Organizational Management
**Organizational change and stress management**
***The school you are currently attending is currently undergoing some sort of change to adopt more closely with its environment. Discuss the external forces that are driving the change. What internal drivers for change also exist?***
I will relate this in real life changes called ‘New Normal’ regarding the set up al school. Before this pandemic and lockdown, we were comfortable in doing face to face classes until the virus started. So, the national solution for this is to stop face to face classes until there is an effective vaccine. External forces that drive change are forces that cannot be controlled by the organization and the virus and pandemic is the best example this time. Nobody can control the spread of virus except God so I think I can categorize it as Health and Disaster force? A global pandemic is not something we expected but it still happened, and it caused the changes we are experiencing right now. I can also include the Governmental force in this situation because the government implemented the nationwide lockdown and quarantine as the solution for increasing the number of positive COVID patients. In terms of internal force that drove this change, maybe the structural and social forces can be considered because the fact that face to face classes requires a lot of money to be able to successfully implement and be ready for actual execution is not possible if budget and workforce.
***2. Any form of resistance is a symptom, not a problem, in the change process. What are some of the real problems that may underlie resistance?***
It is true that not everyone likes to change so it is natural that others would refrain or oppose the implementation of change. Like the model of Lewin, change needs to start by unfreezing or by realizing that change needs to happen for the better and in the process of unfreezing, there will be some who will not be able to look into the positive side of making changes based on their calculations and personal sentiment. We can never really just boss around and scare the employees to agree with everything, thus, resistance is not a problem easily overcome by an organization with diverse people. Resistance to change have sources and it is particularly related to personal beliefs and values that is developed through the course of life and not easily modified. Change is inevitable and the process of change is a natural happening in an organization that develops and grows. As there are resistance in change process, the problem underlies on the different reactions during its process. Some would agree and others might not which can lead to divided system and can ruin the teamwork and cooperation for a more successful implementation. The resistance can spread uncertainty to others and can cause fear of the outcome not going with the expectations.
***3. Change is often not a welcomed reality and we often say that individuals, like organizations, do not like change. For example, who wants to change from a recently that individuals (perhaps like organizations) are embracing change. Please give several concrete examples of this phenomenon and suggest reasons as to why his might be the case.***
Resistance is a natural reaction to the process of change. I will once again relate this to the situation we are experiencing during this pandemic. Other businesses closed up because of sudden drop of profit and it is impractical to continue the business without enough fund from the customers. I think the change that happened to some is to minimize the workforce to balance out the limited revenue from the expenses and others would get laid off for the solution. Naturally, the employees or workforce would oppose to this change because who would want to lose their job especially in this time where inflation is high. The resistance is based on who would be chosen to lose their job and they will naturally not be happy with the decision and those who would stay would also be affected by it because of their relationship with their co-workers. The source of resistance started from the very plan to downsize the workforce and it may mean unfair treatment and manipulation. This is the reality for many employees during the pandemic and it is one of the changes that is not really positive and will not benefit everyone in an organization.
V. ASSESSMENT
Answer the following
***Describe forces that act as stimulants to change.***
In my opinion, change is inevitable. Change is constantly happening in all aspects of life and with all the things happening right now, the long days of quarantine, we are experiencing the new normal. The forces that act as stimulants to change includes technology social changes politics and social factors. These forces contribute the changes. Even our desires and the expectations we have stimulates our choice to make a change. I think technology is a powerful stimulant that drives change because there's many technological inventions and innovations that are in the possession of almost everyone. Social media are powerful force that drives people specially the younger ones to change themselves and conform to society. Social changes are driven by social factors. The people we meet, the culture, and experiences can lead to changes. Politics are also relevant these days because youths are starting to engage in political issues that matter. Political views can affect our behavior and decisions in life which may lead to shift in point of views. Lastly, the environment that we live in contribute to transformation and transition of some aspects of our life.
***Describe the sources of resistance to change.***
Individual sources of resistance towards a change exist in the basic human tenets or characteristics and are influenced by the differences in perception, personal background, needs or personality-related differences. It is important to understand those triggering factors or issues which refrain individuals from endorsing change or extending their support and cooperation towards any change initiatives at an organizational level.
We are all capable to resisting change based on our human nature and characteristic. This resistance is coming from our diverse perception, personal background, and personality. The thing that refrains us from cooperating or agreeing to the society is mostly personal reasons. We are all different individuals that have our own ways or habits that define our lifestyle. our habits influence the change and decisions that we want to do God gave us free choice to be able to do that and we can choose to agree and disagree based on the principles and values we have. Another reason for resistance to change is our fear of accepting the change that might happen, some prefer to have things the way it is normally done. Also, another source is our fear that in the process of change the result might not be the expected outcome. We might regret our decisions so might as well resist the change and Lastly, the fear of uncertainty is a powerful reason to not go out of the comfort zone and make a change. This fear of unknown future can lead us to fear the change and stay stagnant in a way.
***Summarize Lewin's three-step change model.***
Kurt Lewin's change model consist of three steps. These steps is all about understanding the process of change and it starts with the first step unfreezing. Unfreezing just like in frozen the movie is thawing or defrosting something frozen. This step means creating an awareness or acceptance that an organization may be hindering opportunities because of its structure or how things work in an organization. Basically, unfreezing is resisting to naturally accept whatever the organization is throwing at you. As an individual we have the ability to determine what benefits us and what does not so unfreezing is processing and examining whether an organization creates a healthy ambiance that helps us grow or if it corrupts us in some way. Change must happen once we realize the need for change for our own good.
Once we have an idea the change needs to happen and we already unfreeze ourselves then we can start to move and that is called Changing. Based on Kurt Lewin, change is a process of transitioning from one state to another and he called it movie which indicates implementation of change. during the step, we start to learn new ways of thinking and behaving that is critical to implement and be familiar with the change. this step is crucial because we are applying the changes in our life which will soon bring different outcomes which may not be what we expected.
The final stage in this change model is the refreezing step which symbolizes reinforcing, stabilizing, solidifying the new state after change. Basically this is the step when changes are made to the organization and people are accepting new norms and goals offered alongside the change that happened. This last step is important to make sure that we do not go back to our old ways This is an effort made to guarantee the change is not lost rather it is being solidly implemented and it will stay that way for the long run. The new state will bring new behavior, structure, process, and rewards that will benefit the people who applies the change.
***Explain the relationship between Lewin's change model and Kotter’s plan for implementing change.***
As I have summarized in the previous question, Lewin’s model is simple and has only 3 steps, on the other hand, Kotter’s model is more in depth, which works to its advantage in that it provides clear steps that can give guidance for the change process. It has 8 steps change model that we can conclude just by that that it has more detailed steps. However, it’s rigidity of method means that steps cannot be skipped, and furthermore the process can take quite some time to accomplish. Unlike Lewin, the steps only take 3 phases which are general and easily understood compared to Kotter’s.
The relationship between the two lies on its process of change. I learned that in Lewin’s model helps to visualise the strength of opposing forces that can influence your idea for change. Change is implemented by those who clearly wants something different and more advantageous. Both models teach the individuals on how to resist stagnant growth for a change that will bring better outcomes in the organization and these models guide us on the steps on how we can overcome that and go for the gold.
***Describe potential sources of, and ways of managing, work stress.***
Based on what I have searched on the Internet, I found out that the leading cause of stress is money. Financial problems really hit different because it makes everyone overthink and have anxiety with the uncertain future and possible problems that may arise, and money makes the world go round. Without money, it is hard to do something at ease because almost every movement requires money. Stress can also be caused by work, school, and family responsibilities which most of us experience. We cannot help but to overthink whatever is on our plate and whether we are doing well or not. Health problems can also be the reason. During this pandemic, this concern with health is prevalent and everyone feels the anxiety to feel well especially that being hospitalized is once again requires money.
The ways to manage stress is easier said than done. It is hard to be unproblematic about it because the reality slaps us that we can’t protect ourselves from stress because it is natural to feel stressed from time to time. In my own way of shielding myself from stress, what I do is either run away from it or face it head on and get it over with. Some triggers our stress for me is self-implicated. For example, overthinking small things bring stress to me when I could’ve avoided overthinking which is hard for me. I tend to eat up the stress and let it bother me until I realized I can control it by not focusing on the problem and focus on ‘unproblematic’ things that make me happy instead. In short, thinking happy thoughts can help relieve stress. If I hope during hard times, pray and be faithful to God, it is possible to work out stress and turn it as a testimony of my faith.
***Explain the values underlying most organizational development (OD) efforts.***
An organization needs to be stepping up to keep up with the changes and innovations happening which means that an organization’s development efforts are necessary for a successful one. Development is defined as continuous process and it accommodates many changes that occur in science and technology, economic, market, political environment, education, knowledge, values, attitude and behaviour of people, culture. I mentioned changes in the previous question and that explains why an organization needs to implement the changes which will benefit them instead of resisting. The organizational development efforts would support the organization’s journey to improving and developing their relationship, structure, and the members. An effective organizational development (OD) effort would mean that an organisation can respond to changes so that it can face the challenges ahead. A good organization with effective OD efforts can most likely overcome changes in all aspects and can improve the well-being of its members.
Corporate Culture
I found out that corporate culture is all about the way and behaviour a company and its employees and management communicate and interact without having the work stuff in the topic. Simply, it is how employees talk, mingle, and relate to one another as personal acquaintance or through closeness outside work. Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviours between employees that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle not business related. This also defines the way the organization works through time and observations.
As I have mentioned in the past chapters, I worked for 10 days in SM Department Store during Christmas break (one of our opportunities as an SM scholar) so basically, I tried to interact with the regulars and fellow scholars during work, not talking about the work, but talking about life and stuff. So, I discovered that there is ‘seasonal’ workers and ‘regular’ ones so I was sad for those who will leave after few months but also surprised that they still created a bond with one another regardless of their situation. I noticed that SM corporation values healthy work environment and work relationships based on how the set-up in the employees’ lounge where in it feels homey and comfortable to talk freely and do their own thing so I think the corporate culture of SM is nice and very open for friendships and even romantic relationships to take place.
Classify the organization’s culture using the typology model (below). Explain your classification decision; and
Organization’s culture is the behaviour of the members of an organization regarding sharing value and beliefs that can be communicated in different methods. There are no rules in determining how an organization behave because we are all unique and different from one another so this organizational culture, based on the model, is showcasing the uniqueness of different industries and at the same time, their classifications and similarities through putting them in quadrants as basis of what they value most, their methods in shaping their work relationships and behave based on how the organization works.
As we all know, SM Corporation, specifically chain of malls in the Philippines and many other industries under it. SM depends on satisfying their valued customers to have an effective and solid financial performance; thus, it is an organization that caters satisfaction with their service. Based on my opinion, it falls under both quadrant ii and iii. Quadrant II because it is a huge business and it if can’t afford risk taking, then, it will not be as powerful as it is now. SM already set the standard high for their competitors and their industry as a whole that they always have to be one step ahead of others to set the trend and the bar for others. It is also under Quadrant III because every sales matter to them. The members must always get things done the way they do it and execute the task properly to avoid making mistakes that would cause downfall for their reputation. Businesses are result oriented knowing that their main goal is always to make profit and that means they have to be in their best state to achieve success.
***Describe the seven key characteristics that capture the essence of the organization's culture.***
Innovation (Risk Orientation)- Companies with cultures that place a high value on innovation encourage their employees to take risks and innovate in the performance of their jobs.
Attention to Detail (Precision Orientation)- This characteristic of organizational culture dictates the degree to which employees are expected to be accurate in their work.
3. Emphasis on Outcome (Achievement Orientation)- Companies that focus on results, but not on how the results are achieved, place a high emphasis on this value of organizational culture.
Emphasis on People (Fairness Orientation)- Companies that place a high value on this characteristic of organizational culture place a great deal of importance on how their decisions will affect the people in their organizations.
Teamwork (Collaboration Orientation)- Companies that organize work activities around teams instead of individuals place a high value on this characteristic of the organizational culture.
Aggressiveness (Competitive Orientation)- This characteristic of organizational culture dictates whether group members are expected to be assertive or easy going when dealing with companies they compete within the marketplace.
7. Stability (Rule Orientation)- A company whose culture places a high value on stability is rule-oriented, predictable, and bureaucratic in nature. These types of companies typically provide consistent and predictable levels of output and operate best in non-changing market conditions.
***Contrast organizational culture and job satisfaction.***
Based on the definition of Organizational culture earlier, it means behaviour and ways adopted by employees of a certain organization, which affect its work relationship and total culture during work and their work connections. It can be broad and can greatly affect Job satisfaction. Job satisfaction lies on the organizational culture. This is one great factor to determine the employees’ opinion and feelings regarding their working environment, relations among colleagues, earnings, and promotion opportunities. If one organizational culture brings positive perception and outcomes, then the workforce would ultimately feel satisfied and it will also contribute to better performance of the people.
***List the factors that maintain an organization's culture.***
There are many factors that can contribute to helping the culture of an organization stay active. In my opinion, the most effective is by daily application and for it to be obvious so the new employees or member would easily learn it from it. Also, the sex of the employee also affects the organization culture. Organizations where male employees dominate the female counterparts follow a culture where late sitting is a normal feature. The male employees are more aggressive than the females who instead would be caring and soft hearted.
The nature of the business also affects the culture of the organization. Stock broking industries, financial services, banking industry are all dependent on external factors like demand and supply, market cap, earning per share and so on. When the market crashes, these industries have no other option than to terminate the employees and eventually affect the culture of the place. Market fluctuations lead to unrest, tensions and severely demotivate the individuals. The management also feels helpless when circumstances can be controlled by none. Individuals are unsure about their career as well as growth in such organizations.
The culture of the organization is also affected by its goals and objectives. The strategies and procedures designed to achieve the targets of the organization also contribute to its culture. Individuals working with government organizations adhere to the set guidelines but do not follow a procedure of feedback thus forming its culture. Fast paced industries like advertising, event management companies expect the employees to be attentive, aggressive and hyper-active.
**3 stages /steps the socialization process in the organization;**
1. **The Pre-Arrival Stage**- We all know that before someone applies for a job, he or she needs to have knowledge about the core values of the company prior arriving. The first part is a selection process, which is used by the hiring company to hire people who can adequately perform the job but also to select people who will fit well into the culture of the company. In job seeking, candidates must be able to understand the basic values and vision the company adheres to be suited for the position as early as possible. The employee will learn about the organization through literature, interviews and other people in the pre-arrival stage. The company is expecting the potential employees to have basic facts about the organization to determine if they are really passionate to get the job and if they are selected, they are readily up for the position.
2. **The Encounter Stage**- The second phase is the Encounter stage wherein employees are starting to encounter the real deal when it comes to their work and start to pinpoint the difference between their expectations and the reality they face. The chosen candidates have already proved to be chosen and the next process is the actual experience of the corporate culture and gaining experiences and work relationships. After the research is the actual socialization process of working with new people and getting along with the rules.
3. **Metamorphosis**- This is the last stage of socialization. Just like the title, it is the process of changing one’s perception, behaviour, and commitment on their work. After being oriented and put to the test, employees would soon develop deeper understanding to how things flow and at the same time, they can develop shift of opinion, standard and approach to certain issues based on the corporate culture discovered in the process. Metamorphosis is the impact of all the socializations experienced first hand by an employee that affects how he or she acts in the workplace.
***How can culture be transmitted to employees? Provide examples for each.***
How Employees Learn Culture Employees learn the organizational culture through a number of avenues.
o Stories- These are narrative of significant events or people including such things as the organization’s founders, rules breaking, reactions to past mistakes, and so forth. Basically, in an organization, myths and gossips are relevant and information are passed to through stories of employees and this is one way to transmit culture. Once cultural values are reinforced through narratives to new employees, they would attain the cultural values and be able to apply it in their standard work.
o Rituals- Corporate rituals are repetitive sequences of activates that express and reinforce the values of the organization, what goals are most important, and which people are important and which ones are superfluous. So rituals are doing things the way they always do it, thus, planting corporate values to new employees by enacting repeated scenarios in the workplace. It is first hand experiencing the daily, routine activities in an organization.
o Material symbols- Symbols communicate organizational culture by unspoken messages. Not everything needs to be communicated by voicing it out. Corporate cultures can also develop symbols that signal the members without speaking it up. The power of material symbols lies on the orientation of new employees about the values of an organization, how they view equality, chain of command and their management through feelings and unspoken expressions.
o Language- Lastly, organizations and units within organizations use language as a way to identify members of a culture. By learning this language, members attest to their acceptance of the culture and their willingness to help to preserve it. Language is all about identifying and segregating members from another by certain characteristics.
***Explain how an ethical culture can be established***
Culture is created by the members of the organization and through the passage of time. Ethical culture can be established by demonstrating what an organization values the most. The principles that matter and the behaviours that are needed to have an effective management. Ethical culture is implemented and understood by communication in all ways and directions and through role models such as managers to orient new members in how things work and done in an organization. Ethical culture are developed as the management wants the success of the entity, they also need to develop the people who works in it by helping them mature and grow in their relationship with their colleagues and their work performance. Management wants their expectations into reality, thus they establish strong ethical culture for strict standard of ethical acts.
***8. What is a positive organizational culture and what key variables are used in creating it?***
A positive organizational culture is defined as an key determinant to determine whether an organizational culture is successful in building employee strengths so that employees can develop and grow during their time at an organization. It is related to ethical organizational culture because the better the ethical culture, it is more likely that the employees would have positive impact in their job satisfaction and performance. A positive organizational culture also equates to a potential and effective working force which adds to the purpose of positive and healthy work relationships and comfortable environment where workers can do better.
Just like the recipe for creating functional organizational culture, positive organizational culture also depends on the management’s application of establishing transmission of culture and also selecting the best candidates for the job, engaging with the members, hearing their opinions and giving them proper rewards for doing good at work.
***What is the relationship between national culture and a global organization’s organizational culture?***
The relationship between the two are that the composition of the organizational culture certainly reflects the national values. Both are interrelated and we all know that a nation is formed in a smaller scale compared to worldwide or global scale organizations thus, national culture can be more independent on the global because it is a composition of global culture. The language, symbols, behaviours, myths constitute the visible forms of manifestation of institutional culture, bearing the marks taken from the values of national culture. National culture influences global culture.
Policies and Human Resource
There is a process for socialization in an organization and it all starts from learning the basics of an organization as a candidate of getting a position there. I can say that I can relate the initial selection process with the first phase of it.
Initial selection process is the process of deciding and selecting over the candidates for the most suitable person on the job. The selection process is looking over the participants’ basic qualifications and background checks before finding the most potential candidate among the participants. So, this process starts applicants passing or submitting their resumes and or application forms that contains basic info about them and the recommendation letter that would increase their chance to pass the first phase. After that, the Human Resource department would look closely to the background checking of each participants to narrow down the selection process. As much as possible, those with credible recommendations are given far greater chance than those that lack connection which is why the initial selection process also looks after who recommended the position for them or where they got the information about the job opening because it says a lot of who referred to them.
The next thing of the process is looking over the application forms of each participants and narrowing down the good predictor of their performance through past records, their trainings, most importantly, their degree that is needed for a certain task needed. We all know people who graduated and got a degree would most likely get a better position unlike those who did not. Lastly, HR would look over the letters of recommendation, some would give it biased opinion while others prefer to ignore it, depends on the HR. It has also become a standard to find out criminal records and offense of the participants with regards to their behaviour and I think this step is really important to filter out those who do not qualify in terms of possible problems with their characteristic which might destroy the organization’s reputation.
***2. Why is training necessary? Defend your answer.***
Based on the definition of training, it is the process of teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Just based on this, I can say that trainings are important in shaping the workforce towards better skills and unleashing their potential through teaching them with the things that they might not know about yet. I think trainings are key procedure to bringing the employees into unison with their synergy in the work environment because it is better if everyone participates actively with the task. Although trainings might cost the organization with professional fees and the venues and also time, it can also be rewarding to continue developing the skills of the assets of the company. It is never too late to learn something new and what more if it increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the backbone of the organization. In my opinion, there are more to trainings that listening all day once the people participating takes away valuable lessons and experiences from it.
***3. Give an example of a (1) formal and (2) informal training.***
I learned that formal training differs from informal training in a way that it has a structured set up and there is a planned place for it to take place and a hired professional or speaker or trainer to lead the event. Best example for this is the OJT or on the job training. this formal training starts by new employees being trained during either for college requirements or for trainings for the job they got. On the job training is formal because it is strictly followed by the employee to be credible for the position. On the other hand, informal training is a training set up without proper trainer or teacher to demo or show how things are done. Basically, informal training is between employees helping each other out. In a workplace, employees share sentiments and of course, knowledge about the job to help others out who lack knowledge so they can acquire something from their fellow colleagues without planning the place and time for it. It is spontaneous and casual.
***4. Among the methods of Performance Evaluation, what do you think is the most***
Among the methods of performance evaluation, I think the most effective is the critical incidents because it is a way for employees to be evaluate performances based on their efficiency and efficiency of doing their tasks so I think if the employers correctly perform critical incident evaluation, the employees can learn something and can correct their mistakes instead of shaming them for not doing the right thing to do. In my opinion an employee can inevitably make mistakes because no one is perfect so I think it is better if employers correct their employees by explaining to them what they did wrong or how they can do better with their job. Comparing the employees may not be the solution for ineffective workers because it can also affect their confidence or self-which can lead to a more ineffective performance. Is this a way of appreciating the people who work for you in a respectful manner.
***1. Describe forces that act as stimulants to change.***
In my opinion, change is inevitable. Change is constantly happening in all aspects of life and with all the things happening right now, the long days of quarantine, we are experiencing the new normal. The forces that act as stimulants to change includes technology social changes politics and social factors. These forces contribute the changes. Even our desires and the expectations we have stimulates our choice to make a change. I think technology is a powerful stimulant that drives change because there's many technological inventions and innovations that are in the possession of almost everyone. Social media are powerful force that drives people specially the younger ones to change themselves and conform to society. Social changes are driven by social factors. The people we meet, the culture, and experiences can lead to changes. Politics are also relevant these days because youths are starting to engage in political issues that matter. Political views can affect our behavior and decisions in life which may lead to shift in point of views. Lastly, the environment that we live in contribute to transformation and transition of some aspects of our life.
***2. Describe the sources of resistance to change.***
Individual sources of resistance towards a change exist in the basic human tenets or characteristics and are influenced by the differences in perception, personal background, needs or personality-related differences. It is important to understand those triggering factors or issues which refrain individuals from endorsing change or extending their support and cooperation towards any change initiatives at an organizational level.
We are all capable to resisting change based on our human nature and characteristic. This resistance is coming from our diverse perception, personal background, and personality. The thing that refrains us from cooperating or agreeing to the society is mostly personal reasons. We are all different individuals that have our own ways or habits that define our lifestyle. our habits influence the change and decisions that we want to do God gave us free choice to be able to do that and we can choose to agree and disagree based on the principles and values we have. Another reason for resistance to change is our fear of accepting the change that might happen, some prefer to have things the way it is normally done. Also, another source is our fear that in the process of change the result might not be the expected outcome. We might regret our decisions so might as well resist the change and Lastly, the fear of uncertainty is a powerful reason to not go out of the comfort zone and make a change. This fear of unknown future can lead us to fear the change and stay stagnant in a way.
***3. Summarize Lewin's three-step change model.***
Kurt Lewin's change model consist of three steps. These steps is all about understanding the process of change and it starts with the first step unfreezing. Unfreezing just like in frozen the movie is thawing or defrosting something frozen. This step means creating an awareness or acceptance that an organization may be hindering opportunities because of its structure or how things work in an organization. Basically, unfreezing is resisting to naturally accept whatever the organization is throwing at you. As an individual we have the ability to determine what benefits us and what does not so unfreezing is processing and examining whether an organization creates a healthy ambiance that helps us grow or if it corrupts us in some way. Change must happen once we realize the need for change for our own good.
Once we have an idea the change needs to happen and we already unfreeze ourselves then we can start to move and that is called Changing. Based on Kurt Lewin, change is a process of transitioning from one state to another and he called it movie which indicates implementation of change. during the step, we start to learn new ways of thinking and behaving that is critical to implement and be familiar with the change. this step is crucial because we are applying the changes in our life which will soon bring different outcomes which may not be what we expected.
The final stage in this change model is the refreezing step which symbolizes reinforcing, stabilizing, solidifying the new state after change. Basically this is the step when changes are made to the organization and people are accepting new norms and goals offered alongside the change that happened. This last step is important to make sure that we do not go back to our old ways This is an effort made to guarantee the change is not lost rather it is being solidly implemented and it will stay that way for the long run. The new state will bring new behavior, structure, process, and rewards that will benefit the people who applies the change.
***4. Explain the relationship between Lewin's change model and Kotter’s plan for implementing change.***
As I have summarized in the previous question, Lewin’s model is simple and has only 3 steps, on the other hand, Kotter’s model is more in depth, which works to its advantage in that it provides clear steps that can give guidance for the change process. It has 8 steps change model that we can conclude just by that that it has more detailed steps. However, it’s rigidity of method means that steps cannot be skipped, and furthermore the process can take quite some time to accomplish. Unlike Lewin, the steps only take 3 phases which are general and easily understood compared to Kotter’s.
The relationship between the two lies on its process of change. I learned that in Lewin’s model helps to visualize the strength of opposing forces that can influence your idea for change. Change is implemented by those who clearly wants something different and more advantageous. Both models teach the individuals on how to resist stagnant growth for a change that will bring better outcomes in the organization and these models guide us on the steps on how we can overcome that and go for the gold.
***5. Describe potential sources of, and ways of managing, work stress.***
Based on what I have searched on the Internet, I found out that the leading cause of stress is money. Financial problems really hit different because it makes everyone overthink and have anxiety with the uncertain future and possible problems that may arise, and money makes the world go round. Without money, it is hard to do something at ease because almost every movement requires money. Stress can also be caused by work, school, and family responsibilities which most of us experience. We cannot help but to overthink whatever is on our plate and whether we are doing well or not. Health problems can also be the reason. During this pandemic, this concern with health is prevalent and everyone feels the anxiety to feel well especially that being hospitalized is once again requires money.
The ways to manage stress is easier said than done. It is hard to be unproblematic about it because the reality slaps us that we can’t protect ourselves from stress because it is natural to feel stressed from time to time. In my own way of shielding myself from stress, what I do is either run away from it or face it head on and get it over with. Some triggers our stress for me is self-implicated. For example, overthinking small things bring stress to me when I could’ve avoided overthinking which is hard for me. I tend to eat up the stress and let it bother me until I realized I can control it by not focusing on the problem and focus on ‘unproblematic’ things that make me happy instead. In short, thinking happy thoughts can help relive stress. If I hope during hard times, pray and be faithful to God, it is possible to work out stress and turn it as a testimony of my faith.
***6. Explain the values underlying most organizational development (OD) efforts.***
An organization needs to be stepping up to keep up with the changes and innovations happening which means that an organization’s development efforts are necessary for a successful one. Development is defined as continuous process and it accommodates many changes that occur in science and technology, economic, market, political environment, education, knowledge, values, attitude and behavior of people, culture. I mentioned changes in the previous question and that explains why an organization needs to implement the changes which will benefit them instead of resisting. The organizational development efforts would support the organization’s journey to improving and developing their relationship, structure, and the members. An effective organizational development (OD) effort would mean that an organization can respond to changes so that it can face the challenges ahead. A good organization with effective OD efforts can most likely overcome changes in all aspects and can improve the well-being of its members.
Power and its bases
***Contrast leadership and power.***
Leadership is all about the ability to direct others towards achieving the goals while power is all about the influence to control the activities of other individuals. Leadership is managing the group and influencing them in the process of completing a task without exerting too much force. Power, on the other hand, is believed to exert some control and it is gained from leadership. Leadership is focusing on goal achievement along with followers. Power is concerned with influence in all directions used to accomplish the goal and often followers are also meaning to accomplish the goal.
Leadership comes from the leader down to the subordinates while power can be found in all direction without the need to be dependent on others. In fact, power lies in everyone and this just fuel someone to lead better, in my opinion.
These two concepts are interrelated. Leadership works downstream; power works from gaining control upward. I think power is needed to be able to lead a team our group because it is important so others would see a leader’s relevance once he or she can influence others without threatening them or something like that.
***Define the five bases of power.***
The five bases of power are:
1. Coercive Power: Complies from fear of the negative results. This one fuels power through our fear of failing. This power lies on our thinking that getting a negative result is not something that we want so we do our best to avoid this through using our capabilities and doing a good job. We avoid getting badmouthed, punished and even demoted so we do our best in the group.
2. Reward Power: Complies due to desire for positive benefits. This power recognizes the power which craves praises, compliments, rewards, and benefits in order to execute something that benefits the organization. We all want to gain something so we try to give our best.
3. Legitimate Power: From the formal authority to control and use organizational resources. This power lies on the power of the authority to control and utilize whatever resources they have. An individual uses the organization’s resources in order to accomplish organizational goals. It is legitimate because it can involve political and social authority over others.
4. Expert Power: Influence wielded as a result of expertise, special skill, or knowledge. It is an innate power that can burn our desire to learn more and be skilful and be an expert over a specific skills and knowledge. We all have unique characteristics for us to stand out and it can also fuel our passion thus, this expert power starts from the inside and our will to be better on our own.
5. Referent Power: Based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits. Referent power fuels our desire to experience self-growth and become better based on the desires and our priorities. It is also dependent on the personal traits we possess.
For me, the most effective base of power is the referent power under personal power. Although the listed bases of powers are equally reasonable, I can put the referent power as the most effective in a way that this power exudes in everyone. We all have unique personal traits that push us to do our best. The best kind of power is the one that radiates from the inside. If we have something that we can showcase and utilize it to prove that we can do something without depending on others. For example, someone with innate characteristics that can be used for his or her chosen character will naturally do a good job. Through our personal powers, we can be able to show what we are good at and let others be aware that nobody is ‘talentless’. Instead, the power lies on the inside and we just have to nurture whatever talent, skill, or personal trait we are good at to widen skills. Just like a vine, our referent power can spread. Our writing and creative skills can spread to our communication skills if we focus on improving it.
***Describe the effective use of influence tactics.***
Power is all about the ability of an individual to influence others with their words and even their lifestyle and decisions. If someone has the power over someone, that means influencing someone else in their behaviour, their choices, their actions and it is probably to affect the outcome of a project. The use of influence tactics is beneficial for an organization so that control is not scattered, and the team would not be over the place when it comes to delegation of tasks and decision-making. In an organization, influence tactics is strategic approach to manage, direct and control the subordinates and present effective leadership skills rather than being ineffective and irrelevant that the subordinates can break the rules and it will be chaotic for a huge organization to have everyone taking control of the situation and the communication would also be compromised. Influence tactics is important to have a clear flow of power and chain of command. It is also timely and organized to have this so organizations would work and think as one.
Are leaders born or made?
The truth is, not everyone can be a leader. In my opinion, even though leadership is a skill, not all of us could acquire it through time and practice and if I am wrong, maybe the leadership skills might not just be equally as powerful as others. According to the definition of mental models, there influence not only leadership reasoning and performance but also organizational outcomes. Mental models are mindset which are based on what we value and believe in life. It carries our perception over things and form it into the principles we live with.
Being a leader, you must be strong mentally. The reason why mental models are valid key drivers of being a leader is because it all starts in the mind. Leadership is about competence and wit to lead and handle people, directing them towards the goal of the group. Mental models can be a powerful key to distinguish those with leadership and those who do not. Mental models of leadership are all about the take on situations based on the assumptions of a person and what needs to be done and what is the best to choose out of the options.
***What is the difference between leadership and management?***
Leaders lead people for a reason, that reason is highly unrelated to money. Being a leader means someone having an amazing communication skill, risk-taker and goal oriented. On the other hand, being a manager most likely relates to monetary benefits that push someone to be a good manager. Managers lead over their subordinates who work under them and follow their given tasks.
I believe the main difference between the two are the who and why they lead. Leaders lead primarily for the success of the whole team while managers lead in order to accomplish the tasks passed down from the upper management. Leadership and management both require strong and firm characteristics like ability to direct, delegate roles and handle their members. Both need to have great use of their influence to lead the group towards the finish line and achieve their goals.
Leadership is all about handling the members in a way that they can work on their own while contributing to the group and their goal is fixed in one thing. The vision is important for the leader to pass on to the team and they can work on towards reaching it. On the other hand, managers are great in assigning tasks and roles that will be in the best interest of the upper management and their roles are commonly influenced by the skills of each subordinates. Managers direct and look after their team members in a routinely basis.
For me, leaders are born. Like what I have said in the earlier questions, being a leader is not for everyone. It takes guts, vision, and communication skills to be qualified and of course, physical, emotional, and mental endurance and ability to judge rationally.
Personally, because of being exposed in school and being chosen as leader for multiples times, I still believe I am not that good someone fit to lead based on my standard of who deserves to be a leader. Being a leader is a blessing and a burden at the same time. It is a blessing because it will influence us to do better through developing our self-awareness, critical thinking, our loyalty, courage, and responsibility on our words and decisions.
Nonetheless, being a leader is virtuous. It means that you will put others before yourself in terms of giving them a hand during their hardships and being able to turn their shortcomings into their strengths. You have to be honest and decisive. A wrong decision can put the whole team into trouble and that equates to the burden of being one step ahead of others. Whether born or made, being a leader means having the skill to inspire or guide others towards believing in their own capabilities, nurturing their confidence and staying humble at the same time.I think communication breakdown occurs on the very moment we start getting too much information and have a hard time absorbing everything all at once. Having members who think differently is more likely to have communication breakdown, the message may be misunderstood because of information overload and after that, the message might be decoded improperly from what the actual message is all about.
If communication breakdown happens, the best way to deal with it is to breathe and take everything slower and little by little to. We have to slow down and wait for the information to get into our heads and process it carefully. As a team, we need to think and decide in unison to come up with a winner solution or decision and avoid any more confrontations. Lastly, we need to be a good listener and be patient with one another
***For you, are leaders born or made?***
Work Teams
Recall the time when you were at school and your teacher told the class to create groupings for a specific project. Each group should also select a leader or set of officers to make the project more efficient. Unfortunately, despite your efforts, your project was a failure…Share your story and answer the following questions: ü What was the project all about?
The project is all about turning tagalog/OPM songs into English in our English subject during junior high school. I was also chosen to be the lead role and of course, my role has to sing but that time I think my voice was not really perfect for the role but I still went with it and just acted out with emotions. It was a cringey yet memorable moment for me and I may personally think of it as some kind of ‘failure’ but our team did well all in all.
My role in the project was the co-leader and the female lead in the play. I also helped in the main activity which is translating tagalog songs into English, keeping in mind that the actual song sounds similar with the translated version.
We were all so excited and competitive because it is also a performance and we all need to do well for our grades. All of us contributed and cooperated well, I don’t remember having problems except when choosing the suitable female lead because there is already a male lead perfect for the role. So, my team brainstormed for what our story line and theme would be about. We really focused on putting a clear story line for the performance so the audience would enjoy.
Did your group met problems or conflict while doing your project?
Like what I have said, the problem only arise when we need to pick the female lead who will sing while also acting. The problem is, no female member in my group including me, have the confidence for the part so we really used quite a lot of time for that part.
How did your group solve it?
Every group has struggles and for my group back then, we overcame our fear and decided to do our best to have no regrets in our performance. And when they chose me, I got really scared but still went with it because I did not want our hard work go to waste and I just thought that as soon as it is over, it will be a valuable experience****.****
Which part did your group fall short that caused the project unsuccessful?
The failure was all in my head. The point is, back then, I just don’t have the talent to sing perfectly and also act at the same time so my memory became ‘cringey’ but at that very moment, I know my team did well than expected and I am so proud to be part of our team.
If you will be in the same scenario, what would you do to make it successful?
I think if I can turn back time, I would just be more confident in what I am doing and enjoy the process rather than overthink and make myself feel that I am not enough for the role. Confidence is something that would cover up with my shortcomings in terms of singing and it will help me enjoy what I am doing better.
Write a short story about your favorite sports and the specific team you cheered on every time they are playing. Describe the role of each member how they are doing their part in the game. Does this team always win and what do you think is their strategyies in winning? When the odds are on their side, how do they resolve it?
I am not really a sport’s fan, so I have no particular team that I support. I think I can choose K-pop group in this and if I can, I would say that the team/group that I stan the most is NCT. They are Korean performers which consists of 23 members. They are pretty big compared to the normal groups because they have 4 sub-units which makes them unique. Every comeback is different from another which also means that they prepare and plan well, members contribute in producing their songs and help in their choreography. Every sub-unit has a leader, but the team’s overall leader is *Taeyong*. There are also main dancers, lead dancers, main vocals, sub vocals and visuals in the team. Each of them plays a big role in bringing the team to their very best condition and I believe that their performances are always on point because of their dedication and passion to perform well for their fans and, I don’t get disappointed in them even if they are imperfect because they make me happy. They are well-rounded and idols like them treasure their fans.
Corporate Single Industry Strategy
As I read about the Corporate Single Industry Strategy, I got reminded of the adage, ‘less is more’ because it shows that in order for a corporation to be successful, focusing on a specific industry is a wise strategy to begin with. Being a risk taker is nice, but I think it can also be too risky to achieve success in return for a company to take so much risk at once. The strategy to focus on one industry is a smart move for a company who wants to reduce their size but operate with full potential. This corporate single industry strategy is all about focusing the income generating activity to a single business activity. The competitive advantage of this strategy is the simplicity yet delicate approach on the limited resources and turning it to something that would result to growth and stability of the company’s performance.
I learned that this is Corporate level strategy can be subdivided into three types based on what you want to do with your business. Earning money is the main purpose of having a business and so is the growth, stability, cost-cutting that comes after it. A company dealing with a single industry may sound as if they are playing safe, I could say that instead of playing safe, they are playing smart. Every business needs to start from the bottom to build their name, thus, their reputation usually comes from one specific item, product or service that business provides and so a single foundation of activity is a key driver to add more value to a business.
For example, a construction business usually deals with building establishments, but they may also venture into manufacturing of cement and other related tools because it will add more revenue generating activities, but it will also add more costs and more resources needed to function properly. Which is why it is wise to start from one specific product or services before any company would broaden up their exposure and budget.
I realized that some invests in horizontal or related industries because it is their specialty and that what makes them stand out in their chosen field. A corporate single industry strategy is also stability strategy because it is reasonable to pursue one industry you are particularly good at. Businesses make name or reputation through what they provide to the market and that means high quality and top of the line products and services that make up for their growth and stability. If company decides to apply the corporate level strategy, they can effectively do well in the long run through their expertise and specialization.
Dealing with a single industry does not equate to providing a nonsense and unimportant goods which means that single industry could have expansion strategy. For example, Pharmaceutical companies may deal with generic or brand medications which gives the public choices to pick that depends on their budget. A single corporation strategy deals with expanding their specific products that would cater more people. Additional products expand the target market which results to improvement.
The last type of corporate level strategy is the Retrenchment strategy. This is all about cutting cost and minimizing expenses by wisely redefining the activities in a single industry in a way they cut-off unnecessary expenses that do not add up to the market value of the business. For example, because they already focus on one generating revenue activity, it is easier to track down which helps the business to become profitable and which activities lead to out-of-pocket costs that do not improve the quality and performance of an entity. This topic opened my mind to the idea that if we start small and focus on one activity, there would be less communication and performance breakdown which also means greater return for the business.
Investment environment
Global trade is an open door of opportunities for countries to mature and develop faster in terms of revenue generating activities that would boost any economy. Ever since countries became aware of the benefit of the international trade, the ideas of import and export, more foreign investments started between different economy to become trading partners. Global trade paved the way for domestic companies to become international, thus, boosting the income generating businesses all over the country. When we say global trade, it involves trading internationally.
Dealing with the foreign market which opens more bridges to showcase any country’s specialty. It is truly an amazing stepping-stone that innovates limited resources into affordable and high-quality products suited for international standard. Almost all countries now involve in global trading as it pushes their boundaries to cater not only their resident citizens but also everyone who are interested in new and beneficial products. Products that transcend culture and chance for foreign people to have an idea on what other country is all about through experiencing the products and services they provide.
Investment environment, on the other hand, deals with international and domestic economies’ development for the increase market value of their assets. Just like the mere idea of investments, it is all about putting one asset into use or even on hold, while benefiting from it as it increases in value over time. Investment environment is the place where investment opportunities are relevant and happening. Buying and selling, or simply trading, takes place for market players to put their assets on the line and multiply it through the investment opportunities available in a domestic or foreign economy.
Both terms are key drivers of economic growth. First, global trade and investment environment deals with generating profit or income. Through buying and selling, or import and export, the products or services made available for everyone creates inflow of profit to the market players. Second, both are easy and open for everyone who have the means to gamble what they can afford to lose and expect return through earnest efforts to multiply what they invested in. thorough global trade, investment environment continues to enlarge and increase in the territories. Different investments with international set-ups affect the economic, financial, and socio-political conditions in a nation that ultimately affects individuals and their purchasing and selling powers.
These terms are all about engaging outside the comfort zone of our boundary and overlooking the potential unrealized gains outside the land we grew up in. Global trade and investment environment tackle where the success of first world countries came from. When we talk about these terms, we mention market players, innovative and complex market structures that adds more depth and ingredient of success and risk to the international traders.
I think that having the right mindset over the importance of global trade and investment environment broadens the chance for a single individual to provide better for their families as the mere knowledge and passion to start and be part of global and international players open more chance of gaining the experience to start our own journey towards global trade. It is not something that can happen overnight but putting our heads where we look at the bigger picture is much better than seeing it impossible for us to do when the right time comes. We all have the potential to experience what may seem impossible right now. We can potentially venture with internal trading by accepting knowledge about global right even at a young age.
My approach against Poor Service
***Excuses for Bad Service: A Reaction Paper***
For the perspective of the sellers, providers and corporations, customer is king. That being said, the way they handle their valued customers can make or break their business because without the paying customers, their financial performance of any business will hit rock bottom without proper support from people. Thus, their loyalty is preserved through quality products and superb services because we pay and we expect to receive something in exchange of our money's worth. I agree that polices are useless if not implemented properly by everyone who needs to follow it. Which is why proper training and orientation are really important in a business because it is the natural way to let every worker be familiar regarding the work ethics they need to follow. In my opinion, bad communication is the root of poor services because there will be no need for excuses if all workers are well educated and informed. It is only up to the managers to communicate properly and deal with their workers rather than bossing them around and acting as if they already have an idea what to do with their tasks. Although it is an inherent risk for business owners if their workers slack around without anyone supervising them properly, but it is more common for workers to do their best at work knowing it is the way to put food on their tables.
These top excuses made me feel sorry, not for the customers, but for the hardworking employees and workers. Although they may have some flaws and shortcomings, these excuses are still valid *for me*. Our standards are not always equal and parallel. Whenever I see some problems on some employees, I tend to overlook it because I believe that we all have problems and struggles we deal with personally and pointing out their problems is not always the solution. If we do it kindly and for the betterment of the employees and the business as a whole, it is a kind gesture to point out what they need to improve on but if we would only hurt their feelings and look down on them, might as well we shut up and focus on improving ourselves. We are all customers in some ways. Customers contribute to the success of any business because they are contributing to the income but for me, customers are not king once they start acting like a selfish person, pulling down the confidence and shaming businesses for not reaching their high standards. Excuses at work is normal because failing on doing something right can happen due to exhaustion and some other reasons. If we got to experience a-not-so good service and expected better, we can talk it out and put ourselves in the shoes of the employees. Although it is a powerful strategy to please customers and follow whatever the customers want, it should be subject to limitation. Everyone makes mistakes. And even if we pay for what we eat and services we get, just make sure you never hurt others in the words we let say that we can never turn back. Customers is not always right, that is my opinion. Although we pay, the employees do not owe us that would put their respect out of the picture.
Nonetheless, I agree that policies and the strict implementation of work ethics and policies need to be a strategy for every company. Constant poor service and low-quality products, not having signs of improvement is just bad for any business. Once the customers realize that there are better places to eat or get better services somewhere, it is very easy to find another, which is why keeping loyal customers is an important point for a strong brand. I think that managers must be compassionate and understand their subordinate by hearing out their opinions as well. Based on what I read and witness, workers and employees work better and their performance is affected by the people they work with and the ambiance. If every person works so hard, everyone will also follow and do their best. Same with their managers, once they are being praised by their managers, they work better. I believe that communication is really the key for better service. A healthy work relationship is vital to keep the business on fire with on point and quality services. Praising one another in doing a good job and understanding why some fail is better than badmouthing and blaming one another.
Peace and Gun
The police motto ‘To serve and protect’ sounds like a joke right now. To serve and protect the public doesn’t seem to happen based on the how many people gets killed every day just to prove the power of the military. 4 days before Christmas, 2 unarmed people got killed because of a petty reason. A mother got killed protecting her son and another daughter watched her father prove to her that he is a criminal after all. He kills people out of anger. He lacks compassion. He pulled the trigger to boast. In broad daylight and people watching, he did not hesitate to shoot them, not just once. He did it in front of his daughter. He did it and walked away after everything. He deprived them the chance spend more Christmas and New Year with their loved ones.
They equate activists as terrorists. They shoot to kill. Red-taggers are killed mercilessly. Lawyers and judges are killed to keep them silent. Extrajudicial killings happened because it was imposed by our very own president. Innocent children got shot because they were in the wrong place and the wrong time? No. They were killed because the police held their gun and pulled the trigger without fear as our leader got their backs, always.
How can we not feel anger towards them? How can we blame the victims just because some died without being filmed and they were accused to have fought back when truth it, guns are held by the police? How many of the EJK cases are similar to the Gregorio case? If one police was fearless killing innocent people in broad daylight, how much more if there are no eyes watching and darkness is enveloping the crime scene?
I don’t feel good about this. I may not be one of their relatives, but the fact that they were my fellow Filipinos and it happened in our country, I think it is valid to get scared and enraged at the same time. Our justice system is ruined for a long, long time but it got more worse today. The children need guidance. Their environment is the greatest factor affecting their behavior as they age. We need to look after them and make them value not just their own but others as well.
I don’t understand how the fun-time of others turned to horror because of one privileged officer ruining everything. I cannot accept the enabler being arrested and getting out of prison after months because he deserves pain. Not just physically. I am sorry but he really deserves to die no matter how unrelated the victims are to me. Before, he got out of his cases and got them dismissed for the evidence is lacking but now, justice needs to be served.
Maybe Philippines is not that safe anymore because of the authority who swear the oath but easily breaks them without blinking. They are the real terrorists. Maybe not all of them, but those who holds the gun and those who watch them pull the trigger.
The enabler and the ones who let them pull the trigger are just demons altogether. They deserve to step down and lose their power. They deserve hell for resorting to gun instead of peace.
May the Gregorio get their justice and peace from God.
International Trade during the pandemic
COVID 19 is a huge blow that happened this 2020. We never really knew it was coming and to be honest, we were unprepared and clueless on how unimaginable it was in terms of bringing a great number of deaths and bringing down our economy for the worse. The article revealed to me how interconnected COVID 19 and how big deal its impact on our international trade. I strongly agree that it is a global scale crisis seeing in the news that everyone was affected, even the first world countries suffered so much. America and Europe, first world countries, blew their number of infected reports and death records, to make it worse, their global economy hit an adverse change from their spending, tourism, employment, and overall financial markets. What more damage it could give to us third world countries?
Personally, during this global pandemic, our family was slightly affected in terms of our purchasing and budget. My father continued working but for some families, some got laid off and lost their source of income which is unfortunate, and this is a reasonable cause why consumer spending was greatly affected. Every day, we try to survive and think practical and use our money wisely. I believe that the dramatic decline in our gross domestic product (GDP) and financial markets rooted since we were all undergoing a new normal, our lifestyle has shifted, and our spending became limited just like our capability to go out and earn money.
This global pandemic revealed a whole new level of health crisis and we individuals were not just affected but even our healthcare systems. The article mentioned that And I couldn’t agree more. Like what happened, we were all hit in a slightly different timeline. China started the great outbreak and we felt it in a delay, but the effect is not even less because as soon as tourists entered our country, the number of cases rose, and deaths continued to climb even how hard our medical system tried to warn us to stay indoors. Staying indoors, I witness some of my neighbours getting pregnant during this quarantine and personally, I am not even shock for the increase of population during these times. Without having a lot to do, many young couples got their time to reproduce.
The equilibrium between supply and demand was also affected with the global virus. Many international and domestic businesses filed bankruptcy as trade tensions became a challenge. I think because the imported goods are possible carriers of the virus, many people were cautious to support imported goods and other countries as well. Not only our purchasing power became limited, inflation and interest rates from international trade became more relevant and it saddens me that domestic companies here in the Philippines also suffer from international trade tension and because the government’s effort to support them is limited.
The National Budget for 2021 was already approved and will be a law soon and there has been an issue in regards to the first reading that they may not increase significantly the budget for healthcare departments even after this virus, clearly neglecting the health of the public, many people criticized this proposed budget and now that it is now approved in the final reading, the P4.5 trillion budget, but due to criticism from the people, the infrastructures’ 1% budget was allocated to the healthcare which is for the best and I am happy to know that.
We can’t avoid this pandemic anymore, but us individuals and the government can still do something to lessen the damage. The actions stated in the article really opened my mind that despite this global crisis, we have to stand stronger in terms of supporting global traders and lessen their burdens from tariffs, supporting our domestic exporters especially those who provide for medical equipment and food supplies. Lastly, as consumers with unlimited needs but limited supplies, the best we can do is to purchase wisely and prevent contributing to the possible second wave of outbreak by being responsible citizens.
Motivating Employees thru Flexible Benefit Program
Motivation ignites our desire to live or do something. It is derived from the word ‘motive’ which means wants, or needs, desires within us. For me, motivation acts like the gas that ignites the fire inside us to stay excited and driven over doing something. This is one of the key drivers of our willingness to satisfy something and influence us in taking actions over our social, emotional and cognitive behaviors. If we want to get hyped up, it requires a reason for it. Something that will influence for us to have goals and the desire to reach the goal over a specific reason in mind. Like all the theories that explain how motivation works, it all boils down to our internal desire in being satisfied and goal-driven and the process of obtaining our wants.
In the workforce, there are many personal reasons why someone works hard. Motivation is personal and we all have reasons why we do things and why we want to excel. Of course, at work, the reason why we do it is for the money. Frankly, money is such an important factor of motivation in the workforce to do well and reach their optimum level because it is a strong driving force as money is important to live. People work to get compensated. That is enough motivation to wake up the next day to do the same routine and task, still, some motivations are more than that. We get driven because of our passion and love in doing what we do. This explains why some workers really do well because they love what they are doing while some do it for the sake of finishing the job. If we are motivated, we initiate in doing things even before our bosses tell us to do it because we want to get over it fast. Others get motivated when they see people become satisfied with their work and skills. Making people happy is such a warm feeling that we all want. However, it is important to note that we can never please everyone and that is okay. For me, the best motivation is self-fulfilment and our desire the honor our God. It may not happen always because we are flawed and self-centred but being reminded that we live to glorify God is important and precious.
Filipinos and all other individuals around the world are highly driven by rewards. The idea of it is stimulating and motivating to begin with. Most organizations have this system where they reward their best employees in exchange of doing a great job or task. In the end, both the organization and the workforce benefit from this kind of motivation.
The concept of total rewards means that employers give their employees proper return and benefits for their hard work and contribution in the company. Most of the time, it is monetary rewards and as I have said in the previous question, money is a strong driving force to push workforce in excelling knowing that they will get the well-deserved reward in the end. As long as, organizations apply this reward, compensation or any system that will improve the employment relationship and work environment, everything is going towards better performance and healthy workforce. Both sides will benefit from total rewards in a way that employers will give back the reward and the employees will return the favor by doing well and becoming loyal. Maintaining this benefits system would mean agreeing to stay on the same page and expecting greater things from both point of views on organization.
Different employees want different rewards. There is a diverse workforce in every company and it is only right to have a more diverse choices in the benefit program of a company. Like the Flexible Benefit Program entails, employees can have the freedom to avail the most suitable benefit of their own choice available on the company’s list of benefits. The analogy here is related to the cafeteria and *turo-turo* pointing style and I believe that makes the organization stronger and tighter in relationship.
Example: Pregnant employees would definitely want maternity leave as their benefit, while, those young ones would prefer travel leave. Some may prefer scholarship and monetary reward in return.
As we all know, we all want different things in life and that also applies in the rewards we want to receive in exchange of our hard work. We get more motivated if we get what we wanted and that is why flexible benefit program is better in a way that employees get custom-made benefits fit for their needs and priorities. The advantage of this is certain people may want health benefits while others prefer travel benefits to unwind. This flexible benefit is a great thing to cater specific needs and priorities of employees and it gives more compassion and attention to the welfare of the workforce who are the backbone of the company.
I can’t really pinpoint enough pitfall from this benefit program but maybe in the point of view of the employer, it may get complicated and overwhelming for them. The list of available benefits may become too much work in the department that deals with it and some may take advantage of this opportunity to use the company without exerting more efforts to benefit them in the end. Still, we can get more advantages from this flexible benefit program because it will not only benefit the workers but also the market value of the company when their financial performance and strength reflect the motivated outlook and goal-driven people working in the company.
In the work environment, balanced give and take is important. Show the people who work under you that they matter and what they want are heard and as an employee, we can expect them to do their best for the company.
Hopeful Thoughts
Hope is our strategy to win in life. Living in this temporary world, no one is really sure of what is gonna happen. Having the gift of time means we have an opportunity to live and being alive is our greatest miracle we have right now. Still, everyday, the sand of time is falling and some of us struggle to make the most out of what we have while, others live just for the sake of living. It is okay to allow ourselves to be wrapped up in sadness but let us not sit on it.
**Everyone feels lonely from time to time** but that doesn’t mean we have to dwell on that pessimism and entertain how unhappy and how terrible we feel. Sometimes, being in-denial is the best way to beat discouragements life throws at us. Leading our lives for the better means we choose the trail of where we can grow and fulfill our purpose while sharing our testimonies so others would feel loved and hope for something even if they find it impossible.
**Being afraid is scary and being scared is a terrible feeling** because it demotivates and frustrates us until all we can do in the end is regret. Challenges and sufferings are constants in life because without all of that, we can never grow and mature. Remember that all of us deal with battles, maybe not in the same magnitude, but we all live in the same harsh and cold world. **There are times when we may feel trapped and frozen from all the hardships we encounter but keep in mind that there are people willing to lend their helping hands to get us out of the misery.** Being hopeful should not be forced. We may not want others to worry about us, asking for help is better and extending kindness to others matters more than what we think.
Hope is something that we cannot buy but it is earned through our confidence on the grace of God. **Winning in life is not gonna happen daily; we have to become a loser to appreciate how winning feels like and that can only happen if we have hope.** Hope that the suffering we are experiencing right now will pass and hope that we can endure whatever sadness and depression we’re feeling through our companions in life. If right now, you feel cold from all the disappointments, turn your head from another angle and remember how much you have succeeded in life. Nourish the feeling when you almost give up but still strive because you have a small ray of hope that turned to be the rainbow that you never knew you had.
It is impossible to hold on something great like happiness when our senses are pierced with the memories of our pain, anguish and defeatness. The only way to live a better life is to choose happiness over grief. It is easier said than done but rebuking hopelessness is the game changer. Keep in mind that hope defeats death because if we remain hopeful, we crave to live better every single day. Hope defeats failures because hoping on something rebukes voluntary choice of giving up on our precious passion and purpose. If we sow confidence, endurance and commitment, we can expect to reap fulfilment and victory.
If others’ patience is short, we lengthen ours. If others’ complain, we show them why they have to be grateful and content. Leading a better life is not satisfying our self-centered desires but blessing others with the life we live in
The war is over as soon as we choose to accept the gift of life that comes from God. There is always light at the end of the tunnel and God is the Light that would lead us to a better tomorrow. He fills us with hope and peace so that we won’t ever feel alone, take our own life and worry for something He can fix and restore. How can we really hope? We surrender our life and we let Him take control and by then, we would never run out of reason to live through His unchanging and unconditional love for us.
FIGHTING!
Evaluating the impact of Import and Export in the Economy
In Economics, **equilibrium** is such a strong key for a strong nation. Because of globalization and international trade, companies from all around the world can now **transfer**, **transform**, and **transcend** without minding the global boundaries.
Import and export are one of the backbones of globalizations because it involves transporting goods, services, ideas, and people from one country to another.
A balanced import and export trades can result to many advantages and improvement to one’s nation while disbalanced import and export will obviously cause problems and negative influence.
The **advantages** of having export trade are that it highlights and gives opportunities for domestic sellers and companies to go international and expand. As we all know, expansion for growth strategy is a powerful way to grow and the first step to become multinationals. It is vital for a company to expand their market for them to increase in sales and profit that can carry their increasing expenses. While importing is the best way to transform one nation by accepting goods and services from other countries and transform into a diverse and multi-cultured nation, perfect for culture adaptation that can enhance our knowledge, skills and upbringing.
Import and export affect the nation through the process and its results ever since the world started barter across islands to exchange and swap goods. Now, the world has becoming more focused on the integration of all sorts of products, ideas and even people to expand and grow each economy by importing and exporting. In order to be a successful economy, one nation must be a risk-taker when it comes to dealing with limited resources and multiplying it by having connections to other nations which have the resources that a nation doesn’t specialize, vice versa. Thus, both trades would influence the ****Gross Domestic Product (GDP******)** of a country and which we are all aware that it stimulates the growth and higher budget appropriation of a nation. Still, equilibrium is important because once there are too many imports than exports, it will cause downtrend in the exchange rates. This will cause deficits and more expenditures than revenue which is bad for the nation.
Also, through international trade, the influence of import and export on the current ****economic movement and trends**** are relevant to develop and discover more principles underlying how goods and services are traded all around the world, lifting up the sellers or the providers and guiding the customers. Products and services being transported from across boundaries involve communication between different races, developing our understanding with other cultures, foods that are only available in certain countries can be eaten everywhere, and skills such as multilingual speaking specially for BPO Industries, tourism and many more.
There are also impacts o import and export in the ****inflation and interest rates**** of one country. Particularly, it still lies from the exchange rates that are affected by trading. If there is no steadiness when it comes to exports and imports, the cost of raw materials and labor is affected because of the high level of inflation resulting to expensive trading, increased interest rates and weaker currency compared to dollars. The exports would slow down and imported goods will becomes expensive. The economy can benefit and also suffer from uneven trades especially the domestic sellers who export and may not even reach breakeven.
My example for one of the amazing contributions of international trade is our food experience. Basically, in the Philippines, we can easily find restaurants, global brands of foods, like our access to Korean restaurants and marts here in the country. By that, we can try the foods we only see online and experience how it tastes like first hand. Also, another example is the transformation of other's skills in terms of cooking dishes like Japanese and Chinese dishes through our exposure to their culture via import and export. Without the process of trade, it is hard to transcend cultures, trends and ideas from different boundaries.
There must be healthy balance of import and export for one country to reach its optimum growth and performance. We can all benefit in the long run, considering that consumers and sellers both benefit in globalization by having better experience and trying different things, hence, sellers could expand their markets and provide higher quality goods and services. One of the greatest effects of this international trade is when nations increase their value whenever domestic companies go global and it favors the economy’s productivity, improving local companies’ value as well. Importers and exporters influence outflow and inflow of goods and services that transcends boundaries, leading one powerful world that embraces differences.
Article that helped me https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100813/interesting-facts-about-imports-and-exports.asp
The Growth Strategy of Successful International Companies
`One thing I gained from reading about how Walmart, Starbucks and International Paper Company’s stories is that it really pays to have an effective growth strategy for a domestic company to become multinational. Success is never gonna happen overnight, thus, slow growth and poor financial performance can happen to all companies that don’t seek innovation and improvement. Just like what happened to the 3 companies, they all experienced stagnant growth and lower sales and profits throughout the years, as many new companies enter different industries and consumers also improve their standard when it comes to products and services. If companies want consumers to choose and be loyal to them, reaching a high standard is a must.`
When it comes to **Wal-Mart**, I found out that their successful growth was because of their management’s strategy to acquire retail chains in other countries when they realized that their stores in America will not survive alone. They positively did such a bold and risky move and it all paid out. Once they managed to build retail stores all around the world, they have become the largest retail company when it comes to sales performance. This just proves that staying in one strategic place to build your business can be rewarding but not for long. Many new companies may take over and it is not healthy to fight them without having to grow economically and geographically and it takes risk taking to stay in the international market.
**Starbucks**, on the other hand, is such a strong brand and their reputation is really one of their greatest assets. I didn’t know that they had such a rough phase considering that they are one of the founders of coffee shops. Still, at some point, I get where their problem lies, companies that imitate their high-quality products, relaxing ambiance and snacks that they offer. Starbucks didn’t falter and decided to grow by building new stores to different cities all around the globe. Once they realized how fast-growing is their industry, they pushed to expand rather than getting beat up by new coffee shops. One thing I gained from their story is that if people see potential, they will try to imitate and push you out, and this applies also to businesses. Building such a powerful company means having many competitions that may out you but like Starbucks, every dedicated company can thrive by staying true to their service and continuing to create trends that will definitely attract us consumers.
**International Paper Company** is also one successful company all around the world. They were once the leader of their industry until time has come when they reached the point of slow growth and performance in their market. Papers in the long run become insignificant in some ways because of new technologies and developments that it is inevitable for IPC to lose their strategic place in the market. But the great thing that happened to them is when they didn’t let globalization liquidate their company and they stayed true to their company name, they went international. Investing in green-field companies in Brazil and acquisitions in Russia, their international growth pushed them at the top once again. The paper market in Latin America went under their control proving low-cost yet high quality products and services to their international consumers.
These three powerful companies in their own fields have many things in common.
Their successes began when they took the **risk to change their market from domestic to international.** Although staying in their industry is difficult from the continuous development and higher standards of the people-
**they overcome and outsmarted new companies entering by strategizing one step forward and becoming resilient through expansion and growing from one target place to international position.**
Globalization is such an eye opener that those who innovate and transcend boundaries will stay stronger than those who will stay in the comfort zone of the corporate world.
My MBTI Result: I am a Mediator
There are two common methods in assessing our personality. The first one is the most complex method which is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator also known as MBTI while the other one is the big five model. MBTI test is designed to recognize a person's personality type, strengths, and personal preferences. It is the most widely used psychological instrument to determine our certain ways of how we think and behave. It is helpful for everyone to know more about ourselves in order to improve and develop what we need to work on. The purpose of this MBTI test is to allow those who took the test to discover and explore their own personalities including their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, possible career preferences, and compatibility with other people.
Anyway, this is the result of my test.
**Extrovert - Introvert**
Between being an extrovert and introvert, I personally thought that I would be considered extrovert knowing that I am talkative and cheerful but I am surprised to see the result and discovered that I am more of an **introvert**. Well, I also enjoy my own company as long as I have gadgets and internet so I can watch, read and listen to music on my own.
Sensing – Intuition
I am not surprised that I got **intuition** because my mind also enjoys wandering to other places, imagining scenes like being with other people I can and can’t be with in real life, role playing inside my head and making up stories to make me feel better. Girls have strong intuition and I can attest to that as well. I can say that it adds up to my creativity because my imagination is sharp and I’m not even complaining. I also enjoy looking up theories and examining whether it really is applicable or not. Still, I can also be observant if I want to like I can still distinguish the reality from fantasy. Although I am imaginative, I still value realistic approach in life that would make greater impact in my decisions.
Thinking – Feeling
I believe that I am a very sentimental and emotional person that sometimes I really let my **feelings** and emotions get in the way in my decisions. For example, although I know I have to do something but if it will hurt another person, I become sensitive and prefer to not do it instead. Still, I can be very logical and goal-driven especially if it involves my future and my family’s well-being. I want to make the best decisions that would be best for everyone. Sometimes we must compromise our own hearts in order to get the best result and that also means hurting other people along the way.
Judging – Perceiving
I think it is true that I am more of a **perceiving** person than a judging one. Most of the time, I gather information based on what others or what I have already been gone through and experienced. Leaning on being perceiving means that I am more open, flexible, and adaptable. In short, I am relaxed when it comes to my pace when working with something, especially in my studies. I tend to be chill rather than be stressed all the time with our heavy load. One proof is that I can still afford to spend time watching rather than studying which can also be a bad thing but I treat that as my reward to myself.
Assertive - Turbulent
Surprisingly, the result showed that I have a **turbulent** personality. Based on the framework, turbulent individuals are self-conscious and sensitive to stress. They are likely to experience a wide range of emotions and to be success-driven, perfectionistic and eager to improve. It is true that I am very sensitive and self-conscious because once I have experienced and felt a specific emotion and I see someone feeling the same way, I feel relatable to them and I certainly don’t want to do something I don’t want others to do to me (golden rule) On the other hand, being assertive is being self-assured, even-tempered and resistant to stress. They refuse to worry too much and do not push themselves too hard when it comes to achieving goals. I can also relate to this because I have phases that I just want to get away from stress and focus on what I want to become while asserting present situations head on.
The results showed that **I am a MEDIATOR.** https://www.16personalities.com/infp-personality
Amazing how I can definitely agree from how they defined mediators. I am very much quiet when I am surrounded by people I an unfamiliar with but on the inside, train of thoughts continues to work and I can agree that mediators like me have a strong sense of self-expression and in my case, that is by writing.
This personality test proved that I have a very creative and imaginative side which is true. I tend to daydream and imagine fictional characters coming to life which is funny and entertaining for me. It is also true that If I don’t act on my dreams and ideas, I end up feeling frustrated or unfulfilled. In terms of my sense of calling, I also agree that mediators like me may feel like we have no direction in life unless we discovered our calling and purpose. We have hopeful outlook in life that it can also be our weakness because it demands that we focus our attention and energy on one worthy goal at a time and that is mostly to be of help and service to others.
================================= Article that helped me https://www.verywellmind.com/the-myers-briggs-type-indicator-2795583
That was fun! Haha I recommend that you try this and discover your uniqueness coz I personally think it is accurate as long as you answer the test truthfully. You can try this online MBTI here. Feel free to share your result :> https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
The Big Five Model: Assess your personality
The Big Five Model of Personality
categorizes traits into the dimensions of surgency, agreeableness, adjustment, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
**Surgency**- *How strong is your desire to be a leader?*
**1. Leadership**
So, this is the personality of those people born to be a leader. They are those that have passion in leading and influencing others by their ambitions, they are extroverts and active. They have leadership skills and dominance. People who enjoy taking charge of tasks and an organization. Basically, Surgency is a trait where chosen people are meant to lead. They can handle making the decisions, handling people, coming up with contingency plans for the task, they can communicate properly and good at expressing opinions and delegating tasks.
2. Extroversion traits
This lies between the traits of introverts and extroverts. Continuum from extroverts, people who enjoy mingling and being with others, sociable, and outgoing while, introverts are people who enjoy solitude and being with themselves or those who are shy and not that sociable.
**Agreeableness** - *How important is having good relationships to you?*
Agreeableness is a trait where people who are sociable and outgoing. Just like Surgency, they enjoy being with other people, good at communication and getting along. Agreeableness is a behavior when people come as easy-going, friendly, sociable and cooperative. They agree to what others do as long as it is right and share compassion towards another. I can say that they tolerate what others say, they remain courteous which can also be bad when people start to take advantage of their warm personality and use that to hurt them for being too good. The opposite of this is the personality of those who are not easily swayed and not really easy to be with.
**Adjustment**-*How emotionally stable are you?*
This relates to our emotional stability. People with adjustment personality are calm and composed most of the time, they are good at assessing the situations and adjusting their emotions to remain relaxed. People with his adjustment trait are good at staying in their best foot even with problems and struggles, they still continue to be calm and they don’t show any pressure from it. I think this personality is really important and equates to people with high emotional intelligence (EQ) who are self-aware of their emotions and good at overcoming emotional crisis by weighing the best self-control. The opposite of this trait is when people suffer from moodiness, prone to emotional crisis and negativity and those who are always pressured and stressed over petty things.
**Conscientiousness**-*How strong is your desire to be successful?*
People with high conscientiousness are those who have the desire to be successful in his or her passion and career. They are goal-driven and persistent until they get their desire that they aim. They don’t settle for less and always willing to work harder and give their best effort to attain the goal. They are credible, reliable and have the determination to get be the best. The opposite of this trait makes people irresponsible and negligent in their actions because they lack desire to be better.
Openness to Experience-*How willing are you to change and try new things?*
This trait contributes to our desire to learn new things, become adventurous and innovative. This personality is when people have the willingness to try something new and get away from the norm, they are also those who seek adventures and explores what is not yet known and tried by everyone. They are also open-minded, imaginative and creative. Basically, openness makes us risk takers who wants to get our of our comfort zone while those who lack openness are scared to get out of their safe zone and just settle for what is commonly experienced by most people.
Personally, I can say that I have a little bit of everything except my desire of becoming a leader. Being a leader means having responsibilities which is not what I want for myself; you also have to make extreme decisions that will affect your subordinates which is bad because I am an indecisive person; being a leader pulls everyone's attention on me which is a no no because I hate getting people's attention. These and many more reasons why I have no surgency but if the situation puts me in a tight spot and I have no other choice... screw it. Most importantly, if He chose me to become a leader of multitudes, I am all for it.
How about you?
Yikes. The tips I'm getting from the bot are not reflected in my wallet so writing articles for now became useless. I don't know what to do 🤧 What do you think is the problem? Thanks to those who will help me~
What is Nash Equilibrium from the Movie 'A Beautiful Mind'
*Watch this* *video* *and you will realize something. This is a scene in 'A beautiful Mind' and it is really an impactful scene that I had goosebumps after watching it.* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d_dtTZQyUM
"If we all go for the blonde, we block each other, not a single one of us is gonna get her. So then we go to her friends...."
In the end, they would all benefit and the blonde is the loser. Funny but really, it is gonna stay in your head, believe me.
A conversation between men wanting one specific girl, and a life changing fact that you can gain. **Individual ambition serves a common goal.**
John Nash got this idea when he and his friends got in a situation where they would approach a blonde girl, however,
**it is impossible that all of them will win, so he suggested that no one gets the blonde and they should just approach her friends instead of blocking each other off. In the end, they would all benefit the situation.**
From what I learned, Nash Equilibrium is about the outcome that takes place when the **players in the society are in their best shoes with their best decisions, taking into account that other players in the society remain with their decision as well.** It is about the situation wherein no player will benefit by changing a strategy if each player has already remained with their state.
After the scene in the bar, I realized how vital Nash Equilibrium is in being applied to economics. If all citizens could benefit to the situation where all players in the government and administration could think rational without having to take others down for their own selfish reason, then the state of our country would be better. If the players in the society, including us citizens, would remain sensible with our decision and lifestyle, bearing in mind that the outcome should be about our nation’s improvement and not about self-centered demands, it is possible to have progress sooner.
If Nash Equilibrium takes a deep part of the critical analysis of our state, it would help lessen the impact of political controls that are most often than not just about political desires to dominate and destruct what we entrusted to them. Truth is, progress is not about plans but about execution. However, if it all started wrong in the first place then we can assume that the outcome will not be favorable to many. Rationality doesn’t require monetary return and the decision-makers our country assigned shall not act as if it is hard to develop.
Imagine that we can all have the
**power to be compassionate and careful in our judgment**
The situation would turn out to be less egotistic and more humanitarian. Just like what Mr. Nash envisioned, we don’t always have to fight to get what we thought is the best; instead, we should be considerate to avoid spoiling the benefit that could be to everyone. Involving ourselves in discussion and arguments must not be always about winning as one, but winning as a whole.
**Nash equilibrium may be complicated but applying it to economics would benefit the country as a whole.**
We are aware that traditional policies may not be enough right now generate progress, thus, Nash equilibrium may help for what it’s worth. It is what we hope to accomplish, to have a nation with rational citizen and leaders that are not afraid to stand back just to give way to a more profound solution to achieve the optimum level of progress our nation can very well attain.
I literally just created an account and deposited my BCH to coinbase and then to binance without even knowing how cryto trading works. LOL. I've been studying but still remain clueless about everything. T^T I just know to buy it low and sell it high. Good luck to me. :>
My stand in Decriminalizing an Illegal Act
**Warning: Sensitive topic.**
It is no secret that the s*x industry exists in every country, forming a substantial part of the underground economy. For many developing countries, pr*stitution is a major export industry and a source of foreign earnings, a means of redistributing income on a global scale. Should pr*stitution be legalized?
Surely, legalizing prostitution will bring a rippling effect in our developing economy, effects that will **oppress the majority of Filipinos** and bring nothing but stagnant growth. **There is a reason why this industry is only found underground and it must stay that way.**
Pr*stitution promotes immoral values that go against what our parents, teachers and what the Church teaches us. And as a whole, this industry gives way for more vicious crimes that anyone can commit if being surrounded by unlawful acts. Holding on to pr*stitution if it can boost our country’s situation is like giving up the idea that our country’s skilled workers that we obviously have, especially our blue-collared Filipinos, can do well in enriching our economy if they work as one to contribute their hard work and perseverance for our motherland. This is not just about values and faith to His Words, instead, this is our faith to our fellow Filipinos.
By showing conviction that we are very well sure that the reason we study hard, work hard and grind every day is to make a difference, and that they can do it without str!pping. S*xual prngraphy, cybrsx, child prn and many more immoral crimes killed the opportunity of many Filipinos to have a better life. No one is willing enough to be part of this industry. No one would like to be naked just to earn enough for the day and do it again tomorrow. Legalizing it would bring nothing but trouble to those who are part because it will impart to them that they have no choice but to do it for a living for the rest of their lives. The most damage will be on their part and surely, the damage is unnerving and deeply seated. Other than my said arguments, considering pornography as part of the lawful acts would ruin not only those who are part of it, but family relationships.
Let’s be frank that legalizing it would make more and more men with families of their own be tempted on committing adult3ry. And as I said, it will bring negative rippling effect to the family. Children may detest their parents and end up doing the same thing and be part of it as well. Temptation is just an instrument that is heightened by what is said to be doing progress in our underground economy.
It is as clear as daylight how much trouble it is to legalize an act that brings nothing but pure inhumane values. Making love is not something to be done in public and more importantly, it is done with intimate love between couples. Being paid for working hard and sweating with decency makes a person enjoy what they are doing with pride. Although developing, our nation is as striking as other developed countries by making ends meet with our pure striving force to live better each day in our own humble ways.
Those who is agree on legalizing it argues that it will lessen the violence and disease that constitute to it, and it will be for the protection and welfare on those who are directly involve and their families as well.
Surely, those who proposed this is not really aiming for the betterment of the women, children and men involved but to generate income that will be coming from an immoral act disguised as a decriminalized profession. This will just attract more people who want a decent life by selling their own body for pleasure and worldly desires which is not something that should be advertised especially if we want a people-centered society.
drawing parallel lines (a book review)
This is a book review of My Sassy Girl series, book of Kim Ho Sik.
In this lifetime, after indulging myself in a book about romance, I learned a thing or two about life. I know how ironic it is to gain something more from petty lover’s quarrel and surprises, but I did.
Here’s what I can say: **Life is like wandering in a train station full of different people. It is chaotic until a time that a deafening silence would fill our ears and all of the sudden, strangers would surround us.** In all sides we would gaze and there lies somebody’s eyes whom we just met but strangely, it feels heart-warming just to have someone next to you. You may not have a chance to talk to each other or exchange funny stories, it is more than enough. To bump unto someone then mumble a sorry in chorus, and then continue to walk pass by would tell us how in life, we would meet people who would choose to stay or push us away. Life is about the journey.
***Just like the time you enter the train, with a definite idea on where to get off but no idea whether you’ll have a chance to sit down in ease or to courageously stand until the end of the trip. That is life. We never really get everything that we want. We get tired but we still give our best shot; nonetheless, remember that even trains have poles and handles to help us get through. Same goes with the life’s reality that there are people who got our back as always every time we feel like stumbling.***
Now, let me story tell ‘My Sassy Girl part 2’. Good thing that this book can stand on its own. Really, the only form of dependence that life can offer is between your mind and your heart. Now back to the story. It’s about two people unexpectedly meeting each other while riding a train. Hence, the second part is about their adventures together as— maybe it’s safe to say, lovers. ‘Teen Fiction’? Well, isn’t it too childish to pay attention at? Who’ll dare take it seriously when it’s only about love and heart aches of young people? Now that I think about it, a hopeless romantic like me are dying to read this genre but for a whole different reason. I am in for backstories that are locked away behind the words left unspoken by the characters. In a train full of people: what’s on the mind of the girl reading a book? Or the lady starring at her hands? The couple looking at each other? Only they can tell.
Life is about meeting people who will come and go.
Maybe in this lifetime, the people you want to stay close will go for another train parallel but on different way but seasons will pass until side by side, separation won’t be possible.
“Our memories now, our emotions, we shall bury them today; and when they've buried up, we shall choose to part ways”
the transition of budget scheme in the PH: is it for the better?
During the proposal of the 2019 Budget, the transition from obligation-based appropriations to Cash-based appropriations caused the delay of the budget approval arising from the legislators’ consideration for the change. According to the **Department of Budget and Management, House Bill No. 7302,1** otherwise known as the **Budget Modernization Bill** authorizes the adoption of cash-based budgeting which is their initiative shift to change the budget scheme of the country.
First, let’s focus on the overruled budget scheme which is the Obligation-based appropriations. DBM described this as ‘flawed’ which lead to its overruling. This Obligation-based appropriation is basically **committing to pay with cash based on the commitment without predetermined time limit to pay**. The supersede Cash-based appropriations authorize the payment of cash within a limited period of time, generally for one fiscal year.
Imagine when someone has debt to pay for you but he or she is not gonna pay you within a year. The obligation is piled up until the bad debts increase as well.
The major difference of the two is the practice and authorization to make cash payments to commitments that **may or may not exceed one fiscal year.** Basically, the **most used between the two is the cash-based** because it covers the payments due to one year while some countries still use the multiyear budget appropriations. ---- As soon as the government implemented the new scheme, they reported that its advantage was that the expenditures and projects start to operate faster because of the simple mode of payment for a particular year.
A simple analogy to **Cash Budgeting System (CBS)** is that obligations and expenditures made in a fiscal year is paid within the same fiscal year. Therefore, the annual budget will cover the disbursements of the annual obligations, this scheme allows a strict and organized flow of fund, unlike the previous scheme where the payment cycle may extend for more than the current fiscal year, thus, more susceptible to corruption and overspending.
This budget scheme transition is one of the best changes that happened in the administration. It lessens the chance for corruption. Still, we cannot say. They still do it one way or another.
the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Everyone deals with similar situations differently even though we share universal emotions. **Emotional intelligence comes to those who think before they let themselves feel something regarding the whole situation.** I think having the concept of emotional intelligence is valid because everyone can be self-aware of their emotions, by reading their body language and internally understanding how they feel. What differentiates those with high level of emotional intelligence and those who do not have it is the ability to overcome difficult situations by managing their own emotions by helping their own to feel better in time.
For example, those who are undergone recent breakups can deal with their heartaches differently. Most people would drown themselves with food or alcohol to feel better, some would cry their eyes out and curse someone who broke them, some would not eat, go out their house and mop all day. While those with high EQ, they may be sad but will still choose to continue life like nothing happened. See the good thing out of their situation and be better for themselves. Nothing is wrong with crying and despondent but the moment you stop your life because of it and lose your choice to move on, that it not good. Being stressed and emotionally unwell happen to everyone. However, if one reason makes you lose focus on the more important things in life it will ruin your life. If one person hurt you and you choose not to care about your well-being then you are as well hurting other people that loves you. If you physically hurt yourself because of being miserable, it does not make you feel better because it will haunt you more just by feeling the physical pain you inflicted in yourself. Having to choose to battle what makes you feel down and miserable is the best thing you could do for yourself and the people who cares for you.
Our emotion is not something that we can guess or depict regarding future situations. We all react differently and that is something normal and explained by our environment, emotional support, and individual senses. An emotional state is defined by the level of real or imagined threat that individual senses. If we list basic emotions along a continuum is not plausible because there are times that our basic emotions are haywire and unpredictable. Sometimes everyone is happy, but you can’t feel it because you are undergoing an emotional crisis. Sometimes you could’ve been celebrating a victory but we can’t because we feel like it’s not enough. We can’t list the basic emotions in a continuum knowing that it is not how our emotions work and it is not realistic for everyone. However, even though we can't choose the emotions we feel, we can choose the ways in which we respond through emotional awareness.
During this time of pandemic, many of us may feel the anxiety from their current situation, especially those who lost their job, those who are far from their loved ones, having financial difficulties and those with families who got infected by the virus. Sometimes even if we want to think positively, **stress** just gets in the way and it makes us feel bad every second thinking about the crisis we might be in. Stress is critical because it affects our mental and emotional state that it even affects our physical strength to get things done. When stress pile up because of family, work and other things, it is important to find a way to release it, some diverts stress by watching movies, reading books or eating.
But for me, I feel like **sadness** is the best way to relieve stress. Just like in the movie Inside Out, they thought sadness only triggers someone to cry but in the end, sadness saved the girl and helped the kid open her heart and let out what makes her feel upset to the people she loves so they could understand how she feels. Sadness is one mood that we need to accept whenever we are stressed. After some crying, that is the time we feel light and better. It is okay to entertain sad thoughts and become emotional as long as after that causes us to also remember some happiest moments of our life that counteract our melancholy into contentment and joy.
what makes your business stand out the rest
No business is free from expenses. It is a key element of the financial report of the business. A business is not possible to earn without the workforce and every businessman wants to see their employees and workers doing their best and being one step ahead according to how they are expected to perform and how they are properly compensated.
Competitive advantage you can have for your business:
Super efficiency, quality and innovation.
They represent the backbone of every company because an entity cannot perform without them, this being said, the backbone must be in its best condition. The optimization of the workers means increased financial performance for the whole company, benefiting everyone including the target market as long as the quality is not compromised from their increased productivity. The backbone and the management must work together to accomplish their goals according to the timeline they have set.
Every company aims to reduce their fixed costs arising from their machineries and factory equipment’s depreciation, through their production efficiency. The idea here is that the greater number of goods they produced, the better for the fixed costs to be allocated and spread over per goods produced. In order for this to happen, companies need to have an efficient and increased level of production. We can apply and take advantage of the Economies of Scale wherein the cost per unit is decreased as the scale of production increases, therefore, diminishing the cost per unit of the product. This is really an advantage for the manufacturers so that they can even out the costs they incur with the goods they are working on.
**Superior efficiency** has two main factors: the first one is the time. Being efficient means accomplishing tasks within a specific period of time. We know that there are only limited hours allotted in a day and tasks pile up every second, thus, management employees and workers must track their time as much as possible. Having unproductive workers are the loss of the company, therefore teamwork and communication are vital in an organization. The second factor is the skills of the workforce. It is the responsibility of the human resource manager to screen and filter the employees they choose to work and also, the role of the management to train their employees to improve their productivity and develops skills that would mean greater efficiency for the company.
Each department must work in their best shoes and accomplish specified tasks that would increase the market value of the company. **Superior quality** is an important competitive advantage of one company because it enables the company to place a reasonable higher price for the good in exchange of an amazing quality products that every customer would feel good to pay for. Before the outputs are made, the production process must be applied with quality management and strategies to ensure polished finished goods. Also, the raw materials must be in its best quality that would not disappoint the market. With deficits from sudden business expenses, some prefer to cut cost by sacrificing top quality ingredients just to offset the loss which may affect the trust and reputation of the company in the long run that is why it is better to have quality products with higher price to even out the costs.
Many start up businesses right now are becoming threats even to established companies, moreover, customers’ standards continue to improve as inventions keep on popping. **Superior Innovation** is the ticket to stay on the market for a long time, and it is the deciding factor to maintain your clients. By innovating, the products keep up with the trends that keeps the customers interested. This is really an important competitive advantage that means producing useful and impactful products or services that would improve the brand reputation of any company and the lifestyle of the users. This is not just to benefit the company but to benefit even the market that chooses to pay for the goods and services you are offering.
an update about the proposed budget law: how the President reacted for the delay
This was the status of how the proposed 2021 National budget in the Congress/Senate as of today.
We all know the situation we are in right now. We are experiencing a worldwide pandemic that only God knows when it will end. This year has been painful because of the many incidents and worldwide issues that happened and to be honest, no one knew that a virus would impact everyone so gravely. The last day of January 2020 was when a Chinese national who came here in the PH got infected and she was the first case. That was when the chaos and alarming news start to take place. Classes are suspended. Quarantine becomes our resort. I will not discuss facts about the deadly virus but how it affected the 2021 budget preparation.
Before this global crisis, the daily situation among Congress representatives and legislative activities are all done face to face, obviously, because a deadly virus is not yet present. However, this global pandemic changed the process on how the Congress and Senate enact bills to law.
Last March 9, 2020, the Philippine Senate suspended regular sessions with the determination to “prevent further spread of COVID-19 by practicing social distancing as a whole institution.” Hence, regular sessions are suspended due to recess,
After all the **social distancing protocol**, the consequence was that **the third reading was delayed for a week** and that is how a special session for the House of Representatives was the solution presented to avoid delay on the ratification of the 2021 budget before Nov. 16.
On October 8, President Duterte gave subtle warning stating ***"Either you resolve the issue sa impasse 'nyo diyan and pass the budget legally and constitutionally. 'Pag hindi ninyo ginawa, ako ang gagawa para sa inyo. Hindi ako nananakot"***
The overflowing power of this subtle warning is the reason why the Senate did their task instead of being too lax. After all, they are paid to pass bills into law.
The speaker of the House of Representatives Senator Peter Cayetano addressed the delay because of his suspension to the third reading, later on, **ensuring no more delays to the progress of the budget process.**
The ultimatum was to pass the new budget before the 2020 budget bill expires which makes the Senate worrisome that the third reading needs plenty of time for deliberations and the tight schedule, therefore,
“Malacañang pushed the Senate to propose the budget by October 28 to the Senate for the Congress to ratify it early enough for President’s Duterte’s signature.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2020)
**On October 27, 2020, the House passed the 2021 budget bill to the Senate one day ahead of schedule.**
This is kinda funny for me. I mean, they were scared of the President after his warning that they passed the bill earlier than expected (reminding myself cramming because of our terror professor) but really, what I noticed here:
The House and the Senate are lucky that they have the privileged to work at home without any worries but still get compensated more than they deserve to. No, I am not bitter. I just feel bad for those who have to stay away from home to do their job and still get the bare minimum, especially, they work harder jobs. Life is unfair.
Why do I feel like they rushed everything just to pass it on time? You know what happens when that happens right? The outcome is. . . trash and unpolished. I mean, this is our budget we are talking about. It needs long hours of deliberation in order to attain the best plan but the Congress and Senate did a bad job rushing it and I am just HOPING that the appropriations make sense and allocated for a great purpose.
I am disappointed. Well, I can understand that the budget for DOH last time was lacking because we didn't see this virus happening but now that we are all aware about it, the government still doesn't see the need to prioritize our health care department. Why can't they see that we are paralyzed because our own doctors and nurses and researchers are not properly compensated? The nerve of the administration to just say 'thank you' to the UP researchers who made the test kit without properly funding them. Because of the researchers, we got to have an inexpensive test kits compared to the ones provided by other countries. The way the House approached them was disappointing.
This is our money at stake. The fact that they point fingers whenever problems arise just upsets me. I wish they could value how important where our money goes, and not spend it for personal motives but for the betterment of our nation. Sadly, they only do their best when they are scolded and I am not satisfied with how they approach this situation, knowing that they are privileged to afford expensive hospital bills and stay at comfortable homes with cartons of alcohol.
What are your thoughts about this?
Reference https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1344444/congress-special-session-eyed-to-prevent-possible-delay-in-2021-budget-zubiri#ixzz6cL0sxTwv
the national budget for the year 2021: let us see the priorities during this pandemic
Do you have an idea how much will be our budget next year? We all know we are still under a global pandemic and there is a new normal that we have to live with. Our health sector is impaired because of the lack of budget given to the Department of Health, which is understandable knowing that the virus just suddenly took over our nation. But now that the deliberation happened with the idea of the pandemic, what changes did our national budget had gone through the hands of the DBM, House of Representative, the Senate and the President?
Based on the current situation of the economy in the midst of this global pandemic, our GDP significantly decreased from all the business affected and the purchasing power of the citizens which means that the expenditure and obligations are greater than the income produced during this time, pushing the government to take loans and borrow from other countries to sustain the needs, especially, medical and social welfare departments of the country. This is time is also crucial to the levied tax on every citizen because TRAIN law continues to be applied.
The proposed national budget this 2021 based on documents provided by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is **P4.506 trillion national budget** and this is **9.9% higher than the 2020 budget** which amounts to 4.1 trillion and is **21.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP).** The growth in the amount is supposed to be allocated to the Build, build, build program of the Duterte administration and the Senate mentioned that this may not equate to the significant increase of the budget of Department of Health .
According to DBM, once again, the educational department including the DepEd, Ched, SUCs and TESDA, have the highest budget allocation which increased from P650.2 billion allocation last 2020 to P754.4 billion for 2021.
The government expects to appropriate an amount P1.107 trillion particularly for infrastructure programs to ace their title ***“Golden age of infrastructure”***
The departments which gets the other big chunk of budget is the **Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) at P667.3 billion** mainly because of the Build build build program of the administration; next is the **Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) at P246.1 billion**; the **Department of National Defense (DND) at P209.1 billion**, from the increase of their salaries; and the **Department of Health (DOH) at P203.1 billion**, which is to combat this deadly virus and support the medicine field of our nation and the slowly recover from the damage this pandemic has caused us.
This time, we can really have an idea what are the priorities of the government given that our situation is different from the past years of their administration. What are your thoughts?
Reference https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1333479/by-the-numbers-the-proposed-2021-national-budget#ixzz6cMeFsh1H
bitcoin revolution: cryptocurrency platform for money made easy
The investment made by the artist, Toni Gonzaga, a cryptocurrency platform known as 'Bitcoin Revolution' was given a spotlight because of the way Toni described the experience of investing in this.
Frankly, she was first skeptical about it. Who wouldn't right when it is your own money you are risking. I mean, to grow your money overnight might not be that believable. Even I once thought that cryptocurrency is illegal because of its unfamiliarity but crypto market has been rising ever since the people saw results, positive results, from investing to it. And testimonies are particularly success stories that makes everyone keen and observant on how far and how long will cryptocurrency would be available for everyone.
Toni Gonzaga was skeptical, she saw her friend invest in this bitcoin revolution, and she made sure to try it herself. She saw with her own eyes how her friend earned so much money from this opportunity.
Bitcoin Revolution is a great opportunity to those who want to earn interest the easiest and fastest way possible, it is one way to grow your money overnight.
Toni Gonzaga said, she was glad that she tried it.
*I'm talking* ***tens of thousands of dollars a day on autopilot.*** *it’s literally the fastest way to make a windfall of cash right now. And it’s not going to last for much longer when more and more people find out about it. Or when banks shut it down for good.*
http://signtosucces.com/947915/?cep=Cck3lS2NwpGNiVDvUv8Z38EsRnKUbLb-4LaMBwQ8P_6MdIIQFceCxaYa0kk7iUotwxUg1vG5kXNe4bqtUCiC7QZdGPoqA1pHhyZvdFtfTNX-gZ-YDmSJuTM2T_bseqP-3STAfsBVnMLjyk-gy9jbZxDScbayego4KtwR7Sf38QUqNSDW1sR5tDVZU3CmGmhVdF-y06dYqto0fXefmNWP65G0kYlGr1NWheR5bavNATJ0XPwtPYVqpGLSccz6ztorPzgjt2kBdNtgTDx0cflVDYMnrOBFVm93VwWPwN_vvoA7qoVTRKI6XL54Ka1-mHLHpkwAD-B9F0Xma-LG3to6OQY3F29JjF41YvMDAaBu8jNhkn11DuLqdreXj0fwUyoZ544q06nWDc3og3mjQ9vvjtUqNZJihFiCvo-EQdPmJaedfiHzPihhdYRj6Yqb5stY&lptoken=161c041a28e7975016dd&campaign=233041020&zone=2246979&ssp=Adcash&redirection_cost=0.000310273&clickid=16042879152552261649099967362390240
HIGHER RISH, HIGHER RETURN
This type of investment is risky, yet the return is amazing. The more money you put in, the better you would receive from it. The interest is amazing compared to when we put our money in banks.
During this 21st century, cryptocurrency is the trend for young and successful businessmen who like their money growing without putting much effort. Unlike buying stocks where the movement is like a roller coaster, this cryptocurrency is really one way to earn without exerting too much attention because it is online where it is really accessible to everyone.
This Bitcoin Revolution platform is a great and profitable investment, even Toni Gonzaga, recommends it especially before the bank shuts this platform down as it is a great competition for their industry.
On a daily basis, you get to earn interest such as other cryptocurrency platforms like Ethereum, Ripple and many more. Their return is said to be 10,000% which is significantly higher than ordinary investments there is. This revolution is created by the brilliant tech minds of Bill Gates (web developer and co-founder of Microsoft), Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX) and Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group)
Truly, cryptocurrency is the perfect risk to take if we want tremendous money for a short period of time. This is present and the perfect time to jump into it while it lasts because many financial corporations are keen to shut it down. Although I have no resources, if given a chance, I am sure I would invest in BITCOIN REVOLUTION.
For me, Toni Gonzaga is someone who is very firm with her principle and very careful because she is a wise woman, thus, her being excited about this means that this is really something that we should look out for because it is an amazing investment I wish we could all experience someday.
how our national budget is decided: the first phase
**Budgeting is not an easy task.**
It takes time, self-debating, and revisions just to come up with our personal or household budgets for a short period of time, this struggle is incomparable to when national budget is at stake and for defined whole year. The budget of the country comes from the income or revenue of our taxes and other non-tax sources, and it also comes from the domestic and foreign borrowings made by the government, which is one of the reasons why the budget process needs a lot of approvals before implementation, all because the fund comes from the hard earned income of the country’s taxpayers.
This budget call is issued by the **Department of Budget and Management (DBM)** that is an outline of the budget proposals by each agencies, either national budget call or corporate budget call based on the addressee.
There are four major phases of the budget cycle here in the Philippines. Let me first focus on the first phase, budget preparation.
The first phase is the **preparation of budget** that is when the **Budget Call** is issued that contains the presented guidelines and expected goal performance and expenditures of every agencies that also highlights their past performance and goals attained with their previous budget. This is a framework that reflects the guidelines and procedures of each agency, **their priorities and programs** to be executed, their **budget commitment** and the **timetable** for the fund. Basically, it is like a report to the president on their plans to how they will use the budget and how much is their expected requirement fund to carry out their specific duties. Note that this article will first tackle the first phase which is the budget preparation and I hope that you gain insight about this one as well.
Approving the budget is a time
Execution and disbursement of the budget
Regular evaluation for the performance of the agencies
So, for the first phase, every agencies (DepEd, DOH, DSWD etc.) issues their budget call that would be given to the DBM. This document would contain the estimated budget for the fiscal year (calendar year) that would later on determine how much fund they would get, so the role of the DBM is to review every budget proposals and carefully deliberate each programs and examine whether the estimate could be increased or decreased based on the prioritization of the government. This stage is crucial to determine whether the proposed programs and plans and its estimated budget reflects the real fund needed in order to avoid corruption (for me, this is the perfect stage to do dirty business between the people that are involved. May they find integrity so our nation would not suffer)
Reference that helped me. https://www.coa.gov.ph/phocadownload/userupload/ABC-Help/Jurisprudence_B/Ruling8.htm#:~:text=The%20Budget%20Call%20contains%20budget,submission%20of%20their%20budget%20proposals.
Every person who sets budget doesn’t always have an idea whether it is accurate and enough, hence, contingencies and sudden costs may happen making the budget inadequate. Like any other household budgets, the approved national budget could also be not enough to cover the actual expenses and disburses is greater than the revenue, thus, equating to budget deficits. This budget deficit is experienced by every economy because of occasional overspending but it can be offset by cutting government expenditures as well or even raising the taxes levied to the citizens. Based on its term, supplemental budget means additional budget requested by agencies to the Senate for approval whenever deficiencies on funds happen.
**Supplemental budget** is necessary especially if the fund shortage is significant to cover relevant expenses, that is why the government has not set any limit to its amount as long as it will cover necessary expenses and approved after the filing of request letter and budget bill.
Basically, this budget is for **contingencies** that may arise from sudden nationwide emergencies like **nation disasters and outbreak.** The government agencies issue this, like what happened to the pandemic, DOH fund is not enough, thus, they filed this document so their fund would be increased to cover and combat the battle against the virus which would be used for researched, medical supplies and many more.
Reference that helped me. https://www.mass.gov/service-details/supplemental-budget#:~:text=An%20additional%20budget%20that%20provides,listed%20in%20the%20final%20budget.
After the deliberation of the Department of Budget and Management, they will finalize and submit the proposals to the House of Representatives to be further deliberated as the start of their regular session. (30 days allotment)
The budgeting process is not easy but sadly, corruption is easier if everyone turns a blind eye.
Individual agencies > DBM > Congress > Senate > President of the Philippines --- Budget Law
*Note: The next three phases would be discussed in another article. Thank you. Let us all be aware. Stay safe!*
where did the 4.1 trillion budget go?
Taxation is truly the lifeblood of the government and we all contribute to keep our nation alive amidst this time of pandemic. We are all taxpayers. We can say that most of the families in our country have students who are dependent to their guardians and during this year, many students face crisis whether to continue schooling or to stop for a while because of financial issues so it is more important right now that our budget is given to the educational sector that caters so many citizens’ chance to have quality education even with this global crisis. Our government is indebted from all the borrowings we had on other countries just to combat the national emergencies that happened this current year that we all have to consider why TRAIN law becomes valuable.
According to the General Appropriations Act signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last January 6, 2020, this year’s national budget of 4.1 trillion will be apportioned under a cash-based budgeting system and it is **11.8% greater than our previous national budget of 2019 amounting to P3.662 trillion.**
The 2020 appropriations law **prioritized**
**-education**
Department of Education (DepEd) receiving P654.77 billion which appropriates to its sub-agencies for P521.25 billion, the State Universities and Colleges get P73.73 billion and Commission on Higher Education for P46.73 billion.
**-infrastructure**
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) getting P580.8 billion
**-interior affairs.**
This year, our educational department and public works continue to receive the largest budgets with the and the . This is based on the document presented by the Department of Budget and Management.
This re-enacted budget law would definitely put greater support to the education of every student who is the future of our nation and also to the teachers and professors who fight for providing knowledge and making ample of efforts to make this online class possible. **The budget P73,716,148,000 billion is shared among the SUC’s from all around the country and this budget increase by 13.9% from last year.**
This magnanimous fund needs proper allocation and effective control to be able to let this budget reflect the performance of every state colleges.
The fund structure is already set by the government and the major fund for educational departments goes to the tuition fees of the students.
As we are all aware that even state universities bear minimum tuition fees that are paid by citizens through their taxes which makes every ‘iskolar ng bayan’ study without having trouble paying tuition fees which is a big motivation to do well at school.
The University of the Philippines is a national state university system in the Philippines that is recognized as one of the top performing universities in the country and it holds the **largest fund of at P18.6 billion**, up by 9.9% last 2019. However, if we talk about regional budgets for education, the Central Luzon state universities and colleges get hold of the biggest portion of P6.8 billion.
The chance to improve the budget for education is an opportunity for the development and competence of the faculty members and teaching professionals who paves the future of every students. During this tough time, we may experience global crisis, the government truly prioritized that this new normal virtual learning would be implemented properly, not hindering the welfare of both students and teachers. Personally, I do want academic freeze until I realized that many students are desperate to learn and many educational staffs may lose their job if this happens so I shifted to support, but I still understand why many wants this because of the hardships to get the resources needed to afford online class.
This article just focused on the appropriations given to the education sector and some other facts.
As it is almost the end of the fiscal year, that 4.1 trillion is almost gone and we have questions if the government agencies did appropriate their funds to right use even though we can witness where the huge chunk of fund went from all the fiasco to attain the dolomite and all the health insurance corrupted by Philhealth. It is disappointing and this 2021, the budget increased again so let us hope that our money goes to great use that can benefit us all.
Reference that helped me:**https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1212703/state-colleges-to-get-p73-b-budget-this-year**
@sheensheen13