Monday, December 23, 2019

The Harlem Renaissance, By Gwendolyn Bennett, Walter...

Gwendolyn Bennett, Josephine Baker, Walter White, and Palmer Hayden are some of the many people who influenced the Harlem Renaissance that are idols to those around them, excellent at what they do, and influenced many people to believe that they could do anything they put their heart into. The Harlem Renaissance, was part of the larger New Negro cultural and intelligent movement of the 1920s, remains one of the most studied and popular periods of American and African American literary and cultural history. It was also was a period between World War I and the Great Depression when black artists and writers flourished in the United States. Critics and historians have assigned varying dates to the movement s beginning and end, but most tend to agree that by 1917 there were signs of increased cultural activity among black artists in the Harlem area of New York City and that by the mid-1930s the movement had lost much of its original vigor. Gwendolyn Bennett lived an exciting and full life as a poet, short fiction writer, graphic artist, art and English teacher, columnist for the National Urban League s Opportunity magazine. Which lead to her being the editor of Fire!! The avant-garde magazine produced by young writers of the Harlem Renaissance and head of the Harlem Community Arts Center. For more than twenty years she was actively involved in black culture and the New York arts community. Although Bennett knew she was born on July 8, 1902, in Giddings, Texas, no record of

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Julie Free Essays

â€Å"BP is a multinational energy business that has 92,000 employees and operates in 175 countries. When a new chief executive was recruited internally at BP (Tony Hayward), he promised to improve the company’s disappointing performance by quickly changing its culture to become more innovative and responsive to its customers. † Q: How easy do you think it is for a new chief executive to change the culture of an organization quickly? Justify your answer with reference to BP /or other businesses that you know. We will write a custom essay sample on Julie or any similar topic only for you Order Now The BP Company has experienced a huge explosion at its Texas City Refinery in 2005, the oil spillage in Alaska in 2006 and also the Gulf of Mexico explosion in the BP oilfield in 2010, and these occurrences have had effects on the BP’s reputation and the business performance. As a new chief executive officer, Tony Hayward was recruited in June 2007 and he took over for BP’s highly-respected former CEO Lord Browne. The new CEO of BP may be able to use his own leadership or management style to change the culture of the organization and also try to help the business to grow and improve better. However, the extent to which the effectiveness of his way of leading the business and how quickly it can be for change to eh business culture are depends upon different factors. Firstly, Tony Hayward uses the democratic and paternalistic leadership style to manage the business. Hayward was describing as a typical command and control organization that is overly focused on cost-cutting and consumed with firefighting. According to the website, Hayward had shared his opinion of the culture of the business and three major points with other members of senior management. He stated that the BP is having the leadership style that probably is too directive and doesn’t listen sufficiently well. The top of the organization doesn’t listen hard enough to what the bottom of the organization is saying. BP has a management style that has made a virtue out of doing more for less which in some cases is okay and might work, but it needs to be managed and deployed with great judgment and wisdom, and when it isn’t, the BP may run into troubles. Another thing that Hayward is trying to say is that he thinks the BP should think more about the maintenance of a piece of equipment for a longer time period but not the short term benefit like cutting the cost, for example, it is not responsible to cut budgets related to safety and maintenance without thoroughly examining the impact on the risk of a catastrophic accident. At the same time, Hayward is well known and has experiences in the organization. If the workers can get involved more to the business so that this might lead to better decision making and he also want workers to feel more secure and happy in their jobs, since he hope to make the business to become more innovative. For example, in changing situations that demand a new way of thinking or a fresh solution, stuff input can be very helpful and valuable. These management strategies may lead the business to perform better, and if the whole business is having more motivation to work which on the other words means to become more responsive to its customers and furthermore, it may enable BP to raise it reputation and gain its public’s trust again. However, on the other hand, changing the corporative culture of the business can be very difficult and in reality, it take times for the business to get used to the changes before it moves on to the other stage of better business performance. There are also some other factors that can influence the leadership style. For example, if the employees of BP are more used to the leadership style of the previous CEO, although it is believed that management strategies can significant influence the whole business, but it might still lead to a bad or worse business performance or the resistance from the employees from accepting the changes in the culture of the business. The CEO of BP may not be able to change the business culture quickly or expecting a sudden change in the innovative ability of the business, most of the strategies take time to result in the good way and become effective for the whole business. Another factor is that because for the natural of the business, like its reputation has been influence by the serious occurrences that happened before and BP had also lost some public trusts, rather than trying to change negative aspect, it might be better and easier for them to concentrate on the positive aspects of the business and how it currently operates. Some of the external factors that will influence the leader’s ability may be the economic issue like recession, for example, the rapid decisions taken at a senior level may be needed to secure the survival of the business during the recession. There are also some problems associated with the change in organizational culture. Firstly, If the establishment of the new objectives and a mission statement is not clear or is not accurately reflecting the new values and attitudes that are to be adopted, these new aspects of the business all needed to be communicated to all the employees of BP, otherwise it might lead to a demotivation of the workforce of the whole business. Secondly, if the CEO of BP is unable to change the culture of the business in the quick way because of lack of training, so they may need to train staff in new procedures and new ways of working. If the people believe in the change and understand the benefits of it, then it will become more acceptable to them. In conclusion, it is possible for a new chief executive to change the culture of an organization and have positive influences if the CEO implement the right strategies and has set the objects clear and communicate well to the whole business. However, it takes time for the BP Company to accept or get used to the changes of the business culture in a short period of time. Therefore, if the CEO is able to avoid the possible negative influences that might affect the change in organizational culture and the factors that might have an impact on the BP’s performance, then the new CEO may be able to help BP to improve the company’s disappointing performance and achieve its main corporate objectives in the future. How to cite Julie, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Strategy Development Tools for Business Targets -myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theStrategy Development Tools for Business Targets. Answer: Introduction One of the most significant things in any business, whether small or significant, is coming up with an achievable mission, vision and long-term goals and objectives. These goals and objectives as put forward by the business management are what keep the business moving on and soaring higher in the zeal to reach its targets. Often, these companies or business that set unrealistic goals and unachievable objectives usually fail in the long run and may suffer closure if the corrective actions are not taken as soon as possible. Strategic planning is precisely defined as the process of creating business objectives, goals and mission as well as creating and implementing strategies with the aim of fulfilling the mission and working towards the targets. To make strategic planning decisions, managers use a variety of tools and techniques which include and are not limited to PESTEL, 5F, PROFIT, SWOT, CIA among others(Lamas Leite, 2015). This paper will take a keen interest in the primary strategic development tools, how they are used and some practical examples. Critical strategic development tools and how they are used As mentioned earlier in this paper, strategy development aims at policy prescription with the view of reaching set goals, objectives and business targets. There are several strategic development tools that are used by managers to achieve their long-term goals. Some of these tools and their practical uses, as well as relevant concrete examples, are discussed below: SWOT analysis SWOT analysis is a tool used in strategic development that involves assessing the strengths, weaknesses of a business as well as the opportunities and threats that business face. SWOT analysis is one of the significant strategic development tools. In strategic development, managers make use of this toll to take advantage of the strengths of the business(Harris, 2015). Different businesses have varying strengths. For instance, a business may be the only legalized firm to carry out a particular business. In other cases, the business may be having a well-known brand and good public command as far as reputation and business image is concerned. In this case, the business managers out into account these strengths when developing business strategies for business goal achievement. These strengths may be utilized as competitive advantages that help the business to quickly outdo their opponents and reach their long-term goals with ease. Business managers also take a keen interest in the weaknesses of the business in question. Sometimes a business may have flaws such as poor business image as a result of crude customer relations, poor utilization of resources and factors of production among others(Niederwieser, 2015). In strategic development, managers try as much as possible to reduce these weaknesses or wise enough turn them into opportunities. In this case, business goals are reached more easily. Business opportunities are also imperative when it comes to strategic development. Managers have to research on the opportunities that a business has and use them as competitive advantages as well as making use of them to reach their set goals and objectives. Opportunities may range from having a command to particular natural resources to making use of government incentives and tax reductions among others(Paroutis, 2014). Well-researched the opportunities of any business yields success in the attainment of its goals. Exploring the possible threats also help managers so much in strategic planning. This knowledge helps them make informed decisions on what to do or not do to reach their goals. These threats include and are not limited to legal issues, the threat of depletion of certainly available reservoirs of raw materials or natural resources among others. Pestel This tool is another significant strategic development too that explores external influences that have an impact on market growth and expansion as well as decision making. This tool looks at the political, economic, social and technological factors and how they may affect decision making for strategic development(Giedrimas, 2016). The political element looks at the existing trading policies and international legislation that may affect the business. It also explores whether there is a likelihood of change in regulation and uses this knowledge to make an informed decision on how to reach business goals. The economic factor is also critical to strategic development. It looks as to whether there are any tax issues that may affect the business, explores the existing domestic economic status as well as whether the business market shares is impacted by globalization. This factor helps managers to make strategies conforming to the current economic situation. The social factor enables strategic developers to know whether consumer tastes and choices are changing towards the business commodities. It also helps them to understand the impacts of changing population on their products(Mkude, 2014). It also looks as to whether there is a change in customer purchasing habit of a particular product whether there are any social attitudes about the product. This knowledge helps them to come up with the best strategies. Technological factors also have a significant impact on strategic development. It enables planners to know the effect of growing technology and modern inventions in their business. It also helps them know whether their business is in a position to stand competition form competitors who use advanced technology(Bull, 2015). This knowledge enables them to explore new ideas on how they can take advantage of the rapidly growing technology to formulate right strategic policies. RBV Resources based view is yet another important strategy development tools. This tool emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, and it believes in the achievement of competitive advantage by the use of resources(Waas, 2014). It argues that look for competitive sources advantages within the company rather than looking for them in the competitive environment. This tool enables businesses to reach their highest organizational performance thereby outdoing their competitors. In strategy development perspective, this tool helps managers make informed decisions about how to reach the company goals using the available resources. Resources are very critical in any business, whether physical, technological or human(Bohari, 2016). In this case, the goals to be achieved are made in a way that the company resources are used as a competitive advantage. One of the practical examples where this tool has been used as a competitive strategy is the competition between Apple Inc. and Samsung electronics where Apple sells more than Samsung even though they are exposed to the same external environment(Armstrong, 2014). Apple out-competes Samsung because it has a big celebrated brand and it is in a position to make user-friendly items. This aspect indicates the use of internal resources as a competitive advantage even if the external resources are similar. Conclusion Strategy development is very crucial for any company. It helps the company continue moving towards reaching its goals. It is imperative, therefore, for managers and strategic planners to take a critical analysis and exploration of the vital strategy development tools to be in a position to come up with useful strategies that lead to goal achievement. Indisputably, if the above-discussed tools are appropriately considered in strategic development, companies will be in a position to out-compete their opponents and reach their long-term goals. References Armstrong, T. (2014). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education, 6 (9), 65-78. Bohari, A. (2016). The competitiveness of halal food industry in Malaysia: A SWOT-ICT analysis. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 3 (8), 47-55. Bull, J. (2015). Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services, 4 (7), 45-76. Giedrimas, V. (2016). The evolution of automated component-based software development tools: From the structural synthesis of programs to behavioral types. In Information Science and Communications Technologies, 4 (8), 54-70. Harris, K. (2015). Practice-based professional development and self-regulated strategy development for Tier 2, at-risk writers in second grade. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 5 (2), 43-65. Lamas Leite, J. (2015). Using Analytic Hierarchy Process to Optimize PESTEL Scenario Analysis Tool in Huge Construction Projects. In Applied Mechanics and Materials, 4 (9), 34-56. Mkude, C. (2014). Studying Interdependencies of E-government Challenges in Tanzania along with a Pestel Analysis. Strategy Development, 6 (8), 65-77. Niederwieser, D. (2015). Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation activity worldwide in 2012 and a SWOT analysis of the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. SWOT analysis, 3 (8), 77-90. Paroutis, S. (2014). Visual interactions with strategy tools: producing strategic knowledge in workshops. British Journal of Management, 3 (7), 45-76. Waas, T. (2014). Sustainability assessment and indicators: Tools in a decision-making strategy for sustainable development. Sustainability, 4 (9), 32-50.