PTA Website - a Strategic Communication and Knowledge Management Tool for the PTA, Parents, Teachers, School Administrators and Students

A PTA (Parents-Teachers Association) website, if there is a functioning one, can be a strategic communication and knowledge management tool for the PTA, parents, teachers, school administrators, and students, alike.

Attended the PTA AGM (Annual General Meeting) this whole morning. I must say, I wasn't very impressed with the discussions that took place. Except for the above sentiment being voiced by many attendees, the rest of the proceeding was full of bureaucratic protocols, very mundane issues were proposed and debated, and not much (or rather, none) of issues discussed were on the human/emotional and intellectual development sides of students. But that was an AGM, what more can one expect. But then, when or where else can parents voice out their concerns about their kids and the environment they are in, while at school. Still, there’s room for improvement for everyone. And this website can definitely serve that purpose – in an almost effortless manner, and very timely, too (considering the number of disciplinary issues that have been nagging school authorities and the PTA in recent years). All of us concerned needs to be on top of things (and in the know) regarding all issues faced by the PTA, the school, and the parents. Therefore, it is with great urgency that the PTA or the school administration appoints someone to lead the way in developing and managing this site (as a much-needed communication and info-sharing channel), and aggressively promoting it to all parents, so there’ll be more participation in future! The AGM did acknowledge this issue when raised in the meeting, but there is no clear-cut action plan, at the very least, strong intention and commitment, from the school or from the PTA CM (Committee Members) on addressing this issue.

One of the issues raised in the AGM was the lack of communication between the PTA CM and parents on a lot of things/issues. The need for the use of a website for PTA was mentioned but the response from the CM was that the site is already there but it was not updated (last update was in 2006), there are no moderators to manage the site, there are not enough contents to upload or someone to upload them. From the looks of it, I think this site really needs a lot of improvement works. A total revampment may be the appropriate words. Furthermore, it is my feeling that parents are not aware of the existence of this site, hence, no participation or concern from them. I came to know of this site just a few hours ago, and I am already concerned. So, please, PTA and school administrators of this site – develop this site earnestly, and promote aggressively to all parents of this school, so that, ALL PARENTS become participating members. Then only, can there be a reliable communication channel for the flow of information between the school, the PTA, parents, and students.

So how do you leverage this PTA Website as strategic tool for communication and knowledge management?

1) Admit that there is a problem in this area of communication

First, everyone (stakeholder) that has a stake (interest) in this school (meaning; the PTA, parents, teachers, administrators/workers, and even students) must admit that there is a lack of communication with everyone, in terms of, frequency and depth of communication, on many issues that affect everyone. The information flow is so slow and inadequately brief, and I suppose, most of the times, ineffective in bringing out the message intended. When there is critically slow or no information flow (eg. from the PTA CM), then there will be low or no awareness by the intended recipients of that information (eg. the parents) – and understandably, there will be low or no response/participation from the intended recipients (eg. parents). In short, there isn’t a systematic approach to communication, at least, at the PTA level. In industry terms, many organizations, unknowingly or ignorantly, do suffer from ineffective “infostructure”, where the communication system is virtually non-existent, or at the very least, ineffective in disseminating and sharing information with all concerned parties.

With so little resources at everyone’s disposal (limited number of teachers and PTA CM members to run and manage the programs outlined, so little budget at PTA’s disposal, so little time to deploy the activities/programs planned, so little time and effort contributed by parents, so little time left for students to allocate for PTA activities/programs, and many more shortages), this PTA website can fill that gap, at almost-zero cost – and with speed. What’s needed from all concerned is only TIME to contribute ideas, thoughts, and effort in running and participating in this site. I’m surprised no one is taking this hint, or noticing this website at all, such that, this issue (lack of communication, and thus, a need for a website) was raised at the AGM. And I must say, the response to this issue raised, was rather pathetic, if not appalling. And to think that we take great pains in educating our kids on ICTL (Information-Communication Technology Learning), and out of school hours, some more!

Currently, the only communication for parents and the PTA (at least, for me) is a booklet for the AGM that briefly outlined the programs carried out by PTA (got it on the day of the AGM itself), infrequent (and far in between) correspondence from the school/PTA (only once in two months), minutes of PTA CM meeting (which is held once every 2 months or so), and the school’s bulletin board that does not provide relevant information for parents (for obvious reasons, of course – they are there, primarily, for students).

The PTA (and of course, everyone else who’s concerned about the students) must make a strong and committed change – at least in the area of communication, and that is, creating an easily-available, easily-accessible, easily-manageable, and very cost-effective communication system. No need to hire a consultant, no need to dish out a single cent, and no need to allocate a lot of time in developing this communication system. Start with developing a simple and free-hosted website. We may want to look at other school’s website, as comparison and reference! Once completed, the next immediate step is to leverage this site to the fullest. Everyone “concerned” must participate, get genuinely-involved in the forums/discussions and in knowledge-sharing and dissemination, and a whole lot more – just allocate time and put in some effort to get involved. We may be looking at a 3-6 month timeframe, but time must be expensed in this endeavor. For parents, there really is no recourse. There is no other effective alternative to the current communication woes parents face, and I suppose it has been an issue all this while.

It’s high time that the PTA make a strategic change from being accused of “lack of communication” to being lauded for “seamlessly-effective communication”. By now (after so many years in existence), the PTA must provide communication for all with a channel that provides;

a) continuity (no temporary/permanent disruption or discontinuation of information flow).

b) accessibility (available 24x7x365), affordability (zero-cost to the users), manageability (restrictive usage, upgradeability), and security (privacy, safety of information shared/disseminated).

c) variety (information caters to many needs of all concerned, and to all immediate and peripheral issues affecting everyone in this little “PTA” community of ours).

d) relevancy (up-to-date, latest, meaningful information, and depth of information – for fast decision-making and forward thinking/actions).

e) speed (immediate [with very minimal/negligible, acceptable delays] and fast dissemination and sharing of information – eg. distribution of minutes of meeting well ahead of time, continuous progress/status updates of activities/programs, etc.).

f) opportunities for parents (or anyone, for that matter) to offer their contribution (both formal & informal, and both direct & indirect), assistance, or help in any form (knowledge, advisories, time, effort, etc) to the PTA, the school, students, or other parents.

And there’s no easier way than to fully-leverage a well-managed PTA website. I just can’t over-emphasize enough - the need to make full use of a website with the above aims in mind.


2) Truly understand the basic needs for having an online presence

Everyone concerned, especially the PTA CM, must truly understand the real but basic needs of having and formally using a website, i.e. this PTA website, as the primary communication tool. With a well-designed website (of course, in time we’ll get there), the online/web presence established can provide real & immediate benefits, while helping/supporting to achieve many goals of any community, especially the PTA’s. Among these basic needs of an online/web presence include the need (in no order of priority);

a) for continuous updates on the status/progress/budget-utilization of on-going PTA activities/programs (plus with website’s tracking capability, the PTA can also consolidate all currently-deployed programs). This can serve as record-keeping purposes, too.

b) for sharing of the school’s achievements (reminding of the glorious past, and sharing of the new/present/current achievements). Everyone can use a bit of motivation every now and then.

c) to immediately address critical (and the not-so-critical) issues that are current (immediate/new), out-standing (previously unfinished/unaddressed), long-standing (recurring). And definitely, THESE ARE A LOT TO CONTEND WITH! Timely resolution of issues can only come about with the timely address of those issues (i.e. in capturing the issues and relaying them to the right person(s)).

d) for continuous awareness of, and thus, participation by parents in all programs/activities of the PTA, and school (that requires parents’ participation/contribution). There must be a consolidated approach to attract every parent to truly and continuously participate in all activities planned and deployed by the PTA. An online web presence can provide continuous awareness (with regular updates) for parents on all activities logged on the web. And with other supporting information elsewhere on the site, parents can be easily motivated to chip in more with their own contribution, at their own pace, and within their own time constraints.

e) for cost-effectiveness in the running and managing of all PTA activities and programs (minimizing the administration costs; eg. the use of paper, reducing costs of printing flyers/letters/invitations, etc.).

f) for parents’/students’ early anticipation of the activities/programs planned, and hence, allow for their early preparation to participate in these activities/programs. In addition, early anticipation of issues will also likely lead to more time to mitigate those issues (more time to provide ideas/ways to resolve the issues) for everyone concerned.

g) for continuous knowledge discovery, development, management and dissemination. Knowledge-sharing is a two-way journey for everyone – there is the giving part, and the receiving part. And the use of existing technology definitely helps. All parties can participate in continuous knowledge-sharing using this PTA website – TODAY (and not some inconceivable time in future). Everyone has his/her own knowledge base – he/she just needs a platform to share it on. What better way than to use the always-available, easily-accessible, zero-cost, own-time-permitting, PTA website’s forum and bulletin board. Guided properly, a lot of new knowledge can be uploaded and downloaded at any time, by anyone, for anyone, and for any purpose. Of course, with this great ability comes even greater responsibility. But everyone (parents, PTA, teachers) is mature enough to guide everyone else (especially the students) on the ethical (and legal) use of the website for knowledge- and information-sharing. One must have positive attitude towards knowledge-deploying technology before reaping the benefits of having such. Positivity is key.

h) for nurturing a continuous and seamless (borderless) “learning environment” for students, teachers, and parents, alike. A long-term nurturing environment for students calls for the need to have a balanced-life (“study-play”, “religious-emphasis”, and “value-based”), learning improvement (and not just learning for exams), and academic progress. Achieving this, definitely, requires committed effort (the sacrifice of all parties, not the least, the students), and time. While parents, teachers, PTA and students are, generally, committed in their efforts, there remains the time-constraints faced by everyone. Using time-efficient technology (as only, a well-run website can achieve) to back this commitment, definitely, helps.


3) Adopt a forward-focused, values-based approach to developing our students

Admitting to our weakness (with respect to communication), and hence, establishing a web presence to eliminate this weakness, are just the first steps towards providing a nurturing learning environment for students. But such efforts may lose their long-term sustainability and momentum if the higher goal (in student development) is just to achieve 95% straight-As SPM students, for example. The real goal should be to develop our students to be forward-focus (hence, being resourceful and resilient are key) by adopting values-based approach to life (hence, leadership, creativity/innovativeness, ethical, and positivity as qualities, become predominantly critical). An online technology can definitely assist us in accelerating the achievement of this goal.

In this day and age of highly-paced technological advancement, economic uncertainties, moral degradation, and faith-challenging issues, students need to be equipped with values that can help them endure such pressures of their upcoming life as contributing adults in an aggressively more-competitive world. While performance (and hence, achievement) can be one of the many individual goals for success in this 21st-century world, it should not be the ultimate one. Success, in real terms, should be measured on how one carried oneself in the face of adversity (when everything is going against them) – and students definitely need more than just performance (or “achievement”) as their ultimate motivating factor. They also need these values (at the very least), so that they can sustain their momentum in striving to achieve their other goals in life (other than performance/achievement goals), especially when they are facing difficulties in trying to fit in with their “work-life” and the industry norms and behaviors required of them. And exposure to such values early and with a higher frequency while these students are still in our cradles (the school), is key, if not critical, in developing students to be resilient and resourceful in their more challenging world.

The PTA, definitely, can help here (notwithstanding the already numerous activities burdened on the PTA and the school). These needs call for the PTA/school to more frequently expose students to programs that bring out and promote these values, among others. While the school’s budget will always remain tightly-constraint, teachers/PTAs/parents need to find innovative ways to implant these values through other means. One such means is through the use of the website, either to conduct online values-based programs, or to make available the intellectual literatures or resources that deal with these programs or subject. Either way, it’s the students who should be benefitting most, and with little effort, time or money expensed towards acquiring such knowledge from everyone concerned.

The school, the PTA and all its programs for the students must also be “forward-focus”. While performance-orientation and discipline are the school’s/PTA’s continuous endeavors, the softer side of management must also be addressed – that is, the emotional development of students; the ethics of teaching, school-PTA management and student interactions; the human capital development of teachers/PTA/parents; the adoption of a more balanced, values-based strategies and plans; and a balanced work-life and home-life for everyone, to name a few. And some (if not, all) of these endeavors can be channeled through the existing PTA website for awareness, feedback, contribution, participation, and much more, so that everyone can participate, especially, the “out-of-touch” parents.


4) The next steps

What’s needed next is to just get a team going in developing and managing the website. We can request parents to contribute their expertise in this area. Personally, I certainly would like to be a part of this effort. Maybe then, what’s next is the participation of parents, the PTA, and the teachers to contribute the contents, and more important, to start formally using this technology to efficiently resolve all issues, and to effectively implement all planned programs, with the continuous and committed participation of all concerned.

I can’t over-emphasize enough the benefits that can be derived from using a website to assist communities to run programs effectively and expediently. As time progresses, feature upgrades of this site can lead to more seamless communication and knowledge-sharing between every individual in this community – a “one-stop center of knowledge” for the this school’s community. And definitely, the students - our children, will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Invented Words

READERS ARE ADVISED TO EXERCISE HIS/HER OWN DISCRETION IN VIEWING THESE NOTES. THE AUTHOR, HEREBY, FORE-WARNS, THAT SOME OF THE CONTENTS IN THESE NOTES MAY BE A BIT ADULTERATED AND UNSETTLING TO SOME READERS, AND MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR MINORS OR ANYONE BELOW THE AGE OF 70. THESE NOTES, HOWEVER, ARE NOT INTENTIONALLY MEANT TO DISCRIMINATE, MAKE REFERENCES TO, OR MAKE A MOCKERY OF ANY PERSON OR GROUP OF PERSONS, PARTY, RACE OR RELIGION. THE AUTHOR, WHILE RESERVING HIS RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF HUMOROUS EXPRESSION, STRIVES TO MAINTAIN AN UNBIASED VIEW OF THE NOTES BEING SHARED. THE AUTHOR ALSO HOPES THAT COMMENTS MADE ON THESE NOTES ARE FAIR AND NON-DISCRIMINATORY, AND THAT CAN TICKLE, AT LEAST, ONE CELL FROM THE 5 BILLION OR SO CELLS IN THE BRAIN. SO, PLEASE EXERCISE YOUR DISCRETION IN VIEWING AND COMMENTING ON THESE NOTES.

What new words can you invent today - words that should make it to your local dictionaries?

Here’s a collection of invented words from http://www.urbandictionary.com/ I stumbled upon, recently, and some words that have crossed my mind:

1. Bool - Boring, but cool.

2. Cakeacola - Cake with coke in it, or coke with cake in it.

3. Chesstick - A person who loves chess.

4. Mummarola - Mum turning the TV off on your favourite part.

5. Skuzzbombs - The act of expressing anger in a humourous way without swearing.

6. Zwig - An orange ostrich, wearing a pink tutu and eating a frozen mash potato TV dinner.

7. Fugiggling - The act of laughing for no reason.

8. Lifequake - An event that suddenly changes your life, like, being hit by a falling building, injured in a car accident, seeing your stock portfolio collapse, seeing your life-savings disappearing right before your eyes in a get-rich-quick-scheme, getting diagnosed with a terrible illness, or losing your job.

9. w00t (that's, w-zero-zero-t) - The common expression of joy (at least, for those under 25).

10. Canniversary - A year from the date on which you were fired from a job. Example : "Next week is my canniversary from Proton!"

11. Carcolepsy - A condition affecting buddies on a trip who fall asleep as soon as the car starts moving, providing no company or driving help. Example : “Joe slept the whole way here, I think he suffers from carcolepsy”.

12. Hello List - The list of people you have to or want to say "hello" to on a daily basis. Especially, relevant for students in university buildings, co-workers in a workplace, or “friends” in a P2P network friend’s list (like in FaceBook, MySpace, yahoo, etc., etc.). Some people might decide to put you on their hello lists, even if they aren't on yours! Typically, reciprocity is expected. Dropping someone from your hello list to just a nod when you pass him or her might be considered a snub by the other person.

13. Chick Flick - A film that indulges in the hopes and dreams of women and/or girls. A film that has a happy, fuzzy, ridiculously unrealistic ending. Examples are : “My Best Friend's Wedding, Mona Lisa Smile, Runaway Bride, The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, Josie and the Pussycats, Mean girls, A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday....” I could go on forever!

14. lol Theory - The theory that the internet phrase “lol”, meaning "laugh out loud", can be placed at any part in any sentence and make said sentence lose all credibilty and seriousness. Examples of lol theory in action : “Doc: We need to operate on your colon lol, you have cancer.”; “Me: Will you marry me? Lol.”

15. June Year’s Resolution - A New Year's Resolution that starts June 1st instead of January 1st. This is assuming the original act of self improvement has failed from January to June and it is time to start over with something else. Example: Tim: "I thought you quit smoking as your New Year's Resolution?"; Eric: "Yeah, I tried but... I'm going to work out instead. It's my June Year's Resolution."

16. Poopular (Adjective) - Popular on the outside, poopy on the inside. Example: “Everyone likes Ben but he's a real asshole. I guess he's just poopular.”

17. Boss Sandwich - An unfortunate cubicle configuration in which you find yourself sandwiched in between two of your bosses. Examples : “I can't even check my GMail account at work because I'm in a total boss sandwich”; “I'm such a sad panda at work these days. I'm totally the lunch meat in a major boss sandwich.”

18. Bedgasm - A feeling of complete and utter euphoria which peaks when climbing into bed at the end of an 18-hour workday, a long road trip or hours of extremely strenuous physical activity. Under perfect conditions, the physical release has been likened to that of an intense sexual experience. Examples are: “It was a three hour drive in the middle of the night, I could barely stay awake. When I got home, I climbed under the covers and had a ten-minute bedgasm”.

19. kthxbi - I understand. Your help in this matter has been greatly appreciated. However, with much regret and much haste, I must be departing from our conversation. Example: “newb2342: da partiez @ 4, b there!!1. lolz3r: kthxbi!!!!11”

20. Mall Feet - The condition of having unusually intense aches and pains in the feet due to exposure to shopping malls. Most commonly presented in males, presumably due to two factors. First, there is an inherent inability to withstand the excess gravity resulting from the densely packed merchandise. Second, females often burden males with the charge of carrying gratuitous quantities of purchases far greater than the typical wallet loading. There is no cure, though treatments may include reclining chairs and bottled beverages. Example: "Honey, you don't need any more bags. Let's go. I'm really tired, and I've had mall feet since the food court."

21. Trusticles - Having the balls to trust someone in a difficult situation, when the failure of that trust would result in injury or financial loss. Example: “I know I got my law degree online (don’t all lawyers do), but we're family. Show me you've got some big trusticles and let me defend you in court!”

22. Mouse Potato - Someone who spends all their time on the computer surfing the net or playing games. Similar to couch potato. Example: “You spent seven hours on the internet creating meanings for new invented words? Wow, You're such a mouse potato”.

23. Critical Ass adj. The stage in fat accumulation when fabric can no longer contain the enormity of one's buttocks. Example: “Gosh, I can't zip up these jeans anymore - I've reached critical ass!”

24. Textpectation The anticipation one feels when waiting for a response to a text message. Example: “I just texted her for a date, but now the textpectation is killing me.”

25. Slcunk - Something that smells.

26. Ex-Hole - Your asshole ex-wife, ex-husband, ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, or just plain ex. A phrase used to refer to that person you used to be with or used to date that you can't stand. Example: "Yeah, my ex-hole wants to get back together, but there is no possible way."

27. Faceboink - Hooking up with someone through a tentative relationship in an online community. Example: “So are they seeing each other now, or was it just a faceboink?”

28. Textually Fustrated - When texting with someone over IM or SMS that takes too long to reply leaving you waiting and frustrated. Example: "She takes forever; texting with Sara leaves me textually frustrated."

29. nom nom nom - Represents the sound made when someone is eating or chewing something and really enjoying it. Example: “"Hey, are you eating my brownies?”. "Nom nom nom."”

30. Foot in mouth disease - A description about one who has a habit of putting their foot in their mouth. From Foot and Mouth Disease. Example: "Oh, Geez, I'm sorry!" Bob said. "You've got foot in mouth disease today, don't you?"

31. Flavorgasm - When eating food so good that you let out an involuntary moan, usually the first bite; also as an adjective – flavorgasmic. Example: “I ate this unbelievable steak yesterday. I swear when I ate the first bite I had a total flavorgasm.”

32. Vegetarian - A bad hunter. Someone who survives by consuming not food, but the stuff that food eats. Example: “The vegetarian was forced to subsist on slower prey, such as the broccoli and carrot.”

33. Economic Vegetarian - Only eating Vegetables because you can't afford to buy meat. Example: “He used to be an Economic Vegetarian but then he got a better job and can afford to buy steak.”

34. Crop Dusting - Farting while walking; walking while farting. Example: “I crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store.”

35. Boo - 1. Boyfriend or girlfriend. 2. Word used to scare people. Example 1: “Can you handle me? If you can't, you ain't gonna be my boo.”. Example 2: “Guy 1: BOO! Guy 2: Holy sh*t!”

36. Presponse - To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker. Example: “Wendy: So are you avail-. Jimmy: No. (Presponse) Wendy: -ible Monday? (silence) Wendy: Are you?

37. Grandoghter - When your children decide to have dogs instead of real kids.

38. Stoptional - When the braking of a car is left to one's choice due to an unnecessary stop sign. Example: “Passenger: Did you just blow through that stop sign? Driver: Oh, no worries. It was stoptional.”

39. Slackitude - The act of, or state of being a slacker. Describes the attitude typically associated with being a slacker. Most appropriately applies to one with no responsibilities, one that gets by pretending to be hard at work, or the co-worker that is found hanging out near the coffee machine for most of the day. Example: “I just can't tolerate that guy's slackitude! If I were his manager, I'd sack him, no doubt.”

40. Designated Texter - A passenger who reads and replies to any and all text messages received on the drivers phone, thus allowing the driver to focus on the road and not hit anything or get pulled over for reckless driving. Example: “Guy 1: "Woah, I almost hit that telephone pole back there, Dude you should be my designated texter ". Guy 2: "Yeah no problem bro".

41. Requestion - Requesting something indirectly by way of a question. Note: this is distinguished from a regular question because the answer is usually obvious. Example: "Are those peanut m&m's?" (requestion); "Yes, would you like some?"; "yeah".

42. Imaginary Bluetooth - An imaginary telephone device popular with riders of public transport, those having manic episodes, paranoid schizophrenics, and just common talk to yourself out loud types. Example: “Dude A: Whoa, dude on the escalator is yakking away to no one and there's no bluetooth in his ear.” Dude B: “Imaginary bluetooth in action. Probably on his way to the bus.”

43. Gigabucks - Abbr. GB. One billion dollars. An insane amount of money. Example: “Starbucks earned 77 Gigabucks last year.”

44. Politiclone - A political pundit or commentator who is unable to think for her/himself. Example: “ABC News uses the opinions of politiclones to bolster support for the last Administration.”

45. OPM - Other People's Money. Example: “Man, this cellphone bill is killin’ me, I gotta get some OPM.”

46. Liptease - The act of putting on lipstick suggestively. The oral equivalent of a striptease. Example: “Diane was giving me a liptease from across the room, so I went over and asked her out.”

47. Fexpensive - (adj.) F**king expensive. Example: “A: Oh man, look at the price! 200 bucks for a shirt! B: Wow, it does look fexpensive.”

48. Mis-Wave - To return a wave to someone you think is waving at you, but is actually waving to the person behind you. Usually results in embarrassment and introversion. Example: “Damn...I thought that girl was waving at me L. HHAHAHAHA MIS-WAVE!!!!!!”

49. Deface - To remove a 'friendship' from Facebook due to having either accidentally adding him/her as a friend or actually adding them and reconsidering later. Example 1: "Yeah, there was this guy in my network who added me. I thought he looked ok, but his updates were really cramping my news feed, so I had to deface him." Example 2: "I went on a date with a girl I met a week before and like the day after our date she changed her status to 'in a relationship.' I defaced her."

50. Driving Finger - Your middle finger. Usually refers to the one on the right hand so it can be displayed out the driver's side window to comment on another driver's behavior. Your driving finger is the longest finger.

51. Destinesia - When you get to where you were intending to go, you forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to be confused with being stoned, destinesia often occurs during working hours, and is the cause of much frustration. Example: “John ran down the stairs to the dry storage and walk-in, but when he got there he couldn't remember what he needed. Consequently, he had to run back upstairs to the kitchen, and look at his prep list again. Damn you, destinesia!”

52. I’m just sayin’ - A phrase that is used when someone is offended by something you said. This phrase then removes all the offensiveness of the previous statement, making it all good. Example: “Ryan: “That chick has nice uppers!” Rob: “Damn, that's my sister!” Ryan: “I'm just sayin'” Rob: “Oh, okay, it's cool.”

53. Antibabeoons (pronounced as, en-tai-beb-yuns) – Acts of rivalry, usually, between political parties (but, sometimes, can also apply to workers’ unions). Can also apply to rivalries between members of the same political party, or the same union. Negative behaviours exhibited by political/union rivals, or members within a party/union are usually in the forms of hatred speeches, back-stabbing moves, and other nonsensical attitudes during political/union rallies, and lately, in online political spams.

54. Babeoons (pronounced as, beb-yuns) – The political rivals or those persons these rivals are so against (don’t worry if you don’t know who they are – they know each other well!). Babeoons are close relations to the real “baboons”, which are tree-dwelling mammals that make their habitat in equatorial and tropical rainforests, and political jungles. Studies have shown that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the two species as frequent interactions have mutually brought the two species close together, physiologically and psychologically.

55. Emportan – a sub-specie of the Orang Utan trying too hard to be an MP, usually ends up spending lavishly at emporiums (discount stores).

56. Polpotus (plural) – Politicians politicking endlessly in time (singular – polpotme).

57. Malyaluni (pronounced as, mal-yah-loo-nae) – The act of “a race hitting on its own race” at political rallies (taken from contexts as spoken in ancient south-east asian history books – translated into Malay as “malunya orang kita ni”, which when translated into Engrish sounds like, “what a shame our race has become”).

58. Kitsiang – A “Day-Kit” of multi-purpose tools and equipment (like, a foreign-ordered, double-ended hammer-screwdriver tool) that politicians carry around to “tonyoh” their political rivals all DAY, using their now-acceptable “hammer-away-and-screw-you” technique.

59. Tonyoh – The act of smashing political rivals all DAY with a “kitsiang”.

60. Kerpala Samsingh – An acute syndrome that ravishes the brain when too much law gets into the head. Incidentally, this slang in a south-east asian local dialect may also refer to “a hot-headed nincompoop”, or “indicating a person’s head is bigger than his whole body – thereby creating instability in the brain and thus, resulting in slurring of his/her speeches. What comes out of the mouth (in the advanced stage of the syndrome) are, usually, shitted cows and bulls”.

61. Asstrollnot – A millionaire-not troll spending taxpayers’ $100 million on a single orbital space-flight that does no benefit to society other than put his name (and others’) on some guinness book of unimaginable local records (if one can call it a benefit!), only to be totally-forgotten 365 days later.

62. Polasstrollnot – Those who eagerly send him up there.

63. Armarud-u (pronounced as, argh-mah-ghrood-you”) – A name given to an ignorantly-rude bunch of Armani-crazy P2P networking friends on steroids who can’t tell the difference between very-funny jokes and distastefully-not-funny political rants. According to a new study, body language reveals wealth. A flashy handbag or Armani suit can signal a person's wealth and political inclinations, but so can their body language. People of higher socio-economic status are happily, selfishly, and frequently more rude when conversing with others, especially during live parliamentary debates.

64. Snacklewit – A snake which can outwit any lawyer any day on earth.

65. Copomalidostrich - A couch-potato ostrich (that big bird with the smallest brain in the world) watching “national” Idols, AF, and those other “lackabrainsical” musical and reality TV shows.

66. Malidostrich – Those ostriches that participate in “national” Idols, AF, etc., etc..

67. Adujostrich – Those annoyingly-dumb ostrich judges on such shows!

68. Lackabrainsicals – Lack-of-a-brain TV shows (most appropriate for musical, reality and political entertainment shows).

69. Fronsepah – A French-speaking asian local trying too hard, period. Bersepah cakap!

70. Fronsepahnot – An asian dialect-speaking French trying hard to impress his counterparts, the Fronsepahs.

71. Siggenting – It's close to 'sickening' but used in a more intense situation, like when you are at Genting Theme Park, you keep on jumping from one ride to another, though you throw up in between. Example: “Those politicians are siggenting!” [Word invented by Maria Marzuki on February 17 at 6:40 am]

72. BN - Bullshitful Neanderthals (synonym: Bullshitting Nincompoops). Who’d imagine that the Neanderthals can get involved in “cavemen” politics, much less, bullshit their way out of extinction. Studies have confirmed the only reason they were almost erased from the face of the Earth was because of their stubborn ignorance, insisting that they were the better species, and hence, no change (in mind and body) was ever needed. Against all odds (and proving that Darwinism is a FAKE), their roots did make it out of Europe (and escaped seemingly inevitable extinction). Surprisingly, they are rather concentrated in this south-east-asian peninsular, of all places on Earth. Example: “Wow, did you see that? A modern day BN, spamming “very primitive ideologies” on the net!” [This word was appropriately invented because of the excessive online spamming of political ideologies by cavemen, making it hard to ignore such a phenomenon.]

73. NF - Neanderthal Freaks. English-speaking BN. Example: “Wow, I never thought I’d see a real-life NF, in ‘person’. I thought these guys were done for, 10,000 years ago!” [Stop all forms of online political spamming.]

Send in your new invented words today, or those you reinvented from the list above. They will definitely get published here!

HRM in the 21st Century - What's Ahead

Summary

Several initiatives that can be initiated to further advance Human Resources Management for this new century, and that require the attention and focus of management across the organization, especially those responsible for the HR function, include;
- implementing a comprehensive Strategic Planning for Human Resources (SPHR) process,
- closing the leadership gap – a risk in future organizational growth if this issue is not tackled and prioritized,
- fostering an environment for workforce engagement,
- developing an adaptable workforce as a strategic capability,
- undertaking amore competitive talent management program,
- driving organizational growth through analytics, and
- incorporating positive organizational scholarship (POS), as part of the organization’s shared values, in improving performance and competitiveness.

However, the journey towards implementing these initiatives will be difficult and littered with obstacles. Understanding key workforce performance challenges and identifying the leading practices organizations are using to overcome them are central in deploying these initiatives.

The global economy is transforming into an integrated market, full of opportunity, competition and fast-moving change. Such change comes with its share of challenge causing organizations to make the best use of their most important assets - their workforce. As first steps, there needs to be a comprehensive SPHR process in place to anticipate long-range HR and talent needs, instead of just reacting to short-term needs. While implementing this process alone can be a challenge on its own, HR practitioners need to garner full organizational support, especially from top management, to get this initiative going.

New leadership skills will be required, such as, external collaboration skills, serving as role models and mentors across organizational boundaries, and ability to provide guidance to the workforce from various generations and cultures. However, shortage of such leaders, individuals, and organizations inability to develop future leaders will remain deep concerns for organizations, as in the past. Future growths will be at risk if these concerns are not well addressed and given the appropriate focus.

Fostering an environment for workforce engagement is another key initiative that is becoming a critical strategic imperative for HR practitioners. Employee satisfaction has been identified as a key factor in influencing employee engagement, with both attitudes having direct effects on customer response, and both indirectly influencing an organization’s financial performance through their impact on the customer. Understanding the drivers that govern workforce satisfaction and engagement will be fundamental towards achieving optimal results, and sustaining competitiveness, as organizations step into a more uncertain global economy.

Developing workforce adaptability to adapt to change is another initiative key to winning in competitive markets. Factors influencing adaptability include capability to predict future skill sets, ability to identify experts within the organization, and the availability of an easily-accessible IT-enabled knowledge platform to promote collaboration across the organization, from individual tasks to group knowledge discovery and sharing.

The issue of talent management will have to be tackled in a number of ways, including upgrading current the skill sets, resolving issues related on employee engagement, and attracting external talents. Changing business needs which require diverse talents, among some of the reasons for this need, will make talent management a major challenge for organizations to rapidly develop employee skills and align those skills to future business needs.

Another key initiative is the availability of strategic information with supporting analytics for management to prioritize issues, clarify business direction, and reward employees for their performance. However, there remains a concern for the apparent lack of supporting analytics required to develop insights and consolidate information. One solution is to conduct regular strategic discussions between management and the workforce to strengthen this strategic information database. Resolving this concern will elevate HR’s traditional role to being a driving force behind the organization’s growth.

Using positive organizational scholarship (POS) as the organization’s shared values can foster an environment of empowerment for the workforce. Through POS, positive emotions, high-quality social networks and connections, virtuousness, meaningfulness at work, and personal improvement among employees, can lead to organizational effectiveness, subsequently leading to organization-wide improvements in individual and corporate performances, and organizational competitiveness in the market place.

These initiatives, when appropriately well-prioritized within top management’s agenda, and carefully planned for their implementation, can provide a returnable future for both the organization and employees. More strategically, those responsible for the advancement of human resources can truly position themselves to be the drivers of organization-wide growths.

1) Strategic Planning for Human Resources (SPHR)

Strategic Planning for Human Resources (SPHR) has increasingly become a necessity. SPHR is needed now, more than ever, especially during these times when management is putting more resources in implementing strategic HRM processes in their organizations. Concerns and uncertainties in economic, technological, demographic, and social conditions have led to the expansion of the strategic business planning process to include a comprehensive SPHR process. Organizations have accepted the fact that they need to anticipate long-range HR and talent needs, instead of merely reacting to short-term needs to replace workers.

There will always be difficulty and challenges in implementing SPHR in organizations. But they need to elevate HR roles to be more future-oriented, giving HR personnel a major role in formulating organizational strategy. After all, organizations are composed of people! To be truly effective, plans must take into account the present abilities and future capabilities of people. Leadership, a critical human factor, is of key importance in strategy formulation and implementation. At the same time, business plans also mean new human skills need to be developed in present employees, or sought outside the company, necessitating the need for SPHR.

It is, however, not going to be easy to convince SPHR to others. Management do not necessarily perceive a need for it. An SPHR effort is unlikely to get off the ground until it receives full organizational support, right from the very top. Getting around this problem means that HR practitioners need to;

a) champion the idea of SPHR, educating management on what SPHR is and how it will help them meet their needs and deal with their problems,

b) maximize talent management using SPHR, ensuring there is replacement whenever key personnel leaves,

c) communicate information about SPHR in training programs by incorporating SPHR in in-house training programs, at the same time, creating support for SPHR from people outside the HR department, and

d) analyze the reasons why some may oppose SPHR, whether their fears can be laid to rest, or whether the issues at hand can be negotiated.

A simplified SPHR process may include;
a) linking the purpose, goals, and objectives of the HR department to the purpose, goals, and objectives of the organization,

b) assessing the present status of HR in the organization by analyzing work done in jobs, positions, or job categories; the people in jobs, positions, or job categories; and the HR department,

c) scanning the environment to assess how jobs, positions, or job categories will probably change over time; how people in those jobs, positions, or job categories will probably have to change over time to keep up with job changes, and how the HR department will probably be affected by changes inside and outside the organization over time,

d) comparing the present work being done in jobs/positions to the expected future work that will probably be done in the future, and then present people doing the work and those who will be needed in the future (the result is a planning gap in the workforce),

e) considering a long-term HR strategy that will help close planning gaps in the work and workforce, making it the HR Grand Strategy.

f) implementing this HR Grand Strategy through coordination of HR roles, such as, career management programs, training, recruitment, job design, organization development, labor relations, employee assistance programs, and compensation/benefits,

g) managing the HR function so that it is an effective vehicle for helping implement HR Grand Strategy by changing people and jobs,

h) evaluating the HR Grand Strategy before, during, and after implementation,

i) feeding back the results of this evaluation into Step a).

These steps represent a step-by-step, contingent SPHR process, one which is highly flexible and adaptable to current business needs. It is a process of planned change on a large scale. This SPHR process can overlap and occur simultaneously, even in real time. Organizational politics may also affect goals, objectives, strategies, and outcomes of this process. At the end of the day, successful implementation of the SPHR process can jump-start a comprehensive strategic HRM implementation program in organizations.

2) Leadership Gap – Risking Future Growth

With globalization, innovation, and intensifying competition, new leadership skills are required. Current and future leaders will need to;
a) work more effectively with outside partners,
b) serve as role models and mentors to individuals who are increasingly dispersed across countries, regions and geographies, and
c) provide guidance and structure to employees who come from a variety of generations, experience levels and cultures.

The main concerns of organizations now, as in the past, are the current and projected shortage of such leaders, individuals, and their inability to develop future leaders. Future growths will be jeopardized if organizations are not able, with some degree of comfort, to identify, develop and empower the next generation of leaders. Explosive growth in emerging markets, and the retirement of experienced personnel in more-mature economies add to that risk.

Some of the approaches used to identify future leaders include;
a) providing individuals with job opportunities across their organizations,
b) matching potential leaders with mentors who can share valuable knowledge and provide access to networks,
c) embarking on leadership development programs that reach far down into the organization
d) tapping high-potential individuals early in their careers and provide them with the core skills they need to identify new opportunities, and
e) developing innovative solutions that deliver results.

The foundation for successfully developing future leaders is top management’s willingness to take responsibility for selecting individuals and providing them with the appropriate guidance and experiences. Management need to commit the resources. More important, they also need to provide the supportive culture needed to make leadership development programs truly successful.

3) Environment for Workforce Engagement

Creating a satisfied and engaged workforce will be fundamental to organizations if they dream of successfully competing in fast-changing global markets, achieving optimal results, and sustaining that competitiveness longer than their rivals. Managers need to identify several approaches to influence employee satisfaction and engagement (in that strict order) - criteria that have strong impacts on customers and financial performance. Regardless of job description or level, employees want to feel that what they do is relevant to the customer.

The key drivers impacting employee satisfaction include
a) an employee’s intention to remain in the organization,
- intention to stay reflects employees’ satisfaction with the organization and their status as an employee.
b) the skill variety employees are able to exhibit in their job,
- they tend to feel more satisfied if given the opportunity to stretch their wings a bit.
c) the level of customer-service orientation achieved, and
- when employees are more satisfied, they will focus on making sure the customer is too.
d) the degree of coordination between units of the organization.
- employees feel more satisfied being a part of a well-structured and coordinated organization.

The key drivers of employee engagement include
a) reduced role conflict,
- engagement will not occur if employees feel that instruction given are counter to what they feel is appropriate.
b) proper training,
- engagement will occur if there is sufficient and proper training for the development of skills that improve the contribution of each individual employee.
c) personal autonomy, and
- engagement will occur if the job provides freedom to the employee in terms of, scheduling and work procedures.
d) the effective utilization of expert, referent, and exchange power by managers.
- employees are influenced by
 their supervisors’ technical expertise or managerial competence (expert power),
 the respect that they have for their supervisors (referent power), and
 their supervisors’ willingness to be influenced by them (exchange power).
- engagement is largely driven by the employee’s feeling (regarding personal value, respect, and freedom) that the organization values his or her contribution, and that the organization will do its best to remove barriers from getting the job done.

Creating the environment for workforce engagement will continue to gain emphasis as organizations step into a more challenging and turbulent global economy. Understanding the drivers that govern workforce satisfaction will be fundamental to fostering that environment.


4) Adaptable Workforce as a Strategic Capability

Organizations need to be ever more responsive to changing market needs, be it global or local. Developing workforce adaptability is key to addressing this need, and subsequently, winning in competitive markets. However, organizations believe that achieving workforce adaptability can be very challenging, if not elusive.

Adaptability is capability to adapt to change. Three key capabilities influence the workforce’s ability to adapt to change;
a) organizations must be capable of predicting their future skill requirements,
b) organizations need to effectively identify and locate experts, and
c) these experts must be able to collaborate across their organizations, that is to say,
- being able to bring individuals and groups separated by organizational boundaries, time zones and cultures, and connecting them to share and expand their knowledge base and experiences.

There are ongoing initiatives in many organizations to develop these capabilities, but these are rather independent efforts across the organizations which do not really amount to an organization-wide comprehensive undertaking in managing its workforce. As an example, identifying future skill sets are undertaken by the Training & Development function, whereas, collaboration projects are handled by the Product Innovation Team or the IT Team. Yet these two initiatives/capabilities actually require all vested parties to jointly-cooperate (collaborate) to achieve shared goals.

Using IT (such as, Web 2.0 social networking tools), as enabler to automatically identify, locate and connect experts within the company, can be an effective solution, though rather slow in its adoption. A lasting solution could be the integration of such tool in the day-to-day activities of the workforce, from individual task management to group-wide knowledge discovery and expansion.

5) Competitive Talent Management

Managing talents have been very competitive lately, partly due to rapidly changing business needs which require diverse talents from a limited pool of workforce, and partly due to workforce mobility which makes talent retention a nightmare, at best. Organizations have begun tackling the issue of talent management in a number of approaches which include;
a) upgrading the skills of current employees,
b) understanding and tackling issues related to employee engagement, and
c) attracting talent from outside the organization.

The key challenge is overcoming the organization’s inability to rapidly develop employee skills and align those skills to future business needs. While this effort may be a strong focus in organizations, attracting individuals from the outside and retaining existing employees can be both under-emphasized and under-prioritized, as many researches suggest. On the contrary, organizations almost unequivocally believe that they have done a better job of attracting and retaining talent than their competitors.

Performance results and industry trends in talent management suggest otherwise. Factors that need to be critically-considered are changes in employee demographics, the ease and speed of switching employers, and the differing expectations of the Generation Y workforce (those born after 1980).

Hence, organizations need to be more innovative in attracting, motivating and developing employees. Organizations will need to seek out new and innovative approaches to managing talent, which would have to include the entire employee lifecycle. Organizations will need to emphasize more on;
a) segmenting and targeting talent,
b) reaching out to alternative labor pools such as older workers and corporate alumni, and
c) developing a presence in virtual worlds and social networking sites to cater to a more tech-savvy population.

Managing this kind of talent market requires a structured, analytic approach to attracting, developing and retaining key personnel, a whole new approach to competitive talent management.

6) Driving Growth through Analytics

In any organization, improving operational excellence and increasing revenue/profit growths have become a standard set of strategic imperatives to remain competitive and relevant. Key to sustaining organizational competitiveness is the availability of strategic information and analytics to help executives at every level in prioritizing issues, providing input into the broader organization’s business direction, and rewarding the organization’s performing workforce. The worrying fact is the lack of supporting analytics needed to develop insights, formulate business cases, and consolidate information.

What organizations need are regular strategic two-way discussions (between management and the workforce) to strengthen this strategic information database. What has been lacking from these strategic conversations are the analytics. Without consolidated information, executives find themselves unable to identify their rising stars, reward solid performers for their contributions and retain desired employees.

Reasons for the lack of analytics include;
a) a lack of systems integration and data quality,
b) an inability to extract data,
c) a need for clearly defined metrics,
d) the difficulty to link human capital information with data from Sales, Finance and other related departments, and
e) the inability to share information across applications used within HR itself, and
f) a lack of analytic capabilities of HR personnel.

Organizations need to do more than just focus on developing data standards and connecting systems. They need to successfully leverage human capital information. Not only does it provide key metrics that can improve workforce productivity and performance, it also enables the HR personnel to translate human capital data into executable strategy. HR in this 21st century will move far beyond its traditional role to being a driving force for business growth and workforce transformation.

7) Positive Organizational Scholarship for Performance and Competitiveness

Organizations need to find a more creative approach of creating an environment of workforce readiness and extra-ordinary performance to meet the challenges of the 21st century. One way is to foster positive organizational scholarship (POS), as an organizational shared-value, throughout the organization.

In fostering positive organizational scholarship (POS) as a shared-value, organizations emphasize a positively-reinforced environment typified by appreciation, collaboration, virtuousness, vitality, and meaningfulness in organizations. Creating abundance and human well-being are key indicators of success. Other organizational shared-values are characterized by trustworthiness, resilience, wisdom, humility, and high levels of positive energy. Social relationships and interactions are characterized by compassion, loyalty, honesty, respect, and forgiveness. Significant attention is given to what makes life worth living. Management put a strong emphasis on organizational and individual excellence, and extraordinary performance.

Contrary to this is a negatively-reinforced environment where greed, selfishness, manipulation, secrecy, single-minded focus on winning, and wealth creation are the key indicators of success. Such organizations are characterized by distrust, anxiety, self-absorption, fear, burnout, and feelings of abuse. Conflict, lawsuits, contract breaking, retribution, and disrespect characterize many interactions and social relationships. Management, in this negatively-reinforced environment, put a strong emphasis on values like problem solving, reciprocity and justice, managing uncertainty, overcoming resistance, achieving profitability, and competing successfully against others.

In fostering POS value, organizations do not reject the value and significance of the negatively-reinforced environment, rather, they emphasize the value and significance of the positively-reinforced environment. While a focus on competition and profitability is crucial for organizational survival and success, an environment of ‘positiveness’ (as depicted in the first environment) can propel organizations to heights never before imagined. Organizations can truly achieve performance excellence in this is ‘blue ocean’ environment, and expect high levels of competitiveness at both individual and corporate levels.

Organizations need to be concerned positive outcomes, processes, and attributes of their organizations and their members. They also need to focus on excellence, thriving, flourishing, abundance, resilience, or virtuousness, putting an increased emphasis on ideas of “goodness” and positive human potential. Attention must be given to the enablers (processes, capabilities, structures, methods), the motivations (unselfishness, selfless contribution), and the outcomes (meaningfulness, high-quality relationships).

Organizations also need to identify behavior factors that enable positive consequences for individuals, groups, and organizations, those that emphasize excellence, exceptional, virtuous, and life-giving. Emphasizing positive organizational processes can also produce extraordinarily positive outcomes. Some of the approaches may include;
a) highlighting the virtuousness of organizations in downsizing exercises during financial crisis, instead of focusing on mitigating the harmful effects of downsizing,
b) fostering individual needs to enable individuals to create meaningful work, instead of focusing on employee productivity or morale,
c) fostering empowerment for stakeholders, instead of focusing on stakeholder demands, and
d) building on strengths to produce more positive outcomes, such as classroom learning, employee commitment, leadership development, and firm profitability, instead of focusing on managing or overcoming weaknesses.


Conclusion

For HR practitioners entrusted with implementing strategic HRM for their organizations in this 21st century, various initiatives need to be skillfully-deployed. As a first steps towards that implementation, there needs to be a comprehensive SPHR process in place. With its necessity unquestionable, organizations need to quickly establish SPHR in order to preempt HR and talent needs for the longer term, more than just short-term. That process may require aligning HR goals and objectives to the organizational goals and objectives, scanning the environment to assess jobs and positions inside and outside the organization over time, and considering a long-term HR strategy to close planning gaps in the work and workforce, such as, career management programs, job design, and organization development.

The next steps could be creating an adaptable workforce - a precursor for future organizational success. The key to building that kind of workforce lies with the leadership of the organization, facilitated in large part by HR. If there was ever a time for the HR function to prove its strategic value and contribute to organizational performance and growth, it has arrived.

Creating an adaptable workforce, however, requires more than a series of HR programs. It starts with leadership – having the right people who have the skills and capabilities to develop and communicate a vision, provide structure and guidance and ultimately deliver business results. It necessitates the creation of an environment for workforce engagement by understanding the key drivers impacting employee satisfaction (employee’s intention, skill variety, customer orientation, and degree of coordination), and employee engagement (reduced role conflict, proper training, personal autonomy, and manager’s utilization of power). It requires the ability to identify experts and foster an environment where knowledge and experience travel beyond traditional organizational boundaries. It calls for a talent model that can help companies recruit, develop and retain valued segments of the employee population. It depends on an underlying backbone of data and information (analytics) about the current and projected state of workforce performance, and the ability to apply that information to develop strategic insights and recommendations. However, the entire management team needs to play a role in improving workforce performance. This may involve providing functional expertise, taking joint responsibility for executing human capital programs or simply setting a positive example for employees within their organizations.

In the area of POS, organizations can foster an environment that empowers the workforce to perform at their best. Through POS, negatively-reinforced behaviors such as, contradictions, skepticism, and complexity, can actually help organizations and employees to maintain a positive outlook in the face of crisis and tragedy. Positive emotions, high-quality social networks and connections, virtuousness, meaningfulness at work, and personal improvement among employees, can create positive energy in the organization, thereby, increasing the likelihood of organizational effectiveness.

Positive emotions create positive, self-reinforcing outcomes where individuals and organizations develop more human, intellectual, social and psychological resources, foster new knowledge creation, and enable positive feedback processes. Virtuousness creates positive behaviors, such as character strengths, gratitude, courage, forgiveness, and compassion. Meaningfulness may occur by connecting goals, purpose, and values to the core values of employees, such as recognizing employee family and personal life, exemplifying integrity in organizational policies, routines, and culture.

Organizations can make resources available that are motivating and enabling, providing empowerment and freedom for individuals to perform at their best. They can provide examples of good leadership. So focusing on achievements, potentials, strengths and values, leads to increased individual and organizational strengths which, in turn, lead to positive organizational performance.

Rise of Islamic Banking and Finance as an Alternative to Conventional System

The way I see it, “Islamic Banking and Finance” is becoming just another name for conventional banking and finance. The products have become so similar, at least in terms of the financial quantifications, that it’s really quite difficult and confusing for a layman to distinguish between what is “Islamic” and what is conventional. And, the irresponsible conventional institutions will use the “Islamic” brand on their products, just to capitalize on the public’s confusion. While statistics do show a real increase in the number of establishments and products in this industry, there is still a long way to go before Islamic banking and finance can truly be a necessary alternative to conventional banking. Reinforcing the capacity of this infant industry to absorb untapped demands from Muslim communities, and strict enforcement of syariah compliances to prop up the distinctiveness, hence, attractiveness of “Islamic banking products” amongst public perception, can go a long way.


Overview

The phrase “Islamic Banking” is fast becoming a cliché, just like the word “halal”. While a true Muslim strives to stay clear of what is prohibited by Syariah, participating in an economic system that brandishes the name “Islam” may not necessarily mean participating in a Syariah-compliant system, which is keeping to true Islamic practices in the transaction of goods and services. It is truly misleading when one refers “Islamic Banking” the same as “Banking in Islam”. The ability to differentiate clearly between the two concepts is key, before any increase or decrease in activities of the system can be objectively quantified and its performance measured. However, judging the rise or decline in use and participation of a system requires more than just analytical quantification. The guiding principles for Muslims are, thus, the understanding of fundamental tenets of Islam as applied to economic activities, and its syariah-compliant economic practices.

Generally speaking, there has been a marked increase in the establishment of new Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), over the last 25 years. However, the acceptance of Islamic banking and finance amongst public perception is still considered low, hence, the low reception IFIs are receiving for its “Halal” banking products and services. On the one hand, the challenges faced by IFIs are daunting considering the low capacity of IFIs in this new industry, in terms of, funds availability, capital outlay, and human capital knowledge on syariah-compliant products and services, to name a few. On the other hand, these challenges should not, in any way, reduce the competitiveness of IFIs against conventional banks, instead, they should drive IFIs to further differentiate their products to such an extent that will render conventional banking products non-competitive, and hence, provide a true syariah-compliant alternative to conventional banking and finance.


Introduction

The Islamic banking and finance industry in Malaysia has seen quite a promising growth over the last two decades. However, inadequacies of Islamic banks and financial institutions have resulted in lost opportunities in capitalizing on a growing market where an alternative to conventional banking system was highly-sought after. These shortcomings have hampered future growths in this relatively-new industry, an industry where the hopes of all Muslims rest – to be able to participate and prosper in a riba’-free, syariah-compliant economic system. But all too often, Islamic banks and financial institutions are seen as offering complementary services and products, akin to conventional banking.

Records show a significant rise in Islamic banking and financing in the last 25 years, at least in market share of deposits held by Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs). Measured in terms of total deposits and assets, this rise constitutes more than one-tenths of the total amount in the whole banking industry in Malaysia today, quite an increase considering its humble beginnings in 1983 when Malaysia introduced its first Islamic bank to the world. Due to fundamental challenges of operating a syariah-compliant banking and finance system and capacity inadequacies, IFIs failed to exploit the huge market potential, which will further shrink during these challenging global economic and financial meltdown. With economies in Muslim nations also being hit badly, it would be some time before Islamic banking and financing can truly takes its place as a riba’-free alternative to current conventional banking system.

The fundamentally-significant challenges faced by IFIs in implementing an Islamic banking system are two-fold;

1) whether these Islamic banks are truly able to practice prudent, syariah-compliant banking in Islam; and

2) whether the goals of Islamic banking and finance, to create a just and equitable system for the transaction of goods and services in society, and the socio-economic development of the Ummah, have been achieved.

If these two contentions were not satisfactorily addressed (hence, not benefitting Muslims as a society), then the rise in the numbers of new IFIs, or the increase in Islamic banking and financial products in the market, or increases in market shares of total deposits, all would not have counted for anything. That Islamic banking and finance is just another name for conventional banking and finance.


1) Syariah-Compliant Banking and Financial System

The first fundamentally-significant challenge faced by IFIs in implementing an Islamic banking system is whether Islamic banks, or IFIs, are truly able to practice prudent, syariah-compliant banking in Islam. Can banks really be Islamic in its transactions (both consumer and commercial), activities (investment and financing), operational processes (product offerings, customer management, marketing and branding, profit endeavors, and risk-aversions), and business practices (jurisprudence, governance, transparency and ethical values)? A “yes” answer means implementing and monitoring of syariah-compliant transactions, activities, processes and practices across the full spectrum of an IFI’s operation - a daunting task indeed, especially if left under the responsibility of a handful few Syariah Advisors. Considering the environment in the banking industry and the relatively-low scale of the Islamic banking market itself, an IFI almost certainly could not avoid dealing with conventional banks and financial institutions in order to sustain its operations, which makes implementing and monitoring rigid syariah-compliant processes and practices all the more difficult. Still, it should not be an impossible task. Positively viewed, these shortcomings are but challenges that will be a guiding force behind further growths of IFIs. Only a real departure from conventional banking will result in a true rise in Islamic banking and finance.


The challenges, at the operational levels, in implementing a syariah-compliant banking and financial system include the following;

a) Capacity inadequacies of IFIs

IFIs are faced with shortage of resources and support, in terms of; knowledge capital on syariah-compliance (trained human capital), and support from society (market base and stakeholders awareness and acceptance). Internally, IFIs have not put a strong focus on developing their own human capital in creating awareness on syariah-compliance, and hence in creating new syariah compliant products and services, and monitoring those compliances.

Some bank managers don’t even know the syariah requirements to banking in Islam, much less be able to distinguish between Islamic and conventional products. The outcome is an indifferent attitude by the market, and hence, a general ignorance of IFI products and services. In terms of support from society, IFIs are often attacked and ridiculed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, on the attractiveness, relevance and syariah-compliance of specific IFI products, or IFIs in general, as a rewarding or profitable alternative to conventional banking.

Continued ignorance can only mean a rise in disagreements among ordinary customers, intellectuals and economists, and religious scholars about the true purpose of Islamic banking and finance. IFIs must allocate enough resources to develop their employees, across all levels, in understanding the requirements of banking and finance in Islam, in order to effectively bring down this unnecessary barrier to creating awareness and acceptance amongst the general public before they can successfully market their syariah-compliant banking products and services.

b) Distinct and Differentiated Products and Services (departure from conventional banking products

Being able to make very clear distinction between an Islamic and a conventional banking product is a necessary first step towards creating acceptance of Islamic banking amongst Muslims, for a start. But there have been questions raised by scholars of whether banking is against the basic principles in Islam, that there is no concept of banking in Islam. The point often raised is that while there can never be “Halal Pork” or “Halal Prostitution”, so too there cannot be “Halal Banking”. In some sense, this argument reflect that there are connotations of some processes of banking being “Haram”, which we all cannot deny – that, which include the use of interests on borrowings/finance, and in speculative investments, to name a few.

This argument usually arise because whatever is offered by an IFI in the name of Islamic banking is actually quite similar to what other conventional banks are offering, hence, creating a lot of confusion and doubts in the minds of fellow Muslims. On what grounds, then, can one call “Islamic”? Is it just a change of “labels”? – so goes the debate.

The only way that an IFI can totally avoid this argument is to create products and services that completely do not resemble, in any way, those products carried by conventional banks. A simple example, at least for consumer banking, is the execution of contracts (akad) in consumer borrowings, where there should not be any indication of fixed “returns”/“profits” over a fixed timeline (which many so-called “Islamic” banking products require) – because, for instant, banking in Islam requires risks to be borne equally by all interested parties without any constraints attached to either party. And, of course, abiding by the fundamental requirement of not incurring any form of interests (or, “Riba’), at any stage of the contract, whatsoever.

The point being raised above, is to stress the need for IFIs to significantly depart from conventional methods of banking, to earnestly distinguish their products from other conventional products – thereby, creating a strong public perception that there really is a new way of banking other than the normal/usual conventional banking way – that is, the true way of banking in Islam. The rise in numbers of IFIs and the increase in availability of Islamic banking options do not equate to the rise in public acceptance and positive perception towards Islamic banking and finance.

c) Use of interests in financing, and interest rates as benchmark

The concept of 'interest', have long been a divisive issue within the Muslim world. The calculation and presentation of interests and interest rates are cleverly embedded deep within the fundamental principles of Finance, hence within the fundamentals of banking – for all kinds of banking purposes - consumer, commercial, and others. Ignorance in the technical terminologies and complex mathematical formulae that mask the underlying concept of interests and interest rates may render many “Islamic” products as “Haram”. A deep understanding of the fundamentals of Finance is necessary, in order to, distinguish and eliminate riba’-inducing components of any Financial concept and theory, which unfortunately, most are.

In addition, the profit-sharing rates of IFIs providing “Halal” financing to consumers, and corporations alike, are also benchmarked against prevailing interest rates. In other words, these “Islamic” products are no different from the conventional banking products because the basis of calculation is the same – benchmarking against the current market’s interest rate. As a consequence, these Islamic-branded products become doubtful from syariah’s point of view. For Islamic banking to be widely accepted, the products offered by IFIs must be clear from any doubt, as to the mechanics of the transaction (such as, not fixing profit-sharing rates which can render the products riskless), and also, as to the basis of calculations (i.e. not incorporating any form of interests in any formula). Benchmarking against any indices of a capitalistic economy makes any “Islamic” product conventional. An “Islamic” index of some sort needs to be established, but that it should be far removed from emulating current conventional economic or market indices.

d) Dealings with conventional banks

The use of inter-bank services in facilitating transfer of assets, liquidity, and such, is a necessity for the banking industry – for a very simple reason, that is, to provide a seamless integration of the services provided to the customer. For IFIs, dealing with other conventional banks may prove challenging because of the incorporation of charges, not deemed as “Islamic”, in the inter-bank transaction. While minimal service charges are allowed by syariah, these “Islamic-Conventional” inter-bank transactions should be avoided wherever IFIs are available. The challenge is the availability of IFIs within the local market, at best, regional. There are just not enough IFIs to handle customer’s needs for these kinds of services.

Another challenge is IFIs’ borrowing/financing/investment activities (such as, treasury) with other conventional banks to satisfy their liquidity needs. Most IFIs would be investing in the conventional banks’ “Islamic” or “Halal” assets, which can be doubtful, in the first place. IFIs should consider strongly against interacting with conventional banks in its borrowing and investment activities, as the terms are more likely to be dictated by the conventional banks, and as such, the sanctity of compliance with syariah requirements will be in doubt. These types of transactions are usually allowed if they meet certain syariah requirements, however, IFIs should stay clear from such interactions and reduce their dependencies on conventional bank’s capital for their expansion and operational requirements.

The real challenge is the availability of funds (total capacity) from IFIs within a certain locality or region to meet the requirements of every IFI within that locality or region. Because of this inadequate supply of funds for IFIs to expand and improve their operations, the “Islamic” banking products and services become more expensive compared to conventional banks, hence, the unattractiveness of IFIs in the eyes of the customers. In this instance, the respective State must provide some form of assistance for these IFIs to get through their ‘expansion’ years, with packages meant to inject liquidity and capital for the IFIs to utilize, hence, reducing the cost of operations and products of the IFIs.

e) Syariah-compliant operational processes

One of the goals of IFIs is to create public awareness so they could strongly push their products to the market, through their marketing campaign. However, there are plenty of skepticisms and objections from the public at the way some IFIs conduct their promotional campaign. These include objections to using women in an un-Islamic way in attracting public attention (such as, women not wearing the hijab). Some other objections include IFIs even daring to use traditional marketing ploy (such as deception, misrepresentation of products, etc.) to deceive the public into believing they are getting a better deal with these “Islamic” banking products they are pushing. Some IFIs even claim to be able to monitor syariah-compliance of its products on a day-to-day basis, although they only employ the services of just a handful staff to oversee a wide range of products transacted in high volumes, which is just an impossible task.

These misrepresentations will only further deteriorate the image and credibility of IFIs. The ethical conduct of IFIs will then be highly-scrutinized, as a result. IFIs would be better off not making such claims and risk damaging their image and brand, and along the way, hurt the industry during this ‘critical’ infancy stage of Islamic banking and finance.

f) Role of Syariah Advisories

Another challenge faced by IFIs is the inadequacies of the Syariah Advisors appointed to the Boards of IFIs, both in terms of numbers and knowledge in syariah-compliance. The handful few Syariah Advisors on these Boards are fully-responsible in overseeing the whole syariah-compliancy of IFIs, which would include, approving all “Islamic” products and services, and reviewing and auditing transactions of IFIs, to name a few. To opponents of this industry, this can be seen as a conflict of interest in the business world (although their independence, credibility and integrity are not in doubt). To add to this concern, is the inter-directorship of these Syariah Advisors, that the same Advisors are practically on the Boards of many IFIs because of the limited pool of advisors, trained and available.

While experience counts, there is an urgency to expand this limited pool of resources, such that, each IFI has sufficient number of Syariah Advisors to perform a seemingly-daunting task of managing the whole portfolio of Islamic products and services of an IFI. A deep understanding of the concepts, principles and theories of Finance (and not just a simplistic, introductory view of these concepts), are also an urgent necessity for Syariah Advisors because they will be dealing with products and services governed by such concepts, principles and theories. All in all, the much-needed expansion in the pool of Syariah Advisors with a deep understanding of Finance and IFI banking products is crucial towards ensuring organization-wide syariah-compliance, such that, IFIs are able to offer distinctively different “Islamic” banking products that can competitively serve as alternatives to conventional banking products.

g) Use of Conventional Insurance

Yet another challenge for IFIs is the use of conventional insurance for owned assets and assets held under security due to the limited capacity of Takaful insurance companies to meet the total IFIs’ needs for insurance coverage. Because of legal requirements of the banking industry, there is no workaround for IFIs in this matter. There is always the choice of using the conventional bank’s doubtful “Takaful” schemes, although IFIs are usually advised against using such schemes. Again, this challenge is in urgent need of intervention by the State by providing assistance to Takaful insurance companies to be able to absorb the increasing demands from IFIs for coverage.

Both IFIs and the State must place a strong focus on overcoming these challenges before the Islamic banking and finance industry can truly expand its wings. The final assessment is the public acceptance towards IFIs, generally, and their syariah-compliant Islamic banking products and services, specifically, such that, Islamic banking and finance becomes a necessary alternative for Muslims.


2) Socio-Economic Goals of Islamic Banking and Financing

The second fundamentally-significant challenge faced by IFIs in implementing an Islamic banking system is whether the goals of Islamic banking and finance have been achieved, that is, to create a just and equitable system for the transaction of goods and services in society, as well as, the socio-economic development of the Ummah. At present, IFIs operate with a single-minded goal of making profits, as do all other types of financial institutions in the conventional banking system. Otherwise, they may cease to exist.

With strong profit motives, IFIs are inclined to base all of its transactions entirely on “fixed” returns (profits), thus significantly limiting the risks associated with such transactions. Such fixed-returns basis, while it may be syariah-compliant, is undoubtedly against the principles of banking in Islam – that is to create a just and equitable system for the transaction of goods and services. Although, some religious scholars have totally rejected fixed-returns, as not complying to syariah requirements. With profits as the ultimate goal, IFIs tend to focus more on consumer markets, especially in urban centers of the population, as opposed to other less-promising markets, such as, agricultural sector and SME market. The scenario increases in complexity when inter-bank transactions complicate matters - when conventional banks have a dictating influence on the total structure of the transactions. In this sense, there can never be just and equitable distribution of funds across society, especially in much-needed sectors of the economy in the rural and under-developed areas.

The generally-negative perception of society towards syariah laws, and their implementations in the economy are additional challenges IFIs must continuously face. In addition, Islamic banking and finance can never operate in isolation of the political and legal frameworks, all having different agendas which might impinge on one another. Taking account of all these constraints, Islamic banking and finance has quite a long way to go before truly achieving its main goal of creating a just and equitable monetary system that is completely riba’-free and syariah-compliant, and that can offer a necessary alternative to conventional banking for all Muslims.


Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a significant rise in Islamic banking and finance in terms of the establishment of new Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), and the increase in IFIs’ products, over the last two and a half decades. Acceptance level of Islamic banking as an alternative to conventional banking, however, remains low. IFIs and their “Islamic” banking products are generally viewed as offering the same products and services as those “Halal” products and services offered by conventional banks. Much of this indifference stems from the fact that there are laxed effort and shortage of capacity, on the part of the IFIs, in ensuring and monitoring syariah-compliance of their Islamic banking products, hence, the perception of similarity in products with conventional banking by the general public. Another contributing factor is the relatively low number of IFIs in relation to the total banking industry, necessitating a higher interaction with conventional banks to supplement the total capital needs of IFIs and their customers, with dictating influence almost always held by conventional banks.

These challenges faced by IFIs in offering Islamic banking and finance products still remained daunting obstacles that are limiting IFIs from exploiting the tremendous opportunities that exist in this new industry. However, there have been marked improvements within IFIs operational processes, as syariah-compliance gains emphasis in their efforts to differentiate from conventional banking products. On the other hand, the higher goal of creating a just and equitable system in banking and finance can only be achieved when society, in general, are more receptive to IFIs and their Islamic products. Socio-economic development of society will drive a much-needed change in its behavior and attitudes, shaking off the negative perceptions towards IFIs, specifically, and Islamic banking, in general. Only then, can Islamic banking and finance truly be a necessary alternative to conventional banking, instead of being “just another name for conventional banking and finance”.

Fourteenth of February ….. Just Another Day

I hope Muslims don’t spend time, effort, and money ignorantly celebrating and popularizing this western-influenced, christianity-based culture – the valentine’s day. As Muslims, we are encouraged to show our affection to close families and relatives, within our Syariah bounds. This valentine’s day is a culture glamorized by the West, and clearly has a lot of references to catholicism, sainthood, and such. Besides, unchecked expressions of ‘love’ between individuals who are not ‘muhrim’ tends to lead them to sinful acts and further moral degradation (I guess, everyone knows this well). Unless, Muslims are contradicting their own beliefs, then it’s a good start to cleanse this concept from our minds and annual practices. I feel pity for those celebrating their birthdays on this day. One can always use the Hijriah calendar, instead of the gregorian one we are so used to, when marking birthdays and anniversaries. Follow this link to find out more: http://www.islamicfinder.org/dateConversion.php

Devote our precious time and scarce resources to a worthy cause. Instead of wasting money on these valentine cards (for example), send our ‘don’t-know-what-to-do-with’ excess cash to some Gazan, Afghan, Somali, etc, kids (or someone closer) so they could have another meal!


Here’s a bit of history of why Christians around the world celebrate this day, over-popularized as valentine’s day – to give us strong reasons to curb this wasteful practice, especially amongst our younger generations.

Meaning of Valentine's Day that you might not have understood

The roots of Valentine’s Day are with Saint Valentine, a Roman Catholic priest who was killed for his faith on February 14, 269 A.D. He had refused to worship pagan gods, and some stories say he would marry young couples in secret who loved each other but who did not have parental permission. In 496, his 'saint day' was established. He is associated with love because he fell in love with the daughter of his jailer, and would pass notes to her. His final note, before he was executed, read 'from your Valentine'. Although, another version of this story stated that before his head was struck off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. But there is nothing of hearts and last notes signed "from your Valentine," as is sometimes suggested in modern works of sentimental piety.

However, many historians maintained that nothing is known about the lives of any of the ‘saints’. Many of the current legends surrounding them were invented in the late Middle Ages in France and England, when the feast day of February 14 became associated with romantic love. No such sentiment appears in any of the most-read books of the Middle Ages, such as the Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. This saint's feast day was later removed from the Church calendar in 1969, as part of a broader effort to remove saints of legendary origin. The feast day is still celebrated locally in some parishes.

In Italy, with its romantic and religious roots, St Valentine's Day became the traditional day to be engaged. Young Romans would spend this day gathered together in gardens to listen to romantic poetry and music. As with many holidays, the celebration of St. Valentine's Day became a mixture of the new Christian rites as well as the older pagan rites of that same time of year. St. Valentine's Day happened to fall on the Roman festival of Lupercalia, a Roman festival of wolves in which men and women would choose partners for the day and celebrate fertility. This festival was held each February to protect the villages from wolves, who would at this point be starving and cold and begin to make their village raids. During the festival, young men would playfully whip women with stripes of animal hide, chasing them around town. It was felt that this festival made the women who were 'whipped' more fertile. The young men would sometimes draw the names of girls from a jar, to choose their partner for the day for any singing and dancing.

History of Valentine's Day that you might not have known

In 1836, relics of St. Valentine of Rome were donated by Pope Gregory XVI to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. In the 1960s, the church was renovated and relics restored to prominence. In American culture, Saint Valentine's Day was remade in the 1840s; as a writer in GFTraham's American Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day... is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday."

The reinvention of Saint Valentine's Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh Eric Schmidt. In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828-1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, and she took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received. Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary."

Valentine's day in 1929 was one of the bloodiest days in mob history (also known as, ‘St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”) when 7 men were gunned down in a Chicago garage. Al "Scarface" Capone, the ruthless Chicago Mafia godfather, rose to power after a rival gang was in shambles as a result of the killings.

In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on 14 February was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on 14 February." The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan and in Malta where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Vatican II calendar.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts, usually from a man to a woman. The day has come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of "Happy Valentine's Day." As a joke, Valentine's Day is also referred to as "Singles Awareness Day."


Let’s use this bit of information to discourage the wasteful practice of card-giving, flower-giving, text-messaging, song-dedicating, party-going, etc., amongst Muslims on valentine’s day (or any other day, for that matter), especially amongst our younger generations – the future leaders of Islam.