Leadership styles Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Leadership styles - Research Paper Example Their ability to perform the aforementioned things relies on the leadership style adopted. Thus, at any time the leader or the manager should employ these styles. An important issue arises and this will be subject in this paper, how are the managers capable of altering their leadership styles (as described in situational leadership theory) to communicate and motivate the employees. There are four leadership styles (the selling or coaching style, the participating or supporting style, the telling or directing style, and the delegating style) and each style will be discussed in detail and applied in the case of General Electric. Specifically, the paper will explore the leadership style of Jeff Immelt, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of General Electric. General Electric is among many companies that have excelled in their leadership styles. The leadership style employed has been used as a benchmark for most organizations and companies. It is noted that the four leadership styles are c rucial for the success or failure of a company. As seen in General Electric case, a leader or a manager can apply all the four leadership styles to steer the organization. However, there is a tendency to use one leadership style more than the others are. General Electric In 1876, in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Alva Edison opened a laboratory where he could discover the prospects of the dynamo and other electrical tools or devices that he had realized in the exposition. By the year 1890, Edison launched the Edison General Electric Company by merging his various businesses. At the same time, a competitor appeared, the Thomson-Houston Company. Thomson-Houston Company became the principal electrical company through a series of unions or mergers led by Charles A. Coffin (General Electric Company, 2012). As the businesses grew, it became very difficult for either of the company to generate complete electrical installations depending entirely on their own technologies and patents. The t wo companies merged in the year 1892, and the new organization was called the General Electric Company. A number of Edison’s initial business offerings are still a portion of General Electric (GE) today and they include transportation, power transmission, medical equipment, industrial products, and lighting. The initial GE Appliances electric fans were generated at the Ft. Wayne electric works in the early 1890s. Full line of cooking and heating devices was first produced in 1907(General Electric Company, 2012). The GE Aircraft Engines started its operations in 1917 when the United States government started its search for a company that could produce the first airplane booster. Edison’s experiments with plastic filaments for the light bulbs started in 1893 and this led to the creation of the GE Plastics department in 1930. The General Electric leaders over the years have created a diverse portfolio of prominent businesses;a series of dominant company-wide initiatives t hat reduces cost and drives growth; Controllership and financial strength that permit it capitalize on openings through several cycles; and a collection of common values which permit it to face every environment with confidence(General Electric Company, 2012). Analysis The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model illustrates the relation between the willingness of the followers and leadership style based on relationship and task behaviors of leaders.

Obesity and chemistry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Obesity and chemistry - Essay Example The government spends more than $7000 in medical treatment and lost productivity of a single obese person. Obesity is blamed for more than 160,000 deaths a year. Understanding the factors that lead to obesity Shedding extra weight is very difficult despite the seemingly simple formula of consuming fewer calories than being expended. Dieting is not effective for two thirds of dieters who end up heavier two years after dieting. The National Institutes of Health is spending $800 million annually to understand the underlying causes of obesity with focus on metabolism, genetics and neurology. Highlights of the researches are protein function, signaling pathways in the brain and other organs, obesity genes, and effects of environment on metabolism and weight gain. The large body work has led to understanding of protein interactions that result in energy extraction and distribution; fat production and storage; hunger signals emanating from the brain, and genetic inclination towards obesity. In the brain, the hypothalamus, brain stem, limbic system, and the pre-frontal cortex are involved in controlling hunger and fullness. Metabolic studies show that brown fat is associated with lower weight or leanness in some persons; while the prevalence of white fat is for storage of excess energy, and hence increased weight. Genetic studies identified more or less twenty genes that correlate with predisposition to weight gain, although the effects were later quantified to be modest. Genetic regulators for obesity were identified in mice, but human homologues are not yet known. Possibly, the environment has a large effect on the switching on of genes that predispose an individual to obesity. However, since the results of biological studies have not been translated to a solution for the problem on obesity, the article proposes that the best approach is behavioral psychology methods that have been used for over than 50 years and proven to work in treating autism, alcoholism and stut tering. Behavioral psychology as a solution to obesity In the hope of finding a quick means to losing weight, the public is easy to follow recommendations from researches that are played up by the media. However, the results of the different studies are sometimes in conflict. It is clear that the obesity problem cannot be fixed by a single simple action because of the contribution of many factors. The combination of social, biological, economics and marketing factors make simple solutions to obesity fail. Diets and exercise regimens are also bound to fail because they become more punishing as weight is lost, since more effort is exerted to retain that loss. Furthermore, as the diet and exercise become more severe, the reward (reduced weight) recedes. A less punishing regimen will make more people stick with it. Changing behavior has had the most success in losing modest amounts of weight and keeping off that weight with diet and exercise. This approach involves making small sustaina ble modifications in the eating and exercises habits with the encouragement of people and environment surrounding the individual. The basis for the behavioral approach goes back to more than fifty years when BF Skinner, Harvard university psychologist, developed the science of behavioral analysis. The foundation for the approach is the belief that the workings of the brain are unknown despite advanced science, but physical behavior is measurable and so is the