Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Assignment “Introduction to Leadership” Essay Example for Free

Assignment â€Å"Introduction to Leadership† Essay Leadership styles: When looking at leadership style I have to look at what as a manager I am good at and that has got me to the position as Manager and what I need to do to progress my team. Firstly I need to gain the respect of my team by treating everyone fairly. Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal’. The goal is attained by mutual cooperation and cohesive behaviour. A leader infuses a sense of positivity and directs others to reach the specified goal. A leader is someone who stands not only for his cause but takes responsibility and motivates other individuals also. There is a clear difference between being a manager and a leader. A leader is a motivation for others and inspires individuals to aim high and attain that aim. However a manager only supervises over his subordinates. Power naturally comes to a leader but that power is not a tool of leader. To be a good lead I have to look at the managers around me and what in my opinion makes them good or bad leaders and also if these are traits that I can adapt and use or ultimately will they be out of character for me and be counterproductive for me. Using the Paul and Kenneth Blanchard model of Situational Leadership:- Telling: this is where a person has low ability and low willingness maybe a new starter. This is the style I would use for a new starter who does not yet have the skills to operate independently. Selling: this is where a person would have low ability but high willingness. This style I would use on someone like Dave in the office he wants to do a good job but is of an age that he does not quite have the skills he needs but he more than makes up for that with his knowledge of the job. So I need to draw on his experience to help him achieve his goals. Participating: this is for a person will high ability and low willingness. This leadership style I would use on Becca as she has the ability but when things are going against her tends to try and hide from difficult circumstances so i would have a discussion with her and give her the support needed to get the job done. Delegating: this is for High ability and high willingness. This i am more than comfortable using on Ann and Mel as they have shown that they can comfortably do the tasks i set them. I have also set them individual tasks looking at how we can improve our day to day activities and ultimately make our lives easier in the long run. After doing the test I came down as someone who was fairly evenly spread of tell, selling and participating but who does not delegate this is something I have known about and my team has told me and something I can now begin to address Review of own leadership behaviour:- I am relatively new in the role of Sales office Manager. I have progressed from a role within the factory by doing an excellent job as a traffic planner. I took all the information gain by talking to people and being in the loop within the factory. I took in account what the factory could do and what our customer expectations were which allowed us to plan what was needed and by when to meet what the customer actually needed. Being new to the sales role I have had to take myself out the information loop and learn a new role. I have had to learn a new computer system and at the same time be the role model for my team. Whilst doing this I have made myself available for any problems the team has but have tried to show that I can do the job and also help team members who have been doing it for years. I currently have a team of five people all with varying abilities. I have two long serving members of staff one part time and two that started at the beginning of the year. With no two members of staff the same I have had to employ different leadership style i.e. with Dave he is coming up to retirement and I would say he was low on ability he has a high willingness to complete tasks set so with him I would employ the telling leadership style which was very similar with my two new starters but as the months progressed they both showed high ability but one was more willing to achieve than the other so with Becca I had to show a participating style of leadership and with Mel I am able to delegate more as she showed both high ability and high willingness. The factory as a whole is very unionised and whilst the majority of the staff are in the union they do generally like to get the job done and if this means working long stressful hours they do. When we are in these situations I will change my leadership style to match the situation where it be acting on their behalf to speak to people who they have issue with (maybe another member of staff or even customers) or by re-enforcing procedures that are there to make the lives easier or by finding courses that will ultimately give them the tools to make their jobs easier in the long run. I have spoken to members of the team and other managers around the office and all have said I try to do too much and that I need to â€Å"learn to delegate† and whilst this doesn’t come naturally to me (my preferred leadership style was telling and participating) I have taken their comments on board and have started to delegate a lot more around the team and focused on other areas within the team that would help them to improve and grow. I can improve myself as a leader by listening to others and taking advice and giving and receiving feedback and also by doing courses and re assessing myself to look at things from a different angle and point of view. Within the factory I am constantly being assessed and feedback given my goals are constantly moving but I personally need to delegate more to enable me to grow as a manager. I have also started to meet other Sales office managers within the group so I know that the job I have been doing whilst not exactly the same as other sites is very similar and I haven’t been doing that bad a job but perception is everything so I have to look at promoting myself with the site and also more importantly to other sites what I have to say has value and I can bring a lot to the table but I also have to look at the individuals within my team and look at their maturity levels and adapt my leadership to what is needed to each individual and also learn to delegate more.

Monday, January 20, 2020

The Count of Monte Cristo :: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo    The Count of Monte Cristo is an interesting tale about a sailor named Dantes who changes his whole persona in order to get back at his enemies. Dantes becomes a number of different people in order to carry out his plans. The changes Dantes went through made his different stages as a sailor and later as a mastermind of vengeance seem like day and night. Although Dantes seems very naà ¯ve at the beginning of the story, he becomes very sharp during his stay in jail. By the amount of detail and preciseness in his plans, Dantes as the Count can be looked as a mastermind. Much of Dantes’ knowledge comes from the old, thought to be crazy, priest named Faria that taught him in prison. Faria was also responsible for much of Dantes character change due to his great power of reasoning. Because Faria had given him a treasure and a hunger for vengeance, Dantes was willing and had enough money and power to carry out revenge on his enemies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Faria is the first person that opens up Dantes’ eyes so that he can see who his enemies really are. When Dantes first meets Faria, he is overjoyed because he hasn’t seen another person, other than the guard, for years. Faria reaches Dantes by means of a tunnel that took him 3 years to dig with his makeshift tools. Even though he had limited resources, Faria made matches, a lantern, a ladder, and a knife. Faria hid all these tools behind two separate rocks in his cell. All of these things show how smart Faria really was.   Faria’s intelligence is what helps Dantes make his transformation. â€Å"There is a maxim of jurisprudence which says,   ‘If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime might be useful.’ To whom might your disappearance be useful?† This quote makes it apparent to Dantes that it wasn’t just a big accident that he went to jail. When Dantes foun d this out, you could see an immediate change in his character.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After Dantes gets the treasure that Faria gave him, he starts to put his plot for revenge into action. The first thing Dantes does after he gets the treasure is to change into the Count of Monte Cristo.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Blinds to Go Case Essay

If Blinds To Go staffing stores still lack of staff for the expansion plan, it is difficult for the company to fill current store requirements for the additional 50 stores per year. Analysis The BTG have problems of a variation of the commission-based compensation plan, so they are difficult to keep high-level associates, assistants and managers, they face to high staff turnover each year and lack of the attraction to recruit new members. In order to analyze BTG’s problems, they must look at their compensation structure, recruiting methods, and the condition of staff turnover. Compensation structure In 1996, the Shillers decided to change the compensation system from full commission to salary, and her intention was to attract more recruits, make sales associates less entrepreneurial and more customer-service focused, but the best commission-based people did not like it and left. However, sales declined between 10% to 30% in both new and existing stores from 1996 to 1997. A variation of the commission-based compensation plan was back in 1998, and store sales improved. Next, a plan for store employees was implemented along with a sales award and recognition program, and all full-time sales associates were made partners and given shares in the company. In addition, there was another concern that a commission-based compensation structure would not work in the U.S., because the workers prefer a straight wage or salary. Finally, senior management believed that sales managers had to be properly motivated and provided them with a combination of store sales commission and opportunities f or rapid advancement in the growing organization. Recruiting methods In order to attract quality retail sales candidates, BTG had tried several recruiting methods to varying degrees of success, such as employee referral,  Internet sourcing, DSM compensation readjustment, BTG retail recruiters, newspaper advertising, and store generated leads. As a result, the most effective method of attracting quality candidates is employee referral, followed by Internet sourcing, and next is DSM recruitment. The total number of employee referral in two months in 2000 is 59, the highest percentage of all recruiting method. Referrals generally pursued employment with BTG, excited by the opportunity that a friend or family member who was a BTG employee had recounted. Moreover, recruiters were focused on non-store sources and store sources were handled by the DSM. Staff turnover By June 2000, Blinds To Go operated 120 corporated-owned stores across North America, and it was senior management’s belief that quality of staff is more important than store location. There are four staff roles in the store: the sales associate, the selling supervisor, the assistant store manager, and the store manager. Overall staff turnover increased to more than 40 percent from a pre-1995 figure of 15 percent. This problem was further exacerbated by the fact that rapid store expansion into several large cities had required the deployment of skilled store staff, thinning the ranks of existing stores. The 1998 shift back to commission-based compensation structure caused a huge turnover in BTG stores, it had still not fully recovered from the previous compensation change. Plan of Action In order for Blinds To Go to recruit and develop enough people for the expansion plan, the following steps need to be taken so the company will success to meet the growth objectives. The sales managers had to be properly motivated so BTG need to change the commission-based compensation structure to have a combination compensation structure with base salary and other compensation decisions. According to the base salary of $8/hour were attracting a lower caliber of people, and the best commission-based people did not prefer it, and the U.S. folks like a straight wage or salary. In addition to the small base salary  and sales commission plan, the company could use group incentives and organizational incentives to encourage teamwork and cooperation. BTG may add up a profit sharing plan for employees to receive a portion of the organization’s profits over and above their regular compensation. The employee stock ownership plans are also available to compensate employees by awarding them shares of the company stock. The company could continue the existing recruiting methods and add more details to the recruiting process more integrated. To provide a job analysis and job description are easy for employees to comprehend the important work-related aspects, the basic tasks, duties, and responsibilities required of a particular job. BTG may attach importance to external recruiting rather than internal recruiting, but internal recruiting is still functional for the company to figure out qualified employees inside the company. During external recruiting, keep the method of cold call, walk-ins, internet, employee referral, DSM hires and develop some other methods. For example, advertising on newspapers, magazines, direct mail, radio, and television are effective to recruit broadly. Moreover, develop employment services is also important, to establish state or private employment agencies, temporary help agencies, and professional search firms will attract more quality candidates. Furthermore, the special events such as career conferences or job fairs will also work. BTG may develop performance appraisal and use functional one-to-one communication to keep low and functional staff turnover. The performance appraisal is the process of assessing how well employees are doing their jobs. Objective performance measures are also measures of performance that are easily and directly counted and quantified. These measures are benefit for BTG to figure out the quality of the employees, and may use the hierarchical pay structures top decide the pay level of people with different abilities. However, training programs are also accessible to improve the quality of employees. In addition, use one-to-one communication could help the managers to figure out the problems of people’s performance  on the job. Especially for counseling, communicate with the person about non-job-related issues that may be interfering with the person’s performance could help employees to address their personal issues and improve their performance on the job. By following these steps, BTG can develop enough people for the expansion plan, and the company can meet the growth objectives successfully. Evaluation After developing the compensation structure, the employees have to be appropriately motivated, and the BTG selling process involved a very high level of interaction with the customer, which set a very high level of service expectation. The emphasis on customer satisfaction at the retail stores lead to a higher volume of orders relative to the retail competition. Store sales will improve across the board. To try several recruiting methods such as formal or informal programs that worked to entice qualified personnel to apply to BTG which increase the degree of success. To keep the turnover low and functional, the quality of the store’s staff will be high in a healthy competitive environment among sales associates. According to the percentage of staff voluntary turnover occurred in their first four months become low and the employees are stable in BTG, the company will have stable source of staff to proceed with its expansion plan and develop complements efficiently. The sales of the company will be high for each consecutive store opened, and no competitors could replicate the model of BTG.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Combating Organized Crime - 1018 Words

Abstract There has been much review and discussion in regards to which method of approach would be best suited to target organized crime. Should law enforcement supplement traditional police enforcement with additional officers and prisons, or are new enforcement approaches required to combat organized crime? The shortfalls of traditional police enforcement will be discussed, as will the evaluation of new approaches for the regulation of organized crime. Topics of proactive measures, rather than reactive, will be addressed. Suggested methods of approach and possible solutions to the problems will also be discussed. Combating Organized Crime Introduction As time passes, the question of traditional law enforcement, as opposed to new†¦show more content†¦This may prevent further illegal actions to get that type of partnership. Best Method of Approach The criminal justice system is far more powerful than the criminal offender, and is generally uncorrupted by the latter. There is a notion that crime is basically the actions of powerless petty criminals and that the state is incorruptible. However, organized crime presents a different scenario: the powerful criminal. The dynamics of petty crime are, to an extent, reversed. In other words, the offender may be more powerful than the criminal justice system. Power may take the form of evasive skills - disguise and sanctuary for activities such as money laundering. It may take the form of coercion and corruption of both the public and members of criminal justice agencies. Instead of looking solely at the perpetrators of the crimes, public policy should instead examine what it is about particular industries that lend themselves to monopolistic market structures of organized crime. Which factors in the drug trafficking and prostitution industries make them more conducive to monopolies than the home burglary business? It is the same aspects that make some legal industries natural contenders to function as monopolies - economies of scale, high start up and fixed costs, barriers to entry. A similar suggestion comes from Reuter, Rubinstein, and Wynn, who argue that investigators of organized crime need to be trainedShow MoreRelatedImproving Law Enforcements Approach to Combating Organized Crime1302 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Organized crime involves a group of people made up of several ethnicities and international unions, who coordinate as well as work in unison, apart, or in line with legal enterprises alongside political realms. Many analysts have concurred that organized crime is both an impediment to academic projects and a realistic social issue that obligates urgent solution. Strategies implemented to limit organized crime often tend to be inclined towards one form of the two approaches. One of theRead MorePolicy Transfer And The European Union : Judicial Reforms And Combating Organized Crime And Corruption1401 Words   |  6 PagesPolicy transfer to Bulgaria and Romania in connection to their accession to the European Union: Judicial reforms and combating organized crime and corruption As one of the most influential transnational organizations, the European Union is very strict towards candidate countries which aim to join it and they are required to meet vast range of criteria. In some cases, even after the approval and accession of a particular country, there are still systems to be reshaped and areas to be reformed whichRead MoreEssay on Controlling Organized Crime1564 Words   |  7 PagesControlling Organized Crime CJA/393 Criminal Organizations June 1, 2010 Controlling Organized Crime In this paper, I will identify the problems presented and the various relationships established by organized crime. I will also describe the legal limitations associated with combating organized crime, and include a critique of major federal laws and strategies that support this effort. Lastly, I will suggest a solution to control organized crime by discussing and evaluating the effectivenessRead MoreControlling Organized Crime Paper1163 Words   |  5 PagesControlling Organized Crime Paper CJA/ 384 August 19, 2013 Controlling Organized Crime Paper Organized crime is an issue that has existed for many years and continues to be on the rise especially with the technology that we have today. Well – known criminal organizations include; Italian Mafia, Russian Mobsters, Nuestra Familia, Mexican Mafia, The Hell’s Angels, The Bandidos, John Gotti, Al Capone, and so much more. One of the most famous criminal organizations are the Gambino Family inRead MoreControlling Organized Crime Paper1206 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Controlling Organized Crime Tina Martin-Fleming CJA/384 February 19, 2015 Charles Davis Organized crime groups have been around since the 1900’s. The mafia who came from Italy and other countries to the United States started their business and became a nuisance over a period. The mob became a problem for society with their illegal activities such as gambling, racketeering and prostitution that includes other violent behaviors. The mafia was famous for manipulating individuals with theirRead MoreRussian Organized Crime Essay874 Words   |  4 PagesRussian Organized Crime (ROC) The term Russian organized crime (ROC) refers to criminal groups from the 15 republics which comprised the former Soviet Union. ROC has existed for 20 years in the United States but during the last five years law enforcement authorities have observed a distinct increase in their criminal activities. Criminals from the former Soviet Union have established their networks in major cities and are also emerging in some smaller cities. ROC groups are involved in murderRead MoreControlling Organized Crime1200 Words   |  5 PagesControlling Organize Crime Paper Louis Pierre CJA/384 May 6, 2013 University of phoenix Professor: Glen Winters Controlling Organize Crime Paper Organize crime is a conspiratorial activity involving the coordination of numerous people in the planning and execution of illegal acts or in the pursuit of a legitimate objective by unlawful means, for example, threatening a legitimate business to get stake in it. However, organize crime involves continuous commitment by primary members, althoughRead MoreControlling Organized Crime1363 Words   |  6 PagesControlling Organized Crime CJA384 Controlling Organized Crime Since the 1990’s, organized crime has become a problem among U.S. citizens. The Mafia was the earliest group to show its strengths of power and manipulation among citizens and business of New York City. From the time of the Mafia’s rise, other criminal organizations have surfaced using their power to corrupt personal within business for the gain of finance and political strength. In today society, one of the main question whenRead MoreThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Is Combating Drugs, Terrorism, and Criminal Activity529 Words   |  3 PagesThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the unit of the United Nations (UN) charged with combating illicit drugs, terrorism, and other criminal activity. It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has twenty-one field offices and a liaison office in New York. The agency has approximately 500 members across the globe who develop and enforce drug control policies that are responsive to their individual n eeds. The UNODC’s work program consists of three major pillars. The first of theseRead MoreEssay on Organized Crime Wthin The Unit1461 Words   |  6 Pages Organized Crime Within the United States Organized crime is a widespread topic of concern among many Americans due to its popularity in the media and entertainment industry. The public is aware of its existence, yet is not fully aware of why and how this complex â€Å"underworld† exists. In order to fully understand this area of criminology, one must take into account the characteristics of organized crime, the variables that allow organized crime to thrive, its large-scale effects on society, and