Its A Wonderful Life Essays - Films, Its A Wonderful Life

Its A Wonderful life Picture a young child full of life and happiness. The love of his parents shows through his eyes, smile, and tears. Some people would like to think that those things about a child are exactly what make life wonderful. People who think that way have no idea how right they are. Its a wonderful life to know that your parent's dreams live on in you. The dream of a mother; that her son will be a doctor. The dream of a father; that his son will some day become a major league baseball player. Most of all when its all said and done, that a child can say as a man, "Its a Wonderful Life". "It's a Wonderful Life" are true stories about events that took place in my life that will be with me forever. I can remember when I was a little boy, I played my first game of baseball. My grandfather practiced with me the whole week before the game. Catching and throwing that baseball seemed like a basketball in my little hands. My grandfather showed me how to place my feet in the batters box and how to bat. From that day on, I was in love with the game of baseball. Now that I look back I wonder what meant more to me, catching that baseball or the fact that my grandfather taught me the game. As I grew older and more mature I learned a lot about my grandfather. I was told stories about his life and what a great ballplayer he was. He could have gone pro, but he didn't have the support of his parents. Instead he went ahead and joined the army. It would kill most men to come that close to their dreams, but if you ask him it was a wonderful life. I was now a teenager at the age of sixteen, and it was time to get my driver's license. This was a day that every parent dreads, and my mom was one of them. I can remember asking my mother for the car keys so that I could take my road test. I detected a small smile under her rolling eyes and stone hard frown. My mom understood how she felt when she got her license. It meant freedom and responsibility for someone she raised from a baby. I can still remember mom saying, "You damn kids grow up too fast" as a single tear rolled down her face. That night I didn't even leave the house. My mother and I talked for hours about how it was when she was young. It was an enjoyable evening just talking to her. It was a wonderful life. Graduation day from high school never comes soon enough, so we think. Until the day is over then we wish half our lives we could get back to that time. It was the sixth of June 1996, graduation day. I never felt so happy to have a piece of paper in my hand. That paper was worth four years of my life. It symbolized my stressful days at school. It meant four years of baseball, football, and wrestling. The years of my life that were hard to endure, but so easy to look back on. These were the days that tested my knowledge and spirit. These are the people and places that will live in my memory forever. There was a place called "Tanner Park". This was the place everyone went to get away from it all. People showed off their cars and threw around the old football. The girls there wouldn't give me the time of day, but yet I still managed to have fun. I remember the all night parties that seemed to never end. Although these four years of my life were during my childhood, they helped make it a wonderful life. My life is not over. The life I live is far from over. I don't regret any of the things that I've said or done because they are what make up my life. The dreams my parents have for me live on in my heart everyday along with my own. It doesn't matter if those dreams become reality, for I know I've put my best effort forward and that my dreams will live on in my children. That's what will make my life truly wonderful.

Explorations in Arthurian Legends

Explorations in Arthurian Legends The legends tell us that Arthur was a wise and powerful king, who ruled from a giant and glorious castle and who commanded the loyalty of hundreds of men.First and foremost of these followers were the Knights of the Round Table. That greatest knight in skill of arms, Lancelot, pledged his loyalty to Arthur, is testament to the fact that the king was worthy of such admiration, both as a king and as a warrior.War was a way of life in Arthur's day. Just after he pulled the Sword from the Stone, he hurried to Bedegraine and defeated a rogue band of 11 powerful men who had rebelled against his leadership.He faced constant pressure from the Saxons and the Picts and the Irish and the Romans; in the end, he faced a mortal threat from his own men.He was also the backdrop against which many other adventures took place.English: LancelotBeginning with Chretien de Troyes, writers wrote adventures of Arthur's knights, telling us of their wonderful adventures and of courtly love. The court, of cour se, was Arthur's. In a sense, Arthur was moved above the day-to-day adventures his knights having and put on a pedestal as the symbol of what a knight could hope to achieve.He was also the one whom everyone looked up to and whom everyone trusted to pass judgment if they had a dispute. Important men bowed to his authority and his wisdom. He held court and was the arbiter of justice. He made his own laws and enforced them himself, with the respect of his subjects. He fought in battles and sent his knights out to do battle. As such, he was both king and battle commander.Later, Arthur was said to have conceived a son out of matrimony; Guinevere was said...

Middle School Science Fair Projects

Middle School Science Fair Projects It can be a challenge to come up with a middle school science fair project idea. There is fierce competition to come up with the coolest idea, plus you need a topic that is considered appropriate for your educational level: Elementary School ProjectsMiddle School ProjectsHigh School ProjectsCollege Projects This is your chance to shine! Middle school students may do alright with projects that describe or model phenomena, but if you can answer a question or solve a problem, you will excel. Try to propose a hypothesis and test it. Aim for a typed presentation with visual aids, such as pictures or physical examples. Choose a project you can do fairly quickly, to give you time to work on the report (no longer than a month). Schools may prohibit projects using hazardous chemicals or animals, so play it safe and avoid anything that might raise red flags with your teacher. Can you significantly affect your household water bill or electric bill (water or energy usage) by making a change in you or your familys behavior? For example, you might track changes you are making, like shorter showers or turning off lights, and record the utility usage.What household waste materials might be used to filter water? Examples of materials you might try would include banana peels and coffee grounds.What materials glow under black light? Can you use the UV light to find invisible, possibly smelly, stains in your carpet or elsewhere in your house?Will chilling an onion before cutting it keep you from crying?Does catnip repel cockroaches better than DEET?What ratio of vinegar to baking soda produces the best chemical volcano eruption?What type of plastic wrap prevents evaporation the best?What plastic wrap prevents oxidation the best?What percentage of an orange is water?Are night insects attracted to lamps because of heat or light?Can you make Jello using fresh pineappl es instead of canned pineapples? Do white candles burn at a different rate than colored candles?Does the presence of detergent in water affect plant growth?Can a saturated solution of sodium chloride still dissolve Epsom salts?Does magnetism affect the growth of plants?How does the shape of an ice cube affect how quickly it melts?Do different brands of popcorn leave different amounts of unpopped kernels?How accurately do egg producers measure eggs?How do differences in surfaces affect the adhesion of tape?If you shake up different kinds or brands of soft drinks (e.g., carbonated), will they all spew the same amount?Are all potato chips equally greasy?Do the same types of mold grow on all types of bread?Does light affect the rate at which foods spoil?Can you use a household water filter to remove flavor or color from other liquids?Does the power of a microwave affect how well it makes popcorn?Do all brands of diapers absorb the same amount of liquid? Does it matter what the liquid is (water as opposed to juice or... um.. urine)? Do all dishwashing detergents produce the same amount of bubbles? Clean the same number of dishes?Is the nutritional content of different brands of a vegetable (e.g., canned peas) the same?How permanent are permanent markers? What solvents (e.g., water, alcohol, vinegar, detergent solution) will remove the ink? Do different brands/types of markers produce the same results?Is laundry detergent as effective if you use less than the recommended amount? More?Do all hairsprays hold equally well? Equally long? Does the type of hair affect the results?What effect do additives have on the crystals? You could add food coloring, flavorings, or other impurities.What steps can you take to maximize crystal size? You can affect vibration, humidity, temperature, the  rate of evaporation, purity of your growth medium, and time allowed for crystal growth.How do different factors affect seed germination? Factors that you could test include the intensity, duration, or type of light, the temperature, the amount of water, the presence/absence of certain chemicals, or the presence/absence of soil. You can look at the percentage of seeds that germinate or the rate at which seeds germinate. Is a seed affected by its size? Do different size seeds have different germination rates or percentages? Does seed size affect the growth rate or final size of a plant?How does cold storage affect the germination of seeds? Factors you can control include the type of seeds, the  length of storage, the  temperature of storage, and other variables, such as light and humidity.What conditions affect the ripening of fruit? Look at ethylene and enclosing a fruit in a sealed bag, temperature, light, or nearness to other pieces or fruit.How are different soils affected by erosion? You can make your own wind or water and evaluate the effects on soil. If you have access to a very cold freezer, you can look at the effects of freeze and thaw cycles.How does the pH of soil relate to the pH of the water around the soil? You can make your own pH paper, test the pH of the soil, add water, then test the pH of the water. Are the two values the same? If not, is there a relationship between them?How close does a plant have to be to a pesticide for it to work? What factors influence the effectiveness of a pesticide (rain? light? wind?)? How much can you dilute a pesticide while retaining its effectiveness? How effective are natural pest deterrents?

The People vs. the Profiteers by David Rose Essay

The People vs. the Profiteers by David Rose - Essay Example He works incessantly on the behalf of Americans, based in Orlando. Halliburton would be a company, as well as other private contractors, that are operating in Iraq, somehow using the money of the American tax payers. Grayson is fighting a battle against some of these private contractors, many of which are major companies such as Halliburton, plus an oil company that former Vice President Dick Cheney served as the chief executive officer for several years. However, another enemy that has jumped on board is the United States Department of Justice. While Grayson has worked in several cases where there was fraud, the Department of Justice stepped in his way when it came to trying to expose companies of fraud during the Iraq war. This is a political venture and a scandal. When considering political science in this nature, if the President or any members of his Cabinet, or Dick Cheney were aware of these things that were going on by using American money to operate business, then something should have been done. It was the administration lying to American taxpayers about where their tax money was going. It was not used to fight the war in Iraq, clothe children in the United States, help the poor or the elderly. Instead, it was money to help the rich become richer. Ironically during the war, Halliburton became very valuable with their stock jumping significantly from the start of the war to 2006. The CEO netted at least $30 million in compensation. What a crooked world we live in. As oil enthusiasts, Cheney and George W. Bush, of course they were going to help some of their buddies become more rich by operating in Iraq. One might say that it is rather coincidental that Cheney happened to be a former CEO of one of the companies in question. It seems as if it was no coincidence after all. The money was there and it was secretly slid over to these corporations. The Department of Justice is more than likely trying to step in to try to keep the scandal behind closed doors. It is similar to any other scandal that occurs on a national level that somehow ties to the administration. Nixon's expose with Watergate was one of the major blunders of that administration. This one is on a different scope entirely and affects millions. The article by Rose introduces the audience to one of Grayson's clients, Bud Conyers, just a middle aged man in Oklahoma who just so happened to be an independent contractor working in Iraq. He was a driver for company, Kellogg, Brown and Root, a major construction company. Prior to the war in Iraq, the Pentagon awarded money to restore the Iraqi oil industry and another that provides logistic support services to the American military. When Conyers was asked to repair a refrigerated truck in Baghdad, he found something that is jawdropping. While an engine is required to control the refrigeration from a truck, this one that had been out of operation for a couple of weeks of course would not be keeping anything inside of it cool and there seemed to be a rancid smell coming from it. Upon opening the refrigerated portion of the truck, Conyer saw pieces of a total of 15 dead Iraqis. The bodies had come from a mortuary unit of the United States mortuary sector. While it is not unusual for something like this to happen, it is clearly stated by governmental regulations that once a truck has been used to haul corpses, it can not ever again haul items for human consumption such as food or drink because of the possible diseases that could be

Two Questions 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two Questions 3 - Essay Example Because of his inability to exert proper cost control, Lopez was relieved of his responsibilities in 2008, and Gabriella Garcia became head of Consumer Products Research. Garcia vowed to improve the performance of CPR and scaled back CPR’s development activities to obtain favorable financial performance reports. In terms of profit, Garcia did a better job than Lopez as a result of scaling back the project development. When profits are low and management is looking to cut costs, spending significant amounts of money on research and development is not the appropriate tactic. R&D is expensive and, as the timeline of two years from project initiation to implementation under Lopez demonstrates, there is no return on investment reflected in the financial statements until well after the products are brought to market. During times of low profit margins, development has to be scaled along with cost initiatives to keep management and investors satisfied. Even though Lopez developed good ideas, his efforts at cost control failed because there was no actual cost cutting and no immediate impact on revenues. While it could be argued that, given enough time, Lopez’s management would have yielded greater profits at lower costs. Management’s focus on profitability, however, precluded the comp any’s ability to focus on R&D to the extent that Lopez intended. Garcia, however, reduced—but did not eliminate—development while simultaneously focusing on cutting the costs related to current market offerings. This had an immediate impact on the company’s profitability and management was no-doubt pleased with the results. The issue here was time. It does take time to develop innovative products and bring them to market. This effort, however, cannot be the sole focus unless the company is currently in a strong financial position and can absorb the R&D costs until the new products are in place. Simply stated, the company could not afford

Relevant leadership theories in relation to Steve Jobs

Relevant leadership theories in relation to Steve Jobs Introduction The topic of leadership has continued to be a subject of interest in the modern world both from practitioners as well as academics and the extensive research for decades has not exhausted the topic (Bennis W. , 2007). Leadership has an influence on all the facets of business. Organizations are often successful because of the set of relationships existing between the leaders and the followers. Through this essay efforts are made to apply relevant leadership theories in relation to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc, one of the most commended leaders of recent times. An attempt is made to evaluate Steve Jobs leadership style using the following theories Hersey-Blanchard Situational Theory (Hersey Blanchard, 1988), Transactional Leadership (Bass, 1985; Adair 1990), Transformational leadership (Goodwin, Woffard Whittington, 2001; Tichy Devanna, 1986; Yammarino Dublinsky, 1994, Bass, 1990)theory will be used. After reviewing the literature on leadership theories relevant to this case study, based on the frameworks it will be argued whether Steve Jobs can be considered as an effective leader. Literature Review Today leadership is the one of the most known management topic at the same time attempts to understand still represents a challenge. A single definition cannot encompass many aspects of leadership (Bennis Nanus, 1985:4; Pfeffer, 1977; Kenny Zaccaro, 1983; Lord, DeVader, Alliger, 1986; Kirkpatrick Locke, 1991). The various theories of leadership help to solve somewhat the ambiguity of the definition . One of the reason for popularity to the leadership topic is that leaders action or inaction can effect people, not only in the success of an enterprise, but also in social field i.e.a group, an organization or a larger entity or a nation. (Hollander, 1992) The review of literature shows the concept of leaders trait and characteristics in the earlier studies of leadership {Bass (1990); Curphy, and Hogan (1994);S. A. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) ; Kenny and Zaccaro (1983); Zaccaro, Foti,et al., (1991) ; Ferentinos (1996); Howard and Bray (1988)} and later theories considering various contextual environment of leadership along with the followers (Hollander, 1992). The research on leadership has evolved from the great man theory to the trait theory to behaviourist theory to Situational theory to contingency theory to transactional theory and to transformational leadership (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, Dennison, 2003) Hersey Blanchard situational theory (McKenna E. , 2000) This model adopt consideration to relationship and task behaviour . It extends these two dimensions of leadership to four styles i.e. tell, sell, participation, and delegation. Maturity consists of two parts-job maturity and psychological maturity. Job maturity relates to technical knowledge and task-relevant skills. Psychological maturity relates to feelings of self-confidence and ability, peoples willingness to take responsibility for directing their own behaviour. Emphasis is placed on matching a style of leadership to the maturity of subordinates, and this relationship is important in determination of leadership effectiveness (Hersey Blanchard 1982). Tell : A task oriented and directive style where highly immature subordinates would be told what to do. Sell: A relationship oriented style where Subordinates on the low side of maturity, would be persuaded that a particular course of action is the most appropriate. Subordinates on the high side of maturity will be treated with a certain amount of consideration and support would be allowed to Participate in decision making . Delegation: where subordinates, highly mature will be considered capable of exercising self-direction and self control, and a high degree of autonomy. Most important in Hersey and Blanchards theory is the focus on truly situational nature of leadership and their recognition of the need for behaviour flexibility on the part of the leader (Yukl, 1981). Barrrow (1977) and Yukl (1981) argue that though the model is prescriptive for measuring leader style, style range, and effectiveness it merits much less favourable evaluations. The concept of task-relevant maturity that has been conceptually ambiguous. According to a study by Graeff (1983), it has internal consistency problems, substantial conceptual contradiction, problems with the conceptual definition of relationship behaviour and inconsistent arguments regarding the appropriateness of participative decision making contribute. Transactional and Transformational Leadership Transactional leadership occurs when one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of something valued; that is, leaders approach followers with an eye toward exchanging (Burns, 1978) In transactional leadership, leaders gain control of their subordinates through praise, intimidation and coercion. The transactional leader specifies the standards for compliance, and may punish followers for being out of compliance with those standards (Bass Avolio, 1997). Transactional models of leadership emphasize the implicit social exchange, or transaction, that exists between leader and followers as a feature of effectiveness. This transactional approach emphasizes a more active role for followers, with the potential for two-way influence, rather than coerced compliance (Hollander, 1992) According to Bryant (2003) Consequence of transactional leadership workers are not motivated to give anything beyond what is clearly specified in their contract. Workers may also choose to utilize their excess brain capacity by consulting or starting their own business if they are not challenged and rewarded for extra effort in the firm. The transactional leadership theory is known for its in-ward looking and self-satisfying feel, known to be most appropriate for a culture with stable conditions. (McKenna E. , 2006). Burns (1978) idea of the leader as a transforming agent has been applied to organizational leadership by Bass (1985) and Bennis and Nanus (1985) especially as a source of exceptional performance. The essential point is that the leader strives to go beyond the bounds of the usual to bring about a change in followers thinking that will redirect their action(Fiedler House, 1988). The central concept in transformational leadership theory is change and the role of leadership in envisioning and implementing the transformation of organisational performance (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, Dennison, 2003) Transformational leaders create an atmosphere conducive to knowledge creation, sharing and exploitation. In particular, by using charisma, encouraging intellectual development and by paying individual attention to workers, transformational leaders motivate their workers to create and share knowledge. Transformational leaders inspire workers on to higher levels of innovation and effectiveness.(Bryant, 2003) Transformational leadership has been shown to have a positive relationship with performance.(Lowe, Kroeck, Sivasubramaniam) Despite the support that transformation leadership theory received there are still weakness which is identified by Yulk (1999) that is the transformational behaviours are found to be missing in Bass (1996) which are identified as inspiring (infusing the work with meaning), developing (enhancing follower skills and self-confidence), and empowering (Providing significant voice and discretion to followers). Authors (Bass 1985, 1996 ; Pawar Eastman, 1997; Pettigrew, 1987) are of the view that the situational variables which are missed may increase the likelihood of transformational leadership or moderate its effect on followers. Transformational leadership theory can have several detrimental consequences for the organisations as identified by (Harrison 1987; Stephens, DIntino, and Victor (1995); Porter, L. W., Bigley, G. A. 1997) first is that followers transformed to high degree of emotional involvement which makes them burn out their long-standing stress secondly, was being biased toward the top management, customers at the cost of others of the employees thirdly, different leaders with competing visions can create role ambiguity and role conflict. Bass and Steidlmeier (1999) argue that transformational leadership is unethical, it may appeal to emotions rather than to reason and it lacks the checks and balances of democratic discourse and power distribution. Yulk (1999) argues that the theory deals primarily with the leader follower behaviour and has given less attention at the group and organisational level. Part three Background to Case Study Critical Analysis In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. Apples subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since 1997. Steve also co-founded and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which created some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time including Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disneys board of directors. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. With Steve Job , Apple commands a dedicated consumer base and is know for its premium brands like iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTunes etc . Apples success is known under Steve Jobs Leadersip. Although it is not easy to characterize Steve Jobs leadership style to any one particular theory, to evaluate his leadership style two theories of leadership will be used the Transactional and Transformational theory and secondly the Hershey Blanchards situational theory. Steve Jobs leadership style seems to be both transactional and transformational theory. According to Bass (1985) and Burn (1978) both these theories more complementary than being competitive. Steve Jobs as a Transformational Leader As per the above literature review, transformational leaders are charismatic, vision oriented, encouraging intellectual development of their followers, inspiring and motivating to higher levels of effectiveness. The aspects that strongly claim that Steve Jobs leadership shows signs of transformational leadership is his charismatic personality. According to Rakesh Khurana (2002) Steve Jobs, the New Age wunderkind of Apple revered for his sucess in introducing people to the personal computer that could gaurantee our freedom (Khurana, 2002). As Steve Wozniak , the co-founder with Jobs of the Apple , tersely noted : he can always couch things in the right words . Steve Job is described as heart and soul of Apple. (Patterson, 1985) What was visionary about Jobs approach -where he surely added value- was his evangelical zeal to show people the future potential of the product. With this vision as foresight has caused Jobs to be dubbed the priceless proselytizer.(Uttal, 1985) Cocks (1983) argues that Apples co-founder, Steve Wozniak, blodly stated that Jobs did not understand computers, and the actual design of the machine has been widely credited to Wozniak. But as Wozniak also said, it never crossed my mind to sell computers. It was Steve who said Lets hold them up in the air and sell a few. It was Jobs who insisted that the computer be light and trim, well designed in muted colors. Jobs likewise pushed his engineers to make machines that will not frighten away a skittish clientele. (Cocks, 1983) Butcher (1988) argues that Jobs a perfectionist, adn as the organsiation gre, many in Apple experienced this as intolerance and self-absorption. Steve Hawkins an employee said Jobs such a perfectionist that people can never please him , hes extermly ambitious , almost to the point of megalomania.(Butcher, 1988) Transformational leadership is about encouraging innovation, bringing about a change in the thinking of its followers and being visionary in implementing transformation in the organisation performance. Steve Jobs as a transformational leader is seen in his efforts to bring innovative digital technology to mass consumer so that they can open their wallet(Deutschman, 2001). Evidence of Steve Jobs vision in making innovation accessible was Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings (Young, 2005) In terms of motivation and inspiring employees to give their best of performance is a characteristic of transformational leadership . Evidence of Steve Jobs motivating and inspiring his employees is when Job when first spoke of any new idea to his employees not everyone thought it to be a successful product also at times the employees were not keen on working on such new ideas. But Jobs along with his employees was able to convert the innovative ideas into a technology which changed the way digital technology is used today . Whether it is the Macintosh computer or the newly launched ipad or iphone. It was Jobs leadership which motivated and inspired and Apple created the systems and structures that were able to convert knowledge into a valuable product. Job challenge engages his employees to reach nearly impossible goals(Bryant, 2003) (MCB UP Ltd, 2002). Job used inspiring speeches to keep his employees motivated and convey his innovative ideas to them(Harvey, 2001) Butcher (1989) agrues with an evidence by Steve Hawkins, employee of Apple puts it that most of the people werent good enough for him and would really be in a state of shock after encounters with Steve. Also Steve was very ambitious along with perfectionist and that caused a lot of trouble with moral. Young (2005) adds that apple employees were pushed to the best of their capability and performance and interactions with Steves were the ones which most of the employees feared. According to Peter Elkind (2008) Steve job has conflicting behaviours and he often had his subordinates to tears and in his angry temper he fires the employees. And yet the top management has worked with him for years and they give credit Jobs for the best job they ever did was only with him.(Elkind, 2008) Steve Job in an interview stated that he has really capable people and his job is to make the whole of his executive team good enough to be successors, so thats what hes trying to do, to push them he has aggressive visions (Morris, 2008). As an Evidence the discussion of Steve job with Morris (2008) sheds light to the criticism made by researchers Steidlmeier (1999); Yukl (1999) about the transformational leadership style in the literature review and steves transformational leadership style shows the unethical or unmoral dimensions of transformational leadership style. Also Steve jobs interactions are limited to the top management and he states that his job is to work with sort of the top 100 people, among the 20000 people at Apple. This shows his interactions are not closely related with the majority of his employees. (Morris, 2008) Steve Jobs as a Transactional Leader In addition to the above arguments about the leadership style of Steve Job. Bryant (2003) is of view that Job exhibited a combination of transformational and transactional leadership style and this helped him sucess in Apple. According to Bryant (2003) Job when visited the Xerox Parc and he took a vision of how future computers should operate. And he made his employees create the systems and structures in his company Apple where knowledge was converted into valuable products e.g. the Macintosh personal computer. The transformational leadership style was used in his vision to change the way personal computer will be operated in future and transactional leadership style was used when he incorporated his vision into reality by making his the products with the help of his employees. In an interview with Morris (2008) Steve talks about his role in the company is to recruit at the same time focus on its strategy and manage the whole business from different departments and people of the company and this is a characteristics of a transactional leadership style. Hersey Blanchard situational theory applied to Steve Jobs Steve Jobs leadership style is more reliant on his followers skills and capabilities. The Hersey Blanchard situational theory model emphasis on matching a style of leadership to the maturity of subordinates this relationship shows the determination of leadership effectiveness as mentioned in the literature review. The way job leads and his style relates to this theory . The delegating style M4-S4 is evident from Steve interview with Morris (2008) where he says that if he has hired good people and they have potential he would give them a business and left them run on their own and when a good idea comes, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it . The participating style M3-S3 of Hersey Blanchard situational theory is where Jobs talks about the way he takes a new idea to his employees is the environment of excellence and how his employes are self motivated , he does coach them at first and inspires them and then the employees surprise him time and again with the best of their performance (Gendron, 1989). In aanand2010-08-29T23:01:00 Did not get this para. Review it televsion interview (Cringely, 1996) Steve jobs telling style M1-S1 was evident Where he argues that he is committed to the vision and rather than for money and that he has been there always for the ultimate good of the company and there has been cases where they stopped their internal work and people did not like it and but he got a better deal for the company . this radical nature of dealing with things shows he used telling style of the Hershey Blanchard theory. Conclusion: personal reflection and recommendation In contrast to Steve Job, the managing director at my work place was a person who believed in group work at the same time allowed creative talent and ideas from each person. He involved employees in the decision making and took individual views on various projects of the company. The success of Apple following return of Steve Job is credited to the effective leadership Steve has used. The review of the literature and the theories applied to Steve Jobs and my personal experience has opened my mind to areas where Steve style of leadership can progress and can be further developed. According to Bass (1985) Leaders are central to the process of creating cultures, structures and systems that fosters knowledge creation, sharing and cultivation. Certain Industries have faster rates of technological, higher level of regulation and higher competition levels and these factors impact the leaders of the organisations (Bryant, 2003). Hence, a lesson learnt from leadership is that a leader can judge the situation and can adapt different style of leadership and this makes a leader more effective and efficient. In Steve jobs style of leadership a soft approach adopted with his employees will prove him to be more affective. Because his job involves handling people who are highly knowledgeable in the field of technology, being soft on his employees or benevolent leadership can help him get best of their performance and in return profit from his human resources and realise his vision.

Highway Marking Paints Essay

This report has been created as per the details of the letter received on 18th March from Morris Hordern, Senior Engineer of the Highways Department, and contains the results of the tests conducted by Proactive Consultants Inc. on all the available new highway paints. On the basis of our tests and in our professional opinion, Centrex’s new paint TL is the best option for highway marker painting. Highway Marking Paints 2 This project was carried out in order to test the suitability of the newly available range of highway marking paints which claim to be of better quality in terms of visibility, spraying characteristics and speed of drying. The marker painting was conducted between 12 a.m and 6 a.m. The following table documents the consolidated results of our study. The paints are lined up in the table on the basis of suitability, the best one being the first in the table. Paints that did not meet the minimum standards (as specified by ASTM D-711) of twenty minutes drying time, good spraying characteristics(as prescribed by Paint Manufacturers Association’s specification PMA-02-28H) and visibility of 7 and 6 after three months and six months of traffic wear respectively have been eliminated. Codes assigned to the paints on 25th March, 2010 (the start date of the tests) have been used to eliminate any chance of bias or manipulation. The tests were conducted on two stretches of highway- Highway 17 (concrete surface), 1.5 miles north of the intersection with Highway 43. Highway 43 (asphalt surface) 1 mile west of the intersection with Highway 17. Visibility has been rated as per the judgment of myself and 4 other drivers associated with Proactive Consultants Inc. Day visibility is judged from a distance of 500 yards (500 being a perfect 10). The points drop by two for every 100 yards less of visibility. These tests were conducted on 25th June, 2010. Night visibility is judged using high beam from a distance of 200 yards (visibility from 200 yards being a perfect 10). The points drop by two for every 40 yards less of visibility. These tests were conducted on 25th September, 2010. Based on our tests, the two best paints for highway marking are WC (which is Hi-Linear Products white paint- HILITE) and YR (which is Centrex Inc.’s new TL yellow paint) The two paint are almost equal in terms of quality. Centrex’s TL yellow paint takes 3 minutes less to dry, has slightly better visibility on concrete, after both 3 months and 6 months. The HILITE paint takes 3 minutes more than Centrex’s paint to dry has slightly better visibility on asphalt after both 3 months and 6 months. In my professional opinion, Centrex’s new TL yellow paint is the most suitable on for highway marker painting for the following reasons: 1) It is the strongest paint overall, better suited for highway marker painting than any other white or yellow highway paint, 2) Centrex is a company with which the Highway Department has been working and is thus a trustworthy source.