Comparison Between Structure and Function of Human and Animal Eyes Assignment

Comparison Between Structure and Function of Human and Animal Eyes - Assignment Example This essay stresses that the human eye is adapted to sense different colors and lights of various intensities and adjust according to brightness. Color and light vision involves the simultaneous interaction between the two eyes and brain. When light from the object hits the eye, it is focused by the cornea and lens elements that form transform it to an inverted image. The image successfully transverses the aqueous humor, crystalline lens, gelatinous vitreous body, and vascular ad neuronal layers before it is focused on the surface of the retina. Rod and cone cells found in the retina detect the image, translate the light into a series of electrical signals, and transmit the signals to the brain. This report makes a conclusion that vision is insidious in the animal kingdom since; it is the sensory organ that is relied upon in finding reproductive mates, suitable food, shelter, and escaping from predators and danger. The study of human and animal’s eyes show wild disparities in their mode of vision and anatomical features. Human vision is presented as sometimes ineffective as in detecting infrared and ultraviolet lights, or overly sophisticated than that of felines. This study is important to help researchers to find cure for human eye diseases and explain the adaptation of animals to their environment. The visual perception of living creatures is dependent on how they process light using their photoreceptors.

Analyzing Pro Forma Statements Essay Example for Free

Analyzing Pro Forma Statements Essay The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer. The tagline for The Home Depot is â€Å"More savings more doing that’s the power of The Home Depot.† The catchy and recognizable tagline can be heard on nearly every TV and radio station in the United States. The Home Depot realizes that in order to maintain its title as the world’s largest home improvement retailer the company will need more than its catchy tagline. Therefore, The Home Depot has decided to extend the time in which small household appliances are available to its customers. Analysis of Pro Forma Data The Home Depot does not usually sell small house appliances like coffee pots, toasters, mini convection ovens, blenders, and irons through the year. The mentioned small appliances were only sold during the Christmas season. The Home Depot has decided to extend the time frame in which small appliances could be purchased. In 2014, The Home Depot sold the small appliances from the Christmas season until March 2015. The extension of the availability of the small appliances increased sales revenue by %. The increase in revenue prompted The Home Depot to employ the idea for the 2015 Christmas season until March 2016. There was an increase in revenue of % for 2016. The same model was used for the Christmas season of 2016 to March 2017, and again there was an increase in annual sales, %. The Home Depot decided that since sales revenues were increasing each year with the extension of having the small appliance available to its customers that the store would sell the small appliance year round. So in 2017 The Depot made the decision to sell small appliance all year. There was an increase in sales for 2017 of %. There was an increase in sales for 2018 of %. Sales revenue increased % in 2019, which proved to be the most successful year. Conclusion The decision to extend the availability of small household appliances proved to be a very successful plan for The Home Depot. Annual revenue continued to increase each year that the small appliances were sold for a longer time frame to the customers. The decision to sell the small appliances throughout the year proved to be one of the best decisions that The Home Depot could have made. The company continues to run the catchy tagline â€Å"More savings more doing that’s the power of The Home Depot. The company also employed a new catchy tagline after the success of its 2014 plan. Now the new tagline â€Å"Let’s Do This† can also be heard on TV and radio stations through the United States. It is also proudly displayed on the infamous orange work buckets that only The Home Depot sells.

William Butler Yeats’ The Magi Essay -- The Magi Essays

William Butler Yeats’ The Magi   Ã‚  Ã‚   Briefly stated, William Butler Yeats’ The Magi is a poem about people who, upon reaching old age, or perhaps just older age, turn to God and the spiritual world for fulfillment and happiness. We are told in the footnote to this poem that, after writing The Dolls, Yeats looked up into the blue sky and imagined that he could see "stiff figures in procession". Perhaps after imagining these figures, Yeats debated within himself whom these pictures could represent. Yeats then went on to write The Magi, a poem which is full of symbolism, a literary technique that he greatly valued.   Ã‚  Ã‚   In the first two lines of the poem, Yeats writes "Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye, / In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones". Yeats is saying that when he looks into the blue sky, towards heaven above, he is reminded of all those people who have spent their lives "playing the game". These people have achieved great success and have many wonderful things, such as their "stiff, painted clothes," but still they feel as if their lives are incomplete. Despite everything they own and the pride they feel in what they have accomplished, they are not quite happy with their lives as a whole.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The fourth line of the poem, "With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones," clarifies for me that Yeats is talking about people of an older generation. He is certainly not talking about unsatisfied twenty- or even thirtysomethings. Yeats uses simile in this line to describe faces that are well worn. These faces belong to people who have experienced the stresses and strains of life. They are no longer vibrant and distinct, but are instead bland and unremarkable. These are people who ... ...and successful and are turning to God for solace. They are choosing to honor and revere him in the hopes of finding everlasting peace and happiness.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps Yeats wrote this poem out of frustration with his own life. Maybe he felt that he also was one of the "pale, unsatisfied ones". He may have been struggling with the strains brought upon him by success. He may also have been going through a time of indecision in regards to his own spiritual life. Whatever the reason for his writing The Magi, Yeats wrote a poem rich in symbolism and imagery that many people could then, and can now, relate to on a very personal level.    References Ellmann, Richard and Robert O'Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, 2nd edition.   New York:   W. W.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Norton, 1988. Urdang, Laurence, ed.   The American Century Dictionary.   New York:   Oxford UP, 1995.

Global Strategy

Compare and contrast standardized, concentrated and differentiated Global Marketing. Critically evaluate each strategy with an example from a global company to illustrate the differences There is a tendency for international corporate-level strategies to be substituted for global marketing strategies; namely, multi-domestic strategy to concentrated marketing, global strategy to standardized marketing, and transnational strategy to differentiated marketing. However, the borderline lies as the former focuses broadly on firm’s operations while the latter narrowly involves factors within the marketing mix that directly influences the customer behavior. Although this distinction is used to promote accuracy across the paper, there will be instances that corporate strategies, at least in their concept, can provide the necessary platform of discussion. With respect to product, standardized marketing differs from its opposite extreme concentrated marketing as products are introduced to a foreign country without any change*. Although the strategy is cheaper due to absence of research and development and other operational modifications, it can be expensive and unprofitable in the long-run. . Campbell Soup Company lost millions of dollars in England by using this strategy. This is where customization and customerization become crucial wherein decentralization about product features and designs are made suited to local customers. Nokia adjusted the voice recognition capability of cellular phones in the Asian market to adapt to its crowded streets while Mister Donut’s coffee cup and donuts were made smaller and lighter for an average Japanese consumer. Also, the adaptation implemented by Hyatt Hotels in Singapore with regards to feng shui was deemed to boost the profitability business. Lying in the middle, differentiated marketing seeks to achieve both the efficiency of standardized and local responsiveness of concentrated. As a result, the necessity for product invention plays vital role not only for faster reaction to market needs but also permanent realization of profits. The National Cash Register Company adjusted to relativity of product life cycle across different countries which constituted backward invention. It sold crank-operated cash register at cheaper price compared to global pricing to anticipate the local response to relatively unknown machine. Forward invention, on the other hand, gave Toyota a rationale to design specific vehicles to suit the budget of less developed countries. Although this strategy is very promising in the long-run, start-up product innovation/ research and substantial financing connotes risky venture to partake. With respect to promotion, the three strategies can be distinguished in the methods of branding, product name, advertisement and the use of media. The cost-effectiveness inherent to standardized marketing differs from concentrated as the former can take one message to reflect its intention. Considered an inappropriate promotional tool due to unique cultural and language nation factors, there are few global firms that use the former absolutely. Exxon’s â€Å"Put a tiger in your tank† was internationally recognized with still minor variations. In the contrary, the latter adapt or limit taboos and language context in the local market to avoid discouraging meaning like Dairy Association’s â€Å"Mist Stick† translation to German as â€Å"manure stick†. To prevent futility of promotions even tendency to adversely affect behavior, Carlsberg adapted the copy to suit the culture not for the whole country but to cities and its close neighbors. Differentiated marketing is the broad version of concentrated particularly in geographical markets as it tends to be national-bounded. The best illustration can be observed in different country restrictions on advertising. Cigarettes and alcohol companies must select another kind of media aside from television in countries such as Norway, Belgium and France since the legal system does not allow such its airing. In addition, Saudi Arabia does not allow them to present women in advertisement. As a result, not only differentiated is costly compared to the other strategies it also requires resourcefulness on the part of promoters. On other hand, relative to counterparts, the cost of advertisement has its larger return on exposure (upper hand against concentrated) and flexibility (against standardized). With respect to pricing, standardized model will price the same-level across different countries while concentrated can obtain at varied pricing according to internal and external factors to the firm. Standardized pricing is more resistant to government scrutiny since it inhibits dumping practices which is considered an unethical business practice. As a result, concentrated and differentiated pricing are more volatile for policing firms or governments especially in the growing presence of dumping areas and gray market. Stelco sued dumping practices in 2000 in a Canadian tribunal to resolve unhealthy competition form cut-price steel imports allegedly from the United States. The profit-based motive of cross-country distributors enabled them to establish price distortion. However, there are times that distortion is fair translation of cost incurred. Standardized pricing would be impractical for firms who usually ships merchandize form different country locations. In effect, the exporting firms have the right to increase the price due to transportation and tariff expenses. On the other hand, technology-based firms have the opportunity to use standardized pricing and still be operationally healthy and ethical which can be difficult and doubtful from the other models. On-line training that can be shared through internet-connection can have the same service charge across different countries. On a different approach, General Electric Company maintained a standardized pricing to its top 100 customers by augmenting service-oriented activities to counter the call for commodity prices of its products. As a result, it was able to prevent devaluation of its produce and even increase its profit margin to a record high. With respect to place, the choice of marketing model depends on the capability of the firm to establish retailing stores abroad and the complexity/ simplicity of distribution channels in the local market. For non-commodity goods, standardized place will depend on the former to remain competitive, if not possible. McDonalds have been expanding to numerous countries, although the home office still dictated accreditation of franchisee or building a subsidiary. In commodity products, Procter & Gamble had to address the issue of huge mark-up in the price of its soaps due to complicated distribution system in Japan which has at least five stages of channels before selling it to end users. In this case, concentrated place is likely to gain success in the local market that will also necessitate price escalation. Multinationals in India, which is characterized by millions of independent retailers selling commodity products, will also gain advantage when it used concentrated place. On the other hand, in automobiles, the use of differentiated place emphasized both the importance of having controlled host country office and adapted structure of channels. General Motors had ordered its country managers to coordinate its actions to top-managers in the headquarters to monitor sales but still they can respond to local distribution patterns. As a result, the consolidated performance of the firm improved. Differentiated place involves flexible coordination with the home office and host distributions. As long as the latter follows the regulation of the headquarters, the model will still be operational. Consequently, to exploit the advantages and anticipate disadvantages of the three models, there is a need to describe the required/ existing organizational structure to determine the firm’s appropriate marketing strategy. Concentrated model is likely to have operational decisions decentralized to overseas units to comply with local requirements such as cultural, political, economic and legal issues. Country units focus in competition with local firms and can win such competition because of its higher attention to local desires and needs making them customized. However, the model undermines the cost-effectiveness of economies of scale while coordination problems may arise due to unique mind-set of local and home administrators. Second, the standardized model has a centralized and controlled strategy maker through the home office initiative. The home office aspires integration and interdependence among subsidiaries to intensify the efficiency in producing the same products using the same technology and machineries with little need of research or product modification. At the rare times it developed a new product, its value to the firm is positively disproportionate as subsidiaries would impart the products success if the market respond to this innovation. Due to sharing of resources, coordination costs that can have internal/ personal costs increases. The model also undermines the potential of securing higher profits through local responsiveness while products tend to be mass-produced. Lastly, differentiated model would likely have flexible coordination between home office and subsidiaries. This allows the communication lop to be completed making its possible for a responsive home and subsidiary offices. Reconciliation, both financial and business, is important to have optimal gain in global efficiency and local responsiveness. As standardize model requires cooperation, this model has great emphasis on collaboration. Global Strategy Compare and contrast standardized, concentrated and differentiated Global Marketing. Critically evaluate each strategy with an example from a global company to illustrate the differences There is a tendency for international corporate-level strategies to be substituted for global marketing strategies; namely, multi-domestic strategy to concentrated marketing, global strategy to standardized marketing, and transnational strategy to differentiated marketing. However, the borderline lies as the former focuses broadly on firm’s operations while the latter narrowly involves factors within the marketing mix that directly influences the customer behavior. Although this distinction is used to promote accuracy across the paper, there will be instances that corporate strategies, at least in their concept, can provide the necessary platform of discussion. With respect to product, standardized marketing differs from its opposite extreme concentrated marketing as products are introduced to a foreign country without any change*. Although the strategy is cheaper due to absence of research and development and other operational modifications, it can be expensive and unprofitable in the long-run. . Campbell Soup Company lost millions of dollars in England by using this strategy. This is where customization and customerization become crucial wherein decentralization about product features and designs are made suited to local customers. Nokia adjusted the voice recognition capability of cellular phones in the Asian market to adapt to its crowded streets while Mister Donut’s coffee cup and donuts were made smaller and lighter for an average Japanese consumer. Also, the adaptation implemented by Hyatt Hotels in Singapore with regards to feng shui was deemed to boost the profitability business. Lying in the middle, differentiated marketing seeks to achieve both the efficiency of standardized and local responsiveness of concentrated. As a result, the necessity for product invention plays vital role not only for faster reaction to market needs but also permanent realization of profits. The National Cash Register Company adjusted to relativity of product life cycle across different countries which constituted backward invention. It sold crank-operated cash register at cheaper price compared to global pricing to anticipate the local response to relatively unknown machine. Forward invention, on the other hand, gave Toyota a rationale to design specific vehicles to suit the budget of less developed countries. Although this strategy is very promising in the long-run, start-up product innovation/ research and substantial financing connotes risky venture to partake. With respect to promotion, the three strategies can be distinguished in the methods of branding, product name, advertisement and the use of media. The cost-effectiveness inherent to standardized marketing differs from concentrated as the former can take one message to reflect its intention. Considered an inappropriate promotional tool due to unique cultural and language nation factors, there are few global firms that use the former absolutely. Exxon’s â€Å"Put a tiger in your tank† was internationally recognized with still minor variations. In the contrary, the latter adapt or limit taboos and language context in the local market to avoid discouraging meaning like Dairy Association’s â€Å"Mist Stick† translation to German as â€Å"manure stick†. To prevent futility of promotions even tendency to adversely affect behavior, Carlsberg adapted the copy to suit the culture not for the whole country but to cities and its close neighbors. Differentiated marketing is the broad version of concentrated particularly in geographical markets as it tends to be national-bounded. The best illustration can be observed in different country restrictions on advertising. Cigarettes and alcohol companies must select another kind of media aside from television in countries such as Norway, Belgium and France since the legal system does not allow such its airing. In addition, Saudi Arabia does not allow them to present women in advertisement. As a result, not only differentiated is costly compared to the other strategies it also requires resourcefulness on the part of promoters. On other hand, relative to counterparts, the cost of advertisement has its larger return on exposure (upper hand against concentrated) and flexibility (against standardized). With respect to pricing, standardized model will price the same-level across different countries while concentrated can obtain at varied pricing according to internal and external factors to the firm. Standardized pricing is more resistant to government scrutiny since it inhibits dumping practices which is considered an unethical business practice. As a result, concentrated and differentiated pricing are more volatile for policing firms or governments especially in the growing presence of dumping areas and gray market. Stelco sued dumping practices in 2000 in a Canadian tribunal to resolve unhealthy competition form cut-price steel imports allegedly from the United States. The profit-based motive of cross-country distributors enabled them to establish price distortion. However, there are times that distortion is fair translation of cost incurred. Standardized pricing would be impractical for firms who usually ships merchandize form different country locations. In effect, the exporting firms have the right to increase the price due to transportation and tariff expenses. On the other hand, technology-based firms have the opportunity to use standardized pricing and still be operationally healthy and ethical which can be difficult and doubtful from the other models. On-line training that can be shared through internet-connection can have the same service charge across different countries. On a different approach, General Electric Company maintained a standardized pricing to its top 100 customers by augmenting service-oriented activities to counter the call for commodity prices of its products. As a result, it was able to prevent devaluation of its produce and even increase its profit margin to a record high. With respect to place, the choice of marketing model depends on the capability of the firm to establish retailing stores abroad and the complexity/ simplicity of distribution channels in the local market. For non-commodity goods, standardized place will depend on the former to remain competitive, if not possible. McDonalds have been expanding to numerous countries, although the home office still dictated accreditation of franchisee or building a subsidiary. In commodity products, Procter & Gamble had to address the issue of huge mark-up in the price of its soaps due to complicated distribution system in Japan which has at least five stages of channels before selling it to end users. In this case, concentrated place is likely to gain success in the local market that will also necessitate price escalation. Multinationals in India, which is characterized by millions of independent retailers selling commodity products, will also gain advantage when it used concentrated place. On the other hand, in automobiles, the use of differentiated place emphasized both the importance of having controlled host country office and adapted structure of channels. General Motors had ordered its country managers to coordinate its actions to top-managers in the headquarters to monitor sales but still they can respond to local distribution patterns. As a result, the consolidated performance of the firm improved. Differentiated place involves flexible coordination with the home office and host distributions. As long as the latter follows the regulation of the headquarters, the model will still be operational. Consequently, to exploit the advantages and anticipate disadvantages of the three models, there is a need to describe the required/ existing organizational structure to determine the firm’s appropriate marketing strategy. Concentrated model is likely to have operational decisions decentralized to overseas units to comply with local requirements such as cultural, political, economic and legal issues. Country units focus in competition with local firms and can win such competition because of its higher attention to local desires and needs making them customized. However, the model undermines the cost-effectiveness of economies of scale while coordination problems may arise due to unique mind-set of local and home administrators. Second, the standardized model has a centralized and controlled strategy maker through the home office initiative. The home office aspires integration and interdependence among subsidiaries to intensify the efficiency in producing the same products using the same technology and machineries with little need of research or product modification. At the rare times it developed a new product, its value to the firm is positively disproportionate as subsidiaries would impart the products success if the market respond to this innovation. Due to sharing of resources, coordination costs that can have internal/ personal costs increases. The model also undermines the potential of securing higher profits through local responsiveness while products tend to be mass-produced. Lastly, differentiated model would likely have flexible coordination between home office and subsidiaries. This allows the communication lop to be completed making its possible for a responsive home and subsidiary offices. Reconciliation, both financial and business, is important to have optimal gain in global efficiency and local responsiveness. As standardize model requires cooperation, this model has great emphasis on collaboration.

Cooper Pharmaceuticals Case Analysis Essay

On the surface, the issue of Bob Marsh’s firing from Cooper Pharmaceuticals appears to be an open and shut case; he did not adhere to the repeated warnings by management to alter his performance and selling style, therefore he was fired. However, other considerations are in play when you analyze this case further. Bob was an employee of Cooper for twelve years at the time of his termination, and had seemingly improved his performance when prompted to do so. Bob was also exceptionally well received by physicians, office receptionists, and hospital personnel, which is a vital attribute when being a â€Å"detailer.† His persistent downside, though, was his lack of organization, planning, and follow-up, and a tendency to question some of the company’s major promotion programs. The central question to this case is, â€Å"how could this happen to someone like Bob Marsh in a company like Copper?† In my opinion, while Cooper Pharmaceuticals was not entirely withou t fault, Bob’s termination was primarily the result of his own actions, or lack thereof. Cooper Pharmaceuticals was a major manufacturer of prescription drugs for the medical and dental professions and had a reputation throughout the industry for having â€Å"excellent† management practices. The company fielded a sales force of over 500 detailers whose job was to persuade medical personnel to use and prescribe Cooper Pharmaceuticals’ drugs. Initially, Bob fit the mold of what was desired by Cooper in prospective employees. He was rated highly in his sincerity, aggressiveness, attitude, enthusiasm, learning ability, judgment, character, affability, and appearance; Bob seemed like the perfect fit. He was hired about a month after his initial interview and, much to his delight, was assigned to a territory in his hometown, Toledo. From there, Bob was seemingly ready to start his training and begin a long and prosperous career with Cooper. An effective sales training program is vital to the success of a company’s sales force. A training program should have a finite set of objectives: increased sales productivity, lower turnover, higher morale and sense of purpose, improved communication, improved customer relations, and improved self-management. It is also impor tant that companies provide a method for systematically reinforcing their training programs. Otherwise, salespeople are unlikely to change their behavior. The training at Cooper Pharmaceuticals, in principle, should have worked quite well. Employees,  including Bob, showed signs of increased sales performance on a year-to-year basis, and in 1989 sales exceed $1 billion. Turnover was low for their industry, around 8%. Also, 60% of detailers had ten or more years with the company, and 25% had fewer than five years. Each employee received a company car, generous benefits, and reimbursement for normal business expenses. Bob, while maintaining the same position as detailer, went from a starting salary of $35,000 in year one to a salary over $60,000 in his twelfth year. Bob received a month’s training in product characteristics and selling, or detailing, skills at Cooper’s headquarters. Aside from this training, both new and experienced detailers received regular training from the 35 district managers. This reinforcement was done so to ensure that all detailers mai ntained the level of expertise and professionalism requisite of a Cooper Pharmaceuticals detailer. From these facts, it becomes more apparent that the necessary skills to be successful were properly trained, informed, and reinforced in Bob by Cooper. Even from his initial interview with Cooper, there was one glaring fault Bob possessed: his seeming indifference to organization. His first district manager, John Meredith, felt that Bob gave little advanced thought to the physicians he hoped to see. Then, upon seeing the physicians, he had no definite plan or approach once in the physician’s office. From the beginning of this class, we learned that pre-approach is vital to the selling process. In this stage, information is gathered about the prospect to decipher the specific needs they have. As noted in the beginning of the case, Bob had many references from physicians and medical personnel. I believe that these relationships caused Bob to become lazy in his pre-approach and approach, and ultimately served as a crutch on which he began to rely. In addition to his lack of organization, Bob displayed more interest in developing his own promotional programs than in following the plans outlined at district meetings, and he would also second-guess promotions by deciding, on his own, which products to promote. This should have been a huge red flag for John Meredith. What would happen if a baseball player blatantly disregarded a sign and decided to swing when his coach told him not to swing? That player would find himself on the bench. If that player continually disobeyed his coach’s instructions he would find himself looking for a new team. In this instance, though, Bob was not benched. He was instead given a list of suggestions on how he could improve in certain  areas, including: * Should overcome the tendency to prejudge customers and promotion programs * Should be more responsive to management directives * Should give more attention to planning and organization As becomes evident as Bob’s tenure at Cooper Pharmaceuticals continued, he failed to adopt this initial list of suggestions, yet his employment perpetuated. After John Meredith, there was Bill Couch, then Jim Rathburn, followed by Vince Reed, Antonia Wilkens, and ultimately Ted Franklin. Six supervisors in a twelve year span is a high number. Then, when you consider the fact that many of them were young, motivated, and driven, it becomes clearer why Bob was able to keep his job. His sales numbers were constantly at quota, and there were no issues in terms of customer relations. By the time his deficiencies were noted, a new district manager was in already in place. It seems that Bob was aware of this trend and used it to his advantage. So long as he hit his sales quotas and kept customers happy, all would be well. The case states that every Cooper Pharmaceutical detailer was evaluated in terms of both sales volume and improvement in his or her relationships with customers. From this statement one could conclude that Bob should have retained his job. His sales volumes were constant yearly, sometimes increasing. He also, evident from the multiple inquiries from current customers upon his termination, maintained wonderful working relationships with his customers. The evaluation process at Cooper Pharmaceuticals is what perpetuated Bob’s employment with the company. While looking at just the sales numbers, Bob appeared to be a great employee. However, there are other factors to consider when evaluating employees. Most managers or supervisors would likely agree that they wished their employees follow their instructions when prompted to do so. To ensure that a case similar to Bob’s does not become the norm at Cooper Pharmaceuticals there are three steps that management should take. One, they should maintain a better record keeping process of employment evaluations. It is possible that because this example occurred during the 1980s, record keepi ng was maintained on paper rather than computers. However, that does not excuse an employee who repeatedly makes the same mistakes to be retained. Two, there should be a  more streamlined transition process for an outgoing district manager to pass on files/documentation to the new district manager. For example, Bob was placed on probation by Vince Reed that required him to improve performance to an acceptable level within 90 days. However, upon Vince Reed’s subsequent transfer, no one followed up on Bob’s performance. Bob’s probationary status had â€Å"evaporated.† Three, they should enact a three-strike policy. One could receive a strike for failing to reach sales quotas, not following management’s instructions, or falling customer relations. An employee would be fired following strike three. Doing this step would make the threat of termination a tangible thought, employees would be fully aware that constant missteps and mess-ups will not be tolerated. The thought of Bob Marsh being reinstated or there being any legal ramifications for Cooper Pharmaceuticals is laughable. Bob was given the chance to improve his faults on multiple occasions, yet he failed to do so for any extended period of time. He took advantage of the fact that each new district manager gave him the chance to improve. Then, his performance would slip little by little, but by this time a new district manager would be in place and the process would repeat itself. Not until Ted Franklin took over did the process change course. Ted looked over all of Bob’s previous deficiencies and realized that his record was not good and Bob would have to follow an outline given to him and complete weekly reading assignments. Not only did Bob fail to follow this agreement, he accepted his subsequent termination with little resistance or comment. The fact that Bob would call Cooper Pharmaceuticals and say he was treated unfairly is preposterous. He should be thankful for his twelve years of employment at the company and that none of his previous district managers were as competent or paid as close attention to detail as Ted Franklin. Yes, Bob appears to have maintained great relationships with his customers, and as we learned in class 80% of sales tends to come from 20% of the customers. So it is, realistically, a possibility that some business would be lost from the decision to terminate Bob. However, a company with the reputation of Cooper Pharmaceuticals should not keep an employee simply because a few clients from one sales region want him to be retained. Certain offers, such as incentives or promotions could be provided to these customers in attempt to ensure their repeated business and prove that not just Bob can provide great service and keep them happy customers. In addition, Cooper  Pharmaceuticals should, while not being defamatory or slanderous, fully outline the faults Bob possessed as an employee and effectively relay these as the reasons of his termination to Bob’s accounts. So, to answer this case’s central question, this termination happened to Bob Marsh because of Bob Marsh.

The Odyssey Essay

The Odyssey Essay The Odyssey Essay The Odyssey is characteristically classified as an epic though not all readers may find this book an epic. This book is certainly an epic since it is a heroic tale that is filled with many obstacles which the hero concurs. Also the tone that is used in the book is one of admiration which goes to increase the worthiness of the hero. This book is also full of supernatural powers that influence what is happening in the book. In this essay each of these three characteristics will be proved thus proofing that the odyssey is indeed an epic. Book one of the Homers Odyssey foretells what is going to happen in the next twenty three books of the Homer’s Odyssey after the incantation of the Muse, the book then vividly shows the events leading to Athena’s appearance before the council of gods to seek their assistance in bringing Odysseus safe and sound back to his kingdom of Ithaca. After Troy is destroyed, the Greeks try to go back home but are unable after they were cursed by the gods. The ones who make it are met by death upon their return. However, Odysseus is left alone on the island of Ogygia and is held captive for eight years by the beautiful goddess Kalypso. Odysseus tries to go back home but his journey is blocked by Poseidon the sea god as Odysseus had blinded his son the Kyklops Polyphemos. However, all the other gods apart from Poseidon are in support of Odysseus return home. Poseidon goes on vacation and the gods finally, in support of Athena, send out a messenger Hermes to instruct Kalypso to release Odyssyus after detaining him for seven years. â€Å"But now that god had gone off among the sunburnt races, most remote of men, at earths two verges, in sunset lands and lands of the rising sun, to be regaled by smoke of thighbones burning, haunches of rams and bulls, a hundred fold†.( Demilio) In the intervening time, Athena arranges to influence Telemachus to take action. She does this by Disguising herself as a loyal friend of the family, Mentes, she descends to Ithaca to convince Telemachus to hold an meeting, reprimand the suitors, and commission a boat with crew to journey all the way through Hellas seeking news of his father. The gods feast as they discus Aegisthus, Agamemnon and Orestes. This is due to the fact that Aegisthus had made love to Agamemnon’s wife unlawfully and after that he went out and killed Agamemnon. The gods found this a great folly on Aegisthus as Hermes had been sending to warn him of his actions though he Aegisthus would not listen. His unlawful actions caught up with him when Agamemnon’s son Orestes killed him for the death of his father. This assists Agamemnons son to evolve to manhood and he then wins himself his patrimony. â€Å"Dont kill the man, dont touch his wife or face a reckoning with Orestes the day he comes of age and wants his patrimony.†(Demilio) Telemachus had to obtain the support of the Ithacan elders the same way Athena held a meeting of the gods before she was able to get her plan underway. Athena said she will go to Ithaca to rouse Odysseus son to action. Telemachos complains to the congregation about the demeanor demonstrated by the suitors upon which he requests them to retreat to their dwellings. Two of the most important suitors, Antinoos and Eurymachos, are the potential candidates in this course. Antinoos whines about the way Penelope tricked them while she delayed her promise of choosing her husband. With Athenes assistance, Telemachos heads to Pylos, or the the city of Nestor. At Pylos, Telemachos is welcomed received by the king Nestor who narrates him stories of the leaving from Troy, the assassination of Agamemnon and the return of Menelaos. Encouraged by Telemachos’, Nestor narrates in more detail the tale of Klytaimestra and Aigisthos their scheme not in favor of Agamemnon, and Orestes’ avenging of his father’s murder. Telemachos and Peisistratos reach Menelaos palace and find king celebrating having a celebration. The following day, Menelaos narrates his close-up with Proteus, the Sea. Helen remembers how happy she was when Odysseus slayed many Trojans before he left. The Trojan women raised a cry but my heart sang for I had come round, long before, to dreams of sailing home, and I repented the mad day Aphrodite drew me away from my dear fatherland, forsaking all child, bridal bed, and husband a man without defect in form or mind. (Demilio) Odysseus is released by the nymmpho Kalypso and he goes to the land Phaiakians. When odessyeus disembarks at the fortress of Alkinoos he is accorded a place at the banquet and the king promises him that he will assist him to get back to his home. Odysseus narrates his return to Circes’ Island and how she alerted him of the threats they would get ahead. After he ends his story, Nestor starts to sum up the events of the Trojan warfare involving Telemachos, Odysseus son, but he gives up somewhere along the way, exclaiming: Odysseus and his son return to, though separately, to Ithaka. Odysseus makes himself known to his son and planned revenge on the suitors. He then returns to his palace. He returns dressed as a beggar. Penelope comes up with a contest to figure out the suitor she will marry. Each of them fails to shoot the mark with Odysseus bow. Disguised Odysseus is however, able to shot the mark and he reveals himself to the suitors. All of them are killed while the servants who were disloyal are punished. Finally, Penelope and Odysseus are reunited. ______________ is a professional essay writing service which can provide high school, college and university students with 100% original custom written essays, research papers, term papers, dissertations, courseworks, homeworks, book reviews, book reports, lab reports, projects, presentations and other assignments of top quality. More than 700 professional Ph.D. and Master’s academic writers. Feel free to professional essay help on The Odyssey from our professional essay writing service.

The Last Tycoon Essays - Films, The Last Tycoon, Free Essays

The Last Tycoon Essays - Films, The Last Tycoon, Free Essays The Last Tycoon Infatuating Idealism in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon Idealism Is undoubtably present in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon. Infatuation may be a better word, for that was exactly what possessed the main character, Monroe Stahr. He was totally engorged with one Kathleen Moore. He idealized Miss Moore as the second coming of his deceased wife Minna Davis. Stahr was a true man of men that had little to do with women since the tragic passing of his wife. He would rather put his feet up with a cigar and shoot the breeze with the boys. Yet once he laid eyes on Kathleen for the first time, all of that changed. It was love at first sight. Kathleen and Stahr meet after an earthquake rocked Los Angles. Stahr was surveying the damage done to the studio, when a prop came floating by with two "dames" clinging to it for their lives. A stage hand rescued and presented them to Stahr for judgement. That was the moment that would change everything. The following excerpt is a narration of what was going through Stahr's mind when he was struck blind by Cupid's golden arrow. "Smiling faintly at him from not four feet away was the face of his dead wife, identical even to the expression. Across the four feet of moonlight, the eyes he knew looked back at him, a curl blew a little on a familiar forehead; the smile lingered, changed a little according to pattern; the lips partedthe same." (Chp II, p.26) She was Minna, but she wasn't. All her features were Minna's, except her voice. "and then he heard another voice speak that was not Minna's voice." (Chp II, p.26) She was obviously British and not glamorous American, as Minna's had been. Nevertheless, she was a replica of his life long love. Stahr determined right then that she would be the next. Before he could get himself together, Kathleen was whisked away by the police for trespassing. Stahr spent the next few days trying to track her down. By this time he had fully succumbed to her rapture. On their third meeting, they happened to stumble upon each other at a posh Hollywood party. Her beauty brought back all the sensations that had trapped him initially. The scene was as follows: "...the white table lengthened and became an altar where the priestess sat alone. Vitality welled up in him, and he could have stood a long time across the table from her, looking and smiling...(while dancing) she was momentarily unreal. Usually a girl's skull made her real, but not this timeStahr continued to be dazzled as they danced out along the floor...." (Chp. V, p.73) Stahr wanted desperately to have her as is own, but she was not to be had. Unbeknownst to him she was engaged to be married. She tried to tell him, but could not. She too was in love. The romance that followed was of a whirl wind pace that ended with a "Dear John" letter. She could not bring herself to tell him in person. Kathleen had fallen in love with Stahr although she resisted it by the fact she was already involved with another man. His ideal was not to be realized. His ideal goddess was the beginning of Stahr's downfall. The simple fact that Stahr was unable to win Kathleen away from her fianc? causes him to become extremely miserable. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's own words: "Stahr is miserable and embittered toward the end." (Author's Notes, p.149) He continued to love her to the end, as he lost his life, he lost it lovelessly. All this fuss over a woman might seem a bit trivial, but in true love, nothing is trivial. Monroe Stahr idealized Kathleen Moore as the true cure to all his ills and loveless nights. To him, she was Minna Davis. In being, but not spirit, she was a replica. This theme of idealism is similar to what Richard Slotkin reflects as "the American dream of perpetual self-improvement and transcendence." (22) Stahr idealized Kathleen as his way of perpetual self-improvement. He believed that Kathleen was the ticket he was waiting for, the ticket to happiness and closure. His life

The American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society was an organization formed in 1816 with the purpose of transporting free blacks from the United States to settle on the west coast of Africa. During the decades the society operated more than 12,000 people were transported to Africa and the African nation of Liberia was founded. The idea of moving blacks from America to Africa was always controversial. Among some supporters of the society it was considered a benevolent gesture. But some advocates of sending blacks to Africa did so with obviously racist motives, as they believed that blacks, even if freed from slavery, were inferior to whites and incapable of living in American society. And many free blacks living in the United States were deeply offended by the encouragement to move to Africa. Having been born in America, they wanted to live in freedom and enjoy the benefits of life in their own homeland. The Founding of the American Colonization Society The idea of returning blacks to Africa had developed in the late 1700s, as some Americans came to believe that the black and white races could never live together peacefully. But the practical idea for transporting blacks to a colony in Africa originated with a New England sea captain, Paul Cuffee, who was of Native American and African descent. Sailing from Philadelphia in 1811, Cuffee investigated the possibility of transporting American blacks to the west coast of African. And in 1815 he did take 38 colonists from America to Sierra Leone, a British colony on the west coast of Africa. Cuffees voyage seems to have been an inspiration for the American Colonization Society, which was officially launched at a meeting at the Davis Hotel in Washington, D.C. on December 21, 1816. Among the founders were Henry Clay, a prominent political figure, and John Randolph, a senator from Virginia. The organization gained prominent members. Its first president was Bushrod Washington, a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court who owned slaves and had inherited a Virginia estate, Mount Vernon, from his uncle, George Washington. Most members of the organization were not actually slave owners. And the organization never had much support in the lower South, the cotton-growing states where slavery was essential to the economy. Recruitment for Colonization Was Controversial The society solicited funds to buy the freedom of slaves who could then emigrate to Africa. So part of the organizations work could be viewed as benign, a well-meaning attempt to end slavery. However, some supporters of the organization had other motivations. They were not concerned about the issue of slavery so much as the issue of free blacks living in American society. Many people at the time, including prominent political figures, felt blacks were inferior and could not live with white people. Some American Colonization Society members advocated that freed slaves, or free-born blacks, should settle in Africa. Free black people  were often encouraged to leave the United States, and by some accounts they were essentially threatened to leave. There were even some supporters of colonization who saw the organizing as essentially protecting slavery. They believed that free blacks in America would encourage slaves to revolt. That belief became more widespread when former slaves, such as  Frederick Douglass, became eloquent speakers in the growing abolitionist movement. Prominent abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison, opposed colonization for several reasons. Besides feeling that blacks had every right to live freely in America, the abolitionists recognized that former slaves speaking and writing in America were forceful advocates for the ending of slavery. And abolitionists also wanted to make the point that free African Americans living peacefully and productively in society were a good argument against the inferiority of blacks and the institution of slavery. Settlement in Africa Began in the 1820s The first ship sponsored by the American Colonization Society sailed to Africa carrying 88 African Americans in 1820. A second group sailed in 1821, and in 1822 a permanent settlement was founded which would become the African nation of Liberia. Between the 1820s and the end of the Civil War, approximately 12,000 black Americans  sailed to Africa and settled in Liberia. As the slave population by the time of the Civil War was approximately four million, the number of free blacks transported to Africa was a relatively tiny number. A common goal of the American Colonization Society was for the federal government to become involved in the effort of transporting free African Americans to the colony in Liberia. At meetings of the group the idea would be proposed, but it never gained traction in the Congress despite the organization having some powerful advocates. One of the most influential senators in American history, Daniel Webster, addressed the organization at a meeting in Washington on January 21, 1852. As reported in the New York Times days later, Webster gave a typically stirring oration in which he asserted that colonization would be best for the North, best for the South, and would say to the black man, you will be happier in the land of your fathers. The Concept of Colonization Endured Though the work of the American Colonization Society never became widespread, the idea of colonization as a solution to the issue of slavery persisted. Even Abraham Lincoln, while serving as president, entertained the idea of creating a colony in Central America for freed American slaves. Lincoln abandoned the idea of colonization by the middle of the Civil War. And before his assassination he created the Freedmens Bureau, which would help former slaves become free members of American society following the war. The true legacy of the American Colonization Society would be the nation of Liberia, which has endured despite a troubled and sometimes violent history.

Communication 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Communication 1 - Assignment Example Peers help us to understand our â€Å"social comparison† to others by creating social solidarity. Lastly, the generalized self can positively influence us by helping us to identify elements of personal identity which are viewed as important by the society. These elements include gender, economic class, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation and culture. For example, establishing an effective communication with people from different cultures is the most important source of personal identity. Understanding different cultures helps us to create a particular lifestyle. As a result, being able to communicate with people from different cultures not only helps us to create distinction, but it also develops solidarity at the workplace (Management Association, Information Resources 26). There are various ways that effective communication can affect our ability to understand other people’s communication. Communication involves the listening processes, which determine the amount of information we can gather in specific social situations. An effective communication therefore, determines how well we can understand others’ communication through the following ways: recalling, interpreting, receiving, evaluating and responding. For instance, responding involves the verbal or the non-verbal information we send to others during communication in order to show our attentiveness. As such, being able to communicate effectively can enable use to provide a positive feedback (Cormier, Nurius and Osborn

Organisational Information System-Bright Light Limited Essay

Organisational Information System-Bright Light Limited - Essay Example Apart from this there exists a high degree of interdependence between these departments. They need to constantly interact with one another to keep the business running. A lot of information needs to flow from one department to another in order to carry out their transactions. It may so happen that the ignition for the transactions in one department may come from the outputs of another department. Hence this clearly shows that there indeed is a necessity of some means of communication between various departments. The case of Bright Light Ltd is no different. If the transmission of this information among various departments is carried out manually then the maintenance and timely delivery of this information in the expected format would be a highly impossible task. This would be tedious, time consuming and inefficient. It is here that the need for an Information System would be felt. â€Å"An Information system is a formalized computer Information system that can collect store, process and report data from various sources to provide the information necessary for managerial decision making.† (Hicks, 1993) Information system being described here is concerned with not only a computerized application but it also considers the information regarding the organizational activities. An Information system can be specified with the help of the functions it performs. The functions carried out by the Information System broadly fall under five categories. These are namely: (Angell, 1991) Having these things in mind the following report would analyze the Information flow between various departments in the Bright Light Ltd organization. To facilitate this discussion the â€Å"General Systems theory† is chosen. The following discussion would include a brief introduction regarding the systems approach and the concepts used in this approach. This would be followed by identifying the departments in the BLL organization and an information flow

E-Commerce Cyber Marketing Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

E-Commerce Cyber Marketing Strategies - Essay Example Internet has become of the most phenomenon technological factor to most modern organizations, tapping the cost-effectiveness and affordability of the factor to achieve their objectives and goals (Krishnamurthy, 2006). As such, the internet has ingrained itself in the modern commerce and trade. Moreover, despite its rapid growth, analysts expect the internet to growth and advance further. The central goal of most organizations is to realize future threats and opportunities, and accordingly design a strategy. Commoditization of the internet has led to the development and evolution of electronic commerce, or E-commerce as commonly known (Hanson, 2000). Essentially, E-commerce refers to the concept of selling and buying services and products over computer networks or the internet. It incorporates technologies such as internet marketing, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, inventory management, systems, electronic data interchange, online transaction processing, and automatic data collection systems. E-commerce has led to the revolution of traditional marketing concepts, initiating strategies to enhance marketing strategies referred to as network marketing (Miletsky, 2000). This paper seeks to discuss and analyze four main E-commerce cyber marketing strategies: viral marketing, online advertising, permission electronic mail marketing, and search engine man agement and optimization. The paper also provides an analysis of their pros and cons, as well as a comprehensive comparison of the strategies. Lastly, the paper provides a decision-making criterion for selecting the best strategy. In marketing strategies, the most important factor to consider is to shorten the distance between consumption and production as well as reduce the lengthy circulation of commodities through numerous links. As such, the internet provides an ideal marketing platform, allowing consumers and producers to conclude their transaction in a click of a mouse button. This is the foundation of cyber marketing. Essentially, marketing is the communication between firms and customers with the intention of persuading the customer to purchase the goods and services of the firm. The increasing growth and popularity of the internet makes it an ideal target for marketing, supported by other significant factors such as cost effectiveness, reliability, speed, and accessibility (Bhusry, 2005). Consequently, marketers have come up with innovative strategies to tap the potential opportunity of E-commerce cyber marketing, including viral marketing, online advertising, permission electronic mail marketing, and search engine optimization. Viral Marketing Viral marketing essentially refers to the online word-of-mouth advertising. In this marketing concept, the firm provides something interesting that encourages others to spread marketing information about the product or service, cost effectively and quickly without much effort from the firm. Consequently, this potentially creates an exponential growth in the effect and visibility of the marketing message (Bhusry, 2005). In other words, the message spreads like a common cold virus form one person to the other. Cyber virus marketing is a very effective marketing strategy, and a successful campaign may present an opportunity of obtaining thousands of new every year. A prime example of a phenomenon viral marketing s trategy is Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com), the first provider of free E-mail services (Krishnamurthy, 2006). The firm began offering free accounts, attaching a

Health Care Finance in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Care Finance in the United States - Essay Example Some of the services offered are respite care, rehabilitation, and environmental modifications. For these services, Out of Pocket Payments are usually the largest sources of healthcare financing, paid directly by patients and are no reimbursable by an insurer or related third parties A new Gallup Daily evaluation reinforces the great level of inconsistency in health insurance coverage among U.S population segments. In general, health insurance coverage is lowest in U.S’ mid-twenties, a situation that is strongly associated with income, at a range from a low of 44% across 35-year olds earning below $25,000 per year to 100% amongst seniors above 60 earning the same amount per year. Of the total population interviewed by Gallup last year, an estimated 17% of the entire American population did not have a health insurance cover. As a reality with many features of American life today, the absence of health insurance is not randomly or equally distributed. There is a distinct income and age pattern when it comes to the population with health insurance. Among 18-year olds, 84% are insured. However, this relatively high coverage are presumably mirrors the fact that most of the youthful Americans are still covered by their parents’ insurance policies, though this changes immediately as they begin their twenties. Health insurance coverage comes to the lowest level of the total age range (66%) at the age of 22. Starting from this age, the percentage of the population insured begins to increase, albeit gradually, hitting the 95% level at the age of 65 when Medicare cover is formally available. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is inclusive of considerable new requirements designed to increase the rates of health insurance coverage. It includes the compulsory expansion of Medicaid programs to cover persons in households with incomes less than 133% of the federal poverty level, a necessity

Linguistics Discourse Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Linguistics Discourse Analysis - Essay Example The following pages are an analysis of note-taking as a genre. The method used for the study is secondary literature analysis. The books for reference have been obtained from local libraries and online libraries. The text used for the analysis of the genre has been provided in the work. Lecture notes are an important part of education. It is not always possible to obtain printed or written notes in the class room. Also, a lecture shall comprise of many pertinent points on the topic taken. It would be fine if the student is able to write it all down very soon, even if it is impossible most of the time and recording the lecture cannot be done always. Therefore, all that can be done is to break down the points and reproduce them in an understandable way on the paper. The systematic method of breaking the lecture into points and writing them down as codes which shall be decoded on the process of reproduction of the text or learning is called lecture notes. Lecture notes are a very important part of education. There are even examples of lecture notes which were assembled to form great books. The father of modern linguistics, Ferdinand De Saussure's notes was published as the book 'Course De Generale Linguistics' which is a great work in the study of linguistics. The art of lecture note making is seriously based on structure and it differs from person to person. This is because the arrangement of ideas about the same matter differs with different people's stream of ideas. Preparation of a nearly ideal lecture note Preparation of ideal lecture notes is quite difficult, although a lecture note can be close to ideal. There are a few steps that can be followed by students to make good lecture notes. 1) "Have the ideas about the previous lecture revised in the mind and be ready for the new lecture. 2) The student must have the necessary articles including pencil, eraser, ruler and whatever other things necessary with him/her before the lecture begin. 3) Once the lecture begins, he/she must take care not to leave out any points. That doesn't mean that the whole lecture is to be transcribed. They must be noted down as short notes emphasizing on the important aspects of the topic. 4) Standard abbreviations shall be used wherever necessary and above personal short forms which may become non-understandable after a while. 5) Copy what is written on the whiteboard and take care to omit unwanted articles, prepositions and the like. Filter and copy whatever is necessary. 6) Give special attention to points not given in the text book. 7) If there is a summary of the lecture at the end of the class, use it to cross check if some point is left out. 8) Re-read the lecture notes after the lecture or at least within twenty four hours. This would help the lecture to stay longer within the brain." (http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Lecture-Notes) The work presented here is an analysis of the genre of lecture notes taking by the analysis of the three texts shown below. It is localized to the teaching of English and respective note taking. Attached below are the three texts being analyzed

Health Care Finance in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Care Finance in the United States - Essay Example Some of the services offered are respite care, rehabilitation, and environmental modifications. For these services, Out of Pocket Payments are usually the largest sources of healthcare financing, paid directly by patients and are no reimbursable by an insurer or related third parties A new Gallup Daily evaluation reinforces the great level of inconsistency in health insurance coverage among U.S population segments. In general, health insurance coverage is lowest in U.S’ mid-twenties, a situation that is strongly associated with income, at a range from a low of 44% across 35-year olds earning below $25,000 per year to 100% amongst seniors above 60 earning the same amount per year. Of the total population interviewed by Gallup last year, an estimated 17% of the entire American population did not have a health insurance cover. As a reality with many features of American life today, the absence of health insurance is not randomly or equally distributed. There is a distinct income and age pattern when it comes to the population with health insurance. Among 18-year olds, 84% are insured. However, this relatively high coverage are presumably mirrors the fact that most of the youthful Americans are still covered by their parents’ insurance policies, though this changes immediately as they begin their twenties. Health insurance coverage comes to the lowest level of the total age range (66%) at the age of 22. Starting from this age, the percentage of the population insured begins to increase, albeit gradually, hitting the 95% level at the age of 65 when Medicare cover is formally available. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is inclusive of considerable new requirements designed to increase the rates of health insurance coverage. It includes the compulsory expansion of Medicaid programs to cover persons in households with incomes less than 133% of the federal poverty level, a necessity

Employee Empowerment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Employee Empowerment - Essay Example This implies that lower level managers and supervisors are expected to implement decisions made by top-level managers, which increases rigidity. Employees of the company are expected to follow strictly their supervisors and managers decisions without question. According to the employees, delegating some decision-making powers to them would enable them act promptly to improve the efficiency and manufacturing processes of the company for better performance. However, due to the bureaucratic nature of the company, the managers and the supervisors deny the employees such powers. The overall effect has been that the employees of the company are demoralized resulting in high labor turnover and subsequently the poor performance of the company in terms of productivity. It is based on this situation that the employees of this organization have made an appeal that they be reasonably empowered. Current Literature about Employee Empowerment Employee empowerment is a subject of great concern to bu siness and human resource managers. Employee empowerment refers to the strategy or philosophy that involves allowing workers to make decisions that affect their work according to Linda (1997, p.202). Bowen and Lawler (1995, p.35) on the other hand define employee empowerment as the act of enhancing employees’ involvement in organizational processes and decision-making. It basically involves delegating some decision-making powers to employees on matters affecting their jobs so as to ensure that organizational goals are achieved. Some of the ways of empowering employees include: allowing employees to take part in the decision-making process, delegating powers to them and offering them leadership positions (Wooddell 2009, p.16). Employee empowerment can be used to improve productivity, performance, service quality, customer and employee satisfaction, and the efficiency of an organization. Demirci and Erbas (2010, p.143) argue that companies need to manage and improve their emplo yees’ performance. This is achievable through empowerment. Empowerment, according to Demirci can be formulated through by considering four main dimensions namely: knowledge, power, information, and rewards. Alternatively stated, empowerment is the product of the four elements, information, knowledge, power, and reward. The dimensions are derived by taking into consideration the power of empowerment in enhancing the efficacy of employees. Lack of any one of the four elements might lower the overall degree of empowerment according to Shulagna (2009, p.49). Organizations now widely appreciate the fact that bureaucratic leadership in which where decision-making is squarely placed on the hands of top-level managers hampers flexibility and timely execution of duties down the line. On the other hand, it has been established that placing all decision making responsibility on the hands of lower level employees is a recipe for chaos and purposeless conflict (Bowen and Lawler 1995, p.78 ). Taking note of these facts, it is crucial for organizations to ensure that employees are engaged in decision-making by being empowered. The organization needs to develop a culture where employees are given the right to participate in decision-making especially on issues touching on their work. This will help in improving the effectiveness of the organization. Bowen and Lawler (1995, p.80) note that employee empowerment is an extremely powerful tool that organizations in the modern business environment need to implement as a way of improving their performances. One of the main results of employee empowerment is job satisfaction according to Wooddell (2009, p.15). Studies have shown that employee empowerment has a direct relationship with job satisfaction. In this regard, empowerment increases the satisfaction

Active Sports on Holidays Essay Example for Free

Active Sports on Holidays Essay The best-known from of this sport holiday is undoubtedly the skiing holiday. Skiing can pursued at different levels (beginner, experienced, simply for pleasure, or in pursuit of high performance and excellence ), by different age groups, and in different settings- at a ski school, a ski coursxe, a ski clup, or privately. Skiing is the classic example of sport tourism and the most populer of all winter sports activities. Every year it introduces 40-50 million visitors to the Europen Alps, with 40,000 ski runs and around 12,000 cable ways and lifs to support this popular holiday industry (Mader, 1998). From Britain alone it is estimated that around 653,000 people took ski holidays worth some US$321 million in 1991-92(Mintel international Group, 1992).0 the ski market is now said to account for around 20 percent of the total European holiday market. In the last 25 years the holiday market for winter sports has expanded to the extent that there are now holiday packages to suit many tastes and financial means. Skiing is no longer the preserve of high-altitude dwellers,nor is it limited to the rich and famous. Increasingly, with the provision of self-catering chalets and camp sites to complement hotels and clubs,millions of people throughout the has developed world can enjoy touristic experience of mountain beauty at the same time as learning to ski on all five continents of the world. Cross-country skiing,sometimes known as Nordic skiing or langlauf, has also become very popular. Because this sporth activity is easy learned and the equipment is less expensive than required for downhill skiing, it is practiced by many sportists. The fact that beginners can,from day one,enjoy langlauf in a circuit of loipe(i.e., twin-grooved tracksz) integrated in the countryside and free of the use of ski lifts are but two strong point of this sport(Clough, 1989). Snowshoes are the hottest new trend in winter recreation. Accourding to Schwiesow(1995), snowshoeing is the second fastest-growing winter sport behind snowboarding as outdoor enthusiasts for simpler, more convenient ways toget outside during the winter. Some other new trends are dogs sledding and ice fishing. Many of the best known winter sport resorts in the United States and Canada have at least one dog sled tour company from which to choose. Alaska is provably the best known place for dog sledding, the state’s official sport ( Sloan, 1995). Ice fishing is popular in Minnesota ;there are plenty of companies that will rent huts by the day, week or mount (Sloan, 1995 ). The model of the skiing holiday (that is,a holiday with a single sport as the primary intetion-offered an different levels to different age groups and under different organization forms ) has recently been adopted by varios other forms of sport. Holiday concerns, holiday organizations, (cultural ) societes, and private sport schools now provide holiday courses in sailing, gliding, riding, golf, driving, cycling, mountaineering, surfing and so forth. Cycling tours often follow the ski-holiday model. Nowdays there are hundreds of cycling holidays on offer, of all lengths, levels, and degrees of comfort. Some are organized by well-known cyclist, but very often people decide to organize their cycling holiday themselves. Cycle-friendly countries are growing in number. The world’s most cycle-friendly country is probably the Netherlands due to its low, flat physical characteristics. Bike paths are provided all over the Netherlands from the smallest village to the biggest town. Cycle weekends are also offered by youth organizations, communities, tourist boards, hotels, and so forth. Hotels especially are trying to reach the cycle tourists by offering half or full board, bike hire, and route maps, this is called a single-center or fixed point holiday because the tourists is based at one hotel orcampsite and takes day rides out from there to explore the surroundings. Some hotel chains offer hotel-to-hotel tours with accommodations each night in a different hotel; the luggage is transported by the hotel manager. More sophisticated are those bicycle tours that include not only a guide, but also a bicyle technician, a medical doctor, and support vehicle ( Cample, 1995 ). It is possible to take a cycling tour almost anywhere in the world. Reputable companies throughout North America and Europe operate bycling tours China, Africa, Vietnam, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bali, and Thailand, an deven high-altitude regions such as the Atlas Mountains and Tibet. Since the mid-1960s, the bicyle has divided into subspecies of racers, mountain bikes, toures, and hybrids. All-terrain bycling has become one of the fastest growing segments of the recreation industry. Sales of all-terrain bicycles in North America skyrocket from 300,000 bicycles in 1984 to over 2 million in 1986 ( Crandall, 1987 ). At the January 1998 London International Boat Show, the assembled boat builders acknowledged that their industry is facing worldwide problem, a declining interesting in boating:46 percent of sailorsand 35 percent of motor boaters are now over 55 years of age, and boating magazine subscriptions are down by 20 percent in six years. The problem is not limited to Great Britain-the downward trend is acute in the United States, home of the world’s biggest boat industry. In the last decade, turnover in the United States has fallen from $10 million to $8 million, an deven trough â€Å"recreational spending has grown by more than 50 percent in seven years,†¦ boating’s share has shrunk from 3.7 percent to 2.1 percent† ( Groom, 1998, p. 1 ). In 1984, owning a boat was sixth on a wish list of American consumer preferences, but by 1996 it became the 15th. Nevertheless, the link between water sports and holidays is increasing with sailing becoming a very popular holiday activity. The use of smaller and more easily transportable craft, such as dinghy car-toppers, jet skis, and windsurfes, has increased and together with multihulled and chartered cruisers these crafts provide for a wide range of interests. While the Caribbean and the Mediterranean are the most popular seas, it is now possible to charter yachts in the South Pacific, the Seychelles, Australia, Alaska, Brazil, Thailand, and the Galapagos Islands ( Robinson, 1984 ). Martin and Mason’s survey ( 1990 ) indicates that between 1.5 and 2 million people take part in water sports while on holiday in Britain. Britain has been described as a mecca for boating holidays on the country’s two thousand miles of inland waterways each year ; about 87 percent are U.K. residents and 13 percent are inbound tourists principally from Europe ( Hhoseason, 1990 ). A 1986 survey (veal, 1986 ) found that over half of those who take part in sailing do so only when on holiday. Also worth mentioning here are the old, great clipper ships thar a century or mre ago sailed around the world. The Mediterranean and the Caribbean are popular ports for such ships as the Star Clipper, the Star Flyer, the Windstar, and Clup Med’s two play boats. On some, visiting â€Å"crews† learn to navigate and handle the sails. Valef Yachts, a Greek company, advertises â€Å" a vacation fit for a million-aire,† offering its Christina I for around US$100,000 per week for 12 people, none of whom need to have previous yachting experience. With a crew of nine, it has acruising range of 9,500 kilometers of Mediterranean water and includes its own private speedboat for water skiing, a small sailboat,and aWindsurfer for exploiring the Greek islands ( Richins, 1992 ) New sports are constantly developing and tourist are continuously in search of new thrills and experiences. One of these is body-boarding, broadly practiced in Australia, NEW Zealand, and the U.S states of Hawaii and California. The Atlantic coast in France is visited by an increasing amount of tourist who want to body-board and surf.

SERVQUAL MODEL as a Service Quality Measure

SERVQUAL MODEL as a Service Quality Measure 1.0 Introduction A great deal of service-quality research in recent decades has been devoted to the development of measures of service quality. In particular, the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman et al., 1988) has been widely applied and valued by academics and practicing managers (Buttle, 1996). However, several studies have identified potential difficulties with the use of SERVQUAL (Carman, 1990; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Asubonteng et al., 1996; Buttle, 1996; Van Dyke et al., 1997; Llosa et al., 1998). These difficulties have related to the use of so-called difference scores, the ambiguity of the definition of consumer expectations, the stability of the SERVQUAL scale over time, and the dimensionality of the instrument. As a result of these criticisms, questions have been raised regarding the use of SERVQUAL as a measure of service quality. 1.1 The SERVQUAL scale When the SERVQUAL scale was developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988), their  aim was to provide a generic instrument for measuring service quality across a broad range of service categories. Relying on information from 12 focus groups of consumers, Parasuraman et al. (1985) reported that consumers evaluated service quality by comparing expectations (of service to be received) with perceptions (of service actually received) on ten dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communication, credibility, security, competence, understanding/knowing customers, courtesy, and access. In a later (Parasuraman et al. (1988) work, the authors reduced the original ten dimensions to five: (1) tangibles (the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, and personnel); (2) reliability (the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately); (3) responsiveness (the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service); (4) empathy (the provision of individual care and attention to customers); and (5) assurance (the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence). Each dimension is measured by four to five items (making a total of 22 items across the five dimensions). Each of these 22 items is measured in two ways: (1) the expectations of customers concerning a service; and (2) the perceived levels of service actually provided. In making these measurements, respondents are asked to indicate their degree of agreement with certain statements on a seven-point Likert-type scale (1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree). For each item, a so-called gap score (G) is then calculated as the difference between the raw perception-of-performance score (P) and the raw expectations score (E). The greater the gap score (calculated as G  ¼ P minus E), the higher the score for perceived service quality. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.0 Introduction Despite the widespread use of the SERVQUAL model to measure service quality, several theoretical and empirical criticisms of the scale have been raised. Buttle (1996) summarised the major criticisms of SERVQUAL in two broad categories theoretical and operational. Theoretical issues comprise: Paradigmatic objections: SERVQUAL is based on a disconfirmation paradigm rather than an attitudinal paradigm; and SERVQUAL fails to draw on established economic, statistical and psychological theory. Gaps model: there is little evidence that customers assess service quality in terms of P E gaps. Process orientation: SERVQUAL focuses on the process of service delivery, not the outcomes of the service encounter. Dimensionality: SERVQUALs five dimensions are not universals; the number of dimensions comprising SQ is contextualized; items do not always load on to the factors which one would a priori expect; and there is a high degree of intercorrelation between the five RATER dimensions. Operational criticisms include: Expectations: the term expectation is polysemic; consumers use standards other than expectations to evaluate SQ; and SERVQUAL fails to measure absolute SQ expectations. Item composition: four or five items can not capture the variability within each SQ dimension. Moments of truth (MOT): customers assessments of SQ may vary from MOT to MOT. Polarity: the reversed polarity of items in the scale causes respondent error. Scale points: the seven-point Likert scale is flawed. Two administrations: two administrations of the instrument cause boredom and confusion. Variance extracted: the over SERVQUAL score accounts for a disappointing proportion of item variances. The above criticism will be discussed below. 2.1: Paradigmatic objections (Theoretical Criticisms) Two major criticisms have been raised. First, SERVQUAL has been inappropriately based on an expectations disconfirmation model rather than an attitudinal model of SQ. Second, it does not build on extant knowledge in economics, statistics and psychology. SERVQUAL is based on the disconfirmation model widely adopted in the customer satisfaction literature. In this literature, customer satisfaction (CSat) is operationalised in terms of the relationship between expectations (E) and outcomes (O). If O matches E, customer satisfaction is predicted. If O exceeds E, then customer delight may be produced. If E exceeds O, then customer dissatisfaction is indicated. According to Cronin and Taylor (1992; 1994) SERVQUAL is paradigmatically flawed because of its ill-judged adoption of this disconfirmation model. Perceived quality, they claim, is best conceptualised as an attitude. They criticise Parasuraman et al. for their hesitancy to define perceived SQ in attitudinal terms, even though Parasur aman et al. (1988) had earlier claimed that SQ was similar in many ways to an attitude. Cronin and Taylor observe: Researchers have attempted to differentiate service quality from consumer satisfaction, even while using the disconfirmation format to measure perceptions of service qualityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ this approach is not consistent with the differentiation expressed between these constructs in the satisfaction and attitude literatures. Iacobucci et al.s (1994) review of the debate surrounding the conceptual and operational differences between SQ and CSat concludes that the constructs have not been consistently defined and differentiated from each other in the literature. She suggests that the two constructs may be connected in a number of ways. First, they may be both different operationalisations of the same construct, evaluation. Second, they may be orthogonally related, i.e. they may be entirely different constructs. Third, they may be conceptual cousins. Their family connections may be dependent on a number of other considerations, including for example, the duration of the evaluation. Parasuraman et al. (1985) have described satisfaction as more situation- or encounter-specific, and quality as more holistic, developed over a longer period of time, although they offer no empirical evidence to support this contention. SQ and CSat may also be related by time order. The predominant belief is that SQ is the logical predecessor to CSat, but this remains unproven. Cronin and Taylors critique draws support from Olivers (1980) research which suggests that SQ and CSat are distinct constructs but are related in that satisfaction mediates the effect of prior-period perceptions of SQ and causes revised SQ perceptions to be formed. SQ and CSat may also be differentiated by virtue of their content. Whereas SQ may be thought of as high in cognitive content, CSat may be more heavily loaded with affect (Oliver, 1993). Cronin and Taylor suggest that the adequacy-importance model of attitude measurement should be adopted for SQ research. Iacobucci et al. (1994) add the observation that in some general psychological sense, it is not clear what short-term evaluations of quality and satisfaction are if not attitudes. In turn, Parasuraman et al. (1994) have vigorously defended their position, claiming that critics seem to discount prior conceptual work in the SQ literature, and suggest that Cronin and Taylors w ork does not justify their claim that the disconfirmation paradigm is flawed. In other work, Cronin and Taylor (1994) comment that: Recent conceptual advances suggest that the disconfirmation-based SERVQUAL scale is measuring neither service quality nor consumer satisfaction. Rather, the SERVQUAL scale appears at best an operationalisation of only one of the many forms of expectancy disconfirmation. A different concern has been raised by Andersson (1992). He objects to SERVQUALs failure to draw on previous social science research, particularly economic theory, statistics, and psychological theory. Parasuraman et al.s work is highly inductive in that it moves from historically situated observation to general theory. Andersson (1992) claims that Parasuraman et al. abandon the principle of scientific continuity and deduction. Among specific criticisms are the following: First, Parasuraman et al.s management technology takes no account of the costs of improving service quality. It is naÃÆ' ¯ve in assuming that the marginal revenue of SQ improvement always exceeds the marginal cost. (Aubrey and Zimbler, 1983., Crosby., 1979, Juran., 1951 and Masser., 1957) have addressed the issue of the costs/benefits of quality improvement in service settings.) Second, Parasuraman et al. collect SQ data using ordinal scale methods (Likert scales) yet perform analyses with methods suited to interval-level data (factor analysis). Third, Parasuraman et al. are at the absolute end of the street regarding possibilities to use statistical methods. Ordinal scales do not allow for investigations of common product-moment correlations. Interdependencies among the dimensions of quality are difficult to describe. SERVQUAL studies cannot answer questions such as: Are there elasticities among the quality dimensions? Is the customer value of improvements a linear or non-linear function? Fourth, Parasuraman et al. fail to draw on the large literature on the psychology of perception. 2.2: Gaps Model A related set of criticisms refer to the value and meaning of gaps identified in the disconfirmation model. Babakus and Boller (1992) found the use of a gap approach to SQ measurement intuitively appealing but suspected that the difference scores do not provide any additional information beyond that already contained in the perceptions component of the SERVQUAL scale. They found that the dominant contributor to the gap score was the perceptions score because of a generalised response tendency to rate expectations high. Churchill and Surprenant (1982), in their work on CSat, also ponder whether gap measurements contribute anything new or of value given that the gap is a direct function of E and P. It has also been noted that: while conceptually, difference scores might be sensible, they are problematic in that they are notoriously unreliable, even when the measures from which the difference scores are derived are themselves highly reliable (Iacobucci et al., 1994). Also, in the context of CSat, Oliver (1980) has pondered whether it might be preferable to consider the P E scores as raw differences or as ratios. No work has been reported using a ratio approach to measure SQ. Iacobucci et al. (1994) take a different tack on the incorporation of E-measures. They suggest that expectations might not exist or be formed clearly enough to serve as a standard for evaluation of a service experience. Expectations may be formed simultaneously with service consumption. Kahneman and Miller (1986) have also proposed that consumers may form experience-based norms after service experiences, rather than expectations before. A further issue raised by Babakus and Inhofe (1991) is that expectations may attract a social desirability response bias. Respondents may feel motivated to adhere to an I-have-high-expectations social norm. Indeed, Parasuraman et al. report that in their testing of the 1988 version the majority of expectations scores were above six on the seven-point scale. The overall mean expectation was 6.22 (Parasuraman et al., 1991b). Teas (1993a; 1993b; 1994) has pondered the meaning of identified gaps. For example, there are six ways of producing P E gaps of -1 (P = 1, E = 2; P = 2, E = 3; P = 3, E = 4; P = 4, E = 5; P = 5, E = 6; P = 6, E = 7). Do these tied gaps mean equal perceived SQ? He also notes that SERVQUAL research thus far has not established that all service providers within a consideration or choice set, e.g. all car-hire firms do, in fact, share the same expectations ratings across all items and dimensions. A further criticism is that SERVQUAL fails to capture the dynamics of changing expectations. Consumers learn from experiences. The inference in much of Parasuraman et al.s work is that expectations rise over time. An E-score of seven in 1986 may not necessarily mean the same as an E-score in 1996. Expectations may also fall over time (e.g. in the health service setting). Grà ¶nroos (1993) recognises this weakness in our understanding of SQ, and has called for a new phase of service quality research to focus on the dynamics of service quality evaluation. Wotruba and Tyagi (1991) agree that more work is needed on how expectations are formed and changed over time. Implicit in SERVQUAL is the assumption that positive and negative disconfirmations are symmetrically valent. However, from the customers perspective, failure to meet expectations often seems a more significant outcome than success in meeting or exceeding expectations (Hardie et al., 1992). Customers will often criticise poor service performance and not praise exceptional performance. Recently, Cronin and Taylor (1992) have tested a performance-based measure of SQ, dubbed SERVPERF, in four industries (banking, pest control, dry cleaning and fast food). They found that this measure explained more of the variance in an overall measure of SQ than did SERVQUAL. SERVPERF is composed of the 22 perception items in the SERVQUAL scale, and therefore excludes any consideration of expectations. In a later defence of their argument for a perceptions-only measure of SQ, Cronin and Taylor (1994) acknowledge that it is possible for researchers to infer consumers disconfirmation through arithmetic means (the P E gap) but that consumer perceptions, not calculations, govern behavior. Finally, a team of researchers, including Zeithaml herself (Boulding et al., 1993), has recently rejected the value of an expectations-based or gap-based model in finding that service quality was only influenced by perceptions. 2.3: Process orientation SERVQUAL has been criticized for focusing on the process of service delivery rather than outcomes of the service encounter. Grà ¶nroos (1982) identified three components of SQ: technical, functional and reputational quality. Technical quality is concerned with the outcome of the service encounter, e.g. have the dry cleaners got rid of the stain? Functional quality is concerned with the process of service delivery, e.g. were the dry cleaners counter staff courteous? Reputational quality is a reflection of the corporate image of the service organization. While technical quality focuses on what, functional quality focuses on how and involves consideration of issues such as the behaviour of customer contact staff, and the speed of service. Critics have argued that outcome quality is missing from Parasuraman et al.s formulation of SQ (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Mangold and Babakus, 1991; Richard and Allaway, 1993). Richard and Allaway (1993) tested an augmented SERVQUAL model which they cl aim incorporates both process and outcome components, and comment that the challenge is to determine which process and outcome quality attributes of SQ have the greatest impact on choice[1]. Their research into Domino Pizzas process and outcome quality employed the 22 Parasuraman et al. (1988) items, modified to suit context, and the following six outcome items: (1) Dominos has delicious home-delivery pizza. (2) Dominos has nutritious home-delivery pizza. (3) Dominos home-delivery pizza has flavourful sauce. (4) Dominos provides a generous amount of toppings for its home-delivery pizza. (5) Dominos home-delivery pizza is made with superior ingredients. (6) Dominos prepared its home-delivery pizza crust exactly the way I like it. These researchers found that the process-only items borrowed and adapted from SERVQUAL accounted for only 45 per cent of the variance in customer choice; the full inventory, inclusive of the six outcome items, accounted for 71.5 per cent of variance in choice. The difference between the two is significant at the 0.001 level. They conclude that process-and-outcome is a better predictor of consumer choice than process, or outcome, alone. In defense of SERVQUAL, Higgins et al., (1991) have argued that outcome quality is already contained within these dimensions: reliability, competence and security. 2.4: Dimensionality Critics have raised a number of significant and related questions about the dimensionality of the SERVQUAL scale. The most serious are concerned with the number of dimensions and their stability from context to context. There seems to be general agreement that SQ is a second-order construct, that is, it is factorially complex, being composed of several first-order variables [2]. SERVQUAL is composed of the five RATER [3] factors. There are however, several alternative conceptualizations of SQ. As already noted, Grà ¶nroos (1984) identified three components technical, functional and reputational quality; Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) also identify three components interactive, physical and corporate quality; Hedvall and Paltschik (1989) identify two dimensions willingness and ability to serve, and physical and psychological access; Leblanc and Nguyen (1988) list five components corporate image, internal organisation, physical support of the service producing system, staff/customer interaction, and the level of customer satisfaction. Parasuraman et al. (1988) have claimed that SERVQUAL: provides a basic skeleton through its expectations/perceptions format encompassing statements for each of the five service quality dimensions. The skeleton, when necessary, can be adapted or supplemented to fit the characteristics or specific research needs of a particular organization. In their 1988 paper, Parasuraman et al. also claimed that the final 22-item scale and its five dimensions have sound and stable psychometric properties. In the 1991b revision, Parasuraman et al. found evidence of consistent factor structure à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ across five independent samples. In other words, they make claims that the five dimensions are generic across service contexts. Indeed, in 1991, Parasuraman et al. claimed that SERVQUALs dimensions and items represent core evaluation criteria that transcend specific companies and industries (1991b) [4]. 2.5: Number of dimensions When the SERVQUAL instrument has been employed in modified form, up to nine distinct dimensions of SQ have been revealed, the number varying according to the service sector under investigation. One study has even produced a single-factor solution. Nine factors accounted for 71 per cent of SQ variance in Carmans (1990) hospital research: admission service, tangible accommodations, tangible food, tangible privacy, nursing care, explanation of treatment, access and courtesy afforded visitors, discharge planning, and patient accounting (billing)[5]. Five factors were distinguished in Saleh and Ryans (1992) work in the hotel industry conviviality, tangibles, reassurance, avoid sarcasm, and empathy. The first of these, conviviality, accounted for 62.8 per cent of the overall variance; the second factor, tangibles, accounted for a further 6.9 per cent; the five factors together accounted for 78.6 per cent. This is strongly suggestive of a two-factor solution in the hospitality industry. The researchers had initially assumed that the factor analysis would confirm the [SERVQUAL] dimensions but this failed to be the case. Four factors were extracted in Gagliano and Hathcotes (1994) investigation of SQ in the retail clothing sector personal attention, reliability, tangibles and convenience. Two of these have no correspondence in SERVQUAL. They conclude the [original SERVQUAL scale] does not perform as well as expected in apparel speciality retailing. Three factors were identified in Bouman and van der Wieles (1992) research into car servicing customer kindness, tangibles and faith [6]. The authors were not able to find the same dimensions for judging service quality as did Berry et al. One factor was recognized in Babakus et al.s (1993b) survey of 635 utility company customers. Analysis essentially produced a single-factor model of SQ which accounted for 66.3 per cent of the variance. The authors advance several possible explanations for this unidimensional result including the nature of the service, (which they describe as a low-involvement service with an ongoing consumption experience), non-response bias and the use of a single expectations/perceptions gap scale. These researchers concluded: With the exception of findings reported by Parasuraman and his colleagues, empirical evidence does not support a five-dimensional concept of service quality. In summary, Babakus and Boller (1992) commented that the domain of service quality may be factorially complex in some industries and very simple and unidimensional in others. In effect, they claim that the number of SQ dimensions is dependent on the particular service being offered. In their revised version, Parasuraman et al. (1991b) suggest two reasons for these anomalies. First, they may be the product of differences in data collection and analysis procedures. A more plausible explanation is that differences among empirically derived factors across replications may be primarily due to across-dimension similarities and/or within dimension differences in customers evaluations of a specific company involved in each setting. Spreng and Singh (1993) have commented on the lack of discrimination between several of the dimensions. In their research, the correlation between Assurance and Responsiveness constructs was 0.97, indicating that they were not separable constructs. They also found a high correlation between the combined Assurance-Responsiveness construct and the Empathy construct (0.87). Parasuraman et al. (1991b) had earlier found that Assurance and Responsiveness items loaded on a single factor and in their 1988 work had found average intercorrelations among the five dimensions of 0.23 to 0.35. In testing their revised version (Parasuraman et al., 1991b), Parasuraman and colleagues found that the four items under Tangibles broke into two distinct dimensions, one pertaining to equipment and physical facilities, the other to employees and communication materials. They also found that Responsiveness and Assurance dimensions showed considerable overlap, and loaded on the same factor. They suggested that this was a product of imposing a five-factor constraint on the analyses. Indeed, the additional degrees of freedom allowed by a subsequent six-factor solution generated distinct Assurance and Responsiveness factors. Parasuraman et al., (1991a) have now accepted that the five SERVQUAL dimensions are interrelated as evidenced by the need for oblique rotations of factor solutionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦to obtain the most interpretable factor patterns. One fruitful area for future research, they conclude, is to explore the nature and causes of these interrelationships. It therefore does appear that both contextual circumstances and analytical processes have some bearing on the number of dimensions of SQ. 2.6: Contextual stability Carman (1990) tested the generic qualities of the SERVQUAL instrument in three service settings a tyre retailer, a business school placement centre and a dental school patient clinic. Following Parasuraman et al.,s suggestion, he modified and augmented the items in the original ten-factor SERVQUAL scale to suit the three contexts. His factor analysis identified between five and seven underlying dimensions. According to Carman, customers are at least partly context-specific in the dimensions they employ to evaluate SQ. In all three cases, Tangibles, Reliability and Security were present [7]. Responsiveness, a major component in the RATER scale, was relatively weak in the dental clinic context. Carman also commented: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry combined their original Understanding and Access dimensions into Empathyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ our results did not find this to be an appropriate combination. In particular he found that if a dimension is very important to customers they are likely to be decomposed into a number of sub-dimensions. This happened for the placement centre where Responsiveness, Personal attention, Access and Convenience were all identified as separate factors. According to Carman, this indicates that researchers should work with the original ten dimensions, rather than adopt the revised five-factor Parasuraman et al., (1988) model. 2.7: Item loadings In some studies (e.g. Carman, 1990), items have not loaded on the factors to which they were expected to belong. Two items from the Empathy battery of the Parasuraman et al., (1988) instrument loaded heavily on the Tangibles factor in a study of dental clinic SQ. In the tyre retail study, a Tangibles item loaded on to Security; in the placement centre a Reliability item loaded on to Tangibles. An item concerning the ease of making appointments loaded on to Reliability in the dental clinic context, but Security in the tyre store context. He also found that only two-thirds of the items loaded in the same way on the expectations battery as they did in the perceptions battery. Carman supplies other examples of the same phenomena, and suggests that the unexpected results indicate both face validity and a construct validity problem. In other words, he warns against importing SERVQUAL into service setting contexts without modification and validity checks. Among his specific recommendations is the following: We recommend that items on Courtesy and Access be retained and that items on some dimensions such as Responsiveness and Access be expanded where it is believed that these dimensions are of particular importance. He also reports specific Courtesy and Access items which performed well in terms of nomological and construct validity. Carman (1990) further suggested that the factors, Personal attention, Access or Convenience should be retained and further contextualised research work be done to identify their significance and meaning. 2.8: Item correlations Convergent validity and discriminant validity are important considerations in the measurement of second-order constructs such as SERVQUAL. One would associate a high level of convergent validity with a high level of intercorrelations between the items selected to measure a single RATER factor. Discriminant validity is indicated if the factors and their component items are independent of each other (i.e. the items load heavily on one factor only). Following their modified replication of Parasuraman et al.,s work, Babakus and Boller (1992) conclude that rules for convergence and discrimination do not indicate the existence of the five RATER dimensions. The best scales have a high level of intercorrelation between items comprising a dimension (convergent validity). In their development work in four sectors (banking, credit-card company, repair and maintenance company, and long-distance telecommunications company) Parasuraman et al., (1988) found inter-item reliability coefficients (alphas) varying from 0.52 to 0.84. Babakus and Boller (1992) report alphas which are broadly consistent with those of Parasuraman, varying from 0.67 to 0.83 (see Table III). In their 1991b version, Parasuraman et al. report alphas from 0.60 to 0.93, and observe that every alpha value obtained for each dimension in the final study is higher than the corresponding values in theà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦original study. They attribute this improvement to their rewording of the 22 scale items. Spreng and Singh (1993), and Brown et al., (1993) are highly critical of the questionable application of alphas to difference scores. They evaluate the reliability of SERVQUAL using a measure specifically designed for difference scores (Lord, 1963). Spreng and Singh conclude that there is not a great deal of difference between the reliabilities correctly calculated and the more common [alpha] calculation, an observation with which Parasuraman et al., (1993) concurred when they wrote: The collective conceptual and empirical evidence neither demonstrates clear superiority for the non-difference score format nor warrants abandoning the difference score format. 2.9 Expectations (Operational Criticisms) Notwithstanding the more fundamental criticism that expectations play no significant role in the conceptualization of service quality, some critics have raised a number of other concerns about the operationalization of E in SERVQUAL. In their 1988 work, Parasuraman et al. defined expectations as desires or wants of consumers, i.e. what they feel a service provider should offer rather than would offer (emphasis added). The expectations component was designed to measure customers normative expectations (Parasuraman et al., 1990), and is similar to the ideal standard in the customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction literature (Zeithaml et al., 1991). Teas (1993a) found these explanations somewhat vague and has questioned respondents interpretation of the expectations battery in the SERVQUAL instrument. He believes that respondents may be using any one of six interpretations (Teas, 1993b): (1) Service attribute importance. Customers may respond by rating the expectations statements according to the importance of each. (2) Forecasted performance. Customers may respond by using the scale to predict the performance they would expect. (3) Ideal performance. The optimal performance; what performance can be. (4) Deserved performance. The performance level customers, in the light of their investments, feel performance should be. (5) Equitable performance. The level of performance customers feel they ought to receive given a perceived set of costs. (6) Minimum tolerable performance. What performance must be? Each of these interpretations is somewhat different, and Teas contends that a considerable percentage of the variance of the SERVQUAL expectations measure can be explained by the difference in respondents interpretations. Accordingly, the expectations component of the model lacks discriminant validity. Parasuraman et al. (1991b; 1994) have responded to these criticisms by redefining expectations as the service customers would expect from excellent service organizations, rather than normative expectations of service providers, and by vigorously defending their inclusion in SQ research. Iacobucci et al. (1994) want to drop the term expectations from the SQ vocabulary. They prefer the generic label standard, and believe that several standards may operate simultaneously; among them ideals, my most desired combination of attributes, the industry standard of a nominal average competitor, deserved SQ, and brand standards based on past experiences with the brand. Some critics have questioned SERVQUALs failure to access customer evaluations based on absolute standards of SQ. The instrument asks respondents to report their expectations of excellent service providers within a class (i.e. the measures are relative rather than absolute). It has be