Tag: Strategy

Market Research Coffee of Starbucks’ Entry into China
Starbucks’ Entry into China: How to Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain? Market Research Coffee of Starbucks‘ Entry into China, Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of November 2016, it operates 23,768 locations worldwide. Also, Starbucks considers the main representative of “second wave coffee”, initially distinguishing itself from other coffee-serving venues in the US by taste, quality, and customer experience while popularizing darkly roasted coffee. Since the 2000s, third-wave coffee makers have targeted quality-minded coffee drinkers with hand-made coffee based on lighter roasts, while Starbucks nowadays uses automated espresso machines for efficiency and safety reasons.

Here is the article to explain, Market Research Coffee of Starbucks’ Entry into China!

Starbucks locations serve hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, Micro ground instant coffee known as VIA, espresso, caffe latte, full- and loose-leaf teas including Teavana tea products, Evolution Fresh juices, Frappuccino beverages, La Boulange pastries, and snacks including items such as chips and crackers, the article defines how to Entry into China; some offerings (including their annual fall launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte) are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Also, many stores sell pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers; select “Starbucks Evenings” locations offer beer, wine, and appetizers. Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks also sold at grocery stores, Market Research.

Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle in the early 1980s. Despite an initial economic downturn with its expansion into the Midwest and British Columbia in the late 1980s, the company experienced revitalized prosperity with its entry into California in the early 1990s. The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo in 1996; overseas properties now constitute almost one-third of its stores. The company opened an average of two new locations daily between 1987 and 2007. On December 1, 2016, Howard Schultz announced he would resign as CEO effective in April 2017 and will replace by Kevin Johnson. Johnson assumed the role of CEO on April 3, 2017.

Market Shopping:

Starbucks uses the highest quality Arabic coffee as the base for its espresso drinks, they provide high quality that’s why Entry into China essay. Learn about their unique coffee and espresso drinks today. If You can Buy your favorite Starbucks coffee, cups, mugs, coffee makers, and brewing equipment online with free standard U.S. shipping of over $50.

Starbucks has developed an internationalization strategy to enable the company to open stores and franchises in countries across the globe. Market research is at the core of many of the market entry strategies Starbucks is employing. Also, This case study will consider how market research has strengthened Starbucks ‘ entry into the Chinese markets.

Market Research: Starbucks International Business Strategy.

Starbucks entry into emerging and developed markets inform by market research.

Starbucks conducted market research to enable a deeper understanding of the Chinese markets, and the way that capitalism functions in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Also, China contains a number of distinct regionally-based markets, a factor that makes market research crucial to launching new stores and franchises in China. A deep understanding of intellectual property right laws is critical to successful market entry in emerging markets.

Starbucks articulate an entry strategy that would address the dominant Chinese markets and that was design to as inoffensive concerning the Chinese culture as possible. Instead of taking the conventional approach with advertising and promotions — which could have seen by potential Chinese consumers as attacking their culture of drinking tea –, they position stores in high-traffic and high visibility locations.

Moreover, Starbucks very deliberately began to bridge the gap between the tea-drinking culture and the coffee drinking culture by introducing beverages in the Chinese stores that included local tea-based ingredients. Also, Market research supports the development of Starbucks’ competitive internationalization strategy. The overarching competitive strategy was to create an aspirational brand. Prospective Starbucks customers in China could look forward to what Starbucks refers to as The Third Place experience.

The Starbucks experience conveys status that is highly appealing to those aspiring to Western standards or to climbing the ladder in their own culture. Also, Market research indicates that brand consistency is important to Starbucks’ customers. When Starbucks opens a new store in an emerging market like China, the best baristas are sent for the launch and to conduct training of the baristas who will carry on when once the launch has completed.

Market Research Addresses the Emerging Market Political Environment.

Market research help to identify the attributes of capitalism in the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC). Also, The middle class in China has rapidly accepted Western standards as an acceptable standard of the bourgeois class. Moreover, Chinese consumers accept purchases of luxury goods as a means of pursuing quality lifestyles. Under the influence of Communism, the Chinese considered conspicuous consumption to be decadent or indicative of a lack of a nationalistic orientation.

Capitalism in The Peoples’ Republic of China supports the status-conscious population that manifests its interest in keeping up with the Jones’ through excessive luxury consumption. The Chinese government’s support of luxury consumption is particularly apparent in certain cities in China. The second-tier city of Chengdu serves as a market research case study in Chinese governmental support of capitalism.

Chengdu promotes capitalism at a level evidenced by the presence of stores like Louis Vuitton and Cartier in its downtown. According to the Chengdu Retail Industry Association. Also, The stores selling 80 percent of international luxury brands are located in Chengdu. And the city ranks just third in luxury sales after Beijing and Shanghai. It is easy to see how this national orientation toward luxury goods extends to the Starbucks mobile app brand. Which is characterized by a certain degree of exclusivity.

Market Research Reveals Attributes of Emerging Market Legal Environment.

It is essential to understand the intellectual property rights laws and licensing issues when planning market entry in an emerging market. Also, Starbucks has used intellectual protection laws to prevent its business model and brand from being illegally copied in China.

Four years after opening its first café in China – in 1999 – Starbucks had registered all its major trademarks in China. A number of Chinese businesses have overstepped legal bounds in their efforts to mimic the successful Starbucks model.

The organization and structure of Starbucks’ global operations were informed by market research. The organizational strategies employ by Starbucks were derive from Starbucks’ experiences in other emerging markets support an early recognition that China is not one homogeneous market. Also, The organizational strategies employed by Starbucks addressed many Chinese markets.

The culture dominant in northern China differs radically from the culture in the eastern parts of China. As reflected in the differences in consumer spending power inland which is considerably lower than the spending power in coastal cities.

Starbucks market area:

The complexity of the Chinese markets led to regional partnerships to aid in Starbucks’ plans for expansion in China; the partnerships provided consumer insight into Chinese tastes and preferences that helped Starbucks localize to the diverse markets.
- Northern China: Joint venture with Beijing Mei Da coffee company
- Eastern China: Partnered with Taiwan-based Uni-President
- Southern China: Worked with Maxim’s Caterers in Hong Kong
Starbucks’ competitive advantage is built on product, service, and brand attributes. Many of these have shown through market research to important to Starbucks’ customers. Western brands have an advantage over local Chinese brands. Because of a commonly accepted reputation for consistently higher quality products and services. A factor that establishes the Western brands as premium brands in the minds of consumers.

When Western brands attempt to increase market share by cutting prices. They erode the very competitive strategy that gives them an edge in consumer perceptions. Moreover, Western brands cannot effectively maintain a lower pricing strategy than local Chinese brands. Maintain brand integrity in new markets. Also, Starbucks’ global brand is valuable, and maintaining brand integrity is a fundamental focus in Starbucks’ internationalization efforts.

Starbucks brand ambassadors:

The baristas in China acted as brand ambassadors to help embed the Starbucks culture in the new market. Ensure, that high standards for customer service and product quality maintain at each new and established local store. Also, Starbucks’ ability to address changing markets hone by effective and ongoing market research. Establishing and maintaining a global Starbucks brand does not mean having a global platform or uniform global products.

Their marketing strategy in China was base on customization in response to diverse Chinese consumer target segmentation. Also, Starbucks created extensive consumer taste profile analyses that are sufficiently agile to enable them to change with the market. And to create an attractive East meets West product mix. Moreover, the localization effort is sufficiently flexible to permit each store, the flexibility to choose from a wide beverage portfolio.

Market Research Coffee of Starbucks’ Entry into China!
September 6, 2017
Case Study of Starbucks Entry to China with Marketing Strategy!

The Starbucks Entry to China; Starbucks is one of the largest coffee chains in the World. A Case Study of Starbucks Entry to China, so, the company has a unique style and atmosphere in its coffee houses. We chose China because it is the world’s most populous country with over 1.3 billion people live there and the second-largest country by land area. After 1978, the country’s economy underwent dramatic changes which involved such relief as permission for entrepreneurs to start up. Their own business and opening the country for foreign investment. Starbucks managers decided to take advantage of such an opportunity to expand their business into the new region. To evaluate the Chinese market the company used several steps of analysis. Also learn, What is the Growth Strategy for Case Study Starbucks? Case Study of Starbucks Entry to China with Marketing Strategy!

Case Study on Starbucks Entry to China with Marketing Strategy!

The following case study explain below are;

Who might be interested in buying coffee in China?

To introduce the Starbucks brand the company begun to distribute coffee for free to guests in several Beijing’s hotels in 1994. This initiative indicated that there was a strong demand for their products, particularly among foreigners in China. Local people, who strived to imitate the Western lifestyle. Also showed interest in coffee drinking. Also, the young generation was enchantment by brands and products from the West. These factors led Starbuck’s managers to learn and understand more about the business climate in that Asia country.

Next step for Starbucks:

Starbucks was to determine the financial and economic conditions of China. The company’s managers were aware that the Chinese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continuously grew approximately 9 % on average and a GDP per capita was US$3.800. All these factors led to the rising income of the middle class. That was an undoubted advantage for entering the Chinese market for Starbucks.

Third level of screening:

At the third level of screening, Starbucks faced political restrictions. China is a highly bureaucratic country with difficult processes of getting permissions and sanctions to start and run the business. To avoid these challenges the company built and maintain. The firm relationship with Chinese local partners as well as government officials. Also, Starbucks Soong Ching-Ling Foundation received $5 million donations from Starbucks to support education in the country’s poorest regions.

Fourth level of screening:

The fourth level of screening involved socio-cultural forces. It showed the biggest challenges for Starbucks, because of the old tradition of tea drinking in China. In the beginning, managers didn’t know how to accustomed Chinese to drink and appreciate coffee. To acquaint employees and Chinese executives with coffee drinking experience Starbucks provided different training programs for them in which they learned more about coffee and Starbucks’ culture. The same way the company taught customers about different flavors and types of coffee. Another aspect was Chinese shopping behavior which was different from the US market. People in China spent the main slice of their monthly budget on food. This also led to success for the company.

Fifth level of screening:

The fifth level of China screening was focused on competitive forces. As we mentioned before China is a tea country and the share of coffee was low. Little or no competition for Starbucks was considered as an advantage. Chinese people were familiar only with one international brand which was Nestlé’s Nescafe. However, Nescafe is not a coffee house like Starbucks. As regards local competitions, it was a well-known Chinese brand Li Shen and Japanese brand Zhen Gou Coffee.

Starbucks Entry to Chinese Market!

“Starbucks Entry to China” Although Starbucks encountered several challenges in the process of entering the Chinese market, with their case study. They had successfully expanded its business in over 20 large or medium-sized cities of China and opened about 560 storefronts in these cities by 2012. The astonishing achievement owes to its careful marketing assessment and various marketing strategies in different periods. These strategies mainly refer to 2 different modes of entering foreign markets: licensing agreement and joint venture.

Licensed agreement of Starbucks!

In 1998, Starbucks adopted the mode of licensing agreement to license its Chinese partner (Beijing Mei Da), a wholesale distribution company to supply coffee beans to some selected hotels and restaurants. Starbucks realized that local partners can have the best understanding of local cultures customers and some related laws. and they have already established a good relationship with the local government. So it was easy to obtain the permissions and sanctions required to start and operate the business in a bureaucratic country like China. Moreover, Starbucks could also maintain a high standard on the control of production, and achieve an ideal revenue in the Chinese market. So licensing agreement was an optimal option for Starbucks to enter into a booming China’s market in the mid-1990s.

A joint venture of Company!

Starbucks formed a joint venture with different partners at different times when it entered the Chinese market. Starbucks achieved considerable knowledge about the Chinese market conditions and then began to open Starbucks stores in China. The company adopted a strategy of having three different partners to enter different regions in the Chinese market. In September 1998, Starbucks entered China under a licensing agreement with Beijing Mei Da Coffee Co.Ltd; which was their first partner. In 1999, Starbucks formed a joint venture with the Taiwan-based Uni-President Group and opened stores in Shanghai. In 2000, Starbucks entered into a joint venture with Mei-Xin International Ltd, also called “Coffee Concepts Ltd”. It managed the operations in the region of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macau, Guangzhou, and other parts of southern China.

There are some advantages for Starbucks with a joint venture to enter the Chinese market. First of all, Starbucks choose a good local partner to form a joint venture which can help it better understand the local laws and negotiate better with the authorities. It is beneficial for Starbucks to obtain the required permissions and sanctions so that it can be opened easily. Secondly, local partners know the Chinese market condition better than Starbucks; therefore, it is an effective and efficient method for Starbucks to adopt a few localization strategies to satisfy different regions of customers. Last but not least, the joint venture is a good way for Starbucks to reduce operation expenditure, and it also helps to reduce risks in the Chinese market.

Marketing and Pricing Strategies!

“We want our customers to recognize that we’re not coming to China just to make money, we are coming to China to build an enduring company that they can trust and they can view as one of their own”. – Howard Schultz.

“Starbucks Entry to China” Starbucks modified its menu and tried to localize its brand name by selling some food items. According to the choice of the Chinese people and selling a different kind of tea. They also changed their marketing and pricing strategies based on the needs of the Chinese market.

When Starbucks started in China, one of the biggest challenges it faced was to make the consumers accustomed to drinking and appreciating coffee. According to analysts, compared to other countries in which Starbucks operated this task was more difficult in China because of the age-old tradition of tea drinking in the country, where coffee was seen as nothing less than a kind of Western invasion.

Other Strategies:

Starbucks, like any other multinational company, had to go through the dilemma of choosing whether to follow Chinese traditional tea or take a big risk of following Starbucks’ culture of promoting premium coffee. The company chose to opt for its own culture and sell the idea of the ‘Coffee drinking experience’. Starbucks started by projecting the stores as a place for social gathering. The stores were also larger in area than the ones in the US, as the idea was to make the customers feel at home, relax and spend more time there.

Similarly, the company took initiatives to teach the customers about the different types of coffees and how to distinguish between flavors. The customers were given some samples to smell as well as sip and then describe their experience. At times if the customers did not enjoy the sample, the store employees asked them to come back again later for another ‘tasting’ session or they offered them some other drink that they enjoyed. They also spoke to the customers about the positive effects of drinking coffee. For example, they spoke about how drinking coffee helped to change their mood and how it was good to have coffee in the morning.

Localization Strategies of Starbucks!

Normally Starbucks follows a high standard technique to maintain its stores worldwide. But in the case of China, it adopted some strategies influenced by local culture and market conditions to gain Chinese people’s trust and confidence. Small changes were made in the texture, menu, and store layout just to match with Chinese culture and food preferences. Within a few months of opening the coffee stores.

The company started observing that coffee culture is different for Chinese people than in the US. Where people are very busy in their daily lives and they just grab their coffee and leave. But in China coffee stores were more like a place for social gathering. Where they can sit and talk for hours with their friends and families. Therefore, according to the market needs they had to square bigger stores. In the US the normal size of Starbucks store is about 1,200 to 1,500 square feet whereas in China. They started opening stores bigger than 2,000 square feet.

Starbucks Offer:

It was observed that the Chinese also like to have some food along with their drink. In response to that Starbucks started offering some popular Chinese foods like curry puffs, moon cakes, and traditional cookies. Starbucks incorporates another localize strategy in every country they go, by modifying the name of Starbucks to suit the local language.

Like in China they Change the name to ‘Xing Bake’ where ‘Xing’ represents ‘Star’ and ‘Bake’ was pronounce as ‘bucks’. Starbucks accepted the reality that maximum people in China like tea more than coffee though the young generation is more likely to go for coffee. So they decided the different menu for different stores in China. In Shanghai and westernized, the stores a standard menu where they served coffee. And in Beijing stores, they introduced different tea-based drinks like coffee-flavored milk tea, green tea-flavored frappuccino, etc. to attract more people.

Starbucks Entry to China; Promotional and Pricing Strategies!

To promote themselves in China the company chose a different way. It mostly depended on the people to spread goodwill through word of mouth than commercial advertisements and media products. Their knowledge, organized way of business left a good impression on customers’ mind. The customers were willing to pay a higher price for the brand name. As a result young, urban Chinese, who solely start to associate visiting Starbucks or being seen with a Starbucks cup, as a symbol of social status.

The tire to build their reputation in terms of, product quality, customer service, employee relationship, etc. To enhance the name of “Starbucks” they had different strategies. From professional to students they had different ways to attract them. They started selling the latest DVD’s, free access to the Internet. And, also use to provide different wireless services so people can feel it like their 3rd home.

Highest quality coffee:

Starbucks uses the highest quality coffee beans from ideal coffee-producing climates. They helped Chinese farmers, made good relationships with their workers. They also made a good reputation in the supply market. As a result of good reputation, good quality, and high price. They were able to attract people and also maintain their luxury appeal. The company price its coffees at around US$ 6 for a cup. Which was considering analysts as too costly? Even though it was too costly by Chinese standards but they decide to continue with it because in China. A high price was directly associating with quality.

Case Study of Starbucks Entry to China with Marketing Strategy.

September 6, 2017
Goal Commitment: Meaning and Definition

Goal Commitment? What affects the strength of commitment to goals? How does this affect goal attainment? Goal commitment is our determination to pursue a course of action that will lead to the goal we aspire to achieve (Bandura, 1986). The strength of goal commitment will affect how hard one will try to attain the goal. Goal commitment affects by the properties described thus far: difficulty and specificity. For example, when goals are too difficult, commitment declines, followed by a drop-off in performance (Locke & Latham, 1990).

What is Goal Commitment?

“Degree to which a person determine in achieving a desired (or required) goal.”

Goals are central to current treatments of work motivation, and goal commitment is a critical construct in understanding the relationship between goals and task performance. Despite this importance, there is confusion about the role of goal commitment, and only recently has this key construct received the empirical attention it warrants. This meta-analysis, based on 83 independent samples, updates the goal commitment literature by summarizing the accumulated evidence on the antecedents and consequences of goal commitment. Using this aggregate empirical evidence, the role of goal commitment in the goal-setting process is clarified and key areas for future research identifies.

Commitment also affect by goal intensity, goal participation, and peer influence.

Goal Intensity:

Commitment is related to goal intensity, or the amount of thought or mental effort that goes into formulating a goal and how it will be attained (Locke & Latham, 1990). This is similar to goal clarification because when we clarify a goal; we involve in a conscious process of collecting information about the goal and task and our ability to attain it (Schutz, 1989).

In a study of fifth graders, Henderson (cited in Locke & Latham, 1990) found that students who formulated a greater number of reading purposes with more detail and elaboration attained their goals to a greater extent than did students with superficial purposes. Although there was no difference in IQ scores of the groups; the students who set more goals with elaboration were better readers. It stands to reason that the more thought that gives to developing a goal; the more likely one will commit to the goal.

Goal Participation:

How important, motivationally, is it for people to participate in goal setting? This is an important question because goals are often assigned by others at home, school, and work. The state imparts curriculum standards or goals to teachers, who in turn impose them on students. A sales manager may assign quotas to individual salespersons. Letting individuals participate in setting goals can lead to greater satisfaction. Nevertheless, telling people to achieve a goal can influence self-efficacy; because it suggests they are capable of achieving the goal (Locke & Latham, 1990).

To investigate the effects of assigned and self-set goals; Schunk (1985) conducted a study of sixth-grade students with LD who were learning subtraction. One group was assigned goals (e.g., “Why don’t you try to do seven pages today”). A second group set goals themselves (e.g., “Decide how many pages you can do today”). A third group worked without goals. Students who self-set goals had the highest self-efficacy and math scores. Both goal groups demonstrated higher levels of self-regulation than the control group without any goals.

Nevertheless, Locke and Latham (1990) concluded that self-set goals are not consistently more effective than assigned goals in increasing performance. The crucial factor in assigned goals is acceptance. Once individuals become involved in a goal, the goal itself becomes more important than how it was set or whether it was imposed. Because, at work and in schools, goals are often assigned by others; the assigned goals must accept by participants. Joint participation in goal setting by teachers and students may increase the acceptance of goals.

Peer Influence:

One factor where teachers might be influential in promoting goal acceptance and commitment is peer influence. Strong group pressures are likely to increase commitment to goals (Locke & Latham, 1990). This group cohesiveness is more often found on athletic teams. Obviously, the coach wants a strong commitment to the team goals. In the classroom, group goals may aid the commitment of students working in cooperative learning groups and thus lead to a higher quality of work.

An Entrepreneur will need to do if you want to commit towards achievement:

The following achievement below are;

Make sure that your business goals are achievable.

The biggest enemy of achieving business goals is setting up unrealistic goals. For example, if you set the goal to increase sales by 500%; although the growth of the industry is lower than 10%, surely, 500% would be unrealistic.

If you notice that some goal cannot be achieved, simply adjust it in the line with reality. For example, use a 15% increasing in sales instead of 500%. The goal of 15% would be much more realistic, and certainly; it will be as imperative for you and your business to achieve it because it is above-average in the industry.

Use specific sentences in your business goals.

Imagine the goal from our example above: increasing sales in the future. For how much we will need to increase the sales? At which time we will need to increase the sales? This is a really confusing and undetermined goal. If you don’t know what to achieve and when to achieve it, you will probably not even try to achieve it.

Write your business goals on the paper.

Different scientific researches prove that if you put something on a paper; your commitment to that something is will be higher. In his book Influence; The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini gives an example from the Korean war in which the Chinese soldiers in the camps where he held prisoners (soldiers) were looking for written statements that communism is better than the US system to write on the paper. Thus a long time they were committed to his own statement in which basically they did not believe. If your business goal writes on paper they will be in a group with a higher commitment than the goals that remain only in our head.

Determine the activities that must accomplish.

Knowing the activities that must implement to achieve your business goals in advance will increase the level of commitment to the goal. Therefore, once you have the goal of the paper, list the activities.

Assign responsible for each activity.

At the end of each activity assign responsibility for implementations. In such a way, the commitment will transfer to the employees or your team members; and, at the same time will assure achievement.

Goal Commitment: Meaning and Definition

April 23, 2017
Components of a Strategy Statement

What are Components of a Strategy Statement?

The strategy statement of a firm sets the firm’s long-term strategic direction and broad policy directions. It gives the firm a clear sense of direction and a blueprint for the firm’s activities for the upcoming years. The main constituents of a strategic statement are as follows:

Strategic Intent

An organization’s strategic intent is the purpose that it exists and why it will continue to exist, providing it maintains a competitive advantage. Strategic intent gives a picture of what an organization must get into immediately in order to achieve the company’s vision. It motivates the people. It clarifies the vision of the vision of the company.

Strategic intent helps management to emphasize and concentrate on the priorities. Strategic intent is, nothing but, the influencing of an organization’s resource potential and core competencies to achieve what at first may seem to be unachievable goals in the competitive environment. A well expressed strategic intent should guide/steer the development of strategic intent or the setting of goals and objectives that require that all of the organization’s competencies be controlled to a maximum value.

Strategic intent includes directing organization’s attention on the need of winning; inspiring people by telling them that the targets are valuable; encouraging individual and team participation as well as the contribution, and utilizing intent to direct allocation of resources.

Strategic intent differs from strategic fit in a way that while strategic fit deals with harmonizing available resources and potentials to the external environment, strategic intent emphasizes on building new resources and potentials so as to create and exploit future opportunities.

Vision Statement

A vision statement identifies where the organization wants or intends to be in future or where it should be to best meet the needs of the stakeholders. It describes dreams and aspirations for future. For instance, Microsoft’s vision is “to empower people through great software, any time, any place, or any device.” Wal-Mart’s vision is to become the worldwide leader in retailing.

A vision is the potential to view things ahead of themselves. It answers the question “where we want to be”. It gives us a reminder about what we attempt to develop. A vision statement is for the organization and its members, unlike the mission statement which is for the customers/clients. It contributes to effective decision-making as well as effective business planning. It incorporates a shared understanding about the nature and aim of the organization and utilizes this understanding to direct and guide the organization towards a better purpose. It describes that on achieving the mission, how the organizational future would appear to be.

Mission Statement

The mission statement is the statement of the role by which an organization intends to serve its stakeholders. It describes why an organization is operating and thus provides a framework within which strategies are formulated. It describes what the organization does (i.e., present capabilities), who all it serves (i.e., stakeholders) and what makes an organization unique (i.e., the reason for existence).

A mission statement differentiates an organization from others by explaining its broad scope of activities, its products, and technologies it uses to achieve its goals and objectives. It talks about an organization’s present (i.e., “about where we are”). For instance, Microsoft’s mission is to help people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. Wal-Mart’s mission is “To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people.” Mission statements always exist at the top level of an organization, but may also be made at various organizational levels. Chief executive plays a significant role in the formulation of a mission statement. Once the mission statement is formulated, it serves the organization in long run, but it may become ambiguous with organizational growth and innovations.

In today’s dynamic and competitive environment, the mission may need to be redefined. However, care must be taken that the redefined mission statement should have original fundamentals/components. The mission statement has three main components a statement of mission or vision of the company, a statement of the core values that shape the acts and behavior of the employees, and a statement of the goals and objectives.

Goals and Objectives

A goal is a desired future state or objective that an organization tries to achieve. Goals specify in particular what must be done if an organization is to attain mission or vision. Goals make the mission more prominent and concrete. They coordinate and integrate various functional and departmental areas in an organization.

Objectives: Objective, in general, indicates a place where you want to reach. In organizational literature, it means the aim which an organization tries to achieve. Objectives are generally in plural form. Objectives are predetermined; they provide clear direction to the activities and results to be obtained from the planning process. Objectives must be SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely). Objectives must be clearly defined so that the works become goal-oriented and the unproductive and unsystematic tasks can be avoided.

Goals: A Goal is simply something that somebody wants to achieve. The synonyms of goal are aim, ambition, purpose, target and objective. Simply speaking, goal refers to the purpose towards which the efforts are made or endeavors are directed. A goal has a time-frame which is generally long term. So, it’s a long term plan.

At this stage, it is important to differentiate between the terms objective and goal, because the words, objective and goals seem to be synonymous, but, in fact, they are not. It does not matter much which word you call goal and which word you call objective if you are consistent in your own use and understand its relevance or applicability. However, if there are words in English that are confusing, especially to the students, objective and goal are the ones among them. It’s, therefore, important to understand them so as to avoid the confusion.

When you have something you want to accomplish, it is important to set both goals and objectives. Once you learn the difference between goals and objectives, you will realize that how important it is that you have both of them. Goals without objectives can never be accomplished while objectives without goals will never get you to where you want to be. The two concepts are separate but related and will help you to be who you want to be.

April 19, 2017
What is Strategic Management? Meaning and Definition

What is 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 can also define as a bundle of decisions and acts which a manager undertakes and which decides the result of the firm’s performance.

Here explains read and learn; What is Strategic Management? Meaning and Definition.

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; 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.”

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

Definition of 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.

The strategy is defined as;

“The determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals.”

Strategies are established to set direction, focus effort, define or clarify the organization, and provide consistency or guidance in response to the environment. As well as, Strategic management involves the related concepts of strategic planning and strategic thinking. It is analytical 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 determines.

In other words, strategic planning happens around strategic thinking or strategy making activity. Strategic management often describes as involving two major processes: formulation and implementation of a strategy. While described sequentially below, in practice the two processes are iterative and each provides input for the other. Also, Strategic Management is all about identification and description of the strategies; that managers can carry to achieve better performance and a competitive advantage for their organization. An organization is said to have a competitive advantage if its profitability is higher than the average profitability of all companies in its industry.

Explanation;

The manager must have a thorough knowledge and analysis of the general and competitive organizational environment to make the right decisions. They should conduct a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), i.e., they should make the best possible utilization of strengths, minimize the organizational weaknesses, make use of arising opportunities from the business environment and shouldn’t ignore the threats.

Strategic management is nothing but planning for both predictable as well as unfeasible contingencies. It applies to both small as well as large organizations as even the smallest organization faces competition; and, by formulating and implementing appropriate strategies; they can attain sustainable competitive advantage.

It is a way in which strategists set the objectives and proceed about attaining them. It deals with making and implementing decisions about the future direction of an organization. They help us to identify the direction in which an organization is moving.

Strategic management is a continuous process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which an organization involve; evaluates its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reevaluates strategies regularly to determine how it has been implemented and whether it was successful or does it needs replacement.

What is Strategic Management? Meaning and Definition.

More things;

Strategic Management gives a broader perspective to the employees of an organization; and, they can better understand how their job fits into the entire organizational plan; how it co-relate to other organizational members. It is nothing but the art of managing employees in a manner that maximizes the ability to achieve business objectives. The employees become more trustworthy, more committed and satisfied; as they can co-relate themselves very well with each organizational task.

They can understand the reaction of environmental changes in the organization; and, the probable response of the organization with the help of strategic management. Thus the employees can judge the impact of such changes on their job and can effectively face the changes. Also, the managers and employees must appropriately do appropriate things. They need to be both effective as well as efficient.

April 19, 2017
Strategy

What is Strategy?

A method or plan has chosen to bring about the desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.

The art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most efficient and effective use. The term is derived from the Greek word for generalship or leading an army. See also tactics.

A strategy is a high-level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the “art of the general”, which included several subsets of skills including “tactics”, siege craft, logistics etc., the term came into use in the 6th century C.E. in East Roman terminology and was translated into Western vernacular languages only in the 18th century. From then until the 20th century, the word “strategy” came to denote “a comprehensive way to try to pursue political ends, including the threat or actual use of force, in a dialectic of wills” in a military conflict, in which both adversaries interact.

Companies now face increasingly turbulent, complex and threatening environments. In the past, they could succeed by focusing virtually all management efforts on running their day to day affairs as efficiently as possible. Although such focusing is still important, adapting the firms to changing environmental conditions have become an essential gradient for success.

The strategic management perspective highlights the significance of devoting more attention to analyzing environments and formulating strategies that relate directly to environmental changes. The ultimate purpose of strategic management is to help the organization increase its performance through increased effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility.

A strategy is a way of doing something. It usually includes the formulation of an objective and a set of action plans for the accomplishment of the objective.

Strategic management may be understood as the process of formulating, implementing and evaluating business strategies to achieve organizational objectives. It is a set of managerial decisions and actions that determine the long-term performance of a corporation. It involves environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, evaluation, and control.

The study of strategic management emphasizes on monitoring and evaluating environmental opportunities and threats in the light of corporation’s strengths and weaknesses.

Step 01: Analyze opportunities and threats or constraints that exist in the external environment.

Step 02: Formulate strategies that will match the organization’s strengths and weaknesses with opportunities and threats or constraints that exist in the external environment.

Step 03: Implement the strategies.

Step 04: Evaluate and control activities to ensure that organizations objectives are achieved.

It is important because the resources available to achieve these goals are usually limited. Generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources). This is generally tasked with determining strategy. The strategy can be intended or can emerge as a pattern of activity as the organization adapts to its environment or competes. It involves activities such as strategic planning and strategic thinking.

Henry Mintzberg from McGill University defined strategy as a pattern in a stream of decisions to contrast with a view of strategy as planning, while Max McKeown (2011) argues that “strategy is about shaping the future” and is the human attempt to get to “desirable ends with available means.” Dr. Vladimir Kvint defines strategy as “a system of finding, formulating, and developing a doctrine that will ensure long-term success if followed faithfully.”

Many Definitions of Strategy

In 1988, Henry Mintzberg described the many different definitions and perspectives on strategy reflected in both academic research and in practice. He examined the strategic process and concluded it was much more fluid and unpredictable than people had thought. Because of this, he could not point to one process that could be called strategic planning. Instead, Mintzberg concludes that there are five types of strategies:

As plan: A directed course of action to achieve an intended set of goals; similar to the strategic planning concept.

As pattern: A consistent pattern of past behavior, with a strategy realized over time rather than planned or intended. Where the realized pattern was different from the intent, he referred to the strategy as emergent.

As position: Locating brands, products, or companies within the market, based on the conceptual framework of consumers or other stakeholders; a strategy determined primarily by factors outside the firm.

As ploy: A specific maneuver intended to outwit a competitor; and

As perspective: Executing strategy based on a “theory of the business” or natural extension of the mindset or ideological perspective of the organization.

In 1998, Mintzberg developed these five types of management strategy into 10 “schools of thought” and grouped them into three categories. The first group is normative. It consists of the schools of informal design and conception, the formal planning, and analytical positioning. The second group, consisting of six schools, is more concerned with how strategic management is actually done, rather than prescribing optimal plans or positions. The six schools are entrepreneurial, visionary, cognitive, learning/adaptive/emergent, negotiation, corporate culture and business environment. The third and final group consists of one school, the configuration or transformation school, a hybrid of the other schools organized into stages, organizational life cycles, or “episodes”.

Michael Porter defined strategy in 1980 as the “Broad formula for how a business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what policies will be needed to carry out those goals” and the “Combination of the ends (goals) for which the firm is striving and the means (policies) by which it is seeking to get there.” He continued that: “The essence of formulating the competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment.”

April 19, 2017
What are Effects of Goal Orientation on Student Achievement?

What are Effects of Goal Orientation on Student Achievement?

The extent to which students have a learning or performance goal orientation is associated with a variety of student behaviors and beliefs. These have been divided into cognitive strategies and engagement and motivational beliefs and actions.

Cognitive Strategies and Engagement

Learning goals foster cognitive engagement and effort (Meece, Blumenfeld, & Hoyle, 1988). Fifth- and sixth-grade science students who placed greater emphasis on learning goals also reported more active cognitive engagement. Students with performance goals (pleasing the teacher or seeking social recognition) had a lower level of cognitive engagement. Wolters, Yu, and Pintrich (1996) found that task value and interest were related to learning goals. The use of cognitive strategies and information processing is related to goal orientations of students at different levels of schooling. Learning that is potentially more meaningful or complex, requiring deep-level processing, appears to be the most vulnerable to the negative effects of performance goals (Graham & Golan, 1991). When the emphasis was on ability, as in the performance goal situation, there was interference with memory for tasks that required a great deal of cognitive effort. Performance goals also undermined the problem-solving strategies of children (Elliott & Dweck, 1988). In contrast, learning goals were the strongest predictor of seventh- and eighth-grade students’ cognitive strategy use (Wolters et al., 1996). These goals were also predictive of deep processing, persistence, effort, and exam performance of college students (Elliot, McGregor, & Gable, 1999).

Motivational Beliefs and Actions

The particular goal orientation affects motivation beliefs such as the role of effort in learning, self-efficacy beliefs, the tendency to use self-handicapping strategies, help seeking, and helpless patterns.

Self-Efficacy: A learning goal orientation was generally found to be associated with higher self-efficacy. Wolters et al. (1996) reported that seventh- and eighth-grade students who reported greater endorsement of a learning goal also tended to report higher levels of self-efficacy. Learning goals were also positively related to self-efficacy in the subjects of writing and science (Pajares, Britner, & Valiante, 2000). In contrast, performance goals were related to low self-efficacy (Pintrich, Zusho, Schiefele, & Pekrun, 2001).

Self-Handicapping: Self-handicapping strategies, such as low effort, are associated with performance goals (Midgley & Urden, 2001). Elliott and Dweck (1988) found that children with performance goals were more likely to avoid challenge and exhibit low persistence. These strategies undermine student achievement. Another type of self-handicapping strategy associated with performance goals is cheating (Anderman, Griesinger, & Westerfield, 1998). The authors explained that, by cheating, not only do students protect themselves against perceptions of low ability, they improve their grades.

Help Seeking: The particular goal orientation was also found to influence help-seeking behaviors (Butler & Neuman, 1995). Second- and sixth-grade students were more likely to seek help when the task was presented to them as an opportunity to develop competence. When tasks were presented to students as a measure of their ability, they were less likely to seek help. Students were more likely to seek help in classrooms with a learning goal focus and to avoid help seeking in a performance goal structure (Butler & Neuman, 1995; Ryan, Gheen, & Midgley, 1998).

Helpless Patterns: Finally, one of the most debilitating effects of performance goals is the vulnerability to helpless patterns (Dweck, 1986). Goals that focus students on using performances to judge their ability can make them vulnerable to a helpless pattern in the face of failure (Dweck & Sorich, 1999; Heyman & Dweck, 1992; Midgley et al., 2001).

In conclusion, performance goal beliefs are generally seen as the most maladaptive pattern as students are more extrinsically motivated, focused on outcome and not on learning (C. Ames, 1992), and focused on being superior to others (Nicholls, 1990). At the same time, there is continued agreement that the learning goal pattern is the more adaptive one, fostering long-term achievement that reflects intrinsic motivation (C. Ames, 1992; Heyman & Dweck, 1992; Kaplan & Middleton, 2002; Meece, 1991; Midgley et al., 2001). As Kaplan and Middleton asked, “Should childhood be a journey or a race?”

April 2, 2017
Help Seeking
What do you understand by Help Seeking?

Help seeking theory postulates that people follow a series of predictable steps to seek help for their inadequacies, it is a series of well-ordered and purposeful cognitive and behavioral steps, each leading to specific types of solutions.

Help seeking theory falls into two categories where some consider similarity in the process’ (e.g. Cepeda-Benito & Short, 1998) while others consider it as dependent upon the problem (e.g. Di Fabio & Bernaud, 2008). In general help seeking behaviors are dependent upon three categories, attitudes (beliefs and willingness) towards help-seeking, intention to seek help, and actual help-seeking behavior.

Do you ask for help when you need it or do you have the view, “I have to do it myself, no one can do it except me?” From a motivational perspective, help seeking is an adaptive cognitive strategy that indicates a striving for mastery and achievement (R. Ames, 1983; Karabenick, 1998; Newman, 1998) and a general problem-solving strategy (Nelson-Le Gall, 1985). If help seeking is an adaptive strategy, why do teachers observe that students

who are most in need of help are often the most reluctant to seek help? We have learned from research that seeking help from others can have negative connotations (Newman, 1990, 1991).

Help seeking may be seen as threatening if the student thinks it is a sign of low ability. In this case, there is a personal cost to seeking help: Students may feel incompetent. Help seeking is positive when students seek assistance in order to make a change in their learning. The attributional process is an important factor in whether help seeking is seen as positive or negative and consequently whether students attend academic help sessions. R. Ames and Lau (1982) identified factors that affected the extent that college students attend help sessions:
- Low-performing students were more likely to attend help sessions if they were given specific positive information about the effects of the sessions (e.g., “students who attended improved their performance”).
- Students who attributed success to effort were more likely to attend.
- Students who did not seek help used more external attributions for failure, such as “tricky test questions,” and used these external reasons as excuses.
Newman’s (1990, 1991) investigations of help seeking among children in Grades 3, 5, and 7 provided a fuller understanding of help seeking. For example, who seeks help, individuals with high or low self-esteem? For all grades, the higher the perceived competence of the children, the less they felt there were personal costs to help seeking (e.g., being thought of as low ability). Students with low self-esteem were especially unlikely to seek help, whereas those with high self-esteem were more likely to seek help. Similar results were obtained by Nelson-Le Gall and Jones (1990) for average-achieving African-American children. Newman (1991) also found differences between younger and older students in views about help seeking. Seventh graders were more aware than younger children that negative fallout might result from help seeking (e.g., embarrassment). However, older children were also more likely than younger ones to believe that smart classmates rather than “dumb” ones ask questions of the teacher. Help seeking by college students showed a pattern similar to that of children. Karabenick and Knapp (1991) found that students with low self-esteem were more threatened by seeking help.

One important and perhaps surprising finding was that students who use more learning strategies are more likely to seek help when needed, whereas students who use fewer strategies are less likely to seek help when needed. This attitude presents a double bind for those needing help. Not only do they lack the necessary strategies for success, but they do not seek the needed study assistance. The authors concluded that students need to learn to judge when they need help and that help seeking should be included in learning strategy and motivation programs. These findings on help seeking are important for teachers and counselors so that they can plan ways to get students to attend help sessions or seek help in counseling when needed. Nelson-Le Gall (1985) emphasized the need to think of help seeking as an adaptive coping strategy rather than as a self-threatening activity. Some ways to accomplish this are listed in Strategy.

Types of Help Seeking

Help seeking behavior is divided into two types, adaptive behavior and non-adaptive behavior. It is adaptive when exercised to overcome a difficulty and it depends upon the person’s recognition, insight and dimension of the problem and resources for solving the same, this is valued as an active strategy. It is non-adaptive when the behavior persists even after understanding and experiencing the problem solving mechanism and when used for avoidance. Dynamic barriers in seeking help can also affect active process (e.g.: culture, ego, classism, etc.). Nelson-Le Gall (1981) distinguished between instrumental help-seeking, which she regarded as being essential for learning, and passive dependency.

Strategy of Help Seeking
- The overriding task is to have students view help seeking, when needed, as a smart move instead of a dumb one.
- Establish a classroom climate where students are encouraged to ask questions.
- Document attendance and improved performance as a result of the help sessions and show this to students.
- Be sure students who have improved after attending help sessions attribute the improvement to the help sessions.
- Teach students a self-talk script to practice asking teachers for help in classes where they were having problems, as one middle school teacher did.
March 31, 2017
Attribution and Motivation Among Ethnicity

Understanding of Attribution and Motivation Among Ethnicity?

What is Ethnicity? Meaning of Ethnicity “The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.” Some about of Ethnic; Relating to a population subgroup (within a larger or dominant national or cultural group) with a common national or cultural tradition. Relating to national and cultural origins. Denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality. Characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western cultural tradition.

An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups (wealth, age, hobbies), ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives. In some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.

Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is sometimes possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another (except for ethnic groups emphasizing racial purity as a key membership criterion).

Ethnicity is often used synonymously with ambiguous terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic (cf. “White ethnic”, “ethnic restaurant”, etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the founding population of an area was established.

Now reading – Attribution and Motivation Among Ethnicity; Do attributional explanations for success and failure act as an important motivational force in different ethnic groups? According to Graham (1989,1994), because attributional theory considers the role of thought in determining behavior, it is particularly fruitful in examining motivation in different cultures and ethnic groups.

Beliefs About Effort and Ability

Are attributional belief patterns similar among different ethnic groups? A comparison of poor African-American, Hispanic, Indo-Chinese, and White fifth- and sixth-grade students found similar attribution patterns for all groups (Bempechat, Nakkula, Wu, & Ginsberg, 1996). All groups rated ability as the most important factor for success in math. In a subsequent study comparing African-American, Hispanic, Indo-Chinese, and White fifthand sixth-graders, Bempechat, Graham, and Jimenez (1999) found cultural similarities as well as cultural specifics. For all ethnic groups, failure was attributed to lack of ability and success to external factors. In contrast, Indo-Chinese students had stronger beliefs that failure was due to lack of effort. Attribution for failure due to lack of ability is a problem for all students because it is believed to be uncontrollable.

Graham (1984) compared middle- and low-SES African-American and White students on attributions for failure following a problem-solving task. The middle-class children in both ethnic groups were more likely to attribute failure to lack of effort and maintained consistently higher expectancies for success after experiencing failure. For both groups, this is indicative of an adaptive attributional pattern following failure, similar to that found in research by Diener and Dweck (1978). The findings of this research are important because they demonstrate the positive motivation pattern of African-American students—a pattern that has received little attention.

Stevenson and Lee (1990) compared beliefs of American and Asian students concerning the role of effort and ability for success in mathematics. They asked mothers in Minnesota, Japan, and Taiwan to assign 10 points among ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck to rank their importance in academic success and school performance. All the mothers assigned the points in the same rank order: (1) effort, (2) ability, (3) task, and (4) luck. American mothers scored ability and effort as about equal. In contrast, Taiwanese and Japanese mothers assigned effort a higher value than ability. Peak (1993) noted that, in Japanese elementary schools, ability is rarely mentioned, whereas effort is consistently portrayed as key to success. In contrast, in the United States, students who try very hard are often labeled nerd or grind.

These perceptions of effort and ability take on increased importance when homework is considered in the context of effort. Japanese and Chinese students spend at least twice the amount of time and effort on homework than do American students (Stevenson & Lee, 1990). American teachers assign less and consider it less valuable. Peak (1993) pointed out that homework reflects teachers’ beliefs on whether extra practice makes a difference and whether students are willing to engage in extra effort on behalf of their studies. American parents do not appear to consider good study habits as critical to academic success as do Asian parents.

Implications for Teachers

What can teachers draw from the attributional beliefs among different ethnic groups in terms of classroom practice? The important issue is to understand the motivational processes, such as attribution, operating within a particular ethnic group (Bempechat et al., 1996; Graham, 1994). When similarities are found across ethnic groups, educational interventions do not necessarily have to be targeted to children differentially based on their ethnic group membership.

Graham (1989) emphasized the importance of teacher feedback in influencing concepts of ability and expectations of minority, low-SES students. Recall the previous discussion of indirect attributional cues. It is important to be aware of feedback that may indirectly convey to students that they have low ability. Graham (1994) suggested that in view of the number of African- American children in negative educational situations, it is especially important to be sensitive to how minorities feel, think, and act in response to non-attainment of goals.

March 30, 2017
What are Source of Attributional Information?

What are Source of Attributional Information?

How do we decide what caused our success and failure? What cues do we use to explain whether an outcome was influenced by our ability, effort, or some other factor? Information comes from direct and indirect cues (Graham, 1991). Some information comes from direct cues, like failing a test when other students succeeded. Information is also obtained from more indirect cues, often conveyed unintentionally, such as when a teacher communicates pity to a student who failed a test. In addition, there may be a bias toward causes (Weiner, 1992).

Direct Attributional Cues

One of the most important informational cues is the outcome of the task. Here students have a direct cue as to their performance. Another source of attributional information comes from comparing one’s performance to that of others (Weiner, 1992). When most of the class fails a test, students are likely to attribute the failure to the difficulty of the task, not to their ability. However, if Sam failed and everyone else in the class made an A or B, he is likely to believe the failure was due to his low ability. If Sarah fails a test and a peer says, “I didn’t study at all and I made an A,” Sarah may take this as a cue that failure must be due to her ability. When a teacher sees students comparing grades on a test, information other than the test score is being communicated. An important role of the teacher is to help students interpret the possible reasons for test scores and make an adaptive attribution.

Indirect Attributional Cues

In school, feedback that students receive from teachers is a source of much information about ability. Students’ attributional interpretations may be based on the attributions that teachers communicated to them (Reyna, 2000). Graham (1991) identified three groups of feedback as sources of indirect cues: praise versus blame, sympathy versus anger, and help versus neglect.

Praise Versus Blame: The praise or blame a student receives from a teacher can function as an indirect low-ability cue (Graham, 1991). The cue provided by praise or blame interacts with the difficulty of the task and effort expended by a student. Praise acts as a low-ability cue when a student is praised for completing an easy task. A low-ability cue is also conveyed when a student fails a task but receives no blame, like lack of effort. The student can interpret this to mean, “There’s nothing I can do about the failure.”

Sympathy Versus Anger: Did it ever occur to you that communicating sympathy to a student could be interpreted as evidence that he or she has the low ability? Graham (1984) found that when teachers conveyed sympathy following poor student performance, the failing students took this as a cue that they had low ability. Obviously a statement like “I feel sorry for you because you made such a low score” would be a low-ability cue. What might a teacher say that unintentionally conveys a message of low ability to a student? One student remembers a class being told, “All students have to do this except Holly and Ramon.” Holly took her omission as a cue that she would not be able to do the task. In contrast, mild anger for failure can provide an indirect cue that one is capable. For example, “You can do better than this. You handed this paper in with no editing,” provides a cue to the student that he or she is capable of more.

Unsolicited Help: Another low-ability cue for students is unsolicited help by the teacher (Graham & Barker, 1990). Graham and Barker found that, regardless of whether a helper was a peer or teacher, other students judged the student who received unsolicited help as lower in ability than non-helped peers. The important factor in this example is unsolicited. When the teacher consistently gives help to Sylvia before she requests it, this suggests that the teacher knows that she will not be able to do it.

Ability Grouping: One powerful cue for ability that affects large groups of students are tracking according to ability groups. Students in both high and low tracks are defined by labels such as high ability, honors, low-achieving, slow, and average (Oakes, 1985). These labels are powerful cues about one’s ability. Oakes observed that students in the lower track are usually seen by others as dumb and also see themselves in this way. A label may have an adverse effect on students in the high-achieving class as well. Students in a high-track class may take this label as a cue that they naturally have high ability and then assume inflated self-concepts. This belief can interfere with students working to develop their academic skills.

It is important that teachers be aware of the subtle cues that may have unintentional effects on students’ perception of ability. Commonly accepted practices of generous praise, minimal blame, sympathy, and unsolicited help can sometimes be interpreted by students as they have the low ability (M. D. Clark, 1997; Graham, 1991). M. D. Clark found that responses given to students with LD are often interpreted as low-ability cues. Graham further suggested that these cues raise important questions pertinent to the motivation of minority students such as African-Americans. For example, are minority students more likely to be targeted for feedback that conveys sympathy—thus receiving a cue for low ability? Reyna (2000) took this a step further, stating that labeling and indirect cues can lead to stable beliefs about ability and have the negative effect of stereotyping.

Attribution Bias

Attribution bias or Attributional bias is a predisposition to make certain attributional judgments that may be in error (Weiner, 1985). Several variations of attributional bias have been identified that are relevant to achievement settings. A common misjudgment is a hedonic bias, the tendency to attribute success to self rather than to attribute failure to self (Weiner, 2000).

Previous knowledge can also lead to attributions that are erroneous (Frieze, 1980). Potential sources of errors in attributional judgments can be found in stereotypes about certain groups (Reyna, 2000). These preconceptions about certain groups can serve as ready-made explanations for why a student achieves or does not achieve. There is a danger that the stable, uncontrollable attribution for low performance will lead to lower expectations.

The implication for educators is to recognize that a number of possible causes may explain any given success or failure. Thus, it is important to be aware of potential stereotypical attributional biases. Explore other possible causes by gathering more information when bias may be a factor (see Strategy).

Strategy of Collect Attributional Information

Simply ask students why they succeeded, failed, or improved.

Some teachers elicit information by having students give their reasons for how well they did after assignments or exams.

Attribution information can be obtained through the use of learning logs, in which students keep records and write about their goals, successes, and failures.

Conduct an attributional task analysis of student performance. Is it because the student cannot or will not? A teacher may believe that a student is not performing well because he or she has the low ability or is lazy. Instead, the student may be performing low because he or she does not have the essential skills.

Look for clues that will enable you to determine if the student has the essential skills. Does the student have prerequisite knowledge or skills? Does the task require formal reasoning whereas the student is functioning at the concrete reasoning level? Does the student have the necessary learning or memory strategies?

If the student cannot, then teach the prerequisite skill or guide student to the appropriate source of help.

March 30, 2017