Using HRIS in HRM

HRIS has become a main interest for all the different worldwide business entities as most organizations that used to depend on manual methods in managing human resources have found it hard today to use them due to the great wastes they cause in time, effort and money so they turned to use HRIS in order to cope with the continuous technologies and to gain the benefits from such new modernized systems that can raise the effectiveness of work and lead to more accurate work. HRIS are complex systems that need experts and well trained employees to deal with them otherwise they will represent a challenge the company will face and perhaps employees resist such change and this will lead to a great failure and loss. This makes it urgent to consider the change management processes before applying such a technology in the organization and this means to prepare a change strategic plan and then to test the plan before applying the change. HRIS are important because they can use in all the different HR practices and activities such as advertising for new jobs as this will be easy using online websites for job advertising such as Byte.com or Linked in or others which will make many things easy such as reaching to a very wide scale of candidates, saving money of newspaper advertisements and being able to update and change the advertisement easily. Then the interviewing process will be easy as many companies today use online interviews via Skype in order to meet candidates and test them which also will save money, effort and time and after that comes the selection process that can be made via special analysis programs that work on a very high technology to choose the best candidates based on their marks in the interviews and their qualifications. This shows how far recruitment becomes easy with HRIS but it is not only recruitment that HRIS can deal with and facilitate. Checking employees attendance using devices such as fingerprints devices or using ID cards have become the main request today of many companies that suffer cheating and problems with checking employees' attendance manually using paper records so it became important to use them in business organizations. Other tasks such as training employees, strategic planning and keeping a huge amount of easy access data are also main missions for HRIS. Yet the application of such systems need to have a suitable work environment for receiving them and dealing with them as employees and managers should be well prepared and trained for using such systems and they have to be well aware for the benefits of these systems to them and they should be motivated to use them by realizing that they can be easily promoted when they are more able to use these systems and HR professionals should learn that HRIS will be an aid and not an enemy for them as this will lead to an easy work and acceptance to HRIS without change resistance which will ensure its success when being implemented. 

Abraham Lincoln

Reputation of Abraham Lincoln

Introduction

Famous people such as politicians for example have their reputations in the public society locally or internationally. Reputation is a process that needs construction and of many aspects and procedures as it is a complicated process which leaves its effects on the person it belongs to and on others related to or interested in or hearing about that person. In this assignment the reputation of a famous politician who has his position into history of the United States and in the world is going to be discussed according to some specific points of his life. The reputation of Abraham Lincoln is going to be presented regarding some historical interpretations and views in order to clarify the reality and myth sides of Lincoln reputation.

Body

Abraham Lincoln(1809-1865) was the president of the United States number sixteen(1861-1865) and he added a lot to America by his achievements in civil war, economy and government progress. Lincoln got a great fame with a reputation that carried many aspects of discussion. He is considered the slaves liberator and a man of social and racial equality and justice yet there are many views says that he also refused the races acceptance in society of America and was convinced that there must be a kind of sending the black away out of USA which was a remarkable thing of those points constructed his reputation.( Franklin, 1964) He was known as the president who achieved the Union of American states which was his main target and slavery is said not to be his concern, he was said to do any thing for the sake of the union even if he kept the slaves as slavery was not his main interest. Some critics say that he used the issue of setting slaves free as a kind of propaganda and there were not any one of the laves was really free as a result of Lincoln efforts. His childhood and the life circumstances he lived in also affected the way his reputation was formed as he lived a simple poor life, educated himself and worked in an early age till he became a lawyer then the president of the United States of America. He also was famous for his effective impressive speeches t address the people and make them feel him as a common person. The way he died constructed another part of his reputation as he was assassinated in 14th of April 1865 in a theater called Ford's theatre. (  Owens, 2004)

Lincoln's reputation was constructed affected by some historical interpretations for his own attitudes, actions, reactions and decisions. These interpretations may be true or based upon rumors and personal opinions. Some historians describe Lincoln as the Great Emancipator which is a matter that was historically interpreted into many explanations of which some were evidence-based. (Bennett, 1968) Lincoln reputation as the slave liberator was not true as Lincoln was said to be a man of politics who was not keen on helping those miserable slaves but his real target was to limit their existence or eliminate it, black people did not represent any of his real concerns with no regard to the black wishes or desires for freedom and equality. Bennett made many attacks on Lincoln as he tried to interpret his concerns as shows for his own welfare and to ban freedom, rights and equality from being delivered to the black. Other historians had different interpretations for Lincoln attitudes and actions, Herbert Mitgang, defended Lincoln against Bennett by saying that Lincoln was the most person to defend the black's rights and saved America from the harms of the civil wars. Mark Krung also defended Lincoln by saying that Lincoln prevented the violent acts' occurrence as they were resulting from racial problems which is an interpretation that needs to be well considered. Another issue that puzzled historian regarding Lincoln was using colonization to solve black slave existence problem. (Zilversmit, 1980)

It is good to consider the appropriate using of historical evidence when constructing the reputation of a specific political figure, for example, Abraham Lincoln was accused of taking the white side against the black, his debates with Stephen A. Douglas show the attitudes of Lincoln clearly as it is said that Lincoln was at the side of white supremacy ideas and he was against negroes' rights but was pretending to be a slave liberator. George M. Fredrickson thinks that Lincoln speeches told that while He was talking as if defending the rights of the black, he said to Douglas that he could not consider the negro as a parallel part or equal persons to him giving an evidence which is Lincoln words that he used words that expressed his deep convince of not considering the black as equal part of the society. Historian E. B. Smith also commented on Ottawa speech words that expressed a playing tone in Lincoln speech as he meant that Lincoln was acting on audience for his own political benefits. Another opinion of the historian Don E. Fehrenbacher stated that Lincoln words expressed a maximum desire of neglecting the black's rights and a minimum desire of defending their rights which means Lincoln was varying between the extreme hatred for negroes and the extreme respect to them. The Lincoln biographer Stephen B. Oates, had a remarkable opinion that Lincoln was really pretending to defend the black as a deep sense of protecting the country from civil war harms and to ensure its unity. (Zilversmit, 1980)

Lincoln's reputation accommodated lots of Myths during his life and after his death. Those Myths could be simple opinions from students, historian statements or some views of people who are exaggerating some facts or preventing a real action from being revealed to the public. Edward Steers discussed some of the myths regarding Lincoln as his relation with his parents, it was said that Lincoln was an illegitimate son of Nancy Hanks and she had a relation with Abraham Enole who was supposed to be his father but Lincoln cousin proved that Thomas Lincoln was his real father and illegitimacy was just rumors of people who tried to insult Lincoln. The relationship between Abraham and Ann Rutledge also took the myth style at people's thoughts as there were documents regarding this relationship that was said to be true sometimes and forged other times. There was a myth regarding Lincoln Christianity as his wife said that he was not that Christian people thought and historian opinions were not able to prove his being baptized. Evidences regarding the words attributed to Lincoln are not clear as there were many letters written by John Hay and he signed them with Lincoln name. A very serious myth about Lincoln is that he was a homosexual and it was not proved to be true as a book written by C. A. Tripp mentioned this but the fact says that Tripp was a gay which made many historians and people think he was trying to give himself some respect by saying that also Lincoln was a gay like him.(Marty, 2009)

Yet there are differences between myths and historical views regarding Lincoln reputation and they have to be well distinguished. Lincoln was a part of the American history and was seen by many historian as really concerned with the black slavery problem which could have many reasons but the myth is when he is seen as a great hero of independence and freedom of the black as this seems an exaggeration because historians had many diversity in reviewing his slavery attitude. It was him who wanted the black to get out of the country and who made them work as labor force in Europe. The assassination of Lincoln had many historical arguments and it turned to be a myth at some points. There are many stories regarding his death which contained lots of myths. John Wilkes Booth was an actor who hated Lincoln due to feeling sympathy with the south killed him in the Ford theatre and the death incidents were clear and distinguished from myths. Yet a myth appeared, it included opinions said that Lincoln murder was a terrorist act performed by the South but this was not confirmed by the historians. Another myth was that the murder was made for the sake of president Johnson. A fact stated by historians was that Booth was killed but there was a myth that it was not him and he was still alive to continue his struggle for the south. In fact these views of historians and myths must be well distinguished by a well educated reader who traces evidence to know the truth. (Turner, 1982)

Conclusion                         

Reputations of political figures always arouses many inquiries even after their death which was clear in the biography of Abraham Lincoln as there were many different historical views regarding his real attitudes towards slavery and negroes, historian discussed many things of which some are mentioned in this assignment as he was also accused of many things that needed investigation to differentiate between myths about him and the real truth.  

       ReferencesJohn H. Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom (New York: 1964 [2nd .]), p. 277.

• Owens, 2004, Mackubin , T, Abraham Lincoln Saved the Union, But Did He Really Free the Slaves? http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-04-guelzo/

• Bennett, "Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist?" Ebony, Feb., 1968, pp. 35–42

• Zilversmit, 1980, Arthur, Lincoln and the Problem of Race: A Decade of Interpretations. Volume 2, Issue 1, 1980, pp. 22-45

• Marty, 2009, Myron, Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President, by Edward Steers Jr.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0030.109/--lincoln-          legends-myths-hoaxes-and-confabulations-associated?rgn=main;view=fulltext

• Turner, 1982, Thomas, Myth and the Lincoln Assassination: Did John Wilkes 

Why was Kennedy Killed?

Introduction

People's reputation is a very critical issue that is found in all cultures among all different classes and professions. Politicians are more liable to have arguments regarding their reputation more than others as their lives are full of incidents and events that cause big changes to different peoples in different countries. Politicians' lives can participate in establishing communities and destroying others and that's why it is important to study the real circumstances of politicians' lives and see if the reputation argued about them is true or not. In this assignment, reputation of John Kennedy will be discussed from many sides so as to learn more abut the life of the thirty fifth president of the United States of America. Kennedy was a character that most arguments were spreading about his life and death were significant and arouse many questions and that's why his reputation is discussed with relevant issues such as myth and fact, historical interpretations regarding his life and checking historical evidence about such information and interpretations.

Body

John Kennedy (1917-1963) was the thirty fifth president of USA and had great reputation during and after his period of ruling America. He came from an Irish American family that was rich and had political interests. He received good education from Harvard University and in 1946 he began to engage in the world of politics to be a Democrat then a Senate in 1952. When he was at the age of forty three, he became the president of the USA and he was the youngest president at that time. His reputation showed that he was a successful president but many voices assured his having love affairs although his wife Jackie was adding good background for him as a politician and a president. He had a good reputation as a president who defended and added many aspects to civil rights of black Americans in addition to doing many reforms for his country insides. He was also known with causing tension in Cold War. His death shared a lot in forming his reputation as his assassination by a sniper shot in Texas aroused many questions about his life, conspiracy theory was the most prevailing idea regarding his death by most Americans at that time and till today. Some other opinions suggested that his killer Oswald was not sent by a group or was not included in a conspiracy but alone he killed Kennedy by himself as a result for being crazy or for killing love. Till today, Kennedy's death is still a mystery. (BBC history)

Historical interpretations which are usually different shared in constructing John Kennedy's reputation yet not all historical interpretations must be true, perhaps some personal attitudes and views may affect such interpretations which is a thing that needs much research. He had a good acceptance among the public as a beloved character famous for his humanity and the American movie dealt with his life due to the public attraction to such works yet his personal life left great passive impacts on the writings of many historians and political critics. John Sillito who is a historian at the Weber State University has discussed the life of John Kennedy and concluded some historical interpretations about him as being a good model for new modern generations as he did not give much interest to businessmen in the white house but his all interest was on the intellectuals. His communication abilities were appreciated by another historian called Branden Little and he said that Kennedy exerted great efforts to give a youthful background for the white house to be approved by all Americans. Eric Swedin, another historian had different opinions about Kennedy as he mentioned that Kennedy was a playboy whose reputation as a man that had sexual affairs and the way he was killed gave him much interest from the public which gave him more deep dimensions to be added to his life. Swdin commented on his death as the conspiracy theories around his death were made by people to give more importance to his death as people loved him and wished him to have a great end. (Valkenburg, 2013)

Historian opinions and interpretations must have evidences so as not to turn to be rumors or gossip, they have to search, analyze and prove what they are talking about. Having a reputation of a betrayal husband was and still is a significant thing about Kennedy with few evidences as the president had people to protect him from media although it is said that he did not care, it was said that the director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover monitored and protected Kennedy from the media and newspapers but his relationship with Judith Campbell was very famous as the woman had relations with Mafia men. (McElrath, 2014) Yet on the other hand there are evidences on his being a faithful good president working for the welfare of his country and shared a lot in improving its economics after having bankrupts and suffer unemployment of the youth, an evidence for the love of his people is the museum built at the place of his assassination and visited by about 350,000 person yearly and people from everywhere in the world write great words about Kennedy as a great president who was very human. Another evidence is his success in managing the crisis of  the Cuban missile in 1962 and he held an agreement for peace with the Soviet Union and enhanced better relationships with Moscow in addition to his speeches to relax the cold war with the Soviet Union at his time which was a short time of three years only. ( BRINKLEY, 2013)

The life of Kennedy was accompanied by many myth stories and they increased after his being murdered in a severe way and those myth may have original facts related to them or they are a result of exaggerated imaginative ideas by some people or media channels. Among these myth stories is the perplexing ideas about his being liberal or conservative as it is said that he was a conservative because he was a man of decisions that he respected as well as his attitudes in the Bay of the Pigs as he declared his complete responsibility of the failure. His situation for calling for peace with the Soviet Union was seen at sometimes as liberal but some authors and historians see it as an intelligent act to avoid a nuclear war such as the opinions of the historian Robert Dallek who published a book about some raised questions about Kennedy as a myth. Perhaps his love affairs of women such as Judith Campbell and Merlin Monroe made people see him as a liberal or perhaps he had liberal brothers so people and historian referred to him as a liberal and truth is still a mystery just like the mystery of his death which also became a myth.(Cooper, 2013)

It is different to refer to historian opinions and to public myth that are spread among people with no evidences as historian myth must be supported by evidences whatever they were convincing people. It is said that John Kennedy himself was a myth, the myth of the great president ad leader that the way he was murdered gave him many additional great characteristics and a sense of mystery which made people think of conspiracy theories and other issues regarding him. It was proved by historians that he had management abilities that helped him solve many problems such as the problem with the Soviet Union and the nuclear war. It is important to seek evidences when referring to myth but sometimes people make a myth without any base and historian opinions are sought here to make sure of what is true and what is fake. Although most historian recorded Kennedy as a playboy and a president who does not deserve all the myth called about him, the fact is that he has an audience everywhere in the world and he had made many good things to the United States of America which made him a myth to all Americans in spite of many historians opinions. (Loftus, 2013)

Conclusion

Reputation of people is a very important matter specially when they are famous and politicians' reputations always arouse many questions about them, their lives, what they presented to their people, their family life and facts about their life and death. John Kennedy was one of the most beloved characters in politics and he had a very great fame which affected his reputations in many points, he was seen by some historians as a playboy with various love affairs which reduced his value in politics' field and others saw him as a great leader, a man of the word who respected his decisions ad was responsible for any thing he did. Movies and books were made to record his life and these works pictured him as a myth and a hero which is a matter that is not agreed by many people and many historians and at the same time agreed by others.   

References 

• BBC history, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/john_f_kennedy

• McElrath, 2014. An Unfaithful Husband Jessica, http://www.netplaces.com/john-f-kennedy/the-personal-side-of-john-f-kennedy/an-unfaithful-husband.htm
• Valkenburg, 2013,  Nancy Van, Standard Examiner Staff.  http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/11/21/three-weber-state-historians-dissect-jfks-legacy
• BRINKLEY, 2013, Alan, The Legacy of John F. Kennedy. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/the-legacy-of-john-f-kennedy/309499/

• Cooper, 2013, Elise, John F. Kennedy: Conservative? American Thinker. http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/11/john_f_kennedy_conservative.html

• Loftus, 2013, Geoff, JFK: Myth Or Great Leader? Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffloftus/2013/11/20/jfk-myth-or-great-leader/

Onassis

Introduction

It is important for anyone who seeks success in practical life to study others' success stories, learn about how they could reach such success, know their strengths and weaknesses and understand how they could face any challenges or problems they faced and how they could overcome them. In this assignment, Aristotle Onassis' success story will be discussed in order to learn how he could succeed in business world and become the richest man in the world. His strengths and his weaknesses will also be discussed in addition to approaching means he used to overcome any failure he faced in order to learn from such a successful model.

Body

Aristotle Onassis was born in 1906 in Karatass which is one of Smyrna suburbs. He mastered four languages when he was sixteen years old , he spoke English, Greek, Spanish and Turkish. The World War 1 caused great loss for his family as they lost all their properties and they escaped poor to Greece and became refugees as Smyrna was fired. During the fire, three of his relatives died burnt. In 1923, he traveled to work in Buenos Aires in a British telephone company and that was his first job. His father helped him in importing tobacco which was the business that helped him form the first million dollars. He established many companies such as Olympic Airways, worked in oil shipping, established whaling companies but his big failure was losing a part of the Omega project for oil factories in Greece. He got married to  Athina Livanos then to Jacqueline Kennedy and got two children, Alexander and Christina.(Prionas et al, 1996)

To reach success, Onassis had strengths as well as weaknesses. Among the strengths are his cleverness and professionalism when he was a telephone engineer, he had intelligent thinking as he found that soft Turkish tobacco will be better used for women, he had marketing abilities as he used to study the markets' needs and make use of them and he was distinguished with the ability of making the right decisions at the right times. His relatives provided him with the aid as he was lucky for having a father working in shipping and helpful cousins. In the beginning of his life, his family lost everything they had and turned to be poor which was a very dangerous situation for Onassis but he was full of enthusiasm and ambition accompanied with insisting on success. There were also many times when failure threatened his business career and weaknesses were embodied in the limit use for women cigarettes, failing in signing many business contracts and taxes that the Greek government set on shipping. (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013)

Onassis managed to overcome the problems he faced during his business career as he was clever in having social relationships with important people in the society and in the Greek government as well as his ability to take quick actions such as when he was endangered with taxes and he discovered that such taxes will endanger the whole country finance which he explained to the government in a memo sent to them and this helped in solving the problem. His deep thinking and creativity helped him when the women cigarettes business failed as he established his own company for cigarettes and then success came soon to him. He was dare and this is a critical matter that could lead a businessman to failure or success but Onassis once took a loan from the bank to buy 16 liberty ships with contracts with companies made at a time he had no money and this was intelligent but risky. Another obstacle was when he needed to buy T2 oil American tankers which were intended to be sold for Americans only but quickly he established American company and shared American citizens and then he managed to buy the tankers and the company was closed after that. (Prionas et al, 1996)

Conclusion

The youth who wish to succeed in their business career and reach their goals need to read and study the success stories of great famous and successful people who did not let despair destroy them and continued in their work facing any barriers that could hinder their success track. Onassis was presented as a model for those who wishes to success in business or in any other field and to challenge failure whenever and wherever it appears.

Employees turnover

Employees turnover is a great human resource problem that many business organizations suffer as it affects the organization's productivity and profitability due to the gap that occurs in the number and capacity of employees as any organization that exerted great efforts to train its employees and prepare them to be an asset of the organization suffers when these employees leave the organization to join another organization.

Employees turnover can be resulting from many reasons such as the employees desire of getting better jobs opportunity, their feeling of not being appreciated by the organization, lack of motivation or the employees who are not native may like to return to their home countries. Many organizations try to investigate the reasons behind employees' turnover and try to shed the light on specific reasons for it in order to try to put an end to that problem so they try to communicate with employees and try to realize their complaints about the work and what can be made to satisfy them. This can be effective and supportive for retaining employees as retaining employees can be achieved by searching for the reasons behind their turnover and then try to motivate them and engage them more to feel they are part of the business organization and then to encourage them to have better positions and better salaries within the organization. Ensuring a safe work environment can be a good solution for employees' turnover as the work environment may be poor and lack many important elements such as communication, cooperation, respect, support and encouragement. Asserting the need for innovation and creativity in the business organization can encourage employees to stay in it as they feel more promising future is waiting for them and that creativity can provide them with better opportunities in that organization. Another solution is nationalization of employees as, for example, many of the Arabian Gulf countries suffer high rates of employees turnover as many of those employees are not native ands decide to stay for a period of time in the Gulf organizations and then to return to their countries.

Employees' turnover can affect the business organization and lead to much loss in efforts and time exerted to train employees and prepare them for achieving the tasks of those retired employees or those who quit the job so there should be a deep study for the real reasons behind employees turnover and then to try to ensure employees' job satisfaction and raise their morale to be retained in the business organization.    

The impact of leadership styles on performance of human resources

Introduction

Many business organizations today focus on promoting its position in the market by improving the organizational performance through the improved performance of human resources and this can be well managed through the proper application of the different leadership styles and the right employing for each leadership style in the different organizational business situations. Leadership helps business organizations to be more profitable and productive as success levels depend on how leaders apply different leadership styles in addition to the resultant environment leaders create        

Different leadership styles

Transactional leadership

Many studies and researches that investigated the effect of leadership on employees' performance showed that there are certain leadership styles that can cause effective results with employees and raise or reduce the level of human resources performance; Flood et al, (2008) referred to the transactional leadership style and how it can improve the human resources performance as it is based upon the exchange model which focuses mainly on rewarding the good behaviors and actions of employees and punishing the wrong behaviors acted by employees or the employees with poor performance; it also focuses on the relational dimensions of the different leadership behaviors. Ling, Jen and Wang, (2010) discussed how human resources management strategies can identify the effect of leadership styles on the organizational performance and how leaders can choose the suitable leadership style to suit different organizational situations as charismatic leadership is that wise leadership that can employ the different leadership styles each in its position.                               

Transformational leadership

According to Saleem, (2015); transformational leadership is said to leave a great impact on attitudes of employees within the organization and it is usually preferred in many job situations rather than transactional leadership, it is associated with high employees' performance due to the amount of freedom and communication it ensures for human resources via leaders who are able to build a successful leader follower relationship that ensures a deep understanding for employees' needs by their leaders who are able to raise employees' morale and make them job satisfied. Bass and Riggio, (2006) also discussed the positive impact transformational leadership leaves on the performance of the company's human resources and referred to the different techniques used by a transformational leader to raise the employees morale in order to get better performance such as rewards, recognition, engaging employees in decision making processes and ensuring their rights in promotion and taking leadership roles. This was confirmed by Avolio and Yammarino, (2013) who reported that many business organizations try to apply transformational leadership to apply changes, reach competitive advantage and push their human resources towards high working performance.    

 

Environmental Analysis and the Role of SMEs

Launching small business is really an interesting matter for new businessmen who invest in the market. Such new investors as Ahmed have to learn about everything concerning the business he is going to open such as in which environment the business is going to be done. Small businesses' environment is what is going to be discussed and analyzed here referring to Kuwait as an example. STEEP analysis will be presented in this essay in addition to discussing entrepreneurship and small business benefits.

Question one (350 words, 35 marks)

Ahmed wanted to know more about environmental factors that affect business organization.   In this context,

Explain STEEP analysis and discuss the importance of analysing environmental factors (STEEP) for an organization.  Provide examples to support your answer.  (35 marks)

There are many tools for analyzing business external environment such as STEEP analysis which is used to address issues of factors that affect the small business in any country such as Technological factors, Sociological Factors, Environmental Factors, Economic factors and Political factors as Ahmed will use it to help him with his business. In Kuwait, Technological factors can represent the factors that have relations with modern technologies and updates programs of the internet and other tools of communication. The  revolutionary movement of technology in Kuwait can be seen in companies as Fast Telecom and Quality net that provide services of communication and internet widely and strongly. Companies as Zain and Wataniya are representing great communication services which enables small investors to communicate easily with any one around the world to make their business easier and more flexible. In Kuwait it is important for any business to look into sociological factors as work sorts, culture, language, religion, population and Arabic traditions of Kuwaiti population who is esteemed to be 3 millions in 2013. As environmental factors in Kuwait are reflected on stakeholders who are attracted to a business environment without any negative effects, this can be seen through Kuwait legislations, employees, pressure groups and customers. It is seen that Kuwait laws encourage small business and provide them with all investing chances as it is believed in Kuwait that small business supports the general business atmosphere. In Kuwait, economic factors reflects the all stable economy and the economical state that helps investors of small businesses work with eagerness and ambitious as with its Kuwaiti Dinar as a strong currency with its exchange rates that are always high everywhere worldwide. This also means that inflation rates off KD are low as according to 2013 statistics, they were 28% with a$165.8 billion as Kuwait GDP. (CIA Factbook Kuwait, 2014) Political factors in Kuwait reflect the Kuwait government policy of not forcing businessmen and investors to pay taxes which assist small investors who always worry of taxes in addition to the government tendency of supporting infrastructures projects and educational ones which provides a suitable climate for small investors to work freely.  

Question two (350 words, 35 marks)

Ahmed wants to start a small business initially and wants to expand it later.  In light of this statement:

Discuss briefly the benefits of small business and outline its role in general for the growth and development of a nation.  Support your answer with relevant examples. (35 marks)

To launch a small business is a matter that has many benefits such as providing chances of working in new job opportunities and helping in employing many persons who are in need for work as, for example, a business that depends on retailing will provide job opportunities for distributors, drivers for delivery, sales assistants, call center and many other jobs according to each business. This helps decrease and end unemployment rates in the country which promotes it as a whole nation. Small businesses also widen the range of services in the market as large companies may not save such simple services for customers. Due to the knowledge a small business has about areas it covers, each customer in the limited are will be thought of as a customer to whom good services is provided. Another benefit of small businesses is the innovation techniques they follow as bureaucracy has no place here which gives small businesses owners the chance to control the business freely, provide a variety of different activities and change functions easily according to what customers really need. Small businesses costs as not as high as the big businesses costs. Small businesses also share in developing the country and raise its growth rates. The country local infrastructure is also supported by the help of small businesses through attracting great investments depending on the trading movement that small businesses do. A small business provides a variety of available goods and needs of customers that can not be found in big businesses which makes the domestic product a unique one. Many great companies began as small ones such as Apple Company for computers and iPhones as this great company had a small and a simple start as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak began their business when they were university students by designing devices that can log on the call computers then began to sell such devices forming their company which now is one of the greatest businesses in the world. In spite of the limited resources they had, their love for technology and business enabled them to produce more devices as microcomputers and chips and others. They succeeded and achieved what they aspired for and more.  (Apple Investor Relations FAQ, 2014)

Question three (300 words, 30 marks)

Ahmed has been reading widely about the success stories of entrepreneurs.  He is interested to know the entrepreneurial qualities and traits thoroughly. In this context:

Define Entrepreneurship and explain briefly some the entrepreneurial qualities and traits with examples that Ahmed should have to get success in his ventures.  (30 marks)

The entrepreneurship refers to the work that entrepreneurs do of activities that launch new products, new services, new fields of business and also open new markets as well by using new and developed techniques of operate the business processes. Entrepreneurship has both traits and qualities such as performing the business in a very free method, achieving the business with large money amounts, achieving great success results due to getting into risks which are studied and meant to reach unexpected success, having no boss over the entrepreneurs which enables him to take decisions freely and be more respected by others and to control the business human resources well and properly by good leadership techniques and motivation tools which helps the business to succeed in addition to the ability of an entrepreneur to apply new innovation ideas and methods which raises the level of the business performance. Challenges that an entrepreneur faces enable him to work harder to raise the business level of competitive advantage in the market. (Long, 2014) In Kuwait, Lulu hypermarket is a big entrepreneur and a big business as his owner use risky techniques and ways for doing ideas that are innovated and updated as the business is decided to open new branches in KSA and other different Arab countries in addition to the branches opened already in some Arab countries as Qatar to present the different variety of products that come from everywhere around the world specially from India and Malaysia. The business is recruiting many human resources from salesmen, distributors, security, accountants and others who are being lead by strong and successful professional managers to provide the good team work that serves customers properly. The business is being widen and is receiving success from all people scales in Kuwait from all nationalities.

Conclusion

Kuwait represents a very good environment for launching a new small business such as Ahmed's experience as there are many factors that supports this idea including the government helpful attitudes, the people nature that loves shopping and making business, the political state, stability of its currency and other factors above mentioned. Entrepreneurship  provides many great opportunities for business success as being presented in this essay.

 References 

• "Apple Investor Relations FAQ". Apple Inc. Retrieved January 27 -10-2014.
• CIA Factbook Kuwait, 2014, at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ku.html, passed: 2014-10-27
• Long, 2014. 8 Entrepreneurial Qualities That Contribute to Success. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234583