Essay about A Comparison of Frankenstein 1994 to...

A Comparison of Frankenstein 1994 to Frankenstein 1957 Over the past hundred years, Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein has been read worldwide, by many different audiences. In the original novel, the creature is given life by Frankenstein, and then he stretches out his arm to see if Frankenstein will accept him as a son. Whereas in the 1957 film he is in a box full of water, and is wrapped in bandages. The creature tries to strangle Frankenstein until he is stopped by Paul. In contrast, the 1994 film portrays the birth differently; Frankenstein is seen running around his lab and is all sweaty and dirty. Once the creature is alive he falls on the floor into all the liquid and he and Frankenstein†¦show more content†¦The director of the 1994 film made the lab realistic, by making the lab dirty and showing all sorts of scientific instruments. He also makes Frankenstein take his shirt off, get dirty and really get stuck into the birth of the monster, this suggests that he seems to want to be part of the creation more than in the 1957 version. Also in this film Frankenstein is studying at the university of Ingolstadt and in one scene we see peasa nts fleeing the city because of an outbreak of a disease. This is something which is not used in the 1957 version. In contrast the 1957 film’s director chooses to make Frankenstein wear a suit and work in a very stereotypical lab. Although the 1994 film chooses to use a wider environment, this film decides to use gothic horror, which the other film doesn’t, they do this by using lightening when the creature is born. In the 1957 film Frankenstein is portrayed as a posh, snobby and self obsessed this is show by the house he lives in, his servants and the fact that he is always in his lab working on his creation. Good friends like Paul fall out with him because of his creation, Frankenstein is so driven he doesn’t care that his best friend has left. In comparison the 1994 film chooses to show Frankenstein as a man that is driven, falls out with Clerval and Elizabeth, but he makes up with them, even though they don’t know about the

Hegemonic Hypocrisy A Victim of Social Scriptorium

With the passage at hand, Dr. Ella Shohat discusses about the case of being an Arab Jew, a historical paradox, as one of many social elisions. Unlike the idea of intersectionality, binarism leaves â€Å"little place for complex identities† (Shohat, 2). As an American, Jew, and Arab, she speaks of the disparities amidst a war involving all three cultural topographies. Albeit she speaks from a subjective standpoint, she does not mention the issue of racial hygiene, class, geographic divisions, and gender. Passages from Guenter Lewy, Melissa Wright, and Philippe Bourgois will be used to discuss the way in which different positionalities might affect the analysis of â€Å"Dislocated Identities.† In â€Å"Dislocated Identities,† Dr. Shohat tells of the†¦show more content†¦The people so called Mexicana possesses a double identity in which the coexistence of hybridity is not permitted. In other words, as explained by Rosalia: â€Å"Here you have to be one thing or the other. You are either Mexican or American. There is no place for a Mexican American here† (Wright, 219). In the case of Mexico, there are physical borderlands. However, Shohat’s story [and Bourgois’s story which will be mentioned later in this paper] proves that borders can exist independently from physical borders and is perhaps the cause of physical borderlands. In the maquiladora, engineers were Americans whereas laborers were Mexicans. Similar to the Nazi’s view of the Gypsies as parasites, Mexicans were also treated in the same way: â€Å"Today, on the U.S. side, a dramatic militarization (Dunn 1996), a rekindled enthusiasm for walls that physically delineate the political line, and widespread condemnation of Mexican immigrants as parasites in ‘American’ society have grained social networks and antagonized historical tensions on both sides† (Wright, 209). Other than the disparity between Mexicans and Americans, Wright speaks from a white American feminist perspective on the issue of Cynthia’s mistreatment

Late Bloomers Free Essays

At the first hint of labor, she is rushed to the hospital with fear and excitement. Hours of painful contractions take over her body but the knowledge of soon meeting her unborn child keeps her hanging on. After delivery she holds her newborn son in her arms. We will write a custom essay sample on Late Bloomers or any similar topic only for you Order Now She does not know until years later how dependent upon her this child will become. Josh does not respond well to sounds or faces but the doctor’s test his hearing and find nothing wrong. A few years later this mother notices that her son is a â€Å"late bloomer† when he has not yet learned to walk or attempt to talk. His appearance is like other children his age but his abilities are limited. Josh is unable to point to objects or hold his arms out for love. He pushes away from affection wanting to be left alone to play with his toy cars. Josh finds fun in flapping his arms and laughing, usually at inappropriate times. School has come but still Josh does not speak. When he begins to speak, he talks in a repetitive babbling manner that is impossible to understand. He fears school and unknown faces. When he arrives home from school, he is repetitive in movement and activities. Josh paces the floor in circular motions and at times bangs his head on the floor. Josh does poor in school because he fails to pay attention. He has poor eye contact and is often seen with his hands over his ears. By this time, his mother has realized that he is not a â€Å"late bloomer†, something is wrong with her child. After many tests and observations, Josh is diagnosed with autism, a disease that is not curable. He will live with this social disability for the rest of his life. Josh’s mother is concerned that she is to blame for his disability. She consults her doctor about the cause of this disease. It is possible that viruses and genetics have a role in Josh’s autism but neurological damage is most likely. Depending upon the severity of Josh’s disability he may or may not be able to care for himself in the future. He is totally dependent upon his mother for his basic needs in life. The above story is a typical scenario of a child with autism. â€Å"Autism is a severe developmental disorder characterized by profound language delay and extreme social withdrawal (San Jose Mercury News). Autism affects normal development of the brain having to do with social interactions and verbal skills. Autistic people usually have a hard time relating to the outside world. They are often described as being in an ice block. The cause of autism is still undetermined but, researchers from all over the world are devoting time and energy into finding the cause. Neurological damage can occur in any child for any number of reasons. This is why autism is so hard to diagnose and treat. This disease can affect anyone and any race. Neurological damage can be caused by many things part of the everyday life, such as vaccines. Due to a 273% autism increase in the last ten years in California, the U.S. Department of Education launched a research study. â€Å"It was decided to target mothers who had received a live virus vaccine after the age of 16, whether or not they had an autistic child.† (Yazbak, F. Edward, MD, FAAP 1999) The conjecture was that antibodies which the child had received from it’s mother had some how mixed with the vaccine to create autistic results. Mothers received the vaccine to meet requirements for higher education; work related vaccines, or failure to react to previous vaccines. Two hundred forty parents of autistic children and mothers who had received vaccines were studied. Seven studies are discussed in ‘Autism: Is there a vaccine connection?’ â€Å"Six out of seven children (85%) who resulted from these pregnancies were diagnosed with autism, and the seventh, (case 1) whose mother received a measles vaccine, exhibits symptoms which suggest autistic spectrum† (Yazbak, F. Edward, MD, FAAP 1999). Research is still being conducted on vaccines given to pregnant women and how the vaccines effect the unborn child. Other cases of autism are being researched, as neurological technology is becoming available. Genetics, for example, are being scanned for flaws and pictures are being taken of the brains in progress. â€Å"Phenylketonuria (a brain disease) is a purely genetic disease that can cause mental retardation† (Cook, Jr., Edwin H. 1999). If it is found early in childhood, dietary therapy can prevent this disease. It is possible autism may be treated the same way, but because this theory and many others are new, funding and research just begun. Secretion is also a therapy that can help with autism. â€Å"It is one of the hormones that controls digestion† (Lloyd, John Wills 1998). Secretion is emitted into the empty stomach by cells in the digestive system to stimulate the liver and stomach to produce enzymes that aide to digestion, and fluids that neutralize the acidity of the intestines. Pituitary adenylate cyclase activation polypeptide (PACAP) is also used. PACAP, a peptide that is used to medicate disease such as ulcers, but has a side effect of suppressing membranes which cause autistic children to act abnormal has been found. When given to rats, delayed reactions were seen in response to loud noises and open spaces. When children received secretion, their eye contact improved and alertness and expressive language were seen (Horvath, Stefanatos, Sokolski, Wachtel, Nabor Tildon, 1998). The Tomatis Method is a much different approach. The aim of the Tomatis Method is to develop or reestablish communication when it had been lost or impaired using the ear and its various functions (Sollier, Pierre 1996) Tomatis treats the child not the disease. This treatment is not a cure; it is only used to improve the lives of autistic children. Sixty percent of the children treated show improvements, such as clearer speech, more eye contact, and interaction with other children and teacher. Parents have been reported that Tomatis Method speeds up other therapies and makes life easier. Like all treatments, there are good and bad days. Some days the children revert to their own world and again become recluses. Tomatis has found a new way to retrieve these children. To reestablished communication, Tomatis focuses on the vestibule, the inner part of the ear. â€Å"There is not one single muscle of the body, including the muscles of the eyes, that is not under control of the vestibular system† (Sollier, Pierre 1996). When the sensory input does not run smoothly the child becomes bombarded with information. The confusion of the information causes the child to withdraw into his own world to protect himself. Tomatis points out that hearing and listening are two different things. Autistic children cannot focus on the correct information coming into his senses. All of us hear background noise, but choose to focus on bits of information that are important to us. An autistic child does not have the ability to listen, he may hear cars pass by on the street below and all the other back ground noises. Autistic children ‘space out† or enter into their own world to escape the confusion of the outside world. By creating an easier way for autistic children to decipher information, the desire to speak is found. To do this, conducted research in which children listen to their mother’s voice. â€Å"He electronically filtered her voice, to match the sounds heard in the womb† (Sollier, Pierre 1996). The children began to bond with people around them. It is known that a mother’s voice sooths children, and since autistic children live in fear its natural that Tomatis uses the mother’s voice to sooth those fears. As technology becomes available many therapies will be created to improve the life of autistic children, but the best way to improve the child’s life is to educate their care providers. Autism is an incurable disease estimated to occur in 1 in 500 people (Centers for Disease and Prevention 1997). Learning the symptoms and signs of autism is the first step in education and improved care for autistic children. Signs of autism may be detected as soon as infancy. Some signs include: 1. Arching his/her back to avoid touch 2. Failure to anticipate being picked up Years ago parents did not live the burden of with autism. Most children were put away in asylums to be left in their own world, because they were not understood. These children spent their lives not knowing any other world than their own. Today with the technology we have, we can enter into the child’s world and bring him back to our own. This can all be done with education and technology. How to cite Late Bloomers, Papers

Comparison of Guth and Ginsberg model of corporate entrepreneurship

Question: Describe the Compare with .guth and ginsberg model of corporate enterpreneeurship? Answer: Introduction Entrepreneurship is known as a characteristic or process that helps to design, launch and run a new business. An entrepreneur must have the willingness to develop, organize and manage a business startup along with any of its risks to increase its market growth (Fairlie and Holleran 2012). It is the responsibility of an entrepreneur to act as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business strategies. The Foremost task of an entrepreneur is to explore the market to find out opportunities. According to those opportunities, he develops business plans, hires human resources, acquires financial and nonfinancial resources and provides leadership to the organization to make its market position firm and wealthy (Ogunleye 2012). Risk taking is another supreme responsibility of entrepreneurs as it is highly important for a startup company to exploit all the available options in the market before choosing one. An entrepreneur must have skills and qualities to choose the right option a mong the alternatives. Therefore, it can be said that success and failure of a new venture solely depend on its entrepreneurs as they decide what to do and what not to do (Kuratko 2016). To understand and implement right strategies for a company an entrepreneur must have proper entrepreneurship skills like flexibility, focus, ability to invest for long term goals, self-reflection, and self-reliance, traits like determination, risk taking abilities, eager to learn, passionate towards his business and high level of confidence. However, these were only a few examples of skills and traits an entrepreneur needs to have in him but becoming a successful entrepreneur demands much more than these. Therefore, this report will focus on all possible traits and skills a leader need to transform into a successful entrepreneur. However, according to Baum et al. (2014), there is no foolproof map to entrepreneur greatness, but successful entrepreneurs all have the following skills and traits. Literature Review According to Leutner et al. (2014), passion, drive, self-discipline and flexibility are the most important traits of entrepreneurship. However, according to, Obschonka et al. (2012), it is not possible to point out exact traits to become a successful entrepreneur as some successful entrepreneurs did not have some of the traits defined by (Choi and Lee 2014) but still they did well in their respective organizations. However, there is no doubt that, a successful entrepreneur must have most of these traits if he wants to develop his business and organization is in a successful manner. Figure 1: five-trait model of entrepreneurship (Source: Leutner 2014) Passion Entrepreneurship is not a path for the phlegmatic. If an entrepreneur does not have any passion for whatever he is thinking and doing, then the path is not for them. It is highly possible that a startup company will experience many difficulties, setbacks, and challenges (Omorede 2015). Therefore, it a person does not have passion towards his work, as an entrepreneur, he will not be able to handle the pressure. For example, Raaja Nemani and Aaron Firestein, the founders of BucketFeet Shoe Company faced tremendous challenges when they tried to start their new venture. Even after launching their first bunch of Shoes, they asked their friends and families to buy their products. This shows the passion within them (Omorede 2015). Drive According to Hamilton (2014), passion is a very important trait for an entrepreneur, on the other hand, (Lo et al. 2015) states that drive is more important than passion as plenty of people are passionate about their hobbies, but they are not ready to make a full-time business of them. Drive is a very important trait as for an entrepreneur it is essential to overcome hurdles, get through long hours and failures and keep moving and updating the products and services. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and present CEO of Facebook, faced numerous challenges, after he and his roommates launched this social site. However, he never backed down and his willingness to become successful allowed him to make Facebook as one the most popular networking sites in the world (Omorede 2015). Self-Discipline An entrepreneur must be a disciplined person and leader. Being the boss of the company does not mean that an entrepreneur will sleep till noon and will take an endless vacation unless he does not want to run his company successfully (Espritu and Sastre 2015). Any new venture will face several challenges and distractions. Being the leader of the company, an entrepreneur must show same discipline, responsibility, dedication and hard work like his employees to achieve the desired goals. Flexibility An entrepreneur not only carries the responsibilities of a leader but also performs different tasks in the initial stages. It is obvious that a new company does not have a huge number of employees who can perform every task under every department. Therefore, an entrepreneur acts like an accountant, marketer, PR representatives, project manager and service agent. According to Yang et al. (2014), an entrepreneur must be willing to dive into all aspects of the business to give it a successful start. However, according to, Todorovic et al. (2015), doing not everything alone is the right thing for an entrepreneur. He also says that an entrepreneur must focus on the goals of marketing, promotion and collect financial and non-financial resources because those are the primary concerns for a startup company. Motivation In some cases, it is seen that people are leaving their well-settled jobs to open their businesses. Those people are believed to be self-motivated people who want to do something on their own. For example, Raaja Nemani, one of the founders of BucketFeet Shoe Company of Chicago, left his job and joined hands with Aaron Firestein to open their new venture. They were highly motivated and focused about their business. However, it is not necessary that other employees will feel the same motivation because it is just a job for them. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, it is important that he can motivate the employees to perform at their best level (Estay et al. 2013). For start-up businesses, it is obvious that an entrepreneur runs short on financial resources; therefore, he cannot offer rewards like bonus payments and increments to motivate his employees. In this situation, an entrepreneur must communicate with his employees regularly to give them feedback on their performance. An entrepreneu r must not hesitate while appraising an employee in front of other employees by saying thank you for his good performance. In this way, he can motivate the other employees of the organization. However, according to Lewis and SIU (2015), finding out proper traits for an entrepreneur is not easy as above. He states that an entrepreneur must follow the Guth and Ginsberg model of entrepreneurship to become a successful leader in his organization. Figure 2: Guth and Ginsberg model of entrepreneurship (Source: Soriano and Huarng 2013) Unlike the previous entrepreneurship model that includes passion, drive, self-discipline, flexibility and motivation as the five most important traits, Guth and Ginsberg model of entrepreneurship describes a whole new idea of entrepreneurship. According to Guth and Ginsberg model, there cannot be any straightforward and simple model that can describe the traits of an entrepreneur. They divided the entrepreneurship into two sections, The first division of the model describes a new business within existing organization like the one Wal-Mart did in 2001 by joining hands with Stanley Works and selling the hand tools and mechanic tools of the company by opening a new business segment in their existing business structure (Caraway 2015). The second part of the model describes the transformation of an organization through renewal as if the one Volkswagen is planning to transform their technical structure to deal with their Cheating Emission Scandal (Goel 2015). It is obvious that for both of the divisions, different entrepreneurship skills are required. For example, while a company is starting a new business within the existing structure, the leader or entrepreneur of that particular business must focus on new business strategies, structures, processes and core values. He does not need to think about how his employees will do as the employees already understand the existing structure and brand value of the company. Therefore, they will perform with a good level of motivation because they are already familiar with the rewards they will get. That entrepreneur will never have to worry about financial resources, as he will get support from the existing structure of the company. Besides, that entrepreneur will get ample amount of support while promoting the new brand, communicating with stakeholders and distributors and setting a precise goal. On the other hand, while transforming an organization, entrepreneurs will face several challenges. For example, Volkswagen is currently planning to transform their entire technical structure after their "Cheating Emission Scandal." They will have to withdraw near about 800,000 cars from all over the Europe to upgrade their engines to meet the rules and regulations of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dealing with this situation will not be an easy task for the entrepreneurs of the company, as they will have to start from the beginning. Besides, upgrading 800,000 cars with the help of an existing number of employees is not possible. Therefore, entrepreneurs of Volkswagen will have to come up with the strategy to recruit new employees under short-term employment contracts. They will have to work hard to regain the trust of the customers, shareholders and distributors also. It can be said that for the entrepreneurs who are working to transform their organization will have to follow different traits than those entrepreneurs who are simply opening a business section under an existing organization. However, according to Aulet (2013), Guth and Ginsberg's theory is not a foolproof model of entrepreneurship. He states that the model follows a flow chart and, therefore, depicts a sequential relationship between entrepreneurship factor and entrepreneurship. This model also does not suggest how the entrepreneurs of a new company should act to provide a positive start to the business. On the other hand, entrepreneurship model supported by (Baum et al. 2014), describes two additional traits that are not present in the five entrepreneurship model and entrepreneurship model of Guth and Ginsberg. Those traits are a willingness to fail and strong social logistic network. Willingness to fail According to Audretsch (2015), successful entrepreneurs must follow the adage "nothing ventured, nothing gained." Entrepreneurs should not be afraid while taking a reckless decision. They must understand that failure is part of life and without failure; it is possible to understand and find the right paths. An entrepreneur who never fears failure can take best possible decisions in even the worst cases. Strong social logistic network Being an entrepreneur of a startup company is a very tough job to handle as in the initial stages he has to face scarcity of financial and non-financial resources. Having a strong social logistic network can help an entrepreneur to collect support from various places. For example, strong presence in social networks can help an entrepreneur to find out a person or persons who have similar interests or can invest in the company willingly. Raaja Nemani contacted Aron Firestein on Facebook before they opened their new venture BucketFeet. Conclusion The literature review clearly indicates that entrepreneur traits are very important to become a successful leader in an organization. However, it is said that describing and finding an accurate and efficient trait model is not possible as different businesses demand different skills and qualities. For example, skills and qualities of an entrepreneur in a construction business will be different from an entrepreneur who is committed to a service organization. In spite of this difference, researchers have identified five common traits that can help any entrepreneur disregarding their business background. It is true that an entrepreneur must have passion, motivation and self-discipline in him to achieve success in any industry. An entrepreneur must understand that the company highly depends on him. Besides, the employees who have no idea about how to proceed and perform will follow the footsteps of their respective entrepreneurs to guide themselves. Therefore, entrepreneurs must present themselves as an icon by doing exemplary works. Some authors like Guth and Ginsberg focused on different business levels before finding out proper entrepreneurship skills and qualities. First, they provide two sections of business like a new business for an existing company and transformation of the current organization. Then they pointed out entrepreneurship skills related to those different business scenarios. However, that entrepreneurship model is also not a foolproof model, as it does not suggest how an entrepreneur should organize his work style and attitude while starting a new business venture. Therefore, it is seen that each model has some flaws in it and various other authors criticize them. However, none of the models is completely wrong as each of them consist information that can help entrepreneurs in one way or another. Business Description Tesla Motors is an American based Automotive and Energy Storage Company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, powertrain components and battery products. In the year of 2003, Martin Eberhand and Marc Tarpenning founded the company and provided financial help until Elon Musk took all the responsibilities in his soldier (Liu et al. 2014). The primary idea of the company was to manufacture luxury cars and vehicles that will run on electricity. From past few years, diesel costs are rising in a rapid way. Therefore, the founders of the company felt the urge to manufacture a car that can run on electricity which is easy to afford. Besides, most of the countries in the world are fighting with the increasing level of pollution. Governments of the countries are developing several rules and regulation to prevent pollution caused by cars and vehicles (Moritz et al. 2015). Founders of the Tesla Motors understood this fact and decided to start their company as an electric vehicl e manufacturer organization. Another positive reason that helped the founders was the absence of any competitor in the market. Car and vehicle industry is full of competition where companies like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin and Landrover are continuously upgrading and changing their strategies to outnumber each other. With almost no experience, it was very difficult for Tesla Motors to join such a market. Tesla founders noticed that most of these companies were planning to manufacture cars that run on electricity. Therefore, they did not hesitate to launch their first model Tesla Roadster before any other company could. Entrepreneurial characteristic of Tesla Motors In the year of 2003, Elon Musk joined Tesla Motors as its new CEO. It was a time when the company had nothing to offer, employees were confused and the company did not have any financial backup. The entrepreneurship skill of Elon Musk helped the company to acquire a satisfactory market position and to transform itself into a vehicle-manufacturing giant (Kedrosky 2013). The following table is presented to describe the entrepreneurship skills of Elon Musk Entrepreneurship skill of Elon Mask Justification Self Discipline Elon Musk strongly believes that a successful entrepreneur must not have any ego within himself. Therefore, even after selling his PayPal company to eBay for $1.5 billion and joining Tesla Motors in 2003, he kept contact with the other two co-founders of PayPal, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. Risk taking characteristic Elon Musk was successfully handling his companies like PayPal and X.com when he decided to sell PayPal and join Tesla Motors. Undoubtedly, it can be considered as one of the riskiest decisions of all time. Elon received $165 million from selling PayPal to eBay for $1.5. He invested every penny of that into Tesla Motors. After doing that, he was cash-broke and he had to take personal loans from friends. However, his risk paid off successfully as Tesla has become one of the most popular car manufacturing companies that are suppressing competitors like BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Table 1: Entrepreneurship skills of Elon Musk (Source: Kedrosky 2013) Business Opportunity The idea of the electronic car development is a unique business idea which will be able to provide a high level of profitability to the organization. To understand the opportunity for the business idea in the present UK market, the macro environment analysis of the company with the specific product has to be considered. Macro-Environment analysis (PEST): Political and Legal factors Present UK government is encouraging the development of electronic vehicles, which is very good for the company. Supporting the electronic vehicle development by the government was initiated in the year of 2011. An amount of almost 200 million will be granted between the time-period of 2015 2020 for the development of electronic cars. This grant will help the company to launch the new products without facing any budget issue (Trop and Cardwell 2014). The present UK government is also helping to develop the infrastructure for using the cars by the users. They are supporting the local authorities and common people to start the use of the electronic cars and helping them to install the domestic charge points for the cars. The users of the electronic cars will be free from giving the congestion and parking charges in the government sectors. Economic and Environmental Factors Both of the economic and environmental factors of the business of electronic cars are associated with the energy sources of the vehicles (Abdulsater 2014). Besides, the high increasing price of the present energy sources is also hampering the global environment. Global warming is a big issue which can be reduced by the use of the electronic vehicles. Initially, Tesla Model Roadster had a price of $100,000. At that time, the economy of the UK was going down; therefore, customers could not gamble on a car which is new and out of the world. Sociological factors Present customers are more concerned about the environmental development which is increasing the demand for the electronic vehicles (Martin 2014). The governmental initiatives and the present situation of the world are forcing the consumers towards the electronic cars. Technological factors The technology today has been updated to a higher level which is influencing the development of electronic cars. There are some issues in this area such as lack of public charging points, overheating of the battery and extended time required for charging (Anderman 2014). Both of the company and the government are trying to overcome these issues with the help of their RD activities. Industry analysis (Porters five forces) Figure 3: Porters five forces model (Source: Author) Industry rivalry There is no such high level of competition (Martin 2014). Threat of substitutions The electronic car is a new product and at this time, the company has nothing to worry about the substitutable product. Bargaining power of the customers The product is unique which will be the cause of less bargaining power of the customers. Bargaining power of the suppliers A lot of suppliers are available to supply the electronic equipment which is the cause of high bargaining power of the suppliers. Barriers to entry There is no such legal or competitive issue to enter the market (Rimmer 2014). Market analysis The electronic cars have a high demand in the present UK market. At present, there are no such big competitors in the area of the electronic cars (Martin 2014). The company has a big opportunity to face a high growth with the business of the electronic cars. Marketing Plan of Tesla Motors The marketing plan of Tesla Motors can be described using the 4Ps of marketing mix model. 4Ps of Marketing Mix The marketing mix is a general phrase used to describe the different kind of choices an organization has to make in the entire process of bringing a product of or service to market. 4Ps model is the best-known model of the marketing mix. Four elements of this model are product, price, place and promotion. Figure 4: 4Ps of Marketing Mix model (Source: Mangram 2012) Product Tesla is an electric vehicle manufacturing company that also builds and sells powertrains and batteries to third party companies. However, their primary products are luxury cars and vehicles. The reason for choosing this option as a business product is very simple. Tesla founders noticed that there were no other companies, who were selling eco-friendly electric vehicles (Park et al. 2014). Therefore, they did not hesitate to launch their first electric vehicle Model Roadster. Price There are several pricing strategies available in the market. One of those strategies is to launch the initial product at a high price to create a high brand image for the product. Tesla followed the same rule as they launched their first vehicle Model roaster at a price of $101,500 (Moritz et al. 2015). However, their strategy backfired as a car that expensive could give only 20m/hour to the customers. Recently, Tesla changed their way of thinking by configuring their car Model-S capable of giving 60m/hour. Besides, the authority of Tesla is also planning to release their new Model-X at a lower price because they want to enter the lower part of the market also. Place From the first day, Tesla planned to make their presence in the global market, rather than focusing on local markets. Therefore, according to their product, they selected places where diesel prices are high or places where the government is strict about environmental and pollution laws (Trop and Cardwell 2014). They also targeted markets like China and UK where the economy is wealthy, and customers can buy cars at that high price. Promotion Tesla had major issues while selling their cards in different states. Some states like New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan and West Virginia, do not allow any Tesla stores or showrooms. Therefore, the authority of Tesla applied a great idea to promote their brand in those states by opening Tesla Galleries in those states (Mangram 2012). They used their galleries to educate the local people about the brand and the cars of Tesla Motors. The gallery also helps the local people to understand the importance of electric vehicle and how it can help to keep the environment safe. Projected sales Figure 5: Projected sales of Tesla Vehicles (Source: Rimmer 2014) Operations and Human Resources plan It is very important to select a proper strategy for the business before launching the product in the target market. The different types of roles and responsibilities and the HRM strategy for the new business are discussed in the section below: Operational Strategy Ownership The ownership of the new business will be the shareholders of the Tesla Motors. Location of the business The business will be conducted in the present UK market. Equipment These include the electric vehicles, power trains, superchargers. The battery of Tesla is different from the batteries of regular cars, but it is a trade secret between Tesla and Panasonic (Kwan 2015). Materials The main body of the Model S uses small structural force fields which are made of woven composite materials from duranium and tritanium allows. Human Resource Management Strategy Responsibilities of the management team The management is responsible for the proper recruitment and management of the human resources of the business. They have the high level of responsibility to hire the right people for the right job and providing them the required facilities for performing better in the workplaces (Liu et al. 2014). Most important three responsibilities of the management team are recruitment, job designing, monitoring and motivating the employees. Recruitment strategy Two major sections of the new business are the development and the marketing of the electronic cars. Different types of qualities are required for these two segments of the business. The recruiters of the company should follow a proper structure for the recruitment process through which they can be able to verify all the required qualities of the applicants (Kwan 2015). After selecting the applicants initially, they have to test the ability of the applicants in the practical field. This can be done by considering their past experiences or by taking some practical tests. Motivational Strategy The first step of the motivational strategy is to give proper training to each of the new employees. Training helps the employees to understand the job responsibilities and opportunities for the future growth. These facts help the employees to get the high level of job satisfaction and motivation at the time performing in the workplaces. To motivate the employees the management should provide all the basic facilities besides the salary (Liu et al. 2014). At the time high level of success in the selling of the cars, the company should provide rewards to the employees for motivating them. They should give incentives for performing better in both of the development and marketing section of the company. Finance plan The estimated structure of Starting funds is laid below: Start-Up funding Start-Up Expenditure $ 50,500 Start-Up Assets to Fund $ 20, 000 Total $ 70,500 Tesla Motors aims to assume business operations with $ 70,500 as Start-Up funding. Later the firm plans to accumulate funds by virtue of other investments. The balance sheet of the firm is outlined below: Assets Initial balance Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Cash and short-term investments $50,000 $22,542 ($2,583) ($13,295) ($37,504) ($61,107) Accounts receivable 35,000 35,000 35,000 35,000 35,000 35,000 Total inventory 16,000 16,000 16,000 16,000 16,000 16,000 Prepaid expenses 0 0 0 0 0 0 Deferred income tax 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other current assets 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 Total current assets $106,000 $78,542 $53,417 $42,705 $18,496 ($5,107) Buildings $105,000 $105,000 $105,000 $105,000 $105,000 $105,000 Land 100,600 100,600 100,600 100,600 100,600 100,600 Capital improvements 0 0 0 0 0 0 Machinery and equipment 82,000 82,000 82,000 82,000 82,000 82,000 Less: Accumulated depreciation exp 0 4,000 42,148 81,044 120,688 161,080 Net property/equipment $287,600 $283,600 $245,452 $206,556 $166,912 $126,520 Goodwill $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 Deferred income tax 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 Long-term investments 0 0 0 0 0 0 Deposits 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other long-term assets 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total assets $394,800 $363,342 $300,069 $250,461 $186,608 $122,613 Liabilities Initial balance Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Accounts payable $4,500 $4,500 $3,000 $3,000 $1,500 $1,500 Accrued expenses 0 0 0 0 0 0 Notes payable/short-term debt 0 0 0 0 0 0 Capital leases 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other current liabilities 150 150 150 150 150 150 Total current liabilities $4,650 $4,650 $3,150 $3,150 $1,650 $1,650 Long-term debt from loan payment calculator $80,000 $65,522 $50,320 $34,358 $17,598 $0 Other long-term debt $34,500 $33,000 $36,000 $42,000 $46,000 $49,000 Total debt $119,150 $103,172 $89,470 $79,508 $65,248 $50,650 Other liabilities 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total liabilities $84,650 $70,172 $53,470 $37,508 $19,248 $1,650 Equity Initial balance Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Owner's equity (common) $56,000 $56,000 $56,000 $56,000 $56,000 $56,000 Paid-in capital 200,500 200,500 200,500 200,500 200,500 200,500 Preferred equity 0 0 0 0 0 0 Retained earnings 0 (15,480) (65,051) (103,697) (153,290) (202,687) Total equity $256,500 $241,020 $191,449 $152,803 $103,210 $53,813 Total liabilities and equity $341,150 $311,192 $244,919 $190,311 $122,458 $55,463 Here, the balance sheet clearly outlines a fair image of the financial movements and how the firm functioned during the year. General Assumptions: Sales growth will bea minimum of12% annually, the prospects of margins is excellent, profits at approximately 20% - 25%, cash flow adequate. Marketing will remain below 7% of sales. The company will invest residual profits into financial markets or real estate. Future cash investments will use NPV projections to achieve maximum return with limited risk. The two decade record of positive growth for specialty automobile industry will continue at a healthy rate. The Automobile Association is of the view that the market is far from saturation and will not reach maturity until at least 2019. Despite recession other global economic issues, automobile industry has shown strong growth every year for the past two decades. Automobile industry will continue to be considered an affordable luxury. 16% minimum sales growth rate over the next three years as Tesla Motors assumes more popularity. The P/L or Profit and Loss of Tesla Motors is discussed below: Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Revenue Gross revenue $112,400 $115,772 $121,561 $129,462 $138,524 Cost of goods sold 52,490 53,802 55,685 58,470 62,855 Gross margin $59,910 $61,970 $65,875 $70,992 $75,670 Other revenue [source] $0 $0 $10,000 $0 $0 Interest income $1,200 $0 $0 $0 $0 Total revenue $61,110 $61,970 $75,875 $70,992 $75,670 Operating expenses Sales and marketing $10,000 $10,250 $10,609 $11,139 $11,975 Payroll and payroll taxes 25,000 $25,625 $26,522 $27,848 $29,937 Depreciation 4,000 38,335 38,709 39,270 40,205 Insurance 9,000 $9,225 $9,548 $10,025 $10,777 Maintenance, repair, and overhaul 12,300 12,608 12,731 12,915 13,223 Utilities 7,500 $7,688 $7,957 $8,354 $8,981 Property taxes 8,000 $8,200 $8,487 $8,911 $9,580 Administrative fees 16,000 $16,400 $16,974 $17,823 $19,159 Other 5,000 $5,125 $5,304 $5,570 $5,987 Total operating expenses $96,800 $133,455 $136,840 $141,855 $149,823 Operating income ($35,690) ($71,485) ($60,965) ($70,863) ($74,154) Interest expense on long-term debt 3,590 2,866 2,106 1,308 470 Operating income before other items ($39,280) ($74,351) ($63,070) ($72,171) ($74,623) Loss (gain) on sale of assets 0 0 1,000 0 0 Other unusual expenses (income) 0 0 0 0 0 Earnings before taxes ($39,280) ($74,351) ($62,070) ($72,171) ($74,623) Taxes on income 30% 0 0 0 0 0 Net income (loss) ($39,280) ($74,351) ($62,070) ($72,171) ($74,623) The P/L as explained above, of Tesla cuts a positive picture as far as finance is concerned. To begin with the operations the firm will incur expenses. But with time, the firm will consolidate and strengthen its finances. In complaint with taxes and other compliances the firm has performed well. The cash flow of Tesla is laid as below: Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total Operating activities Net income ($39,280) ($74,351) ($62,070) ($72,171) ($74,623) ($322,495) Depreciation 4,000 38,335 38,709 39,270 40,205 160,519 Accounts receivable 0 0 0 0 0 0 Inventories 0 0 0 0 0 0 Accounts payable 0 (1,500) 0 (1,500) 0 (3,000) Amortization 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other liabilities 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other operating cash flow items 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total operating activities ($35,280) ($37,516) ($23,361) ($34,401) ($34,418) ($164,976) Investing activities Capital expenditures $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 Acquisition of business 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sale of fixed assets $0 $0 ($1,000) $0 $0 (1,000) Other investing cash flow items 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total investing activities $0 $0 ($1,000) $0 $0 ($1,000) Financing activities Long-term debt/financing ($15,978) ($12,202) ($9,962) ($12,760) ($14,598) ($65,500) Preferred stock 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total cash dividends paid 0 0 0 0 0 0 Common stock 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other financing cash flow items 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total financing activities ($15,978) ($12,202) ($9,962) ($12,760) ($14,598) ($65,500) Cumulative cash flow ($51,258) ($49,718) ($34,323) ($47,161) ($49,016) ($231,476) Beginning cash balance $50,000 ($1,258) ($50,975) ($85,299) ($132,459) Ending cash balance ($1,258) ($50,975) ($85,299) ($132,459) ($181,476) In fine, the cash flow of Tesla Motors provides us with a detailed analysis of financing activities. It also portrays the cash balance or the cash in hand at the beginning of operations. Further the above table indicates about the length of investing activities as well as long term finance. Going forward the company will only accumulate further funding from other sources as mentioned above and strengthen the overall financial health of the organization, by and large. References: Abdulsater, A., Balasubramanian, A., Wang, B., Madani, F., Mansour, M. and Talla, R., 2014. Technology Road Map for Tesla Motors Sedan EV. InPlanning and Roadmapping Technological Innovations(pp. 215-238). Springer International Publishing. Audretsch, D.B., Heger, D. and Veith, T., 2015. Infrastructure and entrepreneurship.Small Business Economics,44(2), pp.219-230. Aulet, B., 2013.Disciplined entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup. John Wiley Sons. Baum, J.R., Frese, M. and Baron, R.A., 2014.The psychology of entrepreneurship. Psychology Press. Caraway, B., 2015. OUR Walmart: a case study of connective action.Information, Communication Society, pp.1-14. Choi, Y. and Lee, D., 2014. Psychological capital, Big Five traits, and employee outcomes.Journal of Managerial Psychology,29(2), pp.122-140. Espritu-Olmos, R. and Sastre-Castillo, M.A., 2015. Personality traits versus work values: Comparing psychological theories on entrepreneurial intention.Journal of Business Research,68(7), pp.1595-1598. Estay, C., Durrieu, F. and Akhter, M., 2013. Entrepreneurship: From motivation to start-up.Journal of International Entrepreneurship,11(3), pp.243-267. Fairlie, R.W. and Holleran, W., 2012. Entrepreneurship training, risk aversion and other personality traits: Evidence from a random experiment.Journal of Economic Psychology,33(2), pp.366-378. Goel, A., 2015. Volkswagen: The Protagonist in Diesel Emission Scandal.South Asian Journal of Marketing Management Research, Forthcoming. Hamilton, B.H., Papageorge, N.W. and Pande, N., 2014. The Right Stuff? Personality and Entrepreneurship.Personality and Entrepreneurship (May 19, 2014). Hardman, S., Shiu, E. and Steinberger-Wilckens, R., 2015. Changing the fate of Fuel Cell Vehicles: Can lessons be learnt from Tesla Motors?.International Journal of Hydrogen Energy,40(4), pp.1625-1638. Kuratko, D., 2016.Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning. Kwan, N., 2016."Tesla Motors Quality Engineering Application and Implementation" by Nick Kwan. [online] Digitalcommons.calpoly.edu. Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/imesp/162/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2016]. Leutner, F., Ahmetoglu, G., Akhtar, R. and Chamorro-Premuzic, T., 2014. The relationship between the entrepreneurial personality and the Big Five personality traits.Personality and individual differences,63, pp.58-63. Lewis, L.F. and SIU, W.S., 2015. Corporate Entrepreneurship and Ethical Decision-Making of Marketing Managers. InProceedings of the 1997 World Marketing Congress(pp. 646-655). Springer International Publishing. Liu, Y.E., Kang, Y., Wu, H., Chen, C. and Hon, E., 2014. Tesla Motors Inc. Case Synopsis. Lo, M.C., Hsu, Y.C. and Drozda, M., 2015, December. Entrepreneur's priority traits on creative and innovative behavior in technology era-case of innovative new start-up businesses. InIndustrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 2015 IEEE International Conference on(pp. 455-459). IEEE. Mangram, M.E., 2012. The globalization of Tesla Motors: a strategic marketing plan analysis.Journal of Strategic Marketing,20(4), pp.289-312. Martin, C., 2014. Driving change in the battery industry.Nature nanotechnology,9(5), pp.327-328. Nasdaq.com,2016.TSLA Balance Sheet. [online] Available at: https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/financials?query=balance-sheet [Accessed 23 Feb. 2016]. Obschonka, M., Silbereisen, R.K. and Schmitt Rodermund, E., 2012. Explaining entrepreneurial behavior: Dispositional personality traits, growth of personal entrepreneurial resources, and business idea generation.The Career Development Quarterly,60(2), pp.178-190. Ogunleye, A.J., 2012. Self esteem and achievement motivation: Behavioral traits for entrepreneurship, business and economic growth and development.Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (RJOPES),1(3), p.145. Omorede, A., Thorgren, S. and Wincent, J., 2015. Entrepreneurship psychology: a review.International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal,11(4), pp.743-768. Rimmer, M., 2014. Tesla Motors: Intellectual Property, Open Innovation, and the Carbon Crisis.The Australian National University College of Law, Canberra. Smart, A., 2012.Petty capitalists and globalization: flexibility, entrepreneurship, and economic development. SUNY Press. Soriano, D.R. and Huarng, K.H., 2013. Innovation and entrepreneurship in knowledge industries.Journal of Business Research,66(10), pp.1964-1969. Todorovic, Z.W., Todorovic, D. and Ma, J., 2015. Corporate Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Orientation in Corporate Environment: A Discussion.Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal,21(1), p.82. Trop, J. and Cardwell, D., 2014. Tesla Plans $5 Billion Battery Factory for Mass-Market Electric Car.NY Times. Yang, D., Eesley, C.E., Tian, X. and Roberts, E.B., 2014. Institutional Flexibility and Entrepreneurship.Available at SSRN 1884493.

Harnischfeger Corporation Essay Example

Harnischfeger Corporation Paper Questions 1. Identify all the accounting policy changes and the accounting estimates that Harnischfeger made during 1984. Estimate, as accurately as possible, the effect of these on the company? s 1984 reported profits. 2. What do you think are the motives of Harnischfeger? s management in making the changes in its financial reporting policies? Do you think investors will see through these changes? Answers 1. Identify all the accounting policy changes and the accounting estimates that Harnischfeger made during 1984. Estimate, as accurately as possible, the effect of these on the company? s 1984 reported profits. a. Changes that affect the Harnischfeger Revenues: †¢ The company start to account Kobe Steel sales in US, previously it only add the gross margin in the financial statement. (this sales represents $28 millions) †¢ Sales to a foreign subsidiary starts to be consolidated as a net revenues (this sales represents $5,4 millions) b. Changes that affect the Harnischfeger profitability: †¢ Change in the depreciation accounting method from accelerated to straight line method. Increase of $11 million in 1984 income †¢ Change on the company’s net residual value. Increased net income in $ 3,4 millions c. Inventories Liquidation: †¢ The company had a $ 2,4 million increase in its net income, as a result of LIFO inventory liquidation. 2. What do you think are the motives of Harnischfeger? s management in making the changes in its financial reporting policies? Do you think investors will see through these changes? It seems that the company had a better accounting result, not a better â€Å"operating† result. We will write a custom essay sample on Harnischfeger Corporation specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Harnischfeger Corporation specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Harnischfeger Corporation specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In order to report a better financial Statement (and increase its bonus based on accounting net income) the management decrease depreciation â€Å"levels†, increase revenues and switch inventories method of accounting. In my point of view, the expense reduction in SGA might be not enough to change the scenario. Worst than that is the cut on investment in RD, which apparently happened in 1984 and might affect future growth and results. There are good chances that the company’s investors do not see these actions with good eyes†¦

Legalization of Marijuana for medical purposes Essays

Legalization of Marijuana for medical purposes Essays Legalization of Marijuana for medical purposes Paper Legalization of Marijuana for medical purposes Paper Proponents of legalizing cannabis for medicinal use suggest the drug could help many who currently suffer from illness and disease. Opponents of the idea assert that the legal drugs currently available provide appropriate relief from relevant symptoms. These different viewpoints have inspired spirited debates. An unbiased assessment of the drugs costs and benefits requires extensive research. Investigations must reveal the drugs ability to alleviate symptoms without creating unsatisfactory side effects. Smoked cannabis clearly helps some problems and may cost less than other medications. Synthetic cannabinoids can also alleviate symptoms of many disorders. Data suggest that cannabinoids can work well alone; they might also function effectively as part of a combination of therapies. For certain disorders, standard medications other than the cannabinoids remain the treatment of choice. Yet given the vast individual differences in reactions to medications, a few people may not improve with standard treatments and may respond better to medical cannabis. There is not enough research on most medical applications of cannabinoids to draw any firm conclusions about efficacy. Further work on marijuanas medical utility appears warranted. (Hans A. Baer, Merrill Singer, Ida Susser, 1997) Controlled studies reveal that cannabinoids can decrease pressure inside the eye for glaucoma patients, alleviate pain, reduce vomiting, enhance appetite, promote weight gain, and minimize spasticity and involuntary movement. Other work suggests additional therapeutic effects for asthma, insomnia, and anxiety. Yet only a few studies have compared cannabinoids to established treatments for these problems. Case studies and animal research suggest that the drug may also help a host of other medical and psychological conditions. These include seizures, tumors, insomnia, menstrual cramps, premenstrual syndrome, Crohns disease, tinnitus, schizophrenia, adult attention deficit disorder, uncontrollable violent episodes, post-traumatic stress disorder, and, surprisingly, drug addiction. The cases may provide enough evidence to stimulate researchers to conduct randomized clinical trials examining the impact of cannabinoids on these problems. (Erich Goode, 2001) The evidence of marijuanas effectiveness for treating each of these medical conditions appears below. Surgical Pain A more practical approach to the study of marijuanas analgesic effects involves using the drug after surgery. Studies of THC-induced analgesia after surgery report either mixed or positive results. In one study, men who needed four molars pulled had they removed in four separate sessions under four different conditions. They received placebo, diazepam (an anti-anxiety medication), and two different doses of THC prior to tooth extraction. Results were mixed. This study is often cited as evidence that THC produced no analgesia. In fact, 3 participants rated the low dose as good or excellent and preferred it to the placebo; 6 others preferred placebo to THC. The high dose of THC was the least desirable of all the treatments. The results suggest that marijuana may relieve pain for a subset of individuals but not others and then only at an optimal dose. A study of pain from trauma or surgery revealed that levonantradol, a synthetic version of THC, reduced pain more than a placebo. This evidence suggests that cannabinoids may show some promise in the treatment of acute pain, but tells little about the potential for handling more chronic conditions. (Peter J. Cohen, 2006) Headache One recurring painful condition that may benefit from cannabis treatment is headache. Migraine, a form of headache that often includes severe throbbing accompanied by disturbed vision, chills, sweating, nausea, and vomiting, can be extremely debilitating. Bright lights, loud sounds, or pungent odors can initiate the pain. Symptoms often begin with visual disturbances like seeing flashes or auras. Then sufferers feel extreme tension and fatigue. Eventually, a pulsing begins, sometimes on only one side of the head, where blood vessels outside the cranium dilate. These expanded arteries activate nerve fibers in the scalp, causing absolute agony. In the United States, roughly 23 million people suffer from these headaches. One-fourth of these individuals have at least four migraine attacks a month. Most of these people have their first severe headache before they turn 20. Productivity lost to migraine may cost up to $17. 2 billion per year. Treatments for this form of headache remain imperfect. Biofeedback, which trains people to use relaxation and imagery to change blood flow, has proven particularly helpful. With as little as eight sessions of proper therapy, people can learn to shrink the arteries or decrease the blood flow at the site of the pain, bringing meaningful relief to a headache. Several medications help alleviate symptoms for some sufferers, but fail to help 30% of people. These drugs also produce aversive side effects in up to 66% of patients. The disadvantages of these medications led some migraine sufferers to try marijuana. Physicians have prescribed cannabis for headache since as early as 1874. Advocates of the treatment protested when it was removed from the U. S. Pharmacopoeia in 1942. Marijuana may have an advantage over other painkillers, such as the opiates, because cannabis not only combats headache pain, but it also inhibits the nausea and vomiting associated with migraine. Investigators have not conducted clinical trials to support marijuanas efficacy as a headache treatment, but case reports abound. Users claim that smoking cannabis at the first sign of symptoms can combat the entire episode. Investigations on animals suggest that a specific brain region involved in migraine, the periaqueductal gray, contains many cannabinoid receptors. This basic research, coupled with the case reports, led the Institute of Medicine to suggest that further work on cannabinoids and migraine is warranted. Ideal studies could compare cannabis products to established medications to help verify the utility of the drug. If cannabinoids prove equally effective with fewer side effects and lower costs, they might make a superb addition to the available treatments for migraines. Combinations of cannabinoids and other medications might also prove particularly useful. (James R. Mcdonough, 2000) Pain Patients seek medical assistance for pain more often than any other symptom. People experience a variety of pains that include diffuse, throbbing pressures or sharp, specific aches. Entire journals devote volumes to research on pain treatment. Some therapies are quite simple and cause few side effects. For example, a mere placebo can minimize pain in 16% of surgery patients. Relatively simple behavioral interventions also decrease pain. Symptoms often vary with tension and mood. Thus, relaxation, stress reduction, and biofeedback can help significantly. Alternative treatments, like acupuncture, alleviate symptoms in some studies but not others, perhaps depending on the intensity and location of the pain. Despite the success of other treatments, pharmacological interventions remain extremely popular remedies for pain. The simplest include aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and other over-the-counter analgesics. Americans consume over 10,000 tons of these drugs a year. They are relatively cheap, have few side effects at appropriate dosages, and work well for mild pain. Nevertheless, they all can be toxic. An aspirin overdose can damage stomach lining, liver, and kidneys. A dozen acetaminophen tablets can kill a child. Other pain killers that help severe symptoms include opiates like morphine and codeine. These work quite well even for extreme distress, inducing analgesia and an indifference to pain. People take them to recover from acute stressors like surgery. Chronic pain patients may have pumps installed in their spinal cords to release these drugs continuously. The primary drawbacks of the opiates concern their potential lethality and high liability for abuse and dependence. Opiate overdoses can be fatal. People develop tolerance quickly and often increase their doses with continued use. Withdrawal from these drugs includes extremely aversive flu-like symptoms and spastic muscle twitches. Thus, alternative pain medications with fewer problems could prove extremely helpful. An ideal analgesic would have little potential for abuse but still provide inexpensive, rapid, complete relief without side effects. No single drug has all of these qualities for treating the many types of pain. Thus, investigators have developed a multitude of analgesics. Cannabis may make a promising addition to this list. Physicians have used marijuana to alleviate pain since the beginning of the first century, when Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist, recommended it. The Asian surgeon Hua To used cannabis combined with alcohol as an anesthetic by 200 A. D. In modern times, clinical lore and case studies support cannabis-induced analgesia. A case study reveals that oral THC can reduce phantom limb pain- the odd, aversive sensations that seem to come from amputated body parts. Another case shows that smoked marijuana can alleviate the pain of arthritis. A third suggests a tincture of cannabis can relieve tooth and gum distress. This evidence generates intriguing hypotheses but cannot prove that effects stem from expectancy rather than genuine pharmacology. Given the dramatic impact of placebos on pain, examinations of expectancy remain extremely important. Different types of research have addressed the analgesic powers of smoked marijuana or the cannabinoids. In addition to these case studies, formal projects with larger samples also focus on this issue. These projects include tests of marijuanas painkilling effects on laboratory-induced discomfort, as well as pain from surgery, headache, and chronic illnesses like cancer. (Ralph A. Weisheit, 1996) Conclusion The future for cannabis holds many possibilities. Research on the cannabinoids and their receptors will undoubtedly continue to tell more about the human mind and body. This work could reveal additional information about the brain and immune system. Further work can test the efficacy of marijuana and the cannabinoids as medical treatments. Data on the long-term health effects of the drug could address many unanswered questions, particularly those concerning the lung and brain. Techniques may evolve to limit the drugs negative consequences, like recent efforts to develop the vaporizer to reduce noxious components of smoke. Treatments for problem users could improve. In addition, laws related to the drug may change. (Alan W. Bock, 2000) References Alan W. Bock (2000) Waiting to Inhale: The Politics of Medical Marijuana; Seven Locks, 286 pgs. Erich Goode (2001), Marijuana; Atherton, 197 pgs Hans A. Baer, Merrill Singer, Ida Susser, (1997) Medical Anthropology and the World System: A Critical Perspective; Bergin Garvey, 277 pgs. Peter J. Cohen (2006) Medical Marijuana, Compassionate Use, and Public Policy: Expert Opinion or Vox Populi? Journal article; The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 36. James R. Mcdonough (2000) Marijuana on the Ballot Journal article; Policy Review, 2000. Ralph A. Weisheit (1996) Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected Industry; Greenwood Press, 196 pgs.

HUMAN RESOURCES IN ACTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

HUMAN RESOURCES IN ACTION - Essay Example None of them have simply listed the positions. After clicking on the links provided by the companies, it is possible to find details about the jobs. Marriot has summarized the job position alone (Marriot International 3). It has not given additional information about the skills or qualifications needed to do the job. One is expected to deduce that from the description. Conversely, Kimpton has taken the time to outline all the duties and responsibilities, skills as well as the experience required to perform the job (Kimpton Hotels 2). The company has also outlined some of the objectives against which the applicant will work towards. Marriot may have refrained from including this information because the job is of a lower skill and will only be done part time. Regardless of these circumstances, an applicant would still want to know what would make them stand apart. What the sites do well Marriott.com has done a good job of identifying the job location. It has placed a map beside the job description so as eliminate any ambiguities. The organization has also clearly outlined the typical routines required to take on the role of a guest service representative. On the other hand, Kimpton did exceptionally well in describing the work environment of the company as well as the duties and experience of the employee. The fact that it had headings in the job positing was quite helpful. Both sites were moderately easy to navigate. One had to type in the nature of job that one requires in a search box before one could get responses. This process may sometimes waste time. Recommendation Good job postings ought to have clear headings. Marriot International hotel called their room attendants guest service representatives. Job seekers may not understand this title; it would have been better to use the generic name. Both organizations did not clarify the amount of time that one would spend performing certain duties as some could have more weight than others. In the future, it would be better to rank these duties in terms of percentages. Kimpton clarified issues about benefits but Marriot did not, yet this could be a deal breaker. Future job descriptions for Marriot should be more than a list of responsibilities for the said persons. They should include more information about job priorities, the work environment and many more features. B) Selection Three different methods Based on the job description for the general assistant manager Poste Brasserie Restaurant in Washington DC, it is possible to use the following methods of recruitment: job advertisements in newspapers or the internet, a recruitment agency, or a personal recommendation. Personal recommendations may come from one’s colleagues or peers in the same industry. Usually, referrals work best for organizations that are trying to save money as they will not have to place expensive advertisements on newspapers or the like. Furthermore, they usually come from a trustworthy person who has knowledge and experience in the industry. Conversely, they may narrow down the candidate's job pool to simply one person. Organizations may miss out on highly talented and useful individuals who were not recommended by the concerned person. Alternatively, a referral may be biased towards the applicants, especially if the referee and referrer are related. Online and newspaper advertisements may also be another way of recruiting a general assistant restaurant manager. These could be slightly costly as the organization has to

Normal Distribution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Normal Distribution - Essay Example For a group of statistics to be reliable, they need to have a normal or bell-shaped curve. In order to help achieve this outcome, the mean will need to be as close to the center as possible. Also, the standard deviation will likely be small in order to help the curve remain tall and narrow. The reason why normal distribution is so useful computationally is that it allows us to make conclusions from the data at hand. Let’s say, for instance, that a graph was skewed either to the left of the right. It would be very hard to come to any conclusive theories based off the data. This is because the data would not be reliable and could not be used to make any assumptions. Normal distribution is symmetrical, so it is easy to make conclusions just by looking at it with the naked eye. Other forms of data may require detailed calculations in order to make an inference or hypothesis. If a curve displays normal distribution, then the mean will be exactly the same figure as the median and the mode. Also, the standard deviations will be within a set range of numbers. If a curve is bell-shaped, then more than two thirds of the distribution (68%) will lie between one standard deviation of the mean. More than this, 95% of the data will be located within two standard deviations of the mean. All these figures are useful when working out probability. It is possible to say that there is a certain percent of a variable falling within a certain range on the graph. The tests such as Goodness of Fit, Independence, and ANOVA all use other distributions because the data is not symmetrically aligned. It could be that the distribution is skewed, either to the left or the right, and thus it is not possible to come to a conclusion simply by looking at the graph. The occurrence of outliers is also likely in such a case. One such method is the Chi-square

Delta Airlines Employee Motivation and Performance Research Paper

Delta Airlines Employee Motivation and Performance - Research Paper Example However, an employee can only be eligible for such privileges after working for an initial minimum of thirty days. The travel privileges can be used across all the destinations that are covered by Delta Airlines. Through this program, employees in the airline have been able to travel to different global destinations and they reciprocate in appreciation of their employer’s effort make their work experience enjoyable. The reciprocation is seen through improved employee performance and proper relations with the Airline management (Nelson, & Quick, 2013). In addition, the employees’ relatives can also enjoy the travel privileges. Spouses, minors mainly students and parents are entitled to the provision of free travel services. Employees’ children that are nondependent travel companions and friends can also enjoy reduced travel charges. It is notable that the employees’ families are an integral part of their lives and may play a big role in compelling them to keep working at the airline. If the families and friends receive such privileges, they may impact positively on the employees’ attitude towards their role at the airline. Consequently, the employees are compelled to keep working for the airline and develop a positive assertiveness towards the execution of their duties (Grodal, Nelson & Siino, 2015). The employees and their family members eligible for the travel privileges are expected to be on board after other commercial passengers have boarded the flights. Therefore, they occupy the spaces that are still available after all the revenue travellers are on board. Before the travel privileges are activated, the employees are expected to pay an activation fee amounting to fifty dollars. The travel privileges are applicable after the proper guidelines are adhered to and relate to all the employees. In order to maintain its well-established status in the airline industry, Delta Airlines offers a number of rewarding benefits to

A Traditional Definition Of Leadership Management Essay

A Traditional Definition Of Leadership Management Essay A traditional definition of leadership: Leadership is an interpersonal influence directed toward the achievement of a goal or goals. Three important parts of this definition are the terms interpersonal, influence, and goal. Â · Interpersonal means between persons. Thus, a leader has more than one person (group) to lead. Â · Influence is the power to affect others. Â · Goal is the end one strives to attain. Basically, this traditional definition of leadership says that a leader influences more than one person toward a goal. The definition of leadership used in this course follows. LEADERSHIP is a dynamic relationship based on mutual influence and common purpose between leaders and collaborators in which both are moved to higher levels of motivation and moral development as they affect real, intended change. (Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, NUTS! Southwest Airlines Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, Bard Press, 1996, p. 298) Three important parts of this definition are the terms relationship, mutual, and collaborators. Relationship is the connection between people. Mutual means shared in common. Collaborators cooperate or work together. This definition of leadership says that the leader is influenced by the collaborators while they work together to achieve an important goal. Leadership versus Management A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. The leader of the work group may emerge informally as the choice of the group. If a manager is able to influence people to achieve the goals of the organization, without using his or her formal authority to do so, then the manager is demonstrating leadership. According to John P. Kotter in his book, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs From Management (The Free Press, 1990), managers must know how to lead as well as manage. Without leading as well as managing, todays organizations face the threat of extinction. Management is the process of setting and achieving the goals of the organization through the functions of management: planning, organizing, directing (or leading), and controlling. A manager is hired by the organization and is given formal authority to direct the activity of others in fulfilling organization goals. Thus, leading is a major part of a managers job. Yet a manager must also plan, organize, and control. Generally speaking, leadership deals with the interpersonal aspects of a managers job, whereas planning, organizing, and controlling deal with the administrative aspects. Leadership deals with change, inspiration, motivation, and influence. Management deals more with carrying out the organizations goals and maintai ning equilibrium. The key point in differentiating between leadership and management is the idea that employees willingly follow leaders because they want to, not because they have to. Leaders may not possess the formal power to reward or sanction performance. However, employees give the leader power by complying with what he or she requests. On the other hand, managers may have to rely on formal authority to get employees to accomplish goals. Trait Theories In the 1920s and 1930s, leadership research focused on trying to identify the traits that differentiated leaders from non-leaders. These early leadership theories were content theories, focusing on what an effective leader is, not on how to effectively lead. The trait approach to understanding leadership assumes that certain physical, social, and personal characteristics are inherent in leaders. Sets of traits and characteristics were identified to assist in selecting the right people to become leaders. Physical traits include being young to middle-aged, energetic, tall, and handsome. Social background traits include being educated at the right schools and being socially prominent or upwardly mobile. Social characteristics include being charismatic, charming, tactful, popular, cooperative, and diplomatic. Personality traits include being self-confident, adaptable, assertive, and emotionally stable. Task-related characteristics include being driven to excel, accepting of responsibilit y, having initiative, and being results-oriented. Trait theories intended to identify traits to assist in selecting leaders since traits are related to leadership effectiveness in many situations. The trait approach to understanding leadership supports the use of tests and interviews in the selection of managers. The interviewer is typically attempting to match the traits and characteristics of the applicant to the position. For example, most interviewers attempt to evaluate how well the applicant can work with people. Trait theory has not been able to identify a set of traits that will consistently distinguish leaders from followers. Trait theory posits key traits for successful leadership (drive, desire to lead, integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, and job-relevant knowledge) yet does not make a judgment as to whether these traits are inherent to individuals or whether they can be developed through training and education. No two leaders are alike. Furthermore, no leader possesses all of the traits. Comparing leaders in different situations suggests that the traits of leaders depend on the situation. Thus, traits were de-emphasized to take into account situational conditions (contingency perspective). Behavioral Theories The behavioral theorists identified determinants of leadership so that people could be trained to be leaders. They developed training programs to change managers leadership behaviors and assumed that the best styles of leadership could be learned. Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor described Theory X and Theory Y in his book, The Human Side of Enterprise. Theory X and Theory Y each represent different ways in which leaders view employees. Theory X managers believe that employees are motivated mainly by money, are lazy, uncooperative, and have poor work habits. Theory Y managers believe that subordinates work hard, are cooperative, and have positive attitudes. Theory X is the traditional view of direction and control by managers. 1. The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid if he or she can. 2. Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives. 3. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, wants security above all. Theory X leads naturally to an emphasis on the tactics of control to procedures and techniques for telling people what to do, for determining whether they are doing it, and for administering rewards and punishment. Theory X explains the consequences of a particular managerial strategy. Because its assumptions are so unnecessarily limiting, it prevents managers from seeing the possibilities inherent in other managerial strategies. As long as the assumptions of Theory X influence managerial strategy, organizations will fail to discover, let alone utilize, the potentialities of the average human being. Theory Y is the view that individual and organizational goals can be integrated. 1. The expenditures of physical and mental effort in work are as natural as play or rest. 2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing out effort toward organizational objectives. 3. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement. 4. The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but also to seek responsibility. 5. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems in widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population. 6. Under the condition of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized. Theory Ys purpose is to encourage integration, to create a situation in which an employee can achieve his or her own goals best by directing his or her efforts toward the objectives of the organization. It is a deliberate attempt to link improvement in managerial competence with the satisfaction of higher-level ego and self-actualization needs. Theory Y leads to a preoccupation with the nature of relationships, with the creation of an environment which will encourage commitment to organizational objectives and which will provide opportunities for the maximum exercise of initiative, ingenuity, and self-direction in achieving them. Ohio State and University of Michigan Studies conducted at the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan identified two leadership styles and two types of leader behaviors. The Ohio State study identified two leadership styles: considerate and initiating structure. The University of Michigan study classified leaders behaviors as being production- or employee-centered. The primary concern of leaders with considerate and employee-centered style is the employees welfare. The primary concern of leaders with initiating-structure and production-centered styles is achieving goals. Research findings on which dimension is most important for satisfaction and productivity are inconclusive. However, employee oriented leaders appear to be associated with high group productivity and job satisfaction. University of Iowa Another approach to leader behavior focused on identifying the best leadership styles. Work at the University of Iowa identified democratic (participation and delegation), autocratic (dictating and centralized) and laissez-faire styles (group freedom in decision making). Research findings were also inconclusive. The Managerial Grid The dimensions identified at the University of Michigan provided the basis for the development of the managerial grid model developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. It identifies five various leadership styles that represent different combinations of concern for people and concern for production. Managers who scored high on both these dimensions simultaneously (labeled team management) performed best. The five leadership styles of the managerial grid include impoverished, country club, produce or perish, middle-of-the road, and team. The impoverished style is located at the lower left-hand corner of the grid, point (1, 1). It is characterized by low concern for both people and production. The primary objective of the impoverished style is for managers to stay out of trouble. The country club style is located at the upper left-hand corner of the grid, point (1, 9). It is characterized as a high concern for people and a low concern for production. The primary objective of the country club style is to create a secure and comfortable atmosphere and trust that subordinates will respond positively. The produce or perish style is located at the lower right-hand corner of the grid, point (9,1). A high concern for production and a low concern for people characterize it. The primary objective of the produce or perish style is to achieve the organizations goals. To accomplish the organizatio ns goals, it is not necessary to consider employees needs as relevant. The middle-of-the-road style is located at the middle of the grid, point (5, 5). A balance between workers needs and the organizations productivity goals characterize it. The primary objective of the middle-of-the-road style is to maintain employee morale at a level sufficient to get the organizations work done. The team style is located at the upper right-hand of the grid, point (9, 9). It is characterized by a high concern for people and production. The primary objective of the team style is to establish cohesion and foster a feeling of commitment among workers. Contingency Theories Successful leaders must be able to identify clues in an environment and adapt their leader behavior to meet the needs of their followers and of the particular situation. Even with good diagnostic skills, leaders may not be effective unless they can adapt their leadership style to meet the demands of their environment. Fiedlers Contingency Model Leadership Theory and Research: Perspectives and Directions (Academic Press Inc (HBJ), 1993) was a tribute to Fred Fiedlers 40 year study of leadership and organizational effectiveness. The editors, Martin M. Chemers and Roya Ayman, write of Fiedlers contribution: The realization that leadership effectiveness depends on the interaction of qualities of the leader with demands of the situation in which the leader functions, made the simplistic one best way approach of earlier eras obsolete. Fred E. Fiedlers contingency theory postulates that there is no best way for managers to lead. Situations will create different leadership style requirements for a manager. The solution to a managerial situation is contingent on the factors that impinge on the situation. For example, in a highly routinized (mechanistic) environment where repetitive tasks are the norm, a certain leadership style may result in the best performance. The same leadership style may not work in a very dynamic environment. Fiedler looked at three situations that could define the condition of a managerial task: 1. Leader member relations: How well do the manager and the employees get along? 2. The task structure: Is the job highly structured, fairly unstructured, or somewhere in between? 3. Position power: How much authority does the manager possess? Managers were rated as to whether they were relationship oriented or task oriented. Task oriented managers tend to do better in situations that have good leader-member relationships, structured tasks, and either weak or strong position power. They do well when the task is unstructured but position power is strong. Also, they did well at the other end of the spectrum when the leader member relations were moderate to poor and the task was unstructured. Relationship oriented managers do better in all other situations. Thus, a given situation might call for a manager with a different style or a manager who could take on a different style for a different situation. These environmental variables are combined in a weighted sum that is termed Favorable at one end and unfavorable at the other. Task oriented style is preferable at the clearly defined extremes of favorable and unfavorable environments, but relationship orientation excels in the middle ground. Managers could attempt to reshape the environment variables to match their style. Another aspect of the contingency model theory is that the leader-member relations, task structure, and position power dictate a leaders situational control. Leader-member relations are the amount of loyalty, dependability, and support that the leader receives from employees. It is a measure of how the manager perceives he or she and the group of employees is getting along together. In a favorable relationship the manager has a high task structure and is able to reward and or punish employees without any problems. In an unfavorable relationship the task is usually unstructured and the leader possesses limited authority. The spelling out in detail (favorable) of what is required of subordinates affects task structure. Positioning power measures the amount of power or authority the manager perceives the organization has given him or her for the purpose of directing, rewarding, and punishing subordinates. Positioning power of managers depends on the taking away (favorable) or increasing (unfavorable) the decision-making power of employees. The task-motivated style leader experiences pride and satisfaction in the task accomplishment for the organization, while the relationship-motivated style seeks to build interpersonal relations and extend extra help for the team development in the organization. There is no good or bad leadership style. Each person has his or her own preferences for leadership. Task-motivated leaders are at their best when the group performs successfully such as achieving a new sales record or outperforming the major competitor. Relationship-oriented leaders are at their best when greater customer satisfaction is gained and a positive company image is established. Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership theory is based on the amount of direction (task behavior) and amount of socio-emotional support (relationship behavior) a leader must provide given the situation and the level of maturity of the followers. Task behavior is the extent to which the leader engages in spelling out the duties and responsibilities to an individual or group. This behavior includes telling people what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it, and whos to do it. In task behavior the leader engages in one-way communication. Relationship behavior is the extent to which the leader engages in two-way or multi-way communications. This includes listening, facilitating, and supportive behaviors. In relationship behavior the leader engages in two-way communication by providing socio-emotional support. Maturity is the willingness and ability of a person to take responsibility for directing his or her own behavior. People tend to have varying degrees of maturity, d epending on the specific task, function, or objective that a leader is attempting to accomplish through their efforts. To determine the appropriate leadership style to use in a given situation, the leader must first determine the maturity level of the followers in relation to the specific task that the leader is attempting to accomplish through the effort of the followers. As the level of followers maturity increases, the leader should begin to reduce his or her task behavior and increase relationship behavior until the followers reach a moderate level of maturity. As the followers begin to move into an above average level of maturity, the leader should decrease not only task behavior but also relationship behavior. Once the maturity level is identified, the appropriate leadership style can be determined. The four leadership styles are telling, selling, participating, and delegating. High task/low relationship behavior (S1) is referred to as telling. The leader provides clear instructions and specific direction. Telling style is best matched with a low follower readiness level. High task/high relationship behavior (S2) is referred to as selling. The leader encourages two-way communication and helps build confidence and motivation on the part of the employee, although the leader still has responsibility and controls decision making. Selling style is best matched with a moderate follower readiness level. High relationship/low task behavior (S3) is referred to as participating. With this style, the leader and followers share decision making and no longer need or expect the relationship to be directive. Participating style is best matched with a moderate follower readiness level. Low relationship/lo w task behavior (S4) is labeled delegating. This style is appropriate for leaders whose followers are ready to accomplish a particular task and are both competent and motivated to take full responsibility. Delegating style is best matched with a high follower readiness level. Houses Path-Goal Model The path-goal theory developed by Robert House is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. The managers job is viewed as coaching or guiding workers to choose the best paths for reaching their goals. Best is judged by the accompanying achievement of organizational goals. It is based on the precepts of goal setting theory and argues that leaders will have to engage in different types of leadership behavior depending on the nature and demands of the particular situation. Its the leaders job to assist followers in attaining goals and to provide direction and support needed to ensure that their goals are compatible with the organizations. A leaders behavior is acceptable to subordinates when viewed as a source of satisfaction, and motivational when need satisfaction is contingent on performance, and the leader facilitates, coaches and rewards effective performance. Path goal theory identifies achievement-oriented, directive, participative and supportive leadership styles. In achievement-oriented leadership, the leader sets challenging goals for followers, expects them to perform at their highest level, and shows confidence in their ability to meet this expectation. This style is appropriate when the follower suffers from a lack of job challenge. In directive leadership, the leader lets followers know what is expected of them and tells them how to perform their tasks. This style is appropriate when the follower has an ambiguous job. Participative leadership involves leaders consulting with followers and asking for their suggestions before making a decision. This style is appropriate when the follower is using improper procedures or is making poor decisions. In supportive leadership, the leader is friendly and approachable. He or she shows concern for followers psychological well being. This style is appropriate when the followers lack confidence. Path-Goal theory assumes that leaders are flexible and that they can change their style, as situations require. The theory proposes two contingency variables (environment and follower characteristics) that moderate the leader behavior-outcome relationship. Environment is outside the control of followers-task structure, authority system, and work group. Environmental factors determine the type of leader behavior required if follower outcomes are to be maximized. Follower characteristics are the locus of control, experience, and perceived ability. Personal characteristics of subordinates determine how the environment and leader are interpreted. Effective leaders clarify the path to help their followers achieve their goals and make the journey easier by reducing roadblocks and pitfalls. Research demonstrates that employee performance and satisfaction are positively influenced when the leader compensates for the shortcomings in either the employee or the work setting. Vroom, Yetton, Jago Leader-Participation Model The Vroom, Yetton, Jago leader-participation model relates leadership behavior and participation to decision making. The model provides a set of sequential rules to determine the form and amount of participative decision making in different situations. It is a decision tree, requiring yes and no answers incorporating contingencies about task structure and alternative styles. The following contingency questions must be answered to determine the appropriate leadership style in the leader-participation model. Â · Quality Requirement: How important is the technical quality of this decision? Â · Commitment Requirement: How important is subordinate commitment to the decision? Â · Leaders Information: Do you have sufficient information to make a high-quality decision? Â · Problem Structure: Is the problem well structured? Â · Commitment Probability: If you were to make the decision yourself, are you reasonably certain that your subordinates would be committed to the decision? Â · Goal Congruence: Do subordinates share the organizational goals to be attained in solving this problem? Â · Subordinate Conflict: Is conflict among subordinates over preferred solutions likely? Â · Subordinate Information: Do subordinates have sufficient information to make a high-quality decision? Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership blends the behavioral theories with a little dab of trait theories. Transactional leaders, such as those identified in contingency theories, guide followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements. However, transformational leaders, who are charismatic and visionary, can inspire followers to transcend their own self-interest for the good of the organization. Transformational leaders appeal to followers ideals and moral values and inspire them to think about problems in new or different ways. Leader behaviors used to influence followers include vision, framing, and impression management. Vision is the ability of the leader to bind people together with an idea. Framing is the process whereby leaders define the purpose of their movement in highly meaningful terms. Impression management is a leaders attempt to control the impressions that others form about the leader by practicing behaviors that make the leader more attra ctive and appealing to others. Research indicates that transformational, as compared to transactional, leadership is more strongly correlated with lower turnover rates, higher productivity, and higher employee satisfaction. A transformational leader instills feelings of confidence, admiration and commitment in the followers. He or she is charismatic, creating a special bond with followers, articulating a vision with which the followers identify and for which they are willing to work. Each follower is coached, advised, and delegated some authority. The transformational leader stimulates followers intellectually, arousing them to develop new ways to think about problems. The leader uses contingent rewards to positively reinforce performances that are consistent with the leaders wishes. Management is by exception. The leader takes initiative only when there are problems and is not actively involved when things are going well. The transformational leader commits people to action and converts followers into leaders. Transformational leaders are relevant to todays workplace because they are flexible and innovative. While it is important to have leaders with the appropriate orientation defining tasks and managing interrelationships, it is even more important to have leaders who can bring organizations into futures they have not yet imagined. Transformational leadership is the essence of creating and sustaining competitive advantage.