Candor And Transparency Aligning Leadership - Sample Solution

Question: Discuss about the Candor and Transparency for Aligning Leadership. Answer: Introduction In this report, leadership quality of a 21st century leader has been evaluated. In order to conduct this assignment, the co-founder of company Apple, Steve Jobs has been selected. Steve Jobs is considered as 21st century tech leader, who had left behind a legacy. It has been found that most of the companies are now working across global boundaries. Leaders who handle teams across different countries are aware of the fact that they need different leadership styles in order to cope up with different cultures. It has been found that Steve Jobs leadership style is the integral part of the success of company Apple. In order to conduct this assignment in appropriate manner, at first the description of the leader and the organization has been provided along with the situation or context of the organization. In the next section, leadership quality of Steve Jobs has been critically evaluated by referring to the concepts and theories of leadership. It includes aspects such as leadership styles , traits, behaviors and attitudes of the leader. In the final section, some recommendations are provided to motivate people towards their work. Description of the leader, the organization/industry, and situation/context Steven Paul Steve Jobs was the American businessman, industrial designer and inventor. Steve Jobs was the former Chief Executive officer, chairman and co-founder of the company Apple (Apple 2017). He is the majority shareholder of Pixar and member of the board of director of the company Walt Disney. Steve Jobs was adopted in San Francisco and raised in the Bay area of San Francisco during 1960s (Bengtsson et al. 2016). He had attended Reed College during 1972. After dropping out from the college, he came to India during 1974 (Steinwart and Ziegler 2014). He sought enlightenment by studying Zen Buddhism. Steve Jobs had co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and develop Apple I as the first personal computer during 1976 (Yoffie and Cusumano 2015). After one year, they had developed Apple II, which helped them to get fame and wealth. According to Yoffie and Cusumano (2015), Apple II was the first successful mass-produced personal computer. Then after some year, Steve Jobs left the company and took some members with him to develop NeXT. It is computer platform development organization specialized in business markets and developing state-of-the-art computers for higher education. Jobs also helped to enhance the industry of visual effect and produced the first computer animated film name Toy Story. During the year of 1997, the company Apple had acquired and merged with Steves NeXT (Yoffie and Cusumano 2015). It helped Steve Jobs to become the CEO of the company again. Kane (2015) stated that, at that time, the company was verge of bankruptcy. During the time, Jobs helped the company to revive from that critical condition. He had provided a new idea for the advertising campaign of the company Think different. In addition, He worked closely with Jonathan Ive to develop a wide range of product that would have superior cultural ramification. It includes products such as iPod, iPhone, iTune Store and iPad. Mac OS is also modified and become macOS. It is modified depending on NeXTSTEP platform of the company NeXT (Kane 2015). The name of Steve Jobs is connected with American Multinational Technology Company named Apple. The name Apple was given by Steve Jobs during his visit to an Apple firm (Apple 2017). According to Jobs, this Apple will bring a sense of joy in the mind of listeners. The company designs, manufactures and sales computer software, consumer electronics and provides different online services (Apple 2017). The major hardware products of the company include MAC, iPod, iPhone, macOS, AppleTV and Apple watch. In addition, the company offers different types online services such as Apple Pay, iTunes store, iOS App store, iCloud. According to Yoffie and Cusumano (2015), the company Apple is known for its innovative products and services among its customers. For this reason, customer loyalty for the company is high. In terms of revenue, the company Apple is worlds biggest information technology company. In addition, Apple is the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world (Apple 2017). In the year of 2014, the company had become the first U.S. organization to be valued more than US$ 700 billion. As of April 2016, the company has approximately 478 stores in 17 countries all over the world (Apple 2017). There are approximately 115, 000 permanent employees work in Apple. At the end of 2015, the worldwide revenue of the company was $234 billion (Apple 2017). The revenue generation of the company, accounts for 1.25% GDP of U.S. (Apple 2017). The efficient leadership quality of Steve Jobs and his inspiration has helped the company to become worlds most valuable brand for 4 consecutive years (Apple 2017). The name of Steve Jobs is not only related with the company Apple, but also with Pixar and Disney. In the year of 1986, Steve Jobs had founded the Graphics group, which was later named as Pixar. The company had developed partnership with Disney and developed the first computer generated animated film named Toy Story in the year of 1995 (Pixar 2017). Steve Jobs was credited as the executive producer of the film. After the merger, Jobs had received 7% share of Disney and joined the board of director. He became the largest individual shareholder of the company Disney. Under the surveillance of Steve Jobs, the company Pixar has produced numerous numbers of successful animated movies over the last 15 years (Yoffie and Cusumano 2015). Movies like WALL-E, Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Toy story 3 have received best animated films over year. Floyd Noman had described Steve Jobs as mellow and mature individual who had never interfered with the creative methods of the filmmakers (Pixar 2017). The president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Ed Catmull mentioned in his book Creativity Inc. that Steve Job is fast thinker. Jobs advised him to just explain it until they understand. However, in their 26 years of working, they never had any loud verbal augment. Steve Jobs always let Ed Catmull to do the job in his own way and never criticized his work (Pixar 2017). Evaluation of the leader by referring to concepts and theories of leadership According to Yoffie and Cusumano (2015), leadership is the function of a personal or individual, who guides a group of people to achieve their goals. In the year of 1976, Steve Jobs had cofounded the company Apple in his garage. He was ousted from the company in the year of 1985 (Apple 2017). In the year of 1997, Steve Jobs was returned to the company to rescue it from bankruptcy (Apple 2017). During 2011, by the time he died, he made Apple the most valuable company in the world (Apple 2017). There are seven major industries that Jobs helped to transform. They are such as personal computing, tablet computing, retail stored, phones, music, digital publishing and animation movies. After reviewing different models and theories related with leadership, Steve Jobs leadership category can be analyzed. According to Kriger and Zhovtobryukh (2016), leadership style of Steve Jobs is a combination of Transformational leadership style with the personality of autocratic leader. Personally, it can be opined that Steve Jobs was basically an autocratic leader. According to Harris (2015), an autocratic leader prefers to take all the decisions on their own without consulting with team members. It is most applicable to Steve Jobs, as he tried to take all decisions on his own. Carroll (2013) stated that, all the decisions taken in the company Apple has to be gone through Jobs. In order to maintain health and to reduce obesity among employees of Apple, he decided to reduce the plate size. According to Steve Jobs, it will reduce the total amount of food consumption and maintain the calorie intake. After assessing the autocratic leadership style, some major advantages and disadvantages of this leadership style can be found. Rajaraman (2014) stated that autocratic leadership style is appropriate and most applicable in situation, where decisions need to be taken in emergency. It is applicable, where team input or team agreement is not required in order to get successfu l outcome. However, Kriger and Zhovtobryukh (2016) criticized autocratic leadership style by stating that this leadership style can demoralize employees. It can reduce the value of employees for a company. It can increase absenteeism and reduce employee satisfaction. These two factors can increase employee turnover rate of a company (Shah and Mulla 2013). After analyzing numerous journals and articles related with autocratic leadership and Steve Jobs, the reason behind Jobs adaptation of this leadership style has been found. During 1997, The Company Apple announced to buy NeXT for $427 million (John and Shetty 2014). It brought back Steve Jobs as the CEO of the company that he cofounded. At that time, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was his major objective to return Apple to profitability. For this reason, Jobs decided to adopt autocratic leadership style and took decisions on his own. These decisions included terminating few employees and terminating some inefficient projects like OpenDoc, Cyberdog and Newton (Toma and Marinescu 2013). He had modified the licensing program for McIntosh Clones and made it too costly for the manufacturers to continue producing these machines. In addition, he had also decided to improve the recycling program of e-waste during 2005 (Hurley-Hanson and Giannantonio 2013). This program includ ed the environmental friendly disposal of old Apple products. According to Avolio (2016), Steve Jobs can be perceived as demanding perfectionist. He always aimed to make the business of Apple and its product at the forefront of information technology industry. He had modified the company in such a way that, Apple becomes the benchmark of innovation and trend setting. However, analyzing the biography of Steve Jobs, it has been found that he also had transformational leadership traits. Jobs had strong emotional intelligence and integrity with strong focus towards work. There are certain traits of transformational leadership can be found in Steve Jobs. He was humble, empathetic, authentic and self-aware. Lussier and Achua (2015) stated that, Jobs was able to inspire his employees with a shared vision of future. From the theory of transformational leadership, it has been found that the major role of a leader in an organization is to communicate his or her point of view and decisions with subordinates. According to Shah and Mulla (2013), the main responsibility to a transformational leader is to show employees the necessity of change or transformation within a company. Like an efficient transformational leader, Steve Jobs was able to communicate his mission and vision with employees of both Apple and NeXT. According to Kane (2015), Steve Jobs possesse d 3 major characteristics that help him to be reminded as a transformational leader of 21st century. These characteristics are such as visionary, passionate and creative.. However, there are two major characteristics of transformational leadership was missing in Steve Jobs. They are such as instructiveness and empowerment. Northouse (2015) stated that, there are many people who remembered Steve Jobs are innovator. Although, this characteristic is not a part of traditional transformational leadership style, but it reflects the discourse of consumer electronic industry upon which he had significant impact. He was considered as innovators innovator, who has created lots of job opportunity in United States. He had the unique ability to recognize talented and skilled individuals and employ them in Apple. He had faced lots of ups and downs as leader. He was ousted from the company that had been confounded by him. Again he was brought back to the company as CEO, to save it from the verge of bankruptcy. He faced numerous amounts of adversity and setback. However, he rose above those adversities. In comparison to other 21st century leaders, there are some major advantages of Jobs leadership quality have been found. They are such as: Steve Jobs believes in working smart, while other leaders believe in working smart (Heracleous and Klaering 2014). Steve Jobs prefers to take risk in a job while other tries to play safe. Steve Jobs believes in innovation, while other believes in copying Steve Jobs saw possibilities and opportunities in challenges, while others saw only obstacles Finally, in order to view the leadership quality of Steve Jobs, it is require to mention about the commencement speech delivered by him. Live each day as if it was your last, someday youll most certainly be right. Discussing how the company can be lead differently It has been found that, Steve Jobs mainly followed autocratic leadership style. According to Howard (2013), this leadership style has advantages in situations, where it is required to take decisions quickly. It is particularly effective construction projects and military operations. However, in the present corporate world, autocratic leadership has negative impact. It leads to high rate of turnover among employees. It also causes low morale, developing resentment among subordinates and stifled creativity. As Apple is known for its innovation, hushed creativity due to overly autocratic leadership style will not be a good brand image. It will also cause poor employee performance. Hence, it requires some changes to make stronger impact on followers. They are mentioned below: Collecting feedback from employees The most important thing that required to be implemented in the company is to collect feedback. It will help the leader to understand, whether his or her autocratic leadership style is becoming an obstacle in their way of work. It will also work as a method of communication, where employees towards identifying the issues that company are facing. For this purpose, 360 degree feedback can be used. It will provide workers a safe environment, where they can provide honest analysis of the leadership style of their senior (CEO). This 360 degree feedback will help the CEO to analyze the strengths and weakness of his or her personal leadership style and make changes accordingly. It will also help to improve the delegation skills of autocratic managers. Coaching and discussions There are various other ways in which autocratic leadership style of customers can be improved. They are such as books, seminars, discussions and coaching programs. Providing empowerment Empowerment means providing employees the opportunity to take critical decisions in emergency condition. It will help the employees to feel their worth within in the company Apple. It will also make them more responsible towards their jobs and improve the overall organizational performance as well. Conclusion In this assignment, the leadership of Steve Jobs has been evaluated. It has been analyzed that, the leadership trait of Steve Jobs is the mixture of autocratic and transformational leadership style. He preferred to take all the decisions on their own without consulting with team members. He was brought back to the company to save it from bankruptcy and return it towards profitability. Due to control this urgent situation, he was forced to adopt this autocratic leadership style. However, he also had some characteristics of transformational leader. Like an efficient transformational leader, Steve Jobs was able to communicate his mission and vision with employees of both Apple and NeXT. It is not easy to walk in the shoe of an efficient leader like Steve Jobs. However, there some recommendations provided, in which employees can be inspired more. They are such as gathering regular feedback from employees and providing them empowerment. Reference list Apple, 2017.Apple. [online] Apple. Available at: https://www.apple.com/ [Accessed 10 Jan. 2017]. Avolio, B.J., 2016. Candor and Transparency: Aligning Your Leadership Constellation.People and Strategy,39(4), p.16. Bengtsson, A., Jrnlid, S. and Lindskog, M., 2016. The thin line between toxic leadership and transformational leadership: Stories of Steve Jobs. Carroll, S.J., 2013. Steve Jobs as an Artist.Journal of Business and Management,19(1), p.25. Harris, A., 2015. Uplifting leadership: Leading futures.Australian Educational Leader,37(1), p.19. Heracleous, L. and Klaering, L.A., 2014. Charismatic Leadership and Rhetorical Competence: An Analysis of Steve Jobss Rhetoric.Group Organization Management, p.10-34. Howard, H.Y., 2013. Decoding Leadership: How Steve Jobs Transformed Apple to Spearhead a Technological Informal Economy.Journal of Business and Management,19(1), p.33. Hurley-Hanson, A.E. and Giannantonio, C.M., 2013. Staying Hungry, Staying Foolish: Academic Reflections on the Life and Career of Steve Jobs.Journal of Business and Management,19(1), p.7. Isaacson, W., 2012. The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs.Harvard business review,90(4), pp.92-102. John, J. and Shetty, A., 2014. Influence of Ex-CEO Steve Jobs's Personal Brand on Apple's Business Success.SFIMAR Research Review,9(2), pp.38-44. Kane, Y.I., 2015.Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs. Harper Business. Kriger, M. and Zhovtobryukh, Y., 2016. The Role of Charismatic, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership. InStrategic Leadership for Turbulent Times(pp. 83-92). Palgrave Macmillan US. Lussier, R.N. and Achua, C.F., 2015.Leadership: Theory, application, skill development. Nelson Education. Northouse, P.G., 2015.Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications. Pixar, 2017.Pixar. [online] Pixar.com. Available at: https://www.pixar.com/ [Accessed 10 Jan. 2017]. Rajaraman, V., 2014. Steve JobsWho blended art with technology.Resonance,19(10), pp.917-935. Shah, T. and Mulla, Z.R., 2013. Leader Motives, Impression Management, and Charisma A Comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.Management and Labour Studies,38(3), pp.155-184. Steinwart, M.C. and Ziegler, J.A., 2014. Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a Transformational Leader: Implications for Pedagogy.Journal of Leadership Education,13(2), pp.52-66. Toma, S.G. and Marinescu, P., 2013. Steve Jobs And Modern Leadership.Manager, (17), p.260. Yoffie, D.B. and Cusumano, M.A., 2015.Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs. HarperBusiness.

Resistance to Sex Research free essay sample

The stories were to be fact checked by Kinsey and his staff.. No photographs were to be taken and only photographs purchased from Kinsey were to be used in the publications. The media was truly eating from his hand. What forms of resistance did Dr. Kinsey’s sex research encounter? What social factors motivated the resistance? Which individuals and organizations motivated the resistance? While Kinsey’s early work was well received, his work was later largely regarded as taboo. Reaction to the second book was initially favorable. Analysis of the leading magazines found all but one (Cosmopolitan) favorable, and of 124 leading newspapers, 64 per cent were favorable to 31 not. [4]. But later comments were resistive and Kinsey was bantered by conservative and religious groups. The academic community also questioned his data collection and analysis practices. Dr. Kinsey’s work was eventually labeled by some as amoral and ungodly. Billy Graham declared that Dr. We will write a custom essay sample on Resistance to Sex Research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Kinsey certainly could not have interviewed any of the millions of born-again Christian women in this ountry who put the highest price on virtue, decency and modesty. [2]. Representative Heller, Democrat from New York, urged that the book be banned from the mail. He (Kinsey) is contributing to the depravity of a whole generation, to the loss of faith in human dignity and human decency. [5]. Neither Graham or Heller had read the book[5]. What were they so scared of? Dr Kinsey’s received financial support from the Rockefeller foundation beginning in 1935. By 1954, U. S. Representative B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee formed the House Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations. While it sounds like a broadly focused committee, its chairman stated, The Congress has been asked to investigate the financial backers of the institute that turned out the Kinsey sex report last August. [4]. So there was open resistance from religious and conservative groups while political resistance was veiled. How did Dr. Kinsey respond to the resistance? How did Dr. Kinsey’s research affect his personal life and local community? What resistance did he encounter from his local community? The film showed that Dr. Kinsey’s personal life suffered greatly at the expense of his career’s work. His wife, Clara McMillen’s character, clearly came second to his work. While she seemed like an open minded woman, her values were challenged by his research and she may have felt neglected. Kinsey’s academic friends were similarly challenged by the research. Later on in the movie two of Kinsey’s male assistants fought over a woman as Kinsey admonished one of them to leave his lover for sexual reasons. His sexual beliefs had cascaded into his community. In the movie, his inner circle expressed a sexual openness and enlightenment highly uncommon for the times. But they didn’t seem prepared for the consequences of this new openness. The same could be said for the rest of the world. While this was exciting and interesting news for the time, most were unprepared to accept such an affront to their views about human sexual behavior. SOURCES: 1. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Alfred_Kinsey 2. http://www. kinseyinstitute. org/about/earlycontroversy. html 3. http://www. kinseyinstitute. org/about/controversy2. html 4. http://www. kinseyinstitute. org/about/Movie-facts. html 5. http://www. indiana. edu/~kinsey/publications/PDF/Bancroft%20Kinsey%20and%20Politics%20of%20Sex. pdf

Scholarship Can Make Your Essay Easy to Read

Scholarship Can Make Your Essay Easy to ReadA short personal essay writing sample is one of the many wonderful things you can give to a scholarship or other financial assistance office. This is a good idea because it shows that you have not only written a well-written and well-organized essay, but also that you have thought about the essay and chosen the best way to make it easier for others to read. In this article, we will look at how you can apply the scholarship to a short personal essay.The first thing you need to do is to understand that writing a short essay may not be all that easy. You may not know where to start, how to start or when to start, but you will be able to tell yourself that if you follow the step by step instructions, it will be easier for you. There are some free resources that will guide you. The first resource is the Student Writing Tips online directory, which helps you write a good essay in no time. The second resource is the Harvard Personal Essay Examples , which contains essays of several students that they have completed to help you choose the right one.Now that you have some guides on how to use scholarship to your short essay, let us see what we can do with that short essay sample. I always begin by writing a preface and then I list down three major points I would like to emphasize in my essay. So, I would like to first say that the purpose of this essay is to apply scholarship, make sure that you have written a well-written essay and have planned your essay as well.The second thing that I would like to add is that your essay is not long, I want to add that for you to make your essay shorter you will need to make more use of the five-point 'max' format. And as the third point is to state the purpose of your essay, you can write in the first person to point out your own point, then tell the reader to tell them why they should read your essay. In my last point, you may also write in the first person to get your points across. This makes your essay much more interesting and readable.Fourthly, the fifth point that I would like to add here is that you can apply for scholarship to the first paragraph, which gives a better chance to grab the attention of the reader. Also remember that you will be required to write a good introduction to get a prospective student interested and follow the rest of the essay with another paragraph.Lastly, as you move to the final paragraph, if you find the essay quite difficult, don't despair, because this is not the end, there are still more tips that you can use to make your essay more interesting and easy to read. You will see that scholarship can make your essay very interesting and easy to read. However, you will need to keep some basic points in mind to ensure that you are applying for scholarship.As you can see, scholarship can indeed make your essay interesting and easy to read. Remember, the goal of this essay is to apply scholarship, which makes your essay easy to read.

Acheulean Tradition

Acheulean Tradition The Acheulean (sometimes spelled Acheulian) is a stone tool techno-complex that emerged in East Africa during the Lower Paleolithic about 1.76 million years ago (abbreviated mya), and persisted until 300,000-200,000 years ago (300-200 ka), although in some places it continued as recently as 100 ka. The humans who produced the Acheulean stone tool industry were members of the species Homo erectus and H. heidelbergensis. During this period, Homo erectus left Africa through the Levantine Corridor and traveled into Eurasia and eventually Asia and Europe, bringing the technology with them. The Acheulean was preceded by the Oldowan in Africa and parts of Eurasia, and it was followed by the Mousterian Middle Paleolithic in western Eurasia and the Middle Stone Age in Africa. The Acheulean was named after the Acheul site, a Lower Paleolithic site on the Somme River in France. Acheul was discovered in the mid-19th century. Stone Tool Technology The defining artifact for the Acheulean tradition is the Acheulean handaxe, but the toolkit also included other formal and informal tools. Those tools included flakes, flake tools and cores; elongated tools (or bifaces) such as cleavers and picks (sometimes called trihedrals for their triangular cross-sections); and spheroids or bolas, roughly rounded sedimentary limestone rocks used as a percussion tool. Other percussion devices on Acheulean sites are hammerstones and anvils. Acheulean tools demonstrate a significant technological advance over the earlier Oldowan; an advance thought to parallel a cognitive and adaptive increase in brain power. The Acheulean tradition is broadly correlated with the emergence of H. erectus, although the dating for this event is /- 200,000 years, so the association of the evolution of  H. erectus with the Acheulean toolkit is a bit of a controversy. Besides flint-knapping, the Acheulean hominin was cracking nuts, working wood, and butchering carcasses with these tools. She had the ability to purposely create large flakes (10 centimeters [4 inches] in length), and reproduce standard tool shapes. Timing of the Acheulean Pioneer paleontologist Mary Leakey established the Acheuleans position in time at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where she found Acheulean tools stratified above the older Oldowan. Since those discoveries, hundreds of thousands of Acheulean handaxes have been found throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, spanning several million square kilometers, in multiple ecological regions, and accounting for at least one hundred thousand generations of people. The Acheulean is the oldest and longest-lasting stone tool technology in the worlds history, accounting for more than half of all recorded tool-making. Scholars have identified technological improvements along the way, and although they agree that there were changes and developments during this huge chunk of time, there are no widely-accepted names for the periods of technology change, except in the Levant. Further, since the technology is so wide-spread, local and regional changes occurred differently at different times. Chronology The following is compiled from several different sources: see the bibliography below for further information. 1.76-1.6 mya: Early Acheulean. Sites: Gona (1.6 mya), Kokiselei (1.75), Konso (1.75), FLK West, Koobi Fora, West Turkana, Sterkfontein, Bouri, all in eastern or southern Africa. Tool assemblages are dominated by large picks and thick bifaces/unifaces made on large flake blanks.1.6-1.2 mya: Sterkfontein, Konso Gardula; refinement of handaxe shape begins, advanced shaping of handaxes seen at Konso, Melka Kunture Gombore II by 850 ka.1.5 mya outside Africa: Ubeidiya in the Jordan Rift Valley of Israel, bifacial tools, including picks and handaxes, which account for over 20% of the tools. Additional tools are chopping tools, choppers and flake tools but no cleavers. Raw source material varies by tool: bifacial tools on basalt, chopping tools and flake tools on flint; spheroids in limestone1.5-1.4 in Africa: Peninj, Olduvai, Gadeb Garba. Massive production of large, shaped tools, high-quality raw materials, flake blanks, cleavers1.0 mya-700 ka: known as Large Flake Acheulian in some place s: Gesher Benot Yaaqov (780-660 ka Israel); Atapuerca, Baranc de la Boella (1 mya), Porto Maior, El Sotillo (all in Spain); Ternifine (Morocco). Numerous bifacial tools, handaxes, and cleavers make up the site assemblages; large flakes (exceeding 10 cm in maximal dimension) were used to produce handaxes. Basalt was the  preferred source for cutting materials, and true flake cleavers were the most common tool. 700-250 ka: Late Acheulean: Venosa Notarchirico (700-600 ka, Italy); La Noira (France, 700,000), Caune de lArago (690-90 ka, France), Pakefield (UK 700 ka), Boxgrove (UK, 500 ka). There are hundreds of sites dated to the Late Acheulean with many thousands of handaxes, found in harsh deserts to Mediterranean landscapes, and some of the sites have hundreds or thousands of handaxes. Cleavers are almost absent and large flake production no longer used as a primary technology for handaxes, which are at the end made with early Levallois techniquesMousterian: replaced all LP industries beginning around 250,000, widely associated with Neanderthals and later with the spread of Early Modern Humans. Sources Alperson-Afil, Nira. Scarce but Significant: The Limestone Component of the Acheulean Site of Gesher Benot Yaaqov, Israel. The Nature of Culture, Naama Goren-Inbar, SpringerLink, January 20, 2016. Beyene Y, Katoh S, WoldeGabriel G, Hart WK, Uto K, Sudo M, Kondo M, Hyodo M, Renne PR, Suwa G et al. 2013. The characteristics and chronology of the earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110(5):1584-1591. Corbey R, Jagich A, Vaesen K, and Collard M. 2016. The Acheulean handaxe: More like a birds song than a Beatles tune? Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 25(1):6-19. Diez-Martà ­n F, Snchez Yustos P, Uribelarrea D, Baquedano E, Mark DF, Mabulla A, Fraile C, Duque J, Dà ­az I, Pà ©rez-Gonzlez A et al. 2015. The Origin of The Acheulean: The 1.7 Million-Year-Old Site of FLK West, Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). Scientific Reports 5:17839. Gallotti R. 2016. The East African origin of the Western European Acheulean technology: Fact or paradigm? Quaternary International 411, Part B:9-24. Gowlett JAJ. 2015. Variability in an early hominin percussive tradition: the Acheulean versus cultural variation in modern chimpanzee artefacts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370(1682). Moncel M-H, Desprià ©e J, Voinchet P, Tissoux H, Moreno D, Bahain J-J, Courcimault G, and Falguà ¨res C. 2013. Early Evidence of Acheulean Settlement in Northwestern Europe - La Noira Site, a 700 000 Year-Old Occupation in the Center of France. PLOS ONE 8(11):e75529. Santonja M, and Pà ©rez-Gonzlez A. 2010. Mid-Pleistocene Acheulean industrial complex in the Iberian Peninsula. Quaternary International 223–224:154-161. Sharon G, and Barsky D. 2016. The emergence of the Acheulian in Europe – A look from the east. Quaternary International 411, Part B:25-33. Torre, Ignacio de la. The Transition to the Acheulean in East Africa: an Assessment of Paradigms and Evidence from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Rafael Mora, Volume 21, Issue 4, May 2, 2013.

Answers to Questions About Abbreviations

Answers to Questions About Abbreviations Answers to Questions About Abbreviations Answers to Questions About Abbreviations By Mark Nichol Responses to some reader queries about abbreviation issues follow. 1. Which is the preferred abbreviation for â€Å"United States,† US or U.S.? Both forms are correct, but, in the interests of consistency with the decline of the use of periods in abbreviations, the trend is to use US. (Note that the abbreviation should be used only as an adjective, not as a noun: â€Å"She was born in a US territory,† but not â€Å"She was born in the US.†) 2. When one abbreviates states, should there be any punctuation after, say, TX? And are both the T and the X capitalized? The short form of state names based on US Postal Service usage and technically considered a symbol rather than an abbreviation omits periods, and both letters are capitalized. However, the symbol should be used only when listing an address or in a chart or other graphic element where space is at a premium. Newspaper style is to abbreviate according to The Associated Press Stylebook (for example, Tex.), but in many other periodicals and in most books, state names are usually spelled out in regular text. 3. I am teaching a business-writing course, and I want to know how to approach terms like SOP or any other abbreviation. Does one say â€Å"an SOP† or â€Å"a SOP†? I guess the same would apply to â€Å"getting a MA† or â€Å"getting an MA.† Because we pronounce each letter in these terms (â€Å"ess-oh-pee† and â€Å"em-ay†), rather than treating them as words (â€Å"sop† and â€Å"mah†), the first sound determines whether we use a or an when we speak or write the abbreviation. As with other words starting with the â€Å"ess† sound (especially or essential, for example), we precede SOP with an. The same goes for MA, just as in, say, eminent or embellishment. Testing phrases vocally is usually reliable (an seems easier to say before these terms than a does), though there are exceptions: â€Å"An historic occasion† is easier for me, at least to say than â€Å"a historic occasion,† though an is â€Å"wrong.† See this post for more information. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?7 Patterns of Sentence StructureParataxis and Hypotaxis

Managing business ethics in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing business ethics in China - Essay Example In the modern day business world, a manager needs to ensure adherence to business ethics in a firm’s quest for profiteering motives. However, recent developments have resulted in varied definitions of ethics, and each person has to use own judgement to differentiate between ethical and unethical practise. Moreover, the capacity of a business to adhere to ethical expectations is dependent on political, social, economic, and environmental factors of a market. This means that a firm should balance its business practice with environmental and social responsibility, and in adherence to the ethical guidelines stipulated by the government in the country of operation. In essence, the highest level of ethical practice involves business practices that aim to ensure economic, environmental and social sustainability. The Chinese economy is characterized with widespread criticism on high levels of unethical practices; including corruption that is touted to be the most detrimental factor of the economy. However, recent changes have seen a change in focus to adherence to ethical guidelines by managers, most of whom are learning how to incorporate the system into their businesses without seeming to suffer from the alienation by western values. The Chinese investors insist on charting their own path to ethical practice despite the assimilation of various western characteristics into its economic system. On august 26, 2010, Landau reported on BBC about a businessperson who tried to incorporate Christianity as a tool to entrench ethical practice among his employees, mainly by encouraging his employees to convert to the Christian faith. While this practice is not illegal, it brings up the question of how far managers can go to ensure ethical practises in their firms (Landau, 2010). Factors Influencing Et hical Practice in China Many factors have been blamed for the widespread unethical practices in China, but the most outstanding ones are philosophical beliefs, globalisation and the rapid changes that the Chinese economy undergoes. Philosophical Beliefs The main philosophical approaches taken by the Chinese are Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, all of which are based on the teachings of prominent thinkers who resided in the Far East. Confucius, the father of Confucianism, taught that the first obligation of every person is to the family, such that everyone is expected to take care of the needs of family members and close friends before extending favours to others. While this is a convenient way of living in day-to-day life, the philosophy may be destructive in the business world, as managers tend to hire their family members regardless of their qualifications. This has resulted in poor quality of Chinese products; erosion of work ethics since a favour leads to another, and the cycl e goes on despite detrimental effects to the economy. However, this does not mean that Confucianism only has negative effects on ethics; in fact, if applied correctly, the philosophy has three main aspects that promote ethical practise. These include the teachings on obedience, following laid down guidelines, and humanity (Suen, Cheung and Mondejar, 2007). Taoism incorporates the principles of learning the details of one's profession for improved workmanship, and promotion of maximum good for the greatest number of people. In addition, Taoism results in increased efficiency at the workplace though this is not the prime concern of the philosophy. Buddhism is the philosophy that encourages business personality to respect and preserve the business environment; and to create a healthy relationship between the business and the community around it. Any manager intending to do ethical business in China has to have an understanding of the perceptions of

Case Study- Company Situation (Financial Analysis & SWOT Analysis Essay

Case Study- Company Situation (Financial Analysis & SWOT Analysis only) - Essay Example Based on the rising revenues and margin data, it is possible to conclude that Inditex is at the growth phase of the life cycle, while Benetton, the GAP, and H&M are at maturity and stability phase, as their revenues and margins are declining. Financial Ratio Analysis - Inditex Profitability Gross profit margin of the company is fairly high – 59%, which implies that the company has effective outsourcing manufacturing strategy and has good relationships with suppliers. Both factors have positive impact on cost reduction. Operating profit margin is 18%, which means that the company makes 0,18 cents for every Euro of sales (before taxes). Net profit margin is 14% and it means that the company has good control over its costs. ROA ratio which is 19% means that the company is effectively using its investment, converting it into profit. ROE Liquidity Current ratio of the company is 2,0 suggests that the company has a good ability to pay back its short-term liabilities with the short-t erm assets it has. This means that Inditex is capable to continue its business expansion strategy and to avoid insolvency during the slower growth phases. The quick ratio of 1,5 means that Inditex position has enough liquid assets to cover its current liabilities. Thus, the company can implement its strategy of fast fashion being capable to pay quickly for its orders and to kepp short inventory turnover. Leverage Debt-to-Equity ratio (0.42) indicates that the company’s debt used to finance its operations is not so high and is a positive sign of strong financial position of the Inditex. This indicates that the company is financially strong enough to grow its business due to its profits rather than debts. Long-term debt-to-equity ratio is relatively low and indicates on the company’s financial stability. Activity Inventory turnover at 4,50 indicates that the company has efficient supply chain and can continue taking its course of fast fashion retailer. Days of inventory ratio is equal to average 81.0 days. This indicator seems to be fairly high for the company focusing on fast fashion strategy. Average collection period is 13,4 days, which is quite low and therefore optimal for Inditex to continue its aggressive business development strategy. Financial Analysis has shown that Zara’s overall financial position is very strong and enabling for implementing its strategy of future sales and stores’ growth. SWOT Analysis Strengths The company’s strategy is based on aggressive multichannel global business expansion which is implemented due to its flexible business model based on having the right fashions at the right time at affordable prices. Financial state of the company rated as â€Å"healthy† allows the company to have enough capital for future growth and investments. Global expansion of Zara’s stores and its responsive marketing strategy increase global brand awareness. All these result in strong sales and revenue growth. Effective supply chain management allows the company to be competitive on the market balancing the quality of its goods and affordable prices for mass market consumers. Excellent human resource management is another strategic strength of the company which enables the company to grow its sales and gain positive reputation. Design of new stores in