Leadership Styles Essay

MOTIVATION Giving the input on leadership styles and influence process, we should presume the aim is to understand and improve the style of functioning as a leader. To start with, there must have clear idea as to what is meant by leadership. Leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objectives. This process is a function of the leader, the followers and the situation. In any situation trying to influence the behaviour of another individual or group, leadership is operating. Thus one tries leadership at one time or the other, whether activities are centred around a business, educational institution, hospital, political organization, Government organization or a family. As part of this process, one who attempts to influence the behaviour of others becomes a potential leader and the persons he is attempting to influence are the potential followers. This may happen irrespective of the fact that the leader may be their boss or a colleague (associate) or a subordinate or a friend or a relative. In other words through a style of. functioning he influences attitudes and expectations, which in turn encourage or discourage the follower’s activity or achievement, enhance or diminish the follower’s commitment to the work, etc. In our day-to-day life, we come across instances of how people are influenced by the activities or word of a person who is trying to lead them. We always make judgments about the leaders of our own office. In our mind, we make a difference between a good leader and a bad one, by judging his style or way of functioning and his influence on others. Hence, in understanding the phenomenon of leadership, priority must first understand the various styles of the leaders. [4] LEADERSHIP STYLES The word style is the way in which the leader influences followers. Person and environment function in conjunction with the behaviour itself and reciprocally interact to determine behaviour. A person, through his actions, produces the environmental conditions that affect his behaviour in a reciprocal fashion. The experience generated by behaviour also partly determines what a person becomes and can do. This in turn affects his subsequent behaviour. The theory is called social learning theory because, individuals learn in an environment in the process of interacting with each other which is a social process. The application of this theory in understanding the behaviour of a leader and the continuous reciprocal interaction between the   person (leader’s cognitions) and environment (including subordinates and their needs, experiences, objectives in the organization. abilities, skills, energy performance, etc. known as contingencies that regulate their behaviour).The three aspects of this theory of leadership assume that the leader knows how his behaviour is controlled by various needs, situations and experiences that he undergoes. The leader works with the subordinates to discover what those needs situations and experience. The leader and the subordinates jointly attempt to discover ways in which they can manage their individual behaviour to produce mutually satisfying as well as organisationally productive outcomes. In this approach, the leader and the subordinates have a negotiable and interactive relationship. They are continuously aware of how they can modify or influence each other’s behaviour by giving the rewards or holding back the performance respectively. [4,5,6] TYPES OF LEADER AND POWER CONCEPT Formal Leader A formal leader is selected by the organization. For example, a manager is a formal leader by virtue of the authority coming from the organization. He influences others to help accomplish the goals of the organization or unit. Such a leadership lasts over a long period of time Informal Leader An informal leader is chosen by the group. Thus, all managers are leaders if their authority is accepted, but not all leaders are managers. Informal leadership is leadership without position and may shift from one person to another. It may last for a brief time. Most people are leaders at one time or the other and they can have influence on others as defined by the concept of leadership. The ideal leader is the one who can combine the formals and informal leadership simultaneously within himself. SUCCESSFUL VERSUS EFFECTIVE LEADER As we have seen in the preceding discussions, leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objectives; it is the ability to persuade others to get something done. So the leader attempts to have some effect on the behaviour of another, which we call attempted leadership. The response to this attempt may or may not be successful. A basic responsibility of managers in any work organization is to get the work done with and through people. The success of managers is measured by the output or productivity of the group they lead. [8,10] LEADER BEHAVIOUR IN GROUPS The main aim apparently is to understand why individuals form groups. The solution lies in tracking the solution ideas: How old were you when you first joined a group? How many different groups do you belong to? How would you identify a group leader? Does your behaviour change when you are with different groups? Have you ever led a group? In what sense were you the leader? What were the results? If our own the questions should be answered, which leads to the understanding of group. Behaviour and the properties of groups are essential to being both a good manager and an effective member of groups. A manager spends half of his time in some formal or informal meetings, where a group of people get together to solve problems or make plans. So the manager himself acts as a member of a group with other managers or colleagues. Groups have a powerful effect on human behaviour. Any increase in output of those workers was because of the importance and attention given to the group of workers by their colleagues as well as their own interactions with each other about the quality and quantity of output they were supposed to produce. People are motivated to act in a certain way in a given situation and one should change the situation in order to make the people act the way one wants them to. There are also many examples where the manager decides to take a decision on his own or to rely on groups by holding meetings or making committees. In Management, small groups with which he interacts are very important for a manager. It may consist of his peers or colleagues, other managers, specialists or others who really help the manager to take an effective decision. There are instances of well knit and cohesive groups, which really make a superior performance under a good leader. For all these purposes gaining understanding of how to manage a group and how to become a more effective group member. In order to develop the above two objectives, point noted is that a group is part of a larger organization with which it interacts. [1,4] LEADERSHIP AND INFLUENCE PROCESS Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from organization and it allows the leader to use power. Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others. In the functioning of a leader the ability to guide the action of others is achieved through his authority. Carrying out of these decisions is accomplished because of the power of the leader. The relationship between the authority and power of a leader as we go further to understand various types of power GROUP DYNAMICS Group Dynamics is concerned with the interactions and forces among group members in a social situation. In the path on management functions, it is important to understand dynamics of members of formal or informal groups in the organization. Group Dynamics is the interaction of forces among group members in a social situation. Authoritarian, Democratic and Laissez-faire, is having three different social situations for the three styles of leadership. In course of time various meanings were attached to the term ‘group dynamics’ One of the meanings suggest how a group should be organized and conducted. In democratic leadership, member participation and overall cooperation are emphasized. Another meaning of Group Dynamics is that it is set of techniques. In various group exercises it tries to make the leader as well as the member effective. An attempt made to make the above members play their roles in a management situation of group discussions, team building, finding out various solutions to problems by brainstorming and understanding ourselves in relation to others while we transact or interact with others. Such exercises are also provided in situations where only members are present and no leader exists to direct or control the group. All these exercises are techniques to develop both the individual as well as the organization in which he or she works. The meaning of the term Group Dynamic suggest internal nature of the groups as to how they are formed, what their structures and processes are and how they function. [7,8] COMPOSITION OF A GROUP In most organizations getting the work done requires group efforts. Thus, a manager must know how to manage individual by knowing the individual dynamics, such as his values. Personality, perceptions and attitudes. A manager must know how to manage a group by understanding Group Dynamics Each group has a common objective, but the members who belong to it may have other personal objectives. For example, a life insurance agent may like to become a member of a parent-teacher association of a school to help promote the development process of its students. But belonging to that association will also help him to increase his or her contact to ensure more and more people, so he gets more commission for as many members as he can sell the insurance to. What is most important in the content of the definition of a group is to be aware of each other in a group. This awareness is seldom there, when we look at an aggregation of people. They are mere collections, different from what we call a group, where members see themselves as belonging to a group in order to interact and achieve the common objectives of the group. Moreover, such kind of interaction may be over a long or a short period of time. [9,10] TYPES OF POWER Legitimate Power This power comes to the leader when the organisation’s authority is accepted. It comes from the rules of the organization. For example, parents, teachers, managers. police, etc. have legitimate power only when their authority is accepted in the positions they hold. Expert Power This is the power of knowledge and skill of special kind that are important in getting the job done. A person’s professional competence or knowledge gives him the expert power. His credibility increases. He can lead other persons to trust his judgments and decisions, as an expert like a physicist or a lawyer or a chemist or a computer programmer or a purchasing agent or a financial analyst. A leader himself may not be an expert in all fields, but he can certainly take the help of experts in particular fields. Charismatic Power This is the power of attraction or devotion, the desire of one person to admire another. A subordinate feels a positive attraction towards a leader by identifying himself with the leader, or gets influenced by the leader’s attractive power. This power helps the subordinate to understand and value the leader so much that he understands and acts according to the expectations of the boss or the leader. It helps him to act as his own boss, and behave in ways he thinks the boss will want. [15] Reward Power This power is the present or potential ability to reward for worthy behaviour. The superior or the leader has the power to give tangible rewards such as promotion, office space, time off from work, attractive work assignments and help to the subordinate. Also psychological rewards like praise, appreciation, approval and recognition can be given by the leader or the superior to the subordinate. The subordinate has to believe that he has access to higher authorities, therefore he can give rewards. This reward power of the leader can also increase the leader’s charismatic and legitimate power. Coercive Power This is the ability to threaten or punish. The leader can give tangible punishments like dismissal, demotion, low rating. less satisfying work assignments, etc. Psychological punishments include criticism, avoidance, disapproval, satirical remarks on the subordinate. The reward power helps to avoid something undesirable. Self-esteem of the subordinate increases because of reward power and decreases because of punishment or coercive power. Even a subordinate may withdraw or break the rules or become hostile. He may not feel attracted towards the charismatic power of the leader and at times may ignore the leader’s legitimate power. Having seen the reasons for differences between the authority and power of the leader, you should know the type of leaders as understood on the basis of their authority and power. [11,12] COLLECTIVE ACTION Interpersonal competence refers to the degree to which we are accurately aware of our impact on others and of the impact of others on us. It is the ability to engage in an mutually helpful relationships. It enables us to achieve your personal goals as well as task goals in the organizations where you we are a member. What are the effects of our interpersonal competence on our managerial behaviour? Interpersonally incompetent managers create an organizational environment in which members act very defensively to protect their own interests. Since everybody acts defensively in the organization. where roles and relationships are basically interdependent, neither the personal goals of the members, nor the task goals can be fully realized. Problems are not confronted and are kept hidden from each other for fear that exploring the problems will only aggravate the situation. In course of time, issues which were avoided and swept under the rug assume gigantic proportions and overwhelm the members. On the other hand, interpersonally competent managers allow their subordinates to challenge their views and to question the organisation’s norms, policies, rules and objectives. When these kinds of behaviour are tolerated, people are likely to discover problems and commit themselves to their solutions. Organizational effectiveness increases. Besides these three types of roles, that may have to interact with a lot of other people from different positions: consumers, suppliers, people from regulatory agencies, general public. etc. Interactions with different interest-groups demand different types of specific skills and competencies. Possession and understanding of these skills may not guarantee successful human relations, but it can increase your interpersonal sensitivity and help you take appropriate action to improve relationships. [13,14]             References Rao, T.V., â€Å"HRD in the New Economic Environment,† Tata McGraw-Hill Book Company, New Delhi,1994 Drucker, P.F. (1974). â€Å"Management Task Responsibilities and Practices†, Harper & Row, New York. Murtin, CC., 2004., Project Management — How to Make It Work, AmaCom, N.Y. Neale RH, 1984., Managing Projects , Geneva Nicholas, J.M., 1990., Managing Business and Engineering Projects Concepts & Implementation, Prentice Hall. N.J. Kharbanda. & Staliworking, EA, 1996.,Successful Projects With a Moral For Managemetn, Gower, England. Hitt, Michael A, (2001), Strategic Management: Competitiveness and globalization, 4th, Thomson Learning. Srivastava, R.M. (1999). Strategic Planning: Formulation Of Corporate Strategy (Texts and Cases) 1st ed., Macmillan Limited. Hamel,G, Collaborate with your Competitors and Win, Harvard Business review,67,1,1989,133-9. Laxmi Narian, Managerial Competition and Motivation in Public Enterprises, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi,1997 Ulrich, D. â€Å"Human Resource Champions†, Harvard Business School Press,2001 Kaplan, R., â€Å"Balance Score Card†, Harvard Business review,2003 Pareek, V., Designing and Managing Human Resource Systems, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi. Pereira D.F., Recent Experiences in Human Resource Development, Oxford& IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi Goldstein, I.L, Training in Organizations: Needs Assessment Development and Evaluation, Wordsworth,2002   

Eastern Philosophy Essay

Compare and contrast the Hindu doctrine of Atman-Brahman with the Buddhist notion of non-atman. What was the Buddha reacting against? Is Buddhism to be considered a religion or a philosophy? Hindus strongly believe that in an uncreated, eternal, infinite, transcendent, and all-embracing principle, which, â€Å"comprising in itself being and non-being,† is the sole reality, the ultimate cause and foundation, source, and goal of all existence. This sole magnanimous reality is called brahman. As the All, brahman causes the universe and all beings to emanate from its core and morphs itself into the universe, or assumes its guise. Brahman is in every matter in this world and is the â€Å"Self† (atman) of all living beings. Brahman plays crucial roles such as the creator, preserver, or transformer, and â€Å"reabsorber† of all matters. Yet it is Being in per se, without attributes and qualities, hence impersonal, it may also be conceived of as a personal high God, usually as Vishnu or Siva. This fundamental belief in and the essentially religious search for ultimate reality which implies â€Å"The One that is the all† have continued almost unaltered for more than 50 centuries and have been the central focus and core of India’s spiritual life (www. rystalinks. com/hindu). Siddhartha Gautama also called the Buddha, and Vardhamana called Mahavira â€Å"the great teacher of Jainism† . Several heterodox teachers who organized bands of ascetic followers. Every group mandated itself to follow a certain code of conduct. They received generous support from prominent families and merchants. The latter were growing in wealth and influence, and most of them were searching for alternative forms of religious activity that would give them a more significant role than did orthodox Brahmanism or that would be less expensive to support. Which, in a way, was considered an opposition to doctrines and teachings of Brahmanism. It is suffice to say that Buddhism has similarities with Brahmanism yet at odds with one another (www. crystalinks. com/hindu). Buddhism is considered as a religion for Buddhists yet a philosophy for some. It is a set of doctrines and teachings that is usually describe as a religion. Compared to other religions, other Buddhists allege that Buddhism is not a religion per se, which is a contradiction of their faith to their chosen religion. Other sects say that it is a mere philosophy that are bounded by the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the one who founded Buddhism. Buddhism is called Buddha Dharma and Dhamma as well, which is defined as the â€Å"Teachings of the Awakened One† in Pali and Sanskrit which are ancient Buddhist texts. This was the reaction of the Buddha during his spiritual quest: â€Å"experimented with extreme asceticism, which at that time was seen as a powerful spiritual practice†¦ such as fasting, holding the breath, and exposure of the body to pain†¦ e found, however, that these ascetic practices brought no genuine spiritual benefits and in fact, being based on self-hatred, that they were counterproductive. After renouncing the principles of asceticism and concentrating instead upon meditaion and Anapanasati as well Gautama is believed to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way which is path of moderation that lies in between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-m ortification. It leads to the Four Noble Truths and eventually to the Eight Fold Path which will constitute the attainment of Nirvana. Discuss the Buddist teachings on the nature of the Middle Way as a strictly moral doctrine. What constitutes the path of virtue. What are the Four Noble Truths and how does one obtain Nirvana through the cessation of desire? The main principle of Buddhist doctrine is the called the Middle Way which was discovered by the Buddha prior to his bodhi or enlightenment. The Middle Way or Middle Path has a handful of definitions. Usually it is charaterized by the practice of non-extremism and a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and opposing self-mortification. It is considered in taking a middle ground between specific metaphysical perspectives as well. Which things ultimately either exist or do not exist. An explanation of the state of Nirvana and ultimate enlightenment where all dualities amalgamate and cease to exist as separate entities. The essence of the Middle way as a strictly moral doctrine is bounded by the path of virtue which is called as the Eight Fold Path as well. Buddhist doctrine, stated by the Buddha in his first sermon near Benares, India. The path is regarded as the way for individuals to deal with the problems named in the Four Noble Truths The path consists of right understanding (faith in the Buddhist view of existence), right thought (the resolve to practice the faith), right speech (avoidance of falsehoods, slander, and abuse), right action (abstention from taking life, stealing, and improper sexual behavior), right livelihood (rejection of occupations not in keeping with Buddhist principles), right effort (development of good mental states), right mindfulness (awareness of body, feelings, and thought), and right concentration (meditation). It is also called the Middle Path, because it steers a course between sensuality and asceticism. Following the Path leads to escape from suffering and attainment of Nirvana (Britannica. com). The Path of Virtue if imminet will lead to the emergence of the Eight Fold Path after the cessation of the Four Noble Truths, which after it culminates will eventually lead to the attainment of Nirvana The Buddhist doctrine of the Middle way guides this conviction and belief by an apt understanding of The Eight Fold Path as a means of attaining the state of Nirvana. Furthermore, The doctrines are essential and crucial in order for a being to not only understand the very essence of Nirvana but what culminates after the attainment of such state as well. The Buddhist Doctrine implored by the Buddha in his initial teachings are significant towards the road to Nirvana. The four noble truths constitute a means of attaining nirvana which is not plausible for some. Dukkha or the nature of suffering is actually the noble truth of suffering that implies that birth is suffering per se and other physiological notions are suffering as well. An amalgamation from what is displeasing is suffering, thus separation from what it pleasing is suffering and not to achieve what one desires is suffering. A suffering’s origin or Samudaya is the noble realization of the origin of suffering. This yearning leads to a renewed existence that will be accompanied by delight and lust which leads to the craving of sensual pleasure then craving for existence and eventually, the craving for destruction. Cessation of suffering or Nirodha is the noble truth for the abrupt cessation of suffering. It is regardless of the cessation of the similar crasving, te giving up, and finally the relinquishing of it, the freedom and not the non-reliance from it. The fourth noble truth is The Way or Magga which leads to the cessation of suffering. It is the noble truth of the way which leads to he cessation of suffering. The Eightfold Path namely: that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration as well. These are the four great truths of Buddhinsm. Dukkha implies that all existence is afflicted with suffering. Second, Samudaya identifies desire, thirst, or craving as the source of suffering, which intangibly binds beings to samsara or the cycle of existence. Nirodha asserts that cessation of craving will bring suffering to a halt. Finally, The Eightfold Path which culminates the four noble truths implies he omission of suffering and the escape from samsara. These Four Noble Truths are bounded to the idea of Nirvana in which one can attain a state of â€Å"finitude that will lead to absolute reality of positive and negative efforts that may lead to the attainment of Nirvana. Discuss the Buddist doctrine of non-atman (non-substantiality). How does it comprise the three Marks of Existence and what does it mean to say that all form is emptiness. Hint:`There is Nirvana but no-one attains it. In order to achieve Nirvana, one must endure the three marks of existence namely: Dukkha, Anicca, and Anatta. These three are bounded by the Buddhist notion that after meditation they will conclude all the physical and mundane matters. Dukkha, for its part, is striving for what a person desires while enduring suffering and torment yet after an ordeal you might find happiness in achieving what one desires. Eventually, boredom which is a form of suffering will divert a person from such boredom by indulging in a pursuit of new forms of pleasure. Boredom is a result of a ramification of our interest in a matter which a person desires which captivated us at first. Anicca is the inconstant and impermanent per se. Each person can undergo by the use of our senses which is dependent on the right conditions for its existence. Everything is constantly changing and is always in sporadic influx. Matters are constantly coming into being as well as ceasing to be. The crucial point is that a phenomena may arise and cease due to complex states and conditions that do not occur within our whims. Though we have a finite ability to generate a change to our possessions, previous experience tells us that our feeble attempts have no guarantees that the outcome of the efforts will also be according to our â€Å"liking†. Lastly, Annata is the unceasing change of permanent essence which is conceived through the virtue of existence. A human being’s personality is an orthodox appelation applied to the consortium of physical and mental components which each is mandated to a constant influx yet there is not central essence or core which is similar to a â€Å"bundle theory† of mind and soul. Nirvana is the finite state of the Mahayana ideology. It the state in which the attempt to grasp reality is halted in a holistic way, by means of the realization of its impossibility. Evidently, it is and preposterous and absurd to presume that nirvana per se as a state to be achieved. Nirvana is not the state of coming to terms with reality due to the fact that such state cannot generate either a positive or negative aura. In its negative nature, Nirvana is said to be as â€Å"no waves† and â€Å"blowing out†, implying that achieving such state would mean tranquility of one’s existence. Yet these statements offer minimal attributes of nirvana. Nirvana as â€Å"finite† is an anti-thesis to positive attributes and words such as eternal and omnipresent though its positive comprehension is bound by intellect. Buddha, for his part, will never answer question in a postive manner regarding the notions of nirvana. Considering it is not out of sheer prudence but practicality as well. Coming into terms with â€Å"finitude† eventually concludes nirvana that is an absolute reality. By directing awareness away from finitude and towards the intuitive core of the brain, an individual consciously grips reality. The negative part of the effort are not sufficient enough to realize Nirvana. Nirvana is not present and will not be realized by grasping finitude yet the Buddha suggested that it is possible and effortless to achieve Nirvana by the means of directing awareness and channeling its energy internally through positive efforts. There is a deliberate mistake in which the belief of the right motivation culminates the achievement of nirvana, in which samsara or finitude is part of nirvana which s infinitude and coming into terms with samsara will embody achieving nirvana in an apt manner. The notion of renouncing Nirvana is a deliberate and evident contradiction because it obviously contradicts it very purpose. Such misguided attribute is a sheer reflection of the Buddhist meditation practice of sitting without being occupied by preconceived notions. Renouncing nirvana with the apparent purpose of eventually realizing nirvana is a deliberate contradiction.

Universal Soldier

As a college student in the early 1960s Buffy Sainte-Marie became known as a writer of protest songs and love songs. But unknown to most of the mainstream public, she was even then spending as much time around the drum at a small Indian reserve in Canada as she was in front of a microphone on the concert stages of the world. Having written â€Å"Universal Soldier†, one of the anthems of the 60s peace movement, she was nonetheless absent from the big mass protest marches, in favor of shedding her light on Indian rights and environmental issues, which she still does today. Analysis of the song Universal Soldier Five foot two and six foot four were the height parameters for soldiers in 1961. Fighting with missiles and with spears symbolize the future and the past, soldiers are soldiers: only the equipment is different. The ages 17 to 31 were age parameters to be a soldier during the 1960s and soldiers have been around for centuries. Soldiers are also religious people and not confined to just one religion and though religion forbids it, he chooses to be a killer. No matter what side he’s on, it’s still absurd. Soldiers are not just from some far away enemy country but from â€Å"our† country too thinking that fighting will end all fighting. Soldiers are on all sides using violence as an act of peace having a responsibility overlooked for humanity. Soldiers learn nothing from history so do not see obvious outcomes of repeating it. We can't blame just the leaders and each individual has a choice. We are all responsible – civilians, voters and soldiers.

Devolution ( public law ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Devolution ( public law ) - Essay Example 2005), has made clear that the government’s proposal to introduce a drink ban on public transport would help curb alcohol-related disorder alongside a range of other measures. With 23,000 incidents of alcohol-fuelled violence each week with relevant elevated alcohol consumption trends (Leifman, 2001), the agency has proposed that existing laws are enforced to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related violence on the streets and on public transportation. England’s objective of reducing harm caused by alcohol misuse is recognised and focuses on the prevention, minimisation and management of the harms caused by alcohol misuse. These measures addressed in its objectives aims to identify alcohol misuse and the enforcement of existing powers against crime and disorder and promotion of responsible drinking. Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (CDA98) and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) the partnership of both agencies are held responsible in the consideration of crime and disorder issues in their own core activities that improve safety and security in local neighborhoods. Criminal Justice Boards and Youth Offending and the Drug and Alcohol Action Teams shall be a voluntary forum for coordination of local priorities. They are tasked to bring together the key local agencies with an interest in reducing the harms caused by alcohol misuse: the health service, the criminal justice system and the local authority. With support of the Scottish Executive for a complete ban in on alcohol consumption in public places, (The Herald, July 19, 2006) the proposal, has spawned public outburst. Festivities organizers and popular across Wales and Scotland and gaming grounds personnel rallied against the ban with arguments pointed out that such is breach on human rights while legislative proposals control the sale and purchase of alcohol (Scotland Bill on Alcohol). It is apparent that Scottish culture towards drinking in a study (SSA, 2004) has

Food Policy for Public Health Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Food Policy for Public Health Practice - Essay Example The occurrence of overweight and obesity in general and especially in children is rising fast around the world. The increases in childhood obesity in Australia are one of the peaks amongst developed countries. Approximately 25% of Australian children are at present plump or obese which is an enormous jump from 5% in the 1960’s. Significant features causative to occurrence rates of childhood obesity in Australia comprise traditions and socio-economic condition. Childhood obesity in Australia is increasing at an annual rate of 1%, a trend which proposes that half of all young Australians will be overweight by the year 2025 (asso.org.au, 2006). In this essay the problem of child obesity in Australia is looked upon on the basis of Bacchi’s ‘what’s the problem approach’? There is an elevated prevalence of overweight and obesity in children of parents of particular locale. And maternal teaching is the top social determinant of overweight and obesity in childhood. Focusing on children role and their involvement to modern society and potential populations, tackling the determinants of health and wellbeing for children and youngsters will develop population health and wellbeing in general. The main reason of the obesity pandemic is energy disproportion that is a comparative increase in energy ingestion (food intake) in concert with a decline in energy spending (reduced physical activity and increased inactive behaviour). Discovering the significant prognostic determinants of both of these behaviours, in addition to the most efficient and sustainable remedial approaches, is multifaceted and involves parental education and employment; housing atmosphere; play, leisure and physical activity; food and nutrition; and child-friendly physical and social situations. Few straightforward trends recommend moderately agreeable remedies. Childrens fruit and vegetable consumption has reduced considerably over the past 20 years. Their

Applying Systems Theory to an Educational Setting Assignment

Applying Systems Theory to an Educational Setting - Assignment Example My focus of study is the educational system of Carleton University to which I have experienced studying under its Economics program. From her on, I shall use the word 'school' to denote Carleton University for brevity. The school was founded in 1942 and is located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is situated on 62 hectares south of the city centre and is bordered by the Rideau River, the historic Rideau Canal and rather pleasant residential neighborhoods. All the information that I will be using is based from my own knowledge of the school with supplemental information from the school's website. Every university should engage in a planning process that sets not only the direction the institution is going to head but also the pacing that it will take. These plans usually require measurable outcomes for the institution to know what they have achieved and how they have fared so far. The administrative and governing body of the school is categorized into five units whose government and administrative functions are clearly defined. These units, although separate from one another, do communicate and work with another to come up with better policies and regulations regarding the school's functions. These five units and their subcomponents are given in the following: Reporting to the President, the Provost and Vic... b. Office of the President The President, also known as the Vice Chancellor, is actually the chief executive of the school. It is thru his initiative that the directions and immediate priorities are determined. c. Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Reporting to the President, the Provost and Vice-President (Academic), the chief academic officer of the University, is ultimately responsible for all academic programs and policies. The Provost's portfolio includes all academic units, Graduate Studies, the University Library, enrolment management, student affairs, the Office of the University Registrar, learning technologies and teaching support and faculty recruitment and support. d. Office of the Vice-President (Finance and Administration) The Finance and Administration Division of Carleton University are made up of the Computing and Communication Services, Finance, Human Resources, Institutional Research and Planning, Internal Audit and Advisory Services, Pension Fund Management, Physical Plant, University Safety and University Services departments. Its mission is to provide quality specialized services to the Carleton University community that provides a safe, healthy and productive environment for students, staff and faculty in which to work, study and live. e. Office of the Vice-President (Research and International) This office provides the necessary program for research, scholarship, and creative activity in sciences, business, engineering, arts, and public administration. It is also responsible for handling international affairs such as students from abroad and conferences in other countries. Administrative Services All the non-teaching services such as for business transactions, library,

Module 1 Case NRF and NIMS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Module 1 Case NRF and NIMS - Essay Example Therefore, the public information and warning and planning has been given priority since they facilitate protection of life before the initiation the actual incident. The other capabilities meant to save life follow. Critical transportation is prioritized since it facilitates the access of the affected area. A situational analysis is done while the activities meant to save life follow consequently. The tenth core capability indicates that all the activities to save life must be coordinated accordingly. Other capabilities that follow environment protection relate to society restoration and rank last in terms of priority. First, government conducts activities meant to stop potential disasters. The government assesses potential risk, prioritize and take stern measures to prevent the occurrence of the event. Second, the government makes the people aware of the risk identified. The government informs the public on measures they should take to prevent the occurrence of the event. The government carries out activities to make the country secure against threats and natural disasters (Spicer, 2014). First, the government shares any protective information with the public and relays warning messages whenever necessary. Second, it carries out forensic investigations and interdict against any planned security threats. Third, the government conducts search to the suspects of the crime. Any activity carried out by the government meant to reduce the probability of loss. The universal core capabilities include planning, sharing information and coordinating activities. In addition, the government promotes community resilience (FEMA, 2015). It is the capacity of a community to identify risks and respond to it by reducing the impact. Moreover, the government identifies hazards and threats and later carries out a resilience activities. The government carries out the universal capabilities in the responses. Other ways that

The relevance of portfolio theory and the capital asset pricing model Essay

The relevance of portfolio theory and the capital asset pricing model to an investor or fund manager in the equity markets - Essay Example rd from the portfolio theory and further evaluates the risks that an investor will be bearing upon buying a portfolio; under the assumption that this is risk that the investor will have to bear no matter what he does. Fund managers and investors need to then decide whether or not an investment is worth making based on this information. Although the two help bring to light the various aspects of market risk, they are still not a 100 percent reliable which will be further discussed. The portfolio theory revolves around the selection of the best investment strategies in terms of risk; i.e. it focuses on the risk surrounding the equity market and the return or gains from any transactions. In essence an investor or fund manager would need to look at the portfolio theory to make a clear contrast between what is risk and what is simply uncertainty. The fact is that any discussion of an equity market will need some insight on the aspects of the risk associated with any venture or portfolio. This is imperative due to the nature of the equity business which is primarily based on risk itself, and also has a hand in defining the way market values of investments are given foundation (Brentani 2004). It is the idea of risk versus return which is mainly what attracts an investor or fund manager to a portfolio. Theoretically speaking one would want to create such a portfolio which offered an insight into the best risk-return opportunities against the given set of risk constrictions. This would enable the investor to increase the chances of maximizing his returns. An efficient portfolio will not only help him do this but also attain a higher return as opposed to a lower one. Practically speaking, using the portfolio theory is important because the outcome of risk and return is unknown. It is because of risk that there is more than one possibility for an investor or fund manager; this includes returns that are on the mark, higher and even lower than previously expected. Without

Generation X Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Generation X - Essay Example At one point of time like Baby Boomers they have been center of the strategies of marketers and business strategists. According to Morton (2003) population of Generation X is approximately 46 millions and they have $125 billion spending power. The ethnic representation of various ethnic groups in the Generation X is as follows: Generation X had been different in the way it had reared, the kind of education they got and the socio-cultural changes they bought within the US society and are still bringing. At the time when Generation X was growing up, majority of them had experienced the pain of broken families. This lead to several changes in behavioral and cultural aspects of the society with Gen X. Generation X had less emotional dependency on their parents or family members. They had learnt to live in an emotionally independent environment where they had to live in stepfamilies, broken families or in a family where both the parents were working. The parents of their generation had less time and took less effort to provide emotional support and security to the children. Spending most of the time alone, individual of this generation had developed a mind set where they did not have trust on any kind of institution be it family or other social structures. Generation X was the first generation which stayed back home alone, in front of television sets. The programs of those days were full of violence, crime and pop culture. These impacted the mind of this generation which took the violence as a normal thing of life. There had been various stigma attached to Generation X. They had been stereotyped to be slackers etc. Although Generation X often is referred to as a homogenous group, it is actually comprised of many different subgroups of individuals, with differing backgrounds, outlooks, and beliefs. Members of the generation often are derided by a stereotype that casts them as "slackers" (persons who lack drive and

Contemporary Issues in OB Paper-Based on the article Essay

Contemporary Issues in OB Paper-Based on the article - Essay Example Some of these changes that are meant to improve the performance and communication at work end up leading to negative effects. It is important for the managers and consultants to closely examine the changes being made and whether the intended effect is what is actually being provided (Nelson & Quick, 2006). If not, then further research is necessary in order to ensure the employees are not only comfortable in their workplace but they communicate frequently as well as this equates to increased performance in the long run. The article by Bernstein, (2015) is explaining how the transparency in the office space which is meant to encourage accountability, openness as well as facilitate sharing of knowledge and information may not be working. This transparency has led to productivity problems instead, such as reduced overall communication amongst employees as well as affects negatively creative team performance. People are much more distracted than they originally were which means less work is being carried out than before the openness and transparency in the office. The article is further discussing how employees’ performance is suffering as a result of the increase in evaluation of their performance. Evaluation of performance is a good thing but when there is too much evaluation, then it hinders the ability of the employees to concentrate on their work as they are constantly worried about the evaluation. The evaluation tendencies miss the whole point of just giving feedback and become much more intense eventually destroying the very performance they aim to examine and improve. Lastly, there is discussion about how transparency leads to less sharing of ideas and criticisms due to the open that has no restraints at all. When there is a little privacy amongst the employees, it means that whatever work the employees are carrying out will be theirs privately and hence they will work effectively on it without fear of

College Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

College - Math Problem Example Hi! It is simple, though unusual. Vectors differ from many other mathematical notions because a vector is determined by both numerical value and vector's direction. So, vector is not only a number. You can imagine a vector as an arrow of certain length. Exactly! You can compare it with buses that have the same route but go in the opposite direction. If you stand at a bus stop waiting for the bus to go to the nearby town, it does not help you if exactly the same minute the bus leaves the town of your destination and heads the other way. Although it is the same bus, you can not ride it as it goes in the different direction. The straight-line movement of the bus can be characterized by a vector. To determine whether it is better to use elimination or substitution method to solve a system of equations, first of all, it is advisable to examine closely the coefficients in the equations of the original system. If the coefficients before one of the variables in two of the equations are the same, but have the opposite sign (or have the same sign - then one of the equations should be simply multiplied by -1) then it would be more practical to use the elimination method. This method is also handy for solving bigger systems that contain three or more variables.

Leadership Style Essay Example for Free

Leadership Style Essay The main focus of any organization is viability or productivity (Mastrangelo, Eddy and Lorenzet, 2004). This is further heightened by the increasing changes in product market activities (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 2001). The fact that consumers now have a better and affordable access to market information has brought about an increase in their market power and the resultant effect is a more challenging and competitive market especially in the private sector. The public sector on the other hand is under increasing pressure for a more effective utilization of public funds. Consequently, the quest for a competitive advantage and increasingly better performance is becoming a major factor for consideration in virtually all organizations. In this light, the CIPD (2001) emphasized on the role of leadership as a major factor essential for an enhanced organizational performance. Taormina (2008) supported this in stating that in leadership is vested the ability to decide how organizations will be run and it plays a major role in influencing the organization to success. The CIPD (2001) further added that leadership (or people management) is the main element harnessing other success factors in an organization for effectiveness. A number of authors have also supported the foregoing discussions on the leader-success relationship (e. g Harris and Kuhnert 2008; Mastrangelo, Eddy and Lorenzet, 2004). Furthermore, research works have identified certain pointers to high performance leadership. A major one among these is leadership behavior or leadership style (Mastrangelo, Eddy and Lorenzet, 2004; Taormina, 2008). Leadership Style and Organizational Success: Drawing a Correlation Leadership style is one of the major traits that may be used to draw a line of difference between high performance and low performance organizations (Adeyemi-Bello, 2001). Since the management in an organization has a great impact on how it will be run, the style of leadership within the management cycle has a way of dictating the direction that such an organization will go. Taormina (2008) buttressed this point in his work. He established the fact that leadership behavior go along way in determining the culture or the prevailing atmosphere in an organization and this will in turn affect employees’ attitude towards performance and ultimate success of such an organization. A number of dichotomies on leadership behavior have been presented. However, leadership style can be broadly categorized into two – ‘People-Centered’ leadership and ‘Task-Centered’ leadership (Adeyemi-Bello, 2001 pg 150; Taormina, 2008 pg. 87). ‘People-Centered’ leadership Versus ‘Task-Centered’ leadership Various progressive attempts have been made at investigating leadership from the behavioral angle. However, a remarkable point was reached in the 1950s with the introduction of ‘Ohio State model’ which talked about ‘task-oriented’ and ‘people-oriented’ leadership (Taormina, 2008 pg. 87). These two categories seem to have been a perfect one that describes leadership behaviors because it is still being referred as at present. According to Adeyemi-Bello (2001), task-oriented style emphasizes on production and organizational goals. This leadership style is concerned about how the organizational goals may be implemented. People-oriented leaders on the other hand show great concern for the followers (Adeyemi-Bello, 2001). They create a warm environment within the organization and foster a strong positive relationship among members of the organization. While this style offers a system that respects the personality, feelings and opinions of the employees and gives them a feeling of empowerment (Taormina, 2008), task oriented approach is thirsty for achievements sometimes at all cost (Adeyemi-Bello, 2001). Subsequent studies after the initial presentation of these leadership models have made attempts at differentiating between them. The intention was to determine which one should be preferred above the other. However, Adeyemi-Bello (2001) explained that current researches have shown that preferences for any of the two styles depend on the current situation within the organization. There are cases where one style will fail to impact a good result, not because it is less effective but because the situation at hand does not create an environment conducive for its functionality (Mastrangelo, Eddy and Lorenzet, 2004). Furthermore, Jacques, Garger and Thomas (2008) remarked that the recent behavioral theory of leadership took the studies a step further by suggesting that the two behavioral approaches will be more effective when adequately blended under any given situation. Their paper revealed that graduates of project management performs better in leadership than those from another management related courses because of their ability to blend the two leadership styles; a training that the other group did not receive. Adeyemi-Bello (2001) had earlier presented this fact in her work. The result of her survey on 29 Baptist church leaders shows a better result when the two styles were combined in church leadership than when each one was singly adopted. She concluded for the extension of these results into leadership in other realms of human activities. The implications of these results are quite obvious. A paradigm shift in the content and delivery of leadership training programs has become very necessary. The current training inculcating strategic planning and tasks-focused practices should pave way for a more balanced approach in management training. People managers should also learn to engage in a better interpersonal relationship with those under them, create a warmer environment conducive for a healthy work relationship, and engage in strategies that will give employees a feeling of empowerment (Adeyemi-Bello, 2001; Monstarangelo, Eddy and Lorenzet, 2004; Taormina, 2008). The case of Kleine Plastics in the UK presented by Ludlow (1987) serves as a good example in driving home the points that has been raised so far (in Tyson and Kakabadse eds. ). The work contrasted between the leadership attributes of Joseph Kleine, the founder of Kleine Plastics and that of David, his son at a particular time during the early stages of the company’s development. It reviews Joseph Kleine’s attitude as ‘a charismatic leader with whom his managers and work force wish to identify’ (pg. 23). He engages a style that trusted and respected his employees and empathizes with their situations. To him, these people were his main assets. This, coupled with his result oriented tendencies, propelled the work force towards a high performance level. However, David Kleine could not maintain this approach when he had to stand in during his father’s absence. He wanted result at all cost without due regards for his team members. Objections to his propositions by his managers were downplayed no matter how genuine they may be. Though work was still progressing, enthusiasm and productivity level dwindled. The return of Joseph was welcomed with protests from every quarter. David style was found to be less effective because of its lack of ‘human face’. Conclusion Leadership style is an issue that will still continue to be a subject of interest among research workers. The world is ever changing and people are becoming increasingly dynamic in attitude and thinking. This calls for a leadership approach that will keep up with the pace of the changes. A dynamic leader is one that is better equipped to respond to changes and easily enlist the cooperation of people in managing them effectively towards a greater level of production performance.

Technology and tourism

Technology and tourism Introduction Facebook is not a book with your face on it, Tweeting is not the sound of a bird in the early hours of the day, blogging is not something which is related to loggers in a forest; but who would have said that these terms would have actually revolutionised the world that we live in? Social media has had an imperative influence upon the social structure of most individuals. Even though many might utilise such web based tools for personal amusement, the vast marketing opportunities offered by these systems has been increasingly recognised in various industries, amongst which one finds the tourism industry. Technology and Tourism Growth within the travel and tourism industry is driven by a multitude of factors. These factors are determinants towards the practice of tourism and are categorised as four distinct but yet interrelated environments. These environments are the competitive environment, socio-cultural environment, political environment and technological environment. One can say that the tourism and travel industry has been one of the most successful in utilizing the Internet to market its products. Reaching out to possible consumers through the use of the internet has significantly changed the purchase of tourism services and products and changes in technology have created new opportunities for leisure and tourism organizations. Nowadays it is not simply about having an updated website with information on it, but we have moved on to another level whereby tourism destinations, organisations and companies utilise social networks and e-tourism to promote, advertise, showcase and most of all keep consumers abreast of any updated information in seconds. Whilst offering the possibility to provide new products and re-enforce markets, the use of technology has also led to substantial cost reductions when marketing a product or service. As a result of improved technological systems, one is to consider the benefits various components in the tourism supply chain have achieved: Central reservation systems in hotels; accounting programs and yield management services allowing accommodation providers to compare actual demand with predicted demand; Online transportation booking systems are some examples of these advancements made possible through the creation of online software and programmes. But a current issue which will be addressed in this assignment is the use of social media and networking within the tourism industry. Over the past four years the University of Wollongong in Australia has conducted a series of research studies on the subject of travellers and the internet. Featured on their Facebook webpage, an interview with associate Professor Ulrike Gretzel, from The Institute for Innovation in Business and Social Research (IIBSoR) at the Faculty of Commerce, discusses how social media has influenced travel decisions and the marketing perspectives of destinations. â€Å"Our studies find that a majority of travellers think that social media contents are more up-to-date, more fun to read, more interesting, more relevant, more comprehensive, more specific and more helpful in making decisions than information provided by tourism marketers† Featured as one of the sections in the ITB World Travel Trends Report 2010/2011, Social Media is signalled as one of the current travel and tourism trends. Earlier in 2009, Ms. Isabel Bommer, amongst other key note speakers at ITB Berlin had addressed the topic of ‘Market and technology trends in digital travel sales and explained how: â€Å"in the main travel markets, the Internet is a targeted way of becoming the most important channel for holiday sales, information and recommendations† And further describes that nowadays, two out of five reservations are completed online and more than half of all European travellers (55 %) uses the Internet for information about their travel destination, travel providers and special offers†. The development of Web 2.0 has facilitated communication, sharing of information and enhanced collaboration over the World Wide Web. This phenomenon engages participation from viewers and internet users on a free cost basis and thus there are no restrictions as to who can use these channels, when and how. In the article titled ‘The Challenge of Social Networking for Associations by Peter Jackson and Michael Collins, what is referred to as the ‘Digital/Online evolution is described as having taken place in defined stages over the last decade. First ‘the need for a website and ‘email communication was embraced, second was to ‘offer online services such as e-commerce and booking online, third the surfacing of Web 2.0, and now the Social Networking phenomenon. This change has allowed business and objectives to be measurable. This in turn has aided towards analysing, learning and executing demand strategies within the work field. During this years ITB fair ,Rohit Talwar, CEO for Fast Future Research, described in his presentation titled ‘The Future of the Travel Industry-Scenarios for 2020 that there will be an evolution towards â€Å"deliver(ing) personalised service choices through immersive, tactile and Multi-dimensional technology interfaces†. Thus technology will continue to play an important role within the tourism field and a new platform for destination or tourism marketing and branding is being built through the development of social media and enhanced social networking. Defining Social Networking and identifying the technological mediums through which Tourism providers and their products are showcased â€Å"Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighbourhood subdivision, if you will† I consider this particular definition as being relevant to the tourism industry due to its reference to the word ‘communities. Tourism is, in itself, a practice which involves individuals. Whether you are a tourism provider or consumer, the human resource is at the basis of this industry and community relationships are created and nurtured through its practice. Through social networking, one is given the opportunity to participate in gaining information, whilst being entertained. If we are to consider the various programs or channels through which social networking takes place, the following medium have gained recognised importance for potential tourists as well as tourism providers around the globe. Review Sites are an example of a user garneted content (UGC), more commonly referred to as a Consumer Generated Content. Consumers are given the opportunity to share their brand experiences and in so doing assist others into making more informed decisions and recommendations. An example related to the tourism industry is TripAdvisor, an online review site which features advice on hotels, flights, travel guides amongst other things. Individuals submitting reviews can upload their images of their vacation, write personal opinions about a hotel, restaurant or establishment visited, whilst portraying their views. Even though one can argue that there is no ‘filtering of reviews submitted, and that certain reviews might be more to the detriment of the provider rather than to their gain. For over ten years, TripAdvisor has earned the reputation of being an invaluable resource for travellers; enabling online users to rate and review travel related experiences and assist prospective tra vellers to make informed decisions. High rankings also result in an achievement for the particular provider and certificates such as the ‘Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence which was given to the Grand Hotel Excelsior in 2010 make viewers acknowledge that the hotel is trustworthy when it comes to customer expectations. Another hotel which has been awarded the prestigious 4.5 stars out of five for excellence by this same review site is the Hilton Malta. These achievements are newsworthy as hotels, such as both the Hilton Malta and the Grand Hotel Excelsior help raise Maltas international reputation as a tourist destination in the world wide scenario. Blogs are a vehicle for marketing and advertising an event or ‘happening. Through the exposure of information, customers are allowed to interact by providing their comments and suggestions. In the tourism industry, blogs can be utilised to inform viewers about successful accomplishments. A case we could use for this particular example is the blog of the Excelsior Grand Hotel utilised to inform viewers about their award from Trip Advisor, whilst thanking their customers for their loyalty and belief in them. Informing customers and potential customers about new events, promotional activities, special offers ,amongst other things, can lead to repeat business and also new business alike .The possibility of uploading images and videos, as in the case of review sites allows the destination or tourism product to become more visual and thus appealing. In an article titled ‘The Social Revolution, journalist Sarah Lee explores how the growth in the social networking arena is leading to an online marketing revolution diversifying the channels and methods through which marketing takes place. Lee lists social networking sites such as ‘Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Plaxo, YouTube, Twitter, WAYN, and Flickr.as being the most popular types of Web 2.0 websites falling under the ‘Social Networking framework. She also shares the views of various hoteliers and industry advisors on this topic and quotes one of the directors of Turner PR, Ms. Angela Berardino as stating that â€Å"In travel, social networking evens the playing field so small hotels can compete with bigger brands. Small hotels can perform better on social networks as they tend to have more personality and are unrestricted by the confines of the corporate marketing strategies of larger brands.† The article goes on to explain how hotels should view their reviews and what is being said about them over these sites. It is now no longer possible to base customer ratings upon hotel room questionnaires since most visitors resort to social networking sites to post their photos, share experiences (whether good or bad) and showcase what their holiday was all about. So hotels, as mentioned in the article, can improve their operations and develop a better knowledge and understanding of their services and products through these reviews. Understanding the importance of Social Media in the tourism field So far, we have identified and listed the various channels through which social media takes place. As associations, organisations, and destinations recognise the importance of keeping abreast with this new opportunity within the marketing field of tourism, it is important to outline the constraints of such medium alike. Social media is ultimately about a service; a service which incorporates information, contact and transactions, entertainment and the creation of relationships. This idea was outlined during a workshop held in February 2010 by the MICE segment within the Malta Tourism Authority. Ms. Karin Elgin-Nijhuis, from TEAM Tourism Consulting, headed a two day workshop programme which was aimed at informing the hoteliers about the subject of Social Media. The over ruling challenge described by Elgin-Nijhuis is that peoples travel decisions are not only structured by a destinations brand image, but also by the recommendations which are spread through word of mouth or ‘mouse. Opportunities will arise as more potential travellers will learn about ones product. So whilst we are seeing a shift in the ‘traditional sales and marketing methods, online e-tourism is offering travellers a primary source of information. Demand patterns are changing as knowledge of destinations and tourism and travel options are increasing and being showcased. Thus destinations and tourism providers have to adapt and develop new skills towards using technology to their benefit. To conclude, it is important that we acknowledge that marketing tourism or a destination brand is not solely about positioning, but rather a practice that requires specialisation, efficiency and effectiveness in order to improve the possibilities within the tourism field which are now limit-less.

The Factors Influencing Strategy Implementation Management Essay

The Factors Influencing Strategy Implementation Management Essay The aim of this module is to produce a 4000 word research proposal that would be capable for supporting the preparation of a Masters dissertation. The project report would include an introduction including a title, which would highlight the content of this business document providing a background, informing the reader of the problem / issue at hand and the context of the situation that would be discussed. The research issue would be provided highlighting the importance of the issue in todays ever-changing and competitive, cut-throat business environment. Adequate linkages would be provided to co-relate the research aims, research objectives, research questions and the hypothesis as such generated. A coherent and critical literature review would follow demonstrating the knowledge of the literature available and linking it to the situation which would be investigated. A research design and methodology would be adopted to investigate the concerned issue providing a rationale as to how the research objectives are to be accomplished explaining the selection of the research paradigm. The research design would include the methods of data capture, the data access issues, the analysis and the interpretation means that would be used to assess the situation and appropriate reasons would be provided for the choice of research tools used. Relevant ethical issues underpinning the research objectives would also be discussed along-with the resources required to complete the research proposal. The last part of this management report would include a timetable that would provide the time that it took to complete each part of the research proposal along-with a list of references utilized to complete the report. INTRODUCTION TITLE: FACTORS INFLUENCING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION BACKGROUND The title of this research proposal is factors influencing strategy implementation. Before we discuss the issue and highlight the importance of the issue in the context of the report it is of prime importance to understand the concept of strategy implementation itself. It is the process by which the business strategy formulated is put into action. It includes the design and management of organizational systems to achieve the best integration of people and structure, allocating resources, managing human resources and developing information and decision processes to achieve organizational objectives. Pierce and Robinson  note that to effectively direct and control the use of the firms resources, mechanisms such as organizational structure, information systems, leadership styles, assignment of key managers, budgeting, rewards, and control systems are essential strategy implementation ingredients. After the creative and analytical aspects of the corporate strategy have been formulated the priority of the management is to convert the strategy into operationally effective action. A strategy is never complete, until it gains a commitment of the firms resources and becomes embodied in its organizational structure. Strategy implementation is an iterative process of implementing strategies, policies, programs and action plans that allows a firm to utilize its resources to take advantage of opportunities in the competitive environment (Harrington, 2006). There is no one definition of strategy implementation as seen from the above citations but for the purpose of this report, taking into consideration the definitions above we can define strategy implementation as an iterative, dynamic and a complex process, which comprises of series of decisions and activities by the management and the administration those affected by many interrelated internal and external factors, to turn strategic plans into reality in order to achieve the objectives of the firm. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY This part of the report would highlight the aim and the objectives of the research, discussing the issue chosen and its importance by proposing a research question and providing an answer to it in the literature review. Many studies have acknowledged that business strategies often fail not because of inadequate strategy formulation, but because of an inappropriate implementation strategy. This report would study the factors that enable or impede effective strategy implementation. This report would highlight how strategy implementation has been researched so far and how this field may be moved forward so as to help in effective execution of a business strategy. As a result of the literature review undertaken, the report has found nine critical factors for strategy implementation that will be discussed further in the literature. Formulation of an effective strategy, making the strategy work and implementing it throughout the company is a difficult task (Hrebiniak, 2006). Many factors potentially affect the process by which strategic plans are turned into organizational action. Unlike strategy formulation, strategy implementation is more of a craft, rather than a science. After successful formulation of the business strategy, difficulties usually arise during the subsequent implementation process. If the business strategy formulated is not applied correctly to all the aspects of the organisational structure the business model would fail, thus harming the organisation in many aspects, the major being the financial capability of the firm, which would take a huge blow. It is of prime importance to get the implementation right otherwise there would be huge losses for the firm. Noble (1999b) notes, the best-formulated strategies may fail to produce superior performance for the firm if they are not successfully implemented. This issue is of utmost importance in todays day and age because of the cut-throat competition in the ever-changing business world where each firm needs to keep re-modelling their policies and procedures to keep up with the change in the external and internal business environment. There are combination of issues that influence the success of strategy implementation, ranging from the people who communicate or implement the strategy to the systems or mechanisms in place for co-ordination and control. How can we better understand these issues and their importance for successful strategy implementation? In this report we try to respond to this question by the critical analysis of the existing research on the factors that influence strategy implementation. An analysis has been conducted of the most widely used literature databases to identify key factors influencing the process of strategy implementation, to surface current areas of agreement and disagreement on the topic. LITERATURE REVIEW In the following section, the report would review the study sources and assess their research context, theoretical bases, their main results and the research methods used as well as the analytical techniques which are employed for the study. The examined organizational levels and organizational types are the two elements of the research context. The core of the literature review, would concentrate on the nine factors identified through rigorous analysis of the study sources, that play a role in influencing strategy implementation success, as well as the frameworks or models that aggregate or relate the relevant factors to each other. This is followed by the discussion of the theoretical bases of the reviewed studies. Finally, the research methods and analytical techniques adopted will be reviewed to see which methods are still underutilized in the context of strategy implementation. By carrying out a literature review of the existing studies, the report found two types of strategy implementation studies: one that highlight the importance of the individual factors for strategy implementation and the second that emphasize the big pictureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ of how the single factors interrelate and form a strategic implementation environment. The research would highlight nine recurring, individual factors that influence strategy implementation. They are namely the strategy formulation process, the strategy executors (managers, employees), the organizational structure, the communication activities, the level of commitment for the strategy, the consensus regarding the strategy, the relationships among different units/departments and different strategy levels, the employed implementation tactics, and the administrative system in place. THE NINE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STARTEGY IMPLEMENTATION 1. Strategy Formulation If the corporate strategy drafted by the business is a poor or a vague strategy, then it can limit the implementation efforts dramatically. Good execution cannot overcome the shortcomings of a bad strategy or a poor strategic planning effort (Hrebiniak, 2006). Several studies mention the fact that the kind of strategy that is developed (Alexander, 1985; Allio, 2005) and the actual process of strategy formulation, namely, how a strategy is developed (KimMauborgne, 1993; Singh, 1998) will influence the effect of implementation. Alexander (1985) believes that the need to start with a formulated strategy that involves a good idea or concept is the most crucial and critical factor which helps promoting its successful implementation. As Allio notes, good implementation naturally starts with good strategic input: the soup is only as good as the ingredients (Allio, 2005). 2. Relationships among different departments and different strategy levels Many studies in the concerned field have stressed that the institutional relationships among different units/departments and different strategy levels play a major role in the outcome of strategy implementation (Walker Ruekert, 1987; Gupta, 1987; Slater Olson, 2001; Chimhanzi, 2004; Chimhanzi Morgan, 2005). Walker Ruekert note that marketing policies, inter-functional structures and processes, corporate-business unit relationships and processes are a major influence on business strategy implementation. In addition, allocation of resources, functional competencies, inter-functional conflict, decision-making participation and influence, and coordination also have different effects on the implementation of various kinds of business strategies. Implementation effectiveness is negatively affected by conflict and positively affected by interpersonal communication and not written. Such interdepartmental dynamics are affected by senior management support informal integration and joint re ward systems. Other relationships that have received attention to a lesser extent include finance, manufacturing, engineering, quality, marketing, accounting, and sales. 3. Executors Executors comprise the top management, middle management, lower management and non-management. Effectiveness of strategy implementation is, at least in part, affected by the quality of people involved in the process (Govindarajan, 1989). The quality refers to the capabilities, experience, skills, attitudes, and other characteristics of people required by a specific position (Peng Litteljohn, 2001). Findings indicate that strategy implementation effectiveness, critically depends on the human or people side of project management, and less on organization and systems related factors. Top management refers to the senior-level leaders including presidents, owners, and other high ranking executives (CEO, CFO, COO etc.) and senior-level managers. Hrebiniak and Snow (1982) report that the level of interaction and participation among the top management team typically leads to greater commitment to the firms goals and strategies. This, in turn ensures the successful implementation of the strategy. Gupta and Govindarajan (1984) note that greater the marketing and sales experience of middle managers, the greater would be their willingness to take risk and successfully implement the strategy. Heracleous (2000) also finds that if middle management do not agree with the strategy, or do not feel that they have the skill set to implement it, then they would sabotage its implementation. Middle managers expect the direction from the top management but frequently feel that they are in a better position to start and evaluate alternative courses of action. Also, the lack of shared knowledge with lower-level management and non-management employees would create a barrier to successful strategy implementation. 4. Communication Many researchers have emphasized the importance of adequate communication channels for the process of strategy implementation. Alexander (1985) notes that communication is mentioned more frequently than any other single item that promotes successful strategy implementation. Communication includes explaining what new responsibilities, tasks, and duties need to be performed by the employees in order to implement the strategy. It answers the why behind the changed job activities, and explains the reasons why the new strategic decision was made. Rapert and Wren (1998) find that organizations where employees have easy access to management through open and supportive communication channels outperform those with more restrictive communication environments. Effective communication is a fundamental requirement for any effective strategy implementation. Organizational communication plays an important role in training, knowledge acquisition and applied learning during the process of implementation. In fact, communication is vital in every aspect of strategy implementation, as it relates in to the organizational context, organizing processes and the implementation objectives. 5. Implementation Tactics Nutt (1986) stipulates four types of implementation tactics used by managers in making planned changes: intervention, participation, persuasion, and edict. Intervention refers to strategy adjustments made during the implementation stage by introducing new practices and norms. Participation includes formulating strategic goals and nominating a task force that can develop and propose the corresponding implementation options. Persuasion is the tactic which uses involved parties to convince the employees about the desired course of actions. The issuing of directives is the main focus of the implementation tactic edict. Lehner (2004) considers the implementation tactics as genuine organizational behaviour based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on the environment, and various strategic and corporate variables. 6. Consensus Nielsen (1983) notes that firms must achieve consensus both within and outside their organization in order to successfully implement business strategies. The consensus about a firms strategy may differ across the operation channels within the company. If the employees of the company are not on the same information level or if information passes through many layers in the organization, a lower level of consensus would result. This lack of shared understanding may create obstacles to successful strategy implementation.(Noble, 1999b). Floyd and Wooldridge (1992a) label the gulf between strategies conceived by top management and awareness at lower levels as implementation gap. Strategic consensus is the agreement between the top, middle, and lower-level managers on the fundamental policies of the organization. Strategic decisions are initiated by a team of top managers and then mandated to the rest of the organization, overlooking the importance of securing consensus with and commitment to the organizational strategy with the lower level employees, which is a big barrier for effective strategy implementation. 7. Commitment Strategy implementation process may fail if the strategy does not achieve support and commitment by the majority of employees and the middle management. Shared understanding without commitment would result in counter effort and may negatively affect the organisational performance. The understanding between middle management and those at the operational level to that of the top management teams strategic goals is of prime importance to successful implementation. Noble Mokwa (1999) have put forward three dimensions of commitment that are central factors which directly influence strategic outcomes: organizational commitment, strategy commitment and role commitment. Organizational commitment is the extent to which a manager identifies with and works toward organization-related goals and values. Strategy commitment is the extent to which a manager comprehends and supports the goals and objectives of an implementation strategy. Role commitment is the extent to which a manager is determine d to perform his individual implementation responsibilities, regardless of his personal beliefs about the overall strategy. 8. Organisational Structure The type of strategy adopted could differ in many ways and have different requirements regarding an adequate organizational structure. Factors relating to the organizational structure are the second most important implementation barrier according to Heide Grà ¸nhaug Johannessens (2002) study. Drazin and Howard (1984) stipulate that a proper alignment of the strategy with the organisational structure is an important pre-requisite for successful implementation of a corporate business strategy (Noble, 1999b). They note that changes in the competitive environment require adjustments to the organizational structure. If an organisations realignment strategies are lacking, it may exhibit poor performance and be at a major competitive disadvantage. 9. Administrative Systems Roth, Schweiger Morrison (1991) study suggests that organisational business units make use of three administrative mechanisms which are formalization, integrating mechanisms, and centralization, to create operational capabilities of configuration, managerial philosophy and coordination, to support business strategy implementation. Some researchers have also focused on the control systems which are one of important ingredients of administrative systems (Drazin Howard, 1984; Nilsson Rapp, 1999). Drazin and Howard (1984) discuss about the role of formal control system in the process of strategy implementation, and suggest that the fluidity of control system contribute to strategy implementation (Noble, 1999b). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY This part of the project report would focus on the research design and methodology adopted to carry out the research of the issue chosen which is the factors influencing strategy implementation. The following literature would highlight the components of the research paradigm chosen to accomplish the study. This section of the project report would provide a detailed rationale on how the study would achieve the research objective put forth in the title. This part would explain the methods of data capture used and the issues which would arise in gathering the required information along with the analysis and the interpretation techniques employed to achieve the research aim. Limitations would be included in the following report to make the reader aware of the shortcomings of the chosen methodology; the relevant ethical issues would also be discussed in the proposed research design along-with the resources required to complete the proposed research. The choice for the research methodology adopted is in congruence with the strategic issue chosen for the research proposal. The selection criteria to choose articles for inclusion in the research analysis: The articles which contain the keywords strategy implementation or strategy execution have been included in the literature .From this; further articles were identified using the references sections of the previously retrieved articles. In this way, the report also includes the articles which treat strategy implementation as one of the major subjects even if their title or keywords did not include the terms strategy implementation or strategy execution. As a final selection criterion it was checked whether the articles explicitly discuss factors impeding or enabling strategy implementation success. Data Collection Secondary Sources In order to identify the factors that enable or impede effective strategy implementation, the report has analysed relevant academic, peer reviewed journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Journal of Management, Academy of Management Executive, Human Relations, Sloan Management Review, Journal of Marketing, etc. using the literature databases of EBSCO Host, ProQuest ABI, Science Direct, JSTOR and Wiley Interscience. Information has also been sourced from Google Scholar and books, newspapers, trade journals, industry portals, government agencies, trade associations, monitoring industry news and developments. The research data would be collected in different organisations or units of an organisation. The organisations were mainly professional service organisations, from both public and private sector. For example, finance, insurance and telecommunications companies, and government departments would be included. The size of the units under study would be 100 to 500 employees. The study would be qualitative in nature, main research method being semi-structured interviews. Primary Sources and Sampling In each organisation or unit, representatives would form three groups, namely the top management, middle management, and lower level personnel, would be interviewed using the questionnaire provided below. Altogether twenty-five interviewees per organisation would be randomly chosen: 2-5 persons representing the top management level, 4-13 persons the middle management level, and 8-17 persons from the lower level personnel. The interviewees would be chosen randomly, ensuring however that different tasks, work groups, and departments were represented equitably. The general topic of the interviews would be strategy implementation. During the interviews, the interviewees would fill out questionnaires, in which they would evaluate the various problem statements. The questionnaire has been given below: Q1. How do you define the concept of strategy implementation? Q2. What kind of issues would you associate strategy implementation with? Q3. How do you participate in the strategy implementation process? Q4. How are the policies pertaining to strategy implementation communicated within the different levels of the organization? Q5. Describe your own role in the process of strategy implementation. Q6. Evaluate the degree of the strategy implementation problems in your organisation. Data Access Issues Some data access issues might arise in the research journey, which could be the unwillingness of the employees to participate in the planned interviews hampering the information gathering capabilities of the subsequent research report along-with lack of co-operation from concerned companies which might not give permission to carry out interviews with its employees fearing a possible leak of its corporate strategy to its competitors. Also finances required for the successful completion of the information gathering process might not be adequate. Data Analysis The results of the questionnaires would be assessed, as well as the comments of the interviewees for the statements would be analysed. The main data analysis method employed would be content analysis of the interviews. The transcribed interviews would be coded accordingly to the central issues of the research. The analysis method would include historical trend analysis and linear regression analysis using software tools, judgmental forecasting, and conjoint analysis. Limitations of the Research Design The approach in conducting the literature review has shortcomings which should be acknowledged. The following are the limitations in the methodology adopted. Collection of articles has been carried out by relying on the databases of EBSCO Host, Science Direct, JSTOR, Wiley Inter Science and ProQuest ABI and the report thus may have overlooked some critical viewpoints on strategy implementation included in monographs or specialists books. Some selective articles in the review, however, rely heavily on concepts from advanced books on corporate strategy thus making up for the shortcoming to a certain extent. The articles have been located using the keywords strategy implementation and strategy execution. This procedure of gathering articles may omit some important articles. The report also excludes some very specific strategy implementation contexts, such as post-merger integration implementation. The research has discovered that most of the conducted studies in the subject focus on the influence of middle managers on strategy implementation. There is no special research relating to lower management and non-management, even if several authors have stated that it is important to consider their effects on strategy implementation as well. Another major research challenge incudes, a lack of understanding between the relationships among the nine reviewed factors, for example, there are major disagreements about the relationship between the variables of communication, commitment and consensus which the report fails to highlight. Also a limiting factor is that there are very few studies that systematically examine how different organizational units and strategy levels can influence strategy implementation, which the report has not included. Strategy implementation involves many theories including agency theory, social learning theory, expectancy theory, organization theory and social system theory. Because of the limited word count it was not feasible to include such theories in the text presented which is also a shortcoming. The lists of journal articles selected are not comprehensive enough, as many other issues could potentially affect strategy implementation. Such other factors, however, are less mentioned or not analysed in-depth, as many of them are also hard to control and modify. Research Ethics For research to be carried out successfully there are many ethical issues that need to be taken into consideration. It is very important to secure the permission and interests of all the people involved in the study. The people involved would be given assurance that any information obtained during the interview process would not be misused as this is the moral responsibility which would be maintained towards the participants. It is the duty of this research to protect the rights of the participants of the study as well as their privacy and sensitivity. The confidentiality of those involved in the observation would be maintained at all times, keeping their anonymity and privacy secure. Resources required for effective research The resources required to carry out the proposed research would require the support and co-operation of the supervisor in charge so as to provide guidance for submitting an effective research analysis report. Also would require permission from the industries chosen for the study of the research issue and the co-operation of its employees for conducting interviews. Adequate financial support would also be required to assist in the completion of the proposed research analysis report to cover the cost of commuting and resultant transportation fares. TIMETABLE TASK SELECTION OF INDUSTRIES FOR RESEARCH FOCUS DAYS 1-5 6-10 10-15 16-20 21-25 25-30 LITERATURE REVIEW/ CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY SOURCES OF DATA INTERVIEWING PROCESS INDEPTH STUDY OF VARIOUS SOURCES ASSESSING RESOURCE FOR CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK COLLECTION OF SECONDARY SOURCES OF DATA DEVELOPMENT OF RATIONALE FOR STUDY FINALLY FORMULATED RESEAERCH PROPOSAL REFRENCES Saunders, M., P. Lewis and A. Thornhill (2007) Research methods for business students, Harlow: FT, Prentice Hall (4th ed.) Blumberg, B., D.R.Cooper and Pamela S. Schindler (2008), Business Research Methods, London: McGraw Hill (second ed.) Wilson, J. 2010, Essentials of Business Research A Guide To Doing Your Research Project London: Sage Allio, M.K. (2005). A Short, Practical Guide to Implementing Strategy. Journal of Business Strategy, 26, 12-21. Beer, M., and Eisenstat, R.A(2000). The Silent Killers of Strategy Implementation and Learning Sloan Management Review, Summer, 29-42. Bourgeois à Ã‚ ¨, L. J., and Brodwin D.R. (1984). Strategic Implementation: Five Approaches to an Elusive Phenomenon. Strategic Management Journal, 5, 241-264 Govindarajan,V., and Fisher.J. (1990). Strategy, Control systems, and resource sharing: effects on business-Unit Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 259-285. Heracleous, L. (2000). The Role of Strategy Implementation in Organization Development Organization Development Journal, 18, 75-86. Higgins, J.M. (2005). The Eight à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s of Successful Strategy Execution. Journal of Change Management, 5, 3-13. Lehner, J. (2004). Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives. Management Revue, 15, 460-480 Noble, C.H. (1999a). Building the Strategy Implementation Network. Business Horizons, 19-27. Nutt, P.C. (1986). Tactics of Implementation. Academy of Management Journal. 29, 230-261. Nutt, P.C. (1989). Selecting Tactics to Implement Strategic Plans. Strategic Management

How do Pride and Prejudice Affect the Relationship between Darcy and El

How do Pride and Prejudice Affect the Relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth? Jane Austen was an English author who wrote Pride and Prejudice and many other novels. Her early writings began in 1787 and ended in 1793.Jane Austen was born on the 16th of December in 1775 at Steventon Rectory Hampshire. She lived from 1775 to 1817 and was born the seventh child in a family of eight and Jane was mostly attached to her sister Cassandra. Jane’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility began as a novel-in-letters called â€Å"Elinor and Marianne.† These letters may reflect the relationship between Jane and her sister Cassandra. It is well documented that Jane and Cassandra were extremely close as children. When they grew older the two kept in touch by writing each other letters on a daily basis. Cassandra destroyed many of letters of correspondence with Jane to protect her privacy following her death. In 1817 Jane’s recent run of good fortune came to an end. Her health grew worse as throughout the year from what we now know was Addison’s disease; she passed away on July 18 of that year. I think that Jane Austen was trying to tell the audience about human relationships and I also think that the purpose of this novel was to show the ups and downs of human relationships. The subject Human relationships is very interesting, this is because certain people relate to it in different ways. Some people may relate to it as cunning and bitterly whereas others may enjoy it and relate to it in different points of views. I also feel that Jane Austen was telling us how the lifestyles and the roles of society of the men and women in the early nineteenth century. After reading the novel and watching the film of pride and prejudice I n... ...Austen shows how several other marriages work. Some are happy, some not, and no two are alike. In a society in which marriage was so important to women- and to men- the qualities that make a marriage succeed are quite a serious matter. Jane Austen treats the subject with Comedy, but underneath the comic surface she is very serious. Notice, as you read what qualities she shows us as good and bad in a marriage. It seems that the success of a marriage in Austen's would- as perhaps in ours- depends on the characters of the married pair and the motives that brought them together in the first place. I agree with all this because it touches on themes of class, social behavior, and family relationships. It's a peek into a world that in some ways is nothing like ours, but it contains truths which seem to apply in any world. Also many people can relate to it in their own ways.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay -- Literary Analysis, Zora Neale Hu

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the relationship between Janie and Nanny is one of great dispute over if it is healthy or not. The idea that the most influential person in Janie’s life is also the one who triggered her struggles when she was becoming a woman is sadly ironic. Nanny’s true influence on Janie is brought to light through symbolic, and decaying diction, Biblical, and Greek Mythological allusions, and natural metaphors, by describing Janie’s journey to womanhood, through finding her own opinion, acquiring a stable life from Nanny, her maturation, and what she gained when becoming a woman. Through the use of symbolic diction, decaying diction, and metaphors, Hurston illustrates Janie’s inner struggle around accepting Nanny’s opinions as the correct ones. Inside Janie’s conscious self, â€Å"There is a basin in [her] mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight†¦Ã¢â‚¬  where she can think freely with thoughts that are, â€Å"†¦untouched by words† (24). This is a place where Janie can flourish by thinking about ideas without being inhibited by peer pressure. To truly understand the ideas formed in Janie’s mind, it is necessary for Janie to get in touch with her body and herself. However, through symbolic diction, it is clear that Janie’s impressionability leads her to not completely understand these thoughts; she has not reached the level of maturity necessary for this level of self-reflection. These qualities cause Janie to have the tendency to mirror Nanny’s opinions on issues, even when she internally disagrees with them. This tension is demonstrated when, â€Å"Nanny entered this infinity of conscious pain again on her old knees† (24). The â€Å"conscious pain† (24) which Janie speaks... ... Nanny’s ideals, values, and opinions. Every aspect of Nanny was drilled inside of Janie, and once Nanny died, Janie was finally a free woman. The reason Janie was able to truly become a woman was because she realized that she was able to become a woman because when Nanny died she set her free. During the journey that Janie went through when she became a woman she gained self-knowledge, and understood on a deeper level why Nanny did things. While Janie matured, it looked at first glance like Nanny was hindering her advancement. However, Nanny’s controlling actions were justified by her belief that she was doing the right thing, and that God would look after Janie. It is difficult to become a person unimpeded by what other people think, it took Nanny’s death for Janie to be released of an important influence, and never return to this time in her life.