Critical review of Collier and Fearons articles Essay

Critical review of Collier and Fearons articles - Essay Example Fearon and Laitin had taken data for the period of 1945 to 1999 from 161 countries which had minimum half a million population. On the other hand, Collier and Hoeffler have focused on the data from 1960 to 1999 of 98 countries and have used econometric model to predict civil war. The paper would critically review the articles for the operational definitions and measurements of key theoretical concepts for their validity and reliability. The article broadly tries to examine the various factors that may lead to civil unrest and insurgency in countries across the across. The authors have used the data on 161 countries for the period 1945 to 1999, made available from Singer and Small, 1994 and updated to include Kargil and Eritrean wars. They have consciously scrutinized and refuted the three popular beliefs which could have caused civil wars. They are: prevalence of civil war in 1990s was due to cold war and changing pattern of societies across the world after WWII; ethnic and religious diversity facilitate make countries vulnerable to internal conflicts and civil wars; and ethnic and political grievances are strong contenders for propelling civil wars. The authors have concluded that the major cause that may lead to civil war and insurgency is the socio-economic conditions of the regions where poverty is rampant. The article has extensively looked at various factors of unrest like civil war, insurgency and ethnicity. Civil war is broadly defined as public revolt against the state policies that tries to overpower the state machineries of administration to gain leverage. Ethnicity describes the demographic segmentation of the population based on culture, race and color. Insurgency is the most violent form of internal conflict where armed groups, using guerrilla techniques attack civilians and government machineries for their vested interests. Thus, insurgency primarily is associated with killing and threats to damage of public private property in order to

Personal development as a strategic manager Dissertation

Personal development as a strategic manager - Dissertation Example Most of these refugees come from Eastern Europe thus the school is characterised with children joining at different times of the year. Because of this attribute the school has a higher number of pupils in the school who require specialist help. My role within the organisation is at a senior level as ‘Reading Consultant, the main duties include, teaching, delivering specialist reading intervention programmes and supporting teaching assistants delivering targeted support to children who are underachieving . My key area of management in this institution is the responsibility to develop Reading throughout the school. My work also involves working closely with parents and the community as well as developing partnerships with local schools. Taking into account the nature, scope and the underlying problems in this primary school it is evident that there is need to adopt specialised skills in order to execute the underlying task and responsibility in this organisation. 1.1. Organizatio n Strategic Direction STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES OF THE ORGANISATION The goals and objectives of this institution are :- To provide exceptional and inspirational teaching across a broad and intellectually stimulating curriculum. To offer excellent pastoral care in a school that is safe, healthy, secure and environmentally aware. To raise the profile of the school as a centre of academic excellence. To offer all children the opportunity to explore and develop their talents through the provision of extra curricular programme. To optimise the use of the school’s resources including staff, ICT, infrastructure, land and buildings for the benefit of current and future pupils To enhance the school’s facilities for sport, music and the performing arts. To strengthen partnerships with the newly established children’s centre. According to Mintzberg on his research on the roles of strategic manager on the perspective of organisation strategic direction, the categories of strateg ic management roles that he provides includes interpersonal, decisional and informational. It is important for managers to possess the relevant skills and experience to perform the underlying roles. Interpersonal roles mainly involve relationship of managers and the stakeholders within and outside the organization. These roles include being the organisational figurehead in which the acts as a symbolic head with unique status and authority and this involves myself speaking to the community on issues mainly education, and learning matters. Secondly concerns leadership where the subordinates are lead and this may involve indirect interpersonal role which include supporting teaching assistants and overseeing the adherence to the time table. Under this there is liaison where the manager effectively manages the information centre where network skills are enhanced, activities involved are collaborating with the local schools to enhance sharing of resources, expertise and skills. Decisional roles include managers acting as entrepreneur in which they initiate changes that aims at improving the organisational projects at various levels. Disturbances handler is another role where the manager is expected to deal with staff and any form of activity to stabilize the organisation, this include harmonising the learning process among children from various ethnic groups. Strategic managers also make decisions regarding the resource allocation making