The role of the community worker is fraught with tensions and dilemmas Free Essays

string(45) " 5 years later this still is a lasting view\." In Britain in the 21st century, community workers are often linked with economic regeneration and consultation, empowerment and capacity building. This is in total contrast with the 1970’s when community work was very closely associated with social work. (Twelvetrees, 2003. We will write a custom essay sample on The role of the community worker is fraught with tensions and dilemmas or any similar topic only for you Order Now ) Twelvetrees suggests that at its simplest community work is the ‘process of assisting people to improve their communities by undertaking collective action.’ (Twelvetrees, 2003.) Community work though is not just carried out by community workers, community leaders, support workers and many others may choose to call themselves community workers. The majority of community work is carried out by paid workers and they undertake a wide range of functions. Community workers are classically seen as a guide or catalyst, enabler or maybe a facilitator. Community workers ‘go’ to the place of the group and can advise its members on how they can do what they want to do. They can also cover roles such as secretary or chair, broker or advocate, but most important being clear about the fact that they must be clear about the role which they are playing at a certain particular time. Twelvetrees, (2003) suggests that community workers should be a ‘Jack of all trades’ who can take on different roles and approaches and are willing to bring them into play in different situations. Community work therefore has a wide skill base with a great emphasis placed on the ability to make judgements and build relationships with others. Community workers must be able to adapt to each new situation and be able to listen, understand and act in an appropriate way to the situation that they are involved with. Butcher, (in Butcher et al, 1993) suggests that on the most basic principles community stands for the idea that community is a network of people who share a common interest. For many, community is where they can both have a sociological and psychological link to others. Sociologically they can ‘be part’ of the community and can ‘identify with’ it psychologically. These two factors greatly strengthens the idea that community workers work with groups of people who have a common interest and reason for being together. Summarising the above Community work can therefore be best described as both a set of values and as a set of techniques, skills and approaches which are linked to these values. Twelvetrees (2003) suggests that these values are to do with justices, democracy, love and empowering, and ‘getting a better deal’ for those who are in some way disadvantaged. Primarily community workers must be able to establish relationships with others see the world through the community’s eyes and find ways to assist them to help themselves. The theory behind most community work is basically about helping people to get a better deal, primarily by making this happen themselves, by being a facilitator and empowering the community groups in which one is working. Derrricourt and Dale, (in Jacobs et al, 1994) suggests that no one can work in community work long before realising that even ‘the simplest thing is difficult’. Community work it’s self is a task of working with groups of people who may have different ideas but empowering them to come to a mutual agreement and find common ground in order to make the ‘project’ work. In any real life situation within community and youth work there will be pressures and constraints on a worker to operate in some ways rather than others. Whatever the ideology, the worker must select actions which seem most likely to help the members of the particular community to get a better deal for themselves and become more confident and skilled. Twelvetrees (2003) suggests that while the values of community workers will quite legitimately influence their priorities, they also have to be pragmatic about choosing which approach is likely to work best. One of the major sources of tension within community work is that some workers can sometimes go into a new project with the agenda already clear in their head, with no room for changing it. By having this approach community workers produce a great deal of tension simply because they are meant to be helping the community it’s self get a better deal through empowerment but by coming in with a fixed agenda it suggests that they have it all worked out. This leaves no room for any sort of consultation or community group meetings and can take away nearly all the interest by the residents. By not using community consultation the residents can very easily loose interest and involvement in a project if they are suspicious of the fact that it is not what they want to see happening. Community workers must be careful to go into a project with an open agenda and the ability to mould the agenda to what the residents want or face tension and the possibility of the lack of support of the community that they are working in. This happened in my local community. A substantial grant was won to improve the town. The council decided to create a community centre that would house a cyber-cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ and open access hall for a variety of activities. It seemed like a good idea to the council yet the local community just wanted the money to be spent on tidying up the council estate, a new set of playground equipment and a new layer of paint in the church hall that the community had always used. Unfortunately the community worker and the council did not listen to what the residents wanted, and 5 years down the line the community centre is un-used except by a mothers and toddler group, with the rest of the community groups preferring to use their old hall. This project has tarred the council with a stereotype that they do not listen anyway so the local community has lost any belief in the fact that they are in it for their interests, even 5 years later this still is a lasting view. You read "The role of the community worker is fraught with tensions and dilemmas" in category "Papers" Community work often involves inter-agency working. Inter-agency work brings together a range of individuals, organisations and interest groups. By working with these agencies it can bring about tensions between the different managers, and can bring about competition and misunderstandings. Working with different agencies can seem like a good idea but there are many issues that can be raised and these can have a big effect on the overall ‘community; formed by the worker. Because each agency comes with its own agenda then their will be differences in the organisational systems. Banks et al (2003) states that different agencies have different systems for allocating work and recording and sharing information, this can cause many internal issues surrounding the smooth running of the project. When trying to work as a community worker to bring about change these issues must be carefully addressed. The tension will always be there because of the different agencies involved with their own interests but the role of the community worker here is to make sure that the project does not suffer and that the issues are dealt with in a open arena. Take for example a youth action project may include the police, youth workers and nurses. All these come with different agendas, youth workers looking at informal education and welfare, nurses on health and police officers on law enforcement and crime prevention. (Banks et all 2003) All of these different agenda have to be carefully managed in order for the project to be successful. Each agency must understand the importance of the project as a whole and be able to communicate any issues that it has with the other agencies. This is where the community worker can get stuck in the middle, between the different agencies and stuck in with inter-agency politics instead of being out in the community. Dilemmas also form part of the daily planning for community workers. Take for example the planning of a new project, does the worker go for a big and high profile project that will involve the whole community but may not be very effective due to the fact that it may never reach its goals. Or does the worker settle for the small project that will enable him/her to achieve the desired outcome and be able to address a certain issue that the community has raises like youth ‘hanging about on the streets’. This causes the community worker to face the fact that he either has to work with all the community, which he is likely to get more funding and support for, or just to focus on an achievable project like talking the youth ‘boredom’ that is happening. Dilemmas surrounding confidentiality is always a difficult to decide the ‘right’ course of action. Although community workers are not seen as a counselling service, many see workers as a trusted person in the community to talk to. In this situation confidentiality becomes important, but also the rules of breaking confidentiality have to be addressed as well. Confidentiality has its limitations to be enforced and this can cause the dilemma to the worker as to what is ethically right. Should the worker pass the information on or keep the confidentiality that he promised. (Roche, 2004) This issue was brought up when I was working as a youth worker in the local youth club setting. A young woman approached me saying that she needed to talk. Due to the fact that I had time to spare and she seemed distressed I let her talk and told her everything that she said would be confidential. She then told me that she was getting beaten up at home but did not want to it get out as she did to want her and her siblings to be spilt up. I spent a whole supervisory session talking to my supervisor about confidentiality. In the end I had to break it as a way of helping that young person to escape the endless circle but it was not a light hearted decision. My trust had been broken and since then the young girl has not come back to the youth club, but I know that she is now safe and living with a foster family and her siblings. One dilemma that community workers often face is the fact of accountability and who are they actually accountable to. Many workers would suggest that they are accountable to the community groups as they are working for what they need but others may suggest that they are accountable to the state and their employer. Community workers are employed by a wide range of bodies, including local authorities, primary care trusts, regeneration partnerships, charities, housing committees, the list is endless. All of these bodies have their own organisational and departmental aims for the community worker’s role, and the worker is accountable to in a legal/employment sense to their employer. (Henderson and Thomas, 1992) In any community work there is the potential for a complex layering system of accountability, as managers may be employed by some agency to mange work funded by their agency. (Banks, 2003) this is where community workers can find them selves pulled in different directions and must always be careful about what they do. In some cases they may have to balance contradictory and compelling demands and attempt to make sense and achieve them in order to carry out the desired aim. This may be where they community project has been given a set of money from the Church of England for a youth project, this project has then started to deal with people from all religions coming to the project. In order to retain the centres success the worker does not want to ban the youth from the centre due to the fact that they are benefiting from it. Yet the worker is going against the aims of the funding application. In this case the worker has to be accountable to both the Church of England and the youth who are attending the project. In order to attempt to solve this situation then the worker must talk to the Church and attempt to re-structure the funding application so that it can be used across the project and not just on the youth of the Church. (Adapted from Brierley, 2002.) Bryants, (1982, cited in Jacobs et al) suggests that a community worker acts as a catalyst and has nine skills: 1. relational 2. communication 3. organisational 4. mediating 5. bargaining 6. entrepreneur 7. researcher 8. political 9. tactical. In order to be all these then at some point there will always be conflicting ideas and dilemmas to be addressed. One can not attempt to fill all theses roles of a community worker and still be able to work on a level ground with others. Although all of these are very important the fact that a community worker can relate to others within the community is essential and the skill of being able to accept differences and be able to address these is a skill which is learnt and will always be important in our world of work. There will always be tensions and dilemmas to address but these must not get us down. We must learn to take everything in our stride and learn from our mistakes, being able to see where we went wrong and be able to apply these lessons learnt to our future practise. Our strategy must be based on a clear awareness of what we as workers are aiming to achieve by our intervention and use negotiation and communication to overcome any difficulties that we encounter. How to cite The role of the community worker is fraught with tensions and dilemmas, Papers

Strategy of Samsung Electronics-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: A brief description of the Organisation, Justification for why you have selected it and why it is perceived as being excellent in its field. Answer: Samsung Samsung was consolidated in 1938 as a South Korean global organization. The company is the largest manufacturer of mobile phones and smart cells. In July 2017, the market value of the Samsung electronics rises by the US $316 billion after overtaking Intel group. The company is a major manufacturer of electronic components such as lithium-ion batteries, chips, and flash memory. The purpose behind choosing Samsung electronics is that the organization is world's second largest information technology company after Apple. Samsung electronics has operations internationally and domestically. Strategy of Samsung electronics The company strategy that focuses on manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries. The company is a leader in major innovations in the electronics which provide a wide array of ground breaking products. In total company consist of 6 design labs that focus on continuous technological advancements (Lawaspect, 2017). This makes their product popular in the market. Technology advancement need amount to be spend. Company spends more than 6 billion dollars annually on product research. The strategy of the company is to deliver high-quality product along with the innovative design and patterns. The company always try to bring innovation in the product they are providing to the customer. This helps in attracting the customer and enhancing the customer experience (Michell, 2010). Business model of Samsung Samsung electronics has functioning in the segments of consumer electronics under different verticals. The products of the company are directly catered to the business houses or to individual customers. Samsung follows different channels of distribution such as direct retailers, retail outlets, distributors, telecom companies, etc. this makes the product available to the customers easily (Song, and Lee, 2014). The company follows strategy for sponsoring a range of international sports events such as London 2012 Olympics. This enhances the brand image and reputation of the company. The strategy of providing innovative products having different design will enhance the customer satisfaction. This also makes the customers believe that company provides differentiated and quality products to wide range customers. Promotion strategy for any company plays a vital role in the operations of the company. The company can communicate attractive deals and plans to the customers by doing promotion in the market (Researchomatic, 2013). CAGE framework of Samsung Samsung electronics have operations at different geographic places. The company consists of different cultural values from its rivals Apple, HTC. The company believes in reducing the economic distance. Products of Samsung are available and affordable for all income group peoples. The company evaluates and analysis the strategies before implementing. Samsung launched low-cost smartphones (J and on series) in India after understanding the Indian market. The consumer demand throws light towards the low-cost smartphones. This approach helps the company in enhancing the goodwill and market share (Chang, 2011). Microsoft is an American multinational technology company who is having headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft Australia is the Microsoft organization backup arranged in Australia. The organization was established in the year 1985. This organization is driving the organization in programming, gadgets, administration, and arrangements. As of now, the organization comprises of 7 territorial workplaces the nation over. The purpose behind choosing Microsoft is the company is listed in top 5 companies. The company is popular in the market and having a good competitive advantage. It is considered as one of the largest technology firms that create a good competition against the rivals. Strategy of Microsoft Microsoft productivity and business process section include permitting and subscription income for office. It uses advanced technology which helps in enhancing the customer satisfaction. Intelligent cloud is one of the competitive advantages of Microsoft. The company makes a strategy to achieve USD 20 billion in commercial cloud annualized revenue run rate in the year 2018. The company performs merger and acquisitions that help a company in enhancing the capabilities, product range, and value offering. In the year 2014, a company acquires Nokia Corporation's devices and services business for USD 9.4 billion. In the fiscal year 2016, Microsoft completed 17 acquisitions for which company paid in cash. The cash amount paid by the company was USD 1.4 billion (Dudovskiy, 2017). Business model of Microsoft Creating a strong developer community is an essential element of Microsoft business model. The company business model focuses on enhancing the development of innovative products and customer satisfaction. The company creates a platform-based-ecosystem that provides benefit from cross-side and same-side network effects between users and the application developers. This helps the company to understand the demand of the customers. The network helps a company in accelerating the growth and success. Microsoft creates profit from individual customers by providing office services. The business model of the company also focuses on the adoption of new technologies which help the company to develop the software. The company is the largest developer of a wide range of software products. The share value and brand value of the company are driven by flexible pricing, familiarity with legacy products and better support. Microsoft creates profit through Windows Phone licensing, Windows Embedded and Patent Licensing. The business model of the Microsoft also includes the money flow-in from the different sectors of different products. These all are basic elements that are considered in the business model (Worstall, 2012). CAGE framework of Microsoft CAGE framework (includes different types of cultural, administrative, geographic and economic factors) did not create any impact on a business model of Microsoft. Microsoft business is expanded in the world. This is the reason Microsoft has nearly 90% share in the desktop operating system market. The company is having a strong position in the market and user familiarity with OS. OS mostly comes with new computer and laptops. That makes the people aware of the services, Microsoft provides to its customers (Hasan, Ibrahim, and Uddin, 2015). Even there are some of the softwares which run only if the PC contains micrsoft.NET Framework. Culture values of the company are clearly visible through the team bonding. Sustaining in the competitive market is possible due to the team work. Microsoft is also known for the best place to work. There is no impact of the CAGE framework on company's working. References Chang, S.J., 2011. Sony vs Samsung: The Inside Story of the Electronics Giants' Battle For Global Supremacy, John Wiley Sons. Dudovskiy, J., 2017, Microsoft Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage, viewed on 24th August 2017, https://research-methodology.net/microsoft-business-strategy-and-competitive-advantage/ Hasan, M., Ibrahim, Y. and Uddin, M.M., 2015. Institutional distance on cross-border mergers and acquisition performance: a hypothetical framework. In Proceedings of the Asia Pacific conference on business and social sciences, Kuala Lumpur. Lawaspect, 2017, Samsung's Corporate Strategy and Competitive Advantage, viewed on 24th August 2017, https://lawaspect.com/samsungs-corporate-strategy-competitive-advantage/ Michell, T., 2010. Samsung Electronics: And the Struggle For Leadership of the Electronics Industry, John Wiley Sons. Researchomatic, 2013, Samsung's Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Retrieved on 24th August 2017, from https://www.researchomatic.com/samsungs-sustainable-competitive-advantage-160561.html Song, C.Y. and Lee, K., 2014. The Samsung way: Transformational management strategies from the world leader in innovation and design. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Worstall, T., 2012, Is Microsoft Moving To The Apple Business Model?, viewed on 24th August 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/10/28/is-microsoft-moving-to-the-apple-business-model/#6aec3b2d174

Essay Examples on Warhol Essay Example

Essay Examples on Warhol Paper 1st Essay Sample on Warhol This is an image from Andy Warhol.When this was displayed in 1962, it was in a nearby gallery with a sign that said, Get the real thing for 29 cents.Not to forget the humor, the underlining thing is that Warhols work threatened the concept of art as serious and transcendent: artist intentions devoid of satire seemed as cheerfully vacuous as his subject matter.With this one project, Andy changed art in a new way.Although it could be thought of as vapid, I think it was a smart move on the artist, because he was, as many great artists do, taking down the structure of art and making people think about what art is again.Pop arts celebration of the banal and its unapologetic dismissal of higher aims soon lost their original shock value, yet Andy, its best known person, remained on top throughout his lifetime. Born in Pennsylvania in 1930 with the name Andrew Warhola, he graduated college from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949.He then moved to New York City where he became invol ved in commercial art and won several prizes.His development in fine art began with wry, delicate drawings and culminated in the hard-hitting graphic style that became a huge success.He had a solo show in New Yorks Stable Gallery in 1962 and it brought him instant fame. In his studio he mass-produced many of the peaces that we see today.The pop artist not only depicted mass products but he also wanted to mass-produce his own works of pop art. Consequently he founded The Factory in 1962. It was an art studio where he employed in a rather chaotic way â€Å"art workers† to mass produce mainly prints and posters but also other items like shoes designed by the artist. Thefirst location of the Factory was in 231 E. 47th Street, 5th Floor (between 1st 2nd Ave).Warhol’s favorite printmaking technique was silkscreen. It came closest to his idea of proliferation of art. 2nd Essay Sample on Warhol Andy Warhol, the American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and filmmaker was born in Pittsburgh in 1928.Andy Warhol graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in pictorial design, with hopes of becoming an art teacher in the public schools. While in Pittsburgh, he worked for a department store arranging window displays, and often was asked to simply look for ideas in fashion magazines.While recognizing the job as a waste of time, he recalls later that the fashion magazines gave me a sense of style and other career opportunities.Upon graduating, Warhol moved to New York City in 1949 to pursue a career as a commercial artist and illustrator for magazines and newspapers.Although extremely shy and clad in old jeans and sneakers, Warhol attempted to intermingle with anyone at all who might be able to assist him in the art world.His portfolio secure in a brown bag, Warhol introduced himself and showed his work to anyone that could help him out.Eventually, he go! t a job with Glamour magazine in September of that year.He soon became one of the most successful illustrators of his time and won numerous awards for his work from the Art Directors Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts.Much of Warhols commercial work was based on photographs and other types of source images, a process he would continue to rely on for the rest of his life. In 1956 Warhol traveled around the world for several weeks, visiting many countries in Asia and Europe.In the late 1950s he began to devote more energy to painting.He made hisfirst Pop paintings, such as the Campbells Soup Can, and Green Coca-Cola Bottles, in the early 1960s.These created a sensation in the art world and launched Warhol as a celebrity. Warhol had a life-long fascination with Hollywood stars.In 1962 he began a large series of celebrity portraits, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay Examples on Warhol specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Essay Examples on Warhol specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Essay Examples on Warhol specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

The Diversity of the Leisure Industry Essays

The Diversity of the Leisure Industry Essays The Diversity of the Leisure Industry Essay The Diversity of the Leisure Industry Essay This table shows the North of England participate in more reading, singing (13% compared to 10% in E England), dancing (11% compared to 10% in E England) and painting (12% compared to 9% in E England) than the East of England. This shows that the North of England has more creative tendencies. The only activity that is the same for both regions is watching TV at 99%  The East of England has many historical activities to participate in, such as abbeys, monasteries, castles, cathedrals, museums, historic houses, gardens and manors, whereas the North of England has more sport-based activities such as golf-clubs, stadiums, climbing centres, and surf schools. North England also holds the Great North Run. The East of England also holds sporting activities, although these differ from North England sporting activities, for example, horse riding and adventure parks. There is a difference between parts of Britain and their participation in active leisure. 62% of people who live in Scotland participate in active leisure 58% of people who live in England participate in active leisure and 57% of people who live in Wales participate in active leisure.  In the UK, the top five most popular active leisure activities are walking (with over 40% of the population participating), swimming (with over 30% of the population participating), keep-fit/yoga (with over 20% of the population participating), cycling (with over 20% of the population participating) and cue games (with over 18% of the population participating) The top 3 most popular passive activities in the UK are watching TV (with over 99% of the population participating), listening to the radio (with over 88% of the population participating) and reading books (with over 62% of the population participating).  Summary  The UK and Russia have very different climates and cultures, so therefore their leisure activities are also very different. Russia is a keen sporting country, successful in sports such as boxing and ice-skating, a sport which could rarely be done in the UK due to its climate. The UKs most popular sport is football, but also participates in rugby, cricket, tennis and golf. Russian residents also enjoy watching the theatre, whereas the UK has been more influential in the cinema.  Russia holds many celebratory events such as Music Spring, an international music festival, White Nights, where the last 10 days of June are celebrated with merriness and staying up late. A film festival is also held in odd-numbered years. A popular event is the Russian Winter Festival, celebrated in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Novgorod, from late December to early January. In the UK, the events are Guy Fawkes Night, Christmas, New Years, Halloween, St. Georges Day, St. Davids Day and various music festivals, such as Glastonbury.

Illusions and disillusionment in A Passage to India Essay

Illusions and disillusionment in A Passage to India - Essay Example E.M. Forster in his A passage to India creates a world which is full of illusions. The characters cherish certain illusions in their life around which all their hopes lie. These illusions involve different social and religious myths. In this hostile universe faith is an illusion which is unsuccessful to solve the problems faced by modern man. Crews relates that in Forster’s novel â€Å" Romantic love, God’s love , and friendship are exposed as futile. Adela Quested cannot love. Mrs. Moore’s Clapham-style Christianity fails her. Aziz’ belief in friendship shatters† ( qtd in Koponen 39). Hence, the writer has knitted his story around the theme of disillusionment from the cherished beliefs and dreams. Loss of faith The novel’s pervasive theme seems to be loss of faith. Mrs. Moore’s disillusionment with her faith after the cave’s incident shows that the characters have been brought from the world of illusions to the world of disillu sionment where all faiths are exposed as hollow. The ambit of disillusionment encompass all religions including Christianity and Islam. The writer though has portrayed Hinduism with a bit of superiority, yet that faith has also left its disciples in a situation of skepticism .Mitra finds out the causes of writer’s obsession with the theme of â€Å" loss of faith† and traces its origin in the post world scenario which made the poets like T.S.Eliot show a disillusioned world sans religion and other human values. Forster according to Mitra, â€Å" was sensitive to the decline of spiritual values , the hatred that had crept into the people of different cultures and creed, the overall loss of faith† (66). Mrs. Moore experiences disillusionment after the incidence of Marabar caves where she realizes that echoes are not some Delphic response rather they are the offspring of â€Å" human consciousness† and they only respond when human mind/conscious projects† them. She gains the ultimate realization â€Å"that life never give us what we want at the moment we consider appropriate† (Forster 9). Similar instance of this realization occurs â€Å"when what the cosmic forces reflected was only the echo of what Aziz and Fielding projected† (Murtaza and Ali 267). The geographical setting also enhances the thematic content of the novel. On their way to caves the travelers experience â€Å" a spiritual silence which invaded more senses than the ear. Life went on as usual, but had no consequences, that is to say, sounds did not echo or thoughts develop. Everything seemed cut off at its root, and therefore infected with illusion† (Forster 60). Loss of faith is limited to the domain of religion. It is also experienced in social domains as well. Friendship Aziz’s concept of friendship amounts to a mythic belief in the holiness and strength of this bond and its power in bringing people close together. Aziz alludes to Frie nd â€Å"as a Persian expression of God†. Both Aziz and Mrs. Moore declare each other their friend. Though this friendship between and Indian and a British isolated Aziz from his own community. But even this friendship is â€Å"undermined by betrayal, often due to the disdain of the members of British Raj for Indians† (Koponen 41). The disillusionment comes when Aziz finds the hollowness of his illusions. The friend whose companionship Aziz boasted of did not bear â€Å" witness in his favor, nor visited him in prison† ( Koponen 41). The rulers and the rules could never be attached in the bond of friendship and the result is Aziz’ final cynicism in the fidelity of his friends for whose sake he has to suffer the ordeals of social stigma and jail. The initial illusory belief in friendship is now tinged with rationality

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 11

Project Management - Essay Example There must be a staunch and dedicated leader, behind the excellence of any initiated project within the society. All the benefits behind the projects emanates from good leadership. I would want to be a team leader in the community development funds board to help in the coordination and initiation of community based development projects. The project management can help in the achieving my goals. It will enable me to schedule my entire project plan and tackle them chronologically to achieve the predefined goals. The project management would equip me with required management skills for the success of a project in progress. As project leader, I would ensure that all the key plans for success are in control. For example, clarification of the objectives, before the start of the project, it must be subject to review by the team leaders. Development of the plan would help in managing the project in phases, making it easy to accomplish a bigger task in smaller bits (Carroll 10). The risk management plans enable the planning and implementation of precautionary measures that can inhibit the smooth evolution of the proposed project. I would engage in management and motivation of team members to ensure team cohesion in achieving the goals. Effective leadership demands four types of intelligence including intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual intelligence to institutionalize moral

The effect of transformational leadership style on organizational Innovation

The effect of transformational leadership style on organizational Innovation 1. Introduction This study endeavors to develop comprehension of how transformational leadership style of top management affects innovation at the organizational level. The topic is of paramount importance because of the ever increasing pressures of modernization and innovation on todays global economy. It has become indispensable to practice a leadership style that makes firms innovative and adaptive to change. Firms are shifting their focus from knowledge economy to creative economy, where corporations will compete on the basis of imagination, innovation and creativity (Oke, Munshi Walumbwa, 2009) Boston Consulting Group Inc surveyed over 900 senior executives and identified innovation as the key driver of top-line revenue. Analysis of firms transforming due to innovation provides evidence for this statement. For example, the highly successful iPod of Apple Inc.s, that earned devastating revenues for the company; the role of Blackberrys success in the transformation and emergence of Research in Motion; process innovation at Southwest Airlines Co. that transformed it as an economical and triumphant airline; and Procter Gamble Co. outperforming its competitors by focusing on design innovation. Innovation aims at bringing about change in the status quo. It can be defined as discovering (creative thinking ideas) and commercializing those discoveries (implementing the creative ideas). Creativity new idea generation alone are insufficient for innovation; implementation is also a cornerstone of the innovation process. (Oke, Munshi, Walumbwa, 2009) Plentiful studies have led to the identification of factors that can stimulate innovation at the organizational level. In broad terms, innovation is the adoption or execution of unaccustomed and convenient ideas by individuals in organizations (Amabile Conti 1999) p.360). Factors that are known to have an influence on innovation include leadership (Mumford Gustafson, 1998; Amabile, 1998), a work environment that is conducive for innovation (Amabile, 1998; Oke, Munshi Walumbwa, 2009), CEO salary (Markman, Balkin and Gomez-Mejia, 2000), organizational culture and climate (Mumford Gustafson, 1998; Jung, Wu Chow, 2008; Oke, Munshi Walumbwa, 2009), environmental attributes (Jung, Wu Chow, 2008), learning capability and intra-organizational networks (Tsai, 2001) and job complexity type of supervision (Oldham Cummings, 1996). Among these abundant factors, the leadership behavior of managers has been spotted as one of the most important of all (Amabile, 1998; Jung, 2001; Mumford, Sc ott, Gaddis Strange, 2002). Leadership was merely a concept before the 19th century and it was in the start of the 19th century that it emerged as a word in English language (Davis Cushing). Over the years, leaders and leadership have been distinctly defined by various scholars. Leadership is a process whereby a leader changes the course of action of another group, due to the interaction of his personality characteristics and those of the group (Bogardus, 1934). Leadership is the direction of human collaborators for the accomplishment of a goal. A leader successfully guides his human assistants for the achievement of particular ends. (Prentice, W.C.H. 1961). Leadership is a goal directed endeavor with the aim to influence the activities of followers through communication process. (Donelly, J.H. Ivancevich, J. M. Gibson, J.L. 1985 Leadership is the situational effort towards goal achievement by the process of influencing the individual or group activities. (Hersey, P. Blanchard, K, 1988). Leadership is the f ormulation of a transparent and complete system of expectations for the purpose of identification, arousal and utilization of strengths of all the resources of an organization, the most important of which is human resource (Batten, J.D. 1989). Leadership is the art of influencing individuals to yield their best output/ performance for the accomplishment of a goal, project or objective. (Cohen, W.A. 1990). Leaders are the people who obtain commitment from a working group of individuals and then motivate them to accomplish the outcomes of a pre-planned direction. (Conger, J.A.1992). Leadership is a process in which a leader sets the goal for an individual or group of individuals and takes all of them together with him or her with proficiency and devotion (Jacques E. Clement, S.D. 1994). Leadership is an unrealizable trait that cannot be distinctly defined. This in fact is a good phenomenon, because if the followers were aware of the definition of leadership, they would probably overr un their leaders. (Scott Adams, 1996). Effective leadership is about enabling ordinary people to deliver extraordinary results in the face of challenge and change and to constantly turn in superior performance to the long-term benefit of all concerned (Charlton, 1993). The more recent definitions conceive leadership in terms of influence relationships, power differentials, persuasion, influence on goal achievement, reinforcement, role differentiation, initiation of structure, and perceived attributions of behavior that are consistent with what the perceivers spotted leadership to be. Recently, many management scholars and gurus have identified adaptive leadership as the key enabler to cope with the ever increasing challenges of the corporate world. (Bass, Avolio, Jung Berson, 2003). So the adaptive leadership behaviors that have proved to be more effective than other leadership styles in organizational innovation have been labeled as transformational. (Lowe, Kroek, Sivasubramaniam, 1996; Gardner Avolio, 1998; Howell Avolio, 1993). Transformational leadership capabilities continue to be the hallmark of innovative firms. Successful leaders like J.R. Immelt, CEO of General Electric; A.G.Lafley, CEO of P&G; Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors Tata Group and Steve Jobs of Apple are the prominent figures who have fostered innovation by their adaptive behaviors. Transformational leadership holds four theoretically discrete dimensions: charisma or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Idealized influence reflects the degree to which followers admire and hold their leaders as role models. Leaders exhibiting idealized influence are ethical, consistent, share risks with followers and prefer the needs of their followers above their own needs. Inspirational motivation points to the degree motivation of followers by delineating new opportunities, providing meaning and challenge to followers work and articulating a strong, realistic and shared vision of the future. Intellectual stimulation refers to the ability of a leader to question the assumptions and thinking of followers, reframe problems, stimulate intellectual curiosity, approaching problems in new ways, soliciting creativity and innovation from followers through novel approaches and avoiding open criticism for individual errors. Finally, leaders who provide individualized consideration pay attention to individual needs for growth, development, support and achievement. They act as coaches or mentors and establish a favorable environment for innovation; where values are diversified and learning opportunities are created (Bass Avolio, 1993) (Some versions of Bass Full-Range Leadership Theory identify 5 components of transformational leadership by breaking down idealized influence/ charisma into idealized influence or attributed charisma. For the sake of simplifying this research, idealized influence and charisma have been grouped together in this study). 2. Research Design 2.1 Main Objectives The aim of this study is to probe the following objectives: To discuss the philosophy, attributes and elements of transformational leadership and innovation To spot the existence of transformational leadership style at Telenor Pakistan To the asses the level of organizational innovation Telenor Pakistan To identify the effect transformational leadership style on organizational innovation 2.2 Hypotheses to be tested The objective of this study is to spot the presence of attributes of transformational leadership i.e. idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation, estimate the level of organizational innovation and examine the effect of transformational leadership on organizational innovation. The working hypothesis within this context will be as under: H0: Transformational leadership has no effect on organizational innovation. H1: Transformational leadership has strong effect on organizational innovation. 2.3 Scope of the study The range of application of this study is limited to the telecommunication sector in Pakistan with specific focus on Telenor (Peshawar). Transformational leadership style will be judged on the basis of four dimensions, that is, charisma or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Furthermore, the effect of transformational leadership on organizational innovation will be analyzed. 3. Review of Literature (Burns, 1978) stated that transformational leaders stand above the common place. They indulge in a mutual interaction with their followers that raises the understanding, goals and mission that results in the ultimate arousal and transformation of both the leader and the followers. (Bass, 1985) At the other end to transformational leadership lies transactional leadership; where the leaders try to maintain the status quo. Followers are motivated on the base of extrinsic rewards, such as promotion and monetary benefits. It is an everyday terrestrial transaction of value, where leaders only provide needed value to individuals in exchange for their services. (Jane. M. Howell, Christopher A. Higgins, 1990) The most successful leaders are gifted with qualities of transformational leadership and charisma. They are far more influential and innovative than the leaders having style other than transformational. (David A. Waldman, Bernard M. Bass, 1991) linked the themes of nurturant and persistent leadership with transformational leadership theory. Furthermore, the role of transformational leadership behavior in various stages of successful innovations was clarified and implications were presented regarding the proposed model. (Dougherty Hardy, 1996) Transformational leaders intellectually stimulate their followers. This fosters unaccustomed and creative thinking and working processes that pave the way for new technology and knowledge, which are necessary for organizational innovation. Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, and Herron (1996) have spotted the damaging effects of transactional leadership on creativity. Bono Judge (2004) have supported this proposition in their recent meta-analysis. (Sosik, Avolio Kahali, 1997) Transformational leaders easily adapt to exploitative and exploratory thinking processes which in turn yield creative ideas and effective solutions to problems. The effectiveness of transformational leadership at stimulating unconventional and innovative thinking of followers is far greater than that of other leadership styles. (Bass, 1985; Gardner Avolio, 1998) proposed that transformational leaders have the ability to create personal and professional commitment from their followers towards satisfying upper-level needs like self-actualization and self esteem. (Oldham Cummings, 1996; Amabile, 1998; Zhou, 2003) added to this research finding by suggesting that this commitment boosts the inherent motivation of followers, which is considered to be an essential driver of individual creativity and organizational innovation. (House Shamir, 1993; Jung Avolio, 2000; Mumford et.al, 2000) Leaders possessing transformational attributes have the ability to regroup the values and norms of their followers in a better way. They encourage the progress of personal and organizational changes and facilitate their followers to go beyond their initial performance expectations. (A.Oke, 2002) was part of a study carried out on the organizational innovation of AXA insurance, Ireland. It was revealed that due to the transformational leadership style of John. ONeil, the CEO, a non-innovative firm was transmuted into an innovative one. To achieve this level of creativity, the physical spaces were decorated with eye catching colors and employees from all levels and functions were made to work together in order to stimulate creativity. The results of this transformational behavior were soon evident in the form of 150 new business ideas during 6 months. (Shin Zhou 2003) found that positive relation was discovered between transformational leadership and creativity of subordinates on the basis of a study conducted on 290 employees and their supervisors belonging to 46 Korean companies. (Jung, Wu, Chow, 2008) concluded in their research that a positive relation has existence between the transformational leadership of CEO and organizational innovation. This effect is moderated by variables such as organizational structure, culture and external environment. These results are agreed upon after testing multi-sourced data from 50 Taiwanese electronics and telecommunications companies. (Oke, Munshi, Walumbwa, 2009) found that transformational style of leadership strongly enhances creativity and innovation regarding exploratory (creating something of a totally new and radical nature) and exploitative innovation activities (incremental improvements and refinements to something that already exists). These leaders have the ability to transform or change, which makes them the main drivers for innovative processes. (Lale Gumusluoglu, Arzu IIsev, 2009) suggested that transformational leadership style has strong influence on both the individual and organizational innovation. Individually, transformational leadership is positively related to the creativity of employees. Furthermore, transformational leadership and organizational innovation are spotted to have a positive association between them. These results are the outcome of a study conducted on 163 managers and RD personnel from 43 Micro and small sized software development companies from Turkey. (Khan, Rehman and Fatima, 2009) studied managers from telecommunication sector in Pakistan and explored the positive effects of transformational leadership on organizational innovation. (Mariana Makri, Terri A.Scandura, 2010) identified the strong relation of operational leadership (the dimension of leadership which reflects the ability of a CEO to refine the existing paths to growth or tapping new paths by reframing and extending the boundaries of the firm to products and markets) and creative leadership (the ability of a leader to contribute to the social, human and knowledge capital of his firm) with the quantity and resonance of innovation. The hypothesis was tested over a sample of 77 high technology firms. 4. Research Methodology 4.1 Sources of data This research will make use of both primary and secondary data. Transformational leadership style will be judged on the basis of primary data obtained through interview and questionnaire. The level of organizational innovation will be assessed by primary data obtained through questionnaire and secondary data gathered from the companys publicly disclosed financial statements. 4.2 Research instruments Questionnaires and structured interviews will serve as instruments of this research. The extent of transformational leadership will be measured using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass and Avolio, 1995) (Annexure-A). MLQ is a well validated measure of transformational leadership and has been used extensively in prior research (Awamleh and Gardner, 1999). Each respondent will be asked to rate five aspects of his/her leaders/ top-managers behavior related to each of the four dimensions of transformational leadership (idealized influence/charisma, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation). The responses will be anchored by a 5-point response scale (1-not at all, 2-once in a while, 3-sometimes, 4-fairly often, 5-frequently, if not always). While measuring organizational innovation, a composite measure will be used to capture the broad aspects of innovative activities (Balkin et als, 2000). Two measures will be used to tap into different aspects of innovation. First is the annual RD expenditure as a percentage of sales revenue over three years prior to this study (i.e.2008-2010). This ratio indicates a firms emphasis on innovation (Hitt, Hoskisson and Kim, 1997; Balkin et al, 2000). These figures will be obtained from the companys publicly disclosed financial statements. Second, different respondents actively following the telecommunication industry will be contacted. The reason is to include different fruits of innovation such as process and service improvements. Each respondent will be offered two sets of questions about the sample firm. The first set includes a single question regarding his/her familiarity with the company. The possible answers will be 1-not familiar with the company at all, 2-somewhat familiar with the company, 3-very familiar with the company. Only the respondents with responses 2 and 3 will be considered. The second set comprises of 20 questions (4 questions each for scanning five types of innovative activities i.e. product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, strategic innovation and organizational climate innovation) in order to rate the level of organizational innovation (Annexure B). The 5-point Likerts Scale (1-strongly disagree, 2-disagree, 3-neither agree nor disagree, 4-agree, 5-strongly agree) will be used to anchor the responses. 4.3 Sampling design (a) Universe / population There are many national and multinational telecommunication companies operating in Pakistan. All these national and multinational firms collectively form the population/ universe of this research. Results will be generalized and recommendations will be forwarded considering all these firms. (b) Sample size and selection This research will adopt a case study approach by focusing on Telenor (Peshawar) as the sample firm. A simple random sample of 30 employees of low, middle and top-management of the company will be selected with the aim of assessing transformational leadership. Furthermore, organizational innovation will be judged by studying a random sample of 30 respondents that are directly or indirectly associated with the telecommunication industry in Pakistan.