Nt1310

Define the following terms: 1. Horizontal Cable : A type of inside cable designed for horizontal use in non-plenum areas. While horizontal cable must be fire retardant, the National Electrical Code (NEC) specifications are not as demanding as those governing the use of plenum cable or riser cable. See also NEC, plenum, plenum cable, and riser cable. 2. Backbone Cable : Backbone cabling is the inter-building and intra-building cable connections in structured cabling between entrance facilities, equipment rooms and telecommunications closets.Backbone cabling consists of the transmission media, main and intermediate cross-connects and terminations at these locations. This system is mostly used in data centers. 3. Patch Cords: a short cord with a plug at each end, or a plug at one end and a pair of clips at the other, used for temporarily connecting two pieces of equipment or signal paths. 4. Connectors: A device for holding two parts of an electrical conductor in contact. 5. Conduit: A tube or duct for enclosing electric wires or cable. 6.Racks: A computer rack (commonly called a rack) is a metal frame used to hold various hardware devices such as servers, hard disk drives, modems and other electronic equipment. Some may refer to a rack as â€Å"LAN or network furniture† as resembles a shelving structure where components can be attached vertically, stacked on top of one another. A computer rack can also be called a relay rack or open rack. 7. Punch-Down Blocks: is a type of electrical connection often used in telephony. It is named because the solid copper wires are â€Å"punched down† into short open-ended slots which are a type of insulation-displacement connectors.These slots, usually cut crosswise (not lengthwise) across an insulating plastic bar, contain two sharp metal blades which cut through the wire's insulation as it is punched down. These blades hold the wire in position and make the electrical contact with the wire as well. 8. Consolidati on Points: an optional device for interconnecting horizontal cables between the Horizontal Cross-Connect and the Telecommunications Outlet or MUTOA within a structured cabling system. 9. Crimpers: A tool used to crimp, to join two pieces of metal 10.Fish Tape : a flat tempered spring-steel tape or wire used in pulling electric wire and cables (as into conduit runs) —called also snake wire 11. Continuity Tester: is an item of electrical test equipment used to determine if an electrical path can be established between two points;[1] that is if an electrical circuit can be made. The circuit under test is completely de-energized prior to connecting the apparatus 12. Category 5e/6 Cable : cabling is used as a cabling infrastructure for 10BASE-T (Ethernet), full duplex 100BASE-TX (Fast Ethernet) and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet, or GbE) networks.The Cat 5e standard provides performance of up to 100 MHz and can be used up to a maximum length of 100 meters. 13. Binder Groups: A group of wire pairs bound together, usually by some sort of color-coded plastic tape or thread. In a large twisted pair cable, there may be many pairs combined into binder groups of 25 pairs for ease of connectivity management. Each pair within a binder group is uniquely color-coded for further ease of management. See also cable and wire. 14. Hybrid/Composite Cable : composite cable A communications cable having both optical and metallic signal-carrying components.Note 1: A cable having optical fiber(s) and a metallic component, e. g. , a metallic twisted pair, used solely for conduction of electric power to repeaters, does qualify as a composite cable. Note 2: A cable having optical fiber(s) , plus a metallic strength member or armor, does not qualify as a composite cable. Hybrid †¢An optical communications cable having two or more different types of optical fibers, e. g. , single-mode and multimode fibers. 15. Pulling Cable : The act of pulling the wires, as of a puppet; hence, se cret influence or management, especially in politics; intrigue 6. Wavelengths of Light: The length of a single cycle of a wave, usually measured from crest-to-crest. For electromagnetic waves 17. EMI : is the disruption of operation of an electronic device when it is in the vicinity of an electromagnetic field (EM field) in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum that is caused by another electronic device. 18. Optical-Fiber Strand : Is this referring to the actual pure glass on the middle of the fiber 19. Index of Refraction : the ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to that in a medium. 0. wordnetweb. princeton. edu/perl/webwn 21. Cable Jacket : The outer protective coating which covers the core of the cable.. 22. Cladding Size : A metal coating bonded onto another metal under high pressure and temperature. 23. Multifiber Cables : Fiber optic Cable bearing many fibers independently sheathed and capable of carrying unrelated signals. They often surround a central strength member, a nd can be either loose- or tight-buffered. One standard configuration is a 12-fiber cable. 24. Differential Mode Delay: 25.In an optical fiber, the variation in propagation delay that occurs because of the different group velocities of different modes. Synonym multimode group delay. 26. Chromatic Dispersion : In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency,[1] or alternatively when the group velocity depends on the frequency. Media having such a property are termed dispersive media. Dispersion is sometimes called chromatic dispersion to emphasize its wavelength-dependent nature, or group-velocity dispersion (GVD) to emphasize the role of the group velocity

Trip to Disneyland

Allyson Clink English 105 Mrs. Goodwin Narrative Essay First Trip to Disneyland I am a single parent to one little girl. I wanted to do something special for her fourth birthday. My little girls name is Bethanny. Her father at this time was in and out of her life as he pleases and she was starting to tell me it hurt her that he was not around very much. That was when I decided to save all my tips from work and take at least $100 dollars out of every check to make this trip possible. I was able to find a great deal online for the time of her birthday which is January 4th. If you don’t know Disneyland is still set up for Christmas time, and still had the Christmas deals available. So I got us two day park hopper tickets, which means we can go from both parks for two days. Bethanny was so excited the day we left to drive down she stayed awake the whole drive down there. She usually does not do this because it is an eight hour drive. But I guess the excitement and all the candy was enough to keep her awake. When we arrived in Los Angeles at Disneyland we checked in to the hotel and she loved that the hallways had all the Disney characters on the walls. After the check in at the hotel we decided to check out Disney Main Street. Bethanny was so excited while walking down the street she got to meet Mickey and Minnie they both gave her a huge kiss because it was her first time to Disneyland. So while we were walking Mickey and Minnie showed Bethanny some of the best rides and made her feel very special and it wasn’t even her birthday yet. That was a very long day. The next day was Bethanny’s birthday and she woke everyone up at 6 am. She wanted to hurry and get to breakfast. This was one of the best parts of the trip because she got to eat with all her favorite princesses. She had such a huge smile when she saw her favorite princess which is tinker bell. After breakfast bethanny got to choose one character to walk around with her for an hour and she got to wear a birthday girl sash that made her feel like a little princess herself. While walking thru the park she loved seeing all the colors and trees that were made to look like Christmas trees. But did not like the long lines for the rides but sat thru them like a champ. She kept saying â€Å"mommy it’s my birthday cant we just cut†, I thought that was so funny. Trip to Disneyland Allyson Clink English 105 Mrs. Goodwin Narrative Essay First Trip to Disneyland I am a single parent to one little girl. I wanted to do something special for her fourth birthday. My little girls name is Bethanny. Her father at this time was in and out of her life as he pleases and she was starting to tell me it hurt her that he was not around very much. That was when I decided to save all my tips from work and take at least $100 dollars out of every check to make this trip possible. I was able to find a great deal online for the time of her birthday which is January 4th. If you don’t know Disneyland is still set up for Christmas time, and still had the Christmas deals available. So I got us two day park hopper tickets, which means we can go from both parks for two days. Bethanny was so excited the day we left to drive down she stayed awake the whole drive down there. She usually does not do this because it is an eight hour drive. But I guess the excitement and all the candy was enough to keep her awake. When we arrived in Los Angeles at Disneyland we checked in to the hotel and she loved that the hallways had all the Disney characters on the walls. After the check in at the hotel we decided to check out Disney Main Street. Bethanny was so excited while walking down the street she got to meet Mickey and Minnie they both gave her a huge kiss because it was her first time to Disneyland. So while we were walking Mickey and Minnie showed Bethanny some of the best rides and made her feel very special and it wasn’t even her birthday yet. That was a very long day. The next day was Bethanny’s birthday and she woke everyone up at 6 am. She wanted to hurry and get to breakfast. This was one of the best parts of the trip because she got to eat with all her favorite princesses. She had such a huge smile when she saw her favorite princess which is tinker bell. After breakfast bethanny got to choose one character to walk around with her for an hour and she got to wear a birthday girl sash that made her feel like a little princess herself. While walking thru the park she loved seeing all the colors and trees that were made to look like Christmas trees. But did not like the long lines for the rides but sat thru them like a champ. She kept saying â€Å"mommy it’s my birthday cant we just cut†, I thought that was so funny.

Children with Paid Work Essay

Nowadays, more and more children work for money. To some extent, paid work can help children to learn, to take responsibilities and have some extra money. However, it is also controversial to discuss whether or not children should get involved in money pursuit. To my mind, this really has some advantages and disadvantages. Paid work can bring children some income. Children are supposed to get money from their parents, which partly causes their parents some burden and make children annoyed when they cannot meet their essential demands. With some extra money, children and their parents might feel better. Children with paid work are likely to/ to be suppose to appear more responsible. They have to work seriously and efficiently, or they will be sacked. Their income really pays for their hard work; therefore, they seem to be wiser in spending money. Working can make children more experienced and well-disciplined. Children are also asked to be punctual if they work. They have to learn how to sell well, how to behave properly with customers, with their co-workers and with their boss. They also have to follow the working culture of the company. On the other hand, working might cause a lot of trouble to children. They might neglect in their study; they might feel too tired to do a good job in his schoolwork. More seriously, they might find it much better to work rather than to study or they might misrecognize that they do not need to study because they can earn money without studying further, which can harm much the future generation. In common, children can get engaged in some paid work, but they have to follow an appropriate plan so that they can learn to be responsible and do a good job as a student. Otherwise, they had better focus on only studying.

Critiquing Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Critiquing Research Paper - Essay Example Any research published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies is highly regarded and trustworthy. Ingham-Broomfield (n.d: 104) argues that a title must not authenticate or even annul the investigation. Coughlan, Cronin, and Ryan (2007: 659) additionally points out that the title should be short in order not to misinform the readers. Based on these requirements, the title is succinct and clearly enlightens the reader on the issue under investigation. Subsequently, it also outlines the nature of the research i.e. it is a qualitative study hence giving a suggesting or expressing what the investigation is about (Ingham-Broomfield, n.d: 104). According to Coughlan, Cronin, and Ryan (2007: 659), an abstract ought to present a brief outline or synopsis of the research. In fact, Coughlan, Cronin, and Ryan (2007: 659-660) notes that an abstract ought to present "information regarding the purpose of the study, method, sample size and selection, the main findings and conclusions and recommendations". The article meets this purpose as it starts with an abstract outlining the sample size, data collection techniques used, technique of data analysis used, results of the research, and its implication. It is also worth noting that an abstract must clearly illustrate or elucidate the significance of the research (Coughlan, Cronin, and Ryan, 2007: 660). By denoting that the lack of methodical investigations and explorations relating to foot ulceration in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and asserting that "the impact of the problem from the patient perspective is poorly understood", the authors outline the significance and relevance of the research. The aim of the research was indicated in the abstract and reiterated in the introduction. The aim is stated as "To explore the added impact of foot ulceration on health-related quality of life in

Answer questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Answer questions - Essay Example osition but they are very good leaders and able to achieve the charity objective through various activities and lead team mates towards the same direction. Richard Branson is another example. He is a leader and has lead from the front to place VIRGIN group at the pinnacle, far ahead of the competitors and now he does not need to manage organization or personnel. For him, it is more important to set vision/direction and lead followers in the that direction. And below him, he has group of good managers to manage the organization. There are also some disadvantages of group activity that members face, like pressure to conform to group standards of performance and conduct. Some work groups might ostracize a person who is much more productive than his/her co-workers. Shrinking of individual responsibility is another problem frequently noted in groups. Just like Roosevelts old saying â€Å"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far† McGregor proposes is behind this kind of radish (incentive reward) adds the big stick-like management. By now administrative personnel’s responsibility and the corresponding mode of administration are: Superintendents role is a guardian, is the direction and guidance. What the management cares is how to raise the labor productivity, to complete the task; manager`s main function is the plan, the organization, the management, the direction, the surveillance, like the time allowance, the technical schedule and so on. Staff should obey instructions, if the staff violates these stipulations, management uses penalty; and for obeying the rules there are monetary rewards; The management may or may satisfy persons physiological needs as well as safety requirement in each kind of condition. The advantage of management entices for the staff, or punishes depending on the strict system, but it can use any regardless of which treatment stimulates the staff from exterior, enhances their work enthusiasm. Although research on each kind of driving

Popular Conceptualization of African-Americans in Sitcoms Essay

Popular Conceptualization of African-Americans in Sitcoms - Essay Example Series’ like this one show that change has to come from within the African American community before it can occur elsewhere because the community is actually damaging itself with shows like this one. This sitcom was based on Jamie King, who was a musician from Texas who moved to Los Angeles to follow his dream of becoming a musician. This basic premise was actually pretty good, as it could have been used to present King as a hardworking individual who wanted to follow his dreams. In addition, the fact that he went to work at his aunt and uncle’s hotel is a positive statement, since it shows African American business owners succeeding in life. That is where the positive interactions stop, however, as King’s interactions with Fancy are very stereotypical in a negative sense. King comes off as a womanizer who believes that treating a woman like an object is acceptable, although he does begin to realize the error of his ways as the seasons progress. Another negative stereotype that is shown in this series is the Braxton P. Hartnabrig character, who is constantly chastised for the way he acts in relation to Jamie. This is a problem because it portrays acting as a womanizing clown as being cool, while acting in a more serious manner and taking an interest in moving forward in life is seen as being uncool. Also, the fact that Jamie is attempting to break into the music industry, rather than something that calls for a higher intellect, is disturbing because it portrays the stereotype that African Americans can only be successful through music or athletics. This series also featured countless black related jokes that are meant to achieve cheap laughs while furthering certain stereotypes, which definitely could have been changed into something more positive. â€Å"The Parkers† is another show that exploits certain stereotypes in the African American community through its characters. For starters, Nikki Parker is a single mother, which perpetuates the absentee father

Self Defense And International Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Self Defense And International Law - Case Study Example However the action initiated by the Republic of Bona by invading Malox can be termed as legitimate on the grounds of self defense as stated by the Republic of Bona. According to the Article 51 of UN Charter, the guidelines laid down by the United Nations Security Council will not weaken the rights of self defense of the member state of United Nations against armed attack carred out on them, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security. The invasion is legitimate on the grounds of self defense, until the Security Council takes stringent measures against the Malox Government. But instead, the Republic of Bona could have brought to the notice of Security Council, that it has evidence to show that the Alliance is responsible for the massacre that has taken place. Even though, one of the UN Security Council member, Kumara is an ally of the Alliance, he cannot on his own dismantle the efforts of the Bona Republic to counter terrorism. Then the Security Council may decide what measures, not involving the use of armed force, are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations as laid down in the Article 41 of United Nations Charter of International Laws. In this process, the Bona Republican has used cluster bombs, white phosphorus and depleted uranium to locate and destroy the Alliance terrorist camp before further more attacks on themselves. The arms that have been used by the Bona Republican are Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) which not only kills persons but will degrade the environment. The degraded environment will make the life on the particular place not only difficult but the persons living there will be effected in the sense, they may get physically or mentally handicapped. The next generation childs may be born physically or mentally handicapped as wel. Such mass destruction will also lead to failure in plantation and degradation of other human necessities. On the grounds of humanitarian, use of such WMD's shall be avoided, just to destroy the Allaince Terrorist Group. However, United Nations has condemned the use of WMD's that has severe and drastic effect on the life of human beings and the next generation. Massive amo unts of circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that the use of DU ammunition has known to cause dramatic side effects, such as health problems, stillborn babies, toxic and poisonous land, water supplies, and residential territories. Such ammunitions is unethical for we will demean ourselves as a civilized

Pay productivity in China, Flexibility of wage determination in China Essay

Pay productivity in China, Flexibility of wage determination in China - Essay Example Eldies (2003) explains wages are the returns of labor as a factor of production and wage flexibility as the ability of wages to respond to changes in the demand and supply for labor. According to Gordon and Li (1999), under perfect wage flexibility, wage is determined at the point where the marginal revenue of labor is equal to the marginal cost of labor. Policy changes such as the household registration system reforms and the shift of labor market from a centrally planned to a market oriented market led to increased labor mobility Sweeney (2014). The increased competition saw a huge demand for increase in capacity building as labor sought for higher education so as to remain competitive. As a result a relatively uniform wage rate in most of the sectors in china has moved towards the set market clearing wage. Government owned enterprises wages are highly regulated through policies such as minimum wages and wage setting. People in different job groups earn different wages. Then private sector labor market since 1990 economic reforms has adopted the labor contract system. Under this system, the employees are not permanently employed and wage is set through an agreement between the employer and the employee. This system has since led to massive layoffs which have led to government intervention through policy reforms. Dong and Bowles (2002) defines pay as the returns of labor as a factor of production and productivity as the output per unit of labor input. They point out that productivity can be increased through capacity building and motivation among other factors. According to Cowen (2010) pay is one of the motivational factors and an increase in pay leads to an increase in productivity as workers are highly motivated to work. The global financial crisis led to a decline in the Chinese productivity growth. The productivity growth went to a decline for the first time since the

Exam questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Exam questions - Essay Example Further, a portfolio company having high risk may financially endanger the financial output of a company having miniscule risk. Portfolio analysis should include the influence of risk on the company’s returns (Livermore, 1998, p. 584). CAPM is used to determine the relationship between risk and portfolio returns. In terms of question 1b, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is used to determine the effect of the risks on the returns. The CAPM model includes the risk free rate of return portion of the asset return. The CAPM is used to determine the expected capital asset return. The CAPM analysis includes a risk-free rate. The CAPM includes a risk premium and a market premium (Semmler, 2011, p. 106). The portfolio CAPM formula is shown in the following diagram: E(Rp) = P1R1 + P2R2†¦+ PnRn Further, the formula is used to whether the average return on a portfolio of stocks is positively related portfolio’s beta data. The limitations include a wrong proxy is chosen. Another limitation is that the financial economists had not discovered a fool-proof they that explains why investors demand premiums for investing in low price/earnings for converting such concepts into risk premium estimations (OByrne, 2001, p. 180). In terms of question 2a, there are several motives for taking over another company. First, the â€Å"economies of scale† theory dictates that come entities or corporations takeover other companies in order to increase revenues. The total revenue of two companies will normally be higher than the revenue generated by all companies, given that the total sales of each company or equity is similar, under the synergy principle. Second, some companies takeover other companies in order to acquire the other comp any’s current and prospective customer database. Third, takeovers allow the new owner to acquire the expertise of the acquired company (Nuchtern,

Style and Stylistics Essay Example for Free

Style and Stylistics Essay What is a thesis? Your thesis is not your dissertation. Neither is it a one liner about what you are doing. Your thesis is a position or proposition that a person (as a candidate for scholastic honors) advances and offers to maintain by argument. [Websters 7th New Collegiate Dictionary]. I looked at how people play chess is not a thesis; people adapt memories of old games to play new games is. Similarly, I wrote a program to play chess is not a thesis; playing chess requires a database of actual games is. A thesis has to claim something. There are many kinds of theses, especially in computer science, but most of them can be lumped into one of the following classes: 1. process X is a feasible way to do task Y 2. process X is a better way to do task Y than any previously known method 3. task Y requires process X 4. people use process X to do task Y 5. process X is a terrible way to do Y 6. people dont use process X Feel free to substitute process X with memory organization X or what ever else might make one theory different from another. Make sure you clearly specify the class of tasks Y to which your thesis applies.Besides being a proposition, a thesis has to have another property: it must say something new. Understanding natural language requires context is not a thesis (except maybe in a linguistics department); process X is a feasible mechanism for adding context sensitivity to natural language understanders is, as is context is not required for visual understanding. What is a defense? A defense presents evidence for a thesis. What kind of evidence is apprpropriate depends on what kind of thesis is being defended. Thesis: process X is a feasible way to do task Y  One defense for this kind of claim is an analysis of the complexity, or completeness, or whatever, of the theoretical algorithm. In computer science, the more common defense is based on empirical results from running an experiment. A good defense here means more than one example, and answers to questions such as the following. What are the capabilities and limits of  your experiment? How often do the things that your experiment does come up in the real world? Whats involved in extending it? If its easy to extend, why havent you? If your example is a piece of a larger system, how realistic are your assumptions about input and output? Thesis: process X is a better way to do task Y than any previously known method The same kind of defense applies here as in the previous case, but now serious comparisons with previous systems are required. Can your result do the same examples the previous results did, or can you make them do yours? Can you prove they couldnt do your examples? If you claim to be more efficient, what are you measuring? Thesis: task Y requires process X This is usually defended by a logical argument. It is usually very tough to do, even if the argument doesnt have to be formalized. Thesis: people use process X to do task Y Many students make the mistake of picking this kind of thesis to defend. It requires serious experimental evidence to defend, unless your real thesis is of the previous form, i.e., only process X is possible. Selected excerpts from protocols and surveys of your officemates are not psychological evidence, no matter how much they might have inspired your work. Thesis: process X is a terrible way to do Y, or people dont use process X This is a reasonable thesis if process X is a serious contender. The defense would be an analysis of the limits of process X, i.e., things it cant do, or things it does wrong, along with evidence that those things matter. I have lots of theses in my dissertation. Which one should I pick for my defense? Defending a real thesis is hard. If you think you have a lot of theses, you probably just have a bunch of undefended claims. One good thesis, or two so-so theses, with adequate description and defense, is more than enough to fill up a dissertation. I have the opposite problem. I dont think I have any thesis by these standards. Highly unlikely. If youre bright, educated, and have worked hard on a topic for more than a year, you must have learned something no one else knew before. The first mistake that students make is to think that a thesis has to be grander than the theory of relativity. A thesis should be new and interesting, but it doesnt have to change the foundations of all we believe and hold dear.Dont try to come up with a thesis first, and then investigate it. Start by exploring some task domain.  Take some initial ideas and push them hard for a year or so. Now, stop and think about what youve done and what youve learned. Among your accomplishments and experience, there will be several good candidate theses. Pick one. Test it out on your advisor and other faculty members. Test it out on other students. Is it a claim that you can describe clearly and briefly? Is it a claim that anyone cares about? Is it a claim that people dont find perfectly obvious, or if they do find it obvious, can you convince them that it could easily be false.Once youve refined your claim into a good thesis, now you can determine what kind of defense is appropriate for it and what more you need to do. This is where the hard part comes, psychologically, because to create a defense for your thesis, youre going to have to attack it harder than anyone else. What happens if the thesis fails? Negate it and defend that! In a year or so of focused research, you should be ready for a real thesis defense. See how easy it is, once you know how? Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement. Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, your job is to figure out what question you’d like to write about. A good thesis statement will usually include the following four attributes: * take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree * deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment * express one main idea  * assert your conclusions about a subject Overview of Thesis Styles * A thesis is a written document chronicling research conducted by the student in a particular area. Besides documentation of results and interpretation of experimental research, the document contains an extensive review of the literature pertaining to the subject area. * In general, the thesis begins with an overall statement of introduction and purpose for the study, including overall objectives. This section is followed by the literature review. This literature review stands alone, and is presented in  addition to the literature cited when discussing the results of the research. The results of the research are then documented, including information on the methods, results and discussion of results. The last part of the thesis is usually a general discussion designed to draw broad conclusions, synthesize information, and suggest areas for future study. In most cases, a thesis contains more detailed information than would normally be submitted for publication. * In general, the master’s thesis should demonstrate that the student has mastery of the field in which she/he presents her/himself, and is fully conversant with the relevant literature. An essential feature of Ph.D. study is the candidates demonstration of competence to complete a research project and present the research findings. The Ph.D. thesis must constitute a distinct contribution to knowledge in her/his major field of study and the material must be of sufficient merit to be, in the judgement of the examiners, acceptable for publication. * There are two main thesis styles: 1. The Traditional Style Thesis in which the major components the methods, results of the research and discussion are presented in discrete sections following the overall introduction and literature review. As indicated above, a general discussion should normally follow the discussion of the research results. * 2. The Paper Style Thesis is similar to the traditional style thesis in a broad sense, except that the research results are packaged as discrete units or chapters, either as published manuscripts, or in a form suitable for publication in scientific journals. In the paper style thesis, each section or chapter has its own abstract, introduction, methods, results and discussion in addition to the overall abstract, general introduction and literature review. If the chapters have been published or are more or less ready for publication, the paper style thesis may not contain as much detail as the traditional style thesis. * The choice of thesis style depends to an extent on the kind of study that was done, whether discrete chapters are warranted or the material is best described as a single entity. The style is chosen in consultation with, and approved by, the student’s advisory committee before writing commences. The following sections describe the main elements of each style of thesis.

Leadership Styles in Operations Department

Leadership Styles in Operations Department Introduction. This assignment is aimed at evaluating the leadership styles within the operations department of Robert Wiseman Sons Ltd and determining if senior managers are performing more as managers or leaders. These evaluations will also be assessed to determine if the Managers styles and behaviours maybe impacting on succession planning. In the Last Ten years Robert Wiseman and Sons Ltd (RWD) have delivered excellent growth in sales volume and financial turnover, to cope with this increased demand within the last 3 years alone they have built 1 production facility and 3 distribution sites as well as purchasing 2 combined production and distribution facilities, the following vacancies exist currently across the 22 sites for the following key roles, 4 Quality Managers, 2 Shift Managers, 2 Engineering Managers, 2 Manufacturing Managers, 2 Regional Quality Managers (RQM), 1 Group Continous Improvement Manager and 2 Regional Operations Managers (ROM).The Manufacturing Managers. RQMs and ROMs roles are new positions however arguably the skill set required to fulfil these positions could and should be developed internally. See Appendix 1 and 2 for relevant company organograms As well as the current vacancies, 5 of the last 8 Site managers vacancies have been filled with external managers or managers who had less than 2 years experience within RWD. The Quality manager and Engineering Manager Vacancies are as a result of employees leaving for other positions out with RWD. Given the phenomenal growth over the last 5 years in particular it is feasible to assume that this is the reason for the vacancies and lack of internal candidates with the skills and knowledge to fulfil them, however this assignment will evaluate the general way that the senior management team are performing, the predominant styles of this team and the assumptions they have regarding followers. This all will be summarised in a way that allows conclusions to be drawn on whether the business growth alone is responsible for the lack of developed leaders or wwehetehr thare are opportunities for the senior team to be developed and or change their style and approach to allow more efficient leadership development and as a result improved succession planning. The Literature review (1100 words): There is no single best â€Å"formula† for developing leaders, in fact leadership development is a complex subject with many factors to be considered. Reviewing the literature I have identified some elements that are likely to impact on leadership development for instance the conscious effort the organisation puts into identifying leaders, the type of work that leaders are expected to perform, what the leaders within the organisation think motivates followers, and the dominant leadership styles within the senior management team. All of these to varying degrees affect the development of leaders of the future. Table 1 represents the theories and models I have explored in more detail. Leadership Models Styles Model/Theory Behaviour Leadership Styles Zaleznik, A 1977 Managers Leaders: Are they Different? Kotter, John P 2001 What leaders really do? Blake Mouton: Initiating structure / consideration The leadership of production through people Autocratic / Democratic Hersey Blanchard : Situational Leadership Concern for people / Concern for tasks Directing/Coaching/Supporting/Delegating Macgregor: Theory X Theory Y What managers assume about followers. Autocratic to Democratic Bass: Transactional Tranformational Leadership Autocratic/// to Participative Table 1 There are different strategies that can be adopted to encourage the development of leaders of the future (Zaleznik, 1977), some companies that are successful at developing leaders use different approaches and one successful way to develop leaders is to assign Senior executives as mentors to Junior executives, this approach provides the budding leaders with direct contact to an influential leader within the organisation, access to the experienced leaders knowledge and opinions in a safe and risk free environment. This also allows the opportunity for the senior executive to practise and develop their mentoring skills, a crucial skill that all leaders should be able to practise. Kotter, J (Kotter, 2001), clearly defines the difference between leaders and managers in that Leaders, identify the need for change, create a vision to mobilise and align the organisation and inspire and motive the followers within the organisation to achieve the vision, where as managers create the plan to deliver the vision, set objectives to monitor progress, create procedures and processes to train the people, achieve the objectives and monitor the plan for deviations and problem solve to bring the plan back on track. Given that if leaders are being effective and followers are truly inspired and motivated this could result in not only the achievement of the work but also followers willingness to accept more responsibility and have higher levels of engagement that if properly identified could highlight followers with the necessary talent to become leaders themselves. (Blake and Mouton, 1967) theory of Initiating structure, how much value and effort the managers places on achieving the tasks that will increase production levels and thus profit, and Consideration, the amount of emphasis and effort the manager exerts in meeting the needs and expectations of the individuals. Managers styles can be evaluated using the Blake Mouton leadership grid. The grid categorises managers styles into one of five different types ranging from 1.1 (the impoverished manager who has little concern for production or people) through 9.1 (the authority compliance manager, who has high concern for task completion and production, with little concerns for the needs of the individuals) to 9.9 (the Team manager, who has both high concern for task completion and high concern for the expectations and needs of the individual). 9.1 Managers would be categorised as having an Autocratic leadership style with 9.9 type managers practising a more Democratic leadership style. (Blake a nd Mouton, 1967) state that there is a 3rd dimension to the grid that looks at the managers resistant to change and highlights that managers dominant styles can change under stress or pressure if the manager has a low resistance to change, i.e. a Democratic 9.9 type manager can change to be more Autocratic 9.1 when faced with stressful or pressure situations. This theory is important in my investigation as it relates to the managers attitudes towards the followers and how that attitude may or may not encourage followers to develop. Hersey Blanchard (Blanchard and Hersey, 1996), life Cycle theory which was later renamed as Situational leadership theory suggests that to achieve the task it is necessary for the leader to apply different leadership styles depending on the situation, the attitude and abilities of the followers and the type of tasks or jobs to be performed. This theory also allows for the leadership styles to be practised to develop followers to achieve the task and as the followers develop then it allows for different styles of leadership to be used to support their continued development. Using these styles of leadership are important when relating them to employee development particularly if the leaders are consciously aware of this theory and are purposely applying the appropriate leadership style with the aim of developing the followers whilst achieving the tasks. Macgregor Theory X Theory Y, describes the assumptions that managers have about people, this affects how the manager behaves towards the employees. If the manager has assumptions based on theory X he is likely to apply a more Autocratic leadership style as his assumptions will be negative towards the employee, he will assume that employees will only deliver performance expectations if they are pushed and controlled and that they have little to offer in terms of creativity or initiative. By contrast managers who have assumptions based on Theory Y which is the opposite of theory X assumptions will encourage employees to take responsibility, work autonomously, and participate in solving business problems and deliver higher than expected performance. Managers with theory Y assumptions will be more likely to apply a Democratic or Participative leadership style. Manager assumptions may also create the Pygmalion affect Kopelman (ADD CITATION), if the manager has high expectations of employ ees ability to deliver high levels of performance then he behaves in a manner that will encourage and support these feelings, this then positively affects the followers attitude and they will try and respond in kind. However this also applies to theory X assumptions in that the employees may only deliver the managers expectations and thus if those expectations assume low performance levels then the employees may deliver just that. Macgregors theory is an important aspect in relation to developing leaders as theory X type behaviours and the subsequent leadership style applied are likely to result in lower levels of motivation as defined by Maslows hierarchy of needs where as leadership styles rooted in theory Y assumptions will open up the possibility of higher levels of employee motivation perhaps for employees to achieve self actualisation and thus deliver their potential, this potential may result in the employees becoming leaders themselves. BM Bass , Transactional leadership (Add CITATION) , is a relationship between the leaders and followers which is based on a transaction, the manager provides, pay and rewards such as promotion or favourable working conditions in return for the follower delivering satisfactory levels of performance. This style of leadership is unlikely to produce anything other than average performance levels, particularly if the manager only interacts with the followers if performance levels or standards arent achieved. Transformational leadership by contrast requires leaders to inspire followers by creating a vision, applying a charismatic style and good communication skills to engage and inspire followers to achieve performance levels in excess of expectations. This style also calls for leaders to build relationships with followers as individuals and have genuine concerns for their well being and development. If Transformational leadership is practised properly then the organisation will benefit fr om greater performance levels, obtained by having followers whos effort is far greater than they are contractually obligated to provide, as well as creating an organisational culture that encourages individuals to be developed to allow them the opportunity to fulfil their potential, this may also result in the followers becoming leaders. Findings In the following section I will present general background about Robert Wiseman Sons Ltd (the company) including its origins, geographical coverage, annual turnover and annual sales. The section will also cover the methods I used to gather my information, including techniques, sources and the outcome of my investigation. Robert Wiseman Dairies is a UK based liquid milk processing company, established in 1947 in East Kilbride, just outside Glasgow in Scotland. Founded by Robert Wiseman Senior, the business increased in size and profitability when Robert SNRs two oldest sons, Alan and Robert Jnr took control of the company. The business was floated on the stock market in 1994; however Alan Robert remain the majority share holders. The company employs 4700 employees, has 22 sites based throughout the UK ranging from Keith in the north of Scotland to Pensilva in the south of England. The 22 sites consist of 7 production facilities (Dairies) of which 2 are combined Dairies and distribution depots, 14 Distribution depots and 1 milk reload site. The company deliver product to customers throughout the whole of the UK. To obtain my evidence I interviewed 9 different leaders from within the Operations department, 2 Operational board members ,4 group or regional managers (responsibility for multiple sites) 3 Site managers. These individuals were chosen for their long length of service and seniority within the organisation, this seniority allows for the ability to develop managers to fill senior positions. The average age of the senior managers is 47years old, with an average length of service of 20 years ,and an average length of time in a senior postiton, Site manager or above of 11 years, this ranged from 4 years to 16years. The interview consisted of a question and answer section, the questionnaire was created by myself and focused on trying to identify leadership or management tasks along with questions regarding different leadership theories and 3 leadership style questionnaires, Blake and Mouton Leadership grid sourced from the internet, Macgregors assumptions about people questionnaire sourced from the Manufacturing institute along with a task-Person Leadership questionnaire also sourced from the Manufacturing institute. Using the companys automated library I obtained a copy of the company mission statement along with the personal development plans (PDPs) for most salaried staff, these PDPs were created in 2003 and have not been used for managers development for the last 5 years. No written or communicated company vision exists. Company Mission Statement: Be the recognised supplier of choice to the fresh liquid milk market Understand Customers needs Deliver the highest quality products Build a culture of continuous improvement Be the best fresh liquid milk processors and suppliers. Leadership or Management: Vision Creation, Communication and Organisational alignment: I began the questionnaire by asking each of the senior managers what they did in their job, half of the individuals mentioned that a large proportion of their time was either spent fire fighting or getting the product to the customers. The majority mentioned the need to achieve targets and objectives as well as looking for opportunities for continuous improvement all with a short term view. Only one of the Leaders suggested that they took a strategic view of the company direction as well as keeping abreast of the company competitors and world class organisations through benchmarking. At first I was interested that no one mentioned communicating the company vision or aligning their depts. to achieve the vision which led me onto my next question: Does the company have a vision? All of the leaders confirmed there is no documented vision with only two of the leaders able to confirm that the company actually had a vision, this currently is only discussed informally at board level. The remaining leaders had a guess at what they thought the vision was with 7 different visions being proposed. In response to my next question, do you have a vision for your dept or site? The majority of the senior managers did have a vision however they were on the whole not directly linked with the company vision, they were not aligned with each others vision and either had not been communicated at all or discussed only with each of their senior teams. None of the senior managers had communicated their vision with each other. Succession planning Mentoring. To establish if the senior team spent time on identifying the leaders of the future and their successors I began with the following question, do you identify the leaders of the future for your area? 2 of the team responded that they do identify future leaders within their area and had informal discussions regarding their development. The others either did not actively or specifically seek out future leaders for their areas. My next questions was, do you mentor any junior member of your team or any other team? 2 of the team are official mentors to junior employees; this is as a result of a new initiative that RWD is involved in where they are sponsoring employees through a foundation degree in Dairy technology. No other senior manager is currently participating in an official mentor/mentoree relationship, several of the team felt that they were unofficially mentoring at least 1 junior member of their team or had done in the past however in general this had not been communicated with the mentoree and was not structured in any way I then asked, is there any obligation on you from anywhere to develop your successor? All answered that there was no official or direct expectation from the organisation that they identify and develop their successors, some felt that they where personally obliged to identify their successors, all felt that they should be obligated to develop their successors. The majority of the interviewees felt that they would be happy to accept an agreed objective with their line managers to identify and develop their successors and some of the interviewees had recognised individuals within their teams who had potential to develop into their successors. No one had agreed formal development plans with these individuals. Most of the interviewees had recently been involved in or been given objectives to create a new competency framework for certain key roles. These documents are to be progressed to allow gap analysiss to be performed with individuals and these would then generate Personal development plans. So whilst there has been little or any use of PDPs for the last 5 years the company have recognised this and are acting to improve the situation. Leadership Styles: Using the Blake Mouton leadership grid questionnaire all the senior team where evaluated, two of the team emerging as Authoritarian and the, majority emerged as Team Leaders based on their answers. The results ranged from 4.6 to 7.6 for consideration for people, with consideration for task ranging from 5.2 to 8.2. This indicates that with regards to consideration of people versus consideration for task completion there is no strong bias, however the majority of the results are closer to the 5.5 middle of the road manager style which may only result in adequate performance results a. If the aim is to have high performing teams producing high performance then there is an opportunity for improvement. Insert BM Grid. To investigate whether the senior management teams assumptions about people are impacting on their leadership styles and thereforemaybe impacing on developing leaders each manager completed an assumptions about people questionnaire to establish where they fit on Macgregors theory X and Y concept. The average results where 21 for Theory X, individual results varied from 9 to 34. Average results for Theory Y were 79. Individual results ranged from 66 to 91. In general the senior teams assumptions about people are generally positive, this allows for the possibility of the team influencing higher levels of motivations within their within their followers Discussion (1100 words) Format it/write it and re read it many times. This section ties together the whole assignment!!!!!!!!!!, needs to show my ability to link theory with the real world CHECK THE TOP TIPS FOR THIS AS IT IS DIFFICULT. Conclusion and recommendations   One way of improving the development and performance of followers is to apply a more transformational leadership style approach within the organisations. This approach has proven to some extent to improve the motivation, and empowerment and thus the performance (Avolio,Eden Shamir) ADD ENDNOTE CITATION) of followers. Providing training to the senior management team within operations beginning with the Top MANAGEMENT TEAM Supply chain director, GOMs ROMs and to Site Mgrs on transformational leadership to expand the knowledge of the team may help to engage the leaders more in leaders activities as oppose to management activities. The implications and cost of this approach would need to be reviewed and agreed before commencing this approach. BLAKE, R. R. MOUTON, J. S. 1967. MANAGERIAL GRID IN 3 DIMENSIONS. Training and Development Journal, 21, 2-5. BLANCHARD, K. H. HERSEY, P. 1996. Life-cycle theory of leadership. Training Development, 50, 42-47. KOTTER, J. P. 2001. What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review, 79, 85-96. ZALEZNIK, A. 1977. Managers and leaders: Are they different? Harvard Business Review, 55, 12.

Motivation and Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

Motivation and Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention Foundations in Sport Psychology XingChi Shen Term Paper for the Course Foundations in Sport Psychology Abstract: in this paper, two most impressive topics, the motivation and Broadbent’s filter model of attention respectively, are chosen from various interesting topics as the focus of this essay. First their concepts are analyzed and then their applications in the cheerleading phenomenon are discussed. Cheerleaders can raise spirits, strengthen confidence, and set up the players a motivation and strengthen psychological pressure on the rivals and achieve deterrent effects on the rivals. But on the other hand, cheerleaders can generate some negativeeffects. Therefore, in practice people should appropriately design and organize the activities of the cheerleaders to let the cheerleaders affect the audiences, and strengthen the athletes confidence, and enhance the audiences passions. At last, my personal reflection for this course is addressed. 1. Topics Chosen During the process of studying the course of Foundations in Sport Psychology, we learned many principles of sport psychology, including the concepts of collaboration and competition, the process of the cognitive psychology, the concepts of social loafing, and the motivation of sport (Martin, Carlson, and Buskist, 2000; Weinberg Gould 2011). We also knew the experimental method and biological fundaments of psychology. Although the course emphasizes psychological factors in sport, but the course provides us many general theories of psychology. This course has opened our minds and shown us a colorful world in our inside world, which we never noted before. However, among various interesting topics, two are most impressive for us: the motivation and Broadbent’s filter model for peoples cognitive process. In this paper we will choose these two topics as the focus of this essay and discuss their applications in the sport. 2. Theoretical and Conceptual Principles of Sport Psychology In the first place, motivation is one of the most important concepts in sport psychology because people participating any sport have various motivations. For example, some people play tennis with friends because they mainly want to improve skills and have fun with friends, while other may want to develop fitness by playing tennis. For some professional athletes, their motivation is to achieve a success in their sport career. From this class we learn the interactional view of motivation: motivated behavior is primarily determined by situational factors, but motivated behavior results from the interaction of participant personal factors and situational factors (Martin, Carlson, and Buskist, 2000; Weinberg Gould 2011). Shown in Fig.1, personal factors contain athletes personalities, needs, interests, and goals, while situational factors includes lead-coach style, team win loss record, and facilities attractiveness, etc (Martin, Carlson, and Buskist, 2000; Weinberg Gould 2011). Here si tuational factors also include audience response in the competition. Athletes apparently can be affected by audience response, while cheerleading is a very important method to stimulate the audiences response in matches. Fig.1 interaction of participant personal factors and situational factors In the second place, psychological research shows when people engage in certain activities, their psychological status will be affected by the environment. Consequently, their actions and actions results will be further affected by these factors accordingly. In the field of sports, a lot of practices have shown that athlete’s cheerleaders will impose certain psychological effects, thereby affecting the athletes sport results or performance. Even the American diver Michelle Davison says, â€Å"Everyone is pretty much at the same level physically, [The difference comes down to] who can hold it together mentally. (Using Psychology to Improve Sports Performance 2014). Moreover, Dr. Magulubur published a paper in Olympic scientific congress in 1984 that the impact of psychological factors for the athletes in low, mid-level skills is 20%, bio-mechanical factors account for 80%. For elite athletes these numbers are just the opposite. i.e., psychological factors may account for 80% a nd biological mechanical actors are 20% (Using Psychology to Improve Sports Performance 2014). American track and file athlete Carl Lewis has said 90% of preparation is the pre-match psychological. So the psychological factors play a decisive role in the match. Moreover, many researchers have investigated the influence of the mental factors for the performance of the athletes and injure of athletes in details. For example, they investigated the psychological factors such as the competitive anxiety and coach may lead to injure of the athletes in matches (Junge 2000). Among many explanations about the connection between psychological status and the performance of athletes, we just concern the psychological theory of attention, since in the competition of athletes. The problem of attention is very important for an athlete to achieve success. In basis of Broadbent filters model shown as Fig.2, people have a process to use a message they receive (Broadbent, 1958). First, all messages from outside are input into the sensor store of human, but selectively transferred into our brains, in basis of their physical properties such as color, pitch, and loudness. After going through a bottleneck, the information is transmitted into high level processing and finally into short term memory and then into long term memory. This theory emphasizes that the world comprises of many more sensations than we can handle by the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of humans. To cope with the information, we have to selectively keep to some information. Attention, therefo re, is the result of a limited-capacity information-processing system. Fig.2 Broadbent’s filter model of attention We noted that the cheerleading becomes a very common activities in the match, especially in the NFL (National Football League) and NBA (National Basketball Association) basket ball companions. And even the cheerleading becomes one necessary part of match in the US. We see often them from the TV and newspaper. Therefore, we are interested in what the functions of the cheerleading in the match, and how the applications of the aforementioned principles of sport psychology into the cheerleaders phenomenon. We will explain these details in the next section. 3.Application to Cheerleaders Phenomenon 3.1 The introduction of cheerleader Even though currently most cheerleads team consists of females, the cheerleading began as all-male activity. The first cheerleader team dates back to in 1987, when cheerleaders yelled at the stadium of the Princeton University for their baseball and football athletes. After that, many universities and high schools have established such of cheerleaders and they often play performances in the NFL and NBA matches. Table 1. Top 10 cheerleading organizations in the US (Campo-Flores 2007 ) However, until 1980 in the United States, cheerleading has developed into the athletics competition, gradually developed into International All Star Cheerleading Association (the IASCA) competition (Smith 2007). In 1998, International Cheerleading Union (International Cheerleading Federation), a world cheerleading organization supported by the United States was established as an important turning point in the history of cheerleading. The International Cheerleading Union successfully hosted the first Cheerleading World Championship in 2001. Eight countries (Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and China Taiwan) around the world participated, and the Japanese team won the championship (Campo-Flores 2007). Newsday, cheerleading itself has developed into an independent sport. Today it is estimated that over 1.5 million participants are active in the all star cheerleading in the US. In addition, about 1000,000 cheerleaders are scattered around the world, including Canada, China, German, Japan, and United Kingdom. To date, more than 60 countries around the world to carry out this campaign (Campo-Flores 2007). Fig.3 the Cheerleader of NFL and NBA Boston Celtics (Cheerleaders of NFL and NBA Boston Celtics 2014) Today modern cheerleaders movement blends many elements of hand gymnastics, dancing, gymnastics, sports skills, coupled with a strong sense of rhythm music. They demonstrate the athletes spirit and collective spirit of solidarity in the competition. In addition to athletes, referees, and spectators, cheerleaders are active in sports venues of the fourth character. At least cheerleading has a function of spectators. But unlike simple spectators, cheerleading has more obvious and deliberate purpose on the athletes. With respect to the athletes themselves, cheerleading is an external factor capable of acting on the inner psychological athletes. In this section we will apply the theory of the motivation and the cognitive psychology in analyzing the cheerleading phenomenon. 3.2 Format of cheerleader According to its organization format, cheerleading can mainly be divided into the following two categories: (1) Simple cheerleaders: They are also known as yelling cheerleaders. They mainly consist of the athletes families, friends and fans. They just yell, clap, or shake hands at the stadium in order to encourage athletes. It is a common way of cheering athletes. For individual athletes or entire team, the cheerleaders can raise spirits, strengthen confidence, and set up the players a motivation that it is not only a win for themselves, they win for more. It allows individuals competitive spirit more adequate and help them access to get out of the ego. Meanwhile, it can strengthen psychological pressure on the rivals and achieve deterrent effects on the rivals. A good cheerleader can even produce artificial home field advantage. Athletes are not in home field, but if the cheerleaders can control the visiting fields audiences, so players can feel they are at home field, thereby enhancing their confidence and strengthen the winning mentality. In fact, friends group and fans group of athlete stars also can organize cheerleaders to support one athlete or group, and generate the psychological offensive for the rivals. (2) Show cheerleader: This cheerleading includes 1-3 minutes long aerobics performance show at opening, midfield transition, or closing. Athletes groups (individual members or groups of members compete with each other) create and improve the environment and atmosphere of the competition. The athletes groups and audience can be affected which let them have feelings of joy and excitement. Often these cheerleaders will show many movements of gymnastics and dances. From a business standpoint, these cheerleaders market has become the mainstream in the current competition matches. Through purposeful selection members, after careful preparation, show cheerleaders can design their movement and adjust the competitive atmosphere of the scene, and inspire athletes to fight attracted the audiences attention. Many cheerleaders we saw from the TV and newspaper belong to this type. However, on the other hand, cheerleading may generate some negativeeffects. In a sport context an attention is a vital aspect of athletic performance. As we mentioned from the Broadbent model, to cope with the messages, we have to selectively attend to some information. However, in the competition, inappropriate cheerleading activities can use loudly yelling, or some special color to distribute the athletes attention and dampen their enthusiasm. Recently, many experts concluded that cheerleaders may hinder the game In games such as gymnastics, aerobics, fraught with difficult moves, such as juggling, tumbling, athletes need to concentrate their attentions, otherwise they will be extremely vulnerable to generate adverse consequences. But sometimes the cheerleaders are hard to realize this point and may generate some negative effects. Therefore, in practice people should appropriately design and organize the activities of the cheerleaders to let the cheerleaders affect the audiences, and strengthen the athletes confidence, and enhance the audiences passions, not to interrupt the athletes concentration. In details, based on the schedule of the match, the type of the competition, and the audiences, cheerleading should choose the music, performance actions, and location of performance. On the other hand, the athletes should strength the psychological training to avoid the interference by the cheerleading and audiences. 4. Personal Reflection In this semester, we first learned many psychological concepts from this course. We took many tests and assignments in the classes. However, only by through writing this essay, we have an opportunity to further understand the concepts that we learned in this course. In the first place, this course gives me many new ideals about the psychology and widens my horizons. I feel the psychological concepts are useful in our life. For example, people have different personality and mood, which can be determined by their inner world, but can be adjusted by the environment. However, when I write this reflection paper, I reviewed many concepts and chose the most important points which I learned in this paper. To write this paper, I search all kinds of knowledge of the sport psychology. For example, I find some topics as the research of the experiment of sport psychology. Even though the result is very interested, it is not fitful for this paper. When we saw the pictures of cheerleaders from internet, we think it is a good topics to connect the sport psychology to our life, since everyone know what is cheerleader and cheerleading has some psychological principles. We thought this topic and finally choose motivation and cognitive psychology in this paper and consider their applications in sport. In the second place, from this course we know how important of psychology in the sport. For instance, I am also a player of badminton and I have my personal experience. I understand how important of the mental status in playing badminton. Moreover, understanding some psychological principles can help me improve our performance in the match. Especially when we continuously lose several points in the competition, we should not blame our partner. On the country, we encourage each other with my team players and make ourselves relaxed. In addition, we can ask for my friends to organize one cheerleader for us and encourage us in the match. That is very useful in practice. Thirdly, I read many papers talking about the connection between the sport injure and the mental issue of athletes. Even this course concentrates on the sport psychology; the principles are still useful for any person. For example, I was very nervous before taking the exam. By from this course, we know that the self-confidence is very important for achieving better performance not only for athletes, but also for students. So this course helps me tread correctly the anxiety and pressure at exams. It helps me understand the mechanism of the anxiety, and teach me how to resolve the anxiety. Therefore, as for this aspect, the course is very useful in practice. In the near future, we would like to apply these principles we learned in this course into practice. References Broadbent, D (1958). Perception and Communication. London: Pergamon Press. Campo-Flores, Arian (2007). A World of Cheer!. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/cheerleading-gains-popularity-worldwide-101645. Cheerleaders of NFL and NBA Boston Celtics (2014), Pics from http://www.spox.com/de/sport/diashows/cheearleader-nba-nfl/cheerleader-nfl-nba,seite=23.html Junge, Astrid (2000), The Influence of Psychological Factors on Sports Injuries, Review of the Literature. Am J Sports Med.2000;28(5 Suppl):S10-5. Martin, G.N. Carlson, N.R. and Buskist, W. (2010) Psychology. Pearson Educational Press: Harlow, Essex. Smith, Jennifer Renà ¨e (February 2007). The All-Star Chronicles, American Cheerleader13(1): 40–42. Schmidt, R. A. and Wrisberg, C.A. (2008). Motor learning and performance: A Situation-Based Learning Approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Using Psychology to Improve Sports Performance (2014). Retrieved from www.spicewoodgroup.com/sports_psych.asp. Weinberg, R. S., Gould, D. (2011). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology. (5th Ed.) Word count 2524

Essay --

Even though there is an age requirement, alcohol should be banned because it leads to drunk driving and kills. Here in the state of Missouri, statistics show that in 2011, 9,878 people died in drunk driving crashes. One crash every 53 minutes. There are two types of drunk driving offenses. One is DWI, which is driving while intoxicated. The other is the DUI, driving under the influence, which would be of alcohol or other drugs. They both follow the same rules and laws. Here in Missouri, we have strict laws and offenses that limit drunk driving. The legal blood alcohol level for driving is a maximum .08% if you are over the age of 21 and .02% for minors under the age 21. A first offence for driving while intoxicated is considered a class B misdemeanor. Class B misdemeanors can vary from 30 days up to six months in jail, up to $500 in fines, or both. A second offense within five years of the first violation is a class A misdemeanor and is serving up to 1 year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. A third conviction for DWI in your lifetime is a class D felony and you serve 4 years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both. Previous laws in Missouri used to require that the first offense would have occurred within 10 years of the 3rd offense, but now it is a lifetime look back. A fourth conviction is a class C felony and is punishable by up to 7 years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both. A fifth conviction is a class B felony and is punished with up to 15 years in prison. With DUI convictions, even first-time offenders receive a license suspension. The suspension ranges from 90 days to a full year. Drivers who have a second or third DUI conviction face having their licenses revoked for another five to ten years, not including their other consequ... ... sure before you do drink, someone is assigned to be the designated driver and make sure that they are committed to not drinking any alcoholic beverages. As technology increases, there are more and more types of ways to prevent drunk driving. The use of ignition locks is growing in popularity and are trying to be mandatory for all vehicles. An ignition lock is a machine that is connected to a car’s ignition and checks the drivers blood alcohol content level. Installing an ignition lock in repeated violators cars is a possibility in many states. They would have to blow into the machine to start the car and also from time to time while driving. If alcohol is detected, the car either does not start or turns itself off. If a driver fails the test while the car is in motion, the vehicle’s horn will honk, or the lights will flash to get the attention of police officers.

Analysis of Wallace Stevens 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird :: Wallace Stevens 13 Ways Blackbird Essays

Analysis of Wallace Stevens' "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  'Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird' by Wallace Stevens is a poem about what it means to really know something. In this poem, Stevens shows this connection by writing a first person poem about a poet's observation and contemplation's when viewing a blackbird. He does this by making each stanza an explanation of a new way he has perceived this blackbird. First, he writes about his physical perception of the blackbird as an observer. Then, he writes about his mental processes during this time. These are as the thoughts and perceptions of the blackbird itself, as what it must be like to be that bird. By the end, he has concluded that by seeing this blackbird, a connection has been made and he now knows the blackbird has becomes a part of him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the first stanza, he focuses on the eye of the blackbird as an outside observer. This symbolizes the thoughts and the consciousness of the blackbird. It is also a transition from the observer's perception to the blackbird's perception. In the second stanza, Stevens goes on to say that he was of ?three minds, Like a tree, In which there are three blackbirds.? This was the first time he makes the connection between seeing the blackbird and him himself metaphorically being the blackbird. He makes this connection even more clear in the fourth stanza when he says that ?A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird are one." In the sixth stanza he goes back to being the poet observer as he watches the blackbird fly by his icy window. Again in the next stanza he goes back to the point of view of the blackbird wondering why the men of Haddam only imagine golden birds instead of realizing the value of the common blackbird. At this time, he makes the connection that in seeing and knowing the blackbird it becomes a part of himself. When he says in the eighth stanza ?I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.? he is acknowledging that he is still a poet but when he sees, thinks, and writes about the blackbird, in a way he is also the blackbird. After this, the black bird and the poet observer are separated but in the twelfth stanza Stevens writes ?The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.? This is meant to show that though the observer's

Criminology Essay Essay

Within the past decade, a new school of criminology has come into being. I use the term â€Å"school† here in its somewhat figurative sense, to refer to a group of people held together by certain shared beliefs, teachings, and opinions; that is, I use it in the same sense as it was used of the Italian â€Å"positivist†school of criminology of a century ago. Within its brief life, this new school has been referred to in a variety of ways. It has been said to propound a â€Å"new† criminology; a â€Å"radical† criminology; and a â€Å"critical† criminology. For a variety of reasons, however, none of these terms seems to me to be particularly satisfactory. For one thing, there is nothing very new about the ideas which this school espouses; nor do they have a monopoly on radical or critical views-always assuming, of course, that the terms â€Å"radical† and â€Å"critical† have any meaning left at all, in political and social discourse. For another thing, claims to novelty, in criminology as elsewhere, are bound by nature to be pretty transient things: somebody, someday, is going to come along with a newer criminology, a still newer criminology, a newest criminology, and so on.’ But the basic objection to all three terms is that they do little to clarify the character of the criminological views of the school in question: for the most part, the members of that school are (or at least claim to be) marxists. The term â€Å"marxist†is itself not free from ambiguity, of course. Among those who are called (or call themselves) by that name, there are many theoretical and doctrinal differences: there are also crypto-marxists, neo-marxists, and (for all I know) quasimarxists, as well as Maoists, Leninists, Trotskyites, Stalinists and so on. All too often, there is only the most tenuous relation between the views of these groups and the political and social theories of Marx himself; and as is well known those theories them1 This has already happened. Professor James Q. Wilson, in his introduction to Thomas Reppetto’s (1974) book Residential Crime writes that â€Å"there is slowly arising a ‘new criminology’ to supplant traditional criminology.† Wilson tells us that this new criminology â€Å"considers crime from the point of view of the victim, treats particularkinds of offenses (e.g. residential burglaries,stranger-to-stranger assaults), and considers explicitly the effectiveness of alternative preventive strategies.† He adds that Reppetto’s book â€Å"is a good example of the new criminology.† In fact, about all that Reppetto’s book shares with Taylor, Walton, and Young’s book The New Criminology is that both books are printed on paper. This content downloaded from 149.171.67.164 on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:31:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A Critique Marxist of Criminology selves underwent several changes during and after Marx’s life. Nonetheless, it seems appropriateto refer to the school of criminology discussed in this paper as marxist-or as marxisant,to use Douglas Hay’s felicitous term (Hay 1975a, p. 61). Several of the leading members of this school now call themselves marxists, though they did not all do so originally; and many of the main theories and concepts which they employ in their attempts to explain crime and societal reaction to crime are undoubtedly ones which are commonly imputed to Marx. (In particular,they place great emphasis on the social relations of production, and employ a concept of â€Å"class†based on those relations.) But given the considerable doubt which still surroundsat least some of the writings of Marx and Engels (see, e.g., Hirst 1975; Singer 1979), and some reservations (to be discussed further below) about the relations between those writings and the criminological writings with which I shall be concerned, it seems best not to assume a priori that those relations are necessarily very close; hence I shall write the word â€Å"marxist† with a small vm throughout, except where reference is to Marx himself. It is also important to note that I am not here concerned to question the cogency, coherence, or correctness of marxist social theories in general.2 Though undoubtedly important, such a task is far beyond the scope of this paper. My concern is rather with the application of those theories to criminological problems, including problems about the origins, nature, and enforcement of the criminal law. The school of criminology whose works I shall review may be marxist;but it is also a school of criminology, though not all of those whom I shall discuss describe themselves professionally as criminologists. Why are certain acts defined as criminal? Why nonetheless do certain people commit those acts? What is done to those people, and why? It is with questions of that kind that we (and the marxist school of criminology) are concerned. 2 Or in particular, e.g., the â€Å"theory of surplus value,† according to which capitalistsexploit labor by extracting surplus value from their work in the form of profits-a theory first expounded by Marx in 1865 (Marx and Engels 1968). I cannot see any conditions under which this â€Å"theory† might turn out to be false; in any case, it appears to entail little by way of predictions about crime. This content downloaded from 149.171.67.164 on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:31:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The purpose of this essay, then, is to analyze the criminological theories and claims of a group of writers, most of whom are marxistsor approach the study of crime from a marxist perspective. I begin by describing the intellectual origins of the new marxist school. I describe the central tenets which most members of this group appearto hold. I then describe some empiricalwork done by these criminologists, and related work done by historians, sociologists and other scholars, which has many affinities with marxist criminology. I offer a brief critique of some of the views of this school, and conclude with a provisional assessmentof the impact which marxist criminology has had to date. A caveat is in order at the outset. I think it is illuminating to compare the contemporary marxist school of criminology with the Scuola Positiva which revolutionized criminology a century ago. But the analogy may be unfair and misleadingif it is pressed too far. Contemporary marxist criminologists do not refer to themselves as a â€Å"school,† so far as I know; and they are by no means as self-consciously united in opinion as were Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo.3 On the contrary, they differ among themselves on a number of points, and they may well regard some of those differences as important. I shall try to document some of this diversity of opinion, even though it is mainly with areas of agreement that I shall be concerned; and wherever possible I shall cite chapter and verse from specific writers for specific views. Those views should not necessarily be imputed to anyone else. I. Origins of the Marxist School of Criminology In order fully to appreciate a body of social or philosophical theory, it is often helpful to begin by considering its intellectual history and the circumstances in which it arose. This is clearly so in the case of recent marxist criminology. Thus, if one were to choose a single book by which to date the birth of the contemporary marxist school, that book would undoubtedly be The New Criminology, by Ian Taylor, Paul Walton, and Jock Young, 3 There were, of course, important differences of opinion between Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo. For a discussionsee Mannheim (1960), especially pp. 23-29. This content downloaded from 149.171.67.164 on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:31:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Aldi Inc Strategic Swot Analysis Review Essay

Summary Aldi, Inc. (Aldi) is a grocery retailing company. The company’s stores supply various food and general merchandise such as fresh meat and produce; refrigerated and frozen foods; snacks and sweets; bakery, dairy, pantry items and beverages. In addition, it also offers skincare and beauty products, house hold must have products, and beer and wines. Aldi operates over 1,200 stores in the US and sells over 1,400 of the most frequently purchased grocery and household items in manageable, non-bulk packaging. It operates as a subsidiary of ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG. The company is headquartered in Batavia, Illinois, the US Our Aldi, Inc. provides a comprehensive insight into the company’s history, corporate strategy, business structure and operations. The report contains a detailed SWOT analysis, information on the company’s key employees, key competitors and major products and services. This up-to-the-minute company report will help you to formulate strategies to drive your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better. Scope – Business description – A detailed description of the company’s operations and business divisions. – Corporate strategy – Our summarization of the company’s business strategy. – SWOT analysis – A detailed analysis of the company’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. – Company history – Progression of key events associated with the company. – Major products and services – A list of major products, services and brands of the company. – Key competitors – A list of key competitors to the company. – Key employees – A list of the key executives of the company. – Executive biographies – A brief summary of the executives’ employment history. – Key operational heads – A list of personnel heading key departments/functions. – Important locations and subsidiaries – A list of key locations and subsidiaries of the company, including contact details. Note: Some sections may be missing if data is unavailable for the company. Reasons to Buy – Gain key insights into the company for academic or business research purposes. Key elements such as SWOT analysis and corporate strategy are incorporated in the profile to assist your academic or business research needs. – Identify potential customers and suppliers with this report’s analysis of the company’s business structure, operations, major products and services and business strategy. – Understand and respond to your competitors’ business structure and strategies with Our detailed SWOT analysis. In this, the company’s core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are analyzed, providing you with an up to date objective view of the company. – Examine potential investment and acquisition targets with this report’s detailed insight into the company’s strategic, business and operational performance.

Starbucks Case

As a result, Cataracts consistently appears on â€Å"Best Places to Work† lists, and Schultz continues to be recognized for leadership by organizations such as the Deciphers Institute, Fortune, and Glissando (â€Å"Cataracts and Howard,† 2014). Schultz also appears on Fortunes first list Of the Android's 50 Greatest Leaders† as number 29 (Cataracts News). Although critics may believe that Schultz success is a result of mere luck and situational factors, several leadership theories explain why Schultz and Cataracts continue to be successful.The most important of these theories include trait theory and transformational leadership theory, which Schultz illustrates with many of his leadership traits, skills, and beliefs. Situational factors contributed to the initial success of Cataracts, but Schultz leadership abilities, ethics, and passion are what make Cataracts a driving force in the food and beverage industry today. Schultz exemplifies dynamic leadership skills b y his ability to push Cataracts forward without losing integrity.Although Schultz led Cataracts to be the successful company that it is today, he stepped down from his position in 2000. However, the company experienced several problems in 2008 because of an unstable economy and a series of poor management decisions. Schultz then felt compelled to return to the company. When Schultz returned, he found that â€Å"things were worse than [he'd] thought† (Igniting, 2010). The Cataracts leadership team admitted to failing the company's employees and heir families, and Schultz had to make several difficult decisions to restore the company.In addition to the crises in management, the financial crisis of the economy added stress on the Cataracts leadership team. Customers began to rethink spending four dollars on a latte, and eventually competition set in as other businesses saw Cataracts turning a profit from selling coffee. The overwhelming amount of problems challenged Schultz goal of preserving and improving the integrity of the company and its â€Å"values, culture, guiding principles, and the reservoir of trust with Cataracts people† Igniting, 2010).Howard Schultz got Cataracts back on track by using his existing knowledge of the company, an asset other Coos did not have. He tried to do ‘the right thing† by shutting down the stores for three and a half hours for retraining. He said, ‘†We are retraining our people because we have forgotten what we stand for, and that is the pursuit of an unequivocal, absolute commitment to quality† (Igniting, 2010). Schultz motivation and thirst for success allowed Cataracts to regain its strength.In the years 2006 to 201 3, the company underwent several leadership arrangements because Schultz carefully chose certain people for leadership positions that would optimize the growth of the company. In 2011, Cataracts adopted a new corporate structure to accelerate its growth strategy. Schult z said, â€Å"Our company performance over the past two years has positioned Cataracts for significant international opportunities ahead† (â€Å"Cataracts Announces New Leadership,† 2011 He decided to execute a multi-brand, multinational strategy that would optimize the company's speed and focus going forward.Schultz implemented a three-region organization Structure including China and Asia Pacific, the Americas, and MEME (Europe, LLC. K. Middle East, Russia, and Africa). He selected John Culver, Cliff Burrows, and Michelle Gas to serve as president of each region, and the presidents' responsibilities included working with licensed and joint-venture business partners and reporting to Schultz. Cataracts also created a â€Å"multi-brand, multi-channel future by building a portfolio of branded business united beyond the Cataracts retail brand† (â€Å"Cataracts Announces New Leadership,† 201 1).Cattle's Best Coffee and Taco Tea both continued to be important growth opportunities as they generated revenue for the company. Building on the new corporate structure and company success, Schultz decided to strengthen the Cataracts Senior Leadership team in 2014 because he wanted to position the company ‘to leverage its assets and operations, and gain maximum benefit from the retail, consumer, mobile, and digital shifts currently underway in the global marketplace† (â€Å"Cataracts Strengthens Senior Leadership Team†, 2014).Schultz said, â€Å"These organizational moves map our internal talent to the rapidly evolving retail environment and significant strategic and market opportunities ahead of us. With the new leadership structure, Schultz wanted to bring â€Å"greater financial and operational discipline† and to focus on the Cataracts mission and its growth (â€Å"Cataracts Strengthens Senior Leadership Team†, 2014). Senior leadership changes include Troy Lasted to Chief Operating Officer, Scott Maw to Execut ive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Craig Russell to Executive Vice President.With these changes, Schultz intended to focus on â€Å"generation retailing and payments initiatives in the areas of digital, mobile, card, loyalty, and e-commerce† and to prepare for â€Å"its next wave of global growth† â€Å"Cataracts Strengthens Senior Leadership Team†, 2014). The senior leadership changes took effect on February 3, 2014, and Cataracts continues to thrive under the leadership of Howard Schultz. Although Schultz is only one of many leaders who has appeared throughout history, he continues to help redefine what leadership is and how to use one's leadership skills to run a successful company.In general, leadership is defined as the process of providing general direction and influencing individuals or groups to achieve goals, but leaders convey leadership in many different ways (Collar, 201 1). One theory that explains why Schultz is an exceptional lead er is the trait theory of leadership. Atone time, â€Å"it was thought that some people were born with certain traits that made them effective leaders, whereas others were born without leadership traits† (Collar, 201 1).However, research has shown that leaders can learn or develop many of the traits or characteristics that they posses. Still, researchers agree that most successful leaders tend to share common leadership traits, regardless if they learn or inherit them. Some of these important leadership traits include drive, motivation, integrity, self- inference, cognitive ability, knowledge of domain, openness to new experiences, and extroversion, all of which Howard Schultz and other successful leaders exhibit. For example, Schultz displayed both drive and motivation when starting his company.Despite financial stress and emotional struggles with his father's death, Schultz â€Å"channeled his drive to build a company where his father would be proud to work† (George, 2007). Schultz used his past struggles to drive him forward and motivate him to create a working environment that his employees loved and were satisfied with. Rather than displaying a personalized power motive, Schultz displayed a socialized power motive to achieve goals that were in the best interest of the organization and its followers.Schultz also exhibits integrity, since he is honest and maintains consistency between what he says and what he does. As a result, his employees trust him and are happy to work for a company that is ethically sound and fair. The Deciphers Institute named Cataracts as one of the â€Å"World's Most Ethical Companies† for the eighth year in a row because of its honest and trustworthy leaders and employees (â€Å"Cataracts and Howard†, 2014). Furthermore, Schultz also uses his cognitive ability and knowledge of gourmet coffee and customer service to positively influence and teach his employees and partners.Schultz even traveled to Italy t o gain insight on the unique community experience that many Italian espresso bars play in customers' lives so that he could apply many of these concepts that he learned in Italy to his own coffee shops. As a result, Schultz has used traits like his knowledge, drive, motivation, and integrity to make Cataracts into the successful organization that he had always dreamed of as a young child (George, 2007). In addition to trait theory, Schultz leadership skills also support the transformational leadership theory.Transformational leadership theory involves motivating followers to do more than expected, to continuously develop and grow, to increase their level of self-confidence, and to place the interest of the organization before their own. As a result, transformational leaders, like Schultz, are charismatic as well as intellectually stimulating and show individual consideration of followers. Schultz is the perfect example of a transformational leader because he created a company based on his vision f excellence and innovation for the modern coffee shop.His goal was to create a â€Å"third place† for customers in addition to their home and office by focusing on customer service and satisfaction. Therefore, he focused on empowering and instilling pride even in bottom line employees, so that they could be happy at work and create the positive environment that Schultz wanted Cataracts to have. In order to motivate employees, Schultz â€Å"instituted a training program designed to groom knowledgeable employees who would enjoy working behind a counter,† since he believed that friendly, efficient employees would boost sales (â€Å"Howard Schultz,† 2008).By providing high quality products for customers that employees were knowledgeable about, Schultz was able to give employees a job that they could feel proud of and happy to be at. According to John R. Scarsdale, â€Å"Schultz believes the only competitive advantage Cataracts has as a national retai l company is its workforce† (Scarsdale, 2013). Therefore, Schultz values his employees' performance and happiness over everything else that Cataracts offers. As a result, Schultz leadership style â€Å"is based on his compassion for, and commitment to, customers and staff alike† (â€Å"Howard Schultz,† n. D. ).Schultz knows that the key to any company's success begins with its workforce, because the employees interact with the customer everyday and deliver the actual product. Schultz notes, m{U can't expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you don't exceed the employees' expectations of management. That's the contract† (â€Å"More Excellent Customer Service Quotes†, n. D. ). Although Schultz leadership traits and transformational leadership style are both crucial reasons for Cataracts huge success over the past 40 years, some situational factors are also responsible for part of Cataracts' success.Some Of these situationa l factors include higher demand for quality, increase in fast food businesses, and convenient store locations. Today more and more individuals are focusing on the quality of the food and beverages that they put into their bodies, which has resulted in a higher demand for quality. Rather than just simply buying the cheapest product, consumers want a product that offers the most value for a reasonable price. For example, today more consumers prefer a cup of coffee that is fresh and made to order rather than a cup of coffee that is pre-made from synthetic ingredients.Therefore, any customers are willing to pay a dollar or two more for a higher quality coffee product rather than a lower quality coffee product. However, customers still expect the price for high quality coffee to be fairly reasonable, since the focus on quality in food products is becoming so important. Therefore, consumers now expect high quality products at a lower price. As a result, Cataracts has been able to capitali ze on this new demand for high quality products at a reasonable price with its wide array of quality coffee and beverages.In addition to demand for quality, fast food businesses seem to be lose by no matter where one goes because the demand for food and beverages to go has skyrocketed over the past few decades. Many individuals these days are always on the move and looking for a food or coffee establishment that can satisfy their needs in a short and efficient amount of time. Although it seems as though fast food and beverage options are never out of reach these days, this was not always the case for many coffee shops.For example, Schultz encountered the original Cataracts Coffee in the 1 sass during a sales call in Seattle, when the company only sold roasted whole bean coffees and did not brew coffee to sell. However, now Cataracts offers a huge variety of beverages, snacks, and much more that take only under a few minutes to make for customers. Additionally, Cataracts' convenient locations are another situational factor that helped add to its fast success, since the locations are typically very accessible and easy to find. In addition, the demand for drive thru windows has also given Cataracts a boost for customers in a hurry.Rather than having to physically go into a Cataracts store to order coffee, customers can order from their car if they are in a hurry. As a result, Cataracts has benefited tremendously from its convenient actions and fast service. Situational factors, such as demand for quality, increase in fast food chains, convenient locations, and many others, are all extremely important contributions to Cataracts' huge success. However, Howard Schultz leadership traits and skills that he instilled within his employees were also critical to keep Cataracts the number one coffee chain in the world.For example, Cataracts could be a completely different type of coffee company without Schultz guidance, and both his employees and Cataracts customers would not be as happy without his focus on employee satisfaction and quality service. Although Cataracts would likely still be somewhat successful without Schultz leadership, the company would likely have trouble differentiating itself from other coffee chains. Furthermore, the company also would not have as many loyal customers without their focus on quality customer service, since the employees would not be required to go through intense training.In addition, employees would not be as happy, since many of the employee benefits such as health care may not exist without Schultz. Consequently, unhappy employees could turn away potential and existing customers and only allow Cataracts to have short-term success. As a result, without Schultz focus on employee and customer satisfaction, the situational factors would not have mattered in the long run. Therefore, Schultz leadership skills were essential in establishing Cataracts as a dominant force in the coffee industry.Although Schultz allegi ance clearly lies with Cataracts, he could apply many of his leadership skills and abilities to another organization if needed. For example, if Howard Schultz was the CEO of Wall-Mart, he could use his knowledge and experience from Cataracts to lead Wall-Mart in a more positive direction by improving the quality of employees' jobs. Currently, several issues exist that may hold the company back from reaching its full potential. Hidden beneath operational problems, diminished sales, and low customer service ratings, employees are complaining about low salaries, erratic scheduling, and understanding (Heal, 2008).Currently, as many as 825,000 of Wall-Mart workers have an annual income of less than $25,000 (â€Å"Five Ways:' 2014). Wall-Mart is one of the most successful companies in the country and can certainly afford to raise these salaries so that hard working employees are able to support a family. Also, Wall-Mart employs a large annuity of employees in part-time positions, allowin g the company to skimp on costs, when most of these employees desire more hours (â€Å"Five Ways,† 2014). Workers are becoming frustrated with executives avoiding this crucial issue.Protests occurred at roughly 1,500 Wall-Mart stores on this past Black Friday alone. The protesters, a mix of workers and supporters, held signs calling for higher pay and better working conditions. To make matters worse, massive cuts of worker hours are taking a toll on consumer ratings of the company. A recent Consumer Reports Survey placed Wall-Mart at the bottom of the list of grocers. Shoppers mentioned the understanding, a clear cause of, â€Å"long lines and an overall poor customer service† (â€Å"Walter Ranks,† 2014).According to Geoffrey Heal (2008), accusations against Wall-Mart include â€Å"gender discrimination, low wages, excessive use of part-time labor, and harsh working conditions. † Based off these accusations, if Schultz were the CEO of Wall-Mart, its posit ion would be much different. Many of these weak areas are exactly where Cataracts has excelled over the past few decades. Schultz recon sized an approach that would build success for a Company with such a large number of employees. First, Cataracts pays its employees wages far above the service branch average and offers low-cost health benefit opportunities.Cataracts realized early on that properly training employees and acting generously towards them would lead to a very low employee turnover rate, which would reward the company in the future (Heal, 2008). Perhaps Wall-Mart's biggest challenge is that, unlike Cataracts, many of the employees are not proud to work there. Schultz prides Cataracts on being an employer that people trust. Workers share genuine hope for the company's future, and they want to be a part of it. Wall-Mart, on the other hand, is facing new lawsuits continuously -? and its own employees file a lot of them.Within the past year, the National Labor Relations Boar d filed a complaint against Wall-Mart for illegally firing and punishing about 60 workers who vocalizes a desire for change (â€Å"Five Ways,† 2014). In comparison, Howard Schultz has always treated his employees with respect and valued their individual opinions. Cataracts often holds open forums and encourages employees to speak their minds, even it they have negative comments. The combination of these criticisms along with praise in table areas has been important in contributing to shape the future of Cataracts and its culture.Schultz realized the value of personal connection when building Cataracts, and this is the major area that Wall-Mart needs improvement in. According to the case study, Schultz notes that remaining a humble and grounded entrepreneur is crucial. Schultz would bring this attitude to the executives at Wall-Mart, who currently do not cherish their employees as assets of the company. The case study reinforces Cataracts as a company that listens to and under stands each employee by noting the many has â€Å"implemented generous employee benefits, training programs, and employee stock ownership programs. For this reason, the transformation of Cataracts serves as a great model for the hypothetical situation of Schultz as CEO of Wall-Mart. Schultz would excel as the CEO of Wall-Mart, providing a fresh perspective to the executives and managers, and instilling values from the immense growth at Cataracts during his time there. No longer would bullying workers be acceptable, and â€Å"changing this culture of intimidation would go a long way to improving labor relations† (â€Å"Five Ways,† 2014). The basic change off higher minimum wage would reduce the number of protests and cause employees to feel a more prideful connection to the company.With Schultz as CEO, Wall-Mart executives would begin to recognize the importance of listening to employees across all levels and this simple act would go a long way to make the company a st ronger unit. Despite Howard Schultz eight-year hiatus in 2000, he has been one of Cataracts' greatest assets by building its fundamental ideals and values and staying involved to communicate his vision. For these reasons, Schultz is known around the world as one of the greatest leaders in the business world cause of his ethical values, passion, and communication skills.