Leadership Strategies For A Leader - 1116 Words

Helping organizations to create and achieve goals is an essential part of what it means to be a leader. Goals provide direction for followers and set priorities (Leadership Strategies [L.S.], 2015, figure 1). Gen. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State, claimed that Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. (Tayor, 2015, para. 4). In essence, great leaders are able to sift through the distractions that pull organizations and individuals in a multitude of different directions, and are able to unify their efforts under one banner. Leaders determine the vision, and then utilize goals to make that vision a reality. Goals provide a†¦show more content†¦These plans can be very small in scope and applied only to specific areas or compartments within an organization. Short term tactical plans can be utilized as a means of fulfilling the strategic plans, or long term goals, of an organization, while strategic plans are the medium through which leaders fulfill the vision of an organization in its entirety. This paper will examine how both strategic and tactical planning are utilized by companies in the achievement of goals, and will explain at which points of the process one or the other should be used. One definition of strategic planning that has been put forth is â€Å"Strategic planning is gaining insights about where you are now, gathering the information that identifies where you should be in the future, generating the decisions that will give you a unique position, and then defining the actions that will bridge the gap† (Lake, 2012, p. ix). By utilizing this definition as a rubric, a step by step process by which to accomplish strategic planning becomes apparent. The first step is to develop and in depth understanding of the organizations current state of affairs. This includes understanding general questions such as what the business of the organization is, why it is unique, and what is important to its overall success (Lake, 2012, p. 2). It also includes examining past achievements and short comings as well as considering what value

Time Warner Cable Free Essays

Large-scale mergers between media companies are becoming more and more commonplace in recent years causing alarm to consumers and industry analysts. The result of these mergers has been a consolidation of market competitors causing media ownership and influence to be controlled by a smaller and less diverse group of firms, the essence of anti-competitiveness. Most recently, Compact announced its intent to acquire Time Warner Cable (ETC) which, if approved, will unite the two biggest companies in the cable television market (Steelers, 2014). We will write a custom essay sample on Time Warner Cable or any similar topic only for you Order Now The merger would give unprecedented power to the newly merged company which would over 30 percent of the pay television subscribers (Baker, 2014). The fact is that separately, Compact and ETC already have market power in numerous local geographic markets. Compact is the nation’s largest provider of pay television with 22 million subscribers (41 percent of all homes and businesses in the geographic areas in which Compact operates). ETC is the second largest cable television company with 1 1. 2 million subscribers. After the merger, approximately one third of all cable television bickerers will be Compact customers sparking concern about the amount of leverage and influence one company should control (Rhombohedra Camilla, 2014). There are varying opinions about the kind of economic industry cable television market operates in. Many argue that cable television is a â€Å"natural monopoly’ (source). Economics professor, Thomas Delivered, explains, natural monopolies occur when production technology, such as relatively high fixed costs, causes long-run average total costs to decline as output expands. In such industries, the theory goes, a single reducer will eventually be able to produce at lower cost than any two other producers, thereby creating a ‘natural’ monopoly. Higher prices will result if more than one producer supplies the market. (Delivered, 1996, p. 43) Natural monopolies are created when the initial investment in the framework and infrastructure required to enter the market are so high that it discourages other firms from coming into the market. Installing cable lines is an example of the high cost of starting a business in the television industry and a â€Å"first come, first serve† mentality for natural monopolies. Implementing the cable lines is considered a sunk cost and is one reason why there are such overwhelming difficulties to entry in the cable industry. With natural monopolies, economies of scale are also very significant so that minimum efficient scale is not reached until the firm has become very large in relation to the total size of the market allowing it to recoup its investment. The graph below shows the demand curve of a natural market economy (Economics Online, 2014). When price is allowed to be set by the company (P), it results in higher levels of profit and manipulation of the market. The company’s main concern is in the bottom line and maximizing its profits. The chart also shows a potential price (Pl) that would result if there was some regulation; for example, government imposes a price cap and the company operates at a loss. The cable television industry has also been described as a â€Å"patchwork of micro-monopolies† (Honda, 2011, p. 1). Since there are a small number of large companies that compete on the national scale, some argue that the industry cannot be classified as a monopoly or natural monopoly. However, the market structure, permitted and/or encouraged by the government, is set up so that Hess companies do not compete on the local level which results in small scale monopolies and little to no choice for the consumers. A 2011 survey by the Federal Communications Commission concluded that 61. 5 percent of customers had only one choice of cable provider in their neighborhood (Marten, 2012). The theory is that through local government legislation and result in nearly non-existent competition on the local level between cable companies has led to a non-competitive oligopoly (Shafer, 2014). Although the cable industry natural monopoly may have made sense initially, the companies that have been able to benefit from this market structure have exploited the consumer and been able to charge high prices for mediocre products. Many of the government regulations that were initially implemented at the onset on the industry were controversial; firms paid franchise fees enabling them to obtain decisions through offers of building public access studios and regulating the rates of the politicians’ Jurisdiction (Shafer, 2014). Notwithstanding the exact classification, there is a general consensus that too few companies in the cable television industry hold too much power. It is evident when comparing the service that the American public receives in terms of cable television and broadband from these companies to other developed nations that we consumers receive far less. Americans pay more for their personal service that in any other industrialized country except Chile, Mexico and Turkey (Crawford, 2014). In the United Kingdom, the government forces the cable companies which dominate the market to lease their networks to competitors at cost. This weakening of one of the major barriers to entry in the system has created competition and brought prices down considerably to the UK population (Caddis, 2014). There are many negative consequences for consumers when industries operate in monopolistic or near monopolistic competition. This is especially true when the industry is related to the media and has a great deal of influence on what the public is seeing and hearing. First, the media market will be too reliant on and loyal to large corporate sponsors. The industry will become singularly focused on what it can get from the consumer rather than concern with public interest. Second, a small number of colossal companies will represent the interests of their stockholders, usually America’s upper-class. Third, there is a lack of competition in the marketplace which leads to higher prices to the consumer and a lack of innovation in the products offered. These problems are exemplified by both ETC and Compact. In 2012, ETC spent Just 9 percent of its $41 billion revenue on maintaining and upgrading their equipment and networks (Hilt, 2013). Compact spent even less, 3. 7 percent of its $118. 3 billion revenue. There is little reason to believe that two companies spending such a small percentage of their revenue on making improvements to their products and services would change their strategy cost-merger. Consumers are already troubled with the possibility that the merger will be approved. Cable television companies already have critically low satisfaction scores among their clients. ETC and Compact are the two worst offenders in the industry. In 2013, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index gave the two companies the dubious distinction of having the lowest rated television and internet services in the United States (Ezra, 2014). According to Yogurt’s Barehanded, Americans do not want ETC and Compact to merge (Including, 2014). The television cable industry is notoriously retrieved by consumers in general and the announcement of the merger has caused the perception of the two companies to drop even further. The following chart shows how consumers are reacting to the $45 billion deal. In many cases, customers have no recourse other than cutting the cable cord completely if they do not choose Compact or ETC. There are many non-cable media options for the public to patron however, one major section of the population has no choice but to subscribe to cable: sports fans. This is of particular concern to the Dodgers and Lasers fans in Los Angles. Currently, ETC spent billions to obtain eradicating right to both massively lucrative sports franchises (Baker, 2014). This allows ETC to extract steep subscriber fees to its non-cable competition. When the negotiations between the companies stall or are incomplete, ETC blacks out the games to those who do not subscribe to ETC. This is especially problematic for sports fans who do not have the choice to become customers of ETC since the company does not even offer services in their region. Additionally, those customers who cut the cable cord are likely only able to access internet through the same company that was already overcharging for their television service. They will be able to watch Nettling or Hull instead of cable television but will still have to pay Compact in order to do so. It creates a catch-22 in the industry and very little choice for consumers in terms of who they select as their service provider. The merger between Compact and ETC will have a much greater impact than simply in the cable television industry alone. There will be a ripple effect in internet and phone service as well as the other media that these companies own such as NBC Universal and Sportsmen. The merged company’s control will be more widespread because of their various endures making it all the more potentially harmful to the consumer. How to cite Time Warner Cable, Essays

Scientific Status of Learning Styles Theories †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Scientific Status of Learning Styles Theories. Answer: Introduction: Social class can be defined as the categorization of the people as per their choices and their standards. As per the article, social class is developed by the material resources that are owned by the individuals. In this article, the author has examined the impact of the class in the behaviour of the people. Less of resources with the people and lower rank in the society results in constraints for the social class of the people while abundance in resources with the people elevated their rank in the society and thus provide freedom to the upper class individuals in the society. In this article, 9 hypotheses have been developed regarding social class. It has been analysed that lower class people who are poor have to be face the external social influences such as less safe neighbourhood, job instability, fluctuation in the resources and social opportunities. There are two conditions that have been explained in the article related to the social classes. The first condition is solipsism. It is the situation that has been faced by the upper class people. It can be defined as the individualistic orientation to the environment of the people motivated by internal states, goals and emotions. The second condition is contextualising that is faced by the lower class people. This situation is defined as the external orientation to the environment that is motivated by outside threats and other individuals. This is the article that explains the effects of references groups and its meaning by the study of crowd funding sector. It has been analysed that despite of being is much popular, this sector of crowd funding is experiencing declined stage. This is the because of herd behaviour of the people and the impact of the reference groups over the decisions of the people. The literature in the article suggests that the decisions of funding are made following the decision of the crowd. Nay of the negative explanation of the situation and the externalities by one of the clients results in negative behaviour of other people as well. Funders are the people who are buyers as well as the investors at the same time thus the decision of funding are very crucial in nature. Further investigation in the article shows that different reference groups in the market delivers different types of social information to the people and the complexities of the product results in uncertainties given by the referen ce groups. The article suggests that making use of the different types of reference groups or making the buying decision. The dependency of the decision of reference groups increase when the customers have less knowledge of the products in this industry. A past study that has been conducted in this context suggests that there are only one important reference groups and that is peers. While there are some other reference groups also such as crowd, friends, experts etc. it has been concluded that reference groups do affect the buying decision of the customers but it also develops uncertainties and it is always true for making the decisions. It is the article that is based on motivation of the employees to buy the products online. The author initiated the article with the introduction that explains the background and the theory of electronic shopping and the motivation that pushes the customers to make use of online carts. The literature also discusses about the areas of entertainment, pricing, shopping organisation etc. a set of hypotheses has been made as per the literature of the article. Further, the author has discussed that online survey method to conduct the research. Some of the researchers have recruited some of the survey participants thorough online national consumer panel. The sampling frame of the research includes the adults who shops online frequently and made some of the purchases online in last six months. After the survey, the author described the characteristics of the sample, the data analysis parts and then explained the results of the research. The last part that is the further research and the limi tations part suggests that the sample of the research was only from the US and further research can be conducted o other people also because the type of motivation that affects the decision may vary from one place to another. The discussion of the report suggests that there are two type of motivation that affects the consumers such as utilitarian and hedonic motivations. The model that has been proposed that frequency of online shopping depends on intent to make the online purchase, seeking promotion, entertainment value and intent to organise the items.Customers perception and attitude towards service quality in multinational banks in India This is the research that deals with understanding the perception of the customers towards the services that has been offered by the multinational banks. This is the study that has used SERVQUAL dimension model. Survey has been conducted on the Indian customers and their perceptions has been analysed that multiple regression technique has been used by the author. The SERVQUAL model has been used in this analyse because it provides five perceived service quality attributes such as tangibles, reliability, responsive, assurance and empathy. It has been analysed that prior experiences of the customers affect the perception of the people towards the services they have getting from the banks. In general sense, it can be identified that the experienced of the service that has been experienced by the customers forms the basis of the perception of the customers. If the experience is negative, the customers may have negative perception while if the experience has positive elements then they de velop positive perception of the service they get. This is the article that directly tests the impact of personality and the cognitive style on the measures of use of internet for shopping or e buying. The results of the article or the research suggest that it is the personality that affects the intent to use internet and not the cognitive style. As per the author, personality can be defined as the set of the characteristics and traits that determines the people, their thoughts, actions and feelings. Many traits of the people can be identified by this study has considered the Big five traits to identify the personality factors of the people such as extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, consciousness and agreeableness. The reason of selecting these personality traits is to examine the direct impact of the personality of the people on the use of internet and other information tools. Opposing the Big Five personality dimensions directly against cognitive style instruments such as the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator will inform this debate. Survey method has been such to collect the data of MBA students as they are the perfect sample for the study. Data has also been collected from undergraduate students. T test has been used to analyse the data at the end. After conducting the t- test, author has discussed the overall topic and the limitations of the research have been discussed. These limitations can be used to make the improvements in the further research. The Scientific Status of Learning Styles Theories Learning can be defined as the ability of the individuals to grasp the things or the information that is readily availed in their surroundings. As far as the article is considered, it is the article that deals with various learning theories as different people found to be learning the things differently. The articles suggest that there are different theories of learning. These theories provide the ways in which the people can think and learn different things. It has been analysed from the article that learning is not the differences in the abilities of the people but it is preferences of processing the information that has been received by an individuals. There are different learning styles and each theory have its own type of taking the information. It has been suggested in the article that there are some people who can learn easily by viewing the videos and such learners are called visual learners while some can easily learn by listening the information and thus are called audio le arner. This is the article that suggests that as various students have different preferences to take the information, thus the educators have to keep in mind that the relevant method of teaching needs to be used for educating them. In terms of consumers as well, the brands have to inform the people in w way that can help the consumers to learn the things easily. References: Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., Mendoza-Denton, R., Rheinschmidt, M. L., Keltner, D. (2012). Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: how the rich are different from the poor.Psychological review,119(3), 546. Lei, Y., Yayla, A. A., Kahai, S. (2017, January). Guiding the Herd: The Effect of Reference Groups in Crowdfunding Decision Making. InProceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Close, A. G., Kukar-Kinney, M. (2010). Beyond buying: Motivations behind consumers' online shopping cart use.Journal of Business Research,63(9-10), 986-992. Khare, A. (2011). Customers perception and attitude towards service quality in multinational banks in India.International Journal of Services and Operations Management,10(2), 199-215. McElroy, J. C., Hendrickson, A. R., Townsend, A. M., DeMarie, S. M. (2007). Dispositional factors in internet use: personality versus cognitive style.MIS quarterly, 809-820. Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories.Teaching of Psychology,42(3), 266-271.