Complex Leadership Styles And Success Management Essay

Complex Leadership Styles And Success Management Essay Leadership style is too complex to limit to a simple formula, although there are some personality traits that are effective for becoming a successful leader. Some of these belong to leadership, while others are used in project management. Some general characters are common in most of the leaders such as: creativity, intelligence and courage. However, there are two opposite traits among leaders especially in critical situation which can determine whether the leader will be successful or not. Some leaders tend to blame others and avoid responsibility, while other leaders accept the failure and believe that outcomes depend on their decision and also their actions. Today, being an effective project manager is one of the most important issues in each organisation. This chapter will demonstrate the gist of activities which have been done about leadership so far. It will demonstrate the differences between management and leadership within the project environment. Leadership can be expressed in terms of the ability to build the instruction of project, motivate the members and maintain the performance of different groups in the organisation. In general, managers should deal with complexities and leaders should focus on changes. Leadership is related to conflict management and soft skills but management is related to formulating, monitoring and processing. Accepting failure but not defeat, considering the past mistakes during the project, and being the optimistic person should be considered for leaders to overcome the problems and direct the project in the proper way. It is difficult to establish a certain instruction for becoming an effective project manager although many different leadership and management styles have been built to develop the project accurately. All of the leadership styles and management technologies have been made in order to finish the project on time, precisely and satisfactorily. Effective leaders should first find out the purpose of their leadership (George, 2006). . Leadership theories General view Leadership has been considered more than any other aspect of human behaviour in the project management study. Leadership is the ability to bring people together to attain the results over time. Leadership is the long-term process and it needs years of progress and hard working. The leadership for 21st century becomes more complex and should be redefine in order to achieve the great goals (George, 2006). Many investigations have been carried out in leadership studies so as to find an appropriate leadership theory. For instance, Bass (1985) has had a great impact on leadership theory. He identified different types of characteristics, behaviours, and leadership styles. In spite of that, the science of leadership does not have certain factors which can be applied for all of projects in the world. Measuring and assessing projects in different places are not the same due to different situations. Therefore, many aspects of leadership still stay theoretical and cannot be practical (Gehring, 2007, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). All general leadership theories such as transformation, transaction and path-goal indicate that the project managers should own the required traits to lead a project effectively. In other words, effective project managers should recognise which approach is appropriate for applying to project leadership. Pinto et al. (1998) stated that Any project managers ability to lead effectively is augmented by his or her understanding of alternative approaches to leadership. Therefore, leaders should extract the skills of their employee and apply them to the project in order to lead the project accurately (Gehring, 2007). History of theories Theory of leadership like other theories has the history of formation. The first one was called superior individual and related to ancient Egyptians kings. The second was the great man theory which made by developing the first theory and indicated that a great man could determine the history of his country. The third one was the man of the hour and it was the modern form of the great man theory. This theory expanded and made the basic recorded leadership theory that called trait theory. After this time leadership was broadly modelled due to impact of great leaders on history such as Napoleon, Frederick, Churchill, Roosevelt and etc (Gehring, 2007). Trait theory Generally, traits are concerned with personal characteristics such as courage, intelligence, creativity and appearance. Trait theory has remarkable mistakes due to its limitations. The reason is that it is difficult to determine which leader can be known as a successful leader. Also, many trait lists have been made for leadership; therefore it is not easy to make a trait list as a reference. In addition, leaders who only possess the trait list cannot be called as successful leaders. Finally, by the end of 20th century, this theory is replaced by modern theories which concerned by behaviour of leader rather than traits (Gehring, 2007) . This theory indicates that effective leaders are born, not made. It supposes that effective leaders have almost the same traits. Three major factors are considered in this type of theory: personal appearance, personality, and abilities. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) found the main traits of effective leaders; intelligence, technical knowledge, self-confidence, influence, ambition, and integrity. This classification for effective project managers is different. It includes problem-solving and negotiating abilities, initiative, orientation, communication, perspective and self-confidence (Turner, 1999, Turner, 2005). The authentic leaders should have the five main traits for leading the organisations such as: showing self-discipline, making connected relationship, leading with both hearts and heads, training solid value, and encouraging their purpose with passion (George, 2006). Competency Unfortunately, the leadership terms such as: leadership trait, leadership attribute, leadership style and leadership competence have very narrow definition. Therefore, sometimes these terms have been used in an incorrect position. However, it should be noted that in the modern project, all of these terms should be considered in order to evaluate leadership success (Gehring, 2007). According to trait theory, some researchers believe that the effective leaders have the common inherent competencies. Although, this idea is just for inherent competencies and the personal competences can be learned as well as personal characteristics during the work (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Some authors believe that all of people have the power of leading in them; some of them in government, some of them in business, and etc. This power as series of competencies should be discovered in a certain time by themselves to serve others (George, 2006). Projects need project management competencies in order to be accomplished successfully. Competence can be defined in terms of skills (including intelligence, management and problem-solving skills), knowledge, traits, aptitude, behaviour, and motive. The competencies have been identified by the project manager competency development (PMCD) framework: knowledge, performance and personal. The personal one also has been classified into six major competencies: (1) personal effectiveness, (2) influence, (3) Managerial, (4) cognitive, (5) human service and (6) accomplishment (Gehring, 2007). Many taxonomy have been made for the competency, although, one of the comprehensive one was made by Dulewicz and Higgs (2003). They defined fifteen leadership competencies for three types of leadership: intellectual, managerial skill and emotional. See table 2.1(Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003). Table 2.1: Fifteen leadership competencies and the competencies profiles of their styles of leadership (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003). The competency leadership theory was made in 1990 in order to recognise the competencies of effective leaders. It shows that effective leadership can be obtained only by learning. Different combination of competencies can make different styles of leadership; therefore, they can be useful in different situations. Accordingly, Bass (1990) stated that certain leaders are more suitable for stable circumstance and others are suited to an unstable circumstance (Turner, 2005). It should be noted that the leaders in certain industry can very rarely to be effective in other industries where they have not enough experience. Thus, the structure of industry can impact on competence of leaders (Groysberg et al., 2006). Major leadership theories Many leadership theories lists have been identified over the last century. One of the significant of these lists is classified into six theories: (1) trait theory, (2) competency theory, (3) behavioural or style theory, (4) contingency theory, (5) visionary or charismatic theory, and (6) emotional intelligence theory (Turner, 2005). The behavioural or style theory is related to behaviours and assumes that effective leadership can be obtain during the life and effective leaders are not born naturally. The Cognitive theory assumes that an effective leader can be made in a special environment. Path-goal theory is made through cognitive theory. In pas-goal theory leaders should help members to find their path to their goal. This theory determines four leadership behaviours: directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented (House, 1971, Turner, 2005). The visionary or charismatic theory appeared in 1980 when business leaders changed their strategy due to critical situation. Two leadership types of this theory are transformational (people-focused) and transactional (task-focused) which are made by Bass (1985). Later, Bass and Avolio (1995) developed these transformation and transaction leadership styles and found that transformation style has greater influence on the project than transaction one. The transformational one is usually for high difficulty circumstance and the transactional one is usually for low difficulty circumstance. However, the appropriate one is the combination of both types which can be useful in diverse condition (Turner, 2005, Bass and Avolio, 1990). The emotional intelligence theory indicates that the leaders emotional intelligence is more effective than the leaders intellectual ability for the project. The main areas of emotional intelligence are as followed: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding (Turner, 2005, Goleman, 2002). Leadership Models Firelighter and fire-fighter There are two general styles of leadership in project management: fire-fighter and firelighter. The leaders who pay more attention to anticipate and even prevent problems are known as proactive leaders or firelighter, although, the leaders who tackle immediate problems are known as reactive leaders or fire-fighter. There should be a linkage between proactive decision and reactive decision to control the project accurately. Therefore, recognizing the necessary skills for the project manager is vital in order to make the shift in leadership style. However, it is obvious that project leadership which tends to be proactive in controlling projects is more effective (Barber, 2005). Proactive decision affects the direction of project and reactive decision solves the existing problems of project. These two leadership styles might be known as transformational leadership model or firelighter and transactional leadership model or fire-fighter. Transformational leadership is about lighting the fires of stakeholders motivation and creativity. In contrast to the transformational style is transactional leadership style which indicates the reactive behaviour of leadership (Barber, 2005). Bass and Avolio (1990) pointed out that there are times when leaders may need to apply a more reactive transactional style and be fire-fighters, but the main outcomes for success depend on the leaders capacity for being a firelighter. Active and effective leader combines leadership style (how the leader affects) and best practices (the best day to day working behaviours). The best practices for effective leadership style include parameters such as: vision, credibility, collaboration, communication, action-orientation, feedback and recognition, and accountability. In addition, the research has proved that the most popular leadership style for running safety and creating high-performance culture is transformational one (Krause, 2007). Transactional leadership style might be passive or active, although both approaches stay reactive. Fire-fighter leaders who just take action when they face to the problem are known as passive and other fire-fighters who trace deviation from standards tools and react to problems are known as active (Barber, 2005). The firelighter leadership style is more complex than the fire-fighter style. The fire-fighter style is overcoming the inertia of reactive leadership. Many different fire-fighter-firelighter models have been built to control the project precisely. One of these models separates the transactional style into three parts; maintenance, reactive and avoidant. Figure 2.1 (Barber, 2005) illustrates this model. Maintenance comprises initiating structure, emotional consideration and contingent reward. This part can prepare the requirements to transform the fire-fighter leadership style to firelighter one. In other words, the maintenance behaviours make a bridge to the transformational leadership style (Barber, 2005). The reason for that is the forming of credibility and trust of leadership which enable the leader to be accepted among team members as the firelighter leader. The firelighter part of this model combines the maintenance behaviour and the transformational behaviour. The contribution of this model is to expand understanding of the importance of the firelighter role in project management (Barber, 2005). The significant point of this model is the active transactional behaviour. It can provide a bridge to firelighter style for project managers who are confused by reactive fire-fighting style. Maintenance behaviours explain the tasks, assign responsibilities, identify rewards for attempt and observe the personal requirement of the team members (Barber, 2005). Bass (2003) indicated that contingent reward is the capability to establish fundamental objective and to present bonus to project members accordingly. It indicates a combination of task oriented and stakeholders supportive manners. In the initiating structure, the leader should clarify contingent rewards, direction of the project and assignment for the team members. Emotional consideration is related to team structure, personal requirement and ambitions (Barber, 2005). Leadership in project management Figure 2.1: The fire-fighter-firelighter model of leadership (Barber, 2005). The leader should defuse conflict between the team members and provide an appropriate environment for the team members. Bass (2003) expressed that firelighter leaders should persuade the team members to be inventive and imaginative by searching new assumptions, reframing problems, and applying new approaches. They also define four vital elements for transformational leadership; idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and intellectual simulation (Bass, 2003). Firelighter leader should enhance the understanding of the advantages of the project among the stakeholders. They should persuade their members to think about their action beyond simply what is in it for them. In other words, they should raise the consciousness of followers and move the focus of follower away from their self-interests (Bass, 2003). In addition, Bennis and Nanus (1985) asserted that the effective leader can manage changes and unpredictability by encouraging members to be innovative to overcome the difficulties. Therefore project managers are known as fire-fighter due to continually solving the problem and put out fires. Project manager and leadership style Project managers should trace the progress of their project and anticipate any problems before they will occur in the future. So, it is wise that project managers can be proactive and forestall the problems rather than being reactive and solve the problems. Project managers who focus on proactive leadership style will be more successful in completing projects accurately. Thus, project managers are known as fire-fighter due to continually solving the problem and put out fires (Barber, 2005). A project manager is a businessman, a psychologist, an accountant, and a technician. The project management institute (PMI) has developed classification; the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) which identifies eight main management competencies: scope, time, cost, risk, quality, contract, communication and human resource. Project managers should be highly effective people. They should possess knowledge of the technical details of their jobs as well as the ability to obtain the goals by leading the project team effectively (Barber, 2005). It should be noted that there is not only a comprehensive leadership style for leading a project successfully. However, using different leadership styles for each stage of a project can be more appropriate (Frame, 1987). Project managers leadership style affect their implementations, although, they usually tend to be task-oriented rather than people-oriented. They should create an appropriate environment for their project members. Therefore, their competencies are evaluated in terms of their success in leading the projects. In addition, it should be mentioned that in multiple-cultural projects, project managers should use particular leadership styles (Turner, 2005). Leaders with any leadership styles should be careful with the hazards of leadership in order to prevent to lose their way such as: being an imposter, being a shooting star, being a loner, being a glory-seeker, and being a rationaliser (George, 2008). Implication of the fir-fighter-firelighter model The fire-fighter-firelighter model builds a combination of firelighter and fire-fighter styles. It is useful for different styles of managing especially those which need remarkable changes in the project management environment (Barber, 2005). Firelighter leaders encourage the team members to use their creativity and adopt the requisite manners to deal with the problems. They demonstrate a combination of transformational and transactional behaviours. Nevertheless, they tend to be active leader and rely on transformational behaviour rather than reactive behaviours of management by exception. Thus, It is essential that the leader tend to be proactive in order to conquer the forthcoming problems (Barber, 2005). Software tools in project management by monitoring past data can strengthen a reactive leadership style. The leader who trusts on monitoring software tools would be the reactive fire-fighter through the project cycle. The concept and control of forthcoming problems is the most important ability for being an effective leader in project management (Barber, 2005). Integrating leading and managing Leading versus managing Many different rules have been established for differentiating the leading and managing so far. However, it is difficult to determine the role of them in succeeding of a system. Some researchers state that the competences and traits of leaders and managers should differ from each other in order to perform their tasks successfully. Managers tasks are related to effectiveness, direct and stability of the project, although, leaders tasks are related to adaptation, innovation and flexibility of the project. In other words, managers are practical, critical, and logical, while leaders are imaginative, inventive, and sensitive (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). There are diverse views about managing and leading. Some people who are more pessimistic about managing would like to have leaders in their systems. Some people who are more optimistic about managing would like to have both manager and leader in their systems. The other attitude is to having one person as a both leader and manager in a system. Nevertheless, it is very rare that someone can perform both managing and leading tasks in an organisation. It should be considered that in any of these perspectives, too much attention on leading or managing makes an organisation to be unsuccessful (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). If a system is more complicated, then a managing role is more important and if a system has an active atmosphere with much uncertainty, then a leading role is more significant. In other words, a system which needs more changes requires a leader rather than manager and a system which needs more process and orders requires a manager rather than leader. Herein, the significant point is to inter-relate the leading and managing roles in an organisation. Therefore, if any organisation can establish this joint properly, then it would have the better performance and successful project accordingly (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Different approaches There have been different approaches for definition of managing and leading. This debate is still continuing due to complexity of appreciation of these contexts. The first approach is to make a coequal role for both leading and managing and defined each of them more broadly. The second approach is to define a leading role as the previous definition but add it to managerial roles. The third approach is to establish a set of roles without identifying as leading or managing roles. The most appropriate approach should be defined in terms of the performance determinants in the flexible leadership model. In spite of that the best approach is still unknown and further research is needed to obtain it (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). The Flexible leadership model Three determinant of organisational performance can be recognised by the flexible leadership model; (1) effectiveness and popularity, (2) invention and changeability, and (3) human resources and relations. Each of these determinants is more important in an especial situation. Human resources and relations are more important when replacing skilled members is difficult. Organisations which consider this determinant are more likely to have effective employee skills. The example of this is General Electric Co. which has been identified as the best organisation in training employees. The reason is that, it uses sequence plan to prepare employees for empty key positions (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Leadership behaviours There are many kinds of leadership behaviours that can affect the performance determinants such as task-oriented which are related to efficiency, change-oriented related to changeability, and relations-oriented related to human resources. Table 2.2 (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005) illustrates these leadership behaviours (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Management programs and systems Management is an essential work for any organisation. Organisations prepare their members to be effective in all levels. However, there is not a certain code of conduct for management. The lack of common acceptable knowledge, skill and practice lead to management as a practice rather than profession. However, with enhancing the technology in management some programs and systems cover this problem (Lorsch and Clark, 2009). Management programs and systems also can influence the performance determinants. They are demonstrated in Table 2.2 (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). One of these systems is benchmarking. It is a systematic program for improving adaptation, services, and products. It should be noticed that in all of organisations, programs and systems should be directed by leaders to ensure that a management system is carried out accurately (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005) Table 2.2: Leadership behaviours and management programs and systems (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Leadership behaviours and management system Both of these ways can affect the performance determinants and they act as supplementary for each other. The leadership behaviour can be applied in an organisation to develop new programs. For instance, if manager persuade employees to attend a new training programs and apply them to their job, then this program would be more successful. In the other hand, management program also can improve the effect of leadership behaviour. Employees cannot be innovative without programs. In spite of that in some cases the application of leadership behaviours are limited by management programs (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Performance determinants Each of performance determinants can affect the other determinants. Sometimes this affection leads to improve the other determinants and sometimes it leads to degrade the others. Therefore, it is not easy to build a certain formula for enhancing all aspects of performance determinants simultaneously. However, the right balance among performance determinants can be useful for improving the organisational effectiveness (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Project success factors In the 1970s, project success factors have been determined in terms of developing system, improving of implementation, and evaluating time, cost and process. In the 1980s, critical success factors (CSF) was brought up in terms of the quality of the implementation, stakeholders activities and organisational objectives (Turner, 2005). Many efforts have been done for establish the comprehensive project success factors. One of the most popular lists was made by Pinto and Slevin (1988). See Table 2.3 (Pinto and Slevin, 1988) . Table 2.3: Project success factors (Pinto and Slevin, 1988). The other important list which covers the previous efforts was made by Turner (1999). This list includes five main factors for project success: context, attitude, sponsorship, definition, people, system, and organisations. See Figure 2.2 (Turner, 1999). Figure 2.2: The seven forces model for project success (Turner, 1999). Project managers leadership competencies and project success Project manager competencies The six main schools of leadership have been recognised by Higgs (2003): trait, behaviour, contingency, visionary, emotional intelligence, and competency. Leadership is defined in terms of these schools as a combination of personal characteristic and competencies (i.e. skills and knowledge). This combination can create different leadership styles which are suitable for different situation. Moreover, competency school has been identified as the most important school of leadership in project management. Therefore, more studies on this school is required for leadership of project management (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Personal characteristics and competencies of leaders can influence skills, knowledge and effectiveness of projects accordingly. Thus, assessing the leadership competencies is essential for any organisation. Many efforts have been undertaken for assessing leadership competencies such as multi leadership questionnaire (MLQ) made by Bass and Avolio (1995). However, the documentation has shown that they are still not trusted by all of organisation(Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Goleman (1996) asserted that two factors are very important for success of projects: emotional intelligence (EI) and intellectual aptitude (IQ). In accordance with this idea, EI model has been made and used by organisations as the most important factors due to its variation in the performance of project. In general, four key competencies have the major role in leadership performance such as: emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and motivational. Intellectual competencies (IQ), managerial competency (MQ), and social and emotional competencies (EI) are the significant elements of leadership competencies (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000b, Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000a, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project competence and success of project management are closely interconnected. Many competencies lists for project managers have been determined such as: knowledge (qualification), skills (ability to do diverse tasks as: technical, administrative, planning, budgeting, leadership), and core personality characteristics. The effective project leaders should have the basic characteristics such as: credibility, problem solving, tolerance, flexible and communication. However, the researchers have not been able to make a certain link between project manager leadership competencies and project success (Pinto, 1998, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project success There have been many measurement tools for assessing the project success in terms of time, cost and function. The common tool of evaluating project success is critical success factors (CSFs). These days, the modern instrument can take into accounts the parameters such as: client satisfaction, stakeholders ideas, product and service success, business and commercial success, performance improvement, and system benefit. Nevertheless, there are some hazards in projects which can delay the process of implementations. These can be appeared in planning, controlling, and performing of tasks (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). There is a close connection between the project managers concept of project success and his or her competence. Some researchers have defined this relationship in terms of people, project strategy, leadership style, teamwork, and industrial relations. Although, others have been defined it in terms of cost, time and quality of project and ignore the influence of people on projects. According to project success, Jugdev (2005) found the four key parameters as follows: (1) The project sponsor should have enough desire to carry out the project, (2) The working relationship between project sponsor and project manager should be adjusted accurately, (3) A project manager should tackle complexity and uncertain situations, and (4) Stakeholders idea should be taken into the success criteria (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Instruments Today, managers can measure their performance by an intangible variable based more on perceptions rather than factual proof. It includes the quality of management and the status of relationship with the leaders, colleagues and employees. Geoghegan and Dulewicz (2008) identified that there is a statistically significant relationship between a project managers leadership competencies and project success. They used two different types of questionnaire to approach their idea. The first one is the leadership dimensions questionnaire (LDQ) made by Dulewicz (2005) and the second one is the project success questionnaire (PSQ) made by Pinto (1986) (Budd Jr and Marx, 1999). LDQ This tool has been worked in terms of respondents leadership competencies that evaluated on fifteen aspects of leadership. It includes seven EQ competencies five MQ competencies, and three IQ competencies. It has been known as one of the most popular instruments and has been used in diverse public organisations such as: the Royal Air Force, the Home Office, the Royal Navy and private organisation such as DHL. Each dimensions of this tool can be acceptable by reaching the reliable level (i.e. Cronbachs alpha > 0.7) (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). The example of LDQ questionnaire that has been filled out by 80 project managers is shown in table 2.4(Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project managers work in different par

A script written for television by Willy Russell Essay

A script written for television by Willy Russell In my essay I will write about the three most important scenes in the script. The story (set in the 1980’s) about a group of friends who fail a test of loyalty. They talk of community spirit and yet they can’t respect another’s decision. Their idea of community spirit is making and standing by one decision and not taking into account that not everyone wants that choice. The majority of the street act as sheep, following and not making decisions for themselves. This is shown when they follow Eddie’s decision to paint their houses yellow to show support for the local football team ‘Northside United’. Danny decides that he does not want to paint his house yellow! Eddie (who started the idea) tries to bully Danny into doing it, but he refuses and Eddie disowns him as a friend. Danny’s wife Susan and son Michael move out when he refuses to paint the house because Susan is embarrassed about his decision over the house. She eventually tricks Danny into leaving the house while it is painted yellow by other members of the street. Danny, who is angry and devastated that his family and friends care more about being on television that his feelings, leaves his house, the street, his wife and his son and walks away. The play is both dramatic and sad in many ways. The tension mounts as the reader goes on to discover what each character is like, and can almost predict the main events in the script -but then there’s a twist. The first dramatic scene is when Susan is first asking Danny to get on with painting their houses yellow. He asks her, if no one else was painting his or her houses yellow would she want it yellow? Her answer is no, she tells him that she doesn’t even like yellow. He then tells her that he won’t be painting the house. Susan tells him that it’s not his decision, the street has decided. This is important because it shows that the majority rules. Susan believes that if the ‘street’ wants the houses to be yellow then they should paint them yellow. She then goes on to say ‘don’t you support the team? ‘ and Danny replies that he does, but painting his house yellow is not the way he does it. The second most dramatic scene is where Danny decides that he will paint the house when his son Michael comes home crying because his friends wont play with him. He picks up some paint tins and brushes and heads for the door, but then there is a note pushed through the letterbox. It’s from Eddie and is threatening him to paint the house. When he opens the door Eddie and the others and stood outside. Danny pours the paint down the drain and then throws the empty can at Eddie. Just as he was about to ‘give in’ and paint the house he sees that Eddie wont stop until he gets what he wants and that makes Danny all the more determined not to be bullied into painting the house. Susan and Michael move out because Susan says that she is ashamed of Danny and their house. This scene is important because it tells us that Danny realizes that the other residents are ‘bullying’ him. If they cant get what they want then they will force him into it, if they can. The final most dramatic scene is where Danny receives a phone call saying that Michael was in hospital and he rushes out. He begs a friend to take him to the hospital but his friend says no because he knows that Michael isn’t really in hospital. Danny soon finds out that Michael is not in hospital but painting the house yellow with the rest of the street. Danny shouts at them, and knocks over the ladders. He asks them how far they will go just to get on television? Although he doesn’t say it, this line is like saying â€Å"is this worth sacrificing a friend†. Its important because it shows that Eddie and the others don’t really care about Danny and don’t really believe in the community spirit they keep talking about. Later on he locks the doors of the house and settles down to read the paper when Susan knocks at the door. She says that she wants to talk; she misses him and wants to move back in. He opens the door and lets her in before locking it again. Whilst they are talking Susan opens the door with her hand behind her back and Eddie and the lads come in. The stop Danny from getting outside whilst the house is finished painting. When it’s done, they let him go, he looks at the house, then at Eddie, Susan and the rest of his neighbors and walks away. Danny decides that there is nothing he can do, if this is what the people are truly like, then he doesn’t want to be there. He doesn’t shout or fight, he simply walks away as though tired of fighting and arguing because he knows that he can change nothing. Terraces is an important play, is serves as entertainment but also has a moral to the story. Just because the majority thinks something is right, it doesn’t mean that your own opinion doesn’t matter because it isn’t the same. This is relevant to everyday life because choices and decisions are made and the majority usually makes the final choice.

Networking and Communications

The concepts of networks and communication have come from computers and Internet and are not really very old. The advantages of these methods of communication are that messages can be sent sitting at the computer in houses or over a laptop, the communication reaches the intended receiver almost immediately and permits the receiver to also start acting on the communication immediately. There are always advantages in having physical value chains and this is what leads shops to develop warehouses and try to be merchandisers though they do not have the capacity to be so. On the other hand, the new methods of information create opportunities to simplify the value chain and thus develop businesses that have better sources of competitive advantage. An example of such stores is Amazon, which offers its potential customers a list of 2. 5 million books and this list is ten times the size of the nearest chain stores. The organization also does not have the books in its store, but have the books delivered to its customers through orders to two wholesalers in the industry after the customers have placed orders. The facility available with Amazon is only to repack the books and mail them. This makes sure that some difficulties come in and Amazon cannot offer books off the shelves, nor can their customers see the books on shelves. At the same time, their methods of selling provide them with lower costs and provide customers with superior information and lower costs. (Tapscott, 30) Some of the advantages are provided by the medium itself. Through the computer it is possible to send a message to a person without meeting him directly, or even knowing whether he is there or not. A shop can collect orders at the time when it is not open and save its employees time as the full list of items required will be sent by the customers themselves. (Lynda, 13) This particular already has a server and that means it already has and Internet connection and the computer is already able to accept messages through the Internet. His may be in the form of Intranets meant for use by the employees of the store, or in the form of a VPN. This is a Virtual Private Network which accommodates the needs of employees not located in the same office and is in the form of a private network using the public network, or Internet to get them together. There is no requirement to use a leased line, but there is usage of virtual connections operating through the Internet. (How Virtual Private Networks Work) The use of the second server is to be a back up for the first server and also to record orders from the customers. This does not involve many risks as the orders can be received on an e-mail connection and they are quite safe for the users. Further safety can be ensured through presently available. The size of e-mail connections are also large now, of the order of 1GB and can be made even larger. At the start of the working day, employees can be asked to unload orders received from the Internet to the computer of the store. The time has already been decided as being 11 am. All the orders can be placed in order and then prepared for execution. If the execution of orders are finished before the end of closing hours, then further orders, if any are available on the e-mail site, can be taken up for execution. This process is generally safe. The only difficulty comes from false orders, but that can be checked through a paying mechanism connected to the delivery part. When the order is delivered, the store will definitely collect payment, and this can be through a bank payment service, credit card or some other mechanism. When the order is sent to the store, an authorization should be sent by the buyer to the paying party also. This can be checked by the store, before delivery. If the material is to be collected from the store, then, the problems are less as the consumer will have to make payments directly. Purchases for a small store are difficult and often require expertise which the individual store may not possess. The solution that is often reached is to become a member of a buying group who will act as the buying organization for all stores, though the stores may be owned by different persons. Buying groups exist in practically all segments of the retail industry and some of the groups provide services in terms of product management and obtaining discounts for the stores through the process of summing up all quantities required and thus obtaining discounts for wholesale purchases. Even in the international scene, there are buying groups. Those organizations often have buying units distributed all over the world. (Varley, 36) In the long run, the exercise of computerization should not disturb this angle and the existing method of purchases can still be retained. The advantages will come from the fact that as soon as sales are made, or orders executed, a record can be updated for the item in question. The importance in this aspect is only for items in â€Å"A† category after an analysis of the items for sales through an ABC analysis. For those items, since they involve an importance in terms of customer satisfaction, or investment, it is essential that a close record be kept. It is also possible, like Amazon to collect some of the expensive items on a day to day basis. These are decisions for executive management to consider. If the access to the store by the purchasers is only through e-mail, then they have no chance of directly collecting the information from the store's computer, except through certain bugs that may be placed in the computer along with orders. This is a problem that comes even when the computer user visits certain sites, and can be wiped out through the use of anti-virus software and proper design of the computer system. The biggest point to remember is that most users now use Internet Explorer as their language for communication with Internet since they have the basic language as Windows. On the other hand, the store may use Mozilla Firefox for communicating with Internet. This will automatically knock out a lot of infections. Apart from this are for the computer to be working on a non-windows system and this can be done through some programming in Java. The details will have to be worked out with a computer expert. If the information of the company is stored on a different disk also, the chances of removal are much lower. This is not so difficult since the question of disks is only of virtual separation through programming. At the same time, it is also important to note that secrets about the organization also should not be available to internal users within the company unless they are permitted access. This can be controlled through requirement of passwords for entering those sections, but at the same time, the users will have to be careful about storage of the passwords. To an extent, the problem of exposure of passwords can be controlled through changes of passwords on a regular basis. The job of a network administrator involves many tasks and to an extent the tasks are also decided by the experience of the administrator in the job. The first step is to create its design, and this job has to be done by a senior network architect. Since this network has been operating for some time, one presumes that it has a network administrator who has been in charge of the system, and this person, if he is conversant enough with computers will be able to decide on its required expansion. The second set of responsibilities of the network administrator begins after the network is designed and this involves setting up and configuring the network. It is important to remember that due to the complications of the network this may take some time, and, in general the old system should be permitted to continue till the new system is tested and ready. Then the switchover can be done within a short period of a weekend or so. This will cause the least amount of disturbances to working. (Responsibilities of the Network Administrator) After all the store has to sell and earn money and computers are only assistance and cannot be permitted to come in the way of operations. The job now includes installing the physical aspects of the changes, configuring the files or databases, hosts, routers and network configuration servers. The third phase of network administration security involves regular tasks that have to be done – adding new host machines, direct administration, administration of network services and trouble shooting problems that are seen to arise. In this case, the problem seems to be one of adding new hosts and increasing services of the network for which more software is expected to be wanted. (Responsibilities of the Network Administrator) This is however and ongoing process and one success will lead to another and this will require changes not planned in the earlier phase. In this case, let us say that the plan of expansion succeeds in satisfying the customers, and adds profits for the organization, and then a second store may be required. For this sort of problems a principle of redundancy should be built into network designing. From the general, let us get into the specific and all organizations involved with computer software have their own recommendations for network service and Microsoft talks about it including Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP, Windows Internet Name Service or WINS and Domain Name System or DNS. These are all software and part of these may massage the egos of the owners of the system, but whether they are needed or not will have to be determined by those designing the system. Microsoft has made a system management function which provides guidance for the operation of the above named services and for maintenance of the hardware which will hold these programs. There is also a guide for getting required software for this purpose. (Service Management Functions: Network Administration) Considering the number of updates that come in for Windows, it does not seem to be very reliable software. There are also software designed for many different users and in these many users can work on the system at the same time and maintain files. An example of such a system is IRIX. The only problem is that this system permits the workstation to be connected to networks and permits transfer of files from one to the other. (Overview of System Administration) Does this system require this facility, or will it be a source of trouble? The point is that all systems have to be designed according to the requirements as deemed fit by the management and first the thought of the management have to be clarified. To conclude, computers are the latest tools for the egos of today, but, at the same time, one should not end up with a system having a lot of useless or dangerous facilities.

Russell Surname Meaning and Family History

Russell is a common patronymic surname derived from the given name Rousel, old French for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion. Russell is the 93rd most popular surname in the United States and England, and the 47th most common surname in Scotland. Surname origin:  English, Scottish, IrishAlternate surname spellings:  Russel, Rusell, Roussell, Ruessell, Roussel, Ruessel   Famous People With the Surname Robert C. Russell - Inventor of the Soundex system for indexing names by the way they soundJames Russell - Invented the compact disk (CD) in 1965 Where Is This Surname Most Common? According to surname distribution data from Forebears, the Russell surname is among the top 100 most common surnames in a number of countries, including The Bahamas (15th), Scotland (60th), Australia (68th), New Zealand (72nd), the United States (87th), England (90th), and Jamaica (91st). In England, the name is most commonly found in the southwestern counties—Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Surrey. WorldNames PublicProfiler identifies Australia as the country where the Russell surname is most common today, as well as in Scotland, particularly in South and North Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Falkirk, and Clackmannan. Genealogy Resources Russell  family crest: Contrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as a Russell  family crest or coat of arms for the Russell surname.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male-line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted.Russell family genealogies: Links to descendant genealogies for a number of early Russell families in the United States.Russell family genealogy forum: Search this popular genealogy forum for the Russell surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Russell query.FamilySearch - Russell genealogy: Explore over 5.6  million  historical records which mention individuals with the Russell surname, as well as online Russell family trees on this free website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.GeneaNet Russell  records: GeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources f or individuals with the Russell  surname, with a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries.The Russell  genealogy and family tree: Browse family trees and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the last name Russell  from the website of Genealogy Today. Sources Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998.Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997.Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.