primary schools (DfE, 2011).This reflects the circumstance of England primary schools where pupils whose first language is other than English has increased in number. The urgency of this matter is supported by Ofsted (2012) by stating that English has a momentous position in the school curriculum. Thus, teachers’ 2 strategies to tackle this situation become the centre of attention. Where the English language has served as a lingua franca for ethni c minority pupils in England, literacy skills play an important role in their academic and everyday routines as well.By putting forward the two important aspects of this essay; teacher professional development and EAL in primary schools, it is only necessary to mention the relevance of combining both of these aspects in a topic for discussion. With all due respect to other core subjects in the curriculum, the reality of teaching as a difficult job and a statement made by National Association for Language Development in Curriculum (NALDIC, 2009:1) on EAL that it is a ‘very complex phenomenon’, seem to have formidable implications for teacher professional development.Educational reforms such as curriculum reform, does not guarantee necessary changes in classroom practices. It is well known that how a subject is taught wins over what is taught, hence ‘pedagogy trumps curriculum’ (Wiliam, 2011:13). Therefore, when curriculum frameworks only work as far as guidi ng teachers in dealing with EAL, thus assessment for learning (AfL) is then best integrated in pedagogy to further develop the practice of serving teachers and raise pupils’ achievements. 3English as an Additional Language Classrooms in England According to a brief description by NALDIC (2011), there are over a million bilingual pupils participating in teaching and learning contexts in United Kingdom. According to statistics from Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2006a:8), there has been an increased of ethnic minority pupils in primary schools from 18. 3% in 2004 to 19. 3% in 2005 and then reaching 20. 6% in 2006. Each of these pupils enters school communities with minority language that is not English as their mother tongue language.It is stated by Hughes (2002) that teachers need to consider pupils’ diverse culture to establish learning environments that are meaningful. It is important that teachers attend to their learning needs in order to achieve teachin g goals. The diversity in culture that may cause challenges in pupils’ learning according to Hughes (2002) includes the kind of spoken language use by them outside of school context such as at home. English as an Additional Language (EAL) according to Davison (2007) refers to ethnic minority pupils who are perceived as to needing support with their English development.These pupils possess language other than English (LOTE) as their mother tongue language. The terminology of English as a Second Language (ESL) is also commonly used by many researchers and teachers to identify these LOTE pupils. However, there has been a rise of issues about the usage of ESL as a term in pedagogy hence, the term EAL is said to be a more appropriate term to be used as it suits the context where the English language abilities of bilingual or multi-lingual pupils are multi-leveled (Davison, 2007).These issues revolve around the fact that LOTE pupils should not all be assumed to take English languag e as their second language. These pupils can be 4 fluent in speaking and writing in their mother tongue language but not in English language, or it can be vice versa (NALDIC, 2009). On the other hand, these pupils can be more fluent and able to socialise with their schoolmates in English language informally, but not be able to engage in academic writing and meet the requirement of the national standards.Cummins’ (1979) distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as cited in DfES training toolkit programme (DfES, 2006b) shows that communicative or conversational skills (BICS) of pupils usually develop first in verbal exchanges context before they develop their cognitive (thinking and learning skills) and academic languages (CALP). In general, it takes two to three years for upils to be fluent in English as an additional language and an average of five to seven and even ten years for bilingual pupils to be competent in cognitive and academic domains. Essentially, EAL teachers need to know that only by pupils achieving development in both of their cognitive and academic language can they contribute to their academic success (DfES, 2006b). In an actual fact, how successful is the teaching and learning of English language subject in England primary schools?According to inspections done by Ofsted from April 2008 until March 2011 in over 133 primary schools, the report highlights the finding that primary schools have less improvements in English attainments in comparison to secondary schools (Ofsted, 2012). The problems listed are encompassed of having fewer pupils achieving national expectations in reading, and quality in teaching writing is varied such that less efforts were given in spelling and handwriting. Slower improvements in primary schools are then linked to the fact that there is a lack of specialists present in the teaching and learning context.Although, due to 5 inspect ions done by Ofsted consist of individuals, there might be biased element involve in the evaluation. Nonetheless, Therefore, I do believe there should be more researches focusing on the competences of teachers through teacher training programmes and continuing professional development. Relevance of Formative Assessment in EAL â€Å"Sensitive formative assessment of pupils’ classroom performance demands a high level of teacher awareness of pupil needs†¦teachers need to take account†¦the even more complex and less ‘visible’ aspects of language use. (NALDIC, 2003: 1) I can relate to the above quoted statement by NALDIC (2003) where teachers are required to carefully plan formative assessment for pupils’ learning by considering the complexity of language education especially EAL. According to Wiliam (2011), there has been a lack of researches done for teacher professional development. Learning styles, educational neuroscience and content area knowle dge are the common areas included in teacher professional development. Thus, why focus on formative assessment in this context?Getting into the basic details of understanding assessment, Green and Johnson (2010:14) define assessment as more than just tests and quizzes for the purpose of grading. Furthermore, assessment is viewed as a mix of methods to implement before, during and after lessons by taking advantage and making good use of pupils’ former or current knowledge to enhance learning. From the definition itself, they feasibly elaborated three main purposes of assessment 6 based on occurrence of the instructions.Diagnostic assessment happens before teaching, formative assessment (assessment for learning) happen during teaching and summative assessment (assessment of learning) happens after teaching (Green and Johnson, 2010). Thus, the terms diagnostic, formative and summative can be seen as defining the functions or purposes of the wide range of assessments. Black, Harr ison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam (2003:31) mentioned that there are four ways of assessing pupils; questioning or classroom dialogue, feedback or feed-forward, self and peer-assessment, and formative use of summative tests.The relevance of focusing on formative assessment is due to its compatibility alongside many other aspects that contribute to pupils’ achievements (such as age, abilities and multileveled language). NALDIC (2003) agrees on the insufficiency of only using National Curriculum English and thus resulted in Assessment for learning (AfL) which is synonymous to formative assessment, to be used on a daily instructional basis (NALDIC, 2009). According to Stiggins (2005) as cited in Wiliam (2011), Assessment for learning exists throughout the process of pupils’ learning.AfL provides pupils with information of their learning progress through feedback as evidence and at the same time, assist pupils on how to improve and meet achievement standards. NALDIC Formative descriptors consist of assessment framework to assist teachers on day-to-day methods or provide stages for diagnosing pupils’ progress, and also to help teachers plan and integrate AfL into EAL teaching approaches (NALDIC, 2009). Issues in Assessing English as an Additional Language 7 We have only looked at the complexity of language in terms of its terminology.Davison (2007) mentioned that knowing what to be taught and learnt in classrooms must precede the action of assessing EAL pupils’ development. Other than that, teachers must also take notes on pupils’ knowledge prior to lessons to provide them with better learning opportunities. Shepard (2000) talked about two different problems in relation to teacher practices and pupils’ prior knowledge to learning. She stated that quite a number of teachers only documented results from pre-test and post-test assessment tasks however failed to subsume pupils’ pre-test results for enhancing pupils’ learning.In another case, a sizeable amount of teachers involved in reading and language subject had the tendency of using activities that acknowledge pupils’ background knowledge but failed to comprehensively integrate them with assessment. In practice, EAL pupils would have more predicaments in learning English as their additional language in comparison to native speakers of English pupils learning English. Hence, teachers are required to be more sensitive towards the cultural background and prior knowledge of these EAL pupils to help fulfill their learning needs.Language as a second language contains facets such as grammatical, socio-cultural and strategic abilities taken from models that can be referred for assessing. However, Widdowson (2001) as cited by Davison and Leung (2009) stated that the complexity of language is mainly due to the absence of comprehensive views and researches on the relations of these components, thus resulting in theoretical issues arising such a s on the ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ on assessing criteria of language.For an example, in assessing writing, there may be a question on the validity of perhaps teachers putting more emphasise on grammar proficiency in comparison to creative writing. 8 Thus, theoretically, with the nature of language being multifaceted and the different abilities of LOTE speaking pupils in mind, one has to wonder how teachers deal with and monitor their development and progress. Of course there are NALDIC Formative descriptors which provide framework and guidance to teachers; however, there is the persistent question of whether or not this is enough.An experiment was done by Davison in 1998 (Davison, 2007) involving ten Hong Kong immigrant students in Australian secondary schools. The result of the research indicates that teachers of these immigrant students had the tendency of creating a ‘community of dialogic exchanges’ (Davison, 2007:542). Referring to forma tive assessment, classroom dialogue is one of the areas used to assess students to enhance learning, nonetheless, it is the way that teachers use this method that really determines the outcomes to be positive or negative for their learning.Here, the teachers seemed to acknowledge the background of the EAL students but omitted their learning needs. The teachers developed negative judgments towards these students such as perceiving them as depending too much on their mother-tongue language and having no motivation to learn and speak in English. Thus, this poor discernment by teachers as assessors should be a major professional concern. Furthermore, in reflection to Davison’s research, I would like to include some issues raised by Cumming (2009) in the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly.Briefly, Cumming put forward problems that relate teachers and assessment. Firstly, the problem is on teachers’ lack of knowledge on assessment, and also questioning their professional abili ties since there are still a lack of studies done to help answer how language teachers build up their competences 9 throughout their career. Secondly, teachers having a hard time in choosing assessment approaches that would work better in helping pupils meet the curriculum standards. Lastly, there are issues involved to how teachers relate assessment with pupils’ development and learning needs.As a result, the judgment skills, knowledge and abilities of teachers as assessors, are some of the many factors that should be considered in improving within teacher professional development. Teacher Professional Development: Novice to Expert? The demands put on teachers’ shoulders can be quite a jargon to others who are not involved directly in the related profession. There is even a saying that I was once told and here it is; the works of a teacher to others as they see it is only a tip of an iceberg.Throughout my teaching experiences, I slowly grasped the meaning of it as the reality of the profession manifested itself through the extra hours of marking, lesson planning and researching. During my earlier periods in the teaching diploma programmes, I believed teachers with years of school experience ought to master the techniques of teaching. It was my assumption that veteran teachers should outperform novice teachers. Nonetheless, with the passing of time, I have learned to believe that experience would only give positive impacts on pupils’ outcomes when the serving teachers bring with them developments in their practices.Of course the time factor contributes to teacher professional development, such as to give ample opportunities to teachers to experience and develop their skills. However, for judging on how good a teacher is, it does not entirely matter on the length of time the teacher has taught, but what the teacher does within this time that is really a concern. 10 Such as, how teachers develop teaching approaches on bringing in greater lea rning experience for pupils in EAL classrooms or setting.Referring to my old belief, a trite assumption that I’d probably make would be that teachers should just be left in schools for a period of time to eventually learn to teach better. Surprisingly, this assumption is proven to have a little bit of truth. Wiliam (2011) has put forward research done by Leigh (2010) on 90,000 Australian elementary school students. The research shows a small gap of differences on the impacts of students’ progress as a result from the teaching between veteran and novice teachers (see Appendix A).Hence, a couple of years advance by veteran teachers in the career put them at a slightly better teaching result, yet Leigh stated the majority agree that the case is not always the same. The attention of even on the tiniest bit of truth on the assumption that veteran teachers teach better than novices, is better turned to how they teach and develop their practices. That is, by improving their i nner developments; wisdom, knowledge, experience and polishing their critical judgment skills (Dadds, 2001).On the other hand, it is vital to realise that the whole process of developing teacher practices does not evolve entirely on teachers simply catching up with the latest educational trends (Wiliam, 2011). Metaphorically, it is not as easy as reading ingredients off a recipe book and lacking of involvement in the process of cooking itself. Putnam and Borko (1997) as cited in Shepard (2000) agreed that constant experimentation and reflection on pedagogical models in real classrooms context by teachers precede beneficial changes to their teaching practices, beliefs and attitudes. 1 Teacher Professional Development Strategies in EAL Looking from an international view, Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development in every countries differ from one another in terms of its strategies. In Japan, the strategies of professional development encourage peer-development, mea nwhile in America; the strategies are focused on following paradigms for self-development. Higgins and Leat (2001) talked about effective teacher development by linking its models in a mapping diagram (see Appendix B).They attempted on linking models such as those that seek on transitional stages of novice to expert teachers, teachers’ professional reflection, pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, socialisation and personal explanatory. This goes back to relate on the previous research on 90,000 elementary students in Australia on the differences of performance between novice and veteran teachers (Wiliam 2011). It would not be enough to prepare individual teachers with only a specific skill in teaching development such as on pedagogical approaches alone.This is because teacher professional development is multi-faceted and the components are interrelated. Although there are imperfections on trying to map out the complex relationships of models within teacher development du e to many different meanings of the concepts in literature, however, they agreed on stressing the importance of teachers in having explicit work purposes (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Due to the major focus on mainstreamed classrooms in English schools, Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) therefore aims in providing all pre-service teachers 12 ith the experiences of EAL integration across all curriculum subjects (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). In my home country, the curriculum has a vast of English Language medium subjects listed for the majority local and non-native English speaking pupils. Thus, in the previous years, preservice and post-service teachers in Brunei had the opportunity to choose upon entering the teaching training programmes such as to specialise in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).However, it is acknowledged by Cajkler and Hall (2009) that despite the urgency to meet the demand of increasing EAL pupils in England, the inclusion of EAL specialisatio n in pre-service teachers training programmes is out of the question due to the already ‘very crowded programme’ (Cajkler and Hall, 2009:154). In the initial training, the confidence level of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was low especially in the fields of assessing English and teaching of literacy.The study also noted that the training provided pre-service teachers with less involvement with the national guidelines for assessment of EAL pupils; Language in Common. As a result, 45% from one hundred and fifteen respondents prioritised teaching skills for EAL as the most essential further training category for continuing professional development (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). Thus, assessment and language developments are suggested to be centralised in the teacher training programmes.Therefore, in 2006, the introduction of training toolkit for EAL Excellence and enjoyment: teaching and learning for bilingual pupils in the primary years (DfES, 2006b) to schools aims to raise understanding on EAL pedagogy and provide guidance on teaching approaches for bilingual learners. Then, White et al (2006) in their evaluation of the pilot programme of the DfES toolkit (DfES, 2006b) mentioned that there has been a positive improvement in teachers’ confidence and better comprehensive view of EAL pedagogy by teachers. 3 If I insisted on my previous assumption on letting novice teachers evolve to experts, Higgins and Leat (2001) pointed out that there are again stages involve in the transition to increase expertise. These transitional stages are not shown in the mapping diagram (see Appendix B). Nonetheless, it triggers such questions as to what extend do we measure achievements of teachers to confirm their expertise in teaching, hence, what makes one a teaching expert?Does defining one’s expertise help others to improve, such as through demonstrations of teaching to pre-service and post-service teachers? Changes can only occur and produce results when teachers are willing to first, change from within. Perhaps I can look at it from this point of view where education reformers provide new teaching models to schools, but instead, all these innovative strategies are making teachers feel inundated by them and as a result, changes intended never take place in classrooms (Wiliam, 2011).Let’s also reflect on the situation of the ten Hong Kong students where teachers assess them through classroom dialogue activity but misinterpreted in using that assessment to make judgments that did not contribute in helping them to learn better. As a result, Dadds (2001:51) emphasise teachers to cultivate their inner ‘voice’ and judgment or the ‘expert’ within them before accepting and using instructions from the ‘expert’ outside. Teachers are learners themselves. They need to learn on how to look at their rooted values on the profession first before thinking on improving and catering the learning needs of p upils.Suggestions to Overcome Issues in EAL 14 Other than participating actively in the schools or the nation’s teacher professional development programmes, there are also many other individualistic ways for serving teachers to successfully implement AfL in EAL pedagogical approaches. In the context of teacher professional development, it really depends on teachers to improve their knowledge and professional abilities; to trust their instincts, experience and wisdom in order to help pupils attain better in their learning.Also, it is essential for teachers to be explicit on the learning intentions before assessing pupils for learning. For lesson preparations, teachers in England are opened to a wide range of resources for EAL and assessment tasks such as from EAL publications, DfES toolkit (2006b) and NALDIC official website which provide great research platforms for teachers and tutors. Teachers can use information on pupils’ background and prior knowledge to adapt sui table assessment tasks in classrooms.According to Shepard (2000), teachers may even evaluate their own practices through classroom assessments by becoming liberal and open into discussing matters related to improving instructions with pupils. Another way of helping teachers to develop their assessment practices is by using video or audio recorder while assessing pupils as media to allow teachers to reflect and improve their approaches, as well as, to enable teachers to better understand the learning needs of their pupils.For peer-development, EAL teachers may make informal meetings with their EAL teaching colleagues to discuss and make amendments on certain assessments criteria (Davison, 2007; Davison and Leung, 2009). In addition to the issue of assessment ‘validity and reliability’, the matter can be partially put at ease if the assessing of pupils is done by teachers who know them very well. In addition, 15 teachers should be given great autonomy to plan and help the learning of their own pupils (Davison and Leung, 2009).However, if the case of ‘validity and reliability’ is over-emphasised, therefore, I believe that the status of teachers as assessors may be perceived as weak and the whole focus of AfL would be none other than a replacement of standardised traditional ways of assessing. As cited by Shepard (2000), Assessment Reform Group (1999) which consists of researchers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, put forward their discourse to the government policies on three important aspects. Firstly, to amend inspectorate policies to help guarantee teachers as qualified assessors for pupils’ learning.Secondly, increase the funding on professional development opportunities for teachers. Finally, relieve teachers from the apprehensive pressure of standard examinations when planning instructions for pupils’ learning. Conclusion The impetus of this essay derived from the fact whereby is supported by NALDIC (2009) that English as an Additional Language (EAL) development is a rather difficult situation that gives impact to teachers’ professional experience. There has been a great emphasise on EAL in England due to its long tradition of migration and mainstream classrooms in primary schools.In relation to the urgency, teacher professional development in England becomes the foreground in dealing with the increasing number of language other than the English (LOTE) speaking pupils in state funded schools (DfE, 2011). On the other hand, the integration of AfL in the teaching of EAL is seen to be the best way to assist teachers in increasing pupils’ literacy competences. NALDIC Formative descriptors, established in 2009, serve as assessment framework that provides teachers with 16 approaches to diagnose the progress of pupils in EAL and provide them with feedback evidence to improve learning (NALDIC, 2003).Language education is very complex. The nature of language involves stage s of competencies and encompasses of many interrelated components (Davison and Leung, 2009). Thus, trying to figure out the abilities of bilingual or multilingual pupils in English language and which aspect or components of the language to use to judge their competences, is quite the phenomenon. Therefore, there are issues involving teachers’ critical judgments and wisdom whilst assessing EAL pupils that highlights the necessity of teacher professional development.According to Higgings and Leat (2001) by referring to Teacher Training Agency (1997), primary teacher training in United Kingdom provided a course where pre-service teachers are to obtain all the needs of professional learning by attending ample of lectures on subject knowledge, teaching approaches and a number of demonstrations on teaching. However, from a study done by Cajkler and Hall (2009), the result shows that there is inconsistency in the focus of EAL in the teacher training programme provided by TDA in Engl and.Time is an essential element in development but it is also relevant to look at teachers as individuals with different abilities. From my experience, some teachers could be talented and creative than the others, and some teachers could be more motivated. Therefore, arguing on which aspect contributes more in improving teacher practices is impossible due to the fact that it is beyond my capability for discussion and the limitation of this essay. In a nutshell, I agree that that teacher professional development is complex.Education reformers should not merely focus on one area of teaching practices but also to acknowledge other teaching related factors. 17 Nonetheless, Wiliam (2011) paraphrased Doug Lenov (2010) and stated that teachers have no maximum limitation of success and should think that striving for continuous development throughout their career is necessary. After all, teachers are not just essentially required to help develop EAL pupils into becoming capable learners in their classrooms but, they also help them to become capable members of the schools and cultural societies (Davison, 2007).Therefore, teachers’ skeptical attitude towards innovative strategies that would help improve their teaching has to be countered with other strategies that would prepare them with the changes they need from within. Iteratively, professional development for teachers needs to be guided with intentions that are relevant and supportive to their continuous professional development in order to face the continuous challenges of the evolving society nowadays. 18 REFERENCES Black, P. , Harrison, C. , Lee, C. , Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. 2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. England: Open University Press. Cumming, A. (2009) What Needs to Be Developed to Facilitate Classroom-Based Assessment? In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 515 – 519. Dadds, M. (2001) Continuing Professional Development: Nurturing the Expert Within. In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 50 – 56. London: The Open University. Davison, C. (2007) Different Definitions of Language and Language Learning: Implications for Assessment. In Cummin, H. nd Davison C. (Eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1, 533 – 548. Norwell, MA: Springer. Davison, C. and Leung, C. (2009) Current Issues in English Language Teacher-Based Assessment. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 393 – 416. DfE (2011) DfE: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics – January 2011. http://www. education. gov. uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196810/schools-pupils-and-theircharacteristics-january-2, accessed November 20, 2012. 19 DfES (2006a) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5 – 16.London: DfES. DfES (2006b) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Bilingual Children in the Primary Years, Unit 1, Planning and Assessment for Languag e and Learning. London: DfES. Green, S. K. and Johnson, R. L. (2010) Assessment is Essential. New York: McGraw-Hill. Higgins, S. and Leat, D. (2001) Horses for Courses or Courses for Horses: What is Effective Teacher Development? In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 57 – 58. London: The Open University. Hughes, P. 2002) Principles of Primary Education Study Guide: 2nd Edition. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. NALDIC (2003) NALDIC Position Statement on Assessment of English as an Additional Language. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-advocacy/naldic-reports-and-responses/naldic-briefingsand-letters, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2009) EAL Assessment Frameworks, Models and Useful Documents for Classroom Teacher. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-teaching-and-learning/eal-resources/eal-assessment, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2011) Bilingual and Dual Language Resources. ttp://www. naldic. org. uk/ealteaching -and-learning/eal-resources/bilingual, accessed November 20, 2012. 20 Ofsted (2012) Moving English Forward: Action to Raise Standards in English. http://www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/moving-english-forward, accessed November 27, 2012. Shepard, L. A. (2000) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 29(7), 4 – 14. USA: American Educational Research Association. Shimahara, N. K. (1998) The Japanese Model of Professional Development: Teaching as Craft.In Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14(5), 451 – 462. Great Britain: Elsevier Science Ltd. White, K. , Lewis, K. , and Fletcher-Campbell, F. (2006) Raising the Achievement of Bilingual Learners in Primary Schools: Evaluation of the Pilot/Programme, Research Report RR758 (National Foundation for Educational Research). London: DfES. Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. USA: Solution Tree Press. 21 APPENDIX A A graph that shows the rate of teacher productivity in relation to t heir years of working experience (Leigh, 2010) cited in Wiliam (2011:28)

Latin american woman from 1825

From 1810 to 1825 women were engaged effectively in different wars of independence against the Spanish.   The most recognized women were the Latin American women who were deeply involved in the struggles for independence especially in the struggle for women’s rights in the broadest sense of economic, political and legal.   The women were also credited for the great role they played in redemocratization and economic reconstruction. IMPACT OF SPANISH CONQUEST ON INCA AND AZTEC WOMEN Many Spaniards moved into America because of the reports of gold.   Many people were pressed into ritual slavery in search of gold. Consequently the local overlords grew rich and the natives remained poor.   The continued success of the local overlords led to Spanish conquest in America. Aztec rulers were ruling around 25 million people who were living in large cities administered by elaborate array of military leaders: priests and government officials. There were also village elders who were united through marriage arrangement between their families and other families. â€Å"Chief speaker† was a body of elected representative elders, and it developed into strong emperor figure and was having great powers.   The Aztec system was theoretically meant the empire enjoyed closer ties of divinity and the priest was to select sacrifices required to keep sun shinning and to see rains falling. The priest was also required to maintain order in the society and during the time the sacrifices were being made. (Tompkins, 2001) The Incas were however weakened in regime from factional fighting and diseases even before the sparkles armored.   Emperor Pizzarro’s forces were captured the empire leading to the destruction of the Incas and then the way was open to Spanish enconmediams to take over the Inca and Aztec empires which were found in the gulf of Mexico. The Spaniards persecuted the people in the two empires and their cities were destroyed and were to be replaced by Spaniard cities.   These people faced horrible time in the Spaniards hands because they were massacred purposely or accidentally by transmitting to them European diseases. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was conquered destroyed and the Spaniards build their own capital: Mexico City (just on the site of destroyed Aztec capital). The Aztec and Inca empires were located in the present Gulf of Mexico and by the time they were conquered they were barely a century old.   Both empires were extending over large areas and were having millions of people.   The conquest of Aztecs by Spaniards was due to the epidemics that had affected them while the Incas were conquered through the impact of deliberate infection of European diseases though they were also weakened by internal conflicts. (D’Altroy, 2002) Aztec community is an ethnic group found in central Mexico particularly those who speak Nahuati language.   They achieved a political and military dominance in the parts of Mesoamerica.   While the Inca Empire was on the other hand the largest empire in the pre- Columbia America. (Michael, 1984) Before the invasion and occupation of Mexican Gulf by the Spaniards the Aztec and Inca women were considered to be lesser members of the society.   The Inca women were given the specific task of making the local brew while the Aztec women were empowered in textiles making.   However with colonialism the roles of women changed women were seen to be in the fore fronts to fight against the inhumaniterian activities that were being done by the Spaniards. During colonization the women were having very great levels of uncertainties because this was the time when sexual harassment on women was on the range of rising. They were also used as maids in the houses of the ruling elites.   These mistreatments generated the uprising of women to fight for colonial liberation which they needed more than the men. Colonialism also saw the abolition of indigenous ways of life for example the use of the indigenous trees and plants to cure some diseases and some agricultural seeds which they treasured were abolished. In their role as the primary protectors of the family the Aztec and Inca women saw this as a threat to their royalties they had valued for long time.   They also fought for land rights; globalization and clear cut cultural identity with no job description for males and females in the society. (Michael, 1984) ROLE OF INDIGENOUS TUPI WOMEN The Tupi women were generally described as indigenous women rooted to domestic domains and so they were not able to fulfill institutionalized political and economic roles.   However this was not easy to achieve because in the indigenous Tupi there were distinct gender regimes and gender symbolism were associated with masculinity, this lead to increased war in Tupi society. These women worked hard to see new complementary spaces opening up to them and most of them even fought for colonial liberation from Europe.   They also demonstrated strong desires and complain to survive the criticism and brutality; they also ensured that they adjusted to resist the myriad colonial changes.   Despite the numerous attempts by the colonial governments the Tupi women were able to negotiate for social and political rights for the society. (Miller, 1991) Traditionally Tupi women were restricted to aesthetics alone for instance, they were required to decorate the housed, and they also painted their men to look delightful all over their bodies like birds or waves of the sea.   The women also painted their own legs so that someone seeing them from a distance may think they are dressed in the black worsted stockings. Council of male elders ruled the Tupi tribes to mean that women had no leadership positions in this tribe.   The elders met almost daily and were only addressed by the chief on how to rule the society.   The Tupi also believed in the real supernatural power but they were not having formal organized form of religion.   They believed in spirits and deonoms making their tribes life to be a form of myth, legend spiritual and ceremonial web. The women were entitled to domestic chores and they also participated in agricultural activities with no voice in administration. They were greatly discriminated upon by the men and were not allowed to make any vital decisions but to listen to and follow orders from their men. (Monteiro, 2000) However after colonialism the roles these women changed greatly with leadership style taking different dimensions. The women participated actively in the fight for colonial liberation giving their cultural and indigenous practices new meaning and approach. The women formed different movements to fight for equal representation in the ruling class as well as liberalized roles for both genders. They wanted an end to the work specification according to gender that had been there in olden days and was also magnified by the Spaniards during colonialism. This is because during the fight for colonial liberation the Tupi women realized their potentials to rule and do other duties better than the men. Their roles eventually changed but they maintained one provision of domestic needs and services mostly decoration of their bodies and houses using traditional approaches. Bibliography D’Altroy, T. (2002), the Incas: peoples of America. Blackwell publishers. Michael, D. (1984). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (ancient people and places) Miller, F. (1991), American women and the search for social justice. Hanover university press. Monteiro, J. (2000), the heathen castes of sixteenth century. Duke university press. Tompkins C, Foster D W, (2001), Notable Twentieth Century Latin American women, Amazon, Green wood press.   

Terry Hill

Terry Hill, a professor at Oxford University argues that the criteria required in the marketplace (and identified by marketing) can be divided into two groups: âž ¢ An order qualifier is a characteristic of a product or service that is required in order for the product/service to even be considered by a customer. âž ¢ An order winner is a characteristic that will win the bid or customer's purchase. Order winners and qualifiers are both market-specific and time-specific. They work in different combinations in different ways on different markets and with different customers. While, some general trends exist across markets, these may not be stable over time. Order Qualifier: Incase of telephone company the main objective is to ensure proper communication. In this sector some of the order qualifiers are Grameenphone, Robi, Citycell, Banglalink, Teletalk, Warid. Order Winner: An Order winner criterion depends on the cost of the product, product quality and reliability, or any of the other dimensions developed earlier. In our country Citycell (Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited) is the first mobile communications company (since 1989) of Bangladesh. For this reason it got some priorities in that time. But when GP (Grameephone) came into market in 1997 it became the order winner because of its strong and reliabile network. Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh. It also established the first 24-hour Call Center to support its subscribers. It has now more than 28 million subscribers (as of October 2010). As of July, 2008 Citycell has 1.67 million subscribers. It is Important to remember that the order winning and order qualifying criteria may change over time. Professor Hill states that a firm must re-qualify the order qualifiers every day it is in business.

US Foreign Policy in the Middle East Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

US Foreign Policy in the Middle East - Essay Example Different foreign policies get suited for different regions with regard to the goals sought. The realist perspective in international relations alludes that countries will act in their selfish interests going against whatever moral consideration there may be. The basis of this is study of the nature of humans and the need to be out of harms way. Realism views look at the international pool as an archaic system with no checks placed on sovereign states (Mingst 12). Foreign policy ought to be firmly defined through realism. The type of foreign policy fronted by the government should be beneficial to that country and achievable. The stand taken by the authorities should be supported by the nation’s population. This creates a sense of belonging and contribution in as far as effective governance gets concerned. Over the years, several foreign policy statements have become challenged because they do not depict the feelings of the population. It is in this light that opinions should be sought from the public through consultation and involvement in decision making (Jackson 66). The US foreign policy in the Middle East should involve a wide consideration of dynamics. It should look into the sociological, economic and political perspectives and possible impacts of policies made. The US foreign policy in the Middle East should view the region as a new hub for economic gain. The Middle East boasts of the world’s largest oil reservoirs. Oil wells in the United States are drying up at alarming rates. The US policy in the Middle East should encourage mutually beneficial trade between the two trading blocks (Sorensten 116). With the current state of affairs where the US is massively indebted especially to China, new trading partner should be found. Trade treaties that allow for continued investments in the Middle East should be encouraged. Movement of goods and services between the two blocks should be monitored to ensure that

Strategic leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic leadership - Essay Example In the process of delivery of services, all stakeholders should be involved actively in carrying out each role without causing delays or failures in the whole system of operation in the company (Baisya, 2010, p.4-7). These plans are the strategies and a company implements them so that it can ensure orderliness in operation as well as proper delegation of duties to different employees at specific times. The process of performance of duties involves different people in the company and ought to contribute to their wellbeing by focusing their effort to fulfil common goals as set out in the company strategies. The goals in a company mark the milestones that all employees should attain to ensure that it can thrive in its environment and compete favourably with its rivals. Companies implement strategies in areas that have potential of boosting the productivity and others areas which need enhancement to contribute positively to high profitability. The company leaders lay down strategies and supervise them to ensure that every employee has a duty, which they can be accountable of, even when other activities take place within or away from the organisational supervisors. In the process of implementation of services, a company may reform some of their strategies to conform to the market need of the prevailing time so as to remain relevant and productive. The leaders in such a company implement such steps so that they can ensure that it remains adaptive to the different environment and ensure it has a competitive advantage over its rivals in similar business competing over similar customers (Unhelkar, Ghanbary and Younessi, 2010, p.57). News Corporation is a media company, which operates in different parts of the world by supplying videos, producing and selling newspapers and other ways of communicating to the public. The company has always adopted different strategies that have enabled it to remain relevant in the market and have served to advance its position in the news industry. The leadership of News Corporation has always drove and enhanced strategies of the company by leading the process of decision making, which lead to taking of various courses of action that ensured its success in all of its activities. News Corporation, through its various stakeholders engaged its leaders, employees and shareholders in making decisions that have had a transforming impact to the company. Through the progress it noted when it implemented changes in its strategies; it recorded differences, noted even in the current time (Watson and Hickman, 2012, p.7). In some occasion in the past, some strategic issues that took place in News Corporation include: adoption of new organisational structures, change of leadership of the company, change of its marketing strategies among other strategies moves it used to ensure that it was productive even when the recessions and other rivalry issues threatened the its economic productivity (Lank, 2006, p.97). In the past News Corpo ration operated as one great company that was determined to establish itself in different issues and that coordinated its activities from one point. In the progress, the company through its owner and the CEO found it necessary to split the company into two integral parts, which would engage themselves in different activities. Following the agreement, between the leaders and the company shareholders, the company split into two independent companies, News Corporation and Fox Group. These companies adopted differen

History the world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History the world - Essay Example One of the evidences that prove the significance of the agricultural revolution as a turning point in human history is the shift in economic activity that has persisted to the current period. Before the agricultural revolution, man relied on hunting and gathering for his food supplies, activities that required fewer skills that aimed at capturing a target. The agricultural revolution however witnessed improvement in human initiatives that involved development of agricultural based technologies for agricultural practices. These initiatives marked a turning point because they formed a system that has not been replaced but has only been refined and developed towards higher levels of efficiencies. The revolution therefore marked a turning point in agricultural based technological developments in human initiatives (Kahn, p. 12). The agricultural revolution also marked a turning point in human history because of the shift in man’s main economic activity. While the Paleolithic man relied on gathering and hunting, the agricultural revolution made a shift towards agricultural dependence that has never been reversed. Even though hunting and gathering continued, it has never been practiced as the main economic activity as it used to be practiced prior to the agricultural revolution. Another significance of the agricultural revolution that marked the turning point in human history is its large-scale food supply that shifted man from small-scale food generation ventures, in hunting and gathering, to mass production of food that could then be stored for future use. This is because of the low output levels of hunting and gathering as compared to agricultural output that could sustain food supplies needs for longer periods. Such reliance in mass production has been maintained in human history to indicate that i t was a significant development. Unlike

How To Resolve The Conflict Through The Executive's Intervention Essay

How To Resolve The Conflict Through The Executive's Intervention - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that hostile environment in a workplace is inevitable and it naturally happens in any business enterprise all over the world. Employees should not veer away from these dilemmas but instead, they should be able to determine the origin of the conflicts, identify the effects, and pinpoint the typology. Learning how to manage the interaction accordingly will be critical for the improvement of the working environment inside the enterprise. According to Bergman and Moore, a deposition can normally consist of a lawyer or a self-representing individual that asks the deponent with questions. It may seem informal in its sense since it is conducted within the premises of the enterprise, such as conference rooms with the absence of a judge. However, the deposition should be considered with an equal amount of importance as a testimony in court since it shares several characteristics with it. It is through the nature of a deposition that lawyers, as well as individuals that prepare the letter, give utmost care on how they write as it could result to a major impact when taken to court. Conversely, the deponent must also be extra careful in attaining accurate deposition testimony as it may have great repercussion on the ruling of the case. Enterprise policies should ensure that complaints of illegal or unethical conducts are investigated and addressed as quickly and as effectively as possible. In addition, â€Å"whistleblowers† should also be given protection against reprisals for the complaints that they make that are in good faith. The enterprise should also support and follow reporting conditions which are mandatory and in accordance with government institutions. Policies such as The Code of

Why Is It important for Managers to Understand the External Forces Essay

Why Is It important for Managers to Understand the External Forces Acting on Them and Their Organisations - Essay Example The every day role of a manager involves a range of activities all directed towards the achieving a high level of performance for the organization. In other words, being a good manager involves succeeding in achieving a high level of performance for the organization (Daft & Marcic, 2009). Thus, a key determinant in the success of manager hinges on achieving high levels of performance, which is influenced by the external forces acting on an organization as per the definition of external forces. Hence, it becomes impossible to deny that the common denomination of performance of the organization highlights the importance and interaction of the external forces acting on an organization and the role of managers in the organization. It is quite obvious that an understanding of the external forces acting on the organization makes it possible for managers to make use of the resources and create an environment that negate any impact of external forces that enhance stress in the organization a nd through that reduce job tension and enhance job satisfaction and job commitment that go towards improving the performance of the organization (Pool, 2000). Any organization exists in an external environment and necessarily has to interact with this environment and transact business within this environment. Such a relation between an organization and its environment is clear indication of the direct relationship between the external forces and organization. In which case, it goes without saying that effective interaction between the organization and the external forces is a key determinant for the success of the organization. What is the nature of the interaction between the external forces and the organization? External forces can impose a number of constraints on an organization that have a strong influence on the scope and direction of the activities in an organization and through that the performance of the organization, while the organization has limited control over these ex ternal forces. The key aspect of handling the constraints imposed by external forces is in the managers of the organization identifying and understanding the external forces and the constraints brought on by them and developing policies and actions within it’s the environment of the organization to take advantage of the situation that is impacting on all organizations operating in that sector of industrial activity. In fact, it is the understanding of the external forces coupled with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the internal environment of the organization by managers that allows that to seek out the opportunities in the external environment to exploit them and develop measures to mitigate any threats imposed by the external forces (Shaikh, 2010). According to Robbins and Coulter 2007, external forces acting on an organization can be classified into two elements of the external forces of the specific environment and the external forces of the general en vironment. Such a distinction of the external forces is useful in evaluating the influence of external influence on the performance of an organization and its implications for managers (Robbins & Coulter, 2007) The specific environment consists of those external forces that have a direct bearing on managerial decisions and activities, because they have a direct relevance to the performance of an organization and the attainment of the objectives of the organization. This may imply that the specific environment for all organizations is static and the same. This is not true for the specific environment is unique to every organization and changes with changes in the condition. For example, let us look at two organizations of Timex and Rolex conducting business operations in the same market of

Simulaitons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Simulaitons - Essay Example In the present case, the optimum solution is obtained for- Profit maximized ($1254) when Tables for 4=10, Tables for 2=8, wait staff=3 and kitchen staff=2. Loss of sales is least ($941). Other than the proposed alternatives, we can have two more possible solutions. There are basically, two areas of concern namely- Order taking and the ovens. The speed of operation at both these places directly influences the waiting time. Therefore, the optimal automation of these two areas would do a great deal of good even if there were initial investments to be made. A) Given the significant downtime and relocation costs, once you have decided to reconfigure equipment to improve process layout, how do you balance the immediate production requirements versus future needs for the facility There must always be a scope for future improvement, and so in order to achieve this, there must always be an effort for finding out better alternatives and under the present situation, the existing production must not stop, and so the best option for this would be to relocate only one thing at a time. This will ensure that current production stays unaffected and there is scope for future additions into any vacant space. B) The "cost of delay" is an important cost t

European Colonists and Their Viciousness Essay Example for Free

European Colonists and Their Viciousness Essay William Penn was one example of a leading colonist that maintained good relations with the Native Americans. There were other leaders that did likewise. However, most of the European colonists didn’t follow this pattern as John Winthrop or Hernando Cortez. These leaders mistreated the Native Americans and used them like objects. One of the reasons that made some Europeans abuse of the Native Americans was that they didn’t think of the Native Americans as humans but more as animals or savages. Therefore, they thought they could do anything of them and even kill them if they needed to. That was true for the English colonists who saw the Native Americans the same way they saw the Irish. For this reason, they would exploit them and use them as slaves. They even destroyed their villages and kidnapped their children for vengeance. One thing that the English colonists didn’t do that differentiated them from the Spaniards was that they didn’t reproduce with the Native Americans because they saw it as reproducing with an animal. Yet, this wasn’t the only reason of this behavior among the Native Americans. Another reason for which the colonists took advantage of the Native Americans was power. At this time, power was very important for everybody. The amount of power you had leaded your life. Of course, when someone had power, he always wanted more and that was so for the kings and queens. When Christopher Columbus told Queen Isabella that the Tainos were weak, innocent and that it would be easy to control them, the queen saw a good opportunity of expanding her power in America and improving her wealth. She decided that she would make slaves out of the Native Americans and that she would impose them her religion. Of course anyone who would resist would be killed. This is how slavery started in America. Another cause of this behavior was gold. Multiple trips to America had for goal to find gold. The European colonists thought that, now that they found this new land, they would be able to reap the benefits of the gold resting on it. However, when the colonists arrived, the Native Americans were already there with the gold. But the colonists had evil interests; once they saw gold, they would be able to do anything to get it. That is what happened with the â€Å"conquistador† Hernando Cortez and his army when they arrived to Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs’ capital. When they saw this city, they got bewitched by the gold used to build it. This obsession led to the revolution of the Aztecs against the â€Å"conquistadores†. The battle ended with most of the Aztecs killed including their chief. The last source of the colonists’ viciousness was their territories. When America was first discovered by Christopher Columbus, all the European countries fought to extend their lands. However, the Native Americans were an obstacle for the expansion of their colonization. The countries thought that the lands belonged to all different tribes of Native Americans. Therefore, the only way to get the lands was to take over the Native Americans and take possessions of their lands. This is again an example of Hernando Cortez’s conquest of America for Spain. When he arrived in America, Hernando killed every Native American tribe he found on his way to then claim their lands to Spain. The only reason he didn’t kill some of them was to have better chances to defeat the Aztecs. But Cortez wasn’t the only colonist to do this to Native Americans and some might have been even crueler than he had. In conclusion, the Europeans didn’t follow the pattern of good relations with Native Americans as William Penn and other European leaders because of dehumanization, power, gold and land. These are the four facts that most of the European colonists thought were worth killing a very important amount of innocent people and that caused them to offer viciousness instead of kindness to the Native Americans who hadn’t done anything wrong to them.

The Importance Of Having Good Communication Skills English Language Essay

The Importance Of Having Good Communication Skills English Language Essay Introduction Most of us know the importance of having a good communication skill if we want to have a successful career and enjoy a harmonious interpersonal relationship with people. But it is quite another story for us to practice it appropriately in our daily life. In this paper we focus on some necessary steps of acquiring a good communication skill which includes how to reduce communication noise, non-verbal communication, and suggestions to practice communication skill properly. I shall first present a communication event at the beginning. This event happened in a clinic between a dentist and a patient. Due to the dentists good understanding of verbal communication, and well-acquired non-verbal communication technique, he finally succeed in persuading his patient to accept dental treatment. Details on the analysis and related communication theories based on the event will be discussed in later sections. Mr Smith was an experienced dentist. Many of his previously satisfied patients became his loyal customers due to his excellent medical skill and thoughtful service. One day, a man dragged a little girl into his clinic. The girl was about 7 years old. An anxious expression was wearing on her small tearstained face. Her frightened eyes told Smith that she did really scare of being taken to see a dentist and her stiffed body showed that she would never be willing to accept any dental treatments. The girls father was at a loss for what to do to coax his daughter to accept treatment. Mr Smith smiled at the girl and approached to her, spoke to the girl in a gentle tone Darling, what makes you so scary? People hate dentist, so do I. Seeing a dentist hurts a lot, the girl answered with tearful eyes. Mr Smith knew it clearly that many children can not endure dental treatment due to fear. But he is experienced enough to cope with such problem. He explained the process of treatment in details i n a way that a child can understand in a mild tone. Mr Smith noticed that she has stopped shedding tears. He added If you behaved well during the treatment, you can choose a small toy to reward yourself for your great courage. Mr Smith smiled at her with a toy box waving in his hand. Thanks to the patience and kindness of Mr Smith, the girl finally accepted the treatment readily. Again he built a new good relationship with his patient. When we consider why and how Mr Smith wins his patients trust and loyalty, it is obvious that his success is inseparable from his distinguished communication skills. For supporting my viewpoint I will analyze Mr Smiths effective communication with related theories and authoritative opinions from authorities and books. Communication noise is an obstacle blocks the way of receivers receive our messages. Communication noise includes mechanical noise, semantic noise and psychological noise. Communication noise is something refers to have a profound impact on effective communication which influences the interpretation of conversations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_noise December 2009). The basis of communication is the interaction between people. However the barriers built by communication noise prevent us from properly percepting others intentions during the interaction of a communication. How did Mr Smith deal with these noises? Firstly is the trouble brought by mechanical noise. Mechanical noise is actual physical interference with the signal (Mohan et al. 1997, p. 7). In dentist Mr Smiths clinic the main mechanical noise is the noise generated by the dental drill. As Mr Smith is a thoughtful man he offers a separated waiting room especially designed for his patients which decorated wi th lovely ornaments, so that the noise from the consulting room can be isolated. Thus, the quite environment made by Mr Smith can enable him to make a more effective communication with his patients. Secondly is the Semantic noise. Semantic noise is the study of meaning. (Mohan et al. 1997, p. 7) For our receivers can understand our messages fully. We should choose words carefully. The words should be chosen within the understanding ability of receivers that is simple but concise to the point. We must take our receivers age, gender, religion, education, career, culture, and cognition into consideration. Carl Rogers, based on his experience as a psychotherapist, contends that the major barrier to interpersonal empathy is our very natural tendency to judge, to evaluate, to approve (or disapprove) the statement of the other person or the other group (Nebell, 1991, P. 217) That is our interpretation of some words and phrases are tend to distort the meaning of the communication by nature. For avoiding distortion and misunderstanding, Mr Smith chose his words mainly according to his patients age. Mr Smith tried to use simple and short words to communicate with his little patient. We can infer that long and complex words can only confused the little girl. What is worse it may make her distorts the meaning. Since the girl has bias toward dental treatment. Mr Smith also avoided to describe the oral surgery in a professional way with terminology instead he use interesting and vivid analogy to let the girl understand that the surgery is good to her health and easy. Then on the basis of the girls cognition, he simply told what should the girl to do during the treatment. He use proper words wisely simplified the concept of dental treatment in her mind. Those words have made a great contribution to diminish the fear inside of the girl. Thirdly is the psychological noise. Psychological noise is use of language or other communication symbols can set up emotional barriers betwe en people. (Mohan et al. 1997, p. 7) Mr Smith judged according to a kids psychological interest and preference, he gave the little girl a small toy as a reward. In this way Mr Smith collapsed his patients emotional barriers. Moreover the lovely ornaments on the wall is also a kind of communication. They use their cute out-looking, vivid colors telling the patients that here is a warm cozy place. Theres nothing to be afraid of, thus calms nerves inside of the patients. In his little patients fathers eyes Mr Smith has offered her daughter considerate service. From the above analysis, we can reach to the conclusion that only when we minimize or reduce the three kind noise of mechanical noise, semantic noise and psychological noise, can we offer a clear access to send our messages to others and get matchable feedback from our receivers. Non-verbal communication involves a transmission of information via sigh language, gestures, facial expression or other forms of body language. (Mohan et al. 1997 P. 7). Most people understand the importance of communication skills in the social life. But when they practice it, they usually neglect their facial expression, tone, body language in non-verbal communication unconsciously. As a mater of fact, ones facial expression gestures and body language is really important, it can imply others his attitude. For express ourselves better, we need to lay emphasis on the way to achieve success in non-verbal communication. The following are some suggestions. First, putting yourself in others shoes is a good way to sense others feelings on the condition that youve been well observed others facial expression, gesture, tone and body language. Prophet Muhammad is related to have said that any one of us is not considered to be a believing person, until he/she does unto others what he/she wishe s they do unto him/hertheytheydountohim/( July 2008). In the event, Mr Smith judged from the facial expression and body language of his patient, such as tearstained face, stiffed body, frightened look. Those body language reveals lots of information to him, thus help him gets to know what do his patient worries about so that he can adjust his language, facial expression, body language and paralanguage accordingly to cater to the psychology needs and wants of his patient. Second, use your own facial expression gesture, tone and body language and some other paralanguage properly. Never take it for granted that people can always fully understand you at ease. Combine your paralanguage and body language with your words is crucial. In this aspect Mr Smith has made a good example for us. He used a series of facial expression tone, body language and words to communicate with his stubborn patient to talk her into accept dental treatment readily. Mr Smith uses his gentle tone and smile to relax the little girls mind at ease and with the words he selected he successfully convinced his little patient that the process of treatment is painless. Combine proper paralanguage with selected words can make Mr Smiths words sounds more acceptable and credible in the girls ear. Many research studies have been carried out on this point: Non-verbal communication has been extensively studied in the psychology and psychotherapy disciplines and has been shown to have a central effect on participants perceptions of an event. (Mark Gillian 2003 pp. 384 398). That is if you well used your eye movement and gestures and body languages in a non-verbal communication that can help you to yield the twice result with half effort! So I can say with sure that without Mr Smiths paralanguage and facial expression or other body language the outcome will be much worse, or even end up in failure. That kind of communication starts from the heart which can be more effective in achieving a satisfied outcome of communication. His smile, his friendly manner, and his gentle tone reinforced the effectiveness of sending his sincerity to others. In conclusion to this, if we want to express ourselves more clearly to dissolve others hostility and misunderstanding to the greatest degree. It is essential for us to sense others feelings. In other words the way to achieve success in non-verbal communication is not only rely on to have a better understanding through others body language facial expression and paralanguage, but also important for ourselves to properly used our sign language, facial expressions, gestures and body language to enable others feel easier or even comfortable in receiving our messages. Conclusion It goes without saying that communication is playing an important roll in keeping a good relationship with people and improving efficiency in our work. After all have been discussed, acquire a good communication skill is identified as you are able to put yourself into others shoes, to sense others feeling. To collapse the communication barriers which build by mechanical noise, semantic noise, psychological noise. Whats more, well used your facial expression, gesture, and body language will definitely enhance your chance of sending your message to your receiver correctly.

The Performance Appraisal Systems Performance

The Performance Appraisal Systems Performance The research explores the effect of performance appraisal on performance of employees and in turn on companies as well. The purpose considers the operation of Shell in UK and Pakistan to enhance its employee performance. Furthermore, the academic requirement, the research aim and question are specified in literature available on performance appraisal system. Also with the supporting of related theory available by book s, journals, articles and surveys, the critical review of literature is made in all the aspects of topic and concept of performance appraisal system and its relationship to drive performance. The self administered questionnaire is distributed among the selected sample, like Shell UK and Shell Pakistan staff members, also a telephonic interview from the top mangers helped in collection of the required data. Than data is analyzed through different ways of comparison and contrasts. Finally the general recommendation of research findings is made on the current performance appraisal system and main driver of employee performance which company and employee wants. The study seeks to examine Analyze performance appraisal system and its impact on employees performance working in different working environments a case study of Royal Dutch Shell retail specific to operation in UK and PAKISTAN. In the 1980s Western world observed the achievement of Japanese organizations. The main factor identified for this success was the recognition and proper utilization of their work force. This has subjective the key practitioners and writers of western countries and they also start considering the significance of proper management of their work force, they name this management, Human Resource Management or HRM. Most the organization is no longer rely on the fixed resource of capital and technology to achieve competitive advantage in fast changing and highly competitive environment(sparrow et ,1994).its mainly on the hiring and skilled retention, devoted and motivated employees that will give an organization a competitive edge. To improve the effectiveness of their employees organization are more focusing on the management of their human resources. According to Boxall and Purcell (2003) when the human resource practices are aligned to an organization business strategy it become more effective. Furthermore, McCourt and Eldridge (2003) propose the integration of individual human resource practices so that they balance each other.Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) and Collins and Porras (2004) highlight organizations which have successfully aligned their human resource practices with business strategy. Unfortunately, for many organizations the effective human resources management is still problematic. Therefore Bratton and Gold (1999), state that performance appraisal (pa) in organization is a continuous and problematic process which is not liked by both mangers and employees. According to Latham and Wexley (1994) performance appraisal is like a seatbelt which still necessary, is unpopular. Lawler et (1995) suggest that since it is noticed that performance appraisal fulfilled the needs of organization and the individual, which are different, performance appraisal will always be characterised by differences in purpose, miscommunications and ineffectiveness. Fletcher (2004) states that many organization move away with the effective performance appraisal. The term performance appraisal will be used in this study to consign to the appraisal practice. Different organization called this on different names such as performance evaluation, performance review, performance rating ,employee evaluation and employee appraisal (ivancevich ,1995).after finding that employee performance can affect largely on productivity of organization ,they continue to endeavour to find out the most effective way of managing its human resources. Performance appraisal is human resource practice used by organization for the development of their employee to best output potential and overall enhancement of an organizations performance and efficiency. Shell is known for exploring and producing oil and natural gas products and also famous for retail stations. Shell transport and trade oil and gas product for heavy industrial uses includes fuel and lubricant for ships and planes. Many other activities includes wind power, electricity production, and making solar panels, producing petrochemicals which are used for coatings,plastics and detergents, and build up new technology for hydrogen vehicles .More importantly, approximately 3% of the worlds oil and approximately 3.5% of the worlds gas is produced by Shell companies, similar to other major private oil and gas companies (Shell, 2005). Using royal Dutch shell plc for research study is because it is international group of energy and petrochemicals companies, operating in more than 145 countries and employing approximately 119,000 people (shell, 2005). They are one of the biggest in the oil sector is known to be listed in the top 50 companies on number one in the world. (Fortune ,Global 500 ,2009).This research is going to look at the concept of HRM, draw up a unified work to examine its role on profitability and growth of businesses, and finally, investigate the current business context with regards to performance appraisal system of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Literature review 2.1 Performance appraisal Performance appraisal is one of the important practices of human resource management started early in 1813 in United states of America ,(Bellows and Estep 1954m cited in wise and Buckley ,1998)so there is increasing interest in and uses of performance appraisal system in the last three decades stated by Murphy and Cleveland ,(1995).therefore extensive literature available on this subject. in spite of this success ,many organization still struggling to make and implement effective performance appraisal system. all the thought given to process ,many of flaws still willful (wise and Buckley ,1998).performance management is a bigger picture in which performance appraisal is located (piggot ,Irvine ,2003),performance management focuses on providing a framework for guiding employee performance towards achieving organizational goals(Torrington et ,2002)performance management is therefore anxious with improving the performance of teams and individual to ensuring the optimal environment is av ailable for their employees to enhance their performance (Armstrong ,2003). Wilson and westrn, (2003), and Cattell, (1999) argued that performance appraisal is looked in the broader term and that its begin in management by objectives, performance management is a continues repeated process of decisive performance expectation, supporting performance, appraising performance and, managing performance standards (Analoui and Fell, 2002). Performance appraisal generally means the annual interview between the manger and employee to discuss the individuals job performance during the previous 12 months the result of action plans to encourage enhanced performance (Wilson and western, 2001). Armstrong and Barron (2003) stated that it is easier to achieve the desired goals and objectives when the manger and subordinates clearly know what is expected of them. According to Fletcher (2004), performance appraisal provides a prospect for a manger and for subordinates to discuss the previous performance work on agreed objectives and standards to reach an agreement on how the appraise can enhance job performance. Performance appraisal is spread in organization since 1960s for employee evaluation, for organization planning purposes, and it is becoming the important element for maximizing the effectiveness of all part of the organization ,from management staffing and development to production and customer services (Creamer and jonosik, 2000).it was used before in this century by larger organization mostly for the administrative purposes (peter and Liang ,2007). 2.2 Why performance appraisal? Performance appraisal is one of the important among the HRM practices ,many organization is able to measure the development of their employee posture and behavior through the use of appraisal system.teh information which is get by this approach is used for the changing in the selection and training practices to chose and develop employees with the require behavior and attitude. The effectiveness of skilled employee is not in favor unless they are properly motivated to perfume their job (Singh K, 2004). Wan et al (2002) explored that there is encouraging relationship between performance appraisal and employee performance or organizational performance. The basic object of performance appraisal is how productive and employee is and verify the way in which employee productivity can be improved. 2.2 .1 Benefits of performance appraisal to employee Generally, performance appraisals serve an important purpose in the management of workforce and in achieving the organization objective. From employee perspective, performance appraisal give direction to employee that what exactly their way of required to do the job, also to motivate them to achieve their target and help them to improve their work performance. According to Brown and Heywood, (2005) performance appraisal is formalized way of monitoring the work force and it is proposed to be a management tool to enhance the performance and productivity of worker. Performance appraisal also improves the commitment of employee (Brown and Benson.2003).The Organization needs an appraisal system in order to put their managers in charge of relation to the performance of organization because when employees are given their job responsibilities and duties, then they are liable for these responsibilities. Also Fletcher (2004) suggested that performance appraisal provide a platform for employees to look forward their tough goals and objectives, which leads them in successful completion of their job. The positive feedback receive from the mangers in appraisal interview will motivate employees in improving their performance likely. Martin and Jackson, (2000) appraisal is also a method of enhancing employee training and development as it provide information about the strength and weaknesses in performance, which create a debate how to improve the performance of employee. In the end it helps the employees to understand their overall contribution in achieving organization goals (Martin and Jackson, 2000). 2.2 .2 Benefits of Performance apprisal to organization In most of the organization performance appraisal are used to take meaningful decision regarding salary increases, promotion and transfer. Performance appraisal is also the known to be best for the training and consultation of individual employees by their superiors to improve job performance (Wan D et al 2002, Sels L 2003: Singh K, 2004).the performance related pay processes can also be used in integration with appraisal system. There are many ways by which organization will enhance the performance of their employees. They use performance based compensation to give rewards on successful completion on specific organization goals and objectives. Further research has given evidence that compensation to employees help in improving their performance (Gomez -Mejia wellbourn,1988 ., Milkovich Boudreau 1998). Another system is the bonus system which can also be used for motivating employee to work towards their achievement of the company (Pfeffer 1994).Empirical studies done and found tha t there is positive relationship between performance-related pay and overall company performance. 2.3 Problem with performance Appraisal Deming (2000) stated that performance appraisal is considered to be one of the seven deadly diseases of management practice. He argued that rating employee on individual based was not a suitable way of measuring performance since the working environment is controlled by manager contributes to and affects the way of employee performance. Many problems arise during performance appraisals, some arise from manger side and some from employee, and also some arise from other factors. 2.3 .1 Employee and mangers perception about PA Mostly employees dislike performance appraisal interview for the fear of uncertainty in handling the questions, fear of criticism, concern about promotion, and also fear because their future job with organization mainly depends upon the outcome of these interviews. Employees see these interviews as validation for those decisions which are already made concerning salaries, promotion and job tenures. Poorly conducted performance appraisal system can more damage the organization environment. In organization many managers also dislike performance appraisal interviews; its difficult for them to explain employees about their poor performance they find it unpleasant and awkward. Some managers fear that performance appraisal gives employees self satisfaction and result in lower of performance. Due to these reasons, they not give any positive information to employees. Another reasons to give regular scheduled for taking appraisal interview. Some manger not involve in seriously performance appraisal they just taking it as job to be completed not a mean of exchanging or sharing suggestion and getting new ideas from their subordinates (Wells and Spinks ,1994). 2.3 .2 Complexity of PA procedure Armstrong and Baron, (1998) has name performance appraisal as dishonest annual ritual because manger and staff disbelieve performance rating with the faith that performance related pay may function unfairly. Some problems with appraisal are known as complex procedure used in assessment, biased elements which bring confusion in the assessment, rewards and progress in the hand of single boss, employees have to work with their appraisers after the appraisal and idea is that performance appraisal aims to limit the collective aspects of work. There are some common problems which are faced by both appraiser and appraise such problem like paperwork; formality of the appraisal process .thats why performance appraisal has been termed as curse rather than a solution for organization (Taylor, 1998). 2.3.3 Performance appraisal to organization Grint (1993) argues that due to the subjectivity of performance appraisal is not giving the positive expected result to organization and is unlikely to assist objective appraisals. He indicates that performance appraisal is not as much acceptable to line managers as it is acceptable to human resource managers. However he admits that performance appraisal still play important role in organization. Fletcher (1997) suggests that expecting too much from performance appraisal is danger since it in unlikely solution for all performance problems. In spite of the criticism, Fletcher (2004), Murphy and Cleveland (1995) argue that performance appraisal is important for improvement performance in organization and Simmons (2002) say again that nobody give reasonable alternative for appraising perfomance.Fletcher (2004), Murphy and Cleveland (1995) suggest that the process that is followed in design and implementation of such a system prohibits effectiveness rather than only performance appraisal is not responsible. Fletcher (2004) further argues that organization spends proper money, time and willing to spend effort can achieved successful performance appraisal system. He also acknowledges though that if organization has an effective performance appraisal system they still have to monitor continuously that system to make sure that it compels all needs of its stakeholders. 2.4 Why performance appraisal fails Fletcher and Williams (1985) point out that only assessment of people is not only thing involve in appraising persons work performance. in fact there are two incompatible roles involve in appraisal- these are judge and helper. In its unclear format, foot and Hook (2002) stated that some usual appraisal schemes have been accused of being run for the profit of personnel managers or top managers, with many other people in the organization not really understanding or appreciating what the performance appraisal scheme was trying to achieve.A sample of a typical form for performance appraisal using Management by Objectives (MBO) i.e. (based on objectivity rather than subjectivity) is drawn in appendix a below, that shows that the questions are quite straight forward and seems no direct confusion in terms of understanding: 2.4 .1 Expected many results from PA Foot and Hook (2002) raised the point that why the performance appraisal fails and where we are mistaken? One major point is that too many purposes are attached to fulfil by the appraisal system. Usually, most of the appraisal schemes drop into one of three categories i.e. they are concerned with performance, potential or reward. Failure to this occurs as they dont fall into one of the three categories described, but are expected to achieve all three in general. The recognition of appraisal system downgraded due to the reason that many managers claim that they give this sort of feedback all the time informally, and if they do this well there may indeed be no need for a formal appraisal scheme. Foot and Hook, (2002) But in general, it is important to say that it is unlikely that all managers in a particular organization will appraise their staff constantly and effectively, so we do not have enough argument against the use of performance appraisal systems. There are some other flaws in the approach of performance appraisal that are mentioned by Foot and Hook (2002) as below: Lack of clarity Linking appraisal with pay Keeping information secret from the employee And Subjectivity or attacks on the appraises character As we now entered into the new millennium, so almost everything is reshaped and rethought for more effective results, so the performance appraisal as well. Mentioned by Stone (2002) that a study by William M. Mercer Consulting in 1995 suggested that 84 per cent of responding companies would continue to use the results of performance appraisals for its further improvement. So it is obvious that performance appraisals will be the keystone of performance management programmes. This studies show that majority of organizations will continue to use some version of these systems with the passage of time. 3 Methodology This research follows methodology of Saunders (2003) explain the research its in his famous research onion. The research methodology explained the overall process of implementing research which includes information about how the data will be collected, from whom, who will be included in the collection of data and how the involvement made in research (Saunders,2003).In this research the assessment in detail of findings from the primary research. This will be done through the analysis and discussion of the result obtained through the unstructured interviews and questionnaire which was conduct with various personnel of the shell Pakistan, and Shell UK .The analysis and findings from the primary research, relates to the objective of the research mentioned in the literature review. The primary research findings will be discussed in detail in order to draw conclusions and recommendations, which will discuss in the organizational findings and discussion. In the research a total of 70 questi onnaires spread among the targeted sample of shell Pakistan. A total of 28 completed and returned, showing the participation average rate as 47%, which is still a good response rate for questionnaires. The feedback was expected at least 50%; the reason behind was the good management cooperation and the researchers good recognition among other employees. The management distributed and recollected the questionnaire in the time frame allotted for this activity and the management also shown their own interest due to the examination of upcoming results to find out the actual root of many problems. In addition to the overall result of the questionnaire, the telephonic interviews were also analyzed to see how it can influence the whole results. While in Shell UK the same number 70 questionnaires distributed across the selected sample, mainly these questionnaires distributed in the shell retail patrol service stations. in which 35 of them completed and returned, which is the good expected rate of feedback 50 %.the reason is the mangers corporation and organization culture ,which always welcomes these research for the result which gives useful amount of information to the organization to help them in their organization development. 4 Organizations findings and discussion 4.1Organizational Context: Royal-Dutch Shell Group Overview The Royal Dutch Company for the development of petroleum properly in the Netherlands East indies was registered in Hague in 1890.than in 1949 the name is changed to Royal Dutch petroleum company .Shell was first registered back in 1897 by brothers Marcus and Sam Samuel called as the shell transport and trading company, Ltd .(now it become PLC ,public limited company ).The first joint operating company Royal-Dutch /shell ,the Asiatic petroleum company was first established in 1903 and in 1907,Royal-Dutch and shell merged their operation respectively ,in 60 % Royal-Dutch ,40 % shell. Even though after merging their interests the main company remain separate: like one can buy share in Royal-Dutch or in Shell-Transport, but not in the Group as such.US oil production increase due to the Group founded the American Gasoline Company to sell gasoline along the pacific coast and also to buy oil in Oklahoma establish the Roxanna petroleum in year 1912.this growth further boost up in 2000 result ing 34 percent earnings from discovery and production and 4 percents is comes from the sales of oil products were generate in USA.(shell .com )(financial report 2009,Royal Dutch shell plc). 4.2 Largest profitable MNCs( multinational corporation) The Royal Dutch /Shell Group is one of the largest and profitable MNCs in the world (Shell plc ,Annual report 2009 ) .The Anglo -Dutch group of companies is the Royal-Dutch shell group, the two holding companies which own the group is being the shell transport and trading company Plc (UK) and Koninklijke Nederland (Royal Dutch petroleum company, Netherlands).these companies have divided share between them are 40 percent and 60 percent respectively of the following three subsidiaries, which also own them further holding companies for more operating subsidiaries: these are Shell petroleum NV (Netherland) Shell petroleum Company LTD (UK) Shell petroleum Inc.(USA) 4.3 SHELL UK 4.3 .1 from oil well to the petrol pump Shell UK is best known for its energy product and services from the oil well to petrol pump, from the pit of North Sea to the warm house throughout UK, shell delivers the energy which full fill the Britain needs. Shell makes major contribution in UK economy, Shell is not just through providing product and services to UK customer ,but also contributes through employment ,investment and tax revenues which boost up economy. Shell has around 8,600 workforces in the UK. In UK energy that is use by millions of people for heating and powering their homes Shell is the major provider of energy in UK.(shell.co.uk) 4.3.1,2 Upstream business Shell main upstream business is a leading player in the North Sea for over 30 years. In UK sector of North Sea, shell is giving interest to more than 50 fields, operated in more than 30 installation platforms, 30 subsea installations, three onshore gas plants and a marine terminal. Shell is producing approximately 15 % of UK oil and gas on behalf of its co-ventures.(shell.co.uk) 4.3.1,3 Downstream business Shell Downstream business includes 900 shell-branded service stations, operates the second largest refinery in the UK which providing products like premium fuels, chemicals for industry, and V-power patrol. The global headquarters of shell downstream supporting business functions is located on the south bank of the Thames in London. Shell technology centre Thornton, involved the largest community of scientists working on huge range of research projects, and also working on technologies associated with fuels, lubricants, additives, and engineering.(shell.co.uk) In term of oil and gas production volumes shell is the largest exploration and manufacturing companies operating in UK. Shell operates major number of its operation in UK continental with the 50:50 joint ventures with ExxonMobil. Mostly UK oil and gas production came from the North Sea .in the Atlantic margin area, shell has an interests as non-operating contributor mainly in the west Shetlands area, which cover area of Schiehallion, Clair and loyal fields. 4.3.2 Shell Pakistan Bovee, (1997) stated that today work place is completed of the people who differ in race, gender, age, culture, family structure, religion and educational background. Such cultural diversity is the second movement contributing towards the importance of ability of successful communication with people of other cultural. The business messages, how to create, planned, sent, received, and interpreted in the work place is also affected by diversity. (John v, thrill and Courtland, 1977). 4.3.2,1Shell entry in Asia The brand name Shell enjoys a 100-year history in this part of the world, dating back to 1899 when Asiatic Petroleum, the extreme eastern marketing arm of two companies: Shell Transport Company and Royal Dutch Petroleum Company began importing kerosene oil from Azerbaijan into the subcontinent. Even today, the legacy of the past is visible in a storage tank carrying the date 1898. 4.3.2 ,2 PAKISTAN subcontinent The known history of Royal Dutch Shell plc in Indo Pakistan subcontinent dates back to 1903 when partnership between the two big companies, The Shell Transport Trading Company and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company struck and start supply petroleum to Asia. In 1928, to increase their distribution capabilities, the marketing interest of Royal Dutch Shell plc and the Burma Oil Company Limited in India were merged and Burma Shell Oil Storage Distribution Company of India was born. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the name was changed to the Burma Shell Oil Distribution Company of Pakistan. In 1970, when 51% of the shareholding was transferred to Pakistani investors, the name changed to Pakistan Burma Shell (PBS) Limited. The Shell and the Burma Groups retained the remaining 49% in equal propositions. In February of 1993, as economic liberalisation began to take root and the Burma divested from PBS, Shell Petroleum stepped into raise its stake to 51%. The years 2001-2 have seen the Shell Petroleum Company successively increasing its share, with the Group now having a 76% stake in Shell Pakistan Ltd (SPL) an expression of confidence. The company is among one of the best company in the country. The company provides the entire fue l products, competing with the international standards on the standard price. 5 Main findings After the organizational context the main description of differences in implementation and adaptation of HR practices with the focus on performance appraisal system for their employees while working in the two different business environment ,which is shell UK and shell Pakistan. In research finding it is clear that the present appraisal system at Shell Pakistan is conducted annually in each and every department of the organisation. Also in findings it is clear that the annual appraisal system at Shell Pakistan consists of a formal appraisal system to evaluate the employee performance. The finding also results in that a very short number of employee 15 % is fully aware of objectives of performance appraisal system, 15 % of wholly respondent fully aware of it means that makes a very weak performance appraisal knowledge base for their recommendation. However, it is clear that in Shell Pakistan there is a significant weakness in conducting of effective training and development programmes by management. As employee working in the Shell Pakistan there is need of more awareness program to let the staff fully aware and get the maximum benefits from it. While in shell UK also uses formal appraisal system and uses the scorecard for the performance appraisal, employees are rewarded individual performance and also the team achievement in put to sustainability. As comparison to Shell Pakistan, In research findings it is clear that very good percentage number of employee like 40% of wholly respondent is fully aware of performance appraisal and reward management. They know that they can assess on the number of grounds works and will get rewarded according to their individual and group performances. There is also continues training and development program running time to time for the awareness of Shell UK employees. That why employee working for Shell UK is getting much more benefits compare with the employee working for Shell in Pakistan. Although Shell Pakistan has already been practicing it, there still consist some necessary considerations to PRP (Performance Related Pay).Contingent pay covers various methods of providing additional rewards for individuals or teams. As a cost effective factor, stated by Armstrong (2002) that increments may be withheld for unacceptable performance although this is rare, and some structure have a merit bar which limits increments unless a defined level of merit has been achieved. In the table 1 of appendix has straight merit increments shown as example of merit pay. The increments percentage will depend on total merit pay budget for each performance grade, the number of employee in each performance level and finally their current level of base pay, (John Shields 2007). One of the best ways of motivation is linking pay directly to employee performance, in Shell UK finding results 70 % of the questioners respondents were strongly agree to this statement while 20% agree, 7% disagree and 3 % strongly disagree. It implies that there is need of contingent pay in the company. Even though pay for performance and contingent pay is difficult in mange, but include many methods of providing rewards for individual or team (Armstrong and Stephens, 2002). Improved team working is one of the core elements in the business strategy for the Shell Pakistan, so it is good to attach/associate individual performance pay to the performance of individual and teams. On the other hand ensuring that this scheme is distributed fairly so can meet the desired level of performance, competence, contribution or skill and thus improve organizational performance regarding team based tasks while not de-motivating those who cannot currently compete. (Armstrong M, 2002).here HR and operation manager is agree on the point that rewarding those who can meet assured targets is practicing in Shell Pakistan. To maintain these scheme is hard because of political instability in the Pakistan which influence the shell operation .these factor includes limit on production, civil unrest ,international conflicts, and due to local security concern that affect the safe operation of the shell standards in country. Here also employee keen interest in performance pays more tha n reward because the uncertainty of business environment there is fear of job loss. While UK economy is one of the best stable economies for business operation, where Shell UK deliver very affective performance appraisal system for their employees. To analyze the performance of team and individual Shell UK have very stable roots in country can focus in increase the business perfor