A Data Warehouse Appliance Can Have a Huge Positive Impact on Businesses and Organizations Essay

Businesses and organizations of all sizes are becoming increasingly dependent on data analytics, and data warehouses or business analytic infrastructure has become a business critical application for many (if not most) companies. Indeed, these companies have always searched for better ways to understand their customers, and anticipate their needs. They have longed to improve the speed and accuracy of operational decision-making. Equally important as timeliness is the depth of the data analysis. Generally, the companies want to decipher all secrets hidden within the massive amounts of ever-increasing data. A data warehouse appliance, which is an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for a specific purpose typically involving the high throughput of data and analytic functions, can be used by organizations to optimize various areas of data processing. Its main intent is to supplant conventional business intelligence functions, such as warehousing, extract-transform-load (ETL), analysis and reporting. Due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the data warehouse appliance has become an important segment of the data warehousing market. In this paper, I will examine the data warehouse appliances and describe its positive impact on business enterprises. Introduction Since introduced in the early 1990s, data warehouse (DW) has proven to be the key platform for strategic and tactical decision support systems in the competitive business environment today. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay It has become a major technology for building data management infrastructure, and resulted in many benefits for various organizations, including providing â€Å"a single version of the truth, better data analysis and time savings for users, reductions in head count, facilitation of the development of new applications, better data, and support for customer-focused business strategies† (Rahman, 2007). The technology has become extremely important in an environment where increasing competition, unpredictable market fluctuations, and changing regulatory environments are putting pressure on business organizations. Data warehouses are also becoming the central repositories of organization/company information for data, which is obtained from a variety of operational data sources. Business applications will find data warehouses more beneficial and rely on them as the main source of information as they progress. These applications are able to perform all sorts of data analysis, with increasing customer demands for having the most up-to-date information available in data warehouses. Improving data freshness within short time frames is essential to meeting such demands. According to Hong et al, virtually all Fortune 1000 companies, today, have data warehouses, and many medium and small sized firms are developing them. The desire to improve decision-making and organizational performance is the fundamental business driver behind data warehouses. DW help managers easily discover problems and opportunities sooner, and widen the scope of their analysis. Hong also mentions that data warehouse is user-driven, meaning that users are allowed to be in control of the data and will have the responsibility of determining and finding the data they need. But however, the data warehouses have to be designed and evaluated from the user perspective in order to motivate users to be responsible for finding the data they need. Data warehouse is said to be â€Å"one of the most powerful decision-support tools to have emerged in the last decade† (Ramamurthy, 2008). They are developed by firms to help managers answer important business questions which require analytics including data slicing and dicing, pivoting, drill-downs, roll-ups and aggregations. And these analytics are best supported by online-analytical processing (OLAP) tools. A data warehouse appliance, which is the main topic of discussion in this research, is referred to as an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for specific purposes involving the high throughput of data and analytic functions. Data warehouse appliance has become an important segment of the data warehousing market, due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency. A business or organization can use a data warehouse appliance to optimize various areas of data processing. In general, the main purpose of the DW appliance is to supplant conventional business intelligence (BI) functions including warehousing, extract, transform, load (ETL), analysis, and reporting. A data warehouse appliance can have a huge positive impact on a business enterprise. Large organizations are able to staff their data warehouse more efficiently, while assisting mid-level companies in solving business intelligence challenges. Data warehouse is fundamentally changing the way the businesses operate, as they are increasingly adopted across various companies. The purpose of this paper is to present the data warehouse appliances and how they impact businesses and organizations. In the next sections, I present a brief overview of data warehousing and the current state of BI, then I define and discuss DW appliances including its benefits, after which I describe the positive impact of DW appliances on businesses. Data Warehousing A data warehouse can basically be defined a subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time-variant collection of data in support of management’s decisions. Unlike the on-line transaction processing (OLTP) database systems, data warehouses are organized around subjects storing historical/summarized data for business requirement purposes. According to O’Brien and Marakas, a data warehouse is a central source of data which have been cleaned, transformed and cataloged so they are usable by managers/business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research, and decision support. These stored data are usually extracted from various operational, external, and other database management system of an organization. DW can be sub-divided into data marts, holding subsets of data from the warehouse that focus on specific aspects, such as department, of a company. In general all data warehouse systems comprises of the following layers; data source, data extraction, staging area, ETL, data storage, data logic, data presentation, metadata, and system operations layer. But the four major components include the multi-dimensional database, ETL, OLAP, and metadata. The dimensional database applies the concept of standard star-schema including dimension and fact tables, hierarchies for drill-down, role models, aggregates and snow flaking. It optimizes database design for better performance. The ETL process involves the extraction, transformation and loading of data with appropriate ETL tools. Data integration is one of the most important aspects of data warehouse, whereby data is extracted from multiple heterogeneous source systems and placed in a staging area where it is cleaned, transformed, pruned, reformatted, standardized, combined, and summarized before loading into the warehouse. OLAP (online analytical processing) tool provides the front-end analytical capabilities including slice and dice, drill up, drill down, drill across, pivoting, and trend analysis across time. And metadata stores information (or data) about the data in the warehouse system. The components of a complete data warehouse architectural system are illustrated in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 An important characteristic about the data in a data warehouse is that they are static, unlike a typical database with constant changes. Once the data are gathered up, formatted for storage, and stored in the data warehouse, they will never change. The restriction is such that complex patterns or historical trends can be searched for, and analyzed, by queries. Data warehouses are also non-volatile in the sense that end-users cannot update the data directly, thereby being able to maintain a history of the data. A major use of the data warehouse databases is data mining, in which the data are analyzed to reveal hidden patterns and trends in historical business activity. Such analysis could be used to help managers make decisions about strategic changes in business operations in order to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace. Data warehousing is a relatively new technology that â€Å"brings the vision of an entirely new (customer-centric) way of conducting business to reality†, and can provide â€Å"environments promising a revolution in organizational creativity and innovation† (Ramamurthy, 2008). Ramamurthy also mentioned that data warehouse generally serves as an IT infrastructure technology, focused on data architecture, as it provides a foundation for integrating a diverse set of internal and external data sources, enabling enterprise-wide data access and sharing, enforcing data quality standards, providing answers to business questions, and promoting strategic thinking through CRM, data mining, and other front-end BI applications. Users of the data warehouses are from virtually every business unit, amongst which information systems, marketing and sales, finance, production and operations, are the heaviest users. Current State of Business Intelligence Business Intelligence are computer based techniques used in identifying, extracting and analyzing business data. Sales revenue by products, department, time, region or income are such examples. The BI technologies provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Some common functions of BI technologies include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, text-mining and predictive analytics. As BI aims to support better business decision-making, they can also be referred to as a decision support system. BI applications often use data gathered from data warehouses or data marts, however, not all BI applications require a data warehouse. With sources from Wikipedia, business intelligence can be applied to business purposes in order to drive business value. Amongst these business purposes include measurement, analytics, reporting, collaboration, and knowledge management. BI is widely used today, mainly to describe analytic applications. According to Watson, BI is currently the top-most priority of many chief information officers. In a survey of 1,400 CIOs, from Gartner Group, it was discovered that BI projects were the number one technology priority for 2007. Watson further informs that the BI is a process which basically consists of two primary activities; â€Å"getting data in and getting data out†. Getting data in, also referred to as data ware housing, delivers limited value to a business enterprise. Organizations realize the full value of data from data warehouses only when users and applications access the data and use it to make decisions. Getting data out receives the most attention, as it consists of business users/applications accessing data from DW to perform enterprise reporting, OLAP, querying and analytics. The business intelligence framework is depicted in figure 2. Current BI infrastructure is a patchwork of hardware, software and storage that is growing ever more complex. Figure 2 – BI framework BI is continuing to evolve, and several recent developments are generating widespread interest, including real-time BI, business performance management, and pervasive BI. Data Warehousing Appliance A data warehouse is developed to support a broad range of organizational tasks. It can be referred to as an organized collection of large amounts of structured data, designed and intended to support decision making in organizations. The import of information and knowledge from a data warehouse is a complex process that requires understanding of the logical schema structure and the underlying business environment. According to Hinshaw, a data warehouse appliance, applied to business intelligence, â€Å"is a machine capable of retrieving valuable decision-aiding intelligence from terabytes of data in seconds or minutes versus hours or days†. The appliances represent the difference between decision-making using either stale data or the freshest information possible. With sources from Wikipedia, a more standard definition of the data warehouse appliance is an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for a specific purpose that typically involves the high throughput of data and analytic functions. It typically consists of integrated set of servers, operating systems, data storage facilities, database management systems (DBMS), and software that is pre-installed and pre-optimized for data warehousing. DW appliances provide solutions for the mid-to-large volume data warehouse market, offering low-cost performance usually on data volumes within the terabyte range. Due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the data warehouse appliance has become a critical segment of the data warehousing market. A business or an organization can use a data warehouse appliance to optimize various areas of data processing. The main purpose of a DW appliance, in general, is to supplant conventional business intelligence functions, such as warehousing, extract, transform, load (ETL), analysis, and reporting. A true DW appliance is defined as one that does not require fine-tuning, indexing, partitioning, or aggregating, whereas, some other DW appliances use languages such as SQL to facilitate interaction with the appliance at a database request level. With reference to Wikipedia, most data warehouse appliance vendors use massive parallel processing (MPP) architectures to provide high query performance and platform scalability. The MPP architectures consist of independent processors or servers executing in parallel, implementing a â€Å"shared nothing architecture† which provides an effective way to combine multiple nodes within a highly parallel environment. A DW appliance is capable of deploying up to thousands of query processing nodes in one ppliance package, compared to traditional solutions where the cost and complexity of each additional node prevents a high level of hardware parallelism. Leveraging fully integrated data warehouse architecture, a data warehouse appliance can deliver a significant performance advantage, performing up to 100 times faster than general-purpose data warehousing systems. Maturation With reference to Hinshaw, data warehouse appliance is specifically designed for the streaming workload of business intelligence and is built based on commodity components. It integrates hardware, DBMS and storage into one opaque device and combines the best elements of SMP and massively parallel processing (MPP) approaches into one that allows a query to be processed in the best possible optimized way. A data warehouse appliance is fully compatible with existing BI applications, tools and data, through standard interfaces. It is simple to use and has an extremely low cost of ownership. The development of standardized interfaces, protocols and functionality is one of the most important trends in BI. In comparison to about a decade ago, there are a wealth of tools and applications using these standardized interfaces including MicroStrategy, Business Objects, Cognos, SAS and SPSS. And these are coupled with ETL tools having standardized interfaces such as Ab Initio, Ascential and Informatica. The appliances work seamlessly with these tools and other in-house applications. A data warehouse appliance is truly scalable. The bottlenecks are the speeds of the internal buses, internal networks, and disk transfer in BI, whereas in transactional workloads, scalability is limited primarily by CPU. Reliability, which is provided by the homogenous nature of an appliance – all parts of the system coming from a vendor, is also critical. A data warehouse appliance also provides simplicity for the administrators, in that it allows administrators spend a more productive time in troubleshooting complex database systems. And DBAs can be deployed to assist end users doing real-time BI. A data warehouse appliance offers the lowest cost of ownership as it has one source and one vendor, thereby reducing costs associated with support. Businesses and organizations will run more efficiently with the simple, efficient solution provided by a data warehouse appliance. Benefits Data warehouse appliances provide freedom to the business user. With patch-work systems, users are limited in the queries they can run due to the time required to run them. And with the time required to run a complex query reduced to seconds, users can not only run their old analysis with more iterations, but have the time to devise and run entirely new sets of analysis on granular data. With sources from Wikipedia, some researched benefits of DW appliance are briefly discussed as follows; Reduction in costs – As a data warehouse grows, the total cost of ownership of the data warehouse consists of initial entry costs, maintenance costs, and the cost of changing capacity. DW appliances offer low entry and maintenance cost. Parallel performance – DW appliances provide a compelling price/performance ratio. The vendors use several distribution and partitioning methods to provide parallel performance. With high performance on highly granular data, DW appliances can address analytics that could previously not meet performance requirements. Reduced Administration – DW appliances can provide a single vendor solution, taking ownership for optimizing the parts and software within the appliance, thereby eliminating the customer’s costs for integration and regression testing of the DBMS, OS and storage on a terabyte scale. DW appliance reduces administration via automated space-allocation, reduced index-maintenance and reduced tuning and performance analysis. Scalability – DW appliances scale for both capacity and performance. In massive parallel processing architectures, adding servers increases performance as well as capacity. Built-in high availability – Massive parallel processing DW appliance vendors provide built-in high availability via redundancy on components within the appliance. Warm-standby servers, dual networks, dual power-supplies, disk mirroring with fail-over and solutions for server failure are offered by many. Increasingly, business analytics are expected to be used to improve the current cycle, and DW appliances provide quick implementations without the need for regression and integration testing. Also, DW appliances provide solutions for many analytic application uses. Some of these applications include; enterprise data warehousing, super-sized sandboxes isolating power users with resource intensive queries, pilot projects, off-loading projects from the enterprise data warehouse, applications with specific performance or loading requirements, data marts that have outgrown their present environment, turnkey data warehouses, solutions for applications with high data growth and high performance requirements, and applications needing data warehouse encryption. Impact of Data Warehouse Appliances on Businesses and Organization Demand for data warehouse appliances is increasing, and businesses taking advantage of the benefits of this hardware range from a world-wide large-scale business to the smallest individual business. Data virtualization could be a useful partner to appliances, providing a single view of information across multiple appliances. Data virtualization is also useful because it provides a stable reporting layer during normal migration exercises, such as the circumstances during addition of data warehouse appliances to the information infrastructure. As businesses today continue to process extremely large volumes of data, there is always the need to keep data warehousing costs under control while ensuring a superior BI and application performance. Scalability, flexibility, and affordability are essential requirements for designing an infrastructure capable of supporting next-generation BI performance. When asked why the demand for data warehouse appliance is increasing, during an interview, Robert Eve (executive vice president of marketing for Composite Software Inc. ) stated that it is the confluence of three primary drivers at the macro level. The first is â€Å"the well-reported information explosion, and the technical challenges involved in making this information accessible in forms that business decision-makers can easily use†. Secondly, data warehouse appliances are more affordable and appealing, as the costs per terabyte and for support are coming down. And finally, recent advancements in analytics technology, notably in predictive analytics, promise to concur with the massive data volumes. Data warehouse appliances offer numerous advantages some of which are similar to benefits. Amongst the advantages include; more reporting and analytical capabilities – data warehouse appliance are able to handle bigger and more complex query workload, if it executes queries, Cost reductions – data warehouse appliance requires a minimal amount of tuning and optimization of the database server and database design. It is also able to run most queries with a quick speed, Flexibility – it will be easier to implement new user requests if less tuning and optimization is needed. With other database servers, a new query might lead to quite a number of technical changes, such as creating and dropping indexes, repartitioning tables, etc. Sometimes, decision is made not to implement the new request at all, due to the overwhelming work. The need for these additional technical changes is less with a data warehouse appliance. Data warehouse appliances helps support impressive BI deployments. With reference to Hinshaw, real world application examples of the positive impact of DW appliance on businesses are discussed. The rapid growth of call detail records, in the telecommunications industry, creates an imposing amount of data, which makes it difficult for companies to quickly and efficiently analyze customer and call plan information. And traditional approaches have been inefficient in processing queries on even a month’s data, seriously hampering an organization’s ability to perform trend analysis to reduce customer churn and generate timely reports. However, with a DW appliance, the telecom user can analyze customer activity down to the call detail record level over a full year’s worth of detailed data. Another industry where data warehouse appliances have begun to prove their worth, and are poised to play a bigger role in the future, is the retail. Hinshaw states that Brick-and-mortar and online retailers are capturing great amounts of customer transaction and supply chain information, creating a data explosion that threatens to overwhelm an average retail organization and its current IT infrastructure. But data warehouse appliances enable these retailers to manage and analyze the terabytes of information in near-real time. They are able to use the information to effectively forecast buying patterns, quickly generate targeted promotions and optimize their inventory and supply chain. Business intelligence remains the foundation for the success of decision making in any company. And BI, itself, relies on the underlying database architecture. Eve also presents other real world examples of positive business impact among a broad range of industries. A leading worldwide convenience foods business uses data warehouse appliances and analytic applications to acquire major business benefits in two specific areas. One of which the company optimizes its international network of delivery routes, making the system more efficient and ensuring timely delivery of its products. Secondly, it continuously refines its merchandizing mix daily, on a retail basis, in order to maximize sales and margins. Major League Baseball captures information about every pitch, at-bat, and fielding play within a data warehouse appliance, using this data to predict players’ future on-field performance. This can help teams to evaluate current and free-agent talent, refine coaching and development methods, and determine salaries, hence maximizing their wins. Also, a global freight, transportation, and logistics company uses data warehouse appliances to identify behavioral patterns that indicate potential dissatisfaction within its existing customer base. The customer care group then proactively takes steps to improve satisfaction before they lose their customers. Currently, smaller data warehouse appliance vendors seem to be focusing on adding functionality to their products in order to compete with the mega-vendors. However, it is anticipated that all appliance vendors will be impacted by the trend toward an inexpensive, high-performance, and scalable virtualized data warehouse implementations which use regular hardware and open source software. Conclusion In general, data warehouse appliance is a combination hardware and software product specifically designed for analytical processing. In a traditional data warehouse implementation, the database administrator can spend a significant amount of time tuning and putting structures around the data to get the database to perform well for large sets of users. But with a data warehouse appliance, it is the vendor who is responsible for simplifying the physical database design layer and making sure that the software is tuned for the hardware. In this research, a comprehensive examination/review of the data warehouse appliances, their benefits, and how they positively impact businesses and organizations, was presented. Based on this research, the negative impact of DW appliances on businesses are negligible compared to its positive impact. And there is an increasing demand for DW appliances. I believe that, in the near future, the DW appliances will become the sole platform for all business intelligence applications and requirements. I gained much knowledge and insights from researching this topic, and I intend to further my research on future impacts of DW appliance on businesses.

Ceres Gardening Company Case Study Essay

1. How has the company grown? What is its basic strategy + how has it evolved? What have been the key factors in the company’s growth? The growth of the company has been fueled by the market demand growth in organic products. Ceres increased their revenues by over 75% in just five years, while growing profits by over 25% (based on Exhibits 2, 3 & 4). Ceres’s basic strategy started with its founder, Jonathan Wydown, to promote sustainable organic gardens and landscapes to environmentally conscious consumers. Mr. Wydown has been a proponent of soil preservation, biodiversity, and natural fertilizers and pest control. Mr. Wydown was confident that the same principles behind organic farming would eventually apply to home gardens and lawns. Mr. Wydown’ s vision evolved into the creation and development of a market niche of selected certified organic seeds and seedlings for vegetables, culinary herbs, and flowers – bringing the farm to the home per se. This market niche and products became the company’s differentiator and competitive edge. The key factors that drove the company’s growth are: * Market demand and segmentation – Ceres developed a market niche for organic-conscious consumers who are concerned about the environment. Although products are priced at a higher premium, the value from the company’s environmentally conscious go-to-market strategy and segmentation allowed Ceres to develop a loyal consumer community. * Product Offerings – Ceres expanded its products offerings to include open-pollinated, organically grown, and heirloom varieties of seeds and seedlings for vegetables, culinary herbs, and flowers. The company also added live plants, such as one-year-old trees. * Production Strategy – Ceres’ principal farm was located in central  California. As the demand for Ceres’ products increased, Ceres’s production capability was challenged. To keep up with the increased demand, Ceres developed a network of small, independent organic farms, offering them a commitment to purchase goods in exchange for an exclusive supplier relationship. These further strengthened Ceres’ production capability. * Distribution Channel – In the early years, Ceres operated primarily as a mail-order catalog company. This was their main distribution channel. The operation was ran well and valued for its quality, reliability, and hands-on customer service. Moreover, Ceres provided a free bimonthly company newsletter, which included gardening tips, introduced new products, and created a sense of community among the expanding customer base. This alternative marketing expanded Ceres’ channel from one time purchase to future incremental (post-sale) revenues. Eventually, Ceres expanded its channels to include retail channels, and direct sale through a sales force model. * GetCeresâ„ ¢ Program – enabled the average nursery or garden center to stock a sufficient inventory of Ceres’ products to meet the seasonal demands of the customer. If a retailer ran out of seasonal products, the customer would probably not return later, thus a potential loss of sale. Essentially the program meets the challenge of having the plenty of stock of the right product in the store at the right time based on consumer attitudes, behaviors, and preferences. The program also provided incentives to retail storeowners by offering deep discounts to carry inventory and extended payment plans. 2. Questions 3.1. How is Ceres’ financial health? Which specific items in the supplemental financial statements + which ratios might you calculate/research to help you assess its financial health? The financial health of Ceres is excellent and continues to show a positive trend from 2002 to 2006. (Please refer to Table 1) * Current Ratio shows Ceres’ ability to pay short-term obligations. The current ratio indicates that the company would be able to cover its liabilities in 2002 2 times over. * Quick Ratio measures Ceres’ ability to meet its short-term obligations with assets excluding inventory. The quick ratio indicates that Ceres would be able to cover liabilities 1.6 times over. * Debt Equity shows Ceres’ financial leverage and its aggressive posture in financing its growth with debt. The company could potentially generate more earnings than it would have without this outside financing. This indicates that even with Ceres’ expansion of distribution channels, extension of payment terms, and the creation of a direct sales force, Ceres was able to manage to stay below 1 with a mean average of .74. * Inventory Turnover shows an efficient turnover of inventory. Ceres does not hold inventory for long periods of time, which can incur additional costs by having assets sit without revenue generation. It shows Ceres’ ability to manage inventory in a seasonal cycle and further indicates their ability to forecast demands on product movement. * Accounts Receivable shows Ceres’ effectiveness in extending credit as well as collecting debts. The extended payment terms appear to be working. The prompt collection of debts enables Ceres’ to use the monies to reinvest into the business. 3.2. What should Ceres’ strategic plan be, given the trends in the organic gardening market? A move forward strategy is a renewed focus on market penetration and diversification of product portfolio. As the CMO, Annette O’Connell reported, â€Å"Growth in organic gardening products is strong, and the trends should support long term growth.† Market Penetration – capitalize on the movement from wholesale organic farming to weekend home gardeners and food service industries. While Ceres can continue to cement their market share in organic farming, the weekend gardener and food industry market are prime market niches. To reach these markets, Ceres has to diversify its product portfolio. Product Portfolio Diversification – Ceres’ has to consider diversifying its product portfolio from materials (i.e. seeds, samplings, 1-year-old fruit trees, etc.) to services and solutions to help organic farmers, food service industries, and weekend gardeners on the â€Å"how to’s† of organic gardening. You not only sell the seeds but also help the consumers manage the gardening process thus providing Ceres a â€Å"market differentiator† as a one-stop consumer experience. 3. How would you evaluate Ceres’ marketing efforts? Should the Ceres program be expanded? Why or why not? The GetCeresâ„ ¢ Program is a sound marketing plan but can be fraught with challenges if not managed effectively. The main purpose of the program is to address inventory and â€Å"enable the average nursery or garden center to stock a sufficient inventory of Cere’s organic products† by having the right products in the stores at the right time. Bottom line – help Ceres increase sales by helping business partners manage their inventory. With that said, stores and business partners are not willing to carry inventories on their books if they are not able to churn it appropriately. To alleviate angst and potential cost exposure, Ceres extended their payment terms from 75 to 90 days to 120 days and a 15% discount the storeowner or business partner agrees to hold a minimum stock inventory. To help protect Ceres’ average gross margins, it successfully raised prices slightly on most of its products. 4. Questions 5.3. In your opinion, did Ceres hire the right CMO? What role did that play in its financial situation? In our opinion, Ceres hired the right CMO. Through the CMO leadership, distribution channels were expanded from mail order catalog to an expanded network of storeowners and retail merchants. The CMO further increased their market reach by developing a direct sales force and the appropriately compensation plan. Inventory was managed efficiently through the introduction of the GetCeresâ„ ¢ Program. Overall, the company’s debt equity, inventory turnover, and accounts receivable ratios showed a positive trend and continue to forecast a better future. 5.4. Why is it important to ensure that you hire someone who is the â€Å"best fit† – for a position? It is important to hire someone who is a best fit because of the notion of a â€Å"shared vision† and â€Å"common values.† A strategy remains to be a strategy without the proper tactical execution. Both Wydown and O’Connell agreed,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The best way for Ceres to build its competitive position would be to push even more aggressively† to increase profits and lower margins by expanding distribution channels and market footprint. O’Connell had a background in retail and consumer packaged goods. This was the â€Å"best fit† for Ceres’s CEO, Jonathan Wydown whose strategy for growth was to move from a mail order catalog model to building a retail presence. Wydown and O’Connell believed that Ceres’ reputation for quality and customer service would give the company an advantage over the competition. 5. If you were CEO Jonathan Wydown, what would you plan to say during your upcoming meeting with the bank – regarding Ceres’ growth prospects + cash flow projections for 2007 and the near future? During the upcoming meeting with the bank, the focus should be given on the debt equity, inventory turnover, and accounts receivable ratios and how well the company has managed its operations over a sustained period (i.e. 2002 to 2006). From the Balance Sheet provided, it is evident that operational, financing, and investment cash flow is positive. The market-projected growth is 8% to 10% per year. Ceres has kept pace with the overall industry, but Ceres has to review its financing model to sustain their own growth in the market they chose to compete in order to continue having a competitive edge. As such, the bank discussion should center on the increase of revolving credit and capitalization of investments to continue to fund the retail distribution model.

Debates over Immigration Restriction

Name: Trent C. Thurman Course: HIST C175 Debates Over Immigration Restriction The term immigration refers to moving from your native country and coming to a foreign land for the purpose of a permanent residence and searching for greener pastures. There are several arguments by scholars about immigration restrictions to the United States. They had several similarities supporting immigration restrictions. Prescott Hall, Robert Ward, Frank Wright, Frank Fetter and John Mitchell all argued supporting the immigration restrictions. Immigrants from countries other than the United States came in plenty during the 1900s. They were strong and worked in industries during the industrialization era developing the United States at a very fast rate. The Native American saw that the immigrants were highly valuable and so encouraged more and more immigrants. This led to a high population increase and a growing economy. As this high influx of immigrants continued, some issues emerged. The immigrants didn’t bring change in political, social economic and educational matters. They were three times as illiterate as the native whites and those living in Massachusetts were twice as illiterate as the natives. They were very illiterate such that they didn’t see a reason for taking their children to school. Immigrant children were three times as criminals as native Americas. It forecasted that a second generation of immigrants was more objectable to degenerate in future. The immigrants took the jobs of Native Americans but at a very low pay which resulted to cheap labor. The immigrants were very unintelligent, had low vitality and poor physique. They made cheap labor to be very common such that it reduced the standard of living of a worker and led to emerges of poor classes, poor homes and very bad personal customs. It led to socio-economic problems which affected education and charitable institutions. Immigrants were not physically and mentally alert and were unfit for job training. Cheap labor was mainly in railroad, large industries, mining, contractors, and grain growers. They were very arrogant and unskilled such that the towns they lived in were of low standards. They worked as domestic servants in rich Native Americans at very low pay. Illiteracy led to alleged evils on political, social and morals standard of living in communities. The overall effects of a high influx of immigrants’ resulted to more negative effects to native America. For America to prosper, they had to improve their own industrial organization, elevate standard of living and limit the number of immigrants by passing a bill restricting immigration. While others argued supporting immigration restrictions to the United States, other scholars argued against the immigrations restrictions. They were Max Kholer, Sulzberger, Willcox, Bailey, Isaac Horwich, Grace Abbot and Jane Adams. They argued claiming that immigration of foreign persons brought a high influx supply of materials of different characters. Immigrants had the free mind to choose on whether to come or not. They had high intelligence, some financial resource and high levels of energy to work. They were industrious, worthy, courageous, family men, liberty- centered and of high integrity. Those arguing for immigration restrictions should remember that the largest employer of external labor was iron and steel industry. Cigar makers had a high numbers of immigrants from Scotland and English Jews. The company that made direct steamship between china and Japan employed external immigrants from china. The Chinese claim to provide materials for constructing railroads, reclaimed swamp, mining, farming, and fruit culture. Immigrants brought up American civilization by working smart and providing intelligent decisions in industrialization sector. They also brought about assimilative influence in the environment, schools, newspapers, political institutions and social places. A census conducted showed that illiteracy wasn’t found in immigrants but the country they came from and mostly affected their children. In the case of labour, increase in demand led to increase in labour supply, so there is no statistical proof of an oversupply of unskilled labour resulting in displacement of Native Americans by the foreign immigrants. America didn’t have a national system of labour exchange that showed how unemployment is misadjusted on supply to demand and oversupply of labour. From my own point of view, I think the better side is being against the immigration restrictions. They should let immigrants come to a foreign land because he/she carries different, multi- cultural skills and information which have a very positive effect on the native people. It leads to understanding and appreciation of culture, abilities, strengths and weakness of one another.

Discuss the practical steps a university may take to help its students Essay - 1

Discuss the practical steps a university may take to help its students be as competitive as possible when they enter the labour market - Essay Example (Farazmand and Pinkowski 2007, p. 183) In this regard, this paper will outline important steps that the universities and colleges could undertake in order for its students to be competitive in the labor market. These steps would be cited in the context of two important roles that the school is thought to play. The university, wrote Achuthan (1993), in its functionalist role, is seen as one of the final steps in the educational system, completing the long preparation of the student for his or her role in society. (Achuthan p. 27) The tertiary educational institution, hence, must ensure that their students have been immersed and ingested the basic stock of knowledge that represents the core values of its culture. Here, it is emphasized that the student is not just educated but that he or she would leave the school armed with specific employment-oriented skills and knowledge. Education institutions can do this by coordinating with the government and the private sector. Such initiative could provide the school with the knowledge and tools in order integrate in its curriculum those skill and knowledge areas that are demanded by industries today. This is demonstrated, for instance, in the way the Singaporean education system works. The fundamental characteristic of the Singaporean system is the involvement of the government in the creation of curricula in the universities. This is shown in the existence of the state agency called Economic Development Board (EDB), which is concerned with the general responsibility of ensuring the inward investment in the country. Part of its mandate is to assure the human resource requirements for new industries to be created by the foreign capital. EDB ensures that education and training system is capable of producing the right type of skills required for the new industries, as part of the greater strategy to lure

Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Statement - Essay Example 12). On February fourth, I arrived at 6 City Walk, Middleton, which was the family home of Laura Hugh missing person’s report. Julie’s parents had reported her missing on the previous day. Julie was twenty two year old who had disappeared after visiting a dentist on the 4th of February 2013 at 12.30pm. Julie lived with her parents at 6 City Walk, Middleton and works as an office administrator at Office Works Ltd (Hook, 2014, p. 16). On the 5th of February 2013, when I arrived at Julie Sharp’s home address at 8.00 am, I remained near the front door. I realized that the following exhibits were being packed by police investigative officer Angela Still, who has been given the exhibits by police investigator James Winchester, before the exhibits were ready for me to collect in the presence of crime scene manager David Johansson. I took the responsibility of transporting the exhibits to the storage unit at Middleton police station at 12.15 hours. All items were individually packed, correctly labelled, which also included the contact number for transportation to the forensic laboratory at Middleton and sealed by Angela Still in the presence of Commissioner, Sir Andrew Putland and I. Both of us owe the key to the storage unit, (Smith, 2013). The laptop was securely packed in an evidence box to be transported to computer forensic expert, the photograph was labelled and sealed in the antistatic bag that has a tamper-evident seal, and the diary was packed in a nylon bag. On Wednesday, the 6th of February at 9.00am, Angela Still, and I visited the Office Works Ltd, where Julie Sharp worked, so as to obtain statements from her colleagues. On the same day, I visited the dentist where she had an appointment on the day she went missing. At the dentist, there were no CCTV cameras to provide enough information about Julie. Within little background information, I could not determine

Love. Narration English Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Love. Narration English Paper - Essay Example My father was driving and my mother was sitting on the front seat. I was sitting on the backseat with my brother and we were enjoying by listening to music and taking pictures along the road. As soon as our car turned towards the highway, a truck that had taken a wrong turn came and struck our car. Our car spun and finally came to a halt. I was trembling as I saw blood pouring down from my brother’s face. My parents and my younger brother were unconscious. It was a very frightening sight and I was in a state of shock. Soon ambulances reached and we were taken to the hospital. My brother and my mother sustained injuries but they were discharged after two days. The accident was the most frightening occurrence of my life. Till this day, the remembrance of the accident makes me shiver as I cannot forget the scenario when I felt helpless and did not know what to do. I had nightmares of the accident and it took months for me to recover from the

E-Logistics Assignment2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

E-Logistics Assignment2 - Essay Example This role of SCM in organizational functioning continues to evolve, with the incorporation of advanced technologies and other innovations. These innovations optimize the SCM, thereby reaching the product and services to the clients aptly, thereby improving the efficiencies of the organizations. It will be applicable for all organization and that includes even the fictional ones like VF Brands global supply chain strategy. From the early times, VF brands has maximally used a mix of in-house manufacturing and as part of SCM, traditional arms-length sourcing arrangements. However, with certain problems arising in these sections, and importantly with many opportunities in the anvil, the company wants to try a third approach. Through this, Third approach, VF wants to build a closer cooperation and partnerships with its supplier base. Thus, the main purpose of this 'third way' approach is to create and actualize a relationship with its suppliers, which combines accomplishment of its goals, even while maintaining flexibility in sourcing. So, this paper will analyze this case of VF Design, focusing on the challenges of the ' Third-way Supply chain strategy, and then advising Chris Fraser on supply chain strategy. ... It largely deals with procurement and sales issues in an organization. Effective supply chain is a major requirement in all firms in order to remain relevant and competitive in the current market. Supply chain management can be defined as the process of finding raw materials for production of goods and services, manufacturing of the goods, transfer of the manufactured products to the customers including the middle-men and continued flow of communication among the parties involved. â€Å"Supply Chain Management is the designing and management of the process that will ensure that the Supply Chain will be effectively carried out across organizational boundaries so as to meet the requirements of the end customer.† (supplychainmanagement.in).This is applicable to VF Brands as well, as it has a current sustaining supply chain, but wants to develop a even more stronger and effective one. Supply chain management covers the flow of information, goods and finances between the organizati on and the supplier. All these flows are bidirectional that is, the flow can be from an organization to a supplier as well as a v to the organization. Figure 1.0 category of flows in supply chain management. A supply chain cannot be fully effective if there is no communication between the organization and the supplier. This communication can be in form of orders, feedback from customer, inquiry, announcement of new offers by the supplier, etc. Communication is a vital tool to maintain good business and client. A customer’s feedback can give a manufacturer new idea on improvement of a particular product, a customer can learn about a new product from the manufacturer via this critical mode. Business can not be complete without

Internal Auditing, 4 questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Internal Auditing, 4 questions - Essay Example The complex activities are to be controlled by managements of the organizations, and in the case of companies, naturally the first target is the Board of Directors of such organization made responsible to formulate proper policies, to control the various activities, the organization carries our in different countries, with cross cultures , different moral values, and different customer loyalties. One can see Nescafe, Cadbury product, Lux , Colgate ,cocoa cola, Pepsi, Philips, Sony, Motorola, Toyota and a host of consumer products available through out the world, where customers vary, their cultures vary, but they are bound by these products, which speaks of their qualityThese products made their own language.. For making such universal names, just like the saying that behind every successful man there is a successful woman, behind every successful organization, definitely there is a sound, solid, successful management structure with reliable management principles and policies, to operate their businesses across globe. These managements are successful, because of their management policies, which involve various control systems. Managements strength lies in the policies, they frame, and implementation of those policies, by establishing, various controls, at different levels of management. The first in the management hierarchy, na... Organisation structure --Controlenvironment basically includes the organization structure it self. Management's processes involve planning, organising, and directing the business activities, with the assistance of sound management structure. Different levels of management means-- Management by Board and its subcommittees, top management teams, middle and or functional management teams, operating or supervisory management teams. Boardand StrategicTop Management Middle or Functional Management Operating or Supervisory Management. The first in the management hierarchy, namely the board and top strategic management , formulate (i) the vision, (ii) mission, (iii) objectives of the organization,(iv) long term strategic plans ( ranging from 2 to 5 years period)and approve the plans and strategies prepared by other management structures. Functional management prepares strategiesandshort term plans ranging for six months to a two -year period. Operating management prepares operating plans and operating strategies that will range from one week to six months period. All these plans and strategies should be falling with in the top management plans and strategies. Once they are implemented in true spirit, the organization gives excellent results in all directions. But it is not so simple in the present day organisations. Organisation should have proper control systems in place, and internal audit activity exists to give reasonable assurance to the management that the control environment exists, andcontrol systems established by the management are efficient, effective and economical. Assignment of Authority and responsibility-- Managements function throughby fixing responsibilities on the individual mangers, and

Mcdonald's Marketing Campaign 2012 Research Paper

Mcdonald's Marketing Campaign 2012 - Research Paper Example Consumers want transparency and high standard of service. People want to take this as an opportunity to clarify all sorts of doubts and controversies that they have been hearing with regards to McDonalds over the years like the processing of chicken waste in the making of McNuggets etcetera. â€Å"Things from beef grades to the pink slime controversy are being questioned, and at first glance it seems as though McDonald’s is going to do something radical about our concerns† (Falconi, 2012). McDonalds might have achieved the intended aim behind running this campaign had all questions been answered objectively. However, McDonalds has still not confirmed its plans of addressing the concerns of the consumers. Lack of addressing of the questions has made the consumers think that McDonalds is doing false advertising. Many answers are cynical and manipulative rather than simple and straight-forward. Rather than answering the consumers’ questions, McDonalds is trying to find its way out smartly which is as frustrating for the consumers as difficult it is for McDonalds. Many answers are merely correction of the questions rather than answers (Falconi, 2012). The tricky answers have even shaken the trust of those consumers who had placed confidence in McDonalds meals before the campaign. Consumers are always curious to know more about a brand whether or not they are loyal to it. Any campaign that invites any question from the consumers without any restraint is bound to fail because consumers tend to take benefit of the situation and come up with cheesy questions. An organization has to establish limits somewhere because if everything is made transparent, it becomes very hard to make profits. Every organization has certain secret strategies that help the organization get competitive advantage. Complete transparency slips everything over to the stakeholders and the

Urbanization in ancient Greece Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Urbanization in ancient Greece - Essay Example One key characteristic of these settlements was lack of governmental authority beyond the boundaries of the village (Chant et al, 2000). In addition, these villages did not have any workshops or public buildings. Such egalitarian societies persevered on even after the introduction of agriculture. The egalitarian societies were stratified and turned into functionally specialized units by the formation of states and urbanization (Chant et al, 1999). This process took place independently in numerous regions of the world, probably starting from the Southwest Asian region, which was very fertile. The formative era referred to the period between the years 7000 to 5000 BC, which was characterised by urbanization and state development, which complemented each other. Upon the stratification of the egalitarian society, there emerged craftspeople, farmers, soldiers, administrators, merchants and priests, with the cities becoming the civilization focus (Chant, 1999). In the development of Greece cities, the natural environment as well as the existing technologies played a key role. These cities were built in around the eighth century by the Greeks. Distinguishing how the shape of the buildings in the cities was influenced by the natural environment or the available technologies is not easy. This is because there exists a very dynamic relationship between the natural environment and technology, with each shaping or being shaped by the other. Military technologies and needs were very important determinants in the layout and growth of Greek cities. Some of the initial cities in Greece grew as a result of pressure since the people needed to defend themselves form their enemies. As a result they were generally located on rocky positions, which were regarded as defensible. They were also positioned some distance from the harbour, with heavy fortification (Chant et al, 2000). Wall-building proved to be the most expensive and laborious task and involved very impressive engineering accomplishments in the architecture of Greece. Stone was in abundance and was used the building material, with its properties determining the style of construction. For instance, lintels and posts were frequently used in the construction of public monuments. Stone, which was the building material of choice, needed lifting technologies that utilized people as opposed to hoists (Chant et al, 1999). Cranes were not in use until much later, in 515 BC and beyond. They came into use as a result of labour shortage and not because of their capability of lifting larger blocks of stone. The unplanned growth of the earliest settlements was substituted by a bit more formal buildings, mainly after Persian attacks in the fifth century. With the advancement of technology in the military, it became necessary to adopt a defensive layout for the city streets. In the process of the reconstruction of these cities, there was development of numerous town planning theories, most of which were put into practice, with the grid plan becoming very common. Aristotle advocated for a city design of a defensive nature, which uses both the irregular and regular features. This, he argued, was aimed at reconciling the strain of moving both the equipment and troops easily, and to confuse any attackers (Chant, 2000). Natural Environment The location of earlier settlements was mainly determined by the natural

The Clubfooted Grocer Essay Example for Free

The Clubfooted Grocer Essay In class we were looking at a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle the man who wrote the famous Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer born in 1859, died in 1930 aged 71. Arthur Conan Doyle was trained as a doctor but never succeeded in this profession. He found more money would come from writing. Aged thirty- two he forgot about being a doctor and became a writer. He wrote all sorts of books Historical, romance, and adventure, but the Sherlock Holmes stories are what made him famous. In this essay I am going to examine the narrative and linguistic techniques Arthur Conan Doyle uses in The Clubfooted Grocer and the effect they have on the reader. The techniques I will focus on are characterisation, location and imagery, and the plot tension in the story.  The Clubfooted Grocer is based on the narrator and his Uncle, who has not excited to him and his mother for many years. Suddenly, out of no where, he sends a litter to ask for his nephew to go visit him up north. He gets on the train and meets his uncles messenger at a different station to where his uncle lives. He doesnt know why he has to meet there and why hes gone up north. He arrives at the house and it is surrounded by sailors but also doesnt know why. The sailors attack the house and break in. Arthur Conan Doyle uses techniques to make the story interesting and give it a little thrill.  Plot tension is when the author doesnt let you know whats going to happen so it makes you read the story further. The author can do this in many ways, maybe by only giving you a little information on someone and only the bad points on them. In The Clubfooted Grocer the author has used a lot of plot tension. The first time he used plot tension is in the opening paragraph. The paragraph opens introducing us to a Mr Steven Maple who is described as an unsociable, unrespectable man. It gives us a little information on his business life, which sounds like it didnt get very far and some of his business was a legal. It also mentions that he got beat up but doesnt give a reason why, which makes you wont to know. This is good plot tension. It also mentions that he disappeared in a lonely part of the north of England, but why, it leads to maybe a thrill in the story, makes you want to read on. The second time plot tension appears is in the second paragraph, again on the opening page. The paragraph opens with the narrators Mother reading him a letter from his Uncle, which is Mr Maple. The letter includes that Mr Maple wants his Nephew to go up north to meet him. Again why? This is what the letter doesnt include. It maybe for a visit or for the boy to help his uncle to get out of all his trouble. By Arthur Conan Doyle not giving any reason for the boys visit makes the story a little tense so would Inca ridge the reader to find out the reason why his nephew needs to go to meet his uncle, which makes you have to read on in the story to find this out. This is excellent plot tension. The third time plot tension appears is in the third paragraph. The paragraph opens with on no account let John get out at Congleton. This starts the paragraph with plot tension straight away because it sounds scary like if John gets out at that station something terrible is going to happen to him.  As you can see there is continuous plot tension in the story.  Arthur Conan Doyle has also used the technique of characterisation to make the reader think on what the characters in this story may look like. Characterisation is when in the story a new important character is introduced he/she is described in much detail to gain your attention. There is two times that Conan Doyle uses this in the story. The first time characterisation appears in The Clubfooted Grocer is on the sixth page of this story. It is used to describe Mr Steven Maple himself. Conan Doyle uses these words thick, small, rounded, ginger, white, heavy, and bald to give you a picture in your mind of what Uncle Steven would look like. With these words you can imagine Mr Maple as a short over weight bald round-headed man. The second time characterisation appears in this story is on the tenth page of this story and finishing on the eleventh. It is used here to describe Captain Elias. Conan Doyle uses the same technique to introduce new characters that are important in the story. He does this by using short nouns to describe the character. So in this case he uses these words to describe Captain Elias Freckled, great black cloak, different, crafty, cruel, dangerous, sly, and gloated. These words you can imagine what Captain Elias looks like and also the way he may act and talk. The very short words like crafty, cruel, and sly describe maybe what Captain Elias is like to his peers. Mr Steven Maple is in trouble with Captain Elias so these words can express what might actually happen to Steven Maple or the actions taken by Captain Elias. The third technique that Conan Doyle uses is location and imagery. Conan Doyle uses this for the readers to imagine where the story is set. On page twenty, the fifth paragraph Conan Doyle has used the narrator to explain the scenery of the place where hes going, in this case north England. This paragraph describes the narrators journey to where he is visiting his Uncle Steven Maple. He explains he doesnt know where the train he is travelling on is leading him. He only knows the stop to get off. For two hours I passed through desolate rolling plains, rising into places into low, stoned littered hills this is taken from the fifth paragraph on page twenty explaining where the story is set. Conan Doyle uses this technique very well on the fifth page of the story on the eleventh line. He uses this for a whole paragraph. It was quite dark outside, with heavy black clouds drifting slowly across the sky this is taken from that paragraph and explains the scenery that the young boy is surrounded by. This is good use of location. This paragraph goes on explaining the actions taken by the young boys guide. At first my guide walked swiftly and carelessly but eventually his pace slowed down this sentence finishes explaining how the guide slows down for the rest of their journey. Conan Doyle has used location very well in this; it gives you a good idea of where the story is set at all times. The Clubfooted Grocer was not interesting for me, the story seemed very pointless in my point of view. I can understand why maybe this story was chose for the students to study as it was wrote by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but I found this story not one I would want to look at again. I understand the techniques used in this story and these were used very well. I think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has structured this story well but not a good story line.

Social Stratification Essay Example for Free

Social Stratification Essay A. What is Social Stratification? 1. Social stratification is defined as a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy a. There are four fundamental principles of stratification: †¢ Social stratification is a characteristic of society not just due to individual differences †¢ Social stratification persists over generations †¢ Yet, most societies allow some sort of social mobility or changes in peoples position in a system of social stratification †¢ Social mobility may be upward, downward, or horizontal †¢ Social stratification is universal but variable (it changes) †¢ Social stratification involves both inequality and beliefs 2. Social Stratification is patterned social inequality. It is also the unequal distribution of societal resources. Saying that inequality is patterned indicates that the differences occur: a. on a wide-scale basis b. with regularity   c. and along lines of certain specific, identifiable characteristics (race, class, and gender) 3. Stratification is usually based on three major premises: a. Power: the ability to impose one’s will on others b. Prestige: the respect given by others c. Property: forms of wealth 4. Patterned: if we know whether a person or group possesses or does not possess certain traits, then we will be able to predict with reasonable accuracy how this person or group is likely to fare in the social hierarchy a. Social Hierarchy: A set of ranked statuses 5. Social Inequality: Some types of people systematically experience advantages in society while other types of people are systematically disadvantaged in our society a. Some members of our society are thought of as haves, and others are thought of as have-nots. b. The determination of who is socially advantaged and who is included among the ranks of the socially disadvantaged is based, in part, on certain characteristics these individuals possess and, in part, on how society values or devalues these characteristics 6. Social stratification affects people’s lives and can be manifested in various ways in society. 7. Social Inequality is a structured and systematic phenomenon that affects people in various social classes throughout their lives. a. Because of this patterned inequality, social stratification affects people’s life chances: †¢ Life Chances: Opportunities that individuals do or do no have to engage in certain activities, and the opportunities that they do or do not have to accomplish certain goals simply because of where they are located in the social hierarchy (ex. Smart children born into wealth vs. poor families) B. Caste and Class Systems †¢ People are divided into different groupings and their lives are structured according to these groupings. There are certain things that some people cannot do, simply because their station in life prevents them from being able to do them. †¢ Other people, in a different social stratum, are able to do these things specifically because they occupy a more favorable position in the social hierarchy. †¢ Depending on how much individual mobility is possible; societies may be classified as either a caste system or a class system. 1. A caste system amounts to social stratification based on ascription a. A caste system consists of a fixed arrangement of strata from the most to the least privileged, with a persons position determined unalterably at birth. b. The most extensive contemporary example of a caste system is found in India, especially in rural areas. c. Caste discrimination is officially illegal but exists nonetheless. The traditional castes of India: †¢ Brahmans: mostly priests and scholars. †¢ Kshatriyas: warriors, rulers, and large landholders †¢ Vaishyas: merchants, farmers, and skilled artisans. †¢ Shudras: laborers and unskilled artisans. †¢ Harijans: Sometimes called untouchables, they are ranked so low that, technically, they are outside the caste system itself. d. Caste boundaries in India are reinforced further by the practice of ritual pollution or ritual avoidance. e. A caste system may be determined by many ethnic and cultural factors. European imperial powers in Africa imposed a caste system based on skin color: all whites were in a higher position or caste than any nonwhite f. Caste systems shape peoples lives in four crucial ways: †¢ Caste system largely determines occupation †¢ Caste systems largely mandate endogamy †¢ Powerful cultural beliefs underlie caste systems †¢ Caste systems limit out group social contacts g. Although caste influences remains strong in India, the situation is changing due to communication, transportation, industrialization, and the growth of a middle class. 2. In a class system, social stratification is based on individual achievement a. Class Systems. People who can be considered peers in society because of their similar life chances, similar life circumstances, and similar opportunities, constitute a social class. †¢ In a class system social standing is determined by factors over which people can exert some control, and some mobility does take place. b. In a class system, status inconsistency, the degree of consistency of a persons social standing across various dimensions of social inequality, is lower than in a caste system c. Structural social mobility: a shift in social position of large numbers of people due more to changes in society itself than individual efforts (Ex. Computer Industry) d. Stratification persists because it is backed up by an ideology: cu ltural beliefs that directly or indirectly justify social stratification e. Ideological support for inequality. An ideology or pattern of beliefs justifies social inequality in the Unites States, which legitimizes or justifies a particular societal arrangement. †¢ Ideological Hegemony: Refers to the control over the production of cultural symbols. †¢ One of Karl Marx’s famous quotes is: â€Å"the ruling ideas of any epoch are the ideas of the ruling class because they control the mental means of production. †¢ Thus, the elite has many weapons at their disposal in order to keep society and the lower classes under control. Two of the main ways are the use of force, and the mass media. †¢ Force: use the police, military, National Guard, FBI, etc. †¢ In the long run, it depends on legitimacy in order to maintain stratification. †¢ This is the belief that existing social and political institutions are the best ones for society. †¢ All ruling elite uses their position at the top of society to create an ideology. †¢ This is a complex set of beliefs, values, and norms, which rationalize and support the elites power and privileges. †¢ The dominant or most important and valued ideas in history have been the ideas of the ruling class. †¢ The Government or big corporations do not necessarily control the mass media, but the ruling class does influence what kind of information we get and what kind of ideas we listen to. †¢ Anti-government and Anti-business views are rarely expressed, and Hollywood gives us its share of who are enemies are: both foreign and in this country. †¢ Most of the media gives the same messages of free enterprise, equality of opportunity, individualism, hard work, and consumerism. †¢ This ideology, taught through the mass media, is used by the elite to confuse, distract, and divide the lower classes. †¢ Marx argued that the class in power imposes its ideology on the entire society, and that false consciousness occurs when people in a class accept an ideology that is contrary to the best interest of that class. †¢ Marx argued that false consciousness will exist until the exploited stratum develops a sense of class consciousness, at which time the stratum will become a true social class and begin challenging the ruling class. C. The Functions of Social Stratification 1. The Davis-Moore thesis is the assertion that social stratification is a universal pattern because it has beneficial consequences for the operation of society 2. This thesis implies that societies become more productive as they approach meritocracy: a system of social stratification based on personal merit 3. Criticisms of Davis-Moore: a. It is difficult to specify the functional importance of a given occupation †¢ Some are over/under rewarded (EX. Baseball player, entertainer vs. teacher, garbage collector) b. Davis-Moore ignores how social stratification can prevent the development of individual talents c. The theory also ignore how social inequality may promote conflict and revolution (instability) D. Stratification and Conflict 1. Karl Max: Class and Conflict a. Marx saw classes as defined by peoples relationship to the means of production †¢ Capitalists (bourgeoisie) are people who own factories and other productive business †¢ The proletariat are people who sell their productive labor to the capitalists b. Critical evaluation: †¢ Marxs theory has been enormously influential   Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ His work has been criticized for failing to recognize that a system of unequal rewards may be necessary to motivate people to perform their social roles effectively 2. Three reasons suggested why Western Capitalism has not experienced a Marxist revolution: a. The capitalist class has fragmented and grown in size, giving more people a stake in the system b. The proletariat has also changed †¢ Blue-collar occupations, lower prestige work involving mostly manual labor, have declined †¢ White-collar occupations, higher prestige work involving mostly mental activity, have expanded c. Workers are better organized than they were in Marxs day their unions have been able to fight for reform d. The government has extended various legal protections to workers e. Supporters of Marxist thought have responded: †¢ Wealth remains highly concentrated   Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ White-collar jobs offer no more income, security, satisfaction than blue-collar jobs did a century ago †¢ Class conflict continues between workers and management †¢ The laws still favor the rich 3. Max Weber identified three distinct dimensions of stratification: Class, status, and power a. Max Weber argued that social standing consists (Of three parts or dimensions: class, which he regarded as determined mainly by economic standing or wealth; party, which was equivalent to political power; and status, or social prestige and honor. b. Following Weber, many sociologists use the term socioeconomic status: a composite ranking based on various dimensions of social inequality education, occupation, income †¢ Socioeconomic status. Following Webers lead, contemporary sociologists often use the broader concept of socioeconomic status to refer to a persons ranking along several social dimensions, particularly education, occupational prestige, and income †¢ Education. Education can lead to income attainment, but the benefits are not equally shared by racial and ethnic minorities, or by women. †¢ Wealth consists of consists of the total amount of money and valuable goods that a person or family controls †¢ It is more unequally distributed than income †¢ assets, such as real estate and jewels, and   Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ income consists of occupational wages or salaries and earnings from investments †¢ Occupational Prestige: Occupation serves as a key source of social prestige since we commonly evaluate each other according to what we do †¢ Because there are so many specific occupations, sociologists often categorize occupations into a smaller number: †¢ White-Collar †¢ Professional, manager, and administrator †¢ Technical †¢ Clerical †¢ Blue-Collar †¢ Craft, precision production, and repair †¢ Operative †¢ Labor (excluding farm) †¢ Farm worker †¢ If this scheme is too unwieldy, sociologists often divide occupations into two categories: white-collar and bluecollar. †¢ The pink collar is a category that reflects the segregation of women into certain occupations, such as kindergarten teachers and secretaries. †¢ High incomes usually are associated with high-prestige occupations, but there are exceptions. †¢ Sociologists sometimes use the term prestige to mean the honor associated with an occupation or other position in the social system, and esteem to mean the honor that accrues to the individual filling the position. c. Critical evaluation: Webers views have been widely accepted in the United States although hard economic times may lead to a renewed emphasis on the importance of economic classes E. Inequality in the United States †¢ US society is highly stratified, but many people underestimate the extent of structured inequality in US society †¢ Power is also unequally distributed †¢ Schooling †¢ Ancestry, race, and gender 1. Sociologists usually conceptualize American society as consisting either of three or nine distinct social classes: a. In the three-class model, society is divided into a lower class, a middle class, and an upper class b. In the nine-class model, each of these classes is further divided into three subclasses: lower-lower, middle-lower, lower-middle, middle-middle, etc. 2. Measurement of class. To measure social class standing, sociologists have developed three main methods: a. the objective method ranks individuals into classes on the basis of measures such as education, income, and occupational prestige; b. the reputational method places people into various social classes on the basis of reputation in the community class; and c. Self- identification allows people to place themselves in a social class. c. The lower classes. †¢ The upper-lower class, also called the working class, consists of service personnel, semiskilled operatives, and other blue-collar workers who do not earn enough to accumulate substantial savings. These people are vulnerable to disruptions in their income. †¢ The lower-lower class is made up of people who lack education and live in the most dilapidated sections of the community and in substandard housing. †¢ The lower-lower class may be divided into two subgroups: †¢ The working poor are lower-lower-class people who have jobs but who simply cannot earn an adequate income; and †¢ The chronically poor are mostly unemployed or work only occasionally. 4. Class, race, and gender. These three dimensions often interact to produce a persons place in society, the manner in which people are treated, and their self identify. F. The difference class makes a. Class and health b. Class and values c. Class and politics d. Class, family, and gender G. The Myth and the Reality of Mobility in the United States †¢ Amount of mobility. Sociologists frequently focus on the intergenerational mobility of individuals: upward and downward movements in socioeconomic status measured between the standing of children compared to that of their parents. 1. Myth versus reality a. Four general conclusions †¢ Social mobility, at least among men, has been high †¢ The long-term trend in social mobility has been upward †¢ Within a single generation, social mobility is usually incremental, Not dramatic †¢ The short-term trend has been stagnation, with some income polarization b. Mobility varies by income level c. Mobility also varies by race, ethnicity, and gender 1. Determinants of mobility †¢ Social Mobility: The movement of persons and groups within the stratification system. a. Steepness of the socioeconomic pyramid: that there are not enough high status jobs to satisfy everyone. b. Starting position on the socioeconomic ladder: some people begin closer to the top than others. c. Structural mobility: the movement of entire categories of people due to changes in society itself. d. Types of mobility †¢ Upward and downward †¢ Intragenerational social mobility is a change in social position occurring during a persons lifetime †¢ Intergenerational social mobility is upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents 2. Social stratification can be determined by a number of variables, each of which can cause someone to be advantaged or disadvantaged compared to others in society. a. It is not necessarily the impact of any one variable in U.S. society that leads to stratification – it is a unique combination of stratification-related factors that determines how one succeeds in society. b. Some of these traits are within our control, others we have little control over (ascribed vs. achieved) Who can tell me which is which? †¢ Major ascribed social stratifiers: race, sex, and age †¢ Major achieved social stratifiers (education, income, occupation, religion, etc.) SOCIAL stratification is the main reason for relational set of inequalities in economic, social, political and ideological dimensions. It is a system whereby people rank and evaluate each other. On the basis of such evaluation, one is rewarded with more wealth, authority, power and prestige. It is broadly organised into three parts: upper class, middle class and lower class on the basis of power and wealth. This has resulted in the creation of a number of levels within our society. Social stratification causes social disparity and many problems as it is an unjust system with monopoly of power and wealth in a particular group. It affects life chances, lifestyles and prestige. It creates emotional stress and depression for the people belonging to lower social stratum as they have unequal access to wealth, power and prestige. It creates a huge gulf between the people in terms of their incomes and a range of measures associated with social position, education, health, and psychological well-being. It is distinctly perceived that disparity causes chaos in society. These are the stumbling blocks in the way to progress and development of the country.

Democratic Leadership Style and Follower Performance

Democratic Leadership Style and Follower Performance This research sought to provide information about the relationship between Democratic leadership style and Followers Performance. Drawing on a sample of employees working in a Dairy Product Industry, we tested relationships between Democratic Leadership Style and Followers Performance. On the basis of causation and bivariate data analysis it was found that there was a strong positive association between the Democratic Leadership Style and followers Performance. This report consists on Seven Chapters. In the first Chapter we introduced the topic, in second chapter we review the Literature, where different studies have different empirical results most of them have ensure positive relation ship between the variables. In third and fourth chapters, on the basis of theoretical framework we operationalzed the variables. In chapter five and six we create research design and analyze the data. In the last chapter we draw conclusion on the basis of Data analysis. Chapter 1: Introduction Since the early 1930s, leadership has remained a ubiquitous topic of exploration in the field of management, despite a modest decline in the 1970s (Hunt, 1999). The popularity of this topic was restored with the advent of concepts such as charismatic leadership, visionary leadership and transformational leadership. All of these advances emphasize that some leaders can inspire followers to pursue collective values and aspirations as well as sacrifice egocentric needs and goals. These theories also reveal that leaders can invoke and regulate emotions rather than rely on rational processes to motivate other individuals. Over the last decades, the relationship between leaders behavior and subordinates perceived stress has gained increasing attention from the scientific community. The kind of leadership style influences how subordinates cope with stress. The leadership domain has recently focused on the so-called new leadership paradigm such as transformational leadership . Transformational leaders emphasize higher motive development, and arouse followers motivation and positive emotions by means of creating and representing an inspiring vision of the future. In contrast, transactional leadership explains the relationship between leader and follower as an exchange system of well-defined transactions. In turn, the leader rewards or disciplines the follower with regard to his/her performance. While several studies have focused on the relationship between these leadership styles and follower performance the relationship between the leaders behavior and subordinates work related stress has mainly been neg lected. The present study addresses this gap and explores the relationships between the leaders behavior and subordinates work related stress has mainly been neglected. Objective:- The objective of the study are To measure the impact of democratic leadership in dairy products companies To Measure the efficiency of performance of follower of democratic leader.. To find that democratic leadership is more effective or not on the follower performance. Significance of Study:- This study was made for the following purpose. It will help the managers to improve the performance of their followers or team members if they use democratic leadership style. It will help the workers to improve their performance if they exchange their ideas with their leaders. Chapter 02: Review of Literature In this study, highly democratic leadership is compared with both moderate democratic and less democratic leadership styles. The moderate democratic leadership style is one that focuses on the task at hand. It emphasizes such behaviors as maintaining standards and meeting deadlines. Less democratic leadership involves exhibiting concern for the welfare of the other members of the group by expressing appreciation for good work, stressing the importance of job satisfaction, maintaining and strengthening the self esteem of subordinates by treating them as equals, and making special efforts to help subordinates feel at ease (Bass, 1990). Leaders who display Highly democratic leadership behaviors have been described as providing followers with clear visions of the future, expressing high expectations for follower performance, and displaying confidence in their followers ability to accomplish challenging tasks (House 1988). Leadership research has consistently found a strong positive relat ionship between Highly democratic leadership behaviors and follower performance (Bass, 1990) (House, 1988). Specifically, by articulating compelling vision of the future, communicating high expectations with respect to followers performance, and displaying confidence in followers ability to meet these expectations, highly democratic leaders have been found to positively influence follower performance. These findings have been supported in a variety of settings and using various research methodologies including laboratory experiments (howell Frost, 1989), field research (e.g., Smith 1982; Avolio, Waldman, and Einstein 1988; Hater and Bass 1988; Howell and Avolio 1993), and archival studies (e.g., House, Spangler, and Woycke 1991). Howell and Frost (1989), for example, found that individuals working under an actor trained to display Highly democratic leadership behaviors had higher qualitative and quantitative task performance, higher task satisfaction, and lower role conflict and am biguity in comparison to individuals working under less democratic leaders; they also had higher quantitative task performance, greater task satisfaction, and less role conflict than individuals working under moderate democratic leaders. More recently, in an experiment using 282 undergraduates carrying out a simulated production assignment, Kirkpatrick and Locke (1996) found a positive relationship between Highly democratic behaviors and performance, task satisfaction, and attitude toward the leader. Both Howell and Frosts and Kirkpatricks studies found that individuals working under Highly democratic leaders reported that the task was more interesting, engaging, and satisfying than individuals working under less democratic leaders; this was so in spite of the fact that all individuals performed the identical task. The above findings have been supported by the findings of studies conducted in the field. For example, in a study of 30 Highly democratic and 30 nonHighly democratic leaders from a wide variety of organizations, Smith (1982) found that Highly democratic leaders could be distinguished from less democratic leaders based on their followers higher performances and higher levels of self-assurance. Based on these reports of higher selfassurance for followers of Highly democratic leaders, Smith postulated that Highly democratic leaders may produce their effects on followers by enhancing their self-efficacy beliefs. While the above empirical evidence supports the relationship between Highly democratic leadership behaviors and follower performance, the effect of those behaviors on follower performance over time and the role of self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between leadership style and performance remain largely unexplored empirically. For this reason, I draw on Shamir, House , and Arthur (1993) and Bandura (1997) for a theoretical explanation of the motivational effect of Highly democratic leadership behaviors and how they might enhance follower selfefficacy and lead to greater sustained effort and performance over time. According to Bandura (1997, p. 101), People who are persuaded verbally that they possess the capabilities to master given tasks are likely to mobilize greater effort and sustain it than if they harbor self-doubts and dwell on personal deficiencies when difficulties arise. Drawing on Bandura (1986), Shamir et al. (1993) propose that Highly democratic leaders expression of high expectations for follower performance and their ability to persuade followers that they can meet those expectations motivate followers to produce and sustain greater effort via the mediation of self-efficacy. Further, they propose that, by articulating a compelling vision, Highly democratic leaders produce in followers a level of personal commitment whose behavioral manifestations produce a self reinforcing cycle that sustains itself over time. This motivational influence of Highly democratic leadership behaviors produces a positive deviation amplifying loop or performance improvement spiral (Lindsley, Brass, and Thomas 1995). Thus, while empirical evidence has demonstrated the link between Highly democratic leadership and performance, theoretical work points both to the sustainability of follower effort and performance over time and to the mediating role of self-efficacy. Chapter 03: Theoretical Framework Interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth century. Early leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and followers, while subsequent theories looked at other variables such as situational factors and skill levels. While many different leadership theories have emerged, most can be classified as one of eight major types: 1. Great Man Theories: Great Man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent that great leaders are born, not made. These theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to rise to leadership when needed. The term Great Man was used because, at the time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military leadership. 2. Trait Theories: Similar in some ways to Great Man theories, trait theory assumes that people inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. But if particular traits are key features of leadership, how do we explain people who possess those qualities but are not leaders? This question is one of the difficulties in using trait theories to explain leadership. 3. Contingency Theories: Contingency theories of leadership focus on particular variables related to the environment that might determine which particular style of leadership is best suited for the situation. According to this theory, no leadership style is best in all situations. Success depends upon a number of variables, including the leadership style, qualities of the followers and aspects of the situation. 4. Situational Theories: Situational theories propose that leaders choose the best course of action based upon situational variables. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate for certain types of decision-making. 5. Behavioral Theories: Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born. Rooted in behaviorism, this leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders not on mental qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can  learn  to become leaders through teaching and observation. 6. Participative Theories: Participative leadership theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that takes the input of others into account. These leaders encourage participation and contributions from group members and help group members feel more relevant and committed to the decision-making process. In participative theories, however, the leader retains the right to allow the input of others. Assumptions of Participative theory Involvement in decision-making improves the understanding of the issues involved by those who must carry out the decisions. People are more committed to actions where they have involved in the relevant decision-making. People are less competitive and more collaborative when they are working on joint goals. When people make decisions together, the social commitment to one another is greater and thus increases their commitment to the decision. Several people deciding together make better decisions than one person alone. Style of leader in participative theory A Participative Leader, rather than taking autocratic decisions, seeks to involve other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders. Often, however, as it is within the managers whim to give or deny control to his or her subordinates, most participative activity is within the immediate team. The question of how much influence others are given thus may vary on the managers preferences and beliefs, and a whole spectrum of participation is possible, as in the table below. Highly Democratic> Autocratic decision by leader Leader proposes decision, listens to feedback, then decides Team proposes decision, leader has final decision Joint decision with team as equals Full delegation of decision to team There are many varieties on this spectrum, including stages where the leader sells the idea to the team. Another variant is for the leader to describe the what of objectives or goals and let the team or individuals decide the how of the process by which the how will be achieved (this is often called Management by Objectives). The level of participation may also depend on the type of decision being made. Decisions on how to implement goals may be highly participative, whilst decisions during subordinate performance evaluations are more likely to be taken by the manager. 7. Management Theories: Management theories (also known as Transactional theories) focus on the role of supervision, organization and group performance. These theories base leadership on a system of rewards and punishments. Managerial theories are often used in business; when employees are successful, they are rewarded; when they fail, they are reprimanded or punished. 8. Relationship Theories: Relationship theories (also known as Transformational theories) focus upon the connections formed between leaders and followers.  Transformational leaders  motivate and inspire people by helping group members see the importance and higher good of the task. These leaders are focused on the performance of group members, but also want each person to fulfill his or her potential. Leaders with this style often have high ethical and moral standards. The theory which support to our topic is Participative Theory. The theory support our hypothesis that higher the democratic leadership style higher will be the followers performance. Chapter 04: Hypothesis and Operationalization of variables Research Question: Is there any association between democratic leadership style and follower performance? Hypothesis: H1: There is Positive association between democratic leadership style and follower performance. Ho: There is no association between democratic leadership style and follower performance. Theoretical Definition of Variables Democratic Leadership Style: Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Follower Performance: The  results  of  activities  of an  organization  or  investment  over a given  period  of  time. Operational Definition of Variables Democratic Leadership Style: Democratic Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent through its competency, intimacy, passion and integrity.   Follower Performance: The carrying of an act into execution productively and qualitatively by coordinating with peers by the commitment of employees. . Styles of leadership:- Authoritarian (autocratic) I want both of you to. . . This style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want done and how they want it accomplished, without getting the advice of their followers. It is useful when:- when you have all the information to solve the problem, you are short on time, and Your employees are well motivated. Some people tend to think of this style as a vehicle for yelling, using demeaning language, and leading by threats and abusing their power. This is not the authoritarian style, rather it is an abusive, unprofessional style called  bossing people around. It has no place in a leaders range. Participative (democratic) Lets work together to solve this. . . This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect. This is normally used when:- You have part of the information, and your employees have other parts. Note that a leader is not expected to know everything this is why you employ  knowledgeable  and  skillful  employees. Using this style is of mutual benefit it allows them to become part of the team and allows you to make better decisions. Dimension of democratic leadership Style The major dimensions of leadership are divided into four chambers: Competence Intimacy Passion Integrity Competence Competence includes personal traits and technical skills. Competence can be divided as knowledge of the topic at hand, intelligence, expertise, skill, or good judgment.There are four elements of competence which are as follows:- Technical Skills: Are needed to understand activities, operational processes products and services, technology, and legal requirements. Cognitive Skills: Are necessary to analyze problems, develop creative solutions, identify patterns and trends, understand complex relationships, and develop effective mental models. Interpersonal Skills: Such as listening, persuasiveness, social sensitivity are needed to influence people, avoid unwanted influence, develop cooperative relationships, establish and maintain networks, understand individuals, facilitate teamwork, and resolve conflict constructively. Personality Traits: Seam less important that technical skills. Nevertheless, individual needs, core values, and temperament are clearly relevant to effective leadership. Intimacy Intimacy refers to the leaders ability to build and maintain relationships. All too often we expect people to buy into the position of leadership and be loyal to the title rather than to the person that fills the position. The first thing a leader must declare is not authority because of rights, but authority because of relationships. Effective Management: Social skills help to understand the feelings of others and the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively. Cooperative Relationships: Skills such as empathy, social insight, charm, tact, and diplomacy are essential to developing and maintaining cooperative relationships with subordinates, superiors, peers, and outsiders. Influencing: Empathy and social insight is the ability to understand motives, values, and emotions. Understand what people want and what motivates them is necessary for effective influencing strategies. Resolving Conflict: Being able to listen to people with problems, personal complaints, or criticism is necessary for resolving conflicts in a constructive manner. Passion Your passion for something is an indication of what you find worthy in and of itself. Its a clue to what you find intrinsically rewarding. Passion refers to the drive to make a contribution and to create something meaningful and valuable a sense of worth. Its sometimes referred to as enthusiasm, hope, or aspirations. Enthusiasm: Originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a God. Today the word simply means intense enjoyment, interest or approval. Hope: An emotional belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances within ones personal life. Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance such as believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary. Aspirations: Providing a climate where people feel free and motivated to cultivate and implement constructive ideas is the challenge of talented leaders. Integrity Most people can manage when things go well, but true leadership is how we cope with people when times are tough. Integrity is what drives us regardless of our situation or position. Too many leaders are ready to assert their rights but not assume their responsibilities. They are looking to the organization to make people responsible to follow. They look for a new title, another position, sometimes a new job. They never come to realize that they lack authority because they lack integrity. Integrity means that a persons behavior is consistent with espouse values, and the person is honest, ethical, and trustworthy. Honesty and Trust: If people anywhere are to willingly follow someone whether it be into the battle or into the boardroom, the front office or the front lines they first want to assure themselves that the person is worthy of their trust. Courage: The strength to lead in these difficult circumstances, meaning that courageous leaders are strong and unlikely to quit. This kind of courage displays itself in an organization when a leader is willing to admit his mistake, when she is willing to stand up for her beliefs, or when he must challenge others. Self-Discipline: People have to know themselves and understand their environments in order to adapt and learn. The most basic defining moment demands that leaders resolve the issue of self-discipline. The higher leaders climb up the corporate ladder the greater their burden of responsibility and their need to reevaluate themselves and their whole self. Dimensions of Follower Performance:- Quality of Work Completing the work accurately, neat, well organized through effective. Documentation:- Fulfilling the documentation requirements and having proper record of files. Safety Consciousness:-Acting with proper safety habits, maintains equipment, corrects unsafe conditions. Coordination Supervision of others:- Guiding and assisting to acquire skills and achieve performance goals and results. Communication Skills:- Articulate in expressing facts, ideas and thoughts with clarity both orally and in writing. Public Contact Service Skills: Honesty , tact, courtesy, awareness of and sesitiviy to customer and co-worker need. Commitment Towards organization Attendance (punctuality):- punctual to work , meetings and from breads; does not abuse leave time. Initiatives:- Self-motivated and makes effort to compete work with minimal supervision. Customer Satisfaction:- Giving full time and paying full attention toward customer in order to satisfy the customers to make them loyal. Productivity Complete the assigned task effectively and efficiently. Efficiency and effectiveness:- Achieving the assigned targets with the given timeframe. Overall Cost Programs:- Delegating the task to junior in order to save time keeping in mind the cost of the task. Budget:- Completion of the tasks within defined budget. Claims: Any Amount, stock or compensation toward third party called lack for adjustment. Dimensions, Elements and Statements of Questions Section 01 Leadership Style Dimensions Elements Statement of Questions Competence Technical Skills I always update my technical knowledge of my organization through peers and my own experience. Cognitive skills I walk the talk, I model the behavior I want from my team. Interpersonal Skills I feel happy to know that my staff is clear about companys goal. Personality Traits I dont scream or lose temper. Intimacy Effective Management I avoid making judgment of premature evaluation of ideas or suggestion. Co-operative Relationship I set down performance standard for each aspect of my staff job. Influencing I provide my staff with opportunities to refresh the skills. Resolving conflict I check staffs work on a regular basis to assess their progress and learning. Passion Enthusiasm I admit when I do not the answer. Hope I provide my staff with opportunities to refresh therir skill. Aspiration I am able to provide negative feedback in a balanced and constructive manner. Integrity Honesty and Trust I keep confidential information very confidentially. Courage I share the credit and ccolades with those who contributed. Self Discipline I am fair and treat all staff members with respect and equal coordination. Section 02 Follower Performance Quality of Work Documentation My team completes documentation and the verified them before entering into new task. Safety Consciousness My team members record and enter data consciously. Coordination Supervisions of others My team adopts internal controls system voluntarily. Communication Skills My team tries to satisfy customers in their language. Public Contact My team member takes active part in public awareness. Commitment Punctuality and Regularity My team members are in office exact according to time schedule. Initiative My team members are self motivated and complete their work with in minimal supervision. Customer Satisfaction My team members dont go for new customer until they satisfy the current one. Productivity Efficiency and Effectiveness my team achieve Targets at their assigned time. Cost Programmes My team members always try to avoid to perform extra cost functions. Budget My team members never go beyond the budgeted expense. Claims My team members are initiatively conscious about claim from others. Chapter 05: Research Design This research is explanatory in nature. In the research the quantitative techniques for data collection has been used. The data was collected in a survey by questionnaire from middle level employees in production department of dairy industry . Our target population is the employees of Dairy Products Companies. We choose Haleeb Foods Ltd, Nestle Milk Pak Ltd and Shakarganj Milk Products. Our sample size is 1000 employees of Production department of all three companies. We conducted the survey from 400 employees from Nestle, 400 employees from Haleeb and 200 employees from Shakarganj Group. For this systematic random sampling techniques of probability method has been used. Data Transformation and Presentation We have tried to measure the Level of Democratic Leadership Style and Follower Performance. It was operationalized with the help of dimensions and elements. We had constructed number of statements on each element with 5 response categories using Likert Scale i.e Strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. We scored each of these items form 1 to 5 depending upon the degree of agreement with the statement. The statements was both positive as well as negative. For positive statement we had scored straight away from 5 to 1 i.e Strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. For the negative statement we have to reverse the score i.e 1 for strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for undecided, 4 for agree and 5 for strongly agree. Reason being that negative multiplied by a negative becomes positive i.e a negative statement and a person strongly disagree with it implies that he has a positive responsive so we give a score of 5. We have two variable i.e democratic leadership style and follower performance let us say there were 15 statement measuring for different elements and dimensions measuring level of leadership style and 10 statements measuring level of follower performance. when on each statements of commitment the respondent could get minimum score of 1 and maximum score of 5, on 15 statements a respondent could get a minimum score of (15*1 = 15) and Maximum score of (15*5 = 75) and for follower performance minimum score of (10*1 = 10) and maximum score of (10*5 = 50). In this way the score index ranges from 15 to 75 for democratic leadership style and 10 to 50 for level of follower performance. By transforming the score from score index into scale, we had categorized score ranges below 35 is for less democratic, 35 to 55 for moderate democratic and above 55 for highly democratic for leadership style. And for followers performance it was categorized like score ranges below 20 is for unsatisfactory performance, 20 to 35 satisfactory performances and above 35 is for outstanding performance. Univariate table for Democratic leadership style Table1: Democratic leadership style Leadership style Frequency Percent Highly Democratic 550 55 Moderate Democratic 300 30 Less Democratic 150 15 . Total 1000 100 Table 1 consist on three column ie. Leadership Style, Frequency and Percentage points of respondants. In leadership style, we have catorised it in three forms i.e Highly Democratic, Moderate democratic and Less Democratic. In Frequency column, there were 1000 persons sample out of which 550 are highly democratic, 300 are Moderate democratic and 150 shows the response of Less democratic. Univariate table for Follower Performance Table2: Follower Performance Follower Performance Frequency Percent Outstanding 575 57.5 Satisfactory 270 27 Unsatisfactory 155 15.5 Total 1000 100 Table 2 consist on three column ie. Follower performance, Frequency and Percentage points of respondants. In Follower performance, we have catagorised it in three forms i.e Outstanding, satisfactory and unsatisfactory. In Frequency column, there were 1000 persons sample out of which 575 are giving outstanding performance, 270 are giving satisfactory performance and 155 are giving unsatisfactory performance. Bivariate table Table 3: Democratic leadership style and Follower Performance Followe