Thursday, December 4, 2014

Times of Oman's Thursday Magazine article on Factors impacting Career Planning.

Career planning includes a lot of factors those in turn decides whether the option chosen is in line with the individual concerned or not. Yours truly contributed a small piece on the same subject to The Thursday Magazine of The Times of Oman, dated 4th of December 2014. Read on...



Thursday, October 30, 2014

Article on career as a communication specialist published in the Thursday Magazine of The Times of Oman

Communication forms the backbone for all organizations and therefore the personnel manning different facets of communication are equally important. The article below provides some insights about the career option of communication specialist published in The Times of Oman, Thursday Magazine dated 30th of October 2014.

The article can also be accessed from- http://www.timesofoman.com/Thursday


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Article on Career in Marketing Management in The Thursday Magazine of Times of Oman

Marketing Management is known to be an ever green career option with lots of lucrative career options existing every now and then. Students are at times unaware about the same and therefore, yours truly have tried to contribute one article on the same in the Times of Oman, Thursday Magazine, dated, 18th of September 2014. Read on to know more.......

The article can also be accessed by clicking on-

http://www.timesofoman.com/News/40046/Article-Career-building-in-marketing-management


http://www.timesofoman.com/Thursday


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Article on Myths about a career option in Entrepreneurship published in the Thursday Magazine of The Times of Oman

Busting the myths surrounding the building of a viable and lucrative career as an entrepreneur happens to be the topic of the article published in The Thursday Magazine of The Times of Oman dated 4th of September 2014, authored by yours truly and his colleague cum friend, Mr. Salim Al Rashdi. Read on to know more.....
The article can also be viewed from

http://www.timesofoman.com/News/39168/Article-Myths-about-entrepreneurship-as-a-career-option

 http://www.timesofoman.com/Thursday

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Article on Career Planning in the Thursday Magazine of Times of Oman

It is indeed a pleasure to collaborate for an article with my esteemed colleague and friend, Dr. Issa Al Amri on a topic which has very high relevance for all career aspirants. The article has been published in The Times of Oman's Thursday Magazine dated 10th of July 2014.

The article can also be viewed by clicking on the following link of the Times of Oman-

http://www.timesofoman.com/News/36467/Article-Roadmap-for-career-building-by-Omans-college-lecturers

 Read on.......






Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Article on Social Media based Teaching and Learning

It was wonderful to first experience and then collaborate for authoring an article on Social Media based Teaching and Learning. Kudos to Mr. Salim Al Rashdi, Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration, ICT, and also the college administration for encouraging the departments to innovate and develop student centered teaching and learning. Thanks to the Business Studies Department as well for constant encouragement.
 
The article can also be viewed from the following link-
 
 

 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Performance Appraisal and Productivity



 
 
Performance forms the backbone for all organizations,  be it for profit or even for not for profit causes, although the criteria might vary from one company to another. Management ought to know good performers as well as the ones struggling and one or rather the best way to do it is through a fool-proof, error-free, fair and discrimination free performance appraisal process. It is an organization wide practice and therefore, performance appraisal cannot be a standalone activity for one department or a set of employees whereas it is non-existent or completely different for another department within the same organization. The main reason for the same is to align individual performance with that of the department, that in turn should be in line with the departmental as well as organizational goals and objectives. Importantly, performance appraisal should not be a tool to spread fear factor within the rank and file of the organization, nor it should be a tool for the superiors to flaunt so as to settle personal scores with their subordinates, whenever there are difference of opinion in the interest of the welfare of the organization, or for favouring an individual employee or group of employees close to the superior. Performance is a tool for motivating people that should culminate in enhancing performance and productivity. The managerial practice ensures that people are managed truly, honestly as performance appraisal provides opportunity to communicate business strategy to individual employees, it enables in establishing shared understanding between the appraiser and appraise, provides a tool to motivate employees, improve working culture and environment, provide constructive feedback with opportunities to grow and align individual goals with that of the organization. Performance Management has been seen as an Human Resource Development function as it provides avenues to improve the human asset or the intellectual capital of the organization through continuous monitoring of the performance, sans any discrimination. Aligning or bringing together of the individual goals with that of the organization cannot be done in a better way than that of performance appraisal as its qualitative as well as quantitative in nature. Performance appraisal can have different names like performance review, performance evaluation, career development discussion, employee appraisal, although the underlying theme remains the same for all and that is to evaluate performance so as to increase productivity. The broad objectives of performance appraisal could be record base full proof decisions on compensation and benefits, SWOT analysis of employees to put the right person in the right job at the right time, providing feedback, improving communication channels between the management and the employees, self reflection of all individual employees, means to influence working habits and behaviors of employees, decide on training and other developmental programs. The clear cut advantages it can bring into an organization if its state-of-the-art bias free performance appraisal process. However, one need to know the difference between performance management system and performance appraisal system as the former emphasizes on performance of individuals, team and organization, it is continuous rewards may or may not be integral, designed by the human resource department, monitored by the respective department, ownership is with line managers although HR help in its implementation. The latter gives importance to relative or comparative evaluation of individuals, which is also an annual exercise, necessarily rewards good performance and punishes as well if required, designed and monitored by the Human Resource department, and the ownership is mostly with the Human Resource department. It is therefore evident that Human Resource (HR) department happens to be the major department facilitating and implementation of performance appraisal set-up as it ensures free, fair and discrimination free processes. The advantages of performance appraisal are obvious-promotion of performers, framing of the right compensation and benefit structure, employee development, selection validation of wrong people for wrong positions, a tool for make communication more effective, apart from motivating the people. All the aforesaid steps are done with an intention to enhance productivity, which can be managed growth or working smarter or to make it ideal with more output with reduction in input, increasing the level of efficiency or even to manage a decline. Labor productivity used to be the word earlier, now its employee productivity as human resource is no more a mere resource, its an asset that differentiates leaders from followers and moreover, its not for labour, its for one and all, i.e. blue collared as well as white collared workers.
 
(Adapted from the ICT, Bachelor Handout)
 
Additional reading links-
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Article on Managing Student Related Affairs in the New Paradigm

It was indeed an honour and pleasure to author a collaborative article with the senior colleague of yours truly on managing student affairs in the new paradigm. The article throws light on different aspect in a student centered Higher Education Institute. Published in the Thursday Magazine of The Times of Oman, dated 15th of May 2014. The article has many important aspects related to student related affairs from a student centered perspective. Read on.









Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Cooperative Education and its importance for Academia-Industry combine

24th of March 2014 was the day when yours truly along with senior colleague, Mr. Salim Al Rashdi, attended the opening day of two day symposium on Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, Information Technology and allied topics at Nizwa College of Applied Sciences, Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman.The keynote speakers, among others, included, Mr. Omar Mahmod Al-Mahrizi, HR Director, Al Ahlia Co. SAOC and Dr. Mohammed A.Al-Mughairi, Graduate Development Program Manager, People & Change Learning Center, Petroleum Development Oman LLC dealt on the topic of "Cooperative Education" and its importance for the concerned stakeholders. The duo along with other academic experts that also included a student intern who had successfully completed training in four different organizations, across sectors of different sizes shared the insights pertaining to cooperative education. Mr. Omar focused his contribution towards the need of insurance professionals in different companies operating in the Sultanate of Oman. He also highlighted the major challenges being faced by organizations in terms of high employee turnover, unavailability of trained manpower customized to the requirement of the insurance in general and allied sectors in particular. On the other hand, petroleum behemoth, PDO representative, spelt out the need for professionals who can leverage the opportunities those are knocking the doors of all career aspirants especially in light of the I-fields in the petroleum exploration and refining sectors. Both the corporate experts, along with the academics emphasized on the need to develop a sustainable model of cooperative education that would not only benefit the Institute-Industry combine, but would also provide enormous benefits to the economy of this wonderful country. They cited the practice adopted by the leading Universities in the United States of America, China and rest of the world, especially when it comes to cooperative education. The practice though in its infancy stage in Oman, has already started between PDO and GUTech, PDO and Sultan Qaboos University. The need of the hour is to adopt such models across the country so that a large section of the students and industries benefit in various ways.One of the presentation used can be seen below.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Industry Visit as a Teaching-Learning Tool

26th of February 2014 witnessed a unique teaching-learning experience while the eager learner of Financial Institution & Services of Diploma level and Banking Theory & Practice students of Advanced Diploma level embarked on a industry visit to the prestigious Central Bank of Oman(CBO). Industry visits have often been used as an effective teaching-learning tool, however, its effectiveness increases manifold if its properly planned in line with the theory taught in the four-walls of the classroom, not to forget the ability of the lecturer/trainer-industry professional combine to relate the presentation or learning derived precisely in consonance with the level of the learner. The amazing ability of the professionals from different departments of the CBO to reach out to the learner's level, in terms of simplicity, conceptual clarity and diving home the practical understanding of the theoretical learning imbibed while pursuing the academic program, made it a wonderful experience for all concerned. It was evident from the level of interactivity displayed by the listeners. The planned assignment in line with the industry visit just before the onset of the tour acted as the right motivator for the learner to prepare well, along with their spadework, not to forget the need to pay attention to every minute details being discussed. The post visit submission in the form of an individual report  having due weightage, contributed towards the overall performance matrix of the learner. The biggest takeaways from  this industry visit has been the following-
(1)The importance to plan the right topic at the right time
(2)The need for the industry professionals to reach out to the learner in terms of their understanding
(3)The importance of adequate spadework so as to make the learner prepare actively in the discussion
(4)The ideal motivator to participate with an open mind is decided with the fixation of the right kind of post visit submission and evaluation with due weightage
(5)Hearing from the horses mouth, i.e. the practical insights from the professional Central Bankers or industry chieftains
(6)Visit to the currency museum enabled the understanding of the evolution of currency from the historical perspective
(7)Last, but not the least the cooperation from the institution, the department as well the industry involved in the Industry visit based teaching-learning
 
Special thanks to CBO and the presenters, heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Mohd. Riyaz, OJT Coordinator, Business Studies Department, Business Studies Department Administration, College Administration of ICT, Ms. Marie Grace for facilitating the visit, along with yours truly and lastly the keen learner comprising of the students of Financial Institution & Services, and Banking Theory & Practice for their active partcipation.
 
 

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Can the new India Born Head of Microsoft take the company past Google, Apple to name a few?

Satya Nadella is Microsoft's next CEO, Bill Gates his wingman















 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Workshop on PEER OBSERVATION in the Higher Education Sector


360 degree appraisal has taken center stage for all professional organizations cutting across sectors and levels. Peers form the new range of stakeholders (read as the backbone) out of the whole lot, who are given adequate importance while conducting an appraisal solely for the developmental causes of individual professional growth and the overall organization at large. Learning from peer by sharing information had been in vogue for time immemorial. The emergence of knowledge sectors, viz. Information Technology, Information Technology enabled Sectors, Biotechnology have given new dimension to learning and development of the employees so as to create a culture of holistic growth in line with the organizational vision and mission. Prof. Salim Saeed Salim Bani Orabah, Head of Section, English Language Programs, Ibra College of Technology(ICT) and Prof. Haroun Mohammed Abdullah Al-Baloushi, Lecturer, English, Ibra College of Technology having decades of experience in formulating, implementing and publishing the first-hand experience of peer observation in the Ministry of Education, Sultanate of Oman, have presented the same to a Higher Education Institution (HEI) set-up, vis-à-vis that of Ibra College of Technology, one of the seven colleges monitored, controlled and administered by the Ministry of Manpower, Sultanate of Oman. The duo has provided the academics and academic administrators of ICT with substantial value addition to the teaching-learning environment of the targeted institution that in turn would also provide food for thought for all other HEI in the Sultanate of Oman and rest of the world. The focused workshop conducted by the in-house experts comprising of audience entailing the teaching faculties from the Business Studies, Engineering, Information Technology, English Language Center, along with the administrative staff clarified all the three phases in an academic oriented peer observation, i.e. pre-observation, observation and post-observation. The hands-on approach adopted by the facilitators during the workshop, allowed the participants to understand the significance of peer observation in an HEI set-up, primarily for self-development, finally culminating in leveraging the much needed metamorphosis in the teaching-learning environment of the educational institution. The greatest benefit from such an observational methodology unlike a routine one conducted solely with the objective of performance appraisal by the immediate supervisors is the fact that the onus lies more with the observee rather than the observer, although the learning derived by the latter in order to mature as a professional observer acts as the perfect icing on the cake. The complete paper authored by Prof. Salim Saeed Salim Bani Orabah detailing peer observation, can be accessed from http://www.moe.gov.om/Portal/sitebuilder/Sites/EPS/Arabic/IPS/Importa/tesol/6/Teachers%E2%80%99%20beliefs%20about%20peer%20observation.pdf .  The experts can be reached at sbaniorabah@ict.edu.om and haroun@ict.edu.om .