Into the World Essay

â€Å"Individuals venturing into new experiences may encounter obstacles, but may also experience personal growth. † ‘Into the World’ is can be defined as aspects of growing up and transitions into new phases of an individual’s life. It can mean transitioning naturally, or change being thrust upon a person. In either case, any individual venturing into new experiences will encounter obstacles, but they will also experience personal growth. This is evident in the prescribed text, The Story of Tom Brennan by JC Burke, as well as my chosen text, I Was Only 19 by Redgum. The concept of ‘new experiences’ may not always start off positively. For example, in Burke’s novel, the protagonist, Tom Brennan, one fatal accident forced him and his family to flee their hometown of Mumbilli, forcing every character to undergo a catharsis. This causes Tom to become very withdrawn and introverted as he grows bitter and resentful of the whole situation and slowly getting pushed ‘back into that big, black hole’. He becomes very depressed, antisocial and isolated as he attempts to deal with the situation that his brother, Daniel, has caused. The author conveys the protagonist’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs through a variety of techniques. The audience is aware of Tom’s growing guilt through the technique of first person writing. ‘Like I said, that was a low point. ’ (p124) The convincing, idiomatic, subjective voice of the teenage narrator creates a confidential relationship with the readers, as well as keeping them engaged. It also gives us insight into Tom’s inner most thoughts. As Tom plunges into intense feelings of guilt and animosity, he becomes numb to the struggles the other members of his family are facing. One of the most effective and engaging techniques used by the author to capture the reader’s attention, is the use of flashbacks. The Story of Tom Brennan is a nonlinear narrative, and this is first evident in the prologue, which has a reflective tone, when it changes from past tense to present tense. ‘†¦ so as not to remind them of their pain and what our family now meant to this town. My name is Tom Brennan, and this is my story. ’ However, these flashbacks finish after chapter 9, which is when Tom finally begins to accept the situation. As Tom and his family are forced to make a shameful and hasty departure from their once-loved, parochial hometown, they flee to Toms’ Gran’s house in Coghill. Tom hates living in his Gran’s house, and his subjectiveness creates a bias and negative image of her, as he promptly denigrates her efforts, particularly her ‘culinary disasters,’ claiming that her food looked like ‘a charred slab of cow’s shit. ’ He can’t understand why she copes with the situation is a stoic manner and she becomes somewhat like a ‘punching bag’ for Tom, as he releases all his anger on her. Their relationship is strained, hostile and lacks mutual tolerance and respect as he refers to her as ‘The Grandmother. ’ As Tom re-establishes a connection with ‘The Grandmother,’ he learns empathy, and this is evident in chapter 12 when Tom first realises that she cares for him more than he realises –‘Do you think I couldn’t see you fading away those first few weeks? ’ Their developing relationship is then strengthened as Tom decides to build her a chook pen. Rugby is the lynchpin that holds the novel together. Tom is placed as half-back on the St Bennies team that ‘couldn’t catch a cold. The team provides him with a solid ground to stand on and his teammates give him new relationships and ties to Coghill. Football symbolises the prestige of the ‘legend of the Brennan brothers,’ and Tom unknowingly uses football as a measure of what he had and what he’d lost, of what he can and can’t do. When Tom goes on the St. Bennies footy camp, he learns humility. After Tom speaks with his dad at camp, he realises that ‘winning had been everything at St John’s, but now I was confused, because I think Dad was trying to tell me that it wasn’t enough. ’ He then uses his skills to teach and lead St Bennies. Tom’s uncle, Brendan, has a therapeutic effect on Tom, and as he starts running with him in the mornings, he grows and matures as he tries to get fit enough to travel to Nepal, and this is evident in Brendan’s statement: ‘He was lucky to have you there, Tom. Even if he doesn’t remember it. ’ At first, Tom is hesitant to start running, ‘†¦ contemplating whether a ‘piss off’ was in order. ’ They run up the hill near Carmel’s property, ‘The Ascent,’ which she ‘reckoned it lead all the way to heaven,’ and this becomes symbolic of Tom’s struggle and his journey. The Ascent is an obstacle Tom must face, with the help of Brendan, in order to grow and bloom as he accepts the situation. Another factor that helps Tom heal is his friendship-turned-relationship with Chrissie, who also has a therapeutic effect on him. Chrissie is Tom’s confidante –‘I started talking. That’s what she did to me’, as she acts as a panacea to his pain, which he describes as ‘feeling bad all the time. ’ The concept of individuals venturing into new experiences is also explored in my chosen text, I Was Only 19 by Redgum. I as only nineteen presents the protest against conscription during the Vietnam War. It displays all the difficult experiences of a young man as well as his perspective towards the Vietnam War and the loss of his friend due to the war. The poem portrays war as a living hell and tells the audience the unseen, brutal ways of battle. It reflects on the horror and traumatising warfare that the young men had to go through. â€Å"I was only nineteen† is repeated in a sad, dull context as the lyrics are mostly describing the downside of the whole war concept. Through the themes, use of emotive language and vivid description, this repetition can easily be identified as setting a depressing and sympathetic tone. The use of rhetorical questions place emphasis on how the poet feels this experience has effected him â€Å"And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet? And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means? † â€Å"And can you tell me doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep? † gives an example of repletion which has been used to emphasise the fact that the young men that have been taken to war and all the horrific experiences they’ve been through. The rhyming of the words of each line have been included to give a feel towards the song/poem and give a link towards each line and that there is a connection between the two lines – â€Å"And there’s me in my slouch hat with my SLR and greens. God help me, I was only nineteen. † The use of other poetic techniques, such as metaphors, are also used to emphasise the obstacles faced by young soldiers in warfare- â€Å"Was a war within yourself/ It was a long march from cadets/ And night time’s just a jungle dark and a barking M16. Another metaphor evident is â€Å"But you wouldn’t let your mates down til they had you dusted off. † This is used to represent the camaraderie and friendship instilled in the soldiers. In conclusion, individuals venturing into new experiences may encounter obstacles, but may also experience personal growth. In The Story of Tom Brennan, as well as I was only nineteen by Redgum, the concept of personal growth is explored. Both the soldier in I was only nineteen, as well as the Brennans, face multiple obstacles whilst telling their story.

Romeo and Juliet Film and Text Analysis

Phonology What is phonology? Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages. It is a huge area of language theory and it is difficult to do more on a general language course than have an outline knowledge of what it includes. In an exam, you may be asked to comment on a text that you are seeing for the first time in terms of various language descriptions, of which phonology may be one. At one extreme, phonology is concerned with anatomy and physiology – the organs of speech and how we learn to use them. At another extreme, phonology shades into socio-linguistics as we consider social attitudes to features of sound such as accent and intonation. And part of the subject is concerned with finding objective standard ways of recording speech, and representing this symbolically. For some kinds of study – perhaps a language investigation into the phonological development of young children or regional variations in accent, you will need to use phonetic transcription to be credible. But this is not necessary in all kinds of study – in an exam, you may be concerned with stylistic effects of sound in advertising or literature, such as assonance, rhyme or onomatopoeia – and you do not need to use special phonetic symbols to do this. The physics and physiology of speech Man is distinguished from the other primates by having the apparatus to make the sounds of speech. Of course most of us learn to speak without ever knowing much about these organs, save in a vague and general sense – so that we know how a cold or sore throat alters our own performance. Language scientists have a very detailed understanding of how the human body produces the sounds of speech. Leaving to one side the vast subject of how we choose particular utterances and identify the sounds we need, we can think rather simply of how we use our lungs to breathe out air, produce vibrations in the larynx and then use our tongue, teeth and lips to modify the sounds. The diagram below shows some of the more important speech organs. Phonology This kind of diagram helps us to understand what we observe in others but is less useful in understanding our own speech. Scientists can now place small cameras into the mouths of experimental subjects, and observe some of the physical movements that accompany speech. But most of us move our vocal organs by reflexes or a sense of the sound we want to produce, and are not likely to benefit from watching movement in the vocal fold. The diagram is a simplified cross-section through the human head – which we could not see in reality in a living speaker, though a simulation might be instructive. But we do observe some external signs of speech sounds apart from what we hear. A few people have the ability to interpret most of a speaker’s utterances from lip-reading. But many more have a sense of when the lip-movement does or does not correspond to what we hear – we notice this when we watch a feature film with dubbed dialogue, or a TV broadcast where the sound is not synchronized with what we see. The diagram can also prove useful in conjunction with descriptions of sounds – for example indicating where the airflow is constricted to produce fricatives, whether on the palate, the alveolar ridge, the teeth or the teeth and lips together. Speech therapists have a very detailed working knowledge of the physiology of human speech, and of exercises and remedies to overcome difficulties some of us encounter in speaking, where these have physical causes. An understanding of the anatomy is also useful to various kinds of expert who train people to use their voices in special or unusual ways. These would include singing teachers and voice coaches for actors, as well as the even more specialized coaches who train actors to produce the speech sounds of hitherto unfamiliar varieties of English or other languages. At a more basic level, my French teacher at school insisted that we (his pupils) could produce certain vowel sounds only with our mouths more open than we would ever need to do while speaking English. And a literally stiff upper lip is a great help if one wishes to mimic the speech sounds of Queen Elizabeth II.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology So what happens? Mostly we use air that is moving out of our lungs (pulmonic egressive air) to speak. We may pause while breathing in, or try to use the ingressive air – but this is likely to produce quiet speech, which is unclear to our listeners. (David Crystal notes how the normally balanced respiratory cycle is altered by speech, so that we breathe out slowly, using the air for speech, and breathe in swiftly, in order to keep talking). In languages other than English, speakers may also use non-pulmonic sound, such as clicks (found in southern Africa) or glottalic sounds (found worldwide). In the larynx, the vocal folds set up vibrations in the egressive air. The vibrating air passes through further cavities which can modify the sound and finally are articulated by the passive (immobile) articulators – the hard palate, the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth – and the active (mobile) articulators. These are the pharynx, the velum (or soft palate), the jaw and lower teeth, the lips and, above all, the tongue. This is so important and so flexible an organ, that language scientists identify different regions of the tongue by name, as these are associated with particular sounds. Working outwards these are: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ the back – opposite the soft palate the centre – opposite the meeting point of hard and soft palate the front – opposite the hard palate the blade – the tapering area facing the ridge of teeth the tip – the extreme end of the tongue The first three of these (back, centre and front) are known together as the dorsum (which is Latin for backbone or spine) Phonology, phonemes and phonetics You may have known for some time that the suffix –phone is to do with sounds. Think, for instance, of telephone, microphone, gramophone and xylophone. The morpheme comes from Greek phonema, which means a sound. †¢ †¢ Telephone means â€Å"distant sound† Microphone means â€Å"small sound† (because it sends an input to an amplifier which in turn drives loudspeakers – so the original sound is small compared to the output sound) Gramophone was originally a trade name . It comes from inverting the original form, phonograph (=sound-writing) – so called because the sound caused a needle to trace a pattern on a wax cylinder. The process is reversed for playing the sound back Xylophone means â€Å"wood sound† (because the instrument is one of very few where the musical note is produced simply by making wood resonate) †¢ The fundamental unit of grammar is a morpheme. A basic unit of written language is a grapheme. And the basic unit of sound is a phoneme. However, this is technically what Professor Crystal describes as â€Å"the smallest contrastive unit† and it is highly useful to you in explaining things – but strictly speaking may not exist in real spoken language use. That is, almost anything you say is a continuum and you rarely assemble a series of discrete sounds into a connected whole. (It is possible to do this with synthesised speech, as used by Professor Stephen Hawking – but the result is so different from naturally occurring speech that we can recognize it instantly. And there is no perfect or single right way to say anything – just as well because we can never exactly reproduce a previous performance.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology However, in your comments on phonology, you will certainly want sometimes to focus on single phonemes or small sequences of phonemes. A phoneme is a sound segment of words or syllables. Quite a good way to understand how it may indicate meaning is to consider how replacing it with another phoneme will change the word – so if we replace the middle sound in bad we can make bawd, bed, bid, bird and bud. In two cases here one letter is replaced with two but in all these cases it is a single vowel sound that changes. ) The first people to write in English used an existing alphabet – the Roman alphabet, which was itself adapted from the Greek alphabet for writing in Latin. (In the Roman Empire, Latin was the official language of government and administration, and especially of the army but in the eastern parts of the empire Greek was the official language, and in Rome Greek was spoken as widely as Latin. Because these first writers of English (Latin-speaking Roman monks) had more sounds than letters, they used the same letters to represent different sounds – perhaps making the assumption that the reader would recognize the word, and supply the appropriate sounds. It would be many years before anyone would think it possible to have more consistent spelling, and this has never been a realistic option for writers of English, though spelling has changed over time. And, in any case, the sounds of Old English are not exactly the same as the sounds of modern English. As linguists have become aware of more and more languages, many with sounds never heard in English, they have tried to create a comprehensive set of symbols to correspond to features of sound – vowels, consonants, clicks and glottalic sounds and non-segmental or suprasegmental features, such as stress and tone. Among many schemes used by linguists one has perhaps more authority than most, as it is the product of the International Phonetic Association (IPA). In the table below, you will see the phonetic characters that correspond to the phonemes used in normal spoken English. To give examples is problematic, as no two speakers will produce the same sound. In the case of the vowels and a few consonants, the examples will not match the sounds produced by all speakers – they reflect the variety of accent known as Received Pronunciation or RP. Note that RP is not specific to any region, but uses more of the sounds found in the south and midlands than in the north. It is a socially prestigious accent, favoured in greater or less degree by broadcasters, civil servants, barristers and people who record speaking clock messages. It is not fixed and has changed measurably in the last 50 years. But to give one example, the sound represented by ? is not common to all UK native speakers. In many parts of London and the south-east of England the sound represented by f will be substituted. So, in an advertisement, the mother-in-law of Vinnie Jones (former soccer player for Wimbledon and Wales; now an actor) says: â€Å"I fought ‘e was a big fug† (/a? f t i? w? z ? b? g fug/). You may also wonder what has happened to the letter x. This is used in English to represent two consonant sounds, those of k and s or of k and z. In phonetic transcription these symbols will be used. Consonant and vowel each have two related but distinct meanings in English. In writing of phonology, you need to make the distinction clear. When you were younger you may have learned that b,c,d,f and so on are consonants while a,e,i,o,u are vowels – and you may have wondered about y. In this case consonants and vowels denote the letters that commonly represent the relevant sounds. Phonologists are interested in vowel and consonant sounds and the phonetic symbols that represent these (including vowel and consonant letters). It may be wise for you to use the words consonant and vowel (alone) to denote the sounds. But it is better to use an unambiguous phrase – and write or speak about consonant or vowel sounds, consonant or vowel letters and consonant or vowel symbols. In most words these sounds can be identified, but there are some cases where we move from one vowel to another to create an effect that is like neither – and these are diphthongs. We also have some triphthongs – where three vowel sounds come in succession in words such as fire, power and sure. (But this depends on the speaker – many of us alter the sounds so that we say â€Å"our† as if it were are. For convenience you may prefer the term vowel glides – and say that â€Å"fine† and â€Å"boy† contain two-vowel glides while â€Å"fire† may contain a three-vowel glide.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology IPA symbols for the sounds of English The examples show the letters in bold that correspond to the sound that they i llustrate. You will find guidance below on how to use these symbols in electronic documents. The IPA distributes audio files in analog and digital form, with specimen pronunciations of these sounds. Consonants – pip, pot p b – bat, bug t – tell, table d – dog, dig k – cat, key g – get, gum f – fish, ph phone v – van, vat ? – th thick, th thump, faith th ? – th these, th there, smooth th s – sat, sit z – zebra, zap ? – sh ship ? – treasure, leisure s s h – hop, hut t? – ch chip dge, dge d? – lodg judg dg dg m – man, mumm mmy mm n – man, pan n n ng, ng ? – sing wrong ng l – let, lips r – rub, ran w – wait, worm j – yet, yacht Short vowels ? – bit, silly i i ? – bet, hea e ead ea ? – cat, dad a a ? – dog, rotten o o ? – cut, nut u u ? – put, soo u oot oo ? – about, clever er Long vowels i? – crea eam, see een ea ee bur fir urn, ir irm ur – har far ard, ar ar – cor fau orn, au aun or u? – boo glue oob, ue oo Diphthongs a? – spice, pie i ie – wai fate ait, a ai – toy joy oy, oy oy – oa oats, note o a? – clow vow own, ow ow – bor ored, pour oured or our – dee pie eer, ie ier ee – hai bea air, ea ear ai – cur fue ure, ue uel ur  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology A phoneme is a speech sound that helps us construct meaning. That is, if we replace it with another sound (where this is possible) we get a new meaning or no meaning at all. If I replace the initial consonant (/r/) from rubble, I can get double or Hubble (astronomer for whom the space telescope is named) or meaningless forms (as regards the lexicon of standard English) like fubble and wubble. The same thing happens if I change the vowel and get rabble, rebel, Ribble (an English river) and the nonsense form robble. (I have used the conventional spelling of rebel here, but to avoid confusion should perhaps use phonetic transcription, so that replacements would always appear in the same position as the character they replace. But what happens when a phoneme is adapted to the spoken context in which it occurs, in ways that do not alter the meaning either for speaker or hearer. Rather than say these are different phonemes that share the same meaning we use the model of allophones, which are variants of a phoneme. Thus if we isolate the l sound in the initial position in â€Å"lick† and in the terminal position in â€Å"ball†, we should be able t o hear that the sound is (physically) different as is the way our speech organs produce it. Technically, in the second case, the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum or soft palate. The initial l sound is called clear l, while the terminal l sound is sometimes called a dark l. When we want to show the detail of phonetic variants or allophones we enclose the symbols in square brackets whereas in transcribing sounds from a phonological viewpoint we use slant lines. So, using the IPA transcription [l] is clear l, while [? ] is dark l. If this is not clear think: am I only describing a sound (irrespective of how this sound fits into a system, has meaning and so on)? If so, use square brackets. Am I trying to show how the sound is part of a wider system (irrespective of how exactly it sounds in a given instance)? If so, use slant brackets. So long as we need a form of transcription, we will rely on the IPA scheme. But increasingly it is possible to use digital recording and reproduction to produce reference versions of sounds. This would not, of course, prevent change in the choice of which particular sounds to use in a given context. When people wonder about harass (h? r? s) or harass (h? r? s) they usually are able to articulate either, and are concerned about which reveals them as more or less educated in the use of the â€Å"proper† form. For your information, the stress historically falls on the first syllable, to rhyme with embarrass – thus in both Pocket Oxford [UK, 1969] and Funk & Wagnalls New Practical Standard [US, 1946]. The fashion for â€Å"hu-rass† is found on both sides of the Atlantic and we should not credit it to, or blame it on, US speakers of English. ) Phonologists also refer to segments. A segment is â€Å"a discrete unit that can be identified in a stream of speech†, according to Professor Crystal. In English the segments would correspond to vowel sounds and consonant sounds, say. This is a clear metaphor if we think of fruit – the number of segments varies, but is finite in a whole fruit. So some languages have few segments and others many – from 11 in Rotokas and Mura to 141 in ! Xu. The term may be most helpful in indicating what non-segmental or supra-segmental (above the segments) features of spoken language are.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology The sounds of English Vowels English has twelve vowel sounds. In the table above they are divided into seven short and five long vowels. An alternative way of organizing them is ccording to where (in the mouth) they are produced. This method allows us to describe them as front, central and back. We can qualify them further by how high the tongue and lower jaw are when we make these vowel sounds, and by whether our lips are rounded or spread, and finally by whether they are short or long. This scheme shows the following arrangement: Front vowels â⠂¬ ¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ /i? / – cream, seen (long high front spread vowel) /? /- bit, silly (short high front spread vowel) /? / – bet, head (short mid front spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /e/ /? – cat, dad (short low front spread vowel); this may also be shown by /a/ Central vowels †¢ †¢ †¢ / /- burn, firm (long mid central spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol / / /? / – about, clever (short mid central spread vowel); this is sometimes known as schwa, or the neutral vowel sound – it never occurs in a stressed position. /? / – cut, nut (short low front spread vowel); this vowel is quite uncommon among speakers in the Midlands and further north in Britain Back vowels †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ /u? / – boob, glue (long high back rounded vowel) /? – put, soot (short high back rounded vowel); also shown by /u/ / / – corn, faun (long mid back rounded vowel) also shown by /o? / /? /- dog, rotten (short low back rounded vowel) also shown by /o/ / / – hard, far (long low back spread vowel) We can also arrange the vowels in a table or even depict them against a cross-section of the human mouth. Here is an example of a simple table: Front High Mid Low Central Back ? i? ? ? ? ? ? u? ?  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Diphthongs Diphthongs are sounds that begin as one vowel and end as another, while gliding between them. For this reason they are sometimes described as glide vowels. How many are there? Almost every modern authority says eight – but they do not all list the same eight (check this for yourself). Simeon Potter, in Our Language (Potter, S, [1950] Chapter VI, Sounds and Spelling, London, Penguin) says there are nine – and lists those I have shown in the table above, all of which I have found in the modern reference works. The one most usually omitted is / / as in bored. Many speakers do not use this diphthong, but use the same vowel in poured as in fraud – but it is alive and well in the north of Britain. Potter notes that all English diphthongs are falling – that is the first element is stressed more than the second. Other languages have rising diphthongs, where the second element is stressed, as in Italian uomo (man) and uovo (egg). Consonants Some authorities claim one or two fewer consonants than I have shown above, regarding those with double symbols (/t? / and /d? /) as â€Å"diphthong consonants† in Potter’s phrase. The list omits one sound that is not strictly a consonant but works like one. The full IPA list of phonetic symbols includes some for non-pulmonic consonants (not made with air coming from the lungs), click and glottal sounds. In some varieties of English, especially in the south of Britain (but the sound has migrated north) we find the glottal plosive or glottal stop, shown by the symbol /? / (essentially a question mark without the dot at the tail). This sound occurs in place of /t/ for some speakers – so /bot? l/ or /botl/ (bottle) become /bo l/ or /bo? l/. We form consonants by controlling or impeding the egressive (outward) flow of air. We do this with the articulators – from the glottis, past the velum, the hard palate and alveolar ridge and the tongue, to the teeth and lips. The sound results from three things: †¢ †¢ †¢ Voicing All vowels must be voiced – they are caused by vibration in the vocal cords. But consonants may be voiced or not. Some of the consonant sounds of English come in pairs that differ in being voiced or not – in which case they are described as voiceless or unvoiced. So b is voiced and p is the unvoiced consonant in one pair, while voiced g and voiceless k form another pair. We can explain the consonant sounds by the place where the articulation principally occurs or by the kinds of articulation that occurs there. The first scheme gives us this arrangement: voicing – causing the vocal cords to vibrate where the articulation happens how the articulation happens – how the airflow is controlled  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Articulation described by region †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Glottal articulation – articulation by the glottis. We use this for one consonant in English. This is /h/ in initial position in house or hope. Velar articulation – we do this with the back of the tongue against the velum. We use it for initial hard /g/ (as in golf) and for final /? / (as in gong). Palatal articulation – we do this with the front of the tongue on the hard palate. We use it for /d? / (as in jam) and for /? / (as in sheep or sugar). Alveolar articulation – we do this with the tongue blade on the alveolar ridge. We use it for /t/ (as in teeth), /d/ (as in dodo) /z/ (as in zebra) /n/ (as in no) and /l/ (as in light). Dental articulation – we do this with the tip of the tongue on the back of the upper front teeth. We use it for /? / (as in think) and /? / (as in that). This is one form of articulation that we can observe and feel ourselves doing. †¢ †¢ Labio-dental articulation – we do this with the lower lip and upper front teeth. We use it for /v/ (as in vampire). Labial articulation – we do this with the lips for /b/ (as in boat) and /m/ (as in most). Where we use two lips (as in English) this is bilabial articulation. Articulation described by manner This scheme gives us a different arrangement into stop (or plosive) consonants, affricates, fricatives, nasal consonants, laterals and approximants. Stop consonants (because the airflow is stopped) or plosive consonants (because it is subsequently released, causing an outrush of air and a burst of sound) are: o o o †¢ †¢ Bilabial voiced /b/ (as in boat) and voiceless /p/ (as in post) Alveolar voiced /d/ (as in dad) and voiceless /t/ (as in tap) Velar voiced /g/ (as in golf) and voiceless /k/ as in (cow) Affric ates are a kind of stop consonant, where the expelled air causes friction rather than plosion. They are palatal /t? / (as in cheat) and palatal /d? / (as in jam) Fricatives come from restricting, but not completely stopping, the airflow. The air passes through a narrow space and the sound arises from the friction this produces. They come in voiced and unvoiced pairs: o o o o Labio-dental voiced /v/ (as in vole) and unvoiced /f/ (as in foal) Dental voiced /? / (as in those) and unvoiced /? / (as in thick) Alveolar voiced /z/ (as in zest) and unvoiced /s/ (as in sent) Palatal voiced /? / (as in the middle of leisure) and unvoiced /? / (as at the end of trash) †¢ Nasal consonants involve closing the articulators but lowering the uvula, which normally closes off the route to the nose, through which the air escapes. There are three nasal consonants in English: o o o Bilabial /m/ (as in mine) Alveolar /n/ (as in nine) Velar /? / (as at the end of gong).  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology †¢ †¢ Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In English there is only one such sound, which is alveolar /l/ (as at the start of lamp) Approximants do not impede the flow of air. They are all voiced but are counted as consonants chiefly because of how they function in syllables. They are: o o o Bilabial /w/ (as in water) Alveolar /r/ (as in road) Palatal /j/ (as in yet) Syllables When you think of individual sounds, you may think of them in terms of syllables. These are units of phonological organization and smaller than words. Alternatively, think of them as units of rhythm. Although they may contain several sounds, they combine them in ways that create the effect of unity. Thus splash is a single syllable but it combines three consonants, a vowel, and a final consonant /spl+? +? /. Some words have a single syllable – so they are monosyllables or monosyllabic. Others have more than one syllable and are polysyllables or polysyllabic. Sometimes you may see a word divided into its syllables, but this may be an artificial exercise, since in real speech the sounds are continuous. In some cases it will be impossible to tell whether a given consonant was ending one syllable of beginning another. It is possible, for example, to pronounce lamppost so that there are two /p/ sounds in succession with some interval between them. But many native English speakers will render this as /l? m-p st/ or /l? m-p sd/. Students of language may find it helpful to be able to identify individual syllables in explaining pronunciation and language change – one of the things you may need to do is explain which are the syllables that are stressed in a particular word or phrase. Suprasegmentals In written English we use punctuation to signal some things like emphasis, and the speed with which we want our readers to move at certain points. In spoken English we use sounds in ways that do not apply to individual segments but to stretches of spoken discourse from words to phrases, clauses and sentences. Such effects are described as non-segmental or suprasegmental – or, using the adjective in a plural nominal (noun) form, simply suprasegmentals. Among these effects are such things as stress, intonation, tempo and rhythm – which collectively are known as prosodic features. Other effects arise from altering the quality of the voice, making it breathy or husky and changing what is sometimes called the timbre – and these are paralinguistic features. Both of these kinds of effect may signal meaning. But they do not do so consistently from one language to another, and this an cause confusion to students learning a second language.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Prosodic features †¢ Stress or loudness – increasing volume is a simple way of giving emphasis, and this is a crude measure of stress. But it is usually combined with other things like changes in tone and tempo. We use stress to convey some kind s of meaning (semantic and pragmatic) such as urgency or anger or for such things as imperatives. Intonation – you may be familiar in a loose sense with the notion of tone of voice. We use varying levels of pitch in sequences (contours or tunes) to convey particular meanings. Falling and rising intonation in English may signal a difference between statement and question. Younger speakers of English may use rising (question) intonation without intending to make the utterance a question. Tempo – we speak more or less quickly for many different reasons and purposes. Occasionally it may be that we are adapting our speech to the time we have in which to utter it (as, for example, in a horse-racing commentary). But mostly tempo reflects some kinds of meaning or attitude – so we give a truthful answer to a question, but do so rapidly to convey our distraction or irritation. Rhythm – patterns of stress, tempo and pitch together create a rhythm. Some kinds of formal and repetitive rhythm are familiar from music, rap, poetry and even chants of soccer fans. But all speech has rhythm – it is just that in spontaneous utterances we are less likely to hear regular or repeating patterns. †¢ †¢ †¢ Paralinguistic features How many voices do we have? We are used to â€Å"putting on† silly voices for comic effects or in play. We may adapt our voices for speaking to babies, or to suggest emotion, excitement or desire. These effects are familiar in drama, where the use of a stage whisper may suggest something clandestine and conspiratorial. Nasal speech may suggest disdain, though it is easily exaggerated for comic effect (as by the late Kenneth Williams in many Carry On films). Such effects are sometimes described as timbre or voice quality. We all may use them sometimes but they are particularly common among entertainers such as actors or comedians. This is not surprising, as they practise using their voices in unusual ways, to represent different characters. The performers in the BBC’s Teletubbies TV programme use paralinguistic features to suggest the different characters of Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, La-La and Po.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Accent Everyone’s use of the sound system is unique and personal. And few of us use sounds consistently in all contexts – we adapt to different situations. We rarely adapt our sounds alone – more likely we mind our language in the popular sense, by attending to our lexical choices, grammar and phonology. ) Most human beings adjust their speech to resemble that of those around them. This is very easy to demonstrate, as when some vogue words from broadcasting surf a wave of popularity before settling down in the language more modestly or passing out of use again. This is particularly true of sounds, in the sense that some identifiable groups of people share (with some individual variation) a collection of sounds that are not found elsewhere, and these are accents. We think of accents as marking out people by geographical region and, to a less degree, by social class or education. So we might speak of a Scouse (Liverpool), Geordie (Newcastle) or Brummie (Birmingham) accent. These are quite general descriptions – within each of these cities we would differentiate further. And we should also not confuse real accent features in a given region with stereotyped and simplified versions of these which figure in (or disfigure) TV drama – Emmerdale, Brookside, Coronation Street and Albert Square are not reliable sources for anything we might want o know about their real-world originals. And the student who hoped to study the speech of people in Peckham by watching episodes of John Sullivan’s situation comedy Only Fools and Horses was deeply misguided. Thinking of social class, we might speak of a public school accent (stiff upper lip and cut glass vowels). But we do not observe occupational accents and we are unlikely to speak of a baker’s, soldier’s or accountant’s accent (whereas we might study their special uses of lexis and grammar). This is not the place to study in detail the causes of such accents or, for example, how they are changing. Language researchers may wish to record regional variant forms and their frequency. In Britain today (perhaps because of the influence of broadcasting) we can observe sound features moving from one region to another (like the glottal stop which is now common in the north of England), while also recording how other features of accent are not subject to this kind of change. Studying phonology alone will not answer such questions. But it gives you the means to identify specific phonetic features of accent and record them objectively.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (or RP) is a special accent – a regionally neutral accent that is used as a standard for broadcasting and some other kinds of public speaking. It is not fixed – you can hear earlier forms of RP in historical broadcasts, such as newsreel films from the Second World War. Queen Elizabeth II has an accent st close to the RP of her own childhood, but not very close to the RP of the 21 century. RP excites powerful feelings of admiration and repulsion. Some see it as a standard or the correct form of spoken English, while others see its use (in broadcasting, say) as an affront to the dignity of their own region. Its merit lies in its being more widely understood by a national and international audience than any regional accent. Non-native speakers often want to learn RP, rather than a regional accent of English. RP exists but no-one is compelled to use it. But if we see it as a reference point, we can decide how far we want to use the sounds of our region where these differ from the RP standard. And its critics may make a mistake in supposing all English speakers even have a regional identity – many people are geographically mobile, and do not stay for long periods in any one place. RP is also a very loose and flexible standard. It is not written in a book (though the BBC does give its broadcasters guides to pronunciation) and does not prescribe such things as whether to stress the first or second syllable in research. You will hear it on all the BBC’s national radio channels, to a greater or less degree. On Radio 3 you will perhaps hear the most conservative RP, while Radio 5 will give you a more contemporary version with more regional and class variety – but these are very broad generalizations, and refer mainly to the presenters, newsreaders, continuity announcers and so on. RP is used as a standard in some popular language reference works. For example, the Oxford Guide to the English Language (Weiner, E [1984], Pronunciation, p. 45, Book Club Associates/OUP, London) has this useful description of RP: â€Å"The aim of recommending one type of pronunciation rather than another, or of giving a word a recommended spoken form, naturally implies the existence of a standard. There are of course many varieties of English, even within the limits of the British Isles, but it is not the business of this section to describe them. The treatment here is based upon Received Pronunciation (RP), namely ‘the pronunciation of that variety of British English widely considered to be least regional, being originally that used by educated speakers in southern England. ’ This is not to suggest that other varieties are inferior; rather, RP is here taken as a neutral national standard, just as it is in its use in broadcasting or in the teaching of English as a foreign language. † Accent and social class Accent is certainly related to social class. This is a truism – because accent is one of the things that we use as an indicator of social class. For a given class, we can express this positively or negatively. As regards the highest social class, positively we can identify features of articulation – for certain sounds, upper class speakers do not open or move the lips as much as other speakers of English. Negatively, we can identify such sounds as the glottal stop as rare among, and untypical of, speakers from this social class. Alternatively we can look at vowel choices or preferences. For example, the upper classes for long used the vowel /? / in cases where /? / is standard – thus Coventry would be /k? v? ntri? /. C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce depicts a character who pronounces God as â€Å"Gud† – â€Å" ‘Would to God’ he continued, but he was now pronouncing it Gud†¦Ã¢â‚¬  We may think of dropping or omitting consonants as a mark of the lower social classes and uneducated people. But dropping of terminal g – or rather substituting /n/ for /? / was until recently a mark of the upper class â€Å"toff†, who would enjoy, huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’. We can find a celebrated literary example in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey. Among real life speakers in whom I have observed this tendency I would identify the late Sir Alf Ramsey. I do not know whether Alf Ramsey, who managed the England football team, was brought up to speak in this way or acquired the habit later. ) Investigating the connection can be challenging, however, since social class is an artificial construct. Assuming that you have found a way to identify yo ur subjects as belonging to some definable social group, then you can study vowel choices or frequencies. Even the most cursory attention tells us that the Queen has distinct speech sounds. But can we explain them in detail? Does she share them with other members of her family? Do other speakers share them?  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Pronunciation and prescription The English Language List is an Internet discussion forum for English language teachers. Recently a student, not a native speaker but clearly a very competent writer of English, asked where he could get help to learn to speak in a standard British accent. Many of the responses came from people who were not answering his question but trying to persuade him to stick with his current accent (which he felt would disadvantage him in his business career). Yet we are not disparaging regional accents when we try to learn the neutral and prestigious standard form. (What the discussion never really revealed was how many of the list members would identify themselves as RP speakers. ) The prescriptive tradition in English grammar was unscientific and perhaps harmful. But setting down authoritative standard forms is not always so unwise. In spelling they are useful, and the same may be true of pronunciation. Dictionaries do not compel the reader to learn and use the pronunciations they show – but they do give a representation of the pronunciation according to RP. Some show variant pronunciations as well as the principal RP form. If you are a student (or even a teacher) you may find RP an unfamiliar accent – maybe you can see that the phonetic transcription indicates a pronunciation different from the one you normally use. No one is forcing you to change your own speech sounds, in which your sense of identity may be profoundly located. But you can become aware that the local norm is not the universal standard. Now that English is an international language, its development is certainly not controlled by what happens in the UK. So British RP may cease to be a useful standard for learners of English. Increasingly, language learners favour a mid-Atlantic accent, which shares features of British RP and the speech of the eastern USA. Language acquisition Very young children do not produce the sounds they will use as adults partly because they are unable to form them (physically their speech organs have not developed fully) and partly because they may not know exactly what the sound is that they wish to produce. Children may also be less subtle in controlling the flow of egressive air, so that they will continue speaking, rather than pause briefly, while drawing more air in. Young children may have a sense of stressed syllables as more important – so they may omit unstressed elements before or after. So, for example, a child may ask for a ‘nana rather than a banana. (Alternatively, the child may know that there is some repetition of sound here, but limit it to two syllables. ) I am supposing that the non-standard form is spoken by a child, but perhaps repeated back by adults. But one often observes adults (unhelpfully) using what they suppose to be an easier form of a word. On the other hand, some children have resisted this tendency. Though they may not articulate a word in full or exactly, they can recognize it as an incomplete or mistaken form when an adult repeats it back to them. We see this in this exchange between an adult and a four year old, recorded by George Keith and John Shuttleworth: Adult: What do you want to be when you grow up? Child: A dowboy. Adult: So you want to be a dowboy, eh? Child: No! Not a dowboy, a dowboy! The child cannot articulate the /k/ initial sound but knows that what he hears from the adult is not the form of the word he is used to hearing, so protests. Since children learn by imitation of examples it may be helpful when they begin formal education to give them such examples, but not by continually rebuking them for saying things â€Å"wrongly†. Children do not learn to articulate all sounds at the same stage in their development. Teachers of children in early years (nursery and reception) classes should be able to identify the few cases where there is a disorder or problem for which some specialist intervention is appropriate.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Language change Change happens in language – and the sounds of English are not exempt. Of course, basic sounds do not change in the sense that the phonemes represented in the IPA transcription will not go away. And it is rare, but not impossible, for speakers of a given language to begin to use phonemes they did not use before. Thus, most English speakers faced with French –ogne (as in Boulogne or Dordogne) anglicise to Boloyn (/b? l n/). And Welsh double l in initial position (as in Llanfair and many other place names) they sound simply as /l/ rather than a voiceless unilateral l. What does change is the choice of which sound to use in a given context – though choice may suggest that this is voluntary whereas the change normally happens unnoticed. At a very simple level we can see, from rhymes in poetry that no longer work, that one or more words has acquired a new standard pronunciation. So John Donne writes (1571-1631) â€Å"And find/What wind/Serves to advance an honest mind†. We have retained the vowel sound in wind (verb, as in wind up) but not in wind (noun, as in north wind). We can still observe vowel change. In my own lifetime envelope was pronounced with the initial vowel /? (as if it were onvelope). This pronunciation is becoming more rare, and persists mostly among older speakers. Turquoise was once commonly sounded as in French /t kw? z/ – but now it is more or less uniformly /t k z/ or /t k s/ (perhaps by analogy with tortoise). Far more common are changes in stress patterns. So research (more or less universal in the UK when I was a child) has given way to re-search. In the case of harass the stress has shifted the other way, giving harass. We cannot sensibly say that the new form is â€Å"wrong† or â€Å"bad English† (even if we prefer the older form). But we can observe the frequency with which the new form occurs, and see if it does come to supplant the older form or whether both forms persist. Change happens within regional varieties, too – so the glottal stop has moved its way northwards from London and southwards from Glasgow (where it has been found for 150 years). This is one feature of what Paul Kerswill calls dialect levelling. Similarly use of /f/ or /v/ in place of /? / and /? / is spreading north from London. Perhaps the most well documented change occurring now is in sentence intonation. This is especially common among younger people, but not exclusively so. The change lies in a tendency to use rising (question) intonation more frequently. What is not clear, in contexts that allow either, is whether the speaker intends to ask a question or means to make a statement. We cannot be sure if the rising intonation conveys meaning, or is habitual. One common way for pronunciation to change is by elision – compressing the word to remove a syllable. Once it was common to sound the –ed ending on past tense verbs, whereas now these verbs end with a /t/ sound. We do still sound the –ed ending on adjectives, even when these are formed from the past tenses – as in naked, wicked and learned. We can contrast the learned professor with what her pupils learned in the lecture. (The first has two syllables, the second only one. ) Police is often pronounced as a monosyllable /pli? s/ (for example by the newsreader Sue Lawley). Recently I have observed several newsreaders eliding the middle syllable of terrorist, producing the form /t? r st/ or sometimes /t? r? st/. On the other hand, literacy may alter pronunciation. The n in column is silent, and in the Second World War, people would often speak of the Fifth Columnist (/k? l? m? st/). But now broadcasters speaks of those who write columns in newspapers as /k? l? mn? sts/ – thereby sounding what was silent /n/.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Phonology for exam students Phonology as an explicit subject of detailed study is not compulsory for students taking Advanced level courses in English Language. But it is one of the five â€Å"descriptions of language† commended by the AQA syllabus B (the others are: lexis, grammar, pragmatics and semantics). In some kinds of study it will be odd if it does not appear in your analysis or interpretation of data. In written exams, you may want to comment on some features of phonology in explaining example language data – these may be presented to you on the exam paper, or may be your own examples, which illustrate, say, some point about language change, language acquisition or sociolinguistics. You may wish to use diagrams, models or the IPA transcription – and if you are able to do so, this may be helpful. But if you do not feel confident about using these, you can still make useful points about phonology – you can show stress simply by underlining or highlighting the stressed syllable. And you can show many aspects of phonology by using the standard Western (Roman-English) alphabet appropriately – as in contrasting pronunciations of harass as: †¢ †¢ ha-russ (first syllable stressed, vowel is a; second syllable unstressed vowel is neutral) or huh-rass (first syllable unstressed, neutral vowel; second syllable stressed, vowel is a) Phonetic symbols and electronic documents Representing phonetic symbols in electronic documents can be a challenge, unless you have the right software. Assuming that you have a word-processing program, you need to use special fonts that will represent the IPA symbols. These are either the SIL IPA fonts (such as SILdoulosIPA) or Unicode fonts (like Lucida Sans Unicode, which I have used in this document). If you are producing work that will be printed, then you can add things by hand later, but this is messy and best avoided. There is a lot of guidance on the IPA homepage about how to cope with this problem. If you do find a way to reproduce the symbols you need, it may make sense to paste them all at the end of the document on which you are working. Then, you can copy and paste as you need to use them. If you do not do this, then you will have to use he Alt key and the numeric keypad, since the keys on the normal keyboard will only give you the symbols that resemble ordinary letters. Different ways of representing sound Conventions of language science and lexicographers If you study reference works you may find a variety of schemes for representing different aspects of phonology – there is no single universal scheme that covers everything y ou may need to do. And many dictionaries may not even use the IPA alphabet, for the very obvious reason that the reader is not familiar with this transcription and can cope without it. The text on the left comes from the Pocket Oxford Dictionary – this shows a simple phonetic representation based on the standard Western alphabet, with accents to show different vowels. Look in any dictionary you have and you may find something similar.  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Literary models In representing speech – for example in drama, poetry or prose fiction – some authors are interested not merely in the words but also in how they are spoken. One of the most familiar concerns is that of how to represent regional accents. Here is a fairly early example, from the second chapter of Wuthering Heights (1847), in which the servant Joseph refuses to admit Mr. Lockwood into the house: â€Å" ‘T’ maister’s dahn I’t’ fowld. Goa rahnd by the end ut’ laith, if yah went to spake tull him† Tennyson (1809-1892) has a similar approach in his poem, Northern Farmer, Old Style: â€Å"What atta stannin’ theer fur, and doesn’ bring me the aale? / Doctor’s a ‘toattler, lass, and ‘e’s allus i’ the owd taale†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Joseph comes from what is now West Yorkshire, while Tennyson’s farmer is supposedly from the north of Lincolnshire. Here is an earlier example, from Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian (1830), which shows some phonetic qualities of the lowlands Scots accent. In this passage the Laird of Dumbiedikes (from the country near Edinburgh) is on his deathbed. He advises his son about how to take his drink: â€Å"My father tauld me sae forty years sin’, but I never fand time to mind him. – Jock, ne’er drink brandy in the morning, it files the stamach sair†¦Ã¢â‚¬  George Bernard Shaw, in Pygmalion (1914), uses one phonetic character (? schwa) in his attempt to represent the accent of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl: â€Å"There’s menners f’ yer! T? -oo banches o voylets trod into the mad†¦Will ye-oo py me f’them. † However, after a few sentences of phonetic dialogue, Shaw reverts to standard spelling, noting: â€Å"Here, with apologies, this desperate attempt to represent her dialect without a phonetic alphabet must be abandoned as u nintelligible outside London†. In Pygmalion Professor Higgins teaches Eliza to speak in an upper-class accent, so as to pass her off as a duchess. In the course of the play, therefore, her accent changes. The actress playing the part, however, may have a natural accent closer to that with which Eliza speaks at the completion of her education, so in playing the part she may doing the reverse of what Eliza undergoes, by gradually reverting to a natural manner of articulation. (Eliza’s pronunciation improves ahead of her understanding of grammar, so that at one point she says memorably: â€Å"My aunt died of influenza: so they said. But it’s my belief they done the old woman in. ) In Pygmalion Shaw does not merely represent accent (and other features of speech) but makes this crucial to an exploration of how speech relates to identity and social class. Charles Dickens is particularly interested in the sounds of speech. He observes that many speakers have difficulty with initial /v/ and /w/. Sam Weller, in The Pickwick Papers, regularly transposes these: â€Å" ‘Vell,’ said Sam at length, ‘if this don’t beat cock-fightin’ nothin’ never vill†¦That wery next house†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ â€Å" Mr. Hubble, in Great Expectations does, the same thing when he describes young people as â€Å"naterally wicious†. Joe Gargery, in the same novel, has many verbal peculiarities, of which perhaps the most striking is in his description of the Blacking Warehouse, which is less impressive than the picture Joe has seen on bills where it is â€Å"drawd too architectooralooral†. In Chapter 16 of Our Mutual Friend, Betty Higden is proud of Mr. Sloppy (an orphan she has fostered) not only because he can read, but because he is able to use different voice styles for various speakers. â€Å"You mightn’t think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a newspaper. He do the Police in different voices. † Dickens also finds a way to show tempo and rhythm. In Chapter 23 of Little Dorrit, Flora Finching speaks at length and without any pauses: â€Å"Most unkind never to have come back to see us since that day, though naturally it was not to be expected that there should be any attraction at our house and you were much more pleasantly engaged, that’s pretty certain, and is she fair or dark blue eyes or black I wonder, not that I expect that she should be anything but a perfect contrast to me in all particulars for I am a disappointment as I very well know and you are quite right to be devoted no doubt though what am I saying Arthur never mind I hardly know myself Good gracious!  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/ Phonology Background reading on phonology There are very full accounts of phonology in both of Professor David Crystal’s encyclopedias. See his Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Part IV, The Medium of Language: Speaking and Listening (pp. 123175; ISBN 0521424437) and his E ncyclopedia of the English Language, Part IV, 17, The Sound System (pp. 236-255; ISBN 0521596556). For a very clear and succinct account, look at Howard Jackson’s and Peter Stockwell’s Introduction to the Nature and Functions of Language, 2. 1, Sounds and letters (pp. 11-23; ISBN 0748725806). There is a longer and more discursive account in Shirley Russell’s Grammar, Structure and Style, Spoken English (pp. 107-168; ISBN 0198311982) You can find lots of help online. The best place to start is the International Phonetic Association’s own Web site at: http://www2. arts. gla. ac. uk/IPA/ipa. html You will find some excellent resources from the languages department of the University of Victoria in British Columbia – start at http://web. uvic. ca/ling/ipa/handbook/ For a great introduction to Scots – with some excellent guidance on phonology – try Andy Eagle’s Wir Ain Laid (Our Own Language) at http://www. scots-online. org/grammar/index. htm For help with fonts go to the IPA Unicode site at http://www. phon. ucl. ac. uk/home/wells/ipa-unicode. htm and Alan Wells’ Unicode Resources at http://www. hclrss. demon. co. uk/unicode/index. tml. You could also try the Microsoft typography site at http://www. microsoft. com/typography/default. asp Apart from materials quoted from other sources, the copyright in this guide belongs to Andrew Moore. You are free to use it for any educational purpose, including making multiple copies electronically or by printing. You may not distribute it in any form other than the original, without the express permission of the author. andrew. [email  protected] net  © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 http://www. shunsley. eril. net/armoore/

DEVELOPING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS Essay

Introduction Leadership and management, these are two words we use on daily basis. But the questions like how do we realise good leaders, what qualities, attitude, style and behaviour do they exhibit, are frequent. The ability to lead is not connected to education, although most leaders are intelligent people. Many qualities required for a leader are also possessed by managers. There are interconnection between leaders and managers. Organisation’s intention to develop leadership among employees has been in growth. It is because they realised the potentials of good leaders. Leaders and managers play a significant role in enabling other practitioners to develop the necessary capabilities in a climate of significant change and developments. I think, by developing our leadership skills, we are assured a more rewarding and successful career. There is no doubt that, leadership potential can be developed. With commitment, effort and practice, anybody can move beyond the skills you are born with t o be an excellent leader. â€Å"The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. Myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.†Ã¢â‚¬â€Warren G. Bennis. Globalisation has resulted in diversity. To maximise contribution, each organisation and its managers are now challenged with creating inclusive working environment. They need to understand effective leadership style and culture to build trust and effective relationship. Rapid economic changes pose new opportunities and threats. Leaders are supposed to face those situations. â€Å"For managers the world keeps changing. It changes from hour to hour, day to day and week to week. The strategies that were effective yesterday are not necessarily effective in the same situation today†-Quinn Look more:  strategic management process essay In order to face the growing competition in the market, it is very urgent for organisations to build potential leader. Developing strategic management and leadership skills should be a part of organisations’ actions. 1.1 Explain the link between strategic management and leadership Strategic Management consists of the analysis of any organisation, decision making and necessary actions in order to create and sustain competitive advantages. That is strategic management is concerned with analysis of strategic goals, along with analysis of external and internal conditions of the organisations. Then taking necessary decisions and implementing those decisions systematically to get the competitive advantages. Strategic management, popularized during 1980s. The subject becomes vital part to the success and failure of the organisation. Usually it is considered as the responsibility for the overall direction of the organization sums up what strategic management is all about. It can also define as the process of identifying and executing the organisation’s strategic goals (mission, vision and objectives) by matching its capabilities with the demand of its environment. Strategic management contains a set of managerial decisions. Leadership is the ability of a person to get other willingly to follow. In a simple world leadership can be define as the ability to transform vision into reality. Strategic leadership provides the vision and direction for the growth and success of an organization. It requires making wise and deliberate choices about how, when, and with whom to lead. A good manager is now by definition a leader. Equally, a good leader will also be a manager. Majority of practical people are interested primarily in what they have to do, and not whether it should be labelled ‘leadership’ or ‘management’ or both. â€Å"It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon’s presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance† —Duke of Wellington. Difference between strategic management and leadership Management| Leadership| Intended to plan, organize, co-ordinate and evaluate| Job is to inspire and motivate| management administrate the organisation| Leaders innovate | Management tries to maintain the organisation| Leaders tries to develop| Focused on system and structure| Focuses on people| They focus on the present situation | They look towards future| React to problems and issues| Proactive to issues and problem| Prefer to control| Knows how to delegate| Minimising risk| Taking risk|  There are thousands of examples for leaders in the world. Jack Welch, he worked magic at GE in the 1990s. Lou Gerstner, the brain behind the successful turnaround of IBM. Their books about their exploit, success and philosophies of leaderships became best sellers. 1.2 Analysis of impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decision There are different leadership and management styles. Different styles work well in different situations. They are based on different assumptions and theories. Strategic decisions taken by leaders depend upon their style. The style used by each individual will be based on their beliefs, values, ethical views and preferences as well as the organizational culture and norms which will encourage some styles and discourage others. 1. Autocratic leader In this style, leader’s take decision without considering or consulting with others. This style work well when there is no need of discussion or the discussion would not bring any changes or the motivation of people will not affected with or without discussion. 2. Democratic style The leader involves employees in the decision making. This kind of style is usually appreciated by the employees or subordinate. This style would bring problems in a situation where there are wide ranges of opinion and there is no well-defined way of taking the final decision. 3. Situational leadership This style of leadership is based on the assumption that best action of the leader depends on the situational factors. When a decision is needed, an effective leader does not fall into a single style. 4. Transactional leadership The assumption behind this kind of leadership is that people are motivated by rewards and an organisation work well with a clear chain of command. This kind of leader works thorough creating clear structures. Subordinates duty  will be well defined and also the reward they get for following the orders. Punishments are not always mentioned, but they are also well-understood and formal systems of discipline are usually in place. The first stage of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby fixing the salary and other benefits of subordinates, and the company (and by implication the subordinate’s manager) gets authority over the subordinate. After allocating works to subordinates, they are responsible to do it, whether or not they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their failure (just as they are rewarded for succeeding). 5. Transformational leader This style is based on the assumption that employees will follow a leader who motivates them and a person with vision and passion can achieve anything. Transformation leadership start with the development of a vision, a view and path to future. That will excite and converter the employees. Transformational leaders are so committed always. They continuously work to motivate the followers. Decision making can be affected by leadership style. The key elements of leadership are 1. Understanding their own personality and understanding others 2. Understanding the situation 3. Applying appropriate skills and techniques. Leaders having different styles can have different levels of key elements. So the way and level in which they identify their personality can differ. They responds to a same situation by different leaders can vary. Leadership and management style getting important in the sense that you can’t lead people in the same way as you did in the past if you want to get their talents and obtain efficient performance. Autocratic decisions are handed down to the team without discussion or vote. But that decision is necessary sometimes. Especially when a strategic decision needs to made quickly. The impact of this style is for many people, this style feels harsh, a great possibility of demotivation. Rest of people  assured leader can demonstrate consideration and compassion for team while using the Autocratic style, even though the team is not directly involved in the decision. There are situations in which leader wants input from employees or teams. Leaders, uses democratic style workout that situation well. This kind of decision-making allows for active participation from the team. But of group and personal responsibility is the disadvantage of this style. IBM prefers transformational leadership style, so that leaders are culturally adaptable and can unleash IBM’s energy and can execute strategies well. There is a common thought that leaders who listen considerately to their follower’s opinion before making final decision get good result as compared to non-listeners. In the case of democratic style, the leader gives up ownership and control of a decision and allows the group to vote. Advantage of this style is fairly fast decision, and an amount of group participation. No organisation or leader can implement a single style to deal with the multitude of decision that needs to be made during change process (Nancy, 2007). British petroleum, a major energy company globally in terms of oil and gas deserves, company’s growth has been accompanied by a number of accidents and safety-related violations which have had tragic environmental and personal consequences. Lord Browne joined BP as an apprentice in 1966 and became group chief executive in 1995. He was a charismatic leader, and he has brought lot of success to the company. But he was forced to resign in 2007 due to a personal scandal. Charismatic leadership style got few drawbacks. The complaint against Lord Browne was administration by media and business associates fuelled his charismatic style and he ignored day to day core business activities. 1.3 How leadership styles can be adopted to different situations? Success of an organisation or a group dependent on the effectiveness of the leader. Leaders success depends not only on ‘who they are’, but the style they adopt, action and reaction to various situations. None of the leadership style is appropriated in all situations. Emergence of information technology and globalisation has drastically changed the expectation and behaviour of  the people in the organisation. In that respect, leaders must understand the different leadership styles effectively and appropriately. Leaders must be up to date of the situations. Leaders must be prepared to step in and show the way in all kind of situations. Different style can be adapted to different situations in relation to 1. Business- situations 2. Types of team players involved 3. Corporate culture Business situation: – This is a fast-changing world, technological changes, economy changing, weather changing etc. In such a situation a leader cannot lose the sense of changes. Business situation means competition, market changes, market share, financing, world economy, sense of urgency in fiancà © and talents. We know that high risk situation needs very strong and active involvement by the leader to keep it control. The people or team members: – In every organisation, there will have different kind of employees or members. Differ by characters, talents, skills, attitude etc. identifying the team members is a tough task. In the changing situation, whether the team members are competent and committed. The corporate culture: – There is no doubt that the culture in the organisation will influence the leadership style. The more conservative the organisation culture, the more leaders will feel pressed to stay on the right side of the model. Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Jack Welch, he was the youngest CEO of General Electric’s history. He made a resolution to transform GE into one of the world biggest firm. With his unique leadership style and character, Welch made history during his 2-decade journey at GE. His way of leading was based on some concepts. Lead, not manage:- according to him leadership can be found in as long as they come up with good ideas and can energize rather than depress and control. Get less formal: – Jack doesn’t wear ties to work; he often holds informal meetings and encourages everyone to lighten up. Informality inspires people to have more ideas and it is one of the keys to GE’s success. No bureaucracy: – Welch wished that each employee should work on getting rid of bureaucracy every day. Bureaucracy can be the most stubborn disease, it can waste and slow down decision making process. Face reality: – company was losing its market values and there was too much bureaucracy when Jack Welch joined the company. He realised the realities and brought out strategies and  initiatives that made things better. Simplify the business: – his goal at GE was simplify the business. He didn’t think that business had to be complicated. He tried to eliminate complicated memos and letters. Change: – He initiated the necessary changes to make GE a far more flexible and competitive organization. He made ‘change’ a part of GE’s shared value. Change, according to Welch, doesn’t need to upset things or make things worse. It can mean opportunities, good ideas, new business or new products (kevin, 2007). Lead by energizing others, not managing by authority: – Welch called his leadership ideal ‘boundary less’, which means an open organization, free of bureaucracy and anything that prevents the free flow of ideas, people and decisions (kevin, 2007). His choice was inspiring others to perform well. Lead by doing- one of the leadership style adapted by GE Information technology is critical to the future of GE. As a key pipeline for future leaders of GE’s world-class global IT organization, the Information Technology Leadership Program delivers continued education with over 12 weeks of technical, project management and leadership training over the two years (GE, 2013). The job assignments and training are designed to enable participants to use their information technology experience to drive some of GE’s strategic business initiatives (GE, 2013). Each assignment and training experience is global allowing participants to travel to other countries, work with colleagues from around the world, and make an impact on products and services that make the world better (GE, 2013) 2.1 Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organisational strategy Situational theories or contingency theories  Those theories began in 1960s. The basic assumption behind the theory is that individual characteristics’ make them suitable leaders only in certain situations. Each situation requires a leader to vary behaviour to fit the conditions. In other words, there is no right or wrong way in leading all the time. Fred Fiedler’s contingency theory In 1967, Fred Fiedler proposed his contingency theory. His objective was to find out when a task oriented approach would be more effective and when a  relationship oriented approach would be more effective. He explained that task oriented leader very effective when conditions are either very favourable or which are very unfavourable to the leader. When conditions are favourable, member relations are strong; there is a positive relationship between the group and the leader; and the task is clear and structured; the group members are ready and willing to work, and their energies can be focused on the goal. Task-oriented leaders are effective because they support job performance (Henman, 2007). According to Fielder, the relationship oriented style is more effective in situations which are intermediate in favourableness. When an intermediate situation is present, the leader can help to build confidence and cohesion by focusing on the personal needs of the individuals (Henman, 2007). Hersey and Blanchard theory It is another situational theory. This theory was introduced 10 year after Fiedler’s theory. First of all Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard assume that leaders are more flexible than Fiedler does. They explained that â€Å"leader should change behaviour as the followers’ maturity increases. This is the first of the situational theories to address the element of follower maturity†. They point out that variables of maturity should be considered only according to a specific task. That is, followers are not mature or immature in any total or chronological sense; rather, they have varying degrees of maturity depending on knowledge of or experience with a specific goal (Henman, 2007). Leader-style theory This theory was introduced by Vroom and Yetton. They explain the different ways leader can make decisions and necessary guidelines for leader in order to determine the extent to which subordinate should participated in decision making. Charismatic leadership Charisma, as explained by Max Weber, is a certain quality of individual personality, by virtue of which he or she is apart from ordinary people and treated as a personality with exceptional power or qualities. On the basis of this, they are considered as leaders. Each theory differs slightly. That indicates that there is no one best among all types of style. Successful leader is the one who can adapt to the changes. An effective leader needs to diagnose the needs and wants of followers and then react accordingly. The impact of different theories of management on organisational strategy will be different. IBM needs extraordinary leaders who can create high-performance work climates and foster employee engagement; people who not only succeed but enable others to as well. A disciplined process of identifying and developing high achievers and leaders has been a main stone of IBM’s strategy to regain market leadership in the IT industry. In order to build a pool of leader for the future strategies, IBM has been establishing periodically refreshed core competencies for all IBM employees. They have a pervasive use of competencies for development, succession planning and selection. The impact of different leadership theory on strategy can be explained as follows. For example let’s consider contingency theory. As Fiedler explained, task oriented leaders are very effective when conditions are favourable or unfavourable. When conditions are favourable, members relations are strong, there is a positive relation between team and leader. Hence new strategies can bring and work it out well so easily. In unfavourable circumstances or in stressful situations, a leader’s structure and control can remove undesirable ambiguity and the anxiety that goes with it. Hence effectiveness of strategy can be maintained. In an intermediate situation, relationship oriented style is best. The leader can help to build confidence and cohesion by focusing on the personal needs of the individuals. That was the approach adopted by Jack Welch, GE. 2.2 Create a leadership strategy that support organisational direction Leadership strategy for General Electrics The General Electric Company, or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in New York. Company operates in five sectors via energy, technology infrastructure, capital finance, consumer and industrial. It has been almost a decade since Jack Welch retired as GE’s chairman and CEO, the brain behind the success of GE. The company continued success is an immortal line from Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and founder of GE. The current CEO of GE is Jeffrey Immelt. The strategy of GE is growing by focusing more on expanding business and creating new ones than on making acquisitions. Jack Welch and Jeffrey immelt are considered to be the most influenced business leaders. If we consider their way in which they lead, and their decisions, it is clear that they preferred transformational leadership style. Even though both used the same style, Jack Welch had been more extreme than his successor. Leadership strategy: – choosing a best leadership style is the major step in leadership strategy. Leadership at company like GE is very crucial. Transformational leadership style is better for GE. They have the story of success using the same style. Transformational leader is able to influence his followers and make them do more than what is expected from them, what they were willing to do and often more than what they thought they were capable of. Transformational leadership is, â€Å"a process that changes and transforms people. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals and includes assessing followers’ motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings†- (Northouse). The reason behind the selection of this leadership style is this style motivates the followers. The leader and followers are well aligned in this system. A transformational leader can motivate the followers by setting challenging goals. Transformational leadership is composed of four key elements, influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. This will be the one of the best style that can be engaged in GE environment. The transformational leader has also the capacity to involve his followers to envision the future of the company by communicating them attractive goals and expectations and by showing them a strong commitment to reach these expectations and to be in line with the  vision he shares (Riggio). Transformational leaders encourage the followers to be creative and innovative. We have seen the different leadership style and their impact on organisation. Even though, no particular leadership style is better always. It depends on the situations. The best style GE can use is transformational leadership because of its unique advantages. Transformation leader can take risk, as Jack Welch did in GE. Leadership strategy makes explicit the number of leaders required, and what kind of, where, with what skills and styles. GE’s corporate strategy is to expand instead of alliances. So they need thousands of leaders all around the world. The leaders should have collective capabilities like providing direction, motivate the followers, engaging employees in decision making and to gain their active support in implementing planned cross-functional actions, implementing successful innovations, adapting to change, ensuring transparency just like former leaders, developing talents and being responsive to customers like Jeffrey Immlet. Since the corporate strategy is becoming more global, it require greater cultural sensitivity among leaders, enhanced representation of different geographies at top level, enhanced language skills to enable cross cultural relationships and greater understanding of local laws and business arrangement in strategy making. 3.1 Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirement We know the important of leaders. It is very necessary to identify the leadership gap in any organisation so that top management can take necessary actions. Some of the best and most venerable organizations are failing to adapt to change, implement their strategic plans successfully or prepare for a more uncertain future because of the reason that they failed to forecast the leadership requirement. Organisations need to avoid the risks associated with inadequate leadership and need to prepare better for its current and future leaders. Leadership requirement for General Electrics Leadership programs are amazing within GE that are designed to build the next generation leaders. These programs build perfect foundation for accelerating  learning and development in a particular domain, from commercial to operations, from human resources to information management, from finance and communications to technology (GE, Leadership Programs, 2013). There are more than 300,000 employees in GE. The company operates through different sector. GE consistently ranks as the most admired and respected company in the world. Profit of GE grows consistently. Company serves customers in more than 100 countries. Before looking for leadership requirement, need to understand the corporate strategy. Leadership requirement can be planned based on that. CEO of GE believes that ideal situation for a global firm was to have its factory on a barge that you could move around the world to wherever it was the best competitive environment at the time. Their strategy is to expand business globally, instead of just looking for alliances. Fast moving Globalisation opens new opportunities for a global firm like GE. Hence leadership requirement at GE is tremendous. They need leaders at various levels. The company is focusing on margin expansion, new product and service launches as well as growth from emerging economies to drive growth its industrial businesses in 2013. Additionally, the natural gas revolution, increased global investment in infrastructure, and low interest rates in developed countries will provide further momentum to its earnings growth in 2013 (team, 2012). These new strategies hopefully drive them to big success. But they need leaders not only in quantity but also in quality. 3.2 Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership Requirement of leaders in the GE increases. Leaders are not only required in the top level but also in the various bottom levels also. A good leader is always prepared for the any kind of challenge. He acts quickly and accurately according to the given situation. We can say that a good leader takes the right decision at the right time. Leadership plan and programs are necessary for the development of future situations requiring leadership. Leadership Programs: – GE has various leadership programs. As part of their strategy to achieve commercial excellence and drive organic growth, they are developing a pipeline of strong sales and marketing leaders at GE through  the Commercial Leadership Program (CLP). CLP offers a curriculum that boosts the development of commercial skills and techniques that are critical to success in all GE businesses. CLP prepares candidates for a successful career in sales or commercial operations by providing the opportunity to learn about GE’s products, industry, and customers while making valuable contributions to the on-going success of GE. Those programs are very effective. They need to add more values to those programs. Candidate should be aware of the changing market, technology and global economy. Leadership opportunities: – even though, GE spent more than $1 billion annually in training and development of programs, a global company having more than 300,000 employees and serving in more than 100 countries, that one billion is not an adequate amount. As compared to their profit growth, they need more to build leadership qualities in their employees. Human resource leadership program: – In GE’s Human Resources Leadership Progr am people are gaining real-world business experience, contributing to GE businesses and getting in line for HR leadership roles across the company. HRLPs can build countless HR leaders within GE. Experienced commercial leadership programs: – The Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP) prepares MBA graduates and experienced professionals for GE leadership roles in marketing and sales. The two-year rotational program offers opportunities for individuals to drive growth within a business, receive world-class commercial and leadership training, and be part of a global network of marketing and sales leaders 4.1 Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement Leadership skills are the key ingredient required for a good leader. Some would say key ingredient in management. The basic leadership skills required in most situations are same. But under certain specific condition, they need specific skills. The basic skill required for leaders are explained below. Integrity: – this is the basic quality of a leader. This quality makes people trust the leader. Trust is essential in all human relations. Confidence: – it is essential quality for all leaders. Developing self-confidence is the preliminary to becoming a leader. Self-awareness: – People who have a high degree of self-awareness recognize how their feelings affect them, other people, and their job performance. They can speak openly and accurately about their limitations. Self-regulation: – People who are in control of their feelings and sudden  temptation are able to create an environment of trust and fairness. Appropriate self-regulators are usually thoughtful and resist making impulsive decisions. These are definite qualities of a good leader. Motivation: – it is an important skill required for skills. Only effective leaders can motivate followers. Social skills: – social skill is necessary to build relations. Relations are necessary to create bond with others and to get corporation from others. Communication skills: – to deliver leader’s idea properly, communication skill is very necessary. A good communicator can pay attention and listen carefully. Lead by example: – One of the best ways to lead is by example – use where needed, lending a helping hand, and making sure that the work you do is clearly understood by your team. Leadership skills strataplex: – Leadership skill requirements are often described as being stratified by organizational level. The term strataplex captures the stratified and complex nature of the leadership skill requirements and their relationship with level in the organization. Leadership skill requirement is classified into four groups. 1. Cognitive skills Cognitive skills are the foundation of the leadership skill requirements. They are comprised of those skills related to basic cognitive capacities, such as collecting, processing, and disseminating information and learning and are the fundamental skills required for a large portion of the activities in which leaders are engaged (Mumford, 2007) .These skills include skills like oral communication, written communication, ability to learn and adapt etc. 2. Interpersonal Skills These are skill relating to interacting with and influencing others. Examples are skills required for coordination of actions, negotiation skills etc. 3. Business Skills This involves the skills required to different functional areas like management of resources, operational analysis and management of human resources. 4. Strategic Skills Strategic skill requirements are highly conceptual skills needed to take a systems perspective to understand complexity, deal with ambiguity, and to  effect influence in the organization (Mumford, 2007). This includes skills for planning, visioning etc. â€Å"Leaders are not born, they are grown†- this is the word by the father of management, Peter Drucker. Leadership ability is not an inborn skill most times. This can develop through practices. Doesn’t require talents, but commitment is necessary. The great leaders have chosen to be just that, and then developed the skills that are required. Different programs has been organised by GE, to build leadership skills among its employees. 1. Entry level program or Commercial leadership program (CLP) is an example for it. The CLP is a 12 to 24 month program that develops marketing and sales skills through a strong core curriculum and challenging assignments. 2. Experienced program: Human Resource Leadership program (HRLP). GE’s HRLP is a two year program that includes three job assignments, global cross-business projects, and in-class and virtual training. 3. Experienced Commercial Leadership program (ELCP). The ECLP program consists of three, eight-month rotational assignments within the marketing and sales functions of one of GE’s businesses (GE, Experienced Program, 2013).4. Operation management Leadership program (OMLP): OMLP accelerates development of entry-level talent and produces leaders capable of meeting the challenges facing the Operations, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and Quality functions at GE (GE, Entry level program, 2013). 4.2 Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills There are lot of methods to plan the development of leadership skills. Different methods are useful in different situations. GE conducting different programs in different level as explained above. Leadership programs are amazing platforms within GE that are designed to build the next generation of leaders. Commercial leadership program (CLP) provides candidates with valuable training, experience and exposure to a team of motivated colleagues and helpful mentors that can accelerate their careers. HRLP (Human Resource Leadership program) has created countless generations of HR leaders at GE. The program continues today and still focuses on taking talented people, providing them with globally diverse challenging experiences, and developing them into world-class HR leaders. Candidates will have formal training, rotation, seminars, business simulations and community service activities. Experienced Commercial  Leadership Programs (ECLP) offers opportunities for individuals to drive growth within a business, receive world-class commercial and leadership training, and be part of a global network of marketing and sales leaders (GE, Experienced Program, 2013). OMLP (Entry level Program) is a two-year program consisting of four six-month rotations that allow members to build leadership and functional skills through challenging rotational assignments and world-class training (GE, Entry level program, 2013) . Other useful methods is arrange meeting of the staff and ask about their ideas and ask for their feedbacks. The best method, however, is getting feedback from the staffs. Another way of developing leadership skills is to get familiar with your followers. It will help you in understanding their feelings and their needs, which in turn will help you in managing their needs. Different plan for the development leadership skills includes conducting seminar, training programs, meetings, job rotations etc. Conclusion This assignment is used to explain the link between strategic management and leadership. Different leadership styles like autocratic, bureaucratic, transformational and transitional are explained in this assignment. The effects of various styles on strategic decision making are explained. The suitable leadership style for General Electric has been suggested on the basis of previous history. Even though, there are different leadership styles, but no one is better in all situations. Style should be adapted according to the business situation, team members and culture of the organisation. Different leadership theories are discussed in the assignment. Situational theories and contingency theories have been applied. The situations in which different theories can be applied are explained. Different leadership styles and their role are explained. Anyone can become a good leader by adopting certain skills and techniques and applying them in their daily life. Because leaders are not born, but they are grown, great word by Peter Drucker. Good leaders know how to use different styles in a balanced way. In this competitive world, organisation can only sustain if and only if they can bring strong leaders. There are different ways of enhancing the leadership skills for future requirements. And there should be a plan of developing these skills. The plan should cover all the current and  future needs for leadership and is helpful in the overall progress of the organization. A leader is a person who provides the vision for the future. Developing leadership skills in our personality will help us to explore more opportunities in our future. 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