Transformational Leader Profile Essay Example for Free

Transformational Leader Profile Essay One of the most debated, described and defined aspects of managerial competence, leadership continues to claim the attention of practitioners and theorists alike. Leadership, essentially a synthesis of arts, reflects individual experience, understanding, values and capabilities, interacting with situations where, realistically, there is rarely an ideal solution. The recognition that transforming a business is something of an heroic journey explicitly and implicitly acknowledges the key role of leadership in todays world as a determinant of success, in an organization’s change, progression and development. The quality of that leadership is itself largely determined by the leaders effectiveness as a coach and mentor who can grow the skills and confidence in others, necessary to shape tomorrows businesses, organizations and successes. To develop leadership one must work at developing himself.   The transformation of the self is central to the leadership development process. Meeting Peter was a very profound experience for me. I met Peter, CEO of a large healthcare management organization, a year ago. The CEO had recently been picked by the Chairman of the Board to head up the organization of approximately 20,000 employees. Everyone knew him, and it appeared that he was well-liked by employees and generally trusted. Peter is someone I totally admire. He is someone who always makes sure employees all know why they are part of the organization. The terms charismatic and transformational are used more or less interchangeably in much of the literature. Distilling a large literature on the transformational leader, the notion can be broadly captured by reference to six elements: an heroic figure (usually with attributed past success stories); a mystic in touch with higher truths; a value-driven individual rather than one who is apparently purely self-serving; someone who is perceived to know the way; an individual who has a vision of a more desirable and achievable future; and finally someone thought to be capable of caring for and developing followers. All six points reflect attributes of personality and behavior of Peter. Peter has an approach which aspires to significant organizational change through engaged and committed followers. It was John McGregor Burns (1978) who emphasized the meaning and significance of transformational leadership by contrasting it with transactional leadership (Orlikoff 2000). This theme was picked up and elaborated by Bass (1990). According to Bass, transformational leadership has four components: individualized consideration (the leader is alert to the needs of followers and also takes care to develop them); intellectual stimulation (the leader encourages followers to think in creative ways and to propose innovative ideas); inspirational motivation (energizing followers to achieve extraordinary things); idealized influence (offers followers a role model). The core of Peter’s model is cantered on the concept of developing oneself to develop others. Specifically, as Peter matures and gains moral perspective, he invests more time and energy in promoting the development of others versus satisfying his own needs. As Avolio and Yammarino (2002) note, through the accumulation of developmental experiences the moral structure of an individual can be enhanced providing sufficient structure to assess complex moral challenges. This basic premise is at the core of what drives transformational leadership to the highest end of the full range of leadership. In his daily work, Peter identifies developmental opportunities, where there is scope for: Challenge, and the breaking of new ground. Work that makes a significant, demonstrable contribution to the business. Bigger/wider leadership roles, preferably the earlier the better within the leaders career progression. Shifting gear and moving up into more strategic roles/tasks and relationships. Moving and operating out of existing comfort zones. Multi-disciplinary and cross-functional working. Building stakeholder coalitions and alliances, supply chain projects, involving suppliers, deliverers (own organization) and customers. Acquiring new contributive competencies which will test and enhance both skill and will. Working on specific role/task assignments in other comparable, but noncompetitive organizations. Making keynote presentations at major events, where there is a sense of occasion and opportunities to establish reputation and credibility. Leading (preferably) or acting as a member of jointly run projects with a leading business school, professional body or significant consultancy group. Setting up and managing increased outsourcing for supportive activities. In effect, leader learning development (like so much interpersonal skills training) is about building competence – and confidence – in three related areas of activity. On the reasonable assumption that competence – like charity – begins at home, the first priority in Peter development is learning to manage oneself. This includes not only the development of effective self-management skills, but also acquiring high levels of competence in the three primary areas of know-how identified as: Transforming Integrating Mobilising Peter’s personal skills and leader competencies form an appropriately strong base for developing consistently sound working relationships with others. Particularly important are the following interpersonal competencies: Self awareness and awareness of others. Negotiation techniques. Listening and questioning skills. Influencing skills. Coaching skills. Assertiveness. Motivational skills. Working as a partner (primus inter pares) as opposed to leader. Collaborative problem solving. Empowering and delegating skills. I identified five significant distinguishing characteristics which differentiated Peter from the less effective: He is neither perfect, nor perfectionists in their demands of others. He quickly learns skills which he does not possess personally. He sees management as essentially a team effort. He strives endlessly for improvement – to him, the game is not over until its over. He admits his weaknesses and learns from his mistakes, but differentiates himself from the less successful. The leadership theory proposed by Peter is based on the relationship and interaction between the leader and the follower. Under transformational theory, the leader and the follower may possess their own motivations for the interaction, but together they realize a common goal and are changed by the process. The change, or transformation, in the participants is found in the unity of purpose that raises the goal beyond individual satisfaction to a higher level. Peter’s theory is consistent with transformational theory. Collaboration cannot be achieved without the team members reaching a consensus and perhaps giving up something of themselves and changing in the process. Collaboration cannot be realized without facilitation, communication, information, participation, and expectation. Understanding something of the dynamics of group behaviour and the processes underlying transactions between people, is fundamental to effective leadership (Orlikoff 2000). There are no panaceas or cure-alls, but informed awareness of what is really going on, in behavioral terms, within and between groups helps to give managers – and others – a clearer idea of how to handle relationships in more productive ways. Peter believes that a business needs at least three interrelated forms of leadership: One which brings about requisite task performance and goal achievement. One to generate and maintain the commitment of its members. Another to ensure continuity of congruence between the requirements of the task, and peoples needs and expectations (Schein 1985). Peter has ability to overcome or compensate for (transform) organizational and individual limitations. He motivates others to do more than they originally intended and indeed often more than they thought possible. Team spirit is aroused. Enthusiasm and optimism are displayed. Peter enables his staff to overcome, to break through, to see beyond the limitations of their organization: he stimulates his ‘followers efforts to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, re-framing problems, and approaching old situations in new ways’ (Ackoff 1999). Peter is unique leader, on whom organizational success depends (and who therefore receives a considerable share of the benefits of that success). Peter seeks power not for self-aggrandizement but in order to share it. He empowers others to take an active role in carrying out the value-based mission or vision defined by him. That vision is based on what the organization and followers need, not what the leader wants personally. Thus, Peter appeals to followers values, emphasizing that certain important values serve as the common basis for our ideals and goals. Peter transforms organization by first using his cognitive power to understand complex causal chains and then acting to design outcomes that will benefit the organization and advance his vision. While a substantial degree of cognitive power is required in order for Peter to be effective, such effectiveness results as much from his success in developing followers cognitive abilities as from the exercise of his own. Peter with the degree of cognitive power required for a top-level position makes important long-term strategic decisions. But how much do these decisions affect what actually goes on in the organization on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis? It is the thought and action of managers and employees at lower levels that most affect current and short-term future operations. The finest long-term plan and the wisest long-range actions will surely fail if those who must act today and tomorrow are not capable of doing so. Thus, it is more important for top-level leaders with great cognitive power or vision to help followers expand and improve on their own vision than it is for leaders to simply exercise their cognitive power (Smith 2000). Peter empowers others to define organizational policies and develop programs that are explicitly based on the values and beliefs contained in the philosophy that in fact put those values and beliefs into organizational action. For example, hiring and promotion policies should take into account values consistent with those in the organizations philosophy as well as applicants knowledge and skill. Reward systems and bonus programs must be based on the values of cooperation and innovative action instead of on competition over a limited pool of resources. Finally, Peter inculcates values and beliefs through his own individual behavior, his personal practices. He models organizational values and beliefs by living by them constantly and consistently. That is why his leadership behaviors that were described earlier are extremely important. Many people think of these behaviors as tools with which leaders explain their vision to followers and convince them to carry out that vision. Although this is not totally untrue, the far more significant reason these behaviors are important is that leaders use them to demonstrate and illustrate the values and beliefs on which their visions are founded. Thats why Peter takes so much time and effort and why he is good manager with strong management skills. He uses everyday managerial activities a committee meeting, for example as opportunities to inculcate values. In a meeting the leader may guide a decision-making process while making it clear that final authority and responsibility rests with the group. By so doing, Peter takes what might otherwise be a bureaucratic process and instills the value of empowerment into it. Whenever possible, he overlays value-inculcating actions on ordinary bureaucratic management activities. Without a sound base of management skills, this would not be possible. Ultimately, examination of Peter’s leadership leads to the recognition that transformational leaders own personal behaviors play a large part in shaping organizational culture. This comprehensive theory goes beyond behavior to incorporate personal characteristics. Even more, it includes the organizational context of transformational leadership that is, culture building. Peter refers to the challenges as trigger events in our lives that oftentimes have a profoundly positive effect on our development. So how do we create the challenges that you must confront to develop into the full person you can be and to achieve your full potential? I am still searching for that in myself, and I hope you will do the same each and every day, because that is the way to develop leadership—each and every day we emerge, we get better, we know more, and we can influence people more effectively. Peter had a profoundly positive impact on my leadership development. I have chosen a developmental goal for myself, based on my primary style of leadership. After having examined Peter as a transformational leader I have tried to capture the whole process of personal and leadership development in a simple model. Let me explain. The top left-hand part of the model represents what we come into the world with our talents and strengths. Building on those capacities or attempting in some cases to break them down, we have life experiences that shape our development, that comprise our life stream. On the bottom left, we have the context in which we are currently operating and there we specify the importance of the vision and culture to nurturing leadership development. The rest of the model represents what we typically focus on in terms of leadership development, including enhancing our self-awareness of where we are and where we should focus our energies, then focusing those energies by regulating our development and then finally being consistent in our efforts to call it self-development. A number of important individual and contextual factors feed into self-awareness, but we must go beyond simply being aware to enhance leadership development. References Ackoff, R. L. (1999). Transformational leadership. Strategy Leadership, 27, 20–25. Avolio, B. J., Yammarino, F. J. (2002). Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. Greenwich, CT: JAI. Bass, B.M. (1990). Leadership and Performance beyond Expectations, New York: Free Press. Orlikoff, J. E. (2000). A board as good as its chair. Trusteeship, 8(4). Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Smith, C. J. (2000). Trusteeship in community colleges: A guide for effective governance. Washington, DC: Association of Community College Trustees.

Principles and Practices of Classroom Management

Principles and Practices of Classroom Management Challenging behaviour children are children that disrupts, annoy or get into a disagreement with other people, be it the teachers or their peers. Some also do not interact with the others (McTiernan, 2011). Positive behaviour is being sociable with peers and being able to listen to instructions. In a class, there are bound to have a mixture of both positive and challenging behaviour. Management of the challenging or positive behaviour of children is not the only influence for the child’s behaviour. The arrangement of the physical space also does matter. Different environment is needed for different kind of activities, when the children is doing languages or maths, a quiet environment is needed as the children needs to think and absorb the information. However, when it is time for play, the environment would be noisy. These two activities need to be put at a separated place as the noisy activities might disrupt the quiet activities. In the childcare centre that I am attached in, the quiet and noisy activities are separated. When they arrange the activities in this way, the children would develop a positive behaviour as they feel comfortable in what they are doing. Shelves used in childcare or kindergartens should be low as it is crucial for the teacher to keep their eyes on the children at all times. Shelves are used as a partition for different learning centres and storage space in a childcare or kindergarten (Hodge, 1997, p.10). The shelves in the childcare centre that I am attached in also has low shelves so that the teacher can always see the children and the children can also reach for the toys easily. When the teacher keep an eye on the children at all times, it would prevent challenging behaviour as the children knows that they are being watched by their teachers. Tapes are also used as a sign for boundaries, some centres also has footprints to show the children some pathways from a certain place to another (Kaiser, Rasminsky, 2007, p.105). However, there isn’t any tapes nor foot prints in the childcare I am attached to. Therefore, it does not seem to have any boundary for any learning corners. This triggers challenging behaviour as children not to know where the different centres are and they will start to be rowdy. Social context is when there is friendliness, cooperation and cohesiveness involved. With this three components, it would add up to a sense of community. A community is where one can feel a sense of belong and they all work towards a goal that they all have. When children are friendly with each other, challenging behaviour will not occur so often. This is so as they feel that they are included and they will feel happy. Cooperation is essential in preventing challenging behaviour as with cooperative activities, children with challenging behaviour would tend to behave not so aggressive and corporate (Kaiser, Raminsky, 2010). Being a teacher would mean that there is a need for one to set a good example for the students. They should be caring and be able to lend a listening ear to the children. When the children see that their teachers are so friendly, they will then feel encouraged to behave positively. When children behave positively, challenging behaviour can then be prevented. A relationship between the teacher and student should also be built up. To do so, one should be fair to each and every student and make an effort to know about each student’s background. As a teacher, it is also very important to listen to every student. It should also be necessary to set out some behaviour that is expected from the children. When the children feels that the teacher has built up a relationship with them, it is less likely for them to have a challenging behaviour. As they feel that you are very friendly, they will build up a positive behaviour. However, being friendly is important but one should be careful about not letting the children think that you are their friend instead of teacher as this would lead to them not taking what you say seriously (Smith, Yell, 2013). In different childcare or kindergartens, different strategies are used by teachers in managing classes. Below are two strategies that I have observed the teachers used. Of which one is a rule and one is a routine. Although strategies are supposedly workable, however, there are also times where strategies does not work. In the childcare centre that I am attached to, there are some unique actions made to catch the children’s attention. One of the strategies I observed is that during lessons or storybook reading time, when the children are getting restless and becoming rowdy, the teacher would clap her hands to any tune and most of the children will mimic what is being clapped. However, the corporation of the children depends on how rowdy they are. If they are really rowdy, only some will clap to the tune while the rest continues to be noisy. I have observed that the â€Å"clap to the tune† method only works for a maximum of two to three times. After that, another strategy must be used to capture the children’s attention. I think that this happens as the children gets bored with the method at the third time. The second strategy is actually a rule. There is a rule saying that after every meal, the floor must be swept and the tables must be cleaned by the students. When it was my first day in the childcare centre, I was actually very shocked to see the children all wanting to sweep the floor and clean the tables. I at first thought that they were rewarded after that. However, they were not. After much thinking, I finally understood why they would be so spontaneous. They already take it as a daily routine, to them, it is like bathing or eating. In independent work, much considerations must be made in order for the children to be interested and thus get the motivation to finish that piece of work. The work should be challenging but achievable. This is so as it is important to let children feel a sense of achievement when they first do it. If they fail at the first time, they will not want to do it again the next time. This means that if the child is 5 years old, do not give anything that a 7 year old would do. This is so as they will not know how to do and would not be motivated to finish the work given when they feel that they do not know how to do. Work should also be given according to the child’s interest. For example, if the child is interested in animals, you could provide the child with some paper and recycled materials for him/her to create an animal he or she likes (Weinstein, Romano Mignano, 2011, p.256). The objectives in a small group activity is to let the children learn how to have teamwork and how to help one another. Therefore, the work given should include factors of teamwork. If possible, create an activity that the factor of teamwork is mandatory. Another considerations that must be made is that to help the children team up, this means that one should make sure that they do not mix with the same group of people all the time. This would lead to segregation in the class as over time, they will not want to mix with the other peers. The aim of a small group work is for everybody to mix around, if they only mix with their peers then it would defeat the purpose of a small group work (Weinstein, Romano Mignano, 2011, p.277). I have observed that in the childcare centre that I am attached to, they would try to mix the children around for group work. The last important thing is to make sure no student tries to free load. It is essential to put different children with different strength together so that all of them would have a chance to do something. For example, put a student with good creative but does not have much of a patience with a student that has patience but not much of a creativity (Weinstein, C. S, Romano, M. E. Mignano, A. J., 2011, pg. 278).

Economic Analysis of Coffee in Vietnam

Economic Analysis of Coffee in Vietnam Group members: Huynh Anh Tin, Pham Le Bao Tran, Pham Le Thien Huong Vietnam coffee market structure: Vietnam coffee market structure is oligopoly, because there are a few firms that have the ability to enter this industry, and with many similar product taste (Sloman, Garratt, 2013). The production of coffee is expensive, it include land, machine, labor, and material. Coffee only grows in high land area of Vietnam, so the investors have to buy large land and burn forest. The labor forces are the farmers, who have years of experience on growing coffee, are paid to grow the coffee to export over sea. Due to coffee planting become popular in Vietnam, Vietnam coffee production surpass Colombia to become the second largest coffee producers. (The popularity of coffee More over, there are also some brands of coffee product such as: Trung Nguyen, Y 5, Vina, etc. Most of Vietnam coffees are export to countries such as: England, United States, Japan, Korean, Hong Kong, Italy, etc. Elasticity of Demand: Vietnam has many coffee distributors, so there will be many different prices of coffee. Coffee price will also change because of the world market price change everyday. However, Drinking coffe is a Vietnamese’s culture for years so even if price change the customers are still buying the coffee. Coffee makes people focus, smarter, gain energy, release stress (Gunnars, 2013) . Because coffee is consisted of caffeine, so some of customers cannot quit coffee. And it takes a lot of time to find other substitute or to stop drinking coffee. Coffee Culture is increasing can also make consumers demand more coffee than before. Rise of other culture coffee makes consumer curious and want to taste the different coffee style. And young people also drink coffee to prove that they are already grow up. base on the survey of director of Thu Ha company, Thu Ha company produced 100 ton per year but only 30% of product was exported and the rest was consumed in domestic. It proved that the demand of coffee in Viet Nam is very high and it also attracted some of big coffee distributor come to Viet Nam such as Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. http://www2.hcmuaf.edu.vn/contents.php?ids=8334ur=hoainam c) Elasticity in Supply The growth of Vietnam coffee productivity has entered the world market and became the second largest coffee producer, after Brazil. Beside the growth of production, Vietnam’s coffee culture is also well known with the unique brewing style. More important, coffee is the daily need of Vietnamese people, because they need coffee to make them stay awake and gain energy to focus on work. Even though price of coffee is change due to price change, coffee it self will not decrease the quantity of coffee supply. Base on the Hallam research, Vietnam coffee production is a strong producer, which can expand from 60 578 hectares to 463 450 hectares and coffee bean output increased from 96 000 tones to 800 000 tones, making Viet Nam the largest Robusta producer and second largest coffee producer in the world. This result the increase of income of employment and decline the hunger rate. However, price of Robusta coffee has fallen because of the Arabica coffee had also fallen. Against this background, the coffee price elasticity of supply is very low, which is only 0.13 in short run and 0.24 in the long run . Supply responses to price incentives are not balanced: periods of rising prices stimulate new plantings and other fixed asset investments, which does not change when price fall, it can not be replaced when it reach to the end of production. Supply responses to falling prices have also been slowed in some cases by national efforts to assist producers, for example through price supports and debt relief. In the short-term adjustments can be made to reduce inputs including labor, but creating unemployment and stimulating migration. Reduced labor input through makes the coffee are less care, which lowered the quality of coffee and also create a pressure on price. ( Hallam, Fig.1: Short run of coffee’s price elasticity of supply. Accessed: April 1, 2014, from: http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/unit-1-micro-revision-on-price-elasticity-of-supply. d) Opportunity cost Opportunity cost is the alternatives consumers or producers have to give up when deciding purchasing or producing.(Sloman, Garrett, 2013) When people have to make choice they have to lose the other alternative that involves. Opportunity cost occurs in simple purchase to complex purchase. Purchasing coffee also occur opportunity cost, the consumer may decide the good that they want, so they can satisfied their simple needs. Normally, consumers who want to have a coffee cup to be more awake and focus on their work will have to scarify some of their alternatives to get the cup of coffee. Money: The first alternative that people have to pay in order to get their coffee. When consumers decide to get a cup of coffee, they have to know the price of coffee that they will buy. The amount of money they spend for the coffee is the opportunity cost to get the coffee for them. However, the consumers give up the alternative of saving money, spending on other substitute, or even invest on a business. A cup of coffee may not cost the consumer a lot of money, however if the consumers buy coffee everyday may cost them more than what they think. Time: The second alternative that consumer have to scarify is time. Time now is including the time the consumer have to go to the coffee shop and the time they have to wait for the coffee. The alternative that they give up is the amount of time just for travelling to the coffee and waiting for the product. In order to get a cup of coffee, customers have to sacrifice some of the alternatives to get the coffee they demand. Conclusion: The report aim to learn and understand the characteristic of the strongest product of Vietnam, which is coffee. More over, we can also learn what is the position of the product in the world market. In the report, we learn about the market structure, the demand, the supply of coffee, the elasticity of demand and elasticity of supply. In the report our group learn about four facts: First, the Vietnamese coffee market structure is Oligopoly, which has a few firms can enter and produce similar product. Second, The elasticity of demand and supply are considered inelastic, because of price cannot change the supply and demand of coffee of Vietnamese people. Third, the opportunity costs in order to buy a cup of coffee. Last, analyzing the demand and supply of Vietnamese coffee. Coffee has been a strong industry for year, however coffee supply has decreased the quantity and the quality by the countries, which import Vietnam coffee. In order to make the Vietnam’s coffee become acknowled ge for both quantity and quality, finding solution and make changes in production are required to boost the production. Summary the event: The event mention about the increase in price of coffee not only in Viet Nam and in the world because that is affected by the drought in Brazil. In details, during the early 2014, a seriously drought is destroying the coffee farms in Brazil which is the biggest exporting coffee countries in the world. This would not be good news for farmers but that is great news for other exporting countries in which have Viet Nam. That also affects the selling price in Viet Nam market, the selling price for coffee increase rapidly during the early in 2014. According to this event, the reason for increasing selling price for coffee also concern about the speculation of firms and other organizations. For the Arabica coffee, it increases more than two times than the first days in October, 2013. Shifts in supply curve: After drawing the curve of supply, we can see how the drought in Brazil affect the supply for coffee. Especially, the supply for coffee is very sensitive with the weather. The weather can easily affect the productivity of coffee. Of course, the supply curve will move to the left, from S1 to S2 in the curve. In this case, with the impact of the drought, it makes the selling price increase from P1 to P2 because the productivity is less than before. In some cases, the price of coffee will increase slightly because the demand for coffee is elastic but in this case, many factors combine together from the impact from the weather and the speculation of people, which lead to the big increase for selling price of coffee. The gap from P1 to P2 will much bigger than other situations. When the selling price increase, that is also a main reason why the number of people wants to buy less than before, Q1 will move backward to Q2 as well. The changes in quantity of demand for coffee will decrease fo llow the changes of selling price. Because the changes in the supply curve above, the new equilibrium point will move to the new point which is from E1 to E2. After analyzing the impact of the event to the supply curve, coffee can easily be affected by the outside factors such as: environment, weather and people. P D S2 S1 Pe2 E2 Pe1 E1 0 Q2 Q1 Q http://www.thesaigontimes.vn/Home/nongsan/tintucthitruong/112433/Gia-ca-phe-tang-Cau-hoi-nup-sau-tin-thoi-tiet.html Demand P D1 S D2 Pe1 E1 Pe2 E2 0 Q2 Q1 Summary the event: in a role of apprentice, somehow the reporter was got into a factory which is producing fake coffee in Hoc Mon . Reporter was following the factorys owner to Kim Bien market to buy 15 arsenical material such as smell of coffee flavor, foaming agent for soap, food coloring industry and many more and blend with soya bean. Only in one day that factory can produce 1 ton of Fake coffee and deliver to lot of coffee store from middle of Vietnam to South of Vietnam. And when reporter asked about why don’t you sale the real coffee then the owner of factory just give only one reason that about the price, the real coffe was cost over 200.000 VNÄ  but fake coffee only cost over 100.000 to 120.000 to produce and sales. Shift in Demand curve After drew Demand curve, we can see how the scandal of produce coffee from soya bean mixed with arsenical affected to the demand of coffee. After the true was exposed on newspaper, the consumers scared to drink coffee and switching to another substitutes, then you can see the demand curve moved from D1 to D2. It makes the supplier decrease the cost to attract the consumers, at the curve you can see that P1 move to P2 and it makes a new equilibrium from E1 to E2, and besides that the quantity of coffee also move backward from Q1 to Q2 http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20120718/hai-hung-ca-phe-deu-ky-2-dau-nanh-+-15-hoa-chat-=-ca-phe-18-7-2012.aspx References: Gunnars, K., Feb 20,2013,’Why Is Coffee Good For You? Here are the 7 reasons’, Authority Nutrition. Accessed: April 2, 2014, from: http://authoritynutrition.com/why-is-coffee-good-for-you/ Hallam, D., ‘Falling Commodity Price And Industry Responses: Some Lessons From The International Coffee Crisis’, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation. Accessed: March 31, 2013, from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5117e/y5117e03.htm#TopOfPage Maja, W.,2013, ‘Vietnam Coffee Production is Blooming, as is the Coffee Culture’, Tea Coffee Trade Journal, p.p:32-33. Sloman, J., Garrett, D.,2013, ‘Essential of Economics’ , Pearson, p.p: 7. Sloman, J., Garrett, D.,2013, ‘Essential of Economics’, Pearson, p.p: 94. Tran, T., July, 2013 ‘Vietnam Coffee’s Industry’, Ipos. Accessed: March 31,2014, from: http://www.ipsosconsulting.com/pdf/Ipsos-Research-Note-Vietnam-Coffee.pdf` List of Illustration Fig.1: Short run of coffee’s price elasticity of supply. Accessed: April 1, 2014, from: http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/unit-1-micro-revision-on-price-elasticity-of-supply.

A Comparison of Seamus Heaneys Poem Digging and The song of the old mo

I have looked at the poem 'Digging' by Seamus Heaney. The poem is about the poet digging into his past and appears to be a modest poem. The "nicking and slicing neatly" that Heaney says in his poem can also apply to the crafting of a poem. Heaney seems unhappy and distanced from his farming family roots however he shows a good amount of admiration for farming men. Heaney shows the skill and dignity of labour. The expertise is rather admired than the strength and the technique is very precisely explained. He constantly has memories of common places, which very few people would notice, but Heaney thinks that these memories should be recognised. He is frustrated at how different he is to his family. Maybe in those days writing poems may not have been seen as manly. I am going to compare this poem 'Digging' to another poem which is called 'The song of the old mother' written by William Butler Yeats. First of all in Heaney's poem he is talking about himself as a child to his grandfather, while Yeats is talking about the older people to the younger generation. "My grandfather cut more turf in a day, Than any other man in toners bog." This quote shows that Heaney was talking as a child to his grandfather. "And the young lie long and dream in their bed." This quote shows that Yeats is talking about the younger generation and by calling them young she is implying that she is significantly older than the people she is referring to. In both poems they describe heavy manual work, but in 'Digging' they love doing the work that they do and in 'The song of the old mother' she is unhappy and bitter that she has to scrub... ...s family had a close relationship because when he was young he did not really describe any conflict between them but in Blake's poem he does show the love of the weeping mother. When the farther kisses the child he is showing his ever nigh love of god for the child. In Blake's poem he is implying the worship of god (the farther) because he has involved god when simply a child has been lost from his parents. In Heany's poem he shows his personal love and respect for his farther and grandfather. "Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper." This quote can show in a way that he loved his farther because he cared enough to go get his farther some milk in a bottle. In conclusion I think that these poems have explored the relationships between different families from different generations.

Comparing Mortality in Hemingways Indian Camp and Joyces Araby :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

The Subject of Mortality in Hemingway's Indian Camp and Joyce's Araby Nick came face to face with his own mortality in Hemingway's "Indian Camp" and, like most of us, denied its inevitability, evidenced by the last line of the story: "In the early morning lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt sure that he would never die." (31) His first experience with the beginning of life was far from the joyous occasion most of us are taught to associate with birth. Coupled with his first experience with a violent suicide in the same setting, his feeling that he would never die is understandable. I have experienced the loss of a family member in childbirth at an early age and my reaction was much the same as Nick's. It is that same conviction that causes us to continue to do things that we know is dangerous: that feeling that one has that "it will never happen to me". Perhaps Nick also learned a lesson from the callousness displayed by his uncle and father toward the Indian woman as well as the other Indians in the story. Nick's father regards the screams of the Indian woman as unimportant, as evidenced by his comment to Nick: "No, I haven't any anaesthetic," his father said. "But her screams are not important. I don't hear them because they are not important." (29) Yet later, when Nick questions him as to why the husband killed himself, he admits, "I don't know, Nick. He couldn't stand things, I guess." (30) Maybe Nick surmised that the woman's screams his father considered unimportant and dismissed so readily may have led to her husband's suicide. The protagonist in Joyce's "Araby" learns a different lesson: the bitter disappointment that is sometimes the result of youthful infatuation. The yearning he feels for Mangan's sister is an emotion of which only he is aware: "I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood".

Fulbright Research Proposal Essay

Claudia Ukonu, Netherlands, Interdisciplinary Studies The Effects of User Generated Content on Cross Channel Communication Strategies Summary As a recipient of the 2013-2014 Fulbright Grant I plan to enroll in the Masters in Methodology and Statistics for Behavioural, Biomedical and Social Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. While completing this degree I will also conduct a research study where I will seek to answer two questions 1) How Dutch companies use cross channel communication strategies to market new products and 2) How user generated content (i. . Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. ) effects the implementation of those cross channel communication strategies. The study will use surveys, interviews and statistical methods to examine purchasing behavior and the relevant results will be analyzed with the establishment of an internship at a Dutch market research firm. My goal in completing this study is to apply the knowledge gained from my Masters courses to the relevant topic of consumer purchasing behavior, which will build a solid foundation for entering a PhD program in Statistics. Introduction Here in the United States Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram have become the way of projecting a glamorized image of oneself online. The idea of being modest and not bragging about one’s newly purchased Lamborghini or vacation to Tahiti is long gone. Consumers are now becoming the trendsetters as they now dictate the trends that companies tailor their products around. Examining how user generated content fulfills the Esteem and Love/Belonging parts of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be used as a model for predicting consumer habits. With the creation of social media networks, traditional ways of marketing seem to have little to no relevance. In order for companies to be effective when introducing new products and maintaining existing ones, it is vital that they are up to date with current trends in marketing new products through multiple communication channels. While each of these channels may have different demographics (i. e. the age difference between Facebook users and people who read newspapers) the goal of cross channel communication strategy is to ensure that the product being marketed conveys the same message on all channels. This can be a daunting task given the number of communication channels available to companies. Location In 2011, ComScore named the Netherlands as the number one country with the highest LinkedIn and Twitter penetration. This provides the perfect backdrop to see how Dutch companies are not only using cross channel communication strategies but, more specifically, how they are incorporating social media into those strategies. During the grant period I will be under the supervision of Dr.  Irene Klugkist, Associate Professor of Methodology and Statistics in the Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University. Methodology Upon arriving in Utrecht I will begin my MSc in Methodology and Statistics for Behavioural, Biomedical and Social Sciences at Utrecht University. I will enroll in the following courses for the fall semester: Advanced Survey Design and Missing Data Analysis, Multivariate Statistics, Foundations of Statistics, and Computational Inference with R. During the first two months in Utrecht I will spend my time focusing on becoming familiar with the foundations of statistics. In order to obtain accurate results when trying to determine the objectives of the study, it is vital that a selection of study participants is made. The participants will remain the same throughout the course of the study. This will be accomplished with the help of a study participant letter that will outline who I am, my purpose of study, what information I will collect from participants and how that information will be used in the study. I propose that no less than 100 participants be selected for the study. Having more participants will allow for a greater range of differentiation as well as data collection. The first two months of the grant period is also when I will spend time locating the participants of the study. I plan to include participants who are current students and working professionals. The demographics of my study will focus on men and women who are between the ages of 18-35. I am open to the possibility of changing these demographics given that after some time of living in Utrecht, I discover a niche market, to which this study’s objectives would be more relevant. The second objective–‘How user generated content (i. e.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc. ) affects the implementation of cross channel communication strategies– will be partially addressed in months 3-7 of the grant period. It is during this time that I will track the social behavior of the study participants. Relevant factors to the collection of this data will include: the time the post was made on the social network, the content of the post and responses to the original post. Surveys will also be given to participants asking about their desire to purchase items marketed on various communication channels. The first objective of the study will be applied in the form of an internship at a Dutch marketing firm where I will first observe the current cross communication strategies. After doing this, I will analyze the data collected in the first portion of the grant period. This analysis will help to determine whether 1) Consumer purchasing behavior can be predicted on the basis of user generated content and 2) If this behavior can be predicted, how can companies utilize this to their advantage. Dr.  Klugkist has expressed willingness to help me secure an internship for months 8-9 at a Dutch market research firm. During the internship I will examine the past and existing cross communication strategies of the company while looking at what factors went into the planning of this strategy. Part of the MSc program requires students to participate in a traineeship in their desired field (Behavioural, Biomedical or Social Sciences) in their final year of study. Dr. Klugkist sent my research proposal to Dr.  Van Hattum, a former Utrecht student who now works at a market research firm and he expressed interest in having me as a trainee during my final year at Utrecht University. Goal Throughout the study I hope to uncover cross communication opportunities that utilize social media and then use those opportunities as a foundation upon which I will develop new and existing product entry strategies. I will be able to apply this research and the resulting Masters degree to the completion of a PhD in Statistics.

Food Inequality

Food Inequality between Developed and Developing Countries Introduction These days, any domestic problems tend to be connected with or caused by reasons coming from outside abroad. Among those globalized issues, one of the serious issues is the theme of food security. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), the outlook for the global cereal supply in the 2011/12 marketing season has improved the following positive production. However, the impact on global food security remains uncertain given the current international economic slowdown and changeable weather. For example of food security, in Eastern Africa, the drought-induced humanitarian crisis continues to take lives and reduce livestock. Additionally, in East Asia, severe localized monsoon floods in several countries – Bangladesh, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines may reduce the final outcome because of the natural disaster while a record 2011 cereal harvest was anticipated. What do all these facts mean? Should people put up with the hunger if weather hits them and the economy is tough? There seem to be some other reasons which facilitate food security and if we could struggle with them, the damage caused by the reasons of natural disasters and the tough economy will be mitigated. What could these reasons be? This essay explores the extent to which Population Growth, Food Distribution, Genetic Resources Factors contribute to the problem of food security. Population Growth Today, it is generally agreed that food insecurity issue can be attributed to the fact that we are running out of food due to the intense population growth. In this part, we shall examine the idea carefully. The world’s population has been increasing, according to the report of World Bank in 2011, the population of the world has been doubled over the past 50 years. In this period, world population increase 3 billion to 6. 8 billion. Beyond the year 2050, it is projected that the population is to approach 9 billion, and the growth would likely occur in developing regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Inversely, the industrial countries or developed countries are going through a trend of decreasing population. The increase in population of developing countries is one of the main factors of the global population increase. Another factor is that the average life span has been extended, which means that the death rate is dramatically decreasing all over the world. The explosive increase of population brings about a problem of inequality, especially food. An excess of population is linked to food production and thus, food security. In a TED talk in 2007, Hans Rosling gave a lecture about inequality between developing and developed countries and attributed the food inequality to the fact that the world population has been increasing. In 1960, the gap was relatively small but now the existing gap between both of them has intensified. He had mentioned an example of shoes and cars, and at the very last he discussed food insecurity. Therefore, according to his speech, we can claim that the population growth causes the food inequality issue between developing countries and industrialized countries. However, on the other hand, according to two books which we mostly relied on, Ending Hunger by the Hunger Project and Food Policy by The Johns Hopkins University Press, we found there were some people who had made an objection against the idea. FAO and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reported in 2008 that new estimate of the number of people who would suffer chronic hunger in which year was 925 million, which, however, doesn’t mean that there is not enough food for the people who need it in the world. According to the report of FAO, the amount of world crop production was recorded two billions tons in 2008, which had been the best record. If the all crops were distributed equally to all people around the world, each of people was supposed to eat 320kg in a year, which is twice as much as crops that are eaten by Japanese per a year on average. Given that there are more food like vegetable, fish, and meat, in addition to crops, all people in the world are supposed to be able to get enough food. Then, why can’t all people get enough food? We examine the causes of food inequality from the different perspective in the next section. However, what we emphasize here is that we think the population growth could also be one of the causes in the near future if the world population kept increasing. As shown in Food Policy by The Johns Hopkins University Press, the world population will soon be over 9 billion people, which means that the earth’s productivity will not be able to catch up with the increase in population. Therefore, people in the world will soon face the fact that we run out of food. Then, we examine the food production in third section. Inadequate Food Distribution As we discussed in the last section, two books, Ending Hunger by the Hunger Project and Food Policy by The Johns Hopkins University Press, showed us that food inequality issue between developed countries and developing countries arises not from population growth but from in a defect in an appropriate food distribution system. According to Food Policy, All people in the world could be supposed to be able to get enough food, when the all crops were distributed equally to all people around the world. However, when it comes to the supply of food, only people in developed countries, which are estimated 20% in the world, can always get more calories than they need. Moreover, crops are consumed not only by people but also by livestock such as cattle, chicken, which usually come to the markets for industrialized countries. As a result, people in developed countries like us usually consume more than half of all crops in the world. It turns out that something may be wrong in the process of the food distribution. First, we attribute it to high food prices. As we learned in Prof. Montgomery’s lectures, the energy and water insecurity made the food prices high because food, water, and energy are tightly connected to each other, so farmers need tons of energy and water to produce food. Moreover, Food Policy also described that due to the energy insecurity, more and more people in developed countries used crops in a different way; today biofuels that are made by crops are one of the popular renewable energies in the world. However, to grow the crops, people also need to use more energy and water, which leads people into a downward spiral, and usually the victims are people in poor countries. On top of that, according to Ending Hunger, the high food price can be attributable to speculations. The author said, â€Å"Crops have been getting the attention as an object of speculation. † Originally, more crops tend to go into the domestic market, and there are a few products being distributed in the international market. Under the circumstance, investors who were struggling under the financial crisis in 2008 had an eye on crops for speculation, which raised the food prices intensely. Thus, today under the capitalism, people rather reckon food as a â€Å"product†, so food has been distributed in a way that certain rich people can benefit. At the very last in Food Policy, we got a clue for solving food inequality; an alternative food distribution system that can exist even under the capitalism. The authors have an eye on an idea of â€Å"food redistribution†. Food bank, a non-governmental organization that provides food to poor people for free, has been popular in many developed countries to help poor people within the nations. The authors expect that it will be exercised not by government, but by some entrepreneurs since there is a big challenge for governments in terms of fund and security, and that it will become a new business model in the future. In my opinion, however, it seems difficult that the model can be applied, crossing the boarders. In addition to the point of food distribution, we would like to mention the food production. Ending Hunger, the book we had read, said that although every country needs to try to keep their food self-sufficiently stable, it’s a big challenge for developing countries. There are quite a few countries that rely on the imports from other countries to get crops for their principal diet. It’s related to their history which they were forced to produce some products like cacao to export to industrialized countries in their colonial ages. They are vulnerable because of this monoculture structure which has been still existed when the food prices fluctuate. In the next section, we examine how to solve the monoculture structure issue. Losing Biodiversity In this section, we discuss biodiversity, the problem between biodiversity and food security and the solution. First of all, Biodiversity is a term that is short for biological diversity. Currently, the great variety and richness of plant, some microbe are said to be approximately 1. 7 million species in 2008. The human race literally relies on those plants and animals for clothing, shelter, medicines, and many other things, according to Red list of Threatened Species. However, 784 species have been officially recorded as extinct and more than 16,000 species contains approximately 12 percent of bird species, 23 percent of mammals, and 32 percent of amphibians as well as a large number of plant species. Even so, how does the problem connect with food security? Does the extinction of some species of plants lead to such a big problem? The answer seems to be affirmative; the conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity would be possible. Presently, just three crops- rice, wheat, and maize- amount to about 60 per cent of the world’s food crops and 56 per cent of the protein people derive from plants. This means the stability of agriculture is easy to be affected by climates, pests, diseases because there are no other different plants which would be durable to those stresses. As a result, a drought becomes more likely. In Bangladesh, for example, increasing HYV [high –yield varieties] rice monoculture has decreased diversity, including nearly 7,000 traditional rice variation and many fish species. Ironically, the production of HYV rice per cent acre in 1986 dropped by 10 percent from 1972, in spite of a 300 per cent increase in agrochemical use per acre. (Thrupp 2000,p269) In India, by 1968, although, the so-called â€Å"miracle† HYV seed had replaced half of the native varieties, the expected production in many areas were not realized because those seeds need irrigated land with high inputs of fertilizer, which poor farmers cannot afford. Thrupp p269) North America like US is not also exemption. Of more than 7,000 apple varieties grown in the United States between 1804 and 1904, 86 per cent are no longer cultivated, and 88 per cent of 2,683 pear varieties are no longer available. (Thrupp p270). The main causes for the loss of agrodiversity are reliance on uniform plants and the heavy use of agrochemicals (often make lands barren), and institutions and companies from developed countries who gained patents of seeds and other genetic resources. In order to change this situation, a shift to sustainable agriculture requires changes in production methods, models and policies, as well as the full participation of local people. Example includes use of organic fertilizer, reduction of agrochemicals that destroy diverse rich soil, multiple cropping, eliminating subsidies and credit policies for uniform high-yield varieties. In addition, those developing countries which have plenty genetic resources don’t keep silent to their serious problem. In the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2010, those countries tried to negotiate with developed countries in order to create a protocol about making the access and payment of genetic resources a matter of international law for â€Å" fair and equitable sharing of benefits† (The Economist 2010) Conclusion As we discussed in this papers so far, we mostly attributed the food inequality problem to population growth, inadequate food distribution system, and losing biodiversity. However, the more we studied, the more we found that the food inequality problem was very complicated because there ere a lot of factors which were connected to each other and which lead to the problem. The solutions we figured out are that an alternative food distribution system, and a shift to sustainable agriculture requires changes in production methods, models and policies, as well as the full participation of local people. The right for accessing to food; it is supposed to be exercised by al l people in nature. We strongly hope that more and more poor people will get the access to food in the future, and in order to make it happen, we need to get back to an idea of cooperation at the end. References 1) J Price Gittinger; Joanne Leslie; Caroline Hoisington; Economic Development Institute in Washington, D. C. (1987). Food policy: integrating supply, distribution, and consumption. Baltimore : Published for the World Bank [by] Johns Hopkins University Press 2) W Ladd Hollist; F LaMond Tullis(1987) Pursuing food security : strategies and obstacles in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Boulder : L. Rienner Publishers 3) Debra A Millar(2008) Biodiversity Detroit : Greenhaven Press. Thruoo L Ann (2000) Linking agricultural biodiversity and food security: the value role of agrobiodiveristy for sustainable agriculture International affairs Vol. 76 Issue 2, p265, 17p, 4 Charts 4) Global Information and Early Warning System, 2011 Food Outlook November 2011. Available at: http://www. fao. org/giews/english/fo/index. htm 5) The Economist Online (2010) Pay up or die: Protecting and profiting from the environment (21th Oct) The Economist Available at: http://www. economist. com/blogs/newsbook/2010/10/protecting_and_profiting_environment