Communication Strategies

Leadership effectualness is the major goal of all leaders. Leadership is all about integrity, mission, vision and principles. It is the ultimate power to be in a position whereby you can motivate other people through your deeds and words. Ethical leadership is motivating other people ethically in ethical directions. Leadership is all about knowing your main values and having the impudence to live up to the common good service. By having an effective leadership plan one is in a good position to come up with divergent styles of leadership and theories to apply. This paper will seek to prepare my personal leadership plan as my major mission to become an effective leader of an organization. I will hence analyze all the necessities of my target job in relation to my skills and ability including my weaknesses and strengths. Therefore I will make a reflective plan on how I will take advantage of my opportunities and strengths and how I will correct my weaknesses in attaining a leadership position.
My goal, deficiencies, requirements and strategies

The main goal of my plan is to attain the managerial position of a pricing analyst that requires me to have ingenuity, strong skills of analysis in order to offer rational solutions to some of the conflicts since conflicts are inevitable. The position also needs a person who has excellent communication skills and strong mathematical ability. I also need to possess values that are resourceful, organizational skills as well as the aptitude to coordinate some activities in the organization. The position also requires one to have demonstrated skills and ability in order to work under pressure and help the employees meet the deadlines. It further needs having aptitude to adapt to some of the changes in the organization and multitask and one to have a keen and exemplary attention pertaining trivial details and skills to solve problems. This will require workers who are patient and who are not ready to give up easily.

Leadership theories that I will apply
I will apply situational leadership theory (Waller, Smith  Warnock. 1989, pp.2335-41).  This theory affirms that effectual leadership requires management and leadership. Leaders should use the right style for them to have an insight to their followers. They must delegate, direct, coach and support their followers (Peter  David, 1993, pp.303).  An effective leader should lead others in the right direction and be a good role model for them to emulate.

I will also employ the motivational theory (Richard, pp.234) Leaders should work to meet their followers needs and reward successful workers. The main job of a leader in the workplace is to make sure everything is in order and employees are working accordingly. For this to happen, the manager should be in a position to motivate their employees. Apart from the fact that there are benefits as well as moral values in treating your colleagues as you would like to be treated and according them the respect that they deserve, research also shows that well motivated and happy employees are more creative and productive too (David, 1987, pp. 32). I will work to ensure that my employees are motivated and they feel responsible and successful in their work. This is important since an employee ought to feel connected to the work they perform. There will be rewards as well as punishments which will help in making sure effective work is done and everybody is happy. According to the utilitarian theory it is important for leaders to behave morally and to make sure employees enjoy their job with pleasure and in absence of twinge (John, 1980, pp. 115-133).

The other theory that I will use is the relationships theories and mainly the transformational theory (Bernard  Ronald, 2006). Transformational leaders should inspire and motivate their workers by helping them to see the relevance of the job they are doing. I will focus on the performance of various departments and groups and make sure that everybody concerned fulfils their potential. Effectual leadership should be based on enthusing and inspiring the subordinates with a vision for them to become committed. Transformational leaders should offer rewards of compliance as well as moral rewards to the employees.  A transformational leader always gains respect from his or her subordinates if he employ the right strategies using the concept of influence, consideration, motivation and intellectual stimulation.

Leadership strengths
My strengths as far as leadership is concerned include the fact that I am a good communicator. I am able to execute tasks and come up with a brilliant idea using the right communication strategies. I am creative and this will help me to come up with brilliant ideas that will help my organization. I am also a good listener and I will incorporate the ideas of other people in order to be successful and have an effective relationship with them. I do not believe in being a dictator hence I believe in listening to people as they air their views.

I also accept my own mistakes without laying blames. If success is to be shared, failures also need to be shared too. I am social and quite approachable thus I cope well with people. I am influencing and this will help me influence others towards achieving the main goals of the organization. I am intelligent and able to argue rationally without creating controversy for the good of everybody. I respond positively to success and since am charismatic I will motivate my followers who have enabled success to be registered.

Leadership weakness
My major weakness is that am not patient. I always aim for success and I do not believe in waiting for long.  This usually poses a big problem since I end up giving up if nothing is done promptly. Patience is quite crucial in any successful leadership (Brent, 2005, pp. 173).

Gap between the leader now and the leader to be
Being patient and acquiring the leadership skills is a gap that will need my intervention urgently. I will learn more on leadership and employ some models as I interact with some of the influential leaders.

Implementation strategies
I will undertake a study in psychology on how to be patient. This would call for my dedication and a need to be motivated by my future ambitions. It will take a period of five months to slot in a patient behavior. I will learn more on leadership and models that ought to be cultivated in any successful organization. This will take roughly one year as I also learn how to handle crisis and to deal with my followers. I will also consult experts and successful leaders and learn more from them on their leadership styles. I will also need feedback from prominent organizations employees on what they think a good leader comprise of. I will hence incorporate these ideas in my organization and be the best I can be. I will use my strengths in order to influence others to follow my strategy. I will walk the talk and be a role model to my followers as we all enjoy success. I will be loyal to my organization, colleagues and my followers and practice total commitment.

Conclusion
An effective leader is usually a person who has a mission and a passion for causes that are vast than them. They are people with visions and dreams that are meant to better the community and the entire nation. Leadership is simply values. A leader should have values that are exceptional. They ought to be creative, intelligent, humble, confident, excellent communicators, good planners and have interpersonal skills. This leadership reflective plan will be my guide in achieving my objectives professionally.          

Singapore
Dear Tony On November 13th 2010 10,000 people are expected to converge in the Singapore Art Centre and participate in the unveiling of Hope  Glory. Touted as a conceptual circus Hope and Glory is one-of-a-kind multimedia arts project being presented for the first time in Singapore by the well known Honk Kong based artist Simon Birch. Heralding a new and innovative approach to installation art, the exhibition will be held between 13thNovember to 30th December2010. It hopes to challenge existing paradigms in art by exposing its audience to a new and exciting experience.

The exhibition combines and showcases the talents of a number of local artists from Hong Kong and Singapore. It is a collaborative fusion of the talents of Asian based musicians, designers, filmmakers and artists. Though some international artists have also participated and lend their unique talents to Hope and Glory it is predominantly being touted as an Asian Experience. Some prominent Asian artists that are associated with this project include artist Stanley Wong, photographer Wing Shya, filmmaker Eric Hu, designer Douglas Young, architect Paul Kember and actor Daniel Wu.

 The Exhibition successfully launched in Hong Kong in April this year, is the brainchild of the Birch Foundation .Established by Simon Birch , Valerie Doran and Professor Dr Robert Peckham this organization produces non-profit art events and exhibitions aimed at contributing to Asian cultural enrichment.  It also arranges cultural and art events, promotes independent artists, facilitates an exchange of internationally diverse art and educates young people in discovering their artistic talents.
Hope and Glory is the foundations first major project and a very ambitious one.  Conceived by Simon Birch  the event is an  installation art extravaganza featuring artists, musicians, architects, actors and designers from Hong Kong and abroad . Simon Birch is a very  well known English-born, Armenian artist in Hong Kong .An established painter  Simon received his formal training at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and has experimented in design, music and sports. Over the course of the last couple of years Birch has ventured into film and installation work. His tryst with this venture culminated in two notable projects conducted on a large scale. Specifically these were the Azhanti High Lightning (2007) held at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore and This Brutal House (April 2008) held at  10 Chancery Lane Art Projects and Annex, Chai Wan. These huge projects incorporated the use of multiple media including film, paintings, installation, sculpture, and performance all of which were structured in specifically configured spaces. As an artist Birch has always been interested in concepts portraying universal ideas of transition, the moments that transpire between an initiation and a conclusion, and the unobtainable now. He also harbours an interest in myth, history, circus and science fiction. In his artistic work he chooses to glorify and represent these themes by using multiple modes of media as his source of expression. In Hope and Glory Birch uses the theme of a circus and structures his entire exhibition of installation art around it. Prior to Hope and Glory Birchs exhibitions include Out of the Darkness at the Louis Vuitton Gallery in Hong Kong (2008). Hope  Glory represents a new directional shift in Birchs artistic endeavour as it expresses a new level of integration of the artists conceptual, material and aesthetic concerns.

 Hope and Glory aims to showcase a fresh, dynamic perspective which is quite unique in its concept and design. The diversity of the art work on display is aimed at eliciting the audience to express their own point of view and share their ideas with each other. Presented as an installation art extravaganza Hope and Glory provides respite from the daily monotony of everyday life and enthrals its audience with a sense of communal wonder .In fact after its initial success and publicity in Hong Kong Hope  Glory is a much anticipated event in Singapore. It hopes to give local artists a platform to express themselves and also provide Singapores cultural audience access to new experiences. The event will give its participants an avenue to showcase their artistic skills and an opportunity to interact with other young artists. The exhibition will introduce its audience to a whole new entertaining world of artistic endeavour.

Sponsorship of Hope and Glory is well suited for an Organization such as HSBC looking for an opportunity to bring clients together in an interesting way. Ranked the worlds largest banking group on the 2008 Forbes List, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is incorporated in England and Wales and headquartered in London. It is one of the oldest and most reputed banking organizations in the world and was named the worlds most valuable banking brand by The Banker magazine in 2008. HSBCs core business is banking though it has established a considerable presence in the field of insurance and securities as well. The bank provides a whole gamut of banking services including consumer and commercial banking, corporate banking, credit cards, asset management, private banking and investment banking among others.

Often portraying itself as the worlds local bank HSBC Holdings has an active presence in the UK, Europe, North and South America, AsiaPacific, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa.  The bank has over 10,000 offices in more than 80 countries throughout the world. With a branch network spread across hundreds of cities with HSBC one has access to their accounts anywhere in the world where life or works take them. HSC has a large network of branches and a thriving business banking operation in the Asia pacific region including Hong Kong and Singapore. In Singapore, HSBC is a market leader in trade finance, credit and debit cards business, and the private residential home loan business. It is also a key player in loans to small and medium enterprises As with all the countries it has operations in HSBC has been involved in the local community in Singapore for a number of years and understands the Local culture well.In recent years, HSBC has focused its community support in Singapore on primary and secondary education for the disadvantaged, and on the environment. HSBCs Youth Excellence Initiatives, scholarships, have played a major part in developing the talent of many young Singaporeans.In recent years the bank has increased its involvement in the local arts scene through sponsoring art events in a bid to encourage the development of local arts
Dspite the recession setting in HSBC has continued to support sponsorship of art events as part of is its strong Global Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy.  Event sponsorship of Hope and Glory would further HSBCs  reputation for involvement in  advancing community art The partnership would also  reflect  and complement HSBC banks other art sponsorships. These include HSBC Private Bank USA and Design Miami, HSBC France and the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie and HSBC Private Bank Channel Islands and Guernseys international Artist in Residence programme. Having positioned itself globally as the Worlds Local Bank, HSBC is always seeking opportunities to advance and promote the culture of communities in which it does business.  Hope and Glory provides an opportunity for the bank to advance a unique conceptualization of installation art in Asia. It also accords the bank a forum to give its clients access to a growing market for investment.

Sponsorship of the event will also reinforce HSBCs corporate image of being a bank heavily involved in advancing communities cultural activities specifically to develop local culture and talent. Thus by assuming sponsorship of Hope and Glory HSBC will only be investing back in itself by enhancing and promoting its brand image and credibility.

HSBCs sponsorship will
allow the art community in Singapore to witness the  Hong Kongs first ever installation and conceptual art fusion extravaganza on  tour for the first time  in the country
provide educational and financial  support to the Nations youth artists  who will benefit from the proceedings of the exhibition
Ensure that the Birch Foundation has adequate funding to conduct the exhibitions on a grand level for a period of more than a month.

The projected budget of the event is US 350,000. Since the event is a non profit one and has no tickets the costs incurred in organizing and presenting the installation art project will be solely derived from sponsorship fees. Complete sponsorship would require a financial commitment by HSBC for the full amount mentioned above. This money would be used by the Birch Foundation to acquire professional lighting equipment, lease or purchase audio and multi media equipment, build a stage to display some of the art pieces, arrange for security to safeguard the art and the equipment,, purchase liability and fire insurance, purchase advertisements in newspapers as well as airtime on local TV stations and national cable television channels. Since the Birch Foundation currently employs four full staff time staff members based in Hong Kong it would have to hire local staff as well as Volunteers to cater to the added responsibilities.

The event is scheduled to be held as a series of daily exhibitions scheduled to begin six months from now on 13th November. The Birch Foundation has already   scheduled the event to be held at the Singapore Art Centre. Admission to his event will be free and funds from sales will be donated to support the training of local Singapore based artists.

A lot of electrical technology will be used in the Hope and Glory event to set up the exhibits. This includes the use of lighting, media, audio technology and laser displays to name a few of the complex gadgets that need to be in place and work effectively to make the series of exhibitions a success. Therefore it is essential that technicians be available on site to fix any electrical outages or other technical problems which might render the show ineffective. It is also imperative that fire alarms are installed and easy access provided to fires fighting equipment in case of a short circuit.
Artists and sponsors should also make sure that all valuable pieces of art are pre-insured for fire damage. Organizers should also make the exhibition a no-smoking zone to avoid any freak fire accidents.

HSBC Singapore will be promoted on all the Birch Foundations publicity materials, advertising and press releases and on the Birch Foundations Web site. In return for sponsorship HSBC will also get some perks such as parking and a dinner for all its prime customers with the artists. However the bank cannot interfere with current patrons or dictate the removal of any artist from the exhibition. In addition to sponsorship opportunities the exhibition organizers are also accepting contributions from donors and have already received an amount of USD 25000 in donations for the Singapore event.
Though HSBC is being approached for primary sponsorship title for the Hope and Glory Event, Birch Foundation will still have the right to negotiate individual sponsorships from local firms such as the Singapore Tourism board, EDB (Economic Development Board)-Singapore, National Heritage Board, and the National Arts Council-Singapore.

Sponsorship of an event such as Hope and Glory can be used as apart of HSBCs marketing strategies to build brand awareness and reinforce the brand image in the minds of both new and existing customers. Hope and Glory is an art exhibition and generally such events target individuals with high net worth or institutional investors who can afford expensive art work. Therefore it is appropriate that the bank uses sponsorship of this event to promote its Private Banking services which caters to individuals with high financial worth. Since the tickets are free the Bank can distribute them to all its customers and use the event as a forum to entertain and reward its clientele for their loyalty.

For those clients who are art connoisseurs or special customers the bank in conjunction with an art dealer can provide investment advice on which pieces of art featured in the exhibit are likely to appreciate in value in the future and will be a profitable investment. In its endeavour to promote art the bank can also hold a local competition of new artists and feature the winners work in the Hope and Glory Exhibition. The bank can further extend invitation to all known amateur and professional local artistes to attend the exhibition and help enhance its function exchange artistic viewpoint.

Simon Birch will be available in Singapore  to discuss the  Hope and Glory exhibition , and his role as the ringmaster of his conceptual circus  from June 30th  to July 5th 2010.Ill be in touch soon to set up a meeting to discuss sponsorship possibilities for Hope and Glory .Looking forward to speaking with you soon.

Information is a great solution for prevention. How true is this phrase The social animal called man is blessed with air, water and land and co-exists with the other species forming an eco-system. Water being one of our essential needs is very necessary for our survival and we have been learning about it from time to time. Water covers two thirds of Earths surface and houses great variety of plants and animals. The beauty of this underwater life is beyond comparison and thus underwater life is a major part of our ecosystem. Where does oil spills fit into this picture I will definitely explain that. However, let me first introduce oil spills. By definition, oil spills is accidental petroleum release in to the environment. In simple words oil spills is spilling of oil and today, I consider it a great opportunity to talk about oil spills and underwater life- their relation to one another.

Marine life or underwater life is a home for the worlds biggest creatures- the whales that spend their entire lives in the sea. There are other amphibians like seals, sea lions and otters who reside under the water adding to its glory. The dance of the dolphins, the swim of the sharks, the wade of the turtles and the loitering of the fishes cannot be missed by anyone. Just a glance at these creatures on television gets us awestruck at their marvelous beauty. Such is the life underwater.

I would go on and on talking about the life underwater however, concentrating on the topic of oil spills, I would like to point out the possible causes for oil spills. The primary cause for oil spilling into the sea is with oil transportation from the oil fields to the refineries. Tankers are used to transport oil across the oceans and are among the biggest ships. They carry more than 500000 tons of oil. So, the catastrophe occurs when these tankers collide, leaking large volumes of oil into the water. The most common cause for oil spills is the slow release of petroleum based products. Petroleum fuels or lubricants used to run vehicles on road accumulate on land and end up in the sea. The third cause is natural seepage of oil in the ocean due to shifting of plates below which are further accelerated with human activities such as drilling.

Researches and analysts are still examining the possible causes for the leak and the primary cause is a rig explosion while drilling oil by the BP. CNN stated The estimated amount of oil spilling in an underwater leak from last weeks oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has increased to 5,000 barrels a day, five times more than what was originally believed, a Coast Guard official said late Wednesday and the estimation currently is 60000 barrels a day, thus making it one of the worst in the history.

Well every action has its own repercussions and the marine life is usually affected by oil spills. The slick formed from oil spills may remain together or spread as masses and can cause great damage to the ocean life.  These creatures are poisoned by the oil wastes that harm their biological system in various ways. Exposures to these wastes deteriorate their thermal insulation and reproductive systems. The effect reaches its notch with the death of these creatures. Death rate depends on the quantity of the oil spill and the damage repair that has been done. Huge oil spills kill a large number of marine creatures and disrupt the migration of these animals. In the long run, pollution of water through oil spills interrupts the food chain, causing ecological imbalance, resulting in the extinction of species.

After listening to this, we can easily deduce that oil spills is closely related to underwater life.  This topic is really huge to cover in one speech and it took me a while to decide on a suitable topic to inform and I chose oil spills as we keep hearing it everywhere. Well, I have done my analysis and can conclude that leaking of oil accidentally into the water affects the underwater life and our ecosystem. By stating the possible causes and their effects, I hope that this speech has been informative and please feel free to get in touch with me in case you have any questions regarding the same. Thank you.

The external key stakeholders of the Institute for Family Health are listed below in approximate order of decreasing saliency. Our Brysons and Knoxs analyses indicate the potential to engage new external stakeholders. In the sections below, we have highlighted the roles and relative importance of our external stakeholders and how to enhance their contributions to the organizations success. We have also mentioned where relevant, the opportunities to engage new stakeholders and the criteria our stakeholders use to judge us.

The Government
The government is our most influential external stakeholder because we depend heavily on federal and state funds to run our programs. However, our SWOTC analysis indicated that Federal and State Agencies and Elected Public Officials are less aware of our charitable programs in underserved communities. We need to increase publicity for our charitable programs in order to justify the need for additional funds from the government.

Private Donors
Private donors are the second largest financiers of the Institute for Family Health. Our SWOTC showed that our private funds have only been in the form of cash donations from individual philanthropists and corporate bodies, mainly the Care for the Homeless and the Ryan White. The organization needs to also look out for non-monetary donations such as free equipment and advertisement sponsorships from other interested organizations.

Patients
The level satisfactions our patients get indicate the quality the service we provide. Unfortunately, the feedbacks we get from our patients hardly go outside the organization. We need to get our patients to share their success stories to the general public with the media and potential donors in order to gain more advertisement time and financial support.

Training Partners
Family physicians complement our work by running our Beth Israel and Mid-Hudson Family Practice Residency Programs, through which we train family physicians to serve as leaders in their communities. Our Public health educators also sensitize and link teens from local schools in the South Bronx with community health centers to increase their use of reproductive health services and to subsequently reduce the rate of teen pregnancy. Unfortunately, our trainees are very few so we need to recruit more in order to meet the increasing demands for our training programs.

Universities
The Institute for Family Health operates two free clinics for the uninsured in partnership with students from two of New Yorks premiere medical schools. At the NYC Free Clinic in Manhattan we work with students from New York University at the ECHOWalton Free Clinic in the Bronx we work with students from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. However, many other medical schools are unaware of us, so we need to engage them to expand our free clinics.

Paid Interns
Institute for Family Health engages AmeriCorps in a variety of projects that promote access to health care and health information in medically underserved communities. The organization also runs the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) internships for African Americans and Latinos in order to increase the number of health professionals from under-represented groups. We have realized that we can expand our internship base by creating voluntary internship opportunities for interested community groups to understand our work and support our fundraising activities.

Keeping team members motivated is part of a managers job. A team consists of people from different backgrounds and different personalities. They each have different attitudes toward the work and other team members. An understanding of the different personalities of the team members is essential in dealing with personality clashes and other problems that may result from the interactions of different people.

Dealing with People of Different Personalities
Different sociologists have come up with different models of human personality. The MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) is the most widely used classification for personalities. The Big Five personality model which ranks people on their Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Openness to experience has borne greater scientific scrutiny. People have also been divided into type-A, who are impatient, hostile and competitive, and type-B, who are relaxed and easy going (Robbins  Judge, 2007).

Our learning team has been evaluated as being composed of judgmental as opposed to perceptive individuals, who proceed at their own pace and are slow at taking action. In light of this the overall motivation strategy for our team will be geared toward recognizing and rewarding specific and concrete accomplishments such as team members performing their jobs thoroughly and meeting their deadlines.

In order to keep individual team members motivated, the tasks assigned to them and the management style for each individual should be tailored toward their personality type. For example team members of the ISTJ type need to have the task done, the time available and the required results clearly communicated to them and a combination of type-A and type-B individuals on a time sensitive task may result in the generation of a great deal of friction and hostility. Similarly team members with a great degree of agreeableness and extroversion may be better suited for task with require them to interact with large numbers of people and extensive supervision may be required for team members with a low level of conscientiousness. Team members with a low level of emotional stability may need to be protected from team members with a low level of agreeableness

Dealing with the Attitudes of Team Members
It is imperative for the team leader to understand each team members attitude in order to generate job satisfaction which is necessary in order to keep a team member motivated. A persons attitude has three components The Affective component, i.e. their emotions and feelings, the Cognitive Component, i.e. their opinions or beliefs and the Behavioral component i.e. their intentions (Robbins  Judge, 2007).

The team leader needs to keep a watch on the team members attitude toward each other and toward the job and strive to increase job satisfaction. Two important attitudes a leader needs to foster within the team members is Organizational Commitment or identification with the team and Perceived Organizational Support or a team members perception that they are cared for an valued in the team (Robbins  Judge, 2007).

The most important factor in job satisfaction is a persons positive core self evaluation, if a person sees themselves as essentially positive light they are likely to be satisfied with their jobs as well (Robbins  Judge, 2007).

People with a low self evaluation can be helped to improve their self image through the use of moderate praise and encouragement this may help improve their motivation level and job performance. If the team member is not of the type that is protective of their privacy, Perceived Organizational Support may be increased by maintaining a list of important events in a team members life and being up-to-date regarding their activities outside the work of the team and congratulating them or consoling them on victories and setbacks unrelated to the work of the team.
Teams building and trust building exercises such as team sports and obstacle courses etc. may be used to improve the Organizational Commitment, Perceived Organizational Support and self image of the team members, build loyalty and trust and reduce tensions (Price, 2007).

Listening to Employee Grievances, Suggestions or Complaints
The leader should give importance to communications from team members. Members should not be under the impression that their complaints and grievances or their input at meetings etc. are not given any importance by the leader. Often team members have insight into the working of the business which can be used for the companys benefit. The team leader should encourage employees to share their ideas for improving business by recognizing and rewarding those who come up with workable ideas and innovative solutions to problems (Bohlander  Snell, 2009).

Accommodation, Tolerance and Respect for all Regardless of Race, Culture, Gender and Ethnicity
The modern workforce consists of people from a variety of different cultural, racial, religious or ethnic backgrounds in such a situation the possibility of friction resulting from cultural misunderstandings or cultural insensitivity becomes great.

Friction results in the reduction of team cohesiveness and efficiency and sometimes in the formation of factions. The end result of all these, is demotivation of the team members and a reduction in their productivity. Hence there is a great need to foster an atmosphere of respect and tolerance in the team where no ethnic, religious or cultural group feels discriminated against and where everyone is respectful and accommodating of the cultural requirements and beliefs of others. The company should attempt to create a culturally non-judgmental atmosphere where team members feel free to share with the management insights from their own culture without facing criticism or mockery (Jacob, 2003). The team members should also be made aware of the type of behaviors which are or can be construed as sexual and gender harassment. Male team members should be especially wary of behavior which may be awkward, embarrassing or uncomfortable to the female team members (Bohlander  Snell, 2009).

Avoiding Cross Cultural Miscommunication
One key factor in cross cultural communication, which is necessary for employees to understand, is that different people view the world in different ways. People from one background may interpret a certain communication in a different manner than people from another background. This is of true of non-verbal communication such as facial expressions, the presence or lack or eye contact, how close people prefer to stand or sit next to each other while conversing, their posture etc. as much as it is true of verbal communications. It is therefore necessary for team members to be taught that they should be wary of inferring their own meanings from the communications of people from cultural backgrounds different from their own. Attribution of wrong meanings to the verbal and non-verbal communications of others may result in serious consequences and embarrassment to the team and team members (Jacob, 2003).

Conclusion
Keeping team members satisfied and well motivated isnt just the requirement of polite and civilized behavior it is also important for the smooth and efficient working of the team.

Communication plays a crucial role in constituting, maintaining and altering culture. Through effective communication, cultural values, norms, and beliefs are passed from generation to generation. According to available psychological evidence, character and behavior of the young generation is typically influenced by the character traits of other members of the community. This has the implication that failure in ensuring effective communication of culture significantly compromises our societal values. On communication and the constituting of culture, the community has witnessed numerous cultures through the influence some profiled members of the community. As an example is the rap culture of music celebrities in the American nation. Through their communicating of this culture to other members of the society, celebrity culture has no doubt gained substantial support in the nation. There is a common assertion that communication is to be blamed for the altering of cultural values and beliefs in the global community.

Traditionally, various communities had different unique cultures. However, with the modern technological advancements and the concept of globalization, the world is witnessing a gradual trend towards a common global culture. As an emphasis to this claim are the internet and its cultural influence. It is worth noting that cross cultural interactions have remarkably increased social internet based groups. This has evidently led to the negation of traditional cultural values and beliefs of various communities. In addition, increased effectiveness of cross-cultural communication is closely found to have influenced the wide spreading of some cultures across the globe in particular the western culture. Therefore communication plays an important role in constituting, maintaining and altering our culture.

Identify and explain the potential benefits of conflict

Conflict is beneficial in a number of ways. First, it is through conflict that members of the community acknowledge and resolve unethical behavior. By this, conflict in an organization serves the crucial role of promoting awareness among members of problematic situations that exist in an organization. Another benefit of conflict is that it motivates members to consider, appreciate to find solutions to problems, a factor which brings positive change in the organization. In addition, conflict enhances morale and cohesion among members of the organization.

According to management professionals, the open discussion in resolving a conflict is instrumental in improve acceptability, appreciation, and commitment of the team members in implementing decisions. Therefore, conflicts can function to strengthen interpersonal relations among community members. To the organization, conflicts are instrumental in influencing high quality decision making for the benefit of the organization. Conflict leads to the legitimizing of individual or group interests. It is commonly asserted that it is only by saying ones heart that others get to understand and appreciate you.

This is because such exposes ones personality in an organization, an element which is vital in establishing strong interpersonal relations among team members. Thus, conflict is important in legitimating peoples interests. Still, conflict is beneficial in stimulating and sustaining interests and creativity among members of an organization. Innovation or creative resolving of underlying problems in an organization is crucial for the long term sustainable development in the organization.

On the other hand, conflict among members serves the ultimate purpose of identifying and dictating for resolution of complex issues affecting an organization. This has the implication that positive conflicts promote creativity among members.

Our ability to listen effectively is compromised by a number of internal factors. First, being emotional during a conversation negates ones ability to listen. It is commonly asserted that the receiver during a conversation must be aware of their emotions. For example, engaging in messages that are offensive to the listener threatens a potential breakdown of the communication process. The second factor hindering communication is failure to allow the sender to finish before giving a response. It is a common problem with poor listeners to be judgmental and conclusive during the communication process. This has the ultimate purpose of demoralizing the speaker with reactions. In addition, drawing early conclusions can lead to negative response from the speaker. It is worth noting that it is hard for an individual to speak and listen at the same time.

Another internal factor hindering has from listening is faking attention. It has been established that the behavior by some individuals to fake attention is quite detrimental to the listening and communication practice. On the other hand, the practice of faking attention is not only offensive but also hard to hide the speaker. This factor encompasses practices like being distracted or turning out during a conversation. The last factor compromising our listening ability is personal attitude or perception of the speaker. According to psychological evidence, speech acceptability by the audience factors much in defining their listening. Still, speech appreciation by the audience depends of their perception of the character of the speaker and the relevance of the speech in the community. Therefore, attitude and personal perception is a major internal factor hindering our listening.

Intercultural communication is the process of exchanging both meaningful and non-meaningful information across people of different cultures and in a way this reduces misunderstanding and it enhances mutual respect (Bennett, 1998). In the modern world, we have a variety of cultures living with us so one must learn to cope. It is important for a person to be conversant with simple things like the greetings, knowing their types of food and the things that to them might appear inappropriate (Bennett, 1998). Although it is not necessary that you know this things into detail little knowledge of them may help you secure their respect and trust. When it comes to a firm or an organization, it becomes very important for an individual to know how to communicate with the people of a different culture other than which they hail from starting from the senior most to the junior most employees.

Internationally it has created a social pathway that allows people to exchange ideas and this helps in important issues such as in the international trade. In a global aspect, the uses are more or less the same as in the international and day-to-day uses in dealing with many people from different cultures (Bennett, 1998). There are two types of communication in the business world normally used and these are verbal and non-verbal communication. Failure to communicate in an appropriate manner leads to information breakdown, which in most cases is disastrous to a business because it may lead to people who are not satisfied for instance the customers, suppliers and even employees. Good communication is a very important base for a successful and profitable business because with poor communication you tend to loose your workers faith, trust and decrease their motivation meaning they will end up giving the client poor service. In the end, this leads to the business running losses instead of much required profits.

Strategies
Communication strategy is developing of a way of communicating to people you are targeting for example workers and customers trying to sell your idea to them and to create awareness of a certain issues (Bennett, 1998). Many firms now days are making sure that the management teams have the intercultural communication skills. The reason to this is that these days organizatons contain many people from many different cultures and when communicating to people you do it in an appropriate manner for instance avoiding some expressions that may be misinterpreted and you end up embarrassed and your intended message not passed. This leads to a communication breakdown and the workers may end up doing the direct opposite and the impact of this is unwanted losses. Workers like supervisors also need the intercultural communication skills to be able to communicate to the workers under them in a cool, respectful and polite but assertive way hence avoiding shouting that may seem confrontational to some of the workers (Bennett, 1998).

These lead to a motivated work force that gives good results and in the end the results are usually good profits. Employees in the same rank also need the intercultural communication know how for effective communication for instance using a language the other understands during telephone conversations and simple aspects like respect and avoiding racist remarks that one does not need training to have and this is to avoid a communication breakdown that is bad for business (Bennett, 1998). The most tricky and important part comes when communicating to consumers. When a firm wants to cater for a global, multicultural and international market the choice of language, expressions and symbols to promote or advertise your product becomes a very tricky piece of work. To communicate to people you must be careful not to sound racist, insulting, you must also show some respect for their cultures and at the same time be creative enough to market and sell your products. This calls for a lot of research and knowledge of the markets that you as a firm want to position yourselves to the many cultures internationally and the whole world at large.

Implications
Inter cultural communication has had both negative and positive implications in the business world. Generally, it has increased the budgets over the years for firms who want to cater for the many cultures in the world. This is because of the communication training given to some of the workers and costs of market research, which lead to some firms having to face the tough decision of having to close its operations of serving a wider market consisting of the many cultures both internationally and globally (Bennett, 1998). This means you must have the financial strength to undertake a business venture towards that direction.

To the firms involved and with the financial ability intercultural communication has helped them widen their market and increase profits and this has led to rise of very successful companies like the coca cola company. International communication has also made it possible to get increased cheap and skilled labor from the multicultural, international and global firms this leads to increased productivity and cheaper goods and services (Bennett, 1998). Intercultural communication has improved understanding between many nations and this has made countries come to agreements of reducing tariffs and taxes incurred by foreign investors hence leading to many firms being able to cater for a wider multicultural, international and global market and in addition offering cheaper goods and services to the consumers.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, intercultural communication is a very important aspect of business today although many people might view as just being a way of socializing without any benefits. If you deeply look at it, you will notice it is the basis if you want to make money in a different country apart from where you come from country and more especially among a different culture of people (Bennett, 1998). This is because communication is the key to business anywhere in the world. This is why many firms that have a plan of serving a multicultural society are investing in their employees training like the management teams to have multicultural communication skills.

With the advent of globalization, borders have been transcended, so much so that the workforce has become truly global. The market for labor now goes beyond nationalities and in fact tries to encompass as many cultures as possible in order to harness the synergies created by multicultural diversity.

This is turn has created a multitude of management and Human resource issues that seek solutions in organizations communications strategies, to manage and satisfy all employees regardless of  their ethnicity.

Intercultural Communication when handled professionally and profoundly can become a competitive advantage for the company who masters the art of keeping their people happy and contented.
With regards to everyday situations, a company that operates or conducts business in many geographical localities and countries is bound to come face-to-face with intercultural communications. Take the example of PG, which is headquartered in the US but has operations and country offices in more than 180 countries, serving a multitude of customers coming from various backgrounds. In light of this PG needs a workforce that comes from the very same background to understand its target market and design strategies in order to gain the maximum out of them.

Real-Life case Scenario
Consider the scenario where the manager at PG is American, while the subordinates are Arab and Chinese. In such a case intercultural communication would truly need to be maximized in order to even communicate.

In order for a manager to communicate effectively with the people from various cultures, the cultural dimensions of each of the countries that the subordinates belong to will have to be taken into consideration.

Cultural Dimensions
Culture is a subjective value to measure and that is why various dimensions of culture and values have culminated into a ranking measure provided by Geert Hofstede in order to help quantify, to an extent how various cultures compare to each other.

The dimensions that are scaled on the Hofstede measures include, Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO).

Summarizing what each of these dimensions entail, PDI measures how the weaker members of a cultural group or institution are treated and how they perceive the power distribution. It could be equal or unequal and this illustrates how a societys weaker individuals accept that power distribution. Some societies might accept it as a part of life and some may view it as a weakness. No matter what the case, inequality exists and it is how the members perceive it and whether or not they want to change it that quantifies this dimension. Moreover, where PDI is high, senior members have more power and exert more influence and are respected and awed by the weaker or less significant members.

IDV is measures again collectivism. This scales how a society holds together and how the individual members of the society view their ambitions and goals versus that of the society or the group. Countries high on IDV have individuals who are looking to further their own goals even if it is at the expense of the group. Moreover in an individualistic society, organizations tend to hire on the basis of merit of the individual and his or her qualifications vis--vis collectivist societies which tend to protect the interests of the employees at large and might retain employees while incurring higher costs rather than take in new and more efficient people.

Another scale is the MAS which is one extreme in the continuum. The other is femininity. The MAS extreme consists of an assertive attitude that is more result oriented in a society versus the softer, feminine skills.  The dimension measures these values to see which is more predominant in a society. For countries with a high MAS, they are more assertive in their goals and are more ambitious in terms of technological advancements where are those high on femininity are more focused on peoples welfare and their issues.

The UAI measures how a society responds to uncertainty and risky situations where much of the information is unknown.  Countries that rate low on UAI are generally more tolerant of half-truths and are comfortable with risky situations, knowing how to tackle them in their stride. Whereas in countries that rate high on this index are more prone to being more structured and systematic and are very focused on finding as much information as they can about a situation to deal with it. A high UAI indicates that the people are geared towards seeking the truth and the facts about everything before they decide on anything. Whereas a low UAI means that people are more willing to work in loosely structured environment with a minimal of rules and are more tolerant toward view points other than their own or the authorities.

Long-Term Orientation (LTO) is the last dimension that the Hofstede scale measures. Long-term oriented societies are generally more prone to value time as a tool for getting where they want to be. Such societies persevere despite of the conditions and prepare for the future even if they have to incur short-term losses to achieve this end.

These scales, while subjective and prone to human bias are a very useful tool in comparing societies and eventually helping managers faced with a diverse set of employees understand and communicate better.

Arab Cultural Dimensions
With regards to Hofstede analysis for Saudi Arabia, the country is seen to have a large power distance and high on uncertainty avoidance, which means that the leadership separates itself from the masses and has little interaction with them and what the king says, is the law while opponents are punished severely. This also means that specific and detailed instructions are issued on every matter and there is no space left for ambiguity. These two scales when seen in combination indicate that the authorities have all the power and that they are not held accountable for any of their actions, which may be detrimental to the very spirit of Islam, which they claim to abide by.
     
Another Hofstede characteristic indicates that Saudi Arabia ranks very low on the Individualism (IDV) ranking at 38, compared to a world average ranking of 64.1 This indicates that people are not very individualistic and tend to think of themselves as part of the group. This also implies that people put family and community before themselves and group goals are met before any individual aims are pursued while loyalty to the group and family is prioritized over any other values.

Chinese Cultural Dimensions
The most striking factor about the Chinese is that they are a very collectivist society and that the team or the organizations values are given more priority over any other individual objectives, hence the Chinese rank very low on the individualism index. In fact it is even lower than any other Asian countries rakings.

In addition to this, the Chinese are high on LTO, and low on UCI. They have a high power distance which is generally true of collectivist societies that place high importance on seniority. As per the Masculinity measure, China is more focused on its people having communist roots and therefore is more masculine than feminine in its cultural dimensions.

Personal Communications and Methods of Improving Communication Competencies
Before trying to improve communication competencies one should keep in mind the barriers to effective communication. This follows from theory that problem identification is the first step in problem resolution. The barriers to great communication are physical, cultural, perceptual, emotional, language, gender, and interpersonal. In the situation we are considering, all these apply in varying degrees. With regards to this scenario and backdrop, the main concern here are the language, cultural, perceptual and emotional barriers.

In order to improve the groups communication competencies it is important that each know what background the other is coming from in order to better understand their colleagues. This is important not only in terms of the top-down and bottom-up flow of communication, it is also important for a horizontal flow of communication as colleagues need to understand each other to do better team work.

Therefore, as a solution, a preliminary presentation should be in place where each person in the team, including the manager details their cultures and about their expectations from working in that group. This presentation will be of vital importance where all the learning of effective communication needs to be applied. The presenter should make the right word choice and ensure that his body language and the image that he portrays convey the message that he indeed does care about getting along with his co-workers. In addition to this, the presenters should each in turn ensure that their sincerity is conveyed via their non-verbal communications i.e. their demeanor, body language, aides to presentation, pitch and clothing. All these will factor in conveying the right meta-message that the presenter wants to genuinely work together and be on the same wavelength in order to facilitate team-work.

However an issue that arises out of this ideal scenario is that one member might take advantage of others. This is the case for ethics in communications. This is because it is compulsory for the workers to give out cultural information about themselves and their expectations. This is the reason why those who give out correct and genuine information about themselves are at a risk of being manipulated. For example the American manager might think that he can easily persuade the Chinese employee to forgo his own goals for that of the team and in the meanwhile the American manager would be furthering his own personal motives. This may lead to ill-will and manipulative games at the end of the manager. And once the employee realizes that he is being used, chaos may ensue.

Therefore in order to protect the employees interests an external check by the higher-ups should be done on a regular basis as should informal evaluation where the employees and their manager all have a chance to speak for themselves and describe their experiences so that it can be readily assessed as to who should be given credit for the work done.

Another factor in improving communications competencies should be that rather than deciding on one language, which should be the case initially, each member try and learn the others language in order to fully realize the power of each language as there are nuances and subtleties in each language that the other cannot full capture. This may be time consuming, but it can be done at the expense of added incentives in order to achieve long-term coordination.

This solution will be particularly useful in dealing with conflicts caused by communication barriers as in our case here, difference in language too is a barrier.

Words have the power to create and affect attitudes, behavior, and perception.
Words have indeed the power to create and affect attitudes and influence behavior and perceptions. A difference in word choice can change the imagery created. For example, fire described as an orange, cozy flame warming the soul and a cruel red tongue consuming all within its reach creates different emotions by way of words in the minds of the receiver. These words describe the same element, but create a different imagery, the same way different words hold different meaning in different cultures. For the Arab, words such as family would describe a setting where he is the leader and members have to all but listen to him. Whereas to the Chinese this word would entail a collective group of his immediate and extended family where the head is  his grandfather and he is considered as an important but less powerful and less significant member. Therefore when the manager wishes to appeal to the employees roots he should be very careful in referring to family, because while for the Arab, the Arab might be the sole provider, the Chinese employee would feel that the manager was trying to make him feel insignificant in the decision making processes.

Strategies for managing interpersonal conflicts
Interpersonal conflicts can gain precedence in this example where there is a variety of cultures and hence barriers in place.

There are several factors that need to consider before proceeding to managing conflicts. These factors are your relationship, the situation, the other person whom you are in conflict with and your goals.
Keeping all these in view, if there are problems between the manager and the employee then the manager should try and focus on what the basic issue was. Having a boss, sub-ordinate relationship can mean that the manager can fall into the trap of dictating a solution which the employee will have to follow. However this is not the solution as the employee will still feel that the decision is imposed on him rather than there being a mutually agreeable solution. Therefore in considering the relationship, the manager should avoid the trap of dictation and try and forge a solution that takes into account both their perspectives.  If the situation is such that a joint decision should be taken fast and there are interpersonal conflicts among the culturally diverse team, the American will know that the two belong to collectivist cultures and he can persuade than that the decision is for the betterment of them all and that they all will benefit with the differences set aside. Another factor to consider here is the goal of the manager or the parties involved. When the aggregate goal in kept in mind, many conflicts resolve easily as there tends to be agreement on mutually beneficial issues. Moreover when one considers the background of the relationship with the other person involved and is reminded of the positives, that person is easily brought in for negotiations.

Conclusion
This course on effective communication has been very helpful in realizing and understanding fully the importance of communications and has bought to light simple solutions that have existed always but have not been implemented because their simplicity has been viewed with suspicion.
Thus it is imperative that even in everyday situations, if we consider these aspects of conflict resolution and are more tolerant problems can be resolved easily. Furthermore, when everyone is geared to find a win-win situation there can be better conflict resolution and a much more peaceful society than which exists.

The recent enactment of the healthcare bill was meant to streamline the operations of the healthcare sector that has been regarded as deficient in different ways. In deed, the industry has witnessed many deficiencies including increased number of people without healthcare coverage and near bankruptcy of healthcare organizations. As we enter into the transition period, there is tension since the impact of the healthcare care bill is still unknown. Since the system may remain as it is for a long time before new legislation makes an impact, there is need to stay focused on the provision of healthcare to the target population.

As you read this article, you should understand that the Institute for Family Health aims at providing healthcare for the underserved population. The mission of the Institute for Family Health is to improve the quality and availability of family practice services that fits the needs of medically underserved population.  This is achieved through different services including development of healthcare facilities which operates on a family practice model, training healthcare professionals, engaging in health service research on primary healthcare, formulating health policies supporting direct patient care, and promoting diversity of its workforce (The Institute for Family Health, 2010). Therefore, one of the most important activity in achieving its mission is to develop and operate health facilities which are based on family practice model and integrating the works of a number of healthcare professionals.  To achieve this noble objective of providing the best healthcare services for you, the Institute for Family Health is in the process of acquiring North General Hospital which is on the verge of collapsing due to bankruptcy.   The acquisition is likely to affect the operation of the Institute for Family Health in different ways but you should be assured of continued operation of the facility at your service.

North General Hospital has served the people living around Harlem for more than 30 years. This area has a population of about 117,743 people in East Harlem and 151,113 people in Central Harlem (North General Hospital, 2010). The communities living east and Central Harlem are considered poorest in New York City with 7 out of 10 residents being African Americans. The bankruptcy of North General Hospital has not been by accident. It has been orchestrated by the operation factors in the healthcare system that is considered flawed by any standard. I feel that our healthcare system has not been well formulated and this may be the reason why some healthcare facilities like North General Hospital are collapsing. Then new healthcare bill is staged to revolutionize the provision of healthcare but as the fear fall in the industry about the uncertainty of the impact of the new healthcare bill, there is need to maintain sobriety and realize that the healthcare system is meant to serve Americans and there is no need to get tensed and regret the noble goal.

The Institute for Family Health may also be uncertain about the impact of new healthcare legislation. However, the hospital management has not neglected its goal of providing healthcare for the deserving cases. You should be aware that the operation of the Institute of Family Health and North General Hospital will not be affected by the new legislation. Institute for Family Health acquisition of North General Hospital can be considered as a way of ensuring continued provision of healthcare to Harlem community. The new healthcare bill is meant to improve healthcare delivery system in the country and, by all means, stakeholders will do what they can to ensure that it fulfills its mandate.  Even though the new healthcare law has been enacted, it is important that the Institute for Family Health ensure continued operation of North General Hospital in order to meet the healthcare need of the Harlem community. I would call all leaders and concerned stakeholders in Institute for Family Health to do all they can to ensure that North General Hospital continue to offer services as before. Leaders and all staff at Institute for Family Health and North General Hospital will strive despite the odds, to provide medical services to the community.

Communication has no specific description but main essence of it revolves around conveyance, exchanging, giving or sharing of ideas  information. Communication can be both verbal and nonverbal. Communication takes place all around us in school, colleges, homes, markets and most importantly businesses. Businesses use communication in Public Relations (PR) to maintain image of company toward public, organizations, and programs and to gather employees, customers, investors or even general public. For effective communication, message should be clearly conveyed and interpreted by both parties. Our communication, perception and interaction can greatly be effected by noise, which is a barrier in communication. Literal meaning of noise is not what is meant here. Noise can be anything that effect communication in one way or another.

Some people are better at communication for several of reasons. They convey their message easily because they are extremely good listeners and to be a good communicator first key is effective listening. They are patient listeners and try to read between the lines of the communication. This makes their grip on the subject matter very sound. This in turns helps them to communicate effectively. Along with effective listening, they have good presentation skills and have ability to make sure that each word is understood by the audience. They have clear vision of the message to be conveyed and are well prepared for it. Simplicity in conveyance also makes them better communicators. All of this comes down to effective listening for effective communication.

Yes, I somewhat agree to this. The advancement in IT and other technological advancements in internet usage have proved beneficial for companies to advertise on internet. This trend is increasing rapidly and with the creation of facebook, skype, twitter, other social networking sites and many other web platforms has made companies go for internet advertising more. People of almost all age groups have now easy access and availability of internet. So this mode of communication is becoming more important for organizations and will continue in future. But nevertheless, newspaper has always been more accessible and easy to carry source of information. Newspaper will lose some of its significance but this mode of advertising can not be ignored by organizations.

A persuasive text is a writing that can cause somebody to believe the truth about something, and has power to tempt action or believe. Duo process theories provide an account on how an occurrence can occur in to different ways. Verbalized explicit processes or attitudes may change with persuasion. Persuasion is found everywhere and the persuaders make one to believe them, get what they have and trust them (Larson, 2009). They use languages or images that make one believe or take an action. The following is an example of persuasive text, If you think what you have been using to clean your mouth is right then you are wrong, Sensodine is the best for you, it eliminates sensitivity and bad smell in your mouth. Hurry before we clear the stock, the price is consumer friendly. This particular text communicates because along side it there were some illustrations showing very white and was surrounded by blinking images which were meant to trap eyes of the readers.

The text was meant to advertises this particular product and convince the consumers that their teeth will be the same as of this person in the picture. The advertiser has assumed that customers will not make a scrutiny of this product when he writes that it is the only product that can eliminate sensitivity and bad smell. The text has made some conclusions that seem to be true for example the product will remove bad smell in the mouth meaning that those ho will buy have a problem of bad odour and need sensodine. The advertiser has come up with this conclusion because he is aware of the problem that is affecting many people.

There is no evidence of whether the text is true or valid. There is the use of linked assertions that somehow seems to be reasonable but if they are examined logically, they will be incorrect. The text has deliberately used assertions by using logic that seems to be valid and persuasive. There is a possibility of this advertiser landing into risk if somebody realizes his false logic.

The reasoning of the advertiser was vague because he assumed that more customers will turn up on hearing that the stock will end while at the same time he forgets that many may not buy thinking that after a short while it will run out of stock. Therefore, they may lack a place to replace another one and may lack confidence in it.

The text has used syllogism reasoning because it contains a lot of generalization of the product that the public has been using as not having the same result as sensodine. The advertiser only considered his product as the best without considering that some people could have used it and did not get better results.

Duo process theory is well use in this text and at the same time elaboration likelihood model is present (Larson, 2009). In this text, a customer will have conscious scrutiny of the product before making his final judgment. The customer will make a careful scrutiny of various chemicals that make up this product and at the same time check on expirely date. The customer will do his evaluation and check the effectiveness of the product. The text  has put motivation to many because the customer will hurry up to buy it before it runs out of stock and at the same time safe thinking that what she had been using is very expensive. Therefore, he will do his best to see that he has attempted this product.
The consumer will use a comprehensive route before he makes his final judgment regarding this advertisement. For example, one can look for somebody who has been using it before purchasing one. The text has some aspect of telling a consumer to act very fast before the stock runs out. The customers judgment will be fast because the price is customer friendly meaning that everyone can afford it.

Once you read this text you will immediately change your attitude towards this product.  There is likelihood that one will like sensodine and hate the previous product. On seeing the advertisement a customer will automatically buy the product, forget the one he was using, and go on encouraging others to use even before experiencing the results. The process will continue, every one convincing each other the advantages of using this product but the truth of the matter is they will not follow one another to confirm that you really used the product.

Conclusion
This particular text was very effective because it was able to hit on what customers look for. The advertiser had used some assertions that really seemed to be true and valid. It has assumptions of being the best product, and eliminates sensitivity and bad smell in the mouth. There is also a believe that it is cheaper than any other product and anyone can afford it. The other thing that could have made this text to be effective is the use of diagrams that are catching the eye.

This project aims to carry out an in-depth survey of the experiences of first-year international students as they make their transition to the discipline of biology. It will assess the extent to which international students integrate and put up with the different teaching and learning environment. In addition, it will comment on the elements that can hinder such integration and adaptation.

The findings of this research may be of relevance across the educational sector. Free interaction with the international students will provide greater wealth of data on the perception of the students. In particular, the qualitative approach will capture a wider geographic region and researches are well supported with wide knowledge of the literature. In fact, the bibliography provides a resourceful platform that can be adopted by future researchers.

This study uses qualitative research approach. Qualitative research makes a given enquiry scientific since it seeks solutions to an enquiry, gathers evidence and gives predictions from the findings. Such predictions can be applicable way far beyond the immediate boundaries of the study (Marilyn 2005). Again, it establishes a systematic and predefined framework in answering the questions. Furthermore, it approaches the problem from its immediate context, for instance, it carries out the enquiry from the local population been investigated.
Thesis Statement
Even though, international students take pride in pursuing education in foreign settings, there are great challenges that make this experience unfavorable, as well.


Research Question
Q. What are the problems that first year international students experience as they make their transition to the discipline of biology
Literature Review

There are numerous existing studies regarding international student experience. Such studies range from reports of small-scale project to PhD dissertations (Solvic 2008). Much of this focus has been channeled to their academic experience. Basically, international students face a lot of challenges while in international institutions since they are in a different setting with different approaches and requirements. This in itself is a challenge.

In most cases, communities tend to regard international students as a homogeneous group. In UK, the understanding of an international student only refers to those that fully pay their school fees, therefore, ignoring EU students. Worst of all is when the students are treated as individuals per se (Kuo 2007). This lack of differentiation between the diverse groups and sub-groups of international students has been pointed out on specific pedagogical issues. It is argued that Asian students, and more so, Chinese students, incorporate their cultural differences in methods and style of learning to make it it very hard for them in critical and analytical exercises in Western Universities (Dunbar1988).

On the same note, international students are looked as a complete different group of people and making assumptions about them collectively (Said 1978). In this regard, cultural perceptions block the real needs of international students. Students from South-East Asia, for instance, are deemed as surface learners and passive non-participants, a perception that has been disputed by many. It is rightly argued that teachers can fail to work on their attitudes and practices if much of the blame goes to the students (Chalmers  Volet 1997). According to Jones (2005) the determining factor is not much on the cultural background but what matters is the clear explanation of what is expected. On the same note, there should be a need for special clarity whenever international students are briefed on their new learning environment (Nishio 2001).

It is noted that promoting and facilitating extra academic support at the beginning of the studies is essential for international students who are from unique teaching and learning traditions like in the case of rote-learning and teacher-centered approaches (Beasley and Pearson 1999). Although language is in many times identified as a hindrance for international students in their adaptation to university life, a greater part of research suggest that students notion of academic expectations, conventions and standards at the host university is equally significant (Samuelowicz 1987). Once the academic staffs understand the educational background of their students, they will in turn be able to improve the students overall experience. In so doing, it will help in mitigating potential mismatches between the students and the teaching staff (Gill 2007).

It is argued and justifiably so that innovative course design and well ordered student support policies enable students to develop better communication skills and independence right from the start. Eventually, it perfects their interaction with the local students thus making the entire transition process easier and fruitful. According to Beasley and Pearson (1999) establishment of academic support programs, for instance, interactive workshops, peer learning and support groups is beneficial to the students and reduces failure rates.

So far, Biology as a subject is not regarded as a problematic discipline but as a soft science. It is believed that many students in European countries evade mathematics, chemistry and physics but prefer biology. Ironically, biology suffers as a by-product due to the increasing number of students. This is as a result of the perception that biology is easy to approach and methodology. However, just like other sciences, biology is a victim of new emerging knowledge and technological approaches which are actually occurring at a very high rate. In addition, unlike what many students expect, biology has an increasingly cross-disciplinary nature with a rising flow of data from genomics, protemics as well as bioinformatics. These, eventually make the many branches of biology quantitative and embedded in physicochemical principles.

The abovementioned aspects in biology make it difficult for students in coping with such a dynamic increase in information that form part of what they should learn. In addition, it becomes very difficult to develop critical thinking skills, numeracy and analysis. Most education sectors consider quality and not quantity in terms of the number of students studying at the university. Eventually, it becomes the primary concern of biology.

It is believed that during the transition process, students may realize the course does not match their expectations or the students do not match the expectations of the course. The latter can happen if the students lack life and social skills as well as the ability to formulate autonomous information retrieval and learning. Above all, it can turn out that those students rarely join the university with an objective to gain an academic qualification the motive being a stop-gap option. In this regard, the entry rates to university rise in most parts of Europe.

Language is one of the major challenges to many international students who enroll in the first year biology in tertiary education. Specialist terminology in Biology and other sciences proves difficult for most students (Wellington  Osborne 2001). Moreover, students get a difficult time in recognizing where a concept starts and terminates and so it becomes hard to differentiate concepts. According to Zhang and Lidbury (2006) difficulties with language contributes significantly to difficulties faced by students in studying science especially genetics.

There is language oriented strategies which can be applicable to First Year Biology (Zhang  Lidbury 2006). These strategies are as follows
Use of guided tutorial questions in group work.
Tutors can provide students with opportunities to share their views in groups.
Crosswords exercises are a powerful online tool in giving language exercises.
Memory of the students can be enhanced by breaking down complex biological terms as well as identifying prefixes and suffixes. This further includes the exploration of the etymological meaning of words.

Lecturers can come up with motivating activities like matching scientific terms to definitions in order to enhance revision. In addition, they can use flashcards for vocabulary mastery.
Finally, under the aspect of role playing, students can be encouraged to practice their scientific discoveries to the public (orthopraxis).

Methodology  Analysis
The University of Queensland has a high proportion of international students. The research focused on the first year international biology students. The survey did not leave out the UK students for comparative purposes. The research project took into consideration the challenges of language as one of the key challenges during the transition to tertiary education. The interviews were conducted in the interviewees own language through a set of questionnaire. Their co-nationals offered a lot of support in the whole exercise especially by helping in the translation exercise.

Hundred first-year biology students were interviewed and the results recorded after translation. Another form was prepared where students filled in their basic details about their educational background, time spent in Australia even before enrolling in the university. The form captured some relevant demographic information and how they learnt about the institution. The questionnaire stretched further to topics like why they chose to study abroad, their expectations, cultural and educational differences in biology subject, relationship, gender factors, stress issues, support services just to mention a few.  There were consultations in the entire interviewing process in order to prevent ambiguities or culturally inappropriate questions.

The interview took a period of one hour where 100 international students were interviewed. On the other hand, fifteen home students were also interviewed, for the sake of comparison by a native student. See appendices 1  2 for the questionnaire data and interview schedule.

The table below illustrates the origin of the students interviewed.

CountryNumber of Students InterviewedTotal number of First yearsAsia2758Japan3256Africa2044South Korea2167Europe7100USA8158Total115483
Use of students native language was very helpful although it had both positive and negative effects. The outcome was very powerful due to the rich insights provided by the free-language-barrier atmosphere. Indeed, students expressed their thoughts without much difficulty in their mother language. The entire process was very friendly since their co-nationals actively participated in the interviewing process. However, some of the information from the interviewees got filtered by the translation process. In addition, some of information was misrepresented or disappeared due to incompetent translation. Overall, the process was fruitful despite the few setbacks which were properly shaped by the intensive management of the interviewing process. The richness of the data and the degree of the response was in tandem with the original target of 100 interviews.

Pedagogical Issues
There was a general observation among international students regarding the nature of teaching and learning at University of Queensland in comparison to their experiences. Most students have a difficulty when it comes to the process of creation and design in Biology. The tutors put emphasis on the learning process of the student and focus less on the outcomes. A Japanese student says, Lectures here, are more concerned about the sources of my ideas, how I develop them and the whole research process has a lot of these. It is very challenging to be welcomed with such rules which I am not used. I am trying to integrate myself to the teaching and learning approach here.

A section of the African students remarked that contrary to their expectations, skills are not emphasized so much at Queensland. In their opinion, biology is a scientific subject which requires more of skills than theory. The situation here is totally mind-based, a self-exploration kind of work. In fact, this was affirmed by a section of the Japanese students who said that they are not exposed to enough practical skills. Education in Japan is very passive unlike the one at Queensland where one has to think about a concept, create it with specified materials and technique as well.

The transition to the system in biology subject poses a great challenge to those students whose proficiency in English is poor. The perception is that their approach to the course is undervalued. Again, the demands expected of them are derived from what are areas of weakness for them. In their view, their previous knowledge in biology is not given due consideration neither is it valued as much as it could be.

The other difficulty is due to reason that biology is fashioned within a Western fashion. That means, one has to familiarize with what is happening in the UK and somewhat apply it to biology.

Conclusion
This project has highlighted a number of issues regarding the challenges of first year international students with respect to biology course. The survey evidence suggests that their experience at Queensland is satisfactory and productive for them. As can be seen from the methodology, there is considerable insight into the perceptions and experience of the students. It is in everyones interest at Queensland to gain a deeper understanding of international students perspectives and thereby recognize the need to address the issues outlined in this project. It is also very possible that any such reforms in ways the system works will benefit all students.

The following are the proposed interventions for ensuring a friendly transition to courses in Biology at the University of Queensland

Establishment of Student development activities geared towards academic support and language awareness.

Special programs and activities aimed at enabling first-year international students familiarize with the module requirements in a timely manner.

Establishment of orientationinduction courses to enable students gain relevant skills.

Ultimately, this institutional research will be made available to the wider community in making an informed judgment on how best to improve higher education where international students are concerned.