Governance and Performance Management - Reading and Literacy Skills in Children - Case Study Example

Strategic plan of reading and skills literacy initiative Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Executive Summary Research shows that good parental engagement leads to better behavioral outcomes in children. Parents are the first teachers of their children and early educational experiences such as number games, learning nursery rhymes and playing word games stimulates the development of minds in children. So, whatever parents do have lasting impact on the literacy and reading skills on their children. Besides, the strategic objectives, this report use a rich-picture strategy to illustrate the interrelationships between the various stakeholders. An environmental scan has been undertaken to show the interrelationship that the initiative will have with its internal and external environments. Under portfolio management, it explores market segmentation strategic, consulting matrix, and Blue Ocean and competitive strategies. On portfolio and governance performance management, the initiative will exploit boards and use of key stakeholders under an evaluation program to assess benefits and costs. This report shows the commonwealth government allocating about $120million in picture books and human resources over a span of three years. It also puts into the perspective portfolio management, governance and management of stakeholders. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 1.0 Introduction 5 1.1 Vision, mission and values 5 1.2 Developing a persuasive strategy 5 Figure 1: Rich-picture of government initiative to build reading skills in children 6 1.3 Strategic analysis 7 1.3.1 SWOT analysis 7 1.3.2 Porter’s five forces model 8 Figure 2: Porter’s five forces model 9 1.4 Portfolio management 9 1.4.1 Boston consulting matrix 9 Figure 3: Boston Consulting Matrix 10 1.4.2 Competitive strategies 10 1.4.3 Market segmentation and targeting 11 Figure 4: Reading and literacy skills perceptual map 12 1.4.4 Blue ocean strategy canvas 12 Figure 5: Blue ocean strategy for reading and literacy skills in children 13 1.4.5 Portfolio strategic perspective 13 1.5 Performance management 14 1.6 Programme management and governance 15 1.7 Conclusion 16 1.8 Recommendations 17 References 18 List of figures Figure 1: Rich-picture of government initiative to build reading skills in children 6 Figure 2: Porter’s five forces model 9 Figure 3: Boston Consulting Matrix 10 Figure 4: Reading and literacy skills perceptual map 12 Figure 5: Blue ocean strategy for reading and literacy skills in children 13 1.0 Introduction The goal of the new commonwealth government to encourage parents to read to their children at least 20 minutes every day follows a needs assessment in the recent past. The results of the survey studies shows that parents have a lot of influence over the development of their children and enable them to interface with the world. In a world that is changing rapidly, parenting has become a competitive sport with the government becoming part of the fads and changing styles. As delineated by science, the needs of child development remain relatively stable. Good parental engagement leads to better behavioral outcomes in children. Parents are the first teachers of their children and whatever they do has lasting impact on the literacy and reading skills on their children. Early educational experiences such as number games, learning nursery rhymes and playing word games stimulates the development of minds in children (Chase, 2013). This means that parents can share the enthusiasm about books and reading and as a result deepen the interest in learning to read. This report develops and justifies a persuasive strategy, translates it into a portfolio and accompanying governance and performance management framework based on known approaches and standards. 1.1 Vision, mission and values Vision: To become the leading country with the highest levels of reading and literacy skills in children Mission: To create and maintain positive relationships between parents and their children To develop home environments as places which are literacy rich and abundant To increase out-of-school reading time among children Values: Honesty, integrity, consistency, reliability and sustainability 1.2 Developing a persuasive strategy Doctors prescribe reading activities among parents to be done loudly to their young children. The essence is to connect language development with good evidence and persuade parents that the results of their actions are scientific and will yield positive outcomes in their children. From a national survey carried out, less than half of parents allocate time to read or share a picture book with their children aged 1-3 years on daily basis. Alarmingly, one in every six parents does not read a picture book to their children at all. The rich-picture strategy is used to better illustrate the interrelationships between the various stakeholders involved in this change process (Monk & Howard, 1998). The rich-picture not only represents the problem situation but also presents a mental map. Some of the structures are slow-to-change factors, connections between the factors and parts of the processes as shown in the figure below. Figure 1: Rich-picture of government initiative to build reading skills in children The various elements of the above rich-picture are elaborated below. Element Description Structure Aspects of work context that is slow to change. In this case, it includes syllabus, teachers, geographic location of schools and libraries and curriculum Process Transformation occurring in the work process. Includes opening and closing of term dates, ongoing surveys, teaching and illustrations, examinations and tests. Concerns Key components that capture differing individual perspectives and motivations. Issues include poor readership and slow learning; motivations include new shoes, books and toys; perspectives include parental love and guidance The reading literacy strategy and initiative suggested by the commonwealth government intends to building reading and imagination skills in children. The target is children aged 1-5 years and the activities involve parents reading picture books to their children while at home. To better realize its outcomes, the parent will buy books with colored pictures and demonstrate with real life items if found within the premises where the children are. While the child requires listening and learning skills, parents will require access to books, taking charge of television choices and demonstrating the size of the child’s vocabulary and language skills (Chase, 2013). Other resources to improve child’s language and literacy in the absence of the parent include other adults, siblings, babysitters, neighbors, and grandparents. The mode of learning, proximity to learning institutions, government’s perspective on home learning and quality of reading and language instruction given at school are some of the factors that affect the initiative. Key stakeholders are libraries, bookshops, parents, children, school teachers, government education officials and other children within the neighborhood. 1.3 Strategic analysis 1.3.1 SWOT analysis SWOT analysis has been used to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to this initiative by the commonwealth government. The analysis is as shown in the table below. Strengths: Commonwealth government has the resources and capabilities to create public awareness Well restocked school library shelves Provision of parental support and parenting classes for young parents Increased presence of home visits by trained parent educators Increased connection between family and diagnostic services, lending libraries and help for specially needy children Positive parental attitudes Provision of periodic session for music and language-rich creative arts Weaknesses: Inequality in income among households Many parents are engaged and lack time to guide their children Financial constraints of buying exciting and interesting books Parents not motivated and underutilize educational programs Limited proficiency of English in some parents Opportunities: In-class assignments and homework Good educational programs on television Enthusiasm between a parent and the child about reading books Presence of electronic gadgets such as iPads and tablets to assist in pronunciation, spelling and reading Improvement in health and nutrition among infants and toddlers heightens the functioning of senses Dramatic plays for children Threats: Presence of toys and television programs are detractors to reading Decline in reading habits among the younger generation Social media and mobile phone platforms commits more useful time Reduction in average book spending in libraries 1.3.2 Porter’s five forces model Figure 2: Porter’s five forces model From the model above, supplier power is weak indicating a high impact of books and reading materials on reading and literacy skills of children. Moreover, buyer power is weak showing that upper primary schools and future employment firms would benefit from highly molded and linguistically superb individuals. Entry barriers are high such as social media, gaming and mobile phones which has committed more of the children’s time for reading. Parents on social media and other gadgets would not find time to read picture books to their children. Substitutes such as teacher instruction, television, grandparent stories, and watching cartoons are some of the many substitutes that make the initiative less lucrative and sensational in implementation. Competitive rivalry is low because all the competitors contribute towards holistic development of the child (Forsberg et al., 2005). Overall, the model shows high industry attractiveness for children with superior reading and literacy skills. 1.4 Portfolio management 1.4.1 Boston consulting matrix The initiative by the commonwealth government to increase reading and literacy rates in children is one way to generate higher returns in education and future employment in the country. To retain the existing reading culture among children, it requires the input of parents in helping their children to read and understand. In the four quadrant of Boston Consulting Matrix, this initiative falls into the star category. Figure 3: Boston Consulting Matrix Reading to children for 20 minutes each day is one service that has potential to grow and produce returns in future. The service falls into the stars category because it is likely to transform into cash cow and generate positive returns in the education sector and employment at some point in future. The attention of parents that they give to the children’s reading and literacy is high and also has high share of initial child’s cognitive development. At this point, the commonwealth government makes an informed choice in selecting and prioritizing on the role of parents on teaching and instructing their children at a young age (Vowler & Close, 2008. Apart from formal school at later stages, the parent is the one responsible for initial start up and basic skills in selecting and prioritizing this initiative. 1.4.2 Competitive strategies The government is able to exploit industry attractiveness because increasing reading and literacy skills has high attractiveness of being able to invest and capture the market share. Besides, this is a differentiation strategy towards approach to building reading and literacy skills in children. The generic competitive strategy is cost-leadership making it a low-cost producer in the education sector. The government intends to generate more language skilled and literacy superb citizens without using a lot of resources such as teachers and finances. However, this strategy is not sustained because some few other countries can easily imitate. In addition, other bases for cost leadership such as change in curriculum and increase in enrolment easily erode the strategic gains in lowering costs (Galavan, 2004). Besides, the proximity in differentiation is also lost. Fortunately, the government while focusing on cost can easily achieve this even with lower cost on the children picture book reading segment. The skills that will be required will be intense supervision of the program by the government and employing a low-cost distribution system (Chase, 2013). Also, it will require access to capital and sustained capital investment. From the commonwealth government as an organization, it will need to control its educational costs and detailed control reports. This will also require a structured organization of government officials with assigned roles and responsibilities to ensure that the initiative succeeds. To meet the strict qualitative target, the government will provide incentives (monetary or in kind) to parents and schools (PMI, 2013). 1.4.3 Market segmentation and targeting The target markets for improvement in literacy skills are parents, teachers, grandparents and babysitters. The existing market is teachers but the new target market is parents. The assumption is that parents are capable of reading and creating time to guide their children. Parents are the initial teachers of their children meaning that they can be used to grow reading and literacy skills in children. The reading of picture books for 20 minutes is an attractive segment. This segment is based on the choice of pictures and wording, the age bracket of children targeted, and the attitude of parents towards educational attainment of their children. Similarly, there should be sufficient financial resources and ways to reach the parents with learning resources and materials. The segmentation was obtained from qualitative surveys done by doctors and counselors that found that parents have high impact on reading and literacy skills of their children (Chase, 2013). Parents as a target segment are identifiable, substantial and accessible. The segment is also stable and actionable. However, it is not differentiable because the needs of grandparents, babysitters and school teachers are also similar. Parents are new category entrants because they are interested in the success of their children and are capable of sustaining the process of reading to their children. The market segmentation for this initiative is as shown in the perceptual map below. Figure 4: Reading and literacy skills perceptual map From the figure above, parents have the potential of developing reading interest and building high vocabulary in their children. This can also be done by teachers and grandparents but to a lower extent compared to the impact created by parents. 1.4.4 Blue ocean strategy canvas The blue ocean strategy for the intention by the commonwealth government to target parents is because this market is cost effective, has high interest, witty and experienced to pursue this goal. Figure 5: Blue ocean strategy for reading and literacy skills in children The ERRC Grid for Parents is as shown in the table below. Eliminate: Time detractors Addiction to technology gadgets and other forms of entertainment Disinterest and communication barriers Raise: Uptake of picture books Access to library resources and materials Enthusiasm in reading and listening Reduce: Traffic jam Playtime and television cartoons Overreliance on babysitters Create: Family time Interest in storytelling To stay in the red ocean, the commonwealth government will need to focus on picture books and ensure one of the parents is always present to read the books. This has to be consistently done on daily basis with some logbook filled by the parent on daily basis. The activities will be limited to picture books and stories at this level. The current competitive threats such as television cartoons, gaming and play should be well-balanced. 1.4.5 Portfolio strategic perspective The key drivers to effective portfolio management in this case are receptivity by senior government officials in the department of education, acceptance by parents, and competent and consistent performance by all stakeholders involved. For this program to perform, the reading and literacy skills improvement project will be aligned to the strategy of cost-leadership. Since the government is resource constrained, it will require transformational change. The initiative will begin in September 2017 up to September 2020 out of which monitoring and evaluations will be done at the end of every year. Financial target for this program is $120million to be measured in terms of cost functions and utilities. The target customer is parents who will be distributed with picture books and other reading materials (Chase, 2013). The process will be measured in terms of uptake of reading and literacy by children at the age of six years. Learning and growth curve will be drawn two years to understand how the initiative has materialized or succeeded compared to baseline conditions. 1.5 Performance management This project is a low-risk and has high returns. The evaluation process is based on an evaluation criteria and criteria weighting. SMART technique (Simple Multi-Attribute Rate Technique) is used. Children’s reading and literacy skills improvement initiative Criteria Description Score Qualitative Quantitative Project risk Likelihood of the program being completed successfully High 5 Discretion Project mandated for regulatory requirements Discretionary 1 Revenue contribution Additional revenue margin Low 1 Strategic impact Initiative will contribute to low-cost of education High 5 Business life-cycle Period the benefits will flow from the initiative Long Over 5 years Initiative cost Implementation and support costs Actual cost Actual cost The alternative resource profiling compares two other alternative projects towards improving literacy skills in children in the table below. Cost benefit analysis will be employed. Option Alternatives Cost ($v’000’) Benefit ($v’000’) Benefit/cost ratio #1 Parent reading to children for 20mins 120,000 564,000 4.7 #2 Extra tuition for children 102,000 235,000 2.3 #3 Pre-literacy classes 450,000 590,000 1.3 From the tabular analysis above, the option with the highest benefit/cost ratio is selected as the best alternative. Option #1 is selected because it has the highest benefit/cost ratio compared to the other two alternatives. The initiative of parents reading for their children for 20 minutes uses the portfolio management model. This will require a commitment by senior government education officials and an energized culture. As well, it requires alignment of strategy to governance and portfolio management. Senior management officials will communicate and champion the long-terms goals of the initiative and contribute to their expertise. In collaborative working, all the stakeholders will play some role under a budget, specific resource allocation and corporate governance. Portfolio office is charged with documenting the gains and impact of the initiative in the long-term under the reading and literacy initiative at the department of education (Johnson et al., 2011). This group will also double up as the portfolio progress group that will be making quarterly progress reports on the uptake of reading and literacy skills in children. Culture change will be critical especially with regard to government officials, teachers and parents. They need to be under constant communication and collaboration in reporting results. 1.6 Programme management and governance This program will use the earned value management and six sigma methodologies (DMAIC). The project is about parents reading picture books to their children for 20 minutes. It will be measured every 3 months based on a reading and skills evaluation at home by educational officials over the weekends. The feedback will enable decision-making and trigger actions for improvement in the project. The program will control its time and funds so as not to exceed the $120million allocated and the 3 years duration for the results to be felt. The benefits will be sustained under a benefits sustainment plan as shown in the table below. Item Description Risks Cost overruns Stakeholder and agent conflict Non-cooperation from parents Difficulty in documenting gains Processes Evaluation of reading and literacy skills Allocating monetary and human resources Testing and grading Measures Oral tests Metrics Observation, surveys, and interviews Tools Questionnaire, interview schedules, observation schedules The benefits management tool will be used every quarter to document benefits ad realize goals. Similarly, the program will be governed by program boards that will coordinate and manage the program. The program will document all the children and their parent’s names under a system supplied by the government (Neely, 2002). The board will provide a unified direction, commit resources, ensure effective communication, support the project manager and delegate effectively. 1.7 Conclusion The reading and literacy skills initiative is to be conducted by parents for 20 minutes every day. This initiative by the commonwealth government is targeted at children between 1 and 5 years. Parents are required to read picture books to their children for about 20 minutes and is anticipated that it will build on the child’s cognitive development. From research of various professional bodies, it shows that such an undertaking will bear fruits in the long-term. Being a cost-leadership strategy, the government will exploit best known resources to ensure that the project success. This program will commit $120 million to be evaluated every quarterly for three years. Children who learn from parents sustain the effort to learn and create positive attitudes towards reading. The strategy by the commonwealth government to pursue this activity will not only build bonds between parents and their children but also stimulate pre-literacy skill building. A number of models and maps have been used to show that the program is an anticipated success. 1.8 Recommendations Perform elaborate publicity and awareness campaign to parents to ensure they positively embrace the program Work within the stipulated time and budgetary limits to avoid cost and schedule overruns Involve diverse program board members to promote inclusivity Allocate contingency funds in case there will be delays in measuring the outcomes of the program Measure the impact of the program and allow for change management where possible Systematically assess the impact of the initiative to check on evenness and uniform uptake throughout the country References Chase, J. (2013). Raising readers: The tremendous potential of families. John Wiley and Sons. Forsberg, K., Mooz, H., & Cotterman, H. (2005). Visualizing Project Management (3rd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, p. 345. Galavan, R. (2004). Doing business strategy. Cork, Ireland: Oak Tree Press. Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., & Regner, P. (2011). Exploring strategy: Text and cases. Harlow, UK: Pearson, p.6. Monk, A., & Howard, S. (1998). The Rich Picture: A tool for reasoning about work context. Interactions(March-April), 21-30. Neely, A. (2002). Business Performance Measurement: Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press. Project Management Institute (PMI). (2013). Organizational project management maturity model (3rd Ed.). Newtown Square, Pennsylvania: PMI. Vowler, S., & Close, A. (2008). Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices. Norwich, UK: The Stationery Office. Read More