Gender Pattern Observation Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gender Pattern Observation - Article Example As the essay states most men prefer sports like football while ladies go for table tennis, hockey and even athletics. Hobbies too vary in terms of gender as others are more inclined to ladies and others to men. If we look at recreation at home and away, ladies would prefer having a good time at home while men will go far away from their residence. It is also important to note that most women and girls always desire to be appreciated at all times for the works they do. Men and boys on the other hand have a strong preference of being recognized for their achievements in every sphere of life. From the research findings it is clear that there are some educational courses that are seen as a no go zone for women. In the past and even in the modern world, technical courses like Engineering are regarded as men’s courses. Some ladies and women have been discouraged from enrolling in them but interestingly, many ladies have proved to thrive in them as compared to men. Employers have also preferred women when it comes to job offerings, They argue that women are unreliable because it reaches a time that they require maternity leave and still expect to be paid as usual. Women have always been the ones taking care of their families as men go up and about working and having fun. The man is presently on the receiving end due and always expects the women to cook, wash and do everything for them.

Critical Thinking And Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Thinking And Communication - Essay Example To be precise, the presentation of information through the statistical method can make easier for the persons who have least knowledge about the statistical process to comprehend the findings and thus gain better insight to the issue concerned. Statistics is also considered as one of the crucial supporting tools in planning for the organizational progress for government owned institutions as well as for private institutions. In this modern competitive world, planning is regarded as the most important aspect for developing the different levels of the organizations involving production processes, investment decisions, pricing of the products and/or services, supply chain management initiatives, and so on. Hence, the statistical method signifies the proper estimation of the previous records along with represents the graphical portrait assisting virtuously to take the initial decisions related to a particular issue (Calem & Longhofer, 2002). With the increasing demand for innovation and development of the existing commodities used for human activities and initiatives with the virtues of technology, the significance for statistical methods are also observed to be at increase. It is due to this fact that statistical measures are observed to assist the research and development groups engaged with technology innovations as well as development to execute complex processes by a significant extent such as in the medical science, computer science and other segments which involve technology as an inseparable facet (Roberts, 2010) The Information Technology (IT) sector, in the current phenomenon, is observed to be highly influenced by the competitive movements taking place among the competitors. With this concern, the IT companies need to emphasize on... Furthermore, the statistical method is also considered to overlook the importance of qualitative data which again creates a constraint on the implication of statistics as evidence. Moreover, the statistical tools are often observed to provide an approximation to the obtained result rather than rendering a clear understanding of the issue researched. For instance, graphical representation developed through statistical processes are often observed to be based on scaling techniques such as Likert Scaling which renders an aggregate or rather approximation to the values perceived by the respondents. Hence, this indicates that statistical tools cannot be regarded as the sources of best evidence. With reference to the above discussion, it becomes quite apparent that statistics can be certainly considered as evidence for establishing a lucid understanding regarding a particular issue. However, it might not be categorized as the best available evidence to gauge the findings obtained as it is also identified to possess various limitations in terms of its methodical implementation process. Various aspects, thus, needs to be taken into concern while referring to statistics as evidence such as the relation or role of qualitative data in the issue identified, the source of statistics obtained as well as the consistency of the statistical method to identify and explore the required data. Conclusively, the method can be regarded as a complex one which requires additional effort to be signified as the "best form of evidence".

The US-Mexico Border Flow of Illicit Drugs Essay

The US-Mexico Border Flow of Illicit Drugs - Essay Example The major aim of this cooperation has been to create disruption for illicit drugs market in order to make the situation more difficulty for the illegal traffickers to manufacture and traffic the drugs to the US. The US has been providing the Mexican authorities with some projects and programs such as interdiction of shipment of cocaine which comes from South America, stemming the manufacture and carrying of opium poppy and marijuana. In addition to this it has come up with a program of controlling precursor chemicals employed in methamphetamine production (Los Angeles Times). Mexico, over the years, had decided to curb the problem with no support from the US. This sensitivity of national sovereignty created difficulties for the two nations to establish good coordination for the counter narcotics operations. Later in early 1990s there was some improved cooperation while in 1998, the two countries concluded this by signing the Bi-national drug Control Strategy. They have kept on cooperating to curb the flow of drugs across the border despite the challenges experienced (Luis). Despite the fact that the two countries have been putting so much effort to fight the flow of drugs from or through Mexico to United States of America through the US-Mexico border, thousands of tons of illegal drugs have still been flowing from Mexico into the USAevery year. There have been fewer cases of reported seizures of this illicit business in the border over the past years. 1.30 Justification Several challenges that the counter-narcotics face have prevented it from achieving its goals. One of the major problems is good cooperation and co-ordination between the two country’s authorities. 's authorities. Creating this link would help to over come some of the barriers created in this war. This research seeks to find out some of the major challenges posses which prevent the authorities from attaining a zero tolerance to trafficking of drugs across the border and the solutions to them. 1.40 Hypothesis Being aware of the challenges and problems faced in the war against the flow of drugs across the border would help in understanding how to overcome them and eventually winning the fight against this vice. 1.50 Objectives 1. To find out whether the illegal drug have still been flowing to US across the border without being seized. 2. To find out the reasons why this drugs are flown in without being noticed by the counter-narcotics and the authorities 3. To suggest what the authorities of the two countries should do to improve the situation. 2.0 Literature Review There have been several efforts made by both authorities to cease the flow of illicit drugs. In 2000, the Mexican Authorities reported that the average amount of cocaine coming into Mexico which intention of transshipment into the United States of America has been estimated to be about 290 metric tons. The amount reported to have been seized in the US-Mexico Border is about 36 metric tons that year. The amount of quality marijuana as well as heroin manufactured in Mexico the same year is estimated to be about 9,400 metric tons per year for marijuana and about 19 metric tons for heroine. Reported seizures for marijuana is said to be about 2,900 metric tons for a year while for

Kudler Fine Foods Problem Statement Essay Example for Free

Kudler Fine Foods Problem Statement Essay The following is a problem statement explaining what is currently wrong with Kudlers plans on expansion, and how they can improve these plans. Introduction After reviewing the strategic plan for Kudlers Fine Foods it is obvious there are several issues that will stunt the growth and success of the organization. The company is suffering from a lack of management and poor organization planning. The issues that will be discussed are the poorly developed expansion and growth plans, and the lack of risk management in preparation of a competitor entering the market. Problem Statement The management at Kudler Fine Foods is planning on opening a new location when all of the current locations are not successful, and the company has not done a proper analysis of the need for their services in the area. Also Kudler is not prepared for factors that may decrease the profitability of the company, or factors that can contribute to the failure of a new location. Solution With the Del Mar location not producing profit as expected this is the location management should use to create a market research and analysis plan. By using this location they will be able to determine the factors that are hindering the success of this location and then develop ways to counteract those factors. The benefit is they will improve the business done at that location before opening a new location. By looking at factors like population, socio-economic status in locations surrounding area and health factors in the area can determine what the need are for the community. Management should also look to see where people are purchasing food in the community and what types of food and products are selling at the local grocery. If there are gourmet products selling out of the supermarket than that is a factor that needs to be accounted for. Once the market research is done Kudlers management can the focus on a risk management plan. Before a risk management plan can be established they must know what risk are out there and the market analysis and research will help the company determine what risk and challenges they face. Risk management is a part of a basic business plan, I see where threats are outlined in the strategic plan but there are no alternative plans to minimize each threat nor are there any plans for how to be competitive should a competitor arise. Kudler only considers other gourmet shops as competition they should also consider, grocery stores that sell gourmet foods a competitor. Then they should focus on how to maintain their existing book of business. If Kudler developed their website so customers could place orders online that would give them a way to expand while working on the risk management plans and the online based business would also help with the market research. A high concentration of orders coming from a specific location may be an indicator used to determine where to open a new store. Desired Resolution Kudler Fine Foods will be able to expand all facets of the business and have a risk management plan in place to counter act competition entering the market. Kudler will expand in to locations where they will be successful. Kudler will also have an effective and efficient model for future expansion and growth. Conclusion The goal of Kudler Fine Foods is expansion and growth while increasing profit and the current book of business. By doing the extra research and implementing a risk management program before opening a new location will increase the success of all three current locations and ensure the success of any future locations. It will also help Kudler organize and develop other facets of the business like the website. A little extra work goes along way and with the risk management plan in place and a new location market analysis model being used Kudler Fine Foods should be able to grow and meet all the organizations goals.

Is an oligopolistic market structure an example of market failure?

Is an oligopolistic market structure an example of market failure? Introduction One constructive approach of categorizing a market is by dividing it in terms of the number of firms on the supply side of the market and the buyers concentration on the demand side. Oligopoly represents one of the market structure where there are a very few firms on the supply side and a huge concentration of buyers on the demand side. As the buyers cannot affect the market conditions, they are going to adopt it as such and the supplier will be busy in anticipating the rival behavior. Oligopoly looms large in industries of steel, petroleum, automobiles etc. Many industries can operate geographically as oligopolies. For example banking in a small town operate as oligopoly since there will be one or two banks in the area and the residents will be forced to take his business to the local banks.( Friedman, 1983) Oligopoly a complex market structure Oligopoly is virtually a big business. Under this market structure, the rivalry takes on its worst form. Product innovations, aggressive advertising and innovative marketing tactics are frequently applied to outweigh each other. Oligopolistic market structures are the most difficult to analyze as they are highly interdependent and interwoven, where moves and countermoves are taken rapidly. For example a simple action by Ford may lead to a reaction by General Motors, which in turn cause a readjustment in Fords plan, thereby modifying GMs response and so on. So anything can happen anytime in oligopoly. There are few models that highlight oligopolistic behavior. They are: Cartels A case arises in monopoly when all the firms attempt to promote interdependence and they all mutually agree to set price and output. The firms through their mutual coordination try to create a giant monopoly. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), is an example of a cartel platform. Price leadership and Tacit Collusion It is an arrangement in which one or two firms make an arrangement for the pricing for the entire firm. Other firms are forced to follow the same price pattern although no such agreement exists in the industry. For example: In the infant formula industry, Abbot laboratories, Bristol Myers Squibb and American Home Products deliberately set their prices closer to each other to dominate the industry. The Kinked Demand Curve This model elaborates the stickiness in pricing in an oligopolistic structure. It has been hypothesized in this model that if for example, a firm X lowers its price in an oligopolistic market, the rival will be forced to lower its price to in order to avoid the loss of its market base. The demand curve dd is thus the relevant curve in case of a price reduction. dHowever, if the firm X goes for a price increase, then the case wont be the same. The rivals will not imitate this time, and would continue to enjoy the customer support as they would flee the firm X products. In this case the demand curve would be DD. The firm then tries to remain in a segment of the elastic demand curve between dd and DD. The true demand curve is represented by DAd, known as the kinked demand curve which silently points out the fact heads you lose, tails you lose (Baumol and Blinder, 2009) D A Price 8 (Competitors prices are fixed) 7 D d (Competitors respond to price changes) 0 Quantity per year 1,400 1,100 1,000 Game theory and the Oligopoly Game theory has been formulated to understand the behavior of the firms in an oligopolistic market structure that do not work on a collaborated output and pricing. The underlying assumption is that the large bossy firms are like players in a game of poker. They make the moves of lowering or increasing the price, to advertise or not to advertise, to discount and so on, based on their rivals move. Understanding the payoffs can put a firm in a better position to compete with its rival and be in a profit maximizing and rational position. For example the game between two coffee shops is illustrated as below: C:Documents and SettingsAnumDesktop4th assignmentUnderstanding Oligopoly Behavior a Game Theory overview Economics in Plain English_filesgame-theory-1.jpeg Source: Welker, J. (2009).Understanding oligopoly behavior-A game theory overview. Available from: http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/2009/12/15/understanding-oligopoly-behavior-a-game-theory-overview// According to the above figure, both San Francisco coffee and Starbucks is following a dominant strategy. They are working up to maximize their outcome through advertising, ignoring what their competitor does. If S.F advertises, Starbucks earns profit ($12 vs. $10) through advertising. This means the pay offs are the same. Since both firms are enjoying profit through advertising they will do so, though the total profits are less in case when both are advertising, as compared to when they are not advertising. But such a condition would be a condition of instability, as to advertise is likely to be beneficial for both. So we say that advertise/advertise is Nash equilibrium, as at this stage none of the firm is going to change its strategy since it is bringing incentive to both (Jason Welker, 2009). Market failure due to Oligopoly Keeping in view the above theories that tries to explain oligopolistic behavior, the market failure due to oligopoly can be attributed to a various causes. Inefficiency, instability and indeterminacy brought about by oligopoly may result in a market crash. The firms supremacy is established as the capacity is established more and more, but little is produced in order to create artificial barrier to entry. The competitors compete on the basis of non pricing factors such as heavy advertising, which gives more hold up to the artificial barrier to entry. Prices are well above cost and price discrimination prevails. Some of the firms also engage in self-regulation to preserve their own profits and market share that further detoriate the situation (Grewal and Kumnick, 2006). Oligopolistic firms output and prices substantially differ from what is socially accepted from them. It is also believed that the misleading advertisement by the large firms also misleads the consumers and compels them to buy products that they do not want. They impose political and economic power and hover over the mind of the consumers working like an invisible hand. Market Form Number of firms in the market Frequency in Reality Entry Barriers Public Interest Results Long Run Profit Equilibrium Conditions Oligopoly Few Produces Large share of GDP Varies Varies Varies Varies Source: Economics: Principles and Policy By William J. Baumol, Alan S. Blinder MC=MR applies for a profit maximizing firm, under equilibrium. However, in oligopoly, MC is usually unequal than MR mainly because in oligopoly the firms are seeking to adopt strategies in accordance with the game theory, or they look for techniques such as increasing sales for profit maximization as their ultimate goal. Conclusion In a perfectively competitive market place the behavior of the firms automatically lead to a maximization of consumer benefits through an efficient allocation of resources. In oligopoly however, resource allocation is usually is not well set, more focused is paid on restricting output in an attempt to maneuver prices and profits. In an oligopoly everything is possible, can happen anytime anywhere, so the economists are still unable to clearly predict its behavior. Besides, its ability to lead the market down, some economists are of the belief that oligopoly has made a significant contribution towards the economic growth in the past two decades resulting in an increase in the average income of the rich countries.(Baumol and Blinder, 2009). Question two What are the implications for management of businesses in such structures? Introduction Oligopoly is a market characterized by few firms. Managers of a firm in such a structure know that their firm enjoys a market power. But the other players also have their share of power too. If the managers take the right course of action, properly assessing the behavior of their rivals in the industry, they are likely to make a profit. Strategic behavior Strategic behavior refers to the firms ability of proper consideration of their market power and awareness of their rivals move. Strategic behavior occurs in oligopolistic structures where there is less product differentiation and a competitive industry exists (Taylor and Weerapana, 2009) Implication for the managers The most important implication for the managers regarding oligopoly is the pricing practice on the basis of mutual interdependence. In case of monopoly, the absence of competition enables the managers to follow the MR=MC role to maximize its profit. Simply following the MR=MC isnt just enough. Example Consider, for example the case of proctor and gamble, where the manager hires a consultant for the thorough analysis of the cost, structure and demand. After a detailed analysis of the structure of the body soap products, the manager follows the MC=MR rule and set the retail price at $1.99.In a sudden move, the competitors Colgate-Palmolive , Lever brothers etc set the price of the comparable product 10 to 15 below to that of proctor and gamble. What the manager is likely to do? Either he can go for advertising and heavy promotion to compete against the lower prices of the competitors or can lower its prices down. Or he can simple do nothing if he is confident enough of the strong loyalty that his brand enjoys among consumers. The point is that, that pricing in oligopolistic structure cannot be done without taking into account your competitor. This is the essence of mutual interdependence (Young and McAuley,1994) The second implication for the managers is to understand that it can be extremely difficult to make money in a competitive market. Firms are required to be as much cost efficient as possible because they cannot control the prices. The managers are supposed to be vigilant enough to be able to spot opportunities and enter the market before the others could enter. They should be able to make their place before the demand gets high enough to support an above normal price. A situation could arise in oligopoly, where the managers in a firm become so successful in beating up the competition that the firm turns into a monopoly, or the one that can exercise monopolistic power. Such a case happened with IBM when In 1969, the firm dominated the computer market so much so, that the department of Justice had to issue an antitrust suit against it (Keat, Young and Benerjee, 2009) Global implication for managers The managers should keep in mind that the process of benchmarking in an oligopolistic structure strategy formulation should be done keeping in view both domestic as well as the global competitors. For example AT T communications not only took into account Northern telecom but also Siemens, Ericsson and NEC and Fujitsu. Many of the firms that refuse to take challenge from the foreign firms are likely to face consequences. Like many American firms got a serious blow from their Japanese competitors in the past 20 years. Companies like IBM and Caterpillar enjoys success because they established a strong hold in the Japanese market well before time. The oligopolistic structure also highlighted the importance of alliance for the managers. Alliances enable the firm to acquire technology from the rival firm. Whilst the acquisition of the technology can be a source of benefit for the firm, the firm giving up the technology can face causalities ( Yoffie,1993) Conclusion The managers of an oligopolistic market structure have to take into account several aspects in their decision making. The managers are plunged into complex pricing decision. They take into consideration the three Cs of Cost, customers and competition in their decision making. Price wars were common in an oligopolistic market, but they are becoming less frequent with the passage of time, mainly due to the realization of the managers. Managers have understood, through their bitter experiences, that the price wars are costly and do not bring any benefits. They chose to compete on the advertising and on product variations. So they have chosen not to compete on prices and have found for themselves a path of mutual advantage.

A Visit to the Hostess City of the South :: Personal Narrative Writing

A Visit to the Hostess City of the South In 1994 John Berendt whispered a tale of murder and scandal in a quaint Southern town that took the nation by storm. Berendt’s novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil spent more time on the New York Times Bestseller List than any other piece of fiction or nonfiction. This tale of a murder and other oddities which Savannah tucks away in it’s proverbial â€Å"closet† takes place during the 1980‘s and 1990‘s. Upon reading this novel I became obsessed with the idea of visiting Savannah, and in 2002 I was able to make this obsession a reality. With a much needed Spring Break in sight, my boyfriend and I decided to take a weekend jaunt to the â€Å"Hostess City of the South†. After our classes were over and our bags were packed, we finally headed out of Tallahassee on the afternoon of March 8th. We traveled east on I-10 and drove the mind-numbing 166 mile stretch to Jacksonville. The sad thing about interstates is that they are generally bland with only an occasional view of different scenery. We breezed past the generic fields and even more generic patches of forest that characterize I-10 along the Florida Panhandle. Shortly after merging with I-95 north of Jacksonville the area surrounding the interstate morphed into swampland as we crossed the Nassau, and later St. Mary‘s Rivers. We whizzed by an abundance of saw grass and swamp cypress, which was a nice change from the pine forests of Florida. Another change that we noticed around Brunswick, Georgia was the gas prices†¦only $0.99/gallon! Of course, we stopped to fill up and then proceeded to drive the ninety-five miles to our hotel in Hardeeville, South Carolina. Hardeeville was only fifteen miles from Savannah and we had a free hotel room there courtesy of a Ramada rewards program. The lax South Carolina laws on fireworks sales have made it a very lucrative business judging from all of the highway signs.

Alcohol on Academics :: essays research papers

Alcohol, when consumed in reason, can be fine. But when it is taken in great quantities it can be very detrimental to a student. Heather Wilson and Jeremy Foster wrote a perspective on drugs and alcohol in a book aimed to warn people about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. Here is there account. "During parents weekend, she, her roommate, and their parents went to her best friend's room and found her soaked in blood and tears on the dorm-room floor. Heather's friend had a history of depression, and the combination of this, a bottle of Jack Daniel's Black Label, and too much cold medicine left her ravaged and suicidal"(Kuhn 21). The girl in the story turned out to be ok. She had tried to slit her wrists the night before. The story went on to say that, "They found her in time to save her, but she will always carry the scars where she cut her wrists"(Kuhn 21). In this paper I intend to prove how alcohol is detrimental to college students. Our brain controls everything we do. Without it we wouldn't be able to perform the simplest of tasks It is one of if not the most important thing we have as a person. As a college student I rely heavily on my brain to help me with all of the assignments for my classes. But what if my brain didn't work properly? When alcohol is inputted into the brain, it induces many output actions such as; impaired judgment, extreme emotion, and slowed behavior (Alcohol and its effects). Not only are the short term effects enough to side track any academic student, but the long term effects could have serious implications on your life. Long-term effects include damage in cognitive behavior, difficulty in learning new material, deficits in abstraction, problem solving, and reduced visuospatial abilities (Alcohol and its effects). One of the long term effects listed was difficulty in learning. Now if you start drinking in high school, like most college aged students do, you already have a disadvantage against everyother person who choses not to drink. Researchers have found that the brains of alcoholics are smaller and have an increased number of brain tissue loss then a nonalcoholic(Alcohol and its effects). This would lead someone to believe that somebody who is the same age and does not drink would be faster and quicker in cognitive abilities(Alcohol and its effects).

Evaluation for Firebirds Wood Fired Grill Essay

Eating out is a treat for me. I occasionally call up some family and/or friends and treat myself to a nice dinner. There are many restaurants in my hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina to choose from, but there is one in particular where I love to spend my hard earned money. Firebirds Wood Fired Grill located at Northlake Mall Dr. has become my new favorite place to dine for dinner on the weekends. Firebirds have the three qualities I look for when I visit a restaurant for the first time: great ambiance, excellent service and good food.The atmosphere of a restaurant sets the mood for any dining experience. Owner Dennis Thompson created a well-defined gap between casual and fine dining. The aura of Firebirds is meant to imitate that of a ski lodge in Aspen. Warm lighting, complimented by fire colored chandeliers, gives this restaurant a nice tone for an engaging conversation with your significant other or some good laughs with some friends or family. Firebirds, also has a separate lounge area for those who just want to go straight to happy hour after work. I call this area, â€Å"the kick back and let your hair down section†. The beautiful stone fireplace, the wall of 500 bottles of wine, and the beautiful bold color seating sets the mood for a great evening out with coworkers after work or a place to have a drink and appetizer after shopping in the mall. Valet, Hostesses and Servers are all apart of Firebirds seamless service. The Valet does a great job with promptly parking and retrieving my car. Hostesses are always in place as you walk in so that you won’t have that confused look wondering if you seat yourself or wait for assistance. The servers are very professional and polite. They are able to answer questions about menu items while waiting patiently for you to complete your order. I love the fact that they are prompt with getting your appetizers out to you well before my entrà ©e. They were also attentive to refilling my glass when it was getting low. Entrà ©es are prepared nicely and cooked to your liking. If you’re not satisfied the servers have no problem with taking it back immediately for correction. The cook and the manager come to your table and make sure your meal is superb.Based on the name, one might assume that Firebirds is a steakhouse concept, but steaks are only half of the menu. Firebirds menu have a good level of diversity. You can get anything from a big juicy burger to a lobster dinner. This upscale restaurant can be a little pricey compared to other bar and grill places, but it’s worth it. To start, I love to get the lobster queso dip and chips and their famous onion rings for my appetizers. Firebirds steaks are pretty good, but I prefer the salmon with light seasoning. My most favorite meal at Firebirds is a salad, yes a salad. The Strawberry and Shrimp salad is simply delicious, besides the obvious it has spiced pecans, goat cheese crumbs and jicama tossed in a homemade vinaigrette dressing. This salad packs a lot of flavor and is quite fulfilling. I may call up my girls on Friday and pay Firebirds a visit.Every dining experience I’ve had with Firebirds has been persistent. The complimentary valet parking is greatly appreciated especially since the restaurant is connected to North Lake Mall. The atmosphere in Firebirds is inviting, the service is great and the food is delicious. What more do you need in a restaurant? Perhaps live entertainment on Friday evenings wouldn’t be such a bad idea though.

What is meant by the term Communication Management

Communication Management is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and alteration of all the channels of administration within an administration, and between administrations ; it besides includes the administration and airing of new communicating directives connected with an administration, web, or communications engineering. ( Tripathi, 2009 ) However, what is direction? How to pull off? Management is including be aftering, organizing, taking and commanding. Directors should utilize these characteristics to pull off their employees. Furthermore, directors should depend on their employees ‘ features to put up end and offer undertakings to them.Aim of Communication Management ProjectThe purposes of Communication Management undertaking are through the group work to construct up the squad work and develop up leading accomplishment. Furthermore, it helps us bettering the communicating accomplishment with our group mates. This essay would be divided in 3 parts, the 1st portion is my function – Ad and Public Relations Manager, the 2nd portion is our group civilization and managing this group, and the 3rd portion is self – acquisition.My function – Ad and Public Relations ManagerI am an Ad & A ; PR director in the group ; respond to the publicities of the Reader ‘s Digest, such as the publicity encouragement, advertisement design, Press Conference of the Reader ‘s Digest and PR event which could pull the general populace ‘s consciousness.Troubles are confrontingAs Reader ‘s Digest is an enlightening magazine, it includes a batch of utile information in different classs, wellness, travel, planetary job, more and more. When making the publicities that is really hard to me, because of I need to considerate of the image of the magazine, every bit good as there are a few magazines advertised on others magazines or newspaper. This is a rather hard inquiry to me.Top ographic pointWe have divided into 3 sub-groups, Isaac and I respond to the publicity and topographic point of 4P. We need to considerate the placing of our magazine. How to spread out our retail merchant stores and what companies we should co-operate with. These inquiries are rather hard to do the determination. Sometimes, we can non recognize which topographic points should we be placed. I tried to name 7-eleven to acquire the most accuracy monetary value of â€Å" a?S?z ¶e? » † , the interesting thing is when I call the hotline, the respondent of that section asked me which magazine we are, I told her Reader ‘s Digest in English, so she is seemly non understand, and inquire me where we are selling.PromotionWe merely advertise on a few topographic points, we chiefly focus on the MTR, such as MTR – train organic structure, publicity encouragement. Though we have a MTR rate-card, I still really confused on their monetary value, I can non easy to understand wh at they are mentioned in the rate-card. For the Press Conference and the PR event – Top Brand Election in Hong Kong, I pretend as the employee of the Reader ‘s Digest, and name the shopping promenades, which are THE ONE and Isquare, and the hotels. They give me the inside informations of the floor program and the rate card. That is rather practical experience, if I will be a PR in the hereafter ; I besides need to pass on with them.Pull offing group couplesAll of us came from different colleges and holding different background. All of us holding different advantages and disadvantages, being a concealed leader of this group, I try to pull off them by different direction theories I had been learnt before. I have utilizing different direction theories to pull off my group mates, such as Maslow ‘s Needs Hierarchy, Theory X and Theory Y by McGregor, outlook theory. At the beginning, I have assumed they are employees of Theory X ; they need tonss of regulations to curtail them to work, guarantee that they can manus in their work on clip and no alibi of late and absent. When I realize them more, I try to utilize Maslow ‘s Needs Hierarchy to actuate them to work and McGregor ‘s Theory Y to delegate some undertakings to them. As I think that they merely want to complete the Bachelor grade merely, I have spared some clip of the meeting to speak about after this twelvemonth what is our mark and my outlook to them. I would wish to promote them to believe about their hereafter and set more and more attempt on the undertaking.Features of My group couplesHersey and Blanchard ‘s Situational Leadership Model could briefly explicate my group mates ‘ characteristics in the first 6 meeting. High Moderate Low R1R2R3R4Able and WillingAble and UnwillingUnable and WillingUnable and unwillingElizaWinnieIsaacHeidiBonnieFollower Readiness The above tabular array could be easy to explicate their characteristics. Eliza is R1, when I assigned her undertakings ; she could complete the undertakings in short period of clip and high quality work. Winnie is R2, I think she could complete her undertaking in a better manner, nevertheless, she might be excessively busy, and she could complete those undertakings in short clip, the plants were low quality, such as grammar errors and wrong data format. After we had 360 – Degree Feedback, she is bettering her working attitude and her public presentation. Isaac and Heidi are R3. They might non hold adequate accomplishments, such as Heidi did non cognize how to do content page, but she still tries to work on. On the other manus, Isaac has ever made a batch of grammar errors ; he still works difficult on his undertaking. Bonnie is R4, she is unable and unwilling to complete her undertakings. During the meeting, she was non concentrated on what we were discussed, furthermore, she absent the category and meeting. Furthermore, her English is non good at all, when she wrote the PAC, we had found tonss of errors and some â€Å" unusual sentence † . We asked her to rectify by herself, nevertheless, she told us her English grammar was non good, she might non rectify them. Furthermore, she was non willing to make a batch of undertaking work, she was ever ailment that would be increased her work load. After a few hebdomads, I talked with her on phone ; she had explained what happened recently, such as relationship with friends, working job. She promised me she would public presentation good in the â€Å" subsequently † meeting and work. And now, Bonnie is become to R3: unable and willing.CaringMy feature is care others experiencing, I try to recognize them more. I had called or direct short message ( SMS ) to them when I have clip. To recognize them what they are believing and give them support, allow them cognize he/ she is non entirely, I will seek to work out their job or give them some sentiments when they are confronting troubles.ControlingDuring group meeting and the group work, we have misconstruing between our group mates. We have a short meeting which is about 360 – Degree Feedback, in that meeting ; we talked about the feeling of co-operated with our group mates. Since that meeting, I can recognize them more. I think that is effectual to co-operate with the m.EncouragementBesides, the award in our understanding, I besides praise them when they are willing to discourse during the meeting which make them to maintain on. In order to direct electronic mails to commend them. Furthermore, I have assigned them the work which is a spot higher than they could make. They might acquire the enthusiastic in the undertaking every bit good as feel of import in our group.Group CultureFriendlyOur group civilization is friendly. We are ever holding merriment during the meeting. Particularly, Isaac and Heidi ever make some merriment during the meeting, such as they are stating the gags, making some interesting thoughts. Such as Heidi said our penalty of late entry should dress as a coney lady. Furthermore, as Heidi is populating in Siu Sai Wan, we call her rich miss. Eliza and I ever give Heidi new name. And Isaac pretend some Hong Kong Pop Star, such as Bosco Wong, Andy Lau, we offer him a platform to him demoing off himself. Bonnie and Winnie are quiet. But sometimes they give us amusing thoughts which make all of us laugh.Undertaking Oriented and assignedWe are besides task oriented. We came from different background. 6 of us studied at different colleges. When we are co-operate first assignment, I found that our working manner are really different. When manages different background group mates, I have different outlook to them. Therefore, I set different grade mark to them. For illustration, I set the easiest end to Bonnie, as Bonnie studied Fashion Design two old ages ago, she could non manage tonss and tonss of paper work. Therefore, I have set the easiest end to her ; she might experience she is of import in order to carry through esteem demands of Maslow ‘s Hierarchy of demands. However, I realize that Eliza could manage the hard undertakings ; she is typical theory Y employer. Besides, puting different end to different people, we are required them to manus in their work on clip, such as minute and docket. All penalty of late entry would be followed by PAC.Meeting ambianceThe first 5meetings, dead air were ever happened. Everyone seems waiting for person to do determinations, excludes Eliza and I. Both of us were ever given out the thoughts and promote them to show their thoughts. However, they still maintain silence. In the 6th meeting, Eliza and I had told them what our outlooks to them. Get downing from that meeting, Isaac, Heidi and Winnie are willing to show their thoughts to us. We are ever doing gags during our meeting. Our ambiance of meeting is going closer and going best friends.Self – acquisitionThis undertaking is a existent life rehearsing. Not merely taking of the minute and composing the docket, but besides the existent practise of covering with crisis and pull offing staff. Reader ‘s Digest gross revenues lessening which about our Hong Kong civilization is altering. To maintain the company alive and growing, selling director should see about the SWOT and how to work out them out.Covering with crisisThis undertaking is rather hard, there is no guideline and every group has different subject. It is similar with the existent life state of affairs, no 1 Tell you what is right and incorrect, we need to make a batch of readyings to work out the job, which are marketing resea rch, focal point group and analysis information we found in the research, and think about those methods are possible or non. Furthermore, we need to considerate the thing which around us. Since this undertaking, I have found that I still have a batch of ae ¶? . Those include I may non cognize the existent state of affairs that I could non do the determination instantly.Pull offing mannerThis undertaking gives me an chance to pull off people. Everyone has their ain function ; they need to react to our group, it is similar to work in a company, people should react to their ain section and their undertaking. Actually, I do non truly believe I am a good leader. As I mentioned on above I could non do determination instantly which I truly do non cognize the existent state of affairs. I still seek my best to work on my function. The word – â€Å" decentalisation † is a suited word to depict my managing manner. My function of this group is stating them what is our way and discourse what should we make. I ever give them opportunities to show their thought. Because of this undertaking is owned by us and I hope that they can bask this class.Communication SkillThat is really of import during in this undertaking. We had some misunderstood caused by communicating method. There were some barriers noises to upset our communicating, such as bad attitude and worse communicating accomplishment, it is non merely affected our communicating, but besides affected the consequence and cut down our effectivity and efficiency. In 360 – Degree Feedback, Winnie had ailment that we ever ban thoughts excessively fast, which make them non weather plenty to show their thoughts. Her suggestions make me to concern about others ‘ feeling and seek to allow others show their thoughts foremost, it could do them to be easier accept. Therefore, I have learnt to maintain a good attitude and seek to speak to that individual. It might effectual to cut down the job happened. No affair which occupation I will be, holding a good attitude and good communicating accomplishment it could assist us to hold a good public presentation in work.Time ManagementSince start this programme, I have learnt how to pull off my clip in the best manner. Demuring this class, we have other class prep. We need to manus it on clip. However, we have limited clip to complete them that is non easy for us to make so. Therefore, we control our meeting clip in fit clip. It is similar with the existent universe. We have an of import undertaking we need to manage ; nevertheless, we have dozenss of work demand to complete. If we do non a good clip direction accomplishment which it hard to complete all the work at the same clip.DecisionDuring this undertaking, I have learnt a batch such as rehearsing the Management Theory in our group. Those theoretic al accounts are really utile when I need to delegate work to them and give them non- profitable award. Because of those theoretical accounts make me more and more peoples ‘ demands. Actually, I had been told outlook to all our group mates. I hope that they could be growing, during or after they finish this undertaking. I am so glad that seeing Bonnie has a large alteration in this undertaking. Her ?S†¢a†¦?a? ¦ has increased more and more. She will bespeak undertaking to complete during the meeting.

On the Ethics of Psychological Research Essay

Potter Stewart an associate justice of the United States supreme court once said that â€Å"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do†. He believed in doing things pragmatically instead of impractically and it made him more recognized for his realistic approach to his job. Ethics in life are very important in setting standards of morality and integrity, especially since ethics show the principles and values that one uses to govern their actions. Ethics in psychology are very similar to the ethics we follow on a day to day basis. The ethics in psychology often relate to how people are treated when put in experiments in order to complete theories and concepts that are psychology based. When psychology research began many experiments began as well, to test the many beginning theories that came about when psychology was introduced to researchers. The American Psychological Association now has a code of ethics for psychology resear ch due to the fact that many psychologists in the past have violated the safety, belief systems, needs, values, and the overall protection of their participants. The code of ethics that has been put in place by the APA holds all psychologists to the same set of standards and provides a guideline in an attempt to ensure professionalism and respect for all involved and sometimes this doesn’t occur. The APA published the first ethics code in 1953 that equals about a 16 page document today, but in 1953 it seemed so much larger back then. The reason that the ethics code was written is because ethics in research of psychologists began to be questioned by society for their safety and effectiveness. The research studies that were performed in the past often became public scandals and compromised the principle of research. Following the code of ethics is very important in research. The five reasons to adhere to the code of ethics is to promote the intent of research, promote a basic normality that helps when researchers collaborate, to ensure the liability of the experimenter, to gain more support from the general population, and to promote morality and obligation (Resnik). The overall incentive for the code of ethics according to Resnik is to constantly advocate for effective research while also being consensual. These ethics placed must be followed just to maintain the respects of t he rights of research participants, the reputation of psychology, and the dignity of research principles. Another purpose of ethics in research is for the safety of the people involved in the experiment, and the notoriety of psychologists in society. Committees of research must have a code of ethics that discuss the guidelines made by the APA and the personal ethics for the experiment. Some of the most important codes are informed consent, debrief, protection of participants, deception, confidentiality, and ability to withdraw. (Mcleod). According to the research done by Mcleod, the APA is using the code of ethics to protect their name and the reputation they have built, a so to maintain a stability of trust with their experimenters and participants. There were many unethical procedures after 1953 even though those guidelines had been set. Some of the experiments were very traumatic to patients and almost risked their lives, or could have died or killed each other. One of the many most known unethical experiments that occurred was the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment was conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, and the purpose of the experiment was to attempt to understand the development of power norms in society and specifically the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a prison environment. Twenty four students were chosen out of 75, half were assigned roles of prisoner and half were assigned the role of guard. In the experiment Zimbardo made it very realistic for the prisoners, having cops come and arrest them, having rules that they had to follow, but gave the guards no prior training. The end result of the experiment being guards who became consumed in power and behaved in a brutalizing way, and prisoners who became submissive and cowering (Mcleod). While Zimbardo didn’t actually go against any ethical codes while outlining his experiment and he got the experiment approved before conducting it, some believed that his place as the conductor of the experiment was to stop the simulation from getting too abusive which it did, but he didn’t stop it because he was trying to maintain the realism of the experiment, and in the end he felt as though he did what was best for the sake of research. Regardless of this, Zimbardo did go against the ethics code in multiple ways like the fact that the experiment was unpredictable, the guards were drunk, and no steps were taken to avoid harm of his volunteers. He faile d to understand that participants are people and should their dignity should be maintained because â€Å"respect in research refers to respect for people and respect for truth† (Yousef). Zimbardo’s experiment was evaluated by the APA, where they said that all ethical guidelines were followed. The overall unethicality of the experiment left the participants with long-term scarring mentally and physically, and this is just another reason why ethics are important in research. Ethics are maintained to provide structure in experiments to promote effective decision making, while also being aware of the benefits and risks of the experiment. In experiments conducted previous to the release of the code of ethics, often times there was a lack of informed consent, pressure on volunteers, risk of safety of participants, deception, and even violation of natural born rights. The whole overall purpose of ethics is to â€Å"help researchers grapple with the ethical dilemmas they are likely to encounter by introducing them to important concepts, tools, principles, and methods that can be useful in resolving these dilemmas† (Resnik). There are five general principles of ethics, which are informed consent, debrief, protection of participants, deception, and ability to withdraw. When it comes to informed consent participants must distinctively say â€Å"yes† and give permission to the researcher to be involved in the experiment. The researcher must outline the details of the experiment like the purpose, the possible risks, procedures involved if there are any and many other things. Debriefing is very important in research because it’s where the participants gets to sit down with the research and understand the research, clear up misconceptions and to make sure the participants leaves with the same sense of cognition they arrived with. Along with this goes deception, and participants should not be mislead about the resear ch and though some deception may occur, researchers must attempt to keep it at a minimum. The main thing researchers should be aware of is the protection of their subjects, and participants should not be subject to more harm than they would experience in everyday life. The very last thing is the ability for a participant to leave the experiment whenever they feel like they are in danger or in a extremely uncomfortable situation. These codes of ethics have really made research more controlled and prevent negligence and misconduct. The basics to remember about ethics is that research done by psychologists should meet the criteria for ethics before the experiment is conducted. Subjects should be informed about the dangers and basics of the experiment and provide authorization. Psychologists do many experiments just because they are unethical and it all starts with what they believe and consider to be right and wrong, and sometimes the extreme involvement in personal research make the research seem less dangerous than it is. Scientist deals with many controversial topics and often stray away from norms and rules to build their theories and strengthen their ideas and beliefs. Our natural instinct often goes against what we think and the code of ethics is put in place to mandates the things that researchers are able to do while conducting an experiment.

Human Body Systems Essay

The human cell is said to be a living thing because it is a basic functional unit of any living organism. Thus it performs the most detailed functions like energy generation, facilitating tissues functions, hence organism control. Body cells feed, grow, respire, excrete and can die. A cell is the smallest basic unit of life. It is made up of chemical substances such as atoms, ions and molecules that are important for life. The body is made up of different types on cell. For instance, egg cell, muscle cell, rode cells found in the eye, sperm cell, hair cell and nerve cell. Each of these different types of cell performs different functions in the body of the organism. Different cells are joined together through biological processes to form tissues, for example, epithelia tissue and muscles tissue. More so, different tissues unite to form different organs. An organ is formed of two or more tissues that collectively undertake a specific function in the body of an organism. Some examples of organs are the stomach, heart, kidney, lungs, and liver. When a number of organs are coordinated together towards a certain body function they form a system. The human body has eleven major systems which include the digestive, respiratory, nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, skeletal, endocrine, reproductive, integumentary, muscular and urinary systems. As discussed earlier the livelihood of an organism depends entirely on the functionality of each particular cell, tissue, organ and system. For example, the reproductive system is responsible for the propagation of genetic material to new organisms of the same species. The system results from the organization of reproductive cells, tissues and organs. In other wards, if each particular cell, tissue, organ and system functions effectively within its role the organism must be sustained alive. All the body systems are interlinked to form a fully functioning organism It is worth noting that for any cell or tissue and body part to function effectively it must be supplied with enough energy. The process by which energy is made available to cells and organs is metabolism. This process ensures an endless flow of matter and energy via an interlinked set of connections of chemical reactions within the cell, tissues, organs and organ systems. This results in a sustainable and continuous supply of body building materials, constant body repair and development of the organism. Generally, biological life is maintained by metabolism which involves food intake, digestion and its subsequent transformation into energy source for the cells. Food plays a vital role in the growth and development of body cells hence organisms’ health and life satiability. All living thing feed, grow, reproduce, move, breath and die. Food intake necessitates growth, development, reproduction, breathing, digestion, excretion, movement of organisms. Organisms are categorized in to five kingdoms: animals, plants, fungi, protisti and bacteria. The fetal pig and human are related in their body systems since they are all animals. They are further classed in to mammals which bring them closer in terms of organ systems such as respiration, digestion, reproduction and endocrine systems. Thus when a fatal pig grows, its body functions the same as that of and adult pig except for a few systems. The development processes involved in pigs is similar to that of humans. In conclusion, body systems are formed by organs, which are formed by tissues resulting from cells. A living organism sustains its life and health through internetworking of the different body organs and systems through their specific functions in the body. The cell is a basic unit of life.

Dance With The Devil Essay

Dance With The Devil Essay Dance With The Devil Essay Dance with the devil A young boy named William†¦. A young boy named William was trying his best to make a million. His poor old mother was working 12hour shifts to keep both of them alive. Meanwhile William was going to college and was studying hard. William and his poor ma lived in a ghetto central of New York. William felt sorry for his mother, working so hard, and was trying his best to help her out financially. Unfortunately he couldn’t get a job. He has made some new friends in college which has had an enormous impact on his life. Within two months of studying he has begun to develop a disgusting attitude, disgusting behaviour and disgusting language. William always wondered where his mates got their new clothes from. Where do they get their money from – he knew his friends’ parents were not rich enough to buy them all this. One day, his friend Tom asked him to take a little envelope and take it to the location on the envolope. Before he said yes he asked his friend what is in the envelope. His friend exp lained there were some drugs in there which needed to be delivered. If he did him this favour his friend would help him make some money. After just a month William was making good money. He managed to treat himself and help his poor mother financially; his mother wondered where he was getting all the money from – he always ignored that question. After a few months of William doing so well he wanted more, more and more. Afterwards William gets introduced to a few gang members by Tom. Gang members were not sure about William, they wanted him to prove how cold hearted he was – they wanted him to prove that he was as hard as a bicep. They told him he would have to kill someone – deep down inside William was afraid but replied with confidence â€Å"give me that gun and show me the target†. A few days’ later two gang members take William for a drive and they end up smoking drugs and drinking alcohol in a car. Around midnight they see a lady walking into a block of flats, so they slowly follow her. William felt really cold, he got really nervous. They put a bag over her head and took her o nto the roof and assaulted her – one of the gang members pulled out a gun and handed it over to William. They told him she was a witness and she had to die. They put the bag over her head. William was stunned. The woman in front of him was his mum. William felt extremely shocked, upset and guilty. He jumped off the roof. Never dance with the devil because the dance with the devil may last forever. This film is so important to me because it had a major impact on my life. From this film I have learnt that money isn’t everything. Money can’t buy happiness, and money can destroy people. Drugs? They are full of problems, they are full of trouble, and they are full of

advertising agency essays

advertising agency essays Advertising agency is a business that assists advertisers in all stages of the advertising process from account management and planning to message creation, media planning, and research (Bergh Advertising services can be defined as packages of activities that are offered to other companies and which concern the planning, production and or delivery of advertising. Advertising services are bought and designed to improve the purchasing companys performance and well-being (Wilson, 1982). Advertising is expected to influence the attitudes, intentions and behaviour of the clients customers and thus increase sales and contribute to the growth of the client company. The core of any service is linked to the benefit it offers to the buyers. Therefore in buying advertising services, companies are purchasing knowledge and creativity embodied in individual people. Creativity is the heart and soul of advertising services and consequently a vital resource in every business relationship (Halinen, p.28). The following are the characteristics of advertising agency: The advertising services acts, planning, production and delivery of advertising are all essentially intangible activities, despite the fact that the knowledge and creativity ...

Free Essays on The Human Evolution

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS When did the evolution of humanity all start? Were apes our ancestors? In the past early man used to communication through telling stories, painting and drawing on cave walls, using simplified symbols. The human mind developed its capability as its needs for comfort grew. Our achievement has been remarkable. The evolutionary design of man has intrigued humans for many years. It has lead anthropologists to travel the world in search of fossil evidence to learn who we have evolved from. Human evolution began roughly 5-10 million years ago when the human line split from the apes. Slowly scientists have tried to put the pieces together to give us an idea of our evolutionary line. Today is most accepted theory is the "Savannah-based theory" first proposed by â€Å"Raymond Dart in 1924.† This theory proposes that hominids evolved as some apes moved from the shrinking lush forests onto the surrounding Savannah. As a result of these apes moving from the food rich environment of the forests to the drier environment of the Savannah certain adaptations evolved which were advantages to the new environment. Some of these adaptations include: bipedalism, lack of hair, and increased fat. Bipedalism would be advantages to these Savannah apes as they could uses there newly free hands to gather food, which can be scarce, and carry it over long distances while looking for the next meal. Similarly increased fat also have aided these Savannah apes with food storage. The loss of hair was often described as advantages as it may help to cool the ape. When it comes to the evolution of humanity, there is no essay that can cover it all, because we don't know it all. Even the history known by what art shows us, is it all true? With so many myths, how can we know what really happened? Back in the days, whatever days...3000 B.C. or 10 years ago, and people’s values have changed. Life was seen in from many different views and ... Free Essays on The Human Evolution Free Essays on The Human Evolution THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS When did the evolution of humanity all start? Were apes our ancestors? In the past early man used to communication through telling stories, painting and drawing on cave walls, using simplified symbols. The human mind developed its capability as its needs for comfort grew. Our achievement has been remarkable. The evolutionary design of man has intrigued humans for many years. It has lead anthropologists to travel the world in search of fossil evidence to learn who we have evolved from. Human evolution began roughly 5-10 million years ago when the human line split from the apes. Slowly scientists have tried to put the pieces together to give us an idea of our evolutionary line. Today is most accepted theory is the "Savannah-based theory" first proposed by â€Å"Raymond Dart in 1924.† This theory proposes that hominids evolved as some apes moved from the shrinking lush forests onto the surrounding Savannah. As a result of these apes moving from the food rich environment of the forests to the drier environment of the Savannah certain adaptations evolved which were advantages to the new environment. Some of these adaptations include: bipedalism, lack of hair, and increased fat. Bipedalism would be advantages to these Savannah apes as they could uses there newly free hands to gather food, which can be scarce, and carry it over long distances while looking for the next meal. Similarly increased fat also have aided these Savannah apes with food storage. The loss of hair was often described as advantages as it may help to cool the ape. When it comes to the evolution of humanity, there is no essay that can cover it all, because we don't know it all. Even the history known by what art shows us, is it all true? With so many myths, how can we know what really happened? Back in the days, whatever days...3000 B.C. or 10 years ago, and people’s values have changed. Life was seen in from many different views and ...

Critical Discussion of Crisis Management and BP Leadership The WritePass Journal

Critical Discussion of Crisis Management and BP Leadership Introduction Critical Discussion of Crisis Management and BP Leadership IntroductionLiterature ReviewCrisis and Crisis ManagementPolitical and legal forcesEconomic forcesSocial forcesTechnological forcesEffective Leadership in CrisisClear responsibilitiesTraining and educationPractice and rehearsalsEmpowering LeadershipDelegationAuthority linesEstablished systems and supporting mechanismsInnovation and FlexibilityLeveragingMethodologiesIntroductionResearch MethodologyResearch PhilosophyResearch ApproachResearch StrategyData Collection method · Data Collection · Data AnalysisData quality issuesLevel of knowledgeLevel of information given to the intervieweeAppropriateness of locationAppearance in the interviewOpening comment during the commencement of the interviewQuestioning approachBehaviour during the interviewDemonstration of attentive listening skillsDocumentation of the dataGeneralisabilityAccess and Ethical ConsiderationsRelated Introduction Literature Review This section briefly discusses crisis management and leadership, the two key areas of literature that will help to examine Tony Hayward’s leadership during BP’s most recent organisational crisis. Crisis and Crisis Management There is no one definition of the term ‘crisis’ (Keown-McMullan, 1997), however a guiding definition is that a crisis is an event that impacts or has the potential to impact the entire organisation (Mitroff and Anagnos, 2000). A crisis can also be described as a major, unforeseen circumstance that can potentially jeopardise an organisation’s employees, customers, products, services, fiscal situation, or reputation (Callan, 2002, Augustine, 1995, Santana, 2003). This definition is in line with the theory that a crisis is characterised by three elements: high threat, short decision time, and an element of surprise, indicating that each crisis contains an urgency that necessitates decisions and actions to be taken immediately by the people involved (Keown-McMullan, 1997, Reilly 1987). While the idea that a crisis as a negative state of affairs is still the most popular construal in the literature, the idea of a positive outcome from a crisis situation can also be found in some definitions and discussion (Keown-McMullan, 1997). For example, Fink (1986, p. 15) defines a crisis as: †¦an unstable time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending – either one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome or one with the distinct possibility of a highly desirable and extremely positive outcome. It is usually a 50-50 proposition, but you can improve the odds. This definition implies that, if managed effectively, a crisis can bring a desirable outcome. Indeed, it has been suggested that an organisation can experience a ‘successful’ crisis that actually leads to improved firm’s performance (Boin and ’t Hart, 2003). Such an outcome is possible because crisis â€Å"focuses attention on how tasks are managed and draws new patterns of cohesion, a successfully handled crisis can benefit an organisation† (David, 1990, p. 90). This therefore reinforces the fact that the effective management of crises is important. It should thus entail the execution of well-coordinated actions to limit any damage and preserve or rebuild confidence in the organisation under crisis. It is also important that crisis management should start before a crisis arises and may extend after the ‘actual crisis come to an end, such as after the oil has stopped gushing into the sea (Fink, 1986). Based on this, Santana (2003, p. 308) defin es crisis management as: †¦ an ongoing integrated and comprehensive effort that organisations effectively put into place in an attempt to first and foremost understand and prevent crisis, and to effectively manage those that occur, taking into account in each and every step of their planning and training activities, the interest of their stakeholders. There are number of elements within the external environment, shifting of which leads to the occurrence of a crisis. These elements include Political – legal, economic, social and technological forces and these constitutes a complex network within which organisations exist.   Even though shifting of these elements do not occur often, organisations needs to consider these elements while drafting their strategy because of negative blow that would be brought about by shifting of these elements. The most common examples are when government across the world come up with a law that bans the sale of certain type of products. This would create substantial disruption in a firm’s operations which would constitute a crisis. This does not mean that every external threat faced by an organisation will constitute a crisis. For e.g., if a government passes a law which would require manufacturers of certain products to have 2 languages in a product pack, rather than having one that is used in the current pack, it cannot be considered as a crisis as it would not probably cause substantial disruption. Therefore, the term ‘crisis’ cannot be used for every external threat and in most of the cases, even though the organisations tend to be regularly exposed to number of actual and potential crisis situations, they fail to recognise its seriousness. The following examples illustrate this reality (Crandall et al, 2009). Political and legal forces Some of the political forces that contribute to a shift which has the potential to lead to a full blown crisis include relations between countries, outcome of meetings between government leaders, rules and regulations and decisions taken by individuals and teams at various levels of government. The legal forces that can contribute to the crisis include laws and legislations passed on by governments, the judgements made by judiciary in various cases involving government and an organisation etc (Crandall et al, 2009) (GOEL, 2009). Economic forces The economic forces contributing to the shift includes changes in the Gross domestic product and various indicators that show the economic health of a country. These include inflation, exchange rate and interest rates (Labrosse et al, 2009)/ Social forces The social factors contributing to the shift includes values within the society, the change in traditions and religious practices. The crisis from social factors will be disastrous when society / people lose trust in the company or are angry with a corporation. This can be explained by the recent banking and financial crisis. The main reason for the crisis is that people and society and organisations lost trust in each other. This made people withdraw huge sums of money from the banks, who were not in a position to fulfil the demand because the banks or organisations from which they were expecting money were not willing to provide them the cash. What made people angrier was that banks or other financial institutions were paying huge amount of bonuses to their employee while people outside these institutions were losing money. This opportunistic behaviour of bankers, stockbrokers, investment bankers etc lead to a situation where common man lost trust in the stock market, which is an i ndicator of the performance of top companies of a nation, and it plummeted down to record levels not seen in recent memory. The spiral effects lead to laying off of thousands of people which affected the economies of the countries across the world because as companies lay off workers, their spending capacity reduces. Once their spending capacity reduces, then they are not in a position to go to high street shops to buy products. When people are not going to high street shops to buy products, then these shops lay off people thereby affecting the local economy. Most of these people would be having a number of commitments like paying their mortgage, credit card debt, personal loans etc. When people are not in a position to pay off these debts, the financial institutions are not in a position to roll over money which hits the core of banking activity. Thus, this shift in one social factor called trust has lead to one of the most dreadful global crisis ever experienced by mankind in rece nt history. Even though, it’s been close to 2 years since the crisis, a vast majority of countries and organisations have not yet been able to recover fully from the impact (Crandall et al, 2009)   (Jordan-Meier, 2011). Technological forces The technological factors which contribute to shift include major scientific innovations or improvements. These innovations or improvements can lead to either creation of new opportunity or threat to existing businesses. Technological innovations and improvements have the capability to destroy not only existing businesses but also entire industry as well. For example, personal computers were a fantastic technological innovation which gave rise to a entire new industry centred around computers which includes monitors, servers, operating systems etc.   But the rise of the computer industry was followed by the slow demise of the type writing industry following the development of word processors and personal computers (Moore, 2005). In fact, just a couple of months back, world’s last remaining typewriting factory was closed by its owners Godrej and Boyce in Mumbai, India Over the period of last few decades, different frameworks for crisis have been developed by taking into account different stages of crisis. The frame work for a crisis is based on the analysis of the life cycle of the crisis and this is usually accounted for by three-stage approach and four-stage approach (Laws, 2006). The three-stage framework is the most basic approach to crisis and involves the following stages – PreCrisis, Crisis and Post Crisis. Different experts have suggested different formats for three-stage format. In the three-stage approach suggested by Smith (1990), Crisis of management constitutes the Pre Crisis stage; the crisis stage is called Operational Crisis and post crisis stage is called Crisis of Legitimation. In the Crisis of Management stage, a crisis can be easily triggered by a event due to the fact that organisation is not prepared to handle the crisis and actions of the leaders in the organisation does not inspire confidence in their teams. In the second stage, called the Operational Crisis stage, all the key leaders in the organisation put their heads together and try to develop quick fix solutions to get over the crisis. In the third stage called Crisis of Legitimation, the key stakeholders in the organisation including the ones who played a major role in Operat ional stage starts looking for scapegoats so as to shift blame and to appear legitimate and rightful in the eyes of public after the crisis   (Andari, 2010)   (Coombs, 2010). Another approach to three-stage framework is the one suggested by Richardson (1994). In this framework, the PreCrisis stage is called disaster phase and this phase focuses on neutralising all the threats that may cause a crisis. In Crisis stage is called Rescue stage and is focused on the occurrence of the crisis. The Post Crisis stage is called Demise stage which emphasis on restoring stakeholders confidence in the organisation following the occurrence of the crisis (Coombs, 2010). Another approach to crisis is a four – stage framework which adds an additional stage, to the three-stage framework, which focuses on the progression as it happens during the crisis. In one of four-stage framework suggested by Myers (1993), the first stage is a Operations stage, where the organisations puts in standard operating procedures and crisis management teams to act in response to the occurrence of the crisis. The second stage is the emergency response stage which focuses on the response that needs to be initiated in the first few hours following the occurrence of the crisis. The third stage is called Interim processing stage where stop gap arrangement and temporary procedures are put in place until the restoration of normal operations. The fourth stage is the restoration stage where the organisation comes back to normal operations (Coombs, 2010)   (Crandall, 2009). Another approach to four-stage framework was put forward by Fink (1996). In the approach, the first stage is called Prodormal stage which is stage before a full blown crisis and shows all the red flags and warning signs that a crisis is imminent. If remedial measures are taken during the prodormal stage, then a crisis can be prevented. The second stage is called Acute crisis stage and this is stage where actual crisis is happening and normal operations are seriously disrupted. This is also the stage where outsiders of the organisations get to see and hear about the crisis on a regular basis. The third stage is called chronic crisis stage which is not as dramatic as acute crisis stage and the organisation is trying to clean the mess created during the acute crisis stage. The Resolution stage is the final stage where the organisation has just gotten over the crisis and is slowly coming back to the normal operations (Fink, 1996) Five stage frameworks is another approach to crisis and provide a more detailed approach than the three stage framework and four stage frameworks. It provides a more detailed understanding of different stages of the crisis (Perason Mitroff, 1993). In the five stage framework suggested by Pearson and Mitroff (1993), the following stages are included : Signal detection: These are warning or red flags which occur when an organisation is slowly moving towards a crisis. In most cases, these warning and red flags are raised by people on the ground or lower level or middle level management or those directly interacting with customers. Detecting these signals and accepting them as ones which may lead to crisis so as to try to look at ways to manage a crisis is a skill not found is many leaders. Developing a mindset and skills so to become adept at detecting these signals is what organisations needs to embrace (Perason Mitroff, 1993). Preparation / prevention – In this stage, organisation gets ready to attack the crisis by setting up crisis management teams and workings on different plans to tackle different crisis occurring in different forms. The approach towards a crisis management will be through a systematic manner and should be on going. The objective from which this step is approached is to ensure that any crisis that may occur gets nipped in the bud (Perason Mitroff, 1993). Containment / damage control – This stage focuses on actual management of the crisis and trying to contain it with as minimal damage as possible to the organisation and stakeholder (Perason Mitroff, 1993)   (Mitroff, 1992). Recovery – This stage focuses on bringing the workings of the organisation to as normal a stage as possible. The recovery process passes through different sub stages. The short term recovery stage tends to bring the working on the organisation to a minimal acceptable level of service. The short term recovery is followed by long term recovery where the operational capabilities of the organisation reach pre crisis level. In some cases, long term recovery will be followed by another recovery process whereby the organisation tends to work at a higher level than that was observed during the precrisis stage. For example, if a fire at a production facility destroys a old machine which has the capability to produce ‘X’ number of products every hour, then a modern machine which has been installed following a crisis has the capability to produce ‘2X’ products thereby ensuring higher level of productivity when compared to the Pre Crisis period (Perason Mitroff, 1993) (Mitroff, 1992). Learning – This fifth stage, post the recovery stage, focuses on improvising operational problems so as to prevent the occurrence of future ones. The stages emphasises on reflecting on the crisis and documenting the lessons learnt rather than finding scapegoats and blaming other parties (Perason Mitroff, 1993). Particularly important during major crises such as the BP oil spill, which affects many different stakeholders, is crisis communication. Crisis communication, which involves communicating with a range of stakeholders, generally relates to the public relations element of crisis management, and is arguably the single most important aspect of the organisation’s response to the crisis. It therefore requires communication with internal stakeholders, including employees and shareholders, and external stakeholders, such as customers, the media, and the surrounding community, about what occurred and how the organisation is managing the crisis (Callan, 2002). Effective Leadership in Crisis Leadership is one of the most discussed topics in times of crisis because, to most people, the importance of leadership is clear since effective organisational leadership: †¦provides a sense of cohesiveness, personal development, and higher levels of satisfaction among those conducting the work; and it provides an overarching sense of direction and vision, an alignment with the environment, a healthy mechanism for innovation and creativity, and a resource for invigorating the organisational culture (Van Wart, 2003, p. 214). As with trying to define ‘crisis,’ there are also many definitions of ‘leadership’ (Stodgill, 1974). Some researchers present established definitions of leadership, for example Kotter (1999, p. 10) defines leadership as â€Å"[t]he development of a vision and strategies, the alignment of relevant people behind those strategies and the empowerment of individuals to make the vision happen, despite obstacles.† Alternatively, some researchers present more general definitions of leadership that may apply equally well to leadership in organisations as to leadership in other settings. Peter. G.Northouse in his book â€Å"Leadership: Theory and Management† (2007 explores four components that are central to leadership: (1) Leadership is a process. (2) Leadership involves influence. (3) Leadership occurs in a group context. (4) Leadership involves goal attainment. Based on these four components, Northouse coined a definition which states that â€Å"Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal†. (Northouse, 2007, p .3). The concept of leadership has evolved over a period of time which typically reflects the larger society as norms, attitudes, and understandings in the larger world have evolved and thereby changed (Richard Daft, 2005). Crisis leadership effectiveness depends largely on an organisation which is responsible for creating an environment for the leadership to operate. A highly experienced and competent manager will still struggle to successfully manage a crisis if there is no adequate support from his colleagues and if the groups are poorly structured and disorganised. Micheal Blyth in his book Business continuity management: Building an effective incident management plan mentions about the following organisational principles to support effective crisis leadership (Blyth, 2009). Clear responsibilities Demarking of clear responsibilities in organisation will ensure that gaps and shortfalls are avoided and duplication of efforts is prevented. Establishing clear responsibilities will also ensure that during the occurrence of crisis along with internal company politics are eliminated (Blyth, 2009)   (Fearn-Banks, 2007). Training and education Every organisation should develop a team of leaders who have expertise in dealing with crisis situations and that companies should regularly train these leaders by keeping aside time and resources. These leaders should be regularly trained on managing crisis and utilisation of policies, systems, tools and protocols (Blyth, 2009)   (Fearn-Banks, 2007). Practice and rehearsals Regular practice and rehearsals by the crisis management groups will ensure that any loopholes or shortfalls. Regular practice will not only increase the confidence of crisis management team but also help develop familiarity with the Crisis management plans (Blyth, 2009). Empowering Leadership An organisation should develop certain parameters within which crisis management leadership should be empowered and given the freedom to operate. This decentralization process will ensure that crisis at the local level can bring about effective management in times of crisis. Having a centralised leadership in terms of crisis management will significantly undercut the ability of leaders in the ground to successfully manage crisis (Fearn-Banks, 2010). Delegation An important aspect of crisis management structure and the one which is the core component of empowering leadership is to sensibly delegate responsibilities to the lowest level decision making abilities so as to put in place a structured and streamlined management system (Blyth, 2009). Authority lines During the crisis, middle level managers should be aware of the person to be contacted for requisite permissions so as to prevent a scenario where the people attempt to name a decision maker during the crisis event. To ensure that swift actions are taken during the crisis, clear authority lines and permissions should be granted to the crisis management team and people within the organisation must be made aware of the responsibilities of their colleagues in times of crisis (Blyth, 2009). Established systems and supporting mechanisms Effective response to a crisis can be generated by having established systems and support mechanisms in place. Establishing these strategies in place prior to the crisis will help crisis leaders in taking logically defined decisions which will develop confidence among their peers and sub ordinates (Devlin, 2006). Innovation and Flexibility The corners stones of effective crisis leadership are Innovation and flexibility as crisis tends to be unique every time thereby requiring tailored approach for achieving resolution (Blyth, 2009). Leveraging Companies and crisis management teams must be smart enough to leverage both outward and inward resources, capabilities, knowledge and also external resources so as to ensure that it does not lose out opportunities for effectively responding to the crisis (Blyth, 2009).. The leadership framework for crisis management involves drafting a crisis management policy, setting up of crisis management team, developing a communication strategy, establishing partnerships and ensuring preparedness of the crisis management team with regular practice and training sessions. Crisis management a leadership challenge, 2011 Drafting the crisis management policy includes setting the tone for leadership commitment and mentioning the generic guidelines for action. This policy is based on an organisation’s values and philosophy (Crisis management a leadership challenge, 2011). After drafting the policy, the next step is to establish a crisis management team. The crisis management team analyzes different scenarios leading to a crisis and plans for the scenarios. Also while establishing a management team, the roles and responsibilities of different members of team are established so as to vent ambiguity in times of crisis (Crisis management a leadership challenge, 2011) (George, 2011). Following the setting up of a crisis management team, an effective communication strategy and infrastructure will ensure that there is going to be a consistent flow of information to all stakeholders at all time (Crisis management a leadership challenge, 2011) (George, 2011).. The established crisis management team should go about setting up of partnership with external agencies / organisations so as to ensure availability of critical resources and timely help (Crisis management a leadership challenge, 2011)   (George, 2011). To ensure preparedness of the crisis management team and make sure that they are always on their toes, regular training programmes needs to be conducted and the capability of the crisis management to deal with   crisis situation should be checked from time to time through mock drills (Crisis management a leadership challenge, 2011) (George, 2011). Leadership is particularly important in crisis situations and Boin and ’t Hart (2003) argue that crisis and leadership are closely related phenomena. Since crisis situations are times of uncertainty, people inside and outside the organisation look to leaders to ‘do something’ and thus the visibility of top management, particularly the CEO, during a crisis assures the public that the crisis is being tackled at the highest levels (Halverson et al., 2004, Sadgrove, 2005). Top managers must also actively engage in long-term corrective and preventive actions to avoid being involved in crises time again (Augustine, 1995). Additionally, leaders need to understand the dynamics and psychology of a crisis if they are going to respond well because crisis events require the organisation to make considerable changes to its ‘standard operating procedures’ while still responding to the crisis (Borodzicz, 2000, Santana, 2003). This seems to be have been missing in th e case of BP, as the company has found itself in several crises situations over the past five years that have done major damage to its image and left it seemingly unable to respond well to new crises. In the latest oil spill, the leadership performance of BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, was not well received. According to Boin and ’t Hart (2003, p. 544): When crisis leadership results in reduced stress and a return to normality, people herald their ‘true leaders’†¦ But when the crisis fails to dissipate and ‘normality’ does not return, leaders are obvious scapegoats. This view of leadership sits quite comfortably with the forms of organization that are common in business, the armed forces and government. Where the desire is to get something done, to achieve a narrow range of objectives in a short period of time, then it may make sense to think in this way. However, this has its dangers. Different leaders have different styles. A great deal of power remains in their hands and the opportunity for all to take responsibility and face larger questions is curtailed (George, 2011). The question to be investigated in this research is: What lessons can be learnt by Hayward performance as a leader during this crisis? The way in which this question can be answered is described in the next section. Methodologies Introduction This chapter focuses of the methodologies that have been used by the researcher during the course of this research. Research Methodology is the course taken by the researcher to find answers to research questions (Kumar, 2005). Middle level managers from BP were engaged in a semi structured interview which focused on their view of BP’s leadership in general and their opinion of how their leaders went about handling Deepwater Horizon Oil rig disaster in particular. The answers collected have been used to provide a simple overview of the factors contributing the crisis and then BP CEO Tony Hayward’s performance as a leader during the crisis Research Methodology The various paths or courses available to choosing data collection techniques and analysis procedures can be depicted by using research â€Å"onion† (Fig A). The centre of the onion gives an idea on the exact way of collecting the data to answer research questions and this centre is reached by peeling away important layers. The important layers that needs to be peeled away to reach the centre point i.e. data collection methods include research philosophy, research approach, Research strategies and Time horizons (Saunders, 2009).    Figure A: The Research Onion (Saunders et al. 2009) Research Philosophy The development and nature of knowledge encompasses the term research philosophy. This development and nature of knowledge contains important assumptions on the way a researcher views the world which underpins a researcher’s choice of a research strategy and the methods chosen as part of the strategy.   This philosophical commitment not only has a significant impact on what researcher does but also on how they understand things while investigating (Johnson, 2006). The three different research philosophies are Positivism, Interpretivism and Realism. Positivism involves development of knowledge based on observable social reality. The end product of research based on Positivism philosophy is law like generalisations similar to those produced by natural scientists. Intrepretivism involves development of knowledge based on the understanding of differences between humans in roles as social actors and the emphasis on their variables such as behaviour, mood and previous experience. Realism is the development of knowledge based on scientific approach and assumes the independent existence of objects from the human mind (Kothari, 2008) . The research philosophy adopted for this dissertation is Intrepretivism as the development of knowledge was through questioning and dialogue by which people shared their experience. This is because feelings and attitudes towards performance management as â€Å"social phenomena that have not external reality and cannot be measured and modified† (Saunders et al, 2006).   Interpretavist stance provides scope for the researcher to use phenomological case studies of people and how they make sense of the world, using their opinions and experience of performance measures in the working environment. Postivisim was not preferred because conducting research among people involves   taking into consideration various factors such as behaviour, mood etc which is advocated by interpretivism rather than objects such as trucks and computers as advocated by positivism, whereas emphasis is on working with observable social reality.   On the flip side, the difficulty of taking interpretavis t stance is that findings make not be generalisable. However, it may be that the types of people being interviewed, due to culture of a BP background, have similar thought processes and hence are generalisable with a BP context   (Goddard, 2004). Research Approach Deductive research and inductive research are the research approaches which results in the achievement of new knowledge. Deductive research is more like a top down approach to research where objectives are established followed by defining of key definitions and assumptions. Then the researchers works through a logical structure, based on the key definitions and assumptions, to accomplish the objective. Inductive research is more like a bottom up approach to research where conclusion is drawn only from observations of specific situations (Panneerselvam, 2004). This research involved the development of theory only after analysis of collected data therefore approaching research through inductive approach. Deductive approach was not chosen as the approach required the development of theory and hypothesis and then testing of this hypothesis by designing a research strategy whereas this research was based on finding view of BP’s middle level managers on their leaders handling of Deepwater Horizon Oil rig disaster and the performance of then BP CEO Tony Hayward’s performance as a leader during the crisis, which was the outcome of data collected through semi structured interview. Using Saunders et al’s ( 2006) characteristics of inductive research, the following are reasoned. An understanding will be gained of the meanings humans attached to events through the meanings they attach to performance management, and there will be a close understanding of the research context through the investigation of reasons as to how best to operationalise performance measurements (Kumar, 2005) . The data to be collected will be qualitative, which suggests that the deductive approach is more natural. There may be the potential for collections of qualitative data as well that may lend itself to a deductive approach, but the number of people intended to be interviewed would not enable any generalizations to be made   (Kumar, 2005) . The flexible approach of the inductive stance means that if findings lend themselves to a change of direction within the dissertation, this will be possible (Singh, 2009) . The researcher realizes that as part of the research process, ideas developed may translate into action research as they are suggested to the interviewees (Kumar, 2005). Research Strategy The analysis of the collected data so as to obtain information through systematic and orderly approach is called Research strategy. In management studies, the three important research strategies that are rooted in inductive approach and are commonly used include case study, grounded theory and Ethnography. A research strategy for a research is chosen based on certain criteria’s like research questions and objectives, availability of time and resources, existing knowledge level etc (Kumar, 2005). During this research, the researcher used a case study approach which Robson (1999, p. 146) defines as â€Å"a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context using multiple sources of evidence.† This was chosen because, in this research, â€Å"a ‘how’ or ‘why’ question is being asked about a contemporary set of events, over which the researcher has little or no control,†. The case study approach will not only entail in depth examination of single case but also engage many variables with collecting of information from multiple sources such as interviews with BP personals, archival data from BP’s files etc. This research strategy will be used as part of a qualitative methodology because qualitative research examines the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of human behaviour and so does the case study methodology (Yin, 2003). Other strategies such as grounded theory and   ethnography which are rooted in inductive approach was considered but it did not fit the scope of this research because of the fact that they are time consuming (Kumar, 2005). Data Collection method Sampling The research objectives were concerned with understanding of BP’s middle managers view of BP’s leadership in general and their opinion of how their leaders went about handling Deepwater Horizon Oil rig disaster in particular and then BP CEO Tony Hayward’s performance as a leader during the crisis. Therefore, the sampling frame for this research included middle-level and senior level managers of BP. Only those managers who have in depth analysis related to the topic of interest were chosen. This method of sampling is called purposive sampling. Unlike random sampling in which every combination of respondents from the sampling frame has a known probability of occurring, purposive sampling is used in the research when the research selects those respondents that are most appropriate for the study (Robson, 1999). Purposive sample is powerful because it allows the researcher to choose respondents that have the most information for in-depth analysis related to the centra l issues being examined. The richest information is not likely to be available from the ‘typical’ case and so using purposive sampling will allow examine in detail the root causes of a given issue and its consequences. A close colleague of researcher who is on the staff of BP helped the researcher in short listing only those managers with access to in depth knowledge of the research topic and on the basis of the contact details provided by the provided by the researcher’s colleague, the researcher sent across email requesting for an appointment to the discuss the research topic and only those who expressed willingness to part of the research was interviewed (Jackson, 2008).  · Data Collection Data will be collected in face-to-face interviews with three middle level managers within BP over a period of one week. Thus till date collected is the primary data. The data will be collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Semi-structured interviews were chosen over alternative approaches, such as focus groups and surveys, as this method will allow researcher to guide the research and probe for deeper answers, elaborations, and examples to allow further explanation of specific topics and at the same time cover a wider scope if undiscovered issues should arise (Robson, 1999). Additionally, semi-structured interviews allow interviewees to tell the interviewer what they consider most significant (Marshall and Rossman, 1999). Semi-structured interviewing starts with more general questions or topics rather than the formulation of detailed questions ahead of time and so structured and unstructured questions will be outlined prior to the interviews based on the research questio n framework (Marshall and Rossman, 1999). In this research, relevant topics will have to be initially identified as well as the possible relationship between these topics and the issues. These managers are responsible for teams of professionals and would be able to provide insight into leadership issues in the organisation, allowing them to accurately articulate ‘rich’ descriptions of their experience of leadership at BP. Each interview is expected to last between 30 and 90 minutes and the interviews will be transcribed within one week of having conducting them to ensure that no additional material or observations were lost or forgotten (Marshall and Rossman, 1999). Following the collection of primary data, secondary data was collected so as to understand get a overall prespective of BP’s leadership and its response to deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. This data was obtained by analyzing various sources including internet and published guides (Jackson, 2008) .  · Data Analysis This research will use qualitative content analysis to interpret the data collected and further analysis will be carried out by triangulating these findings with the findings of the literature review and the questions and topics that this raised. Content analysis is often recommended for analysing semi-structured interviews because it allows the researcher to identify themes, concepts, and meanings and is a way of classifying content (Krippendorff, 2004). As there is existing (but incomplete) theory about crisis management, this research will use a directed approach to content analysis, which allows existing theoretical frameworks to be validated (and sometimes extended) (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). In the directedapproach to content analysis, extant theory will be used to form codes that will be used in the initial analysis. Data that do not fit into these predetermined codes will be identified and later analysed to determine whether they represent a new category or a subset of a curr ent category. Data that cannot be coded will be identified and analysed later, as suggested by Hsieh and Shannon (2005), to determine if they represent a new category or a subcategory of an existing code. While this method has limitations, the accuracy of predetermined categories can be increased by using an audit trail and audit process (Krippendorff, 2004). By compiling a spreadsheet of literature topics and cross-referencing this to the interviews, it is hoped to be able to correlate findings that produce new insights into the implementation of performance measurement and enable a more effective method of doing so at BP and potentially, within other organisations. Data quality issues The drawback of doing a semi structured interview is the lack of standardisation in these interviews. But the researcher still went ahead with the current interview structure because of the fact that the topic of interest is complex and dynamic and using a semi structured interview approach will provide an opportunity for the interviewer to explore the topic in greater detail (McBurney, 2009). Therefore, in order to overcome these issues, careful planning was done which has been described below. Level of knowledge The effectiveness of interviewing particular manager and their level of knowledge in the deepwater horizon oil spill was obtained by researcher following a detailed discussion with a colleague, who was working in BP. The literature review provided enough level of knowledge with respect to the situational context (McBurney, 2009). Level of information given to the interviewee The interviewees were given relevant information with respect to the research including the topic of the research, the motive of conducting the research and goal to be accomplished by the end of the research (McBurney, 2009). Appropriateness of location The prior appointment was taken before meeting the managers. A meeting room within the BP offices was chosen as the location for the meeting. This was done so to ensure that there is minimal disturbance during the interview process   (Louis Cohen, 2000). Appearance in the interview Even though BP is a highly successful and highly powered organization, its dress code is causal i.e. no suits. Therefore, the researchers appearance was also causal which not only went in sync with BP’s dress code but also went well with the semi structured approach to interview Louis Cohen, 2000).. Opening comment during the commencement of the interview To ensure that the discussion shapes in the right direction, the participants of the interview were given the brief on the motive of conducting the research and goal to be accomplished by the end of the research and following their consent, interview questions were put forward Louis Cohen, 2000).. Questioning approach The researcher made sure that the questions put forward for the interview were open ended questions. This was done so as to ensure that the researcher had the opportunity to explore the question in greater detail. Also, while discussing the questions, the researcher was careful not to use highly complex industry jargons whose meanings may vary with the interviewee. In scenarios where the use of jargons were essential, the researcher took care to ensure that both the researcher and the interviewee had the same understanding Louis Cohen, 2000).. Behaviour during the interview The researcher ensured that at all times there was appearance of enjoying the interview process as any appearance of boredom will not encourage the interviewee to give a good response. Also, for the answers given by the interviewee, the researcher made sure that a neutral response was projected so as to not to provide lead that may result in bias Louis Cohen, 2000). Demonstration of attentive listening skills In order to ensure that the interviewee gives as much information as possible, the researcher made sure that the thoughts were held back deliberately. Defending or arguing a particular point of view mentioned by the interviewee would not only result in diverting away from the topic but will also stop flow of thoughts (Jackson, 2008). Documentation of the data The information gleaned from the interviewee was recorded using audio recording equipment and also by taking down notes while the interview was in progress (Jackson, 2008). Generalisability As this research follows Intrepretivism, the development of knowledge was through questioning and dialogue by which people shared their experience. These sharing of knowledge are highly subjective and vary on the moods and behaviour of the people. Therefore, the concerns raised in the dissertation are organisation specific to B.P and may not be applicable to other organisations. But the problems associated with arriving at the right kind of Leadership and crisis management is universal and therefore this dissertation will be useful in other contexts (Jackson, 2008). Access and Ethical Considerations Access to the organisation is to be gained via a close colleague that is a currently on staff at BP. Complying with the ‘Qualitative Research and the Data Protection Act 1998,’ before every interview the researcher will give participants an informed consent form, explaining that the interview will be recorded and that they have the right to withdraw at anytime and withhold any information that they do not wish to share (Marshall and Rossman, 1999). The participants will then be required to sign a consent form before the interview commences. The researcher has read and understood the university’s ethics policies relating to   the dissertation and is confident that the dissertation will be carried out by ensuring the following. All interviewees have the choice whether or not to participate in the research They were provided with the outline proposal for the research. The interviewees provided written consent prior to taking up the interview and were given the option of withdrawing from the inte