The Individual and Leadership

Introduction In organizations, effective leadership is important in ensuring that achievement of objectives is realized. Leadership facilitates the attainment of a explicit goal or objective. The goal is common among all the people. To be an effective leader, it is imperative that all objectives are clear and every member understands his or her role.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Individual and Leadership specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Various theoretical frameworks and explanations provide insights on various ways that objectives become achievable through effective leadership. Besides, ways of exercising leadership differ across the board. This expository essay illuminates on the broader concept of organizational leadership. The paper will utilize various standpoints held by critical thinkers who have been pivotal throughout this course. Theoretical Frameworks of Leadership There are various the ories that explore the concept of leadership especially in organizational context. Ciulla (2003) explicates that leaders ought to adopt a style that suits their situation. While that is so, leaders have to exhibit specific traits that make them stand out in a group. Trait theories articulate that leaders have intrinsic ability to influence others. This implies that leaders are inborn and not everyone in the society is able to assume a position of leadership. Another theory that explains the concept of leadership involves cognition and learning. The theorists assert that people acquire leadership traits through experience and being in a position of followership. Thus, everyone can assume a position of leadership as long as they have acquired enough experience to lead a group towards its goals and objectives. These are among many theories that explain leadership in the context of organization. Further, it is important to notice that exercise of leadership is dependent on the strategy that a leader assumes. Ellis Harper (1997) says that transformative leaders will employ a style that is convincing to people and use their charisma to enhance the achievement of organizational goals. This is contrary to dictatorial and authoritative leaders who not only use their authority to decide the course that a group takes but also dismiss teamwork. Situational leaders on the other hand will always attempt to handle every matter as it arises (Yukl, 2006). They are also synonymous to contingent leaders who respond to different situation as they crop up. Indeed, they do not have any prior plans that anticipate situations.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In the contemporary world, the need for supportive leaders is increasing. This is in lieu of the fact that leaders will be the focal point of every organization in ensuring that members achieve their goals as pl anned. They support and encourage their members without any form of discrimination. In addition, they allow members to participate meaningfully when working towards a common goal. This way, members are able to contribute important insights that lead to improvement of the organization. Ciulla (2003) says that organizations should be able to ensure that all members are able to give their opinions. She further says that effective communication where information flows from the staff members to the management is the best way to enhance ethical and effective leadership (Ciulla, 2003). This way, a leader is able to understand the emotional intelligence of all members and make sure that they do not cross the line when issuing instructions (Ellis Harper, 1997). To this end, members become committed to the organization making it easy for the leaders to achieve effectiveness. Nonetheless, it is upon the leader to adopt a leadership style that he or she feels will be able to motivate the group towards the objectives. Individual and Organizational Leadership Spence et al. (2004) articulate that organizations are composed of different individuals who fulfill their roles and responsibilities to achieve its objectives. As such, various individuals perform their duties at different capacities. Of particular interest are leaders of departments and other functions of the organization. As a leader, it is important to ensure that the members are able to comprehend their roles in a clear manner (Ellis Harper, 1997). This is possible through effective communication and support. The leaders should be in a position to form a team through which various abilities, talents and skills become apparent. In addition, the leader should be able to inculcate an element of trust among his followers. This way, members will open up and give the leader a chance to understand their emotional intelligence.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Individual and Leadership specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More While some members respond to a specific situation in a calm way, others may react in an opposite way. As such, emotional intelligence is the key to unraveling the character that every member possesses. Ciulla (2003) explains that an individual who occupies leadership position in an organization ought to understand the aforementioned aspects of group members. According to Hobbes, a leader has power. Power within an organization is positional. It ought to propel an individual to ensuring that the organization achieves its mandate, which to large extents, involves influencing others. To this end, a leader should be able to comprehend the aspects of power that could impede the achievement of goals. Effect of Ethical Leadership in Organizations In the modern business environment, the concept of ethical leadership has become a norm. Corporations are seeking to control their activities and limit them to onl y those that yield benefits for all stakeholders. Ethics are guidelines of acting in a way that does not injure humanness of people in the pretext of increasing profit margins. While it is true that many organizations have entrenched ethical frameworks in their decision-making processes, sometimes they experience ethical dilemmas. This is when the interests of the organization are at stake for taking ethical standpoints. For instance, McDonald’s fast food company embarks on an aggressive social responsibility regardless of its financial performance. The company has suffered immensely from health practitioners’ articulations that junk food is unhealthy for people. Nonetheless, the fast food giant continues to make substantial amounts of revenues notwithstanding the health issues raised regarding fries and junk. Should a company bear the social obligation to meet the demands of the society despite making profits from hazardous goods to consumers? Apparently, the major ob jective of any corporate organization is to maximize on profits and increase the wealth of the shareholders. This case presents two moral dilemmas for an organization. First, despite profiting from unhealthy products, the company continues to direct substantial proportion for the revenues to corporate social responsibility. Is it worthwhile? Second, to what extents are companies morally obligated to assume moral standpoints yet the main objective of a company is to increase its profit margin and increase the value for its shareholders.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Corporate social responsibility reflects reward power to the society where the company reaps benefits from sales and rewards the society through the initiative (Spence et al., 2004). The use of reward power by McDonald’s has helped the organization to meet its objectives amidst calls for a paradigm shifts in eating habits. Yukl (2006) explicates that the most important aspect of an organization that the leaders ought to understand entails dealing with stakeholders in a manner that does not lower their value. According to Yukl, does the company have the moral obligation of helping the society? Leaders ought to be the representatives of organizations and as such, they act in line with the organization’s objectives (Yukl, 2006). By embarking on the aggressive social responsibility strategy, the leaders are just acting in line with the objective of making unprecedented profits and the strategy reflects use power influence. Further, the concept of power and self-interests e lucidated by Plato could infer that McDonald’s has centralized power of influencing both the employees as well as the society. Plato sees no rationale for embarking on such strategy since it would imply that people have power. He distances himself from ‘people power’ and argues that the company, which in this case represents the ‘Republic’, should not bear any moral obligation for the society (Bostock, 2000). In essence, the society has no mandate to demand any source of help from the company. The wielder of power, in this case, McDonalds bear the mandate of distributing power in any manner it feels best address the interests of the people without coercion. Due to the power of self-interests, McDonald’s should focus on its objectives, which is to increase the wealth of its owners rather than distributing its revenues to people (Annas, 1981). The self-interests of the shareholders should prevail as opposed to the need to address society’ s issues, which is in itself contradicts the essence of the ‘Republic’. Annas (1981) points out that leaders of the organization who are the shareholders and management should concentrate power for the sake of achieving individually motivated goals and objectives. Contrary to the views of Plato, Hobbes could judge the dilemma from different perspectives. His perspective of power, which in this case is wielded by McDonalds, should be in relation to other people. In his masterpiece, The Leviathan, Hobbes says that power is relational to other people without whom there would be no any phenomenon referred to as power (Ellis Harper, 1997). Hence, McDonalds has wielded relative power given that the consumers continue to have faith in the company. To that end, the exercise of power should be with the aim of ensuring that the organization’s stakeholders have the satisfaction with the organization. This way, the company will continue making profits and achieve it financi al and organizational goal. This raises the next question, to what extents are companies obligated to have a social responsibility initiative? Hobbes argues that there is a minimum standard power that people should possess. In what he referred to as ceding power, McDonalds’ aggressive corporate social responsibility should be seen as a way of showing that people hold this type of power. It is therefore important for the company to act devoid of self-interests and provide healthy foods to the consumer as a show of ceding power (Zaccaro et al., 2001). Niccollo Machiavelli would argue in line with his premise that human nature is typical of endless competition. In fact, the essence of life is to ensure that every person gets an edge over others. Applying this argument to the context of an organization, McDonalds should not relent on its current strategy whether or not the food they serve are healthy. Antonakis et al. (2009) assert that the company should focus on ensuring that i t maximizes on profits without considering the consequences of its operations on the society or consumer. This is in lieu of the fact that an organization should aim at posing the increased competition with other food industry despite the means it uses. Owing to this nature of human beings, the revenues of the company should not fund corporate social responsibility since it negates human nature (Ciulla, 2003). Machiavelli infers that an organization should act selfishly and amass wealth for the stakeholders who ultimately should understand that life is short, nasty and brutal (Davis Blomstrom, 1975). Despite such radical standpoint held by Machiavelli, all organizations are selfish because competition is a reality in business environment. As such, all companies aim at having an edge over others in order to increase their earnings and enrich the stockholders as opposed to the stakeholders. To the contrary, Rand conceptualizes the concept of power by elucidating that practical power is important and inherent aspect of human beings (Carroll Buchholtz, 2006). Therefore, McDonald’s consumers should be able to question the motives of the organization and demand the company to give back to the society through corporate social responsibility. Conclusion In essence, leadership is an important aspect of organizations. Various theories attempt to explain leadership from different standpoints. They include cognition, behavioral and traits among many others. These theories attempt to unravel the reasons behind successful leaders in organizations and amplify the role of individuals in an organization. Further, it is important to emphasize the importance of ethical leadership and dilemmas. The aforementioned case of McDonald’s gives an illustration of various ways that an organization can face ethical dilemmas despite adopting ethical decisions. References Annas, J. (1981). An introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press Antonakis, J., Ash kanasy, N. Dasborough, M. (2009). Does leadership need emotional intelligence? The Leadership Quarterly, 20 (2), 247–261. Bostock, D. (2000). Aristotle’s Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press. Carroll, A. Buchholtz, A. (2006). Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western. Ciulla, B. (2003).The Ethics of Leadership. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Thompson-Wadsworth Publishers. Davis, K. Blomstrom, R. (1975). Business and Society: Environment and Responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill. Ellis, A. Harper, R. (1997). A Guide to Rational Living. Hollywood, California: Wilshire. Spence, L., Habisch, A. Schmidpeter, R. (2004). Responsibility and Social Capital. The World of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. New York: Palgrave. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Zaccaro, J., Rittman, L., Marks, A. (2001). Team leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 12(4), 451-483. This research paper on The Individual and Leadership was written and submitted by user Elsie Chase to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

South Africa Geography and History

South Africa Geography and History South Africa is the southernmost country on the African continent. It has a long history of conflict and human rights issues but it has always been one of the most economically prosperous nations in southern Africa due to its coastal location and the presence of gold, diamonds and natural resources. Population: 49,052,489 (July 2009 est.)Capital: Pretoria (administrative capital), Bloemfontein (judiciary), and Cape Town (legislative)Area: 470,693 square miles (1,219,090 sq km)Coastline: 1,738 miles (2,798 km)Highest Point: Njesuthi at 11,181 feet (3,408 m) History of South Africa By the 14th century C.E, the region was settled by the Bantu people who migrated from central Africa. South Africa was first inhabited by Europeans in 1488 when the Portuguese arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. However, permanent settlement didnt occur until 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a small station for provisions on the Cape. In the following years, French, Dutch and German settlers began to arrive in the region. By the late 1700s, European settlements were spread throughout the Cape and by the end of the 18th century the British controlled the entire Cape of Good Hope region. In the early 1800s, in an effort to escape British rule, many native farmers called Boers migrated north, and in 1852 and 1854, the Boers created the independent Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. After the discovery of diamonds and gold in the late 1800s, more European immigrants arrived in South Africa and this eventually led to the Anglo-Boer Wars, which the British won, causing the republics to become part of the British Empire. In May 1910, though, the two republics and Britain formed the Union of South Africa, a self-governing territory of the British Empire, and in 1912, the South African Native National Congress (eventually called the African National Congress or ANC) was founded with the goal of providing blacks in the region with more freedom. Despite the ANC in an election in 1948, the National Party won and began passing laws enforcing a policy of racial separation called apartheid. In the early 1960s, the ANC was banned and Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders were convicted of treason and imprisoned. In 1961, South Africa became a republic after it withdrew from the British Commonwealth because of international protests against apartheid and in 1984 a constitution was put into effect. In February 1990, President F.W. de Klerk, unbanned the ANC after years of protest and two weeks later Mandela was released from prison. Four years later on May 10, 1994, Mandela was elected as South Africas first black president and during his time in office he was committed to reforming race-relations in the country and strengthening its economy and place in the world. This has remained the goal of subsequent governmental leaders. Government of South Africa Today, South Africa is a republic with two legislative bodies. Its executive branch is its Chief of State and Head of Government- both of which are filled by the president who is elected for five year terms by the National Assembly. The legislative branch is a bicameral Parliament composed of the National Council of the Provinces and the National Assembly. South Africas judicial branch is made up of its Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeals, High Courts and Magistrate Courts. South Africas Economy South Africa has a growing market economy with a plethora of natural resources. Gold, platinum and precious stones such as diamonds account for nearly half of South Africas exports. Auto assembly, textiles, iron, steel, chemicals and commercial ship repair also play a role in the countrys economy. In addition agriculture and agricultural exports are significant to South Africa. Geography of South Africa South Africa is divided into three major geographic regions. The first is the African Plateau in the countrys interior. It forms a portion of the Kalahari Basin and is semiarid and sparsely populated. It slopes gradually in the north and west but rises to 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) in the east. The second region is the Great Escarpment. Its terrain varies but its highest peaks are in the Drakensberg Mountains along the border with Lesotho. The third region are the narrow, fertile valleys along the coastal plains. The climate of South Africa is mostly semiarid; but, its eastern coast regions are subtropical with mainly sunny days and cool nights. South Africas west coast is arid because the cold ocean current Benguela, removes moisture from the region which has formed the Namib Desert that extends into Namibia. In addition to its varied topography, South Africa is famous for its biodiversity. South Africa currently has eight wildlife reserves, the most famous of which is Kruger National Park along the border with Mozambique. This park is home to lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants and hippopotamus. The Cape Floristic Region along South Africas west coast is also important as it is considered a world biodiversity hotspot which is home to endemic plants, mammals and amphibians. More Facts about South Africa South Africas population estimates must account for excess mortality due to AIDS and its affect on life expectancy, infant mortality and population growth rates.South Africa divides its governmental power among three capitals. Bloemfontein is the capital of the judiciary, Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Pretoria is the administrative capital. Resources and Further Reading Centrail Intelligence Agency. (2010, April 22). CIA - The World Factbook South Africa. Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.htmlInfoplease.com. (n.d.) South Africa: History, Geography, Government, and Culture - Infoplease.com. Retrieved from: infoplease.com/ipa/A0107983.htmlUnited States Department of State. (2010, February). South Africa (02/10). Retrieved from: state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2898.htm

Police Recruit Applicants Report Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Police Recruit Applicants Report - Term Paper Example All the interviewers gave a varied assessment of the integrity, emotional stability and professionalism. Interviewer A rated her as very good on this aspect, interviewer B concluded that she is good while interviewer C felt convinced that Summerton can only be rated as average on the three aspects. This demonstrates that the applicant can be correctly described as good in terms of professionalism, integrity and emotional stability. Summerton has a good knowledge of laws, regulations, policies and procedures according to the three interviewers. Furthermore, her analytical and reasoning skills are good as rated by two of the three assessors with the other rating her as very good. Summerton is good in community and team relationships except for one assessor who rated her as average. Given the opinion of the majority, Summerton can be described as being a good team player and having good community relationships. The interview also assessed one’s oral and written communication skil ls. On this aspect, Summerton was rated as good by two out of the three interviewers while the other rating her as average. Given the opinion of the interviewers, Summerton can be rightly described as having good communication skills. ... She can also be described as of average personality when it comes to being helpful, sympathetic towards others and cooperation. Despite the above admirable personality traits, Summerton has a low degree of sociability, talkativeness and assertiveness. The information provided by Summerton was authenticated by the referees and employers checks as true. Moreover, she was cleared by the ethical standards division. The second applicant for police recruitment post was a male named Thomas Garrigan. He is aged 27 and has previously worked as a retail assistant for two years and as a nurse for a year. Upon completing his high school, Thomas pursed a degree in Science and a Bachelor in Nursing. He is rated as good in terms of integrity, emotional stability and professionalism. He is also very good in terms of knowledge of laws, regulations, policies and procedures. He has good analytical and reasoning skills according to the majority of interviewers. His written and oral communication skill i s also good and is a good team player. Thomas is physical fit and had high achievement on the beep test. When it comes to major personality traits; Thomas is highly disciplined, result oriented and organized. Thomas is averagely a helpful person, sympathetic to others and cooperative. He also has an average ability of controlling his impulse, anxiety and emotional stability. Furthermore, he can be described as having average socialization skills. He is also averagely an assertive and talkative person. Thomas is not curious to learn new ideas and try new things. He has been influenced by his father who is presently a Senior Sergeant in charge of Morryvale Station. Thomas is a sincere gentleman with all the

Module 11 #495 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Module 11 #495 - Assignment Example They base their work performance on procedures and activities rather than the end product. That is they don’t focus on what is being delivered but rather on the efficiency. Additionally, HR does carry out as a form of defensive measure rather than encourage and measure productivity (FAST COMPANY). I believe that one of the underlying causes of the shortcomings of annual appraisals is focusing on a person when doing assessment. Most of the HR assessment focuses on individual characterization such personal traits like commitment and knowledge (James, 2014). Inasmuch as these factors may contribute to performance, they are not a measure of the actual performance. Thus replacement of performance appraisal with ‘personal’ appraisal results into uncalculated deductions from the assessment. Additionally, non-data-based assessment has denied annual performance appraisal its core purpose. Most performance appraisals rely on the memory of the HR staff completing the assessment. They tend to run away from pre-populating the forms with data to inform their decisions on performance. Thus the result of the assessment remains fuzzy and subjective (James, 2014). Besides, I believe lack of accountability on the side of the appraising officers contributes (James, 2014). The HR man agers are not measured or put to task for providing accurate feedback. They are normally chastised for completing the job late but the mistakes committed or half-assessed job done ignored. This results into shoddy work done on their side. In my attempt to be more effective in carrying out performance appraisals, I will focus on the performance of an individual rather than his/her personal character. This will prevent the risk of replacing performance appraisal with personal appraisal. Assessing the very performance also facilitates management of not only the activities and procedures but also what the activities and procedures deliver (FAST COMPANY). Besides, I will take the assessors to task

Controlling System Within Unilever Commerce Essay

Controlling System Within Unilever Commerce Essay Unilever has an immovable control experience, which is agreed and frequently reviewed by the Boards. This incorporates risk management, internal control procedures and operations control which are planned to provide rational, but not complete, security that assets are refreshed, the risks facing the business are being addressed and all information required to be released is reported to the Groups senior management, including where appropriate the Group Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, within the required timeframe. RISK MANAGEMENT: Unilever manages a variety of marketplace risks, including the effects of fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, interest rates, and liquidity. It deals with the following risks: Treasury Risks Commodity Risks Procedure Risks Customer Relationship Risks Systems and information Risks External Risks TREASURY RISKS: Unilever has an interest rate management policy designed at enhancing net interest cost and decreasing instability. This is accomplished by adjusting the interest rate analysis of debt and cash places over the practice of interest rate switches. Fixed rate investments and borrowings give growth to a rational value interest rate risk. The fluctuating amounts give growth to a cash flow interest rates. Because of Unilevers wide operational reach, it is subject to risks from changes in foreign currency values that could move incomes. It is not possible to fully border these fluctuations.   Unilever does have a foreign exchange policy that needs operating companies to manage tradeoff and economic foreign exchange contacts within given limits. This is attained mostly through the use of forward foreign exchange contracts. Regional groups monitor compliance with this policy.  Unilever objects to decrease its foreign exchange contact in operating companies by borrowing in the local currency, except where introverted by local guidelines, shortage of local liquidity or local market conditions. In order to decrease the risk, Unilever border such investments and from time to time they reevaluate the currency. COMMODITY RISKS: Unilever sees risk where there is the potential for price instability in respect to the distinct commodities used in the production of the ultimate product. Commodity is the term used to describe a type of good which, while in demand, has no different variances when related to a rivals offering. Unilever feels that compelling a goods-based supply-chain perception helps to manage contact. In accumulation to the commodity risk focus, Unilever also borders risk by locking down contracts and using results. PROCEDURE RISKS: Procedure risk involves that theres a lack of formal procedures and lack of quality control system. Unilever always check their procedures and policies and they do have a check and balance over their control system. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP RISKS: To know the needs and taste of customer and building strong relationship is also a risk factor for Unilever because of the continuous innovations and developments the needs and taste of the customers are changing frequently. In order to know the needs of customer Unilever has set its customers sales and design outlets which enables them to find the new ways to satisfy customer needs. They monitor the progress on a regular basis. SYSTEMS AND INFORMATION RISKS: Unilever use IT systems to interact with their customers but on the other hand they have a threat of the misuse of their personal and sensitive information through unauthorized access. In order to prevent this risk they maintain the control system check the security settings on a regular basis. EXTERNAL RISKS: The external factors such as economic and political indicators and natural disasters can create a great amount of risk for Unilever. They regularly update themselves from the current business results and cash flows. They have been continuously designing plans for crisis management in the event of economic, political and natural disasters. INTERNAL CONTROL AND PROCEDURES: Unilever control framework is supported through a code of Business Principles which set values of efficiency. It needs that senior managers in each department controls the value of internal control because they are a key to huge risk factors. The Boards have individually all the responsibility for establishing procedure to check the effectiveness of internal control and reviewing and revaluating them their effectiveness. There is a day- to- day review of effectiveness of internal control system and Unilever monitor its risks with ongoing basis. OPERATIONS CONTROLS: Operations Controls is the control in which you make sure that operations activities are carried out as they were planned. Operations Controls include following controls: Financial Control Budget Control Inventory Control Maintenance Control Cost Control FINANCIAL CONTROL: Managers at Unilever put financial controls in order to trace performance and evaluate the performance to the attainment of financial goals. Unilever managers develop strategies to line the risk in a structured way. They follow a financial assessment process through which they evaluate that at what pace they are reaching their strategic financial goals. This assessment process requires the senior manager in each business unit to check effectiveness of financial controls. BUDGET CONTROL: Managers at Unilever put budget control in order to track that whether their income and expenditures are planned or not. They have a comprehensive budget system which is approved by all the stakeholders and board of directors, which is revised and restructured on a regular basis. The performances against the budget of Unilever are monitored through monthly and quarterly reporting routines. Then the updated report is distributed among the stakeholders. INVENTORY CONTROL: Unilever has a very proper system through which they control their inventory. They produce the goods according to the demands and tastes of their customers. A unique supply chain and warehouse capacity is bigger challenge for them. They had a very strong inventory control at their different distribution centers, where they control the supply and demand of their products. Unilever has also a proper warehouse management system in which they capacitated their inventories. MAINTENANCE CONTROL: Unilever has a proper maintenance control system. The maintenance manager at Unilever individually monitors the equipment on daily basis. After monitoring, they create a report on the history of this monitoring for future examination. Furthermore, they have a warning system alerts on their equipments which makes their controlling system more effective and efficient. COST CONTROL: COST control is the process of controlling cost and checking whether the costs are with the accordance to the budgeted cost. In Unilever cost control is an essential part because it determines business stability. Unilever controls cost to create more profit. They have a proper check and balance over the wastages of raw materials so that they might eliminate those raw materials which are inadequate for their production process. INSPECTION: Unilever has also an inspection system in which they hire inspectors. They check quality of products, machines and equipments, raw materials used for the production of goods, site inspection and location inspection where they conduct their research work. AUDIT AT UNILEVER: Unilevers internal audit plays an important role in the assurance of the value of risk management and other related control operations to both operations management and the Board. Unilever has an independent audit committee which is entirely composed of Non-Executive Directors. This Committee meets Chief Auditor and external auditors on a regular basis. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Unilever uses Information technology to provide managers with information which they need in their decision making. Unilever uses SAP software to monitor and control its business, which now used globally. The ERP system produces annual sustainability reports. SAP is working more with the business leadership and process leaders; it develops and support business strategy. The SAP system values it customers, meet its customers, started to listen its customer and take corrective actions for the needs of its customers. Mistakes can be controlled by SAP and they are rectified at the time they are detected by SAP. SAP: SAP stands for Systems Application and Products in Data Processing. It was developed by IBM engineers in 1970s as standard based software. SAP is used by organizations to manage their enterprise. This includes managing their day-to-day operations, inbound and outbound logistics, finances, HR etc. ERP: ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is implemented by various organizations to centralize the database systems and functions of every department in a single system. ERP is used by Unilever which helps them to decrease their losses and increase their profit.

Leadership 101

John C. Maxwell is an Evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor. He has written over sixty books, known internationally as a leadership expert and coach. Dr. Maxwell has co-founded the company Equip, which is a non-profit leadership company. Also he founded The John Maxwell Company, known for training leaders all over the world. He speaks at many companies and different organizations throughout the years, as well write many books within that time. He has written books for people who cannot attend one of his incredible conferences. The book written by John C. Maxwell, titled â€Å"Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know. He discussed three main points important to enhancing people leadership abilities. These points include leadership development, traits of successful leader, and what type of impact a leader could have. The first point Dr. Maxwell explains his concept called â€Å"The Law of the Lid. † In this principle the lid is the leadership ability that det ermines a person level of effectiveness. The lower the lid indicates an individual lack of leadership ability which leads to poor effectiveness. On the other hand leaders with greater abilities have greater effectiveness. This means your leadership ability determines your level of effectiveness.Dr. Maxwell said â€Å"Success is within the reach of everyone, and personal success without leadership brings limited effectiveness† (Maxwell 7). Basically leadership and effectiveness goes hand and hand. The next topic Dr. Maxwell discussed in his book was the traits that every leader should posses. One important trait for leaders is self discipline. Dr Maxwell said â€Å"no matter how gifted a leader is he will never reach his full potential without the application of self discipline† (Maxwell 26). Self discipline is the ability to accomplish goals within a certain time period.In order for a leader to be successful they must be able to manage and prioritize their time to reac h their goals. Another important thing related to time manegment and leadership is where to focus your time. Dr. Maxwell also dicusses the twenty / eighty principle, which states twenty percent of your priorities, will give you eighty percent of the production (Maxwell 30). This means the top twenty percent of an individual leadership produces and the next eighty percent is spent to develop it to its greatest potential. Additional traits important for leaders include character traits and vision.Vision allows you to see the final goal that you want to obtain. A leader also needs to relate or connect with others to share that vision. The last topic Dr. Maxwell discusses was the type of impact a leader could have. A leader needs to be able to influence the people around them. Dr. Maxwell said â€Å"the true measure of leadership is influence- nothing more, nothing less† (Maxwell 61). Basically leadership is influence. Influence can be develop and use effectively to get an amazin g outcome that every leader wants to see. By having influence you can make your leadership last. A leader is a lasting value measure by succession†, said Dr. Maxwell (Maxwell 98). Leaders leave legacy of succession. As I read this book, I’ve realize I can be more effective leader by growing and also learning. As I get older, I’m getting wiser. Reading this book the points Dr. Maxwell discussed developing and traits of a leader. I have certain traits that each leader has, and I’m not using my full potential to be as effective as I can be. Dr. Maxwell asked â€Å"Will you leave a legacy? † (Maxwell 99). I know I will one day leave a legacy in the world. I just need to grow and keep learning to be a good leader.

Issue of Immigrant child in Canada Essay

During the recent years, there has been extraordinary raise in the number of immigrants in Canada. Asians cover the largest group of the recent arrivals to Canada. During 1986 and 1991, there were 819,000 immigrants in Canada of whom 19 percent of them were children under the age of 12 years . (New Canadian children). At present, Asians are the fastest growing population in Canada. Asian immigrants include Indians, Chinese etc. , of whom Chinese make the greatest number of Asian immigrants in Canada over the past 20 years. (Asian Canada). In 2003, Chinese comprise of 17. 3 percent of Canada’s immigrants. The Government of Canada is providing many facilities for such immigrant children. Despite of the facilities and the help given by the government of Canada, the Chinese immigrant children in Canada are facing many problems which include language problem, family income, school learning system, food style, living environment, cultural change, etc. , The teaching style in the Asian nations and Canada are quite different from each other. (Researcher debunks) Chinese immigrant children in Canada face many problems in the school due to the teaching style and the language problem. Because Chinese value traditional ways of schooling, power imbalance occurs in between the teachers and the immigrant parents. Parental involvement is very important to the children whose native language is not English. (Parental involvement). Chinese immigrants who came to Canada recently are facing barriers to communicate effectively with the school personnel. Chinese parents communicated with the teachers or school personnel only two to four times a year where as the non-immigrant parents communicated once in a month and even once in a week. (Home school communication). This happens because of one of the common reason that the Chinese parents cannot speak English and need to rely on the interpreters. The other reasons include non-availability of the school letters, school programme schedule and also with the lack of time. The immigrant children feels much pressure on the new education system. When the home language is Chinese and English being the medium of instruction in the school, the child finds it very difficult to adjust and could not understand the concept when compared with the non-immigrant child. The children because of the language problem to communicate with other people, could not mingle with other children and find hard to make friends. If the immigrant child has friends in the school, it makes the child to develop communication skills as well as the interpersonal skills. This effects the child’s mental development. When the child is physically and mentally happy and supported by the parents and the society, then that child becomes successful in the future. There are several reasons which leads to the vulnerability of new immigrant groups in Canada. Some of them are inability to speak dominant language, separation from community, negative public attitudes, and lack of knowledge of the health care systems. Poverty can be calculated using product of education and occupation but this may not be true with the immigrant situation. Most of the immigrants have more formal education when compared to Canadians, they often face underemployment and unemployment. Due to the instability in the income, their children are affected. The parents cannot provide them with good educational facilities, quality food, and all other necessities as compared with the non-immigrant children. Due to the low functioning capacity of the family, the children suffer from the mental disorder, stress, conduct disorder, hyperactivity etc. These children are psychiatrically disordered. These affect the education, games and other activities of children when compared with the non-immigrant children. The immigrant children also includes the children of the single parent family status. These families are usually accompanied by low education, low income, and there is a high risk of mental and physical health problems. The development of the child completely depends on the parents and the society. Children of alcoholic parents have high risk of developing psychiatric disorder. However, according to the report by Offord and Lipman, the disorder rates among the new immigrant children are lower. (Growing up Canadian) Immigrants start their adaptation to the new country through a process called acculturation. (Acculturation/adaptation). An individual who is a participant in culture contact situation and when a person is being experienced by the external culture directly, it is known as psychological acculturation. The result or conclusion of acculturation is adaptation but this method includes stress which affects both immigrated parents and children. Expectations of both the new and old culture on the immigrant children show much burden. The acculturation affects the Chinese immigrant children in internal domains such as aspirations and values and external domains such as social experience and the living environment. The meeting of the two cultures takes place in several levels to the immigrant Chinese children. The fore most level would be the cultural practices and beliefs, social experience and the parental expectations. Chinese culture is completely different from that of the western culture. Asians give importance to the needs and rights of the group of people and they believe in interdependence. But these principles are incompatible with the western culture where they believe in the individualism, personal growth and individual achievement. Certain amount of discontinuity concerning cultural contexts and values of their new and previous homelands are shown on the recently immigrated Chinese children. By the cultural discrepancy, the immigrant Chinese children feel acculturative pressure from both sources like schooling and peers. The immigrated Chinese children will be unwilling to stick to the parental norms due to the pressures of the new culture. The cultural values to which the immigrant children are used to in their homes would conflict with those of the values and beliefs of the western culture. However, the immigrant children stay different from the non-immigrant children in their values. The immigrant children have their own norms and values which are important in the practise of daily life. The immigrant Chinese Children experience discrepancy in the food they eat usually because the food which Chinese eat is completely different from that of the western nations. The immigrant Asian children have been found to achieve higher academic performances and the parental aspirations are high when compared to non-immigrant parents. Chinese immigrant children may thus locate themselves between the parent’s high expectations and comparative poorer aspirations of the new culture. A source of concern over the Chinese-Canadian community is the racial discrimination. According to the leaders of the Chinese-Canadian community, the immigrant Chinese children have not only been ostracized but also they have been subjected to physical and verbal attacks. These attacks were unacknowledged by the schools and the teachers. Adolescents and the immigrant Chinese children have been the unknowing sufferers of violence. The immigrant Chinese children were the targets of different forms of discrimination. Due to this the immigrant Chinese children experienced complicated social relationships even in the school where the children feel alienated and isolated. The immigrant high school Chinese students feel much difficult and socially isolated in their English classes. Encounters with discrimination and racism are very common among the immigrant Chinese children. Thus the difference between the parental expectations, cultural beliefs of their country and the new host country would confuse the immigrant children regarding their aspirations and personal values. The Chinese immigrant children experience bias based on race and so they have diminished sense of belonging to their school communities. In Canada, the immigrant disabled child is not treated properly. Canada is violating Rights of the child as well as the seven articles of the united nations conventions. The disabled immigrant children in Canada are not guaranteed social and basic educational services. Canada is violating the rights of the immigrants by refusing the children with disabilities. Disability is understood as a political issue rather than the personal issue. The provisions under immigration and refugee protection act (IRPA) and the original immigration is best known to the poor treatment of people which was later enacted to replace in 2002. Canada’s system of immigration does not recognise children with disabilities but rather gives importance to the economically desirable workers. The immigration of a disabled child depends on the how independent the children could be when they grow up. Even now, the Government of Canada is admitting disabled immigrant children only in some of the cases. If the government does not give permission for the disabled child to get immigrated, the child goes through tough times which spoils his career. The Government of Canada is providing certain programs which help the immigrant children to build up English language and adjust with the school environment. These programs include ESL, LINC etc. , ESL stands for English as a Second language. (ESL in Canada directory). ESL means teaching English to a person whose primary or native language is not English. Education laws in Canada provide that ESL should be provided to all of the students who have been enrolled in the schools and whose primary language is not English. ESL programs in secondary and elementary schools are designed in such a way to meet the needs of the children to meet the proficiency standards. It focuses on English alphabet and phonetics to the children of all ages. In cooperation with the local school boards and colleges, community and immigrant organisations, the Government of Canada offers French and English language training programmes. This is known as LINC. LINC stands for Language Instructions to Newcomers to Canada. (LINC programs) Intergovernmental cooperation helps territorial and provincial governments to put forward to members of official-language minority communities to provide education in their own language. (Intergovernmental Cooperation) British Columbia literacy program for the immigrant families/children have been released for the immigrant families with young children. The immigrant PALS (Parents As Literacy Supporters) is made for the for the pre-school children and the parents living in Canada for at least three years. The Government of Canada provide education to the immigrant children through the language schools. Language schools are the schools where foreign languages are studied. Language schools offers certain specific programs to the people wishing to prepare for internationally recognised language exams such as TOEIC, TOEFL, University of Cambridge ESOL examinations, DELE etc. The immigrant Chinese people comprises most of the population in Canada. The immigrant Chinese children are facing many problems in the society, school etc. , and they are often confused with the culture and customs of the new and previous homelands. They are also experiencing bias based on race, language and food and they stand socially isolated. Despite of these problems, the immigrated Chinese children are achieving higher academic performances. The Government of Canada should provide more schemes and facilities to the immigrated Chinese children and should help them to get better in their studies. REFERENCES: 1. Morton Beiser, New Canadian children and youth study, Health Canada, March 31, 1999. http://ceris. metropolis. net/Virtual%20Library/health/beiser1. html 2. Marc Star, Asian Canada, http://www. goldsea. com/Features/Canada/canada. html 3. Guofang Li, Researcher Debunks â€Å"Myth† that Asians Are, by Nature, More Academically Successful than Other Minorities, December 4, 2002. http://www. buffalo. edu/news/5975 4. Simich-Dudgeon, Carmen, Parent Involvement and the Education of Limited-English-Proficient Students. ERIC Digest. 1986-12-00. http://www. ericdigests. org/pre-925/parent. htm 5. Lily L. Dyson, Home-school communication and