Government Role Essay

The main role of the executive is to preform leadership like duties such as carrying out leadership roles, ceremonial roles, and preforming symbolic. The leadership role demand formulating, articulating, and implementing goals of the political system. The effective chief executive becomes the spokesperson for the people, attempts to invigorate the people’s support for these goals, and then develops strategies that ease their accomplishment. For the most part the chief executive takes the initiative in a policy form. The executive policy leadership is very crucial during times of crisis, because the executive structure has the potential for a level of coherence and consent of action, which is almost always lacking in legislature. In most political systems the chief executive officer has the power to veto the legislation that the legislature initiates, which may be directly or indirectly. The actors in the executive role usually function as the unifying symbol of the entire soci ety, becoming the lead figurehead for the people. The executive presence becomes a central to many of society’s ceremonies and rituals. In the majority of all political systems the executive has the primary responsibility for implementing the laws and policies of political order. Most systems have an executive cabinet in where each member is directly and personally responsible for some of the major areas of administration. However they are supposed to set a broad set of guidelines for policy and implementation and responsibility for any major mishaps that occur. In parliament for examples, the minster of a department will usually resign if there is a serious shortcoming in his or her area of responsibility. The chief executive must set policy and supervise the organization and utilization of the state’s military capabilities, which is a task that can have the most serious consequences for the security, and well being of the society. Along with this comes the supervision of foreign affairs that involves a complicated pattern of meeting officials from other states and deal with national dealings with other nations usually showing some form of cooperation. The British government and the United States government are different in many aspects but yet share many similarities. A prime minister who handles the majority of the executive responsibilities mainly holds Britain’s executive, and of curse the king or queen handles ceremonial responsibilities like a figurehead would. However the United States has a fused executive system in where the president handles both the  head of state and the head of government roles. 2. Democracy has a wide range of meanings, but true direct democracy is a government of and by the people. An alternative concept in which it is pretty clear is representative democracy. This is a system in which the citizens elect people to represent them in the political aspect of things and to express the values on their behalf of society. Another general term to describe this democracy is a republic even though not all republics are democratic and not all democrats are republicans. Electoral democracy is defined as a political system in where all citizens periodically vote in order to elect political leaders in their society. It also seems important to establish that the people have the power to retain or reject those serving as their political leaders. This additional condition, called the limited mandate, means that the electorate grants the authority to rule for only a short fixed period of time, and then the electorate has the opportunity to elect their representatives again. Meaning that if the political leaders do not gain sufficient votes the political leaders will voluntarily resign office. We can also classify a political system called liberal democracy when citizens enjoy not only electoral democracy but also substantial political rights and civil liberties regarding participation, personal freedoms, and oppositions. The United States is considered to have some like similarities in this regard for the notion that its citizens enjoy the freedoms and rights that come along with voting and individual values. A non-democracy is a concept by with all major decisions especially with those that deal with the state is handled by the person or political group in charge of the state in that time. One conventional concept used to define non democracies is a dictatorship. A definition of a dictator might be a ruler with absolute power and authority. Dictatorship may be further defined as the absence of a limited mandate- a critical factor in the definition of democracy. That is, the citizens of that state have no power to remove the person in office or political leadership period. This government type is often time seen as harsh to its citizens and harsh. Totalitarianism, which is a political system that the allocation of values and its control penetrate into almost every aspect of its citizen’s every day lives. The totalitarian political system demands complete obedience to its extensive  rules in culture, economics, religion, and most of all morality. All organizations are subordinated to the totalitarian state. Every activity is under scrutiny by the state in the name of the public interest. The state might define what is ok to watch or be produce in a movie, what acceptable to say in the media, and It even has acceptable behaviors and thoughts for its people. Another concept that falls under the category of non-democratic is Authoritarian regimes. Many authoritarian regimes such as dictatorships lack empowerment. What really distinguish authoritarianism are the political actions and decisions of the ruler, while the political rights and freedoms of the people are significantly limited. In other words under authoritarianism the population has very minimal political rights. An authoritarian regime places many severe restrictions on the activities of individuals and groups who advocate the people on the actions of the political system. The great majority of the populations are not allowed to participate in any political activities except in ways that expressly encouraged by the regime such as mass rallies and speeches. Citizens of such places are not allowed to question th e political intuitions, procedures, or public policies of an authoritarian regime. 3. There are a few different types of states, first there is the unitary state and then there is central government, which holds all legislative power. While the central government has indivisible sovereignty, it can delegate power or functional responsibilities to territorial units, which have names such as department or regions. These peripheral governments serve only at the convenience of the central government, which can revoke their power or functions at any given time. The majority of all citizens tend to identify with the country as a whole, rather than with regional authorities as they should. A federation is divided constitutionally and functions between a central government and the set of regional governments. On the other hand to a unitary state, there is an explicit sharing of power among the levels of government in a federation, and no level has legal power to dominate any other level in all policy domains. There are five major rationales that make up a federation: large size, prior existence of strong states, desire to create unity or accommodate diversity, the desire to concentrate power and resources, and the desire to disperse political power. A federation can be established to prevent the over centration of power in the central government. A confederation is an association in which states delegate some power to a supranational central government but retain primary power. Confederations emphasize on economic cooperation and or military cooperation’s. It is a loose grouping of states in which each state’s involvement membership, and compliance with the central government are conditional depending on the state’s perception of its own national interest.

The Decline in the Ecological Quality of the woodland, Heathland and Wetland Areas in the New Forest

The New Forest, a landscape enjoyed by many as a wonderful break from the bustle of city life, An abundance of species rich habitats, a place of solitude, as open space to be valued and conserved for both present and future generations. To many the New forest may seem an unchanging mosaic of forest, heath and wetland interlocked with small rural settlements whose traditional character seem almost timeless. However beneath this uniquely picturesque landscape lies an environment which is both complex and forever changing, a landscape which through history, has been heavily influenced by man and his activities. The precise role of man and the influence he is having upon the natural environment often creates a complex set of management issues. These issues embody not only concerns for the environment but often have economic implications for the wider community. The New Forest is a good example of this; it has many conflicting uses and hence requires management. Figure two displays this range of habitats. Habitat Area/ha Heathland/Acid Grassland 11740 Valley Mires and Wet Heaths 238 Unenclosed Deciduous Woodland 4049 Statutory Silvicultural Enclosures 8100 Unenclosable (open to exercise of common rights) 19028 Fig2: The proportions of different habitats It is the largest area of unsown vegetation in lowland Britain. Each habitat is affected differently by different uses, which in the past may have caused a decline in their ecological quality, it is both these uses and the management strategies associated with them that will be the focus of this article. History of Landuse and Management The forest became appointed to the crown as Royal Forest nine hundred years ago, it was used as a reservation for deer and domestic stock. This grazing and browsing limited the regeneration of trees and shrubs. It is currently under the management of the Forestry Commission as detailed in the Forestry and New Forest acts. The Forestry Commission is responsible for the ancient and ornamental woodlands and their timber enclosures this is refered to as the ‘Crown Land'. They are required to give priority to conservation of the forests traditional character. They practice forestry in the Silvicultural Enclosures and have a responsibility for managing the unenclosed forest. The New Forest Heritage area will be referred to as the ‘New Forest'. The common land within the perambulation will be referred to as the ‘Open Forest'. Privately owned and fenced lands will be refered to as ‘Enclosed lands'. Fig 1:Dockens area Fig 3: The New Forest Heritage Area Ten Verderers became responsible for management of communal animals depastured in open forest. They regulated the right of the common promoting the improvement of grazing for the commoners. However these days there are strict guidelines which commoners must adhere to, to try to ensure the retention and sometimes improvement of the landscape quality. In July 1994 the government recognised the New Forest as a unique area giving it similar protection as a national park. It also possesses other designations, it is a SSSI although this offers protection from development it offers little in the way of conservation. In 1996 the New Forest Committee published a management plan entitled ‘A strategy for the New Forest' its individual aims and strategies will be assessed throughout this article. The Committee represents the principal central and local government organisations in the forest who include Countryside Commission English Nature Forestry Commission Hampshire County Council New Forest District Council Verderers of the New Forest Salisbury District Council Test Valley Borough Council Wiltshire County Council (as Observers) Country Landowners' Association National Farmers' Union (as Observers) The development of a management strategy like The New Forest Strategy is important as it recognises the interests of all groups concerned, although the participation of so many organisations that often have conflicting interests may often make management difficult. Today most of the New Forest exists as a pastoral economy based on the exercise of common rights and grazing. The community of farmers made up of between three to four hundred commoners depend upon this for their livelihoods hence the combination of this and conservation makes management more difficult. It is thought that grazing has had a greater effect on vegetation than peat cutting and deforestation, indeed it is thought the landscape has evolved to its present state through the effects of grazing. In each area ecological quality is affected differently by a variety of different uses, so it will be necessary to assess the decline of each one in turn. Woodland Although there are both Silvicultural enclosures and ancient unenclosed deciduous woodland it is the later that possess the most nature conservation value. The silvicultural enclosures though contain approximately 40% of Oak and Beech some containing unmodified former pasture woodland. Because these enclosures have been less grazed than the unenclosed woodland contain many rare plants including bastard balm and the lungwort. These enclosures also contain large populations of predatory birds such as Buzzards and sparrow hawks. Fig 4: Native trees during flood Oak and Beech dominate the unenclosed deciduous woodland, Oaks being more dominant on heavier soils varying in proportion. Under this canopy Holly dominates along with maple and hawthorn. Older oaks contain the richest woodland lichen flora in Lowland Europe while insectivorous birds colonise decaying timber. This area is open to the exercise of common rights and has been for many years, indeed this habitat is Semi-natural, and exists as a Plagioclimax. There has been much research to determine whether this grazing of domestic stock has caused an ecological decline in these forests The animals can be very selective hence the less edible plants may become the most dominant. As a result much research has been undertaken to assess the effects of grazing on woodland. This is in many ways an attempt to determine the level of grazing necessary to prevent further damage to the environment and slow down any ecological decline associated with it. During 1960 Dr George Peterken established ‘The age structure of the enclosed woodlands was related to fluctuations of large herbivores since at least the eighteenth century'. He also found that the most recent periods of regeneration of woodland were 1860-1910 and 1930-1945. The first of these followed the killing of most of the deer population after the order of the deer conservation act in 1851, while the second was due to a slow market and a corresponding reduction in stocks. This had a dramatic effect on the landscape and remains proof of the limiting effect of grazing both on woodland quality and area, as it followed the generation of new trees in adjacent areas. However nowadays commoning has been more intensive and there have been too many invertebrates to allow such natural regeneration. Clearly Herbivores influence species composition and age structure of woods so much so that in the New Forest today elm lime and hazel no longer make up the canopy of the majority of woodland. Research by Prof. Barber of Southampton Univ. has highlighted these reductions in diversity. His pollen diagrams show that elm and lime die out suddenly. He attributes this to them being felled and failing to regenerate. He has also documented a decline in hazel and its disappearance recently. Documentary evidence from 16th and 17th centuries shows hazel to be common. All of this evidence shows a slow increase in browse resistant holly, a decline in ecological quality, which can only be attributed to selective grazing. In comparing this to private forest of similar edaphic quality that has mainly been coppiced we find hazel still abundant along with a rich herb layer. This is in comparison to the sparse herb layer of the grazed area, which comprises of around a poor thirty species. The ungrazed area also contains many lichens and deadwood invertebrates, hence a wide variety and species richness. Management of Woodland The New Forest Committee in their Strategy for the New Forest recognises that ‘Grazing in open forest by sheep and cattle has a strong influence on the age regeneration and species type of the vegetation' They also recognise that the numbers and proportions of ponies to cattle have a significant effect on the ecology of the forest. It refers to ‘The Lingworth Report' on grazing. It suggests that pony and cattle premium schemes and marking fees should be used as a mechanism for influencing numbers turned out. Recent research however has shown that social and cultural factors play a greater role in decision making. The report recognises that commoning is poor source of income for commoners and that restrictions on landuse and stock numbers may have profound effects on their livelihoods and the local economy. The Forestry commissions policy is ‘to conserve woodland as an essential component of the traditional character of the forest'. Part of the ‘New Forest review' recommends that ‘The maximum feasible area of native area of broardleaved component should be grown on the longest feasible rotations, and the possibility of restoring some conifer plantations to broardleave should be investigated'. Such recommendations are encouraging for conservation however the actual implementation may be more difficult to put into practice, while the affects of any recent measures are too early to assess. Unfortunately it is difficult for the Forestry Commission to assess the extent of deterioration or have any control over development in the privately owned forests. This is identified in the ‘Strategy for the New Forest', it recognises ‘Changes in the design and siting of new planting, changes in management practices and species composition and loss of hedgerows all have important implications for the forest as a whole' Indeed comparison of the area today to that recorded in the New Forest by English Nature during 1994 shows a reduction in quality of the landscape. It identified 94 sites supporting ancient woodland amounting to 2330ha in privately owned areas. The Report identifies that 37% of ancient woodland from these areas has now been replanted with conifers. Heathlands These are the result of mans activities particularly burning over the last three thousand years and are hence regarded as Semi-natural. Heathlands similar to woodlands have been grazed throughout history. Some heaths were part of the commoning system these are outside the Crown lands and have been enclosed since the 19th Century. Some heath is unenclosed on higher ground. The fringes of the forest in the west have extensive heaths. The heaths inside the perambulation have become degraded through recreational use and gravel extraction, this has contributed to much fragmentation and a reduction in this habitat. Scrub encroachment has become a particular problem and has led to a reduction in bio-diversity through competition. Grazing by Ponies is believed to have led to the rapid decline in populations of Dwarf Gorse an important component of the heathland. The evidence is indicating that grassland is expanding while heathland contracts and this is leading to a decline in the ecological quality of the forest. It is thought and shown by observation that this is apparent where there is intensive grazing and trampling. In 1973 Dr Colin Tubbs showed that areas of heath that had been burnt failed to regenerate due to the grazing pressure. Heathlands support birds like the Dartford Warbler, which in the New Forest has been put under threat by grazing. In 1974 Colin Bibby conducted a national survey of Dartford Warbler populations he concluded that burning and heavy grazing had reduced the birds habitat namely the heathlands, and had hence he attributed a decline in populations of Dartford Warbler to this decline in habitat. It is thought by entomologists that insects particularly butterflies were more frequently sited during the 1930's. However this is difficult to place certainty on as much of the data is unreliable. They have found that species such as High Brown, Dark Green, Pearl Bordered and many other rare species, which were abundant, are now confined to local areas. During the 1930's there was less grazing, both this and the higher diversity and this can be said is proof of this ecological decline. Colin Tubbs has expressed concern over buzzard populations who rely on heathlands as their habitat. Competition with large vertebrates is causing them to decline through limiting the number of small ground vertebrates such as rabbits by over grazing. This is the underlying Hypothesis surrounding much of Colin Tubbs work in this area. He established in 1973 that there was a large fall in buzzard production with only one out of six pairs known to rear young since then the number of successful pairs has stayed below the levels during the 1960's. This followed a large fall in the number of small rodents counted in southern England during 1970. It is difficult to place much reliability on this data. The grazing by ponies continues to be intensive and remain so unless the Forestry Commission takes action. Actions such as the erecting of fences are of little use, as Ponies seem to have a remarkable ability to leap over fences. The Forestry Commission has had to dedicate time to the removal of Ponies and this can often be very costly. Management Of Heathlands The Heathlands are managed by the Forestry Commission, during 1986 the New Forest Review group recommended that some conifer or open woods should be returned to open heathland to reduce there decline, purely in the interests of conservation. The Forestry Commission has already started this holistic approach away from the economic needs of forestry to those of conservation. Many of the proposals outlined in the ‘Strategy for the New Forest' aims to: ‘work with landowners to conserve and extend heathland reinstating traditional management where possible' RA3.73b.8. This will be possibly hard to implement, as the economic needs of commoners may be difficult to overcome in the pursuit of conservation. This may only be possible through the adoption of joint marketing of Forest animals and produce to offset the financial implications of this proposal. This is outlined in section 4.1.6 of the report. The Forestry Commission is responsible for the management of the majority of these areas and there is a tendency for their economic implications to override those of conservation. Management also aims to: ‘Raise awareness of the ecological importance of heathland and encourage local support for its conservation' [RA3.7c]. This is important as raising awareness of the public can lead to involvement through voluntary organisations which can lead to a reduction in expenditure by government and an increase in the amount of positive management for conservation. Although this is hard to implement as it often involves some expensive form of interpretative media. All these policies aim to restore and recreate heathland, although the effects of these actions to the problems already discussed are not yet visible. Wetland's The New Forest possesses ninety valley mires of which there are only 120 in the whole of Europe, these have high conservation importance. Draining during the 1950's and 60's has lead to a reduction in the ecological quality of these environments. Restoration of these areas is important as some pockets contain unique flora and flora, an immense biological richness. They provide both grazing and water for forest animals. Rare species include slender cotton grass (Eriophorum gracile), bog orchid (Hammarabga paludose) which are very rare in Southern England. The Forestry Commission previously had a duty to drain many mires in an effort to fulfil the statutory obligations of ‘The New Forest Act of 1949'. Unfortunately it is only recently that the importance of this habitat ecologically has become realised. It is now part of the ‘New Forest special area of conservation' and is both a ‘RAMSAR' wetland and a ‘SSSI'. The most important Mires are located in the Crown lands. The wetlands also include many rivers and their floodplains, while there are historic water meadows and fifty ponds, these also posses high bio-diversity and require management. Many of the streams are rare due to there acid nature hence they support rare species. There has been a reduction in the ecological quality of these areas by modifying or straitening of the marine channels. Low levels in the Rivers and streams have been attributed to a lowering of the water table by boreholes and streams. Management of Wetlands In relation to rivers and streams, the ‘Environment Agency' has developed a ‘Catchment management plan' for the New Forest. Which is concerned with the future management of these areas. The recommended actions associated with this management I am unaware of. In relation to mires the Strategy aims to: ‘Restore and enhance damaged valley mires' [RA3.8b]0 This involves techniques to slow the flow of water restoring levels of water to how they were before drainage. This is achieved by installing small dams along small ditches in an attempt to drain the mire. It tries to mimic natural channel blocking; it is hoped that this will halt headwald erosion. Deep channels have developed in some places, which are a hazard to livestock and damaging to the mire. ‘The Forestry Commission' has been aiming to infill these with local material to hope that they blend in with surrounding heathland vegetation. Again many of these important areas of conservation occur in the Crown land i.e.- Mires. In one of its recommended actions the Forestry Commission work with land managers and advise them in areas where conservation may not be the land managers highest priority. In Relation to this the strategy aims to: ‘Identify wetland features important to the traditional character of the New Forest and work with landowners/land managers to secure their conservation.' [RA3.8a], see also RA3.3c0 It is clear now that the New possess a very complex range of management issues and that successful management will require great co-operation between all groups who have an interest for one reason or another in the New Forest.

Comparing Two Perspectives of Management Essay

Management is the attainment of organisational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organising, leading and controlling organisational resources (Samson & Daft, 2009, p. 12). In essence, the final outcome of management is to achieve organisation goals and managers in various levels should achieve goals effectively and efficiently by intelligently utilizing financial, human and other resources in hand. The four skills which may assist managers to achieve these organisational goals are planning, organising, leading and controlling. Traditional vs. Modern Perspectives The practice of management can go back as far as 3000 BC. It developed over thousands of years from Traditional style of management to Modern today. Traditional Perspectives Traditional Perspectives includes (Samson & Daft, 2009): 1.Classical Perspectives – concentrates on making the organisations an efficient operating machine. 2.Humanistic Perspectives – emphases understanding human behaviour, needs and attitudes in the workplace. It has taken more consideration of behaviors, needs and attitudes as well as social interactions and group processes. *For the purpose of the report, I will not elaborate on each item mentioned above. Use Human Resources Perspective as an example. It suggests that Jobs should be designed to meet higher-level needs by allowing workers to use their full potential (Samson & Daft, 2009). This theory was initially supported by a ‘dairy farm’ view and further illustrated by the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and McGregor Theory X & Theory Y. It is my understanding that the theory suggests people generally perform better if they are given full rein to their imagination and creativity. This, in details, means: 1.People are given freedom to fulfill their desired physiological, safety, love/belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization (Maslow’s Hierarchy) needs and wants. They may not be satisfied with all five of them, but fulfillment in any of the above may somewhat increase productivity; 2.Management assumes that employees enjoy working and will seek responsibilities under working/learning process and does not believe in punishment to keep the employees in line. Instead, it believes that employees will exercise self-control if they’re committed (McGregor’s Theory Y). Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the world leading automobile producers and its philosophy is the famous ‘Toyota Way’. The two pillars are ‘Wisdom and Kaizen (improvement)’ and ‘respect for human nature’ (Saruta 2006). Without going into the full description of ‘Toyota Way’ philosophy, we will mainly discuss one component as an example: Improvement. The company motivates employees through a series of incentives, such as wage, on-job education, and progressive promotion. Hence it presents work as something interesting and worthwhile for worker’s self-motivation. In the Japanese operation, this philosophy helped the company achieved long working hours and concentrated labour. Unfortunately it hasn’t been working as successful in other countries. Does this mean the employees in other countries haven’t fulfilled any of their interests? Managers must understand that employees will be motivated by unmet needs; and that once a need is satisfied, it is no longer a motivator (Fisher 2009). There may be environmental factors the management did not consider. Cultural difference for instance may affect the effectiveness of this philosophy. Being in a country with a generous welfare system like Australia, people’s desire for a balanced work/social life style is much stronger than financial achievement. In this instance, Toyota management in other counties should realise the differences in worker’s needs and present other incentives accordingly. Modern Perspectives Modern Management Trend is developed to collaborate with the more complicated technologies, organisational environment and unforeseeable uncertainties in today’s world. Modern Management Theories are focused on how individuals contribute to organisation and corporate performance while the performance of the chief executive is dictated by the organisation’s financial returns and shareholders’ expectations (Weymes 2004). The three major contemporary extensions of the perspectives (Samson & Daft, 2009): 1.System Theory; 2.Contingency View; 3.Total Quality Management. *For the purpose of the report, I will not elaborate on each item mentioned above. Use Contingency View as an example. This theory is an extension of the humanistic perspective in which the successful resolution of organisational problems is thought to depend on management’s identification of key variables in the situation at hand (Samson & Daft, 2009). It believes there is no universal approach that works consistently in every situation. Management should always consider aspects within and outside the organisation and utilise various concepts and techniques appropriately. Looking at this theory from a horizontal angle, Knootz (1981) has simplified it into ordinary words, ‘there is science and there is art, there is knowledge and there is practice. One does not need much experience to understand that a corner grocery store could hardly be organised like General Motors, or that the technical realities of petroleum exploration, production, and refining make impracticable autonomously organised product divisions for gasoline, jet fuel, or lubricating oils’. Different organisations have different variables which determine the size of the company, the management hierarchy, the service procedure and so forth. Looking at it from a vertical angle, an organisation may have diversified subsystems and external affiliates. Today’s managers cannot afford to ignore the uncertainties evolved around these elements. Grandori (1984) noted a decision maker needs to classify the state of uncertainty that characterises a decision situation, eliminate the strategies that are not feasible in that situation, and select a feasible strategy. To realise the contingency approach its potential as an effective construct for maintaining and improving managerial effectiveness in a hyper dynamic environment, its development must proceed in a systematic unified and directed manner (Luthans & Stewart, 1977). IKEA, as an example, is the world’s most successful mass-market retailer, reaching 33 countries and hosting 410 million shoppers a year; the furniture is made by about 1,500 suppliers in more than 50 countries. Its signature feature is the flat packed product that customers assemble at home. To target the dramatic technology development in 21st century, the company introduced online shopping to address convenience and traceability. The company designs its own, and also broadens the product mix into food and general living supplies (â€Å"IKEA Company Profile†, n.d.). Investment risks can be sufficiently minimised, and it is best described by the old adage â€Å"never put all your eggs in one basket†. Traditionally, a showroom with a team of salesmen and delivery truck drivers is the focal point of a typical furniture retailer. Globalisation and widely spread use of internet will eventually force them out of the market. IKEA tackled these issues from supply-chain, customer satisfaction and diversification of investment risks. It further demonstrates the contingency approach is used to sustain IKEA’s completive edge in all time. Although these strategies may not be suitable in 10 years time, contingency view will always exert management to evaluation situation at hand and make decision accordingly to sustain performance. Conclusion Generally speaking, the traditional perspectives of management tend to standardise a managerial approach across the board by analysing one particular scenario with a number of assumptions. However, the modern perspectives recognise the uncertainties in reality and take many aspects into consideration of their decision making process. Contingency view is not a brand new theory that is completely different from the traditional perspectives. Whilst we are not suggesting the traditional perspectives are untrue, managers should be selective according to the situation at hand and use a combination of approaches to tackle from all angles. Management in the modern world is no longer a unitary practice; it is an art. Continuous education and professional development can only offer the mandatory knowledge. Real life experience and rational conduct at time is the key to successful management.

PESTEL Analysis of Cummins ESB Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

PESTEL Analysis of Cummins ESB Business - Essay Example Notable areas that Cummins ESB is likely to face political and legislative interferences include but not limited to taxation policies, labour laws, trade restrictions, Environmental regulation and investments especially public private partnership ventures. In other words Cummins ESB will have to comply with different legislations relating to taxation, labour, or investment in every country of their operation. Economic Factors Economic factors are inherent concern to Cummins ESB taking into consideration that the factors are likely to influence their profits, investments, costs, prices and demand to greater extent. Notable economic factors that are likely to affect operations Cummins ESB include but not limited to inflation, interest rates, unemployment rates, and or currency exchange rates. The fact that Cummins ESB engage in massive investments across the globe and the same time engage in repatriation of earnings to the parent company (Cummins Inc.), the company’s investments costs as well as revenues are likely to be affected by fluctuating currency rates. The currency rates are also likely to affect the cost of exported as well as imported products and services. Inconsistent interest rates in different countries are also likely to affect the cost of company’s investment abroad. Inflationary trends globally and in specific international market is also detrimental on Cummins ESB earning. Social factors Most markets in the international market are always distinguished from their cultural aspects most of which are inherent while others are acquired. Social trends such as Demographic change; fashion and preference, age distribution, levels of literacy, customs and traditions, attitudes and beliefs are likely to affect the operation of a multinational company to significantly. It is unlikely that Cummins ESB operations will be affected by social trends in the global market considerably. However, demographic change in country or region is likely to in crease demand for energy either for lighting, cooking and or heating. Additionally the population is growing more conscious about the form of energy they use as most environmental conservation agencies continue to drug for green energy. Technological factors It is noteworthy that technology is one of the major external variables that has played significant role in developing competitive products and services by Cummins ESB. The technology has not only benefited the company but also Cummins ESB customers as it enhance to effective and efficient delivery of services (Cummins Power Generation Inc, 2010). For instance, introduction of Electronic Funds Transfer Systems (EFTPoS) and Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) has highly enhanced delivery of services and products. Through effective technology Cummins ESB has managed to design and build energy efficient diesel, LP gas or natural gas generators, digital controls and transfer switches for standby around the globe. All technologic breakth rough of Cummins ESB is attributable to the high investment in Research and development. Environmental factors It is always in the best interest of the common public that a company operate lean projects that are not harmful to the environment. This means that companies have responsibility to remain environmental savvy when producing or marketing

Marketing in Social Media (Facebook) Research Paper

Marketing in Social Media (Facebook) - Research Paper Example Social media is one of the latest marketing aid tools in the commercial sector. Facebook is a popular social network that enables people from all corners of the globe to create respective accounts and communicate to each other regardless the distance. The commercial sector has taken advantage of the popular network to advertise or create awareness of their products among other relevant information. This work focuses on Facebook, one of the most popular social networks, as an advertising tool in the commercial arena. There are over a million commercial pages in Facebook, hence, it is important to incorporate some attractive features to attract more people to the social networking community. The success of communication through Facebook could be measured by the number of likes or comments. Attractive photos or images attached to accounts play a significant role. From a psychological view, a normal human being would always be attracted by unique or colorful images, and this would make o ne read the content of the pages and finally like such pages. Bright colors like yellow, pink and white could be incorporated into the images to attract some attention and this would improve the chances of one to make positive comments or like a page. Business pages could also include the images of popular individuals like famous sportsmen, actors, models and comedians among others. However, it is important to consider all the legal and ethical implications before using anyone’s image; for instance, a company should enter into a contract with a preferred celebrity to have his/her photos used on such pages. People tend to associate themselves with celebrities, hence, more likes and positive comments, which is a good sign of an advert message. The use of simple appealing language could also attract more people to like or comment on such pages. For instance, adverts in Europe could be done in English or French as these are the two most spoken languages in the area (Arvind 19). I t is also important to incorporate current events like sports in such pages. For instance, such pages may contain images of the ongoing confederation cup and rugby sevens world cup among others. The advert information should be short and precise, meaning the core information should be easy to access. Recent business studies of hotel and tourism business in Taiwan recommend the industries to engage in more Facebook adverts to increase more clients or customers. Compared to their counterparts in Europe and other parts of the developed world, Taiwan hotels are not that well known due to poor advert or marketing strategies. The language barrier is another factor limiting effective communications through Facebook. Taiwan hotel market expect more customers from Europe, Africa, North America and South America among others whose main languages are French, English and Portuguese, which are not spoken in Taiwan. However, Taiwan hotel industry could create business pages in their native langua ge but have it translated into other languages to limit the issue of biases ((Hsu 972). The industry could also post images or photos of some of well established hotels among other tourism facilities to attract more clients from all corners of the globe. The pages should be interactive, meaning the clients or customers’ questions or concerns should be answered considering all important details in the most respective ways. The pages should have appropriate passwords to limit hackers from posting non-relevant information that could compromise the image and reputations of such hotels. Facebook has enabled e-commerce in several ways and this could be attributed by the fact that the majority of the youths' access the Facebook pages at

The Transformational Grammar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

The Transformational Grammar - Essay Example Originally, transformational grammar and generative grammar was introduced by Zellig Harris. In the late 1951, he considered symbols to represent in the English sentences that are 'N' for Noun Phrase, 'V' for Verb, 'Vb' for copula verb, 'A' for adjective phrase and 'P' for particle. For surface structures, Harris later introduced Phrase Structure or PS rewrite system which is used to rewrite a symbol into a single or more than one symbols which are all selected from an alphabet. Therefore, following symbols came into view which restricts the English sentences: The above mentioned PS rewrite system is best known to be as an algorithmic machine. The first in the symbols is S which represent sentence, when activated, the symbol of S is carried out linked with the associated rules. After sometime, Harris realized that PS write systems is not sufficient enough so after 1950, he began to see the study of Gardiner and Hjelmslev including the observational data of linguistic theory which did not contained the isolated sentences. In 1952, finally he applied distributional method to the texts which extended the area of sentences. However, transformational grammar was revolutionize... Not starting from the minimal sounds, Chomsky began his work with syntactic combinations in which he analyzed that it can be generated by the means of a composite series of rules. In transformational grammar, each and every intelligible sentence not only conforms the grammatical rules to its own particular language but it also obey the rules for 'deep structures', a universal grammar that underlies the whole set of language plus corresponding to a natural capacity of the human mind (Farlex 2009). The newly found linguistics, which started in 1957, deserves a label of "revolutionary". In this way the word "grammar" took an innovative meaning to itself. This new linguistics classified grammar as instinctive or a subconscious capability to produces language which constituted with our human language. However, the main aim of this new linguistic was to describe this sort of internal grammar (Norquist, Richard 2009). Chomsky along with other linguists, who helped to build the theory of transformational grammar, created transformational rules which help to transform a sentence with a given grammatical formation within a sentence merging it with dissimilar grammatical formation which has the same meaning. For example, if the sentence would be "John say Mary" it will convert into "Mary was seen by Jonathan" (HighBeam 2009). According to Aronoff and Miller (2003), the initial work of Noam Chomsky largely illustrated insufficiency of context-free grammar for the study of natural languages as well as he provided explicit transformational descriptions of specific facts. Transformational grammarians, in 1960's, paid more attention to the connection amid the semantics and syntax which

Erick Erikson Stage 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Erick Erikson Stage 8 - Essay Example In the art of making up a balance between these two forces, there arises a psychosocial vacuum. It is from this point of view that Erikson developed his theory. He believed that the ego exists all through a lifetime (Bee, 2009). He also challenged a fellow psychologist, Sigmund Freud, by noting that behavior was not all defensive. In his belief on the enormous influence of culture on behavior, he explained the interaction between the body (physiology), mind (psychology), and culture (ethos) in the process of development. Philosophically, he summed the stages into two important principles; One’s world gets bigger as they grow, and, Failure cumulates along the stages (Bee, 2009). The literature describes Erickson’s eight stages of psychological development. Infancy stage (birth to 18 months) According to Erickson theory of psychological development, first stage occurs from birth to one year or 18 months. This is a fundamental stage for child’s development. At infan cy stage, the basic conflict is between trust and mistrust, significant event at this stage is feeding. At this phase, a child develops senses of trust to their parents or caregiver, after they have shown care, reliability, or consistency, and affections. Lack in providing support, care, and reliability; will lead to a child developing senses of mistrust to people surrounding them; the guardians, caregivers, and parents (Crain, 2011). Infants are usually dependent, thus, their development of trust is ultimately based on quality and dependability to their parents or caregivers. In a successful development of child’s trust, she/he will be feeling secure and safe with the world. Caregivers and parents who are emotionally unavailable, inconsistent or unreliable, and rejecting their children, they will lead to the development in feelings of mistrust (Crain, 2011). Therefore, failure of a child to develop trust with their caregiver, will lead to believe that, the world is unpredict able and inconsistent, hence, leading to fear. At the later ages in life, child with trust will have personality of confidence or fearless while those who had mistrust will develop personality of fear. Stage two: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt It begins from 18 months to 3 years. Mobility of children was focused during development of the theory. The physical development advances, and the child try to press for their independence. Some of the common behaviors noticed are making choices on clothes to wear, picking the toys to play with, and choosing what to eat. A child in this stage tends to be autonomous or independent (Wrightsman, 2010). The child is in dire need of their parent’s support, to avoid experiencing failure. In this process, protection from constant failure and ridicule should be avoided through encouragement. Parents should not criticize their children for accidents, and failures, at the same time, not to perform every task for the child. If self- control is at tained without loss of self –esteem, then the child grows will be characterized with will as a virtue. If children are encouraged at this stage, they will become more independent and therefore, autonomy will be achieved. However, if constantly criticized, they begin to feel ashamed of their abilities, thus, developing poor self- esteem and later become doubtful (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2010). Stage three, pre-school (3 to 5 years) At the third stage of psychological development, it occurs between the

Purchase Journal Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Purchase Journal - Case Study Example Less attention on the goods and products needed for daily use. This creates pressure on the budget and sometimes the expenditure is not well planned. If goods for day to day use are not bought regularly and in a planned way, serious problems in consumption patterns may arise. The individual has spending power, but he is reluctant to buy the food products, fruits, vegetables, detergent, etc. This may give rise to health and hygiene problems. In the case too much money is spent to buy branded goods, there will be no funds left for medical emergencies, sudden price hike, etc. The expenditure is already high, so funds are being exhausted rapidly. It is necessary to revise the present purchase pattern. If the present purchase pattern is maintained, it will simply lead to financial mismanagement. However, the problem appears to be at a preliminary state. There is too much tendency of buying expensive, branded goods (this tendency can be checked, of course). No plan for significant savings discernable. More attention is needed on the daily expenses. The daily expenses must be focused to obtain a quality diet. Bank deposits or suitable investments at small scale are a good savings option. There should be more planning for a more economic living. The plans may include proper fund allocation, stoppage of buying expensive and sometimes unnecessary goods, investment in saving scheme,

Critically evaluate the contribution of psychological theories to our Essay

Critically evaluate the contribution of psychological theories to our understanding of the entrepreneur - Essay Example In the process the paper undertakes a comparison and contrast of the two approaches; critique on their use in entrepreneurial settings, for making decisions, and for commercial and business purposes; and a discussion of other factors besides traits and behavior that also contribute to understanding how and why entrepreneurs behave and differ in their rates of success. The paper concludes by answering the question of whether or not psychological approaches complement existing entrepreneurship theory. The traits approach, as the name suggests, focuses on personality traits and how those personality traits in the case of entrepreneurs help explain their nature, and their success or failure in their ventures (Rauch and Frese 2007; McCrae 1987). The cognitive approach, on the other hand, focuses on so-called cognitive processes as keys to understanding the psychology of entrepreneurs, and what makes for successes and failures. This school of thought basically also discounts the power of t he traits approach to make sense of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial behavior and dynamics, and argues for looking into the thought processes of entrepreneurs and the way they relate to behavioral outcomes (Psychology and Entrepreneurship 2013, slides 14-22; Barron 1998; Busenitz and Barney 1997). II. Discussion A. Traits Approach vs. ... On the other hand, studies which prove the fluidity of behavior of people in general in different situations put forth the conclusion that personality traits are not consistent at all, and that therefore they cannot be relied on as the foundation of an approach to understand entrepreneurs and their motivations (Mischel and Peake 1982; Psychology and Entrepreneurship 2013, slides 12-13). The same argument is posited by those who point to studies that say that in terms of personality traits entrepreneurs are not much different from other people who are not entrepreneurial (Baron 1998, pp. 275-277). Meanwhile, the cognitive approach moves away from personality traits and the language of the traits approach, to focus on entrepreneurial thought processes and cognition processes, and the way entrepreneurs make use of heuristic thinking, are prone to cognitive biases of all sorts, and focuses generally on an explanation of behavior rather than on the prediction of behavior for entrepreneurs . The cognitive approach is seen as overcoming the static and related biases of the traits approach, and is regarded as being more effective in complex, dynamic settings. Both meanwhile have some success in explaining the risks, financial considerations, and the kind of creative and open-ended thinking, as well as the cognitive shortcuts and biases, that go into entrepreneurial thinking (Psychology and Entrepreneurship 2013, slides 14-22; Barron 1998; Busenitz and Barney 1997). B. Critique on Use in Entrepreneurial and Commercial Settings, in Decision Making Decision-making between entrepreneurs and ordinary managers make clear that cognitive approaches, as well as

Significant Business Risk Factors Essay Example for Free

Significant Business Risk Factors Essay 1. Limited Shelf Life Empirical evidence suggests that retailers must adapt to new product style trends in order to satisfy consumers and other key stakeholders (Ryan, 2011). In respect to Harvey Norman (HVN), failure to adapt will entail lower consumer demand, hindering growth and profitability. It is important to note a limited shelf life of HVN’s products exists due to changing trends. This in turn gives rise to the risk of inventory becoming obsolete and rising excess stock in the warehouse. Therefore, HVN should further emphasise on its inventory management, in order to minimise inventory build up and overall expenses in the entity. 2. Increased Competition from online shopping Studies reveal that Australian consumers have embraced online shopping, recording a 23% growth in 2012 (Irvine, 2013). In order to combat the fierce competition in the online market, HVN introduced its ‘Omni-strategy,’ which focused on the enhancement of its digital store. There is evidence of success from this strategy with the firm recently named as ‘The Best Multichannel Retailer’ in the ORIA 2013 awards (Chanthadavong, 2013). Despite this acclaim, it is of paramount importance that HVN considers enhancing its distribution channels, especially its digital store through better pricing on delivery times for online purchasesand a greater focus on personalised services for internet empowered consumers. This will sustain consumer expectations and ensure the firm captures a greater portion of its target market (Chanthadavong, 2013). 3. Threat from domestic competitors Despite being one of Australia’s retail giants, HVN in recent times has been battling it out in the domestic market due to growing competition. In 2012, HVN was labelled as the most expensive Australian electronic giant recording a severe slump in its pricing position in comparison to its counterparts such as Dick Smith Electronics and JB HI-FI (Jager, 2013). The underlying reason for the slump was predominantly due to the high costs from GST and compliance laws (Morley, 2013). Additionally, three of HVN’s recently acquired subsidiaries failed during the 2011/2012 financial years. This  proved to be a costly investment for the firm reduced its competitive position in the furniture and electrical goods industry (Coyne, 2013). Furthermore, the entity’s poor pricing position detrimentally impacted the electronics giant’s sales (-4.9%) and profitability (-2.38%) (Harvey Norman, 2012). This suggests that HVN may have inventory build-up, excessive discounting and price deflation due to staggering consumer demand. 4. Stagnating growth in the global retail industry Stagnating growth in the global retail industry has resulted in lower consumer demand and expenditure. A study from IBIS reveals that Australian appliance retailing has fallen by nearly two percent (IBISworld, 2013). Additionally, declining consumer demand has influenced a fall in the Australian dollar (AUD), which has negatively impacted sales in HVN Australian and international stores such as New Zealand and Ireland (Harvey Norman, 2012). HVN’s 2012 Annual Report reinforces that the negative growth has inhibited a reduction of HVN’s profitability, revenue and thus increasing the risk of obsolescence of inventory. 5. Natural Disasters affecting Harvey Norman Stores Recent natural disasters have damaged many HVN Australian and New Zealand stores. For instance, a fire in the storage area of Harvey Norman in Porirua New Zealand heavily damaged a HVN store earlier in June 2013 (New Zealand Herald, 2013). This has had detrimental impacts on HVN’s sales revenue in its New Zealand market (Harvey Norman, 2012 p. 10). It is important to note that these disasters increase time wastage spent on rebuilding stores and increases the risk of overstatement of assets, as they may not have been properly removed off premises. 6. Misleading advertising It is of paramount importance that a company doesn’t engage in false and deceptive marketing; especially if the products fail to exist in the warehouse. HVN was recently fined through infringement notices worth $6,600 for advertising stock they did not hold in a bid to mislead customers. According to the ACCC, this act breached the Trade Practices Act in promoting material. Moreover, this has had financial and non-financial impacts for the company, specifically affecting future sales and brand image  on reliability of the company’s stance to deliver with full efficiency. This is also known as operational and compliance risk. 7. Threat of the geographical location of franchises According to the entity’s 2012 annual report, franchising is deemed to be HVN’s predominant source of its revenue. Whilst, HVN has franchise locations globally, its New Zealand stores attract the highest level of sales revenue (Harvey Norman, 2012). Growth in sales have peaked in stores located around the mining districts such as Western Australia, Hunter Valley, but have dropped in performance in the capital cities such Sydney and Melbourne. A financial risk of going on concern can be indicated from here as the need of consumers shift and with competition HVN may not be selling and trading as much in the cities leading to inventory overload and incremented liabilities affecting overall business performance. 8. Currency Fluctuations During the 2012 financial year, the AUD fluctuated a significant amount against the most popular currency for trade (USD) by about $0.9544 to $1.1055 (RBA 2012). A fluctuation of $0.1511combined with trades amounting in millions would potentially lead to a large discrepancy to HVN’s Accounts receivable and payable accounts. Additionally, a lower AUD reflects that HVN would have to increase the retail prices in order to achieve the same profit margin (Campbell Phillips 2013). Empirical evidence reveals that if the dollar drops to around $0.80AUD compared to the USD, Australian consumers can expect an increase in prices of about 25% (Campbell Phillips 2013). This increase can be counteracted through hedging of the currencies, however volatility of the commodity market could potentially reduce HVN’s sales. Specifically, if sales decreases the risk of inventory obsolesces and write downs through idol stock increases.

Marks and Spencers Business Strategy and Model

Marks and Spencers Business Strategy and Model Introduction Through a strategic planning an organization defines its strategy, or direction, and decisions making on allocating its resources to practice this strategy such as its capital and people. There are various business analysis techniques that are used in strategic planning such as SWOT, PEST, STEER and EPISTEL. The strategic planning, which indicates the future course of an organization, is the formal consideration involves three key questions; these questions mainly refer to what an organization does, who it deals to and how it excel. Another integral question can be phrased as how to beat competition (Bradford Duncan, 2000). The development of this business strategy is of great importance for organization as the whole structure of organization depends on it. An authentic business strategy development needs an appropriate analysis of the organization and its environment. This analysis must be executed at an internal and external level in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses o f internal environment (organization) as well as threats, opportunities of the external environment. Different factors are assessed in this regard including the economy markets, competition, supplier markets, labor markets, regulatory environment and Technology. Marketing plans and strategies are the tools that are used as helpful in understanding the goals of the business and to develop the activities to achieve them. Strategic Models and tools are employed by marketing participants to analyze marketing decisions. The 3Cs, the corporation, the customer and the competitors, can be employed when beginning a strategic analysis to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. Different organizations often use it to convey strategic positioning of their market mix. In order to form a market plan to practice a defined strategy, 4Ps, the product, the price, the place and the promotion, can be used. Marketing theories provides the solution for achieving the marketing goals throug h procedure. The basic theory of marketing revolves around Target Audience, Proposition and Implementation. Organizations sum up their objective and goals into mission and vision statement. They are used to formulate objectives and goals. Every organization follows particular organizational ethics, which meant to show how ethically internal or external stimuli are responded by them. Organizational ethics also expresses the values of an organization to its employees and other entities irrespective of governmental and regulatory laws. Organizational Ethics is interdependent with Organizational Culture. Organizational Culture deals with the beliefs and personal and cultural values of an organization, Psychology, attitudes and experiences. This culture is defined as a collection of norms and values shared by group of the people in the organization and the way they interact with each other and with the stakeholders outside organization (Hill and Jones, 2001). A core competency is definit e factor that is seen as being central to the way it by a business, or its works and employees. It carries out three key criteria, it provides consumer benefits, it is not easy for competitors to imitate and it can be leveraged many products and markets. Competitive advantage takes place when an organization acquires and develops an attribute and combination of attributes that allows it to outperform its competitors. A timetable for the implementation of a strategy shows the timing for the each steps of the plan that is pursued to implement the strategies accordingly. The effectiveness, efficiency and economy have to be evaluated so that the success of the timetable can be estimated throughout the implementation of planning and strategy. This paper examines and assesses the different business models, development of strategic planning, its implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation of the timetable of strategic planning of an organization. The chosen organization is Marks Spencer (MS). Marks Spencer is chosen because it is an important and major British retailer, with over 895 stores in more than 40 territories worldwide, over 600 domestic and 295 international stores (MS International Stores MS website, February 2009). It is also the biggest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as being an up market food retailer, and the 43rd largest retailer in the world as of 2008. (Wal-Mart remains largest global retailer, according to Deloitte survey). Its domestic stores also sell both food and clothing; it has started the store expansion into other ranges including furniture, home ware and technology. In 1998 it was the first and only retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over  £1 billion (BUSINESS | Marks Spencer profits top expectations. BBC News, 1998). The business assessments of such organization of such a big range and with glorious history will definitely be a remarkable addition in the study of business management and business strategic planning. In general terms provide examples (4to 6) and briefly explain them of theories and principles that underlie strategic planning? Every organization comes into being with a strategy, which is called an organizational strategy and aims to provide a guideline to guiding member of the organization. Since the future survival of an organization depends on its strategy, therefore, every organization is commenced with their own strategy. This strategy involves business strategy mainly focusing on development and progress of the organization including internal and external factors as well. An organization needs to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities that the organization could face while developing strategy, political, economic, social, and technological environment other socio-cultural, ecological, and regulatory factors and environment, informatics, and legal matter are also as important to be analyzed as above factors. For this purpose, therefore, organizations summarize these strategies into their mission, vision and values, which illustrate their business strategy. Provide in outline form, using a diagram a framework which would enable your choice organization to develop its strategy in general terms? The preparatory phase of a business strategic plan relies on planning. At the first, business plan includes Analysis of the Current Situation and Marketing Plan Strategy and Objectives. Marks Spencer requires having analysis of the current situation including past year. This analysis includes analysis of Business Trends, Market Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Market Segmentation, Marketing-mix, SWOT analysis, Positioning analyzing perceptions and Sources of information. Marketing plan Strategy and objectives for next year should also be analyzed including Marketing strategy, Desired market segmentation, Desired marketing-mix, TOWS-based objectives as a result of the SWOT, Position perceptual gaps and Yearly sales forecast. Describe and critically evaluate a small range (3 to 5) of models tools and techniques that could be used to develop marketing for your chosen organization? There are many Marketing strategic models and tools employed to analyze marketing decisions. In order to find a broad understanding of the strategic environment the 3Cs can be used by Marks Spencer. This 3Cs model points out that focus should be on three key factors for success. Three main players must be considered when planning a strategy for business: Corporation, Customer and Competitors. These 3Cs can sustain a competitive advantage in a strategic triangle. From a corporation point of view, strategies are needed to maximize the strengths of a corporation relative to the competition in the area of function that are critical to achieve the success. The corporation does not have to exceed in every function in order to win. If it can achieve decisive edge in one key function, it will ultimately be able to progress its other functions which are now average. In case of swiftly rising wage costs, it is an important decision for company to contract out a major share of its assembly ope rations. If the competitors are not able to shift production so swiftly to vendors and subcontractors, the outcomes difference in cost structure and in the companys ability to cope with demand fluctuations can have integral strategic implications. The cost-effectiveness can be improved by adopting three ways. At first, reduction in the basic cost, exercise greater selectivity such as products offered, orders accepted and functions performed and share certain important functions with other business of corporation and other organization. Since clients and customers are the base of strategy therefore the basic goal is to be of customers interest rather than of the shareholders. This segmentation appears from a trade-off study of marketing costs versus market coverage. There always appears to be a point of reducing returns in the cost versus coverage relationship. The task of the organization is to optimize its range of market coverage, geographically and channel wise. Competitors are l ikely to be scrutinizing the market in similar ways in fierce competition. The effectiveness of a given first strategic segmentation will tend to decline over an extended period of time. It is useful to pick a small group of customers in such situations and reexamine what it is that they really want. A market segment change takes place where the market forces are changing the distribution of the user-mix over time by affecting demography, distribution channels, and customer size, etc. This kind of change is meant to be the allocation of corporate resources to be shifted and the ultimate level of resources committed in the business to be changed. The strategy based on competitor can be built by looking at possible sources of diversities in functions including purchasing, engineering, design, sales and servicing. The power of image and capitalizing on profit and cost structure differences are the ways to achieve the differentiation. I mage can be the merely source of positive differen tiation when performance of product and form of the distribution are difficult to differentiate. In capitalizing on profit- and cost structure differences, firstly, the difference in source of profit may be oppressed, from new products sales etc. Secondly, difference in the ratio of unchangeable costs and changeable costs may also be oppressed strategically. A company with lower unchangeable cost ratio can lower prices in a lazy market and hence gain market share. Another strategic tool that can be useful for Mark Spencer is Porters 5 Forces Model. Porters 5 Forces Model is structural analysis of the market. It rather focuses view of analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a Market Segment through analyzing the different threats prevail in the market. It is a framework for the business strategy development and industry analysis. It draws upon industrial organization economics to develop five forces that determine the competitive intensity and in the result attractiveness of a market. Porters 5 Forces Model Structure Threat from potential new entrants Profitable markets that submit high returns attract the new firms. Its consequence is many new entrants, which ultimately decrease profitability for all firms in the industry. The profit rate will constantly fall unless the new entrants are not blocked. This is also known as perfect competition. New entrants can be blocked by the existence of barriers in the form of copyright etc. Attractive segment is the one in which barriers for entrance is high while barriers for exit are low. Thus only few new firm ca enter and only non-performing firm can exit easily. Economies of product difference also make an opportunity for small firms to enhance their businesses thus large firms who have their product out in the market in high price, products of low price can affect them. Marks Spencer has been going through the same situation. Brand equity, which refers to the effects of marketing or consequences that accumulate to a product with its brand name compared with those that would increase if the same product did not have the brand name (Leuthesser, Kohli and Harich, 1995). The threat of substitute products or services The existence of products outside of the sphere of the common product boundaries boost the inclination of customers to switch to substitute including relative price performance of substitute, buyer switching costs, perceived level of product differentiation, number of substitute products available in the market, ease of substitution. Information-based products are more flat to substitution, as online product can easily replace material product. There are many reason cause customers to switch to substitute of the product such as substandard product, and reduction in quality of the product. Increase in the features of the product develops the competitive market. Marks Spencer by increasing the features of its products can make the customers stick with their product. The Bargaining power of customers or buyers The customers bargaining power is also defined as the market of outputs such as the efficiency of the customers to put the firm under pressure; it also affects the sensitivity of customers to price changes. Customers concentration to firm concentration ratio, degree of dependency upon existing channels of distribution, bargaining leverage, specifically in industries with high fixed costs, customers volume, customers switching costs relative to firm switching costs, information availability for customers, ability to backward integrate, availability of existing substitute products, customers price sensitivity and differential advantage and uniqueness of industry products are the actors that increases the bargaining power of customers. Large number of supermarkets will provide better opportunity for the potential customers to reach thus it will decrease the bargaining power of the customers. The Bargaining power of suppliers The suppliers bargaining power is also defined as the market of inputs. Suppliers of materials, components, labor and services such as expertise to the firm are source of power over the firm, when there are a few substitutes. Suppliers may possibly refuse to work with the firm or charge excessively high prices for unique resources. Despite the fact that supplier switching costs is relative to firm switching costs, and degree of differentiation of inputs, impact of inputs on cost or differentiation, presence of substitute inputs, supplier concentration to firm concentration ratio, employee solidarity like labor unions and supplier competition and ability to forward vertically integrate and cut out the buyer and Competition among the existing suppliers mainly reinforce the factor. Number of suppliers across Britain will rather diminish this factor for Marks Spencer. The competitive rivalry within an industry For most organizations, the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry is the intensity of competitive rivalry. Sustainable competitive advantage by innovation, competition between online and offline companies; click-and-mortar -v- slags on a bridge, Level of advertising expense, Powerful competitive strategy and the visibility of proprietary items on the Web all these factor define the competitive rivalry within an industry (Rainer and Turban, 2009). The situation of competitive rivalry is hhigh because there are majorly three rivals of Marks Spencer that provide it a competitive advantage and change its strategic planning. State a variety 7 to 10 of general and marketing strategic options which have been used or are available to the organization of your choice and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of four of these Product Branded product helps in capturing market as it creates an identity of the firm with that brand. Marks Spencer has been selling out branded product but there is no single of theirs, because owning the brand can exceed the sell of that product. The advantage of owning a product as a brand is that it allows the customers to identify the organization with a particular name. While mostly brand products are supposed to be accessible for everyone as a result of its price. Price Price is another factor that is integral for Marks Spencer. Determination of price that depends on the market situation very much affects the market situation for the firm. An affordable Price of the product can be more successful for the firm. Affordable price offer of the Marks Spencer will allow to everyone to access them easily thus it will generate demand of the products if it could not maintain the supply and demand of the products it will have to suffer in the market. Place The place of selling also makes a difference in the marketing strategy of a firm. Since e-commerce has been so much in practice Marks Spencer can start e-commerce through which it can sell out its products online. Besides this, variety of distribution outlets can also be an option for Marks Spencer as it is a good promotion tool of the product. Placing the products in every distributions outlet may lead the firm to the low market level due to its order of supply. Promotion Promotion of the products must be designed in the way Across the Line. Across the Line promotion of the product provide the opportunity to access the customers at any length. Promotion of the products Across the Line will cost the firm highly as promotion across the line requires in order to meet the promotion target. People Work force or staff must be well trained and professional because a well trained work force increase the productivity of an organization. Marks Spencer is the 43rd largest retailer if it hires professional and trained work force it will definitely hit its economy. Process The standard of the services offered must be of good and must be integrated with customer support. Physical Evidence Physical evidence of a firm especially like Marks Spencer does matter. The overall environment of the firm can provide a pleasant impression on others and results in good sell. Who are stakeholders in the organization of your choice and state the three major ones of these. What affect have or could the major stakeholders have on the strategy that the organization has or could introduce. What considerations should be taken into account to ensure that the three major stakeholders can contribute to the development of the organization strategy through some form of participation? There are number of group of stakeholders of Marks Spencer: employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, local communities, pressure groups and local and national government. All these above directly or indirectly influence the Marks Spencer in its strategy making. Employees, who are direct stakeholders of the organization, want secure jobs, well and good pay and fair treatment with all employees. Customers, also a direct stakeholder of the organization, want high quality, good service, and good choice of products. Shareholders look for growth and profit. These direct stakeholders can affect the strategies of the organization. If employees are not satisfied or if feel that they are not enough benefits from the offered strategy they can strongly resist it by so many act of barriers such as resignation or boycott from service. Organization understands that in order to keep the customers stick with product it is important to provide them quality products and services in affordable r ate. The customers who want quality product in affordable price with good services would also reject the strategy if found it not in their favor by rejecting the product or switching to another substitute. Shareholders, who are back bone in the economy of the Marks Spencer, possess the shares of the company; organization will want them to have profit so that the stay with them in the business. Thus there will not be any strategy which in any way annoys the shareholders. The contribution of employees, customers and shareholders is equally important for organizations interest. This contribution by them can part in the development of the organizations strategy through expressing their expectation from the organization. These expectations are not just to be of their favor but in the favor of the organization as well because their benefits and profits are interlinked with the success of the organization. In a laymans language define the term vision, mission statement, objective and value and go to provide professional definitions of these giving the source of these. Every organization comes into existence with a definite purpose which is called objective of the organization. This objective varies from organization to organization such as profitable organization and non-profitable organization. The organization expresses its objective through vision, mission statement. Vision: Vision is the intended or desired future statement of an organization or enterprise in terms of the fundamental objective and strategic direction. Vision refers to a long term view, describing how the organization would like the world in which it operates to be. A vision statement provides the organization with an inspiration that is the basis for all the organizations planning. It explains what an organization wants to do. Mission: Mission is the fundamental purpose of an organization or an enterprise, concise describing the reason of existence and path to achieve its Vision. It also draws a future picture of the organization. Values: Values can be defined as the beliefs of an organization shared among the stakeholders of an organization. Values are the means of driving the organizations culture, ethics and priorities. The vision statement is a realistic, credible, and attractive future for an organization (http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/strat-ldr-dm/pt4ch18.html). Mission statement broadly describes the presence of an organization present capabilities, customer focus, activities, and business makeup (Glossary, Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases by Fred David). Provide the vision and mission statements and strategy of your chosen organization and explain how the effectiveness if these can be measured. Marks Spencer has defined its Vision, Mission statement and Values as follows: The Vision Statement The standard against which all others are measured. The Mission Statement Making aspirational quality accessible to all. The Values Quality, value, service, innovation and trust. Marks and Spencer has followed a value price strategy from its origin. Since Marks Spencer has focused on middle class customers, it has continued with the value pricing strategy. Although its most of suppliers have been Britain, which has higher textile manufacturing costs than other developing nations, Marks Spencer was able to maintain its value by developing strong economic bonds with its suppliers. Through its economies of scale in buying, MS has been able to require manufacturers to adhere to strict quality standards and to bargain lower prices for its customers (De Nardi-Cole, 1998). The standard against which all others are measured, as a vision statement thoroughly conveys the objective of the organization, as the organization has set up the standard as an objective of the organization to achieve. It is promoting inspirational standard of the organization in term of products, service, and quality and price. This vision has greatly affected the organization output as a consequence of achieving its objective through this vision. The mission statement of Mark Spencer revolves around its marketing strategy telling about the price of the products that are affordable enough to be accessed by everyone. Values of the organization describe the standard quality and value of products and services following innovation and trust of the customers. Define the term organizational g12 cultural and ethical values and explain the culture and ethical values of the organization of your choice. Organizational culture is an idea which illustrates personal attitudes, experiences, psychology, beliefs and values and cultural values of an organization. It is defined as the specific set of values and norms shared by people and groups in an organization. The organizational culture as well as ethical values is also known as beliefs and ideas about the kinds of goals of the organization and ideas about the appropriate kinds and standards of behavior members of the organization use to achieve these goals. From organizational ethical values develop organizational norms, guidelines, and expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in certain situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another (Hill, and Jones, 2001). Organizational Ethics refers the way an organization ethically responds to an internal or external stimulus. Organizational ethics and the organizational culture are interdependent. Although, it is similar to both org anizational culture and business ethics on the micro and macro levels, organizational ethics is neither Organizational culture, nor is it alone business ethics which includes corporate governance and corporate ethics. Organizational ethics express the values of the organization to its employees and to other entities irrespective of governmental and regulatory laws. The organizational culture of Marks Spencer is characterized as a reflection of taken for granted fashion the attitude that is shared by the all members of the organization. The basic assumptions and beliefs operate unconsciously among the members and also exist at the organizational level. The assumptions and taken for granted fashion have taken its roots from the basis of the success of organization. Marks Spencer strictly follow code of ethics, a detail document of the ethical codes, in order to get on with its internal matter. The document contains the responsibility of all belong to Marks Spencer and Behavior for customers, colleagues, shareholders and environment have been explained. Besides, there are policies about workplace and Business (MarksSpencer, Code of Ethics, 2010). Explain the term core competencies and critical success factor and state whether these are necessary to the success of the organization of your choice. Has the organization of your choice amended its strategy in response to changes in the current business and economic climate? A core competency is a particular factor that an organization looks as being integral to the way it, or its works, and employees. It performs three key criteria: provides consumer benefits, not easy for competitors to imitate and can be widely leveraged to many products and markets. A core competency can take many forms, such as technical or subject matter know-how, a dependable process and close associations with customers and suppliers. It also includes product development and culture, such as employee dedication. The core competencies are specific strengths relative to other organizations in the industry which supply the fundamental basis for the provision of added value. Core competencies are the organizations collective learning, and involve the way to coordinate different production skills and incorporate multiple flows of technologies. It is an involvement, a communication, and a strong commitment to working across organizational boundaries. Core Competencies of Marks Spencer The core competencies are vital for the existence of Marks Spencer; it is in its sourcing methods, gave it the power to deliver high value, reliable, consistent quality, investors and customers has trusted it, its quality of management was ranked very high, consequently feeling of what good for Marks Spencer was good for the Nation and epitomized the most honest face of commerce. Since the revolutionary change in the business world, Marks Spencer had to suffer a lot. After the crisis of 1999, Marks Spencer has remarkably amended its strategies in terms of products, customers, price and marketing strategy. As a result of e-commerce revolution Marks Spencer amended its strategy and started e-commerce which ultimately changed its marketing strategy. A large number of the same product in the market caused the Marks Spencer to adopt a differentiation way such as own brand products and Premium brand appearance. Since there are so many products out there in the market that is decreasing the sell of Marks Spencer, due to the threat of the substitute product Marks Spencer has reviewed its prices of the product in order to create competitive advantage. Explain how your organization has responded to change in its environment and consider whether this response has effective The change in the product price from Marks Spencer creates a competitive advantage fro it and it is much effective for the organization. The enhancement in the place of its firm can also be beneficial in the way that it is in the access of as many people as targeted. All these response to the environment from Marks Spencer could provide it some space to restore its position in the market. List what you would consider to be the major functional area in generally and discuss the three major functional areas of organization of choice and why this is so. Every business have work within certain functional areas, among them there are few general major functions performed in all businesses including finance and accounts, production and operations, administration and IT support, human resource, marketing and sales, customer services, and research and development. The major functional areas of Marks Spencer are sales and marketing, human resource and administration and IT support. They are the major functional areas of the organization because Marks Spencer is a retailer of goods, its business growth very much depends on the sales and marketing, human resource (the people and the staff serve the organization can make difference in the growth of the organization) and administration and IT support make the business process smooth and successful. Since the competition is so tough in the market, Marks Spencer must improve their major functional areas. How have the three major functional areas in organization been developed to provide it with a competitive advantage? Efficient and good sales and marketing strategy can play an important role to develop a competitive advantage for the organization. Decrease in the price by change in the marketing strategy increases the competitive advantage for the organization. Human resource is such a function that works as a back bone for an organization, skilled and trained human resource of the Marks Spencer can provide a competitive advantage through inputting the best to serve the organization. Administration and IT support has come out as one of the vital function of the organization since organization has initiated e-commerce, it can efficiently perform as support to e-commerce to give competitive advantage to the organization. Discuss how a timetable for the implementation of a strategy could be developed around key milestones. The implementation of a strategy roadmap needs a time table that defines milestones in weekly, one month, three month, and six month intervals. Implementation milestones should be established and communicated to all key business partners, the board of directors, stakeholders and investors, customers, and employees, from day one. The best timetable and milestones focus on at least the following dimensions: customers, competitors, finance, communications, and culture, intellectual property

The Natural Order Hypothesis Essay

The Natural Order Hypothesis Essay In 1977, Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish in California, outlined a proposal for a new philosophy of language teaching which [he] called the Natural Approach (Terrell 1977; 1982: 121). This was an attempt to develop a language teaching proposal that incorporated the naturalistic principles researchers had identified in studies of second language acquisition. The Natural Approach grew out of Terrells experiences teaching Spanish classes. Since that time Terrell and others have experimented with implementing the Natural Approach in elementary- to advanced-level classes and with several other languages. At the same time he has joined forces with Stephen Krashen, an applied linguist at the University of Southern California, in elaborating a theoretical rationale for the Natural Approach, drawing on Krashens influential theory of second language acquisition. Krashen and Terrells combined statement of the principles and practices of the Natural Approach appeared in their book, The Natur al Approach, published in 1983. Krashen and Terrells book contains theoretical sections prepared by Krashen that outline his views on second language acquisition (Krashen 1981; 1982), and sections on implementation and classroom procedures, prepared largely by Terrell. Krashen and Terrell have identified the Natural Approach with what they call traditional approaches to language teaching. Traditional approaches are defined as based on the use of language in communicative situations without recourse to the native language and, perhaps, needless to say, without reference to grammatical analysis, grammatical drilling, or to a particular theory of grammar. Krashen and Terrell note that such approaches have been called natural, psychological, phonetic, new, reform, direct, analytic, imitative and so forth (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 9). The fact that the authors of the Natural Approach relate their approach to the Natural Method has led some to assume that Natural Approach and Natural Method are synonymous terms. Although the tradition is a common one, there are important differences between the Natural Approach and the older Natural Method, which it will be useful to consider at the outset. The Natural Method is another term for what by the turn of the century had become known as the Direct Method. It is described in a report on the state of the art in language teaching commissioned by the Modern Language Association in 1901. In its extreme form the method consisted of a series of monologues by the teacher interspersed with exchanges of question and answer between the instructor and the pupil all in the foreign language A great deal of pantomime accompanied the talk. With the aid of this gesticulation, by attentive listening and by dint of much repetition the learner came to associate certain acts and objects with certain combinations of the sounds and finally reached the point of reproducing the foreign words or phrases Not until a considerable familiarity with the spoken word was attained was the scholar allowed to see the foreign language in print. The study of grammar was reserved for a still later period. (Cole 1931: 58) The term natural, used in reference to the Direct Method, merely emphasized that the principles underlying the method were believed to conform to the principles of naturalistic language learning in young children. Similarly, the Natural Approach, as defined by Krashen and Terrell, is believed to conform to the naturalistic principles found in successful second language acquisition. Unlike the Direct Method, however, it places less emphasis on teacher monologues, direct repetition, and formal questions and answers, and less focus on accurate production of target language sentences. In the Natural Approach there is an emphasis on exposure, or input, rather than practice; optimizing emotional preparedness for learning; a prolonged period of attention to what the language learners hear before they try to produce language; and a willingness to use written and other materials as a source of comprehensible input. The emphasis on the central role of comprehension in the Natural Approach link s it to other comprehension-based approaches in language teaching. Approach Theory of language Krashen and Terrell see communication as the primary function of language, and since their approach focuses on teaching communicative abilities, they refer to the Natural Approach as an example of a communicative approach. The Natural Approach is similar to other communicative approaches being developed today (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 17). They reject earlier methods of language teaching, such as the Audiolingual Method, which viewed grammar as the central component of language. According to Krashen and Terrell, the major problem with these methods was that they were built not around actual theories of language acquisition, but theories of something else; for example, the structure of language (1983: 1). Unlike proponents of Communicative Language Teaching (Chapter 5), however, Krashen and Terrell give little attention to a theory of language. Indeed, a recent critic of Krashen suggests he has no theory of language at all (Gregg 1984). What Krashen and Terrell do describe about the nature of language emphasizes the primacy of meaning. The importance of the vocabulary is stressed, for example, suggesting the view that a language is essentially its lexicon and only inconsequently the grammar that determines how the lexicon is exploited to produce messages. Terrell quotes Dwight Bolinger to support this view: The quantity of information in the lexicon far outweighs that in any other part of the language, and if there is anything to the notion of redundancy it should be easier to reconstruct a message containing just words than one containing just the syntactic relations. The significant fact is the subordinate role of grammar. The most important thing is to get the words in. (Bolinger, in Terrell 1977: 333). Language is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meanings and messages. Hence Krashen and Terrell state that acquisition can take place only when people understand messages in the target language (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 19). Yet despite their avowed communicative approach to language, they view language learning, as do audiolingualists, as mastery of structures by stages. The input hypothesis states that in order for acquirers to progress to the next stage in the acquisition of the target language, they need to understand input language that includes a structure that is part of the next stage (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 32). Krashen refers to this with the formula I + 1 (i.e., input that contains structures slightly above the learners present level). We assume that Krashen means by structures something at least in the tradition of what such linguists as Leonard Bloomfield and Charles Fries meant by structures. The Natural Approach thus assumes a linguistic hierarchy of structural complexity that one masters through encounters with input containing structures at the 1 + 1 level. We are left then with a view of language that consists of lexical items, structures, and messages. Obviously, there is no particular novelty in this view as such, except that messages are considered of primary importance in the Natural Approach. The lexicon for both perception and production is considered critical in the construction and interpretation of messages. Lexical items in messages arc necessarily grammatically structured, and more complex messages involve more complex grammatical structure. Although they acknowledge such grammatical structuring, Krashen and Terrell feel that grammatical structure does not require explicit analysis or attention by the language teacher, by the language learner, or in language teaching materials. Theory of learning Krashen and Terrell make continuing reference to the theoretical and research base claimed to underlie the Natural Approach and to the fact that the method is unique in having such a base. It is based on an empirically grounded theory of second language acquisition, which has been supported by a large number of scientific studies in a wide variety of language acquisition and learning contexts (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 1). The theory and research are grounded on Krashens views of language acquisition, which we will collectively refer to as Krashens language acquisition theory. Krashens views have been presented and discussed extensively elsewhere (e.g., Krashen 1982), so we will not try to present or critique Krashens arguments here. (For a detailed critical review, see Gregg 1984 and McLaughlin 1978). It is necessary, however, to present in outline form the principal tenets of the theory, since it is on these that the design and procedures in the Natural Approach are based. THE ACQUISITION/LEARNING HYPOTHESIS The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis claims that there are two distinctive ways of developing competence in a second or foreign language. Acquisition is the natural way, paralleling first language development in children. Acquisition refers to an unconscious process that involves the naturalistic development of language proficiency through understanding language and through using language for meaningful communication. Learning, by contrast, refers to a process in which conscious rules about a language are developed. It results in explicit knowledge about the forms of a language and the ability to verbalize this knowledge. Formal teaching is necessary for learning to occur, and correction of errors helps with the development of learned rules. Learning, according to the theory, cannot lead to acquisition. THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS The acquired linguistic system is said to initiate utterances when we communicate in a second or foreign language. Conscious learning can function only as a monitor or editor that checks and repairs the output of the acquired system. The Monitor Hypothesis claims that we may call upon learned knowledge to correct ourselves when we communicate, hut that conscious learning (i.e., the learned system) has only this function. Three conditions limit the successful use of the monitor: 1. Time. There must be sufficient time for a learner to choose and apply a learned rule. 2. Focus on form. The language user must be focused on correctness or on the form of the output. 3. Knowledge of rules. The performer must know the rules. The monitor does best with rules that are simple in two ways. They must be simple to describe and they must not require complex movements and rearrangements. THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS According to the Natural Order Hypothesis, the acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a predictable order. Research is said to have shown that certain grammatical structures or morphemes are acquired before others in first language acquisition of English, and a similar natural order is found in second language acquisition. Errors are signs of naturalistic developmental processes, and during acquisition (but not during learning), similar developmental errors occur in learners no matter what their mother tongue is. THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS The Input Hypothesis claims to explain the relationship between what the learner is exposed to of a language (the input) and language acquisition. It involves four main issues. First, the hypothesis relates to acquisition, and not to learning. Second, people acquire language best by understanding input that is slightly beyond their current level of competence: An acquirer can move from a stage I (where I is the acquirers level of competence) to a stage I +1 (where I + 1 is the stage immediately following I along some natural order) by understanding language containing I + 1. (Krashen and Terrell 1983: 32) Clues based on the situation and the context, extra linguistic information, and knowledge of the world make comprehension possible. Third, the ability to speak fluently cannot be taught directly; rather, it emerges independently in time, after the acquirer has built up linguistic competence by understanding input. Fourth, if there is a sufficient quantity of comprehensible input, I + 1 will usually be provided automatically. Comprehensible input refers to utterances that the learner understands based on the context in which they are used as well as the language in which they are phrased. When a speaker uses language so that the acquirer understands the message, the speaker casts a net of structure around the acquirers current level of competence, and this will include many instances of I + 1. Thus, input need not be finely tuned to a learners current level of linguistic competence, and in fact cannot be so finely tuned in a language class, where learners will be at many different levels of competence. Just as child acquirers of a first language are provided with samples of caretaker speech, rough-tuned to their present level of understanding, so adult acquirers of a second language are provided with simple codes that facilitate second language comprehension. One such code is foreigner talk, which refers to the speech native speakers use to simplify communication with foreigners. Foreigner talk is characterized by a slower rate of speech, repetition, restating, use of Yes/No instead of Who- questions, and other changes that make messages more comprehensible to persons of limited language proficiency. THE AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS Krashen sees the learners emotional state or attitudes as an adjustable filter that freely passes, impedes, or blocks input necessary to acquisition. A low affective filter is desirable, since it impedes or blocks less of this necessary input. The hypothesis is built on research in second language acquisition, which has identified three kinds of affective or attitudinal variables related to second language acquisition. 1. Motivation. Learners with high motivation generally do better. 2. Self-confidence. Learners with self-confidence and a good self-image tend to be more successful. 3. Anxiety. Low personal anxiety and low classroom anxiety are more conducive to second language acquisition. The Affective Filter Hypothesis states that acquirers with a low affective filter seek and receive more input, interact with confidence, and are more receptive to the input they receive. Anxious acquirers have a high affective filter, which prevents acquisition from taking place. It is believed that the affective filter (e.g., fear or embarrassment) rises in early adolescence, and this may account for childrens apparent superiority to older acquirers of a second language. These five hypotheses have obvious implications for language teaching. In sum, these are: 1. As much comprehensible input as possible must be presented. 2. Whatever helps comprehension is important. Visual aids are useful, as is exposure to a wide range of vocabulary rather than study of syntactic structure. 3. The focus in the classroom should be on listening and reading; speaking should be allowed to emerge. 4. In order to lower the affective filter, student work should center on meaningful communication rather than on form; input should be interesting and so contribute to a relaxed classroom atmosphere. Cognitive Theories Psychologists and psycholinguists viewed second language learning as the acquisition of a complex cognitive skill. Some of the sub-skills involved in the language learning process are applying grammatical rules, choosing the appropriate vocabulary, following the pragmatic conventions governing the use of a specific language (McLaughlin, 1987:134). These sub-skills become automatic with practice (Posner Snyder, 1975). During this process of automatisation, the learner organizes and restructures new information that is acquired. Through this process of restructuring the learner links new information to old information and achieves increasing degrees of mastery in the second language (McLaughlin, 1987, 1990a). This gradual mastering may follow a U-shaped curve sometimes (Lightbown, Spada, Wallace, 1980) indicating a decline in performance as more complex internal representations replace less complex ones followed by an increase again as skill becomes expertise (McLaughlin, 1990b). From the cognitivists point of view language acquisition is dependent in both content and developmental sequencing on prior cognitive abilities and language is viewed as a function of more general nonlinguistic abilities (Berman, 1987:4). Evidence against the cognitivist theory is provided by Felix (1981) who describes the general cognitive skills as useless for language development (Felix, 1981). The only areas that cognitive development is related to language development is vocabulary and meaning, since lexical items and meaning relations are most readily related to a conceptual base (Felix, 1981). Base in cognitive theory is also claimed by the interactivist approach to second language learning (Clahsen, 1987). The language processing model proposed by the interactivist approach assumes an autonomous linguistic level of processing and contains a general problem solver mechanism (GPS) that allows direct mappings between underlying structure and surface forms, thus short-circuiting the grammatical processor (Clahsen, 1987:105). The language acquisition theories based on a cognitive view of language development regard language acquisition as the gradual automitization of skills through stages of restructuring and linking new information to old knowledge. However, the differences between the various cognitive models makes it impossible to construct a comprehensive cognitive theory of second language acquisition and furthermore, as Schimdt (1992) observes: there is little theoretical support from psychology on the common belief that the development of fluency in a second language is almost exclusively a matter of the increasingly skillful application of rules (Schmidt, 1992:377). The last two theories dealt with in this paper, the Multidimensional Model and the Acculturation/Pidginization Theory, refer mainly to the acquisition of a second language by adults in naturalistic environments. In second/foreign language teacher education, humanistic theory leads to considerable innovation, with greater emphasis on co-operative development (Edge, 1992). The basis for this change is the new respect for the teachers personal autonomy. The teacher educators role is one of supporter and facilitator, with the adoption of counselling models of intervention. An additional important factor is the recognition of the emotional dimension to learning. Within this framework, relationships between supervisors and student teachers are emphasised in pre-service education programmes. In in-service programmes, counselling models are adapted with syllabi containing not only subject matter knowledge, but also skills for self-directed development. Moreover, self-assessment and group-work are determined where feelings, relationships and learning can be inexorably linked. Examples of second/foreign language teacher education practices adopted on a basis of humanistic principles include work by Freeman and Richards (1996), Gebhard (1999) and Woodward (1991). Constructivist Approach Constructivism puts an emphasis on the ways in which individuals bring personal meaning to their world. Early researchers such as Piaget focused on the individual construction of knowledge. Bruner on the other hand, placed a greater emphasis on the interaction of the learner with curriculum materials, the teacher, and other significant factors. Similarly, Vygotsky and Feuerstein criticised Piagets view concerning the individual view of knowledge and suggested that, living as we do in a social world, learning occurs through interactions with other people (Williams and Burden, 1997). The author examines constructivism in relation to teacher education, from both the individual and social aspect as follows: Social Constructivist Approach Based on the work carried out by Vygotsky, Bruner and Feurstein, social interactionism sees the individual as born into a social world, and thus learning occurs through social interactions with other people (Dmitri, 1986). This is in contrast with the views of the individual constructivist approach expressed by Piaget and others. A claim is made that our mental representations are not only internal but also dependent on the mental representations of others and rules and restrictions that society imposes on the roles a person can adopt (McMahon, 1997). Therefore, learning to teach is not an internally constructed process with a set of techniques and some specialist knowledge but rather a social process, involving the adoption of a social role. For teachers, this means that they selectively acquire the values and attitudes, interests, skills and knowledge of their professional group. This implies a need for teachers to assess the relationship between their work and wider social conditions (Roberts, 1998, p.44). Thus, the teachers context is not perceived as a constraint but rather as a challenge within which appropriate methodologies need to be evaluated. Evidently, the application of social constructivism in the field of second/foreign language teacher education reveals that social constructivism focuses on the importance of knowledge constructed within and with the help of the group. This is supplemented with teachers sharing and contrasting ideas, agreeing and disagreeing, etc. The group of teachers in question may also be widened by joining forces with other participants in the education system, in the form of a wider learning community (Gredler, 1997). The recognition of dialogue as central to teacher learning is not new. The experiential learning cycle and the humanistic perspectives also recognise the importance of talk in learning. However, according to Roberts (1998, p.45), within a social constructivist framework, dialogue is seen as particularly valuable, in that it is collaborative, task-focused and offers teachers the chance to clarify their own personal theories and social relationships. Activities which help promote social interaction and construction include awareness raising tasks, e.g. problem-solving, which involves past experience, current beliefs and knowledge, direct personal experience in the form of microteaching and teaching practice with opportunities for reflection in and on these activities through structured observations, journal writing, etc. Within this approach, as within the other person-centred approaches, there is apparently a shift in emphasis from that of training to that of development.