How Does Digital Technology Affect Relationships - 982 Words

With the advances of phones, computers, and social media we are able to be connected to anyone we want within a moment’s notice. We can connect to people who are thousands of miles away, news travels faster than ever, and we can meet new people all the time over social media. With all these advances, how does digital technology affect relationships? Given that social media and smartphones allow communication to be easier, it also lacks the ability to truly form bonds, understand and talk to another person. Technology has several upsides to communication, some include being able to call, text, and email a person who is miles away. Just last month my family had a small get together and due to one of my cousins living in South Carolina, we could call her via Skype and she could interact with the party. This ability to communicate instantly with her is beneficial to all she gets to see family and talk to everyone and we all can see and talk to her all at once. Sherry Turkle, a pr ofessor and sociologist, brings these new technological advances to light. Which in turn help with finding and rejecting new potential romances in her book Reclaiming Conversation in the â€Å"Romance† chapter. Turkle discusses new apps such as â€Å"Tinder, a mobile dating app†¦ swiping left rejects the potential romance and when it happens to you, you don’t even know† (179). Turkle goes on to describe how these new apps create â€Å"friction-free† interation and that without the app â€Å"it would not be possible toShow MoreRelatedNegative Effects Of Digital Appliances1236 Words   |  5 PagesNegative Effects of Digital Appliances Digital appliances have rapidly taken over everything people do from communication to planning events, and consumers do not always understand the negative effects. The negative effects include a lack of social and educational development in a child. Issues such as relationship compatibility are prominent. 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Eating Disorders The Forgotten Issue - 1302 Words

Eating Disorders: The Forgotten Issue In today’s society, it has become hard for the average person to fit the high expectations and perfect mold that has been created by being connected to the internet. With the pressure so high, and competition so intense everyone is striving to become perfect to fit the mold. Eating disorders have become common in many people as a way to change their body image or gain more control over their life, caused by the stress of trying to be one’s best. But it has been overlooked for many years and a lot of people don’t understand the significance of eating disorders and how they affected the lives of not only young women but everyone. Eating disorders are a serious problem that affects the lives of many people and, should not be overlooked. Although they are common among all people, and especially female teens, eating disorders are overlooked and unrecognized by many national health campaigns (Espejo 21). 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Business Management Danone Free Essays

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ————————————————- CONTENTS PAGE introduction3 literature review4 swot analysis4 external factors4 organizational structures5 hofstede’s theory5 cultural elements5 motivation6 danone’s analysis7 I- strategic analysis7 1- DANONE’s industry7 2- swot analysis8 3- exploring new opportunities 11 II- organizational analysis12 1- external factors12 2- DANONE’s organizational strucure13 3- home country’s culture impact15 – DANONE’s motivational system16 conclusion and recommendations 18 bibliography19 appendices21 ————————————————- INTRODUCTION We have chosen the group DANONE because it is a world-famous leading French group, which is often recognised for its management leadership. DANONE is a food-produc ts multinational corporation based in Paris. It is the world leader in fresh dairy products, 2nd in bottled water and baby food and European leader in clinical nutrition. We will write a custom essay sample on Business Management Danone or any similar topic only for you Order Now Business Management Study Guide iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src="https://phdessay.com/business-management-study-guide/embed/#?secret=GmSjIbMFjW" data-secret="GmSjIbMFjW" width="500" height="282" title="#8220;Business Management Study Guide#8221; #8212; Free Essays - PhDessay.com" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"/iframe Being a leader in these 4 segments corresponding to the heavy trends of consumption and deriving more than 50% of its turnover from developing countries have helped the Group to secure a 6,9 % growth in 2010 despite the down turn of world economy. It is obvious that to be able to be successful on these highly competitive markets, a company owes to apply a good strategy. The group is also supported by an effective communication and by a strong involvement in Research and development where they spend 1% of their global turn over. But above all these, with its fast development in emerging countries often through joint ventures and its switch in 2007 of 40% of its activities from biscuits to baby and clinical food, what has been critical to insure its success through these drastic changes has been the management of the group under the strong leadership of Franck Riboud who succeeded, as chairman and CEO of DANONE, to his father Antoine in 1996. Through this study, we shall show how DANONE possesses a real identity very present in its management and organization and that this cultural model, initiated since the early 70’s by Antoine Riboud and enhanced by Frank Riboud, has been key to the Group success. ————————————————- LITERATURE REVIEW * SWOT analysis â€Å"A strategic planning tool that includes external and internal factors and is utilized by businesses and other organizations to ensure that there is a clear objective defined for the project or venture, and that all factors related to the effort – positive and negative – are identified and addressed. (Tatum, 2010) The SWOT’s process involves four areas of consideration: * Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry. * Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others. * Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment. * Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business. Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs. External factors According to David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski (5th edition), external factors of a business organization include: * Macro-environment factors (PESTLE analysis): â€Å"identifying the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Ecological factors affecting an organization. † * Micro-environment factors (Porter’s â€Å"Five Forces†): * Competitive rivalry * Threat of new entry * Buyer power * Threat of substitution * Supplier power * Organizational structures Based again on David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski (5th edition), organizational structure is: â€Å"The format system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates and motivates employees so that they work together to achieve organizational goals. † The purpose of organization structure is, first, to divide up organizational activities and allocate them to sub-units and, second, to co-ordinate and control theses activities so that they achieve the aims of the organization. * Hofstede’s Theory You can read also Portfolio Management Quizzes Hofstede’s research gives us insights into other cultures so that we can be more effective when interacting with people in other countries. As it was clearly defined at Alan Godsave’s lecture (2011), Hofestede’s cultural dimensions are: * Individualism: People look after selves and immediate family only. * Masculinity: dominant social values are success, money, and things. * Power distance: Less powerful members accept that power is distributed unequally. * Uncertainty avoidance: people feel threatened by ambiguous situations; create beliefs/institutions to avoid such situations. * Time and Relationship dimensions. Cultural Elements According to Bauer and Erdogan (2009):  «Ã‚  Culture can be understood in terms of seven different culture dimensions, depending on what is most emphasized within the organization. For example, innovative cultures are flexible and adaptable, and they experiment with new ideas, while stable cultures are predictable, rule-oriented, an d bureaucratic. Strong cultures can be an asset or a liability for an organization but can be challenging to change. Organizations may have subcultures and countercultures, which can be challenging to manage.  » Culture dimensions (the organization culture profile): Innovative * Aggressive * Outcome-oriented * Stable * People-oriented * Team-oriented * Detail-oriented * Motivation â€Å"The cognitive, decision-making process through which goal-directed behaviour is initiated, energized, and directed and maintained. †(David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski, 5th edition) Motivation can be regarded as a broad concept, which includes preferences for particular outcomes, strength of effort (half-hearted or enthusiastic) and persistence (in the face of barriers). These are the factors that we have to understand in order to explain our motivation and behaviour. These are the factors that a manager has to appreciate in order to motivate employees to behave in organizationally desirable ways. ————————————————- ANALYSIS I – STRATEGIC ANALYSIS 1 – DANONE’S INDUSTRY History, according to DANONE official website, www. danone. fr The original company bearing the corporate name was founded in 1919 by Isaac Carasso in Barcelona (Spain) as a small factory producing yoghurt initially sold in Pharmacy. The factory was named Danone, a Catalan diminutive of the name of his first son. Ten years later, the first French factory was built. Also you can read  Business Ethics Comprises In 1967, Danone merged with Gervais, the leading fresh cheese producer in France and became Gervais Danone. Another branch of Group Danone descended from industrial glassmaker BSN, which was founded by the family of Antoine Riboud. He transformed BSN into one of Europe’s leading food groups in the 1970s through a series of acquisitions and mergers, including the 1973 merger with Gervais Danone. The acquisitions initially took the shape of vertical integration, acquiring brewer Kronenbourg and Evian mineral water that were the glassmaker’s largest customers. In 1973, the company merged with Gervais Danone and began to expand internationally. In 1979, the company abandoned glassmaking. In 1987, Gervais Danone acquired European biscuit manufacturer General Biscuit, owners of the LU brand, and, in 1989, it bought out the European biscuit operations of Nabisco. In 1994, BSN changed its name to Groupe Danone, adopting the name of the group’s best-known international brand. Franck Riboud succeeded his father, Antoine, as the company’s chairman and CEO in 1996. Under Riboud junior, the company continued to pursue its focus on three product groups (dairy, beverages, and cereals) and divested itself of several activities, which had become non-core. From 1999 to 2006, the group sold its glass-containers business, its European and Chinese beer activities, its Italian cheese and meat businesses, and its sauces business. Despite these divestitures, Danone continues to expand internationally in its 3 core business units, emphasising health and well-being products. In July 2007, it was announced that Danone had reached agreement with Kraft to sell its biscuits division, including the LU and Prince brands. Also in July 2007 Danone bought the Dutch baby food and clinical nutrition company Numico creating the world’s second largest manufacturer of baby food. Facts 2010 Sales: 17 080 million euros Operational profit: 2 578 million euros. Employees: 101 000 Factories: 159 World Ranking in the food industry: 5th CAC 40 (Paris stock exchange) ranking in capitalization: 9th Activities, Brands (DANONE official data and information, available at www. danone. com) – Fresh dairy products: with 20 % of the world market (35 % in certain countries) and a presence in about forty countries, Danone is the leader on this market. This activity, representing 57 % of the turnover of the Group, recorded an increase of 6,5 % in 2010. The strategy of the Group within the world market of the dairy products is to lean on innovations products centred on â€Å"helping your health † and on local adaptation of its brands. Main brands: Danone, first world mark with Danone, Actimel, Activia, Danonino (Small Gervais in Fruits), Vitalinea (Taillefine, Vitasnella or Ser in some countries), Danacol, Gervita and Dany. – Packaged waters: This activity, representing 17 % of the turnover of the Group, recorded an increase of 5,3 % in 2010. Main brands: Evian (world 1st bottled water), Volvic, Aqua, Bonafont and Font Vella Baby food: This activity, representing 20 % of the turnover of the Group, recorded an increase of 8,9 % in 2010. Main brands: Bledina, Gallia, Nutricia, Nutrini, Milupa, CowGate, Bebiko. – Clinical nutrition: this last pole, representing 6% of the turnover, recorded a 9% increase in 2010. Main brands: Nutricia, fortimel, Nutrison http://danone10. danone. com/vignettes/fr/html_danone10/docs/P rincipaux_indicateurs_2010_FR. pdf 2 – SWOT ANALYSIS * INTERNAL * STRENGTHS Promotion * A brand more than a company Legitimacy to impose its products. * Master in marketing (copied by Unilever and Nestle). Take advantage of a strong image as specialist of food with health connotation. The group strengthen its scientific credibility by clinical studies (DANONE institute). * Derive World fame, thanks to Evian, the world famous brand of water. Price * Capacity to impose its prices thanks to its notoriety and its image. * Possibility of imposing high prices with regard to the market health connotation. Distribution – Notoriety Allows a referencing in all distribution channels. – The standardization / globalization of its products allows to answer at universal needs, optimizing their global distribution. Margin of important negotiation market share and spectacular notoriety. – Model geographically well balanced with half of the turnover in emerging countries, 10% in the USA and the rest in Western Europe. – Possibility of self-financing in the case of new subsidiaries important financial capacities. Product * Strong capacities of innovation all over the world. * Adaptation to foreign consumer habits. * Benefit from an excellent mastering of its businesses specificity – know how to make. * Have at the same time a portfolio of international brands and very robust local positions. Strong trust and loyalty of the consumers to products (due to the quality control). Organization * Benefit from a healthy financial structure and a good level of internal growth. * Unique flexible decentralised organisation * The most powerful food Group in the sector of the health. * Intensification of the strategy of growth. * Have competitive advantages (brands, distribution network) unique in 2 businesses (Water, Dairy products). * WEAKNESSES Promotion * Sued for misleading advertising. Price * Increase of the level of the prices due to high cost price of raw packaging materials. Place * The policy of standardization of products makes potentially difficult taking into account the sociocultural differences or the taste differences of the various populations. Product * The policy of standardization is a barrier to operate adjustments produced according to the evolutions of markets or the changes of trend. * The globalization is a difficulty to take into account the strategies of differentiations of the competitors, in particular at the level of a specific country. * The brands are the main asset of the company. Organization * DANONE’s model may be difficult to be accepted over corporate culture and differences of management in various countries. * Difficulties to integrate exogenous elements into its culture. * EXTERNAL * OPPORTUNITIES Offer – Opportunities of external growth through Potential foreign partners seduced by: * The respect and the conservation of the partner’s corporate culture * The understanding of his culture before a proposition of common projects * The cultural footbridges in favour of ideas and knowledge sharing. The quality of the industrial and marketing know-how facilitate the co-branding with the other brands on the other markets. Demand – Expanding market (convenience goods). – A large number of countries remain to be converted to fresh dairy products as well as bottled water (developing countries). – Even in times of crisis the most basic needs of consumers is food. Influences * Healthy food became a major subject and is wid ely followed and supported by the consumers and the legislation (preventive campaigns against the obesity). * THREATS Offer * Strong direct competition by hard discounters and store brands. Strong competition in the field of the water PepsiCo (Aquafina) and Nestle (Perrier). * Inflationary environment of dairy products. * Increasing Costs of the communications often involving to part from certain brands. * Anchored in a very competitive system link to the expansion of its market. Demand * Versatility of the demand linked to the diversity of the offer on the food market. Influences * Governmental campaigns concerning the health potential problem of excessive consumption of fresh dairy product. 3 – EXPLORING NEW OPPORTUNITIES * According to le Figaro website (www. efigaro. fr), since August 2011 DANONE is experimenting its own â€Å"fast food† restaurant and corners in France under the name â€Å"Danone bar† to sale yogurts. If it works the model could be duplicat ed first in various cities in France and then major cities in other countries where the dairy product are consumed essentially at home and not outside. (Please, see picture N °2) * Based on web and luxe website (www. webandluxe. com), Evian is also experimenting home delivery in Paris, based on the fact that some customers are reluctant to buy themselves bottle water packs because of their weight. If it works this idea could also be duplicated in major cities. Furthermore Evian claims that it will help with its carbon print as these deliveries are made with electrical cars. * Evian has also opened a new website, (www. myevian. com), were customers can buy customized bottles with their name or a specific date/event engraved with laser on the bottle. (Please, see picture N °3) * Savia, a new range of soy-based milk and yogurts, made its debut in southern Europe in 2009, and in France Taillefine, the brand that invented light dairy products, launched a new line of fruit desserts in partnership with Andros, a leading fruit processor. www. danone. fr) II – ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS 1 – EXTERNAL FACTORS * PESTEL ANALYSIS We redacted this part of the work based on external factors’literrature review. * Political factors. Up to now there are four types of political factors potentially affecting Danone: * The â€Å"Danone† Amendment that the french governmen t passed in 2005 to protect the group and its minority shareholders from a rumoured take over by PepsiCo * The potential threat of an increase in customs taxes between Europe, Asia (most of all china), and NAFTA due to the world economic crisis. Increased Government campaign for public health against obesity will be likely to increase the group sales. * Change in the European Union agricultural subsidies will affect strongly the milk producers thus having a strong impact on the European business of Danone. * Economic factors. * Rate of exchange of Euro versus Yuan and Dollar may play a role in the sales of European made products elsewhere but through joint ventures in a number of countries, this risk/opportunity is downsized for the group. * General slow down of world economy but so far the group has a growth higher than the world average. Increased demand of better food product in Asia, India and Brazil with the average standard of living increasing have a positive impact. * Increa se price of raw materials, due to tightening of supply vs. demand, such as plastic, will have a strong impact on packaging cost  which represents a significant part of the product cost in bottled water: the growth of water revenues in 2010 was lower than the growth in quantities because of this factor. * Social factors. * Except for Africa the world population is ageing, this will have a potential positive impact on the demand for healthy food (activia†¦ and in the richest countries for clinical food but it twill impact adversely the infant food segment. * On the long run this may also have an impact on the workforce but for the next decade Danone work force is relatively young. * Increased awareness of the population of all ages to the positive or negative health effect of food. * Increased demand for fair trade may increase the price Danone has to pay to milk producer in non-or poorly regulated areas like Africa. * Technological factors: New biotechnologies, molecules or pr oteines may increase the credibility and effectiveness of cosmetic and health food thus giving an edge to Danone which has focussed its strategy on these segment since much more time than its main competitors and have the research facilities to do so. * Environmental factors: * The growing scarcity of good drinkable water may increase the sales of the water division, as it has already been the case in some countries like Spain. Greater requirements for recycling of plastic packaging and lowering carbon print may lead to the need of a change in Danone’s packaging and distribution. They have already thought about it through home delivery of water and reutilisation of empty bottle as mentioned before. * Legal factors: * The recent case of Danone being sued for misleading advertising on the supposed health benefit of some of its products (Actimel) may have further implications and force it to change substantially its line of communication. 2 – DANONE’S ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE † A structure is all the functions and the relations determining formally the missions and the functions which every unit of the organization has to achieve and the modes of collaboration between these units † (STRATEGOR, 1993) HIERARCHY SYSTEM Danone organization is built in a way to increase flexibility and efficiency, optimize integration of employees in the group and facilitate functional, geographical and cultural synergies. It is basically a division type organization. (Please, see picture 4) In the classification of international groups introduced by Howard Perlmutter, Danone is a geocentric firm: An equal sharing of power and responsibility between headquarters and subsidiary; senior management promoted according to ability rather than nationality; subsidiaries that share worldwide objectives with managers focusing beyond national market interests. In Danone the benefits of cultural diversity, such as knowledge of local customers and business practices, are harnessed for the good of the firm as a whole. Local divisions must identify aspects of diversity that are most important to them and their operations and take the lead in expressing and managing these differences. Discussion, interaction, cross-divisional teamwork and job rotation, support, awareness, and understanding go alongside training programs, language courses, and cultural assimilation. It is typically a  «Ã‚  think globally, act locally  Ã‚ » company. * DANONE’S LOCATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH HOFSTEDE’S THEORY * Individualism: This dimension is certainly medium-low in Danone. People are expected to do cross-divisional teamwork and loyalty to the group rather than individuals is highly valued. In return each division and functions know that they can count on the others when facing a problem. * Masculinity: This is a dimension were the cultural aspect of France and Danone’s CEO personalities have plaid an important part in Danone’s culture. The score of France and in general Latin countries is not very high. Furthermore the fact that an important part of the business is now done in developing countries where this dimension is low have reinforced this aspect. So we would say that Danone is certainly more â€Å"feminine†. This could explain also that so far the US is not one of Danone’s main markets because of its strong masculinity cultural component. * Power distance: Like most international group with a divisional type organization, power distance is relatively low to medium. Inequalities among people will tend to be minimised, decentralisation of activities is important, subordinates expect to be consulted by superiors, and privileges and status symbols are less evident. However it is also * Uncertainty avoidance: Being a group dealing with the food market, the standardization of products, brands, common values world wide are a way to avoid as much as possible uncertainty. On the other hand the Group has to adapt permanently to external elements as we will see in the Pestel analysis so from our point of view, uncertainty avoidance dimension is medium to high. Time and Relationship dimensions. According to Frank Riboud and Myriam Cohen-Welgryn (2011), Danone is looking at the long term:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A company cannot succeed in the long run if it turns its back on the society it is a part of, if it only looks to its short-term economic gain. †. Their strategic move in 2007 when they sold the world N ° 2 biscuit division in exchange of infant and clin ical food brand is certainly a proof of that. On the other hand Danone is a company strongly engaged in the immediate social wellness of its employee and countries where they have factories. All this cultural and strategic aspect of the Group was well summarized by Antoine Riboud in the 90’s: â€Å"The most successful companies are the ones who think simultaneously about the technological change, the contents of the work and the change of the internal social connections in the company. † 3 – HOME COUNTRY’S CULTURE IMPACT * DETERMINING ELEMENTS OF DANONE’S CULTURE First of all DANONE is a multinational group which wants to share and transmit it own values in all countries where it’s implanted. Based on DANONE official website (www. danone. om), DANONE has four important values that have to be passed on through their products and their commitments all over the world: * The openness: this value includes various notions such as the open-mindedness, the curiosity and valuing diversity. * The enthusiasm: It symbolizes the desire and capacity to take risks and explore new, not to mention the conviction to surpass oneself and to take som e pleasure by working. * The humanism: DANONE wants to accentuate the fact that the group pays attention to the safety of people and products. Likewise it is environmentally friendly. * The proximity: The group pay attention to their customers. Indeed it’s essential for DANONE to be tuned into the expectations but also the complaints of these customers. In addition as DANONE is a French company there are other values, which come from its home country’s culture: First the idea to have a well-balanced diet by eating products of good qualities and with good taste is an important cultural subject for a large number of Frenchs. There is a growing awareness that a bad diet has direct consequences on people’s health, but also major economic consequences in terms of public health costs. Second French have a big craze for the environmentally policy. Indeed since a few years the sustainable development and the ecology are very present notions in the life of everyone. So DANONE tries to convey these same notions through their products as well as within their advertisements all over the world. All these notions are at the core of DANONE’s mission. * CULTURE IMPACT ON EACH OTHER The four core values and the French influence described here above are a frame in which the team of each division and each country where DANONE is present, have to adapt taking into consideration to their own cultural specificity as mentioned before. In fact it is perfectly in line with the openness value so the model is not rigid. When DANONE wants to open a new market in a country which culture is quite different from its own, they usually do so by incorporating joint venture with strong national partners like they did in Russia (10% of their sales in 2010) or China. The only core value, which they consider as non-negotiable, is humanism. So DANONE is typically a  «Ã‚  think globally, act locally  Ã‚ » company. 4 – DANONE’S MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEM * COMPANY’S MOTIVATIONAL ELEMENTS We know that a growing gap between the aspiration of the employees and the practices of companies is source of additional costs and loss of performance. That is why, to DANONE, the motivation of the employees is an imperative condition of the company’s growth. The group DANONE often insists on the need of permanent growth to preserve its leader’s place on the market. This growth requires consistently an outstanding performance, which supposes that the company can lean on committed employees. Consequently, DANONE insure on a regular basis that the 3 main conditions for optimum employee’s commitment are fulfilled: The company is in sync with its culture and its values – He is proud to belong to a leading group; – He is certain that his employer assumes the development of his skills. To strengthen the motivation of the employees and their commitment, the group DANONE tries to establish, on a regular basis, a correlation between the practices of managem ent and the growth of the units. To do it, regular questionnaires are submitted to the managers and DANONE, from time to time, widen these survey to its thousands employees. More concretely the group DANONE insists more particularly on the autonomy and the sharing between employees: We rely on the autonomy of management of our subsidiaries and what we call the networking attitude. It means that, when an employee meets a problem, he has to have the reflex not to turn around towards his boss, but rather to exchange with his counterpart, wherever he turns out to be in the world, to find the solution. We forged a series of tools to share the knowledge and exchange good practises for the specialists of every domain (finances, human resources, industry, marketers). † (Franck Mougin’s interview, 2006, available at www. lexpress. fr) ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE’S EFFICIENCY Since 2002 DANONE’s HR, supported by Frank Riboud, has developed several tools to increase eff iciency of the organization, based on the fact that they are too  «Ã‚  small  Ã‚ » compared with their competitors Nestle or PepsiCo to  «Ã‚  reinvent the wheel  Ã‚ ». So they have started knowledge â€Å"marketplaces† and â€Å"sharing networks†Ã¢â‚¬â€to help employees connect with each other and share good practices horizontally rather than relying on hierarchical lines of communication. In 10 years DANONE employees shared almost 1000 good practices with colleagues. The Networking Attitude had made practical information accessible to about 70% of the more than 9,000 DANONE managers around the world. Best of all these programs, which are conducted within the timeframe of more formal meetings, incurred very little cost and were considered highly successful by 90 % of general managers, according to an internal survey. The HR top management worked also on â€Å"co-building events† where employees from different units within DANONE networked with the goal of creating new practices or products rather than sharing existing ones. http://www. duperrin. com/2008/04/21/comment-danone-fait-de-sa-culture-un-levier-de-performance/) These programs didn’t fit in so easily. They required lots of energy and preparation from HR and took time to be accepted in some part of the world where discussing serious business issue with lower rank colleagues or wearing costumes- as it was recommended during marketplace events- was contrary to local culture. Des pite these first reluctances it does work and the most obvious result is that DANONE start launching new products 3 times faster than its competitors. Franck MOUGIN ; Benedikt BENENAT/avril 2005/ Danone se raconte des histoires, une version latine du knowledge management/http://www. ecole. org) ————————————————- CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Frank Riboud, CEO Danone said: â€Å"At Danone we don’t talk about strategy, we react to the context around us. For me, it’s like a Lego box that you buy for your children. They start to play, trying to find a way to build the image on the Lego box. At the end of the day, they give up, throw out the box, and put the pieces away. The next weekend you put all the Lego pieces on the floor and then the strategy starts. They try to imagine something. Not what was on the box, but what they have in their heads. That is strategy at Danone for me: It’s Lego. † (Harvard business school, 2008) Since he took over in 1996, he did three very smart things. First, he directed to company’s focus towards health and nutrition. Second, he turned a Western European company into an international organization with operations worldwide. And third, he changed how the organization was managed. He created the expression â€Å"jeu de jambe†, or footwork, which perfectly describes Danone’s approach to dealing with many issues in a flexible way. With its focus on nutrition and promoting health through four product divisions, Danone appeared to have a clear strategy for the new century. As CEO, Riboud’s larger vision extended beyond ordinary customer segments to include promoting health to people throughout the world. In 2011 he acknowledges his father’s, Antoine, vision when he said in 1972 in front of a number of CEO of the biggest French companies: â€Å"Conduisons nos entreprises autant avec le coeur qu’avec la tete et n’oublions pas que si les ressources d’energie de la Terre ont des limites, celles de l’homme sont infinies s’il se sent motive. Let’s manage our companies as much with our heart as with our brain and let’s not forget that if earth resources are limited, the man’s one are infinite if he feels motivated. We believe that Antoine and Frank Riboud leadership and vision and their unique management way have leaded the Group to its success. â⠂¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- BIBLIOGRAPHY Books: – David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski (2004) Organizational Behaviour. (5th Ed. ) FT Prentice Hall. – D. Buchanan – A. Huczynski (2010) Organizational Behaviour. 7th Ed. ) FT Prentice Hall. – Bauer and Erdogan (2009) Organizational Behaviour. FT Paperback. | Internet sources (International and French sources): – Tatum, M. (2010). What is SWOT Analysis? Available at: http://www. wisegeek. com/what-is-swot-analysis. htm (Accessed: 10 November 2011) – DANONE (2011). Our company. Available at: http://www. danone. com/en/company/introduction. html (Accessed: 10 November 2011) – Groupe DANONE (2011). Historical background. Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Groupe_Danone (Accessed: 10 November 2011) L’Ecole de Paris du management (2005) – Danone se raconte des histoires, une version latine du Knowledge management Franck Mougin interview. Available at: http://ecole. org/seminaires/FS1/SEM190/VA010405. pdf/view (Accessed: 12 November 2011) – LEXPRESS. fr (2006). Donner du sens au travail. Available at: http://www. lexpress. fr/emploi-carriere/laquo-donner-du-sens-au-travail-raquo_479442. html (Accessed: 15 November 2011) – LEFIGARO. fr – Economie (2011). Danone s’essaie au bar a yaourt. Available at: http://www. lefigaro. r/societes/2011/07/14/04015-20110714ARTFIG00454-danone-s-essaie-a-la-restauration-rapide. php (Accessed: 13 November 2011) – Le Journal du Net (2010). DANONE. Available at: http://www. journaldunet. com/danone/ (Accessed: 13 November 2011) – Web Luxe – digital luxury magazine (2010). Myevian. com: la personalisation est aussi chez Evian. Available at: http://www. webandluxe. com/08/2010/myevian-com-la-personnalisation-est-aussi-chez-evian/ (Accessed: 13 November 2011) – Bloc-No tes de Bertrand Duperrin (2008). Comment DANONE fait de sa culture un levier de performance. Available at: http://www. duperrin. com/2008/04/21/comment-danone-fait-de-sa-culture-un-levier-de-performance/ (Accessed: 14 November 2011) ————————————————- APPENDICES Picture 1: The first yogurt Danone with a porcelain package sold in chemists in 1928 (Available at: http://tourisme. bienpublic. com/90-ans-de-Danone-les-8-yaourts-qui. html) Picture 2: The first Danone bar opened in august 2011 in a shopping mall near Paris. (Available at: http://www. lefigaro. fr/societes/2011/07/14/04015-20110714ARTFIG00454-danone-s How to cite Business Management Danone, Papers

Brisbane Floods free essay sample

As natural disasters are inevitable, it is essential that we as humans mitigate the potential outcomes caused by these disasters. This essay will explore the 2011 floods of Brisbane and whether proper planning and preparation could have minimised the outcome. It will further explore the impact the Wivenhoe Dam had on the floods and discuss whether dam maintenance; level supplies and warnings could have helped. December 2010 and January 2011 saw Queensland experience record-breaking rainfall that has not been seen since 1960. Approximately 1 000 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in January alone, which caused the second biggest flood Brisbane has experienced since 1974 (Hornet amp; McAneney, 2011:1150). The 2011 floods caused severe devastation throughout Brisbane with over 26 000 people loosing their homes and over 5 000 businesses around the city either partially or completely flooded. It further caused around ninety kindergartens and sixty schools to be affected and unusable. However the greatest devastation was the loss of twenty-three people’s lives as a direct result of the floods (Calligeros, 2011:4). We will write a custom essay sample on Brisbane Floods or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Queensland Government also suffered a major financial repercussion from the floods. Over 440 million dollars was spent in repairing roads, bridges, power poles and other public facilities that were destroyed (PM With Mark Colvin 2011). This kind of spending by the Government caused speculation that if proper planning and preparation been implemented, the Brisbane floods could have been mitigated. This speculation further lead to the investigating of whether the Wivenhoe Dam helped or hindered the floods. The Wivenhoe Dam opened in 1985 after the great Brisbane floods of 1974 occurred and was seen as a solution to prevent further floods from happening again. All the dams, creeks and rivers surrounding the Wivenhoe Dam were connected that any potential overflow could run straight into the Wivenhoe and therefore have minimal risk of overflowing. However what occurred in 2011 was not what was planned when building Wivenhoe many years earlier. Wivenhoe Dam was built to hold a water supply of 1. 5 million millilitres of water, with a capacity to hold 1. 45 million millilitres at Full Supply Level or FSL. The 30 million-millilitre difference was allocated as a reserve for floodwaters to help mitigate flooding (Honert amp; McAneney, 2011:1152). Although a reserve level had been allocated in the dam, the issue was that there had been constant and heavy rainfall in the previous spring months. This led to the Wivenhoe catchments being relatively full prior to the downpour that occurred in the D ecember 2010 and January 2011. This rain further caused the surrounding rivers and creeks to overflow causing minor river flooding, with water then starting to flow into Wivenhoe to help prevent major flooding. Leading up to the floods Wivenhoe peaked at 1. 50pm on Wednesday 12th of January reaching an astounding 2. 29 million millilitres. (See Appendix 1 – Table 1. 0). A day later Brisbane River peaked at 4. 46 metres at 2. 57am on Thursday 13th of January, causing major flooding to begin. (See Appendix 2 – Graph 2. 0). It was during these two days that the role the SEQWater played was questioned, as they were aware that the dams were high enough to overflow. This speculation was further fuelled when it was made known that SEQWater only released 60% of the dam’s water, moments before the flood engulfed Brisbane (See Appendix 3 – Table 3. 0). SEQWater is the company in charge of the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams and have three simple operating guidelines that they must follow (See Appendix 4 – Guidelines 4. 0). It was apparent that none of the guidelines were followed for a number of reasons. Firstly this was evident as when the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams began filling up as a result of the severe wet weather, SEQWater did not release any water from either dam until Tuesday 11th of January. As they had left the water idling for too long they had no other choice but to release the water at once instead of gradually releasing water like they were advised to do from the Senior Flood Operations Engineer. After the flood occurred SEQWater stated back, â€Å"The flood compartments of the dams were filled to a high level by the first flood that there was not sufficient time to release this water prior to the second flood arriving,† (Water, 2011:1158). So although the SEQWater tried to justify their actions, it can be argued that the SEQWater company and the employees were warned a few days in advance that by releasing a small amount of water at different times during the day would help minimise the amount of flooding that could have potentially occurred. Once it was discovered that the SEQWater had received numerous warning of potential warnings, the issue was studied and analysed. It was estimated that between 11:00 Tuesday 11th of January and 19:09 Wednesday 12th of January that 518,000 millilitres of water was released from Wivenhoe dam making around a 60% contribution to the already rising water around the Brisbane area. (See Appendix 3 – Table 3. 0). By 6:09pm Thursday the 13th of January the water flowing past the City Gauge was estimated to be around 866,000 millilitres and was still continuing to rise. See Appendix 5 – Table 5. 0). The final detailed analysis sent out to SEQWater by the Senior Floods Operation Engineer it was analysed that if releases from the Wivenhoe dam were timed appropriately it could have minimised the flooding that occurred. (See Appendix 6 – Analysis 6. 0). The Bureau of Meteorology proved to be helpful through the disaster, by providing warnings through their rainfall data. Day-to-day rainfall charts and rainfall maps were updated online and made easily accessible to the public and those affected. See Appendix 7 and 8 – Graph and Chart 7. 0). The BOM also released a clear warning to both the government and the public that the amount of rain that was coming would have the likely strength of a La Nina event. As the information was made available to anyone with Internet access, SEQWater and the Government could have easily accessed this information. By doing so they would have been able to see the potential threat the approaching heavy rainfall could have and in turn should have helped them make a wiser decision. By choosing to ignore any sort of warning sign provided by the BOM, SEQWater and their employee’s did nothing about the almost full catchment even though more heavy rain was approaching. Leading to the conclusion that by ignoring the warnings they demonstrated poor planning and ignorance to the information provided. Throughout this essay is has been concluded that through proper planning and preparation the Brisbane Floods of 2011 could have been mitigated. Evidence and research shown throughout this essay evidently points unfavourably to the SEQWater company and its team. It concluded that although many warnings were issued, the SEQWater and government chose to ignore them and therefore resulting in all the water being released at once. Even though this natural disaster could not have been prevented through proper planning and preparation it definitely could have been mitigated which would in turn also result in minimal devastation and destruction. This flood has also been dubbed a â€Å"dam release flood† by hydrologists that were appointed with the Insurance Council of Australia.

Leadership as One of the Important Factors in any Organization

Abstract Leadership is one of the important factors in any organization. Whenever there is a group of individuals in a place, there is always a need to have a leadership structure that would guide the team towards the desired destination. Scholars have given leadership a lot of attention due to its relevance in the current society. As a result of this, there has been a lot of theories put forth to help explain and enhance understanding of this topic.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership as One of the Important Factors in any Organization specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Max Weber is one of the scholars who have come up with theories of leadership in the contemporary world. Transformational leadership and charismatic leaders are some of the most popular styles of leadership that have become very relevant today. Charisma has been defined as a gift that is divinely inspired. Charismatic leaders are therefore, those with the capacity to inspire followers through their actions and speech to act in a way that they believed was beyond their capacity. Transformational leadership was put forth by James McGregor. This leadership style appeals to the self-interest of the employees in order to influence their behavior in a specific way. The former chief executive of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs was a leader who exhibited both the characteristics of charismatic leadership and transformational leadership. This explained the success of this firm in the electronic industry. Richard Branson is another such leader in the current business world. Key Theories of the Nature and Exercise of Leadership in Organizations Leadership has attracted massive attention of various scholars around the world. According to Huy (2002, p. 77), a number of theories of leadership have been put forth by various scholars. Leadership is one of the most important factors that always dictate success or failure of an organization in th e world today. Leadership has been in existence for as long as the history of humankind can be traced. As Hong and Faedda (1996, p. 505) put it, a leadership goes beyond providing direction to followers. It entails going into details to discover the potential of the followers. It involves engaging the followers in a way that would make them discover themselves. It involves helping followers develop the urge to achieve. It is the art of making people realize that they have a potential to achieve beyond their current capacity. Leadership requires a leader to challenge the followers positively in a way that would make them feel that they need to rediscover themselves.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to Kouzes and Posner (2002, p. 89), the current corporate world has become very challenging. New firms are coming into existence with new strategies that never existed bef ore. Technology is changing the face of the earth. This poses serious challenge to firms operating in the current market. Firms are currently facing challenges from various corners. The customer in the contemporary market has access to vast information, thanks to the advanced means of communication through the mass and social media. These consumers know that they have an array of options to choose from when they want to make any purchase. They are therefore, very demanding. They are willing to pay less for a product whose quality has been improved. Huczynsky and Buchanan (2007, p. 67) say that customers are currently asking for more, but are willing to pay less. This reduces profitability of firms. On the other hand, suppliers are now demanding for more for the supplies they make to such organization. Such suppliers cite increased standards of living, inflation among other factors as a reason for increasing the prices of their supplies (Adair 1973, p. 78). The cost of maintaining a business is very high. Various input factors have increased in price. The environmental conditions for conducting business have also been subjected to various other bottlenecks making the entire process very complicated. All these challenges are always presented to the leaders of various organizations to deal with. A firm has to come up with means through which it can wade off these challenges and deliver quality products in the market in the best way possible (Drake Salter2007, p. 1980). This way, a firm would be able to come out as a successful business unit that can withstand market pressures. Firms share external environmental factors. Emerging technologies, good government policies, a promising market are factors that a firm cannot consider as a competitive advantage. They are factors that are shared by all the firms in that particular industry (Burns1978, p. 57). A firm must therefore develop its policies that will give it a competitive edge in the market. A firm should devel op mechanisms through which it can challenge the existing market threats in the best way possible. It should be able to stand out among the rest, as a firm that understands the market and is able to provide it with what it needs.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership as One of the Important Factors in any Organization specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A firm must appear positively special. All this depends on the leadership of the firm and as Northouse (2010, p. 68) says, it is through leadership that a firm can appear unique in a market where various factors are shared by the competitors. This requires proper management of the workforce. According to Rollinson (2005, p. 117), this current delicate market conditions requires a strategy that will help it have the best workforce that can drive the changes required within the firm. This is what most firms have realized and are determined to achieve. They need t o go beyond simple management of the workforce. In the management, we need leaders (Goleman, Boyatzis McKee 2002, p. 75). This is because the current world has gotten increasingly democratic. Many organizations today have their employees being members of trade unions. They want to enjoy maximum benefits that their employer can afford to give them, and hate restrictions. They resent strict rules and prefer working without strict supervision. This new crop of employees may not be able to be managed using the conventional management approaches. They have to be managed from a different approach (Tannenbaum Schmidt1973, p. 87). They have to be managed in a way that would make them comfortable while at the workplace. This is what many firms are looking for in their management. This is what leadership offers to the management. This research is focused on understanding the essence of leadership in the current competitive world. Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid Black and Moutonâ₠¬â„¢s managerial grid is one of the most important leadership theories in the contemporary world. The grid is as shown below.As evidenced from the above grid, the theory gives emphasis on concern for people and concern for production. As a leader, there is always a concern to ensure that the organization functions effectively. This can be measured by increased productivity of the firm. Thistheory says that productivity should not be overemphasized at the expense of employees.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Employees are very valuable to any organization, and their interest should be taken care of. The need for productivity should be balanced with the need to protect the employees. At (1, 1) is impoverished management where employees concern is not taken care of, and production is poor. At (9, 1), emphasis is laid on task, while taking middle ground (5, 5) would help the firm achieve its objectives moderately with moderately satisfied employees. At (1, 9), emphasis is given on concern for employees. The best grid is at (9, 9) always referred to as team management. Employees concern is emphasized while ensuring that production is put at maximum levels possible. House’s Path Goal Theory According to this theory, four leadership styles are important in ensuring success within an organization. The four include directive nature of the leader, supportive leadership, participative leadership and result-oriented leadership. These behavioral leadership characteristics will influence em ployee behavior, and manage environmental factors in order to achieve leadership effectiveness. Great Man Theory of Leadership There has been an argument that some leaders are just born great. Great man theory of leadership holds that some people are born with leadership characteristics that are exhibited even before ascending to power. Yukl and Lepsinger (2004, p. 78) say that such individuals would have an aura of influence whenever they are. Such leaders would have the ability to influence people who are around them. Such leaders as Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, and Queen Elizabeth I are some of the leaders who have been viewed to have exhibited natural leadership characteristics. In the contemporary world, leaders such as Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton have also been thought to have such leadership characteristics that make them be seen as people naturally born leaders. Transformational leadership in Organizations Transformational leadership is defined by Yukl (2010, p. 117) as a type of leadership that uses motivation to enhance the performance of employees. Pielstick (1998, p. 75) defines leadership as a process where an individual (a leader) offers guidance to a group of individuals (followers) in an organizational structure. Leadership is one of the most important factors in any organization. Leadership and management share a number of attributes, but they differ in various fronts. Transformational leadership, as the name suggest, provides a completely new path to approaching various issues in an organization. It provides an insight the employees. One of the main aims of a transformational leader is to create a completely new approach in managing various issues within the organization. This is what the current world demands of a firm. Emerging technologies are changing various approaches of management. The emerging trends need new approaches that can be used to provide a way in which they can be managed differently. Transformatio nal leadership attempts to make employees discover themselves. According to Hacker and Tammy (2004, p. 46), a transformational leader will always make followers realize that they have untapped capacity which they can exploit to get better results in every activity they are doing. Unlike management, leadership takes the front line in bringing change that is needed. It involves making the followers realize that they are part of the change. It makes employees own the whole process. They feel that some changes that are proposed are part of them and are meant to make their work easier. This way, they develop the responsibility to ensure that these changes are accomplished successfully and within the specified time. Such leadership will evoke desires on the followers to see to it that specific desires are achieved within the specified time. It is an art of tying the objectives of a firm to that of employees. Nature and Relevance of Transformational leadership in Organizations Transformati onal leadership has some characteristics that make it unique from other forms of leadership. Transformational leadership cherishes authenticity. It encourages followers to act as natural as possible. People who act naturally always tend to give their best. Passion is another major characteristic of transformational leadership. A transformational leader must be passionate about every action they take. This way, it becomes possible for the followers to take this characteristic from the leaders. Followers will develop passion when they realize that their leader has passion in his or her actions. Transformational leadership should also embrace creativity. Creativity is very crucial in the contemporary world. A leader must be able to solve problems in a creative manner. They have to encourage the culture of creativity in their employees. This way, such an organization will be able to be creative in the market. Transformational leaders always have self-awareness. They understand what they stand for and are able to express this feeling to the followers. This way, it would be easy to avoid cases where a leader issues instruction, which he or she can change abruptly without a clear explanation for the same. Transformational leaders always have interpersonal intelligence. This is important to help bring people of different social backgrounds together. Organization brings together individuals from different backgrounds. It would require interpersonal intelligence to make these people reason in the same line and work as a unit towards achieving specific objectives. In managing organizations today, Conger (2006, p. 39) says that integrity is of utmost importance. A transformational leader always has integrity. It is important to note that transformational leadership aims at bringing a completely new approach of doing various activities in a better way. Integrity will be one of the main ingredients in that leadership. It will be possible to tell others to maintain integrity only if the leaders show the same in their actions. A transformational leader must also develop clarity of purpose. The leader must be sure of what he or she wants from the followers and from the leaders. According to Biswas (2011, p. 27), having a clear sense of purpose on what one does makes it possible to measure the level of success of an individual. This way, it becomes easy for such a leader to determine the rate at which objectives of the firm is being achieved. Finally, such a leader always has a global awareness of various factors in the environment. When the leader is managing a large multinational organization, understanding factors in the immediate environment may not make one formulate policies that can benefit all the branches of the firm. Such a leader must have global awareness of various environmental factors in order to transform employees and the firm in general towards desired direction. Besides the above characteristics, transformational leadership has four mai n elements that help in making it unique in the market. The four are discussed below. Intellectual Stimulation According to Bustin (2004, p. 28), a leader should be able to stimulate creativity in employee. This trait makes transformational leaders be able to challenge the current capacity of the followers with a view of making them achieve the best from them. Care should be taken to avoid scenarios where the standards set on employees are beyond their capacity. As a result, employees tend to strain in order to achieve these objectives. In this case, the challenge will come in the form of soliciting new ideas from the followers (Gill 2011, p. 67). This way, the leader will be telling followers that they are also important in developing policies that can help transform the organization. It involves engaging employees in coming up with creative solution to the challenges that they face in their daily routines. Individualized Consideration A leader handles various individuals from diff erent backgrounds. Although these individuals may share a number of characteristics, Halel (2000, p. 56) says that some differences make an individual unique. Individual A will have different needs from individual B, however much they may share some characteristic. Individualized consideration is the level at which a leader attends to individual follower’s needs. A transformational leader must be able to give personalized attention to the employees. They should try to make followers feel that they have a personal relationship with the leader. Such a leader is a coach and a mentor of the followers. He or she should therefore be able to talk to these people on an individual capacity. This trait is also important in charismatic leadership (Kotter 1990, p. 37). Inspirational Motivation As Pardey (2007, p. 46) says, in the current society, management requires some form of inspiration on the employees. Vision of an organization is always very important in achieving organizational g oals. Vision helps members of an organization see where the organization is headed. It helps in marking followers be sure of what the organization expects of them. A leader must be able to pass the organization’s vision in an inspiring and appealing manner. The vision must make sense to the followers and it should develop an urge to achieve specific results within a stipulated period. Followers should feel inspired (Conger 2006, p. 78). They should develop an urge to surge ahead and achieve some objectives within the confines of their ability. They should be motivated to go a step further in achieving specific goals within the organization. Followers should be made to be optimistic in their activities, and made to appreciate that they can achieve when they decides to delimit themselves (Goleman, Boyatzis McKee 2002, 98). Idealized Influence According to Kotter(1990, p. 78), a leader is always a role model. A leader always guides others towards achieving a common goal of the organization. A leader must therefore, be ethical in actions, and avoid cases that would lower his status among the followers. He or she should try to lead an ideal life, where preventable mistakes are avoided at all costs, especially in the face of the followers. Such a leader should instill pride in the followers. He or she should make followers be proud of him or her in their actions. Such a leader should gain respect of the followers. Above all, followers should develop strong trust of the leader. They should be convinced that the path taken by the firm is the right path that would lead everyone towards a common success. McGregor’s Theory X and Y The current society needs self-motivated employees. This would help in ensuring that they are able to work with minimal supervision. This can best be elaborated usingMcGregor’s theory X and Y. According to this theory, employees can either be viewed as lazy people who need heavy supervision to work appropriately, which is theory X. Theory Y holds that employees are self motivated and can deliver good work with very minimal supervision. Human resource management should always think positively of the employees, therefore should take theory Y in managing then. A leader should embrace theory Y. In the current society, leaders cannot afford to have a situation wherethey follow every action done by their followers. The best way to manage employees is to motivate them and make them feel responsible for every action they undertake. Evaluation of the Behavior of Leaders in Selected Organization Various organizations have had different leaders that have seen them excel in the market, or perform dismally. One of the firms that have attracted attention of many within the past one decade is Apple Inc. Apple had a troubled management in the mid 1980s and 1990s. Its market performance was considered average as it struggled to manage market competition in the electronics industry. The firm realized that it needed a leader who would steer the firm from registering looses, to a profit making firm. When Jobs was brought back to the firm in late 1996, he realized that the firm needed a radical shift from what it was practicing then (Rollinson 2005, p. 121). The leadership style of Steve Jobs brings both charisma and traits of transformational leadership. He realized that the firm was engaged in contracts that were hindering its performance in the market. He terminated the contracts, and signed new deals that would help generate the much needed change within the firm. This move surprised many employees within the firm, but after less than three months, the firm had started making profits. He won the trust of the employees, and then used this trust to transform their attitude while at work. According to Yukl (2010, p. 27), attitude is always very important in defining actions of employees. The difference between industrious and creative employee and a lazy one who lacks focus is the attitude. This i s what Jobs was aware of when he joined this firm. Attitude always dictates the way an individual would approach certain issues within the firm. When dealing with employees, one of the most important factors that one has to consider is developing a positive attitude that would help every member of the organization have the urge to move forward. As state above, attitude of employees is always determined by the actions of the management team. Instilling a positive attitude on employees towards what they do remains one of the key functions of leaders in the current society (Northouse 2010, p. 47). This is what Steve Jobs used to ensure that the firm achieves its objectives in the market. It is the same strategy he used to make Apple the most valuable brand in the world in 2010, and one of the most profitable companies. Steve Jobs has been keen on nurturing talents within the firm. In order to maintain creativity and innovativeness of this firm, Jobs has been keen on maintaining skilled employees within the firm. This is because of the clear understanding this manager has over the level of competition in the market. Jobs knew that the level of competition in this industry was very stiff, but it had to find a way of maintaining its lead in this industry. In had to increase its innovativeness, and this would only be achieved from its employees. He knew that he had to develop a pool of skills that will be involved in undertaking various innovative duties within the firm. These employees had to be made to realize that they had a special talent that could help transform this firm positively. To achieve this, Jobs applied charisma in motivating these employees. He would always insist that every employee had its worth, and the worth would only be made useful when it was exposed by doing something that was beyond the expectation of others. According to Rollinson(2005, p. 117), in an organization, there is always a pool of talents brought together to achieve a common goal. In this pool, skills vary from one individual to another depending on experience, level of educations, and individual capability. In many cases, firms fail to realize the existence of such variety of skills if it lacks leadership that can identify it in the employees. It is therefore, common to see a manager treating employees in a given departments as individuals with similar experience. This makes it impossible for the employees themselves to realize that they have some special characteristics that can make them achieve specific objectives within the firm. By appreciating the existence of this variation, it becomes easy to enhance creativity and innovation, because each employee would realize the extraordinary skill that he or she possesses and can use to create a differential change in the firm. The skills should be improved to match with the needs of the organization (Drake Salter 2007, p. 1985). Burns(1978, p. 49) says that leadership should understand followers and identify their skills that can make them create a difference within the organization. Skill variety refers to diversification of employees in terms of knowledge and understanding of responsibilities. In an organization, a number of skills are needed to assist in triangulation. This means that solutions to problems are easily crafted because employees are drawn from various professions. Skills play a critical role in the development of the organization because employees are the key asset of any firm. Having a variety of skills in an organization is important because employees are able to work in teams, with diversified dexterities.The leadership style of Jobs enabled him realize this. Richard Branson is another manager who has demonstrated capacity of a leader in his Virgin Foundation. A brilliant entrepreneur, Branson has managed to grow the Virgin Empire to capture various industries around the world. Despite his entrepreneurial, he has demonstrated leadership capacity that is beyond reproa ch. According to Bustin (2004, p. 67), Branson believes that the strength of the firm is bestowed in the employees. He has therefore maintained a cordial relationship with the employees, always making them feel that they are appreciated within the organization. One of the most important cultures he has developed within the organization is trust in peers. Employees spend much of their time with fellow employees. They interact with their peers when doing different activities geared towards achieving specific goals for the firm. Employees should therefore develop positive attitude towards their peers in order to ensure that the internal working environment is peaceful. They should trust on one another, and believe that their problems can be solved when they work as a team. They should share innovative ideas amongst themselves and develop a working environment where each team member is a protector of others.Trust in peers refers to the extent at which workers in similar job positions wo uld be willing to cooperate amongst themselves to accomplish certain tasks. In the organization, it is understood that peers interact with their work mates as far as accomplishment of tasks is concerned. An employee would be tempted to work hard after realizing that his colleague is committed to realizing certain goals (Kouzes Posner 2002, p. 56). For instance, peers choose certain models of performance once they notice that they have similar objectives. Therefore, trust in peers refers to choosing appropriate models meant for realizing high results. This has helped Branson build a very strong Virgin Atlantic Empire. Branson has also been keen on encouraging participation at work amongst all the employees. The workplace requires participation of all members of the organization. Employees should develop an attitude of collective participation at work. Bransonhas ensured that all cases of individualism are eliminated, and its place is a team spirit (Northouse 2010, p. 67). All the me mbers of the organization havebeen made to realize that they have a responsibility to participate in every activity that the organization undertakes. To achieve this, Bransonhas ensured that there is a clear separation of duties among various groups within the organization. Divisional of labor is important because it creates a sense of responsibility (Pielstick 1998, p. 120). Employees will feel that they have a role specifically meant for them. They will realize that failure of them to achieve the goals set for them would lead to a loss to the entire firm. Employees would feel guilty of carrying the blame for a possible failure of the entire firm. They will make an effort to accomplish their tasks to avoid blames coming of their side. Participation at work refers to the input that employees place while in their relevant stations in the organization. The level of participation differs from one employee to the other. Some employees are known to be active participators while others ar e dormant. This affects the productivity of the organization in a number of ways. Branson has come out strongly to motivate dormant employees and turn them into industrious employees within the firm. Participation is also defined as the level at which the organization involves junior employees in making decisions. This has a direct outcome to the performance of the organization in the market. An organization that involves employees in making decisions would have high employee participation at work while an organization that does not consider the views of employees would definitely have minimal participation of employees at work. Richard Branson has been keen on guiding the behavior of individuals, groups and teams within this organization. According to a report by Conger (2006, p. 59), Branson has been keen on determining the behavior of every single employee and teams within the organization. This scholar says that there is always need to shape the behavior of employees in order to ensure that they act within the expectations of the leader. To achieve this, Branson has created an organizational culture that is unique to this firm. Creating an organizational culture within the firm helps ensure that the behavior of individuals or teams formed within the organization can be predicted by the leader (Burns 1978, p. 113). A leader should be not be caught unawares by an action of an individual follower or a group of them because the leader is always expected to be on top of every situation within the organization. Being able to predict the behavior of the employees or teams gives the manager an upper hand in control it as would be desirable. At Virgin Group, Branson has been very keen on ensuring that employees embrace change. According to Rollinson (2005, p. 89), Branson is one of the contemporary managers who cherish change within their organization. He has been keen on influencing employees’ readiness for change by making change part of the organizational culture of this organization. According to Northouse (2010, p. 79), an organization always faces various instances that require it to change its strategies in one way or the other in order to remain competitive. An organizational willingness to change always depends heavily on the leadership strategies of the management of the firm. Age plays an important role in determining the willingness to change. According to Pardey (2007, p. 118), the elderly do not resent change. They find it difficult to adapt to radical changes that have characterized the current business environment. They like gradual changes that they can comprehend and benefit from before a new one can be introduced. However, the current changes taking place in the business environment are very radical. They happen so suddenly, and it requires people, who are flexible enough to adapt to them. This is a fact that Branson has realized in many of the industries in which, it operates. Readiness to change always depends on t he perspective with which, leadership and the followers view change. As Rollinson (2005, p. 117) says, changes cannot be ignored.However, change can be destructive if not well taken care of by the concerned authorities. The management has the responsibility to create an environment that cherishes change. This way, organizational willingness for change will be enhanced. For change to take place, an organization must have put in place mechanisms that would help in facilitating change. Organizational readiness for change refers to the level at which the organization is prepared to embrace change (Yukl 2010, p. 113). Some organizations are never ready to accept change due to the presence of change resistors. Therefore, change cannot be proposed without putting in place measures that would facilitate the new ways of doing things. This is what Branson has put in place in its leadership style in this country. Analysis of How Two Leaders Perceive Their Roles In the contemporary world, there are various leaders who have been viewed as great leader in the contemporary world. Adolf Hitler is one such leader. Born in humble family, Adolf Hitler believed that his country had potential to perform better than it was doing. According to Yukl (2010, p. 139), Hitler was one of the most inspiring leaders that ever lived. As a child, Hitler wanted to be a prominent painter. However, he realized that this ambition was misplaced. During the First World War, he actively participated in the war and in politics. He remains one of the greatest propagandists ever to live. After the First World War, he came up with Nazi party. He maintained that Germans did not deserve the fine imposed on it after the First World War. This leader came up with the propaganda that the Germans were the best race on earth. He viewed himself as a redeemer of the Germans, a leader who came to remind the Germans of their rightful position in the word. His propaganda worked magic, as people came to believe in hi m. Through him, Germans saw a redeemer who would rescue the country from all the suffering. Once in position, he asserted himself and became an absolute leader who did not tolerate opposition. Though elected to the office democratically, he became the greatest dictator that this country ever had. His influence on his country, and other world leaders brought the world into the Second World War. German soldiers and their allies performed well in their war due to his motivation. He was finally defeated not because of leadership skills, but because of the enemy which was stronger, larger, and included nations such as US that had refrained from the war, and therefore were stronger when they latter joined it. Another leader who has been considered as a great personality in the field of leadership is Barrack Obama. Born of an African (Kenyan) father and an American mother, president Barrack Obama started exhibiting leadership qualities while in school. While at Harvard Law School, he becam e the president of Harvard Law Review. He entered politics in 1997 as a representative of 13th District in Illinois. Obama finally won the senatorial seat in November 2004 to represent Illinois. During his campaigns, Obama amazed many people, both the civilians and leaders alike, with his oratory capacity. He would give speeches that would not only convince listeners, but inspire them to achieve success as individuals and as citizens of this country. He was a leader with the capacity to make the electorates believe that there was more to be done in this society. In 2007, he announced his intention to run for the presidency of this country. Many thought that the ambition was misplaced because no Black American had every ascended to that position. For many years, the United States had been known for its segregationpolicies, and not many people thought that this country was ready for a black president. Obama would prove them wrong when he trounced a powerful Hillary Clinton in the prim aries. Other critics still held that his victory was because of the fact that he was opposed by a woman and that the country was not ready for a woman presidency. They held that in the elections, he would be trounced by his opponent, senator McCain. He would prove them wrong again when he defeated McCain to become the first Black President of the United States. He beat Mitt Romney to win his reelection to the office. He has proven to be a transformational leader. Summary Leadership is very important in the current society. In the discussion above, it has been demonstrated that organizations can only succeed if they have leaders with the capacity to influence followers to act in a specific desirable way. As an aspiring leader, I clearly understand the fact that followers performance will always depend on the influence that they get from their leader. Leaders who use fear to make followers behave in a specific manner may not succeed in the contemporary world. In the current society, i nspirational leaders have the capacity to influence the performance and the general behavior of employees to suite a given condition. Employee’s performance will be influenced by the ability of the leader to convince them that they have a capacity to perform beyond their current levels. I have come to appreciate that management in the contemporary society needs some elements of leadership. Employees should develop trust in their leader, and believe that through the leader, they are capable of achieving their best performance. This would help a firm achieve its vision within the desirable time. As demonstrated above, motivated employees tend to work as a unit. They would want to see success achieved through teamwork because that is what transformational leadership demonstrates. Also important is the ability of the leaders to consider balancing between organizational goals and employees concern. Goals of the firm should not be prioritized at the expense of the well being of the employees. This will help create an environment of mutual respect. List of References Adair, J 1973, Action-Centred Leadership, McGraw-Hill, London. Biswas, S 2011, Commitment, involvement, and satisfaction as predictors of employee performance, South Asian Journal of Management, vol. 18 no. 2, pp. 92-107. Burns, J 1978, Leadership, Harper Row, New York. Bustin, G 2004, Take Charge: How Leaders Profit From Change, Tapestry Press, Irving. Conger, J 2006, The Practice of Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders, Wiley, New York. Drake, A Salter, S 2007, Empowerment, motivation, and performance: examining the impact of feedback and incentives on non management employees, Behavioral Research in Accounting, vol. 2 no. 3, pp. 1971-1989. Gill, R 2011, Theory and Practice of Leadership, Sage, London. Goleman, D, Boyatzis, R, McKee, A 2002,The New Leaders, Little Brown, London. Hacker, S Tammy, R 2004, Transformational Leadership: Creating Organization of Meaning. Milwaukee, Quality Press, Wisconsin. Halel, W 2000, Facing freedom, Executive Excellence, vol. 17 no. 3, pp. 13-42. Hong, S Faedda, S 1996, Refinement of the Hong psychological reactance scale, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 71 no. 1, pp. 500-507. Huczynsky, A, Buchanan, D 2007, Organisational Behaviour: An Introductory Text, Prentice Hall, New York. Huy, Q 2002, Emotional filtering in strategic change,Academy of Management Proceedings, vol. 6 no. 1, pp. 43-78. Kotter, J 1990, A Force For Change, Free Press, New York. Kouzes, J Posner, B 2002, The Leadership Challenge, Jossey-Bass, San Fransico. Northouse, P 2010, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Sage, New York. Pardey, D 2007, Introducing leadership, Butterworth-Heinemann, New Jersey. Pielstick, D 1998, The Transforming Leader, a Meta-Ethnographic Analysis, The Community College Review, vol. 4 no. 3, pp. 65-138. Rollinson, D 2005, Organisational Behaviour and Analysis: An Integrated Approach, Pitman, London. Tannenbaum, R Schmidt, W 1973, How to Choose a Leadership Pattern, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Yukl, G Lepsinger, R 2004, Flexible Leadership, Prentice Hill, New Jersey. Yukl, G 2010, Leadership in Organisations, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. This essay on Leadership as One of the Important Factors in any Organization was written and submitted by user Andrea Flores to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

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