K 12 Public Education Foundations Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8000 words

K 12 Public Education Foundations - Dissertation Example The mushrooming public school foundations owe their unprecedented growth to several reasons. For instance, it is very difficult for schools to procure funds. In addition, accountability of schools has increased manifold. Furthermore, members of the community are provided with a convenient device to involve themselves with local schools and their enterprises (Woodworth). As such, education foundations are non – profit organizations as per the provisions of section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. These foundations are affiliated with public school corporations, and they facilitate the establishment of tax-deductible funds to generate grants and scholarships (Robbins, 2009). Such foundations are of immense help to teachers and students. Moreover, section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code considers education foundations as tax-exempt organizations. In addition, the laws of the state where the foundation is to be established have to be examined, with regard to tax ex emptions. As such, fundraising activity should not commence till such time as a tax exempt status is not granted to the foundation and its donors (Else, Assisting K-12 Education through the National Center for Public and Private School Foundations, 2003). For instance, the National Center for Public and Private School Foundations at the University of Northern Iowa has objectives that take into account the phenomenal growth of school foundations. These objectives consider the requirements of local public school districts and the private schools (Else, Assisting K-12 Education through the National School Foundations Association, 2011). The principal aims of the National Center for Public and Private School Foundations are; first to correlate people and organizations with private and public schools, and to promote support and awareness, by means of school foundations. Second, to help private and public schools, via the development of school foundations, in the task of creating educatio n funds of greater flexibility, and reducing the gap between the lower and higher income districts (Else, Assisting K-12 Education through the National School Foundations Association, 2011). Third, support school personnel in the US in the design, operation and sustaining of school foundations. Fourth, help local foundations by providing expertise and guidelines in the management and development of school foundations. Some of these are fundraising strategies, procedures, policies, management, organization and legal issues (Else, Assisting K-12 Education through the National School Foundations Association, 2011). Fifth, assist the leadership of the school foundation to develop professionally, especially with regard to working meaningfully with the board and in strategic planning. Sixth, conduct research on and adapt the extant research findings with respect to school foundations and determine the crucial factors that affect their success. Seventh, enhance the fundraising capability o f K – 12 schools so that they can effectively address emerging requirements (Else, Assisting K-12 Education through the National Center for Public and Private School Foundations, 2003).

The Byzantine Empire Essay Example for Free

The Byzantine Empire Essay The Byzantine Empire, sometimes known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally founded as Byzantium. It survived the 5th century fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire. Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the transitional period during which the Roman Empires east and west divided. In 285, the emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) partitioned the Roman Empires administration into eastern and western halves. The borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565), the Empire reached its greatest extent after reconquering much of the historically Roman western Mediterranean coast, including north Africa, Italy, and Rome itself, which it held for two more centuries. During the reign of Maurice (r. 582–602), the Empires eastern frontier was expanded and the north stabilized. However, his assassination caused a two-decade-long war with Sassanid Persia which exhausted the Empires resources and contributed to major territorial losses during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. In a matter of years the Empire l ost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. The final centuries of the Empire exhibited a general trend of decline. It struggled to recover during the 12th century, but was delivered a mortal blow during the Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked and the Empire dissolved and divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople and re-establishment of the Empire in 1261, Byzantium remained only one of several small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its  remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Empire. The Major Causes for the Fall of the Roman Empire Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor Decline in Morals Political Corruption and the Praetorian Guard Fast expansion of the Empire Constant Wars and Heavy Military Spending Barbarian Knowledge of Roman Military Tactics Failing Economy Unemployment of the Working Classes (The Plebs) The Mob and the cost of the Games Decline in Ethics and Values Slave Labor Natural Disasters Christianity Barbarian Invasion The Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor. The Roman Emperor had the legal power to rule Rome’s religious, civil and military affairs with the Senate acting as an advisory body. The emperor had power over life and death. The powerful, spoilt, wealthy Roman Emperors inevitably became corrupt and many lived a debauched, deluded and immoral lifestyle. The Roman Empire saw many examples of antagonism between the Senators and the Emperors. Either the Senators didnt like the Emperor or the Emperors was at odds with the Senators. One of the main causes for the Fall of the Roman Empire was the Decline in Morals. The decline in morals, especially in the rich upper classes, nobility and the emperors, had a devastating impact on the Romans. Immoral and promiscuous sexual behavior including adultery and orgies. Emperors such as Tiberius kept groups of young boys for his pleasure, incest by Nero who  also had a male slave castrated so he could take him as his wife; Elagabalus who forced a Vestal Virgin into marriage, Commodus with his harems of concubines enraged Romans by sitting in the theatre or at the games dressed in a womans garments. The decline in morals also affected the lower classes and slaves. Religious festivals such as Saturnalia and Bacchanalia where sacrifices, ribald songs, lewd acts and sexual promiscuity were practiced. Bestiality and other lewd and sexually explicit acts were exhibited in the Colosseum arena to amuse the mob. Brothels and forced prostitution flourished. Widespread gambling on the chariot races and gladiatorial combats. Massive consumption of alcohol. The sadistic cruelty towards both man and beasts in the arena. One of the main causes for the Fall of the Roman Empire was the Political Corruption and the Praetorian Guard. The power of the Praetorian Guard, the elite soldiers who made up the bodyguard of the emperor, led to political corruption and grew to such an extent that this massive group of soldiers decided on whether an emperor should be disposed of and who should become the new emperor! The story of Sejanus, who was the commander of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Tiberius, illustrates the extent of the power of the Praetorians. At one point the Praetorian Guard sold at auction the throne of the world to the highest bidder. Another cause, was the Fast expansion of the Empire. The rapid growth in the lands conquered by the Empire led to the need to defend the borders and territories of Rome. The people of the conquered lands, most of whom were referred to as Barbarians, hated the Romans. Taxes on the non-Romans were high and constantly increased. Frequent rebellions arose. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Constant Wars and Heavy Military Spending. Constant warfare required heavy military spending. The Roman army became over-stretched and needed more and more soldiers. The barbarians, who had been conquered, and other foreign mercenaries were allowed to join the Roman army. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Barbarian  Knowledge of Roman Military Tactics. The knowledge that the Barbarians gained of Roman style of warfare and military tactics by serving in the Roman army were eventually turned against the Empire and led to the sack of Rome by the Visigoths led by an ex-army soldier, Alaric. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Failing Economy and high inflation. The Government was constantly threatened by bankruptcy due to the cost of defending the Empire, the failing economics, heavy taxation and high inflation was another cause for the fall of the Roman Empire. The majority of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire failed to share in the incredible prosperity of Rome. The amount of gold sent to the orient to pay for luxury goods led to a shortage of gold to make Roman coins. Roman currency was devalued to such an extent that a system of bartering returned to one of the greatest civilizations the world had ever known. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Unemployment of the Working Classes. Cheap slave labor resulted in the unemployment of the Plebs in Rome who became dependent on hand-outs from the state. The Romans attempted a policy of unrestricted trade but this led to the Plebs being unable to compete with foreign trade. The government was therefore forced to subsidize the working class Romans to make up the differences in prices. This resulted in thousands of Romans choosing just to live on the subsides sacrificing their standard of living with an idle life of ease. The massive divide between the rich Romans and the poor Romans increased still further. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Mob and the cost of the Gladiatorial Games. If the thousands of unemployed Romans became bored this led to civil unrest and rioting in the streets. The Mob needed to be amused spectacular gladiatorial games had to be provided. The cost of the gladiatorial games was born by the Emperors, and therefore the state, and corrupt politicians who sponsored the games to curry favor and support with the Mob. The cost of the gladiatorial games eventually came to one third of the total income of the Roman Empire. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Decline in Ethics and Values. Life became cheap bloodshed led to more bloodshed and extreme cruelty. The values, the ideals, customs, traditions and institutions, of the Romans declined. The basic principles, standards and judgments about what was valuable or important in life declined. The total disregard for human and animal life resulted in a lack of ethics a perverted view of what was right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable. Any conformity to acceptable rules or standards of human behavior was being lost. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was the Slave Labor. The number of slaves increased dramatically during the first 2 centuries of the Roman Empire. The Romans dependency on slave labor led not only to the decline in morals, values and ethics but also to the stagnation of any new technology to produce goods more efficiently. Romans could rely on the slave manpower for all their needs but this reliance inhibited technological change and growth. The treatment of slaves led to rebellion and several Servile (Slave) Wars, the most famous being the revolt led by the gladiator slave, Spartacus. In the later centuries of the Empire and the advent of Christianity the attitudes towards slaves changed. With manumission (the act of freeing a slave) the number of slaves declined together with the manpower that Rome was dependent upon. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire were the Natural Disasters. During the time of the Roman Empire there were not only foreign wars, civil wars, street fights, fires and revolts there were also natural disasters such as plagues, famines and earthquakes. As in all periods and societies the people looked for someone to blame and different religions to turn to. One of the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire was Christianity. Life and the future seemed hopeless for the millions of people who were ruled by Rome where an early death was almost inevitable. Christianity taught the belief in an afterlife which gave hope and courage to the  desperate. Eventually the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, proclaimed himself a Christian and issued an edict promising the Christians his favor and protection. Attitudes in the Roman Empire changed from being antagonistic to becoming calm. In conclusion the last of the causes for the Fall of the Roman Empire was the Barbarian Invasion. Rome had fierce foreign enemies. There were great Barbarian armies consisting of warriors such as the Visigoths, Huns and the Vandals. The final death blow to the Roman Empire was inflicted by these Barbarians. The city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and by the Vandals in 455 signaling the disintegration of Roman authority and the fall of the Roman Empire.

The leadership challenge faced by Toyota

The leadership challenge faced by Toyota My decision to work on Toyota is related to a moving scene I saw on television few months ago .Under the media spotlight, Akio Toyoda (Toyota CEO) was standing tearful under a giant display bearing the name of the company. This emotional reaction is the story of a senior leader who commits their life to the business, such a vulnerability is atypical enough to study the case. How Toyota, recognized as model in terms of management, can meet such tragic situation? The consequences of poor crisis management could severely damage the reputation of a company thats why every company must be prepared for crisis. This is the case with Toyota, one of worlds leading auto makers. I have decided to work on Toyota case to show how a company known for its reliable and innovative products , an exemplar of production efficiency with a perfect storm of rapid growth , can become a company with a series of product defects that has caused deaths and put many consumers at risk. Is it a technological matter or a leadership crisis?, What has been Toyotas solutions for crisis response? Toyoda went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies. The issues of product quality became out of control. This left the media, politicians, and consumers to dictate the conversation, while Toyota was looking for the responses. This situation without a proper solution and explanation let people talk and imagine the worst things. Artful apologies and confused plans for resolution have been made to face this crisis. If you have a leader who isnt capable to deal with global issues of this significance level, should he be in the leadership position? What makes a true leader? In this work, I will try to understand how the Prince became the no show Akio Toyoda. For that I will first focus on the external analysis to identify the market place of the company, then I will emphasize on the internal analysis that is to say more specifically the cultural aspects of this company moral , management, attitude at work, with a special focus on the leadership concept. Finally, I will make recommendations that will help Toyota to handle the crisis well. 2)The external analysis The impact of the crisis on the company is huge. When customers lose trust with companies the impact is high. Toyotas customers are meeting a kind of identity crisis. There is a discrepancy between what they were expected from the company and the reality. They expected Toyota to have the highest quality, best reliability and great safety. Because of the crisis, people who used to buy Toyotas think that the value of their car has decline since the problem of confidence began. Twenty seven percent of customers surveyed that said they were considering a Toyota prior to the recall now say they no longer are considering the brand for their next vehicle purchase. Now nearly half of the car buyers who have defected from Toyota say they are not sure if they will consider the brand again, even once Toyotas problems are resolved. This is showing how the impact is huge and how a long term work need to be made to restore customers confidence. It is the main difficulty that Toyota will have to confront. Which is as well a tough nut to crack is that Toyota build all his philosophy on the concept of quality. This shows in quantifiable terms the impact of this crisis of confidence on future purchases. To me it seems that Toyota has losing its focus on customers and has payed more attention to market share and profits, millions upon millions of Americans were buying their automobiles believing Toyotas promises. Moreover Competition will be even more stronger. Rivals will take advantage of Toyotas crisis particularly Ford. Its a competitive market . I think it is important to realize the impact of a break down in trust with customers. In the case of Toyota, the company will see falling profits and possibly losses that may extend well into the future. By some estimates their US dealers are losing over $2B per month. The manufacturing line has been shut down at two US plants with more closings possible. None of this takes into consideration parts suppliers and the economic impact on all those who either do business with Toyota or provide goods and services to Toyotas dealers and their employees. Why is all this happening? We dont have a lots of information on the specific problems, we can guess from the Toyota executives appearances before congress that it was because Toyota lost its essence of what they valued. The old values of quality and customers first were replaced with growth and profitability. Competition is increasing almost daily with new entrants coming into the market from China , South Korea ,Toyota faces tremendous competitive rivalry in the car market, Toyota should not forget what make its fame: reliability How could this happen? We can imagine that leaders like Toyoda did not want to hear from anyone something that is going to slow down the growth train. Even one of the best corporate systems, such as the Toyota Production System, can be subverted by fear and greed. We can say that Toyota has done many things right in responding to the crisis: Talk to the media , using all canals( facebook, twitter, diverse websites) to reassure customers. But it seem that whatever Toyota says now, and however well it acts, there is a sense that it ignored the problem until it was forced to take action. If it stinks, put a lid on it. Toyota follow this japanese proverb to sort out the problem. Toyoda didnt accept to face the reality it is a management crisis and develop a lack of trust from the customers. To react properly, this requires an organisational culture that is vigilant for potential crises, has open lines of communication from staff to management, and a willingness to address unpleasant truths. . The challenge is created by two elements of culture: firstly, an obsession with quality, which means that anything less than perfection is seen embarrassing. As a consequence, problems with quality are literally inconceivable. The second interlinked element of culture is a hierarchical approach to management and a lack of open communication. People who are at the best placed to spot early signs of crisis feel unable to point out flaws. As a result, problems unresolved until they explode into a major crisis. Another reason why Toyota has such a major challenge on its hands is that this crisis touch at the essence of its reputation. Toyota has built its reputation on quality and reliability, and anything that calls this into question is especially threatening. This is a lesson for all organisations: understand what lies at the heart .It is essential that the company remains true to these values in its approach to crisis management . Toyota company has failed to get ahead of events and take control. It looks like the crisis is managing Toyota rather than vice versa. Toyoda, the chief executive, should have been the face of the organisation during this major crisis. No chief executive can be absent from the public eye when the business is in the middle of a crisis It is not necessarily the reality of how a business manages a crisis that will determine its success. Its how the organisation is perceived to have managed the crisis: We know the importance of public relation and the organization of a proper communication. Get it right and the organisations reputation and value can be protected; get it wrong and serious damage can result. In this context, the role of the media spokesperson is pivotal, even in this age of social media. Observers draw conclusions based not just on what the spokesperson says, but also their body language, and tone of voice. executives like Toyoda are unlikely to represent their organisation well in a crisis when they disapear in front of serious crisis Toyota should have create the right culture to avoid crisis , developing workable crisis management plans and processes, and training managers likely to be part of a crisis response team this would have play a large part in determining the success of the organisation in the event of a crisis. Full recovery requires continued communication and actions to regain the trust of customers affected by the crisis. If Toyotas recent troubles encourage more businesses to recognise the impact that crises can have on a businesss long-term reputation and take steps to protect themselves as a consequence, then at least some goodwill has come from recent events. But I am sure that Toyota could regain most if not all of its lost market share with a vigorous marketing campaign and reassurances on quality but for that one step more need to be overcome: a deep and radical changes in terms of culture, moral and management approach. This is what we are going to study in the second part. . the internal analysis We have seen that the impact of the crisis on the external market share is mainly financial now we will focus on the cultural , philosophical, organizational matters. I will try first to sum up what make the specificity of Toyota. A) Philosophy: Before we build a car , we build people why do I exist? That s the question we try to answer through the philosophy. In Toyota company it is fundamental. The company built a long term thinking asking what is the meaning of our organization? where do we want to go?Toyota based its management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals to build a sustainable success. They also generate value for the customer , the society and the economy.They align the organization toward a common goal that is bigger than making money. Toyota has turned operational excellence into a strategic weapon not because of the tools and quality improvement methods but a deeper business philosophy rooted in understanding of people and what motivates them. Its success is ultimately based on its ability to develop leaders, build teams, and nurture a supportive culture, to devise strategy, to build deep supplier relationships, and to maintain a learning organization. B) Toyota leadership model: Toyota leaders are builder of learning organization. The aim is to grow leaders who understand the work, leave the philosophy and teach it to others.The leaders real challenge is to develop people so they are strong contributor to the organization but also having the long term vision of knowing what to do, the knowledge of how to do it and the ability to develop people. Leaders at Toyota, like anywhere want to see measurable results. But they know that the financial result is a result of a process. They also realize that the financial reflect the past performance of that process. Good Toyota leaders dont jump to conclusions they try to first size up the situation and then ask why.All action at Toyota revolve around planning and problem solving, for the system to work problems must be exposed. Toyotas way provides extraordinary focus, direction, control, while at the same time they provide maximum flexibility. Three keys to toyotas leadership: Go see, ask why and show respect: getting people to think and take initiative is key! The leaders job at Toyota is to act as a teacher, get each person to take the iniative to solve problems and improve his job, ensure that each persons job is aligned to provide value for customer and prosperity for the company.Leaders must be the role of models, he understand the daily work.So coaching , promote from within the team is key to success. Toyota emphasize on the fact that their role is to develop exceptional people and teams who follow the companys philosophy.They usually use a cross functional teams that is to say a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. It may include people from finance, marketing, operations, and human resources departments. Typically, it includes employees from all levels of an organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants). Cross-functional teams often function as self-directed teams responding to broad, but no specific directives. Decision-making within a team may depend on consensus, but often is led by a team leader. They also continuously teach people how to work together, because team work must be learned, they want to reinforce the culture continually. The way they solve problem is also interesting : go and see for yourself to thoroughtly understand the situation : It s a really pragmatic approach of problem solving , they go to the source to observe and verify data. Don t theorize on the basis of what people and computers tell you They want to have a true relation with the reality and even high level managers should do this. In Toyotas culture we talk about consensus decision all decision are made slowly by consensus, considering all options. They also implement decision rapidly discussing problem and potential solutions with all involved. B) motivation theory: Maslows need hierarchy looks at motivating people as equivalent to satisfying their internal needs. When you work for Toyota , your lower level needs are covered. Youre well paid, you have job security and youre working in a safe, controlled environment. Toyotas culture emphasizes the use of challenging work situation to build self confidence. Its a culture of continuous improvement. Herzbergs theories are similar to Maslow but they are focus on characteristics of work that are motivators.Their absence will cause a dissatisfaction, but providing a person more and more of them will not positively motivate. Toyota has done a good job. Indeed , for example people are responsible only for a tiny piece of an overall product and work repeatedly , to make the task more motivating they worked on designing assembly line to improve job enrichment. Toyota organizes teams around complete project from start to finish. Having the responsibility of participating in the project from the beginning to the end empowers the employee. They also provide job rotations, they allow people to be proactive in solving problems and they develop autonomy other the tasks. About the external environnement theory, we can notice from Taylors scientific management based on reward with money performance relative to standards that all scientific management principles are followed but at the group level rather than individual level and based on employee involvement. About the goal setting that is to say : set specific, measurable , achievable challenging goals and measure progress, Toyota sets goals that meet these criteria through the policy deployment and the continuous measurements is relative to targets. B)Managing people Toyota has taken various steps to build high performance teams: Step 1: Orientation. This is about the visionary leadership.A leader need to be guide and the vision must be different, unexpected.It must be memorable , stick in the mind.The leader also have to exemply the vision to give concrete dimesion to the vision.This step is vital because if a vision is not shared the success of a project may be risky. The group needs strong direction from the leader and must understand the basic mission, rules of engagement, and tools the members will use. This step is fundamental, a leader have to share purpose and vision to have the support of all the team. Its a condition to build a sustainable success. A leader and his team need to wonder , what kind of organization are they going to build?To build a challenging but achievable goals, the goals that everyone wants and shares Step 2: Dissatisfaction. To avoid discouragement the leader need to build blocks of sustainable success , it could be for example about values.How do we do things round here?Are our values real or window dressing? These reflexions need to involve the inclusive company to be efficient. After going to work, the members discover it is harder than they thought to work as a team. In this stage, they continue to need strong direction (structure) from the leader but also need a lot of social support to get through the tough social dynamics they do not understand. Step 3: Integration. At this stage people become more independent, they understand the meaning of the work.The difficulty is to balance flexibility and control. The group starts to develop a clearer picture of the roles of various team members and begins to exert control over team processes. The leader does not have to provide much task direction, but the team still needs a lot of social support. Step 4: Production. The group becomes a high-performing team, no longer dependent on the leader. In Toyota people do the same mindless task repeatedly and are responsible only for a tiny piece of an overall product. Toyota has tryed to enrich jobs in various ways, to give a meaning to this repetitive work they organized job rotation, various kinds of feedback on how workers are doing at their jobs, it let a significant work group autonomy over the tasks. They redesigned its assembly lines so that the parts that make up a subsystem of the vehicle are installed in one specific area on the assembly line. Rather than a work group assembling electrical systems and then putting in floor mats and then door handles, a work group might focus almost exclusively on the electrical system under the hood., Toyota also organized teams around complete projects from start to finish. For example, the design of the interior of the vehicle is the responsibility of one team from the design phase through production. Participation in the project from beginning to end enriches and empowers the employee. Empowerment of the employee is as well key to success. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behaves, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of ones own destiny. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment which helps and give to people the ability and desire to act in empowered ways. Toyotas trouble : crisis or opportunity? As we studied, Toyota company is knowing as reliable and strong organization , on the other hand during the recent recall crisis the company showed weaknesses that we could not imagine. Lets have a critical analysis about what happened.. It seems that the crisis that Toyota met is mainly a problem of communication.Both internal and external communications must be timely and effective. Ongoing daily phone conferences need to be conducted to obtain the latest status and to share information. In addition, status reports must be e-mailed to all interested parties on a daily basis. External communication has to be managed to avoid misinformation being leaked to the media. Moreover leaders need to be visible during crisis but it is also a lake of humility. They didnt take seriously the risk of quality, they were not enough prepare to this risk, they saw themselves as untouchable but we know that even a good company can be involved in crisis. Their strategy is a long term one, they were not prepared to face such an immediate crisis , may be because of their lake of realism. They didnt keep the contact with reality through an efficient communication. We know how listening is an important attribute for a leader and it seems that Toyota company with its hierarchical structure is not prepared to collect information from all the employee. Its a possibility for them to reassert their value and to think their organisation more as living organism that need to adapt to this unpredictable context. We can also be critical about the concept of consensus team decision making, for Japanese it is the essence of decision.Its interesting to talk about the difference of culture that exist between European and Asiatic management. In our country we mainly emphasis on the answer to the question , for Japanese the important element is defining the question that is why they need a consensus to find out what the decision is really about , this can explain the difficulties they meet to find in a short time a good solution. Toyota could turn their crisis situation into an opportunity and build clear channels of communication with the public, improving their relationship and calming the fears of millions of car owners. 4) Recommendations and conclusion Its not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent but rather the one the most responsive to change Charles Darwin Toyota needs leader with credibility and with a clear plan. Toyoda need to see himself as change agent, representing, and protecting the group. He needs to learn how to deal with resistance but also take a risk and to confront the reality. He should, as well, know how to cope with complexity, ambiguity , uncertainty .A real leader is the one who view mistakes as a learning opportunity. There is real challenges of change. For the moment we can see Toyoda as a hiders, the one hoping the change will go away it is not the role of a leader, on the other hand he has to enable the group endure hard times. So lets talk about few recommendations to change the way to lead: 1) Face the reality. Toyoda did not want to face the problem and did not take his responsibility in the crisis . We expect from a leader to be courageous instead of that Toyoda hide the reality.He should have said that he pushed too hard for growth and neglected quality. By admitting his errors, he gives every Toyota employee permission to acknowledge mistakes and to get on with correcting them, instead of denying reality. 2: Get the world off your shoulders. Toyoda cannot expect to solve problems of this magnitude himself. Instead, he needs a crisis team reporting directly to him, working to get problems fixed permanently. He also needs outside counsel, as he appears to be listening only to insiders who are defensive about criticism. He should add the worlds top quality experts to his fix-it team and listen carefully to their advice. 3: Understand the real causes of the crisis. When Toyotas problems first surfaced, the company blamed a symptom loose floor mats and exonerated the accelerators. Instead, management should have required its best engineers to get to the root cause of this problem and every other quality problem being reported. This is basic engineering and quality discipline. 4: Crisis will have effects on a long term.It is going to be worst before getting better.So the organization need to be prepared to face a long term crisis. It will take years to resolve the trust crisis. Toyota must invest heavily in corrective actions while its sales shrink and profits implode, requiring major cash resources until its reputation can be restored. 5:We can change the crisis to an opportunity to restore Toyota quality. The crisis is melting away the denial and resistance that existed in recent years. For sure Employees are waitingfor new direction, and they want to make radical changes to renew the company. With Toyodas leadership, Toyota automobiles can be restored to the worlds highest quality.It is the moment to rebuild brand loyalty and to demonstrate the value and the promise in the answer to the problem. 6: Leaders personify the reputation of a company: In a crisis, people insist on hearing from the leader. Akio Toyoda cant send out public relations specialists or his American executives to explain what happened. Toyoda must come out of hiding, take personal responsibility, Then he should make a personal commitment to every Toyota customer to repair the damage, including buying back defective cars. 6: Leaders need to move quickly to solve causal operational issues, erring on the side of overcompensating. 7: After this crisis Toyoda need to focus on future success. Its important to focus also on the future , the long term benefits, trying to see the opportunity to win market share because afetr this crisis, the market will never look the same. GM and Ford are rapidly regaining market share, while the confidence of Toyotas loyal customers is badly shaken. Toyota cannot wait until all its quality problems are resolved. The company need a reactivity. It must play defense and offense simultaneously. To win, Toyota need to offer advanced features and superior quality, better value for consumers, greater safety, and improved fuel efficiency. I believe this is a great company that will resurrect its reputation and restore its leadership. But there is a lots of effort to make: first it is obviously most important to solve the problems with their cars.. But they also may be find new way to communicate with their customer using for example the social web. It seems that their responses have appeared a little slow and awkward. Giving consumers information about the recall in more pedagogic way, easily understandable. A leader should have a clear message .They should explain exactly what theyre doing, why things will be different in the future. Toyoda did not manage this crisis as we expect a real leader will do.He did not go past the emotional when customers and also employee from the company were waiting for a solutions. It show to us the affective link that a leader can build with his company, but people were expected from him a rational approach. On the other hand I am convinced that even if it is a long term working, particularly trying to regain the customers trust, the company with its reputed story , their experienced know how will be back .Its for them the opportunity to change practices , to work on crisis management ,and to change their organizational work beliefs. Bibliographie: The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer de Jeffrey K. Liker Jeffrey Krames, Jack Welch and the 4Es of Leadership, How to Put GEs Leadership Formula to Work in Your Organization, McGraw-Hill, 2005 CONGER, J.A. et B. BENJAMIN, Buildind Leaders, Éditions Jossey Bass, 1999. GOLEMAN, D.,  « Leadership that gets results  », Harvard Business Review, 2000, marsavril, 78-90. HEIFEZT, R.A.,  « The Work of leadership  », Harvard Business Review (1997, janvierfà ©vrier), LAPIERRE, L. (à ©d.)  « Le leadership  », numà ©ro spà ©cial de Gestion, revue internationale de gestion, septembre 2008. NORTHOUSE, P.G., Leadership : Theory and Practice, Sage (deuxià ¨me à ©dition) 2001. YUKL, G. Leadership in Organizations, Prentice-Hall (premià ¨re à ©dition), 1981. Satoshi kamata,demopolis, Toyota , lusine du dà ©sespoir, 2008 Dirk Bosenberg and heinz Metzen, à ©dition dorganisation,  « le Lean management  »,1994 Taiichi ohno  « Toyota Production System : beyond Large- Scale Production  » ,1978 Taiichi OHNO  « Prà ©sent et avenir du Toyotisme  », Masson , Paris, 1992 James P. Womack, Daniel roos, Dunod, Paris , 1992

Robotics in Education Essay -- Essays Papers

Robotics in Education Robotics plays a critical role in the development and maintenance of the world today. The industrial age of machinery has been transformed into an age of automation combining mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering into the research and development of robotics technology. Practically everything automated today relies upon a robot of sort; automobile engines, personal computers, space exploration, assembly lines, and mining, to name a few. But each robotics advancement has a purpose, not just to function in it’s programming, but also to serve as a step in a stairway of progress. Without something to improve upon, how can progress be made? Anyway it’s looked at, the technology-dependent world today relies on the advancement in robotics as technology controls so much of the world already. Robotics is a research-based field, seeded in education. Education consists of two main parts today: general education, and advanced education. General education includes the basics in math, science, history, language, etc. This form of education is usually learned by a person throughout their K-12 education, and into much of college as well. Advanced education is comprised of more specific field-relative information, and is worked on by upper-level and graduate-level college students. The vast majority of robotics researchers did not receive any engineering training until they reached college, as robotics fits into the advanced education category. But skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and basic engineering skills are not difficult to master and could in fact be incorporated into general education without a problem. These skills are not in the curriculum because most people have not needed... ...s knowledge. Information for the beginner is given throughout the book, but it is still useful for the advanced. Current projects and status’ of the world of robotics are explained in detail. A book intended to inform a research-type person of summed knowledge. Not much relevance to the teaching or learning of robotics as a method. - Baum, Dave. Dave Baum’s Definitive Guide to Lego Mindstorms. Emeryville, Calif. : New York : Apress, 2000. This e-book is a comprehensive overview of the LEGOÂ ® Mindstorms robotics set. Most of the book is used on explaining the various parts to the set. Included are ideas and reasoning behind specifics of the set related to childhood development. Projects and useful ways of using the blocks are listed. Also included is info on how the blocks help develop specific engineering-based skills at such a young age.

Tonys essay

Social Medal Marketing In this day and age, social media can be an extremely helpful tool for free advertising and building a customer base. It is tremendously important for companies, especially smaller companies that do not have the biggest budget for big time marketing. With the way society works today, social media is one of the most powerful and influential tools companies have available.Without the use of social media, companies would eve a disadvantage in gaining clientele on the internet. Even if people have never heard of the company, if their â€Å"friends† on social media sites comment or â€Å"like† their page, then they can then be exposed to the company as well. A company that I know has benefited greatly from the use of social media Is Barras Tickets. It Is the company that I work for and It Is a full service ticket agency that sells tickets for all concerts, sports, and theatre nationwide.Being a large ticket broker, we are more well-known than the avera ge ticket agency, however, that does to mean we have the budget available to have commercials playing all the time. Social media advertising has been one of our greatest assets. We have a department that dedicates their time to making posts and offering specials to all social media followers. We use Instating, Twitter, Faceable, and Google Plus. These sites are used to let people know when big shows have gone on sale, when big games or shows are coming up, or to offer discounts to our loyal followers.Contests are run often where ere tickets are given away in order to attract more people to our social media sites. They spend hours figuring out algorithms to understand how a like or a comment will or a share will help sales In the company. They have figured out that comments on Faceable, tags and washrags on Instating, and washrags on Instating give us the greatest opportunities to find potential customers. For the Faceable giveaways, people have to â€Å"like† and comment on t he posts. These likes and comments allow the friends of the people who have liked the posts to see this.This gives our page more visits because everyone loves free stuff. They are intrigued and have to see what the offer is and that gets traffic to our website. With Instating, most of the contests involve â€Å"liking† and tagging five friends. On Instating, they have the page that allows you to see what the people you are following have liked and what your friends have been tagged in. When people do this, it brings more and more people to our Instating, causing more people to follow, and in the long run, also bringing traffic to the website.Even though social media obviously does not get 100% percent of potential customers to buy your product, It can help In so many ways. It allows for hundreds, thousands, and potentially even hundreds of thousands of extra eyes on your products, which In turn, could bring Incredible amounts of people to your site. The power that social medi a holds is immense. It takes the old word of mouth type people that you verbally talk to, now you can share your thoughts about companies with people you haven't actually spoken to in years.

A Person Who Had Made a Difference in My Life Essay

Everyone go through their life and meeting new people every day. Sometimes there are some people who play an important role in our life which had made a biggest impact in our life. Fortunately, I met that person, Miss Stephanie. She is my form teacher when I was in Form One. I was a very naughty and bullheaded girl when I was in Form One. All teachers treated me so bad because they thought I would influence other good students. They often listed me in blacklist which all the bad students’ names were in it. I played truant and fought a lot with all those blacklisted friends when I was in school because birds of a feather flock together. My father and mother were so busy with their works so they did not have time to watch me out. There was no one who cared about me. I had freedom and I had a lot of pocket money which most of the child needed. I thought all those things were enough for me and I did not need to study. But someday, the person who changed my life appeared. That day, I was sleeping on the table. I felt people patted my shoulder. I woke and I saw a stranger who was young and blonde standing in front of me. She was Miss Stephanie, our new English teacher who was also our form teacher. She started paid attention to me and when I played trunk she would advise me and tell my parents to pay attention to me. However, my father and mother did not care about it and they still worked day and night. I started dislike Miss Stephanie because she was so annoying because she even came to my house someday when I did not go to school. Someday, my friend invited me to a shopping Centre and wanted me to join him for stealing. I took the challenge and we went into shop and started our plan. When we finished our plan, we went out from the shop immediately. Unfortunately, my friend’s dropped the things he stole. The shopkeeper looked at us and my friend accused me for stealing the things. I was in the daze and speechless. The shopkeeper started to scold me and wanted to call the police. Suddenly, Miss Stephanie appeared and told the truth to the shopkeeper. However, Miss Stephanie told the shopkeeper not to call the police. I was so grateful that she had helped us. After that, she scolded us for stealing things with a gentle tone. We promised her not to do it again and would listen to her advice after this. I started went to school and study hard. She taught me study every day after school patiently. Obviously I passed my test with flying colours. Besides, she also came to my house and advice my parents to be more concerned about me. She was like my second mother who taught me how to be a good girl and what should do and what should not do. Now, I become a girl who is so much better than before. My results improve a lot and now I become a useful person who can help a lame dog over a stile. Without Miss Stephanie, I think I would not become a person who I am now. I was so thankful that I could meet her. Although now she is no longer to be with me but I will always remember this person who had made a difference in my life.