Critically Analyze The Role Of Leadership Management Essay

Critically Analyze The Role Of Leadership Management Essay Leadership is very important to organizations especially to management perspective, to manage well the leadership could help company to achieving successful business. In the high competitive environment in nowadays, in order to have successful management of organization, organizations need to know the importance of leadership and the role of leadership in achieving sustainable organizational change. Leader is a person who in charge or as a change agent could manage an organization or use his ability to make the process of organizational change more effectively and successfully. Organizational change is a demand of the day and it is the needed power for organizations to survive in todays competitive environment. In nowadays, organizations are well understand the signification of the matter, and are serious to prepare themselves both in the existing and future trends to get the level of sustainable success, but its very complex and challenging for organizations to achieve the process o f organizational change. Due to leadership has a central role in evolution and cultivating an organization, thus, a very effective and highly competent leadership that is well competent to understand the most desirable shape of an organization and undertake the issue of organizational change in most appropriate way is high demanded in the process of organizational change. The analysis of literature reviewed was highly recommended two approaches of leadership in the demand of the process of organizational change which are visionary leadership and charismatic leadership. The main purpose of this research paper is to evaluate the role of leadership in achieving sustainable organizational change, the importance of organizational change and use the selected two approaches of leadership to evaluate how the leadership works in the Apple Inc, and how do these two leaderships could affect the organizations. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 The leadership and its importance Refers to Berger and Luckmann, 1966, leadership like other social phenomena, is socially constructed through interaction, emerging as a result of the constructions and actions of both leaders and led. Research done by Kristina, 2009, leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Additional research which has done by Sansom, 1998, the leadership of an organization is instead, an ability of management to get and protect the company benefits by realizing employees need and company targets and bringing them to work in a better environment to achieve the common goals. After knowing the definition of leadership, author going to discuss on the importance of leadership in organizations. Refers to the research done by Chris, 2010, organizations are built on leadership and when there is good leadership in place, a company will succeed in all activities that it undertakes, retains employees and experiences growth. In fact, no company or organization can survive and thrive in the lack of efficient organizational leadership. One of the key elements in organizational leadership is maintain a delicate balance between understanding employee needs and organizational goals. An organization with the right leadership elements will have employees whose are satisfied with working in the organization and who feel that their work has contributed to organization growth. It must treat its employees as the most vital part of the entire system and instead of just a workforce it must treat them like assets. Leadership is very important to organization because it helps es tablishing direction to organization, developing a vision of the future, often the distant future, and strategies for producing the changes needed to achieve that vision, and leadership could help organization in aligning people, to communicating the direction by words and deeds to all those whose cooperation may be needed so as to influence the creation of teams and coalitions that understand the vision and strategies, and accept their validity (Barbara and Stephen, 2010). In the case study, the leadership of Steve Jobs built Apple Inc to the worlds most valuable company in 2011. Refers to Case study, the company started off as Apple Computer, best known for its Macintosh personal computers (PCs) in the 1980s and 1990s, despite a strong brand, rapid growth, and high profits in the late 1980s, Apple almost went bankrupt in 1996. Then Jobs went to work, transforming Apple Computer into Apple Inc with innovation non-PC products starting in the early 2000s. In fact, by 2010, the company viewed itself as a mobile device company, in the 2009 fiscal year, sales related to the iPhone and the iPod represented nearly 60% of Apples total sales of $43 billion. Apple Inc could not have todays successful without the good leadership of Jobs; he controlled and managed the company well to lead company achieving high revenue every year. Steve Jobs leaded his employees went out to the limitation of the normal PC industry, to focus on the different high technology product s in the related area, the innovation power which Jobs built still has high market position for Apple Inc today. 2.2 Role of leadership in organizational change Effective leadership is always required to bring effective changes (Kennedy, 2000). Successful organizational change depends on leaders who has direct authority with people going through the change-to support and execute change in their span of influence. Refers to Reardon, 1998, radical changes require private acceptance and it is a role of senior leaders to aware people to realize the need of change and therefore to create willingness to relinquish old style of working in favor of new ones. Another researcher Kotter, 1995, said that the effective leaders have clear and straight vision about future and the successful change needs to have a clear picture of future, without vision the successful changes are very difficult, thus, it is very important for the leaders to communicate the vision. Drucker, 1995 regards leaders in an organization as the life-giving elements in every organization in that without managers, organizations cannot possibly function properly without good leadership . Thus, a strong link is noted between a leaders efficiency and organization performance. Another additional research done by Wasim and Imran, 2010, the organizational leadership has a central role in evolution and cultivating an organization, it can help the member of an organization and working teams to face the challenges and to work for organizational goal in a worthy way. Steve Jobs plays an important role of the leadership in Apples organizational change, he leads Apple went out from the almost decline situation to such successful IT company today. Follow Steve Jobs back to Apple, in August 1997, Apple announced that Microsoft would invest $150 million in Apple and make a five-year commitment to develop core products, such as Microsoft Office, for the Mac Jobs abruptly halted the Macintosh licensing program. Apples 15 product lines were slashed to just four categories-desktop and portable Macintoshes, for consumers and professionals. Other restructuring efforts involved hiring Taiwanese contract assemblers to manufacture Mac products and revamping Apples distribution system from smaller outlets to national chains. Internally, Jobs focused on reinvigorate innovation, and Apple pared down its inventory significantly and increased its spending on RD. Refers to the research done by Kennedy, 2000, effective leadership is always required to bring effective changes, Jobs has the full authority with staffs and outsiders in the ongoing processes during the organizational change. According to another research done by Kennedy, 2000, effective leaders should have clear vision for the future development of organization, for example, Jobs laid out his vision for the Macintosh in what he called the digital hub in 2001, in which could attract these customers who entrenched in a digital lifestyle such as using digital cameras, portable music players and digital camcorders, and Jobs believed that Apples control of both hardware and software could be one of the unique strength for Macintosh to manage all these digital things. Because of the great leadership of Jobs, 91% of PCs priced $1,000 and above in the US market were sold by Apple (Case study). Therefore, the leadership plays an important role in the organizational change, and the effective leadership could bring company with effective organizational change and increase revenue. 2.3 The evaluation of organizational change 2.3.1 The importance of organizational change Organizational change is defined as the adaptation of new ideas or behavior by an organization with many perspectives on strategic change and organization development (Halkos and Bousinakis, 2012). The role of the manager or a team of leaders is crucial for the change. Those changes range both from technological to structural change and from psychological transitioning to organization downsizing (Choi, 1995). Organizational changes including both operational and transformational change. Refers to Liberatore et al, 2000, transformational change involves redesign and renewal of the organization often not made by the effort of a management science modeling. Organization change occurs in many forms, such as introduction of new technologies, new products, new process of administrative systems or any procedure new to an organization (Baker and Wruck, 1989; Zhou et al, 2006). Nowadays business trends are changing rapidly and quickly in the globe and the organizations that do not change cannot survive (Hage, 1999). In the high competitive environment of todays business, organizations are facing both internal and external pressure that they must make changes in order to success in the industry. It is also very important for the organization to manage the demands and expectations of the customers, employees and management; therefore, there is always a need for change to meet these expectations (Wasim and Imran, 2010). 2.3.2 The organizational change of Apple Inc According to Hage, 1999, organizational changes mean that organizations are undergoing and or undergone transformation, it may be define their success story or any type of experience or failure, the organizational change is the set of different actions that results shifting in directions and or processes that affect the way in which organizations work before. Some research paper wrote that organizational change cannot be separated from organizational strategy, or vice versa (Burnes, 2004; Rieley and Clarkson, 2001). Researcher Graetz, 2000, also suggested that against a backdrop of increasing globalization, deregulation, the rapid pace of technological innovation, a growing knowledge workforce, and shifting social and demographic trends, few would dispute that the primary task for management today is the leadership of organizational change. 2.3.3 Summary As the research done by Wasim and Imran, 2010 mentioned that the internal and external forces are important to organizational change. For example, in Apples case the external forces such as the competitive of IBM Company Apples competitive position changed fundamentally in 1981 when IBM entered the PC market. Because of the IMB PCs not only gained more market share, but they also emerged as the new standard for the industry. Apple responded by introducing the Macintosh in 1984, the Mac marked a breakthrough in ease of use, industrial design, and technical elegance; however the Macs slow processor speed and lack of compatible software limited sales. Thus, in a result of this, Apples net income fell 62% between 1981 and 1984, sending the company into a crisis, and this could be the internal pressures to Apple itself. Both the internal pressure and external pressure pushed Apple must make some organizational change in order to save the company and to have long term business. Therefore, Apple has introduces the iMac in August 1998 which priced $1299 all-in-one computer featured colorful translucent cases with a distinct eggshell design and also supported plug-and-play peripherals, saved Apple from crisis, because of the successful iMac, Apples sales outpaced the industrys average for the first time in years, Apple posted a $309 million profit in its 1998 fiscal year, reversing the previous years $1 billion loss. Apple as a good example of successful organizational change company, it has changed in response to technology, legislation, competition and consumer demand. One of the companys strategies after organizational change is to provide customers with high quality and high technology products since the consumer demand is changing with technology in the recent years such as iPad and iPod. Another successful strategy is the digital hub strategy, Apples shift towards a digital hub strategy was initiated by the debut of the iPod in 2001, followed by the iPhone in 2007, and then the iPad in 2010 and these product lines set Apple on a path toward becoming a full-fledged digital convergence company. In a summary of the above analysis, the two approaches of pressures pushed Apple Inc to go for organizational change, and after the changes done, it helps Apple Inc to reach good revenue and successful business. Apple Inc has made some strategy changes, they shortage their business into only four categories, and also refers to the research done by Graetz, 2000 which mentioned in the 2.3.2 section, the rapid pace of technological innovation, a growing knowledge workforce are the primary task for the leaders in the organizational change process, for example, in the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple Inc has innovated some new high technology products such as iPad, iPod, iPhone and retail pathway. For example, Apple Inc not only wanted consumers to look at the eye-catching Macintosh designs, it is also wanted people to directly use and experience Apples software, the Apple retail experience gave many consumers their first exposure to the Macintosh product line. Another successful example o f Apple Inc because of the organizational change of Apple Inc is iPhone, the first iPhone was introduced in 2007 with many competitors such as Samsung, Nokia, HTC and etc, within two years, the iPhone went from zero to 30% of Apples total revenue, in terms of global Smartphones sales, the iPhone was the biggest growth story, capturing more than 14% of the market. From the two successful examples of Apple Inc in the organizational change could see that the suitable organizational change could help organizations with increase revenue and success business. 3.0 Analysis of case study 3.1 Visionary leadership Visionary leadership refers to the capacity to create and communicate a view of a desired state of affairs that clarifies the current situation and induces commitment to an even better future (Kathlee and Vincent, 2003). Colton 1985 described a visionary leader as one who established goals and objectives for individual and group action, which define not what we are but rather what we seek to be or do. The visionary leader inspires, challenges, guides and empowers. The reason why the Steve Jobs leadership is the visionary leadership is because Jobs truly added value, his evangelical zeal to show people the future potential of the product, this is vision as foresight, and has caused Jobs to be dubbed the priceless proselytizer (Uttal, 1985) and the missionary of micros. His visionary capacity as a promoter was also widely recognized and appreciated within the company, and Jobs is outstanding in his merging of foresight and imagination into the genius of the proselytizer. Visionary leadership has been discussed since many years back by few different researchers, Murphy, 1990 provided some insights into the nature of visionary leadership, he concluded that more effective principals have a clear sense of direction for their schools that they are able to clearly articulate, and the visionary leader focuses on fewer coordinated objectives around which staff members energy can be mobilized. Refers to Frances and Henry, 1989, an alternative image of visionary leadership might be that of a drama, Peter Brook, 1968, the legendary director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has suggested that the magic of the theatre lies in that moment when fiction and life somehow blend together. It may be brief, but it is the goal of playwright, director, actor and audience, the result of rehearsal, the performance itself, and the attendance of the audience. Brook, however, finds these words too static, and prefers the French equivalents repetition, representation and assist ance, all of which, coincidentally, have special meanings in English. Kotter, 1996, also discuss that without the vision of leaders the motivation level of organization people may go down and their activities become meaningless which can prove worst for an organizations at the later end, he further said that vision plays a key role in producing useful change by helping to direct, align and inspire actions on the part of large numbers of people. Without an appropriate vision, a transformation effort can easily dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible and time consuming projects that go in the wrong direction or nowhere at all. In the case study of Apple Inc, the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs brought lots of revenue to company, for example, Jobs came up with the great vision that the personal computer should become a digital hub for managing all of a users music, videos, photos and content in 2000, thus, Apple Inc got into the personal device business with the iPod and then the iPad. Thanks to the great vision of Jobs, iPod with its sleek design, simple user interface and large storage, it soon became an icon of the Digital Age in the words of one writer, and the first iPod stored up to 1,000 songs while other companys MP3 only can store hours of songs, by 2010, Apple reportedly held more than 70% of the MP3 market in the US. When other competitors still using normal music players which can only store hours of songs, Jobs made their vision to have some device which could upload and download digital songs, thus, the iPod was released with simple and nice design and could store up to 1,000 songs. The suc cessful visionary leadership helped Apple Inc increased company market share in the industry and also increased the revenue for company. The other successful vision of Jobs made when he lead Apple Inc was the innovation of the product between a Smartphone and a laptop computer which named iPad, the iPad could either connect to the Wifi or customers could buy a premium iPad which can use with 3G services, and also iPad could run almost all the iPhone apps. More than 450,000 iPads were sold during its first week on the market which brought to Apple Inc with good profits. Jobs commented that, It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world-its going to be a game changer. The successful of iPad released in the industry had lead other competitors to enter into the tablet market, it had produced immediately competitor responds such as HP said it would make a Wintel-based tablet, and Dell planned to ship an Android-based tablet. 3.2 Charismatic leadership Charismatic leadership theory is a popular and much researched approach to understanding effective leadership (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 2003), Kippenberger, 2002, stated charismatic leaders are seen to have a powerful vision, a great deal of self-confidence, a strong conviction that they are right, and an assertive, even dominant, personality, this makes them highly effective in crisis situations or periods of significant change, but it can also make them potentially dangerous-especially if they choose the wrong vision. Steve Jobs is a strong charismatic leader, as a charismatic leader, he is highly inspirational, likes using stories to motivate, and his passion for perfection is inspiring, and when relying on behaviors that emphasize the directive style, Jobs does not hold his ideas about the direction of a project or someones ideas on how to resolve a problem. Steve Jobs had a great leader way of interacting with his employees, he could be greatly kind, rewarding and motivationa l, in a mean while, and he could also be cruel, despondent, demanding and thankless. His interaction with suppliers, other companies, and customers was equally unpredictable, no one ever knew that to expect from him, and the employees and suppliers are all most willing to follow his idea and what he asked them doing. Charismatic leadership theory was expanded by a number of researchers who have produced complementary, yet somewhat different, conceptualizations of charismatic leadership (House, 1977; Sashkin, 1988; Trice and Bever, 1986). Each of these theoretical offerings links a leaders influence; improved follower motivation, satisfaction and effort, and charismatic leadership can operate either as an individualized or a group level phenomenon depending on organizational context (Avolio and Yammarino, 1990). Shamir, House and Arthur, 1993, suggested that the effects of charismatic leadership on followers motivation are mediated by the increased salience of collective identities in followers self-concepts. Other researchers have done the similar research on the charismatic leadership as well and they have recorded that the performance and effectiveness of charismatic leaders is theorized to lay, at least in part, in their ability to inspire followers to work towards a vision rather than motivat ing followers with rewards and punishments, in particular, charismatic leaders tend to use specific communication strategies to inspire followers and implement social change (Shamir, Arthur and House, 1994; Fiol et al, 1999; Emrich et al, 2001; Bligh, Kohles and Meindl, 2004). In the case study of Apple Inc, the grate charismatic leadership of Steve Jobs had pulled company from crisis and leaded Apple Inc to become one of the most successful companies in the industry. For example, Steve Jobs always use stories to inspire and motivate people in his work, he is able to build the culture and promote his vision and mission for Apple Inc, and he used stories that made his employees feel they were making a difference in the world. Jobs said he wanted to make a dent in the universe with this company (Young, 2005). This is the mission he instilled in his employees and gave them a sense of purpose and devotion that continues to this day. The charisma leader ability made employees to work together and efficiency, and enhanced the productivity and revenue for the company. The other example is Steve Jobs wanted every products which he developed need to be perfect, such as during the development of iPhone. The initial design has the glass screen set into an aluminum case, one Monday morning Jobs went over to see Ive, I didnt sleep last night, he said, because I realized that I just dont love it. Ive, to his dismay, instantly saw that Jobs was right, I remember feeling absolutely embarrassed that he had to make the observation, he says. The problem was that the iPhone should have been all about the display, but in its current design the case competed with the display instead of getting out of the way. The whole device felt too masculine, task-driven and efficient. Guys, youve killed yourselves over this design for the last nine months, but were going to change it, we are all going to have to work nights and weekends, and if you want, we can hand out some guns so you can kill us now.. Jobs told to his team. Instead of balking, the team agreed. Same cases happened many times in the new product development, any small design or material Jobs did not like, he would tell his team No and change everything again even it needs to take more times to working on it, he did not care as he needs the products to be perfect, and because of his idea and suggestion were fully reasonable, employees agreed to change it and Jobs would worked together with his team to ensure the new perfect products could deliver to customers on time. Also because of his charismatic leadership ability the first iPhone-a revolutionary 3.5 inch touch screen interface placed commands at the touch of users fingertips without a physical keyboard and its entire system ran on a specially adapted version of Apples OS X platform, successfully sold about six million units over five quarters, this brought Apple Inc with very good revenue and the market position in the smart phone market. 4.0 Conclusion In a summary the analysis in this research paper, the leadership plays a significant role in the organizational change, and the type of leadership which Steve Jobs used in the Apple Inc are visionary leadership and charismatic leadership. Refers to Wasim and Imran, 2010, organizational leadership has a central role in evolution and cultivating an organization, it can help the member of an organization and working teams to face the challenges and to work for organizational goal in a worthy way, and the role of a leader is also very prominent while addressing the change issue for organizations. And in the case study, the great leadership of Steve Jobs helped Apple Inc to reached high revenue and good market position. Therefore, organizations need to pay attention to the importance of leadership during the organizational change, good leadership could bring organizations successful organizational change and business, and ineffective leadership could result in fail on organizational chang e. Both visionary leadership and charismatic leadership are important for organizations, vision is a mental image of a possible and desirable future of the organization (Bennis and Nanus, 1985; Lyerly and Maxey, 2000), there do not have any leader without vision, and the visionary leadership are very important for organizations development, leaders need to have a clear visionary image on how the future development of organization, otherwise, the organization will face decline. Such as in Apple Inc, Steve Jobs had the clear vision of how the future development of Apple Inc, which market and products organization need to develop, without the successful visionary leadership of Jobs Apple Inc could not reach todays success and market position. Charisma as a relationship between an individual leader and one or more followers based on leader behaviors that engender intense reactions and attributions on the part of followers, a charismatic leader may enchant the subordinates, as a result, the subordinates are likely to follow a leader who is charismatic (Wu and Wang, 2012). The charisma leadership of Steve Jobs pulled Apple Inc out from crisis, he pushed perfection on every product which he created, to ensure the quality and design of the product could perfect to be delivered to customers. The way he interactive with his employees made employees were all willing to follow his suggestions and instructions, only all the followers could work together, then the productivity and efficiency of work could be done, Jobs as the great charismatic leader leaded Apple Inc to reach todays performance. Therefore, leaders need to have the charisma ability to lead organizations, and organizations need to have the charisma leadership to ensur e organization could have successful business and performance, in a final result, could reach high revenue for organizations. (Approximately 2736 words)

Arguing for Authenticity: A Comparison and Contrast of Two American Mod

â€Å"[F]uture commentators on American poetry and political issues will not be able to ignore the †¦ authentic voice of the region,† argues Barry Ahearn, author of the article Poetry: 1900 to the 1940s, which discusses the importance of the author writing about his or her region of choice in their poetry and how it affects their writing (Ahearn 373). Ahearn discusses writers such as Sterling A. Brown, Langston Hughes, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Robert Frost, Robinson Jeffers, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Lorine Niedecker, George Oppen, John Crowe Ransom, Charles Rezikoff, Muriel Rukeyser, Gertrude Stine, Wallace Stevens, Sara Teasdale, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofksy. The purpose of mentioning so many, claims Ahearn, is to gather a survey of works between 1900 and the 1940s. The discussion of these writers creates a wide range of Modernist authors that influenced each other and the people who read their works; the author claims that the authenticity of t he writer is what creates a more accurate work of literature and the life experiences of these authors is the material that adds to their writing as a whole. Robert Frost and Langston Hughes are regional writers that focus on specific places but have similar qualities in their poems that transcend the locale. Two poems will be discussed that exemplify these qualities: â€Å"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening† with â€Å"Birches† by Robert Frost and â€Å"Theme for English B† with â€Å"Visitors to the Black Belt† by Langston Hughes. Modernist Poetry involves a movement away from the self and the emotions of the individual. Typically, the focus of Modernist poetry revolves around the rational notions of the self, unlike the Romantic period, which focused on the poet. Modernist poets ex... ...olarship 2004.1 (2006): 385. EDS Foundation Index. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. Frost, Robert. â€Å"Birches.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 1400-1402. Print. Frost, Robert. â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 1403. Print. Hughes, Langston. â€Å"Theme for English B.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 2036. Print. Hughes, Langston. â€Å"Visitors to the Black Belt.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th.Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 2032. Print. Leffelholz, Mary. The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. D. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 1177-1191. Print. Arguing for Authenticity: A Comparison and Contrast of Two American Mod â€Å"[F]uture commentators on American poetry and political issues will not be able to ignore the †¦ authentic voice of the region,† argues Barry Ahearn, author of the article Poetry: 1900 to the 1940s, which discusses the importance of the author writing about his or her region of choice in their poetry and how it affects their writing (Ahearn 373). Ahearn discusses writers such as Sterling A. Brown, Langston Hughes, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Robert Frost, Robinson Jeffers, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Lorine Niedecker, George Oppen, John Crowe Ransom, Charles Rezikoff, Muriel Rukeyser, Gertrude Stine, Wallace Stevens, Sara Teasdale, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofksy. The purpose of mentioning so many, claims Ahearn, is to gather a survey of works between 1900 and the 1940s. The discussion of these writers creates a wide range of Modernist authors that influenced each other and the people who read their works; the author claims that the authenticity of t he writer is what creates a more accurate work of literature and the life experiences of these authors is the material that adds to their writing as a whole. Robert Frost and Langston Hughes are regional writers that focus on specific places but have similar qualities in their poems that transcend the locale. Two poems will be discussed that exemplify these qualities: â€Å"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening† with â€Å"Birches† by Robert Frost and â€Å"Theme for English B† with â€Å"Visitors to the Black Belt† by Langston Hughes. Modernist Poetry involves a movement away from the self and the emotions of the individual. Typically, the focus of Modernist poetry revolves around the rational notions of the self, unlike the Romantic period, which focused on the poet. Modernist poets ex... ...olarship 2004.1 (2006): 385. EDS Foundation Index. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. Frost, Robert. â€Å"Birches.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 1400-1402. Print. Frost, Robert. â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 1403. Print. Hughes, Langston. â€Å"Theme for English B.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 2036. Print. Hughes, Langston. â€Å"Visitors to the Black Belt.† The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th.Vol. D. Ed. Leffelholz, Mary. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 2032. Print. Leffelholz, Mary. The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. D. New York: Norton & Company, 2007. 1177-1191. Print.

Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance

In 1985, Michael Porter published Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. In this book, he described how organizations can achieve competitive advantage in their industries. Porter's focus in this book was not on an overall competitive strategy, but on what organizations needed to do on a daily basis to achieve results. As Porter (3) stated, â€Å"My aim is to build a bridge between strategy and implementation. † To create the link between the overall strategy of a firm and how that strategy could be achieved, Porter referred to value. As Porter (3) stated, â€Å"competitive advantage grows fundamentally out of value a firm is able to create for its buyers that exceeds the firm's cost of creating it. † This focus on value led to the concept of the value chain, which refers to the internal processes that occur as the organization creates its product or service. Value chain management is not just a process that occurs within an organization. Instead, it is closely linked to the competitive environment. This means that value chain management takes into account the industry in which the organization operates. This is referred to as the industry value chain and describes how the industry overall adds value to the consumer. This is an important point because it means that value chain management does not just refer to the series of processes that occur within the organization. As an example, consider the case of Apple's Ipod. If creating value was only considered in the context of what happens within the organization, the focus might be purely on the manufacturing process. Apple might consider their value chain as a process where raw materials are converted to the product and where the product is distributed to the consumer. In terms of improving the value of their product, they might consider that saving on raw materials, decreasing production time, and improving distribution will help add value. The problem with this approach is that it does not identify the real value that consumers gain from the product. This real value is identified when the MP3 player industry is considered on a broader level. This broader view shows that value is added more by marketing than by manufacturing. Apple's value chain includes the major activities that instill value in the product. Marketing with the aim of gaining consumer support is one of the key ways to add value. It is this aspect that Apple competes against with the other organizations in the market. This illustrates that value chain management is a process of recognizing what activities add value to the organization and then focusing on these activities to gain competitive advantage. The aim is not to improve everything about the organization, but to improve the processes that will allow the organization to gain an advantage on the competition. Porter (39) also identified various generic factors that are part of an organization's value chain. These generic factors are: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. Porter considered that these five areas add value to a firm. Porter (40) also identified several support factors. These support factors are: infrastructure of the organization, human resource management, technology, and procurement. Porter identified these generic factors as a general guideline for organizations, while noting that the industry's competitive factors determine what factors will comprise the value chain for a specific firm. For example, in the case of Apple's Ipod, sales and marketing would be a key factor and technology would also be a part of the value chain. In the case of an organization manufacturing and selling nails, sales and marketing is not likely to be a large part of the value chain. Instead, operations may be more important, with the aim being to manufacture the nails as cost effectively as possible so as to maximize profits. For any organization, value chain management is used to identify the key factors that add value in the industry and then to determine how to improve those key factors so as to become more competitive. Southwest Airlines is one organization that has successfully used value chain management to improve its performance. Southwest Airlines is recognized as a success in the airline industry not just because it is a successful company, but also because it made positive changes to the industry. It is generally considered as a pioneer. This success is linked, at least partially, to its use of value chain management. Pellet (53) describes Southwest Airlines as a company that found creative ways to make improvements, with these improvements especially related to reducing the downtime of aircraft, improving scheduling, and making maintenance more efficient. At the same time, Southwest Airlines needed to improve cost-effectiveness so it could offer a lower price to its customers, but still maximize profits. Southwest Airlines based its success on identifying the industry value chain. This included noting the key industry factors that determine success. With the key industry factors identified, Southwest Airlines was able to find creative ways of improving on these factors. One of the important points is that Southwest Airlines' strategy did not just involve copying what other airlines were doing. This was achieved because they were not comparing themselves to what others were doing. Instead, they were only focused on how they could improve. This allowed them to identify unique ways of doing things and this is how they managed to gain competitive advantage. Southwest Airlines' successes were enough to get them listed in Fortune magazine's â€Å"Top 100 Companies† list. In the magazine, it is noted that Southwest Airline won the Triple Crown award for Best Airline five times; a fact that shows their success is more than just financial (Moskowitz and Levering 148). Southwest Airline became the best in the industry. Their success shows how effective value chain management leads to competitive advantage. Finally, it is useful to consider how value chain management has changed since it was first introduced by Porter in 1985. One of the major changes is that computer software has become an important tool in the process. Computer software has been developed to identify problems and opportunities for improvement in the value chain. This is largely focused on the manufacturing process, but can also be applied to any process where efficiency is desired. Another significant trend is that the value chain is extended further, both upline and downline. For example, many organizations are considering the internal processes of their suppliers. The idea is that if the supplier improves their value chain, the organization that receives the output of the supplier also benefits. In addition, if the supplier can improve efficiency and reduce costs, the benefits can be passed on to the organization by lowering the price of raw materials. The same applies to considering upline organizations, such as distributors and retailers. This is creating an environment where organizations are demanding more from companies that provide them with any type of service. In turn, many companies are becoming less like suppliers and more like partners. This allows the organization to assist supplier companies, while also ensuring that they benefit from the improvements that suppliers make. This creates an environment where organizations are linked together by either formal or informal partnerships. In some cases, both organizations work together to determine how they can best assist each other. In other cases, organizations have contractual demands on their suppliers. In other cases, a formal partnership is in place. In all of these cases, the same trend is seen, with organizations recognizing that other companies are part of their value chain.

Free Essays on Argumentation Essay

And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain." And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. -The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran Pain can be all-consuming, pervading our senses and making us despondent and irrational; we dread our darkest hours with the same intensity that we look forward to the happiest days of our lives. But pain is a natural element of our existence, providing us with the means to know ourselves better, and giving us the ability to experience ultimate happiness. Pain is a necessary condition of human existence; we must embrace and accept it. Pain is a vital, natural ingredient in our lives. Sorrow is as natural as happiness; the happiness surrounding the birth of our children is as natural as the melancholy surrounding the deaths of our parents. The grieving process that takes place after the loss of a loved one is excruciatingly painful but it must be surmounted in order for us to move on. We must realize that pain is the result of happiness and happiness is the result of pain. For instance, the happiness that we feel from being a loving relationship makes a break-up all the more painful, while the pain that we feel from that loss makes our next love all the more joyful. Although we are sometimes overcome with sadness so acute that it causes us irrepressible pain, we must accept that pain is nature’s way of alleviating sorrow; we must also accept that the end result of pain is happiness. Pain allows us to confront the hardship in our lives, allowing us to put sadness behind us. By realizing that pain is natural and healing, we can understand that without it we can never truly know ourselves; it is often in our darkest hours that we begin to gain insight into our true character. When we disappoint ourselves and those we love, it is painful. But it is pain that provide... Free Essays on Argumentation Essay Free Essays on Argumentation Essay And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain." And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. -The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran Pain can be all-consuming, pervading our senses and making us despondent and irrational; we dread our darkest hours with the same intensity that we look forward to the happiest days of our lives. But pain is a natural element of our existence, providing us with the means to know ourselves better, and giving us the ability to experience ultimate happiness. Pain is a necessary condition of human existence; we must embrace and accept it. Pain is a vital, natural ingredient in our lives. Sorrow is as natural as happiness; the happiness surrounding the birth of our children is as natural as the melancholy surrounding the deaths of our parents. The grieving process that takes place after the loss of a loved one is excruciatingly painful but it must be surmounted in order for us to move on. We must realize that pain is the result of happiness and happiness is the result of pain. For instance, the happiness that we feel from being a loving relationship makes a break-up all the more painful, while the pain that we feel from that loss makes our next love all the more joyful. Although we are sometimes overcome with sadness so acute that it causes us irrepressible pain, we must accept that pain is nature’s way of alleviating sorrow; we must also accept that the end result of pain is happiness. Pain allows us to confront the hardship in our lives, allowing us to put sadness behind us. By realizing that pain is natural and healing, we can understand that without it we can never truly know ourselves; it is often in our darkest hours that we begin to gain insight into our true character. When we disappoint ourselves and those we love, it is painful. But it is pain that provide...

Lenin Essays - Economic Ideologies, Vladimir Lenin, Socialism

Lenin Essays - Economic Ideologies, Vladimir Lenin, Socialism Lenin Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin was a key figure in European history. Lenin led the Bolsheviks (which later became known as communists) to overthrow the Russian Tsar, and to bring socialism to Russia. Lenin introduced Communism to Russia. This changed the history for Russia as well as the rest of Europe, and to this day has had a huge effect on the Russian economy. Lenins impact on Europe and Russia consisted of him applying Marxist ideas, which later led to complete Communism, and a threat to Europe and the rest of world. In developing his plan of socialism in Russia, Lenin followed the examples of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the original developers of the communist theory. The main aspect of any kind of government, and especially socialism, is its economic structure. Lenin explained that in his economic theory, called Imperialism, the first step was to gradually move into a joined monopoly - capitalist phase, which later would become communism. Lenin went on to say that based on the disproportion between economic development of the monopoly stage, which is the beginning of full socialism, and capitalism, which is the meaning of a private life and freedom from others. The only problem with that theory is that a Monopoly and Capitalism are complete opposites of each other, and were bound to cause problems.(http://venus.spaceports.com/theory/economy_1.htm) Lenin knew of this problem, but considered it a stepping stone in the right direction. He predicted problems, but thought in due time his economi c machine would operate with great success, and make Russia into a world mega power. Lenins plan of communism for Russia was supposed to be great. People were supposed to get free education, free medical care, everybody makes the same amount of money, working equally as hard, and everybody was supposed to get the same advantage in life. But it would never work out quite as planed. On October 25, 1917 (November 7th according to the new Gregorian calendar), Lenin led the Bolsheviks in a Socialist Revolution that would lead Lenin in charge of Russia. Everything that had been set in stone about the life and culture of Russian over the past centuries, would change during the course of one night. People were expecting great things, Lenin and others associated with his party, made Karl Marxs ideas about Communism sound great. Once Lenin came to power and tried to execute his plans towards his nation things went terribly wrong for the people of Russia. The problems started with the working class or the proletariat, the people that Lenin put in charge of the nation. As common knowledge, proletariats are not the most educated people, with no knowledge of how to help run a Socialist government. So the proletariats started making decisions that would hurt the common man in Russia. Decease, hunger and even cannibalism struck over some parts of the nation, where as before in the Monarchy rule under Tsar Nicholas II, Russia was as rich in agriculture as any other country in the world.(Shinskaya) Another promise that Lenin kept was that he gave the peasants more land. Also, he forced the peasants to move to collective farms, called Kalhoz (Russian). The peasants didnt have any privacy, all their personal belongings were taken and put to public use in their collective farms. An example of the changes going on in the work force, on socialistic collective farm, was farmers, one farmer has two cows, the other had none. In a communistic governm ent, where everybody is completely equal, Lenin would make the two farmers coexist and work with each other, and make the farmer with two cows share with the farmer with no cows at all. Allowing the farmer with no cows to free load off the farmer with two cows. That is Communism; unfair, but too bad, you cant do anything about it. The peasants became outraged and started to strike. Bolshevik at first sight of resistance began to shoot down innocent people fighting for their freedom, all by the order of Lenin.(Isayevich 98) The problems didnt end there. Back in the old days of Monarch Russia, the Russian people had a great belief of the church. In one of Karl Marxs publishings about communism, he replies Religion

Notes for thank you Esther Forbes Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Thank You, Esther Forbes - Assignment Example This research will begin with the information about some famous persons. Audrey Kathleen Hepburn was a British actress and later a humanitarian. She was acting during the Golden age of Hollywood and she was recognized highly as a fashion and film icon. To this date, Audrey is regarded as one of the best naturally beautiful women of all time. Further, the American Film Institute ranked her third in the greatest female screen legends list in American Cinema’s list and also is placed the Hall of Fame’s International Best Dressed List. Ernest Miller Hemmingway was an American journalist and an established author.   He won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. He had written seven novels, six short story collections and two non-fiction books all of which he had published and are considered as American classics. Some of his popular works include The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old man and the Sea. Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel was a Russian literary translat or, a playwright, a journalist and a short story writer. Babel produced several masterpieces of Russian Literature those include the Red Cavalry, Tales of Odessa, and Story of My Dovecote which are very popular. Notably, he was not uncritical of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union but he was later arrested and shot dead in 1940 after confessing that he had been a foreign spy and a Trotskyist terrorist. Gertrude Stein was a pioneer and member of the Modernist Literature movement and she is well known as an American plays, poetry and novels writer. In specific, she wrote the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas which was a literally best seller and that made her get attention as a mainstream literally figure. She was also regarded as a modernist art collector. Henry Green is best remembered as an English author who wrote the popular novels Loving and Party Going.   Between 1905 and the year 1973, he was Henry Vincent Yorke's ‘nom de plume'. Greens novel’s, especially Li ving, Loving and Party going are considered basic works in the works of English in the Modernist Literature.

Available and Interested Potential Investors in the Energy Drink Research Paper

Available and Interested Potential Investors in the Energy Drink Industry - Research Paper Example For the energy drink, the net profit value as a percentage of sales is estimated at between 12% to 18%. That the fixed cost will be estimated as the difference of the gross profit and the net profit figures That the direct costs; both for materials and labor is estimated at between 22% to 27% of the sales figure. 2. Assuming the drink being produced is of the 250ml packet in a bottle type of packaging. Assuming the number of units of the drink produced is 6000 units, the variable cost per unit is provided as follows: - direct materials $2, direct labor $4, variable manufacturing overhead $1, variable selling and administration expenses $3. The fixed costs of the product per annum are estimated as follows; fixed manufacturing overhead $30,000 and fixed selling and administration is $10,000. The selling price per unit produced is estimated at $15. The marginal costing statement will appear as follows: Product cost per unit Direct materials $2 Direct labor $4 Variable manufacturing over head $1 Product cost per unit $7 The variable costs for the production of the drink for the 6000 units will be 6000*$7 = $42000. The costs for the production of the drink for the whole year will, therefore, be as follows: Total variable costs $42000 Fixed manufacturing overhead $30000 Fixed selling and administration $10000 Total costs $82000 The total cost per unit for the drink per month will be $82000/12 = $6833.3. The $30000 fixed manufacturing overhead will be is charged off in total against the income as a period expense. The same applies to the selling and administration expense. Under this form of costing system, all the variable costs of production are included in the product cost.