The Monkey Wrench Gang The Law breaking Heroes Essays

The Monkey Wrench Gang: The Law breaking Heroes nbsp; Everyone knows that breaking the law is bad and anybody who does is a criminal, but Edward Abbey author of The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), puts a twist on those thoughts. The Monkey Wrench Gang is an adventurous novel about a gang of environmentalists who set out to destroy bulldozers, bridges, cars, trains, signs or anything that is destroying their beautiful country, the American southwest. Through characterization and description Edward Abbey glorifies the art of law breaking and leaves his readers rooting for his heroic criminals. nbsp; In the Monkey Wrench Gang there are four main characters: Bonnie Abbzug, Doc Sarvis, Seldom Seen Smith and George Hayduke. As†¦show more content†¦Seldom is a Mormon with three wives that he seldom sees, hence his name. Seldom is a professional guide, wilderness outfitter, boatman and packer whos business went down hill when the freely flowing Colorado River was stopped by a dam, the dam which had plugged up Glen Canyon, the heart of his river, the river of his heart (63). Every time Seldom passes over the Glen Canyon dam he prays for a little old pre-cision-type earthquake to free his trapped river (33). nbsp; In The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey is able to tap into the readers thoughts by presenting the characters persuasive opinions. All of Abbeys characters are very strong believers in the survival of the desert and its inhabitants and they risk their lives several times just to keep it alive. All this fantastic effort- giant machines, road networks, strip mines, . . .high-voltage power lines; the devastation of the landscape, the destruction of Indian homes . . . Indian burial grounds; the poisoning of the last big clean-air reservoir in the forty-eight contiguous United States, the exhaustion of precious water supplies-all that ball-breaking labor and all that back-breaking expense and all that heartbreaking insult to land and sky and human heart, for what? All for what? Doc- (160). nbsp; Down below the metal monsters roared, bouncing on rubber through the cut in the ridge, dumping their loads and thundering up the hill for more. The green beasts of Bucyrus,Show MoreRelatedExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 PagesPhoto: S.I.N./Corbis ECS8C_C01.qxd 22/10/2007 11:54 Page 606 606 MINISTRY OF SOUND with no links to the local drugs gangs. He even hired a psychoanalyst to cope with the gangland threats that followed his drugs crack-down: If they say ‘we’re going to kill you’, you know what you’re up against. But the threats [from London’s East End drugs gangs] are much more sinister. The word is fed back that if the business is cut off, they will follow you home, go for your family, stab you

The process of developing and designing products Free Essays

The process of developing and designing products has taken a sharp change in the last couple of years. Companies are being pushed by demanding global customers and are being challenged by rapid change of technology. Manufacturers have had to increase the speed of design cycles while at the same time cut the cost of development and manufacture. We will write a custom essay sample on The process of developing and designing products or any similar topic only for you Order Now They must ensure the product takes full advantage of the latest and best technology. Leading companies have found that obstacles in the market today are far too rigorous to overcome on their own. This process of design and development of products has never been so competitive and daunting. However, it is more critical for future success. The Success of modern day companies is due to help from a resource that has been present since the early days of the company. The answer is suppliers. In some industries suppliers are taking on responsibility for designing parts, components, materials, assemblies, and even complete systems for automobiles, computers and other products. Leading manufacturers are using their supply bases as a key element of their product design strategies, and it’s paying off in a big way. In other words the old saw â€Å"Slow and sure wins the race† no longer holds. Speed is competitive edge today s business needs to succeed. Including suppliers in the manufacturing process adds to the clock-speed of a company. The Honda Motor Company is one such company that has recognized this need for speed and has thus adjusted its production to accommodate. The Honda Motor Company is one of the world s most well known producers of motor vehicles. The Company itself is based in Japan, but it had branches all over the world. From a simple start, Honda has grown to one of the world s most successful motoring companies, selling products in almost 200 countries. Honda has set new standards in vehicle production and design. From the Civic to ongoing participation in automotive racing, Honda s spirit of challenge and commitment forms the basis for every Honda project. Honda’s new â€Å"world platform† strategy will produce four variants of the new mid-size Accord platform. Honda s Research and development team found that the easiest way of producing their most popular make of car, the Accord, was to produce a world platform. This platform is an Accord chassis around which different accord bodies are built. For example; The Accord built for America will be larger than the one built in Japan because there is a market for larger cars. The one built in Europe will narrower so that it may compete with other cars on the European market. Essentially the Accord platform is universal. The car s appearance changes due to its location around the world. Accords will be produced in 11 and sold in 100 countries. How to cite The process of developing and designing products, Essay examples

Challenge For Developing Ethical Leadership -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Challenge For Developing Ethical Leadership? Answer: Introduction Agile leaders are characterized by the democratic, inclusive, and openness towards innovations. According to Anthony (2012), the agile leaders are more likely keen in exploring and learning innovative functionalities and developing the strong ability skills of the associated workforce. In todays world, the advancements brought to the business scenario are responsible for emerging innovations. Therefore, the leaders often face the strategic challenges to cope with such competitive landscape and lead the workforce for achieving excellence. The study would concentrate on the strategic challenges faced by Singapore Airlines. The study would also discuss the leadership practices to mitigate the issues and present a development plan for increasing leadership agility. Furthermore, the study would reflect on developing leadership agility for obtaining the future achievements. Organisational Leadership Case Study: Description of the identified strategic challenges Singapore Airlines has captured the leading position in the international market due to the ever growing business excellence and commendable airline services. The company is focusing on the rapid innovations and becoming adaptive changes. However, it has been observed that the profit level of Singapore Airline has steadily dropped over past few years. It is observed that the intensifying competition and over challenging market scenario are responsible for such sudden decline in profit level. In the quarter of the year 2014, the profit rates were again down. The record follows almost 52% drop in the operating profits to SGD39 million, which is nearly US$31 million (The Straits Times. 2017). However, the excellence of the business management leaders helped the company to increase the profit level by adopting the preferable strategies. However, again on 2017, it is reported that the Singapore Airlines published a crushing set of the financial statement. This financial status reflects th at the company experienced the loss of $138 million for the most recent quarter (Centreforaviation.com. 2014). The rapidly growing competitiveness in the global business scenario is posing such challenges due to which it has become necessary for the business leaders to modify the strategic values. In order to mitigate the issues with the strategic development, the leaders play the most significant role. Adopting the skilled leadership practices can be much fruitful in such context. In order to remain fit for future purpose, it is essential for the business leaders to develop the personal insights that would help in becoming an efficient leader. The continuous development in the competitive scenario is persuading the company to adopt more innovative methods that would be helpful in structuring the business functionalities. In spite of the efficiency maintained in the innovative practices, the company is continuously struggling with the higher competition with the market. For instance, the major competitors, such as Thai Airways and Garuda, have taken the further steps to remain proactive in this competitive scenario. The American carriers and these regional players are introducing the most effective digital innovations for the betterment of the customer services. On the contrary, business leaders of Singapore Airlines are struggling to train the employees for utilizing the advanced d igital technologies. These challenges are considered as the potential threats to survive for a longer time in this competitive scenario. The Current Leadership Agility in Singapore Airlines According to McKenzie and Aitken (2012), agile leaders are much focused on fulfilling the needs of others by acknowledging others perspectives. They tend to concentrate on achieving the business goals by improving the competency level of the associated workers. It has been observed that the business leaders of Singapore Airline are following the transformational leadership style, which prioritizes the needs of the individuals. The managers think that the success of the company depends on the efforts provided by every individual working under this company. The agile attributes of the leaders is completely visible in the leadership practices undertaken by the business leaders of Singapore Airlines. The leaders perceive that the shared enthusiasm and perseverance of the staffs are contributing towards improving the customer experience. However, in spite of the flexibility maintained in the leadership practices in Singapore Airlines, there is the lack of shared knowledge. The workforce is facing challenges in operating the innovative technologies due to which the company is lacking the technological skills to participate in the market competition. An agile leader needs to create the learning scenario and drives as well as sustains innovation within the organization (Chatman et al. 2014). The leaders are responsible towards developing the workforce talents and direct them to accomplish the organisational goals. These leaders have the stronger ability to maintain communication transparency for sharing visions and inspiring others to ensure productive outcome (Nowak 2012). There are 12 major practices that an agile leader adopts in order to ensure the productive outcome and to deal with the emerging challenges. These practices are as follows: Personal values sensitization Emotional Intelligence Sense Make-Give Mindful of Impact Access Capability Create Learning Cultural Competence Total Leadership One-to-many Dialogues One-to-one dialogue Performance Challenge Agility Resilience The major gap in the leadership process of Singapore Airlines was found in managing the performance challenges, agility resilience, create learning, and cultural competence. As an agile leader, it is important to deal with people from diverse cultural background. In order to cope with the future opportunities, the leader needs to realize the interests of the other people and try to find the process of motivating them in different ways. It would help the leaders in ensuring productive outcome for the operations success. The leaders need to focus more on the specific issues that are preventing the workforce from developing the knowledge regarding the innovative business practices. An agile leader possesses the democratic trait, which determines the consultation with other people during any decision-making process. During any conflicting scenario, they need to be communicative towards the associated workers. Taking the performance challenge is necessary for a leader to deal with the har dships and accomplishing goals in spite of such difficulties. In the further section of the study, the discussion of the agile leadership practices would be discussed. Development Plan The case scenario follows the issues with the leadership consistency, which affects the performance parameter of the associated workforce. The obtained ideas from the above scenario describe the needs for the effective development plan that would direct the workforce towards achieving the organisational goals. It is to be stated that the individuals are involved in transformation in which undertaking the unique initiative is necessary. Singapore is a culturally diverse country where the people from different culture collaborate to perform the organizational functionalities. The development plan for the agile leadership is based on the following activities: Development Plan Leadership Agility Skills What needs to be done Involved People Tracking Progress 1. Development of Flexibility An agile leader requires being flexible enough to deal with the different circumstances that may occur at any point of time. It is essential for the business leaders of Singapore Airlines to maintain such flexibility to motivate the associated workforce from different cultural background. Moreover, the leaders need to train the employees in order to make them more adaptive to this dynamic business scenario. Internal Survey to receive feedback from the employees 2. Dealing with the Transformer Leaders The transformer leaders are the ones who have the capability of dealing with the workforce belong to diverse cultural background. While adopting the innovative technicalities for strengthening the competitive position in current business scenario. The business leaders of Singapore Airlines have to be much Test of the technical knowledge of the employees 3. Development of the learning scenario An agile leader needs to focus on the drawback and accordingly fulfill the gap. Therefore, it is essential for the leaders to develop a learning scenario for the employees and enhance their knowledge about the business technicalities. The business leaders of Singapore Airlines Allocation of the dynamic works to the employees once a week Table 1: Development Plan (Source: Created by the Author) The agile leaders have to be much cautious about the scenario and uncertainties. As a leader, it is necessary to be more cautious while conveying the messages to the people. It is essential for an agile leader to recognize whether the messages are heard or understood by the people. If not, it is the prime responsibility to improve the understanding regarding the potential drawbacks. While working under the dynamic and culturally diverse environment, there is the possibility of the situational conflicts. An agile leader focuses beyond the possibilities and improves the work practices to deal with such uncertainties (Lichtenstein and Aitken 2014). The case scenario depicts that the challenges posed by the competitive environment is responsible for the downfall in the organisational revenues. On the other hand, the current competitive scenario is mostly driven by the innovations and improved technicalities. The following improvements would help in creating the productive atmosphere in t he business field. In order to improve the performance parameter of the associated workers, it is important to provide them the proper learning session or training. In this training session, they would learn about utilization of latest technologies and digital innovative practices. The leaders need to conduct the internal survey to receive feedback from the employees about their issues and concerns. The leaders need to arrange the weekly meeting to communicate with the associated workers and updating them about the latest requirements in the technological aspects. The establishment of the communicational transparency would be beneficial enough to promote a multicultural environment within the organization. Identification of the training needs is also one of the most necessary aspects that are needed to be taken into consideration. The above initiatives are needed to be taken into account in order to improve the leadership agility in Singapore Airline. The progress report is needed to be monitored every week to derive the ideas about the further improvements. This process would be much helpful in developing the leadership values and driving the organization towards success in this competitive market. Conclusion The study develops the idea about the agile leadership followed by the case study of Singapore Airline, which has been experiencing the greater downfall in economic structure. It has been observed that in spite of the transformational leadership skills, the business leaders could not retain the consistency in managing the dynamic workforce. The leaders are responsible towards developing the workforce talents and direct them to accomplish the organisational goals. These leaders have the stronger ability to maintain communication transparency for sharing visions and inspiring others to ensure productive outcome Furthermore, the excessive competitive scenario is also posing some recognizable challenges. The study develops the basic leadership traits that would be helpful for becoming a successful agile leader and ensuring productive outcome in upcoming future. Developing the agile leadership would turn out to be much profitable for Singapore Airlines in the upcoming future. 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Doz, Y.L. and Kosonen, M. 2009. Embedding Strategic Agility. Long Range Planning, Elsevier Kempster, S. 2006. Leadership learning through lived experience: A process of apprenticeship? Journal of Management and Organisation, June, 12, 1, pp.4-22 Kempster, S., Jackson, B. and Conroy, M. 2011. Leadership as purpose: Exploring the role of purpose in leadership practice. Leadership, 7(3), pp.317-334 Lichtenstein, S. and Aitken, P. 2014. The Values Challenge for Developing Ethical Leadership: Research and Practice Agenda for Values-Based Leadership, 6th Developing Leadership Capacity Conference, Lancaster University Management School, July 7-9. (unpublished). Lord, R.G. and Hall, R.J. 2005. Identity, deep structure and the development of leadership skill. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(4), pp. 591-615, Elsevier McKenzie, J. and Aitken, P. 2012. Learning to lead the knowledgeable organization: Developing leadership agility. Strategic HR Review, Vol. 11, 6, pp. 329-334. Nowak, M. A. 2012. Evolution: why we help. Scientific American, July, pp.20-25 Porter, M.E. and Cramer, M.R. 2011. Creating Shared Value. Harvard Business Review, (Jan-Feb), pp. 62-77 Raelin, J. 2004. Dont bother putting leadership into people. Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 131-135 Raelin, J. 2011. From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice. Leadership, 7(2), pp. 195-211, Sage Sveningson, S. and Larsson, M. 2006. Fantasies of Leadership: Identity Work. Leadership, 2(2), pp. 203-224, Sage The Straits Times. 2017.SIA has lost market share and needs new strategy. [online] Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/sia-has-lost-market-share-and-needs-new-strategy [Accessed 29 Jan. 2018].