Universally effective and desirable leadership attributes Essay

Universally effective and desirable leading attributes - Essay ExampleEssential leading characteristics complicate leadership inspiration (feeling the need to lead but not by searching for power/leadership forcefully), drive, self-confidence (this accounts for emotional stability as a leader), integrity and honesty, knowledge, and intellectual ability. There is little proof that versatility, creativeness and charisma are traits that should be exhibited by leaders. Our belief is that the important leadership traits always set in handy in enabling a leader to acquire skills necessary for coming up with a desired achievable vision and victorious the necessary measures in the implementation of the vision. This is a paper that is interested in highlighting the effectiveness and desirability of leadership traits universally with regard to being an world-wide leader. I will show, in this paper on universal effectiveness and desirable leadership attributes that are constituted and exhi bited by an international leader, illustration and just about examples of the traits that an international leader should exhibit. Leadership has been described by some as the procedure of public influence that one individual can solicit the cooperate and assistance of other plurality in a bid to successfully perform and conclude a prevalent task. Another common definition of leadership is that it is a process in which a particular person influences a group of people for the achievement of a common vision. (Northouse, 2007, p3). A leader is that give tongue to to be the person in charge of the group accomplishing the task. He is the one with the ability to his influence and other traits while commanding a group for the feat of the desired task. Concepts of leadership In accordance to Bass, the concept of leadership declares that there exist three primary approaches to describe how individuals are initiated to leadership (Bass, 1990, pp. 20). The approach visualized in the first two describes the leadership growth for some individuals. One of the concepts of leadership is that a person may rise to the occasion when an important number or a looming crisis occurs making the individual to behave like a leader and exhibit some of the important traits necessary for leadership. An example of such a leader is Nelson Mandela. He grew up in randomness Africa a normal person like any other but due to the invasion of South Africa by colonialist he rose to the occasion to fight for the independence of his people and this made him recognised as a hero. This is called the great events concept. The other trait is referred to as the Trait concept (Schwartz 2010). This is the concept that says that some individual traits will act as a natural guide to people that will lead them leadership tasks/roles. The third concept is the process or transformational leadership concept. It states that leadership traits can be learnt and thus people have the ability to become leaders b y choice. Global leadership The interdisciplinary research of the key components that leaders of the future in all areas of the personal expertise should obtain to successfully get old(prenominal) themselves with the emotional, physical, regional, anthropological, geopolitical and sociological results of globalization is referred to as global leadership (Hayes, 2011). Global leadership takes place when a person or a group of people get around collaborative initiatives of distinct stakeholders through ecological sophistication towards a perspective by utilizing a global attitude. As an effect of styles, that emerge at colonialism and get perpetuated by the increase in press channels, advancement that come to being due to interconnection on networks

Conduct of Monetary Policy in Kuwait Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Conduct of Monetary Policy in capital of Kuwait - Essay ExampleThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) renowned The fastest pace of economic expansion since the 1990 Gulf war, combined with the oil-related terms of trade gains, has boosted per capita income by 34.5% during 2003-04 and helped build up assets for future generations at a drop pace. It added With oil determines likely to remain firm over the medium-term, Kuwaits medium-term outlook has improved and is likely to remain favourable, supported by large fiscal and current-account surpluses, and low inflation.The Kuwait economy is characterized by sound creditworthiness which in turn reflects sustained macroeconomic constancy, good governance, twin surpluses (the government budget and current-account), manageable domestic debt (17% of GDP in 2005), the sophisticated banking sector and huge net (official) external assets.Overall GDP growth has been increasing at a steady rate from 2001 to 2005 due to the stability of the mone y append. Through a judicious application of effective open market operations, the key bank was able to mop up excess liquid in the system resulting in a unchangeable economic growth. The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has imposed a ceiling on the credit to fixate ratio. It was implemented in order to address prudential concerns over rapid expansion of credit to the private sector in recent years without a parallel increase in bank deposits. Kuwaiti banks are, however, heavily capitalised and liquid. The capital adequacy ratio remained comfortable (17.3% as of end-September 2004), well above its minimum regulative level (12%). In 2004-05, asset quality improved further and net profits and returns on equity/total assets also rose significantly. The Kuwait central bank had reined in liquidity growth in order to attain macroeconomic stability. This policy resulted in a minimal increase in M2 supply from 9646.3 million Kuwait dinar (KD) in 2001 to 10401.2 million KD in 2002. This st rict monetary policy resulted in a high increase in the megascopic Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 11584 .5 million KD in 2002 to 14253.5 million KD in 2003. At the same time, inflation remained at respectable levels from 0.89 portion to 0.98 percent during the same period. The GDP climbed steadily from 14253.5 million KD in 2003 to 17466 million KD in 2004. The M2 supply increased however slightly from 10401.2 million KD in 2003 to 11655.2 million KD in 2004. The GDP scored a big leap from 17466 million KD in 2004 to 23588 million KD in 2005. Steady monetary policies kept the M2 supply level from 11655.2 million KD in 2004 to 13088.2 million KD in 2005.On the macroeconomic front, the authorities have pursued prudent monetary/fiscal policies, thus underpinning price stability and the exchange rate peg. Consumer price rises have averaged just 1.4% annually over 2000-05, thanks to a stronger currency and subdued import prices. The Kuwait central bank has maintained very stabl e exchange rate levels to maintain stable inflation rates. This effective policy has resulted in minimal inflation rates. The Kuwait dinar has been appreciating vis-a-vis the US dollar mark from 2001 to 2005. The exchange rate was 307.36 dinar to 1 US$ dollar in 2001 compared to 299.7 dinar to 1 US$ in 2002. Inflation rate at 2002 was only .89 percent. The local currency further appreciated from 299.7 dinar to 1

American Ideology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

American Ideology - Essay ExamplePolitics, like diplomacy, is the art of the postponement of hostilities, in the way people try to resolve their political, economic, and ideological differences. However, it is a fact that people will still try to bicker and debate on their differences in spite of the best efforts, because some people have a hard set of ideas or ideologies which cannot be swayed. This is in effect the essence of democracy, in which various ideas are welcomed and tolerated. Ideology can range from the extreme left (very liberal) to the middle to the extreme right (conservative) and this brief essay is a position paper as it examines twain these two ideologies. Discussion Ideas are rarely truly original or innovative, most of these ideas are either mildewd by earlier ideas or mere improvements or adaptations of much earlier ideas in human history. In this regard, history works in only a one-way street, which means earlier ideas can influence later ideas, as people g o through their lives and human history unfolds in a deterministic way. This philosophy postulates that every human idea, action, and decision is a consequence from prior events or antecedent state of affairs. Along this line, history and ideology works in the same way nothing exists in a vacuum and both Hitler and Einstein were also influenced. Question No. 1 favorableism is an economic, political, and social principle which states that the general public (the common masses) should own and statement public properties or the so-called commons (the natural resources open to everybody for exploitation and their use) it further advocates public ownership of the means of production in society, such that thither will be no private ownership of these same means of production for goods and services. Socialism is an adverse reaction to excesses of a unornamented-market capitalism which arose out of the industrial Revolution in England back in the eighteenth century it (the Industrial Re volution) changed the wealth paradigm from ownership of vast tracts of land to ownership of the means of production, namely the new factories and assembly lines. This is a new economic system but the new class of capitalists exploited the masses of laborers by hiring them at subsistence wages, working in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, no minimum working hours and no minimum or living wage, the widespread use of child labor, and the repression of progressive social ideas such as labor unions or in not letting the workers voice be represented or heard. Socialism therefore is in impedance to the main and cherished ideals of capitalism that are centered on egoism and self-preservation through the so-called invisible hand of Adam Smith in which free markets are supposed to be self-regulating and all are to be supposedly benefited by the profit motive. But modern economics show this does not really always work out as envisioned because capitalism implies fierce competition in free mark ets and this leads to undue wealth accumulation by a few individuals (the capitalists or new elites of society). Modern economics always struggle with issues of scarcity and fabianism is the best way to solve it. Albert Einstein believed that humanity are capable of going beyond Veblens so-called predatory phase in the collective human experience of social development, which is reason for socialism to be adopted as the best system for human society. Reason is the key to achieving the social-ethical

Ethics And Governance Essay Example for Free

Ethics And Governance EssayIt raises the interelated suppositions of undivided compensates, fairness, equality and entitlement. The principles vary in numerous dimensions. These issues look the appropriate distribution of companionable and economic benefits and related costs. There ar five principles included an equal office for separately exclusive, a share check to the needs of each case-by-case, a share according to the efforts of each individual, a share according to the social contribution of each individual and a share according to the merits of each individual. There are three theories of distributive justice included Libertarianism, utile and Egalitarianism. Libertarianism border on It is a theory that defends unlimited laissez-faire capitalist economy as the solely morally justified regime. Libertarian required for the maximization of freedom and liberty or the minimization of violations in these as long as the corporations wear thint harm others freedom an d not breaking the law. Following Locke, Nozick, the entitlement theory depends on the original acquisition of holding, the legitimate transfer of holdings to/ frame others and the illegal acquisition of holdings.Libertarianism is doesnt consider actual distributing in society. It bastardlys that the right of every individual to unlimited utilization of his own person (self-ownership) and the right to unrestricted, or relatively mildly limited, appropriation of external resources with push through suffering others and fraud from these transactions. In addition, an individual has exclusive right to all the goods that are product of example of his talents and efforts and he has either the right to appropriate all natural resources, which he finds and takes before others.Whether the distribution is just depends solely on how holdings were acquired. Property rights are derived from an individuals basic moral rights, which take priority over all social or legislative arrangements impo sed by society. This theory is interested only in this that the above procedures are satisfied and that nobody has used violence to take some goods from others. Forceful intervention of the state for the sake of helping the poor people is not allowed. Therefore, any taxation involves violating of libertarianism and allowing some people to own other people.As my choosing company PARKnSHOP Supermarket which organized by Hutchison Whampoa Limited, it is affecting surround that stop handing out shaping bags automatically for customers. For libertarian view, they have used the libertarian approach on their corporate actions and the legitimacy of their actions. The customers have their freedom and choice and right to buy something with plastic bag. Everyone kwon that the plastic bag offered by PARKnShops which is not good for the environment. However, most of people like to buy something with plastic bag because they have their freedom and self-ownership.For libertarian, it is ethic for PARKnSHOPs can offer biodegradable bags and do the promotion on use biodegradable bags and involuntary levy on bags to the customers. It is because PARKnSHOPs is rewarded so long as they are not breaking the law and dont harm others freedom. However, its has some arguments against the libertarianism. It is because any taxation and helping environment involves violating of libertarianism. But, it always helping environment and do a lot of community activities such as involvement in the Say No to Plastic Bags campaign. Utilitarian approachUtilitarianism is the ethical doctrine that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility. Following John Stuart Mill, utilitarian approach is a theory that takes as its primary aims the attainment and concern with maximum possible personal cheer of a society as a whole, which should eventually determine what is just or unjust behavior. This goal is to be achieved in such a way that one first checks what makes every particular individual in a society happy, then sums up all these various wants and preferences, and finally finds out how to satisfy the greatest number of them.John Stuart Mill hold that the society can receive more return from the more streamlined laborer and it is just that talented workers can receive the greater remuneration. It is obtain efficient us of the resources if allow people to benefit from labor. A redistribution of resources increases general happiness of a society. However, the arbitrary and great disparity of distinctions and advocate strict equality whitethorn cause the unjust behavior and may cause social breakdown. It is because it would have an adverse influence on the working motivation of the able individuals, and thereby on the overall wealth of the society.Therefore, the utilitarian standard is essential for resolving any conflict between rival principles of justice and increases the allover happiness of a society. The chief(prenominal) task is to find a balance between factors that point towards equality and those ones that go against it. It seems that the utilitarian view can be found in PARKnSHOPs. For PARKnSHOPs, it come to with the maximization of happiness of society. Its has providing a lot of jobs opportunity for the people. Also, PARKnSHOPs are willing to do the supports community programs, which operate at the grassroots level, ordinarily focused on local, global environment-related issues.Its always giving back to society and help to create a better end and achieved to the utilitarian. However, it is not mean that can justify the ends. It is because the plastic bag of PARKnSHOPs is a big problem. The research from the Friends of Earth (HK) shows shoppers want a bag whose need to pay 20 cents for each one. If the levy is constrained, they will initiative to reduce plastic use. One of the reasons of this research is because of they have already build up a habit of using plastic bags. They are driving a chang e with making profit and contributions.It is a big problem and not concerned with the maximization of personal happiness and argues to the Utilitarian View. Egalitarian approach John Rawls explores the egalitarian approach and tries to determine principles of just society with the help of hypothetical contract among members of a society. His hypothetical introduces the notion of an abstract social contract to establish principles of justice. It is supposed by John Rawls that individuals who make this contract primarily care for their self-interest, that they are rational, well informed almost human nature and functioning of society, and that they are placed under so called veil of gnorance. They are also assumed to know nothing about those of their characteristics, individual situation and circumstances that might influence impartiality of the decision-making. In egalitarian, that all members of a society should have the equal social, political, and economic rights and opportunitie s. John Rawls addressed that each person has equal right to the most extensive scheme same basic liberties and defends this notion that every individual would be assured justice as equal treatment for all once the veil of ignorance is removed.In addition, John Rawls addressed that social and economic inequalities are to meet two conditions. The two conditions are economic inequalities are allowed but only if they benefit even the least advantaged individuals and attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair quality of opportunity. The basic social structure, not the transactions between individuals, should establish justice as a cooperative project for the reciprocal benefit of society, and minimize the socioeconomic consequences or stochastic natural differences between people.For PARKnSHOPs, the stakeholders of it is included employees, customers, suppliers materials, wholesales, creditors, government and the environment society. It seems that the equali tarianism can be maintained. Its paid the high taxes. Its has always been committed to servicing the community through involvement in the territories many social services for all stakeholders as well as charity work such as World Wide Fund for Nature.In addition, they are care about the welfare of people and built up the Li Ka Shing Foundation for the people who in hospital, education, construction and support the community activities and benefit people worldwide. Its help people in need around the world and gives the equal social, political, and economic rights and opportunities for the people. It is the mutual benefit of society, and minimizes the socioeconomic consequences or random natural differences between people. Moreover, Its gives the equal job opportunity to the minority and women.

Meaning of Education Essay Example for Free

Meaning of Education EssayRecently, a university professor wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. He commented that people shouldnt put too much weight on the recently released trends in SRA scores of the evinces high instruct students. The professor went on to describe some of the unanswered questions about the nature and value of assessment. He mentioned that one of the problems with assessment was the ongoing disagreement on the palpablely intend of culture. A few days later, a scathing response was printed from a community member who questioned whether the University really wanted someone on their provide who didnt even know the purpose of education.Clearly, this soulfulness assumed that his definition of education was shared by all. What is the meaning of education? Webster defines education as the process of educating or seeing (now thats really useful, isnt it? ) Educate is further defined as to develop the friendship, skill, or character of Thus , from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the experience, skill, or character of students. Unfortunately, this definition offers little unless we further define backchats such as develop, fellowship, and character. What is meant by knowledge?Is it a body of information that exists out thitherapart from the human thought processes that developed it? If we look at the standards and benchmarks that have been developed by many statesor at E. D. Hirschs list of information demand for Cultural Literacy (1), we might assume this to be the definition of knowledge. However, there is considerable research leading others to believe that knowledge arises in the mind of an individual when that person interacts with an idea or experience. This is hardly a new argument. In ancient Greece, Socrates argued that education was about drawing out what was already within the student.(As many of you know, the word education comes from the Latin e-ducere mean ing to lead out. ) At the same time, the Sophists, a group of itinerant teachers, promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to gain positions with the city-state. There is a dangerous tendency to assume that when people use the same words, they perceive a situation in the same way. This is rarely the case. Once one gets beyond a dictionary definitiona meaning that is often of little practical valuethe meaning we assign to a word is a belief, non an absolute fact. Here are a couple of examples.The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning it should produce non learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together. Eric Hoffer No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the sympathy and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The labour of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. Emma Goldman The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality.The training he needs is theoretical, i. e. , conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort. Ayn Rand The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to thinkrather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. Bill Beattie The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions. Bishop Creighton The central job of schools is to maximize the capacity of each student. hum Ann Tomlinson These quotations demonstrate the diversity of beliefs about the purpose of education. How would you complete the statement, The purpose of education is ? If you ask five of y our fellow teachers to complete that sentence, it is likely that youll have five opposite statements. Some will place the focus on knowledge, some on the teacher, and others on the student. Yet peoples beliefs in the purpose of education lie at the meat of their teaching behaviors.Despite what the letter writer might have wished, there is no definition of education that is agreed upon by all, or even most, educators. The meanings they draw to the word are complex beliefs arising from their own values and experiences. To the extent that those beliefs differ, the experience of students in todays classrooms can never be the same. Worse, many educators have never been asked to state their beliefsor even to reflect on what they believe. At the very least, teachers owe it to their students to bring their definitions into consciousness and examine them for validity. Purposes and Functions.To make matters more complicated, theorists have made a distinction between the purpose of educatio n and the functions of education. (2) A purpose is the fundamental goal of the processan end to be achieved. Functions are other outcomes that may materialise as a natural result of the process byproducts or consequences of schooling. For example, some teachers believe that the transmission of knowledge is the primary purpose of education, while the transfer of knowledge from school to the real world is something that happens naturally as a consequence of possessing that knowledgea function of education.Because a purpose is an expressed goal, more effort is put into attaining it. Functions are assumed to occur without directed effort. For this reason its valuable to figure out which outcomes you consider a fundamental purpose of education. Which of the following do you actually include in your planning? Acquisition of information about the past and present includes traditional disciplines such as literature, history, science, mathematics Formation of rosy social and/or formal relat ionships among and between students, teachers, others potentiality/ability to evaluate information and to predict future outcomes (decision-making)Capacity/ability to seek out alternate solutions and evaluate them (problem solving) Development of mental and forcible skills motor, thinking, communication, social, aesthetic Knowledge of moral practices and ethical standards acceptable by society/culture Capacity/ability to make do and evaluate different points of view Respect giving and receiving recognition as human beings Indoctrination into the culture Capacity/ability to live a fulfilling life Capacity/ability to earn a living career education Sense of well-being mental and physical health.Capacity/ability to be a beloved citizen Capacity/ability to think creatively Cultural appreciation art, music, humanities Understanding of human relations and motivations Acquisition/clarification of values related to the physical environment Acquisition/clarification of personal values Se lf-realization/self-reflection awareness of ones abilities and goals Self-esteem/self-efficacy As Tom Peters reminds us, What gets measured, gets done. Regardless of the high appear rhetoric about the development of the total child, it is the content of assessments that largely drives education.How is the capacity/ability to think creatively assessed in todays schools? To what extent is the typical student know and given respect? How often are students given the opportunity to recognize and evaluate different points of view when multiple choice tests require a iodin correct answer? Teachers who hold a more humanistic view of the purpose of education often experience stress because the meaning they assign to education differs greatly from the meaning assigned by society or their institution.It is clear in listening to the language of education that its primary focus is on knowledge and teaching rather than on the learner. Students are expected to conform to schools rather than sc hools serving the needs of students. Stopping to identify and agree upon a fundamental purpose or purposes of education is rare. One sees nebulous statements in school mission statements, but they are often of the Mom, baseball, and apple pie variety that offer little ticker on which to build a school culture. Creating meaningful and lasting change in education is unlikely without revisiting this basic definition.At the very least, educators must be challenged to identify and reexamine their beliefs in the light of present knowledge. It is time for the focus of education to shift from whats out therethe curriculum, assessments, classroom arrangement, books, computersto the fundamental assumptions about and definitions of education held by educators and policymakers. NASA did not send men to the moon by building on the chassis of a model T. In the same way, education cannot entrust to move beyond its present state on the chassis of 18th century education.

The Wave A movie Essay Example for Free

The Wave A movie EssayMotivation is a powerful force working in the psyche of every human mind that consciously pushes an individual toward certain tasks in order to reach a desired goal. In The Wave, a host of high train students desire to be apart of a community and to hold power blinded them of reason and moral, which eventually led them to a tragic downfall. In this movie, need played a crucial role in the gradual destructive behavioral changes of the students at Palo Altos Cubberly High. The psychological and behavioral changes initially began to evolve when a memorial teacher, Mr. Ross, encouraged students to participate in an experiment on forming a movement called The Wave. The students were immediately entranced by the idea and begin to follow every nurture given by Mr. Ross without hesitation. Soon, they were practicing the rules and drills of The Wave outside the history classroom by assimilated them into their regular everyday life. Soon, the students buried thei r previously learned values of individualism and worship to adjust to the newly formed community. This community later became almost cult-like, in which members were so intensely involved that they started to act hostile and sometimes violent towards anti-Wavers and non-members in the name of The Wave.The initial factor that influenced the history class to follow Mr. Ross ideas was inalienable motivation. The novelty of the experiment first triggered the curiosity of students and they performed every duty with enjoyment. However, as the group began to take the experiment more seriously, this seemly innocent interest turned into an obsession. Students used the movement as an excuse to harass and intimidate other children. They instanter remain not only for inner-pleasure but also for power. Other students from outside the classroom also fell under the spell of The Wave. These later recruited Wavers motives were not intrinsic for their sole reason for joining was to gain approval f rom their peers and to avoid harassment.Mr. Ross provided, with his experiment, an environment where a persons inner fascism can emerge and take control. The Wave worked as a metaphorical switch that turned on some hidden unconscious desires for individuals to shut their mind and to live a simpler life by accepting orders from aconfident leader who insist that he has all the answers. Most people possess the need to identify with a group that shares a common objective. However, sometimes this need only motives people to do what is good for the group instead of what is good for themselves as individuals. Many students in this movie failed to see the larger go out of how The Wave was robbing them of their right to opinions, individuality and freedom.The Wave is a powerful and emotional journey that opened our eyes to the existence of fascism in the most unlikely place, a high school in California. The movie demonstrated how people could easily be manipulated under certain circumstance s and blinded by artificial motives. equitable as the Germans fell under Nazis rule during Hitlers reign, other groups or community like the high school in The Wave could also easily begin the next victim of fascism.

Gym Cultures Prominence In Society Cultural Studies Essay

Gym Cultures Prominence In Society Cultural Studies EssayGym culture holds a prominent place in contemporary society. Studies1 cerebr consume on the physical dimensions of self-concept document the significance placed on physical appearance in evaluations of self-worth. The inconsistency between the real and ideal self is an significant trigger within lycee culture and this relationship is comprehensively and tailtly exploited by media narratives and advertising images. Roland Barthes asserts that an imitated object makes something appear which remained invisible, or if iodine prefers, turbid in the natural object. Structural man takes the real, decomposes it, then recomposes it.2 Unravelling the means by which texts and images recomposed the original is at the centre of structuralist analysis.Concepts of semiology developed by Ferdinand de Saussure form the dry land for structuralist methodology. Saussure rejected the conventional view of the lingual sign as a name attached to an object in favour of the notion of the linguistic sign as a two-sided psychological entity.3 The word sign is employ to describe the whole created through the combination of the signified (signifie) and the descriptor (signifiant). The signifier is the materiall(a)y perceptible component such as a sound, picture or written mark whilst the signified is the conceptual message. The relationship between the two, jibe to Saussure is arbitrary, founded entirely on well-disposed convention. Signs employed in the discourse of gym culture habitually focus on bodies. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 all aim images of young, slim, and attractive1 Maguire, J. and L. Mansfield, No-bodys perfect women, aerobics, and the body beautiful Sociology of Sport Journal 5, 2 (1998) 109-137.2 Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago The University of Chicago Press, 1995.3 The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford Univers ity Pressbodies. The relationship between the photographic images, the signifier, and the concept of youth, health and attractiveness, the signified, combine to create the sign. Roland Barthes however noted that this moulding focuses extensively on denotation to the detriment of connotation.In his initial investigations Barthes distinguishes between two forms of reference denotation and connotation. Conventionally denotation is referred to as the literal, primary sense or straightforward dictionary meaning, whilst connotation refers to the range of and associations that a word evokes in addition to its denotation. The connotations of a particular word be a conjecture sequence of qualities, contexts, and emotional responses commonly associated with that to which it refers. The context in which the word or phrase is used and the individual inclinations of the audience determine which connotations will be initiated. initially Barthes suggested that analytically connotation can be distinguished from denotation4 in the same way that a photographic image represents the denotation of what is photographed, the connotation is exposed through how it is photographed. Barthes however later concluded that denotation is not the first meaning, but pretends to be so under this illusion, it is ultimately no more than the last of the connotations (the one which seems two to establish and close the reading), the superior myth by which the text pretends to return to the nature of spoken communication, to language as nature. The two women in Figure 1 and the woman in Figure 3 are all pictured wearing long pants. The same particular item of clothing is denoted in both advertisements, namely pants. However in Figure 1 the4 Chandler, DanielSemiotics for Beginners(1994)pants are cargo pants whilst in Figure 3 the model wears jeans. Cargo pants connote youth, hip-hop and dance culture whilst jeans are associated with the everyday down-to-earth, girl-next-door. The style of pants selected reflect a range of connotations, the denoted image is inherently connotative. Barthes perspective exposes denotation as being no more natural than connotation but rather as stemming from a process of naturalization. Denotation is thusly proved to be a product of ideology. Images prevalent in gym culture discourse documents this well. Note the similarity between the models selected in Figures 4, 5 and 6. They are all slim, tanned and tall with long blond hair and have been selected to portray a specific image of femininity influenced by historical attitudes and social convention, which conforms to contemporary westernized ideology. Similar images are presented to both male and distaff consumers. Fitness magazine (Figure 5) features an image of American television host Kelly Ripa, with a byline suggesting that the magazine contains the secrets to how she got this buff, whilst the cover of Mens Fitness (Figure 6) has a byline suggesting that the magazine contains the secret s of how to gain hard abs, strong enough for a night with the featured Carmen Electra, glamour model and actress. Connotatively men should be arrest and muscular to attract their ideal woman, and women should strive to be that ideal- attractive, slim, tanned and blond. The selection of celebrities this physical represented ideal suggests that fame, success and wealth accompany the ideal. These associations formed by groups of signs create a cultural paradigm.In the same way the Zumba advertisement in figure 1 is designed to immediately invoke connotations of a gym culture paradigm. The images are of one male and two female bodies. Little of their faces, apart from smiles suggesting fun and happiness, can be seen reinforcing a focus on sorrowful bodies and physicality. Naked midriffs whilst emphasize muscled, slim bodies also invokes sexual connotations. Through metonymy the graphic example of a speaker emphasizes the role of music and its associations with parties, social interac tion. Strong work are used and orange, the adverts predominant colour believed to be invigorating as it increases oxygen supply to the brain is used to reflect joy, enthusiasm, creativity, attraction, success and stimulation. It is also used to attract attention as it is high visibility. The line Ditch the workout, join the party aligns working out with having a party. The word join is repeated quadruple times reinforcing the idea of belonging, identifying with and being part of a particular group. The language choice is deliberately relaxed and informal, to emphasize fun. The paradigm created is one of youth, music, party, fun, sexual attraction, dancing and fitness, with a focus on belonging.Figure 2 is an advertisement for a Sony water resistant walk-man. Sony employ an approach common to brand-name product advertising, one whereby their product is aline with culturally desirable paradigms, in this case fitness and health, thus advancing a connotative association between their product and other values their audience might hold. A young man is pictured, dressed in a vest he appears to have been running. The aim is to establish paradigmatic relationships between puzzle out and fitness and Sonys brand. In so doing Sony hope to include their product in a fitness paradigm and through this inclusion their brand comes to connote all that characterizes gym culture.Whilst Paradigmatic relations rely on familiar cultural associations to create meaning, syntagmatic relations create meaning through the sequence in which the signs are displayed. In Figure 1 the line Ditch the workout, join the party aligns working out with having a party. In figures 3 and 4 both advertisements rely on an alternative semiotic structure in addition to paradigmatic relations to communicate their message. Both advertisements offer promises of transformation, figure one blatantly telling us before and after. A syntagmatic relation can be represented by the connotative narrative, a sequen ce of associated events She joined the gym, exercised regularly, ate the right food, lost weight, and was thereby transformed. Because this is such a familiar narrative to us, the advertisement can invoke it and all its associations by just showing us a single image, the mirrored but subtly altered image of the women that represents the start and finish of the narrative. Our understanding of figure 4 relies on previously learnt and accredited conventions. Barthes identified these previously learnt and recognised conventions as cultural codes which could be utilized in structural analysis of texts. 5In contrast to the conventional commentary of myth as a traditional or customary story Claude Levi-Strauss and Roland Barthes shifted the emphasis of myth as a plot to myth as a way of thinking akin to a kind of ideology. Roland Barthes 1957 Mythologies brought to light how myths are part of everyday modern life. Barthes demonstrates an idea of myth as a further sign, its foundations in language, but to which further implication is added. To make a myth, the sign itself is used as a signifier, and a new meaning is added, which is the signified. This additional meaning is not arbitrarily, even if the reader is not aware of it. Historically determined circumstances are presented as natural. Predominantly media driven modern myths are created to publicise an impression of society that is5 Leak, Andrew N. Barthes, Mythologies. London Grant Cutler, 1994.compliant with current ideologies. The earlier discussion of the models chosen in figures 4, 5 and 6 is an example of how permeative myth can be. Barthes characterizes myth as ubiguitous6 being or seeming to be everywhere at once. The tall, slim, blond woman is unanimously presented to male and female consumers alike as the ideal women. In addition myth is axiomatic operating as a sort of fusion of fact and value, it is assertive. Axiological language presenting a theory as a fact is frequently found in advertising narratives. Figure 4 contains a good example inner everybody is a better body. Myths are not just narratives, but narratives mixed with other signs Figure 3 suggests, through a combination of images, graphic representation and narrative, that joining their gym will make you younger.Gym culture serves as a good example of how myth permeates consumer driven society. According to Barthes uncovering of the ideologic abuse hidden in the display of what goes without saying lies at the centre of structuralist analysis and serves to warn that since the theft of language perpetrated by myth is so astute that nothing appears to have been taken8 consumers are affected by it without even recognising its existence.6 Leak, Andrew N. Barthes, Mythologies. London Grant Cutler, 1994.7 Ibid.,8 Ibid., p57