The consultants responsibility to facilitate client decisions

The consultants responsibility to facilitate client decisions Management consulting can be defined as the creation of value for organizations, through the application of knowledge, techniques and assets to improve business performance. This is achieved through the rendering of objective advice and/or the implementation of business solution (MCA 2009 as stated in Matthias 2011). Central to the notion of management consulting is the ability to identify a problem, research and recommend a solution and help implement that solution. The role of the consultant have become central to the life of many organizations, today the question isnt how many companies are using consultants but how many are not using consultant (Pellegrinelli 2002). However the role of the consultant and their impact on the decision making process in client organization has been the subject of many debates. This essay examines the role of consultant in decision making process of a client. The essay starts by looking at the role of the consultant as a facilitator of the client decision, without altering such decision. Then proceed to look at the role of consultant as an expert who can be seen as being responsible for the decision and outcome for the execution of project. Furthermore, the two distinct roles are considered side on side and we look at other approaches to decisions making in the consultant clients relationship. Facilitating Clients Decision Decision making is one of the most important management decisions, if not the most important of all management activities (Mintzberg 1989 as stated in Buchanan and Huczynski 2010). The consultant goal is to influence decision making in organization, therefore it is pertinent that the consultant understands how decisions are made in organizations. Wickham and Wickham (2008) suggests that there are three major decision making models in practice, the normative decision making model, the descriptive or the prescriptive model of decision making. Facilitation is the process of providing opportunities, resources, encouragement and support for a group to succeed in achieving its objectives, and to do this through enabling the group to take control and responsibility for the way they proceed (Matthias 2011, p6). Facilitation is a complex, iterative process which enables things to happen (Velden and Leenknegt 2006). At the center of process facilitation is the need to build relationship. The facilitator primary responsibility is to help client with process-type interventions to make decisions. The goal of process facilitation is to increase the client systems capacity for learning so that it can fix its own problems (Schein 1999). Here the decision-making and action lies predominantly in the hand of the client (Whittle 2006) with the consultant playing a passive role. Sometimes the consultants may deliberately enroll internal champions to create internal ownership of ideas (Fincham, 2002 as stated in Whittle 2006). Different authors have used different names in defining the role of the consultant as a facilitator including Schein who called it the process consulting model. He suggested that consultants are facilitators who help to empower the clients to solve his own problem and not own the problem. Similar to the process model is the role of the collaborator (Block 2000 as stated in Cameron and Green 2004). Also, Nees and Greiner defines a facilitator as the friendly co-pilot in their model (Appelbaum and Steed 2005), associating the knowledge based of the facilitator to business experience. The application of facilitation in practice however, depends largely on what level of change is required and organizational development. Sherwood and Callahan (2006) developed strategic process consulting where they used undergraduates to facilitate the changes in the strategic processes in two organizations with the client making the key decisions but at their level of expertise. Also, Ambler 2006 used a combination of part training/ part facilitation/ part consulting to engage in a consulting project that required managers in clients organization to take more responsibility. Both projects had to deal with facilitating changes in non-technical part of the business. However Stager (1986) and Cameron and Green (2004) argue that facilitation can be useful even in technical field like IT. There are different assumptions that the process model is built on; first, the client not only helps in making the diagnosis, they also benefit from participating in the diagnosis especially when the problem is a nontechnical one. Secondly, the client has helpful intent and has some problem solving ability, thirdly the client knows the form of intervention or solution that will work best in the organization because he or she understand contextual issues like power and politics in the organization. The clients problem solving abilities is improved upon as clients engage in the diagnosis of the problem and the selection and implementing the solutions (Rockwood 1993). Facilitation is useful when: there are Complex (unknown or conflicting) objectives, the process is complex, there are disagreements, buy-in is essential, multiple inputs are required, Ownership is required and lastly, managing hierarchical issue (Matthias 2011). Advantages of the facilitator model includes that it offers new approaches to solutions. Secondly, they are able to spot risk and focus on issues not agendas and, they are able to see potential for wider application NCAS (2006). Also the process consultation model is important for building long term relationships because it focuses on the future of the organization client and also helping to build the required expertise in the clients organization. Matthias (2011) suggests that the process consulting model is most useful in achieving long term result. Buckenmyer and Stough (1998) argue that the concepts of empowerment, participation and involvement are not always 100 percent positive. One consequence of unbridled empowerment can be dysfunctional organization. Also processes facilitation exposes clients to the risk of group think and group polarization which does not lead to the optimal solution being chosen (Buchanan and Huczynski 2010). Facilitation is more time consuming than content models (Stager 1986), and sometimes clients crave quicker and proactive intervention (Whittle 2006). Expert decision making The alternative approach to client consultant decision making argument is to understand when the client places the decision making powers to the consultant. The concept of consultant having decision making power or significant influence in decision making is plausible when the consultant plays the expert role. Edgar Schein developed content models which are divided into the purchase of expertise model and the doctor-patient model. Schein purchase-of-expertise and doctor-patient models are similar to Blocks expert and pair-of-hands roles of the consultant respectively. Appelbaum and Steed (2005) suggests that Scheins content models are similar to Nees and Greniers model for role of consultancy. They link the mental adventurer to the expert role, the strategic navigator, management physician and system architect to the doctor-patient model. The purchase-of-expertise model suggests that consultant needs to provide some type of expertise; this model allows the client to remove themselves from the problem (Rockwood 1993). This model is useful when the problem is straightforward and client organization does not possess the needed expertize (Schein 1978). In the expert role, the client delegates full authority to the consultant to plan and implement the changes. Decisions are made by the consultant on the base of his or her judgment, Client responds only when asked to. The goal is to solve the immediate problem (Cameron and Green 2004). The expert role is a specialist area (Witham and Witcham 2008) and requires technical knowledge Werr and Linnarsson (2001). However, the problem of the purchase-of-expertise model is that it places enormous responsibility on the client to diagnose the problem properly and the also difficult to use when the problem is tricky and difficult to diagnose and the consultant is not held responsible for wrong consequences (Schein 1978). It is doubtful if any expert body of knowledge exists in management realm (Williams and Rattray 2004), and the consultant doesnt know everything (Stager 1986). Another problem with the expert approach is that the client is distanced from the process of problem solving. They also downplay the role of power and politics in the client organization. In addition, placing decision making in the hands of the client may create a superior/inferior relationship, which is offensive to some clients (Stager 1986). Role of clients There is no doubt, that there exist different client roles in consulting project, however authors like Appelbaum and Steed (2005), Pellegrinelli (2002) argue that in reality the question of client is ambiguous and problematic. However, Schein (1997) proposes a model to understand different types of client relationship, he identified five types of clients: The first is the contact clients, the individual who is first contacted by the consultant; the intermediate clients, the individuals or groups who gets involved in different activities as project evolves; the primary clients, is the client who ultimately own the problem and they are the ones who are responsible for paying the consulting bills. The unwitting clients are the clients who will be affected but who are not aware that they would be impacted. The indirect clients are members of the organization who are aware that they will be affected but who are unknown to the consultant. Ultimate clients; are those whose welfare must be c onsidered, they include the total community and the total organization. This raises the ethical dilemma as the consultant needs to be able to manage the different types of clients and their different interest, influence and level of participation. Pellegrinelli (2002) suggests that facilitation model requires the consultant to be far more conscious of their various clients and stakeholders while the expert model, the interest of the senior manager commissioning the work tends to suffice. Also not all interventions are assumed to be helpful. The very presence of a consultant, and even mere data gathering changes things for the client/subject, and/or their stakeholder (Williams 2001). Also the fact that the facilitator does not own the problem raises the question of the contribution of the consultants (Wickham and Wickham 2008). Regardless of the mode of consulting employed, the consultant runs the dilemma of choosing between what needs to be done and what the paying client expects to be done (Williams 2001). In our understanding of the consultant roles and decision making, it is important that we identify who owns and makes the decision. Bartecko (2010) argued that the clients should not allow the consultant make decision for them, she attributes the failures of many projects to the lack of ownership on the project. The expert role can be susceptible to the risk of being used as rubber stamp and tools in the hand of senior management especially when making tough decision (Shapirro et al 1993). While the facilitator can also be used to push managements agenda to the group and the facilitator can manipulate the group (Matthias 2011) however, the purchase of advice can be interpreted as a sign of managerial ineffectiveness or if consultants renew the management concerns they were enlisted to lessen (Whittle 2006). Organisational Learning The knowledge and the learning objectives of the client have impact on what role the consultant wants to play and how it is received within the organization. One of the key requirements sought by clients is that the consultant must be knowledgeable (Minter 1994). The export model is seen as a specialist area and it is known to be technical (Wickham and Wickham 2008). The facilitator seems non-technical and deals with the soft skills in organization (Cameron and Green 2004). The authoritative leaders or expert can make the consultant appear arrogant and insensitive in the eyes of clients (Shapiro et al; Clark and Fincham, 2002 as stated in Whittle 2006). Werr and Linnarson (2001) also opine that the traditional expert role creates a dangerous situation where the client loses knowledge to the consultant making them dependent on the consultant. From the foregoing it is arguable that the consultant facilitating helps build and retain organizational learning. The lack of success in consul ting process isnt so much the lack of experience but not understanding what it is to help someone and not operating by those principles (Schein 1999). An example of the failure of the expert model of changing clients decision can be seen with the Nett positive, a Business Analysis consulting company from India taking on a project in FCMB a bank in Nigerian. Nett positive took the expert role and were trying to reintroduce an online performance management system which was the brief from the bank. However, they had two problems that beguiled the project, firstly they ignored the power and conflict in the organization and secondly they were seen to be protecting the interest of the contact client and not the primary contact. As the expert moved to try and develop the data needed as required by the client, the client decided to challenge the knowledge in-house to design the same system. So a cross functional team from IT, Finance and Sales was formed and given the mandate to design the task. Eventually the new performance management system was designed and the contract with Nett Positive was cancelled. Bridging the different Approaches While authors like Schein as stated in (Rockwood 1993) and (Velden and Leenkgert 2006) suggest that consultants decisions often time lie between facilitating and expert mode based on the situation and context. Schein however proposed that what is important is that all consultant and client relationship should be based on helping the client. Schumacher (n.d.) identified three new approaches to consulting. The first is the complimentary consulting which tries to integrate the expert and process consulting modes in a complete and cooperative manner. The integrated consulting was developed based on shared understanding of communication, feedback mechanism and reflection loops. However, the integrated approach does not have concrete realization in practice (Schumacher n.d.). The third modus of consulting is the client ownership-role of his problem and does not delegate to the consultant. The consultant only offers cooperation architecture and acts as sparring partner. However for long ter m stability of organizations, any model that places the decision in the hands of the client and the consultant as a partner is arguable better. Conclusion Facilitating client decision is all about the consultant helping the clients to make accurate decision. The strengths of the argument for the consultant facilitating clients decision is that the client was part of the process that developed the solution. On the other hand the consultant can change clients decision by taking on the role of the expert, in this mode the decision actually lies in the hand of the consultant however the effectiveness of this method is contentious. However the consultant that chooses to facilitate needs to be able to manage the different clients roles in the organization without being seen to be protecting the interest of any group. Facilitation helps the consultant to ensure that the client grows the knowledge required to make good decisions. Lastly the FCMB, net positive case was studied to see the failures associated with the consultant trying to change clients decision instead of facilitating it. This example further reiterates the fact that for long term sustainability and growth of the client-consultant relationship, the consultant should encourage facilitation instead of trying to change the clients decision.

The Statement of Cash Flow Is Not Redundant and Necessary for Investment Decision Making

Introduction The manager of Dowlais Iron Company, made a new financial statement called â€Å"comparison balance sheet†, in 1863 to explain the reason for the inability to invest was due to the holding of too much inventory, despite the profit made. This was the beginning of the cash flow statement, which was later made compulsory by the Financial Accounting Standard Boards (FASB) under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This step was followed by International Accounting Standard Boards (IASB) when they issue IAS 7 Cash Flow Statement.The Cash Flow Statement only reported transactions that took place by the use of cash or cash equivalents, and discarded anything that was recorded on accrual basis in Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position) and the Profit and Loss Statement (Statement of Comprehensive Income). The construction of the Cash Flow Statement is divided into three; cash flow from operating, investing and financing activities. With two approaches in constructing Cash Flow Statement; direct and indirect approach, the difference is basically on the construction of the first part, operating activities.Cash flow from operating activities are cash flow from principal revenue-producing activities of the company and other activities that are not investing or financing activities. In using the direct method approach, it would have to start from scratch; what are the cash receipts and cash payments made during the period, while the indirect method approach would start with the profit before tax figure and later, adjustments are made, i. e. depreciation, increase or decrease in inventories, receivables, payables, etc.The other two activities (financing and investing) remain the same regardless of methods used. Financing activities are activities that result in changes in the size and composition of the equity capital and borrowings of the enterprise. For example, the issuance of the company's shares, payment of dividends, borrowings, etc. With regard to the investing activities, it consists of any activities of investment for capital assets, financial markets, and even operating subsidiaries.Although the existence of the Cash Flow Statement is considered quite new in the accounting world (which starts around 1490s by Luca Pacioli, that was called â€Å"bookkeeping†), it is agreed that there are a lot of benefits with the presence of the Cash Flow Statement. This position paper will touch on a couple of them just to be firm on the topic, that is â€Å"The Statement of Cash Flow is not Redundant and Necessary for Investment Decision Making†. Cash Flow Statement as a Tool for Investment DecisionThere are ways and ratios that we could use to measure the solvency and liquidity of a company, using the information from the Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position) and the Profit and Loss Statement (Statement of Comprehensive Income). However, with the presence of Cash Flow Statement, it is made easi er and more logic. The first ratio would be the Operating Cash Flow Ratio which could be derive from the following formula: Cash Flow from Operations ? Current Liabilities This ratio would give the indication as to whether or not the company is able to repay their current debt with the use of the cash from operating activities.This ratio is slightly similar to the Current Ratio, but the use of Cash Flow from Operations to replace Current Assets is simply more logical to measure the liquidity, because the Current Asset includes Inventories and Receivables which are not of the high liquidity compared to cash. The investors can make a reasonable and justifiable decision based on this ratio, simply because it gives a better view of liquidity than the Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position). The second ratio that could help investors decision making is the Price/Cash Flow Ratio.Even though this ratio is not widely use as the Price Earnings Ratio, this ratio is often considered as the better indication of the company's value. This mainly was due to the formula itself, which the Earnings per Share in the Price Earnings Ratio is changed to the Operation Cash Flow per Share. With this change, the value of the company relies on the cash flow from the principal revenue-producing activities, and not the Net Income which was derived on accrual basis, which the revenue and xpenses may or may not have been received and paid. With the information from Cash Flow Statement, investors are able to make a wiser decision as to valuation of the companies because the cash is of the same importance as the profit, and sometimes may be regarded as more important. The next ratio is to help in measuring the solvency of a company, it is the Cash Flow from Operations/Average Total Liabilities Ratio. From the name itself, we can figure that the formula would look like below: Cash Flow from Operations ?Average Total Liabilities As mentioned, this ratio is to measure the solvency of th e company, similar to Total Debt/Total Assets Ratio as both are to know the ability of the company to pay its debts. However, this ratio is better in terms of that it measures for the whole period, and not at a point of time. To explain this, know that the cash flow from operations are generated from the start of the period until the end of the period, and it uses the average of total liabilities which does not focus on that point of time only.On the other hand, the Total Debt/Total Assets Ratio uses the total assets and total debts at the end of the period, the ones reported on balance sheet. Thus, one might increase their inventories or promote credit sales towards the end of the period, just to boost up the total assets figure, which later would give the indication the company has the ability to pay its debt, due to the high total assets figure. Apart from these ratios that are derived from information in the Cash Flow Statement, the elements in the statement itself can be helpfu l for investors to make decisions, without even the need to calculate any ratio.For example, a company may be having a negative total cash flow(total outflow), but if the cash flow from operating activities is positive, it may still be a good sign, as the negative cash flow is derived from the investing or financing activities. If the negative cash flow comes from heavy investing and causes a negative flow from investing activities, it may still be a good sign simply because the company might be considering an expansion in the future.Thus, the elements in the Cash Flow Statement itself can give information for the investors to make decisions, without even the fuss of computing ratios. Overall View of the Company's Activities Before looking at the future perspective of the company, which we have discussed earlier on how Cash Flow Statement is very helpful in making investment decision, the investors are more likely wanting to know the financial management of the company. Having a goo d future perspective may not always give profit to investors, if there is a bad financial management.With the elements laid out with such organization in the Cash Flow Statement, the investors would have a glimpse or overview of the company's activities throughout the year, what decision have they(company) made, what are the odds for the company paying the dividends, etc. As mentioned previously, the total cash flow may not necessarily give the right interpretation of what is happening to the company. This is because if it does, then there is no need of the Cash Flow Statement, as the amount are present in the Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position).Usually the increase in Inventories and Receivables would give an indication that the company is being illiquid compared to last period. Taking the Dowlais Iron Company (mentioned in the Introduction) as an example, the company were making profits, but they were unable to do any investment. The reason being was that their assets are illiquid and are composed by high amount in inventories. This might also be an alarming situation as it gives the signal of the company being unable to collect their debts. Other elements has their own story respectively. Let's move a step further in our discussion, comparing elements.Taking the investing activities as an instance, the sale or disposal of assets by itself may be read as a hint of the company wanting to get rid of the old machines in order to buy a new one that is more productive in their expansion plan. However, if it is synchronized with the decrease in investment in subsidiaries, it may give a different story. There is a huge possibility that the company is closing down and try to let go as much assets as possible. Previously, we have compare the positive cash flow from operating with the negative cash flow from investing (in previous point).Now, let's compare elements in the investing activities with the elements in the financing activities. Firstly, the issu ance of shares would obviously bring the positive vibe to investors as it is often read as expansion of the business. Business seems to be growing and thus, there were investors interested and bought the shares which in the statements would report an increase in number of shares. The twist in this comparison would be the decrease in amount payable or repayments to directors/shareholders is around the amount if shares issued.Without reading the complimentary notes, it can be assumed that the company is capitalising their debts, that is paying their debts through issuance of shares. This can be affirmed by reading the complimentary notes. When this happens, it gives an extreme situation of the inability of the company to pay their debts, up to the extend they have to exchange it with the shares (sense of ownership to the company). The Cash Flow Statement should be analysed thoroughly, it gives lots of information. Real Life CaseAll these theoretical can be easily argued and rejected b y certain parties, especially those who does not want to have hassle to prepare another financial statement. This point will give the flavour of the real life situation, when the Cash Flow Statement was not prepared, by using the W. T. Grant Company back in the 1970s. From the surface, it has the similar picture of the Dowlais Iron Company; making profit, good assets amount, but no cash. Having mentioned that, the Dowlais Iron Company took the trouble to make a comparison balance sheet, while the W.T. Grant Company runs as though there was no problem. By purely looking at the Net Income amount, the investors were keen to invest in W. T. Grant Company as it seems promising and the earnings look tempting. Little did the investors know, the company was not generating any cash, instead they are the net user of cash. This problem does not happen within a financial year, it started a decade before the downfall of the company. There were decreasing trends of the company's liquidity, profit ability and even turnover. However, all these problems were left ntouched and thus, the investors were not given any hint that the W. T. Grant Company was facing bankruptcy. The company was said to exhaust its liquid assets before using external markets for funds which later just grew bigger. These can be easily detected with the use of Cash Flow Statement. Apart from the negative cash flow from operating activities, the company and investors could be alarmed by the amount of payables that kept on increasing, and even the shares that were sold above the value of the company, simply because the market thought the company was doing fine.The upward trend of sales still does not manage to generate cash for the company, and this could be detected by the increase in the Receivables, which shows the inability to collect debt. All these problems can be detected years before the liquidation of the company and could be avoided, with the presence of Cash Flow Statement. Conclusion With Cash Fl ow Statement, these elements are laid down in such manner that it is easier for the users of financial statement to understand the story, compare to merely reading the Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position) and the Profit and Loss Statement (Statement of Comprehensive Income).The investors are able to have the idea of financial stability of the company, together with the management of the company and what the company can achieve in the future. With these information, which are not present in any of the other two financial statements, the investors are able to make a wiser decision in making investments. Thus, the Cash Flow Statement is not redundant and is necessary for investment decision making. Reference Cash Flow from Investing Activities (n. d. ). In Investopedia. Retrieved March 23, 2013, from http://www. investopedia. om/terms/c/cashflowfinvestingactivities. asp Cash flow statement (n. d. ). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/ Cash_flow_statement Chinweike, (2010, June 25). Uses and Benefits of Statement of Cash Flow. Retrieved http://www. accountantnextdoor. com/uses-and-benefits-of-statement-of-cash-flow/ FAO Corporate Document Repository (n. d. ). Chapter 3: Cash Flow Accounting. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://www. fao. org/docrep/W4343E/w4343e04. htm Kestenbaum, D. , (2012, October 4). The Accountant who Changed the World.Retrieved March 28 2013, from http://www. npr. org/blogs/money/2012/10/04/162296423/the-accountant-who-changed-the-world King, Lembke, ; Smith,. (2001). Financial Accounting: A Decision Making Approach (Second Edition). In The Cash Flow Statement and Decisions. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.. Retrieved from http://www. wiley. com/college/bcs/0471238236/king/ch13. pdf Largay, J. A. ; Stickney, C. P. , (1980, July/August). Cash Flows, Ratios Analysis, and the W. T. Grant Company Bankruptcy. Financial Analysts Journals. 51-54. Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/discover/10. 2307/44 78363? id=3738672;uid=2129;uid=2134;uid=4579947027;uid=2;uid=70;uid=3;uid=4579947007;uid=60;sid=21102061346117 Peavler, R. , (n. d. ). Cash Flow Ratios- Calculate the Solvency, Liquidity, and Viability of your Firm: Cash Flow Ratios that are Important for Cash Flow  Analysis. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://bizfinance. about. com/od/cashflowanalysis/tp/cash-flows-ratios. htm INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA KULIYYAH OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES ACC 4001 ACCOUNTING THEORY AND POLICY POSITION PAPER THE STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW IS NOT REDUNDANT AND NECESSARY FOR INVESTOR DECISION MAKING

Exaggeration of Despair in Sherman Alexies Reservation...

Exaggeration of Despair in Sherman Alexies Reservation Blues Gloria Bird realizes that for generations Native Americans have had drinking problems, and she also realizes that it is difficult for â€Å"native writers to accurately represent our communities without exploiting them.†(G. Bird) However, Bird criticizes Alexie of embellishing or exaggerating the Native Americans’ despair. Alexie cannot ignore the alcohol situation when describing Native American culture, but Alexie does not need to make alcoholism a common trait amongst almost every ‘Indian’ on the reservation and other reservations. Bird’s statement concerning Alexie’s embellishment of Native American despair due to alcoholism is an accurate interpretation of Reservation†¦show more content†¦Chess asked Thomas if his mother drink when she was alive, and Thomas responded with â€Å"She did. Bu she quit. She was sober when she died.†(p.118) Thomas goes on to say that she quit because of an incident during a New Year’s Eve party. â€Å"Dad got real drunk, kicked everybody out, and then took all the furniture out on the front lawn, and burned it.†(p.118) Alexie does not just mention that Samuel is a drunk; he goes further to say that Samuel was an extremely talented basketball player, but alcohol caused Samuel to throw his basketball future away. Even when Samuel was a young man he was drinking, when the tribal cop, Wilson, asked Samuel and Lester, â€Å"You two been drinking?†(p.102) Lester responds with â€Å"I’ve been drinking since I was five†¦Kindergarten is hard on a man.†(p.102) Lester is another secondary character that is introduced who happens to be a drunk, for that is how he got his name Lester FallsApart. â€Å"Lester FallsApart, the most accomplished drunk on the Spokane Reservation,†(p.151) However, It could be worse for Thomas, because both Victor’s and Junior’s fathers were not just drunks but were also dead. In Reservation Blues, not much information is given about Victor’s parents; there are only references to the death of Victor’s father in Arizona and the simple fact that his mother is dead. The reason his father died in Arizona is that he could not bear any longer to live on the Spokane Reservation after what he did. One night he got drunk and

The Emergence and Africanization of Catholic Christianity...

The Emergence and Africanization of Catholic Christianity in the Kongo When the nation of Kongo â€Å"converted† to Christianity around the turn of the 16th century, the Catholicism that developed over the next century is best understood as primarily a superficial layer added onto Kongolese traditional religion. The kings of Kongo did not try to replace previous beliefs and practices with Christianity, nor did they simply mask their traditional religion, but rather they incorporated Christian doctrines, rituals, and some aspects of Portuguese Christian culture such as literacy and medicine, into the framework of the traditional Kongolese lifestyle. Three ways by which we can evaluate the Catholicism that developed in the kingdom of†¦show more content†¦Afonso’s faith cannot be reprimanded based on his complaining about Portuguese abuses in the slave trade, or rejecting the Portuguese suggestion to amend the traditional system of taxation and distribution of government grants, or asking Rome to allow dispensations for polygamy, th e ordination of natives, and the creation of a separate Diocese. The conclusion we may draw from these acts is not that Afonso was a bad Christian, but that he intended for the introduction of Christianity to strengthen his sovereignty rather than weaken it. In this way, he is like European monarchs, but the Christianity he adopts and promotes in his nations is not European Christianity. It seems more likely that, as Baladier has argued, â€Å"Christianity was adopted fundamentally as a source of ngolo, or power, which placed it in a political context †¦Christianity was conceived as a supplementary method of reinforcement, not as a religion exclusive of the old beliefs.† That Afonso’s Christian faith was inclusive of tradition religion, and that it was subordinate to, and often used to further, his political ambitions, does not necessitate that it was insincere. Nor does the sincerity of Afonso’s faith determine the extent to which