Leadership Styles and International Teams Essay

â€Å"The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers† Peter Drucker This definition, from Peter Drucker has been a great inspiration source. It generates a lot of interrogations and guides us all along this document. It’s brief, clear and amazingly relevant. How to define a leader without thinking about the persons who permit to consider them as leader? It’s sometimes difficult to understand how some leaders became such important because of our disagreement with their idea, or actions. Dictators are the perfect example to illustrate it. There were, and are a â€Å"kind† of extreme Leaders. But we have to recognize their extraordinary charisma and skills to rise crowd. Technically speaking, they can be considered as model even if they abuse of this personal power to satisfy their own desires and needs (regardless laws and needs of the many). But this ethical problem brings us another question, what’s the difference between an efficient and a good leader? We think it’s only a question of moral and an efficient leader can’t be consider as a good one historically speaking. More generally, leadership implies influencing employees to voluntarily pursue organisational goals. Thanks to his charisma, a leader is able to achieve goal (or to make them achieve by others) whereas a manager is able to, thanks to his knowledge and his capacity to organize. But it’s also possible to be both of them, because managing is a skill that everyone could acquire. Not Leadership, which is a quality issued from your personality. So we have to question ourselves: What is a good leader? And try to become the best as possible thanks to your personality? Firstly, we are going to present the different leadership styles management we grouped in 6 categories. Then, we are going to study how to be a good leader in an international team context and finally the particularities of leading an international team. I/ Leadership styles 1. Autocratic leadership styles The leader defines roles and tasks; he takes unilateral decision without consulting any members of the team. He imposes actions to be taken. He expects immediate execution without objection. The autocratic leader doesn’t care about others’ opinion or suggestions. The leader decides for everything and everybody has to execute his decisions. Moreover he keeps as much power and decision-making authority as possible. This is a one-way communication: â€Å"I tell, you listen†. Skills used for this leadership style: influence, performance and initiative When to use autocratic leadership style? * When quick decisions need to be taken or there is a limited time for decision making. For example a competitor rival decided to launch suddenly its new product * When there is no need to team agreement * When high-level of management is needed and the need of motivation is not critical. * When new and untrained staff does not know which tasks to perform or steps to follow in the company. In fact sometimes the company hasn’t got time to form an employee or to explain to him what he has to do exactly in the firm What are the limits of the autocratic leadership style? * Employees are expecting to simply follow the orders, and they are not given any explanations. * Employees have little opportunities to give suggestions even if it is for the welfare of the organization. * Passive resistance of the team: disinterest, disagreement. Lack of motivation and desire. * Some people tend to use this style for yelling, using demeaning language, and leading by threats and abusing their power. * Sometimes this is not the authoritarian style which is used but unprofessional style called â€Å"bossing people around† which is worst and abusive and has no place in a company Example : The autority of Chritine Lagarde Christine Lagarde, 56 years old and currently director of the International Monetary Fund, is classified 9th in the ranking of women with the greatest  power in 2012 according to Forbes Magazine. She is now the woman of power par excellence, she is recognized by all for her natural authority, intelligence and effectiveness. She presides over the destiny of many countries. Christine Lagarde is not afraid to confront the economic crisis and to take important decisions, this is why she has got the surname of â€Å"Iron Lady of the global economy.† 2. Coaching leadership styles The coaching leader defines employee’s roles and tasks but he considers all their inputs and suggestion. He asks for ideas before he makes the final decision: a team engaged with feedbacks a good way to develop team members. The coach spends time with his employees and helps them to develop their strengths and skills, in line with their career. He seeks individual autonomy and building competent teams. This can have long-term benefits for the company, the leader and also the employees. This is a two way communication style between the decision of the coaching leader and the suggestions of the employees, the goal is to help and assist employees Skills used for this leadership style : Listening skills, development of others, awareness of emotions, empathy When to use the coaching leadership style? * Help an employee to improve his productivity, to develop his resources, to be more effective in autonomy. * To create a team and accelerate the performance of this team in the future * To increase the organization’s productivity, growth and the business results in a long term period * To provide guidance and to develop a long-term strength because if the employees receive the right support, the right help, it will be positive for them and for the leader. The company will be more effective What are the limits of the coaching leadership style? * Difficult to implement * It does not provide immediate results. * This style is difficult to implement because it is a guideline but at the same time the employee has got autonomy * This style does not work with employees who expect a precise list of tasks to execute (and therefore expect the micro-management) We did a case study of the coaching style of Richard Branson and his company : The Virgin group. It is set out in the Annex. 3. Participative leadership style This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process. The leader wants to create a team with his employees without hierarchy. He encourages the staff to participate at the decision making process : â€Å"What do you think?†. The leader keeps staff informed about everything that affects their work. He can organized some brainstorming to reap ideas or criticism a project. Moreover this style enhances the creativity and the innovation; it allows the company to benefit from collective intelligence. Using this style is a sign that the leader respect his employees, it allows them to become part of the team and allows the leader to make better decisions. If there is a problem, the staff will be involved in the solving process: â€Å"Let’s go to work together to solve this† Skills used for this leadership style: Teamwork and collaboration, conflict management, influence, empathy When to use democratic style? * Leaders want to encourage team building and participation. * Leaders want staff to be involved in decision-making and problem-solving processes. * Leaders want to provide opportunities for personal development and job satisfaction. * If the team must agree with a decision and is responsible for the outcome. * When the leader needs to use the skills and knowledge of his team in order to come up with decision. * When the leader is new and wants to have information on his team. What are the limits of the participative leadership style? * It is inefficient when it comes to getting quick results * It is inadequate in times of crisis * An employee very efficient can be impatient waiting the opinion of the community to proceed, and in contrast: evasive employees, who prefer not to be involved, may create problems. * Participative time consuming process of decision-making and today â€Å"time is money† Example : The participative style of Steve Jobs Jobs believed in his employees’ creativity comes from spontaneous meetings : â€Å"You run into someone, and ask what they are doing, you say ‘Wow,’ and soon you are cooking up all sorts of ideas†. Steve Jobs infused Apple employees a belief that they could accomplish anything, he enjoyed working with teams who trusted in themselves, who saw themselves as winners. He believed in team’s collaboration. Moreover he commented that â€Å"if a building did not encourage innovation, you lose the magic sparked by serendipity† 4. Laissez-faire/Delegating/ Free Rein/Hands off Styles Style Description: Laissez-faire leaders allow followers to have complete freedom to make decisions concerning the completion of their work. Team members control the day-to-day decisions and involve the leader when needed. It is key that the team understands when to get the leader involved. It requires the leader to trust people and their skills, and give the maximal freedom to team members. It allows followers a high degree of autonomy and self-rule, while at the same time offering guidance and support when requested. The laissez-faire leader using guided freedom provides the followers with all necessary materials to achieve their aims, but does not participate in decision making directly unless the followers request. It is said that the Laissez-faire leadership style, or we may call delegating/free rein/hands off styles, may be the best or the worst leadership style. If the leader just simply follows the meaning of â€Å"hands-off†, doesn’t involve participation or intervention at all, when he /she leads his or her followers, this style of leadership might become the worst. The two words laissez-faire and leadership are absolute direct opposites. The French term laissez-faire was originally used relative to mercantilism, and is defined in economics and politics as an economic system that functions best when there is no interference by government, and is considered a â€Å"natural† economic order that procures the maximum well-being for the individual and extends to the community. Leadership is defined as an interactive process that provides needed guidance and direction. Leadership involves three interacting dynamic elements: a leader, a follower(s) and a situation. The leader’s role is to influence and provide direction to his/her followers and provide them needed support for theirs and the organization’s success. This free leadership style is based on the premise that the leader and the team have a common goal, have a close and reliable relationship. Through the free leadership style, leaders show a high degree of trust and recognition to the team members, including loyalty and professional skills. Thus, the enthusiasm for the work of the team members is stimulated, and the team can work efficiently. Therefore, the primary factors that affects this leadership style, is the relationship between the team leader and members. When the team shares the same target and the common direction, and the leader has full confidence in his/her own team members, it may be assured to the team members to have free rein to carry out the project and the free style of leadership can be possible to be applied from the beginning to the end. When the members and the leader do not have a unified goal, or the team does not have a common direction or the same target to reach, the team members will take advantage of thi s free style leadership for its own sake, harming the interests of the whole team or making a violation of the leader. Because the free rein leadership style gives high degree of autonomy to the team members, and it is an expression of trust in the team members, including the affirmation of loyalty, expertise etc, once the atmosphere of freedom is broken in the leading process, or the relationship between the leader and the team was broken, there will be conflicting, affecting freedom leadership style until the relationship is restored again. Therefore, the implementation of the free style of the leadership, attention should be focused on that the goal is the same, as well as a close relationship with team members. Suitable Group: When the team is highly capable to analyze de situation and have a clear idea of the situation to be taken in a particular situation. * For example, this style can often be found in teams of professionals, such a team of doctors or engineers, as they form to achieve a goal or solve a problem. * When a close monitoring of a decision is not necessary. * When leaders have full confidence in team members. Unsuitable Group: Not suitable for employees with lower-skills and experience. Free members who are free to take their own decisions can lack of motivation. Moreover, there is no way to check if they do the right thing, this can lead to poor productivity. Decisions can have negative impact on the whole result. 5. Psychological Leadership Style Style Description: Leaders of this style occupy a special position in any group. A psychological leader motivates group, encourages and supports his /her group members, and takes care of the emotional needs of group members. For example, in a sport team, when a member begins, the leader might ask, â€Å"How do you like to be supported? Would you like us to be verbal with our encouragement? Would you like us to be quietly attentive and add our ideas when asked? Or what?† In this leadership style, the leaders play the role of spiritual pillar. He/she is the team leader, team representatives, and even the role of technology source. They are supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing, invulnerable, incorruptible, indefatigable and fearless. The Leader is responsible for failure or success. He/she is the superman/superwomen or the guilty. If the President of the United State shows weakness, sickness or fear, the effect shows themselves soon in the stock market, as well as in political cartoons and letters to newspaper editors. So the leaders need to have a high degree of personal charm and quality, attract team members to work around him. This leadership mode, the team leader is the charm of the team, the team members to be able to join the team under the team leadership to become the pride. Therefore, in this case, because of the charm of the leaders, the team was able to attract a large number of talents to enrich the team’s strength. The team will gradually grow under the leadership and guidance of the leader. In this team, the centripetal force of the team depends entirely on the personal charm and personal abilities of the team leader. The team leader is like a magician. He continues to attract the attention of the team members, and unites the team members closely. However, this model of leadership has such serious dependence on the leader that any wrong decision of the leader’s will result in the error of the team direction. Moreover, the excessive authority of the leader also causes that no one can supervise or correct the errors of the leader. What’s more, once the leader leaves the team, the entire team will face the situation of losing its pillar and vitality. For example, Steve Jobs for the Apple team is not only an  effective leader, but also a psychological leader. Early, Jobs’ personal creative spirit brought vitality to the whole team. Later, for the reasons of the Board, Steve Jobs left Apple. As a result, the Apple operating nosedived and even faced a closure. And then, Jobs was hired to Apple once again. Thanks to his leadership, i series products were developed, and Apple came b ack to life. Since the death of Steve Jobs’, Apple product ideas have been questioned, because Apple lost its original creativity and vitality. Suitable Group When members are â€Å"ready†, this is the most effective leadership style. For example, when employees already know their weaknesses and hope to improve their performance, the employees are aware of the need to cultivate new capabilities for self-improvement. Unsuitable Group: When the team members refuse to learn or refuse to change their work. As a matter of fact, this style of leadership has an influence on the mind of the team member. If the members are not willing to accept inwardly, it is impossible to make the style of leadership work. 6. Situational Leadership Styles Style Description: The situational leadership theory is developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. According to this theory, there is no single â€Å"best† style of leadership. Effective leadership is task-relevant, and the most successful leaders are those that adapt their leadership style to the individual, group or the situation. We can take some daily example to explain: because we know some people are always late, when we tell them the time to meet, we will make it earlier than others; on the first day of a new colleague, we try not to get angry with him/her, especially he/she is nervous. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model contains two fundamental concepts: leadership style and maturity level. Leadership style According to this theory, the leadership style, or we can also call the behavior pattern, includes directive (task) behaviors and supportive (relationship) behaviors. – Directive (task) behaviors: lead members to achieve the goal in one-way communication, like a commander of the group. Using methods as below, 1. Provide direction guiding, pointing out the direction of the team effort 2. Setting targets & telling members how to achieve them 3. Using evaluation methods & time lines to help members to get correct information 4. Defining roles, assigning responsibilities to each group member – Supportive (relationship) behaviors: help group members in two-way communication, like a coach in the team, these behaviors may include: 1. Asking for resources, raise funds, gaining time for the group 2. Solving Problems for the group, including technical problems, social relation problems, etc. 3. Encouraging members, listening to their thoughts, paying attention to their emotions, boosting their moral. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard classified all leadership styles into 4 behavior types, named S1 to S4: S1: Telling – is characterized by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, why, when and where to do the task; S2: Selling – while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the socio-emotional support that will allow the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process; S3: Participating – this is how shared decision-making about aspects of how the task is accomplished and the leader is providing less task behaviors while maintaining high relationship behavior; S4: Delegating – the leader is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has been passed to the individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress. Maturity Levels According to the individuals or the group, the suitable leadership style is to be chosen. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory identified four levels of Maturity M1 through M4: M1: They still lack the specific skills required for the job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or to take responsibility for this job or task. M2: They are unable to take on responsibility for the task being done; however, they are willing to work at the task. They are novice but enthusiastic. M3: They are experienced and able to do the task but lack the confidence or the willingness to take on responsibility. M4: They are  experienced at the task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They are able and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the task. Developing people and self-motivation A good leader develops â€Å"the competence and commitment of their people so they’re self-motivated rather than dependent on others for direction and guidance.† (Hersey 91)[6] According to Hersey’s â€Å"the situational book,†[7] the leader’s high, realistic expectation causes high performance of followers; the leader’s low expectations lead to low performance of followers. According to Ken Blanchard, â€Å"Four combinations of competence and commitment make up what we call ‘development level.'† D1: employees are low in competence and high in commitment. D2: employees are described as having some competence but low commitment. D3: employees who have moderate to high competence but may lack commitment. D4: employees are the highest in development, having both a high degree of competence and a high degree of commitment to getting the job done. Advantages of Situational Leadership 1) The outstanding reliability. This model has been proved to be an effective method of leadership. Many enterprises tend to use this theory to train leader. 2) The situational leadership theory can be widely applied. It is developed for all types of team. Compared to other leadership styles, which focus only on a specific type of team, situational leadership theory has greater adaptability. 3) Situational leadership model is easy to grasp and apply. On one hand, the concept of situational leadership model is easy to understand, on the other hand, it can tell clearly what to do and what not to do in various contexts. 4) Situational leadership model emphasizes the flexibility of the leader. A successful leader knows how to adjust their leadership characteristics according to the characteristics of the team, to enhance the team’s efficiency. 5) Situational leadership model concerns not only about the leaders but also about the team members. The team members would be more confident and comfortable in their work. Disadvantages of Situational Leadership 1) In practice, it is not easy to classify the subordinates’ level. 2) How to match the actual style of situational leadership? Situational leadership model is just a general leadership style type. How to operate in practice to achieve the goal, it has not been specifically defined. 3) It is not mentioned, how much the demographics will influence the application of the different leadership styles. 4) Lack of support from the empirical analysis. So far there are just a few surveys or researches done to justify the assumption. II/Leadership Styles in Managing International Teams International: Managers as a team leaders How to be a good Leader that is the question? A leader is not a friend, not a tyrant but a fair man and a fair business man. His work consists in managing international teams, diverse cultures and personal differences. He has to distinguish himself as a reference, because working groups need leaders. Moreover, in a whole interdependent business world, Globalization has imposed as a global and required attitude and not only an economic reality any more. But there are different styles of leadership reflecting the diversity of the world. That is why, a leader has to find fundamental tools and establish a strong vision for successful leadership. He has to inspire, motivate and lead a whole team. And do not forget to adapt to different ideals to follow the same road map. It is an everyday-job. 1/ How are perceived Foreign Leaders? First to underline a global vision of Leadership, we need to know how are perceived foreign leaders in the different countries? Is everyone has the ability to be a leader? Is there only a global leader or a huge amount of domestic leaders? All these responses could help us to understand all the difficulty to be a leader and also the stake to be culturally savvy in order to manage an international team. Let us have a look on different domestic leaders: * In Gallic culture: A leader should be a strong authority figure with a high degree competence. * In French culture: The French follow a competent leader, the follow the highest position. The French managers are integrated within an authority network, pyramid of differentiated power  (hierarchical). * In German culture: Germans respect competence rather than personality with both individual work and collective work. Indeed creativity and rational outlook are essential for a career success mostly in an entity organized as a network of individual. * In American culture: Americans evolve in an autocratic system. They advocate worker participation in management decisions. * In Scandinavian culture: They need a participative Leader, Mostly for sharing data and information within the organization. * In Japanese culture: Japanese respect social positions, age and status. Indeed, Japan has a close proximity, and a culture built around the extended family (fundamental element of life in th e Far East) with symbols as the village, the rice field and so on. They points out the cooperative ethos of the East. Eastern culture allows people to play in any way that will benefit the team, encouraging the spirit and score goals. Japan for instance encourages innovation and enterprise with a shared vision of the nation. Communication and information sharing are cornerstones of the Japanese corporation through report for instance. * In British culture: Instructions disguised as request with a fairness attitude are crucial qualities for Leaders (interpersonal and subjective view in an organization where there is a network of relationships and where things get done through influence). * In Spanish culture: Courage and decisiveness with ability to solve issues are the best leaders’ requests. * In Italian culture: Personal relationships are fundamental (family model), recognizing personal confidence of the owner. In addition, The West prefers a culture based on smaller units, encouraged to think for them and to be self-sufficient, to encourag e competition. These differences are reflected in the management practices. Westerns need for hierarchical organizations with multiple layers of management perpetuating feelings of exclusion, isolation and competition. Westerners assign people through positions and tell workers what they can or cannot do whereas they argue that group cohesion is crucial to productivity and their systems of reward are based on individual effort, and appraisal systems viewed with cynicism because they are open to favoritism. They are Individualists and for them competitive culture prevails. 2/ What are Leaders’ tasks and Attributes to manage an international team? A leader has moved his/her perceptions of the game to win. He needs to know how to change in order to improve the efficiency of his/her team. And in the same time,  leaders have to assess his/her followers’ perceptions of the game’s boundaries, rules and definition of success, because conditions in the global market place are forcing reevaluating the meaning of teamwork, global partnership or e ven alliances. That is why leaders have to take into account the right signal. But how to read the right signals? Misinterpreting the wrong signal, they could lose business opportunities. That is why Observing, Searching and underlying cross-functional, cross-cultural issues in multinationals teams help improving team efficiency. Sometimes it requires other additional qualities: * Flexibility * Sense of humor * Patience * Sensitivity * Ability to check assumptions * Willingness to listen to others * Curiosity * Respect for difference * Trust in the ability of effective teams to outperform individuals It is more or less difficult according to leaders’ origins. Indeed for Americans it is really difficult, because they have different professional outlooks and backgrounds. And personal leading qualities are innate or acquired, sometimes, imposing to pay a role in order to achieve key requirements. Exposure to other countries can just as easily reinforce ethnocentrism as counteract it. International managers can learn many of the skills they need, which are the following and adopt key behaviors: a) Applying good judgment It is about becoming aware of diverse assumptions, spelling them out and checking to see if others share them. That is to say learn to confront without alienating, clarify without prejudging, give and receive feedback without being defensive, centralize information, belief, feel, perceptions and broadcast it. Moreover it requires checking behaviors and showing example, because Leaders have to be models. b) Reading cross-cultural cues It depends on high context gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, nonverbal cues. It implies do homework on the culture in advance (dos and taboos), be prepared â€Å"spend hours in polite conversation before getting down to business in Japan or Mexico†. Indeed, that knowledge on different cultures is a bonus to capitalize on. Understand the difference between personal or cultural values, norms to adapt for Multinationals negotiations’ which differs according each corporate culture and history. Multinationals leaders have to develop ambiguity managing training courses and experience to be the most flexible as possible. They need to use their intuition and rationality to separate personal biases from probable facts. c) Finding a guide not to be manipulated but well-oriented A guide is a model figure that is followed. A Leader needs to be a guide and to the fit the corporation culture. It also infers sometimes becoming coaches or mentors, but not friends. Indeed a lack of proximity could reach a lack of efficiency and rigor. d) Reflecting as well as acting The international team leader has to be a model and act as one. Because of difference in players and game strategies they must make time to reflect as well as to act because they want long-run results. Moreover the mix of personnel is becoming increasingly international that is why they need to create an environment that rewards openness, frankness, engagement and teamwork. Do either one-to-one or group discussions to be more productive and have more creative results. The international team leader must decide when to use groups, how to compose them and how to orchestrate meetings so that power plays are controlled and personalities balanced. Adapting and changing, if necessary, from one-to-one management to an effective orientation in the global market place. HR staffs must build up their expertise to meet teamwork challenge. e) Modeling the process †Teamwork begins at home†. Leaders first examine their own internal capabilities and then buy or Make a flexible mobile cross-culturally competent team of professionals. f) Selecting the right people Through a set of international assignment criteria tailored to specific culture helps ensure success abroad, developing company-specific and country-specific personal profiles. g) Considering with shareholders Common decisions on the best objectives and elements for international human resources have to support plan through code signing. h) Training modification  With package courses leaders have to make sure people discuss their perceptions on what they actually see. Build the idea of differences because of gender, culture, organizations, age, personal learning styles. Indeed, when people work in groups, they need to make sure members are from a variety of backgrounds in order to cultivate diversity to teach people how to act and react without forgetting developing working rules that will allow each people equal air time. Furthermore, they have to encourage international managers to bring in actual team problems for discussion, role playing and reflection is substantial. Teamwork must be a driving value within the company and be appropriately rewarded. And HR Staff should develop an internal communication network, so that each employee is aware of how different teams work, what they accomplish and what knowledge and expertise they can share. Means as proper selection, training, support and incentives will get international teams outperform individuals. But how can we recognize the leader in any case? There is a practical test: take the right to apply sanctions, reward, put his/her veto, overriding individual’s decisions about corporation structure. i) Leaders’ Tasks (ability required):  * Simplify: Leaders have to resolve value conflicts among his/her followers. * Link action to vision: Leaders need to clarify and explain shared goals versus actions required in order to put a strategic and co-working framework. * Be different: Leaders must distinguish himself/herself from his/her followers (authority, hierarchy framework). They need to think to the answer of the following question:  « How do you see you leader?† Indeed, followers need believing in a â€Å"winner†, sometimes without any sympathy synonymous with expertise and success managing multinational teams. We can emphasize that leaders distinguish themselves with the following drivers balancing between firmness and severity: *  Expertise: depending on experience, knowledge and understanding of the world. * Personal qualities: energy, persistence, memory and insight. * Track record: past performance, reputation and ability to dealing with a situation nobody had faced before. * Vision: Traduce the corporate strategy; broadcast the road map of the group integrating followers through his/her presence. That is to say put image on action, identifying key common values and beliefs in order to the whole team can fell involved in. Inspire that vision giving an identity of each one linking through staff loyalty, implying the same aspirations. The leader’s vision need to be promoted throughout the organization and sustained thanks to every-day actions, with change if required. * * Have a vision: learn to communicate a vision to people, your team can follow: * Communicate it * Believe it * Follow it * Model it * Be passionate: Passion is contagious: â€Å"take your passion and make it happen† * Be a great decision maker: be quick, committed, analytical and thoughtful. * Be a team builder: let one of your team members to take responsibilities, don’t micromanage and make you available if questions arise. * Be a life-long learner: the world is changing and new resources become available every day. Leader must be aware of new technologies and to share it with your staff. * Communicate clearly: remember you have diverse listeners, make sure you tell everyone in the same way, the same message. * Give an expect respect: to earn respect, give it, and get it. * Be knowledgeable: leaders must be aware of everyday changes in business and discuss about it within the team, answer to up-to-day questions/concerns. * Be organized in order your staff be. Be exemplary. * Be positive: think positive to motivate and work in a positive and efficient way. Conclusion: To sum up, we have defined a leadership profile. Leaders are individuals who help create options and opportunities. They help identify choices and solve problems. Leaders build commitment and coalitions. They do this by  inspiring others and working with them to construct a shared vision of the possibilities and promise of a better group, organization, or community. Leaders engage followers in such a way that many followers become leaders in their own right. The varied demands of an increasingly complex world often require that leadership be shared by many of the members of a group, in ways appropriate for different situations. Be Aware, Be different! III/ Intercultural management: Leading an international team The last half century has seen enormous change impacting the way we work. The world is shrinking with advances in information technology playing a crucial role in facilitating the global expansion of organizations. International teams are now a common phenomenon with many large organizations structuring their workforce according to function rather than geography. Successful organizations do not hesitate to move their talents around the world to ensure that they have the right skills and knowledge in the right location when necessary. But what does it take to manage such a culturally diversified and geographically dispersed team? What is an international team? The increase – both in organizational global mobility and in individual migration –means that, most large organizations now employ a multicultural workforce. It is not unusual to find traditional teams made up of members from a number of different countries. These team members work for the same organization and may share the same profession, but the fact that they do not share the same cultural background provides them with a different view of the world. As a result, they think and behave differently to each other. Virtual teams are also on the rise as international organizations embrace new technologies to enable geographically dispersed teams to work together cost-effectively and efficiently. This virtual and remote working of members from different cultures and across different time zones doesn’t come without challenges. Cultural generalizations It would be wrong to suggest that team members from one specific cultural background always behave in the same way. Of course, personality, upbringing, previous experiences and a host of other factors all impact their behaviors. Any team bringing different personalities and experiences  together can face frustrations and challenges. However, researches have shown that values and attitudes tend to differ according to one’s cultural background resulting in different work practices and behaviors. * Do team members prefer to work on individual projects or pool their ideas and resources? * Is it acceptable to show emotion during conflict? * Should they be expected to stay late or take work home in order to finish a project? * Is it ok to interrupt a meeting to take an important phone call? Members of different cultural groups will answer these and other questions differently. Academic researchers such as Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars have shown that cultural behaviors vary according to a series of dimensions on which we can place the countries of our colleagues. Key cultural dimensions include: * Hierarchy vs. egalitarianism * Groups vs. individuals * Relationship vs. task * Open vs. hidden displays of emotion * Degree of comfort with uncertainty and risk * Work/life balance * Attitudes to time and space * Attitudes to nature and the environment Understanding that individuals belonging to different cultural groups have varying attitudes to these dimensions can help us understand how and why our colleagues and team members sometimes do things differently. For example, a team member from a hierarchical culture such as India tends to be more deferent to their manager and expects approval for each piece of work before moving on to the next stage. Conversely, team members from more egalitarian cultures such as Australia or the USA are usually much more comfortable working autonomously. Management versus Leadership The purpose of management is to make people effective, motivate them, operate and communicate a strategic process. It is the hardest! Whilst Leadership is setting a new direction the entity will follow. Leaders are spearheads. Leadership complements management. But both deal with human aspects that require: self-awareness, to understand differences, accept and value them. This is a sum up of each one’s responsibilities: Leaders| Managers| * Cope with change * Set a new direction of that change * Align people * Motivate people by satisfying basics (human needs)| * Cope with complexity * Develop capacity to achieve its plans by organizing and staffing * Enquires controlling and problem solving * Budget and plan| Leading international teams: a Global Leader Definition proposed by Mendenhall and al in 2008: â€Å" Global leaders are individuals who effect significant positive change in organizations by building communities through the development of trust and the arrangement of organizational structures and processes in a context: involving multiple cross-boundary stakeholders, multiple sources of external cross-boundary authority, and multiple cultures under conditions of temporal, geographical and cultural complexity†. Managers of international teams need to take time to improve their own global cultural knowledge and sensitivity in order to understand the different expectations, priorities and behaviors of their team members. Intercultural training and/or coaching can help managers to develop the knowledge, skills and strategies to manage an international team more effectively. Taking the time to learn about other cultures and becoming more ‘culturally curious’ is invaluable for anyone new to managing an international team. The real challenge is to pre-empt challenges and frustrations that may arise in an international team and to harness the positives in order to create synergy from the culturally diverse team members. Managers may need to adapt their usual leadership style to maximize the potential of an international team. What has been successful with domestic teams may not always work as well with an international team. Planning, scheduling, trust criteria, expectations of delegation, feedback and regularity of contact will be viewed differently according to the culture of the individual. Good international managers need to adapt their style to take these differences into account. Managers also need to consider different ways of making team members feel valued as an important part of the team. For some cultures being valued as a person is not so  important as long as their work is respected. Other cultures are more holistic: they want to be liked by their manager and appreciated as a person and want to receive credit for the tasks they complete. So spending time getting to know team members is essential in the early stages in order to understand the skills and knowledge each individual brings to the team and how to bring out the best in each of them. When the manager form an international team, he needs to be clear and explicit and always uses documents ground rules and processes with input from all the team players to avoid ambiguity at a later stage. Good relationships between the team leader and members are essential but not enough on their own. Team members also need to get on well with each other, even if the team is geographically dispersed. Providing opportunities for team members to share knowledge and experience – whether through informal forums or more formal meetings, team building events or training programs – will allow the team to build rapport and trust, making it easier to work effectively as a unit. To finish, Global Leadership differs from Domestic Leadership. Indeed Domestic leadership lacks of connectedness. A global leader implies a global scope with a management perception, a relationship management and a self-management. It requires cultural sensitivity. A leader has to create relationship, hit the bottom line and merge a common vision and common goals. Global Leadership versus Domestic Leadership The increase of competent global leaders has become a key success factors in International Companies. Indeed, implement global strategies keeps on developing the number of constraints. Global talent leads to Global leaders and require understanding differences between global and domestic leadership stakes. Global leaders are distinctive in their scope, their mindset moreover they need to be culturally aware. The difference between global and domestic leadership infers additional complexity. In other words, Global Leaders need to cope with: * Multiplicity of issues across a range of diverse dimensions, for instance with different customers, legal procedures, regulation and competitors. * Interdependence among lots of stakeholders from different culture, countries that is to say with different polices, economies and environmental systems. * Ambiguity in interpreting relationships, cues and signals at the appropriate situation. * Flows in  terms of transactions, sharing information, v alues patterns and the last but not the least the organization structure. Ghemawat (2008), a Harvard Professor emphasizes the challenges of global operations linked with the complexity of operating abroad. He noted 4 difficulties: * Cultural issues as language customs, religion and ethnicities. * Administrative and political issues as laws, trading blocs or currencies. * Geographical issues as physical distances, time zones. * Economic issues as income levels, cost of natural and human resources, infrastructure or information. But Caliguiri, an expert in careers recognized in the Business area, in 2006 claimed the experience approach according to that global leaders distinguish through their researches and his or her definition of what leaders do through their tasks and positions. It is a ground approach, much more every day practical. He highlighted the following stakes to be a global leader: * Work with colleagues from other countries * Interact with external clients from other Countries * Interact with internal clients from other countries * Sometimes communicate using a second language * Manage and motivate geographically dispersed and diverse employees and teams * Develop strategic business plans on a worldwide basis * Manage a budget on a worldwide basis * Negotiate in other countries or with people of different nationalities * Manage foreign suppliers and vendors * Manage risk on a worldwide basis To conclude those leadership’s skills need to be assess to improve and develop talent and management processes. Because develop talented people and effective global leadership is definitively a competitive advantage for multinational companies. Different communication styles Good team work is all about good communication. Even in a monocultural team, frustrations can occur all too easily when messages are misinterpreted and communication breaks down. Individuals from different cultural backgrounds usually favor different communication styles varying in terms of directness, formality, and use of silence, non-verbal signals and the levels of information shared. A useful concept is Edward T. Hall’s ‘high and low context’, which illustrates how relationships impact communication and the balance between verbal and non-verbal communication. A ‘high context’ communicator will have a more indirect, implicit style and will rely more on the shared knowledge and experience than a ‘low context’ communicator. It is easy to predict a ‘low context’ team member’s frustrations with a colleague who seems unable to get to the point and ‘tell it like it is’. Asian cultures tend to be much more comfortable with silence rather than Western cultures in which it is more common to fill silences or sometimes to even talk over the person who is already talking. How does this impact an international team meeting and what can the team manager do to ensure that everyone’s opinion is heard? A clear agenda and meeting protocols are essential and the team manager needs to have the skills and awareness to interpret individual reactions and to guide the discussion to enable everyone to contribute. It is really important asking for individual updates or switching roles at each meeting so that different people lead or take the minutes are simple ways of ensuring that all voices are heard. Coping with conflict Successful international teams need to be comfortable with conflict and ready to resolve any disputes quickly. Cultural groups that place more importance on the group than on the individual are usually less comfortable with conflict as they value harmony and saving face. This is in contrast to those from individualist cultures who focus more on task than relationship and are usually open in expressing any disagreement. They don’t view disputes as personal but simply as something to be resolved in order to get the best results for the project or task. Example: French colleague who seemed to be extremely critical of his colleague’s presentation but then gave very good feedback to his manager afterwards. He was challenging his colleague to stretch his thinking and to explore other options and possibilities but this didn’t mean he thought it was a bad presentation. For a Western manager working with Asian team members it is important to allow them the opportunity to discuss any areas of conflict individually rather than in front of the team as this would potentially cause them to lose face or  induce others to lose face. So, the way leaders manage international teams, cope with conflict, organize and orchestrate team can depend on the organization of the firm and its cultural origin. Moreover, we can distinguish the Horizontal Leadership (Obama) and the Vertical Leadership (Sarkozy). Horizontal Leadership| Vertical Leadership| * Hierarchical organization * Mechanistic * Controlling resources * Chain of command * Span of control * Knowledge is power| * Flat organization * Organic * Sharing resources * Coordinating * Unlocking potential * Knowledge creation| Conclusion: Now more than ever, there is a great opportunity for international collaboration through international teams. Whether it’s a single project or a long-term assignment, by taking a proactive approach to recognize the potential challenges of international teams, organizations can reap the benefits and create an international structure that ensures that their top talents are utilized to the best of their abilities and efficiency. International team leaders need to step back from usual assumptions and methods and put themselves in the shoes of their colleagues from other cultures. Re-evaluating what has worked well in the past, taking time to understand the preferences of each team member and finding common ground for all, will help to form a united and effective international team. Be a global leader, manage an international team is definitively an every-day job dealing with the hardest: human factors. Conclusion So, we have seen how important the leadership in the actual world is. No matter what is its form, it’s generally a real pro for a team. Managing an international team is a hard task that leadership can simplify. It’s necessary to understand that Leadership styles management are listed and defined, but it’s complicated to give advice about how leading because the person you are in relation with will impact a lot your leadership style. It will sometimes be more efficient to be â€Å"autocratic† whereas it was useless in a previous similar situation. The leader, to be the best as possible need  to be a good manager and also mix all the different leadership styles in order to take the best from each one. Even if it’s pretty idealistic, this is the advice we would give in order to be a good manager. But is a good leader enough to manage an entire company? Tables des Matià ¨res â€Å"The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers†1 I/ Leadership styles2 II/Leadership Styles in Managing International Teams International: Managers as a team leaders12 1/ How are perceived Foreign Leaders?12 2/ What are Leaders’ tasks and Attributes to manage an international team?13 a)Applying good judgment14 b)Reading cross-cultural cues14 c)Finding a guide not to be manipulated but well-oriented15 d)Reflecting as well as acting15 e)Modeling the process15 f)Selecting the right people15 g)Considering with shareholders16 h)Training modifications16 i)Leaders’ Tasks (ability required):16 Conclusion:18 III/ Intercultural management: Leading an international team18 What is an international team?18 Cultural generalizations19 Management versus Leadership20 Leading international teams: a Global Leader20 Global Leadership versus Domestic Leadership22 Different communication styles23 Coping with conflict24 Conclusion:25 Bibliography, Videos sources and Study Case27 Bibliography, Videos sources and Study Case http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47qRvPHoVU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPfRKu05bkQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptKNVsf7b9Y&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCtfV8tspho http://www.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/culture-for-business-and-management/leading-across-cultures/index.php http://www.ehow.com/info_8210591_cross-cultural-leadership-styles.html http://www.legacee.com/Info/Leadership/LeadershipStyles.html Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H.. Management of Organizational Behavior 3rd Edition– Utilizing Human Resources. New Jersey/Prentice Hall, 1977 Blanchard, Kenneth H., Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi. Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Leadership. New York: Morrow, 1985 Ronald Goodnight. Encyclopedia of leadership: Laissez-faire Leadership. Sage Publication, 2004 Study Case: Richard Branson Basic Example for Leadership 1. How it all began Sir Richard Branson is one of the world’s most eminent, creative, innovative and highly successful entrepreneurs of all time with a net worth of over $4.2 billion. Being the very epitome of a true business leader, he has gone through numerous difficulties to be able to found the Virgin Group, establishing a unique approach to leadership, which has attracted quite many followers all over the world. He has proved himself as the master of serial entrepreneurship, perfecting his one of a kind leadership style over the years. Born in 1950 and educated in Stowe in the United Kingdom, Richard Branson’s first business venture was setting up a Student Magazine at the age of sixteen. This was initiated after his final decision to drop out of school, most probably due to the hardships he had faced in his earlier childhood, caused by his having been diagnosed with dyslexia. However, despite Branson’s poor academic performance, in 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, which later turned into one of the most well-known brands in the world. During the following years, Virgin Records was established, which signed such prominent artists as Mike Oldfield, the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones, etc. The Virgin brand continued to grow during the next decades as Branson expanded his enterprise by founding the  Virgin Atlantic Airways, and also starting a Virgin record label in America. With around 200 companies in over 30 countries, the Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund his company is now investing in renewable energy and resource efficiency. Moreover, in 2005, the Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company, came into existence, where the intention is to eventually reach orbital trips around the globe as well as go to the Moon. Branson has been named a â€Å"transformational leader† in the field of management, with his maverick strategies and his stress on the Virgin Group as an organisation driven on informality and information, one that is bottom-heavy rather than strangled by top-level management. 2. The unique personality behind the face of Richard Branson Being a great leader is not an easy task to be achieved, and there is a certain set of personal characteristics, which are intrinsic to Richard Branson himself and make him the unique entrepreneur he is. Firstly, passion is of essential priority for the successful fulfillment of various tasks. It is the quality, which gives you the stimulus to further improve the performance of your company and develop your business ideas. Hence, Branson should definitely be considered a real passionate leader due to his incessant striving for perfection and sincere commitment to contributing to people’s welfare. On the Virgin Group’s corporate website it is mentioned that the company is â€Å"giving birth† to other firms as well as â€Å"holding their hand† through their development, as this pinpoints the exceptional supportive attitude of the company towards its staff. Secondly, the next personal characteristic of paramount importance happens to be courage in the form of having the guts to take risks and initiatives. One emblematic decision of Branson – to switch bank due to poor support and advice for Virginia records – led to the company’s ultimate survival. Additionally, there are many examples of Branson, jumping into different ventures such as is the case with the space tourism-related Virgin Galactic. This enterprise was extremely risky and brave, yet very profitable as well. Despite the substantial uncertainty involved, Branson has showed several times he is excellent in risk management as well. When starting a new venture, he usually shares the risk with other investors, but also makes sure the risk is minimized doe each  party. Thirdly, creativity along with having knowledge of the business you are in is a combination of personal features, which are fundamental in being a great leader. There is no denying Richard Branson’s extraordinary creativity, given the variety of industries his businesses operate in. From airlines to record labels, he has managed to build a steady empire. What is more, he has a profound knowledge of not only the business he runs, but the existing competition as well, which has led to a constant incr ease in the company’s profits. Fourthly, in spite of having insight into different situations, it is also very important to be frankly motivated to do the right thing. Branson has shown the world his open and kind nature to create something he is proud of. Actually, he mentions this as his underlying philosophy of business – to do something for the sake of improving other people’s lives, not merely making money. Another positive feature of his – adaptability – has also helped him in achieving this task, as he is now engaged in numerous environmental initiatives and research. 3. Branson’s leadership style Management is about doing things right, leadership is about doing the right thing, says Peter Drucker. Sir Richard Branson has developed his outstanding leadership style through the years and has proved it actually works. It can be best described as participative leadership. He makes sure to involve his subordinates as well as other stakeholders in the decision-making process in order to be able to extract various constructive opinions, which would aid to the flourishing of the business. Branson himself outlines that one cannot be a good leader unless he genuinely likes people. As a result of this, his leadership style is based on a few very simple and down-to earth rules, and namely: * Smile. Everything gets much easier if you show a friendly face. * Have fun at work. * Believe in your ideas, employees and colleagues. As we can see, Branson puts a serious emphasis on human resource management. He strives to find people, who have innovative ideas and are determined to give 100% to achieve their goals. He insists that all of his employees should be company-oriented, sharing common values, co-operating with one another in their work to beat up competition. Consequently, the human  resource management system is built, so that the staff is constantly motivated and encouraged to improve his/her performance, being given certain benefits such as bonuses, profit sharing or any kinds of promotion available. 4. Branson’s leadership qualities A magnificent businessman, an inquisitive person, a truly caring human being, Sir Richard Branson possesses a set of leadership qualities, which only few entrepreneurs in the world have. It is his leadership abilities which make him stand out and have helped him build his empire of businesses. I shall mention the quintessential ones in order to analyze his image much better. First of all, Branson claims he has learnt his management skills through trial and error since founding his first business when he was sixteen. Nowadays, his main efforts are concentrated into achieving an effective time management. He divides his days equally between trouble shooting, new projects and promoting his businesses. He is regarded as a genius at handling and preparing PR activities and is never afraid of being in the limelight. Next, another skill of his is the ability to delegate work to his co-workers and management staff, leaving them to get a stake in the business and try to develop it as much as they can. He surely spends a great deal of time to build a certain business, but he also wants to recruit such people, who would be able to run it without him, thus taking a step back. Moreover, Richard Branson is famous for his belief that if one looks for the best, he will get the best. He is really precise when it comes to hiring potential employees. After a thorough selection has been conducted, he gets them to stay in the company regardless of the mistakes they may make. He is more likely to bring specific people into another venture where the person is more likely to perform well according to his/her capabilities, than just fire them. With his likeable personality and professional leadership style, Sir Richard captures everybody’s attention with his openness to people and devotion to their well-being. He considers failure as an unfortunate occurrence when leaders avoid the reality of business. What is one of his guiding principles is that one has to trust the people with whom he works and learn from their mistakes. Blame, bitter accusations and recriminations are pointless. Another leadership quality to be highlighted is Branson’s striving to bu ild tight interaction between managers and employees. He  encourages his staff to write to him with whatever suggestions they come up with, which would be of benefit to the future success of the company. He assumes that motivational strategies extend to innovative ideas, so he tries to listen to as many propositions as possible and offer his professional feedback. The development of a bond with his team is an essential part of his everyday work. Following this feature, Sir Richard also gives his all to inspire people to think as if they were entrepreneurs themselves, and to treat them as adults. He believes that in order to make workers perform better, they should be given more responsibilities, which inevitably activates their self-conscience. Last but not least, one of Branson’s main positive leadership characteristics is that he sees no one way to run a successful business, because what works well today, may not work at all tomorrow. This adds up to the point of trial and error mentioned above. Branson considers there are no strict rules to be followed – just do what you believe is the best for you. When one makes a mistake, he stands up and learns how to avoid it in the future. He wittily mentions that this is the recipe for success and above that it deprives one from the unpleasant want to scream at the sight of a bullet points list.

Porter’s five forces analysis on shipping industry

Objective of the report The main purpose of this report is: To have an overview of the Strategic Management of PAL. To assess different strategies applying different analytical concepts, tools and techniques of Strategic Management To provide suggestions for possible strategic erection for the Shipping industries in the coming days based on findings of the report. 1. 3. Methodology The company websites, annual reports, vision & mission, values and objectives, other booklets & manuals etc were studied to identify the strategies of the Shipping industries.Top level executives and other employees were also consulted to have their opinion on the rationale of different strategic moves of the company. The theoretical bases for the reports are primarily those taught as part of Strategic Management course. The industry competitiveness and outlook have been reviewed. The tools and techniques such as Strategic group mapping,PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces model of competition, SOOT analy sis, Key Success Factors (SF), five basic generic business strategies and other strategies like alliance, diversification, etc were applied. . 4. Scope and limitations This report has covered key business strategies of the Shipping in relation to target customers. It also covered strategies in network expansion, operational strategies The report also has attempted to give insights in the strategies of product offering and differentiations, customer services, strategic alliance with other partners, verifications, industry competitiveness, Ethics and CARS, Corporate culture and leadership etc. The report also has certain limitation too.It has not been possible to managed due to time constraint. 2. Organizational Overview PAL is the world's seventh largest ocean carrier and global top 100 plushy chain solution provider in shipping which has the same Mother Company Neptune Orient Line (NOEL) About Neptune Orient Lines: Neptune Orient Lines (NOEL) is a Singapore-based global transportati on company, with core businesses in container transportation and supply chain management. Global strength of over 12,000 employees 0 Revenue amounting to US$8. Billion in 2013 Mol's shipping and supply chain businesses synergies to create total value chain' for its customers. PAL Liner: Container Shipping & Terminals 0 World's 7th largest shipping operator O SUDS. B revenue (IFFY) 0 160 + years of continuous operation 0 Global network serves 33,000+ locations in 150 countries 0 130+ vessels, 6. MM Tees, 10 terminals. PAL – Moving Business Forward PAL is the world's seventh largest ocean carrier, offering more than 80 weekly services and over 500 calls at more than 140 ports worldwide.We provide container transportation and value added supply chain management services through our international shipping network which combines high-quality intermediate operations with state-of-the-art information technology, equipment and e-commerce. Transportation and logistics company. With ov er 160 years of experience, PAL has the knowledge and the expertise to help our customers grow their businesses and negotiate in an increasingly complex and ever-changing global marketplace – whether that is venturing into new territories or growing in already developed markets.With our highly competitive transit times, petition for service reliability and excellence and commitment to sustainable global trade, shippers the world over place their trust in us to provide them the value they need to compete in today's global economy. Services Shipping services spanning the world's major trade lanes Extensive U. S. Intermediate network to facilitate inland reach Priority access to PAL owned and operated terminals on the U. S.West Coast and strategic terminals in Asia Vertical expertise o Refrigerated and climate-controlled cargo o Garments on Hanger PAL Fleet PAL has one of the international shipping industry most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly fleets PAL in vests in our equipment to ensure we provide customers with the most efficient services. We operate a modern fleet of approximately 150 vessels. In line with our environmental commitment, we continue to improve the performance and efficiency of our ships.The strength of our container fleet is closely matched to the demand for both lineal and feeder routes. Our own vessels are complemented by services with alliance partners and slot charter agreements that provide flexibility to adjust capacity and respond quickly to customer needs and new opportunities. The average age of PAL container ships is less than 9 years and every vessel is certified with the latest ISM (International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention) standards.

Book Report The Pearl

Kink has more fears then he lets on. Kink, being the man of the house, must act strong and hide his fear, while his wife, Juan, expresses her fear in losing her child. The Doctor who â€Å"treated† Coyote also expresses fear in the loss Of his luxury and wealth. The Doctor indulges in his wealth and once Kink and Juan find the pearl, the Doctor heads over to their house to get what wealth he can get his hands on. The main protagonist of the book is Kink, who is the husband of Juan. Kink is shown as being a family man who maintains his life with Juan in the most dutiful and simplistic way.Kink finds â€Å"The Pearl of the World† and has visions of what his life will be like now that he has enough money to support his family. He would like to remarry his wife in a church, baptize his child, educate his child, etc. Kink can only imagine what he would do with all this money. With this, Kink fears the greed that comes with having wealth. Many people who come across this type of wealth forget where they come from. Kink doesn't want to be like that. He wants to spread his wealth with his neighbors and his relatives. He doesn't want to leave anybody behind.The novel states that, â€Å"Every man suddenly became related to Kink's pearl†¦ † (3. 30), which shows that the pearl isn't Kink's, but is the whole neighbor hood's pearl. Kink would share the wealth with his neighbors. Kink didn't want the pearl to change him as a person. As it says in the novel, â€Å"From now on they (neighbors) would watch Kink and Juan very closely to see whether riches turned their heads, as riches turn all people's heads. † (3. 46), which shows that the neighbors are watching whether Kink's greatest fear of greed will come back to haunt him.Kink's ability to maintain his composure through the novel shows that he is able to hide his fear very well. Whenever something evil or good happens, Kink has a theme music that plays in his head. Kink fears the evil music. As readers, we are aware of when the evil theme music is playing. While we know what music is playing Juan is unaware of how Kink is feeling. An example of when the evil music was playing was when they went to the pearl dealers, â€Å"He heard in his ears the evil music. And on the black velvet the great pearl glistened, so that the dealer could not keep his eyes from it. † (4. 42).Kink eared the evil music, but when the dealers rejected the pearl, he left with his head held strong. He showed Juan that they had nothing to fear, but he was really dying on the inside from the evil music. Although Kink had fears which were unknown to Juan, she had fears which she made aware to Kink. Juan repeated told Kink that she was afraid of losing Coyote, their son. Coyote was bitten by a scorpion and needed aid from a doctor. The doctor refused to see Coyote simply because they had no money. Once they found the pearl, the doctor came â€Å"willingly' (for the pearl) to help the boy who n eeded assistance.As we see Coyote health fluctuate from being healthy to being unwell, we see how Juan reacts. Once Coyote was bit, Juan was hysterically crying because she thought her worse fear was going to become a reality. Juan loved her son like any mother would, and the thought of losing him made her feel sick. Once she saw Coyote recover from the bite, she was ecstatic. She shared this excitement with Kink and the neighborhood. The town was talking about how the pearl saved the boy's life. Without the pearl, the doctor wouldn't have come. A minor character in this novel is the Doctor (no real name was given).The actor may be a minor character, but he played a role in the recovery Of Coyote. The only reason why the doctor went to Kink and Sauna's house to treat Coyote was because of the pearl. The pearl was of value and is known to be â€Å"The Pearl of the World†. If the Doctor treated Coyote, he could ask for the pearl as payment. By saying this, we know that the Doct ors biggest fear is the loss in his wealth and luxury. He sits around thinking about places in the world and all the money he has. He cannot live without his wealth. As it says in the novel, men Doctor, back in his house, settled into his chair and looked t his watch.His people (servants) brought him a little supper of chocolate and sweet cakes and fruit, and he stared at the food discontentedly. † (3. 49). The reason why the Doctor stared at the food â€Å"discontentedly' was because he was thinking of the pearl and all the money the pearl would bring him. Money is powerful, but the lack of it causes uncertainty in the future. In conclusion, each character is shown to be emotionally strong. The characters do not like to display their weakness. Fear could be considered a weakness. Kink and the Doctor choose to hide their fears, while Juan infidels her fear in Kink.

Research Methods Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Methods - Research Proposal Example In order to decide about using composite or summated scale score for each question in the survey developed, it can be affirmed that the summated scale score can be used for the initial three questions. This might be owing to the reason that the results acquired from these questions will be quite limited and tends to be interrelated with one another. Though these three questions can be segregated into close-ended one, the summated scale score can be used in place of composite scale score. It is worth mentioning that the fourth and fifth questions are open-ended. It is projected that the answers or the responses of these questions will vary based on individual perspectives. Thus, the notion of composite scale score can be used in this situation. Specially mentioning, one of the functions of composite scale score scale can be ascertained as dealing with multiple data. Thus, for the questions ranging from 4-10, the applicability of composite scale score is justified (Spector, 2013). The reliability, validity along with sensitivity are often regarded as the key tools of measuring varied sorts of errors that occur while conducting a survey. The notion of reliability mainly refers to the consistency or the dependability of the respondents towards research variables. Thus, it can be measured by evaluating the results of the research. The idea of validity mainly reflects the expected results of the research. With this concern, the validity can be measured by determining the effectiveness and most vitally the viability of the research results or responses. Finally, the perception of sensitivity denotes assessing the fractions of all the possibilities related to the completion of a particular research. It is in this circumstance the sensitivity can be duly measured in the form of ascertaining the information obtained from the respondents and appropriate interpretation of such data or information (Fayers & Machin, 2002). It is quite

Quality of arguements vs persuader attractiveness Lab Report

Quality of arguements vs persuader attractiveness - Lab Report Example These cues are as follows: Reciprocation, "You owe me"; "Love me, love my ideas"; Authority, "Just because I say so"; and Scarcity, "Quick, before they're all gone" (Griffin 198). These cues are often the excuse people use when supporting or validating their actions. There are various factors involved which determine the route to be employed. These include the extent to which the concerned individual is involved in the issue. When the point is of "putting your money where your mouth is", one is more cautious. Argument quality manipulation is another factor. Whether arguments are presented as non biased facts or in a rhetoric manner each elicits a different cognitive response. The perceived ability of the concerned individual can also pose a barrier to processing the argument through central route. Several arguments are pre-tested in pilot experiments; those that elicit consistently favorable cognitive responses are labeled strong arguments and those that evoke consistently unfavorable cognitive responses become weak arguments. ... These cues are often the excuse people use when supporting or validating their actions. There are various factors involved which determine the route to be employed. These include the extent to which the concerned individual is involved in the issue. When the point is of "putting your money where your mouth is", one is more cautious. Argument quality manipulation is another factor. Whether arguments are presented as non biased facts or in a rhetoric manner each elicits a different cognitive response. The perceived ability of the concerned individual can also pose a barrier to processing the argument through central route. Several arguments are pre-tested in pilot experiments; those that elicit consistently favorable cognitive responses are labeled strong arguments and those that evoke consistently unfavorable cognitive responses become weak arguments. People tend to derive their self-esteem from the same traits that lead to social acceptance (e.g., competence, likability, attractiveness). Halo effects refer to instances in which information about one attribute influences judgments about other unrelated attributes. To the extent that even the violence depicted in media is most apt to be learned when an attractive perpetrator with whom the viewer can identify engages in justified and rewarded violence that fails to depict the harm suffered by the victim of the violence. People who enjoy thinking (i.e., those high in need for cognition; Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) on the other hand tend to form attitudes on the basis of the quality of the arguments in a message rather than on peripheral cues (see Cacioppo, Petty, & Morris, 1983). Individual differences also exist in the ability of people to think about a persuasive

International tourism management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International tourism management - Essay Example Thus, according to Tribe (2008), the goal of critical theory in tourism is critical emancipation where all stakeholders are given the opportunity to benefit from the tourism industry. Against this background, this essay will begin by explaining the meaning of culture then reflect on some of the cultural aspects that can be taken into consideration and the strategies to implement them by international tourism businesses that seek to establish themselves in emerging markets overseas. The Minster English Dictionary defines culture as, â€Å"intellectual, behavioural, and artistic ideas, beliefs of a particular group, time or place or it can refer to any particular stage of civilization.† Simply put, culture denotes the behaviour of an identifiable group of people living in a particular place. It shapes their way of doing things in their everyday life. The cultural and social environment affects the way people live and behave in several ways in that it shapes their behaviour and the way they conduct themselves in society (McCarthy & Perreault 1993 as cited in Bennet 1995). International tourism businesses which are concerned about the success of their business should also be concerned about the following cultural variables that characterise many emerging tourist destinations: language spoken, type of education the people have, religious beliefs, type of food as well as other social aspects such as marriage, families and roles of women among other things. As going to be explained in detail below, it can be noted that all these factors have a bearing on the way an organisation will operate and thrive in foreign land. Whilst it is important for the international tourism company to retain its business goal of generating income, it can thus be seen that the onus is theirs to recognise the culture of the local people in the area they will seek to establish business for their own benefit. It can also be noted that the emerging markets overseas have more to deal with social

Brexit in UK Housing Sector Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Brexit in UK Housing Sector - Essay Example The UK construction industry generates a whopping  £90 billion yearly. This accounts for 6.5% of GDP and 6.3% of UK jobs. In general, this market sector employs more than 2.9 million people. Despite the fact that the UK construction market is predominantly domestic in nature, Brexit will affect it since a number of people from other European nations have invested in it. Consequently, aside from the EU referendum result, potential investors in the UK need to take note of two key influences on the housing market in 2016: First, the stamp duty introduced two years earlier which saw the upfront cost of purchasing a home increase rapidly. Secondly, the introduction of a high taxes on second homes. However, eight months after the Brexit vote, UK construction industry has witnessed a significant growth in terms of construction activities. According to Kierzenkowski et al new orders flooded the month of December despite the weakening pound having driven firms’ material costs to thei r highest in half a decade. For example, a recent survey showed that purchasing managers in the construction market rose from 49.2 in August to 52.3 in September. This paints a good economic picture than many hardly expected after EU referendum. Therefore, clients should consider the following factors as they look forward to venturing into the UK construction industry. Supply refers to the connection between the cost of a good and the quantity producers are ready to make accessible for purchase in a given timeframe while other factors remain constant.

Poetry explication with outline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Poetry explication with outline - Essay Example The second row utilized the words "we people", implying that the townspeople documented themselves as organism on a dissimilar level than Cory. Describing them as organism "on the asphalt road" gives the chart picture of people session around on the road staring up at the rich aristocrat on foot by. Beyond the shadow, the third row says Cory was "a man from sole to crown." The word circlet has palpable royal implications, which is additional of Cory being elevated over the townspeople. Cory is not a man from "head to toe", but in its place from "only to crown". The fourth row uses the expression "imperially slender" to explain Cory. The word imposing income "belonging to a territory" or "grand." While regal is not more often than not consideration of as a way to explain slim, it is more of Robinson expressing the significance of Cory. According to the expert analysis the second verse shows how the municipality adores Cory. After the opening stanzas description single strength believes Cory eminent himself over the others. Line 6 disproves this by saying "he was forever human when he converses." Furthermore, this tells the person who reads that Cory talked as although he was on the similar stage as the others, not pretending to be a ruler or noble. Position seven and eight demonstrate more of the towns respect of Cory. The townspeople are explains as having "fluttered pulses" simply by life form told "good-morning" by Cory. The chart picture this gives could be contrasts to a flock of pre-teenage girls fainting at the talk about of a teen-idols persons name. The eighth line and says Cory "glittered when he sauntered." Glittered is an attractive word choice, as it appears like Cory is made of diamonds that reproduce in the sun as he leisurely walks during the city. This research focused on this truth that the third stanza meeting more of Cory life form great, and in fact compares him to a king. In line 9 Robinson uses a

The effectiveness of English subtitles in a Culturally important Essay

The effectiveness of English subtitles in a Culturally important Italian film - Essay Example Italian thinking facilitated certain closeness inside their country. "Like most family-concentrated societies, Italy is a relational culture. This stems from a history in which trust did not extend much beyond the front door or, at most, the city-state. There is an order of precedence: family first, then neighbourhood, then town, region and, finally, country," (http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.aspsubchannel_id=159&story_id=11484&name=Italy Today, Italy is a part of European Union, and in the new globalised world, she cannot be called a great player. As one of the Nation States of EU, she hobnobs with other Member States, and the close proximity of other cultures touches her in many ways. Italy's flourishing tourism, has become a national industry today and the country is reaping the harvest of her great art centres. Most of her guests are from English speaking countries and now with the world accepting English as the common language, Italian Government has made unprecedented efforts to include English as one of the languages in the curriculum in schools. "Through the foreign language we renew our love-hate intimacy with our mother tongue. We tear at her syntactic joints and semantic flesh and resent her for not providing all the words we need. In translation, the everyday frustrations of writing assume an explicit, externally projected form. If we are impotent, it is because Mother is inadequate. In the process of tra nslation from one language to another, the scene of linguistic castration-which is nothing other than a scene of impossible but unavoidable translation and normally takes place out of sight, behind the conscious stage-is played on center stage. (Johnson, 1985, pp. 143-4), http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/perform/docs/AP1Bollen.pdf On that very drive, some of the Italian cinema is given English subtitles, facilitating tourists to understand the Italian cinema and Italian culture. These movies are used as tools to teach English to students. This is a clever idea, as Italian children, while watching the movies, can have the facility of reading the English translation, and the relative meanings would be understood readily. The Italian movie, Caterina Va in Citta (Caterina in a big city), directed by Paola Virzi, a fast-paced comedy, culturally rich, has got English subtitles along with other movies like Marco Ponti, Le fate ignoranti, Pinocchio, La finestra di fronte, and many more. English subtitles, to some extent are an indication of Italy's accepting English as a common language between Member States of European Union. There is a need for large number of English teachers in Italy. "The answer is that to gather sufficient "manpower" the Ministry of Education decided to run 500-hour training courses also for tho se teachers who had no experience at all of English but wanted to have a try," http://www.onestopenglish.com/Magazine/teacher_letters/teaching_english_italy.htm People are aware of English now, due to satellite TV programmes, Internet and English magazines. In a globalised, European Unionised Italy, Italians have realised that English has gained importance as a passport to work abroad and today, Italians, with their saucy attractiveness, are anything but homebound. While being

The plays Miss Julie Essay Example for Free

The plays Miss Julie Essay The plays Miss Julie, August Strindberg, 1888 and A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen, 1879 are two plays with a variety of themes and different views of life. But both plays have women as their major characters: Julie and Nora Helmer. The role of women in both plays is shown to be different. In Miss Julie, Strindberg shows women as inferior in society, as he believed that they were a secondary form of humans. In A Dolls House, at first, we think that Nora is a typical innocent wife. This leads Ibsen to relate women seen by society, as wives, mothers, and working at home. Ibsen wants to reinforce the subordination of the role of women to show the need for changes. A comparative study will be made of the lives of these two women and the role they occupy in each play. Julie is the mistress of the house, with Jean, the valet and Kristin, the cook. All the events and problems happening in the play could be a result of certain circumstances: first, her feminist mothers primary instincts about men made her disgusted and horrified about them. The absence of her father leads to an incomplete rising of herself. She had just broken off her engagement and her ex-fianci had an influence on her depravation. Also, it was in Midsummer Eve, she was in her period; she loved dancing, and was influenced by the flowers. Julie starts as superior to Jean in terms of class, as she is from an aristocratic family and Jean is her fathers servant. She manipulates him in the start: Supposing I order you to Julie (pg 81), Ill obey Jean (pg 81). Miss Julie starts making advances to Jean, who becomes worried about her reputation, becomes wild calling him to dance, and he ends up conquering her sexually. Jean thought that having sex with her would probably help him to better his social status, but he discovers she is penniless and so desists. Jean at first was in love with Julie, idealizes her at the start but once he had had her, he starts to degrade Julie. Julie becomes a sick woman, suffering from hysteria and feminine masochism, Julie had the desire to fall and be dominated by a man. Now Julie was totally dependent upon Jean. Jean was superior to Julie in terms of morality as he was a man and she was a degenerate woman. Strindberg wants to show that Jeans power over Julie is not because of the fact that he is rising socially but only because he is a man. This shows how maleness is a sign of superior status. Julie suffers a severe depression and humiliation as the sexual affair with Jean pushed her to the edge. Julie degrades herself when taking the initiative and sleeping with Jean, places herself beneath his level, destroyed the image of the woman.

Machine Learning In Medical Applications Health And Social Care Essay

Machine Learning In Medical Applications Health And Social Care Essay Machine Learning (ML) aims at providing computational methods for accumulating, changing and updating knowledge in intelligent systems, and in particular learning mechanisms that will help us to induce knowledge from examples or data. Machine learning methods are useful in cases where algorithmic solutions are not available, there is lack of formal models, or the knowledge about the application domain is poorly defined. The fact that various scientific communities are involved in ML research led this scientific field to incorporate ideas from different areas, such as computational learning theory, artificial neural networks, statistics, stochastic modeling, genetic algorithms and pattern recognition. Therefore, ML includes a broad class of methods that can be roughly classified in symbolic and subsymbolic (numeric) according to the nature of the manipulation which takes place whilst learning. 2.Technical discussion Machine Learning provides methods, techniques, and tools that can help solving diagnostic and prognostic problems in a variety of medical domains. ML is being used for the analysis of the importance of clinical parameters and of their combinations for prognosis, e.g. prediction of disease progression, for the extraction of medical knowledge for outcomes research, for therapy planning and support, and for overall patient management. ML is also being used for data analysis, such as detection of regularities in the data by appropriately dealing with imperfect data, interpretation of continuous data used in the Intensive Care Unit, and for intelligent alarming resulting in effective and efficient monitoring. It is argued that the successful implementation of ML methods can help the integration of computer-based systems in the healthcare environment providing opportunities to facilitate and enhance the work of medical experts and ultimately to improve the efficiency and quality of medical care. Below, we summarize some major ML application areas in medicine. Medical diagnostic reasoning is a very important application area of computer-based systems (Kralj and Kuka, 1998; Strausberg and Person, 1999; Zupan et al., 1998). In this framework, expert systems and modelbased schemes provide mechanisms for the generation of hypotheses from patient data. For example, rules are extracted from the knowledge of experts in the expert systems. Unfortunately, in many cases, experts may not know, or may not be able to formulate, what knowledge they actually use in solving their problems. Symbolic learning techniques (e.g. inductive learning by examples) are used to add learning, and knowledge management capabilities to expert systems (Bourlas et al., 1996). Given a set of clinical cases that act as examples, learning in intelligent systems can be achieved using ML methods that are able to produce a systematic description of those clinical features that uniquely characterize the cli nical conditions. This knowledge can be expressed in the form of simple rules, or often as a decision tree. A classic example of this type of system is KARDIO, which was developed to interpret ECGs (Bratko et al., 1989). This approach can be extended to handle cases where there is no previous experience in the interpretation and understanding of medical data. For example, in the work of Hau and Coiera (Hau and Coiera, 1997) an intelligent system, which takes real-time patient data obtained during cardiac bypass surgery and then creates models of normal and abnormal cardiac physiology, for detection of changes in a patients condition is described. Additionally, in a research setting, these models can serve as initial hypotheses that can drive further experimentation. 2.1 Methodology In this section we propose a new algorithm called REMED (Rule Extraction for MEdical Diagnostic). The REMED algorithm includes three main steps: 1) attributes selection, 2) selection of initial partitions, and finally 3) rule construction. 2.1.1 Attributes Selection For the first step we consider that in medical practice the collection of datasets is often expensive and time consuming. Then, it is desirable to have a classifier that is able to reliably diagnose with a small amount of data about the patients. In the first part of REMED we use simple logistic regression to quantify the risk of suffering the disease with respect to the increase or decrement of an 574attribute. We always use high confidence levels (>99%) to select attributes that are really significant and to guarantee the construction of more precise rules. Other important aspect to mention is that depending on the kind of association established (positive or negative) through the odds ratio metric, we build the syntax with which each attributes partition will appear in the rules system. This part of the algorithm is shown in the top of figure 1. 2.1.2 Partitions Selection The second part of REMED comes from the fact that if an attribute x has been statistically significant in the prediction of a disease, then its mean x (mean of the values of the attribute) is a good candidate as initial partition of the attribute. We sort the examples by the attributes value and from the initial partition of each attribute, we search the next positive example (class = 1) in the direction of the established association. Then, we calculate a new partition through the average between the value of the found example and the value of its predecessor or successor. This displacement is carried out only once for each attribute. This can be seen in the middle part of figure 1. 2.1.3 Rules Construction In the last part of the algorithm, we build a simple rule system of the following way: if (ei,1 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ p1) and (ei,j à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ pj ) and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and (ei,m à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ pm) then class = 1 else class = 0 where ei,j denotes the value of attribute j for example i, pj denotes the partition for attribute j and the relation à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ or à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ depends on the association attribute-disease. With this rule system we make a first classification. We then try to improve the accuracy of our system by increasing or decreasing the value of each partition as much as possible. For this we apply the bisection method and calculate possible new partitions starting with the current partition of each attribute and the maximum or minimum value of the examples for this attribute. We build a temporal rule system changing the current partition by each new partition and classify the examples again. We only consider a new partition if it diminishes the number of false positives (FP) but does not diminish the number of true positives (TP). This step is repeated for each attribute until we overcome the established convergence level for the bisection method or the current rule system is not able to decrease the number of FP (healthy persons diagnosed incorrectly). This part of the algorithm is exemplified at the bottom of figure 1. We can appreciate that the goal of REMED is to maximize the minority class accuracy at each step, first selecting the attributes that are strongly associated with the positive class. Then stopping the search of the partition that better discriminates both classes in the first positive example, and finally trying to improve the accuracy of the rule system but without diminishing the number of TP (sick persons diagnosed correctly). 3. Machine learning in complementary medicine 3.1 Kirlian effect a scientific tool for studying subtle energies The history of the so called Kirlian effect, also known as the Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV) technique (a wider term that includes also some other techniques is bioelectrography), goes back to 1777 when G.C. Lihtenberg in Germany recorded electrographs of sliding discharge in dust created by static electricity and electric sparks. Later various researches contributed to the development of the technique (Korotkov, 1998b): Nikola Tesla in the USA, J.J. Narkiewich-Jodko in Russia, Pratt and Schlemmer in Prague until the Russian technician Semyon D. Kirlian together with his wife Valentina noticed that through the interaction of electric currents and photograph plates, imprints of living organisms developed on film. In 1970 hundreds of enthusiasts started to reproduce Kirlian photos an the research was until 1995 limited to using a photo-paper technique. In 1995 a new approach, based on CCD Video techniques, and computer processing of data was developed by Korotkov (1998a;b) and his team in St. Petersburg, Russia. Their instrument Crown-TV can be routinely used which opens practical possibilities to study the effects of GDV. The basic idea of GDV is to create an electromagnetic field using a high voltage and high frequency generator. After a thershold voltage is exceeded the ionization of gas around the studied object takes place and as a side effect the quanta of light { photons are emitted. So the discharge can be fixed optically by a photo, photo sensor or TV-camera. Various parameters in °uence the ionization process (Korotkov, 1998b): gas properties (gas type, pressure, gas content), voltage parameters (amplitude, frequency, impulse waveform), electrode parameters (configuration, distance, dust and moisture, macro and micro defects, electromagnetic field configuration) and studied object parameters (common impedance, physical fields, skin galvanic response, etc.). So the Kirlian effect is the result of mechanical, chemical, and electromagnetic processes, and field interactions. Gas discharge acts as means of enhancing and visualization of super-weak processes. Due to the large number of parameters that in °uence the Kirlian effect it is very di ±cult or impossible to control them all, so in the development of discharge there is always an element of vagueness or stochastic. This is one of the reasons why the technique has not yet been widely accepted in practice as results did not have a high reproducibility. All explanations of the Kirlian effect apprehended  °uorescence as the emanation of a biological object. Due to the low reproducibility, in academic circles there was a widely spread opinion that all observed phenomena are nothing else but  °uctuation of the crown discharge without any connection to the studied object. With modern technology, the reproducibility became su ±cent to enable serious scientific studies. Besides studying non-living objects, such as water and various liquids (Korotkov, 1998b), minerals, the most widely studied are living organisms: plants (leafs, seeds, etc. (Korotkov and Kouznetsov, 1997; Korotkov, 1998b)), animals (Krashenuk et al., 1998), and of course humans. For humans, most widely recorded are coronas of fingers (Kraweck, 1994; Korotkov, 1998b), and GDV records of blood excerpts (Voeikov, 1998). Principal among these are studies of the psycho-physiological state and energy of a human, diagnosis (Gurvits and Korotkov, 1998), reactions to some medicines, reactions to various substances, food (Kraweck, 1994), dental treatment (Lee, 1998), alternative healing treatment, such as acupuncture, bioenergy, homeopathy, various relaxation and massage techniques (Korotkov, 1998b), GEM therapy, applied kineziology and  °ower essence treatment (Hein, 1999), leech therapy, etc., and even studying the GDV images after death (Korotkov, 1998a). There are many studies currently going on all over the world and there is no doubt that the human subtle energy field, as vizualized using the GDV technique, is highly correlated to the humans psycho-physiological state, and can be used for diagnostics, prognostics, theraphy selection, and controling the effects of the therapy. 4.Limitation M. Schurr, from the Section for Minimal Invasive Surgery of the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tuebingen, gave an invited talk on endoscopic techniques and the role of ML methods in this context. He referred to current limitations of endoscopic techniques, which are related to the restrictions of access to the human body, associated to endoscopy. In this regard, the technical limitations include: restrictions of manual capabilities to manipulate human organs through a small access, limitations in visualizing tissues and restrictions in getting diagnostic information about tissues. To alleviate these problems, international technology developments focus on the creation of new manipulation techniques involving robotics and intelligent sensor devices for more precise endoscopic interventions. It is acknowledged that this new generation of sensor devices contributes to the development and spread of intelligent systems in medicine by providing ML methods with data for further processing. Cu rrent applications include suturing in cardiac surgery, and other clinical fields. It was mentioned that particular focus is put by several research groups on the development of new endoscopic visualizing and diagnostic tools. In this context, the potentials of new imaging principles, such as fluorescence imaging or laser scanning microscopy, and machine learning methods are very high. The clinical idea behind these developments is early detection of malignant lesions in stages were local endoscopic therapy is possible. Technical developments in this field are very promising, however, clinical results are still pending and ongoing research will have to clarify the real potential of these technologies for clinical use. Moustakis and Charissis work (Moustakis and Charissis, 1999) surveyed the role of ML in medical decision making and provided an extensive literature review on various ML applications in medicine that could be useful to practitioners interested in applying ML methods to improve the efficiency and quality of medical decision making systems. In this work the point of getting away from the accuracy measures as sole evaluation criteria of learning algorithms was stressed. The issue of comprehensibility, i.e. how well the medical expert can understand and thus use the results from a system that applies ML methods, is very important and should be carefully considered in the evaluation. 5.Improvement Conclusion The workshop gave the opportunity to researchers working in the ML field to get an overview of current work of ML in medical applications and/or gain understanding and experience in this area. Furthermore, young researchers had the opportunity to present their ideas, and received feedback from other workers in the area. The participants acknowledged that the diffusion of ML methods in medical applications can be very effective in improving the efficiency and the quality of medical care, but it still presents problems that are related to both theory and applications. From a theoretic point of view, it is important to enhance our understanding of ML algorithms as well as to provide mathematical justifications for their properties, in order to answer fundamental questions and acquire useful insight in the performance and behavior of ML methods. On the other hand, some major issues which concern the process of learning knowledge in practice are the visualization of the learned knowledge, the need for algorithms that will extract understandable rules from neural networks, as well as algorithms for identifying noise and outliers in the data. The participants also mentioned some other problems that arise in ML applications and should be addressed, like the control of over fitting and the scaling properties of the ML methods so that they can apply to problems with large datasets, and high-dimensional input (feature) and output (classes-categories) spaces. A recurring theme in the recommendations made by the participants was the need for comprehensibility of the learning outcome, relevance of rules, criteria for selecting the ML applications in the medical context, the integration with the patient records and the description of the appropriate level and role of intelligent systems in healthcare. These issues are very complex, as technical, organizational and social issues become intertwined. Previous research and experience suggests that the successful implementation of information systems (e.g., (Anderson, 1997; Pouloudi, 1999)), and decision support systems in particular (e.g., (Lane et al., 1996; Ridderikhoff and van Herk, 1999)), in the area of healthcare relies on the successful integration of the technology with the organizational and social context within which it is applied. Medical information is vital for the diagnosis and treatment of patients and therefore the ethical issues presented during its life cycle are critical. Understanding these issues becomes imperative as such technologies become pervasive. Some of these issues are system-centered, i.e., related to the inherent problems of the ML research. However, it is humans, not systems, who can act as moral agents. This means that it is humans that can identify and deal with ethical issues. Therefore, it is important to study the emerging challenges and ethical issues from a human-centered perspective by considering the motivations and ethical dilemmas of researchers, developers and medical users of ML methods in medical applications.