Leadership
Essays

Management and technology are opposite sides of the same coin essential in the operating and maintaining a business. Today's society, companies must have the proper mix of these two elements to operate effectively. However, good companies do not forget their most important commodity, which is the human capital. Unfortunately, too often this is the forgotten commodity. Technology changes, but people in many ways remain the same. The author found this out personally in a work experience selling Google on line ad word ads that led to their being dismissed. While this did not reflect directly on the employer, it does illustrate how events that are sometimes beyond the employer or the employee's control can affect the delicate balance between people and technology in the workplace.

As President Obama stated in his addresses to Congress in February 2009, the most important problem that the country faced was the economy, which was in the worst recession since the 1930s. This affected both domestic and foreign policy, since the country would probably have to reduce military spending and its commitments overseas as it did during the Great Depression, so for the Obama administration economic recovery was the primary goal. He did promise that "the weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation" (Obama Address, 2009, p. 1). He promised that the government would deal with unemployment, lack of affordable housing and health care, a failing education system, energy self-sufficiency, revival of the auto industry, an unfair tax system, and weak regulation of the financial system, so that the recession would not be endless. In

The Ritz Carlton's hotels are focused on a rather narrow target market that expects world class facilities as well as world class service by the hotels staff. While constructing world class facilities is one matter, maintain a staff that consistently can provide world class service is no easy endeavor. To meet this challenge the Ritz Carlton organization has implemented many of the concepts embodied in the Total Quality Management body of research. They provide their staff both the training and the resources that empower them to maintain quality standards on the spot without having to navigate layers of organizational bureaucracy. This allows the hotel staff the means to provide the hotels clients with not only world class service but they also have systems in place to ensure this level of service is maintained consistently throughout the entire network of hotels. This paper examines some of the quality issues that arise in service management in the luxury hotel industry and how the Ritz Carlton uses Total Quality Management practices to overcome these challenges.

The modern day working environment is a highly complex and intricate field, in which employees and employers have to continually meet new demands, standards and challenges. Employees, for instance, have to perform new tasks at superior standards, or they have to continually develop their skills. At the level of the employers, they have to respond to challenges such as increasing roles of employees, increasing competition for talented staffs or changing structures of the workplace, especially due to diversity (Bond, 2007).

Apple is one of the most well known brands on the planet. It provides amazing technology with stellar service to countries all over the globe. Apple has a high consumer reputation for representing the highest quality products and the most innovative technologies. In many ways, Apple is well on its way to fulfilling its goals of being the best in the market. In order to continue getting closer to this goal, it is imperative for Apple to develop and maintain a training structure that will best provide efficient and innovative minds to help contribute to the overall success of the company as a whole.

Michael Alfonso is a man who is envied by his peers having moved up the ranks and taken charge of Trident submarine because very few officers qualified for such commands hardly get them. The paper applies the various leadership theories in this case scenario, also looks at the several behavior theories applicable.

Alcan's continued revenue growth is the result of the combined success of increasing sales in four main business units, in addition to growth through acquisition. The cumulative effects of these two factors have served to create a profitable business and one where a highly decentralized organizational structure dominates (Chang, Wang, 2011). The catalyst of the organization becoming so decentralized is the continued revenue gains made across four businesses, each competing in market areas that face heavy pricing and commodity-like market conditions. Despite the heavily process-centric based approaches the industry takes to supply chain management, production and distribution, Alcan has been also able to profitably grow sales in the more mature markets they compete in. The senior management and IT departments credit the highly decentralized nature of the enterprise-wide systems that run the company. During the time period of the case, Alcan generated $23.6B in sales in 2006, and has 68,000 employees throughout its global operations that span 61 countries. The four major groups include Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina. Each of these business groups have their own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and IT infrastructure. They each also have their own maintenance contracts with enterprise software vendors including SAP who the company pays approximately $100M a year in maintenance fees to. There are also the costs of operating over 400 different pricing systems, many of which duplicate functions across divisions as well. The new CIO of the company, Robert Ouellette, enters into a challenging situation and one that will require a completely different IT and organizational structure to succeed. Organizational Environment The Alcan organizational environment is highly decentralized to the point of there being four separate companies in the same corporation, each with its own entire value chain and supporting functions. As with the value chain concept, each of the four divisions has created its own main and supporting functions, and no two business units or divisions are the same. From the initial supply chain management and supplier quality management processes and systems to the supplier qualification, new product development, production and fulfillment including logistics, each business unit is significantly different than the other. When information systems and processes become unique to a given organizational business unit or division, the information and intelligence shared redefines the identity and over time, the core competencies of a business unit (Boh, Yellin, 2007). This is exactly what's happening in the four business units of Alcan during the time period of the case study. The Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina have in effect become their own companies, each with its own ERP, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and myriad of pricing and distribution systems. The case states that there are over 400 different pricing systems in place across the four business units or divisions. CIO Robert Ouellette and other senior executives see the potential for consolidating all systems together and creating a centralized IT architecture. Creating a highly centralized IT architecture and framework would require the fundamental structure of the company to change significantly. It would also require an entirely new IT architecture, followed by redefinition of processes, systems and procedures throughout the company. As the information platforms or technologies of a business define not only the performance of divisions but the structure and performance of business models over time, Robert Ouellette and his staff must think strategically as to how they will modify the overall organizational structure.

This paper looks at the career and leadership style of General David Petraeus and the applicability of his attributes to other organizations. His rules for living are discussed as his transformational leadership style. The manner in which he has thus far dealt with the recent scandal that was the impetus for his resignation from the CIA is also examined.

Leadership is a complex subject to study, in part because there are so many definitions of leadership. As a result of these multiple competing definitions, studying leadership is itself a complex endeavor, and one that…

The study examines how the al-Assad family, members of a religious minority, came to power in Syria, and what that has meant for the Syrian people. To this end, this study examines how the Alawi sect came to power in Syria from a historiographic and religious studies perspective, and what the implications of the Arab Spring uprisings might be for the ruling elite in Syria. A summary of the research and important findings are presented in the study's conclusion.