Communication is Structure :: Business Communication Essays

In collapsible corporations, communication is the dynamic structure between the individual members that shapes and guides the progress and actions of the deal. It is the communication that coordinates and not potpourrial written procedures. The supremacy of dynamic organizational forms such as collapsible corporations is inversely related to the quantity and quality of communication between members around the world. Problems arise when communication s natural depressions or stops and progress is taken for granted- requiring hypercommunication to achieve subsequent residual recovery of right direction. Problems are just uncommunicated differences- in actions and expectations. (used 10/22/00This intense consult communication is itself a transaction cost- it needs working hard at and may not always be business- you provide deliberate opportunities to other hoi polloi in the collapsible corporation to explain and notify about problems- but naturally they do not actually arise every time members communicate. alone the benefits from avoidance of misunderstanding achieved from effective and honest ongoing inter-personal communication- facilitated by technology tools such as the Net- make such dynamic organizations possible and also stay greater, later costs incurred from error correction.Of course the communication needs to be timely and truthful for it to be valuable- it needs to be proactively stated, discussed, openly, honestly and fully disclosed.For extraneous communications, the use of Internet email, fixed and in particular mobile telephones is often prolific. There should be regular broadcast news and information in the form of say email messages updating members around the world on how the business is doing and latest developments. Informal discussion of this news, plus the formal emails kept different people in different places up to date with these moves. This kept people in different time zones in touch with the same information distributing at low charge around the world. Periodic face-to-face meetings are also necessary to supplement and balance this electronic communication- just as with teleworking, the balance between electronic and physical and the overriding dominance of neither is very important to the success of the venture.Respect and trust and so on is important in relations between colleagues, with some people easier to talk and relate to than others, but primarily, as long as activities and approaches were agreed to by other managers, you are okay.

The Euthanasia Debate Essay -- Medical Ethics

A long, ongoing battle in the institutional recapitulation boards, ethics committee and in the United states federal court is Physician aid suicide (PAS) and euthanasia. PAS refers to a third part action informed by the intended objective (at the very least) to furnish a potential suicide with the lethal means necessary to end his or her bodily life (Parteson 11). there are victims distress in silence because of this issue and it calls for immediate action with a federal regulated law. The victims are cancer patients who want to end suffering from their illness and impending death, patients that are brain dead or on life support, and patients that have diseases that cause excruciating pain that ultimately deteriorate the character reference of life until it is gone. The other victims are the families that watch their loved ones suffer, or care for the ones on life support for years without being able to aid them in their wish to die. thither are also those potential victims that have a chance to fight and live, though in certain cases this fight has been taken away. There is a concern for innocent deaths such as the Jack Kevorkian case, out of Kevorkians first 93 victims, only 27 were determined by see to be terminal, that is, to have less than six months to live (Olevich 21), that is why strict regulations is critical. The United States Supreme Court has left the decision to legalize and regulate assisted suicide to the states. Washington and Oregon are among the first to take the lead. Although they have taken the initiative, they are lacking fine detail and have left a few holes in the law that could create potential unnecessary deaths. Science is rapidly advancing pushing the boundaries past the national ethics committee, it is time ... ...something spate often do not have Functionally independent persons were unlikely to have a living will (5.5%) (Hanson, Rodgman)Works CitedFraser, Sharon I. and Walters, James W. Death Whose ratiocination? Euthana sia and the Terminally Ill. Journal of Medical Ethics 26.2 Apr. (2000)121-125 Web. 1 May 2012Hanson, LC and Rodgman E. The use of living wills at the end of life. A national study. Archive of inseparable Medicine 156.9 May (1996) 1018-22. Web. 6 May 2012Hudson, Janice. Trauma Junkie Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse. Firefly Books. New York. 2001, 2010. PrintOlevitch, Barbara A. Protecting Psychiatric Patients from the Assisted-Suicide Movement Insights and Strategies. Greenwood Press. frightful 2002. Print.Paterson, Craig. Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia A Natural Law Ethics Approach. Ashgate Publishing Group. May 2008. Print.

Analytical Essay: Riddle Of Inequality :: essays research papers

Analytical Essay "The Riddle of dissimilitude"     The riddle of inequality, as Tillich explains, "...Cannot be solved." This inequality is the divider of people, of the haves and have-nots. It seems that this riddle has confused people since the commencement of time and was even discussed in the bible. People always delight in why some have more than others do they wonder why this happens and how it can change. I gestate that this riddle is natural and cannot be changed despite he best efforts of people.Tillich attri unlesses this mystery of haves and have-nots to many factors. First is that if you were granted with inherited talents because you should use them in life to the best of your ability. But if you let them go to waste, then these talents will ultimately be taken away. It is unfair when things are taken away that we world power have taken for granted due to lack of attention, such as, "...the intense joy and the presence of the mystery of life through the freshness of the young daytime or the glory of the dying day..." These things are only taken away because we do not pay enough attention to the simple beauty in life and in nature. Although all of these are examples of inequality, I do not agree with Tillich when he claims that this is due to the presence of the divine, by the choice of God. I believe inequality comes from ourselves. We may embrace, or else let it slip away. It is through our lack of conscientiousness that life becomes unequal.      I attribute the basic inequalities in nature as an effect of true nature, almost as far as survival of the fittest. Inequality is unfair but it is an spirit of life that people must pot with without an answer, without justification. When looking to God or any religious aspect for an answer you can only possibly answer the question yourself. When you pray or lead God a question you propose this question intelligibly to yourself . When you finally find an answer or solution it is not through the light of God, but through yourself and through your own learning and understanding of the world.Analytical Essay Riddle Of Inequality essays research papers Analytical Essay "The Riddle of Inequality"     The riddle of inequality, as Tillich explains, "...Cannot be solved." This inequality is the divider of people, of the haves and have-nots. It seems that this riddle has confused people since the beginning of time and was even discussed in the bible. People always wonder why some have more than others do they wonder why this happens and how it can change. I believe that this riddle is natural and cannot be changed despite he best efforts of people.Tillich attributes this mystery of haves and have-nots to many factors. First is that if you were granted with inherited talents then you should use them in life to the best of your ability. But if you let them go to waste, then thes e talents will ultimately be taken away. It is unfair when things are taken away that we might have taken for granted due to lack of attention, such as, "...the intense joy and the presence of the mystery of life through the freshness of the young day or the glory of the dying day..." These things are only taken away because we do not pay enough attention to the simple beauty in life and in nature. Although all of these are examples of inequality, I do not agree with Tillich when he claims that this is due to the presence of the divine, by the choice of God. I believe inequality comes from ourselves. We may embrace, or else let it slip away. It is through our lack of conscientiousness that life becomes unequal.      I attribute the basic inequalities in nature as an effect of true nature, almost as far as survival of the fittest. Inequality is unfair but it is an aspect of life that people must deal with without an answer, without justification. When look ing to God or any religious aspect for an answer you can only possibly answer the question yourself. When you pray or ask God a question you propose this question clearly to yourself. When you finally find an answer or solution it is not through the light of God, but through yourself and through your own learning and understanding of the world.

The Powerful Words of Amy Tan, Maxine Hairston, and Mike Rose Essay

The Powerful Words of Amy Tan, Maxine Hairston, and Mike Rose The power of words is immeasurable. Words help people to voice their opinions and communicate their thoughts and feelings. Our everyday lives are shaped by communication and in general language. A persons language can often influence success and happiness. America is viewed as a melting pot for numerous different people and their respective languages. Language is so vital in our society that a person of various ethnic background can face many tribulations throughout their everyday life. Many renowned writers and other professionals have expressed their personal opinion well-nigh the value of words over the last few years. Chinese-American author Amy Tan is one of the many writers who understand the importance of the simplest words in the incline language. Tan, author of the Joy Luck Club, was born and raised in San Francisco by her Chinese parents. Tan graduated from high school and pursued her college education at vo lt different universities from 1969 through 1976. Contrary to what her teachers had always tried to push on her, Tan steered away from studies in math and science and earned her B.A. in English and Linguistics. She describes that her educational choices were rebellious in nature. In Tans essay she describes the hardships of growing up with a mother who encountered problems with the English language. When I was growing up, my mothers exceptional English limited my perception of her, Tan explains. She describes situations where her mother was treated rudely and explains that apologies were always proposed when Tan would interrupt with flawless English. Tan also discusses the educational problems that multicultural students have at heart the classroom today. She ... ...ven the impression that it would harm her childrens education. The essays written by Tan, Hariston and Rose all address an issue within our educational system that demands immediate attention. In the convey of the f ree with so many various freedoms for citizens, every student should be proud of their own ethnic background. Never should students be steered away from their goals or looked heap upon because of their grammatical abilities. Overall students should be proud of their ethnic background and proud at the same time to be an American. Works Cited Hairston, Maxine. Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing. College Composition and communicating 43.2 (May1992) 179-195. Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary The Struggles and Achievements of Americas Underpreparred. New York Free Press, 1989. Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue. Three Penny Review. 1990.

Americans Take Their Education For Granted :: essays research papers

Americans Take Their Education For GrantedAmericans take their education for granted. Education has become one ofthe most important aspects of a persons. With cardinal years of formaleducation, a person can do almost anything he or she wants to do. Yet many inAmerica take this for granted. several(prenominal) American students today would rather not bein school. They would be overmuch happier at home or going someplace with theirfriends. Once in school, many students forget why they are thereto get aneducation. Instead of going to classes, students might cut class or not even award up to school at all. I think our decreasing status as an economic superpower can be attributed in go dismal to the effects of this attitude. I believethere are two reasons behind this attitude--the lack of family values and thelack of responsibility taken by some of Americas youth.Children much do not visualise the value of the education they arereceiving. Parents need to drill the importance of an education into theirchilds head. If children are not made aware of how significant school is,chances are they will fail when they are adults. Parents consider to instill intheir child the discipline and motivation it takes to do well in school.Parents have to teach their children that school always come first. Studentsneed to put school on top of their priority list too. Parents also need toassure that their children understand their own responsibility to get their workdone well and handed in on time. But parents can only do so muchultimately itis the students who have to do the work.Children must learn to accept responsibility for the results of their ownactions. Students will sometimes blame the teacher or others if they get badgrades. I have only one response for these students--the teachers arent the

Americans Take Their Education For Granted :: essays research papers

the Statesns Take Their Education For GrantedAmericans take their education for granted. Education has become one ofthe most main(prenominal) aspects of a persons. With seventeen years of formaleducation, a person can do almost anything he or she wants to do. Yet many inAmerica take this for granted. Some American students today would rather not bein school. They would be much happier at home or going someplace with theirfriends. Once in school, many students forget why they are thereto get aneducation. Instead of going to classes, students might cut class or not evenshow up to school at all. I think our decreasing status as an economic superpower can be attributed in part to the effects of this attitude. I believethere are two reasons behind this attitude--the lack of family values and thelack of responsibility taken by some of Americas youth.Children often do not understand the value of the education they arereceiving. Parents shoot to drill the importance of an education into theirchilds head. If children are not make aware of how meaningful school is,chances are they will fail when they are adults. Parents have to instill intheir child the discipline and motivation it takes to do substantially in school.Parents have to teach their children that school always come first. Studentsneed to put school on top of their priority list too. Parents also need toassure that their children understand their own responsibility to get their workdone well and handed in on time. But parents can only do so muchultimately itis the students who have to do the work.Children must learn to accept responsibility for the results of their ownactions. Students will sometimes blame the teacher or others if they get badgrades. I have only one response for these students--the teachers arent the

Financial Management Case Study-Payout: Gainesboro Essay

Corpo come out GoalsManagement expected the firm to grow at an average yearbookcompound rate of 15% and reach $2.0 billion in sales and $160 million in net income through 2011.Recent strategy of GainesboroThe association devoted a greater share of its research-and-development budget to CAD/CAM as to reestablish its leadership in the field. The company also underwent two massive restructurings, including merchandising two unprofitable lines of business, selling two plants, eliminating five leased facilities, and reducing personnel in 2002. Then, in 2004, the company implemented a second bombastic of restructuring by altering its manufacturing strategy, refocusing its sales and marketing approach, and adopting administrative procedures for a further reduction in staff and facilities. The Artificial Workforce was an array of ripe control hardware, software, and applications that could distribute information throughout a plant. Thus a product could be designed, manufactured, and pack aged solely by computer no yield how intricate it was. Although the company had successfully patented several of the processes used by the Artificial Workforce, there were two factors that could affect sales which should be concerned. First, two pissed competitors were developing comparable products and would probably introduce them within the next 12 months. Second, sales of molds, presses, and CAD/CAM equipment and software were highly cyclical, and predictions about the strength of the U.S. economy were non encouraging.II. The inferential processCause the company goal is to change its revenue structure, which make CAD/CAM and peripheral cutting edge products generate 3/4 of the sales, and the traditional presses and mold would account for the remainder. Thus, we think that the company will definitely feed to leave some money for the R&D design. On the new(prenominal) hand, expanding aggressively in the international arena and getting new product through M&A also need to prep are a look at of money.Base on the idea we got from the Microsoft readings, company had better keep some percentage of the immediate payment for the operating expense in case there would have emergency need.The analysis of investors attributionFrom the Exhibit 4, we john see that the attributions of the investors are changing.As for the institutional investors, the offset-oriented investor drop from 13% to 6%, while the value-oriented investors raise from 8% to 13%. This gives us a cue that the institutional investors are gradually change from growth-oriented into value-oriented. Which means that now the institutional investors think that the Gainesboro Corporation is not a highly growth company. Instead, its a stable growth company .So the institutional investors will expect to have high dividends.As for the individual investors, the long-term investors drop from 37% to 26%, while the short-term investors increase from 5% to 13%. This shows that individual investors have a tre nd to sell the stock in a shorttime and regardless the dividends.The suspicion of forecastingWe hold doubt on the stated speculation of a 15% compound rate of growth due to manufacturing mishaps and missing components which delayed production growth, as well as start-up costs continued to penalize earnings.How much dividends did other companies pay?In general, investors could accept 20.8% payout ratio, and there is a trend that the ratio has been decreasing for decades (66.5% in 1978 20.8% in 1999). So we think Gainesboro doesnt need to pay 40% dividends. We can see that in CAD/CAM industry, PE ratio is so high because they are expected to be high-potential, so they need lots of capitals to reinvest, such as acquisition, R&D. As a result zero dividends-payout is acceptable and makes sense.So if Gainesboro wants to prove they are also high potential, they can make the same decision in order to keep money for their growth but they has to communicate with investors well to make them un derstand what they are going to do.III. ConclusionThe percentage of firms paying cash dividends had dropped to 20.8% since 1999. In that case, perhaps the market would react favorably, if Gainesboro adopted a zero dividend-payout policy. In the meantime, we strongly recommend the firm buyback partial stocks so as to increase EPS and stock price. Send a signal to the market that managers are confident on companys new developmentand expansion.Regarding to numerous developing strategies of the firm, we prefer canceling dividend payout and save more capital to support all the new projects. Besides, we support to launch image advertising and name change program pure tone by step, which is not necessary in 2005. The firm can periodically reveal new expansion policy and R&D progress, for building up a solid image that the firm is under a transformation with highly innovative speed. The branding campaign should be done before 2011 when growth projects finished. In 2005, the firm should ke ep maintaining revenue growth rate and optimize productions for sustainable growth.

Hinilawod Summary Essay

Hinilawod recounts the story of the exploits of three Sulodnon demigod blood brothers, Labaw Donggon, Humadapnon and Dumalapdap of ancient Panay. It would take about three days to perform the grand in its original form. Thus, making it as one of the longest epics in the world. Kaptan, the king of the Gods, decreed that the beautiful Alunsina ( as well as c aloneed Laun Sina, The Unmarried iodin) marry upon reaching her maidservanthood. Though all the unmarried gods from every corner of the universe tried to win her hand in marriage, she chose to marry a mortal, Datu Paubari, ruler of the Halawod. Angered by Alunsinas decision, her suitors conspired to scathe the newlywed couple. Maklium-sa-twan, the god of the plains, called a council meeting of the Gods. The council decided to destroy the couples home, Halawod, by flood. Fortunately for Alunsina and her husband, her sister Suklang Malayon (Goddess and Guardian of Happy Homes) discovered the unholy plot and warned them of it. B efore the flood, the new couple sought refuge on a higher ground and escaped the gods wrath undetected. They returned to the plains and settled near the mouth of the Halawod River after the flood has subsided and lived in secrecy. After several months, Alunsina became pregnant with triplets. The couple was ecstatic and Datu Paubari prepared the things needed for childbirth including the siklot. When the triplets were born, the couple called them Labaw Dongon, Humadapnon and Dumalapdap. Immediately after great(p) birth, Alunsina summoned the high priest Bungot-Banwa to perform the rites of the gods of the Mount Madya-as to ensure that the triplets provide have good health. During the ritual, Bungot-Banwa burned some alanghiran fronds and a pinch of kamangyan in an altar that he made himself. He opened the windows of the north side of the room after the ceremony and in came a cold wind that transformed the infants into strong, handsome tender men. When he reached adulthood, Labaw Donggon, the eldest of the triplets, decided to go on a quest to find himself a wife.He heard of the beauty of Angoy Ginbitinan of Handug and wanted her for a wife. He asked his mother to prepare the things he will need for the journeya magic cape, hat and belt, and kampilan (sword). The journey to Handug took several days. Labaw Donggon had to pass by plains, valleys and mountains to get there. When he finally arrived, he asked for an audience with Angoy Ginbitinans father and asked for her hand in marriage. The father a voraciousness in one condition Labaw Donggonmust kill the giant star Manalintad as part of his dowry. Labaw Donggon agreed and went a bureau to confront the titan. With the help of his magic belt, he was able to kill the Manalintad. He cut impinge on the tail of the heavyweight and brought it back to Handug as a proof of his victory. Angoy Gibintinans father was satisfied with the proof and allowed Labaw Donggon to marry his daughter. After the wedding, Labaw D onggon and his new bride started their journey back to his home. Along the way, they met a group of young men who were on their way to Tarambang Burok to win the hand of Abyang Durunuun, sister of Sumpoy, the lord of the underworld. According to these young men, Abyang Durunuun has beauty that equals no other. Labaw Donggon and Angoy Gibintinan continued on their journey. Upon reaching home, Labaw Donggon asked his mother to take care of his new wife and told her that he will be going on another quest. This magazine he will be going to Tarambang Burok and vie for the hand of the beautiful Abyang Durunuun. On his way to Tarambang Burok, Labaw Donggon had an encounter with the giant Sikay Padalogdog.This giant had a hundred arms and he wint let the young demi god pass without a fight. And fight they did. In the end, the hundred-armed giant admitted defeat and allowed the Labaw Donggon to pass the ridge. Labaw Donggon won the hand of the legendary Abyang Durunuun and also took her hom e to his mother. Thereafter, the demi god went on third quest to Gadlum. This time the object of his desire is Malitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata, the young bride of the lord of darkness, Saragnayan. Aboard his biday nga inagta (black boat), Labaw Donggon sailed across many seas on his way Gadlum. He also traveled across the region of the clouds and the land of stones before he found himself at the shores of Tulogmatian, the seaside fortress of Saragnayan. Upon setting foot on the shore, Saragnayan asked who he was and his business. When Labaw Donggon expressed his desire to have Saragnayans young wife, the lord of darkness just laughed and told him its impossible. The young demi god and so challenged the Saragnayan to a duel for the hand of the beautiful Malitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata. The duel lasted for years. Labaw Donggon held Saragnayans head underwater for seven years but the lord of the darkness still lived. With the help of his pamlang (amulet), Saragnayan defeated Labaw Donggon and intent him beneath his house. Meanwhile, Labaw Donggons two wives gave birth to a discussion each. Angoy Ginbitinan called her child Aso Mangga while Abyang Durunuun called her sonAbyang Baranugon.Both sons went in search of their father a hardly a(prenominal) days after they were born. They arrived in Tulogmatian and asked Saragnayan to free their father. Saragnayan told Abyang Baranugon to go home to his mother when he noticed that the young boyfriend still has an umbilical cord. The young lad took removeense and challenged the lord of the darkness to a duel. Saragnayan accepted the challenge and fought with Abyang Baranugon. The lord of darkness was no match for the strength of Abyang Baranugon and was defeated in the process. Abyang Baranugon earned the exemption of his father and took him home. Meanwhile, the defeat of Labaw Donggon in the hands of Saragnayan and his subsequent imprisonment angered his brothers Humadapnon and Dumalapdap. Humadapnon swore to the gods of Madya-as and vowed that he would seek revenge on all of Saragnayans kinsmen and followers. He then embarked on a journey to Saragnayans. He took with him a man known for his exceptional swordsmanship, Buyong Matanayon of Mount Matiula. Together they traveled the same path that Labaw Donggon took. The duette cease up at a place called Tarambang Buriraw. Here lives a seductive sorceress called Piganun. The sorceress changed herself into a very beautiful maiden and captured the heart of Humadapnon. No matter what Buyong Matanayon did, Humadapnon would not leave Tarambang Buriraw. After seven months of staying in Tarambang Buriraw, Buyong Matanayon remembered that they brought some ginger with them. He thought of a plan to break Piganuns spell over his friend. One evening, at dinner, Buyong Matanayon threw seven slices of ginger into the fire.Upon smelling the burning ginger, Piganun ran away from the room. Buyong Matanayon struck Humadapnon in the head, which rendered the la tter unconscious. He then dragged his body away from the place and managed to escape. The duo continued with their trek and exacted revenge on all of Saragnayans family and friend. They eventually found themselves in a place called Piniling Tu vast. There was a big concourse when they arrived in the village because the ruler of the land, Datu Umbaw Pinaumbaw, was giving away the hand of his daughter in marriage to anyone who can remove the huge boulder that rolled off the mountain to the center of the village. No one has succeeded. Humadapnon rose to the challenge and took off his magic cape. He then used it to lift the huge boulder off the center of the village and hurled it back to the mountain. Datu Umbaw Pinaumbaw honored his word and gave his daughters hand in marriage to Humadapnon. The two were married anda big junket was held. During the wedding feast, a guest minstrel sang and paid tribute to the beauty of Burigadang Pada Sinaklang Bulawan, the goddess of greed. Enchanted with the story, Humadapnon started on a quest to seek the goddess hand in marriage. He met Buyong Makabagting, son of the Datu Balahidyong of Paling Bukid, who was also hoping to win the hand of Burigadang Pada Sinaklang Bulawan. The two fought in a duel and Humadapnon emerged victorious.The defeated Buyong Makabagting helped Humadapnon in his quest. Humadapnon eventually married the goddess of greed and brought her home to his mother. Shortly after Humadapnon left their home to seek revenge on Saragnayans family and followers, Dumalapdap embarked on a quest of his own. He decided go to Burutlakan-ka-adlaw and marry the maiden Lubay-Lubyok Hanginun si Mahuyokhuyokon. With him was Dumasig, the most powerful wrestler in Madya-as. After several months of traveling, the two warriors came face to face with a two headed monster called Balanakon. The monster guarded the ridge that led to the place where the maiden lived. They managed to kill the monster but were confronted with another ki nd of monster when they reached the gate of the palace where the maiden lived. Called Uyutang, the monster was similar to a bat with sharp, poisonous claws. Dumalapdap fought with the Uyutang for seven months. He was able to defeat the monster when he grabbed its ankle and broke it. Then he took his iwang daniwan (magic dagger) and struck Uyutang under the armpit. The monster howled in pain, causing an earthquake that broke the ridge they were fighting in into two. Half of the ridge became an island that is known today as Negros, while the other half became Panay. With the monster Uyutang dead, Lubay-Lubyok Hanginun si Mahuyokhuyokan was free to marry Dumalapdap. He brought her home and was reunited with his family. Datu Paubari celebrated the return of his three sons with a very big feast. His sons left for different parts of the world after the feast. Labaw Donggon ventured north, Humadapnon went south, and Dumalapdap embarked to the west. Datu Parubari was left to rule in the eas t.Humdapnon was visited by his spirit friends Taghoy and Duwindi in his dream and told him of lovely maiden who lived in a village by the mouth of the Halawod River. The demigod left his dominion to look for the maiden named Nagmalitong Yawa. He brought with him a boatful of crew. Humadapnon and his men safely traversed through a sea the color of human blood with the help of his spirit friends. They landed on an island that was inhabited by beautifulwomen and headed by the sorceress Ginmayunan. For seven years, Humadapnon and his crew were enwrapped in the island until Nagmalitong Yawa helped them escape by disguising as a boy. Humadapnon and Nagmalitong Yawa were married soon after in Halawod. During the wedding feast, Humadapnons brother, Dumalapdap fell in love with Huyung Adlaw and asked his brother to help him talk to the parents of the maiden. Humadapnon left his new wife and accompanied his brother to the Upperworld where Huyung Adlaw lived. It took the brothers seven years to come back from their journey to the Upperworld. They arrived just in time for the ceremony that will have Nagmalitong Yawa married to Buyung Sumagulung, an island fortress ruler, in a ceremony.The brothers were enraged and killed all the guests and the groom. Humadapnon also stabbed his wife because the treachery only to feel self-reproach later on. He asked his spirit friends and found out that his wife only agreed to marry Buyung Sumagulung because her mother, Matan-ayon, convinced her that Humadapnon is not coming back. Upon learning of this, Humadapnon asked his sister, Labing Anyag, to use her powers to beat Nagmalitong Yawa back to life. Seeing how remorseful he is, Labing Anyag agreed. However, Nagmalitong Yawa was so ashamed of agreeing to marry Buyung Sumagulung that she ran away to the underworld and sought the protection of her uncle Panlinugun, who is lord of the earthquake. Humadapnon had to kill an eight-headed snake in his pursuit of Nagmalitong Yawa. Then he had to duel with a young man who spirited his wife away. The duel ended when Alunsina intervened and revealed that the young man is also her son, Amarotha. This son died during childbirth and was brought back from the dead to keep Alunsina company. Alunsina decided that both Humadapnon and Amarotha deserved a piece of Nagmalitong Yawa so she cut the girl in half and gave a piece each to her sons. Each half turned into a whole live person. Humadapnon brought his wife back to Panay.

Antigone Moral Dilemma

Antig wizs Moral Dilemma Perhaps the most pronounced question in the play Antigone by Sophocles is the cherish of human law vs. divine law. In this tragic play a newly appointed king Creon decl atomic number 18s to his people that treason was committed during battle, and one of the two brothers (Polyneices) killed shall not be buried according to the Gods, but instead He shall be left unburied for all to watch the corpse cut up and eaten by carrion-birds and by dogs (Sophocles, 1900. ). This dilemma is felt by many, especially Antigone (sister of the deceased).In Hellenic culture it is approximation that the spirit of a body open firenot find reside if it is has not been laid to rest by the evening of the day it has departed, and it is condemned to roam the earth for eternity. The struggle between human law and divine law is a moral dilemma Antigone feels as she decides to go against the laws of the king. Antigones relish to bury Polyneices properly according a divine edict is challenged as she faces the hurdle to view as King Creons ruling. She acknowledges the importance of family and savors in the knowledge of defying the state.She ultimately succeeds in this moral quest to stand by belief in divine principle above and against the power and authority of the state, despite her suicide. Many Greek writers such as Homer in Iliad, reflect religious ideology in their works. A constant battle between man and the immortals are apparent, and the concepts of burial rights are similarly played out. In Iliad after Achilles rejoins the battle and fights his enemies, he kills Hektor, the Trojan attracter and releases his body to be buried after the gods intervene (Coughlin, 1990. ).In Antigone, the character Antigone realizes that Creon next in line to become king whitethorn have been thought to be chosen by the gods to rule, and she faces the decision to endure the law of Creon or be in contempt of Creons edict to pursue the exit of the gods. According to Gr eek mythology humans could endure an even far more eternal punishment for breaking the gods will. Antigone also questions, what if it was meant for Creon to be king, t presentfore it may be the will of the gods for punishment to come upon Polyneices. After negating this thought she oon realizes that the will of the gods is not only something King Creon moldiness witness and acknowledge, but something she must enforce herself. This determination to do what is right even in defiance of patriarchal law can be seen in lines 1019-1021, But if these men are wrong, let them suffer nothing worse than they mete out to methese masters of injustice (Sophocles, 1900. ). Because, Antigone truly thinks that Creon has not rightfully been awarded king, there is resentment towards him for finding his counsel to the throne through the end of the true power.It is possible that Antigone did not take the king seriously or thought that she would possibly be spared. In fact, she may have perhaps just si mply not cared. However, she chooses to display the importance of divine edict over the kings and takes it upon herself to give her brother a proper burial. She vocalizes this as she states, I didnt say yes. I can say no to anything I say vile, and I dont have to count the cost. But because you said yes, all that you can do, for all your crown and your trappings, and your guardsall that your can do is to have me killed. (Sophocles, 1900). This quote shows not only faith but muckle in the political heroism Antigones portrays in her resistance to refuse the power of state. Antigone answers no to all that she finds to be vile, I have longer to please the dead than please the living here in the kingdom down below Ill lie forever (Sophocles, 1900. Lines 88-90). These lines show how much personal power she possesses compared to King Creon. Antigone remains consistent, even contentious in her disobedience.By offending the king, it is as if Antigone is leaving him no choice and his pridefu l ways force him to sustain her sentence. After Creon realizes that fulfilling his order may be a mistake , he also knows that he cannot retract the ordering of her death. He had surrendered his actions to the power of the state, and thus rendering himself to a loathsome state. Unlike Antigone, who finds free will and faith in the laws of the gods. Playwrights such as Sophocles attempt to understand the meaning of human suffering and reexamine the many traditions and ideals from the past.Greek mythology questions the public and individual(a) responsibilities of individuals. As in any circumstance fighting against what is valued as right can become a conflicting power. Antigones decision to go through this treacherous act alone enabled her to find peace within the divine laws of nature during her time. The act of surrendering to a fate that was unjust prepared her for the desire she clung to despite its unbalanced position. Antigones fatal removal from the human community renders a powerful and tragically beautiful character of Greek mythology.The moral decisions she desire after became apparent to everyone, especially Creon, that Fate raises up, / And fate casts down the happy and unhappy alike / No man can foretell his fate. (Sophocles, 1900. ). Fate plays an fundamental role in Greek tragedy. Antigone seemingly found that There is no happiness where there is no wisdom / No wisdom but in submission to the gods. (Sophocles, 1900. ). She also raised the standards by which ordinary humanity was judged (Sophocles, 2005. Although she too suffered because of the heroic dichotomy present to all of Sophocles greatest characters, known as the misfire who feared to cast away the fear of heaven, she could not have sacrificed love and life were she not on some level was cursed with a greater than human obsession for moral justice (Sophocles, 2005. ) The courageous actions of this character succeed in illustrating that not even a kings entitlement can transfigure a persons fundamental natural rights. So it is possible to truly be happy, but only when man is wise. Wisdom is a essential trait. It brings an understanding of the real values there are in this world.The pursuit of wisdom leads to happiness, as Antigone tells us. To truly gain wisdom, one must accept that it not something already possessed. All the answers are not given, and this world offers more to learn from than expected. So, did Antigone ultimately succeed in this moral quest to stand by the value of Greek mythology, despite her suicide? It seems apparent that submitting to the will of the gods allowed Antigone to gain the necessary wisdom to find true happiness, even in death. Some suggest it was the fate of the gods, just as it had been for her father and brothers.

Customer Needs and Expectations

Here at Travel Weekly one of the representatives at utter(a) Atlantic have honoured us by writing an article slightly A daytime as a representative Lets see what Kaye Goodwin from Virgin Atlantic has to say In a day of a representative at Virgin Atlantic I have to look at how these gather ups are identified and I must cover node signals in writing Customer requests to representatives of organisations verb every(prenominal)y (face to face or telephone) Recognition of unstated needs Customer image one FamiliesIf a family was in any case put in a request in writing, because they may have unexampled children, they could possibly write their requests to me in an email because of convenience and time. For example a mother and father of two youthfulness children will not have time to come into the fit agents to sit down down and tell me what type of pass they would deal. Therefore by sending me an email with the requests they would deal, it would save a lot of time, and I w ashbowl look up all of the instruction for them and respond back to them via email.Customer type two Couples If a young couple would like to go on a short break or a holiday, they would come into the travel agent and sit down with me too tell me where they would like to go and what type of holiday they would like. For example a young couple from Central London would like to book a holiday for early December. They come into the travel agent and sit down with me and tell me what type of holiday they would like. After looking up and discussing different holidays, they would make a decision and hopefully book the holiday.If they would like more time to think about it, I would give them a few broachers to take home with them slice they thought about it. Customer type two Elderly couple An elderly couple are most likely to come into the travel agents and sit down with me to discuss the holiday they would like to go on. After discussing a few holidays, I would recommend a holiday. E. g. I would say there is a lovely villa in Spain that is on offer at the moment that is about half a mile away from the beach. If one of the couples were to say that they have been to Spain in the first place and it was too hot, or that their partner was not able to walk very far, that would be known as a recognition of unstated needs, meaning that they would like to go to a destination that is at a cooler climate or they would like to stay in accommodation closer to the beach. Customer type four Disabled People that have a disability can communicate with me in any way, i. e. face to face, via email or on the telephone.If a customer was to call me and ask for information on different holidays but said that they were disabled, I would realise that this would mean they would be a unstated need, and they would need special assistance. For example if a lady who motiveed to book a holiday and was blind or visually impaired, I would know that they would need maps or signs to be put up in B rail and raised floors so they know when they are too close to a swimming pool. Task 2b pardon how travel and recognition of their needs.Tourism organisations understand and exceed customer expectations using examples from companies in the travel and tourism industry that you have researched. When our company (VA) recognise customer needs, the customers can be face for face with one of our representatives, have an online chat with one of our representatives or write their requests too us. We ache customer needs by reservation sure that all of the flights operate on time, airline staff are always available for assistance and always make sure that customers are unplowed up to date with important information such as flight times, flight delays and check in times.The way that we meet these needs are by keeping staff updated with information, regular announcements for customers at the airports and making sure that landings/take off are planned properly to avoid delays if possible. T ask 2c analyse how travel and tourism organisations meet and exceed the customer needs and expectations through the recognition of their needs. You should expand the links between needs, identification of needs and being able to meet and exceed customers expectations. Here at Virgin Atlantic, we identify and meet customer needs through customer survey questionnaires/ comment cards and customer forums/ strain groups.When the survey questionnaires or comment cards have been read by a member for our staff, usually the customer service manager, they then analyse all of the comments to find areas of improvement in order to meet customer needs. For example, if a number of customers have complained about staff not knowing obvious information i. e. directions around the airport, prices of products or check in times, that would tell us that our staff are unequipped to help our customers. From this, we will then need to realise and do work our a way to get more information into our staff in order to meet the needs of our customers more efficiently.This can be done in many ways, however the most ideal one for this situation would be to suckle regular morning/afternoon meetings to keep staff updated with information. When we exceed customer expectations, we like to go that extra mile by giving out customers more in-depth information. An example of this would be when a customer asks simply the time of their flight, we like to make sure that our staff will fully inform our customers of their flight time, boarding time, gate number and if there will be any delays.At the Martime Museum (NMM) they meet and exceed customers expectations by making sure that the company works like clock work. All of the staff are given a two day induction and then on-going training pro grammes are offered to all staff. All staff are fully trained and new members of staff are teamed up with an experienced team member to meet all of the customers needs. At NMM there are customer comment cards, c ustomer surveys and focus groups to ensure that the organization knows what their customers want and if there are any complaints being made.For an example if the museum had a number of complaints about staff not having enough product knowledge/information i. e. minimize history of the area they were working in, that would tell the managers/owners that their staff are unequipped to help their customers. From this information, they work their way to getting more knowledge into their staff. This can be done in so many ways but the most effective way would be to give the staff more training and hold meetings regularly o make sure that they have acceptable knowledge to be working with the customers.

Coca-Cola Versus Pepsi-Cola Essay

SummaryIn the late 1800s, Ameri notify pharmacists started mixing fruit syrups and carbonated soda water, causing a stark naked kind of potables known as soda drinks. The most famous blots that started in the business are Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Dr. Pepper but the uncollectible long-lasting rivalry is until immediately amidst Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola.In 1886, a pharmacist named Dr. John Pemberton made the formula of Coca-Cola and the drink was sold in at the counter of Jacobs Pharmacy as a refreshing drink. Pemberton was a part owner of the pharmacy after he left, eventually, Asa Candler became the sole owner and had the rights to the drink. Candler sold the Coca-Cola syrup to pharmacies and started a openhanded advertizement campaign which gave Candler a strong sales tycoon. In 1899 Candler granted the set-back bottling franchise, which eventually grew rapidly. Ernest Woodruff bought Coca-Cola in 1919 for 25$ million, Woodruff and his son worked on fashioning degree C elsius a convenient product thats available everywhere. Woodruff made a colossal decision at the time of the beginning of valet de chambre War II he verbalise that every man wearing a uniform should get a Coca-Cola bottle for only 5 cents some(prenominal) it cost. This decision made nose candy have a strong market-share in Asian and European countries in the late 1950s, Coca-Cola advertised as Americans Preferred experiment. Woodruff was influential in Cokes strategic decisions until 1982.A pharmacist named Caleb Bradham invented the formula of Pepsi-Cola in 1893 in New Bern, South Carolina in 1893. Pepsi followed a similar path as Coke in the expansion, using franchisers to spread their beverage. The company faced bankruptcy many times due to the strong receipts that Coke had over Pepsi-Cola and the weak competition between the two companies at that time. In the period following WWII, Coke outsold Pepsi by a 10 to 1 ratio per unit in that period many bats-drink producers st arted entering the market with a big variety of flavors other than cola flavor. Alfred Steele became Pepsis CEO in 1950, he believed that his company will take over Coke one day, Steele was a former Coca-Cola marketing executive, and he helped Pepsi a lot due to his bang-up know leadge about the rival which is Coca-Cola. In an effort to raise the companys sales, Pepsi introduced new bottle sizes such as the 24-oz family bottle. 1955 Steele married an actress named Joan Crawford and started a big advertising campaign Alfred Steels motto was beat coke which led to increasing Pepsi revenues to over 300% between years 1950 and 1959.Through the years many soft drink companies joined the industry, but the difference is that these companies focused on assays other than colas, such as 7UP which is a mix of citric flavors and soda, 7UP was first introduced in 1929 the introduction of 7UP led to an increase in the national market share.Coca-Cola continued to expand in the 1960s making Cok e available internationally and in the United States. Coca-Cola started diversifying when it bought Minute Maid Juice Company Cola-Cola also produced new products such as Sprite. Coca-Cola offered its soft drinks either in cans or churl bottles in 1961. Throughout the years in the 1960s and 1970s, Coca-Cola introduced different new products such as Sprite, Tab, Mr.Pibb, Fresca, and Mellow Yellow. Coca-Cola concentrated on international markets to spread the drinks, this dodging of spreading Coca-Cola internationally had matured the company and made the brand image much stronger than Pepsi.Donald Kendall, a former sales manager became Pepsi CEO in 1963, downstairs Kendall Pepsi was renamed PepsiCo and started an unrelated variegation by opening restaurants such as Pizza Hut and producing snacks. Pepsi extended its line of products in 1964 by introducing Diet Pepsi and pot Dew Mountain Dew has a similar taste to Sprite with was introduced by Coca-Cola. Pepsi tried to keep track wi th Coke in order to keep the competition even though Coca-Cola was more powerful than PepsiCo at that time. Pepsi became more aggressive and competition hungry in 1970 and 1971 when they employed experience marketing executives. In the 1950s and 1960s the toll of Pepsi was 20% less than the price of Coke, but still wasnt able to reach Cokes strength with the strong advertising campaigns thanks to the experienced executives that Pepsi recruited, Pepsi was able to gain a stronger market-share for the first time in 1975.In 1974, Pepsi was the third largest-selling soft drink after Coke and Dr. Pepper. Researchers from Pepsi have shown that in a blind test the majority of consumers preferred Pepsi over Coke. This successful experiment which was called The Pepsi Challenge increased Pepsis market share and made it the number-two brand. After the great success that this challenge brought to Pepsi, Victor Bonomo, president of Pepsi USA in 1974, decided that the Pepsi challenge should be d eployed I all market where Pepsi is weak. The spread of the Pepsi challenge led to an increase in Pepsi sales by 20% in the biggest cities of America. Pepsi launched the Challenge all over the nation in 1977, and after 3 years Pepsi brand was widely recognized in the U.S. and gave Pepsi an additional 1.3% market share lead over the rival Coca-Cola.Coca-Cola responded to the challenge by giving big discounts in reliable markets where Coke has a competitive advantage over Pepsi and by stating that Cokes bottlers are owned by Coca-Cola, but Pepsi bottlers are franchisees. Knowing that Coke and Pepsi is a standardized product, Coca-Cola used price as a market weapon to target Pepsi consumers. Coke tried to regain money lost that was a result of the huge discounts that the company kept on introducing, by selling franchisees the concentrate rather than the syrup they use in manufacturing the drinks. Roberto Goizueta became CEO of Coca-Cola in 1980, he introduced a 1200-word strategy stat ement, and the main aim of this statement is price discounting in order to regain Cokes position in the market.Coca-Cola began to influence the possession and management of the of their franchised bottlers, despite being committed to independent bottlers, they replaced bottlers in key markets that were not deemed sufficiently aggressive in selling their product. The CEO of Coca-Cola USA stated that the company had some role to play in the reasons the buyers purchase the product by offering in several instances to increase the numbers of their investments with the potential buyers.2) constituentThe Coca-Cola Versus Pepsi-Cola case study was written to give the maximum amount of information to business-oriented individuals, it gave so much information about two of the most competitive companies end-to-end history the motif illustrated the history of the two main soft drink companies and also talked about other companies that entered the industry.The irony is Pepsi and Coca-Cola wer e invented by pharmacists who are supposed to say drugs to people and not give them beverages with high amounts of sugar and artificial tastes, the case explained how Pepsi and Coke changed peoples views of a beverage when the companies invented carbonated soda beverages. The paper explained in details the huge cola advertising war that started in the 1980s between the rival Coca-Cola and PepsiCo that caused a big revolution in the beverage industry and incentivized new companies to enter the industry and produce beverages with different flavors.The case explained the positioning of the two companies and showed the difference in the brand value of the companies. The case was great also in giving the comparative analysis between the two companies, giving the different products other than the main product that was first manufactured by the companies. The case also showed us how the companies implemented different strategies to increase revenues and to increase market share and gain t he most competitive advantage.Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola SWOT analysis intensity level*Pepsi Very Innovative, the broad portfolio of products, more flexible franchise network, aggressive marketing strategy.*Coca-Cola One of the most valuable brands in the world, largest market share in the soft drink industry, and great customer loyaltyWeakness*Pepsi Competition with Coke, higher prices than Coke, and lower net profit margin than Coca-Cola*Coca-Cola Competition with Pepsi, relies on soft drinks, and lacks diversificationOpportunities*Pepsi International expansion and growth in the bottled water industry*Coca-Cola Reduce costs and increased demand for bottled waterThreats*Pepsi Increased marketing campaigns by Coke and restrictions to sell in certain countries because Coke has control on them*Coca-Cola Strong local brands in some countries and negative publicityMichael Porters 5 Forces on Pepsi and Coca-ColaKnowing that Pepsi and Coca-Cola have standardized products, I wont need to talk abo ut every company alone.The intensity of Rivalry between Competitors Pepsi and Coke are historical competitors, in the 1980s the rivalry between them was very ferocious, and the cola war occurred at that period of time to show which companies products taste better.Bargaining Power of Suppliers Suppliers have no power over Pepsi or Coca-Cola, it is very easy and cheap to buy all the ingredients to manufacture soft drinks, in fact, the competition between Pepsi and Coca-Colas suppliers is really strong because of the great and presence of all the material. In my opinion, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have power over their suppliers this helps them in decreasing their costs a lot.Bargaining Power of Buyers The power of buyers in the case of Coca-Cola and Pepsi is high, because the switching cost is low or even the same depending on the geographical segment both companies try their best to gain customer loyalty, but Coke does it better by playing on its customers emotions in its advertisements.Th e threat of New Entrants This force is low, the soft drink industry is very competitive if a possible new product enters the market, and it would be really expensive and hard to position in the very strong industry.Threat of Substitutes This force is high, especially because of health trends that hit the community from time to time, bottled water and juice companies are working hard in order to gain a competitive advantage over Pepsi and Coke by showing consumers the bad effects and obesity that this soda beverage can cause to our health, this is causing a change Pepsi and Coca-Colas strategies and making them introduce diet beverages as mentioned in the case, or even causing the Pepsi and Coca-Cola to buy big companies that produce healthy beverages as an example, Pepsi bought Aquafina in order to have an advantage over the competitor.

What is recruitment and selection?

What is recruitment and selection? In other words, the process where an governing collect a number of people who met requirements and qualified for that organization Selection is.. During both processes R&S, an organization has to justify why they are going to choose particular methods to recruit and select people in a capable pool, that is to say, what elements or what to a lower place considerations which they use to influence their decisions before recruiting and selecting peopleAttraction and Retention The definition of recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply an organization for employment. therefore this agency that there is a need to generate peoples interest to apply for the job. This means that people have choice to choose This is why an organization has to consider this strategic choice. To be precise, attraction means. For the internal sources this is associated with retention which meansWhen considering attraction and retention strateg y, an organization might first of all apply the pattern of Fitting the person to the environment, organization As this diagram illustrates In an organization Whereas HR plocies will be designed to achevive particular organizational targets and goals, those policies also depict an opportunity for individual needs to emerge and be satisfied. This view assumes that a fit between a person and the environment can be ground so that commitment and per varianceance are enhance (Kristof, 1996).This not only gives a high performance advantages but also lead to retention unfavorable judgment However, commentator have Doubted whether such mutuality could develop on the basis of equality because organizational need would always be superiority. In typical form of profit-organistaion, the issue of profits maybe considered outweight individual needs. Competencies Another important element when considering attraction and retention strategy in recruitment and selection is to set out, what is it r eferred as competencies which are developed within the organization.A set of behavior patterns that the incumbent needs to bring to a position in order to perform its tasks an functions with competence. (The ability, skills and knowledge obtained by candidates and relevantly required and matched with organizational goals and targets) For instance, In large financial services organisations in the UK set out its competencies for example self-control . etc If we look at Lloyds TBSs, ane of large financial services, it provides its vision and projected image of its organisation that

Importance of Gwadar Port for Pakistan

Selection of Gwadar for construction of Deep Sea Port. While carrying out feasibility turn over for development of Gwadar way both Karachi and Bin Qasim were in any case considered for such development but found not attractive to major(ip) shipping agencies due to standoffishness from main shipping routes, limitations of draft and comparatively long turn around time. Due to these reasons Gwadar was selected as the site for 3rd commercial fashion for Pakistan. Geo-Strategic Im interfaceance Gwadar port is located about 267 NM West of Karachi.Because of its ideal perspective at the mouth of gulf and opposite strategic choke points of Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman the port is visualized to give out a regional hub serving incoming and out going commercial traffic of Middle East and Gulf countries. The new port of Gwadar forget supplement Karachi Port and Port Qasim. It will attract transit and trans-shipment trade from over twenty countries including Srilanka, Bangladesh, Oman , UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and Iran. These countries may open their warehouses in Gwadar for merchandise of goods and storing of imported goods for later shipment to their countries.Non Quantifiable Benefits of Port. Details of indirect non quantifiable benefits which the people of region will get and would accrue to the national economy from this port. craft throw in Port & Free Economic Zone/Incentives. Keeping in view the signifi potentiometerce of Gwadar port, the government has declared Gwadar as a Duty Free Port and Free Economic Zone. A separate allocation of one billion rupees was made in the budget for the fiscal year 2004-2005 for the construction of the exportation zone and Gwadar industrial city.This has greatly accelerated the pace of development in the area. The other incentives announced by Govt are summarized as under Positive set about towards private sector involvement. Infrastructure development on BOT/BOO basis. deoxycytidine monophosphate% profit repa triation. Tax holidays for ten years from date of commencement of commercial operations. 100% profit repatriation. Ownership rights. Flexible labour regulations. Subsidy on utilities. Complete exemption from duty & sales tax on imported plants & machinery for 10 years. large(p) gains will be exempted from tax for 5 years.No local octroi or export tax leviable by local Govt. Access to CARs. Gwadar Port located in proximity of Arabian Gulf and Central Asian Republics provide it unique opportunity to serve both. Pakistan needs to capitalize on them through better diplomatic ties with Arab states and CARs. It is therefore anticipated that oil reserves and other resources of CARs would gradually become the focus of world attention in coming years. However, in case of exports to and from CARs a peaceful and stable Afghanistan is must.The port will also help in promoting trade with Gulf States possessing 63% of worlds oil reserves and will prove instrumental in promoting trans-shipment e ssentially of containerized cargo besides unlocking the development capableness for hinter vote down. The most important factor that makes Gwadar Port strategically unique is the location with respect to other major ports in the region, which are all located on the other side of the sea. Gwadar port being towards north can comfortably provide services and facilities to CARs, Afghanistan and China.Upcoming Fishing Harbour/Industry. Planned fishing harbour/industry connect with this port will facilitate efficient growing of our 960 KM of long coast which would give boost to fish and crab exports and would promote food processing industries as well. Gwadar could also be a potential source of gas and oil exploitation. 1 These areas clearly indicate the vast potential which should be exploited and will help contribute towards national economy. Instability in Gulf. Gulf region and CARs contain one of the largest oil and gas resources of the world respectively.Gulf countries in particu lar, have capitalized on it by constructing major commercial centers with pop port facilities. Pakistan, could not cash on this opportunity earlier due limited resources which Gulf countries did and so have well established ports these days. Gulf instanter is badly exposed to world due instability in region and in case of blockade of Gulf due to any reason, the Gwadar port would become more important due to only choice left. Beside this, sour relations of Iran with western countries and her territorial disputes with Iraq are enough reasons for international community to opt for Gwadar instead than any Iranian port in future. Gwadar Port is therefore expected to act as a vital link to China, Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics end-to-end the year. Due to these factors Gwadar is going to be the necessity of major shipping competitors as it is the most efficient route to Indian Ocean for world markets. Gwadar Port can therefore become a viable option for world community due to the following reasons It is not within Gulf, thereby reducing chances of being blocked. It provides shortest overture to the land locked Afghanistan and CARs.It is located in close proximity of other regional ports of the Gulf. Trans-shipment of Bulk Cargo. Oil Storage, Refinery and Petrochemical related industries/ initiations. Export processing and Industrial Zone. Export of minerals and bonk stock. Services ie hotel accommodation, tourism etc. Fishing industry. Ship repairs and Ship building. Construction of Warehouses and Storages. Beach Industries. Port Related Facilities. Construction of under mentioned facilities/industries is directly linked with the construction of Gwadar Port and will provide employment opportunities for its locals and the region.Trade pact with Tashkent. Considering wideness of trade from CARs vis -a-vis up coming Gwadar port. Govt of Pakistan (GOP) has very rightly concluded a trade pact with Tashkent. In this Pakistan and Uzbekistan have agreed to en ter into a trilateral transit trade agreement with Afghanistan to benefit from the Gwadar port facility and land routes. As per the joint communique issued after meeting of reps of both sides on 29-30 Dec 2005, a Joint Ministerial Commission has been formed to formulate exposit/trade quantum and the modus operandi.Development Plans/Investment Opportunities For Balochistan By making Gwadar the pivot of regional trade, Pakistan will also attract considerable investment into its most under genuine province. These funds will allow construction of roads and railways, linking the coastal region with rest of the Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan and will also, facilitate cultivation of vast regions and exploration of natural resources. This would in the long run help socio-economic uplift of locals through various development projects. The government on 3 October, 2004 has also announced Rs 3. 00 Bn grant for speeding up development activities for overall uplift of Balochistan. Beside the se the development of Gwadar port would also benefit the overall economy of province/country and will unlock its potentials. It is anticipated that around 2. 5 gazillion people will get jobs with start of this project. The government is setting technical training centres in area to train people. Although Gwadar is comparatively free from tribal influence, so far people of area have two major concerns in their minds. Firstly, influx of people from rest of the country may throw them in minority.Secondly, local people lacks in education and other skills, which may affect their career prospects. They have a fear that people coming from other areas may grab the major share of economic opportunities. General public therefore show a resentment against government policies in form of bomb blasts and demonstrations/destruction of sui gas installation etc, however once economic lifts become visible then people would certainly realise their short sightedness. Oil Factor and the Alternate Por t. Pakistans submit population is arround160 Million.With the present growth rate of population, the countrys oil needs are increasing continuously as well. The fact that our dependence on POL gets further compounded as most of our defense needs are also met through it. National oil reserves are also dependent on the continuous POL from abroad. The war stamina depends on the availability of POL to armed forces for effective fighting. Therefore, keeping in mind the importance of SLOCs for provision of uninterrupted oil supply, Gwadar port would provide much-needed alternate for Karachi/ Qasim ports.

Singapore Airlines

The Emerald look into Register for this journal is forthcoming at www. emeraldinsight. com/ seekregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is lendable at www. emeraldinsight. com/0960-4529. htm MSQ 15,3 A type study of penny-pinching visitation and recuperation within an international airway David Bamford Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK, and 306 Tatiana Xystouri Ministry of Finance, Nicosia, Cyprus generalisation Purpose This cover seeks to examine the utileness of internecine masterfessionalcesses of utileness character reference convalescence for an international respiratory tract. tar mature/ methodology/ap masterach An carry through query methodology was adopted. The search manifold a re cyclorama of available avail case literature the identi? cation of ec centimerics of nonst artworker/errors within the host go with the development of key lessons and aspireion guidelines. Findings It is argued that, f or do reco very(prenominal) to be effective, it must be external (to the guest) as strong as inbred (to the institution). The pauperisation to incorporate employees and non oerlook their signi? nominatece, power and in? uence on the delivery of eccentric dish out is soaringlighted.Through comparison with anformer(a) airline the ? ndings re-assert that attend flavor excellence loafer only be achieved through employee gladness, loading and devotion as a result of senior management commitment, focus and drive. look into limit points/implications The methodology applied was appropriate, generating data to facilitate discussion and from which to draw speci? c conclusions. A comprehend limitation is the angiotensin-converting enzyme case fire however, Remenyi argues that this can be enough to add to the body of knowledge. For further investigation, in that respect is an current opportunity for future research n the atomic bite 18a of dish out whole tone, bere avement and recovery, as substantially as the unattackable timber gaps within the airline. Practical implications Key lessons and management guidelines for improving go caliber are r to each peerlessed. Originality/ prize The makeup describes how an international airline has tangible gain reference ill and recovery arrangings in place, but fails to capitalise on the data and reading generated. Keywords Customer servings tone of voice, return failures, helping remediatements, International travel, air passages Paper type search paper Managing help Quality Vol. 15 zero(prenominal) 3, 2005 pp. 06-322 q Emerald theme Publishing Limited 0960-4529 DOI 10. 1108/09604520510597845 Introduction Services marketing and management literature widely live that keeping current clients and under authentic affinitys with raw(a) aces is a key course strategy (Piercy, 1995). The growing edification of consumers does represent an ongoing ch onlyenge to all manner of usefulness nerves. According to Zemke and Bell (1989) nonhing is as common as the organisation committed more than to lip value than guest service more cheered in advertising than action. This is non helped in the link among guest satisfaction and pro? s being neither candid nor simple. Zeithaml (2000) highlights troika major problems in measuring relationships as (1) the time-lag amid measuring customer satisfaction and measuring pro? t improvements (2) the number of other variables in? uencing con feederacy pro? ts much(prenominal) as price, distribution (3) that other variables (such as behavioural issues) should be included in the relationship as they explain causality between satisfaction and results. However, a number of studies arrive present a clearly positive relationship between organisation instruction execution and customer satisfaction/service excellence.Wirtz and Johnston (2003) highlight the positive correlation between the pro? ts and service exc ellence of Singapore Airlines (SIA). Commenting on the combative nature of the airline industry, one of their interviewees states . . . it is outstanding to realise that they (customers) are not just comparing SIA with other airlines. They are comparing us against many industries, and on many factors (Wirtz and Johnston, 2003, p. 11). A case of service failure and recovery 307 Van der Wiele et al. (2002, p. 191) ? d the same result for an employment agency, stating perceived quality is related to organisational performance indicators in the same year and/or in the next year. Service failure and the attendant complaints from customers are a likely natural event over a product/service lifetime and the rapid, effective discussion of these has proven to be vital in finding customer satisfaction and loyalty. Indeed, the importance of service recovery reinforces the need for organisations to ? nd approaches that are effective in both unwraping service failure and in developing str ategies to recover successfully.Service recovery should be the cornerstone of a customer satisfaction strategy. This paper examines the effectives of versed memberes of service quality recovery for an international airline. Literature review The changing environment in the service sector ? According to Gronroos (1987) the dimensions of service quality are diverse and relate to both the basic service package and augmented service crack. Two important contributions in developing models for measuring service quality are from Johnson et al. (1995) and Silvestro et al. (1990, cited in Dale, 1999), who assessed service quality in the UK. They identi? d 15 aspects of service quality, and categorised them into three factors (1) Hygiene factors those expected by the customer. (2) Enhancing factors those that channel to customer satisfaction, although failure to deliver is not likely to cause dissatisfaction. (3) Dual threshold factors those whose failure to deliver will cause dissatisfa ction while delivery above a speci? c take aim will cause satisfaction. While the above model gives a clear view of what criteria a customer may use to judge service quality, it is not as widely describe as the one proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1985) who condensed ten original factors into ? e categories (tangibles, ? responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy). Gronroos (1988a, b) later added a one-sixth factor and withdrawed it recovery. Parasuraman et al. (1985) also suggested quality consists of the gap between what the customer expects and receives and that this gap is affected by quaternion gaps on the MSQ 15,3 308 provider side (customer expectations management perceptions of consumer expectations service quality speci? cations actual service delivery). Unfortunately when customers are asked for feedback the methodologies used sometimes lack empirical rigor and are often a chemical reaction to a speci? crisis in the organisation (Berman, 1996). This loss of dat a at the organisational level sum that transactional changes are not tied to customer priorities in a routine manner. Dale (2003) summarises three major changes in the service sector. Stating the present emphasis on the service encounter, in particular the contribution made by service providers in enhancing and maintaining service quality, arises from environmental trends relating to . consumers awareness and expectations . technological developments and sophistication and . competitive elements.In price of consumers awareness and expectations, as society gets wealthier and the marginal utility derived from additional increments of goods declines, people turn to service expenditures. The growth in ? nal inquire from consumers may be attributed to consumer expectations of quality, which are believed and accepted to be increase (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 1998). With regards to technological developments and sophistication, computerisation and technological innovations are radic ally altering the way in which many organisations do melodic phrase with their customers.They can go a major contribution in the delivery of quality service. One view is that technological advances offer an opportunity to amplify service in a variety of ways to improve the competitive stance (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991). In terminal figures of competitive elements, since entering the impudently millennium, it has become clear that most organisations are change magnitudely, in their quest for impart and advancement, interested in how they can achieve differentiation and competitive expediency (Verma, 2000). Globalisation and value impelled headache imperatives thitherfore mean that mis puddles will not be tolerated.Services failures, recovering and learning The cushion of active recovery strategies on a companys tax income and pro? tability is dramatic. For example, Hampton Inn hotels in the USA realised $11 million in additional r even offue from the implementation of its service fasten and scored the highest customer retention rate in the industry (Ettorre, 1994). Research by the Of? ce of Fair occupation (OFT, 1990) illustrated when people occupy a complaint about goods and services and the complaint is satisfactorily fragmentised, three living quarters of them will debase the same strike off again.Where the complaint is not resolved, less than half will buy the same brand again. Clearly there is a pro? t to be made by retaining the customer loyalty of those whose complaints the company resolves (Citizens Charter Complaints Task Force, 1995). The ability to deal in effect with customer problems is closely related to employee satisfaction and loyalty. These are critical concerns in industries where customer relationships are closely associated with an some(prenominal)(prenominal) service provider (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991). Heskett et al. (1994) identi? s a number of factors that are considered important for employee satisfaction. T hese include satisfaction with the parentage itself instruction pay advancement fairness treatment with respect and dignity teamwork the companys interest in employees well-being and the service workers perceptions of their abilities to meet customer needs. Of course the greatest rampart to effective service recovery and organisational learning is that only 5-10 per cent of dissatis? ed customers choose to complain practiseers(a) a service failure (Tax and Brown, 1998, p. 7 Dube and Maute, 1996). Instead, most silently switch providers or attempt to get even by making negative comments to others (Singh, 1990). Why are customers reluctant to complain? Several authors such as Dube and Maute (1996) and Singh (1990) uncover four reasons (1) customers believe that the organisation will not be responsive (2) they do not wish to confront the individual responsible for the failure (3) they are uncertain about their righteousnesss and the ? rms obligations and (4) they are concerned a bout the high cost in time and effort of complaining.To counter this several approaches fork over been highlighted that are effective in identifying service failures setting performance standards communicating the importance of service recovery training customers in how to complain and using technological support offered through customer call centres and the internet (Dale, 2003). According to Bitner et al. (1997) the level of customer participation in a service experience varies across services and customers can play a variety of personas. Through a review of the literature Bitner et al. 1997) identify three (1) the customer as productive resource (2) the customer as contributor to quality, satisfaction and value and (3) the customer as competitor to the service organisation. These roles are not mutually exclusive, meaning individuals behaviours in a speci? c situation may apply to more than one of the three roles. What can ? rms do to improve recovery performance? Academic tur n out, for example Hart et al. (1990), Mason (1993) and Bowen and Lawler (1995), suggests there are speci? practices that improve service-recovery speciality hiring, training and empowerment establishing service-recovery guidelines and standards providing easy access and effective responses through call centres and maintaining customer and product databases. Bitner et al. (1990) in a study of 700 critical incidents found that it is not necessarily failure itself that leads to customer dissatisfaction, most customers do accept that things can go wrong. It is more likely the organisations response/lack of response to the failure that causes resentment and dissatisfaction.Boshoff (1997) surveyed 540 travellers, presenting them with a constantly negative service situation (a missed ? ight connection caused by ? ight delay) and looked for the most successful recovery strategies. They were a fast response by the highest possible person in terms of seniority a fast response accompanied by full refund confident(p) some amount of compensation a large amount of compensation provided by a high ranking manager. An apology was of limited use unless accompanied by some form of tangible compensation.A market- operate approach to service recovery consists of many tools in addition to identifying and responding to complaints surveys mystery shopping focus groups customer and employee advisory panels and service operating performance data (Day, A case of service failure and recovery 309 MSQ 15,3 310 1994). In identifying opportunities to improve services, many ? rms integrate complaint data with data gathered through one or more of these research methods. Firms determining investment priorities in service improvement examine the feign of various options (e. g. ncreasing the speed of front-desk check-in versus expanding the room-service menu at a hotel) on customer satisfaction, repurchase intention, operation cost, and market share. The intention is to identify those proce ss improvements that will pee the greatest impact on pro? tability (Rust et al. , 1995). Investment decisions should also be driven by customer pro? tability assessments. For example, United Airlines determined that business travellers account for 40 per cent of its business by headcount, but supply 72 per cent of its revenue mile-collecting vacationers constitute 60 per cent of travellers but provide only 28 per cent of revenue.The most browse business travellers, dubbed road warriors, generate 37 per cent of revenue even though they make up only 6 per cent of the passengers. United learned through complaints and survey results that the road warriors were the customers least(prenominal) satis? ed and most frustrated with air travel. Based on the data, the company invested $400 million to provide business travellers with better seats, pabulum, and lounges a pre-departure service to avoid long lines more frequent-? ier bene? ts and perks such as showers in terminals (Rust et al. 1995). The relationship between service recovery and organisational pro? tability can be clearly seen by examining the service-pro? t mountain chain (Heskett et al. , 1994). This argues that pro? t results from customer loyalty, which results from customer satisfaction with the service system customer satisfaction (value) is generated by satis? ed, loyal, and productive employees. The impact of service recovery can be traced through improvements in the service system and through the direct effect on satisfaction of end a customer complaint.Resolving problems effectively has a strong impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty (McCollough and Bharadwaj, 1992). Conversely, poor recovery following a great(p) service experience can create terrorists, customers so dissatis? ed that they actively prosecute opportunities to criticise the company (Heskett et al. , 1994). Loyal customers expect problems to be dealt with effectively and are disappointed when they are not, making service r ecovery key (Zeithaml et al. , 1993). Examples from the airline industry Wirtz and Johnston (2003), comment how SIA continues to get service quality right.They have consistently been one of the most pro? table airlines in the world and are routinely voted exceed airline, outflank business mannikin, best cabin crew service, best in-? ight food, best for punctuality and safety, best for business travellers, best air cargo carrier, and even Asias most admired company. SIA seems to follow many of the normative models that are well researched and publish in the service literature such as a strategic focus on customers adopting a total company approach to service excellence incremental improvement and periodic process design and continuous benchmarking.The company strives for a constant exceeding of expectation (e. g. Berry, 1995) and has active customer feedback systems (e. g. Berry and Parasuraman, 1997, Wirtz and Tomlin, 2000). SIAs culture of service excellence at a pro? t is in line with the service pro? t chain (Heskett et al. , 1997) and the cycle of success (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991). Final observations made by Wirtz and Johnston (2003, p. 18) include what they term as these somewhat surprising ? ndings SIAs holistic process perspective a culture were all staff look at all processes all the ime to search for incremental improvement SIA strive to maintain consistency in service excellence that meets the needs of every customer (maintaining the dif? cult balance between standardisation and customisation) a simultaneous focus on service excellence and costs/pro? ts, pushed right out to the front line staff. Their conclusion is that SIA has no secret formula for success they just follow widely known and applied frameworks and models. At British Airways (BA) in 1983, the then chief executive, Colin Marshall, launched the Customer starting time campaign.The cornerstone of the Customer First campaign was detailed research into what customers expect in t erms of ain service. BA established monitoring mechanisms, which continually told them what the customers expect, and how well they were doing against these expectations. The market research covered both customers and staff, so as to form the starting point for a fully integrated campaign to improve standards of service. The training programmes included a personal development course looking at such aspects as handling feelings, understanding and coping with stress, and being assertive.The programme was then extended to embrace all non-customer contact staff. long emphasis has been placed on teamwork and on an appreciation of the contribution that each individual and each role makes towards the success of the airline as a social unit. Further, the Quality Assurance Unit, whose activities were to focus on de? ning detailed customer service standards, and develop quality control mechanisms by which BA could measure their local performance against customer expectations, monitored the progress of improving service quality.At the same time, a service quality audit was developed to meet the needs of overseas stations. The objective has been that all staff within the company becomes actively involved and committed to the corporate objective of improving customer service, with the slogan Putting our customers ? rst if we dont, someone else will (Hamill and Davies, 1986). SAS suffered an $8 million operating loss in 1981. Within two geezerhood, they achieved a gross pro? t of $71 million on sales of $2 billion, although the industry as a whole lost a total of $1. 7 billion (Albrecht, 1985).The success story at SAS was claimed to come from an organisational commitment to manage the customers experience through so-called moments of truth, the ? rst 15-second encounter between a passenger and the front-line people (Carlzon, 1987, p. viii). Carlzon, SAS President at the time and later author of Moments of Truth, his take on successful customer service quality, put all 27,000 employees through a company-wide training programme. Everyone, from baggage handlers to company vice presidents authoritative the training in a two-day workshop, speci? cally targeted to meeting the needs of their customers.According to Carlzon this cross-functional training is of the essence(p) if only front-line staff have it then their best efforts to satisfy customers may be blocked by back-room staff. He goes on to propose that the link between tactics and strategy is not made in many customer service organisations, ultimately resulting in failure of service quality. Research method An action research methodology was adopted (Remenyi et al. , 1998). Action research was developed during the 1960s and has proven particularly useful in the area of managing change and identifying areas for improvement (Remenyi et al. 1998). Moore (1999) states that to be properly regarded as action research, a visualize must contain a continuous thread of objective evaluation and a mechan ism whereby the results of the A case of service failure and recovery 311 MSQ 15,3 312 evaluation and the lessons learned during the project can be fed back into the process so that it becomes something which is dynamic and constantly modi? ed in the light of experience. The main advantage of action research is that it is done in real-time produces a concrete result and everyone in the organisation can see what is going on.This can have its disadvantages as well mistakes made are very public, but on the whole it makes for research which has the support and backing of people who might otherwise have shown little commitment to the idea. Its distinguishing feature is that it integrates something of real, practical worth into an organisation. This has to be the case, otherwise the research would never have been sanctioned ? rms do not have resources to spare and would not waste their own time and resources on a futile project. As detailed above, one potential weakness of the adopted r esearch methodology might be its very public nature.If the project did not produce tangible real-time results, those livelihood it may lose interest and bias any future initiatives. The applied methodology needed to be systematic so that it ? tted with the basic aims of the research. In nut interviews, observation and company documentation were all used. This investigations objective was to make an assessment of the airlines process of service quality recovery with respect to service failure, driven by the goal of customer satisfaction and internal improvement. Once access was established key measurables, and causes of failure were identi? d through a detailed examination of company processes, informal discussion with Company personnel, and formal interviews with various employees. This process, over a period of time, allowed the identi? cation of sources of errors within the host company. The case study The research presented here involved full participation from an international airline. During the 1990s the airline concentrated on improving customer service, reducing costs and aggressive marketing. Signi? cant effort and new approaches were initiated to improve the quality of service delivered to the customer, in order that the organisation remains ompetitive in future age. A central pivot of the airlines approach was a commitment to improve service to the customer and they subsequently won a number of passenger accolades. Service failure in the airline Among the key data was the record of passenger complaints during a four-year period. These records included the revenue-passengers carried by the airline, number of complaints received, number of complaints offered compensation and the amount of money paid out during each of the four years.They are represented in Table I. The number of recorded complaints increased by about 60 per cent and those offered compensation increased dramatically by 147 per cent during this period. The Year Revenue passengers car ried Complaints received Instances paid Amount of money paid (? ) Table I. Passenger complaints records 1 2 3 4 1,298,000 1,355,000 1,346,000 1,400,000 545 684 715 870 253 403 462 626 22,736 47,048 70,253 73,869 manager of the complaints department commented on these numbers by asserting the increase re? cted only a small extent of the increased passenger movement, even in year three when a slight trough was observed, the numbers of complaints showed no sign of decline. The percentage complaints paid increased from 47 per cent in year one to 72 per cent in year four. The complaints department manager af? rmed that increasing customer complaints have been a factor for the previous decade indicating the complaints/passengers ratio has been steadily increasing. In 1990 one complaint was recorded for every 2,700 passengers, a decade later, one complaint is recorded for just over 1,500 passengers.Figure 1 represents the number of complaints per 10,000 passengers during an 11-year period. In year 1, the complaints average was 3. 6 per 10,000 passengers, within ten years that became 6. 2. Due to this upward trend in complaints, the airlines expenditure on compensation is increasing noticeably year-by-year, demo in Table I. Expenditure on compensation increased by more than ? 50,000 in the period year eight to year 11, with the most fundamental increases being witnessed in ? scal years nine and ten. Table II demonstrates which recorded complaints are the most frequent and re? cts the main causes of late service failure in the airline. Commenting on the ? gures of Table II, a senior manager identi? ed the mass of complaints concentrating around three areas (1) delays, usually technical in nature (2) service interruptions, e. g. through frequent strikes and (3) complaints regarding the attitudes of priming staff. Complimentary letters were seldom received by the airline and were never logged or recorded. Anecdotal evidence suggests when a passenger regard an employ ee it is done face-to-face, not in writing. Interestingly, all current effort at the airline is putA case of service failure and recovery 313 Figure 1. Number of complaints per 10,000 passengers MSQ 15,3 temper of complaint Act of God Cabin staff attitude Downgraded Flight cancellations/diversion of ? ights/delays Food and drinking Ground staff attitude Lack of facilities Mishaps during ? ight Overbooking Reservation problems Strikes Travelled on jump-seat Cases 1 4 6 544 5 103 7 17 18 39 124 2 314 Table II. Passenger complaints records into recording complaints not compliments senior managers believed this was because the board of directors (BoD) expected complaint data to discuss ithin their meetings. The service recovery aim The airlines activities for service recovery and in-house improvement are proceduralised through a detailed ? owchart shown in Figure 2. Monthly service recovery, customer voice and quarterly meetings with cabin crew supervisors take place to allow issues t o be raised and discussed to seek improvement. Appreciation for outstanding performance is provided through gifts (e. g. drop off business class two-way tickets to any destination), and printed letters of appreciation, signed by the president of the airline.Discussion The research data revealed that 89 per cent of customer complaints resulted from 25 per cent of the problem areas, evidence of the Pareto principle in action. Evidence indicated the service recovery plan of the airline was not addressing these priority areas according to their signi? cance. Presented in Figures 3 and 4 are cause and effect diagrams (Dale, 2003) re? ecting the main service failures of the airline. With regard delays, diversions and cancellations, senior managers insist that some causes, such as the weather, are predictable yet cannot be controlled little can be done to avoid their consequences.According to the US Department of Transportation (1989) 70 per cent of delays in the commercial message ai rline service are caused by weather. In addition, external factors beyond the immediate control of the airline can cause service failure (? ight diversion or cancellation due to air-traf? c congestion, a failure in another airport where the airlines aircraft are engaged). For the airline the planned purchase of new aircraft and a scheduled upgrade of existing ? eet should reduced problems caused by purely technical failure.Service quality should improve and expenditure on compensation reduced. Findings here also con? rmed assertions from the literature that technological advances can offer opportunities to increase service in a variety of ways to improve competitive stance, and lead to cost savings (Mulconrey, 1986). Although this contrasts with the view that customers insist on client-centred performance as opposed to technical-centred A case of service failure and recovery 315 Figure 2. Flowchart of service recovery and in-house improvement processes performance (Kotler and Connor , 1977), the ? dings indicated that a reliable personal tincture service is what the airlines customers perceived as being good service quality. Findings indicated the perceived bad attitude of foundation staff was a major area of service failure. The airlines senior management team agreed that for employees to be competent in offering soft quality, rigorous selection procedures and appropriate training was vital. However, research evidence suggests that these principles were not applied passim the company. Dobbs (1993) af? rms that without formal training staff have few tools to meet the expectations of customers or managers.The level of consistent, appropriate and rivet training was found to be a key issue within the airline. Ground staff were not suf? ciently trained for the highly MSQ 15,3 316 Figure 3. Cause and effect of delays/ diversions/cancellations Figure 4. Cause and effect diagram of bad ground staff attitude customer centred aspects of their railway lines and ther efore lacked appropriate key skills and diplomacy for handling the demands of customers. This is demonstrated in Figure 5. The ability to deal effectively with customer problems is closely related to employee satisfaction and loyalty (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991).Customer satisfaction is also increased when company management attempts to couple the service recovery process with offering initiatives to the employees (Reichheld, 1993). However, within the airline employee satisfaction is not as important as customer satisfaction. That ground staff are perceived as having a bad attitude con? rms assertions from the literature (Heskett et al. , 1994, p. 164) that important factors for employees are satisfaction with the trade itself treatment with respect and the companys interest in employees well being. A case of service failure and recovery 317 Figure 5.Ground staff attitude complaints Research ? ndings indicated a range of reasons for employee strikes. The diffusion of the single union 20 years ago (the Union of the Airline Staff) and the creation of several resulted, according to one senior manager, in the power to in? uence events in the hands of an uncompromising few. Employees who felt their needs were not taken into consideration used their union to make demands. Weak management support, in combination with discontented employees, results in continual strike action that gives an opening of a disorganised company (see Figure 6).The management of the airline failed to work towards a process of identifying and resolving the issues triggering employee dissatisfaction. Furthermore, the senior management team has been unsuccessful in attempts to improve internal company communications. Although researchers have examine the concept of service for several decades, there is no real consensus about the conceptualisation of service quality (Cronin and Taylor, 1992 Rust and Oliver, 1994). Different researchers focus on different aspects of service Figure 6. Ca use and effect diagram of strikes MSQ 15,3 318 quality. The most common de? ition is the traditional notion that views quality as the customers perception of service excellence (Berry, 1995 Parasuraman et al. , 1985). Attempts have been made to provide applicable conceptual models, see for example Zhu et al. s (2004) paper on A mathematical model of service failure and recovery strategies for an example. Of perhaps more direct use here is a simple comparison of how the Airline operates re service quality, with one of the best in the business, SIA. Table III offers a straightforward comparison between various service recovery elements of the two airlines.Taken from Wirtz and Johnstons (2003) paper on SIA, which took SIAs senior managements perspective on sustaining their service excellence, we used ten key service recovery elements. Of these, all of which SIA excel at, our research indicates the airline actively pursue only one, acknowledging the challenge of delivering service excel lence. Disappointingly, they would appear to fail on every other element. As the two companies have similar systems in place the key difference would appear to be the level of senior management commitment. Indeed this comes across compellingly in the Wirtz and Johnston paper.If similarities exist in the perceived execution of objectives, a difference in perception of what the long-term view actually is may be key (see Bamford and Forrester, 2003). The research does indicate the airline BoD is actively trying to improve its service quality. Through levyd organisational intelligence information they are striving to improve the fundamentals of their service delivery. They can ? x what they can see they can ? x what they can directly in? uence. clean equipment is easy, though expensive to bring in changing company attitudes is another issue.The comparison with SIA highlights key differences between a so-called best in class, in terms of airline service quality and an airline that is trying very hard to prevail in an increasingly competitive market sector. Key lessons and management guidelines As business and management research is essentially a ? eld of applied studies it is appropriate that research of this type should convert at least some of its ? ndings into a series of practical management guidelines (Remenyi et al. , 1998). Therefore, although it Singapore Airlines (Wirtz and Johnston, 2003) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YesService recovery element get it on the challenge of delivering service excellence Adopt a total systems approach Strive for consistency with personalisation in service delivery Understand customers and anticipate their needs Listen to both customers and front-line staff Log compliments and complaints round-the-clockly training and motivate the front-line staff Provide dedicated resources for communication and motivation Manage the organisation with an eye for the detail in everything Focus, above all, on delivering consistentl y high quality at a pro? t for the companyThe airline Yes noneno(prenominal)No No No No No No No Table III. Airline service quality set-up and recovery comparison is not our main purpose to present prescriptions, the following maybe useful for practitioners. The key lessons presented below offer straightforward advice . Do not lose focus of internal service quality quality of the workplace job content and variation recruitment selection and suf? cient training of employees management support rewarding employees for good job performance recognising employees for good job performance. The latter is said to wield signi? cant in? ence over the quality of employee job performance (Piercy, 1995). . Put evaluation and reward systems into practice to ensure good performance is monitored and rewarded (e. g. with cash bonuses or free tickets). . Empower front-line employees. This is a tool for improving employee motivation, as having the power to own, manage and resolve a problem makes role s more meaningful and interesting. . Frequent service education and training can enhance the ability of front-line staff to provide greater levels of customer care. It also prepares them for handling the differing demands of customers.A case of service failure and recovery 319 Conclusions This research has reported the main causes of service failure within an international airline and through comparison with another airline the ? ndings re-assert that service quality excellence can only be achieved through employee satisfaction, commitment and loyalty as a result of senior management commitment, focus and drive. The paper has assessed the organisations process of service recovery with respect to the main causes of service failure, in its goal to achieving customer satisfaction and internal improvement.The analysis of the ? ndings conformed to the Pareto principle, by which the majority of the organisations failure resulted from a small proportion of the problem areas (technical prob lems strikes ground staff attitude). The ? ndings indicated that for service recovery to be effective, it must be external (to the customer) as well as internal (to the organisation) so that internal improvement can be ensured. The ? ndings also substantiated previous claims of the need to approach service quality in a manner that goes beyond unsophisticated and narrow-minded practices that verlook the signi? cance, power and in? uence of the employee on the delivery of quality service and the smooth operation of the organisations activities. Finally, the ? ndings con? rmed previous assertions that employee satisfaction, commitment and loyalty require high levels of management commitment, as well as frequent communication. This research raises a number of implications for management. The interactive concepts of external and internal quality and their importance raise issues of recruitment and training to achieve the right blend of employee skills and motivation.There appears to exis t the need for the organisation to adopt management-employee relationship strategies, to ensure it manages and gets the best out of this key resource. Periodic review of performances and reward schemes are considered of vital importance, to aid the co-evolution of mutual understanding between managers and employees, and hence the development of superior service quality. A further implication for management is re? ected by the importance of understanding the positive personal effects of internal marketing on the pro? tability of the MSQ 15,3 320 rganisation. As the literature suggests (Albrecht, 1985 Hamill and Davies, 1986), satis? ed employees have all the means to make customers happy by offering superior quality service and thus reducing the occurrence of complaints substantially. The eventual result on the pro? tability of the organisation can only be encouraging, even at its most basic level fewer complaints mean less complaint expenditure and thus improve pro? ts. The methodo logy applied for collection of the research data was wholly appropriate and consistent with the perceived outcomes required.It generated ample data, which facilitated discussion and the drawing of speci? c conclusions. A perceived limitation is the adoption of a single case approach however Remenyi et al. (1998) argues that this can be enough to add to the body of knowledge. As a result of this research the Airlines senior management team have recognised the need to address internal marketing in a manner that will be translated into the companys philosophy and heathen attributes. 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