My vision of leadership

Introduction

This blog will compare my vision of leadership in the past and nowadays. Moreover, a specific leader who inspired me and some important feedback from my colleagues may help me to futher my leadership skills. Finally, a conclusion will be given to summarize my opinions of leadership.

Previous vision of leadership

According to a book, I simply defined leadership as an ability to lead other members in a team or even in an organization in the past (Tracy, 2014). To be more specific, leadership stands for authority which means leaders have power to control in any situations they may face. Futhermore, the management of leadership could be step by step because subordinates are led orderly. For example, some excellent employees can get rewards but punnishments will simultaniously be given to those people who perform bad in the company.

The man inspired me

However, after reading the case study about Ricardo Semler, my vision of leadership must be changed. Firstly, Semler is an irregular leader. For instance, he can work anywhere so that his workers can not find him at office for a month. Then, the most important thing make him be succeed is he shows respects to all his colleagues. It is undoubted that the relationship between the manager and subordinates can be more close if they respect each other. Next, Semler will give freedom that any other companies cannot provide for their emplolyees. For example, the most amazing idea from Semler is he allows people to apply a holiday for maximum three years in any reasons (Semler, 1993). Last but not least, there are no key persons in his company because he said that key persons may affect the performance of a team. What it means is what individuals do will truly impact the development of the company.

Feedback from colleagues

It is clear that 360 Degree Feedback is an effictive approach to give comprehensive and useful feedback to any people (Ward, 1997). Based on this theory, my colleagues have also given me some precious feedfack after being a leader in some activities and doing researches in our chosen industry, e-commerce. One of the main feedback is I need to make enough preparations as a leader when we have group activities during class. For instance, if we have a disccusion about a case study in seminar, I must firstly make sure about what should we do and then arrange other members to devide their jobs. This suggestion may improve my efficiency of leading others. In addition, I receive a feedback about responibility for our research in e-commerce. Specifically, we need to make some interviews on different people who working for e-commerce companies. As a leader, I neither choose interviewees from other industries nor ask colleagues to interview in random. On the contrary, I should be responsible for selecting interview targets and make a specific interview schedule in order to get high quality results about e-commerce business.

leadership skills

Definetely, there are various of leadership skills provided for managements. In this part of the blog, I will illustrate two important skills that I want to develop. The first one is to show a sense that you belong to a team (Mullins, 2005). It is obvious that teamwork plays an important role in running a team. That means no one especially the leader can work without a team (Gregory, 2013). The second one is to communicate with your members in patience (Adair, 2010). This is an efficient skill for a leader to provide an opportunity for subordinates to express their opinions. Fortunately, I had an experience of using this leadership skill in my university life. I took part in the “Market Simulation” as a leader when in my second year in university. At that time, I communicated with my team members everyday and got some great ideas from them. With the help of my lovely friends, we finally won the “Best Creativity Award” in this simulation. Undoubtedly, this successful event encouraged me to promote this skill in the future.

Conclusion

To conclude, my vision of leadership has changed after I learnt some professional knowledge from my MBA lessons. To be honest, if I have a chance lo be led as a leader like Ricardo semler, my passion of working may go to the peak because I gain respect and have enough freedom. Based on some theories, in order to develop my leadership skill, I will deal with any problems as a team and try to give an useful feedback to all my colleagues (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977). From the point of my view, except imitating others’ leadership approaches, I need to form my own leading style because I would like to be a creative leader in the future.

References

Adair, J. (2010). Develop your leadership skills. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Gregory, H. (2013). Teamwork. North Mankato, Minn.: Capstone Press.

Mullins, L. (2005). Management and organisational behaviour. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.

Semler, R. (1993). Maverick. New York, NY: Warner Books.

Tracy, B. (2014). Leadership. New York: American Management Association.

Tuckman, B. and Jensen, M. (1977). Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited. Group & Organization Management, 2(4), pp.419-427.

Ward, P. (1997). 360-degree feedback. London: Institute of Personnel and Development.

Leadership & Change

Introduction

It is said by Mullins that nothing can manage the change of individual’s resistance. This blog will firstly analyse this debate and then explain what value managers can bring when they adviod resisting change. In addition, some specific examples from e-commerce industry will be given to support the debate and I will also point out the management modle I recommend to leaders before drawing a conclusion.

Part 1

Absolutely, the only thing for unchanging in the world is change. So how to face the problem of change has become a heat topic for persons nowadays. Some people think change can bring them motivation and accept new challenges easily. However, some of them worry about the differenciate lives though changing and want to keep a comfortable situation. Based on Mullins’ statement, the reason causes it happen is the personal character. The individual habits and the selective perceptions are two main ways to lead to individual resistance (Mullins, 2005). What it means is if a management can solve or reduce these problems, it will be a good choice to aviod the resistance to change. According to an article, to commnicate the change is one of the approaches to minimize this issue (Heathfield, 2015). Specifically, any changes of the work environment might affect the performance of employees. If the manager can try to contact them by using heart, the change problem may be reduced and the relationship between employers and enployees can be more close. On the other hand, it is clear that is not easy for a leader to deal well with the change problem to his subordinates. That is why Mullins said lettle management can prevent it happen.

Part 2

It is undoubted that what a leader should do to overcome resistance to change is to understand the issue, find the best method to solve it and remove the concerns from subordinates (Siviter, 2011). To be more specific, when facing the problem about resisting change, the manager firstly need to understand the root reasons for resistance. Next, to communicate with other members and focus on the root cause is the key step for the leader. After that, the leader should pay attention on the continuity of the change issue because change happens every day. However, to make sure the value of resistance is quite useful for leaders to prepare the better managements of an organization. Significantly, some key reasons such as loss of job and lack of reward make employees resist change (Adenle, 2011). According to these reasons, leaders can easily to catch their wokers’ minds and set some approaches which have well-directed. Moreover, I will recommend the Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model to help managers handle the change problems. Absolutely, eight clearly procedures show to leaders step by step. It is obvious that this model, as a guidance, can assist managers how to make a decision from creating urgency to anchor in an organizational culture (McArdle, 2006). But it has to say that some limitations exist in Kotter’s model. To be more specific, it is difficult for users restart any steps of the model because it similar looks like a top-down straight line. What it means is the flexibility of this change model might block the creativity from both managers and other members. From the point of my view, I suggest those leaders using this change model can make these eight steps as a continuous cycle to reduce the impact of limitations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as the second largest e-commerce company in IT industry, Amazon can be a good example to demonstrate the debate I mentioned above. As we know, customers are the most important part in running an e-commerce business because they can provide feedback and tell what they demand to sellers. Therefore, to know and control the change of buyers has become a skill for managers from Amazon to promote their achivements (Seal and Kavanagh, 2015). In another word, the minds and emotions from customers can be predicted if the organization prepares well in doing researches on targets in the market. In my opinion, both individual and organization changes could be managed in e-commerce in industry. For instance, as the most successful e-commerce company in China, Alibaba foucus on both employers and enployees in order to put them more closely and create a convenient platform to manage them (Liu and Avery, 2009). Last but not least, though a few managements can resist change, I think some effective skills may help managers to solve the change problems.

References

Adenle, S. (2011). 12 Reasons Why Employees Resist Change in the Workplace – Catherine’s Career Corner. [online] Available at: http://catherinescareercorner.com/2011/07/26/12-reasons-why-employees-resist-change-in-the-workplace/ [Accessed 23 May. 2011].

Heathfield, S. (2015). How to Manage Resistance to Change in the Workplace. [online] About.com Money. Available at: http://humanresources.about.com/od/resistancetochange/a/how-to-reduce-resistance-to-change.htm [Accessed 14 June. 2015].

Liu, S. and Avery, M. (2009). Alibaba. New York: Collins Business.

McArdle, G. (2006). An eight-step change model. [Alexandria, Va.]: ASTD Press.

Mullins, L. (2005). Management and organisational behaviour. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.

Seal, C. and Kavanagh, D. (2015). Organizations Don’t Resist Change, People Do. Organization Management Journal, 12(3), pp.123-124.

Siviter, B. (2011). Overcoming resistance to change. Primary Health Care, 21(10), pp.11-11.

Most effective Leadership & Management Styles & approaches

Introduction

According to some researches, the topic that what is the best way to manage a team has been argued for so many years. This blog will firstly compare the leadership and management to find out both their similar and different points. Then, some specific examples will be given to support the most effective approach for leading I choose. At the end of the blog, I will response the theory that CMI 2013 suggested and give my own opinion about leading.

Part 1

It is undoubted that leadership and management are two different concepts but have similarities in respective area. To be specific, leadership is a ability to promote people to accomplish the common achievements (Yukl, 2010). However, management is a process that getting results though other members (Mullins, 2016). Based on a journal, the following points are the main differences between leadership and management (Young and Dulewicz, 2008). Leadership focus on long term strategy and leading people. However, management emphasizes managing work for short term tasks. Moreover, as leaders, they attract followers by heart. But as managers, they appeal to head because others are their subordinates. Furthermore, leadership will direct people to a new road and management may plan individuals more detail work in the exising siuation. It is clear that the common factor for leadership and management is the motivation to be the better one in strong competition nowadays. To summarize, as a sentence said by Peter Drucker, “Leadership is doing the right things; management is doing things right.”

Part 2

Absolutely, Kouzes and Posner’s 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership provides five different effective managing approaches (Kouzes and Posner, 2013). From the point of my view, enable and encourage others are two best ways to manage subordinates. Specifically, “enable” means leaders trust their employees and provide them a chance to show the strengthes. For example, Ricardo Semler, a famous entrepreneur from Brazil, used his unique managing style to create his own business (Semler, 1993). In his company Semco, he respects each worker and give them the freedom that any other companies can not provide. One of the amazing ideas from Semler is he allows his subordinates to apply a holiday for maximum three years in any reasons. Because of this special management, all his staff work hard for him and gain great achievements together. Furthermore, “encourage” is an approach that to appreciate subordinates and make some rewards if possible. For instance, Jack Ma, the CEO of the most successful e-commerce company Alibaba, has made the encouragement as an important managing skill in his business history. In addition, Jack Ma prepared the bonus of RSU for most of his employees every year (Liu and Avery, 2009). It is undoubted that this method help Jack retain the excellent subordinates and promote the relationship between the leader and members. Definetely, the working passion of staff in Alibaba might increase to speed up the development of this organization. So, both “enable” and “encourage” are the suitable ways to lead a team.

Conclusion

To conclude, though management and leadership have similarities in the development of organizations, some specific differences may distinguish their function in each area. On the other hand, it is said by CMI 2013 that the most effective way to do the management is according to the different siuation and different people. In my opinion, I agree with this suggestion because each organization has its own running style (Ardagna and Lusardi, 2008). What it means is the leader or the manager should to look for the best approach for managing their members in different period. For instance, if a team performs well but disbands finally, the managing approach the leader used before is hardly to say can exactly fit next group. The main reason caused this might be the circumstances and individual characteristics. As a member of a team, I would like to be led as a leader similar with Ricardo Semler. As I mentioned above, he is a irregular leader who believes all of his workers and give them much more freedom. To be honest, I enjoy freedom and are willing to cooperate with a leader who can always appreciate others. It is easily to say that if I can apply a holiday anytime and start working anywhere, I will be full of passion in my job. In another word, I promise I can try my best for the company which has a leader holds that managing style in the future.

References

Ardagna, S. and Lusardi, A. (2008). Explaining international differences in entrepreneurship. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kouzes, J. and Posner, B. (2013). The five practices of exemplary leadership. San Francisco: Wiley.

Liu, S. and Avery, M. (2009). Alibaba. New York: Collins Business.

Mullins, L. (2016). Management and Organisational Behaviour 11th edn. Pearson Education Limited.

Semler, R. (1993). Maverick. New York, NY: Warner Books.

Young, M. and Dulewicz, V. (2008). Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management: High-Performance Competencies in the British Royal Navy. British Journal of Management, 19(1), pp.17-32.

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

The challenge of managing diverse teams

Introduction

A diverse team means the members in the organization have different backgrounds, culture and ability (Gardenswartz and Rowe, 1994). Additionally, some researches showed that diverse teams will bring some benefits to an organization. This blog will illustrate both strength and weakness about managing diverse teams. Simultaneously, how important this ability for e-commerce idustry will be justified before drawing a conclusion.

Part 1

Based on the McKinsey 7S framework, to manage a diverse team can get some advantages to organazaitions and also need to face some challenges. It is clear that strategy, systems and structures are the hard factors in running a business. Moreover, skills, style, staff and shared values are in an area of soft standards. To be more specific, as an important action, managing diverse teams really bring some vital impacts to a company (Acar, 2014). First of all, the creativety might promote when discussing a problem solusion. If in a meeting, each person can mind its own thinking and then compile together to be a better response for solving any problems. Furthermore, it may be an oppourtunity for improving the communication skills of staff in the company. Undoubtedly, the better communication skills workers have, the greater relationship they hold. Significantly, the market share might go up step by step if leaders manage well in a team which include people in different backgrounds. It is obviously that organizations need diverse culture in order to capture the global market (Andrade, 2010). However, some challenges appear in an organizasion when managing diverse teams. The complaint of the behaviour from the colleagues will be a huge problem for a company. As we know, the negative emotion could deeply affect the performance of an employer, even a team. In addition, the cultural differences between team members may easily let the misunderstanding happen, such as in communicating. Finally, how to make a diverse team be more efficient is a key issue that leaders should consider because time saving is quite important in operating a business (Majlergaard, 2012).

Part 2

E-commerce, one of the most popular business in IT industry, is a good platform for leaders to show their ability in managing a diverse team. As the most successful company in e-commerce industry, Alibaba actually to manage a diverse team as an important skill for its daily operation, even for its history. To be significant, the gender diversity is a special factor to lead Alibaba to be succeed than other e-commerce companies (Timmons, 2014). Jack Ma, the leader of Alibaba, set up his company in 1999 and his wife became the first employee. Moreover, in earlier period, 16 people who were all Ma’s friends in Hangzhou became the first leader group in Alibaba. In particular, half of them are women. Now, some of the important positions of Alibaba are all female, for instance the chief financial officer and the chief customer officer (McGregor, 2014). Absolutely, women take the great responsibilities and play a key role in the leadership of Alibaba. On the other hand, Alibaba enlarged its business though entrancing other industries, such as sports. Specifically, Alibaba cooperated with two football giants, Bayern Munich from Germany and Real Madrid from Spain in order to sell their products on e-commerce platform. What it means is a diverse team really be an essential part of operation in Alibaba’s leadership management.

Conclusion

In conclusion, to show a good ability in managing a diverse team is a key to be succeed (Phillips, 2008). For example, as mentioned above, Jack Ma put the gender diversity into one of the steps on the successful road in Alibaba. Furthermore, how to bring better results from diverse teams has become an important question that each leader should think of. According to an article, be fair to all employers and give them feedback might be two useful ways to manage a diverse team (Mitchell, 2013). It is easy to know that individuals may be satisfied if their manager trust them and provide a fair competition environment. Moreover, the feedback from leaders or colleagues is also a solution to improve the quality of diverse teams management. Definetely, this method can help leader know more about the features of all workers. Although some issues may be difficult for organizations to solve, like the cultural differences between each member, I still recommend the leaders keeping using abundant knowledge to manage a diverse team, especially in e-commerce industry because more benefits they could gain in the future.

References

Acar, F. (2014). Social identification and altruism in diverse teams. EJIM, 8(1), p.55.

Andrade, S. (2010). 6 advantages of Workplace Diversity. [online] Available at: https://saharconsulting.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/6-advantages-of-workplace-diversity/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2010].

Gardenswartz, L. and Rowe, A. (1994). Diverse teams at work. Chicago: Irwin Professional Pub.

Majlergaard, F. (2012). The top 5 challenges managers of cultural diverse teams are facing – Gugin. [online] Gugin. Available at: http://gugin.com/the-top-5-challenges-managers-of-cultural-diverse-teams-are-facing/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2012].

McGregor, J. (2014). Five things to know about Alibaba’s leadership. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/09/18/five-things-to-know-about-alibabas-leadership/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2014].

Mitchell, S. (2013). Top Ten Tips: How to manage diverse teams – Management Today. [online] Managementtoday.co.uk. Available at: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1181428/top-ten-tips-manage-diverse-teams/ [Accessed 10 May. 20136].

Phillips, K. (2008). Diversity and groups. Bingley, UK: JAI/Emerald Group.

Timmons, H. (2014). Alibaba’s gender diversity puts Silicon Valley to shame. [online] Quartz. Available at: http://qz.com/207398/the-gender-diversity-among-alibabas-founders-puts-silicon-valley-to-shame/ [Accessed 08 May. 2014].

Leadership and Ethics

Introduction

Ethical leadership is a leadership which is considered by respect for people’s beliefs and values in ethical areas. (Watts, 2008). This blog will illustrate two different theories of ethics and use 4-V model to support the definition of ethical leadership. In addtion, before drawing a conclusion at the end of the blog, some specific examples for analysing ethical behaviour will be given.

Part 1

It is clear that two principle theories of ethics are in different sides. They are deontological for rules and teleological for consequentialist (Graham, 2004). To be more specific, people who are dentological may pay attention on what they do. For instance, some small business, such as private cake shop, will make a perfect birthday cake for customers no matter how much money it can earn. The reason why they make this choice is the responsibility from their hearts. It is easy to understand that this kind of area let people concern more on process. However, those teleological persons will focus on the results of the things they have done. For example, for the purpose of achieving the annual sales, any promotion ways can be used for Nike. As a result, workers may work hard for bonus but forget what they have done during a period. Definetely, this side of the theory is willing to gain the right consequence. Based on 4-V model of ethical leadership, people may find out more right ways to earn profits. In this model, leaders may dig out the core value from the business project and develop their existing voice or vision to find the balance in the cycle. In particular, 4-V model can help people catch some opportunities in correct area.

Part 2

As one of the most popular business in IT industry, e-commerce plays an important role in marketing. According to a journal, depending on the fast development of internet, many great business opportunities are available in e-commerce. However, some problems might happen if any unethical behavior showed by individuals (Nardal, 2011). It is undoubted that Alibaba is the most successful company from China in e-commerce. It provides a large amount of products for people all over the world in order to satisfy their different demands. Moreover, the quality of products may be an ethical standard for Alibaba to customers (Liu and Avery, 2009). It is said from a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du2gFcMXMtE) by Jack Ma, the leader of Alibaba, customers are the first priority for his business. What it means is Alibaba will insist providing high quality products to customers. That is one of the ways to demonstrate the good ethical behaviour in running the company. As we know, if any goods customers bought online are different with they saw from the advertisements, the satisfaction of customers might go down and lead Alibaba to lose some of market share. So, Alibaba is promoting its survices to customers in order to perform well in ethics. On the other hand, though Amazon is the second largest internet company in IT industry, some bad ethical behaviour happen on it. Specifically, security is a common issue for e-commerce companies (Kalpan 2013). Furthermore, more and more people will become users for Amazon. In another word, a huge data of customers’ privacy that Amazon should protect. But in fact, though the security agreements will be accepted by users online, much important personal information might be lost because of the hacker or technical loopholes. Additonally, some employees from Amazon may sell their clients’ information to another company to gain some extra profits, even it is a directly competitor. All these performances identify that Amazon has a bad ethical behaviour in its daily operation. To be honest, security is becoming a key factor to affect the development of Aamzon in e-commerce. To summarize, the performances of ethics will be one of a criterion for organizations in operating their business (Barraquier, 2011).

Conclusion

In conclusion, ethical leadership is an vital skill for a leader or a manager (Darcy, 2010). Absolutely, a leader who has great behaviour in ethics can help a team to be more excellent. Obviously, it is easier to communicate with others if respect is showed to them. Simmultaneously, to consider more on people than on work might also be a key factor to be a good manager. In the point of my view, individuals who own ethical leadership should pay attention on what others do and trust them in order to get the fluent connection between employers and employees. Finally, a successful leader must plays a responsible role in operating a team or a company.

References

Barraquier, A. (2011). Ethical Behaviour in Practice: Decision Outcomes and Strategic Implications. British Journal of Management, 22, pp.S28-S46.

Darcy, K. (2010). Ethical Leadership: The past, present and future. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 7(3), pp.198-212.

Graham, G. (2004). Eight theories of ethics. London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.

Kalpan, M. (2013) SWOT Analysis for Ecommerce Companies. [online]. Available from: < http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3971-SWOT-Analysis-for-Ecommerce-Companies > [Accessed 03 April 2013]

Liu, S. and Avery, M. (2009). Alibaba. New York: Collins Business.

Nardal, (2011). Ethical Issues in E-Commerce on the Basis of Online Retailing. Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2), pp.190-198.

Watts, T. (2008). Business leaders’ values and beliefs regarding decision making ethics. [Morrisville, N.C.]: [LuLu.com].

Analysis of how I have developed and my priorities for Term 2

This is the final week for Term 1. Undoubtedly, all students will be happy because Christmas holiday is coming. However, for APS course, we have to consider what we have developed and the priorities of our Term 2 study. In my opinion, it is useful to analyse both of them in order to have a great preparation after vacation.

Specifically, what I have improved most is my confidence. When I just came to London, because of my poor English, I seldom give opinions in class. However, as the time went day by day, I shared my suggestion more frequent. For instance, in our week 7 presentation, I discussed a lot with my group members in order to further our study. As a result, we got a high marks in the presentation and everyone felt happy.

If taiking about the prioriities in Term 2, I will select teamwork as the first position. The reason why I choose it is teamwork is not easy to promote in a short period. In addition, we need more time and more chances to further our teamwork. Moreover, I think the business simulation at week 8 in Term 1 provides a great oppurtunity for each student to communicate and cooperate together. It is also a interesting activity about our professional skills.

In conclusion, APS course plays an important role in improving academic skills for our study. I am appreciated that I have developed myself day by day and knowed what should I do more clearly in the future.

Analysis of my experience of presenting my own research

Group presentation, which is a teamwork job, relate to every group member. The final task for our research is a 15 minutes presentation about opening a new coffee shop.

Obviously, we must prepare a slide for presentation. To be specific, everyone should finish his own section before compling the slides. For instance, my own part is the methodology for our research. So, I will find some professional information to support my view and explain why we use questionnaire and design these questions.

However, how to present is a key factor on presentation. In my own style, I enjoy presenting without any papers. One nescessary thing to do it well is to prepare sufficiently before presentation. For example, I will write down all I will say on a piece of paper and read it again and again in order to recite it. Moreover, just reciting is not enough for a presentation because there are many audiences listen to you. What it means is you must make interaction with those people who are face to face with you. From my experience, I often give some gestures follow the screen and ask audiences some particular questions when I want to hear the reply from them. Furthermore, to make eye-contact is also a good way to further our communication with audiences.

To conclude, presentation is a comprehensive ability for a student. If we want to perform it well, not only for own work, we need to finish it for a team because teamwork is important in our future studys or works.

Analysis of my experience of collecting and analysing data

As one of the most important factors, data plays a basic role in doing a research.

After finishing creating a questionnaire, we need to collect the feedback from those people who have participated the questionnares. There are two main ways for us to make the collection. The first one is to collect face to face when we ask individuals to fill the questionnaires directly in the street. It is easy to get more new feedback on this way but it will cost us a lot of time. The second way is to put our questionnaire online and ask people to fill it when we send them a link. Although it is convenient for this method, the efficiency will go down at the same time. So, we did both two sides to collect data finally.

To analyse data is the next step which is diffcult for our research. As we know, questionnaire belongs to quantitative data. What it means is we have to analyse data from a large quantity of all the questionnaires we have collected. It is necessary that we have to select the key points and delete some useless information from all the data. Furthermore, when analysing the specific data, we need to follow some literatures because they will help our analysis become more professional and reliable.

To summarize, it is not a easy job to collect and analyse data for a research. In addtion, we should spend more time on analysing and try to draw a best conclusion from the information we have collected.

Analysis of my experience of designing a questionnaire

Qusetionnaire, one of the main types of doing a survey, is usually to be uesd in a research. In order to open a new coffee shop near Liverpool Street, we should to create a meaningful questionnaire for people.

To be honest, how to design a questionnaire becomes a most imporant problem for our research. Because of the topic in our research, we should design a questionnaire based on customers about coffee. Specifically, we firstly devide what we want to ask into some different sections. Next, we prepare two to three questions for each part. Finally, we complie all the questions and do some improvement for them. Here, I select a question we have designed as a example and explain why we design it. The question is “How ofen do you frequent coffee shops?”. As we know, some people always drink coffee, maybe twice a day, even three times a day, but some never drink. It is clear that this question focus on the habits of drinking coffee from customers.

If talking about the experience of designing a questionnaire, I will say it is not easy to do it well. One of the reasons is after we finish designing our questionnaire, we need to think of how to collect the feedback. To be specific, how many questionnaires we can collect will depend on the ways we ask individuals to answer the questionnaires.

In conclusion, when a questionnaire should be designed, we need to prepare enough and pay attention on creating questions. There is no doubt, the more hard-working we did, the better questionnaire we designed.

Analysis of my experience of writing a literature review

Literature review, one part of a acadamic essay, is a summary of what you have got from all the literatures you have read for a research. However, it is difficult for those people who are first time to write a literature review, including me. This essay will analyse my experience of writing a literature review and try to draw a conclusion.

It is neccssary to introduce how to fininsh this review for my first time. Firstly, I made sure what literatures I need to search and read. According to the research topic, to create a new coffee shop, I should find some materials about how to start and run a café. Then, I came to the school library and surfed the internet. What confused me was too much information would been searched by myself and I had to get something useful and catch the key points from each literature. After that, I began to write my literature review. Because it was my first time to do it, I spent a lot of time on arranging the struture of the review. Next, how to summarise all the literatures became a most difficult problem in writing this review. To be honest, I read those literatures again and again in order to get the key information for my review. At last, references need to be listed by the end of the review. Fortunately, I got a paper which teach students how to write the references, such as a book with multiple authors and a web site.

In conclusion, if students want to write a wonderful literature review, they must pay more attention on reading books or articles and try to summarise them in critical thinking. In another hand, those students who are first time to write a literature review can find some samples and learn from them. So, this is my experience of writing a literature review.