Yearbook of MMU
School of Business and Management Studies
Volume 1
Career perspectives in the Rwenzoriregion: Accounting, (Micro)finance and other sectors
edited by KarugabaDeogratias and Oliver Schmidt
Mountains of the Moon University
School of Business and Management Studies
Main Campus Saaka, Fort Portal
Email: (Ag. Head of School)
Tel.: 0773-352340 (Administrative Assistant)
Website:
The Editors
KarugabaDeogratias () is the Administrative Assistant at MMU School of Business and Management Studies.
Dr. Oliver Schmidt () is the academic Advisor Microfinance at MMU School of Business and Management Studies. He has been seconded by German Development Cooperation.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Mountains of the Moon University.
© Mountains of the Moon University 2010
The Yearbook of MMU School of Business and Management Studies – Volume 1 was was published with financial support from German Development Service ( from January 2011 a subsidiary of German Society for International Cooperation (giz).
Overview of Contents
Forword from MMU Vice-Chancellor
Foreword from Head of School
Part i - Career guidance
Part ii - MMU SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES
Part iii - Scholarly and Research articles
Part iv - Rwenzori Region in numbers
Foreword from MMU Vice-Chancellor
Dear Students, Colleagues, Friends of MMU
I have the great pleasure to welcome you to the first volume of the Yearbook of MMU School of Business and Management Studies. Its theme breathes the vision and mission of our university – the only community university in Uganda: To form, through our courses, well trained and spiritually balanced graduates that perform as problem solvers with competence and commitment. To that end, we emphasise career guidance from the onset. I am happy that this Yearbook adds to our various career guidance initiatives, including collaboration with international partners like Liverpool University (UK).
Beyond career guidance, this volume across its 16 articles offers discussion and information on a rich variety of current social, political and economic issues. It thus reflects the wide area of research interests and expertise of the School’s staff members. Moreover, by soliciting articles from ‘outside’ – MMU staff from other departments as well as authors from KRC, FORMA and GTZ FSD-program – the School has demonstrated its capacity to network and engage in mutual exploration of topics and issues. This is at the heart of academic life and aspiration. Obviously, one of the crucial ingredients to this is the School’s wide network of local governments, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations which have hosted students for ‘field attachments’ (internship). I congratulate the School of Business and Management Studies for its impressive team striving for excellence in teaching and research.
I would like to warmly appreciate all who have contributed to putting together this fine publication; foremost the 11 authors from the School of Business and Management Studies, 4 authors from other MMU departments and 5 authors from other affiliations.
A special thank you goes to the editors, Mr. KarugabaDeogratias and Dr. Oliver Schmidt, for dedicating time and effort to bringing out this publication. I acknowledge Mr. Mark Kaija, ag. head of school, for creating a conducive working environment that brought about this yearbook.
Last but not least, I thank German Development Cooperation for financial support towards this publication.
Enjoy Reading
Prof. John Kasenene
Vice-Chancellor
Mountain of the Moon University
Foreword from the Head of School
Dear Reader
It is a great pleasure to present you herewith the first volume of the first yearbook of Mountains of the Moon University. The team at MMU School of Business and Management Studies – 26 staff members with a wide range of experiences and qualifications – is proud and honoured to have once more pioneered organizational development of our young university.
The articles in this yearbook cover a wide range of highly relevant topics of well being of our communities. Part I is dedicated to ‘career guidance’ for our students, starting with a strong appeal to adopt a clear and strong focus for their lives and for their studies. Opportunities are awaiting hard working and dedicated management students in growing and fast changing sectors of accounting and (micro)finance. Ultimately, you will only make a difference as a future leader if you embrace ethics. The results from this year’s graduate survey show that we are heading in the right direction.
Part II provides you with a profound ‘who is who and what is what’ of MMU School of Business and Management Studies. You find that the school’s 15 courses cater to about 2 out 3 MMU students. Furthermore, we have developed 5 postgraduate courses which are currently frequented by 70 students. Being business-minded, you will have noted that our school offers ‘a lot of bang for your buck’ – our courses are competitively priced, in addition to savings on transport and living costs compared to Kampala. Of course, ultimately you do not choose cheap but quality. I like to think that this yearbook demonstrates our ability to deliver the latter.
Social transformation is one of the most pressing issues in our Rwenzori region. Therefore, social issues of the households open part III ‘scholarly and research articles’. They are followed by a discussion of the probably most exciting topic in Uganda these days, the oil exploration in the Albertine region – also ‘catchment area’ of MMU. Value chain and entrepreneurship are ‘evergreen’ topics of our school, not least of our student’s research; we are happy that since this year microfinance is becoming another core competency area.
Part IV presents ‘the Rwenzori region in numbers’, thus completing the yearbook’s role as an invaluable resource for teaching, academic discussion and research of colleagues and students alike.
Enjoy reading – again and again
Mark Kaija
Head of School
Business and Management Studies
Part i
Career guidance
Articles
Reaching your dream career
Accounting profession and careers
Applications of accounting information
Careers in the banking and
microfinance industry in Uganda
Ethics, the Most Needed Ingredient
for leadership
Study experiences and
career outlook of MMU graduates 2010
Reaching your dream career
By BetinaMutsuba (.k)
What is career?
Career can be defined as the work experience during your life time. Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an individual's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". In a personal development perspective, career development refers to:
"[...] the total constellation of psychological, sociological, educational, physical, economic, and chance factors that combine to influence the nature and significance of work in the total lifespan of any given individual."
"[...] the lifelong psychological and behavioral processes as well as contextual influences shaping one’s career over the life span. As such, career development involves the person’s creation of a career pattern, decision-making style, integration of life roles, values expression, and life-role self concepts."
Career and talent
What one lives for may either be enjoyable or not. Work can only be enjoyable if it corresponds to what it is inborn, i. e. talents. That is why a person with a low wage/salary might nevertheless be happier than the one who is highly remunerated. To some extent, the answer lies in the point that to the one with low remuneration the occupation corresponds to his inborn, so he does not struggle against inner resistance in executing the tasks at hand. The one who receives much money may struggle to muster the necessary focus to carry out the occupational tasks.
Living an enjoyable career does not mean that there will be no challenges. Challenges will always be there. The difference will lay in the way they are approached and experienced, and how they ultimately shape the person. The one who performs a career built on her talents will have carriage to seek for opportunities even in difficulties.
Talent and creativity
Creativity highly develops if you are using your natural given gifts, i. e.talents. The more you perform a particular task, the more your potential energy is charged. E. g. Mr. Switzer Issa (2010), a teacher at St. Leo’s College- Kyegobe, shared how his talent of fine art has been growing steadily. The more he uses it, the more energy is charged and tapped from within, and this enables him produce marvellous pieces.
Therefore for one to be more creative at what one is doing, it is better to first identify one’s talents and then spend time knowing what you can do best with them. Take time to think how you can use the knowledge you have acquired or you are acquiring with your talents to produce new things to the world.
For survival purposes, and to some extent due to lack of proper guidance before choosing courses to study, some people find that they should not have done the courses they pursued. As a result, they find themselves doing jobs they really don’t enjoy. The question is: how can one go about such?
When you are caught in such a job, the most constructive approach would be to regard the work as a learning opportunity and to think how such an opportunity can become a ‘stepping stone’ to reach where you want to be. In order to be successful in life, one needs to look for opportunities in every difficulty. There is no value in lamenting. Feeding one’s minds with only flat statements will never lead one to tap into the creative power of the mind. Always fill the mind with questions, and you will wonder how much your mind will produce (Kiosaki/Lechter 2000).
Ultimately, the student generation of today is fortunate that there are many opportunities as far as learning is concerned. One can choose to pursue a course that will lead to the job of one’s interest using distance learning or weekend programs, with what is being earned from the current Job. Focus on the question: How do I use my current job as a spring board to reach where I want to be?
Proper career choice making
“Begin with an end in the mind”(Covey, 1989:95)
Convey (1989) suggests that everything is created twice. The first creation is in the mind, call it mental creation, and then the second one is the physical creation. No one has ever thought of putting up a house without having a clear mental picture of what kind of home she wishes to have on the ground. The quality of the physical creation is determined by the first that is the mental creation. To begin with the end in the mind means to start with a clear understanding of one’s destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. It is incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it is leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy – very busy – without being very effective.
Are you clear with your future mental picture of:
- Who you want to be?
- What contribution you want to make to society?
- What you want to do such that you can identify ‘on which wall to lean your ladder’?
For the case of a student
- Why are you doing that course? In other words, where are those qualifications going to lead you?
- Is there any gap you have identified in society that can be addressed using the knowledge you are acquiring or have acquired?
- What is ‘your right wall’, i. e. is the course you are in going to have you do what you would like to do?
Career Choice and self-discovery /self-awareness
Khan (2010) notes that “workers who don’t know what they want are out of touch–with who they really are and with the things that truly matter to them. Their thoughts, beliefs, and values are elusive; they cannot identify the things that uniquely motivate and define them.”
However, finding out what one wants cannot be got from any other person. “Wanting is an inside job” (Khan 2010).Before we can choose to do what we love, we first must choose for ourselves. Only then can one make an authentic career choice (Sinetar1989).
Some of us, given the systems in which we in which we have been brought up may have not have had chance of getting more information regarding career planning. As a result, courses are chosen from a myopic point of view. But no matter at what point of life you are receiving this piece of information, you can still rethink of where you are going - your destiny. You may not change your destiny over night, but you can change your direction over night (Kibuka n. Y.).
Take the example of someone who pursued a Bachelor’s degree in business administration (BBA) from one of the universities in Uganda. She did this course because that was what her parents wanted. In her first year, it seemed that what she was studying was far from her. She only studied for the employer. In her second year, she joined an initiative for young leaders and entrepreneurs. It was at this time that she started developing a link between what she was studying and where it would finally lead her. Joining this initiative helped her to pass through trainings of self discovery and personal development. After getting this kind of information, she felt that she should not have done business administration, but rathereducation or counselling. But at that time it was too late to change the course. She rather opted for the strategy to use the job of accountancy, which she got immediately after her course, as a spring board to lead her to the career that will tap her talents and creativity most,i. e. teaching/counselling. Hence she targets trainings and post graduate courses that will build her teaching and counselling skills; as a first step, she might become a teacher of accountancy.
Box 1: How can you enhance your career?
Know yourself. Know your strength and weaknesses. What talents can you bring to an employer? Personal career planning begins by being honest with yourself.
Manage your reputation. Without appearing as a braggart, let others both inside and outside your current organization know about your achievements. Make yourself and your accomplishments visible.
Build and maintain network contacts. In a world of high mobility, you need to develop contacts. Join national and local professional associations, attend conferences, and network at social gatherings.
Keep current. Develop those specific skills and abilities that are in high demand. Avoid learning organization-specific skills that can’t be transferred quickly to other employers.
Balance your specialist and generalist competencies. You need to stay current within your technical specialty. But you also need to develop general competencies that give you the versatility to react to an ever-changing work environment. Overemphasis in a single functional area or even in a narrow industry can limit your mobility.
Document your achievements. Employers are increasingly looking to what you have accomplished rather than the titles you have held. Seek jobs and assignments that will provide increasing challenges and that will also offer objective evidence of your competencies.
Keep your options open. Always have contingency plans prepared that you can call on when needed. You never know when your group will be eliminated, your department downsized, your project cancelled, or your company acquired in a takeover. “Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst” may be a cliché, but it is still not bad advice.
Source: Robbins/DeCenzo (2008:190/191).
Conclusion
In conclusion, you must be clear with your own life vision – a mental picture of your future. This guides you in developing your mission, that is, strategies of realizing the vision, and consequently realistic goals, objectives and activities such that your time is used best. Strategies may change functional to changes in the environment to which one may have or may not have control. This may mean detours along the way, but a clear vision will always be the guide (box 1).
Remember that in production, one needs to determine the Output and from that deduct the input.Therefore be clear with your destiny, know where you are now and plan how to get from here to where you are to be.
References
Covey, S. R. (1989): The 7 habits of highly effective people, Simon & Schuster.
Issa, S. (2010): Talent and creativity, verbal discussion on 2nd October 2010, careers day for S2 Students and their parents, St. Leo’s College- Kyegobe, Fort Portal.