How Globalization has affected Managerial Decision

Human Resource Management, Wages and Salaries Research Paper Example

Human Resource Management, Wages and Salaries Research Paper Example Human Resource Management, Wages and Salaries Paper Human Resource Management, Wages and Salaries Paper Introduction Human Resource Management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques. Extensive training and culture management programs, individualized reward management systems, as well as a range of employee involvement mechanisms, all operate towards achieving enhanced employee contribution. It is a whole range of notions on management theory, style and practice. Perhaps most usefully considered as a generic term that covers the entirety of work organization, working terms and conditions and representational systems, HRM can be depicted as being concerned with all those activities associated with the management of people in organizations (Boyd 2003). Businesses rely on effective human resource management (HRM) to ensure that they hire and keep good employees and that they are able to respond to conflicts between workers and management. HRM specialists initially determine the number and type of employees that a business will need over its first few years of operation. They are then responsible for recruiting new employees to replace those who leave and for filling newly created positions. A business’s HRM division also trains or arranges for the training of its staff to encourage worker productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction, and to promote the overall success of the business. Finally, human resource managers create workers’ compensation plans and benefit packages for employees. Personnel Management is the development of a set of values that regards individual employees as important productive entities; the conscious utilization of these value judgments in making decisions affecting those individuals; and the acquisition of a pattern of thinking, or rational analysis, which attempts to achieve the most effective and satisfactory utilization of human talents (Megginson 1972). Personnel Management unlike Human Resource Management is not limited to the techniques and paper work associated with routine activities of selecting, training, and compensating employees; nor does the term refer exclusively to the methods, procedures, techniques, and tools of personnel selection, training and development, direction, and other related activities. Businesses rely on effective human resource management (HRM) to ensure that they hire and keep good employees and that they are able to respond to conflicts between workers and management. HRM specialists initially determine the number and type of employees that a business will need over its first few years of operation. They are then responsible for recruiting new employees to replace those who leave and for filling newly created positions. A business’s HRM division also trains or arranges for the training of its staff to encourage worker productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction, and to promote the overall success of the business. Finally, human resource managers create workers’ compensation plans and benefit packages for employees (Gratton et al. 1999). The essay intends to consider how wages and salaries are set in organizations. If compensation is not tied directly to performance, what can and should it be tired to. The essay intends to discuss about psychological contract; turnover and the forms of turnover; training and some of its concepts; and remuneration system. Through the information that will be gathered every thought that is necessary will be put together so that a proper conclusion will be formulated. Psychological Contract The psychological contract refers to employees beliefs about the mutual obligations between the employee and his or her organization. These beliefs are based on the perception that employer promises have been made about such matters as competitive wages, promotional opportunities, and job training in exchange for certain employee obligations, such as the giving of their energy, time, and skills (De Meuse Marks 2003). Earlier reviews argue that the psychological contract is conceptually different from a formal contract in that it considers an individuals beliefs of the terms and conditions of an agreement between the individual and the employer. This concept of the relationship between an employee and the organization has been accepted and noted in many different forums, including academic journals; practitioner journals; and management textbooks (De Meuse Marks 2003). While an employees formal employment contract always is based on a written document, the types of promises contained in an employees psychological contract typically are communicated in ways that do not involve written documentation. For example, an employees understanding of the psychological contract may be influenced by oral discussions with managers, recruiters, or other organizational representatives and construed from specific organizational practices and procedures. Because of the pervasive norms of reciprocity that are part of any exchange agreement between an individual and his or her organization, an individual often expects, seeks out, and creates a psychological contract as a means for understanding and representing the employment relationship with the employer (De Meuse Marks 2003). Organizations can respond to an employees psychological contract to varying degrees, including going beyond the conditions of the contract, thereby honoring the intent rather than the letter of the contract; complying with the contract and fulfilling all of the conditions and terms; and breaching or violating the agreement between the employee and the organization. When organizations uphold their side of the psychological contract with their employees, it is more likely that employees will attempt to fulfill their own contractual obligations to the organization (De Meuse Marks 2003) Two sorts of contract can be distinguished namely transactional contracts and relational contract. Transactional contracts are fairly specific and economic in nature, and basically to do with rewards for hard work. Relational contracts are both economic and social/emotional in nature. (Herriot 2001). These are less clearly specified and to a degree open-ended. In a successful contractual relationship, it is possible that people come to trust the other party’s reliability because they regularly fulfill a transactional contract. As a result, a more relational contract develops, whereby parties are willing to go beyond the contract trusting that the other will do the same for them when the need arise (Herriot 2001). Relatively short-term and specific transactional contracts can meet the need for flexibility and reliable performance. Longer-term and open-ended relational contracts may help organizations which need loyalty and good citizenship from their employees. Specific but longer and potentially renegotiable contracts combine some of the advantages of the previous two. As organizations diversify the range of contracts which they offer, the existence and use of these alternatives becomes increasingly attractive (Herriot 2001). Relational contracts usually have a legal heart, but they also are used when the commercial reality is different. In a relational contract, the parties have expectations of each other that go beyond or perhaps far beyond the terms of the contract (Kay 1995). Employment contracts are best made as relational contracts because they suffer rather than benefit from too precise a specification of their obligations. Each party must be encouraged to respond to events. Both parties must invest in teaching and learning that is specific to the particular business environment. Actions may often have consequences that emerge only much later. Each of these factors that includes response, information, and learning tends to become more important at higher levels of seniority in the organization. A firm may hire a cleaner through a spot contract wherein the job is well defined, the performance is easily monitored but it needs a relational contract with its management. The range of jobs for which spot contracting is suitable is steadily diminishing (Kay 1995). Forms of turnover Labor turnover, like absence, is an important element of labor costs. The turnover of employees leads to direct costs for recruitment and for training new employees. It also leads to indirect costs which may be substantial, for example through disruption of work while new people are being recruited. Organizations with high levels of labor turnover may need to carry surplus labor, or hire temporary workers, in order to maintain production or levels of service. It has been suggested by industrial sociologists that greater organizational commitment contributes to greater employee identification with the goals and values of the organization and that this reduces the likelihood of voluntary job turnover . A main argument for adopting a commitment-oriented management approach has been to reduce the costs of turnover by eliciting employee commitment. (Cheng et al. 1998) A model to explain individual job turnover naturally has many similarities to the preceding models of absence and job performance. Motivation to stay, in the form of commitment to the organization, is again likely to be of interest, as are the various task and organizational characteristics which make an organization relatively attractive or unattractive. However, one might expect that economic factors loom larger in the decision to stay or leave. These would include satisfaction with present remuneration, and perceptions of how easy or difficult it will be to find an equally good job. Family and life-cycle characteristics have also often been assumed important in relation to job turnover, as in the case of young workers (Cheng et al. 998). Turnover can be done in two ways. Turnover can be voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary turnover can be caused by many things that include personal problems, better opportunities in other companies, discontentment, and migration to other countries. Employees undergo voluntary turnover due to the personal problems they have. These employees believe that such problems can affect their work performance and they should first find solutions to their problem before being in any company. Employees undergo voluntary turnover due to the discontentment in the company. These employees believe that their stay in the company has not given them any benefits and the wages and compensation they receive from the company is not enough. Employees undergo voluntary turnover due to better opportunities in other companies. These employees think that other companies might offer them better treatment, better salaries, and lesser problems. Employees undergo voluntary turnover due to migration to other countries. Employees leave the company due to instances wherein they wish to leave the country and try their luck in other countries. On the other hand involuntary turnover can be caused by many things that include poor work performance, insubordination, and negative relationship with co workers. Employees undergo involuntary turnover due to poor work performance. When employees do their job poorly the tendency is for the company to give them warnings and reminders, if nothing happens the company has no choice but to break its relationship with these workers. Employees undergo involuntary turnover due to insubordination or engaging in scuffles and disobeying high ranking officials in the company Employees undergo involuntary turnover due to negative relationship with co employees. Some employees can be always in contrast with other employees and this leads to problems between the employees thus to prevent things to grow worse the company has to remove these uncooperative employees. Training Organizations are still focusing on reinvention and reengineering as they continue to place greater emphasis upon improving customer service. This increased attention to customer service is expected despite downsizing and delaying efforts in the organization. The strength of these trends is likely to continue even if the names change from time to time, for the changes emerge from a growing realization that traditional ways of doing business and being organized prevents an organization from moving fast enough, with high enough quality, or at low enough cost to meet the growing demands and competitive pressures placed on it. The next decade will continue to witness major changes in organizations (Sims 1998). Organizations will continue to get flatter, and power will be more dispersed among employees who are knowledge workers and have the technology to make decisions previously reserved for management. If information is power, then dispersed information is dispersed power, and that dispersement is what knowledge and technology does. There will also continue to be an increased emphasis upon the use of cross-functional and multi-skilled teams, which are essential in taking advantage of advanced technologies, and these developments should free the smaller number of managers to focus on higher level strategic issues (Sims 1998). The boundaries that have traditionally defined organizations will continue to blur as a result of new organizational forms and leadership methods and demands. The lines between functions and even between organizations will continue to become less rigid in the drive to be more customer focused, to decrease response and work process cycle times, and improve competitive advantage. The distinction between types of organizations particularly large ersus small, regional versus national versus global will also begin to blur more as customers show less interest in where their products and services come from as long as they receive them when and at the standards of quality they deem acceptable (Sims 1998). People can best anticipate and respond to the need for further change in training by remembering that training historically has been looked at as a case-by-case, individual perspective, much like the way a doctor looks at a patient. You do a diagnosis of an individual, find a weakness, and then apply the training solution so that individual is stronger or better than he or she was before. What training must be in todays and tomorrows organizations is a process that is more holistic, and consistent with an organizations strategy, so that the strategy is executed better than it would be without the training. One strategy is individual, which will have no impact on an organization, and the other is corporate, which will have a mammoth impact. The important thing for training personnel to conceptually understand is that training must have an impact on the organization rather than on the individual. The point is to make the organization more whole than it was before, and training should be a major part of what causes that to happen. However, that will never happen if training personnel are doing training by picking up people and putting band-aids on cuts. It will only do it if there is a vision and a strategy, and training is part of a process of executing that vision and strategy for everyone (Sims 1998). Remuneration system Remuneration system or salary is often expressed in annual terms, usually of non-manual workers. For example, a teachers salary might be $15,000 per year. Salaried workers are most unlikely to receive overtime payments, though they may receive bonuses. Although they are contracted to work for a specific number of hours per week, they are usually expected to work the number of hours sufficient to do the job to a satisfactory standard (Skoldberg 2002). Salaries are set in organizations according to the tenure of the employee in the organization, the performance rating of the employee, the status of the company and the external problems the company has. Salaries are based on how long the employee had served the company. The longer an employee served the company the higher salary that employee gets. In relation to that an employee’s salary can be based on succession planning or the ranking of employees. In succession planning the position of an employee is being given more focus. Employees who have higher position are first given salary increases. Salaries are also based on how well or how bad the employee does his/her job. Those who perform well and bring benefits to the company are given higher salaries and additional incentives. Moreover the status of the company is used as a basis for the salaries of employees. To know the status of the company different things are put into consideration like its profitability, its expenses, market conditions and others. Once the company is not selling well and has oversupply market condition it means no increase in the salaries should be made. When a company is experiencing oversupply market condition it is not selling well and its marketing strategies are not that effective thus the company has reason not to increate the salaries. Lastly the external problem the company has is used as a basis for salaries. If the economy is having difficulty, there is unrest in the country, and the competitor has gained advantage over the company the tendency is for the company not to create increase in wages. Conclusion Businesses rely on effective human resource management (HRM) to ensure that they hire and keep good employees and that they are able to respond to conflicts between workers and management. Human Resource Management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques. In HRM many things are put into consideration. This includes the hiring and training of employees, performance of the employees, how the employees are remunerated, and what instances may lead an employee to be removed from the company. Aside from the company’s strategy regarding marketing, management, and competitors, organizations’ are wary of the strategy they use in terms of giving salary to their employees. Companies have to make sure that the right person receives the right wage and that the salary they give will not cause financial problems to the company. Through the different basis of salary discussed companies make sure that salaries are distributed accordingly to rightful persons and as demanded by the situation. Through proper distribution of salary companies will not encounter financial problems like high expenditures, bankruptcy by the company, tight spending and others. Through proper distribution of salary companies will not have to face arguments and disagreements with the employees. References Boyd, C 2003, Human resource management and occupational ealth and safety, Routledge, New York. Cheng, Y, Gallie, D, Tomlinson, M White, M 1998, Restructuring the employment relationship, Clarendon Press, Oxford. De Meuse, KP Marks, ML (eds. ) 2003, Resizing the organization: managing layoffs, divestitures, and closings maximizing gain while minimizing pain, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Gratton, L, Hailey, VH, Stiles, P Truss, C 1999 Strategic human resource management: corporate rhetoric and human reality, Oxford University Press, O xford. Herriot, P 2001, The employment relationship: a psychological perspective, Routledge, New York. Kay, J 1995 Why firms succeed, Oxford University Press, New York. Megginson, LC 1972, Personnel: a behavioral approach to administration, Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, IL. Sims, RR 1998, Reinventing training and development, Quorum Books, Westport, CT. Skoldberg, K 2002, The poetic logic of administration: styles and changes of style in the art of organizing, Routledge, London.

The performance of the Uk retail sector during the global financial Dissertation

The performance of the Uk retail sector during the global financial crisis - Dissertation Example In the result, the UK government (HM Treasury, pp. 23-25, 2009) has been putting huge amount of efforts to avoid slowing down of retail sector’s performance as it would have easily resulted in adverse impact on the GDP. One of the indicators of major participation of UK’s retail sector is its fourth ranking in the global trade market despite only having 1% of the global population (HM Treasury, pp. 59-63, 2010). This shows that UK’s retail sector does have potential and government is taking every possible step to take care of it by even going for a high budget deficit. To create an understanding of UK’s retail sector, British Petroleum is a well-known entity of the same sector that comes second in European continent and is so far the largest industrial corporation of the country. Besides BP, UK’s retail sector is proud of its mechanical engineering and manufactured goods that have been contributing majorly in the UK’s export market (Hiles, pp . 39-46, 2010). Furthermore, services such as banking, brokerage, etc are few other constituents of UK’s retail sector that have enabled the United Kingdom to fulfill 10% of the global needs. In specific, performance of UK’s retail sector is playing a crucial role in strengthening economy of the country, and from this understanding, it has now become imperative to carry out research on the country’s retail sector that will be indicating efforts of the governments in midst of financial crises to save its retail sector (Kolb, pp. 44-49, 2010). Research Statement In this regard, the proposed research will focus on the following research statement: â€Å"To identify and analyse the performance of UK’s retail sector during the global financial crisis while scrutinising the efforts of UK’s government in brining positive alterations in the sector† Aims and Objectives It is an understanding that aims and objectives play the most crucial part in a re search process, as they enable the researcher in acquiring a constructive path during the process, and absence of which may result in unnecessary outcomes, as well as misuse of resources. From this understanding, the researcher has given significant importance in the proposed research and will be putting efforts to fulfill them in the most effective manner. Particularly, the researcher will be focusing primarily on the retail sector of the United Kingdom while endeavoring to identify different factors that are playing a critical role in determining performance of the sector that will enable the researcher in analysing the same factors during different periods. In specific, period of the global financial crisis is the focal point of the proposed research, and thus, researcher will be looking at performance of the UK’s retail sector during this specific period. However, to narrow down the research objectives in order to focus on the acquisition of concrete results, the research er will scrutinise efforts of the UK’s government that enabled the country’s retail sector to survive, and at the same, continue its progress significantly. In this regard, one of the major objectives of the proposed research is to recognise

Corporate Governance Master Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Corporate Governance Master - Assignment Example The Financial Services Authority has evolved a refurbished code on corporate governance replacing the1998 intending that the new Code will apply for reporting years beginning on or after 1 November 2003. This Code supersedes the earlier Combined Code issued by the Hampel Committee on Corporate Governance in June 1998.The highlight feature of the new code is the leveraging on the work of Derek Higgs on the role and effectiveness of non-executive directors and a review of the structure and functions of audit committees by a group led by Sir Robert Smith. The Code has substantial prescriptions on the Board, Chairman and chief executive, Board balance and independence etc (Combined, 2003). "At The Body Shape the Board meets formally six times a year and is responsible amongst other things for strategy, allocation of financial resources, annual and interim results, acquisitions and disposals and risk management. For each formal meeting, the Board reviews how the Company has performed agai nst its Values." Its share holders' surveys reveal that the Board needs to take leadership initiatives in resolving following important values' based corporate governance issues which seem to be affecting company's social and corporate image and competitive edge.(The Body Shop,2005) The Body Shop is in the business of selling personal care products. It has a rich retailing experience spanning well over 30 years. It also has a world wide market with operations in 54 countries. It shares stakeholders' relationship with its shareholders, customers, suppliers and retailers, employees and other non governmental organizations. In fact Body Shop is a unique organization that has pointedly sought to be a socially conscious organization that survives commercially. This is revealed by the following company profile in respect of company's beliefs," The Body Shop has been a leader in the trend towards greater corporate transparency, and has been a force for positive social and environmental change through its lobbying and campaigning programmes around five core principles: Support Community Trade, Defend Human Rights, Against Animal Testing, Activate Self-Esteem, and Protect Our Planet."(The Body Shop, 2006). While this is laudable belief menu; however stakeholder feedback distinctly shows that The Body Shop has taken its social accountability aspect a bit over the board. In fact some stakeholders even made comments such as," The Body Shop is not UN" and that "Campaigns should not be run on company funds" and "Do not over-stress ethical values and neglect the financial interests of your shareholder." etc. (The Body, 1999).In fact the values are laudable however here has been a strategic error of highlighting such incidental activities to the main business more than required. Such activities are

Pick 3 topics, each topic has only 1 paragraph with more than 10 Essay

Pick 3 topics, each topic has only 1 paragraph with more than 10 sentences i guess. so it will be 3 paragraphs - Essay Example The formation of gangs in schools, and the related violence and rivalry, is reduced by the absence of gang-identified clothes. At the same time, uniforms eliminate expensive items of clothing which lead to jealousy and theft. The secure school environment established by a uniform dress code creates an atmosphere of sharing which in turn leads to increased self-esteem. School uniforms contribute to the development of self-esteem in public school students. This is an off-shoot of the fact that self-esteem is significantly linked to attire in the case of most adolescents. This is largely because clothes are an indication of the student’s economic background. The difference in dress leads to the differentiation between rich and poor students. As clothes make a statement, student identities become linked to their clothes. Those who are unable to keep up with the latest fashion trends risk being teased by their wealthier peers. There is also the risk of teachers being unconsciously influenced by the affluence of students as reflected by their clothes. This many lead to differential treatment of students in class. A uniform dress code eliminates differences based on the student’s home environment and gives students the opportunity to be judged completely on the basis of their abilities. The resulting increase in self-esteem leads to improv ed academic performance. Academic performance is improved by a uniform dress code as the distraction of dressing fashionably for school is eliminated. Conflict with parents over what constitutes appropriate attire for school is also avoided. As there is no need to spend time on choosing clothes and accessories for school every morning, there is more time for study at home. At the same time, punctuality, and attendance at the first classroom session in schools, is improved. As uniforms eliminate the need for school teachers to monitor student’s attire, more time

Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research

Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research Q5. Describe cluster analysis with 2 examples related to marketing research? Ans: Cluster Analysis: It is the task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group are more similar to each other than to those in other groups. Example 1: Type of customers choose the restaurant Family, Entertainers, Singles etc Example 2: Type of customers that choose the restaurant based on their food choice. Vegetarian/Non vegetarian Mexican, Indian, South Indian, Fast food etc What are three characteristics of a good quality clustering analysis? Ans: The reason for asking question â€Å"Q: Type of customers that choose the restaurant based on their food choice. (Vegetarian/Non vegetarian)† Collection process of data objects. It helps me to understand the of customer’s food choice. Analysis of similarities between data objects Based on the data we can analyze which type of customers on their food choice â€Å"veg/non veg†. Veg is one group and non-veg is another. Can come up with good implementation of analysis (e.g. problem solving) Answer to the Survey can help us to understand the market demand and we can provide the similar food at the restaurant based on data gathered. Example: Q6. Describe Qualitative and quantitative research methods with one advantage and disadvantage of each. Ans: Qualitative research: The information gathered is non-numerical and might include responses to an open ended survey question, dialogue from a focus group, the answer to an essay question, a term paper, or ideas brainstormed by a group. Qualitative data is not limited to words, however, and could include the contents of an art or design portfolio. Qualitative research uses observation as the data collection method. Observation is the selection and recording of behaviors of people in their environment. Observation is useful for generating in-depth descriptions of organizations or events, for obtaining information that is otherwise inaccessible, and for conducting research when other methods are inadequate. Example: Why you like our restaurant, describe? Advantage of Qualitative research: Respondents are free to answer any way they would like comment/answer. One advantage of the qualitative approach is that contextual information is gathered when the data is collected. In other words, â€Å"why† is automatically answered/provided in the data. Qualitative research is useful on early stage when we are not sure about what to study. Disadvantage of Qualitative research: It is expensive and time consuming. It can take a long time to collect and analyze the data. For Interviews it would take 10+ hours to have hour long interviews with around 10 people and that does not include the time needed to schedule the interviews. Time taken for 1 interview = time taken for interview + time taken to schedule interview + time to analyze data (recordings and notes etc). Quantitative research All of the data collected would be counted or quantified. Example: Someone’s age, income, height or weight would be quantitative data Number of hits on a website The number of correct responses on a driving test The number of minutes per week Car fuel efficiency in KM. Advantage of Quantitative research: It is less expensive and an efficient method for gathering information especially for large groups of people. Online surveys are easy way to collect data from large groups of people. In restaurant we have large database of users through data collection. It is easy and cost effective to send and collect feedback through online surveys. The USA government collects Census information every 10 years. The government doesn’t try to interview everyone in the USA instead they mail out surveys to be completed a very efficient form of data collection. Disadvantage of Quantitative research It generally does not include an explanation of ‘why.’ For example, respondents are asked to â€Å"Rate the quality of staff services at the restaurant† using the following scale: â€Å"Excellent† , â€Å"Good† ,†Fine†, â€Å"Fair† ,or â€Å"Poor.† That question would generate quantitative data because we could count the number of people who selected each of the four response options. But knowing how many people found a quality of staff as â€Å"Excellent† does not provide any insights into why it is excellent. Also respondents are limited to set of options to respond and they may not feel that any of the options best describes their experience. Q7: Qualitative research. a) Depth Interview: Interviewing is a method ofqualitative researchin which the researcher asks open-ended questions orally and records the respondent’s answers. Example: Face to face / telephonic Job Interviews can be depth interviews. Interviewer starts with greeting by asking familiar set of general questions to create comfort level for interviewee/respondent. Q: How are you? Q: Where are you from? Q: Can you please describe yourself? Advantage: Accurate results. Better rapport. More productive asCompared with non-response among focus group members Flexible and continuous Disadvantage: It is costly and time consuming. Less structured. b) Focus Groups: Itis a form ofqualitative researchin which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. One focus group watches another focus group and discusses the observed interactions and conclusion. Example: It is useful in marketing as important tool to acquiringfeedback regarding product/services. In social science it helps Interviewers to study people in a more natural conversation pattern than typically occurs in a one-to-one interview. Advantage: The face to face involvement of a moderator can ensure things on track. As everybody is under observation, so it is easy to make everybody fully engage even during free time. Disadvantage: Can be Biased [discussion can be dominated by a few people.] Group discussions can be difficult to steer and control. c) Projective Techniques: Originally developed to use in psychology. The use of vague, ambiguous, unstructured stimulus objects or situations in which the subject â€Å"projects† his or her personality, attitude, opinions and self-concept to give the situation some structure. Example: A personality test. Photo language Test. (using pictures). Advantage: Personality test is cost effective. (Only use paper and can be scored by hand or using a machine, can be taken home and returned later) Personality test is Objectivity (questions are mostly true/false) . Disadvantages: à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Sheer length. Untruth (e.g: With personality test objective, there is always possibility that test taker never tell the truth.) d) Random probability sampling: Example: Advantage: Disadvantage: Q8: Quantitative research. a) Face to Face interview: In person interaction between two or more persons. Face to face interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in time and place. Example: Surveys of product and services. Job Interviews are mostly face to face. Interviewer starts with greeting and then asks familiar set of general questions to create comfort level for interviewee/respondent. [Sample set of questions for survey] Q: hi Mam/Sir, How are you? [Greeting question] Q: Where are you from? [Greeting question] Q: How do you like our restaurant food? [Aimed Question] Advantage: High responsive, there is no significant time delay between question and answerà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’the interviewer and interviewee can directly react on what the other says or does. The answer of the interviewee/respondent is more spontaneous. Interviewer can formulate questions depending upon response from interviewee. Recorded, can be used later if required. Disadvantage: Time Consuming. Expensive. Difficult to locate respondent. b) Telephone interview: Telephonic interviews are characterised by asynchronous communication for place. Example: Surveys Job Interviews. Telephone interviewsare often conducted by employers in the initial interview round of thehiring process. Starts with greeting then main set of questions related to product/service etc. [Sample set of questions for survey] Q: Am I speaking to Ajit? Q: Is it right time to talk? Q: I have few questions about Chawala’s Indian restaurant? Q: How do you like our restaurant staff? Advantage: It is a cost-effective. Saves time. Extendedaccess to participants The telephone interview allows both interviewee/respondent and interviewer to be in a morerelaxed state as compared with face to face. Wide geographical access. It enables researchers to contact populations that might be difficult to work with on an face to face basis for example mothers at home with small children, shift workers, computer addicts and people with disabilities. Disadvantage: Difficult to locate person. Difficult to see the reaction of the interviewee/respondent. No view on the situation in which the interviewee is situated. Disconnection due to technology issues. c) Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing: It is an interviewing technique in which the respondent or interviewer uses a computer to answer the questions. Example: Job interviews. Psychometric tests. [Sample set of questions for survey] Q: What is your age? Q: Male or female? Q: Rate of restaurant staff services? [Rate from 1[lower] to 5[higher]] Advantage: Cost effective and time saving. Respondents are able to fill in the questionnaires themselves Attractinga worldwide audience. Disadvantage: Surveysare only for computer savvy people. (Potential bias to the survey) Quality is missing (a question that should be interpreted in a particular way, but could also be interpreted differently) People don’t know or dislike typing. [Leave subjective questions unanswered] d) Web based Questionnaire: AWeb-based surveyis the collection of data through a self administered electronic set of questions on the Web Example: Many companies use survey monkey to get feedback for their product. Survey monkey is one of the sites which help in creating web based questionnaire. (https://www.surveymonkey.com/) [Sample set of questions for survey] Q: How old are you? Q: Are you male or female? Q: Do you like our restaurant? Advantage: It is cost effective and time saving. Large set of responses can be handled easily. Easy to create/manage (sites are self explanatory, eg: survery monkey). Disadvantage: Resources may not be available to everybody (computer, mobile, internet etc) Not everybody is aware of technology. People don’t know or dislike typing. [Leave subjective questions unanswered] Formulation of questions required lot of time, expertise and knowledge. Q1: How would you apply measurement method to this situation? A variable measured on a nominal scale is a variable that does not really have any evaluative distinction. Example: Would you like to recommend the restaurant to your friends? Yes/No The answer to the question has no evaluative distinction. How would you apply scaling methods to this situation? By using ordinal measurement scaling method to scale the situation. Ordinal: The ordinal scale has the property of both identity and magnitude Example: How would you rate the quality/taste of our food and drinks? (Rate from 1 – 5) 1 (Really Bad) 2 (Poor) 3 (Average) 4 (Good) 5 (Excellent) By asking this question I would be able to know the quality of the food provided at the restaurant. Q3: Primary Scales of measurement that that are used in Statistical analysis Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio scales Nominal: The nominal scale of measurement only satisfies the identity property of measurement Example: What is your country of citizenship? The Country that someone was born in has no inherent order so it can only be a nominal scale. Ordinal: The ordinal scale has the property of both identity and magnitude. Example: Identify the scale of measurement for the following: Information Technology Company Organisation Titles – (1) CEO, (2) Manager, (3) Project Lead and (4) Team Lead. The scale is ordinal. There is an inherent ordering in that a CEO is higher than a Manager, which is higher than a Project Lead, which is higher than Team Lead. CEO > Manager > Project Lead > Team Lead Designation has Rank orders. Interval: The interval scale of measurement has the properties of identity, magnitude, and equal intervals. Example: Question: Time of the day. The difference between 4 and 5is equal to the difference between 18 and 19. Ratio Scales: The ratio scale of measurement satisfies all four of the properties of measurement: identity, magnitude, equal intervals, and a minimum value of zero. Example: What is Income earned last year? It has equal intervals weekly, biweekly and monthly etc. Salary can be zero. (For unemployed) Q4:Difference between comparative scaling and not comparative scaling techniques in the marketing research. Comparative Scaling: The items are directly compared with each other. Paired comparison: It is sometimes the case that marketing researchers wish to find out which are the most important factors in determining the demand for a product Example: Which restaurant/Food do you prefer? Dominos or Pizza hut Italian pizza or Cheese Pizza By asking this question first I would be able to analyze the choice of user. First the type of restaurant than the type of pizza. By asking this able to analyze the demand of product. Dollar Metric Comparisons This type of scale is an extension of the paired comparison method in that it requires respondents to indicate both their preference and how much they are willing to pay for their preference The Unity-sum-gain technique A common problem with launching new products is one of reaching a decision as to what options, and how many options one offers Example: Rate the mobile products (from 1 to 5): (1 is lower and 5 is higher) Apple Samsung Nokia LG Motorola By this I would be able to know which company is most preferred by the user and at what lever and help us is launching new product. Non Comparative scaling techniques: Each item is scaled independently of the others. Continuous rating scales: The respondents are asked to give a rating by placing a mark at the appropriate position on a continuous line. How would be rate our staff services? 1 (Really Bad) 2 (Poor) 3 (Average) 4 (Good) 5 (Excellent) By asking this question I would be able to understand get the rating on quality from 1 to 5. 1 is lower and 5 is higher. Line marking scale Itemised rating scales : With an itemised scale, respondents are provided with a scale having numbers and/or brief descriptions associated with each category and are asked to select one of the limited number of categories, ordered in terms of scale position, that best describes the product, brand, company or product attribute being studied. Example: How would you rate the price of food items in the menu ? Very Expensive Expensive Very good Good Cheap By asking this question to customer of the restaurant I would be able to analyze the rate of food listed in the menu.

Outsourcing and on-Demand Computing

Outsourcing and on-demand computing are two of the fastest emerging business tactics in the industry today. In outsourcing, businesses contract out certain services to an outside provider or manufacturer, often overseas. On-demand computing is similar to outsourcing only here businesses contract out their computing resources, such as computation and storage, rather than an actual business services. The computing is tracked as a metered service, similar to physical public utility such as electricity, water, natural gas, or telephone network. In either case, some piece of the company is broken off and run by an outside source. Organizations can outsource any aspect of their information system, including hardware maintenance and management, software development, database systems, networks and telecommunications, Internet and intranet operations, hiring and staffing, and the development of procedures and rules regarding the information system† (Stair, 348). For the most part, outsourcing and on-demand computing have had a positive financial impact on US businesses. They are able to â€Å"reduce costs, obtain state-of-the art technology, eliminate staffing and personnel problems, and increase technological flexibility† (Stair, 348). However, from a consumer standpoint, there has been much controversy over these tactics. For example, many believe that by outsourcing services to foreign companies for cheaper rates, businesses are damaging the local labor markets. Often times there are language barriers making communication difficult between consumers and foreign workers conducting companies’ services. Staff â€Å"turnover is higher under an outsourcer and key company skills may be lost with retention outside of the control of the company† (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Outsourcing). Qualifications of outsourced staff are often well under those of actual business employees and because they haven’t been trained under the original company, they also often lack company knowledge and fail to realize the business’s values. All of these factors can be very frustrating for a consumer trying to conduct unfinished business with a company whom they have already finalized a purchase with. I speak from experience when I say this as well. I purchased a laptop computer from Dell in December of 2006 and was sent a defective mouse. I have YET to be issued a correctly working, adaptable piece of equipment and have spent hours  on the phone with their ‘customer service’ representatives who are based in India and barely speak English. The connections are horrible, we can’t understand each other, I have never spoken with the same representative, and have been told something different every time I have called. Because of this experience alone, I will never again purchase anything from Dell and have started asking companies if their services are outsourced before making purchases from them. So in discussing the impact outsourcing and on-demand computing are having on the economy, I think the effects are positive for the businesses up front, but I think if this trend continues, organizations may start to lose clients who, like myself, have become extremely frustrated in dealing with outsourced services. On the flip side of that, if the trend continues and more companies get on board with these tactics, this may be the way of business in the future. I certainly hope not though!

A 17th century audience Essay

â€Å"The Tempest is full of magic and illusion. Consider the effect this would have on a 17th century audience and a 21st century audience. How might the magic and illusion be presented today? † William Shakespeare wrote The Tempest as a play. It was not intended for the text to be read by school children from a book. It was intended for performance in a theatre, where it would give enjoyment to an audience. One of the main â€Å"themes† of The Tempest is magic. Prospero is a magician, a sorcerer, a wizard, someone with magical powers. He uses these powers to make lots of things happen within the play. Indeed, the first scene focuses on the storm that Prospero has created to cause havoc on the ship upon which his enemies are travelling. At the beginning of the play, the storm just seems like any other storm, with an unfortunate crew being shipwrecked. By the end of Act 1, however, we discover that the storm was not a natural occurrence. Prospero conjured up the storm and deliberately picked out that ship. The audience get their first hint of this in Miranda’s first speech of the play. Miranda has watched the storm destroy the ship and she feels pity for the shipwrecked people. In her opening line, she asks her father if the storm is a product of his magic: â€Å"If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. † This shows that Miranda knows about Prospero’s magic. She may not know everything that he does with his powers, but she knows that he does have supernatural powers. This storm is the beginning of a plan that Prospero has thought up to wreak revenge on his enemies. The plan involves a lot of magic. After being stranded on the island for 12 years, Prospero has had time to perfect his powers and to dream up a plan, a plan that never could have taken place without the storm. Because of this, the initial storm has a massive impact on the rest of the play. It also gives the audience an idea of how strong Prospero’s powers are. He is able to control the elements, something that only God is supposed to be able to do. However, as we learn later on in the play, Prospero may be able to conjure up storms and illusions, but he cannot control human nature, and must rely on good luck when trying to make Ferdinand and Miranda to fall in love.

Short Essay Example

Short Essay Example Short Essay – Article Example Task: Short essay Philosophy is a dynamic discipline that studies almost everything that surrounds us. The discipline relies extensively on logic in making conclusions. This discipline applies logic, critical evaluation and rational in evaluating problems. Therefore, the programme designed by the faculty should aim at enhancing the ability of the students to apply logic, evaluate critically and apply rational in resolving problems. However, the programme that the lecturer is utilizing seems to concentrate on reading philosophical material. The above program will ensure that students have adequate knowledge in philosophy. Nonetheless, appropriate skills should accompany the knowledge thus; helping the students utilize the readings made. The lesson plan reveals that the tutor has apportioned excessive time for class readings. The professor can enhance the students’ skills by facilitating discussions during class. Such discussions will provide the professor with a chance to evalu ate students’ understanding of the readings. Additionally, discussions will make the students active partakers in the class readings. Reading has rendered most students as passive partakers in the class thus; limiting their understanding of the readings. Therefore, allocating discussion substantial time will enable students to apply logic, rationale and make critical evaluation of problems in philosophy. The above changes will work since it deviates from the current plan by allowing the students to exhibit their skill hence; enabling the professor to understand students’ weaknesses and make appropriate adjustments. Reducing time allocated to reading will eliminate boredom in the class. Eliminating boredom by holding discussions will boost the students’ understanding of the discipline by allowing them to participate actively in the lesson (Arthur, 38).Work citedArthur, John. Studying Philosophy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson prentice hall publishers, 2003. Prin t.

Kurt Vonnegut Essays - Fiction, Literature, Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut Essays - Fiction, Literature, Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut?s character Billy Pilgrim, in Slaughterhouse-Five, is an American soldier in Europe in the last year of World War II. What he sees and does during his six months on the battlefield and as a prisoner of war have dominated his life. He comes to terms with the feelings of horror, guilt, and despair that are the result of his war experiences by putting the events of his life in perspective. He reorganizes his life by using the device of "time travel." Unlike everyone else, he does not live his life one day after another. Billy Pilgrim has become "unstuck in time," and he jumps around among the periods of life in a constant state of transience. In the beginning of the novel, it is December 1944 and Billy, along with three other American soldiers, is lost in a forest far behind enemy lines. Billy closes his eyes for a moment, drifts back to a day in his past, then suddenly opens his eyes in the future: it?s 1965 and he is visiting his mother in a nursing home. He blinks, then time changes to 1958, then 1961, and finally he finds himself back in the forest in December 1944. Billy does not have much time to wonder about what has just happened. He has been captured almost immediately by German soldiers and put onto a train bound for eastern Germany. Aboard the train Billy has a great adventure into the future. He finds himself at the night of his daughter?s wedding in 1967, where he is kidnapped by a flying saucer from the imaginary planet Tralfamadore. The aliens take Billy to their home planet and put him in a zoo. Then, as always seems to happen, Billy wakes up back in the war. The train arrives at a prison camp, and there a group of British officers throw a banquet for the American POWs. Before long he is traveling in time again, to a mental hospital in 1948, where he?s visited by his fiancee, Valencia Merble. As soon as he recovers from his nervous breakdown, Billy will be set up in business as an optometrist by Valencia?s father. Billy is introduced to science fiction by his hospital roommate, Eliot Rosewater, whose favorite author is Kilgore Trout. Trout?s writing is terrible, but Billy comes to admire his ideas. Billy soon travels in time again to Tralfamadore, where he is the most popular exhibit in the zoo. His keepers love talking to him because his ideas are so strange to them. He thinks, for example, that wars could be prevented if people could see into the future as he can. The American POWs are now being moved to Dresdan, which as an "open city" of no military value has come through unscathed, while almost every other German city has been heavily bombed. Billy knows that Dresdan will soon be totally destroyed, even though there?s nothing worth bombing there. The Americans are housed in building number five of the Dresdan slaughterhouse. There, Billy continues his time-travels. He survives a plane crash in 1968. A few years before that, he meets Kilgore Trout. Also, on Tralfamadore, he tells his zoo-mate, Montan Wildhack, about the bombing of Dresdan. Billy Pilgrim and the other American POWs take shelter in a meat locker beneath the slaughterhouse. When they go out the next day, Dresdan looks like the surface of the moon. Everything has been reduced to ashes and minerals, and everything is still hot. Nothing is moving anywhere. After months of digging corpses out of the ruins, Billy and the others wake up one morning to discover that their guards have disappeared. The war had now ended, and they are free men. There are many ways for an individual to cope with post-traumatic stress. The way in which one chooses to deal with emotionally taxing situations is determined, in part, by the individual?s character traits. Because Billy Pilgrim is insecure and unable to effectively reestablish a sense of normalcy, he chooses "time-travel" as his own personal brand of denial. The result of his emotional journey was the further development of his character, as well as his neurosis.

NURSING RESEARCH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

NURSING RESEARCH - Essay Example process is concerned with gathering of scientific data, analysis, and compilation of nursing information (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, n.d. The process takes a theoretical perspective and uses new and existing information to compile alternative or new methods in practice. Implementation of the research process requires resources and time. Nursing process is different in that it is specific and concrete. It deals with offering unique services to individual patients. Another difference is that the main objective of a research process is to gather information and increase the knowledge of existing and emerging ailments. However, nursing process focuses on delivery of care to patients. The measure of success in the nursing process is health outcomes. A nursing process that ensures maintenance or improvement of health of patients is deemed to be efficient. The above discussion proves that both research process and nursing process are essential in nursing. The processes are similar in that they seek to maximize the health benefits of patients. However, the nursing process is more practical and patient-centered. It is thus imperative to ensure that both elements are present in nursing to enhance creativity, new information, and quality health care

Introduction & Conclusion for implementation of quality application Essay

Introduction & Conclusion for implementation of quality application - Essay Example Many companies have started to shift to service industry in order to earn revenue but many of them face problem to maintain quality in service. Maintaining quality is also an important issue for product marketer because improving quality in production decreases overall cost for product marketer. Valls and Vergueiro (2006) argued that deploying quality applications such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma and Quality Circle etc can decrease error margin in production for manufacturing companies. In such context, Wisniewski (2001) pointed out that there cannot be one definition of quality which can serve the purpose of all the industry. For example, quality concept for manufacturing company is defined by its production efficiency, decrease in error margin in production, decrease in production frequency of faulty products etc while quality concept for hospitality sector is defined by its ability to provide faultless responsive service to customers. Finnish marketing legend Gron roos defined the quality concept in the following manner; The consumer compares his expectations with the service he perceives he has received, i.e. he puts the perceived service against the expected service. The result of this process will be the perceived quality of service. - (Gronroos, 1984, p. 37) Valls and Vergueiro (2006) pointed out that quality applications can cover number of interrelated aspects in the organization such as leadership, customer focus, environmental sustainability, management system, knowledge management, environmental sustainability, process approach and supplier relationship. International quality management body ISO has defined 8 quality criteria and meeting these criteria can help organizations to achieve quality excellence award. These quality criteria or applications can be defined as, 1- Customer focus- Proving service to customers which can meet or exceed the expectation of customers, 2- Leadership- achieving leadership position when it comes to qua lity management and guiding employees to maintain the leadership position, 3- People- proper utilization of human resources to ensure quality in the process, 4- Process- improving process flow to in order to enhance quality of the output, 5- System Approach- controlling interrelated process in order to improve quality of output, 6- Continual Improvement- sharing and managing knowledge within the organization in order to ensure sustainable growth, 7- Factual Decision- taking decision on the basis of facts and data driven manner and 8- Mutually Beneficial Relationship- providing mutual benefits to suppliers and other stakeholders (ISO, 2012). The researcher has already undergone the three case studies such as, 1- implementation of TQM in Florida International University- in this case study, the university has planned to implement TQM in order to improve quality of education and normal learning environment, 2- implementation of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) in Royal College Surgeons in Ireland- the institute has already became member of EFQM in 2010 and the institute has implemented the