Issues in corrections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Issues in corrections - Essay Example According to research, the correctional systems are running out of ideas on how to manage the issues affecting the correctional systems. The United States of America correctional systems are believed to be one of the most advanced prison system globally. This is because of the increased crime rates in the country. However, like other countries globally the American correctional system faces many issues that tend to be hard for the legal system to handle. There is one major issue of overcrowding in the prisons that have been caused by high crime rates, harsh laws made by the legal system for certain offenses, high rate of criminals returned to jail for committing felonies and long term sentences for certain offenses (Scott, 2010). The rate of the population of inmates is growing faster making it hard for the prisons to hold the capacity. The issue of high population in prison has pushed the legal system to set free the well-behaved criminals in prison, which has posed a threat to society (Scott, 2010). The law is forced to release the criminals to create space for the other criminals. Criminals serving long sentences are freed through good behavior and presidential pardons. Alternatively, according to researchers, some prisoners are pretenders who only pretend to behave well so that they are set free and proceed to carry out their vengeance on the witnesses who testified against them in court. The problem for the correctional system not being able to accommodate the criminals until they are has posed a major threat to society. Over population in the correctional system has also led to various problems to the inmates. The inmate’s health is at risk due to various airborne diseases caused by overcrowding. Diseases can also emerge from the dirty toilets shared by the large number of prisoners. Prisoner’s health has also in turn affected the economy of the country trying to treat various diseases that arise among prisoners like HIV/ AIDs,

Feasibility Study Essay Example for Free

Feasibility Study Essay Fast food chains have grown at an incredible rate over the past couple of decades. There seems to be a McDonalds or Burger King on every street corner. Fast food offers people in a rush an inexpensive way to grab food whenever they want. In the United States, fast food restaurants accounts for 46.7% of the total food service industry while sit-down restaurants have 39.3% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). This forces sit-down restaurants to target a different market, people that are looking for pleasure and a relaxing experience. The food services industry is considered to be the most known industry in the world. Sitdown restaurants typically offer full menus, which include appetizers, entrees, sides, desserts, and all types of beverages including alcohol. Most restaurants will have a host or hostess that will greet a person as they walk in and show them to the table that they will be sitting at for the duration of their meal. Sit-down restaurants typically will have trained chefs to cook and prepare the meals and servers that will completely take care of any needs that there will be while eating at the restaurant (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). It is important to have honest and hard working servers at a sit-down restaurant to ensure that people will have an enjoyable time at their establishment. If a restaurant has a unique reputation then the customers will come back time after time. For a restaurant to have a loyal customer group, it must be able to serve the customers with high quality food and service. The restaurant must also have different things that differentiate itself from other sit-down restaurants. Instead of just getting a bite to eat at a fast food chain, a person can go to a restaurant and enjoy him or herself with family and friends for an extended amount of time. The restaurant experience should become a form of entertainment for the customers. Some restaurants also offer a bar, which fast food chains do not. At a bar, people can come in and drink a few beers while watching a sports game on television. At night, the bar area can become a place for people to relax or enjoy themselves with some dancing. Many college age people like to spend a little time at a bar to relieve stress and to dance. With two colleges in the area and an increase of tourism within the past decade, Tacloban City would be a logical place to open a new restaurant. Tacloban is a city in Leyte and has been revamping its image to attract more people to the downtown area. The city has been growing in population with many new housing tracks recently built along with those under construction. The city is considered a beach town with many people visiting the beach every spring and summer. There is also a large amount of foot traffic in the downtown area as well as near the mall and the major schools. The problem with opening a new restaurant is being able to establish the business, while differentiating itself from others. A restaurant should be in a recognizable area which can be used as a landmark. In order to do so, the restaurant must find a theme and a strong following of customers. With the right marketing, good service, good management and strong financial information, a new restaurant can be a great business to start up. In order to open a restaurant, the owner should know the consumer characteristics of the area. For a restaurant to do well there must be people willing to spend money. That is why knowing the area’s workforce is important. Ventura has a strong work force with only 4.5% of the population being unemployed who are over the age 16. The city’s largest work industry is educational services, health care and social assistance which is at 21%, followed by professional, scientific, management, administrative and waste management services at 12.3%, retail trade at 11.8%, arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services at 10.1% and manufacturing at 7.8%. Some of the most prominent occupations of people that live in Tacloban City are management, professional, and related occupations at 38.8%, sales and office occupations at 25.7% and service occupations at 17.2% (U.S. Census, 2009) Problem Statement * Is opening a sit-down restaurant in downtown Ventura feasible? Hypotheses A new restaurant in downtown Ventura will have a demand of at least 50% of the people surveyed. The new restaurant also will be able to cover its everyday operating expenses as well as its start-up cost while still making a profit. Objectives 1. To assess the feasibility of a sit-down restaurant in Ventura. 2. To conduct a survey to determine the interest of a new restaurant. 3. To determine the target market for a new restaurant. Justification A feasibility study for a sit-down restaurant in Tacloban City will be beneficial to anyone who would like to open a sit-down restaurant in downtown Tacloban City, as well as Palo due to the similar demographics throughout Tacloban City. The study will also be helpful to anyone who would like to open a fast food restaurant in the area because of the analysis of the desirability of the location of the new restaurant. The analysis of the amount of people that go downtown in Tacloban City will be able help other entrepreneurs that plan on opening a small business because the study will give them the knowledge of how many people go downtown on a regular basis which can give them an idea of how many potential customers they may have. This study will also help people planning to open a restaurant in an area with similar demographics as Tacloban City. II. MARKETING STUDY LITERATURE REVIEW Competition Analysis Opening a restaurant takes a lot of time and effort to be successful. One of the most important things to know when assessing the target market for a restaurant is who the competition is. The competition can range from fast food chains all the way to a high-class sitdown restaurant. Many people are in a rush at times or are too tired to cook for the family after work, which drives them to dine out. These people then have to decide if they want inexpensive fast food or go to a sit-down restaurant to be serviced. That is why it is so important for restaurant owner to know who the target market is. Fast food restaurants target people in a hurry and that want an inexpensive meal, while sit-down restaurants target people that are there to take their time and be provided with good service (Brown, 1990). When assessing the competition Debruyne and Reibstein (2005) found it is important to know the technology and services that the competition has so that a company can keep up with them. Debruyne and Reibstein (2005) also went on to say that companies should consider approaches to avoid attracting competition to a new market. That is why having employees that can be trusted with company secrets is very important. Analysis of Potential Profit There are many things that need to be taken into consideration when projecting a company’s potential income. The location of a restaurant can have a large effect on the amount of income that a restaurant obtains, which is why finding a good location for a restaurant is important (Coats, 1986). The better the location, the more people will know about it and want to stop in. Having a restaurant in a place where foot traffic is heavy can be beneficial to the restaurants success because people walking down the street could see the restaurant and decide to stop in and eat. In order to see how much money could be made, a business should develop projected financial statements so they can see how much the business would cost to run the restaurant (Newman, 2008). Besides projecting income and expenses, there are many other things that a restaurant owner should take into consideration when trying to figure out if the restaurant will be profitable. Sweasey (1987) found a restaurant had a better chance of being profitable if it has a creative menu. This is very important for a sit-down restaurant because potential customers could order food from a well-known place like Domino’s Pizza, or a McDonalds. The key to success would be to offer many different types of food that would be unique to a particular restaurant. Another thing that indirectly affects a restaurants potential income is the relationship that the employees have with their managers (Davis, Schoorman, Mayer and Tan, 2000). Their study found that trust between management and employees can affect the restaurant financially because employees are willing to work harder for a manager that they can trust. A restaurants profit can also be affected by inventory control. Archibald, Betts, Johnston and Thomas (2002) stated that for a new business to survive it should be conservative with their inventory. This is very important with restaurants because there are many types of foods and ingredients that can go bad if not used in a short amount of time, which causes the restaurant to lose money from having to waste their inventory. The price of items on the menu is also very important according to Becker (1991). He found if prices of food are too high then customers will feel that they are being treated unfairly, which will keep them from coming back to the restaurant. It is important for a restaurant to have consistent customers because they will help bring in new business by telling others how good the restaurant is. THE MARKET City of Tacloban People that know the area and the interest of the people in the area tend to have more success operating a restaurant than people that do not know the area. Tacloban City is continually growing with new housing tracks recently built and some currently being constructed. The city is also rising in popularity and marketing towards becoming a tourist destination. Tacloban City has 3 large high schools and a junior college. Tacloban City restaurants also receive business from Channel Island students who live on campus and near campus that just want to get away from their area and eat somewhere nice. Tacloban City also attracts people to its downtown area with many places to shop and eat. Downtown seems to be a good location for a new restaurant because of the heavy foot traffic throughout the week. The city also has a shopping mall near downtown, which attracts even more people to the area. Tacloban City is known as a beach town as well, which helps bring more tourists to the city. A restaurant near the beach could be a good location assuming that people will see the restaurant on the way to the beach. III. TECHNICAL STUDY METHODOLOGY Procedures for Data Collection To determine if a restaurant will be feasible, a projected income statement must be made to figure out if expenses will be covered and if profits can be made. This will be done by going to different restaurants and talking to the owners and managers about the financial aspects of the restaurant along with how to run the operation smoothly. If the owners decide not to provide the financial information needed, then research online for standard restaurant financials will be collected. There will also be a survey made to determine Tacloban City demographics, and personal interests. The survey will be given out at random at mostly downtown Ventura. Two other places that the survey will be given out is at Leyte Normal University and Eastern Visayas State University. The survey will be administered for about four hours at each location The survey will also provide information about the type of food that should be on the menu and finding out if people would rather go to a dive bar or dance club at night. The survey can also be used to determine what type of theme the restaurant should have. One other thing that will be used from the surveys is to determine the target market so that the restaurant can be marketed to those that would be most likely to try the new sit-down restaurant in Tacloban City. Procedure for Data Analysis When the financial information is obtained, the data will be analyzed and provide projected numbers for a new sit-down restaurant.Once the projected financial statements are made, there will be several tests to see if the restaurant will survive and be profitable. Once the survey is completed, the information will be analyzed in SPSS. Using the information from the collection of data will create a better understanding of the restaurant market in downtown Tacloban City. The analysis should show an accurate description of the individuals who represent the population of Ventura. The data will show the people that like to go downtown, what age groups there are, their education level and income level. The data from the surveys should be able to show who the target market is for restaurants in downtown Ventura. Overall, the information that is obtained from the survey should be able to show an accurate target market and interest for a new restaurant in Tacloban City. Assumptions This study assumes that Tacloban City economy will remain stable and the growth rate of the city will remain consistent. The study also assumes that the observations conducted will be an accurate measurement of the desirability of restaurants in Tacloban City. Limitations The study that was conducted will be helpful to other cities in Leyte, but the actual analysis of the target market will be solely for Tacloban City due to the unique demographics of the city. IV. FINANCIAL STUDY DEVELPOMENT OF STUDY Surveys can be a great tool to find out information from consumers. They can show the interest of the people, who the target market is and the demographics of the area. The survey was distributed mostly in downtown Ventura do to the heavy foot traffic of the area as well as the potential location of the new restaurant. 118 responses were collected and then analyzed in SPSS. The following charts and analysis will show the results of the survey conducted. The first question asked how many times a month a person eats at a restaurant. It is important to know how often people like to eat at a sit-down restaurant because the people that go out to eat often will be more likely to actually try a new eating establishment. The majority of responses were 1-3 times a month at 36% and 4-7 times a month at 32%. Only about 2% of the responses said that they never eat at a restaurant. The next question asked how often the individual went to the downtown area of Tacloban City? Knowing how often people go downtown is essential because the more foot traffic an area has the more likely someone is willing to stop in and check out a new business. The largest response was 0-3 times a month; however 52% of surveyees said that they do go downtown at least 4 times in a month. On average, how many times each month do you eat at a sit-down restaurant? When the respondents were asked what their favorite restaurant in Ventura was, 35% of the respondents answered Aloha Steak House and 25% said Andrias Seafood Restaurant. When asked how likely the respondent would be to try a new sit-down restaurant in Ventura, 32% said they would certainly try it and 52% said that there was a good possibility they would try a new eating establishment. Only 2% of the respondents said that they would not be willing to try the restaurant out. People willing to try a new restaurant are the most important people to market towards. These individuals can become loyal customers and even help thebusiness out by telling others about the restaurant. What is you favorite restaurant in Ventura? The next question asked how many people lived in their current household. This response was spread out with the three largest responses being four people at 25%, three people at 22% and two people at 21%. People tend to eat in groups, whether it’s with family, friends, roommates or even co-workers. Most people are likely to bring members of their household with them while eating at a restaurant, which increases sales. This information can help when determining whom the target market will could be. This next question asked how desirable the social atmosphere, reasonable prices, variety of food, time food takes to be ready and service at a restaurant or bar is.? The averages were 3.93 for social atmosphere, 4.3 for reasonable prices, 3.84 for variety of food, 3.87 for time food takes to be ready and 4.5 for service. These attributes are important to know in order to have the right type of atmosphere, employees and management style needed for the establishment to succeed. When the people surveyed were asked what publications they read at least once a week? 59% said that they preferred to read the Philippine Daily Star. This information is critical when deciding where to advertise. Establishing a new business’s name is one of most difficult things to do, which is why knowing where reach the public to advertise is important. The next question asked the type of music the respondents liked to listen to? Rock and roll had the highest response and next was hip-hop and rap with 54% with 37%, respectively. Knowing the type of music people prefer to listen to can help when advertising by having announcements on radio stations with that type of music. The type of music the surveyees like to listen to can also be helpful when determining the music that will be played at night in the bar area of the restaurant. The next question asked if people would rather go to a dive bar or dance club at night. Over 60% said they would rather go to a dive type of bar atmosphere that consumers like at night is important for a restaurant owner to know. This will help drive in more customers at night, which may increase the amount of sales. Knowing the type of bar atmosphere that consumers like at night is important for a restaurant owner to know. This will help drive in more customers at night, which may increase the amount of sales. The following question asked the individuals where they would most like to see another restaurant. 47% said that they would like to see a new restaurant downtown with 35% saying Main Street would be the best location in the downtown area. The next two places people would like to see a restaurant open at would be near Century theaters or near LNU which were both at 20%. The location of the restaurant is vital to its success. Location of new restaurant People want to eat where they often are at on a regular basis. Many people go downtown, and Main Street is the street with the most traffic of people. The place with a lot of foot traffic will not only be a great place for the shoppers that want to eat, but also employees of other businesses that need to eat something on their break. Knowing people also would like to see a restaurant near Century Theaters and LNU can be helpful if the restaurant owner ever wanted to expand and open up a new location. Further analysis was conducted using crosstabs in SPSS. Critical questions where compared to other questions to reveal specific behaviors of potential restaurant customers. This analysis can give a more precise showing of the preferences and atmosphere of restaurant people are willing to try.The most useful information from these tests were discovering the respondent’s preferences who responded that they would certainly or have a good possibility of trying a new restaurant in Tacl oban City. The following crosstabs used in the analysis of the survey are significantly valid using chi-squared testing. Of the people who indicated they would be likely to try the new restaurant, 80% said they eat at a restaurant 1-3 or 4-7 times a month. Of the 15% of respondents that said they go to a restaurant 12-15 and 16-20 times a month, 89% of them said that they were likely to try a new restaurant in Tacloban City (P = .027). When comparing people that like American food to people that like ethnic food, 79% of people that like American food said they would like to see a dive bar over a dance club (P = .035). Due to the individuals’ preference of a dive bar over a dance club, traditional American food would be an excellent choice of food for the menu. The menu should also be broad and have a bit of variety to it in order to attract more customers. This is why the menu should also include Mexican and Italian entries due to the high preference according to the survey results. Although not many surveyees reported that they were in the downtown area often, 81% of them still responded they would like to try a new restaurant in Ventura (P = .077). These people may not go down town on a regular basis, but they can still be a great resource to advertise by word of mouth. They may eventually try the place out and then tell their friends and family about the business. Although not significant valid, as far as gender goes, 80% of men that were surveyed said that they would be likely to try a new restaurant establishment and 86% of women said that they would (P = .433). This information can be useful in determining the target market for the new restaurant. When examining the survey results to help determine the target market of a newrestaurant in Ventura the following results were found. When comparing males and females, females make up the majority of respondents who make $60,000 to $80,000 (69%) and over $80,000 (51%) (P=.787). When looking at how many people live in the household for women the highest response were two people with the next being five people in the household (P=.177). These results were close to the target market that MRI, Inc had in their database, which will be discussed in the following chapter. A projected income statement can be helpful when trying to determine if the restaurant has the ability to be successful. The income statement can also be used to help run the business properly and help the owners and managers be efficient at their job. The following income statement in Table 1 was based off Food Service Warehouse’s (2006) website of a sample restaurant’s income statement for a week in Greenwood Village, CO. All numbers were then multiplied 52 to give the financial information for the year as a whole. This information was ad justed using the rent as a base number to determine the rest of the expenses as well as the revenue. Rent typically goes for $2 a square foot in downtown Ventura. An efficient restaurant size of 4,000 square feet was used to determine that rent would cost $96,000 a year. Further adjustments were made to incorporate the start-up cost of a restaurant, which is in the range of $300,000 to $500,000 (Rainsford and Bangs, 2001). The number used in this study was $300,000. After the first year was constructed, the revenues and expenses where increased by 2% due to inflation for the next two projected years. Changes in the income statement that are not held in consistency with the example income statement given were the equipment and repairs expense for the first year which includes the start-up cost along with a $5,000 projected repairs expense. The next year only included the repair expense with respect to the number used for inflation. To determine the interest expense, an amortization schedule in Table 2 was made based on a five year, $300,000 loan with a 7% interest rate for the start-up cost of the company. Advertising and promotions expense where also added to the income statement do help promote the restaurant’s name, which is essential in the first few years of operation. A depreciation expense was added in to account for equipment and supplies. The depreciation expense was 28calculated by using the straight-line method for five years on the $165,920 for equipment and supplies. The number used for depreciable assets was calculated by taking the initial start-up cost and then subtracting any items that are not depreciable. A miscellaneous expense of $1,000 was also added in case of unforeseen costs that may occur throughout the year. A break-even analysis in Table 3 was then performed to determine how many meals would have to be sold to cover expense. The unit price was based on an average projected meal cost of $11 for the first year and then adding in inflation rates for the next two years. The number of meals that would need to be sold for the first three years to break-even would be 70,403, 42,770 and 42,416, respectively. 29 Income Statement Projected Income Statement Sales| Year 1| Year 2| Year 3| Food| 483, 487| 485, 166| 505, 028| Wine| 70, 668| 72, 081| 73, 523| Liquor| 58,488| 60, 678| 61, 871| Beer| 126, 464| 128, 88| 131, 573| Beverages| 3,744| 3, 817| 3, 875| Total Sales| 742,860| 758, 737| 773, 812| Summary The data that was collected and analyzed from the 118 surveys collected proves the hypothesis to be correct by showing that people have a strong interest of trying a new restaurant Tacloban City. The hypothesis was also proven to be accurate through the projected income statement by showing that after the first year, the restaurant would start making a profit with the following years increasing in net income. The desirability of a new eating establishment by the people of Tacloban City appears to be high with 84% replying they would be likely try out a new restaurant. People who responded to the survey said service is the most important attribute of a restaurant which means the time of day staffing is most important would be from 11:00am to 2:00pm for lunch and 5:30pm to 8:00pm for dinner. The days of the week that more staff then usual would be needed is on Saturdays and Sundays due to the large amount of people that like to eat at restaurants and go downtown on these days. The target market for the restaurant according to MRI, Inc (2010) which was close to the results of the survey analysis are Caucasian women, who have attended or graduated from college, 25 to 54 years old who are employed full time in sales and office occupations or professional and related occupations, with an income of $80,000 or more and three to four people living in the household. Conclusions The best type of restaurant in respect to the results of the analysis would be a traditional American food restaurant with a section of the menu being dedicated to ethnic food mainly including Mexican and Italian food. The type of bar the restaurant should have at night should be a dive bar with a mixture of rock and roll, hip-hop and rap playing in the background. The average price for a meal should be around $11. The location of the restaurant should be downtown and preferably on Main Street nearplaces to shop. Possible places to expand would be near Ventura College or by Century Theatres. The best way to advertise for the bar would be running ads in the Ventura County Start newspaper or on radio stations and internet radio stations that play rock and roll or hip-hop and rap. Recommendations This study shows that opening a new sit-down restaurant would be feasible in Tacloban City but further research of consumer trends of Tacloban City could be done to have a more accurate desirability of the restaurant market in Ventura. It would also help to have a strong background and work experience in the sit-down restaurant industry. Contacting and obtaining more financial information from restaurant owners or managers would also be helpful when conducting the financial analysis. Reference Cited Archibald, T.W., J.M. Betts, R.B. Johnston and L.C. Thomas. 2002. Should Start-up Companies Be Cautious? Inventory Policies Which Maximize Survival Probabilities. Management Science (48:9) September. pp. 1161-1174. Becker, Gary 1991. A Note on Restaurant Pricing and Other Examples of Social Influences on Price Journal of Political Economy (99:5) October. pp. 1109-1116. Brown, Douglas M. 1990. The Restaurant and Fast Food Race: Whos Winning? Southern Economic Journal (56:4) April. pp. 984-995. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2009. Food Services and Drinking Places. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 06 Feb. 2011. http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs023.htm. Carter, Michael. 1988 Detailed Findings of a Survey of or Society Membership-I: Structure, Education, Functions and Computers. The Journal of the Operational Research Society (39:7) July. pp. 643-652. Coats, Craig 1986. The Feasibility of an Assembly Line Restaurant in Santa Barbara, California. Unpublished Senior Project. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Project #86-0670. Davis, James, David Schoorman, Roger C. Mayer and Hewee Tan. 2000. The Trusted General Manager and Business Unit Performance: Empirical Evidence of a Competitive Advantage. Strategic Management Journal (21:5) October. pp. 563- 576. Debruyne, Marion and David J. Reibstein. 2005. Competitor See, Competitor Do: Incumbent Entry in New Market Niches Marketing Science (24:1) Winter. pp. 329-337. Food Service Warehouse. 2006. The Restaurant Profit and Loss (PL) Statement. Restaurant Supplies | FoodServiceWarehouse.com. Web. 06 Feb. 2011. http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/restaurant-operations/profit- loss.aspx#_ednref1. MRI, Inc. 2010 Local Market 2010 Los Angles Sports and Leisure, Family Restaurants and Steak Houses February 2011. mriplus.com Newman, Anthonia. 2008. The Feasibility of Opening One More Restaurant/Bar in San Luis Obispo. Unpublished Senior Project. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Project #08-0654. Kalnins, Arturs and Kyle Mayer. 2004. Franchising, Ownership and Experience: A Study of Pizza Restaurant Survival. Management Science (50:12) December. pp. 1716-1728. 34 Kotler, Philip 1964. Marketing Mix Decisions for New Products Journal of Marketing Research (1:1) February. pp. 43-49. Rainsford, Peter, and David H. Bangs. 2001. The Restaurant Start-up Guide: a 12-month Plan for Successfully Starting a Restaurant. Chicago: Dearborn. pp. 65-107 Sweasey, Hal. 1987. The Feasibility of Opening a Small Mexican Food Restaurant in San Luis Obispo. Unpublished Senior Project. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Project #87-1612. State of California, Department of Finance. 2010 E-1 Population Estimates for Cities, Counties and the State with Annual Percent Change January 1, 2009 and 2010. Sacramento: Department of Finance. pp. 10. U.S. Census Bureau. 2009. San Buenaventura (Ventura) City, California Fact Sheet. American FactFinder. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. http://factfinder.census.gov/ servlet/ ACSSAFFFacts?.

Sports Leadership And Communication Physical Education Essay

Sports Leadership And Communication Physical Education Essay This research is based in Sports Leadership and communication. The specific area to be investigated is the question following: Different coaches will have different leadership and communication styles. How will you determine the most appropriate style for you to use? The Coaches leadership and communication style can affect the athletes psychology. Im investigating this area on my class paper because as a sports coach, I would like to know how to be a leader of my team and communicate with my athletes. Based on that problem statement, I have to answer the questions: What is Leadership? What is Communication? From these two basic questions, I should answer more focused questions. What is leadership and how is connected with psychology? What are the leadership traits? How communication skills can be use in sports psychology? How can you send and receive messages more effectively to athletes psychology? These questions are made into sections which can be: Definitions of leadership The Leadership traits Communication Send and receive messages Definition of leadership in Sports psychology Leadership might broadly be considered the behavioral process of influencing individuals and groups towards set goals. This definition is useful because it encompasses many dimensions or leadership. In sport and exercise, these dimensions include making decisions, motivating participants, giving feedback, establishing interpersonal relationships, and directing the group or team confidently. (Weinberg, 2007) A leader knows where the group or team is going and provides the direction and resources to help it get there. Coaches who are good leaders provide not only a vision of what to strive for but also the day-to-day structure, motivation, and support to translate vision into reality. Coaches, teachers, and exercise specialists are leaders who seek to provide each participant with maximum opportunities to achieve success. And successful leaders also try to ensure that individual success helps achieve team success. (Weinberg, 2007) Leadership is simply this: First its knowing how to chart a course, to give others direction by having a vision of what can be. A team without a leader is like a ship without a rudder. Second, leadership is developing the social and psychological environment-what business calls the corporate culture and Ill call team culture-to achieve the goals the leader has charted. This culture consists of selecting, motivating, rewarding, retaining, and unifying members of your team-players, assistants, everyone who helps your organization. Excellent coaches-leaders-give the team vision, and know how to translate this vision into reality. Coaches, in their leadership roles, seek to develop an environment whereby each and every athlete has the maximum opportunity to achieve success, and in so doing achieve team success. The coach is concerned not only with the physical environment, but the psychological and social environments as well. . (Martens, 1987) Leadership formally defined, is the action of an individual to influence others toward set goals. It is often confused with management. Management consists of planning, organizing, staffing and recruiting, scheduling, budgeting, and public relations. Leaders perform these functions, or delegate them to others, but they also do more. Leaders determine the direction for the future, and then marshal the resources within the organization to pursue that vision. Managers simply handle the routine, never questioning whether the routine should be done. This distinction is significant in sport, for too many teams are over managed and underled. (Martens, 1987) Leadership emphasizes interpersonal relationships and has direct impact on motivation, whereas management necessarily does not. Tom Peters and Nancy Austin write in A Passion for Excellence: Coaching is face-to-face leadership that pulls together people with diverse backgrounds, talents, experiences and interests, encourages them to step up to responsibility and continued achievement, and treats them as full-scale partners and contributors. Coaching is not about memorizing techniques or devising the perfect game plan. It is about really paying attention to people-really believing them, really caring about them, really involving them. (1985, p. 326) While reading through the massive literature on leadership, I gained two impressions. First, the leadership literature in psychology, including sport psychology, contains pounds of pulp and ounces of information. Never have so many said so much to tell us so little. And second, the essence of leadership, what sets it apart from other human processes, is ill conceived in psychology. (Weinberg, 2007) Leadership Style There are two leadership styles democratic and autocratic. As you might expect, the coach with a democratic style is typically athlete centered, cooperative, and relationship oriented. Conversely, the autocratic style is usually win oriented, tightly structured, and task oriented. A coach need not act entirely one way or the other. Coaches can effectively integrate and blend democratic and autocratic leadership styles. Different leadership behaviors are more optimal in various situations, as you have seen through the multidimensional model of sport leadership and LSS. The challenge is determining what style best suits the circumstances and whether individuals and flexible enough to adapt their dominant style to a particular leadership situation. The appropriate coaching style depends most on situational factors and member characteristics. (Weinberg, 2007) One aspect of style that has been researched is how decisions are made by coaches. In fact, coaching effectiveness largely depends on making good decisions and the degree to which those decisions are accepted by athletes. Chelladurai and others have developed a model of decision making that applies in sport. Five primary styles of decision making are used in sport: Autocratic style. The coach solves the problem herself using the information available at the time. Autocratic-consultative style. The coach obtains the necessary information from relevant players and then comes to a decision. Consultative-individual style. The coach consults the players individually and then makes a decision. The decision may or may not reflect the players input. Consultative-group style. The coach consults the players as a group and then makes a decision. The decision may or may not reflect the players input. Group style. The coach shares the problem with the players; then the players jointly make the decision without any influence from the coach. (Weinberg, 2007) To the above figure we can see the different types of coaching leadership style: (Martens,1987) Section II Trait Approach In the 1920s, researchers tried to determine what characteristics or personality traits were common to great leaders in business and industry. They considered leadership traits to be relatively stable personality dispositions, such as intelligence, assertiveness, independence, and self-confidence. Proponents of the trait theory argued that successful leaders have certain personality characteristics that make it likely they will be leaders no matter what situation they are in. This would mean, for example, that Michael Jordan would be a great leader not only on the basketball court but also in other areas of life such as business and community affairs (or as part owner of the Washington Wizards). Or that Winston Churchill, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr., would have similar personality characteristics that helped make them effective leaders. (Weinberg, 2007) The trait approach lost favor after World War à Ã‹Å", when Stogdill reviewed more than 100 trait theory studies of leadership and found only a couple of consistent personality traits. Although certain traits might be helpful for a leader to have, they are certainly not essential for successful leadership. Because common leadership traits among coaches, exercise leaders, and performers have not been found, little sport research today uses the trait approach to leadership theory. Leaders have a variety of personality traits. There are no specific traits that make a leader successful. (Weinberg, 2007) Interactional Approach Trait and behavioral approaches emphasize personal factors at the expense of considering the interaction between people and their situational constraints. Many researches in industry and general psychology have proposed interactional models of leadership. These interactional theories have important implications for effective leadership in sport and exercise settings. As we have seen, no one set of characteristics ensures successful leadership. Investigators believe that great leaders have had in common personality traits appropriate to leadership role and distinct from nonleadership roles. However, leaders have not been predicted solely by their personality traits. Effective leadership styles or behaviors fit the specific situation. Coaches have been fired from team positions, for example, when administrators thought they werent providing effective leadership, only to be hired by another team where they were immediately successful. These coaches probably did not suddenly change their leadership styles or the way they coached-rather, their leadership styles and behavior fit better in the new settings. Leadership styles can be changed. If you hear someone say, Some people just have what it takes, dont believe it. In fact, coaches and other leaders can alter their styles and behaviors to match the demands of a situation. Two examples of leadership styles are presented as well as how they might change to fit a situation. For example, relationship-oriented leaders develop interpersonal relationships, keep open lines of communications, maintain positive social interactions, and ensure that everyone is involved and feeling good (their style is analogous to the consideration function described earlier). On the other hand, task-oriented leaders primarily work to get the task done and meet their objectives (their style is analogous to the initiating structure function described earlier). A relationship-oriented leader focuses on developing and maintaining good interpersonal relationships; a task-oriented leader focuses on setting goals and getting the job done. People can change from a relationship-oriented style to a task-oriented style and vice versa, depending on the situation. According to Fiedlers research as he developed his contingency model of leadership, the effectiveness of leadership depends equally on the leaders style of interacting with the group and on the situation. Specifically, Fiedler argued that a task-oriented leader is more effective in either very favorable or unfavorable situations; a relationship-oriented leader is more effective in moderately favorable situations. A physical education teacher in an inner-city school that lacks facilities, leadership, and community support might have to be seen as very unfavorable. Getting things done and setting goals would override developing positive interpersonal relations. In contrast, a physical education teacher in a lower-middle-class school where the facilities are poor but the community support is good (moderately favorable situation) might be more effective as a relations hip-oriented leader. Thus, sport and exercise professionals need to be flexible in leadership styles, tailoring them to meet the demands of situation. If a coach feels more comfortable with one type of leadership style than another, she should seek out situations in which this style would be more effective. Highly skilled players are typically already task oriented, and coaches who have a more relationship-oriented style appear to be more effective with these players. Conversely, less skilled players need more continuous instruction and feedback, and a task-oriented coach would be more appropriate for them. This does not mean than less skilled individuals do not need or want a caring, empathic coach or that more highly skilled participants do not need specific feedback and instruction. It is a matter of what should be emphasized. The effectiveness of an individuals leadership style stems from matching the style to the situation. (Weinberg, 2007) In Finding a Way to Win, Bill Parcells, successful football coach what he believes to be the keys to successful leadership: Integrity. A leaders philosophy must have a sound structure, must be rooted in the leaders basic values, must be communicated and accepted throughout the organization, must be resistant to outside pressure, and must remain in place long enough to allow for success. Flexibility. Traditions are made to be broken. If youre doing something just because its always been done that the way, then you may be missing an opportunity to do better. Loyalty. The first task of leadership is to promote and enforce collective loyalty, also known as teamwork. Confidence. If you want to build confidence in your players and coaching staff, give them responsibility and decision-making capabilities and support them in their attempts. Accountability. Accountability starts at the top. You cant build an accountable organization without leaders who take full responsibility. Candor. When sending a message, its not enough to be honest and accurate. The impact of the message will hinge on whos receiving it-and what the recipients are willing to take in at that time. Preparedness. Well-prepared leaders plan ahead for all contingencies, including the ones they consider unlikely or distasteful. Resourcefulness. At its most basic level, resourcefulness is simply resilience, a refusal to quit or give in even when all seems bleak. Self-discipline. There is always a way to compete, even against superior forces, but strict adherence to a calculated plan is required. Patience. Patience is rarest-and most valuable-when an organization is performing poorly. Its not enough to know what changes must be made; its equally important to decide when to make them. (Weinberg, 2007) Section III: Communication The relationship that exists between a coach and an athlete has been extensively researched, and can be both extreme and powerful (panel). A coach has tremendous influence on the physical and psychological development of their athletes. Sophia Jowett has defined a positive coach-athlete relationship as a state reached when coaches and athletes closeness (eg, interpersonal feelings of trust, respect, and appreciation), commitment (eg, interpersonal thoughts and intentions that aim to maintain the relationship over time), and complementarity (ie, interpersonal behaviours of cooperation, such as responsiveness, easiness, and friendliness) are mutually and causally interconnected. The main responsibility of the coach is to enable their athletes to attain levels of performance not otherwise achievable. Coaches therefore need to motivate athletes and establish the right conditions for learning. Effective coaches have many skills. They should, for instance, be good communicators and have a working knowledge of the learning processes, and of the teaching methods, training principles, and assessment procedures associated with their sport. (Sandra E Short, Martin W, 2005) These skills enable a coach to fulfil five defined roles-those of teacher, organiser, competitor, learner, and friend and mentor. 1. Teacher: This role is the most immediately recognisable function of a coach. Quality training or practising provide opportunities for coaches to display their knowledge and skills to help prepare athletes for competition. Training involves the provision of tuition about physical, tactical, technical, and mental aspects of the sport. Although some coaches also teach their athletes psychological skills (such as mental imagery or relaxation techniques) to help them learn and perform new skills, and effective strategies to improve their self confidence and regulate arousal and anxiety levels, many hire psychologists to work with their teams on these aspects of mental training. 2. Organiser: Typically the least enjoyable or rewarding part of being a coach involves the work that is done behind the scenes-the organisation of practices and competitions, and the scheduling, planning, and transportation of athletes-that makes for a successful season. Organisation, however, helps a coach to prepare for training and for competition, and is a crucial variable for success in all sports. A coach must have an explicit plan or vision, especially in team sports. It is vital for a coach to begin every season by outlining the steps necessary to achieve success. Related to the role of the coach as an organiser is the recognition that they often have to work within certain constraints. There are issues specific to places and contextual factors like scholarship allotment and budgets that can affect a coachs win-loss record. 3. Competitor: Throughout the day of competition, the coach must attend to various tasks. These tasks differ from sport to sport. Coaches of teams play a more active part in competitions than do coaches who work in individual sports; having to make athlete substitutions, call time-outs, and interact with officials. Individual sport coaches are often passive observers during competitions. Coaches in team sports also tend to be more emotional than those in individual sports, in that they are more likely to experience the same emotions as many of their athletes. This emotional response, coupled with perceptions of how the team played and the outcome of the contest, interact to affect the content and focus of the post-competition meeting with athletes. 4. Learner: A coach should be continually learning about their sport and improving their abilities as a trainer. 5. Friend and mentor: Coaches have the opportunity to develop strong relationships with their athletes and to take on the role of friend and mentor. This process involves being a positive role model, discussing problems, sharing successes, offering support when needed, and even providing counselling when necessary. This aspect of coaching can have a strong positive or negative effect on the athlete and affects their feelings of satisfaction with the coach-athlete relationship. An important research finding is that successful coaches seek to improve athletes lives both inside and outside of sport. Results of research into the characteristics of coaches indicate that there are some differences between those who work in individual sports and those who work in team sports. The same is true for athletes. Irrespective of the type of sport, however, both parties view the structure and function of the coach-athlete relationship in the same way. It is noteworthy, though, that athletes in individual sports often feel closer and more committed to their coaches than do team players. What seems to be more important than the individual sport versus team sport distinction is the expectation that a coach has for their athletes. The expectancy theory, or the self-fulfilling prophecy, describes the situation in which coaches perceptions of their athletes affect their behaviour towards them, consequently encouraging actions from the athletes that are consistent with the initial judgment. In sport, the expectancy model comprises four stages. First, coaches form expectations of their athletes bas ed on the athletes personal cues-eg, physical appearance, ethnic origin, and sex-and performance information-eg, practice behaviour, past performances, and skill tests. Second, the expectations made by the coaches affect their behaviour towards the athletes with respect to the frequency and quality of interactions, quality and quantity of instruction, and type and frequency of feedback. Third, over time, the coaches behaviour affects the athletes performances by causing lowexpectancy athletes to perform to poor standard because they have received less reinforcement and playing time, have less confidence, and believe their ability is limited, compared with high-expectancy performers, who typically excel. The cycle is complete when the athletes performance confirms the coachs expectancy. If a coach is wrong, a gifted athlete might never achieve his or her potential. Coaching is an art as well as a science. A coach has to assimilate a vast amount of information and scientific data about their sport, and translate it into practical coaching and training programmes. The success or failure of this process relies heavily on the coachs experience, availability of resources, knowledge of the event or sport, and their relationship with the athletes that they are coaching. By understanding the scientific principles that surround their sport, a well designed training programme can be developed that will help an athlete reach their full potential. The art of coaching is in the understanding and application of the science. (Sandra E Short, Martin W,2005) Sending and receiving messages These are guidelines for sending effective verbal and nonverbal messages (Martens, 1987b): 1. Be direct. People who avoid straightforward communicating assume that others know what they want or feel. Rather than expressing their message directly, they hint at what they have in mind-or they tell a third person, hoping the message will get to the intended recipient indirectly. 2. Own your message. Use I and my not we or the team, when referencing your messages. You disown your messages when you say, The team feels or Most people think you are.. . What youre saying is what you believe, and using others to bolster what you have to say implies cowardice in expressing your own megs.. 3. Be complete and specific. Provide the person to whom you are speaking with all the information he needs to fully understand your message. 4. Be clear and consistent. Avoid double messages. I really want to play you, Mary, but I dont think this is a good game for you. I think youre a fine athlete, but youll just have to be patient. This is an example of a double message-acceptance and rejection-and it probably leave Mary confused and hurt. Double messages send contradictory meanings, and usually the person sending them is afraid to be direct. 5. State your needs and feelings clearly. Because our society frowns on those who wear their emotions on their sleeves, we tend not to reveal our feelings and needs to others. Yet to develop close relationships, you must share your feelings. 6. Separate fact from opinion. State what you see, hear, and know, and then clearly identify any opinions or conclusions you have about these facts. You say to your son when he returns home late one night, I see youve been out with the Williamson kid again. In the context in which you say it, your son will receive the message but not be certain of what exactly your concern is about the Williamson boy. A better way to send this message would be to say, That was the Williamson kid, wasnt it? (verifying a fact) and then, Im concerned that you spend time with him. Im afraid hell get you into trouble (stating your opinion). Although your son may not be pleased with your opinion, at least hell understand it. 7. Focus on one thing at a time. Have you ever begun discussing how to execute a particular skill and abruptly switched to complaining about how the team hasnt been practicing well? Organize your thoughts before speaking. 8. Deliver messages immediately. When you observe something that upsets you or that needs to be changed, dont delay sending a message. Sometimes holding back can result in your exploding later about a little thing. Responding immediately also makes for more effective feedback than a delayed response. 9. Make sure your message does not contain a hidden agenda, which means that the stated purpose of the message is not the same as the real purpose. To determine if your message contains a hidden agenda, ask yourself these two questions: Why am I saying this to this person? Do I really want the person to hear this, or is something else involved? 10. Be supportive. If you want another person to listen to your messages, dont deliver them with threats, sarcasm, negative comparisons, or judgments. Eventually the person will avoid communicating with you or simply tune you out whenever you speak. 11. Be consistent with your nonverbal messages. Perhaps you tell a player it is okay to make an error, but your body gestures and facial expressions contradict your words. Conflicting messages confuse people and hinder future communication. 12. Reinforce with repetition. Repeat key points to reinforce what you are saying. However, dont repeat too often, because this causes the other person to stop listening. You can also reinforce messages by using additional channels of communication-show a picture or video along with explaining a skill, for example. 13. Make your message appropriate to the receivers frame of reference. Messages can be much better understood if you tailor them to the experiences of the person with whom you are communicating. It is inappropriate, for example, to use complex language when speaking to young athletes. They do not have the vocabulary to understand what youre saying. 14. Look for feedback that your message was accurately interpreted. Watch for verbal and nonverbal signals that the person to whom you are speaking is receiving the message you intended. If no signal is given, ask questions to solicit the feedback: Do you understand what I am telling you, Susan? or Are you clear about what you should do? Athletes and Coaches behaviour has the most important role in their communication to the follow article we see some studies about players and coaches behaviour. Relevance of several factors to players aggressive behavior has been extensively studied. Sport-related factors were studied in the framework of context-personality (Isberg, 1985, 1986, 1989) or context-gender (Rainey, 1986; Kemler, 1988; Bond Nideffer, 1992) relationship. Teams moral atmosphere, team norms regulating aggressive acts, and players perception of these norms are mentioned to be important in this circumstance (Stephens Bredemeier, 1996). Difficulty of the task (McGowan Schultz, 1989) and use of anabolic steroids (Lefavi, Reeve, Newland, 1990) also appear to be relevant to aggression in sport. The relevance of communicating factors was also studied (Hanin, 1980) and practically discussed (Hanin, 1992). Coach-related factors are also of importance in this context. Coaching includes decision-making processes, motivational techniques, giving feedback, establishing interpersonal relationships and directing the team confidently. Good coaches provide not only a vision of what to strive for, but also the day-to-day structure, motivation, and support to translate vision into reality. Because of the importance of coaches behaviors and its possible relation to players behaviors, it seems that our understanding about the significance of this relationship needs improvement. Having studied coaches behaviors extensively, some investigators tried to categorize coaching behaviors. Tharp and Gallimore (1976) after studying the behavior of the most successful NBA coach emphasized the importance of instruction and demonstration behaviors and their significant effects on players success. At the same time, sport specific questionnaires were also developed. Danielson, Zelhart, and Drake (1975), revised the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire to classify coaching behaviors into eight categories. On the other hand, researchers trying to develop guidelines for training coaches (Smith, Smoll, Hunt, 1977; Smoll, Smith, Curtis, Hunt, 1978) needed a proper tool to observe and classify coaches behaviors; therefore, the Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) was developed for coding and analyzing the behaviors of coaches in natural field settings (Smoll Smith, 1984). This system which was applied in the present study, divides coaches behavior into twelve categories as follows: Reinforcement Nonreinforcement Mistake-contingent encouragement Mistake-contingent technical instruction Punishment Punitive technical instruction Ignoring mistakes Keeping control General technical instruction General encouragement Organization and General communication According to Smoll and Smith (1984), distributions in the CBAS categories indicated that nearly two-thirds of coaches behaviors were found to be positive, falling into the categories of: a) positive einforcement, b) general technical instruction, and c) general encouragement. Players who played for coaches, who frequently used encouragement, instructions, and reinforcement, demonstrated greater self-esteem at the end of season. They rated their teammates and their sport more positively. According to Weinberg and Gould (1995) these players reported that: they liked their teammates more, felt their coaches were knowledgeable, rated their coaches better as teachers, had a greater desire to play again the next year, and had higher levels of enjoyment comparing to other young players (p. 208). Having considered the association between coaches and players behaviors (Tharp Gallimore, 1976; Danielson, Zelhart, Drake; 1975), one may consider that some players unwanted or negative actions may also be related to coaches behaviors. Aggressive behaviors are among the most problematic behaviors in sport setting and reported to be somehow related to coaching behaviors. Isberg (1985) reported that coaches encouraged players to commit aggressive acts to win the game; such acts were often rewarded by coaches and teammates. Stephens and Light-Bredemeier (1996) observed that the power of context in elite level of competition, forced young soccer players to act aggressively even if they had different orientation. Special stress on relating players aggressions to coaches behaviors would be explained by Social Leaming Theory (Bandura, 1973), which emphasizes the important role that significant others have on the development or control of aggression (Smith, 1988). Therefore, the main objec tive of the present study was to investigate the reality and the amount of possible correlations among coaches behaviors and players aggressive acts in natural field settings. (S. M. VaezMousavi, M. Shojaei, 2005) Conclusion Leadership is the process that one individual set some goals and is trying to support them and accomplish them with the help of others. A Leader is a person who rules others and he is trying to guide and inspire them. As a Coach you have to have the strength to lead your players or athletes. There are different types of coach-leaders but is good to borrow from other coaching-leaders if you want to improve your coaching and leadership skills. The most important traits of a leader are honesty, integrity, to be a good person and to be positive. Exhibiting these traits will decrease your leadership. A coach influences the physical and psychological development of his athletes. Some important roles of a coach are teacher, organizer, competitor, leader, friend and mentor. The characteristics of a coach are different depending on who he is coaching. When he is sending some messages he must be direct, complet

Colonialism and the Heart of Darkness Essay examples -- Essays Papers

Colonialism and the Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a work that strongly attacks colonialism and its affects not only upon the native population but also upon the colonizers invading the land. Conrad experienced being colonized as a young boy in a Poland under Russian occupation. He also witnessed the affects of colonialism upon a colonizer while he commanded a river steamer in the Dutch Congo. He relays these experiences through the eyes of his character Marlow who is a riverboat captain as well. The attacks upon colonialism come in three classes: directly, ironically, and metaphorically. Conrad attacks colonialism directly throughout the book. Obvious and scathing statements are made telling of the horrors of colonialism. One example is Marlow and his description of the Roman colonization of ancient Britain: They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind†¦. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much (Conrad 140). Through this statement Conrad attacks the vicious and selfish nature that colonialism infests upon colonizers. Another direct attack is Marlows description of the natives. They faced hardships and atrocities, many of whic...

Risks and Responsibilities of Coaching

The purpose of this paper is to look at the area of risk management with reference to the sport of swimming. There is no doubt that the ability to prevent any types of injury to athletes is of the utmost importance. The safety of the athletes should therefore be the primary concern of both facility managers and coaches. By working together, one would hope, that all unnecessary injuries could be prevented. One of the most severe injuries that can occur is that of a spinal injury. The area of prevention that addresses this issue is that of spinal injury management and it will be looked at more closely later in this paper. Even with all the extra emphasis in this day and age on safety issues, these kinds of injuries are still far too prevalent. In 1996, Michael Berger and Judith Middleton state that in the United Kingdom, there are around 40,000 children each year that suffer from head injuries. Some of these individuals will have received severe injuries, in that they will have been unconscious for at least 20 minutes and so will most likely have suffered brain damage. The sport of swimming has the obvious danger of drowning. There are also potential risks of spinal injuries caused by collisions with the floor of the pool, the walls in the pool and other swimmers. Many other injuries can be the result of a slippery deck or training equipment not correctly stored away. There is also a risk of injury from the chemicals which are present at a pool such as chlorine. Aquatic injury prevention should be part of any facilities risk management program. Risk management involves identifying and reducing dangerous conditions that can cause injuries and financial loss. Thus, the aim of a risk management is in a way a kind of preventative medicine, to tackle the issue of a problem thus ensuring that those kinds of accidents will not occur. There are some that would contend that those individuals that suffer an injury are unfortunate victims of circumstance. Many injuries can be avoided through an understanding of the factors that can cause injuries to occur and then a knowledge of how to go about preventing such situations to occur. Charles Bucher and March Krotee (1998) explain that there is an added risk in any physical education exercise as opposed to a regular class because the children are moving around and not sitting in a chair. The hiring of competent, qualified and certified employees in crucial not only for the planning but also for the conducting and supervising of activities. By making these simple efforts, the risk of injury can be minimized. Not only should the staff be up to par but also any equipment used as well as the facility being as safe as it could be. All coaches need to have fully up to date certificates and licenses. All necessary measures need to be taken to prevent any injuries from occurring and the correct level of supervision is crucial. Bucher and Krotee explain that the coach is required to act promptly in performing first aid and CPR and nothing more. Coaches should always show all necessary levels of care in their professional activities. The American Red Cross (1995) suggest that by understanding how injuries are caused, this will help prevent them from occurring by increasing the staff†s awareness of risks and hazards, helping patrons to avoid risky behavior and developing an attitude of safety at your facility. The Institute of Swimming Teachers and Coaches (April 1997) explain that by identifying not only what is a potential hazard but also assessing their risk level, and then evaluating whether or not all necessary precautions have been taken, this should help to prevent anyone getting injured. The ISTC, were not only referring to swimmers as potential victims but also to coaches, teachers, lifeguards, cleaning staff and receptionists. According to Bucher and Krotee, there is no doubt in today†s society that there are ever more increasing cases of teachers, coaches, schools and teams being sued in court. It seems as though lawyers are readily available, also the public are becoming much more aware of their rights, as far as what they should be protected from a safety standpoint. It is suggested that the risk of legal action can be minimized by following some simple steps. Collecting all pertinent facts about the health of your athletes. Purchasing only the best equipment form the most reputable dealers and acquiring used equipment from companies renowned for high quality reconditioned merchandise. Not laying the blame of an injury on anyone verbally but by carefully wording the exact nature of the injury and the preceding events on an accident report. Good supervision and instruction in very important. An emergency action plan should be drawn up, rehearsed and be ready to be activated at a moment†s notice. All necessary insurance precaution should be taken. Perhaps this is the most comforting defense for a coach. According to the United States Swimming, Inc. 1998 Insurance Summary, all swimmers registered with United States Swimming are covered by the USS Insurance policy as long as the injury suffered by the member was received during an approved activity under the policy. All USS swimmers are covered when they are participating in competitions, meets or events sponsored or sanctioned by USS, participating in organized, scheduled practice sessions and in organized, supervised travel to and from sponsored and sanctioned events or organized, supervised practice sessions. Anthony McCaskey and Kenneth Biedzynski (1996) explain that coaches are those principally the defendants in law suits as it is generally agreed that coaches have the most control of those individuals in their respective sports. A coach may be found negligent if he does not follow his duty to conform to a standard conduct that protects others from unreasonable risk of harm. Participants are termed as either those directly or indirectly under the control of the coach. Case law demonstrates that coaches responsibilities include: supervision, training and instruction, safe usage of all equipment, provided high quality assistants, warning of potential dangers, providing prompt and correct medical care, preventing injuries to competing athletes. The American Red Cross (1993) explain that lawsuits are becoming a concern for those giving care. Hence in the case of an emergency, the lifeguards and coaches are becoming increasingly apprehensive about giving care to victims of injuries. The American Red Cross suggests that by being aware of some basic legal principles, individuals may lessen the chances that they may later be found to be negligent in some area or another. All lifeguards have a duty to care. That is, they are legally bound to provide care to a injured party if the giving of such care is laid out in their job description. The rescuer should follow a reasonable standard of care and failure to do so may result in a chance of being found negligent. The Good Samaritan Laws protect anyone giving care as long as they are not negligent and they act in good faith. Consent should always be obtained from the individual. If the victim is an adult and they refuse care, one must not force care upon them. In the case of a child, the consent must be obtained form a parent or guardian. Any victim that is either unconscious or confused is assumed to give implied consent as it is assumed that if that person were fully aware of their predicament, they would accept the care that was offered. To obtain consent, the rescuer must identify themselves to the victim, give their level of training, explain what could be wrong and explain what care is planned. Once care is begun, a rescuer cannot stop giving care until advanced medical professional arrive at the scene. Confidentiality must also be observed. Only the facility or team spokesperson may speak to attorneys or the media . A rescuer should only speak with law enforcement officers and the rescue squad when it arrives. Finally, record keeping is essential. The documentation is considered to be almost as important as the care itself. Bucher and Krotte (1998) state that coaches and instructors are expected to carry out their activities with all necessary levels of care. If this is not the case, then they are leaving themselves open to a potential lawsuit filed against them for negligence. There is a requirement for the coach or instructor to take protective measures. Failure to do so will result in a lawsuit. In Roth versus New York (1942), all necessary measures were taken and a bather drowned after walking into deep water. There was nothing to stop this happening. The state was found to be liable. Bucher and Krotee explain that the failure to supervise correctly is the most commonly litigated situation. By having alert lifeguards and coaches, a facility can seriously reduce to chances of injuries occurring. According to the American Red Cross (1995), effective surveillance has four elements. The ability to recognize the ways in which a drowning or distressed swimmer behave in the pool. An example of this would be that a swimmers would have rhythmic breathing, relatively coordinated movements, have a horizontal body position and be making recognizable forward progress in the water. In contrast a distressed swimmer would be breathing but also be calling for help, waving and be making very little forward progress in the water, if any at all. A passive drowning victim would be considerably different to a swimmer. A Passive drowning victim would not be breathing, have no arm or leg movement, could be face down near the surface or in a submerged position and so obviously would be making no forward motion in the pool. Appropriate scanning techniques should also be employed to locate swimmers having problems in the pool. Lifeguards should be carefully and strategically placed throughout the facility. Each lifeguard should be fully aware of their responsibilities. Coaches are responsible for teaching swimmers all necessary skills to compete, the correct procedures to reduce the risks of injury and making sure that their swimmers are physically fit enough to compete. The failure to provide adequate training or instruction to reduce the risk of injury has been a commonly cited reason in recent litigation. Supervision is absolutely critical when the consequences of depriving the body of oxygen are considered. Soon after breathing stops, then too will the heart. After six minutes or so, brain damage is possible. Between six and ten minutes without breathing, brain damage is likely. If breathing is stopped for more than ten minutes, usually the brain damage is irreversible. Thus it is very important to be aware of the varying depths of water within the pool. In this way it is much easier to make sure that the children do not wander into water which is too deep for them. Also, this could help prevent spinal injuries from occurring by making patrons aware of when and where in the pool it is considered safe to dive. Without doubt, patron surveillance is one of the most important parts of a risk management strategy. The Certified Pool Operator (Fall 1997) states that it is very important to regulate the use of pools, by watching children and though constant supervision of the pool. The Institute of Swimming Teachers and Coaches (April 1997) mentioned that in some pools there may be blind spots resulting from the positioning of features, glares and reflections. All of these factors can hinder surveillance and so through careful planning, these problems should be attempted to be eliminated by strategic placing of lifeguards. This comes directly under the realms of a good risk management program. According to the Certified Pool Operator (Fall 1997), it is critical to identify areas of the pool that become slippery when wet. These range from the deck itself to corridors leading to and from the pool, locker rooms and snack areas. Communication can be used as a tool for helping to prevent injury and so is considered another ‘gear in the engine† of risk management. Patrons need to be made aware of potentials for injury. They also need to be educated as to the risks from inappropriate behavior. All rules and regulations necessary for the prevention of injuries need to be forcibly enforced. Signs are needed to warn pool users of danger areas. Since spinal injuries are more common in individuals visiting facilities for the first time and so are unaware of shallow areas. The side of the pool itself needs to be mark both on the deck it self and on the side of the wall facing the water to warn swimmers in the pool as to the changing depth of the water that they are in. In addition to signs depicting â€Å"No Diving† and the depth of the water, facility rules and regulations should also be clearly displayed. Running should never take place around the pool. As the side of the pool gets wet, it become treacherous. Signs should be posted prohibiting to consumption of food and drinks in and around the pool. There is the obvious potential for injury from broken glass on the pool deck or in the pool from bottles that are accidental dropped on the pool side. Pool rules are not designed to prevent the patrons from having fun but more so to allow them to have fun in a hopefully relatively risk free environment. The pool rules should be displayed clearly on the wall of the pool. There are many great examples of pool rules, on would be that diving is only permitted in diving designated areas. The deck needs to be checked daily for loose floor materials. There is also a risk for standing water on the deck itself. All such findings should be immediately reported to the facility manager. The deck should be kept clear of equipment and anything else that could be a potential hazard. The American Red Cross (1992) recommends that in areas where the water is less than five feet deep, there should be signs clearly stating ‘Danger-Shallow Water- No Diving†. It is suggested that these signs are close to the edge of the pool in contrasting colors to the pool deck. If starting blocks are removable, they should be during recreational periods and should be stored in a safe location. If they are not easily removable, then they should be coned off or clearly marking as out of use to recreational swimmers. All kick boards and pull buoys should be stored away in their correct location and not left strewn about the pool deck. Any item left on the pool deck is a hazard. Any risk management program would include keeping the deck clear of obstructions. The American Red Cross (1988) states that all rescue and first aid equipment should inspected on a regular basis. This equipment should also be easily accessible. Any piece of equipment that is found to be damaged in any way should be removed, repaired or replaced immediately. Following an emergency, all equipment that is used should be replaced promptly. Other areas should also be checked on a regular basis, such as the showers, locker rooms and restrooms which should be kept clean and hazard free. Coaches are also responsible for taking all necessary measures to ensure that all equipment used by their swimmers is of an adequate standard. This issue is far more critical in a contact sport such as football where inadequate padding may lead to serious injury. Anyone working with chlorine should wear protective clothing such as gloves, goggles and clothing covering the rest of the body to minimize the risks of chlorine coming in contact with the naked flesh. Chlorine can enter the blood via absorption through the skin. Direct contact with the eyes can cause severe injuries. The American Red Cross (1995) terms chemical hazards as harmful or potentially harmful substances in and around the pool. Storage areas of chemicals should be clearly marked hence warning both staff and patrons of possible dangers. The doors to such storage areas should be kept locked. Any suspicious odors in these regions should be reported immediately. The American Red Cross (1992) recommend storing all chemicals and chemical testing kits in child proof containers and out of children†s reach. Every year many individuals are injured from diving related injuries. These injuries are usually caused by collisions with the bottom and sides of the pool. Thus it is of paramount importance that coaches and instructors take all precautions to prevent such injuries form occurring. Diving should not be taught unless all necessary safety equipment in readily available such as a back board and staff trained in spinal injury management are present. Coaches should make sure that all swimmers are educated in the obvious safety precautions. Never dive when someone else is in the water in front of you. All dives should be of a flat nature. All swimmers should enter the water fingers first and not head first, thus helping to cushioning the blow should the swimmer crash into the floor if the pool. Never hold or position objects in the pool. A great example as to why it important to keep the diving area clear of obstructions is given by the American Red Cross (1992), which referred to the case Bill Brooks. One day, he dived into a pool and hit his head on an inner tube. He could remember laying face down in the water and being unable to move. Brooks, who once played college baseball, is now a C5 quadriplegic and will never walk again. The best protection against possible injuries is an informed, safety-conscious swimmer. The Certified Pool Operator (Fall 1997) stated that in a typical year there are about 400 events that result in a quadriplegic injury in aquatic environments. According to the CPO, a quarter of these occurred in pools. The article went onto explain that 95% of the pool related injuries occurred in the shallow ends of pools. Through careful supervision and prudent coaching, swimmers can be educated as to safe methods of entry into shallow water. The Swimming Times (1997) suggests that the depth of the water should be taken into account in relation to the ability and height of the pupils. Hence, none swimmers should not be taught in water that is ten feet deep and likewise, competitive swimmers should not be coached in shallow water. McCaskey and Biedzynski (1996) swimming incident rates come be totally eliminated if swimmers did not use racing dives into shallow water during practice or meets. According to McCaskey and Biedzynski, there has not been a direct injury in college swimming since a non-fatal one in 1982. The American Red Cross (1995) reveals that sports related injuries account for 13% of all spinal injuries. These figures were derived from the National Spinal Cord Injuries Data Base. According to the American Red Cross, about 1000 people each year suffer spinal injuries from diving mishaps. The American Red Cross suggests the following ways to help prevent the occurrence of such injuries. The water depth should always be ascertained before entering. Only trained swimmers should be using the starting blocks. Coaches should be aware of these aspects and make sure they correctly supervise their swimmers during warm ups at competitions and at practice. All these measures mentioned so far in the paper appear to be obvious, but unless they are adhered to tightly then mishaps can occur. It is not worth gambling with your swimmers† health. If a suspected spinal injury occurs, then the area must be stabilized and immobilized. There are certain situations when a spinal injury must always be assumed to have occurred. It is always better to be safe than sorry. If proper precautions are not taken when caring for injured victims, then that lack of risk management leaves the coach and facility open to legal action. A spinal injury should be assumed for any injury involving a diving board, diving into shallow water, a fall from a height greater than that of the victim†s height. Also any visible bumps or depressions to the head, altered consciousness or complaints of back or neck pain from the victim. In some cases, the victim may be face down in the water. Although, the victim should be moved as little as possible following a suspected spinal injury, in this situation, the victim needs to be removed form the water. If the victim is not removed, drowning will take place, the heart will stop and soon there after, brain damage will occur. The American Red Cross First Aid Manual (1993) explains that head injuries can rupture blood vessels in the brain causing pressure to build up leading to brain damage. The American Red Cross (1992) describes the typical recipient of a diving injury as a first time visitor to a location, not warned by a sign about the potential dangers, when lifeguards were not present and the water depth was less than four feet deep. Any good risk management program could dramatically reduce the risk of this kind of injury. By having vigilant lifeguards, water depths clearly marked and no diving signs clearly posted on the deck, most of the risk can be reduced. These are all components of a well rounded risk management program. Since most spinal injuries occur when a person dives into water less than five feet deep, on arriving at a pool, a coach should check the poolside for all relevant safety warnings and make his swimmers aware of this risks. The facility staff should also be highly alert at all times. All pools should have an emergency action plan. The EAP should explain exactly what procedure should be followed in the event of an aquatic emergency. The initiation of the EAP is the responsibility of the lifeguard. A typical signal to all pool patrons and staff is three long blows of a whistle. This would draw the attentions of the other pool patrons and then they would be more easily removed from the water for the protection of the victim. Also, other staff members throughout the building would be alerted of the EAP being activated. The next stage is to begin whatever rescue or emergency action that needs to be taken. After determining the nature and extent of the emergency, another lifeguard or staff member will call the police, fire or rescue squad as necessary. The emergency number is usually 911 but may vary from area to area. If the pool a which you coach is in a new area, it is your responsibility to make sure that you are fully aware of the number to call in the event of an emergency. The required first aid should be continued be given to the victim until advanced medical care arrives. Once care is commenced, it cannot be withdrawn, if it is, this constitutes abandonment which is a liable situation. Once advanced medical care arrives, all necessary accident reports are filled and the aid in crowd control. More often than not, only one person is designated as the spokesperson for a facility. This person and this person only is allowed to talk to anyone except for the police and the rescue squad. The Institute of Swimming Teachers and Coaches (April 1997) explains that whether or not a pool operator believes that his pool is a high or low risk facility, it is essential to have an emergency action plan. According to the ISTC, an emergency is anything considered to of danger to a bather or employee. The following all come under that general description. Overcrowding is a situation where too many people are in a confined area. This could be fatal in a swimming pool. A good risk management program would outline maximum numbers for a pool. These levels would be set well below that of over crowding, hopefully eliminating this risk. Disorderly behavior is also a common cause of emergencies. With vigilant surveillance and firm enforcing of pool rules and regulations, this too could be eliminated as a risk. Lack of water clarity will occur when the chemical levels in pool be out of balance. This too is a liability. If a child dives into water which he assumes to be deep but is in fact shallow, this could lead to a lawsuit. Especially because of the fact that the water clarity may have directly affected that child†s judgement. The ISTC explains that as a coach, it is your responsibility to know how to raise the alarm, how to get help form other staff members, how to initiate the appropriate rescue, who should summon the emergency services and so on. Qualified lifeguards are trained to act as a team in the case of an emergency, thus it is crucial for a coach or instructor to be able to contribute positively to an emergency situation. The Institute of Swimming Teachers and Coaches (May 1997) states that teachers and coaches must be trained in what to do in the case of an emergency and in turn should make the pupils understand and be aware of the procedures involved in the EAP. The pupils needs to know where to congregate in case of an emergency and possibly if they will be required to stand near a particular doorway to attract the attention of the advanced medical care when it arrives. The Institute of Swimming Teachers and Coaches (1996) stated that 93% of the schools in a survey had a formal emergency action plan. Two schools stated that they did not have one. Most of the schools in this survey had had swimming as part of their curriculum for more than six years. Coaches and other facility staff should go through regular in service days to rehearse emergency procedures. The emergency action plan should be rehearsed most importantly. For this procedure is what could make the difference between life and death for a victim. In service training should cover the following points: review the potential hazards at the facility, review and update rules and regulations, practice the emergency action plan , practice rescue skills, carry out physical conditioning. Following an emergency, an accident report needs be filled out by the members of staff involved. The facility information such as address and phone number. Personal data of the injured party should also be included: name, age, sex, address. The location of the incident should be included as well as the a description of the incident. It is very important to include what care was provided; was medical attention welcomed by the victim or refused? All of these issues are very important as law suits are far too prevalent in this day and age. Remember, consent must be obtained from the victim. To obtain this, the care provider must identify himself to the victim, give his level of training, explain what he thinks is wrong and then explain what he plans to do. If the victim refuses care, the care provider must try to convince the victim to receive care. According to the American Red Cross (1993), record keeping is nearly as important as the actual care given. The record is a legal document and is vital if legal action is taken. Risk management is an important function of a sport program. A coach should be fully aware of all legal and ethical responsibilities that come with his position. Any form of negligence on his or her behalf resulting in increased risks of injury can lead to the increased chances of legal action. Risk management is not only concerned with limiting the chance of injuries being suffered but also reducing the chances of financial losses following such an incident. Coaches† Quarterly (1998) states that effective in 1998, all United States Swimming coaches must have the following qualifications: Safety Training for Swim Coaches, First Aid and CPR. The Certified Pool Operator (1997) blames the individuals for their careless behavior. According to the article, pools are becoming safer. The main reasons for injuries today are victim†s carelessness. In a perfect world no one would need to know rescue techniques. Everyone would be careful, and safety would not be a problem. But ours is not a perfect world. Because of dangerous situations, careless or carefree people, and changing water conditions, many dangers are in and around water. Risk management in a pool environment is basically concerned with aquatic injury prevention. A highly developed risk management program will substantially reduce the risks of injury. By understanding how injuries are caused, one can better prevent them. Effective communication with patrons is critical for helping to prevent injuries. Through this communication, the patrons can have fun in a safer environment.

Megapnosaurus (Syntarsus) - Facts and Figures

Megapnosaurus (Syntarsus) - Facts and Figures Name: Megapnosaurus (Greek for big dead lizard); pronounced meh-GAP-no-SORE-us; also known as Syntarsus; possibly synonymous with Coelophysis Habitat: Woodlands of Africa and North America Historical Period: Early Jurassic (200-180 million years ago) Size and Weight: About six feet long and 75 pounds Diet: Meat Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; bipedal posture; narrow snout; strong hands with long fingers About Megapnosaurus (Syntarsus) By the standards of the early Jurassic period, about 190 million years ago, the meat-eating dinosaur Megapnosaurus was hugethis early theropod may have weighed as much as 75 pounds, hence its unusual name, Greek for big dead lizard. (By the way, if Megapnosaurus sounds a bit unfamiliar, thats because this dinosaur used to be known as Syntarsusa name that turned out to have already been assigned to a genus of insect.) Complicating matters further, many paleontologists believe that Megapnosaurus was actually a large species (C. rhodesiensis) of the much better-known dinosaur Coelophysis, the skeletons of which have been unearthed by the thousands in the American southwest. Assuming that it does deserve its own genus, there were two distinct variants of Megapnosaurus. One lived in South Africa, and was discovered when researchers stumbled on a bed of 30 tangled skeletons (the pack had apparently been drowned in a flash flood, and may or may not have been on a hunting expedition). The North American version sported small crests on its head, a hint that it may have been closely related to another smallish theropod of the late Jurassic period, Dilophosaurus. The size and structure of its eyes indicates that Megapnosaurus (aka Syntarsus, aka Coelophysis) hunted at night, and a study of the growth rings in its bones reveals that this dinosaur had an average life span of about seven years.

From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy Essays

From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy Essays From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy Essay From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy Essay From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy By Michael E. Porter Corporate strategy, the overall plan for a diversified company, is both the darling and the stepchild of contemporary management practice- the darling because CEOs have been obsessed with diversification since the early 1960s, the stepchild because almost no consensus exists about what corporate strategy is, much less about how a company should formulate it. A diversified company has two levels of strategy: business unit strategy and corporate strategy. Competitive strategy concerns how to create competitive advantage in each of the businesses in which a company competes. Corporate strategy concerns two different questions: what businesses the corporation should be in and how the corporate office should manage the array of business units. Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business unit parts. The track record of corporate strategies has been dismal. I studied the diversification records of 33 large, prestigious U. S. companies over the 1950-1986 period and found that most of them had divested many more acquisitions than they had kept. The corporate strategies of most companies have dissipated instead of created shareholder value. The need to rethink corporate strategy could hardly be more urgent. By taking over companies and breaking them up, corporate raiders thrive on failed corporate strategy. Fueled by junk bond financing and growing acceptability, raiders can expose any company to takeover, no matter how large or blue chip. Recognizing past diversification mistakes, some companies have initiated large-scale restructuring programs. Others have done nothing at all. Whatever the response, the strategic questions persist. Those who have restructured must decide what to do next to avoid repeating the past; those ho have done nothing must awake to their vulnerability. To survive, companies must understand what good corporate strategy is. Concepts of Corporate Strategy My study has helped me identify four concepts of corporate strategy that have been put into practice-portfolio management, restructuring, transferring skills, and sharing activities. While the concepts are not always mutually exclusive, each rest s on a different mechanism by which the corporation creates shareholder value and each requires the diversified company to manage and organize itself in a different way. The first two require no connections among business units; the second two depend on them. While all four concepts of strategy have succeeded under the right circumstances, today some make more sense than others. Ignoring any of the concepts is perhaps the quickest road to failure. PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT The concept of corporate strategy most in use is portfolio management, which is based primarily on diversification through acquisition. The corporation acquires sound, attractive companies with competent managers who agree to stay on. : While acquired units do not have to be in the same industries as existing units, the best portfolio managers generally limit their range of businesses in some way, in part to limit the specific expertise needed by top management. The acquired units are autonomous, and the teams that run them are compensated according to unit results. The corporation supplies capital and works with each to infuse it with professional management techniques. At the same time, top management provides objective and dispassionate review of business unit results. Portfolio managers categorize units by potential and regularly transfer resources from units that generate cash to those with high potential and cash needs. In a portfolio strategy, the corporation seeks to create shareholder value in a number of ways. It uses its expertise and analytical resources to spot attractive acquisition candidates that the individual shareholder could not. The company provides capital on favorable terms that reflect corporate wide fund-raising ability. It introduces professional management skills and discipline. Finally, it provides high-quality review and coaching, unencumbered by conventional wisdom or emotional attachments to the business. The logic of the portfolio management concept rests on a number of vital assumptions. If a company’s diversification plan is to meet the attractiveness and cost-of-entry tests, it must find good but undervalued companies. Acquired companies must be truly undervalued because the parent does little for the new unit once it is acquired. To meet the better-off test, the benefits the corporation provides must yield a significant competitive advantage to acquired units. The style of operating through highly autonomous business units must both develop sound business strategies and motivate managers. In most countries, the days when portfolio management was a valid concept of corporate strategy are past. In the face of increasingly well-developed capital markets, attractive companies with good managements show up on everyone’s computer screen and attract top dollar in terms of acquisition premium. Simply contributing capital isn’t contributing much. A sound strategy can easily be funded; small to medium-size companies don’t need a munificent parent. Other benefits have also eroded. Large companies no longer corner the market for professional management skills; in fact, more and more observers believe managers cannot necessarily run anything in the absence of industry-specific knowledge and experience. Another supposed advantage of the portfolio management concept- dispassionate review- rests on similarly shaky ground since the added value of review alone is questionable in a portfolio of sound companies. The benefit of giving business units complete autonomy is also questionable. Increasingly, a company’s business units are interrelated, drawn together by ew technology, broadening distribution channels, and changing regulations. Setting strategies of units independently may well undermine unit performance. The companies in my sample that have succeeded in diversification have recognized the value of interrelationships and understood that a strong sense of corporate identity is as important as slavish adherence to parochia l business unit financial results. But it is the sheer complexity of the management task that has ultimately defeated even the best portfolio managers. As the size of the company grows, portfolio managers need to find more and more deals just to maintain growth. Supervising dozens or even hundreds of disparate units and under chain-letter pressures to add more, management begins to make mistakes. At the same time, the inevitable costs of being part of a diversified company take their toll and unit performance slides while the whole company’s ROI turns downward. Eventually, a new management team is in-stalled that initiates wholesale divestments and pares down the company to its core businesses. The experiences of Gulf Western, Consolidated Foods (now Sara Lee), and ITT are just a few comparatively recent examples. Reflecting these realities, the U. S. apital markets today reward companies that follow the portfolio management model with a â€Å"conglomerate discount†; they value the whole less than the sum of the parts. In developing countries, where large companies are few, capital markets are undeveloped, and professional management is scarce, portfolio management still works. But it is no longer a valid model for corporate s trategy m advanced economies. Nevertheless, the technique is in the limelight today in the United Kingdom, where it is supported so far by a newly energized stock market eager for excitement. But this enthusiasm will wane, as well it should. Portfolio management is no way to conduct corporate strategy. RESTRUCTURING Unlike its passive role as a portfolio manager, when it serves as banker and reviewer, a company that bases its strategy on restructuring becomes an active restructurer of business units. The new businesses are not necessarily related to existing units. All that is necessary is unrealized potential. The restructuring strategy seeks out undeveloped, sick, or threatened organizations or industries on the threshold of significant change. The parent intervenes, frequently changing the unit management team, shifting strategy, or infusing the company with new technology. Then it may make follow-up acquisitions to build . a critical mass and sell off unneeded or unconnected parts and thereby reduce the effective acquisition cost. The result is a strengthened company or a transformed industry. As a coda, the parent sells off the stronger unit once results are clear because the parent is no longer adding value and top management decides that its attention should be directed elsewhere. When well implemented, the restructuring concept is sound, for it passes the three tests of successful diversification. The restructurer meets the cost-of-entry test through the types of company it acquires. It limits acquisition premiums by buying companies with problems and lackluster images or by buying into industries with as yet unforeseen potential. Intervention by the corporation clearly meets the better-off test. Provided that the target industries are structurally attractive, the restructuring model can create enormous shareholder value. Some restructuring companies are Loew’s, BTR, and General Cinema. Ironically, many of today’s restructurers are profiting from yesterday’s portfolio management strategies. To work, the restructuring strategy requires a corporate management team with the insight to spot undervalued companies or positions in industries ripe for transformation. The same insight is necessary to actually turn the units around even though they are in new and unfamiliar businesses. These requirements expose the restructurer to considerable risk and usually limit the time in which the company can succeed at the strategy. The most skillful proponents understand this problem, recognize their mistakes, and move decisively to dispose of them. The best companies realize they are not just acquiring companies but restructuring an industry. Unless they can integrate the acquisitions to create a whole new strategic position, they are just portfolio managers in disguise. Another important difficulty surfaces if so many other companies join the action that they deplete the pool of suitable candidates and bid their prices up. Perhaps the greatest pitfall, however, is that companies find it very hard to dispose of business units once they are restructured and performing well. Human nature fights economic rationale. Size supplants shareholder value as the corporate goal. The company does not sell a unit even though the company no longer adds value to the unit. While the transformed units would be better off in another company that had related businesses, the restructuring company instead retains them. Gradually, it becomes a portfolio manager. The parent company’s ROI declines as the need for reinvestment in the units and normal business risks eventually offset restructuring’s one-shot gain. The perceived need to keep growing intensifies the pace of acquisition; errors result and standards fall. The restructuring company turns into a conglomerate with returns that only equal the average of all industries at best. TRANSFERRING SKILLS The purpose of the first two concepts of corporate strategy is to create value through a company’s relationship with each autonomous unit. The corporation’s role is to be a selector, a banker, and an intervenor. The last two concepts exploit the interrelationships between businesses. In articulating them, however, one comes face-to-face with the often ill-defined concept of synergy. If you believe the text of the countless corporate annual reports, just about anything is related to just about anything else! But imagined synergy is much more common than real synergy. GM’s purchase of Hughes Aircraft simply because cars were going electronic and Hughes was an electronics concern demonstrates the folly of paper synergy. Such corporate relatedness is an ex post facto rationalization of a diversification undertaken for other reasons. Even synergy that is clearly defined often fails to materialize. Instead of cooperating, business units often compete. A company that can define the synergies it is pursuing still faces significant organizational impediments in achieving them. But the need to capture the benefits of relationships between businesses has never been more important. Technological and competitive developments already link many businesses and are creating new possibilities for competitive advantage. In such sectors as financial services, computing, office equipment, entertainment, and health care, interrelationships among previously distinct businesses are perhaps the central concern of strategy. To understand the role of relatedness in corporate strategy, we must give new meaning to this often ill-defined idea. I have identified a good way to start- the value chain. 5 Every business unit is a collection of discrete activities ranging from sales to accounting that allow it to compete. I call them value activities. It is at this level, not in the company as a whole, that the unit achieves competitive advantage. I group these activities in nine categories. Primary activities create the product or service, deliver and market it, and provide after-sale support. The categories of primary activities are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. Support activities provide the input and infrastructure that allow the primary activities to take place. The categories are company infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, and procurement. The value chain defines the two types of interrelationships that may create synergy. The first is a company’s ability to transfer skills or expertise among similar value chains. The second is the ability to share activities. Two business units, for example, can share the same sales force or logistics network The value chain helps expose the last two (and most important) concepts of corporate strategy. The transfer of skills among business units in the diversified company is the basis for one concept. While each business unit has a separate value chain, knowledge about how to perform activities is transferred among the units. For example, a toiletries business unit, expert in the marketing of convenience products, transmits ideas on new positioning concepts, promotional techniques, and packaging possibilities to a newly acquired unit that sells cough syrup. Newly entered industries can benefit from the expertise of existing units and vice versa. These opportunities arise when business units have similar buyers or channels, similar value activities like government relations or procurement, similarities in the broad configuration of the value chain (for example, managing a multisite service organization), or the same strategic concept (for example, low cost). Even though the units operate separately, such similarities allow the sharing of knowledge. Of course, some similarities are common; one can imagine them at some level between almost any pair of businesses. Countless companies have fallen into the trap of diversifying too readily because of similarities; mere similarity is not enough. Transferring skills leads to competitive advantage only if the similarities among businesses meet three conditions: 1. The activities involved in the businesses are similar enough that sharing expertise is meaningful. Broad similarities (marketing intensiveness, for example, or a common core process technology such as bending metal) are not a sufficient basis for diversification. The resulting ability to transfer skills is likely to have little impact on competitive advantage. 2. The transfer of skills involves activities important to competitive advantage. Transferring skills in peripheral activities such as government relations or real estate in consumer goods units may be beneficial but is not a basis for diversification. 3. The skills transferred represent a significant source of competitive advantage for the receiving unit. The expertise or skills to be transferred are both advanced and proprietary enough to be beyond the capabilities of competitors. The transfer of skills is an active process that significantly changes the strategy or operations of the receiving unit. The prospect for change must be specific and identifiable. Almost guaranteeing that no shareholder value will be created, too many companies are satisfied with vague prospects or faint hopes that skills will transfer. The transfer of skills does not happen by accident or by osmosis. The company will have to reassign critical personnel, even on a permanent basis, and the participation and support of high-level management in skills transfer is essential. Many companies have been defeated at skills transfer because they have not provided their business units with any incentives to participate. Transferring skills meets the tests of diversification if the company truly mobilizes proprietary expertise across units. This makes certain the company can offset the acquisition premium or lower the cost of overcoming entry barriers. The industries the company chooses for diversification must pass the attractiveness test. Even a close fit that reflects opportunities to transfer skills may not overcome poor industry structure. Opportunities to transfer skills, however, may help the company transform the structures of newly entered industries and send them in favorable directions. The transfer of skills can be one-time or ongoing. If the company exhausts opportunities to infuse new expertise into a unit after the initial post-acquisition period, the unit should ultimately be sold. The corporation is no longer creating shareholder value. Few companies have grasped this point, however, and many gradually suffer mediocre returns. Yet a company diversified into well-chosen businesses can transfer skills eventually in many directions. If corporate management conceives of its role in this way and creates appropriate organizational mechanisms to facilitate cross-unit interchange, the opportunities to share expertise will be meaningful. By using both acquisitions and internal development, companies can build a transfer-of-skills strategy. The presence of a strong base of skills ometimes creates the possibility for internal entry instead of the acquisition of a going concern. Successful diversifiers that employ the concept of skills transfer may, however, often acquire a company in the target industry as a beachhead and then build on it with their internal expertise. By doing so, they can reduce some of the risks of internal entry and speed up the process. Two companie s that have diversified using the transfer-of-skills concept are 3M and Pepsico. SHARING ACTIVITIES The fourth concept of corporate strategy is based on sharing activities in the value chains among business units. Procter Gamble, for example, employs a common physical distribution system and sales force in both paper towels and disposable diapers. McKesson, a leading distribution company, will handle such diverse lines as pharmaceuticals and liquor through superwarehouses. The ability to share activities is a potent basis for corporate strategy because sharing often enhances competitive advantage by lowering cost or raising differentiation. But not all sharing leads to competitive advantage, and companies can encounter deep organizational resistance to even beneficial sharing possibilities. These hard truths have led many companies to reject synergy prematurely and retreat to the false simplicity of portfolio management. A cost-benefit analysis of prospective sharing opportunities can determine whether synergy is possible. Sharing can lower costs if it achieves economies of scale, boosts the efficiency of utilization, or helps a company move more rapidly down the learning curve. The costs of General Electric’s advertising, sales, and after-sales service activities in major appliances are low because they are spread over a wide range of appliance products. Sharing can also enhance the potential for differentiation. A shared order-processing system, for instance, may allow new features and services that a buyer will value. Sharing can also reduce the cost of differentiation. A shared service network, for example, may make more advanced, remote servicing technology economically feasible. Often, sharing will allow an activity to be wholly reconfigured in ways that can dramatically raise competitive advantage. Sharing must involve activities that are significant to competitive advantage, not just any activity. PG’s distribution system is such an instance in the diaper and paper towel business, where products are bulky and costly to ship. Conversely, diversification based on the opportunities to share only corporate overhead is rarely, if ever, appropriate. Sharing activities inevitably involves costs that the benefits must outweigh. One cost is the greater coordination required to manage a shared activity. More important is the need to compromise the design or performance of an activity so that it can be shared. A salesperson handling the products of two business units, for example, must operate in a way that is usually not what either unit would choose were it independent. And if compromise greatly erodes the unit’s effectiveness, then sharing may reduce rather than enhance competitive advantage. Many companies have only superficially identified their potential for sharing. Companies also merge activities without consideration of whether they are sensitive to economies of scale. When they are not, the coordination costs kill the benefits. Companies compound such errors by not identifying costs of sharing in advance, when steps can be taken to minimize them. Costs of compromise can frequently be mitigated by redesigning the activity for sharing. The shared salesperson, for example, can be provided with a remote computer terminal to boost productivity and provide more customer information. Jamming business units together without such thinking exacerbates the costs of sharing. Despite such pitfalls, opportunities to gain advantage from sharing activities have proliferated because of momentous developments in technology, deregulation, and competition. The infusion of electronics and information systems into many industries creates new opportunities to link businesses. The corporate strategy of sharing can involve both acquisition and internal development. Internal development is often possible because the corporation can bring to bear clear resources in launching a new unit. Start-ups are less difficult to integrate than acquisitions. Companies using the shared-activities concept can also make acquisitions as beachhead landings into a new industry and then integrate the units through sharing with other units. Prime examples of companies that have diversified via using shared activities include PG, Du Pont, and IBM. The fields into which each has diversified are a cluster of tightly related units. Marriott illustrates both successes and failures in sharing activities over time. Following the shared-activities model requires an organizational context in which business unit collaboration is encouraged and reinforced. Highly autonomous business units are inimical to such collaboration. The company must put into place a variety of what I call horizontal mechanisms- a strong sense of corporate identity, a clear corporate mission statement that emphasizes the importance of integrating business unit strategies, an incentive system that rewards more than just business unit results, cross-business-unit task forces, and other methods of integrating. A corporate strategy based on shared activities clearly meets the better-off test because business units gain ongoing tangible advantages from others within the corporation. It also meets the cost-of-entry test by reducing the expense of surmounting the barriers to internal entry. Other bids for acquisitions that do not share opportunities will have lower reservation prices. Even widespread opportunities for sharing activities do not allow a company to suspend the attractiveness test, however. Many diversifiers have made the critical mistake of equating the close fit of a target industry with attractive diversification. Target industries must pass the strict requirement test of having an attractive structure as well as a close fit in opportunities if diversification is to ultimately succeed. Choosing a Corporate Strategy Each concept of corporate strategy allows the diversified company to create shareholder value in a different way. Companies can succeed with any of the concepts if they clearly define the corporation’s role and objectives, have the skills necessary for meeting the concept’s prerequisites, organize themselves to manage diversity in a way that fits the strategy, and find themselves in an appropriate capital market environment. The caveat is that portfolio management is only sensible in limited circumstances. A company’s choice of corporate strategy is partly a legacy of its past. If its business units are in unattractive industries, the company must start from scratch. If the company has few truly proprietary skills or activities it can share in related diversification, then its initial diversification must rely on other concepts. Yet corporate strategy should not be a once-and-for-all choice but a vision that can evolve. A company should choose its long-term preferred concept and then proceed pragmatically toward it from its initial starting point. Both the strategic logic and the experience of the companies I studied over the last decade suggest that a company will create shareholder value through diversification to a greater and greater extent as its strategy moves from portfolio management toward sharing activities. Because they do not rely on superior insight or other questionable assumptions about the company’s capabilities, sharing activities and transferring skills offer the best avenues for value creation. Each concept of corporate strategy is not mutually exclusive of those that come before, a potent advantage of the third and fourth concepts. A company can employ a restructuring strategy at the same time it transfers skills or shares activities. A strategy based on shared activities becomes more powerful if business units can also exchange skills. A company can often pursue the two strategies together and even incorporate some of the principles of restructuring with them. When it chooses industries in which to transfer skills or share activities, the company can also investigate the possibility of transforming the industry structure. When a company bases its strategy on interrelationships, it has a broader basis on which to create shareholder value than if it rests its entire strategy on transforming companies in unfamiliar industries. My study supports the soundness of basing a corporate strategy on the transfer of skills or shared activities. The data on the sample companies’ diversification programs illustrate some important characteristics of successful diversifiers. They have made a disproportionately low percentage of unrelated acquisitions, unrelated being defined as having no clear opportunity to transfer skills or share important activities. Even successful diversifiers such as 3M, IBM, and TRW have terrible records when they have strayed into unrelated acquisitions. Successful acquirers diversify into fields, each of which is related to many others. Procter Gamble and IBM, for example, operate in 18 and 19 interrelated fields, respectively, and so enjoy numerous opportunities to transfer skills and share activities. Companies with the best acquisition records tend to make heavier-than-average use of start-ups and joint ventures. Most companies shy away from modes of entry besides acquisition. My results cast doubt on the conventional wisdom regarding start-ups. While joint ventures are about as risky as acquisitions, start-ups are not. Moreover, successful companies often have very good records with start-up units, as 3M, PG, Johnson Johnson, IBM, and United Technologies illustrate. When a company has the internal strength to start up a unit, it can be safer and less costly to launch a company than to rely solely on an acquisition and then have to deal with the problem of integration. Japanese diversification histories support the soundness of start-up as an entry alternative. My data also illustrate that none of the concepts of corporate strategy works when industry structure is poor or implementation is bad, no matter how related the industries are. Xerox acquired companies in related industries, but the businesses had poor structures and its skills were insufficient to provide enough competitive advantage to offset implementation problems. AN ACTION PROGRAM To translate the principles of corporate strategy into successful diversification, a company must first take an objective look at its existing businesses and the value added by the corporation. Only through such an assessment can an understanding of good corporate strategy grow. That understanding should guide future diversification as well as the development of skills and activities with which to select further new businesses. The following action program provides a concrete approach to conducting such a review. A company can choose a corporate strategy by: 1. Identifying the interrelationships among already existing business units. A company should begin to develop a corporate strategy by identifying all the opportunities it has to share activities or transfer skills in its existing portfolio of business units. The company will not only find ways to enhance the competitive advantage of existing units but also come upon several possible diversification avenues. The lack of meaningful interrelationships in the portfolio is an equally important finding, suggesting the need to justify the value added by the corporation or, alternately, a fundamental restructuring. 2. Selecting the core businesses that will be the foundation of the corporate strategy. Successful diversification starts with an understanding of the core businesses that will serve as the basis for corporate strategy. Core businesses are those that are in an attractive industry, have the potential to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, have important interrelationships with other business units, and provide skills or activities that represent a base from which to diversify. The company must first make certain its core businesses are on sound footing by upgrading management, internationalizing strategy, or improving technology. My study shows that geographic extensions of existing units, whether by acquisition, joint venture, or start-up, had a substantially lower divestment rate than diversification. The company must then patiently dispose of the units that are not core businesses. Selling them will free resources that could be better deployed elsewhere. In some cases disposal implies immediate liquidation, while in others the company should dress up the units and wait for a propitious market or a particularly eager buyer. 3. Creating horizontal organizational mechanisms to facilitate interrelationships among the core businesses and lay the groundwork for future related diversification. Top management can facilitate interrelationships by emphasizing cross-unit collaboration, grouping units organizationally and modifying incentives, and taking steps to build a strong sense of corporate identity. 4. Pursuing diversification opportunities that allow shared activities. This concept of corporate strategy is the most compelling, provided a company’s strategy passes all three tests. A company should inventory activities in existing business units that represent the strongest foundation for sharing, such as strong distribution channels or world-class technical facilities. These will in turn lead to potential new business areas. A company can use acquisitions as a beachhead or employ start-ups to exploit internal capabilities and minimize integrating problems. 5. Pursuing diversification through the transfer of skills if opportunities for sharing activities are limited or exhausted. Companies can pursue this strategy through acquisition, although they may be able to use start-ups if their existing units have important skills they can readily transfer. Such diversification is often riskier because of the tough conditions necessary for it to work. Given the uncertainties, a company should avoid diversifying on the basis of skills transfer alone. Rather it should also be viewed as a stepping-stone to subsequent diversification using shared activities. New industries should be chosen that will lead naturally to other businesses. The goal is to build a cluster of related and mutually reinforcing business units. The strategy’s logic implies that the company should not set the rate of return standards for the initial foray into a new sector too high. 6. Pursuing a strategy of restructuring if this fits the skills of management or no good opportunities exist for forging corporate interrelationships. When a company uncovers under managed companies and can deploy adequate management talent and resources to the acquired units, then it can use a restructuring strategy. The more developed the capital markets and the more active the market for companies, the more restructuring will require a patient search for that special opportunity rather than a headlong race to acquire as many bad apples as possible. Restructuring can be a permanent strategy, as it is with Loew’s, or a way to build a group of businesses that supports a shift to another corporate strategy. 7. Paying dividends so that the shareholders can be the portfolio managers. Paying dividends is better than destroying shareholder value through diversification based on shaky underpinnings. Tax considerations, which some companies cite to avoid dividends, are hardly legitimate reason to diversify if a company cannot demonstrate the capacity to do it profitably.