Importance of English in Pakistan Essay

As time is passing, the language of the English men and Americans seems to grow in significance. English is becoming the most common form of communication in the world and most of the countries in the world have their academic curriculum being taught in English. It is time for Pakistan to also make a shift from the Urdu medium system of education to the English system because it’s the need of the hour. Since independence, Urdu was promoted to become the language to be used in all factions of the country. However as time passed people started realizing that international standards required them to learn a language which is understood by majority of the world. The people of Pakistan realized that for their country to develop they need to know how to communicate in English or they will be lost in the competing forces of the world. The British education system was introduced after few years of independence. People started shifting from the local Urdu medium education to the British education system. However the transition took a lot of time as private school sector was very small in the beginning. Only the elite could educate their children with the British education system as it was very expensive. However when the trend of private schools began to emerge, students from a British educational background were preferred for jobs all over the country. The government of Pakistan realized the growing importance of English and then made English as a compulsory language to be taught in all schools. English continues to be the source of communication in both the private and government offices. In this era of globalization with increasing amounts of international trade one needs to know how to communicate in English. People in Pakistan are in continuous contact with international traders and all of them have to communicate in English. The various business software used in organizations such as Multinational Companies and Banks are all in English and one needs to be totally familiar with the language to operate them. There are various critics who believe that English is harmful for the country. They argue that our culture and our traditions require Urdu to be the language for all purposes. They say that by adopting English we are going to forget our culture and lose our identity as English is not what defines us. The trend of communicating in English has grown to the extent that the elite of the country use English as the medium to communicate with their friends and family in daily life. The younger generation feels inferior if they can not communicate in English properly. Many of the young children have a stronger grip of English than Urdu. Majority of the population in the country now prefers the British education system and public schools are only filled by people of the lower income class who could not afford private education. No doubt learning English is very important for the people of Pakistan but they should not forget that it is not the language which defines them or their culture. English should be used as a medium of education but the value of the mother language Urdu should not be undermined.

Psychoanalytical Approach to Family Counseling Essay

Whether one is conscious of it or not, we all have our respective worldviews. The way we view life in general and our approach to it is the worldview that control and guide us in every decision that we make – in the way we cope pressures, and even as we celebrate and enjoy good days. Since on a particular worldview a person stands or falls, it is very important to constantly check and evaluate one’s philosophy of life. If I will be asked the question: â€Å"Which philosophy is the best philosophy? † The best answer that I can come up with is, â€Å"Of course, the philosophy that encourages intellectual development. † Christianity is a religion that has been compared, every now and then, to many philosophical persuasions; and most of the time, it was either mixed with other worldviews which were totally strange to it, or the proponents of other strange worldviews have attempted to enjoin Christianity to their philosophy, which inevitably have resulted in confusion and clever duplicity in individuals who follow and experiment into this game (Cheung, 2007, p. 34). For generations, people in different civilizations have become witnesses of how their fellows advocated multiple philosophical disciplines. In fact, today, if one would just observe closely, many hold a compound of various beliefs that got rooted and accumulated for years in the family via environmental conditioning. The by-product of this kind of influence is an individual who cope through the varying situations and circumstances of life with the competence of a chameleon. This kind of approach will not properly help in the development and growth of a person as he or she wades his/her way through college. Contrary to the perception of many, the Biblical Worldview is the one philosophy that encourages the pursuit of true knowledge. It, in fact, commands the engagement of the intellect in the pursuit and exploration of true scientific studies. What precipitated the period of Enlightenment? Was it not when people were hungry for the Truth (Shelley, 1982, p. 55)? And these are periods in the history of humankind when the Biblical Worldview was being brought to the fore of society’s endeavors. If there are two philosophies that developed naturally from one to another, they are Judaism and Christianity. The flow of growth from beginning to consummation is recorded in the Old and the New Testament of the Bible (Escalona, 2008, p. 87). B. Literature review The Extent of Usefulness of the Theory A survey in literature reveals that there is little evidence so far in studies that deliberately seek to determine the efficacies of psychodynamic approach in comparison with any of the other approaches in the treatment of abnormal behavior. A few which came out, in particular one research looked into the applicability of treatment in anorexia and bulimia cases which utilized the psychodynamic model and other models such as cognitive orientation treatment. Results of the experiment by Bachar et al (1999, p. 67) showed positive outcomes where this particular approach was used. It must be remembered that mainstream psychology and psychiatry widely use the cognitive model in explaining and treating abnormal behavior. In the controlled, randomized study by Bachar and team members however, the research highlighted the efficacy of psychodynamic approach in the treatment of anorexia and bulimia disorders. Other studies however show that therapists usually employ a combination of cognitive and psychodynamic approaches or an integrative method in the psychological treatments and interventions (Kasl-Godley, 2000, p. 92). Many of the cases today then, support this view rather than a single method in an efficacious treatment of many of these mental and emotional diseases. The disadvantages of the psychodynamic approach in many of the studies done based on a using this as a single method is that of the apparent difficulty of precise measurements on the treatment procedure itself. The approach usually is limited by whether it can be exactly replicated. Specifically, one other limitation or disadvantage is that the cause of phenomena (i. e. , symptom substation) cannot be located. In addition, another setback is that not all individuals can be hypnotized when using hypnosis in the therapy especially (Kaplan, 1994, p. 431). Reference: Bachar, Eytan, Yael Latzer,Shulamit Kreitler, & Elliot Berry 1999. Empirical comparison of two psychological therapies: Self Psychology and Cognitive Orientation in the treatment of Anorezia and Bulimia. Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research. American Psychiatric Association 8:115-128, Freud, Sigmund. [1901] 1990. The psychopathology of everyday life. New York. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. Halonen, JS and JW Santrock, 1996. Psychology: Contexts of Behavior, Dubuque, IA: Brown and Benchmark, p. 810. Hilgard, ER, RR Atkinson, and RC Atkinson 1983. Introduction to Psychology. 7th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanich, Inc. Hurlok, E. B. 1964. Child Development. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Kaplan, HI, BJ Saddock and JA Grebb. 1994. Kaplan and Saddock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behaviroal Sciences clinical psychiatry. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins. Kasl-Godley, Julia 2000. Psychosocial intervention for individuals with dementia: An integration of theory, therapy, and a clinical understanding of dementia. Clinical Psychological Review. Vol. 20(6). Leahey, B. B. 1995. Psychology: An Introduction. Iowa: WCB Brown and Benchmark. Rathus, S. A. 1990. Psychology 4th ed. Orlando Fl. : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Sdorow, L. M. 1995. Psychology, 3rd ed. Dubuque, IA:WCB Brown and Benchmark Publishers Santrock, J. W. 2000. Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. ________ Models of abnormality http://intranet1. sutcol. ac. uk:888/NEC/MATERIAL/PDFS/PSYCHO/ASPSYCHO/23U2_T5. PDF Part II. Integration Section A. Introduction Nowhere is counseling more relevant than the conditions and dilemmas faced by man today. The Bible mentions about the the fears that assail humans then during the early days, and which will be experienced also as time draws to a close. Jeremiah 17:8 implies about the kind of fear which some if not many, will succumb â€Å"when heat comes† (RSV). This illustrates as well that the stressful days are but natural to one’s existence; an affliction to being born into a fallen world. Ephesians 2 is even more clear what befalls on a person who is â€Å"dead in trespasses and sins† (KJV); he is subject to the dictates of a world system (v. 2a, KJV), being in the clutches of the evil spirit (v. 2b, KJV), and awaits the anger that God has on them (v. 3, KJV). All these may position any individual to a life of anxiety, depression, wrongful habits ((v. 3, KJV), substance abuse and other addictions that definitely determine the deterioration of overall mental and physical health. The functioning therefore of any person may be compromised and taxed to the limits, producing individuals who are abusive and getting abused. When not operating in optimal condition, man is sure to experience what psychology tends to diagnose and label as malfunctioning and maladjusted; at worst, the evidence of mental institutions’ existence only shows how this truth has long been spoken about in the Bible. Hence, the Bible becoming more relevant, and a theologically and scientifically trained counselor is even more needed these days. In the field of counselling, the primary considerations that those in the field who are practicing directly or indirectly have something to do with the previously held belief system, or the worldview or philosophy behind the notion of human behaviour. This goes to say that one who ventures into the business of healing and curing emotions and psychological problems must get into a thorough understanding of his/her personal approach to the study of human behaviour. The counselor seeks to explain human nature, the issue of sin or prbably emphasizing or reducing the Scriptural mandate and God’s verdict (whichever side he/she is on), and which eventually dictates intervention strategies, if any. It is even bold as to say that counseling in whatever front is basically â€Å"religious† in nature because in the end, what is upheld or emphasized by the counselor expresses deep-rooted philosophy or religious beliefs. The paper thus seeks to present a personal understanding of how practice in counseling is believed to be done considering the personal qualities, depth and realizations of Biblical truths (this is pre-eminent), and many of the nitty-gritty concepts that comprise the practice of counseling in one’s context. Being in contemporary America, with the recent economic meltdown that leave many surprised and shocked of the reduction of most of their economic capabilities to barely the minimum, being relevant as a counselor is not only a necessity, but it is the very important ingredient to helping many survive with their mental faculties intact. Therefore, this paper makes bold assumptions about human nature in general, how this is addressed in various situations that the average man will be meeting, and how growth (which is interpreted as a positive direction the individual will take) in all areas of his existence may take place. B. Psychoanalytic therapy Leading figures Primary importance is given into the development of one of the most influential disciplines in the world today and that is psychology. This is due to the fact that psychology seemed almost foremost in virtually every kind of decision making process that man makes. Because of this serious biblical ministers and/or scholars or theologians have long studied these effects and have come up with their answers and with their verdict. A Brief History of Modern Psychology by Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. (2006, p. 23) starts to trace the roots of psychology when Wundt, in 1879, initiated what is now recognized as the first psychology laboratory. The author Benjamin satisfies the reader on what made the psychology today a very much pursued subject of interest as well as a career. Tackling on the lives of the people foremost in this discipline, the book made an otherwise boring and usually uninteresting subject matter into an exciting topic any student will be able to handle. The author mentioned details of the pioneers’ lives and the social milieu that characterized their lives and culture during their day which in all realistic evaluation had made its contribution to what their theoretical perspectives had developed. Other important highlights include the development of psychological tests and assessment techniques that Stanford and Binet spearheaded among others. The following narrative on one of psychology’s key players and foremost in what is now known as the â€Å"first force† in the field gives the reader the importance of their contribution to cotemporary psychology (Benjamin, 2006, p. 76). -Freud, Sigmund Viennese neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939) took his medical degree at the University of Vienna in 1881 and planned a specialist’s career in neurology. Lack of means forced him to abandon his research interests for a clinical career. His interest in what was to become psychoanalysis developed during his collaboration with Josef Breuer in 1884, which resulted in Studies in Hysteria, The Interpretation of Dreams appeared in 1900, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex in 1905, and the General Introduction to Psychoanalysis in 1916 – a book which contained the evolving theory of the libido and the unconsciousness, in subsequent years, Freud’s outlook became increasingly broad as revealed by the titles of his later works (Benjamin, 2006, p. 54). C. Psychoanalytic Theory The psychodynamic perspective is based on the work of Sigmund Freud. He created both a theory to explain personality and mental disorders, and the form of therapy known as psychoanalysis. The psychodynamic approach assumes that all behavior and mental processes reflect constant and unconscious struggles within person. These usually involve conflicts between our need to satisfy basic biological instincts, for example, for food, sex or aggression, and the restrictions imposed by society. Not all those who take a Psychodynamic approach accept all of Freud’s original ideas, but most would view normal or problematic behavior as the result of a failure to resolve conflicts adequately. This paper attempts to distinguish itself in trying to not only understand the theory that Freud pioneered and polished by some of his faithful followers but especially determine the extent of its usefulness in explaining and treating abnormal behavior.. It is the aim of the author to present in precis a description and explanation of the psychodynamic approach and its usefulness in the context of abnormal behavior (Kaplan, 1994, p. 657). To interpret the theoretical framework of Freud in the context of the Christian religion or Biblical Christianity is essential in order to discover whether their fundamental teachings can mix well in mainstream Christianity. Freud taught about the personality constructs of id, ego and superego; about free association, instincts (life and death); his very controversial psychosexual stages of oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital; the fixation and cathexis concepts. In general this is a theory of personality dynamics which is aimed at the motivational and emotional components of personality. It sounds good that according to Freud, man inherits the life and death instincts (libido and mortido). In the Biblical perspective, however, all these concepts are traceable to the sinful nature which all human species have inherited from the first couple Adam and Eve. In some portions of the Biblical record (Roman 5:12), Adam is said to be the federal head and from him has proceeded both sinful nature, which is inherent in all men, and death – which is the Fall’s eventual outcome. The Bible highlights sin as the main problem of all of the manifestations of abnormality as reflected or manifested in the psyche or human behavior (Bobgan, 1987, p. 543). This theory discounts religion’s God’s pre-eminence, sovereignty and will, and active role in a person’s life. It also discounts man’s ultimate accountability before an almighty God. Moreover, it discounts many of the fundamentals that the Bible teaches, like sin and repentance, just Freud’s other followers propounded (Bobgan, 1987, p. 544). Fundamentally, environment is not to be blamed. Nothing could be more accurate than stating it in exactly the same manner that the Apostle has echoed the true state of affairs. It is somehow true to say, â€Å"It’s all up in the mind. † People violate neighbors because first they have violated the laws of God. And so, â€Å"In the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness† (Eph. 4:17-19). As daily news in the headlines air everyday, and practically speaking, people have made it their daily business to work driven by greed, never minding what they leave behind in their wake. Because the fight has long been lost – which is in the level of consciousness – everyone now is at the mercy of chance, relationally, in this world. And it goes both ways. Many of the disorders or mental illnesses recognized today without a doubt have their psychodynamic explanation aside from other viewpoints like that of the behaviourist, or the cognitivists. From simple childhood developmental diseases to Schizophrenia, there is a rationale that from Freud’s camp is able to explain (Kaplan et al, 1994, p. 76, 98, 456). I. The Psychodynamic concepts A. Theory of Instincts Libido, Narcissism, Instincts and Pleasure & Reality Principles. Freud employed â€Å"libido† to denote to that â€Å"force by which the sexual instinct is represented in the mind. † This concept is quite â€Å"crude† or raw in its form hence this refers far more than coitus. Narcissism was developed by Freud as his explanation of people who happened to have lost libido and found that in the pre-occupation of the self or the ego, like in the cases of dementia praecox or schizophrenia. Persons afflicted with this mental illness appeared to have been reserved or withdrawing from other people or objects. This led Freud to conclude that a loss of contact with reality is usually common among such patients. The libido that he conceptualized as innate in every person is herein explained as invested somewhere else and that is precisely the role of self-love or narcissism in the life of one afflicted. The occurrence of narcissism is not only among people with psychoses but also with what he calls neurotic persons or in normal people especially when undergoing conditions such as a physical disease or sleep. Freud explains further that narcissism exists already at birth hence, one can expect realistically that newborn babies are wholly narcissistic (Sdorow, 1995, p. 67). Freud classified instincts into different distinguishing dimensions namely: ego instincts, aggression, and life and death instincts. Ego instincts are the self-preservative aspects within the person, while aggression is a separate construct or structure of the mind which is not a part of the self-preservative nature of the human mind. Its source is found in the muscles while its objective is destruction. Life and death instincts called Eros and Thanatos are forces within the person that pulls in opposite directions. Death instinct is a more powerful force than life instinct (Rathus, 1988, p. 55). The pleasure and reality principles are distinct ideas that help understand the other aspects of Freud’s theory. The latter is largely a learned function and important in postponing the need to satisfy the self (Sdorow, 1995, p. 98). B. Topographical theory of the mind Much like real physical mapping or description of a land area, the topographical theory appeared as attempt to designate areas of the mind into regions; the unconscious, the preconscious, and the conscious. The Unconscious mind is shrouded in mystery (Kaplan, 1994). It is the repository of repressed ideas, experiences and/or affects that are primary considerations when the person is in therapy or treatment. It contains biological instincts such as sex and aggression. Some unconscious urges cannot be experienced consciously because mental images and words could not portray them all in their color and fury. Other unconscious urges may be kept below the surface by repression. It is recognized as inaccessible to consciousness but can become conscious by means of the preconscious. Its content is confined to wishes seeking fulfilment and may provide the motive force for the formation of dream and neurotic symptoms. In other words, unconscious forces represent wishes, desires or thoughts, that, because of their disturbing or threatening content, we automatically repress and cannot voluntarily access (Santrock, 2000, p. 43). The Preconscious is a region of the mind which is not inborn but developed only when childhood stage is beginning to emerge. The preconscious mind contains elements of experience that presently out of awareness but are made conscious simply by focusing on them. Freud labelled the region that poked through into the light of awareness as the Conscious part of the mind. Conscious thoughts are wishes, desires, or thoughts that we are aware of, or can recall, at any given moment. It is closely related in understanding as that of the organ of attention operating with the preconscious. With attention the individual is able to perceive external stimuli. However, Freud theorized that our conscious thoughts are only a small part of our total mental activity, much of which involves unconscious thoughts or forces (Leahey, 1995, p. 433). C. Structural Theory of the Mind Freud conceptualized the mind into what is called as three provinces equivalent to its functions: the id, ego and superego. The id is that aspect which only looks forward to gratifying any of its desires and without any delay. The ego is the structure of the mind which begins to develop during the first year of life, largely because a child’s demands for gratification cannot all be met immediately. The ego â€Å"stands for reason and good sense† (Freud, 1901, p. 22), for rational ways of coping with frustrations. It curbs the appetites of the id and makes plans that are compatible with social convention so that a person can find gratification yet avert the censure of others. In contrast to the id’s pleasure, the ego follows the reality principle. The reality principle has a policy of satisfying a wish or desire only if there is a socially acceptable outlet available (Halonen et al, 1996, p. 43). The superego develops throughout early childhood, usually incorporating the moral standards and value of parents and important members of the community through identification. The superego holds forth shining examples of an ideal self and also acts like the conscience, an internal moral guardian. Throughout life, the superego monitors the intentions of the ego and hands out judgment of right and wrong. It floods the ego with feelings of guilt and shame when the verdict is negative (Halonen et al, 1996, p. 43). As children learn that they must follow rules and regulations in satisfying their wishes, they develop a superego. The superego, which is Freud’s third division of the mind, develops from the ego during early childhood (Hurlock, 196, p. 66). Through interactions with the parents or caregivers, a child develops a superego by taking on or incorporating the parents’ or caregivers’ standards, values, and rules. The superego’s power is in making the person feel guilty if the rules are discovered; the pleasure-seeking, id wants to avoid feeling guilty. It is motivated to listen to the superego as a moral guardian or conscience that is trying to control the id’s wishes and impulses (Hilgard, et al, 1979). From the Freudian perspective, a healthy personality has found ways to gratify most of the id’s demands without seriously offending the superego. Most of the id’s remaining demands are contained or repressed. If the ego is not a good problem solver or if the superego is too stern, the ego will have a hard time of it (Halonen et al, 1996, p. 43). D. Therapeutic goals Sigmund Freud offered a psychoanalytic viewpoint on the diagnosis and understanding of a person’s mental health. Other perspectives, the behavioristic paradigm offers to see this in a different light. The psychoanalytic perspective emphasizes childhood experiences and the role of the unconscious mind in determining future behavior and in explaining and understanding current based on past behavior. Basing on his personality constructs of the Id, Ego and the Superego, Freud sees a mentally healthy person as possessing what he calls Ego strength. On the other hand, the behavior therapist sees a person as a â€Å"learner† in his environment, with the brain as his primary organ of survival and vehicle for acquiring his social functioning. With this paradigm, mental health is a result of the environment’s impact on the person; he learns to fear or to be happy and therein lies the important key in understanding a person’s mental state. Considering that the achievement and maintenance of mental health is one of the pursuits of psychology, the following is a brief outline of what psychologists would endorse a healthy lifestyle. The individual must consider each of the following and incorporate these in his/her day to day affairs: 1. The Medical doctor’s viewpoint – well-being emphasis than the illness model 2. The Spiritual viewpoint- a vital spiritual growth must be on check. 3. The Psychologist’s viewpoint- emotional and relationship factors in balance. 4. The Nutritionist’s viewpoint – putting nutrition and health as top priority. 5. The Fitness Expert’s viewpoint- Exercise as part of a daily regimen. The theory I have in mind then is an amalgamation of several approaches, primarily the integration of the Christian worldview and the theories set forth by Cognitive-behaviorists and psychoanalytic models, and biological/physical continuum. There are other good models but a lot of reasons exist why they cannot be â€Å"good enough;† a lot depends on my own personality. Being authentic to who you are, your passion, is effectively communicated across an audience whether it is a negative or positive one. The basic way of doing the â€Å"amalgamation† or integration is that the Christian worldview takes precedence over the rest of the approaches. Although many of the concepts and premises of each theory mentioned are sound and at times efficacious, when it clashes with the faith-based theory, the former must give way to the latter. It is understood then, that I thoroughly examined each of the theory and set them against the backdrop of spirituality. Interpreting a problem that a client suffers for instance, entails that the theoretical viewpoint that I am convinced with, has better chances of properly understanding the maladjustments that the client had been suffering. To come up with the balanced worldview (an integration in other words), the balance between the realms mentioned, including the true frame of human individuals and the true nature of God (or theology) are properly considered. Thoroughly accepting the fact that there is no contest between the natural and the spiritual; only that troubles arise when one realm is overemphasized at the expense of another. This thin line or slight tension between the two levels is best expressed in the personhood of Jesus Christ, who was a perfect man as well as God. If we start to equate ourselves with that notion (which is usually happening) and we start to think that we are balanced, then we surely lack understanding or real self-awareness of the fact that we are deeply and seriously out of balance and this is one reason why we need help. ~ What are your general goals in therapy? Christian counseling admittedly embraces in reality, a basic integration of the biblical precepts on the view of man and psychology’s scientific breakthroughs in addressing the dilemmas that beset human individuals. Depending on the persuasion of the practitioner, especially whether he or she comes from either the purely theological or â€Å"secular† preparation, Christian counseling can either lean to certain degrees of theology or psychology. According to Larry Crabb, â€Å"If psychology offers insights which will sharpen our counseling skills and increase our effectiveness, we want to know them. If all problems are at core spiritual matters we don’t want to neglect the critically necessary resources available through the Lord by a wrong emphasis on psychological theory† (Crabb in Anderson et al, 2000). Dr. Crabb’s position certainly ensures that science in particular, has its place in counseling in as much as theology does. He made sure that all means are addressed as the counselor approaches his profession, especially in the actual conduction of both the diagnostic and therapeutic or intervention phases (Crabb in Anderson et al. , 2000). Trauma inducing and crisis triggering situations have spiraled its occurrence and in its primacy in the US and in many other countries in recent years. Its broad spectrum ranges from the national disaster category such as that of Hurricane Katrina or the 911 terrorist strikes in New York, Spain and England, to private instances such as a loved one’s attempt at suicide, the murder of a spouse or child, the beginning of mental illness, and the worsening situation of domestic violence (Teller et al, 2006). The acute crisis episode is a consequence of people who experience life-threatening events and feel overwhelmed with difficulty resolving the inner conflicts or anxiety that threaten their lives. They seek the help of counselors, paramedics and other health workers in crisis intervention centers to tide them over the acute episodes they are encountering. These are defining moments for people and must be adequately addressed else they lead lives with dysfunctional conduct patterns or disorders (Roberts et al, 2006). In the integrated or eclectic approach the goal of the therapy is not just relief to the patient or client. Although an immediate relief is very helpful, this may not always be the case in most illnesses. The goal as mentioned in the preceding pages is to provide long-term reduction of the symptoms and the occurrence of the disease altogether if possible. The management then is not impossible but neither is this easy. Specifically, the counselee or patient must want to heal or believe that there is going to be curative effects in the process. It presupposes that he/she must learn to trust the therapist in his/her capabilities as well in leading or facilitating the changes or modifications. It is very much essential that (in the perspective of a cognitive-behaviorist) that the client understands ownership to the deeds and choices in thought patterns he/she made are crucial to the recurring or occurring condition that s/he experiences (Rubinstein et al. , 2007; Corey, 2004). Moreover, the identification of specific treatments or interventions according to the diagnosed issue will be accommodated and implemented based on the chosen treatment modalities fit with the therapeutic approach utilized. It may be a single modality based on a single approach (e. g. , learning principles and desensitization for a patient with specific phobias) or it maybe a combination of many modalities (CBT, Rogerian, Phenomenological, or Family systems) (Rubinstein et al. , 2007; Corey, 2004). E. Summary Every theoretical approach has its own assumptions. In the psychodynamic theory, the following three assumptions help guide a student of human behavior or an expert in this field determine the underlying factors that explain the overt manifestations of specific behaviors. These assumptions therefore, help guide the diagnosis of the presence or absence of mental illness. They are the same assumptions that guide the therapist in choosing what treatment that will better help heal, cure or alleviate the symptoms. These assumptions are: – â€Å"There are instinctive urges that drive personality formation. † – â€Å"Personality growth is driven by conflict and resolving anxieties. † – â€Å"Unresolved anxieties produce neurotic symptoms† (Source: â€Å"Models of abnormality†, National Extension College Trust, Ltd). The goals of treatment here include to alleviate patient of the symptoms is to uncover and work through unconscious conflict. The task of psychoanalytic therapy is â€Å"to make the unconscious conscious to the patient† (â€Å"Models of abnormality†, National Extension College Trust, Ltd). Employing the psychodynamic viewpoint, the therapist or social scientist believes that emotional conflicts, or neurosis, and/or disturbances in the mind are caused by unresolved conflicts which originated during childhood years. Reference: Corey, Gerald, 2004. Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Thomson Learning, USA. Corey, Gerald. 2001. The Art of Integrative Counseling. Article 29: â€Å"Designing an Integrative Approach to Counseling Practice† Retrieved May 9, 2009 in < http://counselingoutfitters. com/vistas/vistas04/29. pdf> Crabb, Larry, 2000. Found in Anderson et al resource. Christ-centered therapy. http://books. google. com/books? id=Rn-f2zL01ZwC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=effective+biblical+counseling+by+larry+crabb+critique&source=web&ots=WFVYLIqP1n&sig=MqIhqE_XfGzIQODAKV5iMPjqz14#PPA19,M1 Davison, Gerald C. and John M. Neale. 2001. Abnormal Psychology. Eighth ed. John & Wiley Sons, Inc. Ellis, Albert 2001. Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Prometheus Books Kaplan, HI, BJ Saddock and JA Grebb. 1994. Kaplan and Saddock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences clinical psychiatry. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins. Benjamin, Ludy T. Jr. 2006. A brief history of Psychology. Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition. Bobgan, Martin & Deidre. 1987. Psychology: Science or Religion? From Psychoheresy: The psychological seduction of Christianity. Eastgate Publishers. Retrieved May 6, 2009. http://www. rapidnet. com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/psych. htm Boring, Edwin G. et. al. 1948. Foundat

An Analysis of White Butterfly Essays - Ezekiel Easy Rawlins

An Analysis of White Butterfly In all of his books, Walter Mosley captures the environment and personalities of African Americans throughout post WWII history. His first book A Devil in a Blue Dress was met with instant acclaim. In this book he introduced one of the most unique sleuths that the literary world had seen. This 20th century Sherlock's name is Easy Rawlins. In each Easy Rawlins mystery, Mosley brings out a certain aspect of his protagonist's life and uses it as a subplot. In his third mystery, White Butterfly, Mosley looks at the relationship between Easy and his wife, Regina. The story starts off with Easy enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon with his family. He has two children, Jesus and Edna. Jesus is a young Mexican boy who Rawlins took in and kept as his own. The young boy had been abused when he was young. In fact, he had been sold to a sick man as a sex object. As a result, Jesus was psychologically scarred. He does not speak a word to anyone, especially men. As Easy is resting on his porch, two plain clothes detectives pull up onto the Watts street in front of Rawlins' house. As they approach him, Easy knows that there is something big going on that he doesn't want to get into. The detectives, Quinten Naylor and Roland Hobbes, convince Easy to take a ride with them. The take him to a murder scene where a black prostitute has been brutally murdered. Since Easy is know for his work around the black community as a private detective, they ask for his help. Easy respectfully declines, even after Naylor tells him that two other girls h! ave been murdered by the same man. Easy is greatly shaken by these murders, so he heads to a local bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol. He heads home to his waiting wife, who notices that he is inebriated. He then proceeds to rape his wife; all the while thinking that she is willing. This is highly important because it is the beginning of the subplot involving Easy and his wife. In the morning, Easy wakes up to a quiet house. His wife is preparing breakfast and does not notice him. Easy walks up to her, not knowing what happened the previous night and tries to talk to her. When Regina informs Easy that he raped her, Easy replies, "Man cain't rape his own wife". This is the beginning of the end for this relationship. Later on that day, after everyone has left the house, Easy is again visited by Naylor and Hobbes. This time, though, they bring friends. Along with the tow detectives is the LA police chief and one of the mayor's aides. Apparently the same murderer who killed the three black women has! now killed a white woman. Here we see the blatant racism of the era. No one cared as long as black women were being killed, but now that a white woman has been killed, the city is in an uproar. Easy, being the man that he is, lets the policemen know just that. He refuses to help the police find the killer again. This time, though, the chief of police threatens to arrest Easy's best friend Mouse. Easy has no choice but to help. He goes out that night to various brothels and finds out a promising lead to the murderer. He relays that information to the police and returns home for the night. Regina is waiting for Easy once again, and asks him why he doesn't talk to her about his past. Easy has led quite a checkered life, doing favors for people here and there. He is also quite rich, but he doesn't let anyone know this. Easy, being the communicative man that he is, doesn't tell his wife a thing. Yet another wedge is being driven into the gap forming between Easy and Re! gina. That night Easy receives a call from Mouse's lady friend. Mouse has been arrested. Easy rushes down to the police station and bails Mouse out. While doing this he runs into Quinten Naylor who lets Easy know that information is not enough. He must track down

Environmental Scanning Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Environmental Scanning - Assignment Example Strategic partners are now tasked with the duty of revisiting the policies that they have established to fight bullying and taunting both on the field, and out of the field by its players. This is more so because the report sanctioned by the league in February showed that Martin had been bullied and taunted by his teammates in multiple instances (Associated Press, 2014). Though the Miami Dolphins are on the spot, they are not the only club which has been involved in cases of bullying and taunting. Other teams also have to keenly go through their policies as well, to ensure that all their players maintain proper behaviour that does not discriminate against any other players they are in contact with. As the Wall Street Journal reported in February, League executives are in agreement that steps need to be taken to ensure that similar incidences are curbed, and change the culture of football (Associated Press, 2014). Stakeholders in the sport have had to re-evaluate the efforts they have in position to mitigate the form of violence that bullying and taunting is. As a football club, Miami Dolphins needs to enforce stricter measures in order for the players in their club to feel safer while they play the game. Legal constraints and protections would help other players who might be sourced after to join the club. Stricter measures will also give their players better chances of advancing their careers since they will not be stigmatized as a team that tolerates violent

Similarities and differences between Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte Research Paper

Similarities and differences between Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte - Research Paper Example Although these two were surrealists, they have several differences and similarities. The two are referred to as the representational surrealism’s masters. Everyone made use of his own way to make his work more impressing to the viewer. Rene Magritte’s painting work has a lot to talk about the sense of reality, the real things, and those that are not real. Rene Magritte used painting just as a tool or symbol to illustrate at least his views about the everyday world, and how painting relates to the world. On the other hand, Salvador Dali never dealt with the types of ideas relied on by Rene Magritte. Large piece of Salvador’s work tends to link with his struggle with the sexual power and symbols. The use of symbolism in his painting is the self-made idea or a sense of the outside world. Therefore, the simple landscape painting that symbolizes that landscape turn into a highly complex observation of his inner work of the mind, and the relationship that exists between reality and imagery. Rene Magritte insists that, the inner working of our minds is similar to the real outside happenings. This ring to be true comparing to the way both neuroscientists and psychologists have to conclude about the form in which our mind works. On the other hand, Salvador Dali never dealt with the types of ideas Rene Magritte relied on. Large piece of Salvador’s work tends to link with his struggle with the sexual power and symbols. Comparing the two artists, Salvador Dali highly concerted with symbolism and imagery of what his dreams comprised and fantasies.

The Scramble and Acquisition of African Colonies Essay

The Scramble and Acquisition of African Colonies - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the European countries that colonized Africa were Italy, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. Their colonization of Africa was because of power struggles and competition for supremacy in Europe. The scramble was a rapid colonization of the African continent after the European powers acquired colonies in 1880-1900. The scramble was pushed by the economic, social, and political evolution that Europe was going through. It developed in the nineteenth century due to the collapse of the slave profitability, abolition,  and the European expansion. During the late nineteenth century, European countries like Britain were suffering growth deficit in its balance of trade. The imperatives of capitalist development spurred the European scramble. Thus, the goal of European intrusion was economically driven. Their objective was to find assured sources of raw materials, guaranteed markets, and profitable investment outlets. Their countries had limited resources and also highly populated. They dispersed themselves to the African continent to scramble and acquire colonies. During their trade with Africans, they realized that the continent was endowed with various minerals. Imperialism was also induced by the demand for raw materials unavailable in Europe. Africa had cotton, tea, rubber, diamonds, palm oil, copper,  and cocoa. The European consumers had grown accustomed to the products of the raw materials. The European industry as well had grown to depend on the raw materials from the continent of Africa. The European powers’ was another major factor for scrambling to acquire the African colonies. The population in Europe had grown so much, and it could no longer support the population. To manage a struggle for power amongst its people, they had to acquire new territories. As a result, some of its citizens were shipped to Africa to start an empire of their own. They also scrambled to acquire the African colonies, so that they could be able to achieve the aspect of â€Å"balance of power.† The colonies were viewed as tools of negotiation, useful as items of exchange at periods of international bargains. They also regarded colonies with the large native population as a source of military power during the colonial wars.

Philosophy Nr.2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Distributed Information Systems Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Distributed Information Systems - Assignment Example With the aim to ease up information system within the local administration motel and the head office administration as well as to the on-line clients, the system allows access to all stored data in a uniform way regardless of where the user is located. All existing data about customer, branch, and headquarters will be preserved in the new system and accessed uniformly despite its different physical storage locations and formats. Car-free Motel Customers may log-in using their username and password for security. New customers may register their own username and password. Car-free website has its own domain and URL available worldwide online. Local Branch Administrator and users may access their branch data in order to update customer bookings, room availability, room type and price of room. They may also check record of customer as well as credit card validity. The Headquarters can access all data regarding all customers and all branches including bookings, room availability and rates, and promotions. They may delete or add a motel branch on the listing as they wish. History and credit card validity can also be accessed by the Headquarters. Analysis: To enable the Information Technology consultant to facilitate the above mentioned goals, it is necessary that all client requirements and needs are presented. Likewise, the local administrators of each Car-free Motel branch not only meet skills and knowledge but also their exact needs from client and motel operations so that a smooth, lesser hassle operation is guaranteed. Foremost, the central administration or headquarters must be thoroughly or highly reliable, updated in the system to enable changes, update, deletion, addition of information. It is not enough that the IT consultant can provide the necessary client requirement. A three way interface allowing full access of information by the central administration is necessary, but must be clearly coordinated with all users. While local administration branches may access limited data such as present or existing client data, motel room availability, deletion of motel listing, update of price, room available and room type, promotiona l update, among others necessary in order to address need of client as well as ease of data facilitation between client and branch administration, and local branch

Law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Artists and Repertoire (A+R) in the Music Industry Essay

Artists and Repertoire (A+R) in the Music Industry - Essay Example 2006). The A&R is the department of a record label that undertakes talent scouting and manages the artistic development of recording artists. In essence, it acts as the link between the artists and the record label. Therefore, the A&R department plays a major role in discovering new recording artists and recruiting them to the company, through understanding of the current market preferences and tastes, and selecting the artists who will be commercially successful. For A+R staff to carryout the task of recruiting commercially viable new artists, they should first understand the specific ways in which musical production is shaped by a particular genre of cultures and the broader historical and social context within which the production takes place (Negus, 1999, P.13). Generally, in the music industry, the A&R staffs are seen as mediators or intermediaries. According to Negus, Music industry personnel act as mediators, continually connecting artists and audiences; the music business sta ff works as intermediaries, not only during the most obvious marketing and during promotion activities, but also when introducing the idea of an imagined audience into the writing, producing and recording of songs in the studio, stressing that they are engaged in presentation and representation providing symbolic goods and services (Negus, 1999, P.18). More so, apart from singing bands to record labels, the A&R staff is mostly obsessed with music and is in touch with particular music scenes, is very influential, and is widely viewed as important ingredient to a successful record label (Carter, Clegg, Kornberger, & Schweitzer, 2011, P.389). The A&R staffs are the key for the established corporate label in creating music scenes (informal assemblages) which become imbedded in the music industry mostly for promotional purposes (Bennett & Peterson, 2004, P.4). The roles of A&R staff vary depending on the designation, ranging from artist manager, music lawyer, music accountant, booking ag ent, music merchandiser, promoter, venue booker; and other titles depending on the label. Mostly, the A&R staffs are recruited based on their skills rather than on formal qualifications, with experience and backgrounds such as artist management, production, and DJing being an added advantage (Hannan, 2003, P.158). Another major duty of A&R staff is to help the artist locate the suitable producer, prepare recording schedule in the recording studio and offer advice to the artist on the best ways to improve the quality of their recording. They are therefore involved in helping an artist choose the best songs to record, and are very vital in finding songs and songwriters. Additionally, most of A&R staffs are expected to be talented in arts and music in order to accomplish varied roles involved in this field. For example, take the famous artist, composer, producer, and music reviewer, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, who began exploiting his career early in life through composing music, perfo rmance reviews, reviews of published music, and was an advocate of the avant-garde music (Adorno, Leppert, & Gillespie, 2002, P.14). Lastly, the A&R will involve liaising with other department such marketing in assisting the artist to market the released record. To sum the work of A&R staff the appreciation of the artist’s work must be spread from the record company to radio programmer, and

Finding a Large Problem as an Idea and How to Implement It to Achieve Success Essay Example for Free

Finding a Large Problem as an Idea and How to Implement It to Achieve Success Essay Ideas can and do change the world. Ideas are important to bring innovation and change in this world. Ideas can be used by students to achieve success in their academic life. Through the power of ideas, students can revitalize their sagging prospects and boost their grades. Of all the ideas mentioned in class, I was very impressed by the idea of finding a large problem and working to rectify the problem. It’s similar in my mind to finding a root cause or a deeply entrenched issue that is preventing success. To cure a problem or to enhance performance, one has to begin at the grass roots level. To find a problem, one has to look in hindsight and do a back ward analysis as to where one was found wanting. By identifying the problem, alienating it from other issues and after generation of ideas and solutions for the problem, the best solution is selected (International Development Experiences, Applications Systems, 2004). So, in order to prevent future occurrences, one has to begin by looking at the past. I can use this approach to solve a great deal of the issues in my academic and personal life. I will discuss academic solutions here. One of the largest problems that I face as a student is that my grammatical and vocabulary skills are not very refined and need a lot of work. I identified this problem by looking at past comments of my teachers. I have understood that there are a number of alternatives to solving this problem. Firstly, my spoken English remains very satisfactory, so my focus is on my written communication. One of the alternatives is to read various items, such as books, journals, magazines and newspapers. Another alternative is to practice writing essays and summaries. The final alternative is to do a combination of both the above alternatives. Since reading is not sufficient to increase writing skills and similarly writing with my current vocabulary base is also not nearly enough. Therefore, the best alternative is to allot time to both reading and writing every week. List of References International Development Experiences, Applications Systems. (2004, November 1). FAQs. Retrieved 2 2, 2009, from IDEAS Problem based learning: http://celt. ust. hk/ideas/pbl/faqs/index. html#1

Crimson tide and the aspects of leadership

Crimson tide and the aspects of leadership The film is based on the time period when there was imbalance in Russia. Russian rebel truehearted to their leader had obtained dominance over the installation of some nuclear missile and they are threatening thermonuclear warhead if the Russian government or Americans tried to confront him. In attempt to watch over the delegation, the United States ordered the USS Alabama: a nuclear submarine to be ready to take any action to sustain the strike. Among the Alabama submarine crew was Captain Frank Ramsey, who was the commanding officer and among the very few commanders remaining in the Navy with experience in combat. He chooses Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter, who was highly educated when it comes to military history and maneuver, however had no experience regarding combat as the Executive Officer (Second in Command). During their embark at sea, latent hostility arose between Ramsey and Hunter due to indifferent personalities, Hunter was more analytic and conservative towards his mission and the men and as for Ramsey, he was more hotheaded, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants go about. A satellite report came through to the Americans that the Russians who got the nuclear installation were fueling the missiles, and the Alabama was ordered to plunge its missiles to those Russians. A second message came through for Alabama to disable their missiles, but unfortunately the message was not received by the crew after the communication unit was badly destroyed by the Russian submarine attack. The Alabama was too deep to restore communication and had just been hit and there was an outstanding order to launch the missiles, thus Captain Ramsey opted to continue with the order they had at the time which was authenticated. Hunter on the other hand was against the missile launch and tried to win over support from Rams ey to confirm the second message before proceeding with the launch, because he had hope that it was possibly an abjuration of the previous command. Hunter argued that even if they launched the missiles later than expected other US submarines in the area would proceed with the mission as per the fleets redundancy protocol measures. As the situation in the command became intense, Ramsey presents Hunter as an upstart graduate from Harvard who does not honor his place in the chain of command. There came a point where Ramsey wanted to excuse Hunter from being a Second in Command, just because Hunter was still against the launch of the missiles. Instead Ramsey was arrested in the attempt to outsmart the protocols regarding the launch of the nuclear. The Chief of the Boat agreed with Hunter and proceeded with the arrest of Ramsey though they were old friends, and he was taken from the Con and locked in his bedroom. Though the Alabama crew was shaken order was retained. The Russian submarine re-emerged just as Hunter was undertaking the effort to corroborate the second message concerning the missile launch. An underwater combat resulted and the Russian submarine was destroyed, and unfortunately the Alabama got damaged badly. The ship lost its communications, deaths of several crew members were encountered, and the boat nearly sank past its crush depth which resulted from the water which had entered into the boat after the hit from the combat with the Russians. As Hunter was waiting for the communications to be reestablished, some officers who were loyal to the Captain left the Con altogether. With the help of the loyal officers, Ramsey managed to get out of the place where he was held in attempt to present Hunter with charges of rebellion, placing the Executive Officer and officers who served with him under arrest. The launching of the missiles was nearly successful hadnt it been for the weapon officer who was persuaded to stall or delay Ramsey, whi le Hunter was in the mission of recapturing the bridge, among him was his main drafted staff officers. In the end, a tie resulted, thus the officers who had disputes agreed to wait until the last potential second to plunge the missiles. At long last the communications were up to speed and it was discovered that the Russian army had stabilized the situation and the Russian rebellions had been subjugated, thus no need to continue with the order of launching Americans missiles. At the end of the movie, a review took place at Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii where various admirals conveyed serious concerns about the collapse of command which took place in the Alabama and during the wartime concerning the launching of the nuclear missiles. Ramsey finally decided to withdraw from the Navy and advocated Hunter for the command. The two men (Hunter and Ramsey) settled their disputes at the end of the film. WHO IS/ARE THE LEADERS IN THE MOVIE There are two main leaders namely: Gene Hackman playing Captain Frank Ramsey: an old white male, navy veteran, probably in his fiftys. Denzel Washington playing Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter: a young African-American male fresh off Harvard University. THE LEADER (S)S ROLE IN THE MOVIE Lieutenant Commander Hunter played a number of roles in the Crimson tide film which included him being in the submarine to make sure that Captain Ramsey made the correct choices, for example, the launching of the nuclear missiles. Looking at the situation, Ramsey was going to go ahead and launch the missiles without confirming the second message which was interrupted by the damage from the Russian rebels. Going through with the launch of the missiles would have caused a nuclear warhead which was prevented due to Hunters judgment. Also Hunter played a role of being a complementary leader towards Ramsey, that is, he provided certain leadership aspects which Ramsey lacked. Those aspects includes, Hunter being a motivator, in the film we concluded that Ramsey was a strict and arrogant leader who never motivated his crew, but with the influence from Hunter, Ramsey gave a motivational speech after the crew restored all operations after the Russian attack. The other aspect that Ramsey lacke d was compassion towards his crew, but Hunter stepped in and showed compassion to his fellow submarines after a few crew members lost their lives in the lower compartment in the boat. Last but not least, Ramsey was impatient, he could not wait for the communication unit to restore their systems for the second message to come through and insisted on proceeding with the missile launch, whereas Hunter possessed that ability and was willing to put on hold the idea of going ahead with the order at hand (of launching the nuclear missiles). Hunters choice to wait turned out to be the best choice because if it has not been for him, the Alabama attack would have cause the start of a nuclear war. On the other hand, Ramseys roles included testing the loyalty of the boats crew, that is, had he not been there none of the conflicts between him and Hunter would not have arose, and there would not have been a time where the officers in charge had to choose sides over the boats authority. Officers choosing sides made confirmation on who was following the right protocol in the launch of the nuclear missiles, for examples, the crew under Ramsey just followed the protocol to some extent and ignored the one which was to confirm what the second command said before going ahead with the previous order, whereas the ones under Hunter did everything buy the books. Also Ramseys purpose was to make sure that everyone was prepared in case of a combat with the rebels. To support that, he carried down a number of drills in the boat during their journey at sea to ensure that everyone stayed focused no matter what, also before they left the base and while they were on the ship he made a few speeches about the situation at hand, and one of the speech when like this, we are here to preserve democracy, not to practice it. EXPLAIN THE CONTEXT FOR EACH INCIDENT RELATING TO LEADERSHIP ASPECTS IN THE SYNOPSIS INCIDENTS WITHING THE MOVIE INVOLVING THE LEADER(S) There were a number of incidents that took place during the mission to Russia within the USS Alabamas crew that involved either Hunter or Ramsey or both of them, below are some of those incidents: There was a time when two of the crew members got into a fight over comic books, at the time Hunter was only a few feet away from the two men but could see what was happening. When the two were stopped by one of the crew members, Hunter pulled the other one involved in the fight (the supervisor) aside and tried to understand the cause of the fight, and when he fully understood what the quarrel was all about he advised the supervisor that in cases of quarrels he should know how to handle the situation since he was also a leader and should lead by example. The supervisor promised to handle disputes better next time, and was once again calm and proceeded to his assigned post. The other incident involving one of the leaders was when Hunter rushed down to the kitchen during the fire to try and sustain the situation. This is a sign that he does not interact with the crew during times of issuing commands only, he came to an aid of his followers whereas Ramsey was busy launching a drill and not caring about what Hunter had to say about the fire downstairs. INCIDENTS AND THE LEADER(s)S INTERACTION WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE MOVIE Ramsey was a blind follower, he did almost everything without questioning whereas Hunter was the opposite of that (he followed orders but he did question the authority where he felt it necessary). One example which comes to mind is where they were discussing about war, Ramsey felt that when it came to war if there was a threat made, the only action or measures to be taken was to attack first, he was more of a shoot first and ask questions later type of person. On the other hand, Hunter thought that attacking the opposition party in war would make the situation worse, as he believed that, in a nuclear world, true enemy cannot be destroyed as the true enemy is war itself. The second incident where the two leaders interacted was when the Alabama was hit and the second message which was to be received aboard from the headquarters was interrupted. When the boat was stable from the hit, Captain Ramsey wanted to proceed with the order at hand which was to continue with the launching of the nuclear missiles. But Hunter being the Executive Officer he refused to concur the order because they were unsure of what the incoming message said and a huge argument arose. The argument led to Ramsey wanting to relieve Hunter of his duty, but due to some regulations, Hunter managed to turn the tables and had Ramsey removed from the Con to his stateroom by the Chief of the Boat. This incident shows that both men are firm in what they each believe in. For example, Ramsey is more concerned about the worst that could happen if they are not able to continue with the missile launch well on time, i.e. before the Russian rebels launch the attack, while Hunter is concerned about the worst that could happen if they actually do proceed with the launching while there is no longer a threat from the Russian rebels. Both men were not about to be deterred from their logic regarding the matter, in which both were respectively right in their own ways. Last but not least, was the incident which took place in the kitchen. There was a fire in the kitchen and while Hunter was busy maintain the situation downstairs, Ramsey decided on carrying out a drill, and Hunter being the second in command had to rush back upstairs to the Con to repeat the order. When he got there he tried to explain to the Captain that is not a good time to be running the drill as the situation in the kitchen was still in the process of being fully contained, but captain being a suborn man, he dismissed Hunters complaint and continued with the drill. He later met with Hunter at his stateroom and told him that the next time he wanted to question him, he should not do it in front of the crew, that he should wait for the right time (when they are alone) to present the matter at hand. But later on Ramsey shouted at Hunter in front of the crew in the Con, which shows that Ramsey only comply by the books where the rules favors him only. Also, this shows that Ramsey show little or no concern over his crew members as he carried out the drill though there was fire downstairs. KNOW YOUR LEADER(S)S BEHAVOUR AND CHARACTERISTICS In this part we will be looking at the different and similar leadership characteristics that Hunter and Ramsey possess either bad or good. Commander Hunter Caution: this can be defined as showing careful forethought. This is illustrated in the film where Hunter gave Rivetti the keys to the officers stateroom and other cabins in case Ramsey and his men were to lock them up, and it did happen. Hunter and his officers were arrested and Rivetti came to their rescue. Optimistic: is expecting or presenting the best possible outcome in a given solution. Hunter displays this characteristic when the second message was interrupted. He refused to agree with Ramsey to continue launching the nuclear missiles because he was expecting the good news from the headquarters, and indeed the results came up positive, that they should abort the previous mission. NaÃÆ'Â ¯ve: Not initiated; deficient in relevant experience. Ramsey and other officers who were loyal to him believed that Hunter was not experienced enough to make the decisions regarding the combat. Well, partly that was true because he had no practical experience in the field; all he knew was what he read in the military books. Nevertheless, he managed to sustain all the possible distractions in the boat. Ambitious: Having a strong desire for success or achievement or requiring full use of your abilities or resources. This is true for Hunter because he wanted to know what the second message was saying, and he made sure that he did. He made it his number one priority to make sure of it, he kept calling Vossler to confirm the progress on the communications. He had hardship in making sure that those communications were working, he was even hit by Ramsey but he did not give up on the communication, at long last Ramsey gave them a time frame to fix the communications. At long last a transmission came true and the message was received and a new order/mission was read which was to stop the missile launch. Captain Ramsey Overconfident: it is a good sign for a leader to be confident (being positive), but as for Ramsey he happen to be very confident which happens to be a bad aspect because overconfident can blind a leaders ability to think twice. This is illustrated in the film, where he did not give a second thought to stopping the missiles, even after Hunter presented him with many reasons not to continue with the order at hand; he ignored then and went ahead with the launch. Hadnt he had been overconfident; he would have took the time to review Hunters suggestions. Impatient: can be defined as full of eagerness, Captain Ramsey was a very impatient man, he was keen to proceeding with order or anything he felt was right at the time. For example, even after the fire in the kitchen he was eager to proceed with the drill even after being told of the situation downstairs, just because he had planned for that drill and did not want to wait until the situation with the fire was fully maintained. The other incident was when he just wanted to continue with the nuclear missile launch, even after the boat had just been hit and the incoming message was interrupted. He wanted to proceed with the launch with confirming the second message. Unpredictable: Not capable of being foretold. With Ramsey no one could actually tell what his next step would be. For example, first time he met with Hunter it was like the two would get along just fine, but when they got to the ship his attitude towards Hunter changed from time to time until the time he made it clear that he was not keen of him because he did not have any experience about the combat, and because unlike him, he had to work hard to obtain that position while Hunter got it because he was a Harvard graduate. The other example is when lost his temper towards Hunter and shouted at him in front of the crew, meanwhile he asked Hunter not to address him in front of the crew. Strict: Incapable of compromise or flexibility. Captain Ramsey was not keen to any suggestions or advises, he wanted to do things his own way only. DESCRIBE AND DISCUSS WHY THE LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR WAS EFFECTIVE OR INEFFECTIVE Effective: Exerting force or influence Ineffective: Lacking the ability or skill to perform effectively; inadequate LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOURS TASK ORIENTED A task-oriented leader is focused on accomplishments and if the leader is able to show the skills and commitment to his followers, obtaining a specific task wont be a difficult matter. That is, if the supervisor was to lead by example in doing a task I believe his followers would not hesitate to do the same, for example, during the fire in the kitchen, Hunter rushed there in an attempt to save the personnel that were inside and others did likewise. If he had not been there no one would have risked his life to go into the fire especially after they were told by others that it was too hot, but nevertheless Hunter just went right inside. Another example is when Lt Paul Hellerman was ordered to close the hatch. There was a time when he was hesitating to follow the order, but Hunter paused and put himself in Hellermans shoes (how he must have felt thinking about leaving his man to die down there) and tried to talk to him bravely that if he did not close the hatch, the whole crew would go down with the submarine rather than if he close the hatch and only a few are lost. After a short period of time Hellerman decided to close the hatch to save others so as for them to continue with the mission. RELATION ORIENTED A relationship oriented leaders focus on the relationships among the teams members. This can be indicated in the film where Ramsey talked to his officer to gather other officers so they could go and restore control over the Con. Another example is when Hunter was lenient toward Rivetti after his encounter with another crew member , just being lenient made Rivetti to have respect towards Hunter and trust him, which was why he came to Hunters rescue (because of the relationship they just built during that short time). In general Commander Hunter had a friendly relationship with almost half of the boats crew, and with those relationships they all helped him to accomplish his mission, hadnt he been friendly and understanding none of them would have come to his rescue. PARTICIPATIVE ORIENTED A participative oriented leader relies mostly in the leader being/ operating as an implementer rather than just issuing order or making assignments. If we look at the Captain we could conclude that he was not a participative leader because there is not even one incident where he actually got involved in any of the tasks carried out in the boat. CHANGE AGENT CAPABILITIES Reflecting back to the movie, I would say both leaders did not have any change capability because both men had strong believes in their actions, they were firm in what they each believed in. neither Ramsey nor Hunter wanted to change his way of operating. One of the examples is when Hunter thought it would be best if the Captain acknowledged the crew for their hard work and commitment in obtained order after the hit, but the captain gave a speech he would give any other day., which shows that he was not willing to change his style just for a minutes. Another example involves Hunter, as mentioned above, he was keen to questioning authority where he felt necessary but there were a few occasions when Ramsey wanted him to just perform orders at hand without questioning, but due to the fact that he was not used to that, he refused to accommodate that thought. With this kind of attitude we could conclude that the leaders were ineffective because they could not agree in one aspect, they alw ays wanted things to be done their ways, they never compromised. IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN ATLEAST TWO DIFFERENT INCIDENTS INVOLVING THE SAME LEADER(S). IF THE INCIDENTS INVOLVE TWO INDIVIDUALS/ A GROUP MAKING A DECISION, LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR BY THE DIFFERENT INDIVIDUAL CAN BE IDENTIFIED EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE TWO DIFFERENT SELECTED INCIDENTS The two incidents that have been chosen are when a group of officers met outside the weapon unit on how they were going to rescue the captain from his hold-up place, and the one where Hunter and his officers were locked up in the officers cabinet. INVOLVEMENT OF THE SELECTED LEADER(s) WITHIN THE INCIDENT AND MAKING DECISION WITHIN THE TEAM, GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL Regarding the case where Hunter and other officers were locked up, Hunter was involved in the decision making that took place in the cabinet which was how to get full control over the Con. He planned for Rivetti to come and rescue them, and after that he asked him to gather a number of trusted crew members who would help in their mission. After the gathering and acquiring of the weapons and uniforms, he drew up a strategic way of how they could access the Captain Key and stop the launch of the missiles without being disrupted. In the second incident, Captain Ramsey had a conversation with one of his trusted officer to help him escape from his stateroom and obtain back his post from Hunter. They concluded that the best option was to recruit a few officers involving Webs who was a friend to the Commander. The officer carried out the order and the 4 officers helped the captain escape and selected the few that were loyal to Hunter and put all of them under arrest. CHARISMATIC AND TRANSFORMATIONAL ROLES Hunter had a way of attracting and making crew members change their minds on certain aspects, and this was all because he had good interpersonal skills which helped him deal with others well despite their authority level. For example, he was able to convinced Webs to stall the captain from launching the missiles even though Webs had helped in his arrest, as he himself went after the captain key. Another example is when he got the captain arrested, even though Cob was Ramseys old friend, after Hunter had explained the outcomes of launching the missiles without confirming the second message and the stating the regulations Chief of the Boat agreed with him to relieve Ramsey of his duty. CRITICALLY ANALYZE EACH OF THE TWO/ MORE INCIDENTS AND CONSIDER OTHER OPTIONS THE LEADER(s) COULD HAVE CONSIDERED AND MADE MANAGERIAL TRAITS AND SKILLS This topic deals with the responsibilities and abilities of a leader. One of the leaders (Ramsey) was impatient, and he being impatient could have led to a start of a nuclear warhead, he could have just given the communication unit some time to restore the boats systems before he could engage in the launching of the missile, which could have prevented an outbreak between him and Hunter. Secondly, a leader should learn to minimize his confidence level as overconfidence could enable them to think twice before handling a situation. If Ramsey was able to lower his confidence he could have listened to Hunters concerns and thought through the idea of launching the missile. SUMMARY In conclusion, there are two main types of management styles in Crimson Tide film: one leader who did things his own way (Ramsey) and the other one did things but the book (Hunter). And the two leaders had to make serious decisions and neither made it easy for the other one, despite the many disputes that arose when they were aboard in the USS Alabama they reconciled at the end. The reconcilement shows that they were good leaders because a good leader should be able to admit to his mistakes owning to them.

Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning

Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning Skills requirements for information system professionals in the e-learning sector This research project is an investigation into the skills required for Information Systems (IS) professionals working in the commercial e-learning sector. This involved determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals, the actual skills held by current employees in this sector, and identifying any skills gaps that existed. The survey obtained information from a representative selection of the IS professional population. The questionnaire sample included IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and reflected the composition of participating organizations. The table below summarises the objectives of this investigation: Identify the state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry, Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in Berkshire, Investigate what skills gaps exist and Investigate the possible causes of these skills gaps. The main outcome of the study was a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. To combat the skills gaps that emerged and prevent performance problems arising, a number of recommendations need to be adopted to address the problems discovered: (1) Improve training strategies for IS professionals within the sector, majority of organisations have no set training strategy or budget; this is something that needs to change, (2) Create an annual ‘e-learning skills report’ detailing gaps and shortages, allowing education and industry to understand emerging and established skills needs. It would allow changes in demand and type of skill to be monitored. This would allow organisations to structure their internal training strategies, to eliminate skills gaps and (3) Form direct links between industry and education partners to allow course content t o be improved and improve employment prospects for graduates. The most important action is to integrate education with industry. If courses as specialist as-learning could be developed with an industry partner, the correct content would be guaranteed. 1. Introduction Many organisations have come to realise that certain new technologies can optimise efficiency and make processes more effective. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can bring industry closer to their customers, partners and suppliers through more integrated business and communication systems, and can provide enhanced educational opportunities. â€Å"There is a well-established relationship between improvements in Information Systems (IS) skills and increased productivity.† (Dress, 2001) The opportunity to gain competitive advantage through technology has consequently contributed to demand for skilled IS professionals outstripping supply. The label used to describe this effect is a ‘skills shortage’. The Computer Services and Software Association estimate that IS skills shortages will cost the UK over  £30 billion over the next three years(e-skills NTO, 2001). There is a growing recognition that the gap in skills for IS professionals is widening. The gap in skills does not only affect the ICT (primary) sector but all other sectors (secondary)which apply information technologies in their production, processes, products or services. The E-revolution of the information industries has created a new labour force, professional IS roles are becoming diversified and a generic IS curriculum will not meet all the needs for all IS jobs in the future. It seems that in any system that has an â€Å"E† placed in front of it; e-learning, e-business, e-commerce, are the development of new skills. Never before have new skills appeared at such a rate. Even if industrial structure is only changing slowly, employers of ‘IS ‘practitioners rarely found it easy to articulate their current and particularly future skill needs very precisely. â€Å"Nearly one third of the IS skills in the market today have only emerged in the last year. Sixty seven of the one hundred and thirty three internet related skills are totally new.† Chris Bennett, MD SAP Australia (Hawking, 2002) New curricula need to be developed which consist-’of separate distinctive concentrations, which target specific roles in the job market. A new stronger relationship needs to be formed between educational institutions and companies; to allow the required skills to be taught and help alleviate the current IS skills shortages. In the rapidly changing field of IS, educational programs must be continually re-evaluated and revised. â€Å"There is presently a gap between what industry wants characteristically in it IS personnel and what academia provides to them.† Gupta and Watcher( 1998) The first step in the curriculum revision process is to conduct a study to determine the expected skills and knowledge required for IS professionals in industry. This will allow academic institutions to create programs that more accurately reflect the demands of the marketplace. At present, there is no identifiable data about the requirements of IS professionals specific to the e-learning sector. This is the gap in knowledge that needs to be investigated. This dissertation has been commissioned to do precisely that; to investigate the skills required for IS professionals working in thee-learning industry. The results can then be used as a foundation for developing a suitable postgraduate course at the University level. The main outcome of the study will be a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. The research carried out in this project can be used by other universities to clarify the skills required for employment in this sector, allowing course content to be tailored to suit the changing demands of industry, and improve the opportunities for students seeking employment upon graduation. 2. Aims Objectives The research will be cantered on the key area of skills gap analysis. This will involve determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals and the actual skills held by current employees, then determining the differences. This study aims to obtain information from a representative selection of the IS professional population, and from that sample the researcher will then be able to present the findings as being representative of the population as awhile. The characteristics of the total population will be represented justly in the sample to enable the researcher to say with fair confidence that the sample is reasonably representative. The sample will include IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and will reflect the composition of participating organisations. The study will allow users to simultaneously score both their own self-assessment of their ability and their perceptions of the levels of skill actually required by their job. The sample population will include organizations in the e-learning sector with a history of close association with Business Link Berkshire and Wiltshire. Summary of Research Objectives †¢ Identify the current state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry †¢ Identify the most important/prevalent issues from the literature †¢ Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in the Berkshire region †¢ Identify the skill gaps from the perceived and actual skill levels †¢ Discuss the finding and compare against those of relevant previous studies 3. Literature Review The foundation for revision of curriculum process is the review of literature and investigation into the expected industry skills and knowledge for IS professionals. In the introduction chapter an outline of this study was given. This section will focus upon academic literature related to the subject area, which will go onto further support the data already mentioned. As well as academic literature, reports are of particular importance to this dissertation, due to the dynamic nature of the industry, reports are able to offer the very latest up to date information, which may take months to be peer reviewed and published in journals. There are a number of reports, which have been consulted in the preparation of this report that have provided valuable insight into the subject area. In addition the background chapter that follows this contains greater detail into the region and industry trends, separated to avoid over-powering the critical issues highlighted here. 3.1 Background The literature in general Skills Requirements Analysis (SRA) is extensive. Related areas include Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and the broader area of Learning Needs Assessment (LNA). Recent work in the area, such as that by Sine (1998) and earlier, by Kidd (1984) in knowledge acquisition adds to more traditional texts from skills training practitioners including Peterson (1998) and Major (1988). These papers all identify skills training as one of a number of initiatives to solve performance problems in an organisation. Using the performance problems identified, how far the skills identified are present, and how big is the gap between the performance objectives and the performance resulting from actual skills in place. This process is referred to as a skills audit. The skills audit links directly to the research questions in chapter one. A skills assessment or audit has three main objectives: 1. To determine what skills are required by each employee; 2. To determine which of the required skills each employee has; 3. To analyse the results and establish the specific training needs. Authors such as Hamel (1994) openly express the increasing value of employee’s skills, leading to knowledge within an organisation. More recent articles, such as Birch all and Tovstiga (1999) describe how this knowledge manifests itself primarily as organisational competencies and capabilities, leading to that all-important competitive advantage. Onaway to increase a company’s organisational competencies and capabilities in order to gain competitive advantage is through carefully implemented training and development, Schuler (1984).Education and training provision are important strategic practices in the development of organisational competence, but without understanding the precise skills needs first, how can the appropriate training be applied? 3.2 Information System Curriculum There is extensive literature surrounding the area of IS curriculum design. Although this study will not involve any design of curriculum, it is none the less useful to have an understanding of some of the issues that arise in designing IS curriculum; if the findings of this study will be used as a foundation to develop IS curricula. A common theme in the literature is the difficulty in creating curriculum that can fulfil all requirements in an industry that evolves so rapidly. Martinson and Cheung (2001) suggest that recent developments of IS industry jobs and career paths have made understanding the knowledge/skills requirement of an IS professional even more difficult. This is supported by Latham (2000) who explains that the complexity and multi-disciplinarily nature of Information Systems makes identifying a common curriculum both difficult and contentious. Skills requirements will inevitably change over time and it is important to take a strategic view of the needs of industry. There are a number of papers that highlight the differences between industry and academia strategies, and strong suggestions that these need to be merged and greater links formed between the two. Kim, Shim, and Yoon (1999) found that, â€Å"IS organisations perceive managerial and organisational issues as more important than educators†. They also found that educators consider emerging issues more important than industry organisations. Curriculum should be developed working with corporate partners. Similar work of Srinivasan, Duane, and Wright(1999) supports the importance of this idea of improving links between education and industry. In Lightfoot’s (1999) research on IS curriculum design, it was suggested that curriculum needs to be developed to satisfy both the current and future needs of the industry at the sometime. This is impossible without the links mentioned above. 3.3 Information System Skills Although the growing demand for IS professionals is evident, the exact combination of skills required is not. This could be attributed to the scope and divergence of IS roles that are now available. Hedge (now known as Dress) highlighted that â€Å"The fast-moving technological change in 1CT and rapid innovation, mean that it is much more difficult than in the past to determine the type and combination of skills that are needed† (Dee, 1999). While the reported growth of demand for IS workers is very evident, the identification of specific skills required for the variety of positions in Information Systems is not as clear† (Noll and Wilkins 2002).Research by Young and Lee (1997) and Lee, Trough, and Farwell (1995)confirm the increasing importance of these â€Å"soft skills†, which include writing, teamwork, presenting, project management, and interpersonal relationships. E-skills NTO, the industry representative body for IT skills, recently published a comprehensive report detailing the current situation regarding the supply and demand of IT and telecommunication professionals in the United Kingdom. This survey, called e-skills 21(2002) was the most comprehensive study of IT and Telecom Professionalism the UK in history, it included over 4000 interviews with professionals at all levels and across all sectors during 2001. The results of the comprehensive e-skills 21 survey mentioned earlier are characterised into technical and generic skills. More detail into what each compromises of will be given later. Aspects of the e-skills study have been used to develop the research instrument used in this study, to allow the skills gap findings to be directly compared. This E-Skills survey revealed a consensus among the companies that there was no major skill gap among the IS workers. However the one’s that did mention about a gap, pointed out the skills gap related to operating system, application usage and networking skills. It was common opinion among most of the respondents that technology was evolving at a much faster rate than they could grasp. These issues will be looked at during the study. Several studies indicate that verbal skills, work in cross-functional groups and written communications skills were the three most highly rated qualities to seek in staff Gupta and Watcher (1998) This view is supported in a recent report (lackey et al., 2000) quotes one respondent who said that: ‘There is a real lack of people who can combine ICT and business acumen.’ The biggest challenge for technical CT staff is in understanding the dynamics of business; including sales and marketing processes, supply chain processes, and internal processes. They also need to continue to develop and evolve customer facing business systems to enhance and improve the end user experience. CT staff were also identified as a central resource in teaching skills to other areas of the business; consequently communication skills and an understanding of the organisation are essential (E-skills 21, 2001). Another requirements paper by Lewinski (2003) suggests that IS skills can be more effectively developed through on-the-job training. The classification of requirements was not as specific as the other literature mentioned, but similarities can be seen in the results. With regard to technical skills; troubleshooting was required by 97 preceptor respondents, 91 services and facilitation, 82 installation of hardware/software and configuration, and 67 expressed a need for systems operation, monitoring and maintenance. Equal importance was placed upon non-technical skills, including; good communication, analytical/problem solving, flexibility and the ability to learn quickly. The only other study to include both a perceived and actual approach to skills assessment (as this study does) is by Hay (2003). The report by Hay (2003) concludes that there are four skills that are consistently higher than perceived needs of the job; basic computer use, word processing, spread sheet and database use. The areas repeatedly below the required level were presentation and graphics software, and use of a browser. There was also a reported â€Å"clear gap in the market† in the areas of knowledge of operating systems and networking. These skills gaps are readily identifiable by the employees themselves, with over 50% of participants lacking the required skills in at least one area. There are so many papers, with so many different classifications that comparing them directly was extremely difficult in writing this literature review. The common themes that came out were the technical and generic split of skills. There is a need for combination of both sets of skills. The skills gaps appear to be entered on OS and Networking skills on the technical side, and all skills related to the generic side. The only way to breakdown the mixture of skills from various papers to be able to understand and compare in a scientific way is by using an industry standard framework. The chosen framework and a number of other frameworks are described inspection 3.5. 3.4 E-Learning Skills Any employee, in any role, requires some overall, understanding of the business within which they work. Therefore, as this study is of IS professional skills in the e-learning industry each individual employed is required to have some understanding of the basics of teaching, tallow them to function as part of an educational organisation. The skills mentioned in this section will be required, though the depth of pedagogical skills will by dependant on the individual’s role. For example, the pedagogical skills of a training professional should be considerably stronger than that of a programmer. There was surprisingly little literature in the area of IS professionals working in-learning. The most useful research found was by Massy (2000 and2001). Both these studies were critically analysed by the Scottish enterprise research report published on their website. Both the papers suggested that the skills and competencies required by on-line training professionals can be broadly categorised as technical, pedagogical and managerial. Massy (2001) pointed out that there has been a consistent shift from the importance laid on Information Communication Technologies skills requirements with increased efforts now being placed on the acquisition of the above mentioned categories. The SFIA framework appears to cover every aspect of IS skills, the area of education and training was looked at closely being of particular importance to this study, and was found to give enough detail for IS professionals in general. Although more detail was required in the design of the instrument used in this study. â€Å"In line with developments in technology generally, the impact of technology-supported learning (TSL), and in particular e-learning(EL), has given rise to new combinations of skills, featuring how people learn with a sound understanding of the available technology in the design of learning experiences.† (Massy, 2000a cited in SERR, 2005) The first survey by Massy (2000) showed some interesting differences from the follow-up survey (2001). There was a marked change in focus of skills from technical (ICT) to pedagogical skills. The key concern in2000, was that technology had become the central focus for e-learning development, appeared to have been address in the 12 months that passed before the second survey. Greater emphasis was now being placed on the managerial and pedagogical attributes required for producing and presenting e-learning. In the same 12 month period, over 60% of respondents had taken part in some informal training, and a further 30% formal classroom-based learning. The step down in attaining ICT skills was reportedly due to the basic fluency being established and the focus being directed to attaining new skills in e-learning content design. This requires a greater understanding of management and pedagogy. The study by Martin and Jennings (2002) followed the same approach as Massy. In this survey a distinction was made between users and suppliers of e-learning. Unfortunately it is not possible to make that distinction, as more often than not they are the same person. This problem of identifying groups was also expressed in the report, â€Å"Unreality, most user organisations are also providers of e-learning, such as universities.† Suppliers identified an increased interest in gaining in-depth Information Communication skills; others suggesting this were a major problem. Stronger leadership and ‘championing’ of projects is also required. The most important ICT skills identified, with regard to-learning were: To effectively utilise web-page design, including text, audio and video conferencing materials, E-mail, Bulletin boards, Discussion forums for communication with and between learners (SERR,2005). These are relatively common and well-developed skills for IS professionals. Another important issue, which has continued to braised throughout this literature review, is the need for better collaboration between industry (supplier) and academia. To aid this it is also suggested that e-learning needs to be integrated further in to university and college education. 3.5 Information System Frameworks IS management and occupational analysts in different-organisations and countries have tried to distil the structure of the industry, from the constantly evolving picture, so it is understandable that a number of different occupational frameworks have therefore emerged. The most important frameworks to this study are those that have been used for surveys. While there are broad similarities, different surveys, using different frameworks, produce different results, and although they may enrich the overall picture of the industry, they cannot generally be usefully compared. A number of academics have developed their own skills frameworks. Allot these follow the same format of grouping technical and business skills, against various levels of competency. Examples of academic frameworks developed include early research by Ashen Hurst (1972) that identified 37 skills and abilities that a student in a graduate IS program should expect to acquire into six categories: people, models, systems, computers, organizations, and society. Similarly the work of Todd et al. (1995) classified IS knowledge into seven categories: hardware, software, business, management, social, and problem solving, and development methodology. It was also reasoned that interpersonal and managerial skills are more important than any technical skills for IS managers. Nelson (1991) classified 30 skills into six groups: organizational knowledge, organizational skills, organizational unit, general IS knowledge, technical skills, and IS product. This paper found that IS personnel were deficient in general IS knowledge followed by organizational knowledge, technical skills, organizational skills, IS product, and organizational units (in that order). Lee and Gosling (1999) classified three key abilities of IS professionals: ability to learn new technologies, ability to focus on technology as a means (not an end), and ability to understand technological trends into technology management knowledge and other technology-related knowledge into technical specialized knowledge. There port classified non-technology-related knowledge into business functional knowledge, interpersonal and management skills, letting interpersonal and management skills contain some personal traits. Also included was the ability to teach others interpersonal and management skills. It was found that non-technological knowledge is now more important than technical skills. A skills framework gives organisations: A clear, well-structured view of their staffs skills; A tool for more accurate planning and management of resources; A tool for accurate development of careers, so improving retention; A better way of targeting training; A method of risk assessment for the loss of key skills; A tool for accurate and efficient recruitment (Taken From Skills Framework ). In the UK, in June 2001 e-skills NTO published a Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). It provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems making use of Information Communications Technologies. It appeared to be a simple and coherent two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other (SFIA ). Previously there was no industry benchmark for organisation to measure the skill levels of their organisation. The methodology for this study will be developed to allow the results to be mapped directly onto the framework. Therefore, the findings can be compared to those of previous research carried out by-skills NTO. 3.6 Summary The literature presented has highlighted some important issues, provided grounding for this study and has helped eliminate some of the preconceptions of what was expected. The purpose of identifying skills gaps is to allow the appropriate training to be adopted, therefore eliminating the performance problems that exist. The career paths of the IS industry are no longer straight forward and the complexity and diversity of the sector makes understanding it in a scientific way very difficult. The literature suggests that as the industry is so dynamic, relationships must be improved between education and industry. The problems that exist relate to academic and training practitioners not providing the correct skills in their graduates. Research focused academia tends to provide graduates with the latest emerging technologies, these skills quickly become out-of-date, while the more fundamental technologies appear to be neglected. This is expressed in the views of many industry speakers, it is assumed that an IS professional will be capable of learning new programming languages, once the method of logical thinking has been established. It is more important to develop the established fundamental technologies, and allow the professional to develop the niche skills required as they move into a specialist area, for example e-learning. The technical skills gaps that exist are focused around Microsoft Programs; including Windows/NT, MS Application skills (especially MS Access), and Networking technologies. The generic skills gaps that exist include both written and oral communication, user IT skills, industry awareness, and problem solving. The combinations of these two types of skills gaps are from literature that investigated the whole IS industry. It will be interesting to see how they compare with thee-learning sector, which you would presume at this stage to have stronger focus on generic skills. The literature that was focused one-learning highlighted all forms of communication (e.g. oral, written, and electronic) as the most important generic skills. The most important technical skills required included web related technologies and presentation or audio visual skills. The final area to look into was to see if the focus change from technical to pedagogical was visible in this study. This could not be done in the same way as the literature by repeating the study again after a 12 month period. As different approach the structure of the instrument could be written in way to allow comparisons to be made between importance levels of the three categories of skill. The main reasons cited for skills gaps in the ICT sector are a lack of skills/experience of new technologies and organisations failing to train/develop staff sufficiently to meet their needs. This in turn causes difficulty in introducing technological change. The other effects highlighted include delays in the development of new products/services and difficulties meeting business objectives. Much of the literature suggests the most obvious actions to address the problem of skills gaps would be to provide further training and increase recruitment of direct staff. These can be included in the changing of working practices. The chapter on research methods will explain exactly what instruments are used and the approach taken. The literature was used extensively to create the instruments and followed previous research to allow comparisons of the results to be made. They follow the form set out in this review; combining technical, generic and pedagogical skills. Instruments used in the literature were modified and extended for the purposes of this study. The results chapter also uses some of the literature as a source of ideas for the descriptions and highlighting the most significant findings. This is to allow direct comparison with previous studies. The main gap identified in the literature is with regard to quantifying the pedagogical skills mentioned. In Masons work the skills are mentioned but not in enough detail. In the e-learning industry the pedagogical skills will not match that of a â€Å"normal† teacher or lecturer, as there is not only a significant difference between the methods of teaching and learning, but also in content provision. The student in an e-learning environment is a researcher, which is quite different from classroom based taught learning. There are also further technical skills that are only required in this sector that need to be assessed. This study should provide the reader with an understanding of the requirements of an IS professional working in e-learning and highlight the gaps that currently exist in this sector in Berkshire. It will be of particular benefit to persons working within the industry or closely linked to it. This study can be used as a basis to start an investigation into the requirements of an IS e-learning undergraduate or postgraduate course. 3.7 Research Hypothesis Null Hypothesis is defined as ‘The state opposite to that suggested in a hypothesis, postulated in the hope of rejecting its form and therefore proving the hypothesis.’ Hence the null hypothesis for this research may be stated as H0: â€Å"There is no skills gap among Information system professionals in the e-learning sector.† The following research hypothesis is derived from the literature and will be tested using the primary research conducted by the researcher. H1: â€Å"There exists a skills gap among Information system professional in the e-learning sector† 4. Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction An appropriate research methodology is a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions considering the sources to collect data and the constraints that one might have(access to data, time, location and money, etc.). It should reflect the fact that the researcher has thought carefully about why a particular strategy/method has been employed. Data intended for almost any study can be obtained from two sources: Primary Data and Secondary Data. This chapter describes the process of method selection and justification for the method chosen. The sample selection method is described and the design of the instrument used is included. There is an introduction into how the results were analysed before the results chapter which holds greater detail. Then there is a short description of how the methods chosen could have been improved or expanded on given greater time or financial resources. 4.2 Choice of Methodology A small-scale research study of this kind can use a survey to obtain large amounts of data in a short space of time. This study has produced a statistical analysis of the skills r Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning Skills requirements for information system professionals in the e-learning sector This research project is an investigation into the skills required for Information Systems (IS) professionals working in the commercial e-learning sector. This involved determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals, the actual skills held by current employees in this sector, and identifying any skills gaps that existed. The survey obtained information from a representative selection of the IS professional population. The questionnaire sample included IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and reflected the composition of participating organizations. The table below summarises the objectives of this investigation: Identify the state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry, Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in Berkshire, Investigate what skills gaps exist and Investigate the possible causes of these skills gaps. The main outcome of the study was a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. To combat the skills gaps that emerged and prevent performance problems arising, a number of recommendations need to be adopted to address the problems discovered: (1) Improve training strategies for IS professionals within the sector, majority of organisations have no set training strategy or budget; this is something that needs to change, (2) Create an annual ‘e-learning skills report’ detailing gaps and shortages, allowing education and industry to understand emerging and established skills needs. It would allow changes in demand and type of skill to be monitored. This would allow organisations to structure their internal training strategies, to eliminate skills gaps and (3) Form direct links between industry and education partners to allow course content t o be improved and improve employment prospects for graduates. The most important action is to integrate education with industry. If courses as specialist as-learning could be developed with an industry partner, the correct content would be guaranteed. 1. Introduction Many organisations have come to realise that certain new technologies can optimise efficiency and make processes more effective. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can bring industry closer to their customers, partners and suppliers through more integrated business and communication systems, and can provide enhanced educational opportunities. â€Å"There is a well-established relationship between improvements in Information Systems (IS) skills and increased productivity.† (Dress, 2001) The opportunity to gain competitive advantage through technology has consequently contributed to demand for skilled IS professionals outstripping supply. The label used to describe this effect is a ‘skills shortage’. The Computer Services and Software Association estimate that IS skills shortages will cost the UK over  £30 billion over the next three years(e-skills NTO, 2001). There is a growing recognition that the gap in skills for IS professionals is widening. The gap in skills does not only affect the ICT (primary) sector but all other sectors (secondary)which apply information technologies in their production, processes, products or services. The E-revolution of the information industries has created a new labour force, professional IS roles are becoming diversified and a generic IS curriculum will not meet all the needs for all IS jobs in the future. It seems that in any system that has an â€Å"E† placed in front of it; e-learning, e-business, e-commerce, are the development of new skills. Never before have new skills appeared at such a rate. Even if industrial structure is only changing slowly, employers of ‘IS ‘practitioners rarely found it easy to articulate their current and particularly future skill needs very precisely. â€Å"Nearly one third of the IS skills in the market today have only emerged in the last year. Sixty seven of the one hundred and thirty three internet related skills are totally new.† Chris Bennett, MD SAP Australia (Hawking, 2002) New curricula need to be developed which consist-’of separate distinctive concentrations, which target specific roles in the job market. A new stronger relationship needs to be formed between educational institutions and companies; to allow the required skills to be taught and help alleviate the current IS skills shortages. In the rapidly changing field of IS, educational programs must be continually re-evaluated and revised. â€Å"There is presently a gap between what industry wants characteristically in it IS personnel and what academia provides to them.† Gupta and Watcher( 1998) The first step in the curriculum revision process is to conduct a study to determine the expected skills and knowledge required for IS professionals in industry. This will allow academic institutions to create programs that more accurately reflect the demands of the marketplace. At present, there is no identifiable data about the requirements of IS professionals specific to the e-learning sector. This is the gap in knowledge that needs to be investigated. This dissertation has been commissioned to do precisely that; to investigate the skills required for IS professionals working in thee-learning industry. The results can then be used as a foundation for developing a suitable postgraduate course at the University level. The main outcome of the study will be a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. The research carried out in this project can be used by other universities to clarify the skills required for employment in this sector, allowing course content to be tailored to suit the changing demands of industry, and improve the opportunities for students seeking employment upon graduation. 2. Aims Objectives The research will be cantered on the key area of skills gap analysis. This will involve determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals and the actual skills held by current employees, then determining the differences. This study aims to obtain information from a representative selection of the IS professional population, and from that sample the researcher will then be able to present the findings as being representative of the population as awhile. The characteristics of the total population will be represented justly in the sample to enable the researcher to say with fair confidence that the sample is reasonably representative. The sample will include IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and will reflect the composition of participating organisations. The study will allow users to simultaneously score both their own self-assessment of their ability and their perceptions of the levels of skill actually required by their job. The sample population will include organizations in the e-learning sector with a history of close association with Business Link Berkshire and Wiltshire. Summary of Research Objectives †¢ Identify the current state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry †¢ Identify the most important/prevalent issues from the literature †¢ Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in the Berkshire region †¢ Identify the skill gaps from the perceived and actual skill levels †¢ Discuss the finding and compare against those of relevant previous studies 3. Literature Review The foundation for revision of curriculum process is the review of literature and investigation into the expected industry skills and knowledge for IS professionals. In the introduction chapter an outline of this study was given. This section will focus upon academic literature related to the subject area, which will go onto further support the data already mentioned. As well as academic literature, reports are of particular importance to this dissertation, due to the dynamic nature of the industry, reports are able to offer the very latest up to date information, which may take months to be peer reviewed and published in journals. There are a number of reports, which have been consulted in the preparation of this report that have provided valuable insight into the subject area. In addition the background chapter that follows this contains greater detail into the region and industry trends, separated to avoid over-powering the critical issues highlighted here. 3.1 Background The literature in general Skills Requirements Analysis (SRA) is extensive. Related areas include Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and the broader area of Learning Needs Assessment (LNA). Recent work in the area, such as that by Sine (1998) and earlier, by Kidd (1984) in knowledge acquisition adds to more traditional texts from skills training practitioners including Peterson (1998) and Major (1988). These papers all identify skills training as one of a number of initiatives to solve performance problems in an organisation. Using the performance problems identified, how far the skills identified are present, and how big is the gap between the performance objectives and the performance resulting from actual skills in place. This process is referred to as a skills audit. The skills audit links directly to the research questions in chapter one. A skills assessment or audit has three main objectives: 1. To determine what skills are required by each employee; 2. To determine which of the required skills each employee has; 3. To analyse the results and establish the specific training needs. Authors such as Hamel (1994) openly express the increasing value of employee’s skills, leading to knowledge within an organisation. More recent articles, such as Birch all and Tovstiga (1999) describe how this knowledge manifests itself primarily as organisational competencies and capabilities, leading to that all-important competitive advantage. Onaway to increase a company’s organisational competencies and capabilities in order to gain competitive advantage is through carefully implemented training and development, Schuler (1984).Education and training provision are important strategic practices in the development of organisational competence, but without understanding the precise skills needs first, how can the appropriate training be applied? 3.2 Information System Curriculum There is extensive literature surrounding the area of IS curriculum design. Although this study will not involve any design of curriculum, it is none the less useful to have an understanding of some of the issues that arise in designing IS curriculum; if the findings of this study will be used as a foundation to develop IS curricula. A common theme in the literature is the difficulty in creating curriculum that can fulfil all requirements in an industry that evolves so rapidly. Martinson and Cheung (2001) suggest that recent developments of IS industry jobs and career paths have made understanding the knowledge/skills requirement of an IS professional even more difficult. This is supported by Latham (2000) who explains that the complexity and multi-disciplinarily nature of Information Systems makes identifying a common curriculum both difficult and contentious. Skills requirements will inevitably change over time and it is important to take a strategic view of the needs of industry. There are a number of papers that highlight the differences between industry and academia strategies, and strong suggestions that these need to be merged and greater links formed between the two. Kim, Shim, and Yoon (1999) found that, â€Å"IS organisations perceive managerial and organisational issues as more important than educators†. They also found that educators consider emerging issues more important than industry organisations. Curriculum should be developed working with corporate partners. Similar work of Srinivasan, Duane, and Wright(1999) supports the importance of this idea of improving links between education and industry. In Lightfoot’s (1999) research on IS curriculum design, it was suggested that curriculum needs to be developed to satisfy both the current and future needs of the industry at the sometime. This is impossible without the links mentioned above. 3.3 Information System Skills Although the growing demand for IS professionals is evident, the exact combination of skills required is not. This could be attributed to the scope and divergence of IS roles that are now available. Hedge (now known as Dress) highlighted that â€Å"The fast-moving technological change in 1CT and rapid innovation, mean that it is much more difficult than in the past to determine the type and combination of skills that are needed† (Dee, 1999). While the reported growth of demand for IS workers is very evident, the identification of specific skills required for the variety of positions in Information Systems is not as clear† (Noll and Wilkins 2002).Research by Young and Lee (1997) and Lee, Trough, and Farwell (1995)confirm the increasing importance of these â€Å"soft skills†, which include writing, teamwork, presenting, project management, and interpersonal relationships. E-skills NTO, the industry representative body for IT skills, recently published a comprehensive report detailing the current situation regarding the supply and demand of IT and telecommunication professionals in the United Kingdom. This survey, called e-skills 21(2002) was the most comprehensive study of IT and Telecom Professionalism the UK in history, it included over 4000 interviews with professionals at all levels and across all sectors during 2001. The results of the comprehensive e-skills 21 survey mentioned earlier are characterised into technical and generic skills. More detail into what each compromises of will be given later. Aspects of the e-skills study have been used to develop the research instrument used in this study, to allow the skills gap findings to be directly compared. This E-Skills survey revealed a consensus among the companies that there was no major skill gap among the IS workers. However the one’s that did mention about a gap, pointed out the skills gap related to operating system, application usage and networking skills. It was common opinion among most of the respondents that technology was evolving at a much faster rate than they could grasp. These issues will be looked at during the study. Several studies indicate that verbal skills, work in cross-functional groups and written communications skills were the three most highly rated qualities to seek in staff Gupta and Watcher (1998) This view is supported in a recent report (lackey et al., 2000) quotes one respondent who said that: ‘There is a real lack of people who can combine ICT and business acumen.’ The biggest challenge for technical CT staff is in understanding the dynamics of business; including sales and marketing processes, supply chain processes, and internal processes. They also need to continue to develop and evolve customer facing business systems to enhance and improve the end user experience. CT staff were also identified as a central resource in teaching skills to other areas of the business; consequently communication skills and an understanding of the organisation are essential (E-skills 21, 2001). Another requirements paper by Lewinski (2003) suggests that IS skills can be more effectively developed through on-the-job training. The classification of requirements was not as specific as the other literature mentioned, but similarities can be seen in the results. With regard to technical skills; troubleshooting was required by 97 preceptor respondents, 91 services and facilitation, 82 installation of hardware/software and configuration, and 67 expressed a need for systems operation, monitoring and maintenance. Equal importance was placed upon non-technical skills, including; good communication, analytical/problem solving, flexibility and the ability to learn quickly. The only other study to include both a perceived and actual approach to skills assessment (as this study does) is by Hay (2003). The report by Hay (2003) concludes that there are four skills that are consistently higher than perceived needs of the job; basic computer use, word processing, spread sheet and database use. The areas repeatedly below the required level were presentation and graphics software, and use of a browser. There was also a reported â€Å"clear gap in the market† in the areas of knowledge of operating systems and networking. These skills gaps are readily identifiable by the employees themselves, with over 50% of participants lacking the required skills in at least one area. There are so many papers, with so many different classifications that comparing them directly was extremely difficult in writing this literature review. The common themes that came out were the technical and generic split of skills. There is a need for combination of both sets of skills. The skills gaps appear to be entered on OS and Networking skills on the technical side, and all skills related to the generic side. The only way to breakdown the mixture of skills from various papers to be able to understand and compare in a scientific way is by using an industry standard framework. The chosen framework and a number of other frameworks are described inspection 3.5. 3.4 E-Learning Skills Any employee, in any role, requires some overall, understanding of the business within which they work. Therefore, as this study is of IS professional skills in the e-learning industry each individual employed is required to have some understanding of the basics of teaching, tallow them to function as part of an educational organisation. The skills mentioned in this section will be required, though the depth of pedagogical skills will by dependant on the individual’s role. For example, the pedagogical skills of a training professional should be considerably stronger than that of a programmer. There was surprisingly little literature in the area of IS professionals working in-learning. The most useful research found was by Massy (2000 and2001). Both these studies were critically analysed by the Scottish enterprise research report published on their website. Both the papers suggested that the skills and competencies required by on-line training professionals can be broadly categorised as technical, pedagogical and managerial. Massy (2001) pointed out that there has been a consistent shift from the importance laid on Information Communication Technologies skills requirements with increased efforts now being placed on the acquisition of the above mentioned categories. The SFIA framework appears to cover every aspect of IS skills, the area of education and training was looked at closely being of particular importance to this study, and was found to give enough detail for IS professionals in general. Although more detail was required in the design of the instrument used in this study. â€Å"In line with developments in technology generally, the impact of technology-supported learning (TSL), and in particular e-learning(EL), has given rise to new combinations of skills, featuring how people learn with a sound understanding of the available technology in the design of learning experiences.† (Massy, 2000a cited in SERR, 2005) The first survey by Massy (2000) showed some interesting differences from the follow-up survey (2001). There was a marked change in focus of skills from technical (ICT) to pedagogical skills. The key concern in2000, was that technology had become the central focus for e-learning development, appeared to have been address in the 12 months that passed before the second survey. Greater emphasis was now being placed on the managerial and pedagogical attributes required for producing and presenting e-learning. In the same 12 month period, over 60% of respondents had taken part in some informal training, and a further 30% formal classroom-based learning. The step down in attaining ICT skills was reportedly due to the basic fluency being established and the focus being directed to attaining new skills in e-learning content design. This requires a greater understanding of management and pedagogy. The study by Martin and Jennings (2002) followed the same approach as Massy. In this survey a distinction was made between users and suppliers of e-learning. Unfortunately it is not possible to make that distinction, as more often than not they are the same person. This problem of identifying groups was also expressed in the report, â€Å"Unreality, most user organisations are also providers of e-learning, such as universities.† Suppliers identified an increased interest in gaining in-depth Information Communication skills; others suggesting this were a major problem. Stronger leadership and ‘championing’ of projects is also required. The most important ICT skills identified, with regard to-learning were: To effectively utilise web-page design, including text, audio and video conferencing materials, E-mail, Bulletin boards, Discussion forums for communication with and between learners (SERR,2005). These are relatively common and well-developed skills for IS professionals. Another important issue, which has continued to braised throughout this literature review, is the need for better collaboration between industry (supplier) and academia. To aid this it is also suggested that e-learning needs to be integrated further in to university and college education. 3.5 Information System Frameworks IS management and occupational analysts in different-organisations and countries have tried to distil the structure of the industry, from the constantly evolving picture, so it is understandable that a number of different occupational frameworks have therefore emerged. The most important frameworks to this study are those that have been used for surveys. While there are broad similarities, different surveys, using different frameworks, produce different results, and although they may enrich the overall picture of the industry, they cannot generally be usefully compared. A number of academics have developed their own skills frameworks. Allot these follow the same format of grouping technical and business skills, against various levels of competency. Examples of academic frameworks developed include early research by Ashen Hurst (1972) that identified 37 skills and abilities that a student in a graduate IS program should expect to acquire into six categories: people, models, systems, computers, organizations, and society. Similarly the work of Todd et al. (1995) classified IS knowledge into seven categories: hardware, software, business, management, social, and problem solving, and development methodology. It was also reasoned that interpersonal and managerial skills are more important than any technical skills for IS managers. Nelson (1991) classified 30 skills into six groups: organizational knowledge, organizational skills, organizational unit, general IS knowledge, technical skills, and IS product. This paper found that IS personnel were deficient in general IS knowledge followed by organizational knowledge, technical skills, organizational skills, IS product, and organizational units (in that order). Lee and Gosling (1999) classified three key abilities of IS professionals: ability to learn new technologies, ability to focus on technology as a means (not an end), and ability to understand technological trends into technology management knowledge and other technology-related knowledge into technical specialized knowledge. There port classified non-technology-related knowledge into business functional knowledge, interpersonal and management skills, letting interpersonal and management skills contain some personal traits. Also included was the ability to teach others interpersonal and management skills. It was found that non-technological knowledge is now more important than technical skills. A skills framework gives organisations: A clear, well-structured view of their staffs skills; A tool for more accurate planning and management of resources; A tool for accurate development of careers, so improving retention; A better way of targeting training; A method of risk assessment for the loss of key skills; A tool for accurate and efficient recruitment (Taken From Skills Framework ). In the UK, in June 2001 e-skills NTO published a Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). It provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems making use of Information Communications Technologies. It appeared to be a simple and coherent two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other (SFIA ). Previously there was no industry benchmark for organisation to measure the skill levels of their organisation. The methodology for this study will be developed to allow the results to be mapped directly onto the framework. Therefore, the findings can be compared to those of previous research carried out by-skills NTO. 3.6 Summary The literature presented has highlighted some important issues, provided grounding for this study and has helped eliminate some of the preconceptions of what was expected. The purpose of identifying skills gaps is to allow the appropriate training to be adopted, therefore eliminating the performance problems that exist. The career paths of the IS industry are no longer straight forward and the complexity and diversity of the sector makes understanding it in a scientific way very difficult. The literature suggests that as the industry is so dynamic, relationships must be improved between education and industry. The problems that exist relate to academic and training practitioners not providing the correct skills in their graduates. Research focused academia tends to provide graduates with the latest emerging technologies, these skills quickly become out-of-date, while the more fundamental technologies appear to be neglected. This is expressed in the views of many industry speakers, it is assumed that an IS professional will be capable of learning new programming languages, once the method of logical thinking has been established. It is more important to develop the established fundamental technologies, and allow the professional to develop the niche skills required as they move into a specialist area, for example e-learning. The technical skills gaps that exist are focused around Microsoft Programs; including Windows/NT, MS Application skills (especially MS Access), and Networking technologies. The generic skills gaps that exist include both written and oral communication, user IT skills, industry awareness, and problem solving. The combinations of these two types of skills gaps are from literature that investigated the whole IS industry. It will be interesting to see how they compare with thee-learning sector, which you would presume at this stage to have stronger focus on generic skills. The literature that was focused one-learning highlighted all forms of communication (e.g. oral, written, and electronic) as the most important generic skills. The most important technical skills required included web related technologies and presentation or audio visual skills. The final area to look into was to see if the focus change from technical to pedagogical was visible in this study. This could not be done in the same way as the literature by repeating the study again after a 12 month period. As different approach the structure of the instrument could be written in way to allow comparisons to be made between importance levels of the three categories of skill. The main reasons cited for skills gaps in the ICT sector are a lack of skills/experience of new technologies and organisations failing to train/develop staff sufficiently to meet their needs. This in turn causes difficulty in introducing technological change. The other effects highlighted include delays in the development of new products/services and difficulties meeting business objectives. Much of the literature suggests the most obvious actions to address the problem of skills gaps would be to provide further training and increase recruitment of direct staff. These can be included in the changing of working practices. The chapter on research methods will explain exactly what instruments are used and the approach taken. The literature was used extensively to create the instruments and followed previous research to allow comparisons of the results to be made. They follow the form set out in this review; combining technical, generic and pedagogical skills. Instruments used in the literature were modified and extended for the purposes of this study. The results chapter also uses some of the literature as a source of ideas for the descriptions and highlighting the most significant findings. This is to allow direct comparison with previous studies. The main gap identified in the literature is with regard to quantifying the pedagogical skills mentioned. In Masons work the skills are mentioned but not in enough detail. In the e-learning industry the pedagogical skills will not match that of a â€Å"normal† teacher or lecturer, as there is not only a significant difference between the methods of teaching and learning, but also in content provision. The student in an e-learning environment is a researcher, which is quite different from classroom based taught learning. There are also further technical skills that are only required in this sector that need to be assessed. This study should provide the reader with an understanding of the requirements of an IS professional working in e-learning and highlight the gaps that currently exist in this sector in Berkshire. It will be of particular benefit to persons working within the industry or closely linked to it. This study can be used as a basis to start an investigation into the requirements of an IS e-learning undergraduate or postgraduate course. 3.7 Research Hypothesis Null Hypothesis is defined as ‘The state opposite to that suggested in a hypothesis, postulated in the hope of rejecting its form and therefore proving the hypothesis.’ Hence the null hypothesis for this research may be stated as H0: â€Å"There is no skills gap among Information system professionals in the e-learning sector.† The following research hypothesis is derived from the literature and will be tested using the primary research conducted by the researcher. H1: â€Å"There exists a skills gap among Information system professional in the e-learning sector† 4. Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction An appropriate research methodology is a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions considering the sources to collect data and the constraints that one might have(access to data, time, location and money, etc.). It should reflect the fact that the researcher has thought carefully about why a particular strategy/method has been employed. Data intended for almost any study can be obtained from two sources: Primary Data and Secondary Data. This chapter describes the process of method selection and justification for the method chosen. The sample selection method is described and the design of the instrument used is included. There is an introduction into how the results were analysed before the results chapter which holds greater detail. Then there is a short description of how the methods chosen could have been improved or expanded on given greater time or financial resources. 4.2 Choice of Methodology A small-scale research study of this kind can use a survey to obtain large amounts of data in a short space of time. This study has produced a statistical analysis of the skills r