Economic Practice Coursework Essay Example for Free

Economic Practice Coursework Essay My choice of article is the one relating to the oil crisis in Libya, and how it affects the economy of other countries. The article discusses the impacts of the oil cut of Libya, supplying it no more. It starts off by talking about the impact on shares and the price of oil barrels, which is the fastest and direct impact of the oil cut. As supply from Libya territory stops, supply to the entire world is crippled, as Libya is one of the countries that supply most worldwide used oil. As it stops supplying, it shifts the supply and demand graphs completely. In a short term, supply shifts to the left, as it is less. In doing so, for the same amount of oil, the price has gone to a higher figure. By doing that, the shares index of the western countries, such as European countries and the US have dropped, because of the adjustment via disposable income. That happens because of the effects of the shifting of the supply curve. As the price goes higher, the general public have less money to spend on the economy and firms, decreasing the firms profit, damaging that countries economy. Thats the reason for the index to go down, and thats an example of mid-term effects of the oil crisis. In the midterm effect, the demand for oil will decrease, as people will cut back on the oil, and look for alternative routes. On the long term, the demand for the cars will decrease, as people will not want to buy cars, and try to sell their cars. This will affect the economy drastically, as the car companies are a big part of that countries economy. The general public will search for alternative routes to travel, as oil prices are higher. The car companies will have to spend much more money on researching alternatives such as hybrids and electric cars which are starting to appear. The public transport system will benefit from this situation, as more people would want to travel via train or bus, as it is much cheaper and faster. The government would get more money from this, so it would improve as much. The oil companies would want to drill and search for oil in more remote areas, causing more deforestation, and much more money spending by the companies and time. Thus some small oil companies will be closed down due to the high demand of oil, as they cant compete with the oil monopolies. The oil monopolies will also be affected, as some major companies oil supply relies a lot on Libyas supply. Regarding the oil companies, they had to pull out staff from troubled countries, not only Libya, but other countries that are getting affected by that state, and are choosing to cut off supply as well, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. As they do this, the productivity drops to zero in those countries, and there is a high chance of the companies losing contact with their oil. The unrest in Libya may affect the Saudi Arabia, and that concern is affecting a huge majority of stock holders and companies, specified before, changing the stock markets, especially the European and Asia. Relating to airlines, as the supply and demand graphs change, the oil supply for airplanes gets crippled, so more money has to be spent to get the same amount of oil, making the costs bigger, resulting in a bigger price for the customer for the same flight compared to before the whole situation. There is also a chance of investors backing out from the airline business, resulting in smaller profits for the companies and much more monetary issues.

Design Symbolism in Museum Architecture

Design Symbolism in Museum Architecture Altes Museum in Berlin was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1830s. They way is has been done inflected many architects work. From this building, we could feel Schinkel desires to provide the people who lived in or visited his buildings with subtle spatial experiences and consider the relationship of building with their landscape settings. He diverted the focus of architectural concern away from the design of facades as two-dimensional graphic compositions and towards ideas exploiting the three dimensions of space together with a fourth that of movement in time. This implied a richer and more complex conception of architecture, one that was not merely preoccupied with issues of style and proportion. When you walk into this museum, the first thing you will notice is broad stair upwards and 18 ionic columns in elevation. Columns are sandwiched between a podium and an entablature. As you climb the broad steps, you will go through these ionic columns which form an 87 meters long portico with statues along the side. This is the moment you feel you are not only the observer but a part of this architecture or a participant in this spatial experience. There are options for further movement. You could walk through the rotunda which is the heart of the building, and then go into the galleries. Or you could turn left or right then climb up the stairs to the upper level straightly; you could look back through the double layer of columns to the outside or into the rotunda. It is a great in-between space which connected outdoor landscape and inside world. You could literally see through the space, smell the fresh air, and feel the hierarchy and transparency of the layout Schinkel carefully ar ranged. Also, you could feel you are part of this experience by being in the spatial transition and connection. This building is not merely a matter of visual appearance and sculptural form but is also an instrument for orchestrating experience, it designed to take people move up and down, inside and outside by stairs, change their view by through columns and levels. POMPIDOU CENTRE The George Pompidou Centre in Paris built between 1970 and 1977 by the architect Renzo Piano Richard Rogers. The building housed arts, books and contemporary recreation. The site of this project was a massive car park. Rogers and Piano won the competition; theirs first plan is to use the half of the space available leaving the rest as a forecourt. The decision actually became the most successful one in the design. The structure of Pompidou Centre is simple and repetitive. The architects put the functional parts which would normally be inside on the outside of building. All the building faà §ade covered with glass, which both reflex and absolve the city. Six walkways have been installed on every floors facing to the forecourt and the city centre. Outside of the structure frame, the huge escalator was placed which transport visitors up to the fifth level. These two super layers on the frame of the building give the visitor a kind of industrial image. People moving through the transpierced tube to get the floor they want to go to. It is not only a building with skeletonal volume and providing sufficient wall structure but also the huge lattice truss provides the flexibility. The architects decide to build a flexible shelter and provide public space to wait and see, rather than make a monument or cultural space at the first place. The forecourt is as important as the building to people. It is a real livable urban space in the dense environment. It also makes the building more belong to the city. The forecourt has a gentle slope; force visitors pass the entrance area slowly. There is no significant separation between the forecourt and the lobby. The ground level is also a huge open space with no columns, where people could feel the continuity of space. The forecourt introduces the centre and the entrance is the continuity of the city. The forecourt also exhibits the life of the city, so too do the faà §ades. The walkways is not only free circulation space, they also reflex the meeting point between the building and the city. So the whole faà §ade is accentually a public space. Different movement is unrestricted and free in this space, from street to the forecourt, the tube to the walkway. Visitors do not need to pay for going into the escalator, for the full experience of the whole sequences. It is so livable. Although, it is a huge scale almost twice high as the surrounding building, but it is not separated from the city. It is the most popular building for visitors and locals, and also became a monument of the city. People not only come for the facility but the place and the views. TATE MODERN Tate Modern is one of the most famous national galleries of modern art in London. It seated at the bank side, linked to St Pauls Cathedral by the Millennium Footbridge. It was used to be a Power Station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and has been regenerated by Herzog de Meuron from 1994-2000. The main entrance located at the west side of the building. When you walk close to the building from west, firstly, at your left hand side, you will see a green forecourt with black benches linear distributed. At right side, you would find a ramp downwards, about 18-20 meters wide. Walking down gently, you could see the glazed door and curtain wall and the sign on top, and people would finally realize it is the way in. The height of the door is really low with quite long extension on the top, so while you passing it you could not appreciate fully vision of the inside right away. The ramp doesnt stop here but extends down to the inside. The only different is two meters wide steps along the right hand side of the ramp after passing through the glazed door. While you carry on walking down for couple of steps, you will suddenly get full image of the inside the Turbine Hall, a huge scale space. The architects leave the whole space purely appear to the visitors. Five-storages tall, 3,400 square meters space which was housed all the electricity generators of old power station. It is a space for specially-commissioned works by contemporary artists. A liner roof light dropped from the top, continued down to the back wall. This hall has been compared with the Bibliothà ¨que royale de Paris by Étienne-Louis Boullà ©e, about the similar full-length skylight and enormous height above, also the opportunities for people to look the central area from the side. They want to make the space as breezy and easygoing, and display itself at the beginning rather than art. This is also a kind of celebration the architects intend to make before the exhibition. The ramp keeps taking you to the reception area and the front of central stair, a lifted black plate which looks like a bridge cross above. The first options for the visitor is that you could choose to go underneath the lifted area, forwards to the back part of the turbine hall, to the left where is the major transport area - the escalators, or to the upper level which connected directly to the north entrance and the river bank. However, the river side entrance seems to be more popular than the main one, mostly because it located right to one end of the Millennium Bridge which connected with St Pauls Cathedral. So people from north bank could actually walk cross the bridge and get into the museum. The other reason probably is because of various activates, there are many people moving along the river bank, also a nice green area with seats provide space to the street performers and vendors. The atmosphere here is much more livable compare to the forecourt of main entrance. Herzog de Meuron describe the transition of the entering as the moment of breathless wonder. The thought if they want to bring the observer the feeling of being overawed, of having to catch ones breath before real grandeur, they must led them through the eye of a needle a tunnel. The ramp is little more than a slightly tightened copy of the access ramp to the Pompidou Centre, but they extend the ramp to twice the length, for at an unexpected point they increase the already vast height of the hall by tearing out the old floor above the cellar, to make the over high hall even higher. JEWISH MUSEUM The Jewish Museum in Berlin was built between 1993 and 1998 by the architect Daniel Libeskind. He called his design for the Jewish Museum Berlin Between the Lines. The floor plan is shaped like a zigzag line and is intersected by a straight line. Empty spaces called voids extend the height of the building at the interfaces. The zinc-clad faà §ade is covered by diagonal slashes the window openings. Three paths cross on the lower level: the Axis of Exile, the Axis of the Holocaust, and the Axis of Continuity, Which leads to the museums upper stories. Daniel Libeskind said: What is important is the experience you get from it. The interpretation is open. As Libeskind said, the experience is the crucial. It is like a story he want to tell. The zinc-clad building attracted people from distance on the street, but there is no entrance. There is also no sign telling people where the way in is. The main entrance of the museum actually located at the old 18th century building. People have to walk into the existing building, pass the reception and finally get to the way into the main part. It is a large entrance at right hand side in untreated concrete with sharp angles. It open onto a staircase that instead of steps to the upper floor as it is to be expected in museum, the staircase goes underground. So the visitor of the museum starts from the foundation of the old building. But architect reveals the suggestion immediately, if you look up, you see the staircase is actually at the very bottom of concrete well that without any functional justification pierced the old building in every level. So people could see the concrete well from all flo ors up to the eaves. The concrete tower guards the entrance to underground area that seems first sight to be much simpler then the broken-line surface building people seeing from the street. And Daniel thought this is the real heart of this project. They are three corridors. The central island means only two could be seen at a time. It is impossible to have overall vision. It is the axis. An axis is a straight line about which the part of the body or system axiomatically arranged. The three axes here represent the three major experiences the Jewish life in old days: continuity, exile and death. The lights on the ceiling also accent the idea of axis. Only the straight and longest path leads to the main part of the museum. It leads to a staircase seems to be quite modest, as walking up, suddenly spectacular perspective reveals. Straight-line staircase keeps going up to reach the top floor. Architect frees the space with only one direction- upwards. Great concrete beams stabilized the structure seems have difficulty to hold the building. There are also six different shape concrete avoids in the building, pierced the building in every floor. The only lighting comes from skylight. The threshold in Jewish Museum is not the space we usually could see. In this case, transition space (the axis, the stair, the avoid, the light) became the most important part to reveal the spirit of this building, a story which the architect wants to share with all the visitors. He also intend to make this building not obvious and leave all those meaning and hidden violence to be explored by the visitors, or more accurately, the participants. CAIXA FORUM Caixa Forum built between 2001 and 2007 in Madrid by the architect Herzog de Meuron. It is a post-modern art gallery located at the centre of city. It is housed in a converted 1899 power station. The architects decided to demolish the original roof and interiors. They cut away the granite base of the brick exterior walls, creating the illusion that the building floats in midair, hovering over a covered entry plaza. With the addition of two upper stories clad in rusted cast iron and two underground levels, they doubled the buildings height and increased its size five times to more than 100,000 square feet. In short, the architects have skinned and gutted the structure like an animal, transforming its tattered brick shell, four withes thick, into an exotic veneer. The basic strategy of the Caixa Forum design is similar to that to lift the building up and create a shaded public plaza underneath. It is because the condition of the site is quite compressive, with the narrow back streets sloping upward on one side. To cut off the bottom part makes the building more visible and accessible from different directions. When you walk from cross street, no matter from front or back, the first impression is a floating building with different colours and the green wall beside. Take some more steps; you will immediately feel the spectacular using of material. The incredible texture using for the facade and the paving, create a unique image. Several layers revealed on it, the covered plaza made by many triangular panels, the existing part, the top extension with perforated rusting iron and the vertical green standing by the side. Getting under the covered plaza, you will find the surrounding suddenly get dark, and see reflecting ceiling which made by triangu lar iron-cast panel, the dynamic space with three cores containing which supporting the building and also a fountain by the side. These irregular panels are hung from the upper floor slab, continuing to the central entrance a spectacular spiral entry with crisscrossing exposed fluorescent lamps on top. So people move from the dark and heavy entry plaza up to the entrance could suddenly feel the sharp contrast between the two spaces. Another key space is the main star a white curving balustrade of softly finished concrete. This spiral form will take visitors straight up to the top floor cafà © where could have a veiled view of the botanical garden and surrounding through the perforated cast iron. Herzog de Meuron developed the strategy on notions of character and collage. It gives each space its particular sensual and experiential personality. They explored it through different properties of materials and texture, transformation and decay. It created an instantly recognizable icon from distance that is also a space of intriguing complexity while walking into it. 21th CENTURY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART The 21th Century Museum in Kanazawa, Japan built by the architect SANAA between 2000 and 2004. It is located in the center of city Kanazawa with complex contexts: town hall, public park, opera house, shopping mall, town hall, kindergarten and residential. People come from many directions for different purposes, for that reason, SANAA planned to give the building a circuital form right from the start. That makes it equally accessible from all directions, without any distinction between front and back. The building has two zones, the museum zone which required admission tickets, and the socializing zone which is free for public. But they are not completely separated. The architects want these two zones to be visually linked, divided only by transparent acrylic doors and courtyards. The first key element of this building is the outer walls. They are made of glass, reflecting the surrounding landscape. It was designed so that the inside and outside of the building overlap visually in the curved glass surface. Also it offers a 360-degree view of the surroundings. At the same time, SANAA decided to use path and courtyard to carve the transition space out, left only the solid exhibition area. Four major courtyards provide visitor several opportunities to be exposed fully to the natural light. Corridors are like streets, crossing from north to south and east to west, creating links with the landscapes outside and inside. These are also for the public to use for free, unlike the Pompidou Center which set back to create a square for public, this building intend to hollow itself from inside to invite public as participant. In this building, when the movements of the people inside the building are visible from without, the sequence of events becomes a part of its external appearance. The way they look at events reflects how the architects perceive contemporary situations. They interpret this space by creating elements of contrast and continuity between the architecture and its setting. They thought transparency has a special meaning in this museum. It is not just a way of achieving lightness, information, openness, and illumination, or including human movement as a part of the design. It is about the feel of life. PHILOSOPHY A museum is much more than the structure of exhibiting. It could be a physical system of heating and cooling, of lighting and darkening, of moving and staying, of preserving and decaying, of observing and learning. Also, it is a spiritual structure of recording and describing, of hiding and revealing, of bounding and merging. However, it is always a structure for public using; therefore, one of the most important systems would be entering and leaving. We cant only think about an exhibition room to understand the museum without considering the process of transition. This kind of transition space is made of lounge, passage, entry, and exiting etc. It could be describe as a system. We could look it individually, but actually they always bound up. We do not perceive sprit of a museum by exhibits. People coming from different directions gather in the same shelter, take some time, walking, looking, listening, seating, eating and leaving. The performance is consistently affected by the architecture, the system. The way of the system operate force us how to perform it in. While we follow the instruction to perform it, different human acts reveal. Ultimately, acts we made make us truly perceive and understand the space. Neil Leach described the idea of door, is that The door becomes the image of the boundary point at which human beings actually always stand or can stand. The finite unity, to which we have connected a part of infinite space designated for us, reconnects it to this latter; in the unity, the bound and the boundary less adjoint one another, not in the dead geometric form of a mere separating wall, but rather as the possibility of a permanent interchange. In museum, the rooms and art objects form only the container, but it is not all about that shell, the content is formed by the visitors. Without that, its like a painting only with dead surface. In this case, museum is not a private collection, an art review; it is always about the public. That is why we find museum admirable.

Most Effective Management Style for a Modern Workplace

Most Effective Management Style for a Modern Workplace Executive Summary This leadership project is a study of effective leadership in modern business organizations. This project begins with an introduction on leadership, a review of leadership theories throughout the history and distinguishes between the focus of earlier literature on leadership which is central around leader characteristics styles and the new leadership theories of leadership development, transformational leadership, charismatic leadership, and visionary leadership. The next section is on the different leadership models and frameworks being applied and used in modern organizations. These models identify the responsibilities required of people holding leadership positions. The following section introduces Juthoor Development Services and discusses the type of leadership strategies and approaches that are used and applied in the company. The focus of leadership then is shifted to that of team leadership due to the practices in Juthoor Development Services. The section on Personal Leadership describes and evaluates my own leadership style and the leadership skills that need to be developed and enhanced. This section includes personal reflections and an extensive action plan on individual leadership. The project concludes with an overview on what was discussed and recommendations for better leadership which results in better performance. Introduction A leader is an individual that possesses a mixture of skills and styles that makes a team want to follow the leaders direction; hence leadership is the ability to motivate and influence a team to achieve a specific target and goal. Leadership is all about creating a vision and comprises the power to convert the vision into reality. Different styles of leadership, different kinds of leaders lead to different results in an organization. In the business world, leadership is generally related to performance. Effective leaders are those who have the ability to add value to their company by increasing its bottom lines. It is widely known that organizations all around the world lose because managers are not adequately skilled and knowledgeable. The main reason behind this issue is that managers are not aware of how important their role is in an organization. They are unaware of the necessity of leadership issues that should enter into all their decision-making activities. Literature Review Strategic leadership is fundamental for accomplishing and sustaining competitive advantage in this century (Ireland and Hitt, 1999). Effective leaders have been repetitively distinguished for their important role they play in identifying opportunities and making the right decisions that overall affect an organizations procedures and bottom line (Finkelstein et. Al, 1996). The effective and efficient skill leaders practice adds substantial business value to the organization. Review of academic research and studies on leadership expose a changing series of schools of thought starting from the Great Man theory to Transformational Leadership theory. Earlier, majority of leadership literature and study was mainly centered on leaders characteristics and leadership styles. According to (Yukl, 1998), great attention of earlier leadership studies were centered on the performance of lower-level management and how they should perform as they offer supervision, support and constructive feedback to their team However, this new century and modern research shows a new interest and fresh new perspective on leadership. Nowadays, research, studies and theories are focusing on leadership as a whole, followers and the relative nature of leadership in an organization. The rapid change in the business environment has made people think about leadership on different levels. Leithwood et al. (1999) believe that instead of looking only at the quality and characteristics of a lea der, our focus needs to be shifted to the leadership challenges in organizations and companies. They viewed leadership in term of their nature and the challenges faced which will result in developing leadership as a whole instead of just a single leader. The result and materialization that has come out from the new interest of studying leadership mainly focused on managing invariable change is called the New Paradigm model. Today, leaders steer a world that is undergoing continuous change. The New Paradigm model involves modern theories and styles such as charismatic leadership, visionary leadership and transformational leadership. Visionary leadership refers to the act of creating a practical, sensible, and solid vision of the future for a company (Nanus, 1992), Charismatic leadership involves creating a personality that is so influential that people are naturally drawn to the leader, and transformational leadership is a leadership style that forms positive transformation in followers. Transformational leadership is the style being promoted in modern organizations. Old models view leadership as a process that that entails motivating others takes place within a team and entails goal achievement (Northouse, 2001). Modern leadership focuses on leadership development and development of social capital. Other modern studies have emphasized on the relationship between leaders and their followers, some authors stress the importance of studying follower ship because leaders are followers and followers are leaders. The two entities are interconnected and are equally essential for the success of the organization. Leadership Is Not a Solo Act The picture of a heroic person who leaps in to save the day is what is engraved into our minds. But all gathered facts from studies imply that the constant success of a company is a collective and group effort rather than a single effort. Kouzes and Posner (2002) confirm that after studying numerous cases on effective leadership, they did not find any example of astonishing accomplishment that happened without the dynamic participation and support of many individuals. What is understood from this is that Leadership is a team endeavor. Without team work and the support of people a single person cannot get astonishing things done in a company. Dispersed Leadership A theory that is currently gaining interest and getting plenty of attention is the dispersed leadership. This type of leadership, with its basics in sociology and psychology defines leadership as a practice that is spread throughout a company rather than exclusively with the officially elected leader. The importance therefore transfers from developing leaders to developing leaderful companies with a communal accountability for leadership. The significances of group of people relationships in the leadership agreement, the requirement of a leader to be recognized and accepted by his/her followers and the understanding that no single person is the perfect leader in all situations have set a rise to a new school of leadership thought. The dispersed leadership theory introduces a less official approach to leadership where the leaders responsibility is separated from the organizational hierarchy. It is suggested that people at all levels in the organization and in all jobs can apply leadership influence over their peers and consequently influencing the whole leadership of the organization. Heifetz (1994) differentiates between the practice of leadership and the practice of power hence separating leadership from formal organizational power roles. Raelin (2003) discusses of developing leaderful organizations through simultaneous and combined effort. The first thing to do is make a clear distinction between the concept of leader and leadership. Leadership is referred as a method of logic-making and direction-giving inside a team and the leader can only be defined on the base of his/her association with others in the team who are acting as followers. Along these lines, it is fairly probable to visualize the leader as emergent rather than predefined and that the leaders responsibility can be implicit in the course of exploratory of the relationships within the team (other than by giving attention to the leaders personal character or qualities). Dispersed leadership demonstrates on notions such as organizational culture and environment to emphasize on the appropriate nature of leadership. It is a communal conception and suggests for a shift from the growth of individual leader characteristics to recognition of what comprises an effective leadership practice within a company. A shift in the spotlight from the individual leaders to the leadership relationships (amongst the leader and followers). Leadership Development Leadership development is the process of developing leadership practices and leaders in an organization. It focuses on creating and sustaining social assets as a whole. At the core of leadership developments involves the combined capability of individuals to set goals and successfully carry out leadership functions and roles to build a strong team that meets commitments and attains organizational goals. The accomplishment of goals and leadership activities should come with and without official authority. Saxenian (2006) has branded the new type of leaders that have emerged as New Argonauts who challenge the business and dynamically lead an organization despite the ongoing change in the business environment. According to Saxenian, these Argonauts leaders certainly echo todays leadership. (Argonauts where a brand of heroes in ancient Greek, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts). Transformational Leadership in modern organizations When companies adopted themselves to the constant evolutionary change, transactional management was in good turn of managing those changes. However, with the circumstances and situations of present organizations performance need undertaking some essential, transformational changes. And managing these changes needs new traits; one of these traits is applying transformational leadership in organizations. The book Leadership written by James MacGregor Burns in (1978) was one of the first books to introduce the concept of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is where leaders transform their followers. This leadership theory holds high importance in this century especially in recent literature. Transformational leadership builds on the foundation of transactional leadership. Nevertheless, as Burns clearly affirms what is needed today is not the old traditional style of Transactional leadership, but the new style of Transformational leadership. Tichy and Devanna (1986) have researched leadership throughout the years and came up with a list of specific characteristics which distinguish transformational from transactional leaders. Some of these characteristics are listed below: Agents of Change: Transformational leaders encourage flat structures and flexible workplaces. They are able to get the organization to adapt quickly to change. Courage: Transformational leaders face reality and do not fear risk. Confidence in the followers: Transformational leaders have faith in their team members. They give them a boost and push when required and try their best to empower them. Life-long Learning: Transformational leaders believe in life-long education and attempt to extract lessons from experiences. Vision Capabilities: Transformational leaders see the big picture. Their visionary abilities are excellent. Live by their Values: Transformation leaders have values they live by. Passion and Enthusiasm: They pump their followers with their enthusiasm to get them going. Ability to face the unknown: Transformational leaders do not life with fear and are ready to face the worst situations knowing that they can handle anything that comes their way. According to Bass (1998), the transformational leader motivates followers to do more than formerly expected. Bass reveals that a leader is able to transform his/her followers by: Emphasizing on the significant of goal and task, by creating awareness Encouraging the followers to direct their efforts for the company Meeting the followers needs. Bass and Avolio (1994) have proposed five transformational styles that leaders typically display; these styles and behaviours are illustrated in the table below: Transformational Style Leader Behaviour Idealized Behaviors Speak about their values Emphasize the significance of having a sense of purpose Take into consideration the consequences of decisions made Support new opportunities Discuss the issue of trust amongst each other Inspirational Motivation Have an optimistic look about the future Talk with enthusiasm about what needs to be accomplished Articulate a compelling vision of the future State confidence about goal attainment Present a thrilling image and picture of what to consider Intellectual Stimulation Examination of critical issues Search for differing views when attempting to solve issues Encourage individuals to look at things from different perspectives Propose new methods of how to complete tasks Individualized Consideration Make time for mentoring and teaching Help others to build on their strengths Spend time listening to others personal needs Encourage personal development Idealized Attributes Lets others know that it is a pride being connected with them and Work to build others respect Show power and capability Assure everyone that barriers will be overcome In 2007, Hooper and Potter broaden the concept of transformational leadership and identified 7 types of competences of transformational leaders, these competences are: Building direction Being a Role Model Communication Arrangements and Grouping Get the best in his/her people Leader as a change representative Suggesting decision in a crucial situation Nature of Leadership in Modern Organizations Contemporary organizations take up a range of HR management and leadership activities to boost staff contentment and satisfaction. Efforts are centered on enhancing and raising the quality, expertise and capabilities of the employees. In addition, providing intensive training and development activities helps in improving the quality. Recent studies have given a lot of attention to emotional intelligence, especially transformational leadership. Emotional intelligence has become a major part of leadership in modern organizations. Emotional intelligence is a leaders capability to ones ability to be alert of ones personal feelings, be alert of employees feelings, to distinguish between them and to use the information to direct the leaders thoughts and behaviour. Emotional Intelligence contains three types of capabilities: assessment and expression of feelings, directive of feeling and using feelings in the decision-making process. According to Goleman (1998) emotional intelligence is twice as important as technical skills and IQ for jobs at all levels. Motivation is also an important element in leadership in modern organizations. The abilities of any employee will be limited if they are not encouraged and motivated to execute their jobs. According to Bass (1998), compensation, appraisals, incentives and job security can motive employees to achieve their assigned goals and execute their jobs effectively. As a leader, part of the job involves understanding employees and learning motivational strategies to enhance performance. The main challenge is that every employee is different, therefore, what may work for one employee wont work for the other. Communication has also been a major part of leadership. Up-ward and down-ward communication are equally important and need to be transparent and effective. A Leaders responsibility is to ensure such communication takes place and should eliminate all obstacles in the way of corporate communication. Team leadership is the most rapidly growing area of current research. Modern leaders in organizations do not think of themselves simply as a body of authority, but rather a team leader because they understand the significance of a team compared to just individuals. By understanding the skills of the team members and what motivates them, leaders earn respect from their style not solely because of their position. Culture and leadership Modern theory has shifted its attention to figure out what the link between leadership and culture and how leadership changes from one culture to another. Collins (2001) has revealed proof of leadership behaviours that are cross-cultural, and others that are culturally focused. However, studies and evidence on the relationship between the two elements (leadership and culture) are still very limited. John Adair Action Centred Leadership Model a model for team leadership According to Adair, the effectiveness of the leader relies on meeting three areas of need within the work group.The three parts of Adairs model are generally represented by 3 overlapping circles; this model is a helpful technique in assessing what effective leaders responsibilities are. The challenge for the leader is to manage all parts of the circles successfully. Task definition of task to be achieved Action plan allocation of job and resources managing the quality and time of effort monitor performance aligned with action plan amending the plan Team sustaining regulation and control encourage team work motivate team assign junior-leaders encourage and inspire team communication develop and build the team Individual listen to personal troubles and issues Appreciate and honour individuals give positions and ranks distinguish and use individual capabilities develop he individual To be able to meet the three areas within the work group, specific leadership roles have to be executed, these functions are: Awareness of what is happening in the work group and its processes. Being alert at all times. Understanding the functions and tasks that are required and the skill to accomplish and complete the task successfully. Case Study: Juthoor Development Services Juthoor development services are an organization comprising a team of real estate development professionals who provide comprehensive services to clients across the Middle East. Juthoor works with its clients through out the three critical phases of the development process (project feasibility, project implementation and development control). The complete organization is based on Team work, although each employee has an important role to play, their combined efforts is much more valuable. Jose Lora, is the CEO of the company and leader, heads the entire team of professionals. Juthoors vision Juthoor Development Services vision is to build the Oman of tomorrow. The employees key responsibility is to work towards this vision. The success of the organization lies in the employees ability to work as a team and build the Oman of tomorrow. Leadership in Juthoor Development Services The leaders relationship with his/her followers is extremely important. An organizations failure or success rate all relies on the leader and the nature of leadership. According to Robbins and Finley (2000), involvement and empowerment of the employees are two key behaviours a leader must possess. There are many ways a leader can strengthen the relationship with his/her followers. At Juthoor, the leader of the company understands the significance of the relationship between himself and the rest of the team. He adopts the following two behaviours: Asking questions instead of giving answers (For example, asking an employee How do we proceed on this? What do you think we should do next). This involvement gives a sense of purpose and satisfaction to the employees. This helps employees envision the goal and improve their efforts to achieve and excel in their part of the job. Giving followers the opportunity to lead (For example, asking an employee to lead a meeting or put an employee in charge of a task that the leader is taking part in). This empowerment gives the employee the confidence and helps him take ownership). Juthoor Development Services is a team-based organization. Therefore, the focus of this case study will be around team leadership. The Functional Model This model focuses on how a company and how the work group is being led rather than whom the leader is. This results in lesser time spent focusing on the person who is in the leadership role and instead put all the attention on the leadership function that is taking place. This model emphasizes on the nature of the work group and the followers of the leader. This is exactly what is taking place in Juthoor Development Services, work is done in teams and the team spirit in the company is high and ensures transparent communication. Due to the fact that Juthoor is a service provider for real estate development, the key to success is the collaboration of the team. The business is based on team work. A group of people together is not necessarily a team. A team is a number of people that get together that have high level of interdependence, working towards a common goal. (http://www.teal.org.uk/et/page5.html) A team has a number of advantages for an organization: Maximization of HR: team members are trained, coached by other members. Success or failure is not pointed at individuals, but rather the team as a whole. Greater outputs and results. A team is known to outperform a group of individuals. There is continuous improvement and development. The way a team is lead has a huge impact on the success. The leader in Juthoor is responsible and holds these values: Commitment to the team members as well as the mission that needs to be achieved The desire to support a team, serve and lead Experience, enthusiasm, and energy. The ability to build a team and achieve more as a team Team Leadership It is known that team work and team spirit are fundamental in enhancing the growth in an organization. The saying goes, Two heads are better than one. Taking up all the responsibility and working alone will only reach you so far; team work is required and is vital for desired results. Different individuals have different skills and talents, bring them together to work on a specific task or certain goal will prove that they would outperform any individual. According to Belbin (1993), there are two types of leaders; Solo leader and Team leader. The major difference between the two revolves around the behaviour and participation of the two as seen below: Solo Leader This type of leader interferes and sticks his/her nose in everything This type of leader delegates tasks and roles without interfering Attempts to mold the team members into specific standards Develops team members and encourages them to grow Collects acolytes Seeks talent and does not fear team members with special talents Team Leader Team leadership differs from Solo leadership in the following ways: (http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le2diffs.htm) Responsibility is shared among the team members and is not only burdened by the leader Control is left to the group and not just the leader. The leader views the team as a whole and not as individuals. Expression of needs are encouraged by the leader In todays business world with the rising complexity and the irregular nature of modern workplaces promote Team leaderships as opposed to Solo leadership. According to Belbin (1993), team leadership is not as natural as solo leadership, however he suggests that team leadership can be learned and developed. Jose Lora, the CEO of Juthoor takes the approach of Team Leader. It was his idea to start Juthoor Development Services and he understands how important an effective team is in the success of the organization. He ensures communication, reads feelings and emotions, practices emotional intelligence and takes time to understand each team member to know what his/her personal needs are and what motivates him or her. The nature of leadership in Juthoor is revolves around team leadership and transformational leadership. Jose Lora is a true e leader who inspires the work group to put their efforts towards a shared vision of the future. The leadership style in Juthoor is highly visible, and built on communication. Jose Lora doesnt lead from the front, as he gives responsibilities to the team members. Juthoor is a team-based organization, therefore, is there is any problem or issues, all heads are put together to solve the problem and make a decision. Team meetings are conducted daily between the team members to ensure proper communication, transparency and to tackle issues before they arise. Juthoors Leadership Framework The leadership model used by Juthoor has 9 key fundamentals and they are: Builds Shared Vision Team Building and teamwork Strategic thinking and planning Focuses on outcomes Maximizes Potential Opportunities Managing and developing staff Transformational Leadership Motivates Coaches Delivers Results Many organizations develop their own leadership frameworks because there is no one size will fit all framework, although most frameworks in organizations are similar, they are not exactly the same. I believe that it is not the framework that is significant, but rather the process by which it is developed. Case Study Discussion and Recommendations Management needs to obtain and use their compassion and social expertise to improve their personal transformational leadership. Thus, the challenge for any modern organization, including Juthoor development services is to build and develop the emotional intelligence of the management. Suitable involvements may be required to improve and build on their competencies and that would entail education and intensive role-related training. Managers ought to be encouraged to improve and develop their skills by constant self-education and learning. Companies must offer encouraging supports for staff learning and improving management and supervisors vital emotional competencies, motivation and team building techniques required for their roles. Companies should recruit individuals that hold a vision and have a pleasant personality that is also known as charisma. There should also be suitable shifts in the companys organizational structure and to encourage flat structure and less complicated hierarchy. Changes in organizational culture are also required to reward staff for learning and self development. The changes in organizational culture and structure should encourage managers will encourage attain emotional intelligence competencies required for employee motivation. It is well known that, the most complex part of leading a team is motivation of work group members. In practical and theory, motivation plays a vital role in a organizations management. Motivation is an essential part of effective performance. Throughout my experience in working at Juthoor, I believe the factors Affecting Leadership Effectiveness in an organization are the following: The leaders personal characteristics including personality, skills, and outlook. The leaders experience with dealing with teams and work groups The features of the team, their attitude and expectations. The relationship between the leader and the work group The type of company The organization culture structure The type of tasks that need to be accomplished The external business environment My Leadership Development Plan This part of the report is central around my leadership style and my leadership development needs. This section addresses a number of questions like, Do I have the right combination of skills to lead an organization?, What skills need to be developed to lead effectively? How can I develop and establish myself? How can I influence others? Throughout my career, I have spent a lot of time observing myself and the nature of leadership in the organizations I worked for. At the beginning of my journey, the main challenge for me was trying to understand the difference between managers and leaders. Once that was figured out, I shifted my entire focus to understanding, observing, and learning from the leaders I worked for. One of my professional goals is to become a leader one day, and to be able to influence and motivate a team to achieve and succeed. Therefore, I spent an incredible amount of time studying and observing the leaders in my life. I have studied the leadership theories including characteristics, styles, and modern leadership theories of transformational leadership, etc. and based on the findings of the literature review conducted in the second section of this report, I assessed my leadership skills and checked my ability to execute and implement effective leadership in my job and contribute to the leadership functions of the organization. Out of all the different types of leadership styles, can say that I take the approach of situational leadership style. I dont view a leadership position as an authority position, I view it as the ability to touch other peoples lives and help them grow. I actually feel that I best relate to situational leadership style because I am extremely flexible when situations arise and occur. Situational leadership is the approach of changing your style to best suit the circumstances. However, earlier I used to not be an expert at this because I always resisted change and felt like I lo st focus when things didnt happen the way I expected them to. But as I changed jobs and got more experience, I understood that change is required and I must learn how to handle and adapt to situations instead of getting angry over things not working out the way I wanted them to. There are a number of ways I have practiced my leadership in my job, for example, when I am heading a group I make sure to emphasize the importance of working together. Although I am the leader of the group, I do not show it to other. I work just as hard as they work and try to give as much constructive feedback as I can. My approach is all centered on listening to the team members, understanding their point of view, asking them what their recommendations are and I try to encourage participation. I would say that I am always very fun to be around. When a task needs to be accomplished, I dont give out orders, I give each member the choice about what part they want to handle. Once we complete a task or reach a specific goal, I usually show my appreciation for their work through celebrating together, either inviting them for lunch or dinner. I have assessed my skills and used a number of tools and techniques to evaluate my

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Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad Main Characters Marlow - Young man who decides that it would be exiting to travel into Africa hunting ivory and does so by taking the place of a dead steamboat captain. Kurts - Famous man among the ivory seekers who has lived and hunted on the continent for a while and has exploited the savages becoming much like a savage himself. Russian fool - Man who is known by his clothes with many colorful patches making him look much like a harlequin. He works with Kurtz who proves to be poor company for him. The Intended - Kurtz ¡Ã‚ ¯s bride to be who at the end of the book still thinks that Kurtz was the great man that she remembered him to be and Marlow doesn ¡Ã‚ ¯t have the heart to tell her otherwise. Minor Characters Helmsman - Man who steers the steamboat but goes away from the wheel to fight the savages only to be killed by an arrow. Accountant - Accountant who takes care of the money matters for Kurtz and has lived on the continent for three years trying to keep his civilized nature. Settings Central Station - This is the station where Marlow meets the accountant and observes the way the whites do nothing but exploit the blacks to do pointless labor. Inner Station - This is the station where Kurtz works and where Marlow finds him being worshipped by the savages. Thames River - Marlow tells his story to various people here. Plot Marlow sits at the Thames River in the evening with several other people and begins telling the story about how he entered into the dark continent out of nowhere. No one wants to listen but he continues anyway. Marlow expressed a desire to go to Africa to his Aunt who got him a position as a captain of a steamboat of an ivory company. The previous captain Freslaven died in a scuffle with the natives and Marlow took his place. A few days later, Marlow travels to Africa and gets to the first station where he meets the accountant who keeps track of the funds in Kurtz ¡Ã‚ ¯s company. The man is interesting to Marlow since he ¡Ã‚ ¯s been on the continent for three years, yet he keeps himself clean and well dressed. Marlow finds the blacks being poorly treated and ordered to do meaningless work by the whites.

What is Art? Essay -- Essays Papers Definition Arts Artistic

What is Art? What a question! This very same topic has been on the minds of many great people for many years. Just what exactly is art? Art is a form of expression. It is beautiful, ugly, tasteful, distasteful, impressionistic, realistic...you get the point. Art is everywhere. It lives in the soul, mind, and even the heart. Art is an outlet for people to express themselves. Art is a way for the human mind to express itself. Even a loud, outgoing person has feelings that they do not feel comfortable sharing with people. These expressions often come out through their art. What is classified as art? Besides the obvious?paintings, drawings, architecture, etc?Art can be dancing, singing, acting, etc. It can be pretty much anything that expresses an idea. Even something as common as speech is art. Everyone speaks with a different voice, and each voice is a piece of art. Art surrounds us. It is encountered so often that often we don?t realize art when we see it. All too often we ignore art. We overlook the ideas and thoughts behind it. Anyone can look at a painting and say ?Wow! That?s beautiful!? How many of us can actually stop and say ?Wow! Now I understand!? Art is around to teach us. We can learn so much about ourselves and the world around us. Many times we create art without a conscious reason. We believe that we are just making a pretty picture. Usually we are expressing a subconscious idea. If take the time to actually analyze and criti...

Create a Marketing Mix for Frozen Pizzas Essay

a) Identify the marketing goals and objectives. i) Establish a stable customer base. The first goal we hope to achieve would be that we obtain a stable customer base large enough to provide its own funding and also provide funds for other new products. We are also looking to experimenting with new products to increase our variety with this customer base. ii) Periodically improve products and change appearance. Secondly, we hope that we would be able to improve our product’s appearance, taste, value, etc periodically so that the established customer base does not lose interest in the product. This will be assisted by attaching customer review slips inside our products encouraging customers to fill in a feedback form. iii) Achieve annual growth rate of 5% in sales every year. As new products will be introduced from time to time, we are aiming to achieve an increase of 5% in sales annually. With new products going to be introduced, we hope to also increase the profit iv) To become the market leader in local markets. We are also targeting to be the leading producer and product for frozen pizza locally. We believe by constantly increasing our variety of our frozen pizzas which are high in demand, we will be able to dominate local markets for frozen pizzas. b) Identify and analyse target markets for these two products. Identifying and analysing target markets before marketing a new product is an important step which organisations much take before marketing their product. It is important that an organization first acknowledge the suitable markets to market their product to, then collect and analyse the data about the markets. This will enable the organisation to choose a more suitable target market and obtain optimum amount of benefits. The largest segment of the markets would be the demographic segment. The demographic segment consists of personal details such as age, gender, income, education and so on. Based on the age segments, we have learnt that frozen pizza is mostly bought by teenagers and young adults. We have also learnt that frozen pizza is mostly bought by college students, university students and single working adults. Besides that, there is also the psychographic segment. This segment consists of personality, social class, lifestyle and so on. We have learnt that people who are less conscious about their weight and health, are more likely to buy frozen pizza. Urban youth and young adults are also more likely to buy frozen pizza. This is probably because when in a metropolitan area, life moves faster and buying frozen pizza reduces times spent on preparing food greatly, making more time for other activities. Lastly would be the behavioural segment. This segment consists of variables such as occasions, user status, user rate and so on. We have learnt that frozen pizza is a common sight when attending house parties and impromptu parties or gatherings. One of the reasons frozen pizza is a favourite is because it is easy to serve food to a large amount of people without having to go through a lengthy process of preparing food. As a conclusion, from this analysis, when marketing our two new products, we would be able to develop more specific strategies to suit the needs of the customer and obtain the highest amount of profit. c) Develop appropriate marketing mix strategy. Marketing according to marketers is defined as putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. When marketing a product, marketers use the 4P’s for their product before marketing it to avoid making mistakes when planning marketing strategies for the product. The 4Ps of the marketing mix consists of, Product, Price, Place and Promotion. This will help Pizza Pan to be able to suit the needs of the customers better. The first ‘P’ of the 4Ps of the marketing mix would be Product. The product would be Pizza Pan’s new product, Jumbo, Topping-Plus Frozen Pizza. Customers will choose this product when wanting to have a satisfying meal on the go or provide a meal for a large group with a short preparation time. Customers will be consuming this product in their homes and even at parties. This frozen pizza will come in a box with an eye-catching design which will be microwave-friendly so that customers will have a choice of microwaving their frozen pizza from the box or putting it in an oven. This pizza will be 14† in diameter and called the Pizza Pan Frozen Jumbo. This pizza will specialise in its size and generous toppings. This Frozen Pizza will be able to provide the customer with the highest amount of satisfaction in both taste and value for money. The next ‘P’ in the 4Ps would be Place. This product will be places at general grocery outlets in shopping malls and also in urban areas. Customers will be able to locate it in the frozen goods section of grocery stores. We will be distributing and selling our product directly to grocery stores at first to optimise profit. We will also be setting up booths to promote our new product along with samples and coupons for shoppers in the grocery store to attract them to buy this product, this should enable us to obtain the targeted customer base faster. The third ‘P’ in the 4Ps represents Price. As we are focusing on size in this product, our product will have to be the same or less price as our competitor’s but present a larger amount. As there are quite a few other companies selling frozen pizzas, price wars have been neck-to-neck. Instead of being the cheapest in price, we will be pricing our pizza such that it is in-between our competitor’s prices so that customers will not judge our product for being too cheap and associating our product with low quality or associating our product with being too overpriced. Lastly would be Promotion. We are hoping to promote our product in television, radio, cinema and billboard advertisements as soon as 2 days after our product launch. We will also have our promotional booths around shopping malls to invite shoppers to try our product and also hand out coupons to further persuade them to buy our product. We are hoping to launch somewhere during summer as people are busiest and house parties are most frequent during these times. In addition, less people are conscious about their weight during this time and have already forgotten about their new year’s resolutions. We hope that we are able to cater the needs of customers better when using this mix. This marketing mix will also be changed periodically to further cater to the needs of customers and increase customer satisfaction, and increase profit margins. d) Develop an appropriate competitive marketing strategy. When releasing a new product into a market with existing competitors, marketers have to use a different approach when marketing their product. Usually taking the wrong approach, new products trying to compete with older products with an established customer base is not easy. Marketers will have to resort to using a different approach than the usual approach. Some of the other brands that Pizza Pan’s largest competitors when entering the market would be U.S Pizza, Dominos Pizza and Pizza Hut. These Pizza companies have already established their customer base and a large variety of choices. However, since only being the three largest pizza producers, they take advantage of customers by increasing their prices to much more than what their pizzas are worth. Pizza Pan can take advantage of this by providing customers with an alternative which has more value for money. However, Pizza Pan must be careful to not put a price which is too low, for customers have a tendency for choosing a product which is more expensive, relating its price with quality.

Ex-convicts Re-entry into the Society Essay

The society treats the ex convicts with unfairness and injustice that they do not deserve. As much as they are responsible for all the deeds they do, the American society is not sorry for this treatment. It is envisaged that the purpose of any prison facility in the world is to correct the deviant behavior in a person in order to prepare the successful re-entry to the society a reformed person. However, this is does not seem to be the case for American ex-convicts in the 21st century. The ex-convict today is the neighborhood next door who we see daily and sometimes we have a relationship. The realization that one is a convict proves an insurmountable task to the individual to prove that he or she is a reformed person but the laws and policies do not recognize this. The biggest question that begs for an answer is why it is so such a serious matter? What is to be blamed or who is to be held culprit? Do we need a reformation of the current policies concerning life after prison? This research will concern on the reasons why ex-prisoners are not fully integrated back into the society even after prison and the factors lying behind such treatment from the society. The American prison today The concern lies on whether the prison today is doing the right work to bring the traits and qualities desired in the modern society in convicted persons. In America today, for one to achieve in life, education forms the most counting factor. It therefore means that securing a good job requires higher education while low education only warrants low and often stressful jobs. Prison statistics shows that about 75% of inmates did not complete high school and hence they lack the high school degree. In addition, there is an increase in the number of inmates who do not have high school diploma which means that an increase in crime is related to low education. This information means that for such convicts to be suited well in the society, one of the requirements in the prison is to offer education as the rehabilitative program. This ensures that recidivism is reduced by providing the required solution. Nevertheless, the prisons strategies of correcting the convict are different and emphasize on harsh and negative treatment. This deviates from the main purpose of prison. The Prison Commission on â€Å"Confronting Confinement† by Gibbons and Katzenbach (2006) report shows that, most of the prisons in America use excessive force in treating the inmates. The big picture is that the prison guards are just brutal enough to cause break of the heart even the hardiest of them. Bearing in mind that most of the inmates are convicted of rape, crime, robbery with violence, murder and drug abuse, the question of brutal and tough treatment does not make sense. This kind of correcting is opposite the logic of the actual reason of imprisonment. It only leads to a hardened ex-convict who feels that the society is against him or her. In fact, the situation in the prisons worsens the state of affairs. The â€Å"Prison nightmare† by Deparle (2007) clearly shows that the prison is a hell of a place that requires intervention from the state and the public. The life in prison is deplorable; conditions are inhumane, unhealthy, unproductive and violent. This really affects the staff and the inmates themselves due to the unending trauma and stress. The unfair treatment of inmates discriminating between race and class and the type of offence, makes the prison to be the devil rather than the savior to the community. The community must be protected from rogue persons who are not capable of maintaining the dogmas of the society. It is in this light that the prison must be seen as a failed system in our society. The rehabilitation programs like educational programs, drug rehabilitation and counseling programs were terminated in the twentieth century despite the increase in the population of prisons. Therefore, the fact is that most of the ex-convicts come back into the society to seek revenge armed wit nothing but hardness, pain, stress, trauma, mental disability and thus do not fit back in the society. The ex-convict life and its challenges It is clear now that the prison facilities are not living to their dreams as set to do by the constitution. The number of ex-convict is high today in comparison to the earlier centuries. The alarming news behind this large number is that they passed through the prison that we have already seen needs to do reforms, from the staff to the policies governing the correction and treatment of convicts. The persons with prison experience, due to lack of effective corrective measures, pose a threat to the community since they deviate more than the initial stage. In addition, most of the ex-convicts convicted of crime and drug are suffering from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases which is an alarm to security due the attitudes of most of these ex- convicts. On the other hand, after prison, life is no better for most of them due to low education, drugs and restrictive laws and policies. The society does not really accept them back and thus re-entry and acceptance makes life hard. This leads to the rise of recidivism and increased rate of crime from the same ex-prisoners. The first of these injustices is restriction from voting known as felon disenfranchisement. This law date back to the founding years of America claiming the ‘spotlessness of the poll box’ in 1884 (Manza & Uggen, 2006). The argument was that, felons could use their votes unlawfully to corrupt the ballot box and that since already they have first violated the social contract, then they can also corrupt the franchise responsibility. The view of this time was the ‘excellent government’ meaning that all issues that seemed or were perceived to avert such causes, all measures would be placed to avoid that (Manza & Uggen, 2006). For the past years, this issue has not been much debated upon or given enough light until the twentieth century when it caused a major stir in 1998. Human rights watch revealed that 4 million people were locked out of voting and they were concerned that this could affect any election. Close monitoring by Uggen and Manza (2006) reveals a note of origination in discriminating against the blacks. The notion that blacks were the most felony convicted race due to poverty hence the likelihood was that they committed most crimes. This is strongly supported by the discrimination of the black man up to the twentieth century. The lack of access to employment is another major challenge that ex-convicts face in their journey towards re-entry and full rehabilitation into the society. Hull and Conyers Jr. in their book say that, two thirds of ex-convicts end up behind bars again within three years of release. The employers are keen on background checks meant to lock out the job seekers with felony conviction. There is no law that expressly prohibits ex-convicts from getting employment but the many bans across the board violate the civil rights act of 1964 as indicated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This reveals that, to solve this problem, one has to seek redress from the state law. Major tribunals have allowed employers to disqualify job seekers with felony conviction if it is related to the job being sought. Where corruption seems plausible, the background check proves crucial, and therefore any record of conviction disqualifies the person. Restrictions on occupational licensing is a major setback to the ex convicts life after prison. The fact that even setting up an own work is prohibited means that the government wastes money for the upkeep of prisoners in jail. It negates the logic why a person from a correction and rehabilitation center does not fit into the society. The lack of employment and the despair from job turning down by prospective employer causes recidivism (Hull & Conyers, 2006). This opposes the principles of fairness and justice if people cannot be treated fairly in matters of public or private. The democracy of a people involves giving equal chances to all without any prejudice. This is not the case for the ex-convict when it comes to search of funds for higher education when compared to other students. The Higher Education Act of 1965 is meant to aid needy and poor students with funds to acquire college education. However, the amendment by Congress in 1998 denies ex-convict of drug abuse the right to seek these funds for college education. In addition, under federal law, drug convict means that one cannot qualify for ‘Hope Credit’ leading to high number of students denied access to financial aid (Hull et al. , 2006). Helping the ex-convicts find back their lives and enjoy the full benefits of a citizen needs changing the status quo especially in the laws. The social welfare challenge is also another part that requires check up to give the ex-convicts a sense of belonging and their importance to the society. According to Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1956, ex-convicts who had been charged with drug possession are entitled to no temporary assistance for needy families, social safekeeping, Medicare, food aid and other health benefits. This infringes on the ex-convicts efforts to be best fit in the society. Ex-convicts feel that the social welfare part of their lives is curtailed which is equivalent to punishment which goes to great pains since it takes long to be paroled. The question whether ex-convicts can hold public office lies greatly to state and constitutional law. The constitutional law doe not bar ex-convict from holding a public office because of the malice that can arise if a president does not need a challenge from and opposing team. Despite this, the state law on the other hand bars a felony convict from holding or running for a public office. The fact is that the restriction of the ex-convict from holding public offices is much humiliating especially for people who are convicted while serving in public offices. Furthermore, most of the information about conviction is readily available to the public today especially on the internet. This is very restrictive and poses as a challenge to most of the ex convicts who are charged with minor felony. This also applies to ex-convicts who have not despaired and are determined to reclaim their lives back in the society after imprisonment. It is therefore stressful for them to find that their efforts are interrupted by the laws of the country and thus they question the principle of democracy. In this light, the function of the prison as a corrective and rehabilitative facility is questioned and the government spending on prison is ridiculed. Aside from ex-offenders being barred from holding public office, parenthood forms an insurmountable challenge to them. Besides family reunion being eventful and complicated, the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act require that parents abdicate parenthood if they do not spend 15 months with them. The imprisonment term average is 18 months implicating that family break up is real for those ex-convicts who are jailed for years. These are the challenges that can result to more crimes leading to a cycle of the same which means that recidivism is no near to ending. With this kind of a prison system, it means more problems will be created. On the other hand, the society’s reception and treatment of the ex-convict warrants a checkup and change to avoid punishing the ex convict (Thompson, 2008). Research shows that foster care after family break up leads to high cases of juvenile delinquency which dovetails to crime. This can only be interpreted that the protection of the community by these laws and policies provides an avenue for the next future generation of offenders. The issue of parenting is complicated and hurting when it is disconnected either to the father or mother, it is the most unique experience. Therefore, this law punishes the parents all their lives not to add that most are poor. It is an excusable path to mental anguish, stress and trauma to such ex-convicts citizens in this country. The issue of acquiring secure housing is just another restrictive issue concerning the affairs of ex-convict’s re-entry to the society. The local, federal and the state laws have three categories on barriers upon ex-convicts, the absolute statutory exclusions, denying and termination of housing for substance abuse and one strike you are out. The first concerns those instances that an ex-convict manufactures substance or has been convicted of sex offence. It means that the ex-convict is banned out for life on public houses. Secondly, if the ex convict is still using substances illegally and the third involves a case where an individual is denied admission due to activity of crime or substance abuse which might lead to disruption of other house occupants just slightly before occupying the house. These laws under PHA are directed by the Housing Opportunity Act destabilize the lives of ex-convicts who have so much to correct for their successful re-entry into the society. The changing wind When ex convicts experience a difficult and often barring life influenced by the laws and policies, they feel frustrated and rejected. The fact that one is expected to display good conduct to pay for health services, cater for the family despite having no job is overwhelming. These situations places the ex-convicts between a hard place and a rock and thus chances of getting back to crime or illegal substance abuse are imminent. The questions of giving the ex-convicts a second chance have arisen due the increased amount of people with felony records. The political, social and economic consequences related to the re-entry of ex-convicts into the society reveal high costs and disadvantages. The society is exposed to disrupted morals due to drug abuse culture. The lack of family role models and parents to guide the life of young people is an indication of a falling society. A community where most of the people are ex-convicts and majority fall under the category of those counted poor means that drug abuse, crime, increase in communicable diseases and unemployment can be the order of the day leading to recidivism. Today, this is the question that concerns the country’s change of policies at the twenty-first century. Despite other issues concerning war, terror and relations with other countries, America is faced by internal issues like these. Other countries like European countries have strategies to make sure that their prisons and justice department balance the whole picture for the benefit of all and maintain the best secure free society (Petersilia, 2000). Today, the stigmatization and citizen resistance to support ex-offenders is waning due to the introduction of productive restorative community justice approach that is meant to bring all people to work together for the benefit of the whole. The re-entry of ex-offenders to the society is a complicated issue that requires serious planning and change of policies. Looking for possible solutions to reintegration needs a change of the public attitude towards ex-convicts (Levinson, 2002). The message is that, the situation is not hopeless; America has not lost the battle what we need is changing the past and embracing the present for the well being of our future. Religious leaders, some politicians, organizations, radio talk shows and the general public have taken an active role in talking about the issue of prisons and ex convict’s lives. The fact that they are citizens just like any other has seen the rise of talks all over for their clearance in the eyes of the public. Although some of the politicians do not want to hear this, the campaign is rife and is gaining momentum. The century is turning tides to those who still hold bad attitudes towards ex-convicts. To support an ex-convict was a liability before but for today as Delgado puts it, it’s a launching pad for people with political ambitions. The conditions of deterioration of policies of prison and aggravation of issues pertaining ex-convicts have touched on the politics of the Republican Party hence a win to the Democrats. The meting out of harsh policies and stiff laws does not offer any solutions; instead it creates more problems to the society. The ex-convicts form a convict bloc that has connections to the high echelons of power and class and they form a formidable force which is capable of swaying the outcome of any election. In addition, the speaking out against corrupt policies held in prisons and courtrooms has brought justice to others who are convicted for fair hearings (Delgado, 2007).