Final: 18-10-2018

ASSIGNMENT No. 2
Course: Processes of Educational Planning–I
(6559) Semester: Autumn 2018 Level: MA–EPM
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Q. 1
Define the concepts school catchment area. Also identify the
factors that must be taken into consideration, while planning
the location of school in Baluchistan province.(20)
Ans
Definition of concepts school catchment area
a catchment area is the area from which a city, service or institution
attracts a population that uses its services. For example, a school
catchment area is the geographic area from which students are eligible to
attend a local school.
School catchment area refers to the geographical area from which
students are allowed to attend a specific school.
Catchments can be defined based upon a number of factors including
distance to the facility, actual travel time to the facility, geographic
boundaries or population within the catchment. In a distance based
catchment, the area serviced will often depend on the number of visits
expected to that institution by each individual. For example, it may be
more acceptable to have a larger catchment for a hospital where any one
individual will have few annual visits in comparison to a school where
visits will be daily and hence desired distance would be closer. When a
facility’s capacity can only service a certain volume, the catchment may
be used to limit a population’s ability to access services outside that
area. For example, children may be unable to enroll in a school outside
their catchment to prevent the school's services being exceeded.

Identify the factors that must be taken into consideration, while

planning the location of school in Baluchistan province.
Quetta district education sector plan flows from the provincial Balochistan
Education Sector Plan (BESP). Many of the strategies in the document
derive from the BESP but have been adjusted according to the needs of
the district and its position, and limitations, in the governance structure.
The aspects of access, equity, quality and governance and management
have all been covered.
It appears that district options get most limited in case of quality as most
quality related supply institutions are at the provincial level. However, the
sector plan emphasizes the need for the district to get more involved,
and proactive, approach. Also they need to take more responsibility for
quality of the teaching and learning process.

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Government of Balochistan has already passed ‘Balochistan Free and
Compulsory Education Act 2014’. This Act makes the government
responsible for bearing all the education-related costs inclusive of
stationery, schoolbags, school meals and transport for the children falling
in the aforementioned age group. This bill further stipulates that free and
compulsory education is imparted to every child regardless of sex,
nationality, race or disability in a neighborhood school.
Important Factors
Apart from the existing quality of education and teaching learning process
with in classroom there are some critical contributing factors to high
number of out of school children and unsatisfactory transition rates.
These factors are discussed below.
School Availability and Utilization
Unlike other parts of Balochistan, Quetta has relatively higher population
density. As described earlier population density in district Quetta is 466
persons per square kilometer. As opposed to 358 primary schools there
are 89 middle and 77 secondary schools while there are only 5 higher
secondary school in the district. Overall the ratio of primary to middle is
4:1, for boys it is 7:1 and for girls it is 2:1. The district has 50 (14%)
primary schools with single teacher and 63 primary schools with single
room. Low utilization of existing teacher strength and schools is another
factor. The enrolment gaps continue to exist even in populations and
settlements with accessible primary schools.
Missing Facilities and School Environment
Missing and bad conditions of essentially required facilities like water and
toilets adversely affect the enrolment and retention. Table below shows
the situation of facilities available in schools in the district.

Poverty
Despite provision of free textbooks and abolition of school fee by
Government of Balochistan, poverty continues to hamper the efforts of
providing education to all children. The district has its share of poverty
and often parents have to pull children out of school due to the increased
opportunity costs and issues of low expectations. Moreover it appears
that other expenses like transportation costs, uniform and stationary also
creates hindrance for parents to send their children to school. The district
authorities, within their limitations, will need to reduce these economic
barriers to school entry and continuation.
Parent’s Illiteracy

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Societal attitudes towards education are the most crucial factor and
parent involvement and their perception of educational outcomes is a key
for enhancing access to education. Parents’ involvement is also a
pathway through which schools enhance the achievement of
underperforming students. Their illiteracy also impacts attitudes towards
education of both boys and girls. Being the key stakeholders it is
imperative to keep them involved in the process. Field visits to district
Quetta shows that community involvement has been weak. Also there are
cultural bounds on female education. The district authorities will need to
take serious efforts to revive and make fully functional school level
PTSMCs. PTSMCs will be the key to greater community involvement
including community elders/notables and religious leaders.
Alternate Learning Pathways

The district does not have any direct role in targeting out of school
children through non-formal education or alternate learning pathways to
prepare out of school children for return to regular institutions on a fast
track basis. The main intervention in the area is carried out by the
provincial Balochistan Education Foundation (BEF) and the federal
National Education Foundation (NEF). The BEF supports community and
private schools through a 'public private partnership' process.
Overarching Factors for Poor Education
Poor quality of the teaching learning process demonstrated in the results
above owes to a number of factors that are cross cutting across all
districts. Poor quality of teaching remains at the centre. Non-
standardized teacher education is at the root of the poor learning
processes in the classroom. The situation gets compounded by an
unrealistic language policy, poor quality of textbooks and an examination
system that tests memory and not analytical-critical ability. Some of the
key problems that lie beyond district control are:
1. Poor Quality of Pre-Service Teacher Education
2. Textbooks Quality
3. In-Service Teacher Education
4. BISE’s Summative Assessment
5. Accountability Model (Excludes Quality)
District Related Factors of Poor Quality
There are a number of gaps at the district level which, if addressed, can
help reduce the quality deficit even as implications of centralized policies
continue to impact the situation.

Ownership of Quality in Education

As mentioned the education field officers at the district level are more
concerned with issues of access, buildings and administrative matters like

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transfers and postings. Quality of teaching and learning is considered a
low priority- if at all. Generally textbook board, PITE and BOC are seen as
responsible for quality. Products of these organizations are accepted
passively by the district.
Capacity of Field Teams
The Learning Coordinators assigned the task of monitoring quality of
education in the field have little or no capacity to undertake the task.
These are normally selected from senior teachers who are nearing
retirement. They have normally used the rote memory approach
themselves and receive no training in monitoring quality in schools. They
are further handicapped by a lack of resources to visit schools.
Accountability Model of Head Teachers
Head teachers are normally held accountable for absenteeism of teachers
and coverage of syllabi. Learning of children is not considered except at
the secondary level where the examinations conducted by the Board of
Intermediate and Secondary Education become a test of quality.
However, it remains an imperfect benchmark as head teachers cannot be
held accountable for the terminal examination at the end of ten years of
education alone. Much else needs to be built into the accountability
model.
Curriculum Implementation and Feedback
Field research in the district shows that neither the district authorities nor
teachers and head teachers have any idea of curriculum and its structure.
Moreover teachers, head teachers and district officials do not provide any
structured feedback to the provincial government on curriculum. While
curriculum review and development is the responsibility of province, the
district authorities can disseminate the curriculum and ensure that
teacher and head teachers are aware of its objectives and contents.
Textbooks Distribution and Feedback
As already stated above textbooks continue to have quality issues that
reduce the effectiveness of the teaching learning process. Textbooks
taught in classrooms often do not cater to the learning requirements of
the district; other problems in textbooks include difficulty of language
and poor explanation of concepts. Like curriculum, textbooks
development is the responsibility of province, district level responsibility
includes distribution of textbooks since the government decided to
provide free textbooks to all children. Visit to the field in Quetta district
showed that there are problems in timely distribution of textbooks and
the feedback mechanism on textbooks to the province is missing. The
district needs to come up with a plan to ensure timely distribution of
textbooks to all schools and students in coordination with the province
and to make arrangements like maintenance of book banks to cope with
delays in distribution and shortages of textbooks. Apart from distribution
mechanism, the district also needs to streamline demand for quality

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textbooks by instituting a feedback system from teachers, head teachers
and students.
References

 Aziz, Mehnaz, August 2012, Early Childhood Education (ECE) -

Review and Analysis of the Balochistan Education Program

 Daily Balochistan Express, Decembers, 2014,, "Balochistan has

85,000 disabled children"
 Government of Balochistan, February 26, 2014, Notification for the
Balochistan Compulsory Education Act

 Government of Balochistan, Department of Education, PPIU,

Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013-2018

 Government of Balochistan, Department of Education, PPIU,

September 2014, Policy and Right to Education (RTE): Status of
Early Childhood Education in Balochistan

Q. 2
What are the scope and need of statistics in educational
planning? What kind of error can occur, while collecting statistics
data? What are the effects of these errors on educational
planning? Give examples with reference to Pakistan. (20)
Ans
Scope and need of statistics in educational planning
Statistics are a potent and effective tool for the development of quality in
education. As education systems become increasingly complex, so also is
the availability of accurate, up-to-date statistics a clear imperative. This
by no way suggests that statistics on their own ensure or guarantee
quality, but rather that their availability are a condition for achieving it.
The role of statistics in the promotion of quality can be examined by
inking it to each of the stages of the model. Alternatively, statistics an be
viewed as part of the broader process of quality assurance that includes
educational planning, policy formulation, management, monitoring and
evaluation of the education systems, and highlighting the role played by
statistics in strengthening the process itself.

There is need to build a robust statistical program which is capable of

informing the education development process. The achievement of good
quality education is dependent on the quality of statistics which inform

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the policy formulation, educational planning, management and
monitoring processes. The statistical capacity building process at national
level is made up of four broad stages.
Quality assurance processes are many and diverse, but those most
commonly associated with statistics are educational planning, policy
formulation, management, monitoring and evaluation. Policy provides the
framework for the provision of education services. It provides guidelines
for action, and therefore as a tool for the regulation of quality. At every
level of the education system, there are policies that have a far-reaching
impact on quality. For example, policies on teacher/pupil ratios, on the
length of the school day, homework, teacher qualifications just to name a
few all influence quality.

Traditionally, education statistics have been regarded as vital for the

formulation of policy in relation to issues of access, coverage, equity,
efficiency and relevance. However, we have to acknowledge that it is
quality that underlies the total education experience. In other words,
access, coverage, equity, efficiency and relevance are sinequa non
attributes of quality. My argument here is that an education system that
is characterized by gross inequities, or low coverage, inefficiency and
poor access can hardly be regarded to be of high quality. Policies can be
shaped from statistical indicators on each of these aspects. .Indeed,
policies are generated from statistical information generated on inputs,
processes and outcomes.
This same argument applies to other quality assurance activities, namely,
planning, monitoring, evaluation and management. The major form of
information used to provide insights into the functioning of the education
system is statistical. Planning decisions on the demand and supply of
school places by location and age group, the evaluation of the impact of
past policy decisions on the system’s performance, the potential impact
of alternative options, monitoring of current and past projects and
programmers, and the management of physical, human and financial
resources, are all informed by statistics in the first place.
What kind of error can occur, while collecting statistics data?
What are the effects of these errors on educational planning?
Give examples with reference to Pakistan.
Error (statistical error) describes the difference between a value obtained
from a data collection process and the 'true' value for the population. The
greater the error, the less representative the data are of the population.
Data can be affected by two types of error: sampling error and non-
sampling error.
In statistics, sampling error is incurred when the statistical characteristics
of a population are estimated from a subset, or sample, of that
population. Since the sample does not include all members of the
population, statistics on the sample, such as means and quantiles,
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generally differ from statistics on the entire population. For example, if
one measures the height of a thousand individuals from a country of one
million, the average height of the thousand is typically not the same as
the average height of all one million people in the country. Since
sampling is typically done to determine the characteristics of a whole
population, the difference between the sample and population values is
considered a sampling error.. Exact measurement of sampling error is
generally not feasible since the true population values are unknown;
however, sampling error can often be estimated by probabilistic modeling
of the sample.

In statistics, sampling error is the error caused by observing a sample

instead of the whole population. The sampling error is the difference
between a sample statistic used to estimate a population parameter and
the actual but unknown value of the parameter. An estimate of a quantity
of interest, such as an average or percentage, will generally be subject to
sample-to-sample variation.. These variations in the possible sample
values of a statistic can theoretically be expressed as sampling errors,
although in practice the exact sampling error is typically unknown.
Sampling error also refers more broadly to this phenomenon of random
sampling variation.

For example, you could set a tolerance in terms of finance of +/- 5%,
and a tolerance in terms of time of +/- 10%. Equally, you may want to
look at tolerances of quality i.e. how far from the quality criteria are you
willing to accept?
Sampling error
Sampling error occurs solely as a result of using a sample from a
population, rather than conducting a census (complete enumeration) of
the population. It refers to the difference between an estimate for a
population based on data from a sample and the 'true' value for that
population which would result if a census were taken. Sampling errors do
not occur in a census, as the census values are based on the entire
population.
For example, a particular planning process may have its scope,
stakeholders, problem statement or goals already defined. In some
situations, a proposed plan may require several cycles of development
and adjustment due to changing conditions or as stakeholders gain a
better understanding of the issues. Sometimes the planning process faces
a barrier that requires revisiting basic assumptions (such as the scope,
problem statement or goals), or adjusting the process. In such situations,
planning requires flexibility, responsiveness, creativity and an ability to
prioritize, in order to achieve progress.
Non-sampling error

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 Non-sampling error is caused by factors other than those related to
sample selection. It refers to the presence of any factor, whether
systemic or random, that results in the data values not accurately
reflecting the 'true' value for the population.
Non-sampling error can occur at any stage of a census or sample study,
and are not easily identified or quantified.
Non-sampling error can include (but is not limited to):
Coverage error:
This occurs when a unit in the sample is incorrectly excluded or included,
or is duplicated in the sample (e.g. a field interviewer fails to interview a
selected household or some people in a household).
Non-response error
this refers to the failure to obtain a response from some unit because of
absence, non-contact, refusal, or some other reason. Non-response can
be complete non-response (i.e. no data has been obtained at all from a
selected unit) or partial non-response (i.e. the answers to some
questions have not been provided by a selected unit).
Response error:
This refers to a type of error caused by respondents intentionally or
accidentally providing inaccurate responses. This occurs when concepts,
questions or instructions are not clearly understood by the respondent;
when there are high levels of respondent burden and memory recall
required; and because some questions can result in a tendency to answer in
a socially desirable way (giving a response which they feel is more
acceptable rather than being an accurate response).

Interviewer error
This occurs when interviewers incorrectly record information; are not
neutral or objective; influence the respondent to answer in a particular way;
or assume responses based on appearance or other characteristics.
Processing error
This refers to errors that occur in the process of data collection, data entry,
coding, editing and output.
Type I error
Type I error involves cases where a hypothesis is true, but it is rejected
because the test statistic exceeds the critical value for the significance
level α. This might be considered a "false negative" result. (The above-
mentioned case of a fair coin that so happens by chance to turn up heads
an abnormally large number of times, resulting in the rejection of the
hypothesis that the coin is fair, is an example of Type I error.) The
probability of a Type I error occurring is the same as the significance level--
in other words, the probability of a Type I error decreases with
decreasing α. Recall that for a random variable (or test statistic) X,

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Type II error

Type II error occurs when the null hypothesis is false, but the data does
not indicate that it should be rejected. This situation could be considered
a "false positive" result. Such a case might involve a loaded coin that
happens to have a fair distribution of heads and tails in a certain series of
flips. The probability that a Type II error occurs is the same as the
probability that the random variable (or test statistic) does not exceed
the critical value c if the alternative hypothesis is assumed to be true:

In order to meet data requirements of planning a variety of information

relating to both general and educational scenario needs to be collected.
Information such as on, geography, irrigation, transportation, industry
and administrative structure are required so as to prepare a general
scenario of the existing infrastructural facilities available in a district and
its sub-units.

References

 Technical Manual on Use of Data for Educational Monitoring and

Supervision, NEMIS
 Plan Implementation and Management, AIOU, Islamabad
 Finance of Education (Public Sector): An analytical Approach,
Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Education, July 2008

Q. 3
Explain the methodology of Educational Simulation Model (ESM),
and what is the use of ESM models? Describe the classification of
Models. What type of Mathematical model would you propose for
education sector in Pakistan and why?
Ans
Methodology of Educational Simulation Model (ESM) and use of
ESM models?
Simulation models are increasingly being used to accompany the
processes of strategic and operational education sector development
planning. They help analyze the dynamics of education systems and
ensure coherence in the development of the education sector. They are
used to complement the diagnosis of education systems, to explore
possible policy options aimed at overcoming past shortcomings, to assess
the viability of an education development strategy and to propose
alternatives and trade-offs that can help cope with dynamic and changing
environments.

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Education simulation models contribute to an informed policy-making,
evidence stakeholders.-based policy dialogue and resource negotiation
for education development. They should provide information on realistic
resource packages required to achieve education sector policy, as well as
identifying financing gaps that can be supported by non-state
stakeholder.
Many education simulation models have been developed and applied in
national education development planning, often with technical assistance
from international agencies. These models may differ in their approaches,
structure, presentation and scope depending on national planning needs
and priorities, as well as on the focus and the purpose of the ‘advocating’
agencies.

Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or

system over time. The act of simulating something first requires that a
model be developed; this model represents the key characteristics or
behaviors/functions of the selected physical or abstract system or
process. The model represents the system itself, whereas the simulation
represents the operation of the system over time.

Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for

performance optimization, safety engineering, testing, training,
education, and video games. Often, computer experiments are used to
study simulation models. Simulation is also used with scientific modeling
of natural systems or human systems to gain insight into their
functioning. Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of
alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when
the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or
it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed
but not yet built, or it may simply not exist

Physical simulation refers to simulation in which physical objects are

substituted for the real thing (some circles use the term for computer
simulations modeling selected laws of physics, but this article doesn't).
These physical objects are often chosen because they are smaller or
cheaper than the actual object or system.

Interactive simulation is a special kind of physical simulation, often

referred to as a human in the loop simulation, in which physical
simulations include human operators, such as in a flight simulator or a
driving simulator.

A computer simulation is an attempt to model a real-life or hypothetical

situation on a computer so that it can be studied to see how the system
works. By changing variables in the simulation, predictions may be made
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about the behavior of the system. It is a tool to virtually investigate the
behavior of the system under study.

Computer simulation has become a useful part of modeling many natural

systems in physics, chemistry and biology, and human systems in
economics and social science (the computational sociology) as well as in
engineering to gain insight into the operation of those systems. A good
example of the usefulness of using computers to simulate can be found in
the field of network traffic simulation. In such simulations, the model
behavior will change each simulation according to the set of initial
parameters assumed for the environment.Traditionally, the formal
modeling of systems has been via a mathematical model, which attempts
to find analytical solutions enabling the prediction of the behavior of the
system from a set of parameters and initial conditions. Computer
simulation is often used as an adjunct to, or substitution for, modeling
systems for which simple closed form analytic solutions are not possible.
There are many different types of computer simulation, the common
feature they all share is the attempt to generate a sample of
representative scenarios for a model in which a complete enumeration of
all possible states would be prohibitive or impossible.

Simulation is extensively used for educational purposes. It is frequently

used by way of adaptive hypermedia.Simulation is often used in the
training of civilian and military personnel. This usually occurs when it is
prohibitively expensive or simply too dangerous to allow trainees to use
the real equipment in the real world. In such situations they will spend
time learning valuable lessons in a "safe" virtual environment yet living a
lifelike experience (or at least it is the goal). Often the convenience is to
permit mistakes during training for a safety-critical system. There is a
distinction, though, between simulations used for training and
Instructional simulation.

Training simulations typically come in one of three categories:

 "live" simulation (where actual players use genuine systems in a real

environment);
 "virtual" simulation (where actual players use simulated systems in
a synthetic environment ), or
 "constructive" simulation (where simulated players use simulated
systems in a synthetic environment). Constructive simulation is
often referred to as "wargaming" since it bears some resemblance to
table-top war games in which players command armies of soldiers
and equipment that move around a board.

In standardized tests, "live" simulations are sometimes called "high-

fidelity", producing "samples of likely performance", as opposed to "low-
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fidelity", "pencil-and-paper" simulations producing only "signs of possible
performance", but the distinction between high, moderate and low fidelity
remains relative, depending on the context of a particular comparison.

Describe the classification of Models.

Types of Mathematical Models Equations

The mathematical model we just used was in the form of a formula,

or equation. Equations are the most common type of mathematical
model.
Here's another example of an equation as a mathematical model.
Suppose that a store is having a closeout sale where everything in the
store is 15% off. That is, if an item is x dollars, then the discount is 15%
of x, or 0.15x. The sale price can be found by subtracting the discount
(0.15x) from the original price (x), giving the following equation that
models the sale price of any item in the store with the original price x:
 S = x - 0.15x

We can also combine like terms and write this equation as:
 S = 0.85x

Both of these equations are mathematical models, because they

represent a real-world scenario by using a formula to find the sale price
of anything in the store. For instance, if something is originally $5, then
the sale price can be found using our model by plugging in x = 5:
 S = 0.85(5) = 4.25

We see that the sale price is $4.25.

Graphs
Another type of mathematical model is a graph. As we just said, most
mathematical models are expressed in the form of an equation.
Equations can be graphed, so it makes sense that another type of
mathematical model would be a graph. For example, we could illustrate
the sale prices of store items on a graph, where the y-axis is the sale
price, and the x-axis is the original price of an item.

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A graph is another type of mathematical
model.

We can determine the sale price of an item by locating its original price
along the x-axis and then finding the corresponding y-value, or sale
price, on the graph. As shown on the graph, if an item has an original
sale price of $5, then the corresponding sale price is $4.25, which is what
we expected based on our findings from the equation. A graph is another
tool, or mathematical model, that we can use to understand real-world
scenarios.

Simple Mathematical Models

When studying models, it is helpful to identify broad categories of

models. Classification of individual models into these categories tells us
immediately some of the essentials of their structure. There are several
methodologies for classification of mathematical models, below mention
some of these.
One division between models is based on the type of outcome they
predict. Deterministic models ignore random variation, and so always
predict the same outcome from a given starting point. On the other hand,
the model may be statistical in nature and so may predict the distribution
of possible outcomes. Such models are said to be stochastic.

What type of Mathematical model would you propose for

education sector in Pakistan and why?

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 Model of M-Learning in Pakistan

The main objectives of this model were to: i) assess mathematical skills
of grade 4 students (ii) find out if SMS can be used to assess
mathematical skills of students .The researcher developed math
assessment for grade 4 students based on the curriculum. Pre and post
assessment was done with paper and pencil onsite to see if the results of
the SMS assessment show the actual learning of students in the selected
units of mathematics. The results of SMS assessment matched the paper
and pencil test except the results on the first two questions of addition in
which students performed better with the paper and pencil test. It is
therefore recommended that testing of mathematical skills of students in
upper elementary grades can be done through SMS if the students are
informed and the school administration agrees with the approach.There is
a high penetration of mobile phones in Pakistan; therefore a project was
designed to assess mathematical skills of grade 4 public school students.

To measure the academic achievement of students a mathematics test

was developed for this study and it covered the mathematical content of
grade 3 mathematics based on the curriculum being followed in the
schools. To ensure the accuracy of the test and to check the difficulty
level the test was reviewed by two public school Mathematics teachers
who were teaching grade 4 in different schools. The test included items
from all the areas of mathematics and students had to choose the right
answer from a choice of three and then sent SMS “a”, “b” or “c” as the
right answer.

Before starting the project, a visit to the schools was done to ensure that
the students can send “a” “b” or “c” as SMS when asked to choose
between three options. However, practice was not done with the actual
mobile phones with these students. Informal assessment was done in the
class to see if students could read SMS messages writing Urdu place
value in English and modifications were made in the SMS messages to be
sent after the visit. Students preferred to have “hazaar” written as the
place value rather than “thousand”. Instructions were kept to a minimum
so that the students can recognize the mathematical operation sign to
solve the mathematical sums

References

 Gallaher & J. Kaufmann (Eds.) (2005). Gender differences in

mathematics, an integrated psychological approach. UK: Cambridge
university press
 Andrabi, T. (2008). A dime a day, possibilities and limits of private
schooling in Pakistan. Comparative Education Review, 52(3), 329-
356
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  Chipman, S. F. (2005). Research on the women and mathematics
issue. In A. Gallaher & J. Kaufmann (Eds.). Gender differences in
mathematics, an integrated psychological approach.UK: Cambridge
University Press
 Gilbert, M. & Gilbert L.. (2002).Challenges in implementing
strategies for gender aware teaching. Mathematics Teaching in the
Middle School, 7(9), 522-27

Q. 4

What is strategic management? Define various elements of

strategic management? Highlight the characteristics of
educational strategic management process at national level in
Pakistan? (20)
Ans
Strategic management

Strategic management involves the formulation and implementation

of the major goals and initiatives taken by a company's top management
on behalf of owners, based on consideration of resources and an
assessment of the internal and external environments in which the
organization competes.

Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and

involves specifying the organization's objectives, developing policies and
plans designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources
to implement the plans. Academics and practicing managers have
developed numerous models and frameworks to assist in strategic
decision making in the context of complex environments and competitive
dynamics. Strategic management is not static in nature; the models often
include a feedback loop to monitor execution and inform the next round
of planning.

Michael Porter identifies three principles underlying strategy: creating a

"unique and valuable market position", making trade-offs by choosing
"what not to do", and creating "fit" by aligning company activities with
one another to support the chosen strategy. Dr. Vladimir Kvint defines
strategy as "a system of finding, formulating, and developing a doctrine
that will ensure long-term success if followed faithfully."

Corporate strategy involves answering a key question from a portfolio

perspective: "What business should we be in?" Business strategy involves
answering the question: "How shall we compete in this business?" In
management theory and practice, a further distinction is often made
between strategic management and operational management.
Operational management is concerned primarily with improving efficiency

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and controlling costs within the boundaries set by the organization's
strategy.

Strategic management involves the related concepts of strategic

planning and strategic thinking. Strategic planning is analytical in nature
and refers to formalized procedures to produce the data and analyses
used as inputs for strategic thinking, which synthesizes the data resulting
in the strategy. Strategic planning may also refer to control mechanisms
used to implement the strategy once it is determined. In other words,
strategic planning happens around the strategic thinking or strategy
making activity.
Strategic management is often described as involving two major
processes: formulation and implementation of strategy. While described
sequentially below, in practice the two processes are iterative and each
provides input for the other.
Porter developed a framework for analyzing the profitability of industries
and how those profits are divided among the participants in 1980. In five
forces analysis he identified the forces that shape the industry structure
or environment. The framework involves the bargaining power of buyers
and suppliers, the threat of new entrants, the availability of substitute
products, and the competitive rivalry of firms in the industry. These
forces affect the organization's ability to raise its prices as well as the
costs of inputs (such as raw materials) for its processes.
The five forces framework helps describe how a firm can use these forces
to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage, either lower cost or
differentiation. Companies can maximize their profitability by competing
in industries with favorable structure. Competitors can take steps to grow
the overall profitability of the industry, or to take profit away from other
parts of the industry structure. Porter modified Chandler's dictum about
structure following strategy by introducing a second level of structure:
while organizational structure follows strategy, it in turn follows industry
structure.
Define various elements of strategic management?

Strategic management process has following four steps:

1. Environmental Scanning- Environmental scanning refers to a

process of collecting, scrutinizing and providing information for
strategic purposes. It helps in analyzing the internal and external
factors influencing an organization. After executing the
environmental analysis process, management should evaluate it on
a continuous basis and strive to improve it.
2. Strategy Formulation- Strategy formulation is the process of
deciding best course of action for accomplishing organizational

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 objectives and hence achieving organizational purpose. After
conducting environment scanning, managers formulate corporate,
business and functional strategies.
3. Strategy Implementation- Strategy implementation implies
making the strategy work as intended or putting the organization’s
chosen strategy into action. Strategy implementation includes
designing the organization’s structure, distributing resources,
developing decision making process, and managing human
resources.
4. Strategy Evaluation- Strategy evaluation is the final step of
strategy management process. The key strategy evaluation
activities are: appraising internal and external factors that are the
root of present strategies, measuring performance, and taking
remedial / corrective actions. Evaluation makes sure that the
organizational strategy as well as it’s implementation meets the
organizational objectives.

These components are steps that are carried, in chronological order,

when creating a new strategic management plan. Present businesses that
have already created a strategic management plan will revert to these
steps as per the situation’s requirement, so as to make essential
changes.

Components of Strategic Management Process

Strategic management is an ongoing process. Therefore, it must be
realized that each component interacts with the other components and
that this interaction often happens in chorus.

Characteristics of educational strategic management process at

national level in Pakistan
1. Strategy is a systematic phenomenon:
Strategy involves a series of action plans, no way contradictory to each
other because a common theme runs across them. It is not merely a
good idea; it is making that idea happen too. Strategy is a unified,
comprehensive and integrated plan of action.

2. By its nature, it is multidisciplinary:

Strategy involves marketing, finance, human resource and operations to
formulate and implement strategy. Strategy takes a holistic view. It is

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multidisciplinary as a new strategy influences all the functional areas,
i.e., marketing, financial, human resource, and operations.

3. By its influence, it is multidimensional:

Strategy not only tells about vision and objectives, but also the way to
achieve them. So, it implies that the organization should possess the
resources and competencies appropriate for implementation of strategy
as well as strong performance culture, with clear accountability and
incentives linked to performance.

4. By its structure, it is hierarchical:

On the top come corporate strategies, then come business unit
strategies, and finally functional strategies. Corporate strategies are
decided by the top management, Business Unit level strategies by the top
people of individual strategic business units, and the functional strategies
are decided by the functional heads.

5. by relationship, it is dynamic:
Strategy is to create a fit between the environment and the
organisation’s actions. As environment itself is subject to fast change, the
strategy too has to be dynamic to move in accordance to the
environment.

Success of Microsoft appears to be very simple as far as software for

personal computers are concerned, but Microsoft strategy required
continuous decisions in a turbulent and dynamic environment to remain
leader.

6. The purpose of strategy is to create competence (things firm does

better than competitors), synergy (between different parts of the
organization and their activities) and value creation so as to attain vision
and mission.
An organization can reach its destiny (vision) only if it can create value
for the firm and its stakeholders (mission). Value creation involves
economic value addition (profits for the company), customer value
addition (Value customers perceive in relation to competitors), people
value addition (Value gained from enabling employees to be most
productive resource.) so as to fulfil the needs of all concerned.

7. Strategy requires searching for new sources of advantage:

To achieve sustainable long term competitive advantage the firm must
invent new rules and new games to become unique and create wealth.
Simply copying the leader means value is destroyed for all the firms.
Thus to look different, strategy differentiation is a must.

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9. Strategy is almost always the result of some type of collective
decision-making process:
The vision, mission, objectives, and corporate strategies are determined
by top management. Business Unit strategies are decided by heads of
business units and functional plans by functional heads. But the top
management consent is a must. It is the senior management which
resolves paradoxes between the conflicting objectives, existing functions
and future activities, and the resources allocation.

References
 Astley, W.G. and Fombrun, C.J. (1983) ‘Collective strategy: Social
ecology of organizational environments’, Academy of Management
Review, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 576–87.
 Mintzberg, H. (1996) ‘Five ps for strategy’ in Mintzberg, H. and
Quinn, J.B. (1996) The Strategy Process, London, Prentice Hall.
 Rumelt, R.P. (1982) Expressed at the Strategic Management Society
Conference, Paris, October 1982
Q. 5
Write short notes on the following: (20)
a) SWOT Analysis
b) Planning Levels
c) Break-even Analysis
d) Causal Model

Ans part a
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT Matrix) is a structured planning
method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A SWOT analysis
can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves
specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying
the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to
achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey,
who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI
International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500
companies. The degree to which the internal environment of the firm
matches with the external environment is expressed by the concept of
strategic fit

Setting the objective should be done after the SWOT analysis has been
performed. This would allow achievable goals or objectives to be set for
the organization.

 Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it

an advantage over others.

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  Weaknesses: characteristics that place the team at a
disadvantage relative to others
 Opportunities: elements that the project could exploit to its
advantage
 Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble
for the business or project

Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps

in planning to achieve the objective.

First, the decision makers should consider whether the objective is

attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable a different
objective must be selected and the process repeated.

Users of SWOT analysis need to ask and answer questions that generate
meaningful information for each category (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats) to make the analysis useful and find their
competitive advantage.

SWOT analysis aims to identify the key internal and external factors seen
as important to achieving an objective. The factors come from within a
company's unique value chain SWOT analysis groups key pieces of
information into two main categories:

1. internal factors – the strengths and weaknesses internal to the

organization
2. external factors – the opportunities and threats presented by
the environment external to the organization

Analysis may view the internal factors as strengths or as weaknesses

depending upon their effect on the organization's objectives. What may
represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses
(distractions, competition) for another objective. The factors may include
all of the 4Ps; as well as personnel, finance, manufacturing capabilities,
and so on.

The external factors may include macroeconomic matters, technological

change, legislation, and socio-cultural changes, as well as changes in the
marketplace or in competitive position. The results are often presented in
the form of a matrix.

SWOT analysis is just one method of categorization and has its own
weaknesses. For example, it may tend to persuade its users to compile
lists rather than to think about actual important factors in achieving
objectives. It also presents the resulting lists uncritically and without

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clear prioritization so that, for example, weak opportunities may appear
to balance strong threats

Ans part b

Planning Levels

Strategic Plans
To best understand the relationship between the different types of plans,
let's start at the top. Strategic plans are designed with the entire
organization in mind and begin with an organization's mission. Top-level
managers, such as CEOs or presidents, will design and execute strategic
plans to paint a picture of the desired future and long-term goals of the
organization. Essentially, strategic plans look ahead to where the
organization wants to be in three, five, even ten years. Strategic plans,
provided by top-level managers, serve as the framework for lower-level
planning.

Tactical Plans
Now that you have a general idea for how organizational planning
evolves, let's look at the next level of planning, known as tactical
planning. Tactical plans support strategic plans by translating them into
specific plans relevant to a distinct area of the organization. Tactical plans
are concerned with the responsibility and functionality of lower-level
departments to fulfill their parts of the strategic plan.
For example, when Martha, the middle-level manager at Nino's, learns
about Tommy's strategic plan for increasing productivity, Martha
immediately begins to think about possible tactical plans to ensure that
happens. Tactical planning for Martha might include things like testing a
new process in making pizzas that has been proven to shorten the
amount of time it takes for prepping the pizza to be cooked or perhaps
looking into purchasing a better oven that can speed up the amount of
time it takes to cook a pizza or even considering ways to better map out
delivery routes and drivers. As a tactical planner, Martha needs to create
a set of calculated actions that take a shorter amount of time and are
narrower in scope than the strategic plan is but still help to bring the
organization closer to the long-term goal.

Operational Plans
Operational plans sit at the bottom of the totem pole; they are the plans
that are made by frontline, or low-level, managers. All operational plans
are focused on the specific procedures and processes that occur within

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the lowest levels of the organization. Managers must plan the routine
tasks of the department using a high level of detail.

Corporate Planning
Corporate planning is when higher-up management and owners review
their current strategy to determine their long-time goals. They
communicate directly with the owners or stockholders. Corporate
planning deals with the company as whole, including all of its divisions
and departments. In your company, you must look at how managers and
employees are working within the company. You have to determine what
goals you want to accomplish, whether generating more revenue or
having more effective customer service. Corporate planning takes a long-
term view and determines the company's policies and procedures. At this
level, you would assign resources to each business unit.

Business/Division Planning
Business (or division) planning has to do with staying competitive by
creating useful products and staying competitive with other goods or
services. It deals with only one business, compared to the corporate level
which deals with all parts of the company. Staying competitive with other
competitors is a vital part of business planning. At this level, you can
determine consumers' needs and how to adjust the plan to make sure the
business or division meets your customers' needs. Usually, your company
would have one or two managers who are in control of the planning to
help bring in profits
Ans part c
Break-even Analysis
Break-even analysis entails the calculation and examination of the margin
of safety for an entity based on the revenues collected and associated
costs. Analyzing different price levels relating to various levels of
demand, an entity uses break-even analysis to determine what level of
sales are needed to cover total fixed costs. A demand-side analysis would
give a seller greater insight regarding selling capabilities
Break-even analysis is useful in the determination of the level of
production or in a targeted desired sales mix. The analysis is for
management’s use only as the metric and calculations are often not
required to be disclosed to external sources such as investors, regulators
or financial institutions. Break-even analysis looks at the level of fixed
costs relative to the profit earned by each additional unit produced and
sold. In general, a company with lower fixed costs will have a lower
break-even point of sale. For example, a company with $0 of fixed costs
will automatically have broken even upon the sale of the first product
assuming variable costs do not exceed sales revenue. However, the

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accumulation of variable costs will limit the leverage of the company as
these expenses are incurred for each item sold.

The concept of break-even analysis deals with the contribution margin of

a product. The contribution margin is the excess between the selling price
of the good and total variable costs. For example, if a product sells for
$100, total fixed costs are $25 per product and total variable costs are
$60 per product, the product has a contribution margin of the product is
$40 ($100 - $60). This $40 reflects the amount of revenue collected to
cover fixed costs and be retained as net profit. Fixed costs are not
considered in calculating the contribution margin.

Ans part d
Causal Model
A causal model is a conceptual model that describes
the causal mechanisms of a system. Causal models can improve study
designs by providing clear rules for deciding which independent variables
need to be included/controlled for.
They can allow some questions to be answered from existing
observational data without the need for an interventional study such as
a randomized controlled trial. Some interventional studies are
inappropriate for ethical or practical reasons, meaning that without a
causal model, some questions cannot be answered.
Causal models can help with the question of external validity(whether
results from one study apply to unstudied populations). Causal models
can allow data from multiple studies to be merged (in certain
circumstances) to answer questions that cannot be answered by any
individual data set.
Causal models are falsifiable, in that if they do not match data, they must
be rejected as invalid.
Suppose a general-population survey shows that people who exercise
less, weigh more. You don't have any known direction of time in the data
- you don't know which came first, the increased weight or the
diminished exercise. And you didn't randomly assign half the population
to exercise less; you just surveyed an existing population.

The statisticians who discovered causality were trying to find a way to

distinguish, within survey data, the direction of cause and effect whether,
as common sense would have it, more obese people exercise
less because they find physical activity less rewarding; or whether, as in
the virtue theory of metabolism, lack of exercise actually causes weight
gain due to divine punishment for the sin of sloth.

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References

 "SWOT Analysis: Discover New Opportunities, Manage and

Eliminate Threats". www.mindtools.com. 1006. Retrieved 24
February 2018.
 Dess, Gregory (2018). Strategic Management. United States:
McGraw-Hill. p. 73.
 Owen, AM (Nov 1997). "Cognitive planning in humans:
neuropsychological, neuro anatomical and neuro pharmacological
perspectives". Prog Neurobiol. 53 (4): 431–50.
 Barron's Management book fourth edition, Authors: Patrick J.
Montana and Bruce H. Charnov

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