Criticisms And Arguments Against Transformational Leadership Management Essay

Criticisms And Arguments Against Transformational Leadership Management Essay A person can have many distinctive qualities, leadership is among those qualities, not everyone possess such quality, which made this quality special and extraordinary. In the field of business, a decision often comes down to success and failure, leadership is one of the most important quality for a managerial person to have. As Thomas J. Watson, Jr. had put it: I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people. Leaders that can bring positive or beneficial effect to a group or enterprise are consider as a transformational leader, they are energetic, passionate, not only they focus on the systems and the structure of a business, they also focus on the individual employee to do well and to be successful as well. According to Cox (2001), leadership is divided into two categories: transactional leadership and transformational leadership. The distinction between the two, according to James McGregor Burns work on political leader (1978), are those ones who uses the policy of rewards to motive and earn his/her employees efficiency and loyalty, is called transactional leader; and those ones who gets involve with his/her employee, also possess determination and committed towards success as well as motivates its employees in exchange for their high performance, also their loyalty. However, in this ever changing world, business leaders needs improve his/her skill and ability in order to coordinate wit h the change. In this particular essay, the main focus will be on the transformational leadership and some of the arguments and criticisms against it, as well as some counter arguments in favor of the transformational leadership; along with supporting explanations, facts and various examples. Arguments against Transformational Leadership Theory: Study results shows that Transformational Leadership have its positive effect on organizations, improve its work productivity, performance and as well as the creativities, according to Bass and Avolio (1994), it can be found in every aspect of an enterprise, because sometimes transformational leaders are the type of leaders needed for an company to survive, according to Burn (1978): recognizes and exploits an existing need or demand of a potential followerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower. A transformational leader in an organization often break through its frame of organization culture and thrive, which made transformational leadership one of the most renewed and popular leadership theory in modern days, nevertheless, its resplendency is not without oppugns. There are many criticisms against the theory of transformational leadership, one of the criticism is transformational theory is very difficult to be trained or taught, because its components are too comprehensive; on the other hands, one of the argument against transformational leadership is that supporters might be handled by leaders. Among them all, one of the important key criticisms against transformational theory is accusing it to be only for the selected individuals, which may lead to abusing of power. As Colonel Mark .A Homig (2001) have stated that: Transformational leadership is a double edged sword. Which means that, when a transformational leader over done his part in terms of leadership, his/her innate defect in personality or even later life experience can turn him/her into another type transformational leadership, the one on the opposite side-Pseudo transformation leadership. According to Mark. A. Homig: has a potential immoral and unethical dimension that could be exp loited by an unscrupulous leader inflicted on naive and unsuspecting followers. For example, Adolf Hitler was elected as the leader of Germany, he came into power during Germanys economic inflation and depression in 1920s, he did pull Germany out of its economic depression, however, after first couple of years honeymoon between him and the country, his follower later become so obsessed with him and followed him blindly into his conquest for his so called Lebensraum for Germany, which brought one of the worst disaster to Europe. Other example is Shoko Asahara, founder and leader of Aum Shinrikyo, also known as Aleph, a Japanese cult that is responsible for the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. The second key argument against transformational leadership is the un-clarity of its definition and components, since the definitions of the four components (Inspirational, Intellectual, Idealized, and Individualized) associated with transformational leadership are overlapping each other. According to Brayman (1992), the transformational leadership looks more suited to be a set of personality characteristics rather than special requirements. There are other various arguments against transformational leadership as well, like the ones associated with ethics, according to Avolio and Howell (1992), qualities that makes a great leader can lead to unethical act, as the first key point in this section stated, such leader can make his/her follower to make unethical decisions and even commit crimes as well, according to Yukl.G. (1998). One example for this case is Hitler. Within this essay, the focus will be on the above arguments, in the following section, and in-depth analysis will be done. Supports for the Transformational Leadership theory: Two of the key arguments against transformational leadership theory primarily focus on the un-clarity of its concepts, and accusing it to be misleading. However, if we take a closer look at the details and examine the core components of the transformational leadership theory, one can easily notices the arguments against transformational leadership is losing its roots. Based on Benard. M, Bass (2006)s book on Transformational leadership, the qualification of transformational leaders are those who has great personality qualities and the ability to influence others in exchange for their loyalty, it focuses on the processes between the leader and followers. Therefore, those who uses negative examples of transformational leadership such as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini to fault the transformational leadership theorys core concept is false, because idea or the overall construction of the theory of the transformational leadership is solid, and does not varies when people interpolate it dif ferently. Arguments such as the requirements for transformational leadership are sets of personality traits, and it cannot be taught or learn, Oscar Arias (cited in blog: leadership, 2010) have stated: More than knowledge, leaders need character. Values and ethics are vitally important. The basics of leadership can be taught. What is desperately needed is more responsible leadership a new ethic to confront the challenges of our day. Based on an interview and commentary essay done by Jonathan P. Doh (, many educators believes that transformational leadership can be taught, in fact all types of leadership can be taught and learned. Here are some of the quoted interviews from that report: Jay Conger (Professor of Organizational Behavior at the London Business School and Senior Research Scientist, Center for Organizations at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles) have :Yes, most definitely. Here work experiences, bosses, special projects, and role models, education all play a role in leadership development. Using an analogy with sports, not everyone can become an outstanding player despite coaching, yet most will benefit and improve their game. A few will go on to become stars or outstanding leaders given coaching, extensive experiences, and personal drive. Also from Kim S. Cameron (Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan Business School.) said that: Some people have an inclination to learn some competencies faster or better than others, of course, and some people reflect more charismatic or likable characteristics than others. But many great leaders are not those that appear on the covers of Time and Fortune. They have learned to achieve spectacular results in their own circumstances. Think of parents. Can people learn to become better parents, or are we just born either competent or not? Everyone would agree that effective parenting can be learned and improved. So can effective leadership. Leadership can also be taught, according to Jay Conger, Kim Cameron, and Steve Stumpf (cited in Jonathan P. Dohs interview essay), have all agreed that leadership can be taught, but only to a certain extent. The reason behind this is the three dimensions of leadership: skills, perspectives and dispositions. Just like in school, everything can be taught to students, but there are always some students do better than others, in terms of adapting knowledge, and the ability of applying the knowledge that they have learned. Skills can be taught, and perspectives can be trained, however, dispositions such as ambitions, mental capacity, etc.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.is difficult to teach. Bottom line is, leadership can be taught and learned through education and training. There are a lot of examples of leaders that proved valuable to a company, just to name of few in this essay. Steve Jobs is one of the perfect example, he was fired from apple and later came back, and turned Apple into one of the most profitable technology company in the world. Another example is Gordon Bethune, CEO of Continental Airlines (merged with United in 2010), and he joined Continental Airlines during its bankruptcy, during that time, company was losing $55 million dollars per month, he, however, not only eliminated the debt they had at that not, but also increased Continental Airlines stock price from $2 a share to $50 a share. Conclusion: In conclusion, Transformational leadership theory have proved its value throughout the modern days, even if there are some criticisms, it still not enough to effect the core concept of transformational leadership theory. Counter arguments in support for the transformational leadership theory, have proved its aptitude in work performance, quality and earn their loyalty. Key arguments have been vindicated in this essay, even though, motive of a leader sometimes is questionable, but this does not change the core construction of the theory; transformational leadership theory or any leadership theory can be learned or taught, only difference is how well one can adapt and apply the knowledge of leadership. Transformational leadership is surely one of the most popular theory, and most likely will become the resolution for todays organization, as todays enterprises facing many tough challenges such as creativity, sustainability, and uniqueness.

College Admissions Essay: Expressing Creativity through Mathematics :: College Admissions Essays

Expressing Creativity through Mathematics After his visit to a Shell Research Laboratory, my high school teacher in math told us in class that he was so happy with his education, because mathematics had helped him to understand the explanations and demonstrations that had been given by the Shell researchers. He said, "If you master mathematics then you can understand everything." That was certainly an exaggeration, but it nevertheless sounded like a golden message. Since I definitely wanted to have a better understanding of what was going on around me, mathematics seemed the obvious way to go. Also, if it was not much beyond high school math, then it was pretty easy in addition. What could one wish more? So I enrolled in every advanced math class offered in our high school. Pretty soon I discovered that mathematics was much more than a set of principles that helped one to solve intellectual riddles. It was not a finished system that one could aim to master after some limited time, but it was really a way of thinking, a means of expressing creativity: endless, an old established science, but still fresh and with undiscovered green meadows, nearby and far away. I also learned that mathematics was more than merely an intellectual activity: it was a necessary tool for getting a grip on all sorts of problems in science and engineering. Without mathematics there is no progress. However, mathematics could also show its nasty face during periods in which problems that seemed so simple at first sight refused to be solved for a long time. Every math student will recognize these periods of frustration and helplessness. My first opportunity to use math outside the academic world was in my part time job with United parcel Service. It was an eye-opener for me in that mathematical techniques, in combination with computers, could be used for solving very complicated real-life problems, such as predicting and controlling the continuos flow of 300 million packages per day. I was deeply impressed by the numerical masterpieces of Jim Gilkinson and Dick Marga, the project managers. They led the way in showing how one could overcome some serious limitations of computers for solving linear systems of equations.

An Experience I Will Never Forget

The day was near, it was ten days for the concert, and all the days I asked my father for permission and the money. One day after he was saying the same thing, my father finally said â€Å"yes†, and he gave me the money. He told me that it was the gift for my birthday. I was so happy and I immediately called my friend for saying about the news. The next day we bought the ticket and only were for the big concert missing two days. We couldn’t believe that we would be in the most waited place, so on Saturday November 26th; we never thought that in few hours, we would sing all the song of our favorite band. My friend and I were so excited but when we were on the subway, almost arriving to the â€Å"Auditorium†, the subway was overcrowded and we were so nervous. When we arrived to the â€Å"Auditorium†, we sat in the chairs, and we were waiting for the band to go out. The lights turned off and all the auditory screamed like crazy people for the band. The orchestra began to play one of my favorite songs. Peep, the singer appeared in the scene. That moment was so awesome and exciting for me, and the entire place was singing each one of the songs. The singer said the surprise of the night; it was that they would record a CD with DVD of the entire concert. I was so crazy for the big news and my friend began to cry.

PH Lab Report Essays

PH Lab Report Essays PH Lab Report Paper PH Lab Report Paper Soapy water Material Required To facilitate this laboratory exercise, the experimenter needs the following: pH strips Sample reservoirs of solutions with varying pH Laboratory Notebook pH paper Background H stands for potential hydrogen. This is a measure of the acidity or basilica of a solution. Acidic and basic are two extremes that describe a chemical property chemicals. Mixing acids and bases can cancel out or neutralize their extreme effects. The pH scale is a set of standard solutions whose pH is established by international agreement. A substance that is neither acidic nor basic is neutral. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline. Pure water has a pH very close to 7. The pH scale is logarithmic and as a result, each whole pH value below 7 is ten mimes more acidic than the next higher value. For example, pH 4 is ten times more acidic than pH 5 and 100 times (10 times 10) more acidic than pH 6. The same holds true for pH values above 7, each of which is ten times more alkaline than the next lower whole value. For example, pH 10 is ten times more alkaline than pH 9 and 100 times (10 times 10) more alkaline than pH 8. Primary pH standard values are determined using a concentration cell with transference. This measures the potential difference between a hydrogen electrode and a standard electrode. Measurement of pH for solutions can be done with a glass electrode and a pH meter, or using indicators. PH measurements are important in medicine, biology, chemistry, environmental science, oceanography, etc. Procedure For each of the samples you selected, execute the following steps to acquire the PH. . Cut a strip of pH testing paper utilizing the serrated edge of the dispenser (1-2 in. Length minimum). 2. Submerge the pH testing strip and immerse in solution for approximately 10 seconds. 3. Remove the strip and promptly compare the results to the specimen colors indicated on the dispenser. 4. Record data for the tested solution. 5. Repeat the steps until you have tested all solutions. Data Solut ion Name Personal pH Recordings Group 2 pH Recordings Group 3 Recordings average H Recordings . Soda Orange Juice 3. Iced Tea 6 4. Lime Juice 3 4 5. Water 7 6. Milk 7. Soapy Water 8 Conclusion In concluding this lab I found that, in general most groups had similar recordings in their lab. Although, when testing the pH of soda the recording of pH between groups ranged from 1 to 3. A 3 on the pH scale is 100 times more acidic than a 1. The recording did not change much from my earlier predictions. In the beginning of the lab I anticipated that the order of the solutions tested old be in the following on a pH scale: lime juice, orange juice, soda, iced tea, milk, water, soapy water. This was correct aside from the fact that soda is before orange juice on the pH scale. This is less surprising when reviewing the amount of acid in soda. Acid is listed on average in three forms on a nutrition label for soda. If I were to conduct another lab on pH would test if the level of pH differs from soda brand to soda brand. Overall, the lab familiarized me with the concept and meaning of pH and gave me experience in measuring it, therefore accomplishing the purpose.

Allomorph Word Forms and Sounds

Allomorph Word Forms and Sounds In phonology, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. (A morpheme is the smallest unit of a language.) For example, the plural in English has three different morphs, making plural an allomorph, because there are alternatives. Not all plurals are formed in the same way; theyre made in English with three different morphs: /s/, /z/, and  [É™z], as in kicks, cats, and sizes, respectively.   For example, when we find a group of different  morphs, all versions of one morpheme, we can use the prefix  allo-  ( one of a closely related set) and describe them as allomorphs of that morpheme. Take the morpheme plural. Note that it can be attached to a number of lexical morphemes to produce structures like cat   plural, bus   plural, sheep   plural, and man   plural. In each of these examples, the actual forms of the morphs that result from the morpheme plural are different. Yet they are all allomorphs of the one morpheme. So, in addition to /s/ and /É™z/, another allomorph of plural in English seems to be a zero-morph because the plural form of  sheep  is actually sheep   ∅. When we look at man   plural, we have a vowel change in the word...as the morph that produces the irregular plural form  men. (George Yule, The Study of Language, 4th ed. Cambridge University Press, 2010) Past Tense Allomorphs Past tense is another morpheme that has multiple morphs and is thus an allomorph. When you form the past tense, you add the sounds /t/, /d/, and /É™d/ to words to put them in past tense, such as in talked, grabbed, and wanted, respectively. Completely arbitrary allomorphs, such as English  went  (go  Ã‚  past tense), are relatively rare in the  lexicon, and occur almost exclusively with a few very frequent words. This unpredictable kind of allomorphy is called  suppletion. (Paul Georg Meyer, Synchronic English Linguistics: An Introduction, 3rd ed. Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005) Pronunciation Can Change Depending on the context, allomorphs can vary in shape and pronunciation without changing meaning, and the formal relation between phonological allomorphs is called an  alternation.  [A]n underlying morpheme can have multiple surface level allomorphs (recall that the prefix allo means other). That is, what we think of as a single unit (a single morpheme) can actually have more than one  pronunciation  (multiple allomorphs)...We can use the following analogy:  phoneme:  allophone   morpheme: allomorph. (Paul W. Justice, Relevant Linguistics: An Introduction to the Structure and Use of English for Teachers, 2nd ed. CSLI, 2004) For example, [t]he  indefinite article  is a good example of a morpheme with more than one allomorph. It is  realized  by the two forms  a  and  an. The sound at the beginning of the following word determines the allomorph that is selected. If the word following the indefinite article begins with a  consonant, the allomorph  a  is selected, but if it begins with a  vowel  the allomorph  an  is used instead... [A]llomorphs of a morpheme are in  complementary distribution. This means that they cannot substitute for each other. Hence, we cannot replace one allomorph of a morpheme by another allomorph of that morpheme and change meaning. (Francis Katamba, English Words: Structure, History, Usage, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2004) More on the Term Itself   The terms adjectival use is  allomorphic. Its etymology derives from the Greek,  Ã‚  other form.

A Closer Look at Apple's Success Strategies Research Paper

A Closer Look at Apple's Success Strategies - Research Paper Example Their product innovation made it a brand to be envied not just in terms of functionality, but features, design and quality. Therefore, in this study the researcher would be attempting to analyze that how innovation, product extension or expansion has affected the financial growth and the managerial decision making of Apple Inc. and how the company has come up with new marketing tactics to survive as a leader in its own niche (Douglas, 2012). Apple Inc. is a, technology based multinational company, in America, having its headquarter in Cupertino, California. It is popular for its technological innovations and designs. The company is into manufacturing and selling of consumer electronic goods and is best known for its products which are a brand in itself like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and the Apple Watch. It also provides a range of online services to the consumers like the iTunes, the iCloud and the App Store (Apple Inc., 2015). Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak have founded Apple on 1st April, 1976 to manufacture and sell personal computers. On 3rd January, 1977 it was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. and was renamed on 9th January, 2007 as Apple Inc. (Apple Inc., 2015). It is globally the largest technology company by total assets, second largest Information Technology Company after Samsung Electronics by revenue and ranking third in the world as mobile phone maker. Apple Inc. has become the first company in the United States to be valued at over 700 billion dollars on 25th November, 2014 in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in market capitalization world-wide. As per 2014, the company had a total of 72,800 full-time employees, operating in 437 retail stores in fifteen countries and online Apple Store and iTunes Store functioning globally among which iTunes is the largest music retailer in the world (Apple Inc., 2015). Apple

British airways and Iberia airlines merger Essay

British airways and Iberia airlines merger - Essay Example Brief History of British Airways (BA) British Airways (BA), the flag carrier of the UK, is the largest airline in the United Kingdom on the basis of fleet magnitude flights and terminus. The airline was established in 1974 and has ruled the airline industry since its creation as regards passenger volume until the arrival of low-cost competitor, Easyjet in 2008. BA has been centered at London Heathrow Airport, which is the airline’s central hub. In its growth strategies, BA acquired Dan-Air, which increased its popularity at Gatwick Airport. BA also acquired 25 percent shares in Australian airline, Qantas in 1993. In 1998, the airline together with other leading airlines formed an alliance dubbed â€Å"Oneworld airline alliance.† The airline was privatized in 2006. BA experienced 84 percent drop in profits in 1999, its worst performance in seven years. Consequently, Rod Eddington succeeded Robert Ayling as the company’s CEO. Willie Walsh later replaced Rod Eddington and steered the merger process. The airline sold its Qantas stake in 2004. BA and lberia made public a merger plan in 2010. BA stopped trading in London Stock Exchange in 2011. The alliance between BA and lberia emerged third largest airline group globally. In Europe, it was second biggest airline group. Brief History of lberia From 1944 to 2001, lberia remained nationalized. After privatization on April, 2001, lberia joined stock markets and was integrated in the IBEX-35 stock index of the Madrid Stock Exchange. The privatization lasted up to 2009 after which the airline formed a merger with British Airways in 2010, which gave birth to International Airlines Group. Under the merger, each airline retained its original brand.