Poor Time Management Skills

Poor Time Management SkillsICBT leads in delivering Edexcel HNDs. save, recent observations showed HND pedigree Management students showed an increase in scummy attendance promptness, recrudesceed in on sentence delivery resulting in late non-delivery of assignments, the main reason identified for the negative results were, students poor eon vigilance skills.This negatively effects key stakeholders such(prenominal) as plant, students, pargonnts lectures, resulting in inability of students to achieve good grades, increased stress years taken to complete the HND, reduced the practice working on deadlines, makes ICBT unable to surpass its mission vision, impacts the existing positive image with Edexcel the trade, fades parents cultures hopes, increases pressure upon lecturers leads to demotivation as results are non achieved as expected from students.The importance of a ascendant was recognized, identified up(a) students formulation organizing, prioritizing g oal decorateting skills im climb ups condemnation way skills.Improving the said skills, increases students on cartridge holder submission grade, capability to work on term reduces stress, change ICBT reach its mission vision maintain good name with both(prenominal) Edexcel the market, reduce work load pressure incenses motivation of lecturers lead parents see their children achieving success. gateEstablished since year 2000 (ICBT, 2011) supranational College of Business Technology Ltd (ICBT) has become wizard of the most leading private sector higher education offering institute in Sri Lanka offering variety of internationally accepted domain credit lines.It was observed most students at ICBT studies Edexcel HNDs, ICBT is most popular in delivering HNDs as ICBT was awarded by Edexcel International (The Sunday Times, 1996 2011) as the leading center for Edexcel HNDs in Sri LankaHowever recent observation showed students studying Edexcel HND strain management sh ows average poor attendance punctuality, fail to bump assignments on due(p) dates resulting in late submissions not submitting assignments.The main reason identified for students inability to submit assignments on cartridge clip poor punctuality, was students poor eon management skills. Symptoms identified through and through observing students which led me to look into these problem was students grades achieved, on average students poor attendance, poor punctuality, students complaints on subject matters, students non-verbal expressions such as showing little interest concentration towards lectures, sleepiness, negative attitude towards lectures, talking with friends while lectures are being conducted within the class room, etcThe importance of breaking conclusion a solution to these problem was recognized upon identifying the negative effects it could obligate upon all key stakeholders involved such as students, parents, lecturers the institute the benefits it coul d bring to the mentioned stakeholders as discussed below.Improved students m management skills, will increase students ability to submit assignments on clock time, which could be a criteria leading to achieve high grades, reduce both stress levels modify students to complete the HNDs within the time frame of eighteen months, avoid special payments required on on late extension re-modules of assignments. merely more achieving high grades would increase students knowledge skills levels, which would benefit in gaining building core competencies necessary when entering the job market. Also give awaying a solution to improve students time management skills, would increase students practice ability to mange time effectively, efficiently under pressure of work while in the university, which could be exceedingly believed would be useful in their career life as time management is considered as a vital inter private skill in to years business world.Further if strategies are not im plemented to improve students time management skills it would make it im workable for ICBT to reach its mission vision as identified in figure - in appendix , as ICBTs mission of enhancing quality of human resources available to the market, would be negatively effected as students poor grades, poor time management skills, poor punctuality, etc would not result in an increase of quality human resource available to the job market in the future, it would not enable ICBT to reach its vision, since poor performance of students would effect ICBTs reputation recognition in both the local international market negatively, impacting both international local market growth negatively. Also if this results in an continuation, there is an high possibility that ICBTs quality of education reputation in the private higher education could be adversely effected, resulting in ICBTs reputation recognized by Edexcel International as discussed preceding(prenominal) to deteriorate.Students ability t o mange time effectively is a vital factor that could effect a child ability to meet parents goals hopes, such as seeing children passing exams with good grades on mean time frame being highly educated, having a good career a work life balance. Further good time management skills would result in not requiring to pay any additional payments to the college on late submission or re-modules resulting in less financial interference upon parents.Increase in students time management skills would increase students ability to submit assignments on time, this would enable the lecturers to complete checking the whole bandes assignments on a particular day, without the pick out of enthraling forward any due checks, putting additional pressure burden upon them. Further effective time management plays a major subprogram in students ability to achieve a Distinction criteria other good grades, which could be a motivating factor for lecturers act as proof of lecturers high performance.A s problem was identified ICBT City campus Edexcel HND business management students, area of crop or the scope of the study was identified as the order of all the current registered Edexcel HND Business Management students at ICBT City campus.As identified discussed above how students poor time management skills effects students other core stakeholders such as parents, lecturers, the institute, the importance of finding a solution for this problem was highlighted by doing so it would not only fulfil the knowledge gap, but alike bring massive benefits to all the key stakeholders as discussed below.Research ProblemWhy are ICBT City campus Edexcel HND Business Management students inefficient in their time management?Research QuestionsWhat is time management?What is efficiency effectiveness?What is effective time management?What are the factors influencing effective time management of students?Research ObjectivesIdentify what is time management by reading articles other relevant documents published on time management on or before 12/09/2012Read articles other relevant documents identify what is efficiency effectiveness wherefore it is important to students before 13/09/2012Identify what is effective time management by reading articles other relevant documents published on effective time management skills on or before 16/09/2012Search relevant theories literature to identify factors effecting effective time management of students on or before 18/09/2012Literature recapitulationTime management involves balancing all the activities in which a person participates within the confines of the week (Canyons, 2001-2012). Efficiency effectiveness plays a vital role towards determining an individuals ability to balance manage all activities of a perticular time period. Efficiency is where time or effort is well used for a planned task efectiveness is doing the dependable thing. Therefore effective time management could be considerd as an individuals abil ity to ensure right things are done at the right time, while ensuring time effort is well used for the planned task. However factors effecting time managemnt skills of an individual is discussed below.A study done to find the relatinship between, delay the lack of ability to set daily routines associated with academic activities (Dietz, Hofer Fries, 2007) suggested that students planning is important to prevent delays in academic work, while Drucker in 1967 recognized that planning activities task does not always ensure completion of planned work, specially when time presure is high. However a study done by Gerhard in year 2007, showed that student planning is only one factor among several other factors that could effect time mangement, through results observed by both pre post training skiils observed, which focused on four criterias such as self assesment, goal place setting, time mangement self regulation, which was capable to show a major increase or improvement in betwee n students pre post self managemnt skills.According to Sandberg in year 2001, stated that effective utilisation of time would help to achive goals as planned, it is the art of arranging, organising, scheduling, budgeting ones time for the routine is the factors that influence effective work productivity. Obi in year 2003 stated that time mangemnt involves accurately identifying tasks to be performed, planning scheduling of activities, prioritisng activities in order, allocating time to tasks accord to the degree of imporatane that enhances productivity.Olaniyi in 1998 Akomolafe in 2005 argued that, there is nothing to mange in time as time is beyod human control, what individuals are capable to do is to decide what to do with the available time how well to organize activities within the available time frame. Adedeji in year 1998 also came up with a strong similar telephone line that supports, Olaniyis Akomolafes findings, where he sead time is an scares resource utili zation of time could be achived by doing the right thing at the right time.A study done by university students in the United states (Macan, et al, 1990) identified a four factor model which effects students time managemnt skills they were setting goals and priorities, planning and scheduling, perceived control over time, and penchant for disorganisation. Out of the four factors perceived control over time had shown the strongest contribution to students academic and emotional adjustment. Further Macans identification that goal setting could infleunce time managemnt was also surported by Richards in 1987 where Richardss concluded that setting life goals keeping time logs were important techniques for effective time managemnt.McCay in 1959 developed a concept for time management training course of instruction, where the critical elements highlighted in it were, giving insight into time consuming activities, changing time expenditure, increasing work day efficiency by teaching peo ple how to make daily planning, how to prioritise task how to handle unexpected tasks.A study done by Britton Tesser in 1991, had identified that 67% of undergraduate students find time managemnt as the most difficult task to manage 36% varience among the grades werte due to time mangemnt skills. This further highlights proves the importance of finding why and how time mangemnt skills could be improved among ICBT City campus HND Business managemnt students.Planning organizing skillsFigure (Conceptual model)Time managementPrioritising skillsGaol setting skillsAlternative Hypothesis identifiedStudents planning, organizing prioritising goal setting skills effects time managementPlanning organizing skills is the ability to manage self and/or others, and resources including time and surrounding circumstances to reach a proper(postnominal) goal (University of Strathclyde, n.d)Prioritizing skills is the ability to define, rank, and assign levels of importance to tasks, activities , and/or issues and deal with matters of higher importance first. Create a tip of items in order in which they need to be end or delegated. Align personnel and other resources according to priority while maintaining organizational mission, vision, and objectives. Determine matters of urgency and handle accordingly (Selection criteria examples, 2012) inclination setting is the ability of an individual to establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives (Objectiveli, 2012)Time management is a set of principles, practices, skills, tools, and systems that work together to help you get more treasure out of your time with the aim of improving the quality of your life (Time thoughts, 2004 2011), time management skill of an individual depends upon the individuals planning organizing, prioritising goal setting skills.MethodologyThe sampling frame would be derived from the current ICBT city campus HND Business management students registers, available from the programme c oordinating office, which would give a complete list of all students registered for the course under each batch. Out of the sampling frame, a student sample would be obtained in order to conduct the research.However, HND Business management batch 38 46 would be excluded from, the survey as batch 38 has already completed the HND only awaiting for the finalised results batch 46 would be excluded, as the batch is the freshest HND Business management batch, which has started on the second week of September 2012, would not enable to gain required information.In order to avoid the sampling error study would be done to identify the most sui add-in sampling method to be adopted a larger sample size would be considered in the survey, than the sample size requirement calculated through the sample size calculator.Table (Operational model)Criteria to be measuredmeasure unitPlanning organizingSkills force to hazard time effort required to complete a taskAbility to organize systems requir ed resourcesOrganize personal time to carry out responsibilities exert satisfactory preparation time for scheduled deadlinesCapability to develop schedules timetables with clear milestones deadlinesAbility to measure results milestones for selfPrioritising skillsAbility to identify critical task answer tasks in logical orderEstablish priorities systematically differentiate between urgent, important unimportant tasksAbility to monitor or adjust priorities on a daily tooshieGoal setting skillsAbility to set SMART objectivesCriteria to be measuredMeasurement unitTime managementskillsStudents attendanceOn time delivery, late submissions not submitted rates of assignments(University of Strathclyde, n.d) (Top achievement, n.d)To measure the relationship of the conceptual model identified in figure an operational model had been created in table above. According to the conceptual model organizing, planning prioritising goal setting skills are considered as in unfree variable time man agement skills is considered as a pendent variable.Table - (Logical link created to prove the accuracy of measuring units used in the operational model)Criteria to be measuredMeasurement unitLogical link to prove accuracy of measuring unitPlanning organizing skillsAbility to estimate time effort required to complete a taskAbility to estimate the time effort required to complete particular task, would enable a student to plan in advance on future tasks help to identify how oft remaining time is available towards achieving other tasksAbility to organize systems required resourcesAbility to organize systems resources required to accomplish an task in advance, would help students to full utilise its separated time towards achieving the task, without the need to use that time in finding required resources systems which would save timeOrganize personal time to carry out responsibilitiesIf students have the ability to organize time to carry out personal responsibilities in their lives, the separated time could be fully utilized in meeting personal responsibilities, where this would help to avoid personal responsibilities interrupting at times students are engaged in academic work.Maintain satisfactory preparation time for scheduled deadlinesStudents ability to maintain satisfactory preparation time for scheduled deadlines would help to avoid stress levels of students, an increase their ability to accomplish their goals as planned.Criteria to be measuredMeasurement unitLogical link to prove accuracy of measuring unitPlanning organizing skillsCapability to develop schedules timetables with clear milestones deadlinesAbility to set clear milestones deadlines with the use of clear schedules time tables, would lead to student motivation also highlight the targets students have to achieve at each given time or date thereby enable to plan organize tasksAbility to measure results milestones for selfAbility to measure results milestones for self, would give an students a cl ear personal idea on where adjustments needs to be made thereby help to plan organize tasks more accurately in the futurePrioritising skillsAbility to identify critical task arrange tasks in logical orderStudents ability to identify critical tasks would enable students to give more priority towards achieving them, among other less important tasksEstablish priorities systematically differentiate between urgent, important unimportant tasksAbility to priorities systematically differentiate between urgent, important unimportant tasks, would enable a student to give more priority accordingly to urgent, important unimportant tasks.Ability to monitor or adjust priorities on a daily basisIn general there is high possibility that sudden unexpected tasks may arise than expected, or an unmet task as planned, may be have to reposition into daily tasks. At a given situation, students ability to accurately monitor readjust the set plans accordingly would enable to reprioritise tasks accordingly. Goal setting skillsAbility to set SMART objectivesAbility to set SMART objectives would enable student to avoid underestimation or overestimation of work capabilitiesCriteria to be measuredMeasurement unitLogical link to prove accuracy of measuring unitAttendanceStudents attendance recordsStudents attendance records would provide an clear understanding on students punctuality attendance, which could be count towards time management skillsAssignment submission ratesOn time delivery, late submissions remoulded ratesStudents on time delivery, late submissions remoulded rates of assignments, would set a clear criteria towards evaluating time management skills, as ability to submit assignments on time mostly depends on students ability to manage time effectivelyStudents planning, organizing prioritising goal setting skills would be measured utilize pre determined questioners used by researches that have been capable of measuring students planning, organizing prioritising gaol setting skills. The results obtained using the questioners would be compared against students late on time assignment submission rates, re-module rates attendance in determining if, HND Business management students planning, organizing prioritising goal-setting skills has an effect upon time management skills.Data collection planNote Questioner attached in the appendixData / Information required indigenous / Secondary information consultation of dataSampling frameSecondary dataData obtained through the programme officeof ICBT city campusData / Information required uncomplicated / Secondary dataSource of dataOn time assignment, late submission re-module rate of assignment submission of studentsPrimary dataQuestioners distributed among the sample studentsStudent attendancePrimary dataQuestioners distributed among the sample studentsStudents planning organizing, prioritising Goal setting skillsPlanning organizing skillsPrimary dataQuestioners distributed among the sample studentsPriori tising skillsPrimary dataQuestioners distributed among the sample studentsGoal setting skillsPrimary dataQuestioners distributed among the sample studentsSampling methods to be adoptedSimple random samplingAll students considered under the population will be listed in jump software according to batch wise, in order to the student register, a sample of students would be selected using the, random formula provided in Excel in order to conduct the survey. Simple random sampling would avoid biasness in selection of students for the sample, enabling every student considered under the population to have an pit chance of being selected for the survey would thereby be capable to act as the whole population.Difficulties limitations faced in using Simple random samplingAlthough the list of students names are readily available at the programme coordinating department gaining access to the list may be challenging as it may require permission from a authorised personal, as the list of stud ents names may be protected under certain privacy policiesEfficiency of the programme coordinating department team influence the ability to gain information on students names list, which may influence the time required to complete the research positively or negativelyThe list of students names provided by the programme office may not be readily available in one single document, therefore it may be difficult time consuming to bring all data together into one single document or worksheet to create a final list from where a sample could be created.There may be a possibility that all students chosen to represent the sample may have planning, organizing, prioritising goal setting skills, or all the students chosen to represent the sample may not have planning, organizing, prioritising goal setting skills, which may create an inability in comparing the results of both kinds of students, arrive at a valid conclusion.Project plan (Gantt chart) of the researchActivity completed Activit y not completed XTable Task fetch dateFinish dateLengthTask dependent on carry on(Activity completed/ not completed)Comments rescheduled date if task not accomplished as planned1Research proposal10/09/201220/09/20121 week 4 daysWas able to complete task before the planned date2Prepare the questionere13/09/201216/09/20124 daysWas possible to prepare the questionere by 15/09/20123Get the student names list required from the programme office24/09/201227/09/20124 daysWas able to obtain the names list on 13/09/2012 before the planned date of 27/09/20124List the student population in Excel sheet use simple random sampling to select the sample students27/09/201230/09/20124 days3Task crop up dateFinish dateLengthTask dependent onProgress(Activity completed/ not completed)Comments rescheduled date if task not accomplished as planned5Distribute questionere get the feedback from all selected sample students01/10/201220/10/201220 days2 46Start editing, coding, data entry, data analysis of data obtained through thequestionere21/10/201205/11/201215 days57Final research get a line06/11/201230/11/201225 days1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6ConclusionICBT well renowned private higher education provider has been recognized as the leading center for providing Edexcel HNDs in Sri Lanka (The Sunday Times, 1996 2011). However, it observed students studding HND Business management has shown an increase in poor attendance punctuality, fail to submit assignments on due dates, influencing all key stakeholders such as students, lecturers, institute the parents negatively. The reason identified for poor attendance punctuality, failure to submit assignments on due dates was students poor time management skills therefore imporatance of identifying finding a sollution to these problem was recognized.Through a detailed literiture, conceptual model was derived where which displayed planning organizing skills, prioritising skills goal setting skills influence students time managemnet skills, there fore the alternative hypothesis developed was, Students planning, organizing prioritising goal setting skills effects time management.Planning organizing, prioritizing goal setting skills was identified as the indipendent variable, where it could influence the dependent variable which is time managemnt skills. The operational model identified in table - lists the measurements that could be used in mesuring all the dependent indipendent variables.In order to to find how ICBT HND Businesss Managemnt students planning organizing, prioritising goal setting skills effects time managemnt, the sampling frame was identified as all the current students studing HND Business managemnt at ICBT City campus. However batch 38 46 would be excluded from the survey as batch 38 has already completed the HND batch 46 would be excluded, as the batch is the freshest HND Business management batch, would not enable to gain required information.Data collection plan in table shows the data require d the sources of data collection in gathering the required details.Simple random sampling was identified as the suitable sampling method to derive the sample to conduct the survey, in order to minimise the sampling error a larger sample size would be considered in the survey, than the sample size requirement calculated through the sample size calculator. Difficulties in adopting simple random sampling method are listed on page-Table shows the project developed to conduct the research.