Assess the importance of team roles in successful business teams

Teams that have balanced roles are usually successful teams as each individual is well aware of his role within the team which raises the effectiveness of work and make the team able to reach the high working performance required for success.

Team role definition

It is important to define roles within a team as each individual has to know specifically the needed tasks and missions involved within his role and not to be asked to do others' jobs. Defining the team roles is realizing the responsibilities of each role and agreeing on the persons who can handle such responsibilities and this is the most important step in any team work as it has to be made at first before beginning any project in order to raise efficiency and ensure success.

Belbin's team roles

Roles have to be identified and known by all members of the team as the team composition is very important for its success and this can be well regarded in the team roles of Bellbin as follows:

Belbin’s Role Characteristics

Plant (PL)	Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems
Resource Investigator (RI)	Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts.
Co-ordinator (CO)	Mature, confident, a good chairperson. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making, delegates well.
Shaper (SH)	Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. The drive and courage to overcome obstacles.
Monitor Evaluator (ME)	Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately.
Team Worker (TW)	Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction.
Implementer (IMP)	Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions.
Completer-Finisher (CF)	Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time.
Specialist (SP)	Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply

Belbin's role theory depends on presenting a model for the strong example of roles within the team which makes it clear to recognize the needs of each role within a team and perform the jobs effectively.  This tells many things about the team leader and his responsibility in explaining roles to the members such as:

-the leader is the inspirer of the team members and he inspires others to achieve specific goals.

-the leader has to encourage the team members to discuss their roles in meetings.

-the team morale has to be raised by the leader.

-clear explanations about the different roles have to be delivered to the members by their leader.

-there should be a natural leader to replace the position of the assigned leader when he is absent.

-the team members need to receive training and support by their leader based on each role.

-if the leader needs to change roles of some members, there should be discussions about this. (Chong, 2005)

AC1.3 Analyse the value of using theoretical models when building successful business teams

Theoretical models are important for building a successful business team as they are important to set a base for the work of the team. The theoretical model refers to theories prepared for explaining certain behaviors or situations and provides a future prediction for this behavior. Theoretical models' value is in its start with realizing the goals of the team and how to achieve them as when the team has a theoretical model developed for it; this can help the team define the needed skills to be mastered by members of the team and by their leader. The model can also help the team set a measure for ensuring the jobs of the team members and that they are done properly according to the members' skills and abilities.

Popular theoretical models

• Belbin

Belbin depends on considering the team as a congregation of individuals and not only some peoples working together under specific job titles as roles are realized and understood by each member and others. 

• Abraham Maslow

Maslow gave much interest to needs of the team members such as their need to be listened to, having the freedom to express their problems and be well motivated as his theory depends on motivation. Needs of the team include their need for a good leader, having interesting work, be listened to and be respected.

• John Adair

His theory depends on following three circles that each of them represents a mission involved within the team work and these three circles are: achieving the task, building the team and maintaining it and developing the individuals who are supposed to be the members of the team and their leader.

• Myers Briggs – MBTI

This model was set by Isabel Briggs-Myers and Katherine Cook-Briggs who is her mother. The model objective is to make each member in the team full aware and understanding of himself and others within the team. The team development depends on making an action plan at the end of the project. The model has four main elements describing each end which are: Extrovert to Introvert, Sensation to Intuition, Thinking to Feeling and Judging to Perceiving.

• Strength Deployment Inventory

This model depends on a workshop for two days for participants to make them able to build a link between success in business and relationship skills, have workplace diversified styles, have effective communication and reduce stress and conflicts in the workplace. This can be applied on the team in order to build good teamwork relationships. 

• Theory X and Y

This model was prepared by Douglas McGregor who was a lecturer at Harvard University .The model focuses on the enterprise Human Side as it explains two different views of people at work. It suggests that managers can be able to follow either view of their workforce. Theory X is supposed to describe a traditional control view. Theory Y supports the self directed workforce that works according to the goals of the organization and at the same time integrates some of their own goals into the organization's goals.  

• The Social Identity Theory

The Social identity model is in contrast to other individualistic theories such as that of Belbin. It refers to how far individuals define themselves as being individuals or as being members related to a group or a team and this depends greatly on the organizational culture and policy. 
It also suggests that the behavior of both the teamwork and the individual cannot be solely predicted away from the idiosyncratic characteristics but it is also depending on the social context that defines the belief structures they follow.

• Tuckman, Forming - Storming - Norming – Performing

This model of Tuckman 1960 refers to completed tasks a team does and the stages required for developing teams and how to face the challenges teams face and the four stages refer to teams development.

• The Colour Works

The Color Works model is following a behavior psychological model that makes teams able to realize similarities and differences within the team for reaching more effectiveness at work. The Color Works model is set to measure the individual's personal levels of development, through a unique personal color profile. (teamworkdefinition, 2014)

AC 2.1 Explain the stages of team development

Many authors have suggested different stages for team development in the literature but Tuckman's model for team development stages got much popularity as he suggested a model for the stages of team development that can be used by many different groups and teams at all times; first he suggested his stages which are called: 1. Testing and dependence, 2. Conflict of the intragroup, 3. Group cohesion development, and 4. Functional role relatedness. Then he suggested task activity stages which were: 1. Orientation to task, 2. Emotional response for the task demands, 3. Relevant interpretations open exchange and 4. solutions emergence. Then Tuckman summarized all stages to four main stages which are forming, storming, norming and performing and the last stage is transforming. This can be explained as follows: 

• Forming:

A shared purpose is to be done and accomplished by the integrated work of a group of people who depend on being familiar to each other in order to succeed and this is in the work style, experience, clarity in missions, roles division and tasks achievement.

 Storming:

This is the second stage of development that may bear disagreement regarding visions, missions and the methods followed for dealing with problems or different missions as the views of the members may be contrast to each other which leads to a struggle during the process of recognizing different individuals in the team. Communication and interaction among the group members occur in this stage of development. Conflict and strained relationships within members can occur in this stage as the new relationships can be the main reasons for such conflicts.

• Norming:

Relationships have been formed in this stage either consciously or unconsciously and these relationships can make the team progress in achieving its objectives as members abide the group norms and tend to work more functionally in order to achieve the goals assigned to the team effectively.

• Performing: 

This stage contains the team processes, effective relationships, effectiveness of achieving the work according to the objectives and real work is produced by the team through functioning of all team members.

• Transforming: 

This is the last stage of the team development and it comes when the team members reach success in achieving the tasks assigned to them for achieving the objectives of the work and when they have enough experiences gained from their teamwork and it contains finished missions, done tasks and completed jobs.

Not all included activities within the team work must pass all the previously mentioned stages as there could be some simple activities such as adding a new member to the team as this can make the team start from the first stage and incorporate the new member into the team. There should be a time frame for each stage and time has to be scheduled according to the needs of each team and the time scheme they work according to. (Tuckman and Jensen, 2010)

AC 2.2 Plan how to motivate team members to achieve given objectives

In Oman Arab Bank; the loan department; there are a number of basic objectives for the team working in that department and these objectives are SMART objectives as they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed which are:

1. To grant loans to clients requiring them on a collectible and sound basis.
2. To invest the funds of the bank profitably for raising the benefit of the bank's shareholders and protecting deposits of the bank. 
3. To provide a high quality service for the legitimate credit needs of the bank's communities.
4. To ensure the staff satisfaction within the loan department. (OAB, 2016)

Motivating the team members to achieve such objectives should be based upon a motivation theory such as that of Maslow as it categorizes needs as follows:

Self-actualization

esteem

Belongingness

Safety

Psychological

Self actualization

The team members have to be well aware of the objectives as I have to communicate the objectives with them, explaining how to achieve them by different methods and techniques. The team members have to be trained in order to be able to achieve such objectives. They need to be encouraged for presenting creative ideas that can achieve the objectives fast and efficiently. Open discussions should be made about how to achieve the objectives. I should develop plans to meet the loan department objectives. 

Esteem

The team members' responsibilities have to be clear and each individual has to know his role exactly. Team members should be respected and supported when needed. I should recognize efficient team members, appraise their work, guide them and provide advice when needed.

Belongingness

The team members have to be well aware about the clients' needs and how to satisfy them. The team members need to be managed and informed by all they require to know about business operations as this helps them feel more belonging to the bank. Opportunities and difficulties have to be well identified and informed to the team members, they have to be discussed and solutions should be discussed too. I have to advise the team members about certain problems and difficulties.

Safety

The team members have to feel safe in the work environment, all their rights have to be ensured, security and safety measurements need to be met and the team have to be monitored and supervised in order to ensure support in its time. I have to evaluate the work done by the team members in order to ensure the success of the work done and give further advice. Good reward systems and salary systems need to be studied as the members monetary needs should be met. Insurance systems also need to be regarded.

Psychological

For motivating the team members; their psychological needs have to be regarded as they need to work in a work environment that is free from stressors, they have to be listened to and their sufferings and problems need to be regarded. I should discuss their problems and find solutions for them. I should praise and correct the members in simple clear words and I have to project a positive attitude towards success. (Kaur, 2013)

Describe the characteristics of successful business teams

There are some main characteristics for successful business teams and among them are the following:

1. Effective leadership

Leadership of the team needs to be strong, controlling, communicative, able to solve conflicts and problems, flexible, have a shared vision, motivate the team members and able to be fair enough in distributing different jobs on the team members. A leader who is well aware of methods for helping the team members achieve their tasks effectively can make the business team successful.

2. Common goals

There should be common goals all the team members have and work according to. Goals have to be SMART in order to be effective which means to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.  

3. Diversity

Diversity refers to different opinions and discussions that make the team able to be creative and innovate new ideas. Diversity can also refer to different interest, demographic areas and personal experiences.  

4. Trust

Trust can enhance relationships within the team members and raise effectiveness of work outcomes; trust can also enhance communication within the team and it can lead to effective discussions and suggestions.

5. Commitment to success of the team

All members of the team have to be keen on success of the whole team and not to focus on individual success and each member has to work as part of the team and do his best for make the team successful. This should be based on mutual understanding and communication within the team members. 

6. Interdependence

There should be a suitable work environment for the team members to work in so as to provide the work with much more effort than they do. The positive interdependent team work environment can make each individual provide his best for achieving the goals of the team and learn more which benefits the team. 

7. Interpersonal skills

This refers to the team's ability to have interpersonal skills such as being trustworthy, honest, supportive and cooperative. These skills can make the team more able to discuss his problems and challenges and find creative solutions for them which raise the success levels of the team.

8. Positive feedback and open communications

When the team members have positive feedback from their leader; they can work better and their performance become better. Feedback should be clear, supportive and care for the needs of the members as they have to be informed with all information about their performance and the work requirements and this can be achieved via effective and open communication with the leader through open discussions and conversations.

9. Suitable team composition

This refers to the proper composition of the team and proper role distribution as each member in the team as to work according to specific roles and jobs that suit his own skills and experiences as random role distribution may lead to failure and weak performance of the team. 

10. Accountability and responsibility

The team members have to be responsible for what they do and be accountable for all the tasks assigned to them individually and as a one team unit. (Tarricone and Luca, 2002)

Banking financial services

Introduction

The modern economic world considers banking systems as very important factors in business, industries and trade. It is also considered as a commercial agency. There is a new region of modern banking that emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution as a need for the new economic society and to help promote the economy of countries. Countries have been giving much interest to banking development by enhancing their banks with new technologies, services, online services and by having a diversity of banking such as commercial banking and specialized banking such as Islamic banking and housing banking. Modern trends have been used to develop banking industry all over the world. Societies changed a lot recently which resulted in new needs for individuals regarding banking transactions and services which made it urgent to develop the banking industry to cope with the information technologies in everything. Countries that sought competitive advantage in the banking industry tended to develop the services of banks and to make a diversity of banks that can satisfy the needs of all social scales. Banking systems have changed to cope with technologies and facilitate banking delivery processes. The current assignment is discussing banking development through a country which is considered a leading country in banks development. This country is India. India has changed a lot of its banking industry strategies by expanding the base of its commercial banks and having many specialized banks. The assignment provides a background of the Indian commercial banking, a critical discussion for the development of Indian commercial banking and the development of its specialized banking. (Rao, 2007)

The Development of Commercial Banking in India

A commercial bank is very essential in the banking industry of any country as it provides capital and other needs for businessmen so that trade, agriculture and other industries can be developed. A commercial bank helps in the development of foreign trade, money transfer and production support. The commercial banking sector in India witnessed reforms that occurred in two phases, the first phase followed the Report of the Committee on Financial System, 1992 and it was concentrating on strengthening measures as well as enabling them. This phase witnessed developments such as: adopting new agricultural technology known as the green revolution and nationalizing 14 commercial banks in 1969 and another 6 banks in 1980. Agricultural credit and rural credit were reformed by using a Multi Agency Approach (MMA) and then agricultural finance was well helped by commercial banks. This period witnessed establishing of two new institutions which were the farmers' service society and the regional rural banks. Reforms witnessed a second phase that was following the Committee on Banking Sector Reforms recommendations in 1998 as this phase stressed on aligning the Indian standards with the international best practices through improving transparency levels and improving disclosure standards as well. This followed the banks nationalization phase in 1969 during the last decades, specifically the last four decades. India has a commercial banking system that developed to be branched to two main parts; scheduled banks and non scheduled banks. Scheduled banks include scheduled cooperative banks and scheduled commercial banks which include four types of banks which are :Public sector banks such as SBI state bank of India, private sector banks which turned to be old ones and new ones which mean those banks established after 1991, foreign banks in India and the regional rural banks that refer to the banks that help farmers in rural areas by credits and other aids. The mentioned Indian banks are under the Companies Act except the foreign banks. The scheduled banks mean the banks registered under the Second Schedule of the Banking Regulation Act of 1965 under the conditions of : having a capital which is paid up and less than 500,000 Rs of reserves, satisfying the Reserve Bank of India. (Nandy, 2010) The development of commercial banks of India included developing human resource and its management so as to promote the banking industry to reach best levels of services. India has a changing economic scenario which forces banking systems to cope with it by being supported with strong bases of human resources especially in commercial banks as they need an environment of service oriented business which in turn need good bases of business human resources, well trained employees, good business environment and a good working environment with employees who really belong to the business. (Rohmetra, 1998)

The Development of Specialized Banking in India

Specialized banks of India are various are of all types of financial institutions. These institutions are providing various financial services according to the specialty of the bank. These banks provide their clients with services as well as participating in the India economic developments through many certain missions. There are some Indian financial institutions that their work is on both the central level and the state level such as : Industrial Development Bank of India, The Industrial Financial Corporation of India, ICICI and Export Import Bank of India. Specialized banks developed to meet the needs of the clients and there are some of them mainly establishes for serving clients such as institutions set for providing services for their clients in specific domains such as housing, agriculture, railway, scale business, roads, power, shipping, Islamic services and others. There are some specialized financial institutes in India that witnessed developments in guaranteeing products to export companies such as India Ltd, Export Import Bank of India and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India. There is a great growth in the Indian Banking Sector that helped the Indian society to progress and enhanced its economic growth. Rural banking in India has improved for providing poor rural societies with services and small loans and such development was under the umbrella of the Reserve Bank of India RBI.

The RBI has shared a lot in the development of India specialized banks as it prepared a panel led by Nachiket Mor as this panel had a goal of letting specialized banks be catered to low income households. Such specialized banks will provide all Indian citizens with the chance of having a bank account in 2016 in addition to facilitating payment, deposit and withdrawal operations. Among these specialized banks that the panel provides are the Payment Banks which enable small projects of low income households to be set up by the help of payment services the banks provide. (Jagranjosh, 2014)

Among the specialized banks in India is the National Housing Bank NHB which helps a lot in promoting the housing development in India. This bank witnessed great progresses and developments as since 1999, the bank has witnessed many reforms and progress as the bank is following a plan of adding new technologies and techniques for adapting commercialization as there are programs for promoting farming systems, getting experts from outside India and using advanced banking technologies to provide the best services for its clients. (agritech, 2014)

Islamic banking is a type of specialized banks that India is taking serious steps towards establishing such type there to provide the Islamic banking services for Indian citizens. This type of banks is not going to accept deposits but it will be only used for investments and this will increase the venture capital activity of banking industry in India. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already started an era of reviewing and studying setting up Islamic banks in India and its regulations as India is a country that contains many Muslims who will welcome these types of specialized banks that can provide services of Islamic banking as Murabaha and others. An internal committee has been set up by the central bank of India to discuss the matter and examine it according to everything required to achieve it. There are some countries that practice Islamic banking in the Middle East and other areas of the world and they are set following Laws of Shariah and this Indian model will be different from conventional banking in two major things which are not allowing receiving or paying interests and investment prohibition in any matter that Muslims consider sinful such as trading in alcoholic substances, making them, doing pornography or gambling activities. Islamic banks need discussing and relooking into their regulations which is very important before setting them up and this matter was revived with the new development of the Indian Central Bank which witnessed opening many differentiated banks with great diversity in specialties in India such as payment banks and smaller banks and Islamic banks as a start for a new era of banking development in India. Reforms in the Indian banking sector involved developing new types of specialized banks such as Islamic banks and others.    (firstpost, 2014)

Diversity in the Indian banking and the new developments also occurred in new private banks and also foreign banks which are also considered types of specialized banks and India is witnessing great developments in such banks as after 1993, there have been many of such banks serving many people which raised the competition among banks and in turn enhanced the Indian economic society a lot. Deregulation of interest rates for both deposits and also for advances raised the competition between the various types of specialized banks and other banks as well. Commercial banking also revived as a result of this and this also created a new space for emerging new specialized financial institutions such as mutual funds and housing financial companies and others as banks sponsor them and this began since 1996 and 1997 and developed to reach a good level today. Another type of specialized banks in India that the Indian government has stated its launching is the new Private Local Area Banks(LABs). Rural savings will be much helped by such banks as they could be easily mobilized and channeled within local areas into investments. There are set guidelines that the RBI has issued regarding establishing these banks and this was since 1996 and were approved then that seven of these LABs can be set up in the private sector. Then the RBI agreed that five LABs can be licenses in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat. The guidelines for establishing these banks that were issued by the RBI in the year 1996 provided a chance for new investments and developments of the Indian banking industry in general and in developing of specialized banks specifically and this lead to great development in Indian economy and trade.(Shodhganga, 2014)

Conclusion    

Banking industry is considered a great source of refreshing the business market in any country and this made all countries give great interest and care for developing their banking industry through developing the banking systems, banking services, updating the technologies used in these banking institutions and training their employees on using new and modern banking systems. This evolution helped both clients and banking systems and this raised the space for competition among banks which could be of any type. Commercial banks have great roles in upgrading the economic levels in any society as they can provide many services for business entities and businessmen whether for small or huge projects that help governments develop and progress. India is one of the most leading countries in developing its banking system and in creating new reforms in the old banking systems to refresh and promote its commercial life and economy. India is a country that has a good base of commercial banks in addition to the many types of specialized banks such as Housing banks and Import Export banks and others. India is thanked that it is also continuing in creating new specialized banks such as Islamic banks for example which is a matter that attracts more clients and lets more individuals share in developing the economy of India. The RBI has many good steps and participated a lot in developing Indian banking through creating many specialized banks and also developing and reforming the existed Indian banks.      

Leading and Management Majis Company Oman

Introduction

Employee engagement can be one of the most important business strategies today as it is used by many experts in business organizations in order to enhance the company's performance and retain the employees by making them master their skills and feel home in their organizations. Employee engagement can help the company gain more profits and avoid much loss through the better relationship between the organization and customers who are well treated by effective well engaged employees. The current research is a discussion and a critical analysis for both literature and experience of the Majis Industry Service Company. Literature is investigated in order to find some theories, views and models to be applied for employee engagement and the discussion will be about how the company apply different theories and frameworks to engage employees, it also aims at improving the company's employee engagement through presentation of some recommendation in this concern. (Jha et al, 2014)

Literature Review

Markos and Sridevi, (2010) discussed the meaning and definition of employee engagement and how far it is needed for business organizations, they explained that it can be both feelings and emotional state of employee and the way they react in the business tasks they have to finish.. They explained also that this way of reaction can help the organization develop and improve its reputation and market situation or on the contrary can reduce its performance and effectiveness, this is based on the levels of employee engagement and how far employees are really engaged and satisfied. This was also mentioned by other views as those of Adjovu and Kaliannan, (2015) who confirmed that any business entity that needs to develop its performance and apply change should focus on the employee engagement and should seek new techniques and strategies for applying it in the way that makes employees better perform and more able to express the organizational values and achieve its goals.

AlMehrzi and Singh, (2016) discussed how many business organizations use employee engagement as tool for employee retention and confirmed its importance in this issue as when employees are properly engaged, they can feel more satisfied and then feel better about their situation in the organization, this is right but there should be more elements for employee retention as according to the views of Dajani, (2015) employees are in need for other business strategies and retention elements, he referred to communication, team work, motivation and empowerment as other relevant factors that can influence the employee engagement and improve it if used effectively. Another view was presented through the work of Smith and Markwick, (2009) who said that engagement is able to present many advantages to the organization such as raising its profits, maintaining customers' trust and improving the brand and its reputation in the market through a very strong force that deal directly and indirectly with clients which is the human resource that when properly engaged can lead the organization to higher levels of success and achievement.

Al Mehrzi and Singh, (2016) discussed employee engagement through an experience applied on the UAE public sector as they explained that the public sector in the UAE is applying employee engagement but without the right usage of different strategies and techniques for it and then it is not successful or achieving better results, they confirmed through their views that application is not enough as there should be specific frameworks and systems for it in order to improve productivity and profitability of the business organization. Another research conducted by Roy and Siddhanta, (2010) confirmed these views adding that engagement can improve the performance of employees as well as the organization when other factors and conditions are regarded and evaluated by the organization such as employees' financial state, their satisfaction, empowerment needs, physical comfort in the workplace and the levels of cooperation and communication with managers or even within each other. They discussed that there should be plans for employee engagement, frameworks and satisfaction or the results will not be those desired by the business organization and there will not be the needed levels of competitive advantage. 

Taran et al, (2017) discussed a very important and interesting theory related to employees engagement which is the social exchange theory that depends on social behaviors of employees and how to guide them towards the organizational behaviors and the values of the organizational society, the theory should be studied by managers and applied according to the needs of each organization. Arpitha and Sa, (2015) also presented a framework for being applied by business organizations that want to apply effective employee engagement as the framework makes a dependent variable that is embodied in the employee engagement and a mediator embodied in the motivation therefore leadership and teamwork representing the independent variables. These variables can work together to maintain employee engagement and encourage them to participate in the different activities of the organization. Managers have to study the framework and apply it according to what is needed from employees and the organization.

Discussion

In Majis Industry Service Company, the employees are engaged and are encouraged to be engaged by the effective strong leadership system that gives employees many chances for working in groups as teams and empowering them to be leaders within teams and taking other different leading roles, this helps employees feel more satisfied and self –confident in the workplace and then their performance is improved and their work outcomes are better. They are encouraged to receive several training programs in many areas related to the business and this motivates them and encourages them reach higher promoted levels of jobs so they feel belonging to  the company and work as part of it. The leadership policy is to be honest and flexible with employees as they are encouraged to express all their needs, complaints and suffering s with their managers and bosses in order to help them engage together and solve each other problems. The company regards financial matters and raises employee reward levels in order to motivate them, this can be done with money or without it. The organizational goals and values are basic components of the engagement process because employees behaviors are based on the organizational behaviors and values. The company uses many frameworks and models to apply changes and engage employees within them. The Sohar Aluminum applies many strategies for engaging employees into the work such as cooperative team works that work together to fulfill certain number of tasks and then the work is rewarded for the whole team. Leaders here are able to communicate directly with employees and realize how they feel and what they need in fact. They can express complaints, stress and sometimes they ask for more comfortable things and the leadership is very effective and these acts make the company management for people is effective and great. Talent management is another strategy that is used for engaging employees as leadership tries to focus on the very specific talented people in the company and send them for training as when they finish training, they are able to train their colleagues in office and raise their awareness regarding engagement. There is a plan for current and future needs of employee engagement as the leadership of the company plans for future employee empowerment based on the percentage of success they achieve in the current development program and on the needs of employee and the company. The leadership styles used in the company can be effective as the company uses transformational leadership style that is effective in applying change and is helpful in maintain employees and encouraging them to communicate with the manager. This makes the company effective and gain different competitive advantage on the local and international levels, the company also encourages leaders to change the leadership styles to suit the different business situations, needs of employees and needs of the organization.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, the employee engagement is a concept that is widely used today in business organizations that try to improve its competitive advantage an reach higher levels of success. Employee engagement is important in making employees satisfied and retained in the business organization. It can help them feel more belonging to the company and try to achieve better levels of success and achievement. There is a number of effecting factors on employee engagement such as communication, empowerment, satisfaction and communication. Employees can be encouraged by leadership to present their best of performance in order to improve the peorfrmance of the company and they should be motivated to do this. There are many levels of engagement in Soahr Aluminum Company applied by its transformational leadership that wishes to reach competitiveness and succeed in the Omani and international market. The comp any uses different models and theories for engagement of employees in order to help them understand the need for employee engagement. The company is recommended to do the following pieces of advice:

1-training managers on a variety of strategies for employee engagement.

2-Looking for methods to make employees more close to each other and stop any conflicts or misunderstanding based on cultural diversity.

3. Setting a general strategy for the organization based on engaging employees in all activities, values and behaviors of the organization.

Leadership Dalem Oman Company

1. Create insights into your leadership style by answering questions about your personal leadership inside your organization. To enable critical assessment and analysis:

1. Identify within your organization the range of leadership mindsets. What evidence do you see in leaders to underpin your assessment?

2. Give examples of leadership traits you may have observed in the organization that typify the selected leadership mindset?
3. Apply the seven mindset theory to your key members of your team at your workplace.

The author is working at Daelim Petroface Company where the leadership uses different mindsets which are varying between the Grave's value system vMemes as there is a stress on the red and blue levels of thinking used by leaders who are preferring the usage of transactional leadership style. Leaders prefer the red level of thinking as they think that employees are only followers who should follow orders, rules and regulations only and be adequate and organized to rules, this makes the employees in a state of order but they don't feel at ease to innovate and create new ideas. The leadership also focuses on the purple level in order to raise the importance of the leaders themselves and raise employees' respect to them as this level regards the organization as a sacred place that needs to be respected. Many authors have discussed the leadership styles and techniques and how leaders can choose the leadership style and system in order to improve performance, for example, Rosen, (2014) discussed how leadership can lead to organizational change and he explained that the leaders are responsible for the means of applying changes and how to communicate the changes with employees in order to ensure effective change management. In Daelim, focusing on the red and blue and purple lead to lack of flexibility in applying the changes so the leadership is beginning to use the orange level to motivate employees, the green level to make them communicate and the yellow level to make them learn means for applying changes.

In Daelim, there are many examples and features for the leadership traits that relate to certain leadership Memes as leaders who are focusing on the transactional leadership style and are more attached to the purple, red and blue levels of thinking are always very strict, giving orders, following and monitoring employees and checking attendance and work flow but they are not interested in the way the work is done or in finding and encouraging new innovations and creations of employees. The work environment lacks flexibility and communication because leaders who are transactional are not communicative with employees and they don't give them time or allocate specific time for communication. According to Giiley et al, (2009) communication in the work environment is very important and leaders who are communicators are more effective in communicating changes, improving the work performance and raising revenues and profits of the business organization. They added that organizational change should be communicated with employees by flexible leaders who can choose the most effective leadership style that can better communicate such desired changes. Yet at the same time there are leaders who are trying to be charismatic and transformational and they have traits that relate to the orange level of thinking and the green and the yellow levels as well as the turquoise, those leaders have traits such as patience, communication, listening to employees, discussing problems and suggestions, flexibility, motivating employees and training them and educating them on the new innovative ideas and techniques that are able to bring the changes to the organization and present new ideas and products to the market.  

The author is working in Daelim within a team and there are members in this team, each member has a style of work and these styles can be related to the mindset theory as the leader of the team prefers the orange and yellow levels of thinking as he likes to motivate team members, encourage them to innovate and suggest new ideas and he also likes to educate them as the yellow level of thinking as he sees training and learning are very important for development and progress of performance. Other members are rather transactional than transformational as they have different views of leadership and the work flow, they think that following rules and orders of the leader is better than being inspired as they here relate to the red and blue memes as they think orders and rules are much more important when it is to work within a team as they think it is easier for them to follow rules and orders instead of having the responsibility of committing mistakes. Llopis, (2015) discussed how the mindset theory can present different views for life and human thinking development and how leaders should be motivators not only giving orders. He referred to the importance of green level and how harmony and balance are important for the team. In the author's team some employees prefer the green level as they like to ensure good work atmosphere and environment where team members can cooperate together and present their best of work. Others see that dignity and respect are very important as the blue level of thinking and this is very good when it is mixed with other levels such as the orange and the green and others.

2. Having analyzed your own leadership and others within your organization, produce a reflection assessing your leadership capabilities and a plan for CPD development.
1. Highlighting your areas of growth, strengths and improvements.
2. Planning for present and future role taking into consideration everything you have read about leadership mindsets.

1. After you have designed your CPD, answer:

1. To what extent is your leadership style aligned and typical to that of your own organization.
2. How likely is your leadership style to be one that will support the organization change to become a key leading 21st century business.

Omar, (2015)  discussed how leaders can use a CPD plan in order to develop its leadership style, add new skills and experiences to his and develop its business as he added that a development plan is important in bringing in better results related to the leader performance and his organization performance. A CPD plan can provide many competencies and experiences for the leader as it sheds the light on his strengths, weaknesses and areas that require improvement. King, (2004) explained that the CPD plan is important in drawing a future vision for the leader regarding his skills and talents and it is also important to find out the areas of weaknesses and provide ideas for improving them, he added that the CPD should be focusing on the learning style of the leader, experiences, skills, ambitions, career and how to develop and improve them. It should also have main goals to be achieved and career goals in order to be reached currently and in the future. The author's CPD plan can be as follows:

Goals of the plan:

1. Finding out areas for growth, weaknesses and improvements in the author leadership.
2. Studying new levels of education related to the business field and other areas such as human resource management, IT, computer and languages.
3. Improving performance and efficiency.
4. Training on different things in the organization and outside it or even by oneself.
5. Trying to apply many different leadership style via taking many different leadership roles.
6. Achieving personal ambitions and organizational ones in order to reach job satisfaction and success.
7. Having better career opportunities.
8. Being empowered and working in different teams.
9. Presenting new innovations and suggestions related to the business field.
10. Adding skills, learning styles and new skills.
11. Being more communicative and communicating changes.
12. Facing different challenges and finding new effective solutions for them.

Strengths

There are some major strengths the author has such as the following ones:

1. The ability to think in a creative way, think critically and provide innovations and new ideas that add to the work quality.
2. Working in busy and difficult work environment and conditions.
3. The ability to work under pressure and less time.
4. Delivering work on time and following schedules and plans.
5. Working with teams and under leadership.
6. Applying and communicating changes that are able to improve performance and results.
7. Having the abilities to analyze, compare and relate results to conclusions and discussions.
8. Doing effective researches and discussions.
9. Accepting different roles within the job and responsibilities.
10. Inspiring others to provide new work ideas.
11. Having good communicative skills, listening skills and talking and discussing skills.
12. Dividing work and roles according to the needs of the work and the time.
13. Managing time and plans.
14. Training team members when learning new things.
15. Working with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Growth

The author has to focus on the following points for growth:

1. Time management:

The author has to find new techniques and strategies for managing time such as scheduling, planning on the short term and long term, saving time and making tasks in short time.

2. Languages:

The author is in need for learning new languages and enhancing the current levels of the English language in order to be able to work in a cultural diversity work environment.

3. Speaking skills:

The author has to learn effective speaking skills that can help in communicating with team members and other people in the organization in addition to clients.  

4. Leadership styles:

The author is in need to try different leadership styles such as transactional and transformational leadership styles.

Improvements

The author has to improve many areas in order to develop current and future potentials and among them are the following:

1. Research and education:

The author has to do different types of research using many methodologies and at the same time more educational courses should be taken in many areas.

2. Goals setting and planning:

The author has to be trained on setting different types of goals and put plans for current time and for future.

3. Communication skills:

The author should do much effort in adding communicative skills in order to be able to communicate changes and other ideas within the work environment and team.

4. Innovation and creativity:

Innovation and creativity are according to Horth and Buchner, (2014) very important for any leaders as they are enabling the leader inspire team members for being creative and innovate new products and ideas that can develop the business and achieve competitive advantage.

Current and Future Role taking

The author has to work according to a clear vision that is related to the role taking currently and in the future. Roles taking relates to the needs of the organization, the market and the experiences of the author. Roles can be changed according to the business needs and leadership capabilities.

The author is following a transformational and charismatic leadership style that according to McCleskey, (2014) is a motivating and innovating leadership style that is based on the charisma of the leader who is able to inspire the team members and guide them towards providing new ideas and innovations that can improve performance of the individual and the organization. He added that a transformational leader can find different motivation and compensation techniques that can help employees reach higher levels of performance and achieve competitiveness. The transformational leadership style of the leader is a flexible one that can help the organization implement changes and lead employees towards achieving the changes that can increase profitability and competitiveness.  

Khan et al, (2009) confirmed that transformational leaders are inspiring their followers to have self-confidence and self-efficacy through motivating them to work better and increase the level of success and achievement they have in addition to raise productivity by making employees feel belonging to the organization. They are also able to invest in human resources and train them to be leaders themselves. The author is trying to apply it in order to reach competitiveness and apply changes that are revolutionary and can bring the required consequences to the business organization. Jiang et al, (2017) affirmed that transformational leadership is that of the future and it is characterized with being flexible to receive amendments and updates so it is important to be implemented in the organizations that seek success and high effective change management and communication.

Language Acquisition

Introduction:

We are going to discuss language acquisition and how people acquire languages. When a baby is born , he doesn’t have a language but he learns his mother language from the people around him , we need to know how this happens and the ways it happens . The new born baby gets language step by step till he is just like any one else. Many people studied that matter but they didn't understand it completely. The researchers who studied the way that children get their mother language from the beginning said that there is a relation between learning one's first language and genes. In fact this means that people have the instinct of communication like any other instinct . They are born and eager to talk and get in touch with others. They are born to explore everything around them so they need to communicate with it. (Tripp, S. (1973).

Yet this is not the whole matter, of course the process of language acquisition is more complex than this. That is mainly because language acquisition begins with birth and lasts to death. Yet here we are more concerned with the amusement of how young children, who come to this world with some kind of “clear brains”, gain and acquire such a complicated kind of knowledge across early years of their ages (Meadow, S. and Mylander, C. (1990).

Here we need to ask a question "How do the children acquire their mother languages?" Children are born with clean minds , the method of language acquisition is a problem itself as it is a complicated process begins when they are born and lasts forever . We are interested in knowing what happens when the new born children come to the world and gain languages in the very first years and if there is a specific method for this. (Meadow, S. and Mylander, C. (1990).

What does a language or a linguistic system mean in general?

Language acquisition is a very complex process that researcher and scientists tried to study deeply and put theories to understand it through linguistics studies. A Language is a complete system which has signs that could be vocal or written ones. Sometimes there are combinations of them. People use different languages in order to communicate with each other , to express themselves in society in a developed way to understand each other , to convey messages and to tell what they need and what they refuse in a way that is accepted by everyone.   

"How do children master a language in a short time?" This is the question that most researchers tried to answer. They needed to know the methods that children use to acquire a language . Researchers tried to find answers that satisfy them in this field. They reached many results regarding these studies . Many result confirmed that there are two main factors that make language acquisition faster and stronger . We are going to discuss  the nature of these factors and what they are exactly in the following paragraphs . We are also going to study the process of language acquisition in children and its stages.(Huttenlocher, J. and Smiley, P. (1987).

What factors affect children’s language development?

According to Stork and Widdowson , there are two main factors in the process of language acquisition . Studies discovered this fact and presented those two factors as the most important element in language acquisition. We can here discuss the two factors. The first one states that there is a big relation between language acquisition and genes and that children are born ready to learn a language. The other one states that the environment plays a great role in language acquisition and also the cultural linguistic atmosphere in which language acquisition happens affect the process greatly.

Many studied in this field concluded that human beings have the capacity to acquire any language just like they acquired their mother language. They assume that there are stages in the process of acquiring a specific language. Here we are going to discuss and discover the factors that the language acquisition in children are affected with and also the stages in this process and its development. (Jackendoff, R. (1994).  

1- Genetic factors and the readiness for language acquisition:

When we talk about the genetic readiness then we mean the natural abilities humans have and that we are born ready for communicating with others and for using a system to convey our feelings and needs , this system is languages. In fact all children need to be socially involved and they need to express themselves . When they are born , they can identify what happens around them through understanding sounds and movements. (Pinker, S. (1994).

Every child have an amount of readiness which is different from other children. All children are born with a degree of readiness to learn and acquire a language. We all born with the ability to communicate with others and use a language to do this.

2- The cultural, environmental, and linguistic context:

Here we refer to the time used and taken to reach the level of mastering a language in children and the time taken to reach the real communication with adults.

3- The number of linguistically rich experiences that the child has undergone and:

This means the number of experiences that affect the process of language acquisition.

4- Emotional state of the child:

When the psychological and emotional state of the child is stable, this leads to having better ability in mastering the language and this makes the process faster.

5- The quality of intellectuality development of the child that mainly depends on the development of both the genetic as well as the contextual environment of the child:

Each child has a different level of intelligence than other children. This intelligent has two faces the first is genetic and the second is acquirable by the surrounding environment. Thus we could increase the instinct level of intelligence children are born with. Environment here means all the things found around the child, the place where he lives and also the people surrounding him who can play a role in letting him acuire a language and master it. (Kuhl, P. (1993).

6- Presence or absence of any kind of physical disabilities:

This means that the normal child who is not handicapped must be better in mastering a language than the handicapped one .

7- Problems that occur during birth:

Medical problems that happen during birth or even in the first years of a child's life may affect the whole process and delaying any progress in it.

Stages of language acquisition development:

In order to know the way the process of acquiring a language in children and get benefits from it , we need to know all the stages and how they really happen . We also need to study those stages in order to discover how language acquisition happens.

There are a great number of researchers whose studies were in the linguistic field .Jean Piaget(1896-1980) is one of the leading and most famous ones. "The Cognitive development" is his theory in which he tried to explain the mental structure and the features of development . He had a very famous book which is called "Language and Thoughts of the Child" in which he discussed language and the mental process happening in a child's mind until he is a grown up adult. He stated that there are some specific stages which each of them has its own characteristics . Those stages are very important to Piaget that he considered them to be the tool that we can use to strengthen the child's cognitive development as well as the development of his way in acquiring languages. (Piaget, J. (1972).

Piaget has stated the stages as follows:

Sensory-Motor Stage: age (0-2 years)

Senses and motor abilities are those factors which develop in this stage. All sensory aspects in a child develop increasingly in order to gain a good level of understanding all surroundings in the environment a child lives in. This also includes the increasing of the linguistic knowledge into a child's mind.

Preoperational Stage:

Here the end of the latency period comes. When we refer to the latency period we mean the storing time in which the child takes to record all sound and signs he listens to and see from the adults. The start of the preoperational stage is characterized with some symbols that the child use to convey messages of what he wants to express.

Concrete Operations Stage:

This stage is when the child is seven to eleven years old. The mental operations are beginning to be performed well . The child use more real levels of mastering the language.

Formal Operations:

After the child is eleven years old, this stage begins. This stage could continue till the child is sixteen years old. Critical thinking appears to have higher levels here. The child uses all the possible ways to express his problems ,his worries about the future and any thing he wants to experience. A high level of full mastering the language is really needed in this stage. Writing and reading are very important here.

We can also talk about the theory of Chomsky(1928) which is also relevant to this. The expression "innate grammatical system" is used by him to say that during childhood the child can acquire a language. He tells us that there is a very important specific period in which the child can gain and acquire a language. Here the child has all the abilities  needed for mastering a language. He here assumed that the child in this period is ready to get all the keys of a language to speak it efficiently. He assumed that a child can even acquire more than one language.

Conclusion and personal opinion:

At the end we need to say that language acquisition is a very complicated process which needs high levels of understanding and studying in order to be understood. We presented two studies of Piaget and Chomsky that discussed hypothesis of innateness and readiness of the child . They don’t give great interest in the environment and the surrounding circumstances and how they affect the process of acquiring a language.  Using rewards and punishment are two main important factors when acquiring a language according to Skinner .

Any language needs different skills in order to be mastered. I think it is important to understand those skills and how they work. Reading , writing, listening and speaking are the four language skills we should understand. They could be classified into two main parts: Listening and reading can be put in the first "decoding "category while speaking and writing can be put into a second "decoding" category. The four skills are very important when we want to master a language. It is important to study each skill and how we could be aware of the way to master each skill separately and with relation to other skills . In fact studying a language is a very enjoyable process which enables us  to study other languages.

Leadership and CSR

Introduction

Leadership is very important issue in any business organization that needs to succeed and reach competitiveness. Globalization today made it difficult for business organization to boost the market and then they all try to add too many values to their organizations via many different practices such as focusing on ethics and corporate social responsibility. According to Godkin and Valentine,  (2016) ethics are very important for any leader who wish to achieve competitiveness in the business organization as ethics are very important for all stakeholders, they are highly needed by those workers within the organization, clients, shareholders and other relevant stakeholders in the society locally and internationally , this is related directly to issues of corporate social responsibility as the organization can use them in order to prove how far it is interested in public welfare and can work as a working party in the local and international society. The current paper is a report presented for a manger of a company shedding the light on the different uses of CSR and ethics in the business organization, how far they are very essential and what they can add to the value of the organization, develop it and improve its profitability and productivity in addition to adding too much value and competitiveness in the market and global and local environment.

Discussion

There are many policies, strategies and techniques for ensuring and enhancing ethics and corporate social responsibility of the business organization, according to Singh and Singh, (2013) leaders who are able to emphasize ethics and apply them within the workplace are more able to communicate the organizational goals and achieve better results, they gain employees' trust and confidence which raises the employees' self -morale and make them able to express their needs, ambitions and complaints easily, those leaders are always encourage positive work-related outcomes via their positive behaviors as well, they respect employees, understand their needs and realize the differences among them which raises their opportunities in empowering each employee and each team based on the knowledge thy have about them. Leaders who are realizing the needs for ethics and CSR are able to enhance employees' attitudes towards effective and positive activities as they help employees participate in the public events, express themselves and the organization's value and represent a positive image of the organization. This was also confirmed by Jackson et al,(2013) who added that creating an ethical work environment by effective leaders can raise employees' job satisfaction and at the same time emphasize employees' positive response to CSR activities in their community locally and internationally.  The ethics leaders should focus on includes employees' human rights, promotion, reward, recognition, empowerment, progress, training, communication and equality within the workplace in addition to the rights of working under fair leadership that is developed and updated and understanding for their needs, the needs of the local and social society.

It is important as confirmed by Waldman et al, (2004) to focus on ethic codes and training for leaders in order to ensure their correct and accurate usage of CSR and ethics within the organization and the local and global community, the leaders are in need for the training in order to respond more effectively to the various events and activities relevant to ethics and CSR in the workplace and to enhance employees' required and needed work attitudes. Employees who are working with leaders who are well aware and educated about the benefits of ethics and CSR are more effective in using and applying ethics and CSR practices than others. This can be done by creating an ethical work environment that raises employees' awareness regarding ethics and CSR. There are different policies that companies can use for ensuing ethics and CSR and for introducing different standards that supervise and guide the implementation of ethics in the organization but Amato et al,(2009) referred that it is not enough to have such standards but leaders are responsible to make employees understand the standard and to ensure the right dissemination of it via the organizational structure. Training leader here can be effective and helpful as training will provide them with the required information and methodology to communicate the ethics and CSR standards with employees. Leaders are also responsible to communicate the needed values through the ethic policies they apply and there should be norms and practices that make employees able to realize the expectations of the workplace and personal ethics of leaders should also reflect the organizational ethics and they have to focus and share in the activities relevant to CSR. There are many programs for being used by leaders to communicate ethics and CSR such as communication channels, employees, governance, periodic ethic audits and reporting mechanisms. They have to choose from them based on the work environment, the nature of the business and the needs of employees and the society. 

According to Lam et al, (2015) Leadership should focus on sustainability as a basic of the organizations' CSR and this should include the different activities the organization is sharing at such as charity in the local and global society, educational programs, sports events and others that people are interested in, there should be sustainable principles the organization and leadership are following, organizations are responsible for presenting voluntary activities for the community where people can feel how far the organization is keen on their welfare, understand their needs and leaves effective and positive impact on their lives. This was also focused on by Strand et al, (2014) who added that environmental concerns are very important to ensure the organization's ethics and CSR as for example, the organization cans hare people in presenting them clean water, clean houses and better atmosphere by using clean materials and stop polluting the environment. Voluntary actions raises the confidence of people and stakeholders in the organization and this gives it good reputation which will in turn result in more profits and more effectiveness in the society. The organization should also show effective leadership who are more transformational in order to apply desired changes in the organization and outside it as a try for proving its effective leadership that can provide the society with better and more opportunities for solving their problems that represent great and general burden on them, for example, the organization can present opportunities for unemployed youth to work and others for the poor to earn a living or it can present free training and education courses for people in the community and local areas. This can raise the level of ethics of the organization, improve its position in the market and enhances its sustainable CSR practices. The effective transformational leadership is able to communicate ethics in the organization and help employees to share in the different activities related to CSR and sustainability by providing employees with the model they need to share in the public services and activities that are voluntary and prove the role of the organization they belong to in the local or even global society. The leadership can also face the challenges that employees may face and work against implementing ethics and CSR in the organization such as lack of time as the leadership can manage time effectively to ensure employees have the right time they can use to share in the different CSR activities, leadership can also improve the image of the organization by training employees and empowering them to be effective figures in the society related to the work they present for helping all stakeholders.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to refer to the need and necessity of ethics practiced by leaders in the workplace as they have to show respect and regard to all employees, fairness and equality in presenting chances for all employees and regarding the differences among them. The effective leadership should consider CSR and sustainability activities in the work environment, local and international society, they have to focus on the need to have good environment, share in different charity and voluntary events and activities regarding all stakeholders and their needs. This can raise the level of competitiveness and success of the organization and improving its image in the local and global society. It is important to train leaders to perform such role and they themselves have to train employees and empower them to share in the CSR activities representing the organization themselves and via their ethics and positive behaviors.