Leadership and Human Behavior Essay Example for Free

Leadership and Human Behavior Essay Leadership and Human Behavior Introduction In today fast moving world, characterized by major changes in technologies, different industries are constantly forced to revolutionize their products and services to the point that the business world has become more competitive and unpredictable than ever. There is a great need for people who are able to cope with change. In his article of â€Å"What Leaders Really Do, John P. Kotter said that, â€Å"mre change always demands more leadership. † The question of interest to me is to know which leadership approach suit the best in coping with change. In this paper, I will first develop an understanding of the concepts underlying the term leadership. Secondly, I will examine different leadership style through analysis of some cases studies explored in class. Subsequently, I will reflect on my personal style and present my conclusion. Definition and understanding To begin with, it is worth understanding what the term â€Å"leadership† means. There are hundreds of definitions out there related to this term, but each of them differs from one to another. The most appealing definition I found is the one from Don Clark of Big Dog Leadership. He defines leadership as a â€Å"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. † My interest to this definition resides in the way the author refers to some important elements of leadership such as influence, people, and objective. Kevin Martineau of Port Hardy Baptist Church has nicely put together the common elements that many leadership definition share that I thought to be useful in my understanding of leadership concept. First, he mentions that â€Å"leadership has to involve people. Without people following, being influenced, having their needs met or being motivated, mobilized, resourced and directed there is no leadership. † Next, he adds that â€Å"leadership is taking people to a destination/goal. Leaders take the people who are following them on a journey†. On that journey there is a destination. A leader must know what the destination/goal is that they are leading people to. † To conclude, he states that â€Å"leadership involves influence. A leader must be able to influence, motivate, mobilize and help others reach the destination. This means that the leader must be equipping and helping others to reach and realize their potential. † This in-depth description gives us a clear understanding of what leadership means and what effective leaders really do. However, the question we might wonder is to know â€Å"how† leaders carry out their everyday jobs? Certainly, it would be difficult to provide just one specific answer that best respond to this question, considering that there are many factors that play into account. However, in this paper I will focus on the type of leadership style used. Leadership Style Through the readings, analysis and class discussions of different cases studies explored in this class, I gained awareness of different leadership styles. In the following lines, I will like to highlight some cases that caught my attention. The first is the case study of â€Å"Amelia Rogers at Tassani Communications. † Rogers had a very task-oriented leadership style. She had a set of skills needed to get thing done, great sense of vision and strategy. Some people in the case described her as a â€Å"good thinker, hard worker, and she delivers what she says she is going to deliver†. Her tendency of being so focus on getting work done and seeing results led her to have tough management style and she was not thinking much about her work relationship. She found herself being in conflict with her co-workers on numerous occasions. Describing her own management style, she said that, â€Å"I like to nip my conflicts right in bud and deal with them head on, straight on, not hide them under things.

First Paragraphs in Short Stories :: essays research papers

FIRST PARAGRAPHS First paragraphs are fundamental to the story and need to â€Å"hook† the reader in. If the first paragraph doesn’t grab you, then why would you read further? The first paragraph is where you are introduced to the tone of the story and sets the stage by introducing the main character(s) and giving information to entice us to continue reading. Three stories that have strong first paragraphs that draw us in and help us understand the character and story are: â€Å"A Sick Call† by Morley Callaghan, â€Å"A Bird In The House† by Margaret Laurence, and â€Å"One Evening† by David Helwig. In the first paragraph of â€Å"A Sick Call† we are introduced to Father Macdowell, a â€Å"huge, old priest† who â€Å"was a bit deaf in one ear†. We are also told that â€Å"nothing seemed to shock or excite him, or make him really angry†. Thus, it appears that something later on in the story may test Father Macdowell’s fortitude and we are drawn to read on. When we do, we discover why his size and deafness are important. In â€Å"A Bird In The House†, the first paragraph introduces us to Vanessa, the main character, and tells us that she has skipped an important parade. The time of year is also pinpointed by mentioning the Remembrance Day parade and the â€Å"snowy wind†. This makes us want to read on to discover why Vanessa missed the parade and what made it, and the time of year, so important to her family. Miss Machry, in â€Å"One Evening†, is described to us right away in the first paragraph. We get the sense of her character in the way she â€Å"waved the old Japanese fan†, because the fan was delicate and it could only be preserved by â€Å"the gentlest of handling†. The fan is the link to her mother and father and how she had come to this moment. Miss Machry is looking out the window and waiting on someone â€Å"there was no sign of him yet.

Maritime Hull and Machinery Book report Essay

Introduction This book about the elements of shipping Emphasis is also placed on professionalism and the need to have the latest technology and professionally qualified personnel to operate a shipping service today. It remains essential reading for the shipping executive along with students and academics with an interest in the shipping industry. Hull and Machinery includes studies about cutting by a wedge of longitudinally stiffened plates for application to the grounding resistance of single hull and double hull ships. Two types of ship hull design were used as prototypes for the development of small scale models. A conventional longitudinally stiffened Single Hull (SH) and the Undirectionally Stiffened Double Hull (USDH) design. To model the cutting experiments the complex deformation patterns observed in the damaged specimens were simplified to obtain a closed-form upper bound for the steady state cutting force required for the USDH specimen. An existing closed-form upper bound solution for the wedge cutting initiation force of a single plate was applied to the longitudinally stiffened single hull specimens by smearing the geometry to obtain an equivalent thickness single plate. A total of eleven cutting experiments were conducted using six different wedge geometries. Early work in grounding prediction has been to perform plate cutting experiments which produced empirical formulas for the work to cut a flat plate. The main purpose of Hull and Machinery is to provide the ship owner with an expectation of status quo regarding a vessel’s operational ability during a maritime enterprise. Since marine perils are a risk that the ship owner assumes each venture. Improper design and the improper selection and use of materials is the primary cause of most non-damage related structural failures. Contrary to common belief, actual manufacturing defects only rarely figure into structural failures. It should come as no surprise to any surveyor that the ship building industry, much like the automotive industry which, after more than 70 years of mass production, backed up with their enormous financial resources, is still fraught with frequent design defects. Body Efforts have been quite significant in quantifying the force required to cut a single plate, but do not account for the effects of stiffeners and inner hull that exist in the actual geometry of ships. In order to adequately predict the lift and drag forces in a ship undergoing a grounding accident and the subsequent extent of damage. Global lifting of the ship against gravitational forces is done. There are Friction forces between the bottom hull plating and the grounding surface, plastic deformation of the hull girder, and forces required to fracture the hull structure. In grounding, the ship initially lifts and rides over the rock causing only hull indentation. Once the force due to the weight of the ship overcomes the plating membrane strength,   the hull plating ruptures. Kinetic energy of the ship is given up to friction forces, plastic deformation, and fracture as tearing over a length of the hull plating ensues. The work in this book report it does not account for the lifting and subsequent rupture of the ship, but assumes that the tearing of the hull plating is well progressed. The indentation and rupture of a ship hull is the structural design of a ship typically starts by determining the loading conditions that the ship will be experiencing during its service life. Normal operation includes loading conditions such as bending of the hull girder (hogging, sagging, and still water), cargo live loads, structural dead loads, liquid loads, cyclic fatigue, and exterior hydrostatic loads. The ship is also subjected to infrequent loads such as flooding and dry docking, and in the case of naval vessels, combat loads such as underwater explosions. The structure is designed, analyzed, and optimized to withstand the normal loads to some allowable stress level, and to remain intact under extreme loads subjected to a vertical load is considered a separate mechanism. Mission characteristics such as payload capacity and endurance determine the size of the ship. This establishes the length, beam, and depth of the ship, and, hence, the structural dimensions. Modern ships make use of this principle of construction. The said construction is the sum of its many parts while a fiberglass boat hull is essentially one component. The combination of molded hull and deck joined together creates a unified whole that is much stronger than the sum of its parts. But ships are proportionately far heavier and are subjected to different stresses. While the bottoms of hulls take the major brunt of stresses, and must be designed to withstand them, the construction still plays a major role in providing strength to the overall structure. In actual operation under heavy conditions, the hull sides of most boats will deflect to greater or lesser degrees depending on how well it is designed. This is the result of impact loading, bending and torsional loading on the hull caused by high velocity over waves, porpoising and so on. If you’ve ever wondered why there are ships have rub rails falling off and weak and damaged hull/deck joints, you probably thought that this was primarily due to hitting up against dock pilings. But the real reason is that there are ships who have poorly designed hull/deck joints that are simply lap joints screwed together. It is the stress transferred from the hull bottom to the hull sides and thence to hull/deck join that causes the screws that join these parts together to break loose. Putting screws into fiberglass is a terrible means of making connections. Screw joins are simply too weak to work effectively. Partial bulkheads are really nothing more than frames and do not serve any greater function than frames. It is a mistake to call a hull partition with two doors in it a bulkhead, for it is really only a partition or a partial bulkhead at best. Surveyors often mistake partitions for bulkheads. Remember that to be classified as such, a bulkhead must be serving the purpose of tying the four sides of the hull together (bottom, deck and sides). If the shot full of holes and openings, it’s not achieving that purpose. Conclusion It is important to be aware of the nuances and exclusions from Hull and Machinery cover as well as to be aware of cover options and requirements. For instance, although the ship, equipment and spare parts are covered by the Hull and Machinery insurance, loose items that accompany the ship in its trade, but which cannot be deemed to be a part of it, e.g. stores and supplies are covered under the ITCH, but not under the Plan. As a result, the ship owner may consider purchasing additional insurance cover for items falling outside of the Plan’s cover provisions. However, many times, the loss and/or damage of such items fall well below the deductive. Another important consideration is cover of items that are not normally on board the ship for an indefinite or prolonged period of time. The Plan’s prerequisite for covering equipment and spare parts under the Hull and Machinery cover is that they are normally on board. Therefore, an individual assessment should be made. Even less did I anticipate the effect on how the hull would handle with a 41% overall weight reduction. Scale model testing revealed the boat to be so light that it would pitch and roll so violently that it would be uninhabitable to human beings. It developed a whip-snap roll in a 3†² sea that would literally throw people off the deck. Or when pitching, launch them like a trampoline. However, there has been some extension into production building mainly so-called niche markets such as race boats, both power and sail. And to the extent that it is clear that the production boat building industry does not possess the necessary capital resources, nor the profit margins to sustain them, their incorporation of this technology into production building is very likely to continue along the lines of trial and error. What this portends for the surveyor are the risks of failing to locate design failures during surveys, failures involving design, materials and construction techniques that fall into the realm of the experimental. Make no mistake about it experimentation with new materials directly into a product is the norm, not the exception. With this basis understanding of the principles of good hull design, we can now begin to study the effects of what happens when these principles are violated. References Branch, Alan E. Elements of Shipping 7th Ed. Routledge Publication. N.Y. ISBN 0748760393 US Cost Guard Guide to Regulations for Passenger Vessels. (2001). http://www.uscg.mi/ng/9-m/nvic/301/n3-01.pdf Kahloism. (1971). Ship Construction. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3625174.html Shipping Container. (1974). http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3782619.html

How to Land Your First Teaching Job

Landing your first teaching job is not easy. It takes time, hard work and a lot of patience. Before you hit the ground running make sure you have the appropriate degree and credentials for the position you are applying for. Once thats all in order, follow these tips to help you get that dream job. Step 1: Create a Cover Letter Resumes have always been the most important piece of getting an employers attention. But when an employer has a stack of resumes to look through, how do you think yours will stand out? That is why a cover letter is essential to attach to your resume. It makes it easy for an employer to see if they even want to read your resume. It’s important to tailor your cover letter to the specific job you are applying for. Your cover letter should highlight your accomplishments and explain things that your resume cannot. If you have a special teaching certificate this is where you can add that. Make sure that you request an interview at the end of the cover letter; this will show them that you are determined to get that job. Step 2: Create Your Resume A well written, error-free resume will not only grab the attention of the prospective employer, but it will show them that you are a qualified contender for the job. A teacher resume should include identification, certification, teaching experience, related experience, professional development and related skills. You can add extras like activities, memberships, career objective or special honors and awards you received if you wish. Some employers look for certain teacher buzz words to see if you are in the loop. These words can include cooperative learning, hands-on learning, balanced literacy, discovery-based learning, Blooms Taxonomy, integrating technology, collaboration and facilitate learning. If you use these words in your resume and interview, it will show that you know what you are on top of issues in the education field. Step 3: Organize Your Portfolio A professional teaching portfolio is a great way to introduce your skills and achievements in a hands-on, tangible way. Its a way to showcase your best work to prospective employers beyond a simple resume. Nowadays its an essential component of the interview process. If you want to land a job in the education field, make sure you learn how to create and use a teaching portfolio. Step 4: Get Strong Letters of Recommendation For every teaching application you fill out, you will have to provide several letters of recommendation. These letters should be from professionals that have seen you in the education field, not from a family member or friend. The professionals you should ask can be your cooperating teacher, former education professor or instructor from student teaching. If you are in need of additional references you can ask a daycare or camp that you worked at. Make sure that these references are strong, if you think they do not do you justice, don’t use them. Step 5: Be Visible by Volunteering Volunteering for the school district you want to get a job in is the best way to be visible. Ask the administration if you can help out in the lunch room (schools can always use extra hands here) the library or even in a classroom that needs extra help. Even if it is only once a week it still is a great way to show the staff that you really want to be there and are making an effort. Step 6: Start Subbing in the District One of the best ways to get the attention of other teachers and the administration is to substitute in the district that you want to teach in. Student teaching is the perfect opportunity for you to get to your name out there and get to know the staff. Then, once you graduate you can apply to be a substitute in that school district and all the teachers that you networked with will call you to substitute for them. Tip: Make yourself a business card with your credentials and leave it on the desk of the teacher you subbed for and in the teachers lounge. Step 7: Get a Specialized Certification If you really want to stand out above the rest of the crowd then you should acquire a specialized teaching certification. This credential will show the prospective employer that you have a variety of skills and experience for the job. Employers will like that your knowledge will help enhance students learning. It also gives you the opportunity to apply for a variety of teaching jobs, not just one specific job. Now you are ready to learn how to ace your first teaching interview!