The Concept of Organizational Culture and Its Importance to Any Essay

The Concept of Organizational Culture and Its Importance to Any Twenty-First Business Organization - Essay Example The researcher states that organizational culture cannot be explained via a rigid definition. It is something that emerges naturally through the conduct of the individuals in an organization and the way they transform themselves.   Change is an integral part of life. Thus businesses are also not excluded from the process of change. Change is the way forward to innovation, achievement and to growth. Managing change is an important task for the managerial personnel in any growth-oriented organization. Experts acknowledge the fact that â€Å"change is a task fraught with complexity and challenge†. Completing the change management process successfully is a challenging process and intense. The simplest starting point is to try and gain a superior understanding of the problems faced by the organization and identify the variables that are at the cause of these problems. The leaders face various kinds of complexities while they tackle organizational change. They are required to â₠¬Å"envision the content of change†, handle the distinctive features of the process of change; collaborate with the tumultuous process that is going on worldwide, adapt with the stunning technological advancements and employ the dynamic workforce intelligently to fulfill the profit maximization objective. Change management deals with the notion of change and the keys to the approaches to managing change. Culture has been regarded as a metaphor for an organization which is innovative and helps in developing new forms of understanding. A metaphor lets one view an entity in the perspective of another. A metaphoric representation tends to hint that we think of an organization as a culture. By taking organizations as a culture (organization ‘is’ a culture) one might understand the activities and orientation of the organization better and the nature, behavior, and performance of people in their organizational lives and positions of decision-making.

CIPR Critical Reasoning Test Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

CIPR Critical Reasoning Test - Essay Example Both of these terms are often used interchangeably although they are very different in the scope and extent to which they apply. The difference between these two terms appears to be so small, such that many people have a problem making the distinction. Publicity can be equated to a single arrow existing in a quiver, which is public relations. This means that focus of public relations in its practice is very small (Adams, 1962, p, 896), it does not however underestimate the importance of the practice in the wider public relations practice. Alternatively, public relations refer to the greater level of establishment of an over-arching approach, for enhancing the marketing or communications goal of an organisation or institution. Public relation is a term that encompasses many other small concepts that aim at enhancing a particular objective. Organizations rely on public relations approaches in order to create awareness to the public about their practices as well as other important issues that are aimed at achieving set objectives in the organisation. The term public relation is sometimes associated with reputation management, which refers to practices that are done in the interest of establishing and sustaining the reputation of an organisation. It is important that an organisation creates a better picture or image of itself so that it appeals to the public (Grunig, 1992, p, 34). Organizations that have proper public images have professional personnel who are able to use public relations tools in an appropriate manner to achieve set objectives. Professionals undertaking public relation functions in organisation perform four important functions; they are involved in planning, developing implementing and evaluating different information and communication approaches which aim at enhancing an understanding and a favourable perspective about the organization. In addition, they are also important in creating a positive

Dyslexia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Dyslexia - Research Paper Example Experts however are having difficulty to agree on a common scientific definition of dyslexia. The British Dyslexia Association defined it as ‘a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills.’ The International Dyslexia has it as a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin.’ (International Dyslexia Association). Rose defined dyslexia as a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling’ (Smythe 40). However experts may defined dyslexia, the disability is present when the â€Å"the automatization1 of word identification (reading) and/or spelling does not develop or does so very incompletely or with great difficulty† (Smythe 39) and the theories on the etiology of dyslexia is an ever evolving process due to the continuous research made about it. Research also showed that the origin of dyslexia is generally heredit ary with some genes that were identified to be generally predisposed to having dyslexia. The specific genes that research has identified to be more predisposed to acquiring dyslexia were brain based. Recent research showed that there are nine chromosomes that are directly linked to the learning difficulty. ... Four of the genes –DYX1C1 (DYX1), KIAA0319 (DYX2), DCDC2 (DYX2) and ROBO1 (DYX5) – have been implicated in neuronal migration and guidance, suggesting the importance of early neurodevelopmental processes in reading development†(41). Four more additional possible areas (PCNT, DIP2A, S100B and PRMT2) in the chromosome region 21q22.3 have been identified to be linked with dyslexia. This genetic heritability of dyslexia was also confirmed by the Colorado Longitudinal Twin Study of Reading Disability whose study suggests that the shared genetic influence accounted for â€Å"86% and 49% of the phenotypic correlations between the two assessments for twin pairs with and without reading difficulties respectively (Wadsworth et al 150) With regard to who gets this disability among the population, Lowenstein reported that the difficulty learning as caused by dyslexia is a condition that affects one in five people3. Some of the obvious symptoms that is correlated with dyslexi a include letter reversals in hand writing4, delays in speech and being easily distracted by noise (webmd). Symptoms can also include very poor spelling of words and blending of rhyming of sounds to make words. The classic example to illustrate this spelling difficulty is the paper written by Lowenstein where it was titled â€Å"Pediatrician: Dyslexia affects one if five people†. Due to difficulty in reading, students who has dyslexia were also were also found to have difficulty summarizing stories. Learning a foreign language was also found to be a challenge among dyslexics and so is memorizing words and concepts. In extreme cases, a very small population of dyslexics was known to rotate letters when reading reverse words when they write. In the study of Morton and Frith,

Stock Options at eBay Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Stock Options at eBay - Case Study Example With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day. It was started in 1995 with one employee and it has grown to employ thousands of employees today. Any company's future success and profits depend on their employees and the senior management. Even eBay feels that their success was dependant on their key management and their technical staff. As such eBay tries to retain their key personnel officers for the long-term to gain more profits, but they don't have any long term agreements with employees and they don't even maintain life insurance policies on their key employees. eBay attains more profits in land based auction businesses and those are dependent on specialists and senior management as these individuals have established good relations with sellers who transfer property for sale at auction. As the company is growing and the number of employees is also. The company has to attract more people and has to train them and retain them in the company for the long term, particularly the employees who are highly skilled, technical, and m anagerial. Stock options issued by a company allow the employee to buy specific amount of the company's stock at a certain price after a set period of time (the vesting period). Stock options are useful to align the interests of the employee with those of the company. Since the stock options will be profitable only if the company's stock goes up, the employee has incentive to work hard and ensure the success of the company. Also, since the options can only exercised after a certain period of time, the employee has to stay with the company. This promotes employee retention. Furthermore, by giving out stock options, the company can reduce other forms of compensation and reduce its immediate cash expenses. In this way, stock options are a better method of compensation compared to cash or stock. Let's take an example: Let's say you are hired by eBay and they offer you options to buy 10,000 shares of eBay stock at $10 within the next three years. This stock option gives you the right to buy 10,000 shares of eBay stock at exactly $10 after three years. Let's say after three years eBay stock is at $15, you can exercise your stock options, buy 10,000 shares for $100,000 and sell them on them for $150,000 making a $50,000 profit. Now, let's say eBay's price after three years is $5, your options would be worthless. Thus the options incentivize you to work hard to ensure eBay is successful as measure by a stock price greater than $10. Also, you are required to stay for at least three years to profit from your options. From this example, it is clear how stock options align the interests of employees with those of the company and promote retention. The options did not also cost the company upfront. Neither cash nor stock has all these advantages, and hence eBay compensates employees with stock options. Question 2: What are at least four benefits of choosing stock options over other compensation methods Compensation packages are a means by which companies can achieve several different goals related to recruitment,

Cultural Influence on Human Development Essay Example for Free

Cultural Influence on Human Development Essay It is important to understand why culture affects and is an integral part of human development and should not be overlooked. Demographic experts predict that the human population will reach 9 billion by 2050, but the rise will not occur equally around the world. The existing demographic divide between the wealthy developed countries and the poor developing countries will only widen because majority of the increase will occur among the developing countries whilst that of the former will actually decline progressively. As it is, the combined population of developed countries only make up 18% of the total world population, and 9 of 10 individuals living here are in the top 20% of the global income distribution. In contrast, about 40% of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars per day (Arnett, 2012). Variations in human development occur because of differences in cultural settings, which in turn are significantly impacted by socioeconomic status (SES) of a group. Educational level, income level, and occupational status are all parameters within the SES. It pervades all aspects of human development, from risk of infant mortality to quality of education and job prospects to affording healthcare in old age. It is no surprise that differences in SES are sharp between developed and developing countries. Like SES, gender and ethnicity are strong drivers of culture and are key factors in development. The dichotomy is blurred now, but throughout our history cultural expectations of men and women have been vastly different. The Hunter-gatherer way of live evolved because our Homo ancestors needed to adapt to the long infant dependency to the mother, who remained in a stable home base caring for the offspring and gathering edibles within reach while the males ventured out to hunt for food. An extreme example of women assuming a secondary role occurred in Imperial China (10th or 11th century) where young women of the wealthy elite who did not need them to work were subjected to painful foot binding to prevent further growth. This was a display of status and became the symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. So deep-seated is the gender difference in Antiquity that it manifested in the ancient conceptions of human development that the three ancient religions – Dharmashastras (Hindu), G reek (conceived by the philosopher Solon), and the holy Talmud (Jewish) – were all written by and for men only. Women were excluded from areas such as religious leadership and philosophy. Religion,  along with race and language, is a component of ethnicity. Recent scientific conceptions of human development also hinge on the influence of the social environment. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) draws attention to the broader cultural environment beyond the mother-child relationship that people experience as they develop. He distinguishes an exosystem of social institutions school, religion, and media – that have indirect but pivotal influences on development. His more encompassing macrosystem of cultural beliefs and values form the foundation of economic and governmental systems. Middle Eastern countries possess governments and economic systems that are based on Islam. Conversely, developed countries believe in the value of individual freedom and this is reflected in their capitalist economy and democratic government. No matter how we look at it, every aspect of human development be it biological, psychological or social, is invariably intertwined with culture. Moreover, a study on human development that focuses on the 18% of the world’s population living in developed countries that can fund major research undertaking is both inadequate and unfair. Poor developing countries have rich and complex cultural systems that have legitimate impact on human development. Therefore it is vital that we learn about human development as it is experienced around the world.

Psychology of Personality Essay Example for Free

Psychology of Personality Essay Psychology of personality is a branch of psychology that focuses on the study of personality and the individual differences. The main areas of focus are usually looking at individual’s psychological processes, the individual differences and studying how human behavior is similar. Personality is usually defined as well organized and dynamic set of characteristics possessed by a person that distinctively influence the cognitions, behavior in various situations and motivations. Since personality is complex and dynamic, various psychologists have come up with different theories to explain the different personality types. For the purpose of this paper, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and Jung’s theory of personality shall be used to analyze the personality of a lady friend by the name Ann. Since most people have various personality disorders, Ann’s personality disorder shall also be analyzed. Freud’s Theory of Personality The Freud’s theory of personality illustrates that personality of a human being is made up of three structures namely; the ego, superego and id. The id contains instincts and it is usually unconscious. The ego develops after the id and is considered to be the executive branch of personality since it uses reasoning to make decisions. Both the ego and id have no morality but the superego is the structure that contains morality as it takes into account whether something is right or wrong. The superego is also referred as the conscience since it has the ability to judge whether something is right or wrong. According to Freud’s theory of personality, personality is established at around five years of age. Studies suggest that the early childhood experience influence human behavior and continue to do so through out the whole life (Mitterer Coon 2008). Further studies illustrate that behavior of a person develops through a series of childhood stages and the driving force during the stages is usually the psychosexual energy. Incase all the stages are completed successfully, healthy personality develops and if not, fixation occurs which leads to a personality disorder. These stages of development include the anal, oral, phallic, latent, and genital stage. Some of these stages shall be discussed comprehensively while analyzing Ann’s personality. Jung’s Theory of Personality Jung is psychologist who accomplished much but his personality theory of introversion and extroversion gained a lot of recognition and overshadowed the rest of his work. His theory suggests that introversion and extroversion are opposing attitude types that make a person to behave in a particular way. According to this theory of personality, human behavior is controlled by the introversion and extroversion attitudes. He defines an introvert as someone who is quite aware of the inner world and does not give much thought to the external world. An introvert attitude is usually more concerned with the subjective appraisal and considers dreams and fantasies more. On the other hand, an extrovert is usually characterized by the outside movement of the psyche energy. An extrovert attitude places more importance on the objectivity and at the same time gains a lot of influence from the outer environment than the inner cognitive processes. Nonetheless, the theory suggests that it is still possible for one person to have both attitudes though more often than not one must be overshadowed by another. The four functions of the personality theory namely, thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition were combined so as to come up with the eight personality types. Discussion Ann is a twenty five year old lady who currently works as a research scientist. She is very competent and productive, and since she was employed two years ago, she has received a number of awards due to her competency. She happens to be the first born in the family of four and has been brought up by very strict parents. Though she loves people, she mostly prefers to be alone and in social functions she prefers to remain calm and only talks with people close to her. She spends most of her leisure time reading or watching television when she is not studying. She can make a very good friend but once angered she reacts aggressively and she can put up a fight very first. In addition, she is quite independent and barely shares her things with other people. However, many people usually complain of her reserved and cold nature but she is quite orderly and maintains high level of cleanliness. In application of the Jung’s theory of personality, Ann displays more of an introvert attitude than that of an extrovert. While making decisions, Ann takes her time analyzing the available options and is not easily influenced by the outside factors which display an introvert attitude as illustrated by Jung’s theory of personality. She often makes a decision which suits her best, without giving much consideration to what others may think of her. Moreover she works best while alone and does not prefer social functions unless when it is very necessary. A person with such behavior is classified as an introvert by the Jung’s theory of personality (Gelpi 1993). While applying the Freud’s theory of personality, some of the behavior that characterizes Ann’s personality can be attributed to the experiences she passed through during the early childhood stages. The fact that she holds a lot of mistrust toward people illustrates that the care takers did not feed her on demand during the oral stage. However, during the anal stage, she received the appropriate toilet training hence the reason why she is quite competent, productive and orderly (Dumont, Wedding Corsini 2007). Personality Disorder A personality disorder is often described as an enduring pattern of inner experiences and behavior that seems to deviates from individual’s culture and sets in during early adulthood or adolescence stage (Dobbert 2007). Since most of these behaviors are pervasive and also chronic they usually cause impairment in the daily life. A study of Ann’s life shows that she most probably suffers from a paranoid personality disorder. It is a disorder that is characterized by agoraphobia, depression and substance abuse as illustrated by the studies of (Dobbert, 2007). Ann displays most of the symptoms associate with paranoid disorder because she does not trust people, gets angry quickly especially if she thinks that she is being deceived, thinks that people are untrustworthy, she is always serious and secretive, and always analyzes every gesture and conversation to look for the hidden meaning. The above mentioned Ann’s personality traits illustrate that she suffers from paranoid personality disorder since the same symptoms characterize the disorder are part of the diagnostic criteria of the disorder. Conclusion and Recommendation Psychology of personality is very important since it helps in understanding different personalities as illustrated by the different behaviors. In psychology, there are many theories that have been established to explain different personalities. Despite the fact that all have the same goals some contain controversial ideas. However, they are still very helpful. In this study, the Freud’s theory of personality which illustrates that early childhood experiences shape the behavior of a person has helped in understanding the personality of Ann. It was possible to deduce that her mistrust originates from her oral stage as her caretakers did not feed her on demand. Such an experience makes an infant to lose trust on people. Jung’s theory of personality helps in understanding that the reserved nature of Ann is a result of an introverted attitude. In addition, the study has been of great help since it was possible to realize that Ann’s pervasive behavior of excessive mistrust is as a result of a paranoid personality disorder. References Dobbert, L. D. , (2007). Understanding personality disorders: an introduction. Westport, Greenwood Publishing Group. Dumont, F. , Wedding, D. Corsini, J. , (2007). Current Psychotherapies. Stamford, Cengage Learning. Gelpi, D. L. , (1993). Committed Worship: Adult Conversion and Initiation. Collegeville, Liturgical Press Mitterer, J. O. Coon, D. , (2008). Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior. Stamford, Cengage Learning.

Reading for Pleasure Importance

Reading for Pleasure Importance It is important to read as it can improve childrens language use and by reading for pleasure they can adapt to the language easily. According to Reyhene (1998) children who read for pleasure could somehow improve their language skills unconsciously and automatically. Besides that, Bignold (2003) pointed out that the reading habit could enhance or improve childrens reading skills. Therefore, the main issue of reading is that it helps to expand young peoples experiences and knowledge (Green, 2002). Children not only can expand their knowledge but they can also cultivate reading habits for lifelong learning (Pandian Ibrahim, 1997). It is usually being recommended that reading behavior should start at an early age and conducive reading environment plays an important role in order to stimulate lifelong reading (Pandian, 1997; Anderson, 1982; Winebrenner, 1971; Sanacore, 1990; Krashen, 1996). The exposure to reading for pleasure could help the children in many ways and it can increase or improve their reading achievement. Reading materials appear important for the development of reading comprehension such as reading fluency, or the ability to read text quickly and accurately (Chall, 1996; LaBerge Samuels, 1974; Stanovich, 1986), and learning many vocabulary because children are more likely to encounter new words by reading rather than from their daily conversation (Hayes Ahrens, 1988). Reading could increase childrens background knowledge that could help to assist future growth in reading comprehension (Stanovich, 2000). 2.2 TEACHERS ROLE Teachers play an important role where they could be described as the one who can instill intrinsic motivation to read among the students. Cole (1999) recommended that in order to motivate students to do pleasure reading, a teacher must be motivated to discover their students literacy personalities. Cole (1999) also talks about the role of librarian teachers who could offer the students with an enormous variety of books on various topics, levels and genre to capture the interest of students in reading. Students will have the interest to read if the librarian teachers could provide books according to the four stages of reading development such as building fluency, reading for pleasure, reading to learn and mature reading (Gillet Temple, 1994; Fong, 1997). According to Abeyrathna Zainab (2004), teachers could help inculcate the reading habit by giving students the experience of reading under guidance such as helping students to select materials based on their interests. Students are usually motivated to read by adults and take the adults as their reading model. Parents would be in the first rank, teachers would be in the second rank and librarians would be the third choice in being the students reading model (Hughes-Hassell and Lutz 2006). Most of the students are motivated to read usually because of the parental and home influences. Teachers should never take for granted that reading potential of students can happen anywhere although they come from an environment where reading is not valued (Duncan, 2010). Teachers can have strong and lasting effects on students reading attitudes and practices (Pitcher et al. 2007). Teachers must adopt an enthusiastic attitude toward reading and openly discuss their personal reading lives with students. In the class, teachers can have sharing book recommendation or just mention a recent enjoyable reading experience that could help change the perceptions and beliefs of nonreaders. The main problem is that most teach ers do not do reading for pleasure. Nathanson, Pruslow, and Levitt (2008) found that most graduate education students viewed reading as important, yet many were disinterested and did not engage in regular personal reading. Teachers cant expect students to be excited about reading if they themselves are not personally engaged in reading for pleasure (Duncan, 2010). 2.3 ROLES OF LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANS This is the part where the roles of the library are being stressed and the environment of the library plays an important role. Every classroom should have a classroom library collection that can be filled from the main library collection. It is easy to access and at the same time could encourage and motivate students to read (Gniewek, 1998). The school librarians are the ones who should provide a richer collection by having latest books and knowing the students reading preferences. According to Abeyrathna Zainab (2004), students are not happy with the library collection when it comes to reading for pleasure. There were a vast differences on the books that the students need and the books that was available for them to read. It is suggested that to solve the problem, the school library should have borrowed some books from the public library for teaching and reading needs. This could help financially for the school and obtaining reading materials that students are interested in. In Thailand, a study was carried out about the roles of libraries. According to Somsong (1999), the roles of libraries, librarians and library programs play an important role in helping to stimulate and develop reading interests among students. There are lots of studies that indicated that children who are in schools that have libraries and librarians read a lot often compared to children who attended schools that have libraries but no librarians to guide them (Lance, 1994; Lance, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell, 2000). It is important to have librarians in the library as they can help provide resources for the students regarding their reading preferences. They can help children search for the books that students prefer easily by organizing the books according to its genre which will trigger the students interest (Whelan, 2004). Reading can also be integrated with electronics such as reading e-mails and journals from the internet (Pandian, 1997). Libraries should have equipped with electronics such as computers and internet connection to provide the latest issue or information (Whelan, 2004). Librarians should renew their effort in guiding and tutoring the children for the usage of the libraries to stimulate and to promote positive attitude towards using the library for leisure reading (Chai, 1996). A warmth feeling of librarians who welcome readers to read in the library could help in stimulating students to read more. In Sri Lanka, the National Library and Documentation Service Board (NLDB) carried out a survey in 2002 and found the following situations; reading habits of students was poor due to the condition of the school libraries that was not encouraging as the book collections were old and most students read light materials such as magazines, novels, comic books and newspapers (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). 2.4 PARENTS ROLE Parents play an important role in order to reinforce the childs reading habit and interest (Cole, 1999). The first teacher for reading are the parents as they are the role models for their children and this apply to the interest in reading either to gain knowledge or for pleasure. According to De Medina (1976), who studied 50 families in Brazil, reading only occurred when there is a place to read at home, if the adults bought books and also if there is someone who guides the children to read often at home. There is another study which supports that home does influence reading among children. According to Kathers (1996), the study is on the children who were active in participating in extracurricular activities or have children that perform well on their reading test and have parents who were actively involved in school activities (Goldenberg, 1992). Home environment did influence ninth grade students attitude towards reading. Home environment can be included when a child is used to being read to, having a public library use, receive books as gifts, large personal and parental book collection and have subscriptions to magazines (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). Parents who are readers can encourage reading for pleasure among their children but it will be reduced once the child grew older (Demise, 2001). College students do not need parental encouragement as they usually read for pleasure. Besides that, they also do not need their educational status to make it as a leisure reading habits (Blackwood, 1991). Parents who create a pleasant atmosphere that fosters reading by providing space, reading materials, encouragement and example will endorse their children the love for reading (Pandian, 1997; Greaney, 1996). 2.5 ATTITUDES ABOUT READING There are two motivations that could encourage students to read for pleasure. The first one would be individuals feelings about reading. Alexander and Filler (1976) stated that the feelings of the reader can be influenced by involving themselves in reading, thus attitudes about reading should relate to individuals. The theory of information pickup suggests that perception depends completely upon information in the stimulus array rather than atmosphere that are influenced by cognition. According to Gibson, perception is an express outcome of the properties of the environment and does not engage in any form of sensory processing. Information pickup theory stresses that perception requires a lively organism. The act of perception depends upon an interaction involving the organism and the environment. All perceptions are made in reference to body position and functions (proprioception). Awareness of the environment derives from how it reacts to our movements (Gibson, 1977). The second motivation is childrens interest in reading. Researchers have looked into the interest that affects comprehension. Schiefele (1996) found that college students who were interested in the text materials used in the study understood those materials more deeply than did students who were less interested in the materials, even when the students prior knowledge of the materials and general intelligence were controlled. In studies of fifth and sixth graders, Renninger (1992) found that interest in the materials enhanced comprehension, even of materials that were quite difficult for the children (although there were some gender differences in these patterns). Thus interest in reading appears to be an important motivational variable influencing different aspects of reading performance. 2.6 REASONS STUDENTS DO NOT READ FOR PLEASURE One of the main reasons students do not read for pleasure is because of the technologies. According to Gunasekara (2002), there are three major hindrances to the promotion of reading habits. It includes preference to chat using the computer, listening to the radio and preference for television viewing. There are also some students who liked to read and considered themselves readers but did not take the time to read regularly or update their knowledge. This does not mean that they are reluctant to read but they gave priority to other activities such as sports, social life and school work (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). 2.7 ACADEMIC READING PURPOSE Most reading was done mainly for examination purposes (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). Students usually read to prepare for examination. A recent Malaysian survey on the reading behavior of 22,400 individuals and 6,050 households by the Ministry of Education revealed that only 20 per cent of Malaysians read regularly (Pandian, 2001). This review (New Straits Times, 29 August, 1996) further stressed that the small figure includes students who read just to pass exams. In Malaysia, the students associate reading with academic tasks and not for knowledge or pleasure most of the time (Sunday Star, May 26, 1991). By doing this, it does not enable students who can read to use the activity in a significant way for self or social development (Pandian, 1997). The main hindrance on reading for pleasure is the excessive concern of students with reading textbook for examination purposes. Students will regard reading to pursuit knowledge in preparing for the examination as the main purpose of reading and they will never realize the importance of reading for pleasure or enjoyment (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). 2.8 TECHNOLOGIES AND COMMUNICATION Public awareness has been haggard to the rising crisis of non-reading among Malaysians especially among the Malaysian students. Readership behavior here refers to reading skills and enthusiasm to read for information and leisure as well as reading practices that appoint different prints and audio-visual contents, such as newspapers, magazines, non-textbooks and informative material of various multimedia (Pandian, 2001). The cultivation of reading habits is also inclined by a series of other factors like exposure to media and computers. We live in an era where technologies are the center of everything and we tend to be occupied by it. One study investigating the media exposure among young people in the Klang Valley has observed that in a week these young people spend about 14.6 hours on television, 3.4 hours on video, 4.1 hours on computer, 16.3 hours on radio, 7.11 hours on newspapers and 4.7 hours on books and comics (The Star, May 8, 1997). The above findings advocate that the visu al representation is becoming arguably more significant than the printed word (Pandian Ibrahim, 1997). This proves that Malaysians spend more time on technologies rather than having the printed materials to read. Reading reluctance happens when a generation who can read chooses not to read. This situation can lead to generating more reluctant readers. The term reluctant readers refer to the people who can read but do not read. The focus on reading is critical given the growth of communications technology and the adjustment of reality we tackle in modern societies. In order to make reading more meaningful, it is important for young people to learn not only to read but nurture reading behavior for lifelong learning. There are many new forms of reading texts such as mass and multimedia but it does not ensure if communication technology will be used to sustain students reading for pleasure and lifelong learning (Pandian, 2001). 2.9 READING MATERIALS PREFERRED BY STUDENTS Easy access to books could promote or encourage students to read more. In an article of a magazine by Duncan (2010), it is suggested that every classroom should have a library where the books are filled with high-interest reading materials that students would love to read. Books that are easily accessible are most likely to be read by students when they do not have anything to do. Lots of researches have been done on the most important role which is the home environment itself that could promote and create lifelong readers but for students who could not afford to buy any reading materials, the classroom library must provide many reading materials that could be easily accessed. It can also help to promote positive reading attitudes and help the students to improve their reading performance (Young Moss 2006). Teachers are the ones who will be in charge of picking the texts that are popular among students. Teachers should not limit the students reading by only providing books they feel students should be reading. Teachers need to widen the concept of reading materials and also supply books with a wide range of fiction and nonfiction books (Duncan, 2010). Comics, series books, magazines and other materials not traditionally read in school should be considered (Lesesne, 2003). Students who are intimidated by books, magazines and comics might be interested in reading as it offers a comfortable and risk-free reading experience (Duncan, 2010).