...SPRING 2016 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT – 21/04/2016 TEACHER: PEDRO NEVES | TA: SANDRA COSTA ALFRED P. SLOAN AND GENERAL MOTORS’ SUCCESS A LEADERSHIP ANALYSIS MARIA JOÃO MARTINS MOREIRA NUMBER: 12639 TAL 43 LEADERSHIP ANALYSIS OB SPRING 2016 – INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION In this assignment I am going to talk about Alfred P. Sloan, long-time president and chairman of General Motors (GM). He can be seen as a symbol of leadership during his time, not only because of his innovative marketing system, but also because of his contribution to the concept of corporate management. Sloan became the undisputed leader of the industry, displacing Henry Ford and, thanks to him; GM was the only American car company to be profitable in the great depression. The objective here is to understand how Sloan’s leadership style led him to obtain such positive results. ALFRED P. SLOAN: WHO IS HE? Sloan was born in 1875 in the USA and he studied electrical engineering, completing his graduation in 1892. During 1916 and 1918, GM acquired the two companies in which he was a principal, which led to his appointment as VicePresident and then President (1923). In 1937 he became Chairman of the Board, remaining as Chairman until 1956. GENERAL MOTORS: THE CHALLENGE FOR SLOAN GM was formed in 1908 by William C. Durant, being the first successful merger in the industry. Durant’s idea was to buy small auto companies in order to compete with Ford, through...
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...Introduction The automotive industry was defined in 1908 with two major events occurring. The first was the assembly line manufacturing of the Model T by Henry Ford which promised high wage earnings and the increase of cars being built which would lower cost making car ownership more widely available. The second was the establishment of General Motors (GM) by William Durant. The automotive industry would see increased growth over the years with GM acquiring 25 more companies to include Buick and Oldsmobile. Alfred Sloan worked for the Hyatt Roller Bearing Company, which was acquired by GM in 1916 and Sloan was promoted to Director of GM and Vice President to other accessory companies within the organization. Eventually, William Durant lost control of GM for a second time and was forced to sell his interest. A four person Board of Directors was established and Sloan was a residing member. Reengineering of GM Under the new leadership, GM was restructured. GM owned several small companies but Durant kept them all separate. The new leadership changed that type of management and brought all of the companies into GM and expanded the organization. A CEO who reported to the new executive committee managed each corporate division. The next restructuring was to define the production of automobiles by quality and price point. There were many brands owned by GM and the need to appeal to targeted customers with various demands was made a priority. Product policy was enacted with each...
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...Poetry allows an author to relay a message to a reader through different literary devices and each reader can interpret the author’s words differently. However, in this poem, the author makes his point clear. Lord Tennyson Alfred uses syntax, different figures of speech and abstraction in the poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” to illustrate the honor and heroism of the six hundred in the valley of death. Tennyson uses syntax to create an irregular poem that does have some repetition. There are six stanzas but they all have an irregular sound pattern. However, there are places in the poem that the words at the end of the lines rhyme without having the same letter endings. For example in stanza two lines five through seven, the final words end with the “y” sound, “Theirs not...
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...Psychoanalytic Personality Assessment When people think of psychology, many think of it as a science but in reality, psychology has different levels with many dimensions. Psychology is compounded with many theories and studies that by trial, and error, have made psychology into the discipline that it has become today. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Alfred Adler are just a few scholars that have helped psychology become the science studied today. One must remember that these men are psychologists, yet they all possessed very different views and theories from one another. Sigmund Freud Probably one of the best known psychologist’s is Sigmund Freud; he has been the most influential on psychodynamic ideas. His psychodynamic therapy was used to cover the theories of personality and a source of therapy to go along with it. He believed that human behavior comes from three types of intuitions or impulses, which are the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is responsible for unconscious thoughts of personal pleasures. The id grows into the ego, which is basically on a conscious level and is thought to protect one’s self or self-preservation. The ego becomes the superego, which develops to consist of thoughts on one’s moral judgments and conscience. The id, the ego, and the superego are supposed to work together to form human behavior (George, 2008). Freud believed that traits of one’s behavior started at birth, which led him to break down behavior into stages...
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...At last, and finally, here is the first accurate and beautiful translation of Richard Cantillon's 1755 masterpiece on economics. This treatise is widely credited with being the first to describe the market process as one driven by entrepreneurship. William Stanley Jevons, in the first blush of discovery, proclaimed Cantillon’s Essai, “the cradle of political economy.” A cradle holds new life; and there can be little doubt that the Essai added new life to the organizing principles of economics. But “political economy” does not accurately describe the subject Cantillon addressed. Indeed, he scrupulously avoided political issues in order to concentrate on the mechanics of eighteenth-century economic life. When confronted by “extraneous” factors, such as politics, Cantillon insisted that such considerations be put aside, “so as not to complicate our subject,” he said, thus invoking a kind of ceteris paribus assumption before it became fashionable in economics to do so. Murray Rothbard, for this reason, called Cantillon the "founding father of modern economics." This book preceded Adam Smith by a generation. Unlike any previous writer, Cantillon explicated the vital role of the entrepreneur with perception and vigor. Hence, he deserves to be called “the father of enterprise economics.” We know little of Cantillon’s life and the circumstances of his authorship. The manuscript that was eventually published in 1755 circulated privately in France for almost two decades before;...
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...Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock was released in 1960. An important relationship in this text is the unusual relationship between Norman and ‘Mother’. This relationship is unusual because although they are two separate entities and Mother is actually dead, there is a constant struggle for control of Norman’s mind and in the end, ‘Mother’ wins. This relationship helped me understand the main idea of madness through the parlour scene, the fruit cellar scene and the police station scene. The relationship between Norman and ‘Mother’ helped me identify and understand the idea of madness through symbolism, lighting and dialogue techniques in the parlour scene. This symbolism includes the stuffed owls, which seem ready to attack that are placed in the background in a low-angle mid shot of Norman. At another point in the scene, Norman leans forward into a close up. This shot helps support the idea that even though Mother is physically dead, she is alive and threatening to take over Norman’s mind. This can be seen through the lighting of Norman’s face, half-light, half dark, and the dialogue. “It's not like my mother is a maniac... We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?” These techniques have been cleverly assembled by Hitchcock to subtly hint at the idea of madness and help us to get to know Norman, but is not yet prepared to reveal the extent of Norman’s madness due to Psycho being a horror film. The complex relationship helps us understand Norman as a character and the idea...
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...assessment will be discussed in this such as Alfred Binet, Jene Piaget, David Wechsler, Lewis Terman, and Jack Neglieri History of Intellectual Assessment Paper The assessment of intelligence started a long time ago in the BC era as time went by the development of intelligence testing increase and some are well respected. Intelligence tests are measures designed to assess the level of cognitive capabilities of an individual compared to other people in a population (Kowalski, R. & Westen, D., 2001). Although the different psychologist had different point of view about how to measure intelligence, they all made a impact on intelligence testing in their time period. The history of intellectual assessment can be trace back over 200 years in an era called foundation by psychologist ranging from Plato 347 BCE to Itard 1838 they formed the foundation for other to explorer in modern intelligence. The next era was called modern foundation the psychologist ranging from Locke to Darwin to Charcot continue to influence the study of intelligence. The third era which was called “The great school” made an impact of the study of intelligence. The psychologists Wundt to Cattell to Edison explorer other countries to profile intelligence and came back to the United States to have a big influence. As this era continue to grow the assessment of intelligence started to develop with a psychologist by the named of Alfred Binet. Alfred Binet describes intelligence as “It seems to...
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...Man’s Search for Meaning Book Review There have been several books written by those who suffered in concentration camps during World War II; however, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is the both a fascinating and hopeful book from this period. This book is comprised of two primary parts. Part one is “Experiences in a Concentration Camp,” and part two is titled “Logotherapy in a Nutshell”. There is also a postscript entitled “The Case for a Tragic Optimism”. Throughout the book, Frankl gives the readers a new perspective about to how to view life and reiterates the statement that life is utterly what you decide to make of it. Frankl clearly states that he did not want to solely focus on the negative aspects from his stay in four different Concentration Camps including Auschwitz and Dachau but rather his own personal experience of survival. Immediately upon entering Auschwitz in 1942, he had to part ways with his prized almost completed scientific manuscript, which meant a great deal to him. Man’s Search for Meaning teaches the reader that it is possible to be positive in the most dire of situations. There are several factors in the book that Frankl discusses that helped him survive in the camps. He noted that there are three phases of the inmate’s mental reactions to life in camp: the admission period, the period when he is deep into the camp routine, and that after his release and liberation. His camp experience seemed nothing shy of a nightmare. Liberation...
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...In 1894, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army named Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested and charged with supplying the German Embassy in Paris with military secrets. After a private trial in which only the military were involved Dreyfus was convicted of treason and was consequently imprisoned on Devil’s Island off the coast of French Guyana. From the outset the case was full of ambiguities and unanswered questions. The evidence used to convict Dreyfus was dubious and the lack of concrete evidence provoked his brother Mathieu to start a campaign to prove Alfred’s innocence. The army had wanted to keep the trial out of the public sphere and deal with it as swiftly as possible but Mathieu Dreyfus ensured that people were made aware of his brother’s plight, even though the public were not always on his side. With the start of Mathieu’s campaign came the involvement of the daily press, and this meant that the Dreyfus case could no longer be kept behind closed doors. Articles informing of the arrest of an army officer charged with treason appeared in the press soon after the court case, but information was incomplete and the newspapers did not know who or what exactly was involved. The matter properly came to the public’s attention on the 31st of October in an evening issue of Le Soir, which identified the perpetrator as Alfred Dreyfus and the following day the press was saturated with articles on the affair. Most notably, on the 1st November 1984 the main headline in...
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...to it. In the movie, Peter Lorre plays the role of the adolescent killer, Hans Beckart. Roaming around the city and stalking his prey. It is true that there had been other films in this era with similar aspects, like Stranger on the Third Floor, but M in particular had a huge impact on it's audience, a child killer? Should he be punished? Or should the audience feel sympathetic and give a youngster a free pass? After all, he is merely a child. It's safe to say M was one of the starts to creepy thriller genres we have today. The lighting and contrast can be seen in many movies after this film was released which is totally understandable, the creative elements in M were too brilliant to not me mimicked. Take for instance Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock made this movie in 1960, nearly 30 years after the premiere of M. When you pay close attention to the creative elements in both movies one can see continuities to no end. At the start of the movie you see a balloon in a large field, instantly the audience assumes children seeing as balloons are typically associated with kids, but they have no idea what horror is in store. M contains the classic stalker, one who walks the streets and lures his prey, which is...
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...Personality Theorists Assignment | Personal Growth Lab | Submitted by :Neeraja Padman (11PGDMHR32) | ALFRED ADLER – INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY Although his writings revealed great insight into the depth and complexities of human personality, Adler evolved a basically simple and parsimonious theory. To Adler, people are born with weak, inferior bodies—a condition that leads to feelings of inferiority and a consequent dependence on other people. Therefore, a feeling of unity with others (social interest) is inherent in people and the ultimate standard for psychological health. More specifically, the main tenets of Adlerian theory can be stated in outline form. The following is adapted from a list that represents the final statement of individual psychology (Adler, 1964). Alfred Adler postulates a single "drive" or motivating force behind all our behavior and experience. By the time his theory had gelled into its most mature form, he called that motivating force the striving for perfection. It is the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. It is, as many of you will already see, very similar to the more popular idea of self-actualization. "Perfection" and "ideal" are troublesome words, though. On the one hand, they are very positive goals. Shouldn't we all be striving for the ideal? And yet, in psychology, they are often given a rather negative connotation. Perfection and ideals are, practically by definition, things...
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...Malala Yousafzai… a young girl with a long short life. People as they get older, experiment things in their lives. It is a process that appears with the passing time. But for one girl was completely different, Malala Yousafsai, a girl from Pakistan, with only 16 years, has lived more than those have lived in decades. This teenager, is one of the most recognized faces around the world. In this essay, we are going to review her early life, her difficult times, and also how she has been recognized around the world. Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997 into a Sunni Muslim family . She was given her first name Malala in honor to a famous poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan. Her last name,Yousafzai, comes from a large Pashtun tribal confederation that is predominant in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where she grew up. She lived with her two younger brothers, her parents, and two pet chickens. Yousafzai was educated in large part by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai. At the age of 14, Malala lived a terrible episode. Taliban militants from Pakistan, banned girls education and there was not freedom , so she started to write in a BBC urdu blog about girls´ rights to study . this action result in a shot from a Taliban which went through her head, neck, and ended in her shoulder, when she was on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She miraculously survived. The assassination attempt received worldwide media coverage. There were a number of Protests...
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...tend to make better movies. Two such directors are Ang Lee and Quentin Tarantino. The ways that they manipulate their audience's emotions are completely different yet they are both effective. Where Tarantino's manipulation of tension is unmatched in the modern world, Lee's grace and subtlety often leaves audience's with a sense of awe and wonder. The manipulation of an audience's emotions is often a difficult task but Lee and Tarantino achieve it in their own unique ways. Suspense, defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Quentin Tarantino's manipulation of suspense and tension in a scene is unmatched in today's world. Like the former "Master of Suspense" himself, Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino leads the audience to a the point of near exhaustion, through the pent up pressure in his trademark lengthy scenes. These scenes serve to focus every ounce of mental and emotional energy on the situation, instead of cutting away to an inter-related subplot elsewhere and releasing the pressure, as is conventional. In the film "Inglourious Basterds" (2009), Tarantino leaves the audience gasping for breath right from the opening scene. The scene, in which a German "Jew Hunter" is questioning a farmer about the Jews hiding on his farm, is built up over nearly twenty minutes of pure dialogue between the two, as the German manipulates the farmer into telling him where the fugitives are. As the scene progresses,...
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...had hoped to go to college and study to become a doctor, however, the Great Depression derailed his plans of furthering his education of doing so. He then landed a summer job in carpentry at Fisk University. Later in 1929 with no means for education, he took a job as a laboratory technician at Vanderbilt University’s Medical School as a lab assistant, working for Dr. Alfred Blalock. Thomas was happy to even have a low paying job as the depression deepened. He was classified, and, paid, as a janitor, despite the fact that by the mid 1930’s he was doing the work of a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Blalock’s Lab. Although Thomas was only 19, Blalock was impressed by his confident, business-like air, and hired him immediately. Dr. Blalock and his young research fellow, Dr. Joseph Beard respectfully tutored Thomas in anatomy and physiology while working at the lab. Blalock wanted someone knowledgeable and independent who could carry out his research work in the laboratory. Thomas rapidly mastered complex surgical techniques and research methodology while struggling with severe racism. Thomas worked with Dr. Alfred Blalock doing research on the causes of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock, leading to the widespread use of blood and plasma transfusions that later evolved into Research on Crush Syndrome, which saved lives of soldiers in World War II. By mid 1930’s Blalock and Thomas began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery. A decade later, the foundation was laid where...
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...the second born among her seven brothers and sisters and had strong ambitions of being an artist. O’Keeffe went to her first art school in 1905 when she was only 18 years of age. This school was the Art Institute of Chicago and couple years after that she moved on to the Art Students League of New York from 1907-1908. O’Keeffe then was then tired of the life in the fine arts and moved on to being an art teacher for various schools in Texas, Virginia, and South Carolina from 1911-1918. During her career of being a teacher, O’Keeffe started to create her very own works of art using charcoal on a canvas. These incredibly different looking abstract pieces of art began to catch the eye of none other than American photographer and gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz. After supposedly exclaiming, "At last, a woman on paper!" he exhibited her drawings at the 291 gallery, where the works of many avant-garde European and American artists and photographers were...
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