Musical Eras Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Musical Eras - Essay Example a. Chants – The earliest commonly known music was most probably medieval chants. This type of music was found in Jewish and early Christian music and consisted of chanting or singing the Psalms. Chants were developed to regionally to follow local liturgies. Monks often were responsible for singing the chants. One early Monk made a big impression on medieval music. Guido d’Arrezo, an Italian Monk, created the original Do, Re, Me, using his hand (Neff, 2007). The Guidonian Hand was a chart that put notes on the right hand. This easy to learn chart was a system to help people learn the notes. His original Do, Re, Me sounded much like the song Julie Andrews sang in the 1959 musical â€Å"The Sound Of Music† (Neff, 2007). During his lifetime d’Arrezo trained singers at a local cathedral. The Roman Catholic Church made good use of chants using them in their daily and special masses. Most European or American educated individuals are familiar with Gregorian Chants that were very much a part of the early Catholic Church literagy. b. Goliards – Goliards are best described as poet-musicians. These musicians were made up of scholars who sang and recited poetry in Latin. It is believed they played a big part in the development of the Troubadours. Some Goliards were secular and some were religious. Because they were scholars and literate they were able to write songs down.

Dream Worlds Essay Example for Free

Dream Worlds Essay So much has changed in how gender relations are carried out in today’s society. In past societies, much attention was paid to hierarchical relations. The women in the days of yore were only given a certain set of rights and privileges that were determined by men. Over the years, however, there has been a so-called â€Å"emancipation† of women. Beginning with the right to suffrage, women were gradually given increasing rights and participation in present day society. The influence that women have in today’s world is such that it can even be argued that they might even have the upper-hand gender wise. As Dream Worlds II reveals, one of the tools that women have used to regain their dominance over men is their sexuality. As the proverbial gate-keepers for sexual satisfaction, women are able to use their sexuality, seemingly at will, to gain whatever they want in society. While it seems that it is the men who are inducing these women to use their sexuality for material favors or otherwise, a close inspection will reveal that it is the result of a conscious decision of society. By engaging in a more capitalist mentality, the relation between the sexes is no longer about gender but rather accumulation of material wealth. The struggles that emerge between the sexes in today’s society are more concerned with gaining the upper-hand in a material aspect and everything, even sexuality, can be used as a tool in all of this. Given this situation, it would be incorrect to cite that it is subservience to men but rather it is the realization that such a facade is necessary to gain an upper-hand. There is no clear cut solution to this problem. In fact, it can be likened to supply and demand. There is a supply of women that meets a certain demand but in order to take advantage of this there must be an equivalent or greater exchange. It is more of a function of society than it is a battle of the sexes. A mutual agreement that this relationship is ideal in today’s situation.

Servqual Tool in Emirates Airlines

Servqual Tool in Emirates Airlines Servqual Tool The quality of services in emirates airlines: the challenges of continuous improvement Introduction In this paper the concept of quality is discussed to examine its development and applications. Service quality is reflected upon with an elaboration of the seminal SERVQUAL tool in a separate section. The paper also contextualizes customer satisfaction within the overall discussion on quality and business performance. Customer satisfaction and service quality are both also reflected upon to contextualize requirements of the changing times, and the adaptability of these two- inexplicably interconnect pillars of business performance. Quality and customer satisfaction are implicitly linked together in this paper in different sections – they remain linked by their respective definitions upfront. Business performance is an undercurrent to the discussion in this paper given the origins and nature of developments surrounding quality. Customer satisfaction is explicitly a key performance measure but its interconnections with profitability and loyalty are pondered over in trying to ela borate on the concept of market orientation. The paper is divided into four sections- the first one looks at quality in general mapping its development. The second section discusses service quality and its measurement. The third section looks at customer satisfaction and other key variables that shape customer orientation. The last section provides a profile and critique of SERVQUAL. Quality Quality has always concerned the societal intent of consumption. The reasons are fairly colloquial at one level where lack of quality can result in insufficient and unsatisfactory delivery of requirements from a product or service. At another level – given the growing complexity of the business processes over the last century quality has evolved into a discipline – characterized by an equally intertwined interface between control, assurance, and management in general (Dooley, 2006). Broadly speaking in the business context quality is the ‘perception of the ability’ of a product to satisfy its users. By extension it also applies to the processes and management of the processes that shape the product. However, the satisfying paradigm underpinning quality has multiple manifestations: â€Å"conformance†, â€Å"fitness for use†, â€Å"basic minimum requirements vs. attractiveness†, and as a matter of â€Å"interest and individual disposition† to name a few (e.g. Juran, 1945; Pirsig, 1974; Corsby, 1981; Kano, 1984; Reeves and Bednar, 1994). The definition of quality is rather difficult to come by because of the sheer nature of its wide applicability and strands of origin- ranging from the practical business origins to metaphysical origins. The American Society for Quality aptly captures this subjectivity in understanding quality by stating it as †¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"a subjective term for which each person has their own definition† (Wade, 2005; ASQ, 2007). Quality management is made up of two complementary aspects one is quality assurance and the other is quality control. The former is about ensuring a basic minimum standard through upfront production process design. The latter is about reviewing and monitoring output to wean out the ‘defectives’. Assurance is thus inherently preventive and control is mainly curative in a functional sense (Gunter, 1998). Irrespective of the disparate origins, quality management can be safely said to be largely associated with the idea of excellence. A range of concepts and their operationalisation stem from this broader view of quality and mark the growth in research and practice of quality management. Six Sigma, Quality Circles, and Total Quality Management- are but a few from amongst numerous such frames of reference (dti, 2007). The idea of quality at the advent of the century had been around as a selection paradigm- accepting the superior and rejecting the inferior and biased towards ‘control at best’- most of the time the evaluation came from the end user. Along the business value chain as production became large scale after the 1st World War- quality assurance procedures started becoming formalized. It was not only the ‘end of the road’ customer assessment but also a series of filters ensuring only the better quality output being delivered to the customer made control and assurance an important in house practice . The inspection oriented quality control schema had its problems mainly in terms of competent individuals that could ensure monitoring despite not being the ‘know all’ skill set champions. Formalized roles of inspection and quality manager thus emerged and along side assurance models provided a great lift to quality management as a capability. Generic tools for quality management like the control chart emerged in the 1920s and statistical process control matured towards the middle of the century. The revival of the manufacturing of war torn Japan on mature principals of quality control and management finally brought quality management into the forefront. By the end of 1970s it was a global pre-occupation with everyone trying to imitate the success of Japanese low cost and high quality products (dti, 2007; Dooley, 2006). When the word total quality came to the fore in 1970s and finally pinned quality management as a fundamental capability that ran through the organization. The West’s take on quality management was more about ‘standards’ than ‘culturalisation’-but based around the same operational frameworks as in Japan. These gave rise to national standards in response to the need to have a quality association with the national economy as a whole. At the business level quality is now a key management responsibility (Gitlow et al., 1989). Aside from the generalized profile of emergence of quality management above there are a few key landmarks that need to be noted. The first is probably the statistical developments in the 20s and 30s and the emergence of concepts related to probability of acceptance, risk, tolerance levels, and sampling aspects (Shewart, 1931; Dodge and Romig, 1959) establishment of standards and societies also marked the 1930s and 40s (Hutchins, 1995; Dooley, 2006). Industrial production was never under as much pressure as in the II world War. While quality assurance could not keep up with the pressure control came to the forefront to ensure acceptable working products. The maturing of the statistical processes and standards in this regard was a key development. The large scale transmission of these standards to the then military suppliers ensured that the War provided an acceleration to the diffusion of quality management standards and systems (Dooley, 2006; Grant and Lang, 1991). With the end of the war in the formative phase of reconstruction quality was again given a ‘less rushed’ attention. The role of top management, the interface between organisation wide processes, among others found attention. Total quality control came to the fore as a holistic concept with a stage gate approach right from design to delivery to consumer (Fiegenbaum, 1951, 1957, 1961). As mentioned, the post war Japanese revival is a key factor in development of quality management. Over the 1950s and 1960s the ideas of cultaration of quality with pride in workmanship, top management support, liberalized communication and quality circles took hold stemming from Japanese success. The good practice concepts like quality circles emerged as competencies that were tightly woven into the culture of business unique to Japan and required some effort when it came to imitation by the west (Koyangi, 1964; Deming, 1967; Juran, 1967). Quality became integral to organisational behaviour, goals, and associated personnel development. The coining of ‘Total Quality Management’ (TQM), encapsulates this coming of age of quality management as an indispensable competency in the competitive arena that is augmented by increasing customer expectations (Deming, 1986; Anderson et al., 1994; Akers; 1991; Stratton, 1990). The main characteristics-changes and developments though numerous can be safely said to be around making quality: a responsibility for everyone, a necessity rather than a differentiator, relate better to services and information, and ever increasing set of non-manufacturing industries. relate to best practices, dissemination and learning recognized a key function and accordingly resourced in organizations reinforce the primacy of the customer (Green and Welsh, 1988; Marquardt, 1991; Dooley, 2006) As TQM goes from strength to strength the balance between assurance, control, and the new fangled third strand – learning is becoming vital given the dynamic nature and complex requirements that are associated with quality (Green and Welsh, 1988). The standardized tools need to be customized for organisational applications with a sense to create the competitive edge-because the omnipresent paradigm itself is tending to defeat the objective to seeking the competitive edge through quality (Dean and Bowen, 1994). Context specificity or in other customization of model and tools is the call of the day for research and practice alike The generic nature however needs to be preserved in the background given wider economic and societal association of quality management. For instance, as new frontiers like e-commerce open a fertile bed of quality concepts and models will be very valuable for learning and adaptation to the economic and social context (Doty et al., 1993; Dooley, 2006). . However, having an adaptable bed for quality management across diverse industries to draw from is not sufficient. The societal realties have also undergone transition – quality needs to broaden its founding grounds to reflect on new aspects like information management and the virtual realm where quality may have to question its own foundations that are deeply rooted in manufacturing. The successful adaptation to non-manufacturing i.e. services however, is evidence of the emergent nature of quality management that can take on fresh challenges. Service Quality Service quality is a subjective concept that remains challenging to define and to measure (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). This associates itself and can be understood as the application of total quality in the service sector in the main and also implying the service function in frontline delivery of product in other industries. The understanding of service quality has been synthesized from extant literature by Jennifer Rowley (1998). In her work it is seen as a â€Å"perception judgment from a comparison of what they feel service organizations should offer and the performance of the organisation offering the services†. There is no dearth of definitions that try to pack in comprehensiveness to this abstract concept. For instance, Hedvall and Paltschik (1989) refer to ‘willingness and ability to serve’ with a mention of ‘access’, Lehtinen and Lehtinen(1982) view service quality in a three-dimensional space that looks at ‘interactive, physical and corpo rate’ quality facets. Furthermore Gronroos (1984) simplifies the idea by seeing service quality as shaped by ‘technical and functional’ aspects of quality (Rowley ,1988). The link between service and performance and by extension satisfying the customer is challenging because services have a unique combination of characteristics. The first of these combinations is their intangibility- causing issues in measurement as they are a function of the ‘experience’ of the customer. The next is their perish ability –meaning that they cannot delivered from existing stock and thus lending a dynamic nature to service delivery that is difficult to condition. The third is inseparability between production and consumption of service and the last is heterogeneity or customizability as each end user receives a different level-nature of service partly owing to individualized perceptions that are involved in assessment (Zeithaml et al., 1985; Rowley, 1998). The need is thus to work on ‘perceptions’ to assess quality given the cognitive frame of reference that dominates the characteristics of service. The associated requirement is to be able to classify services so as to peg a cognitive frame on a type of service Such an attempt has provided for groupings within the service industry as a starting point to deliver customized measurement models (Dotchin and Oakland, 1994). The influences on consumer expectations have also been classified to augment such efforts (Gronroos,1994) . While the seminal work towards generic developments like SERVQUAL (Parasuram et al., 1988) that is discussed in detail in the last section of this paper, provide founding grounds to service quality measurement- literature sees several issues in the applicability of this generic framework. This also relates to the inclusion exclusion and reconfiguration of the understanding of service attributes and the industry categories discussed before (e.g. Sasser, 1978; Dotchin and Oakland, 1994). A critical perspective on SREVQUAL comes later but upfront – it is of essence is to recognize the importance and complexity in measurement given the sheer abstractness of the idea of service and its quality. The customization of measurement efforts and models in light of different service industry groups has been key to efforts at improving measurement (Dotchin and Oakland, 1994). In SERVQUAL the conceptualization of satisfaction has been found to be too simplistic and the multiplicity of the ‘total experience’ is arguably not captured – this is in addition to the non-customized generic nature of the SREVQUAL tool. A longitudinal and sometimes phenomenological analysis is suggested to capture these nuanced but important characteristics of service quality (Singh, 1991; Rowley, 1994). However, the difficult in devising a comprehensive tool still disposes wider practice of measurement to simplistic methods. Important adjustments and realizations like the use of ‘importance and satisfaction grid’ (Harvey, 1995) provide a very useful feedback and prioritization. For instance, high importance and poor satisfaction is a combination that merits urgent management attention. Another important variable in the service quality metric that needs to be accounted for is the nature of the contract. Again this is because of the attribute of ‘psychological contracts’ that is unique in nature to services (Thornrow, 1998). This has found particular appeal in measurement related to provision of public services. Having formal, informal and psychological components in service contracts provide a platform for balancing expectations and perceptions. These are otherwise very difficult to manage given the basic characteristics of service discussed at the onset of this section. Finally the perceptual plane needs to be also looked at with a balance though by classical definition the perception of the customer is the defining feature of quality-for service quality in particular the perception of the provider and the resultant psychological interface is also key to the metric. The role of customers is also not to be taken uni-dimensionally. There are different st akeholder brackets eg. users, influencers, deciders, approvers that associate with a service category and also vary in their significance (Rowley, 1988). These influence the generic satisfaction and associated performance variable. Given this multiplicity and the psychologically complex nature of interactions, the ‘relationship exchange’ process (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) is key to providing some cognitive stability to overtime service quality measurement. It is also a suitable conduit to ensure that feedback is smoothly translated into strategic action for improvement. Such relationships can be supported by associating service with some ‘bonds’ (Chu and Lin, 2004). For instance, providing unique services, incentives, and even building social ties between provider and customer. However, on the other hand, the impact of such relationships on service quality needs to be moderated for a reliable assessment. They provide grounds for stabilizing the psychological map to better associate performance and expectations but at the same time bias it. Get help with your essay from our expert essay writers Customer Satisfaction Broadly speaking customer satisfaction is a performance indicator of the extent to which a firm has managed to meet customer expectations through its business deliverables. Having formed the foundation of the marketing concept for nearly half a century the attempts at harnessing the good practices and measurement approaches is a much explored realm when it comes to customer satisfaction (e.g. Drucker, 1954; Levitt 1960; Gronroos, 1990). Over the last few years customer satisfaction has received a reinvigorated interest. Possible reasons for this have been seen as the after effects of a maturing TQM paradigm that is linked with several recognition awards, and also, arrival of national customer satisfaction barometers (Garvin, 1991; Johnson et al., 2001; Helgesen, 2006) The associated concept of customer relationship orientation is posits a strong link between customer loyalty and profitability with customer satisfaction (Zeithaml, 1988; Oliver, 1996). While customer loyalty has been referred to as central to ‘competitive advantage’ (Porter, 1985; Chao, et al., 2007)- this is delivered through customer -satisfaction. This is the basic rationalization behind customer satisfaction being so central to both short term and long term performance assessment. That the ‘ultimate aim of any firm is to achieve customer satisfaction’ remains the central thesis of market orientation (Levitt, 1960). Customer orientation seeks to align â€Å"organizational values, beliefs, assumptions and premises† to deliver a mutually enabling relationship between the customer and the firm (Day, 1994; Strong and Harris, 2004). Strong and Harris ( 2004), define a set of tactics that can deliver customer orientation. They define three sets of tactics. The first define relational tactics (essentially relationship marketing) that engages a nurturing philosophy for long run gains. The second tactic as human resource tactic is more about the direct interface with frontline of the customer and rest of the organisation –essentially empowering the front line through training and support to reap rewards of realized quality of experience of the customer. The final tactic relates to procedural aspects that routinise and systemize customer care and support systems. The study posits that there is a strong interaction and dependency between the three tactics. This key work that examines customer satisfaction and its manifestations under the customer orientation paradigm shares ground with some key extant literature (Narver and Slater, 1990) However, other studies tend to put one set of such aspects – though differently labeled as more important than the others. For instance, Chao et al. (2007) say that while satisfaction remains an abstract idea sometime there is an overt component of interpersonal relationship building that because of over emphasis- instead of complementing customer orientation tends wean resources away from conditioning deliverables to meet consumer expectations. Research suggests that such a lopsided drive is ill-found in the long run While relationship marketing remains important it has to be pegged on consumer satisfaction from products and services for sustainability (Chao et al., 2007). Businesses need to focus attention on relationship building. This however has to be conditioned for long run profitability. Customer satisfaction through meeting expectations from goods, transaction services and pure services, and a sustained follow up and support culture has to be the basis for relationship building. For instance, financial incentives/offers are likely to be ineffective and short lived if quality is undermined. As most of the research in customer orientation gets focused on relationship building this is an important consideration to use as a moderator. Value to the customer can never be undermined for seeking short term profitability. This is because such profitability is not suitably tied in with satisfaction which in turn guides customer loyalty. Views to the contrary also exist mainly from some practitioners. Bruce Clapp (2007) of the Carlson marketing group says that â€Å"relationship strength is more important than satisfaction as a true indicator of loyalty. Customizing the experience of our customers, in-branch and in home, impacts the strength of relationship as it builds. In the experience, ensuring our message is relevant requires that we be closer to our customer. The communication we use, whether direct mail, e-mail or in person, must be tailored to the needs of the customer at an individual level. The term mass customization has gained ground as we look for ways to become partners with our customers and be there when they have a financial need†¦changing the perception about communication from irrelevant to relevant†¦.mattered † (Bruce Clapp in ABA Bank Marketing, 2007) The above text signifies another important side to the changing times that of information and its quality as a deliverable that has become a key product attribute. Relationship management that works to harness this may improve the quality perception of its product without making changes to the product itself. The result is then improved customer satisfaction. The level of abstraction in the idea of ‘satisfaction’ and the changing times with an information overload -have created shadow characteristics for products and services. The idea of ‘value’ is ever more a backdoor into customer satisfaction. Customer orientation in the milieu of discussed tactics that include relationship management and the intertwining of satisfaction, loyalty and profitability is a complex arena. It is thus not strange to see that the core variable – customer satisfaction that inhabits the arena is often found missing from hundreds of studies that explore business performance (Capon, et al., 1990 –review of 320 empirical studies). The inter-linkages are so strong that even controlling for the satisfaction part (if a suitable measurement was deployed) tends to capture most of the variation in most cases. Given that studies seek to look at different sets of variables for instance, in say, production management exclusively – they understandably steer clear of satisfaction measurement and inclusion – resulting in poor significance and scope of such studies. Studies which do involve the customer factor in examining performance have more significance in results but have their own issues. These are to do with industry specific nuances where the interaction between customer satisfaction, loyalty and profitability vary a great deal (e.g. Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Soderlund and Vilgon, 1995; Page et al., 1996). Accounting for the differences in methods and measurements the issue remains that the customer orientation metric is also industry specific. Though it is omnipresent and universally central to business goals the way it manifests itself is what may vary across business types. For instance, the rate at which profitability increases with loyalty and conversely loyalty increases with satisfaction may vary (Helgesen, 2006). In the days when customer was not inundated with choices -the notion of satisfaction was relatively stable despite its metaphysical connotations. As the number of choices has gone up so is the fickleness of satisfaction. Satisfaction can thus no longer be the guiding tenet for loyalty. The relationship perspective has thus become very important – and as argued above is widely contested in terms of how important? To the extent that it takes away resources from developing the arguably ‘real’ good or service it is overdone. However the ‘value’ it brings in terms of influencing consumer selection in an ambiguous setting of multiple satisfying options remains critical. The issue is that of a balance without a quality good or service to back up the relationship promise failure is imminent. However without being able to retain customers or attract them to quality products and services as there is always a ‘better’ out there investments in the â €˜real’ good or service is also low yielding. The challenge of customer satisfaction as the key variable in consumer orientation is to condition itself to the changing notion of ‘value’ that is now integral to information flows in every consumer-provider interaction. This conditioning should take into account the factors that affect loyalty and profitability because a knock on effect on these is very likely. Finally, there is also industry specificity to consider to an extent but to a lower extent- the times have not changed enough to question the centrality of consumer satisfaction- they are just placing new demands on it. Servqual The recognition of the importance of customer -‘assessment and perception of the quality’ of service has led to the emergence of concept behind SERVQUAL, and its delivery as a tool. This was primarily through the work of Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithmal (1985, 1988, and 1991). The development is a good example of research being driven by the interests of the industry and in the process delivering an instrument of direct utility to the industry. In this section SERVQUAL is reflected upon with a view to explain its foundations, ponder over- the developments, posited advantages and critiques, and in the process, provide a holistic perspective on this key development in service quality management. The basic concept behind SERVQUAL works on a ‘gap’ between the expected and perceived quality of service. The nuances on how this gap has been dealt with in this model –instrument, issues surrounding subjectivity, reliability and validity, and applicability across industries, have provided for generous discussion and developments over the last two decades. The customer view based on a set of questions is primary and the only view that matters in assessing this gap. The original ten dimensions that comprised SERVQUAL namely: reliability, competence, access, responsiveness, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding customer and tangibles – were eventually synthesised into five. These dimensions were based around the following areas: â€Å"(1) tangibles: physical facilities and personnel presentation; (2) reliability: performing the promised service dependably and accurately; (3) responsiveness: helping customers and providing prompt servi ce; (4) assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and performance; and (5) empathy: caring, individualised attention the firm gives to its customers† (Parasuraman et al., 1988, 1991; Shahin, 2007). These provided for a rationalisation for 22 questions for customers to generate the gap metrics. These questions have since been pondered upon to reflect on the possibility of supplementary questions. Attempts have also been to tailor the instrument to work around reliability, validity and customisability issues. The last implies to the discussions in literature relating to the issues surrounding the generic nature of the instrument, and the need for reflecting on it given the range of applicability to a wide spectrum of industries (e.g. Buttle, 1996; Sullivan Estyes, 2006; Nyeck et al., 2002). SERVQUAL is popular in both the profit and non-profit sector (arguably more so in the latter) primarily due to the generic yet very useful nature of the investigative questions to a range of industries. It has the hallmarks of a good instrument – in being low on time consumption, easy to use and though argued recognised by practitioners to have acceptable reliability and validity. The comparable aspect for benchmarking reasons is also of great appeal (e.g. Brysland and Curry, 1984). It can provide a useful progress chart if done over successive years both for self assessment against set goals and comparative assessment to feedback into objectives and planning. Francis Buttle’s critique of Servqual (1996) provides some key shortcomings. The first one has to do with the subjectivity of expectations and perceptions. The second relates to the assumption the model makes about a â€Å"direct relationship† between service and quality- a perception that shares ground with the ‘gap model’ discussed later in this paper. The final rather philosphical but valid point is related to subjectivity and asks one to reflect on whether the right things are being measured for the desired assessment (Buttle, 1996). Luis Lages and Fernandes (2005) get metaphysical and question the â€Å"level of abstraction† associated with respondent customers. The posited Service Personal Values (SERPVAL) scale to refkect this presents three dimensions of service value to â€Å"peaceful life, social recognition, and social integration†(Luis et al., 2005) . In this scheme of things as a possbile supplement to SERVQUAL – customer staisfaction relates to all dimensions and loyalty and repurcahse intentions are the attributes than can be distilled from the assessment (Kang et al., 2002). The validity position that has been contested in research also stems from the assumption in SERVQUAL as being generalizable across industries and products. Such research posits that some of the areas/dimensions outlined above may have higher or lower position given the nature of the industry or product, and by extension suggests requirement for some customisation in applying the tool. The attempts to make SERVQUAL more robust and improve its application are ongoing. This also indicates the utility of the instrument’s design as a time tested foundation for service quality measurement (e.g. Carman; 1990, Cronin et al, 1992; Brian et al, 2000). Illustrated below is a template of the SERVQUAL instrument Figure 1: The SERVQUAL Instrument DIRECTIONS: This survey deals with your opinions of __________ services. Please show the extent to which you think firms offering _________ services should possess the features described by each statement. Do this by picking one of the seven numbers next to each statement. If you strongly agree that these firms should posses a feature, circle the number 7. If you strongly disagree that these firms should possess a feature, circle 1. If your feelings are not strong, circle one of the numbers in the middle. There are no right or wrong answers – all we are interested in is a number that best shows your expectations about the firms offering ________ services. E1.They should have up-to-date equipment. E2.Their physical facilities should be visually appealing. E3.Their employees should be well dressed and appear neat. E4.The appearance of the physical facilities of these firms should be in keeping with the type of services provided. E5.When these firms promise to do something by a certain time, they should do so. E6.When customers have problems, these firms should be sympathetic and reassuring. E7.These firms should be dependable E8.They should provide their services at the time they promise to do so. E9.They should keep their records accurately. E10.They shouldn’t be expected to tell customers exactly when services will be performed. E11.It is not realistic for customers to expect prompt service from employees of these firms. E12.Their employees don’t always have to be willing to help customers. E13.It is okay if they are too busy to respond to customer requests promptly. E14.Customers should be able to trust employees of these firms. E15.Customers should be able to feel safe in their transactions wi

Hatchet :: essays research papers

Hatchet’ Speech.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬ËœHatchet’ by Gary Paulsen is a great book about survival in the wild. It follows the time of a boy, Brian Robson, who crash lands in the middle of a Canadian forest. I think Brian would have though of his time in the forest as fulfilling. Maybe not in the middle of the story, but afterwards, he would of thought of it as a very good experience. From only pages of the book, Brian starts to learn. When the pilot offers him a quick ‘lesson’ of flying the Cessna plane, this saves his life when the pilot dies a horrific heat attack in his seat. This causes Brian to panic, but he safely crash lands inside a lake. Then soon after, he starts to learn that just some insects are coming wanting his flesh. He never thought they were that bad until they cause him to swell all over The only stuff Brian had seen about the wild was on nature films â€Å"They only showed animals jumping around in the bushes and the rolling mountains†. It said in the novel. Brian had only lived in the city, where he is hidden away from the wilderness. He had never been into a forest before. So he was living by what he knew, which was very little. When he goes looking for berries, he is confronted by a big bear. He had seen one before in a zoo, and thought that they would be something to stay away from in the wild. He thinks he is done for, and thinks he will be attacked. But the bear leaves him alone, leaving him with the thought that they only attack you if you attack them. He learns things that are not just relevant to wilderness survival but also about life. These include patience, appreciation for the natural world and observation. He learns to control his temper when he discovers frustration and hopelessness does nothing. He also learns by trial and error, like hunting or building his shelter. For example, his first shelter doesn’t work, so he spends more time on building the second. If a method fails to accomplish the job, Brian learns from his mistakes instead of dwelling on them. Brian also notices the beauty of nature and its sights and sounds. Living in the city has dulled his senses. He uses his new senses to survive, like when at first he couldn’t locate the foolbirds he tries to hunt, they pop out of nowhere surprising him with their presence.

Apollo Shoes Confirmation Letter

to:Darlene wardlaw FROM: SUBJECT:CONFIRMATION REQUESTS DATE:OCTOBER 30, 2012 Two Forms of Confirmations We used both positive confirmations and negative confirmations. This is a required audit procedure by audit standards. Confirmations show existence and valuation of accounts and notes receivable. The positive confirmations are used to ask the customer to respond whether the balance is correct or incorrect. The negative confirmations ask for a response only if something is wrong with the balance. If no response is received, it is considered evidence that the account is stated fairly.With the positive confirmations, we are trying to find information on account balances or specific invoices. We sent positive confirmations to Neutralizer, Mall-Wart, Run For Your Life Shoes, Paul Bunion Footwear, Sassy Shoes, and International Soccer Federation. We sent a negative confirmation to Tread. The ones that we sent a positive confirmation to, we were wondering about some discrepancies in the n umbers and needed confirmation that payments were being made. The negative confirmation was sent with confidence that there were no errors. Therefore, we did not need a response if nothing was found.We checked the numbers that we received from the confirmation and compared them to the aged trial balance for account receivable. The numbers matched up. Alternative Procedures Sometimes customers are not able to send a response. A reason for this could be that they are on a voucher system that lists payables by invoice instead of by vendor account. In a case like this, we have to perform alternative procedures. We could examine subsequent cash receipts. We could examine sales orders, invoices and shipping documents. We could also examine correspondence files for past due accounts.

Classical and Humanist Management Theories Essay

â€Å"Classical and humanist management theories have had a major influenced on modern theories of leadership. Making effective use of appropriate models and theories critically examine whether this is actually the case. † Civilization is the product of those who came before us. The evolution of today’s modern management thinking has grown and developed since nineteenth century and flourished during twentieth. The twentieth century is just part of revolution management theory which started from classical theory, ranging to human relation approaches and last flourishing now. Management theory is out coming result of the interdisciplinary efforts of many people. Today the new modern theories of leadership, come up based on classical and humanist management theories, still develop and grow as an organisation. Leadership is setting a new path or vision for a cluster that they follow; a leader is the spearhead for that new direction. Management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established. The main difference between them comes from what happen if there is one without another. If leadership comes without management then sets a track or visualization that others follow, without considering too much how the new direction is going to be achieved. Other people then have to work hard in the trail that is left behind, picking up the pieces and making it work. Management without leadership; controls resources to uphold the current situation or confirm things happen according to already-established plans. In Organizing Genius (Addison-Wesley, 1997) Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman point out those leaders of great teams pick talent on the basis of excellence and ability to work with others. Good leaders are not afraid to hire people who know more than they do. Jack Welch has said that his biggest accomplishment has been finding great people. A leader should project responsibilities that involve a person’s competence and values. A good leader also reinforces motivation and develops ability through coaching. Leaders know how to keep their people focused. Good leaders can build incredible relationship and can build trust. The interest of leadership come in the early 20, when was considered that great leaders are born not made. The ideas and theories started developed after then. On the other hand those irreplaceable qualities of good leaders are based on beginning of management. The first management ideas, actually, were record in 3000-4000 B. C, when the pyramids were about to be build. Then the beginning of the modern organisation occurred with the theory called The Founders during the middle of the nineteenth century with the rise of the factory system. After came Pre-Classicism with Robert Owen (1771-1858) and Charles Babbage (1792-1871). And then the twentieth century becomes witness on the most memorable theories called Classical School. The Classical School of Management was period of management theory ferment and activity. It was based on improvement of management effectiveness in organisations. It wasn’t only about effectiveness in worker please but they also seek to provide needed tool for more effective work and satisfied workers. Within the classical school there are the bureaucratic management, administrative management and scientific management branches. The era of the ideas of Modern theories started with Scientific Management. Frederick Taylor put the beginning of the contemporary and still improving management. He advocated a change from the old system of personal management to a new system of scientific management. His theory argues that, each person’s job should be broken down into elements and a scientific way to perform each element should be determinate. Workers need to be careful selected and properly trained for particular job. The good corporation between management and workers is compulsory. His theory was accepted with many positive fatbacks and negativism as well. But to modern readers, he stands convicted by his own words (1975): â€Å"†¦ in almost all of the mechanic arts, the science which underlies each act of each workman is so great and amounts to so much that the workman who is best suited to actually doing the work is incapable of fully understanding this science, without the guidance and help of those who are working with him or over him, either through lack of education or through insufficient mental capacity. Scientific management come across with significant success. Taylor bring a success and to economic standpoints. Productivity met improvement because of his methods. After Scientific management come Human Relations Movement with Elton Mayo’s experiences in the Hawthorne Works Experiments. Mayo’s theory met success; his impacts were the creation of the industrial engineering. Max Weber – Bureaucracy come after Mayo’s scientific management. Max Weber believed that civilization was changing to pursue technically best outcomes at the outflow of emotional or humanistic content. Weber did not advocate bureaucracy; indeed, his writings show a strong caution for its excesses: â€Å"†¦the more fully realized, the more bureaucracy â€Å"depersonalizes† itself, i. e. , the more completely it succeeds in achieving the exclusion of love, hatred, and every purely personal, especially irrational and incalculable, feeling from the execution of official tasks† While Weber was basically a spectator rather than a stylish, it is pure that his forecasts have come true. His principles of an ideal bureaucracy still circle true today and many of the evils of today’s bureaucracies come from their different from those ideal principles. Unfortunately, Weber was also successful in predicting that bureaucracies would have extreme difficulties dealing with individual cases. It would have been captivating to realize how Weber would have combined Mayo’s results into his theories. It is probable that he would have seen the â€Å"group dynamics† as â€Å"noise† in the system, warning the bureaucracy’s potential for both efficiency and inhumanity. In 1970s and 1980s, Charismatic Leadership states Effective leaders inspire assistants to obligate themselves to goals by interactive a visualisation, exhibiting magnetic behaviour, and setting an influential individual case, described by Weber as long with bureaucracy. He put the development of leadership based on well-known management. Henri Fayol – Administration. Fayol’s administration theories dovetail into the bureaucratic superstructure described by Weber. He believed that management has five principle roles; to control, to organise, to forecast and plan, to command and to coordinate. Fayol developed fourteen principles of administration to go along with management’s five main roles. Fayol’s five principle roles of management are still actively practiced today. Development of management and leadership had continued with Frederick Herzberg (1923-) , Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) and on. Mary Parker Follett supported for a human relations importance equal to a mechanical or operational emphasis in management. Her work contrasted with the â€Å"scientific management† of Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915) and evolved by Frank and Lillian Gilbert, which stressed time and motion studies. Apart of all that, in mid-1970th the Hersey–Blanchard situational leadership theory was introduced as â€Å"situational leadership theory†. It is a leadership theory conceived by Paul Hersey (professor) and Ken Blanchard (author). The theory argues active leadership is task-relevant and there is no solo best flair of leadership. The theory contained the following qualities as the main qualities of a good leader; telling, selling, participating and delegating. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1980); â€Å"Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation†. They had separated their theory into two fundamental concepts; Leadership Style and the individual or group’s Maturity level. First described above and second describes below. The individual or group’s Maturity level: M1 – They absence the exact services vital for the work in pointer and are powerless and reluctant to do or to take duty for this job or task. M2 – They are still incapable to take on responsibility for the task being done; they are keen to work at the task. M3 – They are knowledgeable and talented to do the chore but nonexistence the poise to take on charge. M4 – They are experienced at the task, and relaxed with their own skill to do it well. They need to be clever and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for them. In conclusion, management include and put the base on organisations, it is that organisation which makes functions, such as planning, budgeting, evaluating and facilitating. On the other hand leadership is a relationship, an essential part of an organisation. They are response for selecting talents, motivating, coaching and building trust. From Classical human approaches to the modern leader theory there were a big different, the theories will last to change and improve, but on based on the main management theories. It is clear that modern organizations are powerfully influenced by the theories of Taylor, Mayo, Weber and Fayol. Their principles have become such a solid part of modern management that it is hard to believe that these perceptions were unique and new at some opinion in history. The current idea that these impressions are â€Å"common sense† is strong compliment to these creators.