Henri Fayol Introduction

Henri Fyol : One of the first persons to sit down and try to work out what managers do (and what they should do) was a Frenchman called Henri Fayol. Fayol was a mining engineer who became the managing director of an ailing coal mining firm and turned it into a highly successful coal and steel business. All this took place between 1888 and 1918, when he retired. In 1916, after many years of thinking about the job of the manager, he published a small book called General and Industrial Management.Henry Fayol was years ahead of his time in linking strategy and organizational theory and in emphasizing the need for management development and the qualities of leadership. Igor Ansoff, in Corporate Strategy (1965) said that Fayol ‘anticipated imaginatively and soundly most of the more recent analyses of modern business practice,’ although Peter Drucker in his great compendium Management: Tasks, Responsibilities and Practice (1973), criticized the application of Fayol’s fun ctional approach to larger and more complex organizations than the one he knew and managed.Oddly enough, it was years before a translation appeared in English, even though it contains a great deal of wisdom and sense. Part of the book deals with the ‘elements’ or ‘functions’ of management, and Fayol identifies five such functions. They are: †¢ Forecasting and Planning †¢ Organizing †¢ Command †¢ Co-ordination †¢ Control From his own long experience in Industry, Fayol identified fourteen General Principles of Management, or guidelines, and he emphasized that these are not rigid but have to be adapted to suit the particular needs of the situation.

If I Were the President of India Essay

Gandhiji’s full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born on October 2, 1869 in a town called Poxbandar, Gujarat. He was the architect of India’s freedom and one of the greatest men of this century. Mahatma Gandhi’s life was dedicated to the ideals of truth, non-violence and love. Young Gandhi had his primary education up to the seventh year at Porbandar. Then his education continued at Rajkot. Once an Inspector of Schools visited the school. The teacher dictated some English words. Gandhiji had spelt the word ‘Kettle’ incorrectly. The teacher noticed this, and made signs to Gandhiji to correct it by copying from his neighbour. But Gandhiji did not do so. He also felt that the same teacher, who had taught him that copying was bad, was not right in prompting him to do so. Still, the respect he had for his teacher did not grow less. When Mahatma Gandhi was only nineteen years old, he went to England to become a barrister. He obtained the degree of Barrister-at-Law and started practising law in South Africa. Once he had to make a journey by train,, so he bought a first-class ticket. During the journey, an officer of the railway asked him to vacate his seat for a white man, and to move to the van on the train. Mahatma Gandhi refused. The railway officials, with the help of the police, had his things thrown out. He was also removed from the carriage by force. Thus Gandhiji was subject to untold shame. This incident transformed him. Gandhi started an organisation and called it ‘The Natal Indian Congress’. It was to carry on the struggle of the Indians against racial discrimination. He also started a newspaper called ‘The Indian Opinion’. The paper became an organ to give information about the struggle. Mahatma Gandhi stayed on in South Africa for nearly 21 years to fight against racial discrimination against Indian settlers. He propagated the concept of Satyagraha (satya means truth and agraha firmness). It was the use of ‘Soul-Force’ against ‘Brute-Force’ or violence. He trained men, women and children as volunteers. He called his band a ‘Peace Brigade’. He won his battle when, finally, the South African Government gave in to his demands. Gandhi now became a world-renowned person. He soon earned the title of ‘Mahatma’ (maha means great and atma means soul) among Indians all over the world. Gandhiji came back to India in 1915 and built an ashram on the banks of the Sabaramati river near Ahmadabad. It was called ‘Satyagraha Ashram’. The way of life that he practised there was known as ‘Sarvodaya’ the well-being of all. He fought peacefully for many causes and succeeded in persuading the government to abolish many abuses against labourers in Bihar, the Kaira peasants in Gujarat, etc.

Poverty: Population Density and Countries Essay

Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density (the ratio of people to land area, usually expressed as numbers of persons per square kilometer or square mile) or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources. Only a certain number of people can be supported on a given area of land, and that number depends on how much food and other resources the land can provide. In countries where people live primarily by means of simple farming, gardening, herding, hunting, and gathering, even large areas of land can support only small numbers of people because these labor-intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food. In developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and the countries of western Europe, overpopulation generally is not considered a major cause of poverty. These countries produce large quantities of food through mechanized farming, which depends on commercial fertilizers, large-scale irrigation, and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of people in metropolitan areas. Read more:Â  Advantages and Disadvantages of Overpopulation A country’s level of poverty can depend greatly on its mix of population density and agricultural productivity. Bangladesh, for example, has one of the world’s highest population densities, with 1,078 persons per sq km (2,791 persons per sq mi). A large majority of the people of Bangladesh engage in low-productivity manual farming, which contributes to the country’s extremely high level of poverty. Some of the smaller countries in western Europe, such as The Netherlands and Belgium, have high population densities as well. These countries practice mechanized farming and are involved in high-tech industries, however, and therefore have high standards of living. At the other end of the spectrum, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have population densities of less than 30 persons per sq km (80 persons per sq mi). Many people in these countries practice manual subsistence farming; these countries also have infertile land and lack the economic resources and technology to boost productivity. As a consequence, these nations are very poor. The United States has both relatively low population density and high agricultural productivity; it is one of the world’s wealthiest nations. High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labor, usually for farming. Cultural norms in traditionally rural societies commonly sanction the value of large families. Also, the governments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for family planning (see Birth Control); even people who wish to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all these reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth. Most developed countries provide considerable political and financial support for family planning. People tend to limit the number of children they have because of the availability of this support. Cultural norms in these countries also tend to affirm the ideal of small family size. Recently, however, some developed countries with declining population levels have begun experimenting with incentives to increase the birth rate. (See also Population: World Population Growth and Distribution.)

Report making a change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Report making a change - Essay Example The proposed change put forth by the researcher is to increase the number of the lectures related to oral health care and hygiene to 3 or 4 lectures per month, between June and August 2011. This can be made possible with the concurrence of the nursing educator and the various nursing unit representatives. The ultimate outcome will depend on in-patient satisfaction by addressing their oral care needs; this can be made possible through enhanced nurse education. Implementation of Proposed Change Below are the underlying principles which were observed in observed in carrying out the planned change. Gather Support from Top Management The first principle is to solicit support from top management. This can be explicitly done through the formation of a Team for Nurses’ Oral Health Education which should be comprised of the Nurse Educator, Nurse Managers, Education Team members and the nurses. Kotter (1996) stated that in managing change, mere control is not enough; rather, there is a need to effectively lead the change that needs to be brought about. A coalition of leaders and managers must be formed to manage change. By working as a team, the coalition helps to create more momentum and build the sense of urgency in relation to the need for change (Midttun and Martinussen 2005). The group must consist of proven leaders who can drive the change, tout the vision, and empower others, and good managers who can develop plans and control the processes (Schlussel 2009). Kotter (1996) also recognises the importance of the emotional dimension and the energy that is generated by a â€Å"mastermind† group all working together. Gather Support from Different Organizational Levels The second principle is the solicitation of support from other levels, by creating a common, compelling vision of what the enhancement could bring (Lansisalmi, KIvimaki, Aalto, and Ruoranen 2006). This includes the presentation of the proposal to all directors, staffs, and other personnel inv olved. Moreover, they should be convinced about the urgency of the change, with emphasis on the expected benefits. People who welcome change are not generally the best at being able to work reliably, dependably and follow processes Understanding people's needs is important to be able to manage change (Inkson 2007). Being mindful of people's strengths and weaknesses is also very crucial as not everyone welcomes change. It is fundamental to take the time to understand the people being dealt with, and how and why they feel like they do, before taking actions (Gutteridge, Leibowicz, & Shore 1993). The researcher also realised that change is not to be sold to people as a way of accelerating 'agreement' and implementation. 'Selling' change to people is not a sustainable strategy for long-term success, since doing so may just back fire in the future, when least expected. Instead, change needs to be understood and managed in a way that people can cope effectively with it. Change can be unse ttling, so the manager logically needs to be a settling influence (Bazzoli, Dynan. Burns, and Yap 2004). Establish and Communicate Urgency of Proposed Change According to Kotter (1996), an early task in effecting organizational change is establishing a sense of urgency. Change agents must help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately (Fox-Wolfgramm 2007). In planning for the oral health training program, 3 initial factors

Distinguish between business risk and financial risk Essay

Distinguish between business risk and financial risk - Essay Example Systematic risk refers to the risk posed by the conditions of the environment, i.e. the possibility that the economy within which a business operates will experience a downturn; while unsystematic risk refers to the possibility that the specific sector of the economy in which a business operates will fail. In order to protect against unsystematic risks, businesses try operating is a variety of sectors so that losses from one business can be offset by the profits from another. Since systematic risk pertains to the economy of a country, there is little that businesses can do to prevent against the dangers of this kind of risk. Several internal and external factors cause business risk. Internal business risk factors can be corrected by the business, however the external factors are beyond the organization’s control. Internal factors broadly include operating costs, business structure and business efficiency. In order to reduce operating costs, businesses should look toward cost cutting measures or to increasing revenues such that costs are covered. Similarly, business structure and management policies should be tailored such that they enhance efficiency. The external factors that cause business risk include the change in demand for the product, unpredicted changes in the state of economies worldwide etc. Another category of risk posed to a business is financial risk. Financial risk pertains to the financing structure of a business. It can pertain to risks associated with shares (in case of a public limited company) or with the debt structure of the business and occurs when a business fails to pay its creditors. This risk is business specific, since each business has its own financing structure and how it manages the structure depends on the business’s policies and strategies. Financial risks are of several types; market risk (risks associated with shares in the stock market),

Ppaper on Illegal Physical or Internet Intrusion Essay

Ppaper on Illegal Physical or Internet Intrusion - Essay Example This paper discusses why data security is of importance to an organization. Furthermore it throws light upon what might be the physical or internet based threats to an organization’s database and lastly converges with a few suggestions that can be embedded in order to strengthen database security. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO SECURE AN ORGANIZATION’S DATA? An organization’s data is of imperative importance to it. The success of any setup is directly proportional to the security and integrity of that environment. This study is aimed at discussing the scope of threats that an organization faces with respect to its data. It highlights what measures could be taken in order to keep the data within the database of an organization secure from any kinds of physical and internet intrusions. The Deputy Commissioner and internal control officer of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue John Mynihan is said to have quoted as follows about the threats to the data of an organizatio n: â€Å"Any organization that collects data has to acknowledge that people are abusing it because they have access to it ... It's human nature.† (Mynihan, 2007) Database security is of inevitable importance because any malfunctioning done with the data in it, whether physical or virtual, if not corrected in a timely manner can result in the loss of system or data integrity. This, in turn can have severe consequences on the business processes themselves. The continued usage of corrupted data and thus the corrupted database system can result in the outcome of fraudulent and inappropriate decisions. In addition to this, unintentional and unauthorized disclosure of any sensitive data pertaining to the organization and its stakeholders can result in the loss of confidence of the organization’s stakeholders with it. Moreover, it can even lead to severe legal issues and stern embarrassment against the organization. TRUSTING INDIVIDUALS? A renowned fact that spreads widely wi thin business circles is that individuals should never be trusted such that an organization’s critical should be left at their disposal. This task of storing critical data and enabling it’s readily and convenient access is assigned to databases. Database stores all the critical data of an organizational setup. Since they hold so very much importance, their security is also a key concern for the organization. Senior director of security for Oracle, Wynn White mentions his observations about database security in the following words: â€Å"According to one recent Forrester study, 80 percent of data security breaches involve insiders, employees or those with internal access to an organization, putting information at risk. The big challenge for companies today – particularly as email and the Internet make sharing and distributing corporate information easier than ever - is to strike the right balance between providing workers with appropriate access and protecting s ensitive information as much as possible.† (White) The following text evaluates what a database’s security is and what are the potential threats faced by it. THE POTENTIAL THREATS The potential threats that are faced by a database with respect to its security can be summarized as follows: PHYSICAL INTRUSION/THREAT: This involves dangers such as theft fire/flood, power outage, earthquake or malicious damage. HUMAN ERROR: Mistake on the part of the authorized personnel manipulating the database. This may

Long term care Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Long term care - Case Study Example Rehabilitation centers also constitute an important part of long-term care facilities. Ethics, on the other hand, refers to the concept of right and wrong. Ethics involves the process of defending and applauding the perception of what is right and what is wrong. Ethics defines the best way for people to live to live and tells what should happen in particular circumstances. The whole concept of ethics is based on human morality. The concept of morality in long-term care facilities go hand in hand. There are, however, various challenges that have evolved in the process of ensuring ethics in such facilities. The concept of reasoning has been a problem in long-term care facilities, especially where the patients are mentally unstable (Ekland-Olson, 2015). Mental instability impairs thinking. The patients in these facilities, therefore, propagate immorality due to the inability to reason logically. Another ethical challenge in long-term care facilities has been the increasing populations in such facilities. The concentration of patients in a small restricted area has made it relatively difficult for the authorities to monitor morality. High population makes it difficult for immoral individuals to be traced. In the United States, care facilities are one of the institutional frameworks that need the establishment of morality. Morality in such institutions can be designed and sustained by increased monitoring of individuals and strict observation of legislated policies. Necessary legal actions should be taken on any staff who does not show morality in their profession (Fan, 2010). More long-term care institutions should also be established to control the increasing challenge of overpopulated facilities. Morality in long-term care facilities should be enhanced bot only for the safety of patients under such care, but also for the moral stability of the nation as a whole. Morality in such institutions should, therefore, be maintained at the highest levels

Simon Property Group Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Simon Property Group - Essay Example People from different ethnic backgrounds are staying in the country. Domestic social environment of the country is very peaceful. Domestic environment related to technology is also very sound and modern in nature. The country sets benchmarks for other countries in the world. The country faces some problems related with corruptions and terrorism. Over all domestic environment of the country is very stable, modern, updated and suitable for investing money and doing business (Elizabeth, 2010). Commercial real estate industry in USA is on the recovery mode. From 2008 to 2010 the industry was severely damaged by global financial crisis. At that point of time graph of the industry was very down. Recently the industry is improving slightly. Traditionally big players in the industry were only focusing towards big cities like Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington and New York City. Now a day’s big players are shifting their focuses towards small cities also. Over the years the industry has faced lots of ups and downs. Unstable atmosphere was there in the industry. But with the time the industry has able to come back. People are investing into this industry. The industry has reordered an improved growth of 11% in the first quarter of 2014. For last 21 years Simon Property Group is there in the industry. The organization has controversy related to the payment of its CEO. The organization has negative attributes regarding patents. In 2011 the organization faced serious patent problems with North Mobile Tech Embroiled. Carpenter, Bauer and Erdogan has come up with an 8 phase rational decision making theory. According to this theory any decision can be made with the help of eight steps. In the first step of the theory identification of the problem is very much important. In the second step decision making criterion has to be fixed. In the third step all those criterions have to assign with different weigh. According to the theory

Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko - Essay Example The essay "Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko" explores two famous artists, their main ideas and art practices. Pablo Picasso is the name that no art history can miss out when it records Modern Art. Mark Rothko is yet another name that appears in Modern Art, though a bit later than Pablo. This paper will look into the influences and ideas that shine through the art work of both Picasso and Rothko, give a quick overview of their art practice and look into the formal qualities of their art work. Pablo Picasso had become very popular in the art circle by 1910. His art period started around 1900 and lasted till his death. However, in his very young age, he created some of the significant paintings in Spanish art history. In 1896, his The First Communion portraying his sister gained acclaims. Similarly, Portrait of Aunt Pepa was painted when he was just fourteen years old. It was called as â€Å"one of the greatest in the whole history of Spanish painting† by Juan-Eduardo Cirloz. These paintings were realistic until they became tinged with symbolism after 1900. There were a series of landscapes rendered in unnatural mixture of violet with green which were mainly due to the influence of Rossetti, Edvard Munch and Lautrec. He was also greatly influenced by his love of Greco’s paintings that he found in the Madrid art galleries. He created numerous, nearly a thousand art works of a variety of genres: paintings, print works, sculptures and ceramics. His art life is divided into major periods based on his style.

Attitudes towards homosexuality in the long 19th century Essay

Attitudes towards homosexuality in the long 19th century - Essay Example However, one thing that is evident is the fact that modern attitudes towards homosexuality have been a centre stage for battles between religious and legal concepts. Before the eighteenth century, Christianity was seen to be reluctant in dealing with issues of homosexuality. However, incidences of hostility towards homosexuality began to be experienced in many parts of the world. Later, the underpinnings of homosexuality involved incorporation of legal sanctions and religious teachings. The main issue is would seem was the subscription to social norms and homosexuality seen as defiant behaviour which the society feared. According to Clinard and Frank (2011, pp11), norms make crucial contributions to the process of maintaining order. During this time, it is reported that most of the American colonies began to enact severe penalties for sexual crimes. By the end of the 19th century, there emerged competition between law and religion against psychiatry and medicine over sexuality and sp ecifically homosexuality. In this regard, the concept of homosexuality undertook a different turn from being viewed as a sin to being viewed as a crime. This drastic change of the discourse about homosexuality was viewed as progressive since some considerations such as a sick person who committed sexual crime was less blameful than a healthy person. Rationale for advocacy of homosexuality Although medicine and psychiatry insisted on treating homosexuality as pathology, Sigmund Freud, on his basic theory of human sexuality viewed that all human beings were innately bisexual. His argument was that human beings become heterosexual or homosexual in the course of interacting with other people. However, Freud posited that homosexuality should be viewed as a kind of pathology. In fact, in his famous letter to an American mother, he argued that, although homosexuality is no advantage, it should not amount to something to be ashamed of. This, according to Freud was because homosexuality is n ot a vice, does not degrade, and cannot be classified as an illness. With such deliberations, it is apparent that many people viewed sexuality differently. Nevertheless, the articulation of sexuality under the perspective of medicine and psychiatry was based on the idea that persons with homosexuality had pathology concerns that needed to be addressed. With numerous studies conducted on persons with these problems, psychiatrists believed that there was a need to comprehensively come up with a mechanism through which the society could appreciate that these people have a psychological problem that need to be addressed. Many authors such as Clinard and Frank (2011) pointed out that in another dimension they believed that treating persons with sexuality problems like criminals without subjecting them to psychological treatment would increase the problem by creating additional psychological complications. Some of the raised concerns included statistics of persons convicted of committing sexual related crimes, and who later died or developed some mental disorders while still in prison or after being released from prison. Homosexuality has had a long history. The 18th century can be seen as a significant turning point of homosexuality and gay rights. Probably for the first time in the history of man, homosexuality received critical look in a number of ways. Professionals’

Technology Evaluation Different Time, Different Place Essay

Technology Evaluation Different Time, Different Place - Essay Example LotusLive Event, meetings and event mapping features offers efficient web conferencing that can accommodate up to 1000 attendees. Through these features, both time and money are saved. Through the Dashboard, users are able to interact and invite other managers and communities that share same ideas. It allows chatting and mapping where live conferences are accessible. This feature aids the management to evaluate their working habits with other organizations With the combination of different applications, businesses are able to cut on costs related to information dissemination and collection. As a result, organizations experience increased profits while developing better working conditions. Furthermore, the business image is boosted and employees are motivated. The program allows firms to compare their results online through the community invitation feature and the messaging feature helps employees to communicate timely about important issues. The Lotus Live is compatible with other collaborative technologies e.g. Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft’s bundled online collaborative offerings. It worked well on my PC and Nokia C5. Lotus live Engage enables users to interact with correspondents both within and outside their organizations since it manages contacts and projects online. From my test, security is not a problem as communications are encrypted by the SSL technology (Hoskins, 2010). Overall, Lotus Live is an easy to use program that works well in many PCs and mobile phones that are internet enabled. With the Engage feature, businesses are able to interact cheaply and on time, which saves time and costs. Its meeting, conferencing and event map options help multinational organizations and/ or those with different branches, keep in touch without, as it is compatible with social networks like Twitter and Face book. Additionally, iNote and file manager within the same program make working easy. Thus, I would

New Hire Communication Essay Example for Free

New Hire Communication Essay †¢Planning ? Define the purpose. To communicate the company culture, process, procedures, and general information for a new hire. ?Define the audience. New Hires. ?Identify the channel(s) of communication and why you selected that channel. The channel of communication that I selected for the new hire communication is email. I chose to send the new hire communication by email because it is instantly sent to the new hire at no cost to the company. †¢Writing ? Create the message. Welcome to Dutch Bros Coffee,Congratulations on your new position with Dutch Bros. We are truly pleased that you have chosen us as your employer. Since being founded in 1992, our goal remains to ensure that our customers are always satisfied with their beverage purchases. Here at Dutch Bros. , we believe in lovin’ life and keeping it positive. We strive to pass the good vibes on to our employees and customers. At Dutch Bros. We serve up a variety of beverages that can be infused with a number of different flavors. This fast paced work environment requires staff to work side by side as a team to successfully keep the line moving and the coffee and drinks flowing. Again, I want to welcome you to the Dutch family. We are truly pleased NEW HIRE COMMUNICATION 3 that you have accepted this opportunity to serve up a cup of sunshine to the wonderful citizens of Phoenix, AZ †¢Completing ? Proofread, revise, and submit. Welcome to Dutch Bros Coffee, Congratulations on your new position with Dutch Bros. We are truly pleased that you have chosen us as your employer. Since being founded in 1992, our goal remains to ensure that our customers are always satisfied with their beverage purchases. At Dutch Bros. We serve up a variety of beverages that can be infused with a number of different flavors. This fast paced work environment requires staff to work side by side as a team to successfully keep the line moving and the coffee and drinks flowing. We strive to pass the good vibes on to our employees and customers. Here at Dutch Bros. , we believe in lovin’ life and keeping it positive. We expect our employees to arrive on time at work in clean casual clothes and a positive work attitude. Again, I want to welcome you to the Dutch family. We are truly pleased that you have accepted this opportunity to serve up a cup of sunshine to the wonderful citizens of Phoenix, AZ Kelli Woodruff NEW HIRE COMMUNICATION 4 References Dutch Bros Coffee. (1992-2014). Retrieved from http://dutchbros. com/AboutUs/.

Swot Analysis Of The Home Depot

Swot Analysis Of The Home Depot Business model: Home Depots business model, the first of its kind in the home improvement industry has revolutionized the way customers shop for home improvement products. Their business model is focusing on selling home improvement products and services to DIY, BIY, and professional customers with wide variety of products and sales associates that are educated and knowledgeable about home improvement. Well known brand name: The Home Depot, as an established corporation, has much strength behind its name. One of the largest strengths would be that of its brand recognition The Home Depot name has become synonymous with home improvement. Brand recognition is of strong significance to the consumer that provides a sense of trust to its customers. Extensive product offerings: The Home Depot is one of the leading distributors in United States. It has wide variety of merchandise including different types of building materials, home improvement supplies, and lawn and garden products. Convenience: It is no secret that if you want anything having to do with home improvement the first place to go is Home Depot. Home Depot has distinguished itself as the home improvement warehouse that has what you are looking for when it comes to home improvement. Their extensive product lines have made The Home Depot the one stop shopping in home improvement. Training Employees in Safety: The Home Depot provides a strong focus during the training of their employees on safety. New hires complete a training curriculum that is designed for their specific job type. Television Network(HDTV): Money saving device that allowed HDs top executives to get instant feedback from local managers, and allowed training and communication programs to be viewed in the stores. Price: The Home Depot is committed to competitive pricing. It often prices its products substantially below major chains. Home Depot has low price advantage due to economies of Low price scale. Service: The company uses sophisticated selection criteria to select people with a customer-friendly orientation. They also value, but do not require, experience in the building trades. Weaknesses Counterbalancing the strengths of Home Depot, it also has a couple of key weaknesses that need to be addressed. Growth: Is both a blessing and a headache for Home Depot. As they have expanded aggressively into new markets, they have seen their operating expenses rise in direct proportion with their growth in revenue. While this is would be expected in most instances. This means that Home Depot is not capitalizing on economies of scale in logistics and distribution provided to them by their market saturation strategy. Decline in Customer Loyalty: One of Home Depots noticeable weaknesses would be the declining customer loyalty. The decrease is not solely based on their customer service or product offering but that there is a strong presence of strong competition in their industry. Lowes is Home Depots number one competitor in the industry. Over time Lowes has followed Home Depots way in product/service offerings and expansion. Consumers have more choices and Lowes is continuously building on their brand recognition, which spreads the consumers thin between the two rivalries. Focus of Consumers: Home Depot focuses on the male and professional segment of the market. They should consider catering to the women and families in the market segments. Environment: Competitor Lowes is generally regarded as having cleaner, smaller, brighter, more customer-friendly store. Financials: With a new CEO, making drastic changes at HD and having expanded sharp decline in stock price, the morale of managers is down. As HD enters its nature stage, share returns have declined and management has become less enthused. Lack of Local Market Focus: HD store managers were given great freedom in customizing their stores, from merchandising choices to employee relations. Organization structure: The Home Depot former CEOs militaristic leadership style and centralized organizational Leadership style structure are main weaknesses. These are affected the performance of employee resulting in excessive layoffs. Opportunities: Because of Home Depots size they have some interesting opportunities available to them. With a solid foothold in North America, Home Depot will set its sights on other world markets to further expand and spread its business risk across many diverse world markets. Expansion will be the primary focus for growth into the year 2000. Home Depot has an opportunity in the global sourcing of their products as their scope and reach becomes global. Sourcing from other countries may significantly grow their gross margin. Home Depots Service Performance Improvement (SPI) program is due to deliver huge paybacks in productivity of night team workers. Other IT projects pose great opportunities to increase efficiency, decrease costs and further increase margins. HD is staying within its core competencies by expanding their new landscaping division. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Through a strong marketing research program, HD should fully grasp what the consumer is wanting. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ HDs specialty in home improvement and strong name recognition, will allow them to capture a large portion of this market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ HDs EXPO Design Centers are an opportunity to expand their market niche by providing potential customers with innovative remodeling suggestions. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ As the EXPO centers enter more markets, they will be taking sales directly from stores such as Pier One, Bed BathBeyond , Sears , Williams-Sonoma and SAKS 5th Avenue. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ By specializing in high and home improvement products such as small appliances and culinary ware, patio accessories, ceiling fans and Persian rugs, people should enjoy the trendy shopping experience. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ HD is taking the initiative to update the appearance of their older stores by investing $250 million in store remodeling in the upcoming year. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They intend to transform their somewhat outdated stores into cleaner, more user friendly stores to enhance the overall shopping experience. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Tool rental services had a significant impact on HD` s Gross Profitability. As the number of centers increase, so will gross profit as a percentage of sales. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ HD recognized a strong market potential in smaller cities surrounding large cities. By initiating the new market penetration strategy of smaller cities, HD will benefit greatly. Serving primarily to do-it-yourselfers, which is a largely recession-proof market. So, even during a recession Home Depot can survive and even make money. Offering a broad line of products that can lead to an increase in the number of customers. Restructuring management and organization is opportunity for Home Depot to improve its market Globalization value: Globalization has always two sides like to sides of coin. The positive side of globalization is to get efficiency and economies of scale and expanding market by internationalization. Innovation has opportunities and threats both. Opportunities are it allows Home Depot to leverage the space it has and display a multitude of product in warehouse setting so customer can see the products available and buy it on same visit. Leveraging the power of brand leadership through inclusive marketing campaigns that target pros and active do-it-yourself customers among both men and women. At the same time, we market opportunities for store growth expect to shape our marketing plans to capitalize on our large scale and geographic advantages. Providing customer benefits from investments in new point-of-sale systems, self-checkout, and Threats: The biggest threats that I see for Home Depot are its competitors such as Lowes, which are trying to emulate or even take a step further every strategy used by Home Depot. Wholesale outlets can also affect Home Depot by offering lower prices to professional business customers. Serving to the DIY industry can also be a threat because it is a very competitive industry and the profit margin is very low. So, if the DIY industry is not managed properly, a company might end up selling it off, like Kmart with Builders Square. Intense competition fuels business to be efficient in almost every way. Intense competition is one of the biggest threats for Home Depot right now. Home Depot has more than 25 direct competitors including Lowes, Menards, True Value, Ace Hardware, Do It Best, Sears, Target and Wal-mart. Lowes and Menards has significant market share right now. High buyer power There are high buyer power and low switching cost due to many firms in market competing among each other. Innovation The major threat of innovation is that each store must have and extremely efficient and organized warehouse supply chain operation. Globalization The negative side of globalization is different economical, political and legal condition in different nations. Different culture, people attitude and local firm also threat for firm. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in and the Economical conditions overall condition of the U.S. economy, stability of costs and availability of sourcing Weather conditions and channels, conditions affecting new store development, the companys ability to attract, train Competiton. and retain highly-qualified associates, unanticipated weather conditions, and the impact of competition and regulatory and litigation matters. Because of the competitive nature of the retail industry, Home Depots success depends on price, store location, customer service, and wide product selections. In each market that Home Depot serves there is a plethora of specialty home improvement stores that have the potential to cutting into Home Depots market share (Datamonitor). Home Depots overlap with primary competitor, Lowes, poses a potential threat. In the minds of consumers, Home Depot may be seen as interchangeable with Lowes which would in turn decrease customer loyalty. Also when a Lowes enters a market that is only served by Home Depot, Home Depots sales have a tendency to decrease by up to 15% (Datamonitor). As Home Depot and Lowes continue to compete head to head in primary markets and both continue their strategy of market saturation, the awareness of US market saturation becomes a very real possibility. According to Datamonitor, The US home center potential is valued at approximately 3,500 stores. With Home Depot and Lowes opening a combined 300 stores a year, the industry could reach saturation in the next few years. Because of the competitive nature of the retail industry, Home Depots success depends on price, store location, customer service, and wide product selections. In each market that Home Depot serves there is a plethora of specialty home improvement stores that have the potential to cutting into Home Depots market share (Datamonitor). Home Depots overlap with primary competitor, Lowes, poses a potential threat. In the minds of consumers, Home Depot may be seen as interchangeable with Lowes which would in turn decrease customer loyalty. Also when a Lowes enters a market that is only served by Home Depot, Home Depots sales have a tendency to decrease by up to 15% (Datamonitor). As Home Depot and Lowes continue to compete head to head in primary markets and both continue their strategy of market saturation, the awareness of US market saturation becomes a very real possibility. According to Datamonitor, The US home center potential is valued at approximately 3,500 stores. With Home Depot and Lowes opening a combined 300 stores a year, the industry could reach saturation in the next few years Go to Page 1 View as single page à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ HD is competing head to head with Lowes. They have been stealing HDs market share with a positioning strategy of opening stores as close as possible to HD. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Looming poor economic conditions present challenges for this retailer. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Declines in GDP growth, employment, personal disposable income and customer sentiment are a threat to HDs sales revenues in the short term. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Decreases in the economic factors would signify a worsening economy. Consumer would start a larger portion of their disposable income Questions for Discussion 1. What is your assessment of Nardellis changes at Home Depot? Which had the greatest impact? In my opinion Nardelli, during the years he was The Home Depots CEO, did an overall great job. The changes he introduced to the business model were necessary to help The Home Depot to keep growing in the right direction. The Home Depot, at the time Nardelli was appointed CEO, was a company with an old style management and operations that could have compromised the future of the company. Nardelli focused on and achieved increasing sales and profitability, by 2006 sales had doubled from $45.7 in 2000 to $90.8, and profits had more than doubled from 2000 to 2005 to $5.8 billion. Among all the changes he made, the ones that had the biggest impact were: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Geographic expansion: Nardelli brought the company to Mexico were it went from zero to number one. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Diversification: he expanded the wholesale business with the creation of Home Depot Supply, which provided products and services to professional customers. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cost cutting measures: he centralized Home Depots merchandising and purchasing which lead to an improvement of the buyer power with suppliers and better deals extending payment terms from 30 to 45 or 50 days. He also took the decision to switch full time store employees to part time employees and to reduce the number of employees in the stores. This had actually a negative impact as it certainly contributed to the erosion of the share price during the years and it actually cost Nardelli his job. Opening to different countries, having better communication system with stores and dealing with distributors in corporate level vs. locally deals. This had more potential on getting better deals. 2. How did Nardellis changes affect profitability, labor productivity, and customer service? What metrics would you use to assess these impacts? The main change that Nardelli introduced that affected profitability was the centralization of the merchandising and purchasing. It is true that before 2000 the store managers were able to be closer to customers and to decide what products stock in the stores, but at the same time that was highly inefficient from an operational point of view, leading to a mismanagement of stock levels. Thanks to Nardellis new centralized approach the company was able to eliminate almost 20,000 unprofitable items and to introduce other higher priced, higher-end products which contributed to increase sales and eventually profits. Nardelli improved labor productivity thanks to heavy investments in information technology as the company was lagging behind its competitors. He started the Front End Accuracy and Service Transformation (FAST) initiative, through which all stores were equipped with new point of sales terminals with touch screens. Other measures taken by Nardelli that contributed improved productivity were: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Introduction of self check out registers. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Standardizing of in-store logistic activities. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Introduction of cordless scan guns. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Six Sigma Approach. As mentioned above, Nardelli actually worsen the Customer service since he started his job, mainly switching the full time store employees to part time employees. The result was that customers were unhappy about the level of customer service since the part time employees were not enough prepared as the full time workers. This eventually led to the share price erosion during the years. Some of the metrics used by Nardelli to measure the productivity were pallets per hour for the monitoring of the freight flow process and inventory velocity to measure the length of time it took for products to flow through stores. He also used other sort of performance metrics such as financial, operational, customer and people skills metrics. He definitively should have monitored closer the customer satisfaction and people skills to avoid the problems he had at the end of his career with Home Depot. Profitability increased, productivity increased however there was a decline in customer service. 3. What caused the decline in customer service? Hiring more part time employees and having military backgrounder store managers. It is hard to carry a system when you have more part time employees than your full time employees. Each employee has to attend trainings and need to practice these with the customers. In this case it would be hard to monitor improvements in part-time employees and this also effects hiring and firing process. It would take more time to find out if an employee is valuable to the company. With this on mind, having more part time employees mean more job and safety training and spending more time in monitoring and hiring process. On the other hand military backgrounder store managers can be seen as a strength however, compared to the previous managers they wouldnt necessarily have knowledge on materials to help their customers. Imagine a customer comes and asks about an item or a DIY project, even store manager has no idea about that. The Home Depot`s main competitor Lowe`s has more customer oriented service and has a refreshing atmosphere with employees knowledgeable in their interested fields.

Analysis Of Experience Organizational Change Management Essay

Analysis Of Experience Organizational Change Management Essay Todays organizations are facing a continually changing world, unpredictable and fast-paced environment that require constant restudying to change. For an organization to be successful in this modern world it is ultimately for organization to regularly evaluate the need for them to change to stay up to date. Organizational change enables a company to strive to stay competitive and profitable. In 2006, Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) had acquired Maxtor Corporation; Maxtor was an American manufacturer of computer conventional disk drives and the third largest in the world prior to acquisition. In 2008, some commentators argue that Solid-state drive (SSD) challenge may give threat to Seagate steady as a worlds largest manufacturer of conventional disk drives. Organizations likely to be struggling to survive if fail to meet the challenges and demands of both the external and internal environment factors. Today environment is erratic and does not stand still, so organizations cannot assu me that the future is stagnant, there is a need for organizations to continuously review their vision, strategies, technologies and goals based on changing environment and technological. As Charles Darwin quotes that It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. Jai B. P. Sinha (2008: 352) states that there is two-dimensional view of organizational change, where organizational change can be triggering by external and internal factors, either unplanned or planned. The unplanned change is usually reacting to ad hoc measures that company does not anticipate and it may cause distraction to operation. For examples, change of government policy, critical incidents due to lacking of skills, unscheduled tools maintenance due to lacking of preventive measurement, and missing standard operating procedures. The planned change is usually change of organization business plans and organization restructuring, such as offer competitive pricing in the market, redesign or align roles and responsibilities to improve productivity and employees morale. The effective outcome of unplanned and planned change both can be effective and ineffective; basically it depends on how efficient of the strategic plans that put into practical effect. There are many external triggers for organizational change. For example, in 2011, Europe solar industry sees hurt and affected with legal environment factor when UK government announced plans to introduce a cut to the Feed-In Tariff scheme (FIT) for large solar energy enterprises. Such legal constraints may have serious negative impact on an industry and would hurt organization budget and react unintentional, such as cease some of its operations and will cost jobs lost and low morale. Globalization is another key external factor in the world economy and could be a good or bad for organization. Globalization has brought in new opportunities to developing countries or third world countries. For example, international companies in Asia have big advantages with better government subsidies and lower labor costs. In order for developed countries companies to stay competitive they must be consistently review their strategic plans so be more innovative than overseas competitors, such as real locate their manufacturing business to overseas countries. Likewise, new technological advances make present company struggle to stay competitive. Nokia Corp profit has been suffered badly due to lacks of new technology or model to challenge smart phone, such as Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. An organization has to continuously research and develop new technology in order having ability to challenge the threat from competitors and demanding customers. Internal triggers are the factors happening within the organization itself. For example, workplace abuse or high stress employees can lead to low morale and low performance; it will affect the productivity, staff turnover, or legal issue. For example, in 2012, China Company Foxconn Technology has reported several suicides cases at its factories in southern china, which is a major supplier to Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Some commentators revealed that the issue may due to poor management policies that workers have force to keep up with the machines speed and not allowed to talk to each other in the workshop. Therefore, it is an obligation that organization has to response to the incident and investigates to identify what are the factors caused the incident. Organization must decide and implement a strategic change to resolve the incident and prevent from reoccurring. Also the change has to include the plan how to calm, raise employees morale and motivate employees. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 565-566) discussed that one way to distinguish type of change is to consider how deeply they penetrate the organization. However it does not mean that all change must be deep change to be a good change. The depths of organization intervention are surface, shallow, penetrating, deep, and transformation. The surface or fine tuning is an appropriate to minor issue, where the deep change is appropriate when dealing with major change. For example, in 2009, the deep change will be appropriates for Chartered Semiconductor Company when the company acquired by the main stockholder of Global Foundries Inc, and it required to change to align and transform their corporate mission, vision and values. Kurt Lewin (1985) change theory contains three stage model of change, unfreezing->moving->refreezing. Based on Kurt Lewin unfreezing model, it can be comprehend that organization has to be aware to the changing world and willing to accept change when get trigger. The second step, moving, it is the period to identify appropriate strategic planning and ability to influence to implement the change. The third step, refreezing, it is a step to settle down the change and stabilization of behavior, and then get ready for next change. There is a potential failure to the change if the change does not settle down soon enough in the refreezing period, because the impact to human behavior may be considered risky if stabilization of behavior unable to execute promptly. Also, the ability for continuous of the change would be depends on how fast or how effective the organization to settle down the change, where the change must be accepted and practiced consistently by members of organization. Pennington Change Model (2006) suggests that proposed changes can be placed along two scales: radical incremental and core peripheral. Plotting the character of a proposed change along these scales can provide a sense of how difficult the introduction of any particular initiative might be and how much disturbance to the status quo it might generate. Radical change is generally is a dramatic change and require employees to move far apart or react very differently to a change. However incremental change does not necessary is better that radical change in term of resistance of change. It is still depends how well of organization mitigating resistance and encouraging people. Organizations have always met with resistance to change because human naturally tend to resist change. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 567) discussed that the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1969) model has addresses human reaction associated with change. The five stages in the Kubler-Ross coping cycle are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The five sets of emotional may not all experience by employee throughout the change process. However by understanding the response of people during change, organization will be better ready to promote the change. Huczynski and Buchanan also discussed the Yerkes-Dodson law, which first observed by Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson (1908). The Yerkes-Dodson law argues that human performance increases with arousal or stress increases, however it sees an inverted U-shaped function between arousal and performance. A certain amount of arousal can be a good motivator toward change such as employees may work and learn better with little pressur e. However too little arousal has a sluggish affect too and performance will be slow. When arousal reach an optimal level, the individual will has a hyperactive affect such as overloaded and exhausted and performance will start to drop. How organization response to resistance is very important, such as by force could increase resistance and turnover. The degree of readiness, understanding, commitment and compromise by employees can help to accelerate the change process. According to Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 567), Arthur Bedeian (1980) has states there are four reasons that certain people resist change are parochial self-interest (concerned), Misunderstanding, Low tolerance to change, and Different assessments of the situation. To manage or overcome the resistance to change, Kotter and Schlesinger (2008) have identify 6 methods for dealing with resistance of change. The methods are Education and commitment, Participation and involvement, Facilitation and support, Negotiation and agreement, Manipulation and co-optation, and Implicit and explicit coercion. These 6 methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, however this is a model that organization can use as guidance, and apply it wisely on right situation to prevent or minimize resistance to change in organizations. Jai B. P. Sinha (2008: 354) discussed that culture plays an important role in organizational change processes. Huczynski and Buchanan highlight that Edgar Schein (1985) model sees culture as a three levels: Surface manifestations (the visible aspects of an organizations culture: object and behaviors that can be seen, heard and felt), Values and beliefs (strategies, goals and philosophies), and Basic assumptions (unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, thoughts and perceptions). It is a challenge for culture change to support organizational change, such as what are the best approaches to change people belief and corporate values so that can align with both internal and external factors that resulting from organizational change. Additional, organizational climate and culture are go hand in hand. The culture and climate are both important aspects to organization and have the strong impact during organizational change. Organization change must be always focusing to seek balance between culture and climate throughout the change process. It is very difficult to implement and sustain the organizational change without a properly strategies to manage the climate. The reason is because climate or individual psychological climate such as attitudes, behavior and feelings in the organization are easier to be affected, especially during transformation change that affect organizational mission and strategy. However with a right strategic planning, thorough assessment of organizational human behavior, and the consistent commitment of organizational from both shareholders and top management, so the change may accomplishable and sustainable. For example, Micron Semiconductor Inc had open and respect climates: Managers in op en and respect climates are often look more pleasant and easier to work with, hence it will be much better performance that the managers in closed and contempt climates. With strong culture and right values, everyone in the organization will be having the common perspective in mind and working toward a common goal. As Frances Hesselbein quotes that, Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day. There are really no specific model is the best for organizational change. Organization should proactive continuously learning to identify better ways of develop the innovative strategic planning for driving effective change in organizations by the team members. The successful implementation of organizational change will be depends on how well the ability of leaders or management in choosing the right strategic planning, and implement it ethically. Although change in today fast-paced world is often essential to keep up, however managing organizational change requires skill. Organizational change can be sabotaged if key members refuse to align with the new strategies, because resistance to change is a natural human phenomenon. Hence, all members of organization have to involve and be aligned with the change process, and then integrate their efforts to the organizational change towards the achievement of ultimate organizational goal. The consistent commitment from both senior management and employees are the main key for organization change to succeed. As Jai B. P. Sinha (2008: 369) say that although changes are inevitable and only those who adjust with them survive, effective organizations plan changes for improving individual and organizational performance and well-being of the employees. ASSIGNMENT 1: REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Bradford University School of Management, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 20010, 2011, 2012. Managing People (MP) Study Book. David A. Buchanan and AndrzeJ A. Huczynski, Organizational Behavior. 7 Editions. 1985, 2010. Jai B. P. Sinha, Culture and Organizational Behavior, First Published in 2008 by SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. Jeff Dooley, A holw-Person/Systemic Approach to organization Change Management, copyright 1998. Retrieved on July 1, 2012, from http://www.well.com/user/dooley/change.pdf Michael W. Durant, Durant, CCE, CPA. Managing Organ0izational Change. 1999. Retrieved on July 1, 2012, from http://www.crfonline.org/orc/pdf/ref4.pdf Charles Darwin quotes. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_darwin.html Running Head: Organizational Change. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http:///www.advanceessays.com/samples/Organizational_Change.pdf JISC InfoNet, Change Management. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/change-management/printable-version.pdf Sam Kogan, Gen3 Partners, October 10, 2006. How IT companies can stay competitive in a global market. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.zdnet.com/news/how-it-companies-can-stay-competitive-in-a-global-market/149830 20 Awesome Quotes on Change Management. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/change-management/20-awesome-quotes-on-change-management/ Michael Birnbaum and Anthony Faiola, Published: March 19. Solar industry faces subsidy cuts in Europe. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/solar-industry-faces-subsidy-cuts-in-europe/2012/03/10/gIQArkbXLS_story.html Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan, Impact of Globalisation on Developing Countries and India. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://economics.about.com/od/globalizationtrade/l/aaglobalization.htm By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai, 27 May 2010. Inside Foxconns suicide factory Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7773011/A-look-inside-the-Foxconn-suicide-factory.html ASSIGNMENT 2: ESSAY QUESTION Why have managers and researchers been so interested in leadership theories to develop effective work performance? Today, a lot of managers and researchers have gone into searching the perfect leadership solution and ideas to achieve organization effectiveness. Many different leadership theories have emerged; some of the popularly adopted leadership theories have evolved over time and have developed their own lines of thoughts and debates endlessly. The leadership theories may have understood and differentially by managers and researchers. And leaders applied these adopted leadership theories as guidance and generate new ideas to strive for their organizational effectiveness in today fast-pace environment. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 596) state that Leadership appears to be a critical determinant of organizational effectiveness. Yuki (2002: 7) defines that leadership as Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree what needs to be done and how to can be done effectively, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish the shared objecti ve. The preceding two arguments may reach an understanding that leadership in organizations is a critical process of influencing and facilitating others to develop effective work performance. The benchmark to measure how well the effective work performance may depends on how well the ability of leaders understand the adopted leadership theories as the conceptual template to demonstrate in actual life and business situations. The clearer a leader can comprehend or perceive it the more effective leader can get into the act. Hence we can argue that the better theory and models enables leader to act more effectively to develop effective work performance. Is boss or manager a leader? Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 598) discussed that Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus (1985, P.21) observed that managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing. John Kotters (1990) contrast different functions between leaders and managers, such as Leader establish direction and aligning people, where Manager plans and budget, and Organizing and staffing. Managers have the authority and power in organization to do certain tasks but it does not simply mean the manager is a leader. Some leaders may not have any formal authority but have the ability to influence the behavior of group of people to achieve goal. Individuals can learn to lead and develop their leadership. Jai B. P. Sinha (2008: 354) discussed that Whether managers are developed into leaders depends first of all their own efforts to rise above their routine functions, expand their roles, and cultivate beliefs, dispositions, skills, and styles that make them stand out from others around them. Organizations also play a facilitating role by creating conditions and devising mechanisms transcend their managerial roles. There are many leadership theories that individuals or managers can stick at for learning and developing leadership skills. Apparently, managers interested in leadership theories to develop into leaders and ability to develop effective work performance. Theories of leadership tend to serve a guideline for organization to apply all factors and components of effective leadership into a framework and establishing a culture. Early leadership theories tend to focus upon the trait approach, style approach and contingency approach, where characteristics and behaviors affects leadership; the later new leadership theories tend to focus upon the organizational vision, transactional, transformational, role of followers, the contextual nature of leadership. Each leadership theories provides a personal models or concepts that given management a direction, however each theories does has their own advantages and problems. The next few paragraphs will provide more insight look of some typical theories of leadership: Great man theory, Trait theory, Style theory, Contingency theory, Transactional leader, and Transformational leader. In 19th century, the Great man theory was a popular idea which identifies leaders are born and not made. Great leaders will arise when there is a great need. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 599) explained that the theory as Great Man are born leaders, and emerge to take power, regardless of the social, organizational or history context. It can be said that history leaders were male and primary focus on man only, and great man are born with destined to lead. Next similar theory of leadership is a Trait theory. The Trait theory is the ideas which identify leaders are the people born with inherited leadership characteristic or traits that make these people suited to become leader. According to Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 599), Ralph Stoghill (1948, 1974) had reviewed hundreds of trait studies. Some of his typical characteristics list are strong drive for responsibilities, focus on completing the task, vigor and persistence in pursuit of goals, venturesomeness and originally in problem-solving, drive to exercise initiative in social setting, self-confidence, sense of personal identity, willingness to accept consequences of decisions and actions, readiness to absorb interpersonal stress, willingness to tolerate frustration and delay, ability to influence the behavior of others. However researchers argue that the research did not find a consistent set of leadership traits, those attributes could not be determined, and do not appear to be un ique to leaders. Later Shaw and Fraser (1976, 1978) identified the following skills as a traits leader: ability (intelligence, relevant knowledge, and verbal facility), sociability (participation, cooperativeness, popularity, motivation (initiative and persistence). Some commentators argue that this theory remains gender issues in leadership and a person without trait or some of the traits are not possible for him to be a leader. The Trait theory was abandoned after researchers switched attention to leadership behavior patterns. After the Trait theory, Style or Behavioral style theory has emerged and most commentators considered that this is a big jump from Trait theory. Researchers identified that Style theory is a theory look at what a leader actually do, the traits and the leadership capabilities and qualities are not inherited. It assumes that leaders are not born; leadership behavior and capability can be learned hence leaders can be made through training. Successful leadership is definable and learnable. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 606) discussed that in 1940s to early of 1950s, Survey Research Center in Michigan with Katz et al had identified two dimensions of leadership: employee-centered behavior and job-centered behavior. The style of leadership based on employee-centered behavior is focusing on relationship and employee needs. The leadership has a concern of people as priority, which always strives to solve the problems of followers, concerns the needs of followers, and development of followers. The style of leadership based on job-centered behavior is focusing on getting the job done. The leadership put the priority on achievement and meeting goals. In 1953a to 1951, Bureau of Business Research at Ohio State University also identified two types of leaderships behavior which are consideration and initiating structure. The style of leadership based on consideration behavior is focusing on relationships and needs oriented. The leadership allows followers to share ideas and make decisions together. The style of leadership based on initiating structure is focusing on job-centered, which structure tasks and assign works, and expect follower to follow instruction to act accordingly. However there are some concerns raised against Style theories, such as how well leader can fix to the given style of leadership behavior, and what if a person unwilling or unable to learn the given behavior. As Thompson and McHugh (2002) states that others have recognized that situational, environmen t and contextual factors all potentially influence and effectiveness of different leadership. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 610) identified that Contingency theory of leadership of Fred Fiedler (1967) as a perspective which argues that leader must adjust their style in a manner consistent with aspects of the context. This is a model describes the leadership effectiveness is depends on relationship between leader behavior or style and the favorable of the situation. The favorable of the situation can be influenced by three key factors, which are the degree of relationship and trust between leader and team members, the degree of task structure, and the positional power of leader. The theory can promote better relationships between leaders and workers. The theory also can help leader to familiar and not confuse with the tasks structure, hence achieve better effectiveness. Theoretically this theory judge the leader performance is depends on their abilities, not by gender or person background. However some commentators argue this theory is often fails when tested in real-life situ ation. And the approach should identify a leader not just by positional power, but should evaluate the person leadership competencies to deal with bad situation. Also this theory is difficult to assess the three key factors and not really identify the need of team members. In the late twentieth century, new leaderships have emerged. The new leader focuses on the key role of heroic, powerful, visionary, and charismatic. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 617) defined that New leader an inspirational visionary, concerned with building shared senses of purpose and mission, creating a culture in which everyone is aligned with the organizations goals and is skilled and empowered to achieve them. Later the new leadership was distinguished by McGregor Burns (1978) between transactional leader and transformational leader. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 618) suggest that Transactional leader a leader who treats relationships with followers in terms of an exchange, giving followers what they want in return for what the leader desires, following prescribed tasks to pursue established goals. This theory basically is a model that business agreement or exchange made between an employee and an organization or leader, where completion of tasks through reward or penalty. The benefits of this theory are people are easier to motivate through rewards or penalty. Also organization has the full authority, control and commitment from employee once employee agrees with the agreement. However this theory will limit the people development because people never has chance to learn to think because they are just require to follow instruction as per agreement. This leadership model may create a stressful work environment because upper level leaders hard to identify lower level leaders to help in managing people or tasks. So me commentators see that this leadership is unable to promote or creating an innovation culture within organization that encourage employees participation and contribution for improving organization effectiveness. Transformational leadership is an effective charismatic leadership theory. Huczynski and Buchanan (2010: 618) suggest that Transformation leader a leader who treats relationships with followers in terms of motivation and commitment, influencing and inspiring followers to give more than mere compliance to improve organizational performance. This leadership theory will improve organizational behavior and changing organizational climate. Hence people tend to improve effectiveness through self motivation and commitment to their work and organization. However this theory is highly depends on the ability of the organization leaders to influence, motivate and inspire people. There are numbers of leadership theories describe the processes of how a leader developed, influence, motivate, and empower people. Leaders have the flexibility in identifying right theories for them or their organization. These leadership theories and leadership principles are evolving over time. Undoubtedly, Leadership theories and strategic planning are going to enhance leaders capabilities to achieve organization effectiveness. However what happens if the theories or ideas are confuse or not effective at particular situation? Will the theories operate and suitable to organization culture? Will the committed theories fail to return expected outcome? Will the theories cause misunderstanding and impact to the operation or organization? How clear do we know the models? How accurate do we see the direction and outcome? This is a general rule that we must learn to get the concept of theories right first and then put into practical effect. This is a lifelong process that leader should c ontinuously learning and provide high level of commitment to understand leadership theories clearer so be more control and more effective of the outcome. Potentially leaders may cause fears and critical impacts if they are confuse or ambiguous about their action and outcome, especially leaders with great power. As Peter Parker quotes in his spider-man stories that With great power comes great responsibility. ASSIGNMENT 2: REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Bradford University School of Management, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 20010, 2011, 2012. Managing People (MP) Study Book. David A. Buchanan and AndrzeJ A. Huczynski, Organizational Behavior. 7 Editions. 1985, 2010. Jai B. P. Sinha, Culture and Organizational Behavior, First Published in 2008 by SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. Omkar Phatak, Pros and Cons of Leadership Theories. 6/20/2012. Retrieved July 04, 2012, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/leadership-theories-pros-and-cons.html Right Management Inc. Organizational Effectiveness, 2010. Retrieved July 04, 2012, from http://right.com/thought-leadership/research/organizational-effectiveness-discovering-how-to-make-it-happen.pdf Bolden R. Gosling, J. Marturano, A. and Dennison, P. A review of Leadership Theory and Competency Frameworks, June 2003. Retrieved July 04, 2012, from http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/cls/documents/mgmt_standards.pdf Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Leadership. Retrieved July 04, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership#Theories The High and the Mighty. Shelton, Ken. Leadership Excellence29. 5 (May 2012): 2. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.brad.ac.uk/docview/1018673389/137BDADA9D5486776E9/2?accountid=17193 Successful Leaders. Halvorson, Heidi Grant. Leadership Excellence29. 5 (May 2012): 6. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.brad.ac.uk/docview/1018673393/fulltext/137BDADA9D5486776E9/6?accountid=17193 Real Leaders. Fretwell, Peter. Leadership Excellence29. 5 (May 2012): 8. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.brad.ac.uk/docview/1018673589/fulltext/137BDADA9D5486776E9/8?accountid=17193

The Changing Mattress Industry in America Essay -- Business Industry A

The Changing Mattress Industry in America Changes in the global environment in conjunction with the deepest and most prolonged economic downturn since the Great Depression have started what I believe is a sea change in the domestic mattress industry. Factors such as declining new home sales, tightening of consumer credit, the consumer confidence index still well below pre-recessionary levels (Wang, 2010) and unemployment hovering near 10% have all contributed to the end of conspicuous consumption for big-ticket items like mattresses and foundations (‘mattresses’). Mattress manufacturers will need to lower material and manufacturing costs, develop products that differentiate them from their competitors, or develop new channels of distribution in order to remain viable in rapidly changing global and task environments. Domestic production of mattresses in 2010 will be slightly below $6 billion, and almost 16% less than the peak mattress production of 2007. (International Sleep Products Association, 2010). Many consumers have lost confidence in the economic state of the country and therefore have begun to believe that, as Newt Gingrich said recently, "if you can’t afford to buy a house, don’t buy it." (Gingrich, 2010). The economic downturn has signaled the end of conspicuous consumption, defined as â€Å"the act or practice of spending money on expensive things that are not necessary in order to impress other people†. (Merrian-Webster's Leaner's Dictionary, 2010). Identify functional and dysfunctional control systems within your own organization I am currently a Senior Vice-President of Sales for King Koil Licensing Company (KKLC). KKLC is a company who licenses mattress-manufacturing facilities, called licensees, both domestically a... ...ll Irwin. King Koil Licensing Company. (2010, December). YOUR identity, YOUR comfort, YOUR sleep . Retrieved December 28, 2010, from comfortsolutions.com: YOUR identity, YOUR comfort, YOUR sleep Merrian-Webster's Leaner's Dictionary. (2010, December). Retrieved December 26, 2101, from Merrian-Webster's Leaner's Dictionary: http://east.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conspicuous%20consumption Michael J. Breus, P. (2006, March 15). Sleep Disorders Guide. Retrieved December 27, 2010, from WebMd.com: http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/important-sleep-habits?page=2 Perry, D. (2010, June 21). Top Bedding Producers. Furniture Today , pp. 12-13. Wang, H. (2010, July 27). The Consumer Confidence Index hit an all-time low of 25.3 in February 2009. Retrieved December 25, 2010, from Sparxoo: http://sparxoo.com/market-stats/consumer-confidence-index-february-2009/

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams Essay -- A Streetcar Na

ENGLISH ESSAY   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses his brilliant writing to bring life to his characters in the story. I will be composing a character sketch on Stanley, one of the main actors in the play. I will focus on evaluating Stanley's ever changing character traits in the role he plays. They consist of different moods that he demonstrates during the play: his aggressiveness, his love for Stella and also his rudeness and cruelty towards Blanche.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Let's begin by talking about the way Stanley's aggressiveness affects the climax of the play. During scene three, while the boys were playing poker, Blanche and Stella come into the kitchen and, as a result, disrupt the games. This got Stanley very angry and violent . For this reason he got up and began attacking Stella. Here is a passage from that scene: ' Men: Take it easy, Stanley, easy fellow,--Let's all--. Stella: You lay your hands on me and I'll—'(57) This just proves what I was saying about one of Stanley's moods. His violence and the fact that he looses control of his actions is one characteristic which I didn't particularly like at all about Stanley. Here's another passage in Scene 10 that really show's how mean Stanley really is. This scene depicts when Stanley gets into a fight with Blanche. The scene concludes on a sour note when Blanche breaks a bottle top on the table and try's to hurt Stanley . Stanley says: 'Oh! S...

Indira Gandhi Essay

The period in history usually considered to have begun with the first use of the atomic bomb (1945). It is characterized by nuclear energy as a military, industrial, and sociopolitical factor.Also called atomic age. The Nuclear Age Began When The US Detonated The First Atomic Bomb On June 16, 1945, America detonated the first atomic bomb, starting the atomic age and the biggest arms race in the world. Although the first attempts to make atomic bomb initiated in Nazi Germany they weren’t successful until the US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in cooperation with the British government authorized the â€Å"Manhattan Project† in order to research about production of atomic bomb. A group of top scientists of the time worked for the project with the distinguished physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer being the head of the group. They succeeded to make the first atomic bomb in the US which was detonated in what is now called Trinity in New Mexico. Perhaps at first it was believed that the US would not use that lethal weapon against the mankind but soon people of two big cities in Japan fell victim to America’s atomic bombs. On August 6, 1945, a bomber in US Air Force 509th Bomb Squadron called Enola Gay- which is now kept in a museum in Washington- left a US base in the south of Pacific Ocean and detonated an atomic bomb named â€Å"Little Boy† over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The direct and the indirect death toll caused by this bombardment are estimated to exceed 140,000. This however was not the end as three days after Hiroshima bombing, another atomic bomb, called the â€Å"Fat Man† killed 73,000 and injured 74,000 people in Nagasaki, Japan, not including those who later were found to be the victims of the bombing. Of course there was another bomb made in the Manhattan Project which was never used. Oppenheimer regretted his participation in the Manhattan project after a while and began to speak against nuclear arms, and thus was removed from the project. His regret was of no use though. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, with the help of Oppenheime r’s friend, Klaus Fuchs. To keep its superiority in the arms race, the US began the research for making hydrogen bombs and could successfully detonate it in November, 1952. No country has so far used nuclear arms for military purposes except for the US. There is however concerns over some countries possessing nuclear arms, especially as some of them have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation of  Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT). â€Å"[Until September 9, 2009] there are over 20,000 nuclear weapons around the world. Many of them are still on hair-trigger alert, threatening our own survival,† said Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in the Annual DPI/NGO Conference. 18,500 of these bombs were made by the US and Russia. All five permanent members of the UN Security Council –America, France, Russia, China, and Britain- have atomic bombs and have been recognized as nuclear powers in the NPT. The NPT recognizes the countries that owned or detonated nuclear bombs or arms before January 1, 1967 on the condition that they would gradually be disarmed and destroy all their atomic bombs. The museum sketches the history of the nuclear age, which started with the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico desert in 1945. For a hundred years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale.

A Moment That Changed My Life Essay

This is my creative essay for the Film Program at NYU. The prompt was: â€Å"Introduce yourself. Describe an unforgettable event in your life and how it changed your perception of yourself or the view of someone close to you. This event can be dramatic and/or comedic. The assignment may be written as a short story in the first person or as an essay. † My one fear is that my essay is hard to understand. So any feedback on how it reads to other people would be a huge help. And also any gramatical errors or anything like that that you find would be a help as well. I’m probably mailing this out today so please, any advice would be much appriciated. Thanks. How did I get here? How did this happen. I sat staring through the open car door as it dangled there in front of my eyes. How had I not seen it before; how had it never caught my eye? It hit me so fast, like a wave that unexpectedly overtakes you as you walk along the beach. â€Å"It’s really happening,† I thought to myself. I am no longer a child. I am terrified. And it’s not fear that troubles me, it’s realization. It’s the realization that my life will simply just keeps moving along and I have no say in the matter. It’s the realization that I no longer have what seems like all the time in the world to figure out what I want to do with that life; what I want to be, what I want to leave behind after I’m gone. It’s finally time for me to stop thinking but rather go out and do the things I’ve dreamed of; the things I’ve only wondered at, baffled at, as I lay alone in my bed at night. It had never felt real until now. I stared at it as it hung there, as it hung unaware of the meaning it gave to me at this moment. Those few seconds stretched for hours, stretched to encompass the span of a lifetime in the flash of a blinking eye. And that’s what it all now felt like; a blink, a moment, a flash. Is that what it will feel like at the end? A flash? When I was a little girl, my father took me to the fair. He bought me a wristband so that I could go on all of the rides without having to fumble with tickets. He told me, â€Å"Darling, you can do anything you want here, just say the word. † To a young child, hearing those words was like being given the keys to the world; being given complete freedom. To me, freedom was a precious thing. I craved it; desired it above all else. But you see, in my eyes, freedom was simply having whatever you want, when you want, and not having to do anything you don’t want to get it. In my eyes, freedom was a perfect world, but only for me. Of course over time I was persuaded from these views by opening my eyes to the hard work and responsibility involved in having â€Å"freedom. † As I grew older I earned more privileges. I worked to make my own money, began driving, found myself a wonderful boy, and even began preparing for college; dreaming of going out on my own and making a name for myself in this wide world. And for a while the illusion was indeed convincing. I allowed myself to believe that over time I would gain more control in my life and that that control would one day become absolute. But it was still just an illusion, a dream; an idea of a perfect world, my perfect world. Eventually I would realize that the one thing which I thought could bring me my absolute freedom is the one thing that will forever hold it back. Time. Time is the one thing which binds everyone. Even the most wealthy, most powerful people in the world will die someday. Do you think they chose that for themselves? Do you think they wouldn’t change it if they could? You could have the whole world in the palm of your hand, but the reality remains; everyone is born, everyone grows older, and everyone will eventually die. Our time is limited. That can’t be changed, just accepted. So staring, I sat as it hung limply outside the open car door. How had I never seen it before? How had it never caught my eye? How had it all happened so fast? The lines, those small cracks, they hung loosely together over the weakened bone below. I sat staring, staring at my father’s aged hand that hung at his side as he stood outside the car conversing with someone who, at the moment, held no importance to me. Never before had I noticed those lines, those cracks, those wrinkles which spread out like ripples on the surface of a pond. Never before had I noticed how thin the skin appeared, how stretched, or even how loosely the veins spread underneath. For the first time I was looking at my father; a man in his fifties, hardened by years of ceaseless working. For the first time in a long time, I was seeing what was actually there and not just what my eyes were telling me to see based off of what they had previously known. For the first time, I realized I was growing up. For the first time, I felt the hold that time has on me. For the first time, I thought â€Å"I am almost eighteen years old. What have I done with that time? † What had I done? I hated the thought. I dreaded the question. That question to which my answer would speak of nothing of importance. At this time, what troubled me most was not the fact that I – and everyone around me – were getting older. At this time, what troubled me most was the fact that- in all that time of growth- the things which I had done served no greater purpose than to merely entertain; to entertain myself or the requests of others, teachers, my parents. I thought, â€Å"Has all this time been wasted? † Time goes by so fast; faster than even I can sometimes realize. The funny thing is, the older I get, as the years I have left steadily decrease, I can’t help feeling time’s steady increase. And this only leads me to further wonder; if these eighteen years have gone by so rapidly, as if they were nothing, will it not feel as though tomorrow I will find myself an old woman? Is it so unlikely? Is it so unlikely that, if the lifestyle I have I keep, I will wake up on that day and again have to question if the time I had been given had been squandered away in futile activity? A sad day it would be to lay in remembrance of your life and realize that the days you have spent held no purpose or meaning beyond to merely serve yourself and your own selfish comforts. A sad day it would be to realize that you have lived your life well and comfortably, yes, but never with purpose. And it was then, for a moment, that I was torn from my thoughts as my father at last settled back into the car and began to drive us home. I looked over at the man who had given me everything; my life, my childhood, and now this much needed revelation. Unbeknown to him, in an instant, he had changed my views of this world and of the life I was leading. In an instant, he had given me what was needed for me to stop waiting around, stop simply thinking of how my life will be, and start living, actually living. In that moment, in that rough weathered hand, I saw my future. I saw the effects that time would one day have on me. I saw the old age that would one day overtake me. I saw myself upon that final hour, laying, awaiting that final breath. But what I did not see was how I would greet that end. Would it be with peaceful acceptance or mournful detest? The real question is; when that final hour comes, when I take that final breathe, will the death that takes me be taking a soul that has truly lived? Will I have truly lived? I sit, looking at my father’s hand as he steers us home. I sit, not hoping for, but planning the things I am going to do, the things which I will do, today and tomorrow and all the days after. The things which will, in purpose, serve greater causes than to just simply allow me to go on drifting along in my life. For from now on I will do nothing but dream and create. I will do nothing but share with others my thoughts, my words, my ideas. I will do nothing but strive with all I have to make a difference in, if even in the smallest way, the life of another, the ways of a people, the turning of the world. From now on I will nothing but truly just live.

Great Gatsby: American Dream

As time flows everlastingly on, the dreams which man builds Its self upon are prone to change. Throughout American history the American dream has changed from being one which inspired and fed the hopes of people all over the country, to the twenties' mangled interpretation of it, where everything revolved around money and status. This theme is expressed in multiple characters and more specifically Gatsby who is a prime example of such corruption.The untimely demise of Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby, signals the unraveling of the American dream. In the beginning of the novel Gatsby dream is pure in its initial form. Starting out his dream is Just like any other's, one with glory and a better life for himself as he believed he deserved. Eventually he gain his dream of riches, this being reflected In his new life In the West Egg with his mansion being brand new apart from the Ivy coating It possesses along with his vast amount of lawn area. Fitzgerald 9) Gatsby pays spec ial attention to his lawn also, cultivating It as he did with his rise to fortune and controlling most details apart from one section allowed to grow wild, which was a Indo to see the inner turmoil of Gatsby. This anxiety within is helped by the fact that one of Gatsby driving notions in the book was to When the realization hits that Gatsby dream is becoming a false sense of its self, the reader is forced to look deeper into the character of Gatsby and who he really is.This leads to the discovery of Gatsby continually living in the past, often times fabricating a story to make himself seem more outgoing and distanced from what he truly is, leaving the reader wondering â€Å"if there wasn't something a little sinister about him after all. (Fitzgerald 69) These tendencies led Gatsby to boast about what materialistic Items he has today and what he can give himself and others. Such as when Gatsby Is feeling anxious about Daisy coming over for tea he mows his own yard for a sense of con trol then extends his control to also â€Å"[send someone] over to cut [Nick's] grass. (Fitzgerald 88) Eventually, Gatsby possessive feelings lead to the corruption of his dream of winning over Daisy because he begins to want to possess her as well. The final turning point In the novel relating to Gatsby distress with his dream is he climaxing fight between Tom and himself over Daisy. Gatsby being so corrupted now, that he yells and forces his supposed true love to tell her husband she never loved him. (Fitzgerald 139) In the end this actually pushes Daisy away more and back into the arms of her husband, Tom.Within Fitzgerald novel the American dream was once seen as a budding new concept but In the end failed to bloom due to the circumstances in which the characters, specifically Gatsby, took to find their route to their believed happiness. Great Gatsby: American Dream By Instrumentalists As time flows everlastingly on, the dreams which man builds its self upon are In the beginnin g of the novel Gatsby dream is pure in its initial form. Starting believed he deserved.Eventually he gain his dream of riches, this being reflected in his new life in the West Egg with his mansion being brand new apart from the coating it possesses along with his vast amount of lawn area. (Fitzgerald 9) Gatsby pays special attention to his lawn also, cultivating it as he did with his rise to fortune hat one of Gatsby driving notions in the book was to materialistic items he has today and what he can give himself and others.Such as when Gatsby is feeling anxious about Daisy coming over for tea he mows his own cut [Nicks] grass. † (Fitzgerald 88) Eventually, Gatsby possessive feelings lead to the The final turning point in the novel relating to Gatsby distress with his dream is the climaxing fight between Tom and himself over Daisy. Gatsby being so corrupted concept but in the end failed to bloom due to the circumstances in which the

Curricular Ramifications

The employment of computer technologies in elementary school education has significantly increased across the globe. The benefits and advantages of computer-based learning have been comprehensively discussed, yet it is also important to enumerate the ramifications associated with this endeavor. However, it is imperative to determine whether this technologically intense activity is appropriate for application to young children attending elementary school education. This paper will identify several issues that are associated with the use of computers in teaching basic lessons to young school children.One of the most alarming reports regarding the ramifications of computer-based instruction at the grade school level is that the brains of young children are inundated with so much information at an early age (Healy, 1998). It has been earlier established that the brains of young children are still undergoing further development and thus it is best to allow time and the normal activities t o enhance the young individual’s brain capacity as he grows through adolescence and adulthood.The exposure of young children to computer programs is thus a novel experience that has not been fully examined with regards to its long-term effects of human behavior and cognition (Kay, 1992). It is acceptable that adults employ computers at work and at home, yet allowing young children to use computers at such an early age may be rushing their underdeveloped brains to mature at a faster pace. Another issue associated with the employment of computers in elementary school education is that the quality of software programs may significantly vary, depending on the designer or creator of the program.There are currently so many software programs that assist a computer user in uploading, integrating and consolidating different types of information on a computer. It is thus possible that the computer program that is used by a certain elementary school has not been reviewed and endorsed by the school district and thus the school children may be affected in terms of their learning skills and behavior. The ideal computer program that could assist in teaching grade school children should not only include lessons on how to count or read, but also instill good morals, as well as conduct (Cassell and Jenkins, 1998).It may thus be possible that the computer program employed by a certain school was simply purchased based on the price of the software packaged. There are so many versions of tutorial software that are featured with violent activities that attempt to teach children how to count or read. It is therefore important that computer programs are designed as a simulation of classroom lessons, which will always include teaching of proper attitudes and behaviors.Another issue that may result from the use of computer programs in teaching lessons at the elementary school level is the decrease in interpersonal interactions among students (Whitley, 1997). One features of elem entary school education is that these children are allowed to interact with other children of the same age, as they also learn lessons from their teachers. The employment of computers in teaching lessons to these young children therefore removes the social interactions that are important in shaping the personality of a child.Computer programs will thus accumulate more time spent sitting on a desk and staring at a computer screen. The young schoolchildren will thus lose significant time in playing and interacting with other children. Computer-based learning may also decrease the opportunities for a young child to learn the concept of cause and effect, which is strongly linked to social exchange with other children. It is generally observed that compassion is often learned at children and this is mainly through seeing what happens when one child is affected by a particular stimulus in the environment.In the case of employment of computers in elementary schools, children will be left w ith less time interacting with children and thus they might not learn how to appropriately interact with other people. The effect of this setting may not be immediately seen unless they have already grown older as full adults (Whitley, 1997). Another issue associated with computer programs in the elementary school level is gender difference in the use and appreciation of computers (Barker and Aspray, 2006).According to earlier reports, grade school-age boys are more comfortable in using computers than girls, thus reflecting the concept of male dominance in computer technology use (Butler, 2000). This gender difference may therefore affect the performance and learning capacity of the female school children, as these do not fully appreciate the reason why they have to use computers in learning specific lessons at school. In addition, there are reports that describe that elementary school-age girls develop an increase in their negative perception of computers when they reach the age ra nge of 12 to 13 years of age (Kay, 2006a).On the other hand, boys of this same age range show an increase in their interest on computers, and thus reflect the significant improvement of their test scores from computer lessons and activities (Kay, 2006b). It has been suggested that this correlation between boys and computer use is influenced by the sense of confidence that this gender feels as they use such technological gadgets. Another obstacle that is associated with the use of computer technology in elementary school instruction is the difficulty of teachers in integrating this technology in their curriculum (Jenson and Rose, 2003).It is critical to understand that computers have only been employed in most human activity in the last twenty to thirty years. In addition, it has only been in the last 15 years that communication methods such as the email and short message service have been fully appreciated by society. It is thus possible that there are certain teachers in elementary schools around that world that are still not comfortable with using computers in their teaching curriculum.There are some teachers that would rather stick with the old classical method of instruction, especially when they have been teaching young children with only the basic lessons of reading, mathematics and writing (Howe, 1997). In the case where the Department of Education or the school district obliges all elementary school teachers to integrate computer programs in their teaching curriculum, this may present some form of stress of certain teachers that are not used to this technology.It is thus important that teachers be highly trained with regards to the use and the recognition of the advantages of including computers in their curriculum. It will be disappointing to see reports in the futures which describe teachers that are misguiding young school children in their classroom lessons because the teacher himself is not familiar with using a computer program. Given these ramif ications on the curriculum of elementary schools, it is thus important that the decision and choices made with regards to computer use be thoroughly reviewed and assessed.Elementary schoolchildren’s brains are highly malleable and thus it is critical that the appropriate and relevant measure are undertaken in order to ensure good educations among these young individuals. References Barker, L. J. and Aspray, W. (2006). The state of research on girls and IT. In: Cohoon, J. M. and Aspray, E. (eds. ). Women and Information Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pages 3–54. Butler, D. (2000). Gender, girls, and computer technology: What's the status now? Clearing House, 73, 225–229. Cassell, J. and Jenkins, H. (1998). From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and computer games.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jenson, J. and Rose, C. B. (2003). [email  protected]: Listening to gendered relations of power in teachers’ talk about new technologies. Gender and Education, 15, 169–181. Healy, J. (1998). Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds – For Better or Worse. New York: Simon & Schuster. Howe, K. (1997). Understanding Equal Educational Opportunity: Social Justice, Democracy and Schooling. New York: Teachers College Press Kay, R. H. (1992). An analysis of methods used to examine gender differences in computer-related behaviour.Journal of Educational Computing Research, 8, 323–336. Kay, R. H. (2006a). Addressing gender differences in computer ability, attitudes and use: The laptop effect. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34, 187–211. Kay, R. H. (2006b). Evaluating strategies used to incorporate technology into preservice education: A review of the literature. Journal of Research on Technology and Education, 38, 383–408. Whitley, B. E. (1997). Gender differences in computer-related attitudes and behaviors: A metaanalysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 13, 1–22. .