The Spearman

  Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. Doing Things Right? or Doing the Right Things?  Having taught for almost 12 years in the Business Graduate School at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City, the terms efficiency and effectiveness have always generated lively and intriguing discussions in both Operations/Production Management and Human Resource Management subjects. The adjectives efficient and effective are very common terms related not only to productivity and work performances of managers and employees but also to work plans, systems and procedures.   However, most of us tend to mix their usages and meanings occasionally, so that maybe writing on this subject would be valuable to most of the readers specifically those who are in the management and labor sectors of both public and private organizations.   But first thing first, let’s start with the definition of the terms efficient and effective. The term " efficient " is defined as performing or producing...

  Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. The Enigma of Political Elections Without doubt, election fraud and protests have submerged Philippine politics for numerous decades since the initial democratic election process was held in the country. This phenomenon was recorded both in the national and local environs. According to *Dr. Temario Rivera.. *The Philippines has the longest history of electoral politics in Asia but electoral fraud has always been an endemic feature of this system. While we are justly outraged by the new revelations about the systematic, large-scale manipulation of the 2004 and 2007 elections, let us not lose sight of the fact that electoral fraud in its varying manifestations has been deeply embedded in our electoral practices. *I stress this to reiterate the seriousness and urgency of addressing a problem which has deep structural, institutional, and even cultural roots. Even a cursory review of our electoral exercises from the postwar era to the present will show a ...

  Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D.    Introduction *Follow along, Words spreading like raging fire above the grassy plains Snow raining down like bullets at the summit Hard to miss, yet soft by touch Never giving up, and to realize it’s just beginning The end is never near unless one is to give up...   Follow along, once more. Walking down a path that might end up upon a cliff Feelings being torn to pieces by the power of fear, like burning rocks coming through the atmosphere Enduring what’s yet to come, descending from the skies above an answer to all our worries A light shining through dark days is the hope that’s yet to fade from everyone’s hearts The will to live, yet overcoming many hardships is the key to survival.”   * Carlos Andres Gomez Losing the Will to Live in Elderly Persons * In the field of psychology, the will to live is an important concept when attempting to understand why we do what we do in order to stay alive, and for...