English Language and Composition

AP ® English Language and Composition 2011 Free-Response Questions About the College Board The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of more than 5,900 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education.Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT ® and the Advanced Placement Program ®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools.  © 2011 The College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, SAT and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board.Admitted Class Evaluation Service and inspiring minds are trademarks owned by the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. Permission to use copyrighted College Board materials may be requested online at: www. collegeboard. org/inquiry/cbpermit. html. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. AP Central is the official online home for the AP Program: apcentral. collegeboard. om. 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION SECTION II Total time—2 hours Question 1 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Locavores are people who have decided to eat locally grown or produced products as much as possible. With an eye to nutrition as well as sustainability (resource use that preserves the environment ), the locavore movement has become widespread over the past decade.Imagine that a community is considering organizing a locavore movement. Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that identifies the key issues associated with the locavore movement and examines their implications for the community. Make sure that your argument is central; use the sources to illustrate and support your reasoning. Avoid merely summarizing the sources.Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc. , or by using the descriptions in parentheses. Source A Source B Source C Source D Source E Source F Source G (Maiser) (Smith and MacKinnon) (McWilliams) (chart) (Gogoi) (Roberts) (cartoon)  © 2011 The College Board . Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -2- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source A Maiser, Jennifer. 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food. † Eat Local Challenge. Eat Local Challenge, 8 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. The following is an article from a group Weblog written by individuals who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced locally. Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction. Locally grown produce is fresher.While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer’s market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase . This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? ’Nuff said. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be rugged† or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it’s the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling â€Å"Name brand† fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space—farms and pastures—an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped. Jennifer Maiser, www. eatlocalchallenge. com  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -3- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source B Smith, Alisa, and J. B. MacKinnon. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.New York: Harmony, 2007. Print. The following passage is excerpted from a book written by the creators of the 100-Mile Diet, an experiment in eating only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius. Food begins to lose nutrition as soon as it is harvested. Fruit and vegetables that travel shorter distances are therefore likely to be closer to a maximum of nutrition. â€Å"Nowadays, we know a lot more about the naturally occurring substances in produce,† said [Cynthia] Sass. It’s not just vitamins and minerals, but all these phytochemicals and really powerful disease-fighting substances, and we do know that when a food never really reaches its peak ripeness, the levels of these substances never get as high. † . . . Yet when I called to confirm these facts with Marion Nestle, a professor and former chair of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, she waved away the nutrition issue as a red herring. Yes, she said, our 100-mile diet—even in winter—was almost certainly more nutritious than what the average American was eating.That doesn’t mean it is necessary to eat locally in order to be healthy. In fact, a person making smart choices from the global megamart can easily meet all the body’s needs. â€Å"There will be nutritional differences, but t hey’ll be marginal,† said Nestle. â€Å"I mean, that’s not really the issue. It feels like it’s the issue— obviously fresher foods that are grown on better soils are going to have more nutrients. But people are not nutrient-deprived. We’re just not nutrient-deprived. † So would Marion Nestle, as a dietician, as one of America’s most important critics of dietary policy, advocate for local eating? Absolutely. † Why? Because she loves the taste of fresh food, she said. She loves the mystery of years when the late corn is just utterly, incredibly good, and no one can say why: it just is. She likes having farmers around, and farms, and farmland.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -4- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source C McWilliams, James E. â€Å"On My Mind: The Locavore Myth. † Forbes. com. Forbes, 15 J ul. 2009. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following is excerpted from an online opinion article in a business magazine. Buy local, shrink the distance food travels, save the planet. The locavore movement has captured a lot of fans. To their credit, they are highlighting the problems with industrialized food. But a lot of them are making a big mistake. By focusing on transportation, they overlook other energy-hogging factors in food production. Take lamb. A 2006 academic study (funded by the New Zealand government) discovered that it made more environmental sense for a Londoner to buy lamb shipped from New Zealand than to buy lamb raised in the U.K. This finding is counterintuitive—if you’re only counting food miles. But New Zealand lamb is raised on pastures with a small carbon footprint, whereas most English lamb is produced under intensive factory-like conditions with a big carbon footprint. This disparity overwhelms domestic lamb’s advantage in transportation energy. N ew Zealand lamb is not exceptional. Take a close look at water usage, fertilizer types, processing methods and packaging techniques and you discover that factors other than shipping far outweigh the energy it takes to transport food.One analysis, by Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, showed that transportation accounts for only 11% of food’s carbon footprint. A fourth of the energy required to produce food is expended in the consumer’s kitchen. Still more energy is consumed per meal in a restaurant, since restaurants throw away most of their leftovers. Locavores argue that buying local food supports an area’s farmers and, in turn, strengthens the community. Fair enough. Left unacknowledged, however, is the fact that it also hurts farmers in other parts of the world.The U. K. buys most of its green beans from Kenya. While it’s true that the beans almost always arrive in airplanes— the form of transportation that consumes t he most energy—it’s also true that a campaign to shame English consumers with small airplane stickers affixed to flown-in produce threatens the livelihood of 1. 5 million sub-Saharan farmers. Another chink in the locavores’ armor involves the way food miles are calculated. To choose a locally grown apple over an apple trucked in from across the country might seem easy. But this decision ignores economies of scale.To take an extreme example, a shipper sending a truck with 2,000 apples over 2,000 miles would consume the same amount of fuel per apple as a local farmer who takes a pickup 50 miles to sell 50 apples at his stall at the green market. The critical measure here is not food miles but apples per gallon. The one big problem with thinking beyond food miles is that it’s hard to get the information you need. Ethically concerned consumers know very little about processing practices, water availability, packaging waste and fertilizer application.This is a n opportunity for watchdog groups. They should make life-cycle carbon counts available to shoppers. Reprinted by Permission of Forbes Media LLC  © 2010  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -5- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source D Loder, Natasha, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald. â€Å"The Problem of What to Eat. † Conservation Magazine. The Society for Conservation Biology, July-Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following chart is excerpted from an online article in an environmental magazine.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -6- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source E Gogoi, Pallavi. â€Å"The Rise of the ‘Locavore’: How the Strengthening Local Food Movement in Towns Across the U. S. Is Reshaping Farms and Food Retailing. † Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg, 20 May 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. The following is excerpted from an online article in a business magazine.The rise of farmers’ markets— in city centers, college towns, and rural squares—is testament to a dramatic shift in American tastes. Consumers increasingly are seeking out the flavors of fresh, vine-ripened foods grown on local farms rather than those trucked to supermarkets from faraway lands. â€Å"This is not a fringe foodie culture,† says [Anthony] Flaccavento. â€Å"These are ordinary, middle-income folks who have become really engaged in food and really care about where their food comes from. † It’s a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans.The local food movement has already accomplished something that almost no one would have thought possible a few years back: a revival of small farms. After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1. 2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept. . . . The impact of â€Å"locavores† (as local-food proponents are known) even shows up in that Washington salute every five years to factory farming, the Farm Bill. The latest version passed both houses in Congress in early May and was sent on May 20 to President George W.Bush’s desk for signing. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, but it passed with enough votes to sustain an override. Predictably, the overwhelming bulk of its $290 billion would still go to powerful agribusiness interests in the form of subsidies for growing corn, soybeans, and cotton. But $2. 3 billion was set aside this year for specialty crops, such as the eggplants, strawberries, or salad greens that are grown by exactly these small, mostly organic farmers. That’s a big bump-up from the $100 million that was earmarked for such things in the previous legislation.Small fa rmers will be able to get up to 75% of their organic certification costs reimbursed, and some of them can obtain crop insurance. There’s money for research into organic foods, and to promote farmers’ markets. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the bill â€Å"invests in the health and nutrition of American children . . . by expanding their access to farmer’s markets and organic produce. † Reprinted from the May 20, 2008 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek by special permission, copyright  © 2008 by Bloomberg L. P.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. ollegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -7- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source F Roberts, Paul. The End of Food. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. Print. The following is excerpted from a book about the food industry. [T]he move toward local food, for all its trendiness (the more adamant adherents, known as â€Å"localvores,† strive to buy products that have traveled the least â€Å"food miles†), highlights one of the problematic pieces of the modern food economy: the increasing reliance on foods shipped halfway round the world.Because long-distance food shipments promote profligate fuel use and the exploitation of cheap labor (which compensates for the profligate fuel use), shifting back to a more locally sourced food economy is often touted as a fairly straightforward way to cut externalities, restore some measure of equity between producers and consumers, and put the food economy on a more sustainable footing. Such a shift would bring back diversity to land that has been all but destroyed by chemical-intensive mono-cropping, provide much-needed jobs at a local level, and help to rebuild community,† argues the UK-based International Society for Ecology and Culture, one of the leading lights in the localvore movement. â€Å"Moreover, it would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable prices. † While localvorism sounds superb in theory, it is proving quite difficult in practice.To begin with, there are dozens of different definitions as to what local is, with some advocates arguing for political boundaries (as in Texas-grown, for example), others using quasi-geographic terms like food sheds, and still others laying out somewhat arbitrarily drawn food circles with radii of 100 or 150 or 500 miles. Further, whereas some areas might find it fairly easy to eat locally (in Washington State, for example, I’m less than fifty miles from industrial quantities of fresh produce, corn, wheat, beef, and milk), people in other parts of the country and the world would have to look farther afield.And what counts as local? Does food need to be purchased directly from the producer? Does it still count when it’s distributed through a mass marketer, as with Wal-Mart’s Salute to America’s F armer program, which is now periodically showcasing local growers? The larger problem is that although decentralized food systems function well in decentralized societies—like the United States was a century ago, or like many developing nations still are—they’re a poor fit in modern urbanized societies.The same economic forces that helped food production become centralized and regionalized did the same thing to our population: in the United States, 80 percent of us live in large, densely populated urban areas, usually on the coast, and typically hundreds of miles, often thousands of miles, from the major centers of food production.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -8- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONSSource G Hallatt, Alex. â€Å"Arctic Circle. † Comic strip. King Features Syndicate, Inc. 1 Sept. 2008. Web. 12 July 2009. The following is a ca rtoon from an environmentally themed comic strip. ARCTIC CIRCLE  © 2008 MACNELLY. DISTRIBUTED BY KING FEATURES SYNDICATE  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -9- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 2 (Suggested time—40 minutes.This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. She delivered the following speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Read the speech carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies Kelley uses to convey her message about child labor to her audience.Support your analysis with specific references to the text. We have, in this country, two million childr en under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years in more enlightened states. No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years.Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase in the ranks of the breadwinners; but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period (both by percent and by count of heads), as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age. They are in commerce, in offices, in manufacturing. Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.In Alabama the law provides t hat a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours, and Alabama does better in this respect than any other southern state. North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night. In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years, just tall enough to reach the bobbins, may work eleven hours by day or by night.And they will do so tonight, while we sleep. Nor is it only in the South that these things occur. Alabama does better than New Jersey. For Alabama limits the children’s work at night to eight hours, while New Jersey permits it all night long. Last year New Jersey took a long backward step. A good law was repealed which had required women and [children] to stop work at six in the evening and at noon on Friday. Now, therefore, in New Jersey , boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.In Pennsylvania, until last May it was lawful for children, 13 years of age, to work twelve hours at night. A little girl, on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon as happier people carry their midday luncheon, and could work in the mill from six at night until six in the morning, without violating any law of the Commonwealth. If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised? Until the mothers in the great industrial states are enfranchised, we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil. No one in this room tonight can feel free from such participation. The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in the knitting factories.They spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills. Children braid straw for our hats, they spin and weave the silk and velvet wherewith we trim our hats. They stamp buckles and metal ornaments of all kinds, as well as pins and hat-pins. Under the sweating system, tiny children make artificial flowers and neckwear for us to buy. They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us. We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women.But we are almost powerless. Not wholly powerless, however, are citizens who enjoy the right of petition. For myself, I Line 5 45 50 10 55 15 60 20 65 25 70 30 75 35 80 40  © 2011 The Colleg e Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -10- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS shall use this power in every possible way until the right to the ballot is granted, and then I shall continue to use both. What can we do to free our consciences? There is one line of action by which we can do much.We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children. No labor organization in this country ever fails to respond to an appeal for help in the freeing of the children. For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil! 85 90 95  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org.GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -11- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) The following passage is from Rights of Man, a book written by the pamphleteer Thomas Paine in 1791. Born in England, Paine was an intellectual, a revolutionary, and a supporter of American independence from England. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay that examines the extent to which Paine’s characterization of America holds true today.Use appropriate evidence to support your argument. If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing g overnment on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into ordial unison. There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. . . . Their taxes are few, because their government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults. STOP END OF EXAM  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. -12-

Beer Wars Case Study Essay

Introduction The market dynamics of the Australian beer market is given in the case study. The beer market in Australia is extensive due to high consumption by Australians. In the early 1800’s, there existed numerous independent breweries. Due to excise laws and better transport systems large breweries started acquiring smaller ones, and through widespread inorganic growth, by 1985 the industry became dominated by two corporate conglomerates, Elders IXL(CUB) and Bond Corporation. Both used aggressive marketing strategies for increasing market share. Top highlighted reasons for beer consumption were mixing with others, relaxing, allowing social drinking and enhancing appetite and the concept of beer being equal to ‘liquid food’. Women in general did not like the beer taste and contributed to only about 12% of the total sales volume, whereas 37% of the 54% adult drinking population admitted to be regular drinkers. Only 10% were ‘ocker boozers’ who contributed to 60% of the volume. Hotels/pubs and retail outlet routes formed the bulk of the sales. Standard beer was the most consumed at 70% followed by light beer at 24%. Males across all age groups equally represented beer consumption with little higher consumption in the 31-40 age group. The marketers strongly believed in the ‘beer image’ having a strong influence on beer brand preference. So the marketers started projecting the alcohol content by way of which they used to segment variants in different ways each brand being targeted at a specific segment. Several different brand imageries have been created. Lastly the several brands and variants that had been created with the hope of creating market share seemed to have fallen flat. A failed attempt in the same direction in the form of Swan Gold trying to entice consumption by women also failed. Problem: Due to increased competition, there was a flux of introducing new products continuously, which put in peril the older products of cannibalisation. The major objectives that the beer companies had were †¢Increase market share by acquiring customers †¢Maintenance of existing customers by ensuring no cannibalisation †¢product positioning and launch strategies for the newer brands and phasing out older brands Solution: Increase the beer market, instead of just market share The consumption of beer has been steadily increasing over the years (from around 5% in 1900 to 12% in 2000). But also around the same time, the consumption of Coffee and other milk based drinks had been exponentially increasing (from around negligible % in 1900 to around 20% in 2000). Therefore instead of eating into each others’ market share, the industry should try to increase consumption of Beer among the non-Beer drinkers and hence increase the whole pie. Encourage successful brands and terminate lagging brands Instead of keeping a huge number of brands which is leading to cannibalisation, the brands which are doing well must be encouraged and marketed well, on the other hand those that are not bringing in much profits should be discontinued. This would simplify marketing and would make it focused. Phase in brands tailored for women The exhibits show that women prefer non beer alcohol, in part due to the image of beer as a male bonding drink. Thus certain brands of beer that can be positioned as less bitter, and more female oriented can be launched. The marketing and advertising of these brands should be done in such a way that the women are targeted. Increase light beer Brands offering light beers and beers with less alcohol would serve two purposes. They would attract customers who do not drink, and also are better served in restaurants according to the exhibits given. Launching beer brands over considerable spans of time 2 versions of Power’s were launched in the same month (February 1991) while Forex Gold and Forex Light Bitter from Lion Nathan were launched with only a month separating them. Because of this no single brand is properly marketed and does not get the time to build itself in the minds of consumers. This also leads to cannibalisation.

Consider the extent to which firms within the UK post Hargreaves are now better placed to engage with eCommerce

our site – CUSTOM ESSAY WRITING – DISSERTATION EXAMPLE Introduction In the period prior to the commissioning of the Hargreaves Review by the government, concerns were raised by the government that the UK was not in a sufficiently strong position when it came to encouraging intellectual property and technology growth, particularly when competing with other jurisdictions. As a result, the Prime Minister commissioned a review in November 2010, which aimed to look at the ways in which intellectual property could be used to achieve growth in the economy. The purpose of this paper is to look at the impact of the Hargreaves Review and to consider what this means to firms looking to engage with e-commerce. Although the review aimed to look at the broader issues of the intellectual property framework, it has clearly had a greater impact on certain industries, including those engaging with e-commerce[1]. The government has largely adopted the findings of the Hargreaves Review in the report of 3rd August 2011[2] and these have been included in the Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act 2013 which received Royal Assent on 25th April 2013. These provisions will be considered alongside the background and the perceived problems that the review was looking to tackle, before looking at the likely impact this would then have on all aspects of intellectual property, as well as on e-commerce, in general. Finally, conclusions will be drawn[3] Background A fundamental part of the report is focused on the fact that intellectual property is an important aspect of achieving growth. Moreover, the government views intellectual property as a means of stimulating economic growth and this is also seen to be the case for online activity associated with typical e-commerce transactions, with the ability of companies to buy and sell items or in order to have an online presence[4]. Intellectual property laws must necessarily adapt and change to deal with surrounding circumstances; the technology itself must also become much more forward thinking. There are concerns however that copyright law is beginning to act in a way that creates barriers for the development of new and innovative product ideas. But, on the flipside, in the event that companies are able to act entirely freely, there would be no incentive to invest and the ability of e-commerce companies in the UK to compete internationally, as others simply come along and take on board their in vestment and thoughts for their own benefit[5]. The focus of the review was on the intellectual property framework and this extends beyond purely looking at e-commerce, which deals with the buying and selling of products and services online. However, for the purposes of this report, many of the findings relating to intellectual property, in general, can be seen to be directly linked to the potential stimulation of growth within e-commerce. In order to consider the impact that the Hargreaves Review will have on e-commerce, specifically, it is first necessary to look at the key proposals that emanated from the review and how these have then been adapted or applied by the government. Key Changes Proposed The key changes that were proposed by the review include[6]: creation of a digital copyright exchange, to make it much easier for organisations, including those that operate solely online, to license copyright protected works; to introduce a general right in order to allow individuals to use work where it is not possible to find the author; to place certain limits on the use of copyright, so that issues, e.g. non-commercial research and format shifting, are not seen to be an infringement; the introduction of a small claims track to the patent’s County Court, in order to make enforcement easier for SMEs; also, to support SMEs, it has been advised that there should be an investigation into the impact of having patent clusters and the ability of an SME to grow and evolve; a focus needs to be placed on assisting SMEs in getting value from the IP that they have established; and the provision of mediation services to deal with intellectual property disputes in a much more cost-effective and commercially minded way. There are multiple process based changes proposed as part the review however the actual implementation is the ongoing focus of this paper with particular reference to how the application of these changes will potentially impact on the UK e-commerce arena. Broadly speaking there are two key perspectives, the need to protect the position of companies without potentially increasing the regulatory burdens and preventing the company themselves from being involved in the infringement of intellectual property rights. By looking at the government approach to each of the recommendations, this issue can be explored in more detail[7]. The conclusion reached by the Hargreaves review that intellectual property is important for growth needs to be taken seriously and is a key merit of the proposals. More specifically, the review notes that the protection of intellectual property needs go beyond simply looking at the core intellectual property industries, but is also relevant to a wide variety of industries, some of which are operating through e-commerce alone. In many cases, there may be useful ideas and work that is prevented from being used, simply because the author cannot be located or permission cannot be obtained[8]. Of particular interest to e-commerce in the UK is likely to be the second statement that the current intellectual property nuclear framework is falling behind the technology infrastructure available for these types of firms; therefore, in order to encourage any form of innovation within e-commerce, it is necessary to have a framework in place to protect this type of investment[9]. Copyright – Modernisation within the E-Commerce Arena, The Pros and Cons The establishment of the digital copyright exchange is one of the central recommendations which are likely to have a direct impact on e-commerce firms, as well as on other industries that have a degree in reliance on digital copyright. This is one of the key benefits and merits associated with the proposal and is worthy of particular note. The review requires the government to consider ways in which it can develop an effective market to copyright licensing, which can take control of the market when it is not emerging of its own right. By creating additional copyright exchange, the UK government is able to ensure that a more efficient marketplace is provided for both owners and purchases. This makes it considerably easier for those involved in copyright, whether as an owner or a purchaser in the purchasing and giving of licences, the e-commerce arena becomes much more transparent, with a consistent approach that is relatively easy to follow due to the fact that there is one consistent digital exchange. This would enable e-commerce organisations either to purchase licences or to sell licences in a manner that is consistent and transparent to all parties, thus making it more viable to invest in copyright. It would also enable the company to gain access to copyrighted material, so that it can then develop the business without being thwarted by authors that cannot be located or similar blockages in the availability of copyright licences. The issue of copyright protection is argued to be the fundamental area of reform for e- commerce organisations post Hargreaves and will be the focus here, in order to gain a practical understanding of the impact of this review on e-commerce, in general. Several different issues need to be looked at from a practical perspective, including the fact that businesses will often be prevented from gaining access to data, due to the lack of availability of copyright licences. Other issues include the businesses themselves complaining that it is difficult to enforce remedies and that copyright is extremely complex when dealing with online violations, something which is likely to be particularly prevalent within e-commerce organisations. Regardless of the perspective being taken by each individual organisation, the fundamental argument presented by the review is that the framework for copyright law across the European Union, including the UK, is simply no longer reflective of the digital economy and e-commerce activity, from a technical perspective. Redressing the balance is a key part of the review and is likely to be the area that has the most practical impact on e-commerce. In order to consider the real impact of these changes, two distinct stages will be undertaken: the first to identify the arguments for reforming copyright; the second to look at the approach taken by the policymakers and the practical application of these changing policies. The review placed a heavy emphasis on noting that the digital economy is central to economic growth, with e-commerce being a fundamental part of the digital economy. Evidence from the European Commission has shown that creative industries are increasing at a rate of approximately 3.5%, in the UK, compared to an average across all industries of just 1%. This shows just how important it is to have the appropriate framework in place to support the digital economy and to ensure that those engaging in areas such as e-commerce have a framework within which to operate, effectively[10]. As noted by the European Commission[11] it wants to work towards a â€Å"copyright framework that guarantees effective recognition and remuneration of rights holders in order to provide sustainable incentives for creativity, cultural diversity and innovation; opens up greater access and a wider choice of legal offers to end users; allows new business models to emerge; and contributes to combating illegal offers and piracy†. The digital copyright exchange was looked at as a potential opportunity by the UK government, with the initial phase of the digital copyright now being recognised as a crucial aspect to online business and offers a real opportunity for e-commerce for those organisations to gain a much clearer idea of where copyright is owned and how it can then be licensed. As noted by Hargreaves: â€Å"an automated e-commerce website or network of websites which allows licensors to set out the rights they wish to license and allows licensees to acquire those rights from the licensors†. Although progress has been made in this area, it is unlikely that this digital copyright exchange will be able to operate as a marketplace whereby any organisation can simply log on, but rather the additional copyright exchange facility will enable an entity to interact with others through the hub created, in a way that may not have been possible previously. This is a fundamental step forward for those involved in e-commerce[12]. Although no singular digital copyright exchange has yet been established, the government and surrounding policies towards achieving this will have a dramatic impact on a variety of industries, most notably those that have historically found it difficult to manage and control copyright licences and to deal with online infringement. Despite the recognition of the potential benefits of this type of copyright exchange, the parliamentary report notes that it is crucially important that any overall digital copyright exchange which is established must not increase the regulatory burden for those engaged in e-commerce, while still offering more consistent protection and transparency within the system[13]. Certain copyright exceptions have been suggested by virtue of the Hargreaves Review, with content mining being one of the more controversial proposed exceptions. The Hargreaves review defines content mining as being â€Å"the automated analytical techniques such as text and data mining work by copying existing electronic information, for instance articles in scientific journals and other works, and analysing the data they contain for patterns, trends and other useful information†. The parliamentary report has raised concerns that this type of interaction will jeopardise primary markets when it comes to copyright works and these types of arrangements should be dealt with in contractual solutions, rather than creating a global copyright exception. By having these exceptions in place however it is argued that some of the potency of the reforms would be lost and unnecessary complexities experienced, adding to the administrative burden. The extent of the copyright exceptions are al so likely to have a dramatic impact on the practical operation of the Hargreaves Review therefore warranted an element of discussion in its own right. Although there have been notable discussions as part of the parliamentary report established a result of the Hargreaves Review, the content of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill 2013 has now been given Royal Assent on 23 April 2013, in order to deal with many aspects of the Hargreaves Review and make them statutory provisions. Some of these key changes will potentially have a dramatic impact on e-commerce. The 2013 Act has presented the Business Secretary with a much wider range of opportunities to create new rules, in order to deal with the management of orphan works, i.e. works whereby no author can be found. The Intellectual Property Office is working towards creating a situation whereby, provided an organisation or individual can show that they have made a diligent search for the original owner, the author’s works can then be licensed to them, thus creating opportunities for those involved in e-commerce to gain access to previously unavailable material. It also presents a potential challenge whereby the commerce organisations need to be more forward thinking when protecting their own copyright. This creates some difficulty of adjustment and from an administrative point of view for the organisations looking to implement these requirements. As well as the changes brought in by the 2013 Act in the UK, the government is still looking at various aspects of the EU Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, which has the underlying purpose of ensuring that cross-border e-commerce is more transparent, with little or no obstacles when trading across the EU digital single market. Furthermore, a wide variety of factors were perceived to be relevant in terms of establishing an efficient digital single market, many of which are likely to have a dramatic impact on the e-commerce industry, particularly when it comes to establishing a framework for protecting its own copyright position, as well as dealing with the opportunity to utilise information and data that would be easily be unavailable due to the author not being readily identifiable[14]. The Future for E-Commerce By looking at the various different elements of the Hargreaves Review as well as the issues are being taken forward by the UK government, as well as the EU Commission looking at the creation of a single digital market, there are several key factors being driven into the future, with the likelihood of having a direct impact on firms operating within the ecommerce arena. The key impacts that have been identified in this paper have been done with the recognition that many of these proposals remain as proposals, rather than specific rules and regulations that have yet to be implemented. There are multiple elements of the Hargreaves Review and the e-commerce conditions post-Hargreaves Review, which are worthy of recognition and are likely to have a dramatic impact on e-commerce, in the UK, in the long-term. The pressure to create an EU single market, therefore, is likely to be one of the majors driving factors, with UK firms being able to operate across the entire EU, with no barriers. While this increases opportunities, it also potentially increases competition and requires those engaged in e-commerce in the UK to become much more astute, in terms of what is happening outside their immediate jurisdiction. It is also suggested that the digital copyright exchange is going to provide a much more robust framework for those engaged in e-commerce to protect their own position, particularly when dealing with online violations of copyright which are becoming increasingly prevalent in certain industries, such as music and photography, in recent years. Fundamentally, it is concluded in this paper that the real impact is the fact that IP has brought to the attention of the legislators and has required the UK government to consider what it needs to do for the future so that those engaged in e-commerce to be able to protect their own position and to become on a level playing field with other jurisdictions. It is this recognition of the need to create transparency and to deal with many of the historic difficulties in this area that is likely to have the greatest impact, regardless of the proposals which are actually enacted in the long run. References Bakhshi, H., Hargreaves I. and Mateos-Garcia, J (2013( A Manifesto for the Creative Economy, London: Nesta. Brinkley, I and Lee, N (2007) The Knowledge Economy in Europe: A Report prepared for the 2007 EU Spring Council, London: Work Foundation. European Commission, (2012) Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights and Multi-Territorial Licensing of Rights in Musical Works for Online Uses in the Internal Market, COM(2012) 372 final, Brussels: European Commission. Ghafele R and Gibert, B (2012) The Economic Value of Fair Use in Copyright Law: Counterfactual Impact Analysis of Fair Use Policy on Private Copying Technology and Copyright Markets in Singapore, MPRA, 2012. Hargreaves, I (2011) Digital Opportunity: An Independent Review of Intellectual Property and Growth, London: Intellectual Property Office. Manyika et. al., (2011) Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity San Francisco: McKinsey Global Institute. Mettler A and Williams, A (2012) Wired for Growth and Innovation: How Digital Technologies are Reshaping Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses and Empowering Entrepreneurs, Brussels: Lisbon Council. OECD, (2012) â€Å"Internet Economy Outlook 2012† Samuelson, P, (2010) The Copyright Principles Project: Directions for Reform, Berkeley: Copyright Principles Project. Veugelers, R. (2012). New ICT Sectors: Platforms for European Growth, Brussels: Bruegel.

Marketing Communications Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Marketing Communications Plan - Essay Example The mission is accomplished and is reflected in the documentation of the report. The rapid growth and consumer acceptance of digital music had led to an tremendous increase in the production of hi-fi audio products. There has been a constant increase in the demand of audio products likes MP3’s, DVDs, CDs and so on and a large number of manufacturers and retailers are enjoying the boom in this market. There are a large number of factors which have resulted in such a success. In stereo systems and other audio products, US and European companies have survived by focusing on skill-intensive and design-intensive products. Environment: Launching the audio products in a market area where consumer awareness exists would prove to be more beneficial as no efforts would be required in monetary and non-monetary terms to make the consumer aware of the products. An internal and external analysis of the environment would prove to be very beneficial in smoothening the process of the launch of new products in a new market.

Measurement, Statistics, and Appraisal Assignment

Measurement, Statistics, and Appraisal - Assignment Example and Marko Margaritoni, a publication of 2010. The research looked at the mental, physical, and social challenges faced by women who have undergone mastectomy. Ideally the issue of breast cancer has been deemed to be a serious healthcare issue particularly to women. Over the years, cases of breast cancer have increased prompting studies aim at understanding the problem (Oluwatosin & Oladepo, 2006). In order to accomplish this task, a number of issues are critically examined including the purpose of the study, protection of human participants, data collection, data analysis, problem statement, and interpretation of findings. Purpose of study The researchers did an excellent job in introducing the study, giving relevant statistics and identifying gaps in research. According to them, little work concerning physical, emotional as well a other effects related to mastectomy has been done in relation to African women especially those living with limited resources, have little education among others. It is against this background that the researchers clearly presented the purpose of the research towards the end of their introduction. ... From the research, it is evident that the researchers managed to identify and describe the participants. They explained how they were recruited and how they obtained informed consent from the subject. More importantly, ethical clearance for the study was granted by Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital. Although it was indicated that participation was voluntarily, it can be deduced that the subjects took part in the study on their own volition since some of them declined to take part in the study and they were not victimized. The greatest benefit for participants in taking part in the study is related to medical advice they received from oncologist (Odigie, et al., 2010). It is worth noting that no risks were identified, however, there was the risk of participant undergoing psychological emotion when recalling their experiences after mastectomy. Nonetheless, this was not a serious issue compared to the benefits. Data collection All studies should clearly identify and describe bot h dependent and independent variables. In this case, the researcher listed a number of variables that were to be respondent to by participants (Burns & Grove, 2011). For instance, demographic data were collected, similarly, the following variables were identified â€Å"feeling of participants’ femininity, self-esteem, body image, the frequency of conjugal relations per week and the reasons for changes, frequencies of separation or divorce, the effect of treatment on sexual interest, ability to care for children, as well as updated marital status after 3 years† (Odigie, et al., 2010, p. 896). These variables were not fully described. The dependent variable according to the purpose of the study is psychological effect of

Ways To Improve The Impact Of Contraceptives By High School Students Research Paper

Ways To Improve The Impact Of Contraceptives By High School Students - Research Paper Example The research will use secondary data from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other medical journals. Analyzing the data collection will use both quantitative and qualitative methods to ensure that the results are correct and reliable. The major challenges of the research are the unwillingness of the students and parents to participate in an interview about sexuality and the best methods to improve the impact of the initiative. The broad topic and the lack of primary data may tamper with the results, but I intend to prove to the readers that there are better ways to implement the initiative to ensure maxi. Many researchers tend to research on adolescence behaviors and the impact of the environment on their growth and development. These researchers are broad and fail to shed light on the sexuality of the teenagers. The rising rate of teenage pregnancies in the USA led to the government approving the use of contraceptives to high school students due to the high rates of te enage pregnancies and STIs infections. The approval to provide contraceptives to these students has decreased the rate of STIs infections, but teenage pregnancy is still on the rise.  The purpose of this research is to identify and discuss ways to improve the impact of contraceptives use by high school students. Since I   believe in the provision of contraceptives to high-school students, I intend to discuss the best strategy to ensure maximum benefits of the initiative.

Everything is Miscellaneous Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Everything is Miscellaneous - Essay Example One thing that has gone at stake is the reliability of information. Wikipedia happens to be one of the most frequently and commonly consulted website for gathering information about any kind of subject. However, Wikipedia offers all its users to contribute to the knowledge it stores in its database because of which, it is not believed to be a credible source of information in the academic world. â€Å"Philip Bradley, a librarian and Internet consultant, said in the Guardian that Wikipedia is theoretically â€Å"a lovely idea,† but â€Å"I wouldn’t use it, and I’m not aware of a single librarian who would†Ã¢â‚¬  (Weinberger 132). Wikipedia rests on a miscellaneous system of spread of information. This paper critically analyzes a documentary that can be defined in similar terms. In this documentary (â€Å"Obsession: Radical Islam’s†), Islam is described as a threat to the Western culture. The documentary holds one of the most fundamental tene ts of Islam, called as â€Å"Jihad† as the root cause of terrorism in the world. Jihad is one of the most commonly misunderstood and misinterpreted tenets of Islam in the West. Because of the way it has been portrayed in the media, many people particularly non-Muslims think of Jihad as terrorism. Western media defines Jihad as radical Muslims’ declaration of war over the innocent non-Muslims. To give weight to image it wants to construct of Jihad, the documentary asserts that not only non-Muslims, but also many Muslims are also put to risk as a result of the spread of terrorism with Jihad because they are held accountable by the non-Muslims for the acts of the terrorist agencies. The documentary shows various scenes telecast on the TV channels mostly in Arabia in which Jihad has been defined as integrally associated with the spread of terrorism in the world (Munoz). For instance, a scholar in one of the clips shown in the documentary says that it is not a sin for a Mus lim to assassinate a non-Muslim because the latter is not more important than a cow. It is important to note that to understand Jihad in its true spirit, it is imperative that the history of Islam is read and Jihad is understood in context in which it has been made obligatory upon the followers of Islam. In order to understand the real meaning of Jihad, it must be noticed that most clips included in the documentary show misleading scholars that either are misinformed about the significance of Jihad in Islam or intentionally describe it wrongly so as to create confusions and controversies about Islam. Such scholars are funded by anti-Islamic agencies that want to deter non-Muslims from embracing Islam, considering the fact that Islam is the fastest spreading religion in the world today. The documentary also shares some right concepts about Jihad. This makes it a mix of correct and incorrect descriptions of Jihad. For instance, the documentary tells that Jihad’s literal meaning is â€Å"struggle† which is correct (Fatoohi). â€Å"In Qur'an it is not jihad but values like justice, compassion and forgiveness are more prominent. While these values are permanent and transcendent, war (for which Qur'an uses the word qital, not jihad) is contextual and defensive only when such situation arises† (Ali). Every year, millions of non-Muslims embrace Islam by their own choice rather than by

Old english language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Old english language - Essay Example To begin with, the role of language in one's life is one that fulfils the need to belong. (Crystal, 2005) This sense of belonging springs from one's immediate environment where there is focus on the language one speaks along with complementary elements like accent, nuances and other such features that form the general social and cultural terrain of the particular place. Language offers people first hand knowledge of a variety of symbols that one comes to associate with a place. This in turn generates a more enriching quality to one's experiences. Experiences in various spheres helps in understanding the forces within society and how these forces define and alter language. (Mercer, 1996) In knowing and learning a language, whether by birth or subsequent settlement, there is a certain amount of satisfaction that helps contribute to one's sense of identity. This also has certain mental implications as it shows the person's basic aptitudes, besides brining him or her face to face with the challenges of implementing the language. This makes a person draw from experiences of the past, learn from present experiences and contribute to future experiences, which will shape his or her overall life experiences. This also renders a certain amount of creative and communicative competency to a person and his or her sense of confidence with which he or she carries out interactions with people. This creates a working relationship between centrifugal and centripetal forces in society towards the definition and alteration of language. (Crystal, 2005) Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces Formal and Informal Means of Learning: Centripetal Forces Within every society there are formal and informal means of learning that support the definition and alteration of language. Let us stop for a moment and consider the word "formal". This word has been used above in the context of generating the difference between theory and practice as it may be seen from a variety of perspectives. To begin with, a person's formal education begins at school and goes on into college and higher institutions thereon. Yet, there is a strong play of "informal education" in a person's life. (Byram, 1994; Pp 15 - 31) Informal education begins in a person's life from the time he or she takes birth. Many studies and scientists believe that informal education or orientation towards one's basic belief and value system begins once a child is conceived in a mother's womb. According to numerous studies, a foetus responds to every little sound while in the mother's womb. This is but a small example of informal training. Informal education by no means stops once a child enters an educational institution. Formal education through an educational institution simply sharpens the brains and prepares it to recognise those symbols that will bring a person towards actual worthwhile learning through external experiences. No theory is complete without practice. In fact, any theory that has been propounded without practice is a failure towards imbibing competency of any kind within any individual. According to Lea, "In efforts to help inform educational theory they (philosophers) have dealt extensively with concepts like knowledge, teaching, learning, thinking, understanding, belief, justification, theory, the discipline, rationality and the likes." (Lea, 2001; Pp 16 - 37) The power of

Koro Syndrome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Koro Syndrome - Essay Example For example, there has been the existence of varied anxiety syndromes that involve fright of death, fear of getting castrated and concerns regarding sexual potency. The Nigerian Yoruba believed that the main cause of male impotence was â€Å"bewitchment†, in such cases a male witch would steal a mortal man’s penis to use it for having intercourse with the wife of the victim or any other woman and then return it back in an altered and manipulated form thus making him impotent for life (Koro-A culture-bound depersonalization syndrome, n.d.) What is Koro Syndrome? Koro is primarily an anxiety disorder characterized with sexual dysfunction hysteria and death. In psychological terminology, koro is basically â€Å"genital retraction syndrome† (GRS). In layman terms, it is the delusion that the genitals will be completely shrinked into the body. The male victims of Koro mainly suffer from the fear of the fact that their penises are retracting to their abdomen and as a r esult they will die when the process gets completed. In females, it is characterized by shrinking of nipples inside the breast mass. Koro mainly occurs to men and is occasionally seen in women. ( Koro- the Genital Retraction Syndrome, 2001) However, Koro is often considered a culture-specific disorder, which means only people of certain specific cultures and territories get affected by this disease, and it is not really one of those diseases generally recognized by Western medicines. It is seen mostly in Southern China, Malaysia, Singapore as well as certain parts of Africa, Afghanistan, India and even in some parts of the West. Every region has different names for the disease, like in China it is known as â€Å"suo-yang† (suo=shrinkage yang=penis), in Cantonese it is known as â€Å"suk-yeong†, in India â€Å"jhinjhini bimari† (=tangling disease) etc. (Garlipp, 2008). Koro, primarily seen in the South China region, mainly affects young normal Chinese males in th e age range of 21-40 years who have prior experiences of premorbid sexual inadequacies and maladjustments. Most commonly cited reasons of Koro Syndrome mainly include masturbation, illicit sexual encounters with prostitutes, witchcraft etc. Psychologists who laterally analyze different cultures are of the view that koro is closely integrated to panic attacks due to sexual apprehensions. Attacks are often experienced by men in situations which generally cause genitals to retract slightly, such as cold weather or emotional anguish (Koro-the Genital Retraction Syndrome, 2001). Most koro attacks occur usually at nights with common symptoms like senselessness, palpitation, pounding heart rate, fear of death, loss of penile shape and muscular tone, loss of sexual desire and power and genital tingling. It has been argued that these can be sufficient criteria for diagnosis of koro but not really necessary in any ways. The fear of depersonalization is so acute in certain cases that people of ten hold on to their penis all along during the course of the attack in fear that it might disappear inside their abdomen forever. They prefer to visually inspect their penis and touch them often to be sure of its existence and size (Koro-A culture-bound depersonalization syndrome, n.d.) Cultural Stigma One can get some insights into the causes of Koro from the Basic Chinese Culture. Koro means head of a turtle in Chinese. The Chinese, for long have been using the turtle symbol for long lasting lives and for

Social media and its usage for marketing and advertisements Research Paper

Social media and its usage for marketing and advertisements - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that in this information technology-based era every business is trying to enhance its services and products over its competitors. In this case, online support is considered to be a crucial factor in any advertising policy and arrangement. Additionally, companies and industries initiated promotion and publicity operations focused on people with the help of written sources and audio/video channels. However, this policy is expensive and its efficacy is hard to determine. On the other hand, it is generally not obvious that how broadcast marketing will play a major role in the latest information financial condition that allows for exceptionally cooperative and focused interactions. Thus, in this customer-oriented financial system, companies are trying to discover additional money-making methods to promote their business services and products-line, access existing clients, and make new users/clients across the business boundaries. Business people sometimes talk about the Return on Investment (ROI) in Social Networking. In fact, it sounds great, but what does it mean to the business people? How does it actually help them grow their business? The simple answer to these questions is that businesses could be successful through Social Networking. However, normally, social networking is a process that helps organizations establish the relationship and then continue and maintain them by means of customary practices such as telephone, e-mail, and face-to-face meetings.... Thus, if a company builds identity on the social networking site, it will allow drawing people who share their viewpoints and want to work with you (Tubb, 2011). At the present, the social networking websites have become a family name. Despite the fact that, it is someone’s confidential or professional life, they are in fact wonderful process for communicating with friends, colleagues, and making new relationships online (Sedycias, 2009). Since, a social networking web site is a web site where people are able to develop an online profile; and they mention their interests in profile, as well as they can insert links to other profiles. Typically, the users of social networking sites are able to dispense personal information, encompassing photographs, blog entries and videos. MySpace is an example of social networks, which is very popular in the same way with individuals and with music groups, who are able to market their tour dates, and transfer their songs on their profile page s (Hawkins, 2009). A social networking site is a very helpful and functional way to keep in contact with a large number of people (friends, colleagues, relatives, etc). Since, if someone has some news which he/she needs or wishes to distribute to others, then he/she can insert it on his/her personal bulletin board and it will be transferred or distributed to the people to whom he wants to share. Thus, the social networking sites can play a significant function for meeting with new people, whether on a business or friendship (Hawkins, 2009). Phillips & Phillips (1998) define the social network as a set of organizations, businesses, individuals, or other social entities

Is Globalization Ultimately Positive or Negative, or Somewhere in Essay

Is Globalization Ultimately Positive or Negative, or Somewhere in Between - Essay Example While the process has led to enormous advancements and explored unbelievable possibilities, it has also impacted negatively on many nations that seek to develop and prosper in isolation(Friedman). The advent of the internet and other forms of electronic media has made this transformation even more rapid. This paper shall analyze the good and the bad of globalization and analyze the overall impact it has on the life of human beings. The Good:- An interconnected world leads to greater opportunities and the discovery of new ways to improve living standards. Globalization has led to the coming together of the economically advanced and powerful nations with the developing states. This coming together has led to economic, political and cultural exchanges that have increased the speed of development of these less developed countries. Through transformation of technology in the form of infrastructural inputs, investment machinery, economic assistance, social and cultural exchanges and touris m, many countries have been able to break out of the shell of self restriction and catalyze their development(Weinstein). Globalization has led to the expansion of businesses across borders, creating employment, generating economic growth and facilitating prosperity. It has also led to the transformation of ideas and individuals across borders resulting in a greater amount of intellectual exchange(Friedman). The tourism industry has benefited from the phenomenon as well. Furthermore, businesses are allowed to seek new markets and no economy is disconnected or isolated when it faces severe difficulties due to the functioning of global institutions that act responsibly towards members of the international community, such as the UN, IMF and World Bank. Furthermore, the interaction of cultures, religions, castes and creeds has facilitated a decrease in racial discrimination and a broader understanding of people from different regions. People have better access to education due to standa rdized tests, improving education methods and new sources of education via informal, online and formal trainings(Allen and Thomas) The Bad:- The interconnectedness of economies often fare well for the powerful and lead to exacerbation for the less privileged. According to western arguments, Globalization results in increased inequality among rich and poor nations whereas counter arguments from the south state that globalization provides good opportunities for their countries(Weinstein). It will be fair to analyze what are the cons that substantiate arguments that globalization is bad for the global community. Many developed countries are home to commercial giants that have operations across the world. The most pervasive exhibit of this situation is the functioning of Multinational corporations. MNCs often have most of their revenue stream and profits concentrated in the country of inception or ownership however, most of their production is outsourced to less developed countries. The main motive behind this is to extract cheap labor and make people work under unsafe and environmentally threatening conditions; often at below minimum wage. The poor law enforcement situations in less developed countries lead to embezzlements and violations of minimum wage acts. There are also cases of extreme exploitation and tyranny. The most

De-Scalers Essay Example for Free

De-Scalers Essay When water is heated limescale deposits can form, especially in machines such as fully automatic coffee makers, espresso machines and all hot water units. In this context you often hear about hard and soft water. The hardness of the water indicates the proportion of limescale. Your water supply company will provide more information about hardness of your water. If your groundwater flows through calcareous rock layers, eroded magnesium and calcium carbonate will cause limescale deposits in your water. Why do I need to remove limescale? In addition to loss of coffee flavor limescale deposits can severely damage your machine and shorten its lifespan significantly. Limescale deposits in your machine lead to: Longer scalding time with higher electricity charges Lower water temperatures causing inferior coffee flavor Blocked machines pipe Corrosion of metal parts and sealing gaskets Expensive repairs Only regular and timely descaling with a high-quality descaler, such as ceragol ultra Premium Descaler, ensures a long lifespan and optimal coffee flavor. Your coffee maker is a high-tech machine which needs regular, gentle care. What do you expect from your descaler? Limescale deposits are removed by acids in the descaler. Only the right mixture of effective acids and gentle additives for the metal parts and sealing gaskets allows for optimal results during descaling. The quick reaction time and immediate reusability of the machine after rinsing are basic demands on a premium descaler. Why amidosulfonic acid? Descaling with citric or acetic acids The big problem when descaling with citric or acetic acids are the released flavor additives which cause an obtrusive smell during descaling. The plastic parts of your fully automated coffee maker tend to taken on these smells and influence the smell and taste of your coffee negatively. Plastic parts and sealing gaskets of your unit can be attacked by the vinegar or acetic acid. Citric acid tends to flake during descaling. This can block the valves and water pipes and lead to high repair charges. An additional problem is that the limescale is actually sealed in by an indissoluble layer which occurs repeatedly when using descalers based on citric acids. Descaling with vinegar, acetic acid or citric acid takes significantly longer than descaling with ceragol ultra Premium Descaler. Descaling with amidosulfonic acid Descaling with amidosulfonic acid, the active ingredient of our ceragol ultra Premium Descaler, does not require any reaction time. During the descaling program the limescale is dissolved and flushed away. This process is completely odorless and neutral in taste. After thorough rinsing your machine is once again food-safe. The additives in ceragol ultra Premium Descaler guard and protect the metal and plastic components of your fully automatic coffee maker. The right time to descale Automatic coffee machine w. auto descaling indicator Please ask your water supply company about the hardness of your water and set the water hardness according to the operating instructions of your manufacturer. Your machine will indicate when descaling is needed. Automatic coffee machine w/o descaling indicator Descaling becomes necessary as soon as you notice a delay in operation or irregularities during coffee preparation. Another telltale sign is the reduction of the amount of foam produced on the coffee. The machine must be descaled periodically and in due time.

Complex Leadership Styles And Success Management Essay

Complex Leadership Styles And Success Management Essay Leadership style is too complex to limit to a simple formula, although there are some personality traits that are effective for becoming a successful leader. Some of these belong to leadership, while others are used in project management. Some general characters are common in most of the leaders such as: creativity, intelligence and courage. However, there are two opposite traits among leaders especially in critical situation which can determine whether the leader will be successful or not. Some leaders tend to blame others and avoid responsibility, while other leaders accept the failure and believe that outcomes depend on their decision and also their actions. Today, being an effective project manager is one of the most important issues in each organisation. This chapter will demonstrate the gist of activities which have been done about leadership so far. It will demonstrate the differences between management and leadership within the project environment. Leadership can be expressed in terms of the ability to build the instruction of project, motivate the members and maintain the performance of different groups in the organisation. In general, managers should deal with complexities and leaders should focus on changes. Leadership is related to conflict management and soft skills but management is related to formulating, monitoring and processing. Accepting failure but not defeat, considering the past mistakes during the project, and being the optimistic person should be considered for leaders to overcome the problems and direct the project in the proper way. It is difficult to establish a certain instruction for becoming an effective project manager although many different leadership and management styles have been built to develop the project accurately. All of the leadership styles and management technologies have been made in order to finish the project on time, precisely and satisfactorily. Effective leaders should first find out the purpose of their leadership (George, 2006). . Leadership theories General view Leadership has been considered more than any other aspect of human behaviour in the project management study. Leadership is the ability to bring people together to attain the results over time. Leadership is the long-term process and it needs years of progress and hard working. The leadership for 21st century becomes more complex and should be redefine in order to achieve the great goals (George, 2006). Many investigations have been carried out in leadership studies so as to find an appropriate leadership theory. For instance, Bass (1985) has had a great impact on leadership theory. He identified different types of characteristics, behaviours, and leadership styles. In spite of that, the science of leadership does not have certain factors which can be applied for all of projects in the world. Measuring and assessing projects in different places are not the same due to different situations. Therefore, many aspects of leadership still stay theoretical and cannot be practical (Gehring, 2007, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). All general leadership theories such as transformation, transaction and path-goal indicate that the project managers should own the required traits to lead a project effectively. In other words, effective project managers should recognise which approach is appropriate for applying to project leadership. Pinto et al. (1998) stated that Any project managers ability to lead effectively is augmented by his or her understanding of alternative approaches to leadership. Therefore, leaders should extract the skills of their employee and apply them to the project in order to lead the project accurately (Gehring, 2007). History of theories Theory of leadership like other theories has the history of formation. The first one was called superior individual and related to ancient Egyptians kings. The second was the great man theory which made by developing the first theory and indicated that a great man could determine the history of his country. The third one was the man of the hour and it was the modern form of the great man theory. This theory expanded and made the basic recorded leadership theory that called trait theory. After this time leadership was broadly modelled due to impact of great leaders on history such as Napoleon, Frederick, Churchill, Roosevelt and etc (Gehring, 2007). Trait theory Generally, traits are concerned with personal characteristics such as courage, intelligence, creativity and appearance. Trait theory has remarkable mistakes due to its limitations. The reason is that it is difficult to determine which leader can be known as a successful leader. Also, many trait lists have been made for leadership; therefore it is not easy to make a trait list as a reference. In addition, leaders who only possess the trait list cannot be called as successful leaders. Finally, by the end of 20th century, this theory is replaced by modern theories which concerned by behaviour of leader rather than traits (Gehring, 2007) . This theory indicates that effective leaders are born, not made. It supposes that effective leaders have almost the same traits. Three major factors are considered in this type of theory: personal appearance, personality, and abilities. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) found the main traits of effective leaders; intelligence, technical knowledge, self-confidence, influence, ambition, and integrity. This classification for effective project managers is different. It includes problem-solving and negotiating abilities, initiative, orientation, communication, perspective and self-confidence (Turner, 1999, Turner, 2005). The authentic leaders should have the five main traits for leading the organisations such as: showing self-discipline, making connected relationship, leading with both hearts and heads, training solid value, and encouraging their purpose with passion (George, 2006). Competency Unfortunately, the leadership terms such as: leadership trait, leadership attribute, leadership style and leadership competence have very narrow definition. Therefore, sometimes these terms have been used in an incorrect position. However, it should be noted that in the modern project, all of these terms should be considered in order to evaluate leadership success (Gehring, 2007). According to trait theory, some researchers believe that the effective leaders have the common inherent competencies. Although, this idea is just for inherent competencies and the personal competences can be learned as well as personal characteristics during the work (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Some authors believe that all of people have the power of leading in them; some of them in government, some of them in business, and etc. This power as series of competencies should be discovered in a certain time by themselves to serve others (George, 2006). Projects need project management competencies in order to be accomplished successfully. Competence can be defined in terms of skills (including intelligence, management and problem-solving skills), knowledge, traits, aptitude, behaviour, and motive. The competencies have been identified by the project manager competency development (PMCD) framework: knowledge, performance and personal. The personal one also has been classified into six major competencies: (1) personal effectiveness, (2) influence, (3) Managerial, (4) cognitive, (5) human service and (6) accomplishment (Gehring, 2007). Many taxonomy have been made for the competency, although, one of the comprehensive one was made by Dulewicz and Higgs (2003). They defined fifteen leadership competencies for three types of leadership: intellectual, managerial skill and emotional. See table 2.1(Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003). Table 2.1: Fifteen leadership competencies and the competencies profiles of their styles of leadership (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003). The competency leadership theory was made in 1990 in order to recognise the competencies of effective leaders. It shows that effective leadership can be obtained only by learning. Different combination of competencies can make different styles of leadership; therefore, they can be useful in different situations. Accordingly, Bass (1990) stated that certain leaders are more suitable for stable circumstance and others are suited to an unstable circumstance (Turner, 2005). It should be noted that the leaders in certain industry can very rarely to be effective in other industries where they have not enough experience. Thus, the structure of industry can impact on competence of leaders (Groysberg et al., 2006). Major leadership theories Many leadership theories lists have been identified over the last century. One of the significant of these lists is classified into six theories: (1) trait theory, (2) competency theory, (3) behavioural or style theory, (4) contingency theory, (5) visionary or charismatic theory, and (6) emotional intelligence theory (Turner, 2005). The behavioural or style theory is related to behaviours and assumes that effective leadership can be obtain during the life and effective leaders are not born naturally. The Cognitive theory assumes that an effective leader can be made in a special environment. Path-goal theory is made through cognitive theory. In pas-goal theory leaders should help members to find their path to their goal. This theory determines four leadership behaviours: directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented (House, 1971, Turner, 2005). The visionary or charismatic theory appeared in 1980 when business leaders changed their strategy due to critical situation. Two leadership types of this theory are transformational (people-focused) and transactional (task-focused) which are made by Bass (1985). Later, Bass and Avolio (1995) developed these transformation and transaction leadership styles and found that transformation style has greater influence on the project than transaction one. The transformational one is usually for high difficulty circumstance and the transactional one is usually for low difficulty circumstance. However, the appropriate one is the combination of both types which can be useful in diverse condition (Turner, 2005, Bass and Avolio, 1990). The emotional intelligence theory indicates that the leaders emotional intelligence is more effective than the leaders intellectual ability for the project. The main areas of emotional intelligence are as followed: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding (Turner, 2005, Goleman, 2002). Leadership Models Firelighter and fire-fighter There are two general styles of leadership in project management: fire-fighter and firelighter. The leaders who pay more attention to anticipate and even prevent problems are known as proactive leaders or firelighter, although, the leaders who tackle immediate problems are known as reactive leaders or fire-fighter. There should be a linkage between proactive decision and reactive decision to control the project accurately. Therefore, recognizing the necessary skills for the project manager is vital in order to make the shift in leadership style. However, it is obvious that project leadership which tends to be proactive in controlling projects is more effective (Barber, 2005). Proactive decision affects the direction of project and reactive decision solves the existing problems of project. These two leadership styles might be known as transformational leadership model or firelighter and transactional leadership model or fire-fighter. Transformational leadership is about lighting the fires of stakeholders motivation and creativity. In contrast to the transformational style is transactional leadership style which indicates the reactive behaviour of leadership (Barber, 2005). Bass and Avolio (1990) pointed out that there are times when leaders may need to apply a more reactive transactional style and be fire-fighters, but the main outcomes for success depend on the leaders capacity for being a firelighter. Active and effective leader combines leadership style (how the leader affects) and best practices (the best day to day working behaviours). The best practices for effective leadership style include parameters such as: vision, credibility, collaboration, communication, action-orientation, feedback and recognition, and accountability. In addition, the research has proved that the most popular leadership style for running safety and creating high-performance culture is transformational one (Krause, 2007). Transactional leadership style might be passive or active, although both approaches stay reactive. Fire-fighter leaders who just take action when they face to the problem are known as passive and other fire-fighters who trace deviation from standards tools and react to problems are known as active (Barber, 2005). The firelighter leadership style is more complex than the fire-fighter style. The fire-fighter style is overcoming the inertia of reactive leadership. Many different fire-fighter-firelighter models have been built to control the project precisely. One of these models separates the transactional style into three parts; maintenance, reactive and avoidant. Figure 2.1 (Barber, 2005) illustrates this model. Maintenance comprises initiating structure, emotional consideration and contingent reward. This part can prepare the requirements to transform the fire-fighter leadership style to firelighter one. In other words, the maintenance behaviours make a bridge to the transformational leadership style (Barber, 2005). The reason for that is the forming of credibility and trust of leadership which enable the leader to be accepted among team members as the firelighter leader. The firelighter part of this model combines the maintenance behaviour and the transformational behaviour. The contribution of this model is to expand understanding of the importance of the firelighter role in project management (Barber, 2005). The significant point of this model is the active transactional behaviour. It can provide a bridge to firelighter style for project managers who are confused by reactive fire-fighting style. Maintenance behaviours explain the tasks, assign responsibilities, identify rewards for attempt and observe the personal requirement of the team members (Barber, 2005). Bass (2003) indicated that contingent reward is the capability to establish fundamental objective and to present bonus to project members accordingly. It indicates a combination of task oriented and stakeholders supportive manners. In the initiating structure, the leader should clarify contingent rewards, direction of the project and assignment for the team members. Emotional consideration is related to team structure, personal requirement and ambitions (Barber, 2005). Leadership in project management Figure 2.1: The fire-fighter-firelighter model of leadership (Barber, 2005). The leader should defuse conflict between the team members and provide an appropriate environment for the team members. Bass (2003) expressed that firelighter leaders should persuade the team members to be inventive and imaginative by searching new assumptions, reframing problems, and applying new approaches. They also define four vital elements for transformational leadership; idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and intellectual simulation (Bass, 2003). Firelighter leader should enhance the understanding of the advantages of the project among the stakeholders. They should persuade their members to think about their action beyond simply what is in it for them. In other words, they should raise the consciousness of followers and move the focus of follower away from their self-interests (Bass, 2003). In addition, Bennis and Nanus (1985) asserted that the effective leader can manage changes and unpredictability by encouraging members to be innovative to overcome the difficulties. Therefore project managers are known as fire-fighter due to continually solving the problem and put out fires. Project manager and leadership style Project managers should trace the progress of their project and anticipate any problems before they will occur in the future. So, it is wise that project managers can be proactive and forestall the problems rather than being reactive and solve the problems. Project managers who focus on proactive leadership style will be more successful in completing projects accurately. Thus, project managers are known as fire-fighter due to continually solving the problem and put out fires (Barber, 2005). A project manager is a businessman, a psychologist, an accountant, and a technician. The project management institute (PMI) has developed classification; the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) which identifies eight main management competencies: scope, time, cost, risk, quality, contract, communication and human resource. Project managers should be highly effective people. They should possess knowledge of the technical details of their jobs as well as the ability to obtain the goals by leading the project team effectively (Barber, 2005). It should be noted that there is not only a comprehensive leadership style for leading a project successfully. However, using different leadership styles for each stage of a project can be more appropriate (Frame, 1987). Project managers leadership style affect their implementations, although, they usually tend to be task-oriented rather than people-oriented. They should create an appropriate environment for their project members. Therefore, their competencies are evaluated in terms of their success in leading the projects. In addition, it should be mentioned that in multiple-cultural projects, project managers should use particular leadership styles (Turner, 2005). Leaders with any leadership styles should be careful with the hazards of leadership in order to prevent to lose their way such as: being an imposter, being a shooting star, being a loner, being a glory-seeker, and being a rationaliser (George, 2008). Implication of the fir-fighter-firelighter model The fire-fighter-firelighter model builds a combination of firelighter and fire-fighter styles. It is useful for different styles of managing especially those which need remarkable changes in the project management environment (Barber, 2005). Firelighter leaders encourage the team members to use their creativity and adopt the requisite manners to deal with the problems. They demonstrate a combination of transformational and transactional behaviours. Nevertheless, they tend to be active leader and rely on transformational behaviour rather than reactive behaviours of management by exception. Thus, It is essential that the leader tend to be proactive in order to conquer the forthcoming problems (Barber, 2005). Software tools in project management by monitoring past data can strengthen a reactive leadership style. The leader who trusts on monitoring software tools would be the reactive fire-fighter through the project cycle. The concept and control of forthcoming problems is the most important ability for being an effective leader in project management (Barber, 2005). Integrating leading and managing Leading versus managing Many different rules have been established for differentiating the leading and managing so far. However, it is difficult to determine the role of them in succeeding of a system. Some researchers state that the competences and traits of leaders and managers should differ from each other in order to perform their tasks successfully. Managers tasks are related to effectiveness, direct and stability of the project, although, leaders tasks are related to adaptation, innovation and flexibility of the project. In other words, managers are practical, critical, and logical, while leaders are imaginative, inventive, and sensitive (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). There are diverse views about managing and leading. Some people who are more pessimistic about managing would like to have leaders in their systems. Some people who are more optimistic about managing would like to have both manager and leader in their systems. The other attitude is to having one person as a both leader and manager in a system. Nevertheless, it is very rare that someone can perform both managing and leading tasks in an organisation. It should be considered that in any of these perspectives, too much attention on leading or managing makes an organisation to be unsuccessful (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). If a system is more complicated, then a managing role is more important and if a system has an active atmosphere with much uncertainty, then a leading role is more significant. In other words, a system which needs more changes requires a leader rather than manager and a system which needs more process and orders requires a manager rather than leader. Herein, the significant point is to inter-relate the leading and managing roles in an organisation. Therefore, if any organisation can establish this joint properly, then it would have the better performance and successful project accordingly (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Different approaches There have been different approaches for definition of managing and leading. This debate is still continuing due to complexity of appreciation of these contexts. The first approach is to make a coequal role for both leading and managing and defined each of them more broadly. The second approach is to define a leading role as the previous definition but add it to managerial roles. The third approach is to establish a set of roles without identifying as leading or managing roles. The most appropriate approach should be defined in terms of the performance determinants in the flexible leadership model. In spite of that the best approach is still unknown and further research is needed to obtain it (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). The Flexible leadership model Three determinant of organisational performance can be recognised by the flexible leadership model; (1) effectiveness and popularity, (2) invention and changeability, and (3) human resources and relations. Each of these determinants is more important in an especial situation. Human resources and relations are more important when replacing skilled members is difficult. Organisations which consider this determinant are more likely to have effective employee skills. The example of this is General Electric Co. which has been identified as the best organisation in training employees. The reason is that, it uses sequence plan to prepare employees for empty key positions (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Leadership behaviours There are many kinds of leadership behaviours that can affect the performance determinants such as task-oriented which are related to efficiency, change-oriented related to changeability, and relations-oriented related to human resources. Table 2.2 (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005) illustrates these leadership behaviours (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Management programs and systems Management is an essential work for any organisation. Organisations prepare their members to be effective in all levels. However, there is not a certain code of conduct for management. The lack of common acceptable knowledge, skill and practice lead to management as a practice rather than profession. However, with enhancing the technology in management some programs and systems cover this problem (Lorsch and Clark, 2009). Management programs and systems also can influence the performance determinants. They are demonstrated in Table 2.2 (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). One of these systems is benchmarking. It is a systematic program for improving adaptation, services, and products. It should be noticed that in all of organisations, programs and systems should be directed by leaders to ensure that a management system is carried out accurately (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005) Table 2.2: Leadership behaviours and management programs and systems (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Leadership behaviours and management system Both of these ways can affect the performance determinants and they act as supplementary for each other. The leadership behaviour can be applied in an organisation to develop new programs. For instance, if manager persuade employees to attend a new training programs and apply them to their job, then this program would be more successful. In the other hand, management program also can improve the effect of leadership behaviour. Employees cannot be innovative without programs. In spite of that in some cases the application of leadership behaviours are limited by management programs (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Performance determinants Each of performance determinants can affect the other determinants. Sometimes this affection leads to improve the other determinants and sometimes it leads to degrade the others. Therefore, it is not easy to build a certain formula for enhancing all aspects of performance determinants simultaneously. However, the right balance among performance determinants can be useful for improving the organisational effectiveness (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Project success factors In the 1970s, project success factors have been determined in terms of developing system, improving of implementation, and evaluating time, cost and process. In the 1980s, critical success factors (CSF) was brought up in terms of the quality of the implementation, stakeholders activities and organisational objectives (Turner, 2005). Many efforts have been done for establish the comprehensive project success factors. One of the most popular lists was made by Pinto and Slevin (1988). See Table 2.3 (Pinto and Slevin, 1988) . Table 2.3: Project success factors (Pinto and Slevin, 1988). The other important list which covers the previous efforts was made by Turner (1999). This list includes five main factors for project success: context, attitude, sponsorship, definition, people, system, and organisations. See Figure 2.2 (Turner, 1999). Figure 2.2: The seven forces model for project success (Turner, 1999). Project managers leadership competencies and project success Project manager competencies The six main schools of leadership have been recognised by Higgs (2003): trait, behaviour, contingency, visionary, emotional intelligence, and competency. Leadership is defined in terms of these schools as a combination of personal characteristic and competencies (i.e. skills and knowledge). This combination can create different leadership styles which are suitable for different situation. Moreover, competency school has been identified as the most important school of leadership in project management. Therefore, more studies on this school is required for leadership of project management (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Personal characteristics and competencies of leaders can influence skills, knowledge and effectiveness of projects accordingly. Thus, assessing the leadership competencies is essential for any organisation. Many efforts have been undertaken for assessing leadership competencies such as multi leadership questionnaire (MLQ) made by Bass and Avolio (1995). However, the documentation has shown that they are still not trusted by all of organisation(Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Goleman (1996) asserted that two factors are very important for success of projects: emotional intelligence (EI) and intellectual aptitude (IQ). In accordance with this idea, EI model has been made and used by organisations as the most important factors due to its variation in the performance of project. In general, four key competencies have the major role in leadership performance such as: emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and motivational. Intellectual competencies (IQ), managerial competency (MQ), and social and emotional competencies (EI) are the significant elements of leadership competencies (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000b, Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000a, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project competence and success of project management are closely interconnected. Many competencies lists for project managers have been determined such as: knowledge (qualification), skills (ability to do diverse tasks as: technical, administrative, planning, budgeting, leadership), and core personality characteristics. The effective project leaders should have the basic characteristics such as: credibility, problem solving, tolerance, flexible and communication. However, the researchers have not been able to make a certain link between project manager leadership competencies and project success (Pinto, 1998, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project success There have been many measurement tools for assessing the project success in terms of time, cost and function. The common tool of evaluating project success is critical success factors (CSFs). These days, the modern instrument can take into accounts the parameters such as: client satisfaction, stakeholders ideas, product and service success, business and commercial success, performance improvement, and system benefit. Nevertheless, there are some hazards in projects which can delay the process of implementations. These can be appeared in planning, controlling, and performing of tasks (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). There is a close connection between the project managers concept of project success and his or her competence. Some researchers have defined this relationship in terms of people, project strategy, leadership style, teamwork, and industrial relations. Although, others have been defined it in terms of cost, time and quality of project and ignore the influence of people on projects. According to project success, Jugdev (2005) found the four key parameters as follows: (1) The project sponsor should have enough desire to carry out the project, (2) The working relationship between project sponsor and project manager should be adjusted accurately, (3) A project manager should tackle complexity and uncertain situations, and (4) Stakeholders idea should be taken into the success criteria (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Instruments Today, managers can measure their performance by an intangible variable based more on perceptions rather than factual proof. It includes the quality of management and the status of relationship with the leaders, colleagues and employees. Geoghegan and Dulewicz (2008) identified that there is a statistically significant relationship between a project managers leadership competencies and project success. They used two different types of questionnaire to approach their idea. The first one is the leadership dimensions questionnaire (LDQ) made by Dulewicz (2005) and the second one is the project success questionnaire (PSQ) made by Pinto (1986) (Budd Jr and Marx, 1999). LDQ This tool has been worked in terms of respondents leadership competencies that evaluated on fifteen aspects of leadership. It includes seven EQ competencies five MQ competencies, and three IQ competencies. It has been known as one of the most popular instruments and has been used in diverse public organisations such as: the Royal Air Force, the Home Office, the Royal Navy and private organisation such as DHL. Each dimensions of this tool can be acceptable by reaching the reliable level (i.e. Cronbachs alpha > 0.7) (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). The example of LDQ questionnaire that has been filled out by 80 project managers is shown in table 2.4(Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project managers work in different par