Service Delivery And Service Recovery Strategy Tourism Essay

Service Delivery And Service Recovery Strategy Tourism Essay Expectation is one of the most important thing related directly to the guest that the hotel has to know in order to be able to provide the service that fulfill the needs and desire of the guest. Its the key to know whats the hotel has to provide in order to make the guest feel satisfy. Before experiencing the service, each guest must have their own expectation. As what Pizam and Ellis had discussed in their research, the meaning of expectation can be describe as a mutable internal standard which is based on a multitude of factors including needs, objectives, past personal or vicarious experiences with the same establishment restaurant, with similar establishments, and the availability of alternatives. Besides on past personal experience and other factors have been mentioned, the expectation of the guest can also be based on whats the hotel had been promised to the guest. Not only that, another factor such as advertisement which is based on external communication can affect the expectation of the guest. For example, the guest who is looking for five star hotels for the accommodation during their holiday will search some particular hotels through the website, brochure, etc. If the advertisement of that particular hotel is very attractive and the physical of the hotel looks luxury and interested, most probably it will build higher expectation to the guest. Halstead (1994) also stated that the guest who, didnt have any experience before they go to one particular hotel, will rely on external source of information. H1: Good advertising could probably affect and increase the expectation made by the guest. Moreover, through the research made by Getty and Thomson in 1994, it is known that the expectation should be elicited prior to the service being provided; otherwise it will be influenced by perceptions of the actual service being provided.For instance, the guest may change her expectations during the service encounter and use those changes (perhaps more realistic) expectations as the standard of comparison. Many researchers support that statement because some think that the information that the guest receive during the current service will affect the expectation they have made before the service experience. Halstead (1993) found that expectations that are measured after service experience was higher for dissatisfy customers than for satisfy customers. On the other side, the guest, who has little or no experience of product and service before, will generate little information that leads to lower expectation made on the first time they experience the service. For instance, the guest who has never been stayed in five star hotel will have lower expectation about the five star hotel they are about to stay. This happened because the guest doesnt know whatare the products and service offered by the five star hotel, the guest just has little information that might be gotten from the advertisement they have seen before. Though there are differentiations for both the factors influence expectation and the times the guest makes their expectation, but normally the expectation of the guest can be grouped as several parts. As written in the research made by Lewis and McCann (2004), they classifying the expectations that based on what the guest expect from three or four star hotels. Below are the results of the ranking both business and leisure guests expect through their staying in three or four star hotels: Clean, comfortable bedrooms with all items in working order. Good quality food and beverages. Friendly, helpful, polite and efficient staff. High level of room security. Speedy, efficient check-in and out. The data above was made in the research made by Dolnicar (2002) to show that most of people expect to have clean room (including bathroom). Meaning to say that the guestwho are staying in three or four star hotel are more concern to the cleanliness of the hotel. Even the data was obtained through the questionnaire; it can change according to how many star of the hotel. Besides, she had completed her data with the expectation from the business travelers hotel expectation by hotel star category. The data is shown below. */** *** **** ***** Good food 8.0% 10.0% 5.6% 3.7% TV 5.3% 6.0% 2.1% 0.0% Good service 1.3% 4.0% 2.6% 4.9% Good location 2.7% 3.0% 2.1% 4.9% Staff 2.7% 2.0% 1.0% 0.0% Good value for money 5.3% 1.5% 3.1% 0.0% Pleasant atmosphere 0.0% 1.5% 3.6% 3.7% Large room 0.0% 1.5% 3.1% 3.7% Toilet 1.3% 1.5% 0.0% 0.0% Cheap 1.3% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% Shower 9.3% 1.0% 1.5% 1.2% Internet 0.0% 1.0% 1.5% 2.5% High quality 0.0% 0.5% 1.5% 2.5% Food 6.7% 0.0% 0.0% 2.5% Comfortable bed 2.7% 0.0% 1.0% 1.2% Comfort 0.0% 0.0% 0.5% 3.7% It is shown in the data above that the expectation from business travelers hotel expectation is different according to the star of the hotel theyve been staying at. Both of the data above broaden the factors influence expectation of the guest; star of the hotel and type of the guest are also influence the expectation made by guest. Jonathan D. Barsky also stated that the perception of product or service performance will influence the response made by guest if it combines with the expectation or pre-experience standard. When the guest has no pre-experience standards or expectation, the response of the guest will directly reveal their perception of the product or service experience without being affected by their expectation. Satisfaction In hospitality industry, the guest will evaluate more on its service than its product. Quality of service becomes the most important things that the guest will experience and give their valuation through. Since every guest wish to perceive the best service or in the other word; excellent service, hotel has to make efforts in giving them what they wish. The meaning of the excellent service is given in the research made by Berry, Parasuraman, and Zeithami which is a profit strategy because it results in more new customers, more business with existing customers, fewer lost customers, more insulation from price competition, and fewer mistakes requiring the re-performance of services (1994, pg. 32 Vol 8. No. 2). It is clearly said that through the excellent service, hotel will increase their customer and decrease the lost of the customer. In other words, if hotel gives excellent service to the guest, it will result in having more profit for the hotel itself.However, excellent service will lead to satisfaction of the guest which will cause in the increasing of guests loyalty. When it comes to satisfaction, every guest who feels satisfy with the service given will disposed to be loyal to the hotel. So, it can be said that the satisfaction the hotel wants to obtain from the guest is to gain the loyalty from them.It was said by Jones and Sasser (1995) that increased customer loyalty is a critical driver of a firms long-term financial performance. Besides, the guests who feel dissatisfied with the hotel will reduce loyalty and the reputation of the hotel through the action they may do after experienced service failure. Therefore, satisfaction is the goal that the hotel wants to achieve. The meaning of customer satisfaction had been written in the article as a psychological concept that involves the feeling of well-being and pleasure that results from obtaining what one hopes for and expects from an appealing product and/or service (WTO, 1985). Through this definition, it is known that satisfaction can be obtained by fulfilling guests hopes and expectation. Furthermore, satisfaction is not a definite thing that will go constantly the same; each person will perceive different level of satisfaction even when they are in the same hospitality experience. The reason behind it is that each guest has their own needs, objectives, and past experience that will affect their expectations. Based on this statement, its very important for the hotel to know how to measure customer satisfaction. Of course, the reason for measuring customer satisfaction has to be clear in order to get the right information from the guest. According to Naumann (1995), five objectives that are the reasons the hotel measures customer satisfaction are: To get close to the customer It was well explained that the hotel has not only just know but also understand the most important attributes to customer, why those attributes affects customers decision making, the importance of those attributes, and get a feedback of how well the hotel perform to deliver each attribute. Measure continuous improvement The attributes that are necessary for the customer are linked directly to value added processes in the firm and are put into a form consistent with the internal measurements used to evaluate the process. To achieve customer driven improvement Not all customers are from the same source of valuable innovation. This will need creation of a comprehensive database that not only tracks sales, but sources of innovations. To measure competitive strengths and weaknesses Perceptions of the customer will be determined by the competitive choices. This is achieved through the possible survey and future customers as well as current and past customers. To link customer satisfaction measurement data to internal systems (Naumann, 1995, pp.22-7). Knowing that satisfaction is very important to be learned in the industry especially service industry such as hospitality industry, there have been research discussed about this topic. There have been nine distinct that researchers developed about the theories of customer satisfaction. The nine theories include: expectancy disconfirmation, assimilation or cognitive dissonance, contrast, assimilation-contrast, equity, attribution, comparison-level, generalized negativity, and value-precept (Oh and Parks, 1997). Based on expectancy disconfirmation theory, satisfaction is caused by confirmation or positive disconfirmation of consumer expectations, and dissatisfaction is caused by negative disconfirmation of consumer expectations. (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). When the outcomes received by the guest are different from what the guest have been expected, negative disconfirmation occurs. According to the research made by Yuksel (2001), there is positive disconfirmation when the service performance is better than what the guest had been expected before which lead to the satisfaction of the guest. When service performance is the same as the guests expectation, there is a confirmation which still leads to the satisfaction of the guest. Moreover, the guest will feel dissatisfy when the service performance is not good as what the guest had been expected which there will be a negative disconfirmation occurs. At the time the guest feel dissatisfy, it means that the need and wants of the guest cant be fulfilled by the hotel. Even though the satisfaction of the guest depends on the service performance and the expectation, minimum tolerable level also give impact to the satisfaction of the guest. Minimum tolerable level is the situation where the guest still can accept the failure that the hotel made. According to Yuksel (2011), depending on the situation, some of the guests will still feel satisfy when the service performance falls short of their predictive expectation but above the minimum tolerable level. Each person has different minimum tolerable level as they have different expectation. Basically, this minimum tolerable level cant be predicted and measured, so the hotel cant provide the service based on this minimum tolerable level just to prevent the guest feel dissatisfied. H2: When the hotel cant meet the high expectation made by guest, they will still feel satisfy if the service meets their minimum tolerable level. According to Pizam (1999), Dissatisfiers were more likely to earn a complaint for low performance or absence of a desired feature than anything else. But an operation that exceeds the threshold performance standard apparently will not receive compliments on the attributes. Meaning to say, the guest can be easily feel dissatisfy of the failures or the small things that not happened smoothly but will be very hard to appreciate the higher performance level achieved by the hotel. For example, the guest will easily feel dissatisfy when they expect the bathroom was clean but they found a rubbish near the basin. However, the guest will not be easily impressed when they expect the room was clean and the hotel provide more than that with decorating the room with a flower. Service Recovery Service Recovery was made because its impossible to give a maintain service that will never change nor have a mistake. In order to compete with other industries, each has to improve their performance all the time. Not only creating new stuff, products, or refurbished the building but also improving the service. Unfortunately, even there is a significant improvement, mistakes and failures will always be made since theres no so called perfect service.Through this realized condition, hotel creates recovery service to obtain positive response from the guest. Service recovery involves those actions designed to resolve problems, alter negative attitudes of dissatisfied customers and to ultimately retain these customers (Miller et al., 2000, p.38), and it includes situations in which a service failure occurs but no complaint is lodged by the customers (Smith et al., 1999, p. 359). There are always the strategies made before doing the recovery of the service. According to Lewis and McCann (2004), service recovery strategies are the actions that services providers take, in response to defects or failures, comprise a combination of psychological recoveries and tangible efforts. In addition, service recovery strategy is made to avoid bad response showed by the guest after theyve experienced service failure. When the guest experienced service failure, they may switch their option and move to the competitors, make a complaint that will give bad impact for the hotel if they speak out in public media, and the worst thing; they may use negative words to share about the bad experienced theyve had. As word of mouth is one of the media that works fast among people, negative words shared by the guest can influence hotels profit and reputation.There have been many researches stated that dissatisfied customers might tell ten to twenty people about their bad experience with their colleagues (Zemke, 1999). In order to decrease dissatisfactionthat lead to the negative consequences for hotel, some strategies have to be performed to the guest that experienced service failure as the recovery. H3: Service recovery strategy will prevent the hotel from the negativeopinion shared by the guest who had experienced service failures. At the first time the guest chose the place to stay, they have made their expectation and when the guest dont get what they have been expected or the quality that they evaluate is very poor, the guest will feel dissatisfy. After feel dissatisfy, the guest will either make a complaint or give their feedback to the hotel. From those situations, then only the hotel know that theres some failures occur.Sundaram, Jurowski, and Webster (1997) had mentioned in their research that Dissatisfied customers expect that service failures will be recovered when they complain. Moreover, there are five broad service dimensions that the guests use to evaluate or judge the service quality. The five dimensions are: RELIABILITY : The ability to perform the promised service dependably (32%) and accurately. RESPONSIVENESS : The willingness to help customers and provide prompt (22%) service. ASSURANCE : The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their (19%) ability to convey trust and confidence. EMPHATY : The caring, individualized attention provided to (16%) customers. TANGIBLES : The appearance of physical facilities, equipment, (11%)personnel, and communication materials. Those five broad service dimensions will affect to the evaluation made by the guest. Once one of the dimensions cant be fulfilled by the hotel, the evaluation from the guest through the hotel will decrease and vice versa. As human being, we will absolutely make a mistake. Thats why the service which is done by the staff will never be constantly perfect. Its a common thing for a hotel to do some failures to the guest. However, when some failure occurs, the hotel will definitely do the recovery to enhance customer satisfaction, build customer relationship, and keep the loyalty of their guest. Service recovery strategy is described by Gronroos (1988) in their research as the actions that hotels take in response to defects or failures. The action of recovery strategy is done with the range of doing nothing to do some efforts to fix the problems or the failures occur. A lot of researchers have made the research connecting with service recovery strategies theme. The summary of the research, about the strategies the hotel do after the failures occur, made by Bitner et al. (1990), Kelley et al. (1993), Johnston (1994), Hoffman et al., (1995), Tax et al. (1998), Miller et al. (2000) and Lewis and Spyrakopoulos (2001), generate the result that the strategies may be classified as : Apology; Corrections; Empathy; Compensation; Follow-up; Acknowledgement; Explanation; Exceptional Treatment; and Managerial Intervention. Apology is a basic strategy the hotel does after some failures occur. The moment the hotel does some failures, the first action to be taken is to apologize to the guest. When apologize is compulsory to be implemented as a service recovery strategy, the other action needs to be done according to the failures made by the hotel. Berry, Parasuraman, and Zeithaml (1994) stated that even though the guests appreciate an apology, the apology will not make the guest forget the memory about the service failure happened. That makes the other recovery strategy was made to be fit in the type of failures. Even though some strategies may need to be done at the same time, some may not need to be done at all. For example; compensation will not necessary be donewhen the failure occurs is just the small failure such as mention the name of the guest wrongly. Effectiveness After service failure occurred, hotel will give the prompt service recovery strategy that match the failure and the guest will react according to what theyve received. The response of the guest will determine whether the service recovery strategy is effective. Meaning to say, the effectiveness of service recovery strategy can be measured with seeing guests response. When the guest feel satisfy with the service recovery strategy given by the hotel, it means the service recovery given was effective. Dissatisfaction of the service recovery given by the hotel is evidence that the service recovery was not effective. The guest who feel satisfy with the service recovery strategy offered will forget about the failure and may increase their satisfaction level after dissatisfaction occurred. In contrast, when the service recovery offered didnt match what the guests expected, they will feel dissatisfy and may not be loyal to that particular hotel.Other than that, Tax et al. (1998) had mentioned in his research that even though a customer may be satisfied with the type of service recovery strategies offered, the recovery evaluation might be poor because of the process endured to obtain the recovery outcome. So, the process how the hotel delivers the service recovery will affect the overall satisfaction of the guest. However, the service recovery strategies given by the hotel will be affected by some factors. Each strategy may give different result for different people. A man who has been travelling for 2 years will have different expectation and will have different result in receiving service recovery strategy than a man who has never been for travelling. Many researches about the effectiveness of recovery strategy were built upon this kind of situation. Further, factors that influence the type and effectiveness of service recovery strategies are : The service (e.g. Mattila, 2001); Purpose of purchase (e.g. McDougall and Levesque, 1999); The failure (e.g. Smith et.al, 1999); The magnitude of the failure (Kelley et al., 1993; Smith et al., 1999; Michel, 2001; Mattila, 2001); Previous experience with an organization (e.g. Tax et al., 1998); and Service recovery expectations (e.g. Miller et al., 2000). When the hotel offered one of service recovery strategies, they have to choose the right strategy that can possibly increase guests satisfaction. Magnitude of the failure will definitely affect the type and effectiveness of service recovery strategy. For example; hotel has made the failure throughthe bad temperature of the food given to the guest. Since it was a small failure, the recovery strategy given will be different from the time the hotel did big failure such as; the room where the guest stayed wasnt clean. According to Zemke (1999), only the guest themselves who can describe and tell how annoying is a particular service failure has been. Miller et al., (2000) stated that if the failures made by hotel are very serious, it will later require more drastic reparation. That will make service organization need to train more of their front-line employees so they can be able to handle the guests complaint and asses their situation correctly. Moreover, service recovery expectation also gives big impact on the effectiveness of recovery strategy. Kelley and Davis (1994) found that the guest who rated highly for the service quality will mainly have higher expectation on service recovery strategy. It can be understood by the guest to have a better service recovery on five star hotel that to have service recovery by four star hotel. In other way, it can be said that the quality of the hotel will surely affect the expectation of the recovery strategy. It is stated by Hart, Heskett, and Sasser (1990) that the main reason of the guest dissatisfaction is the problem resolution which cant satisfy the guest and up to 50% of the guest who experience service failure not feel satisfy with the recovery strategy (Best and Andreasen, 1976; Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman, 1990). Based on this situation, hotel has to follow up the guest to make sure that the service recovery they have made was successfully increasing the satisfaction of the guest. After the hotel has given the recovery strategy to the guest, they will not know the response of the guest until they follow up their guest and receive their evaluations. Giving the service recovery to the guest for the first time when the hotel made some failures will not always give the same result on the guest for the second time. When the first time the hotel made mistakes, some guests can be offered the minimum service recovery strategies or another service recovery strategy depends on the failures made by the hotel. That can reduce dissatisfaction of the guest, but it will give different result on the second, third, and on the next arrival. On the second arrival, the guest may not be able to accept the same way of service recovery strategy theyve ever offered. With the same recovery strategy given by the hotel on the second time with the same service failures experienced, the guest may not feel satisfy.Thats why, the evaluation and feedback is needed to know the guests response. Of course there will be more advantages on hotel when they can successfully give service recovery strategy that match the failure theyve made. First, they can get loyalty from the guest. Loyal customers are those who continue to stick with an unsatisfying product/seller with the hope that things will soon improve (Boshoff, 1997; Hirschman, 1970). When the guest feel satisfy with the service perceived, they will be loyal to the hotel and willing to come for another time. Loyalty of the guest will directly impact the profit of the hotel. It will lead to the increasing of the profit of hotel. Besides the loyalty and profitability, the effective recovery strategy can prevent the spread of negative word of mouth that is believed to be the most important post-purchase behavior. Service entities could increase their profits up to 85% by reducing the customer defection rate by 5% (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990).It has been proved that word of mouth has an effective power in spreading their opinion as a free advertisement tools. So, if hotel make the guest satisfy, the advertisement via word of mouth will be very useful to be used for spreading good advertisement. In the other way, if the hotel make the guest dissatisfy, the advertisement via word of mouth will not be useful anymore. It will even give bad impact to the hotel and may decrease the profit of the hotel. The last thing, when the hotel can handle the complaint of the guest and give the best service strategy match with the failure was made, they can build the trust from the guest. Moorman, Deshpande, and Zaltman (1993) defined trust as the willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (p. 315). The moment the guest trusts the hotel, the guest will willing to come again to the same hotel. The trust built by making the guest satisfy can also make the guest increase their minimum tolerable level. Both loyalty and trust will give long term benefit for the hotel. Basically, when the hotel had successfully build trust in the guest, loyalty will directly follow. As the guest has trust the hotel, they will be loyal to that particular hotel. They will feel safe and comfortable with the hotel because they have trusted that the hotel will do their best to provide and deliver the best service. It is proved by Gilly (1987) that the guests who experience the service failure and did complainthen feel satisfy with the service recovery given, have higher repurchase intention than the guest who already satisfied with the service and did not complain. H4 : Guest expectation will be higher after he experienced service failure and offered recovery strategy.

Colonial Synthesis in-Class Essay

Colonial Synthesis In-Class Essay The literature of the Colonial Period has left a positive mark upon American culture. The connotations of the literature are sometimes hypocritical, and are often contradictory to other works at the time. As a result, the messages conveyed through writing have not been overlooked. Source A’s narrative of an enslaved African American arriving in America would just be one of many that would take place over the course of 200 years.I remember in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the men's apartment, there were several brothers, who, in the sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion to see and hear their cries at parting. â€Å"O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? † (Source A). The excerpt bluntly criticizes more prominent works at that time, from the staunch Puritan literature of Taylor. Make me O Lord, Thy spinning wheel complete. † (Source E) Taylor preached goodwill to men and stressed religious freedom, but he owned slaves at the same time. Jonathan Edwards, whom preached â€Å"So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction. (Source F) Many slave owners throughout the 18th and 19th century believed this, fueling conflicts like the Civil War and in some respect, the Civil Rights Movement. Racial persecution in the south can be attributed to blacks not necessarily being deemed by the Bible, as Puritans such as Edwards had preached. As a result, much of the negative bigotry had been sparked by Puritan work.On the other hand, Eqiuano influenced a much more positive as pect of American culture, as his autobiography can be deemed one of the earliest Abolitionist works. It depicted the cruel and bitter environment of a slave ship, and the often futile fate of being a slave. By being one of the first AfricanAmerican authors, many more African Americans after him would be inspired to write themselves.For better or for worse, early Abolitionist writings like Eqiuano’s and religious works like Taylor’s both have a significant impact for centuries after they have been written. They model conflicting sides of a society condoning secularism and one that promotes it. Whatever the case may be, these writings have given us a glimpse of early society in America, and better our understanding about the ways people responded to controversial subjects like slavery.

Growth Performance Management Essay

In this report I have given a lot of research into the relevant subjects. I think that the way I have looked at the possibilities will help Helen Marsh and Brian Taylor overcome some of the obstacles in their organisation in order to make there business successful. Suggestions on what you should be specifically looking at in order to make your business a success, in my view would be the try to improve employee attitudes and training for employees. I think I have covered all the points that you have given me in depth if I have not apologies on my behalf. Introduction- Aims of the Report The aim of this report is to show Helen Marsh and Brian Taylor the problems of their business in more detail than the report give (case study). I will outline and investigate further into the following matters: * Growth * Performance Management * Performance Appraisal Systems and Motivation * Motivation * Rewards * Employee Turnover/Retention * Training and Development * Communication Growth To consider the growth of Brian and Helens company, we will look need to examine into the PEST (Political, Economical, Social and Technological factors) and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for this company, this will help us identify if the company should continue to grow. By understanding about the SWOT and PEST analysis this will show us key information and help us identify some of the problems with the business. SWOT Analysis: SWOT Analysis is a very effective way of identifying your Strengths and Weaknesses, and of examining the Opportunities and Threats you face. Carrying out an analysis using the SWOT framework helps you to focus your activities into areas where you are strong and where the greatest opportunities lie. SWOT Analysis is a strategic method for identifying your businesses’ Strengths and Weaknesses, and to examine the Opportunities and Threats. These are just some of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats there may be more if you feel that there are, pleases do not hesitate to call me we can discuss these further. By reading the report that you gave me (case study) I found more weaknesses than strengths. This is not ‘bad’ as this shows you that you can improve on these to make your business a success. Read more:  Difference Between Performance Management and Performance Appraisal PEST Analysis: It is very important that an organisation considers its environment before beginning the marketing and decision planning process. In fact, environmental analysis should be continuous and feed all aspects of planning. The SWOT analysis shows a lot of weaknesses in the business, the points that I have mentioned in the SWOT analysis affect the future growth of the business. I think that if you over come the weaknesses that are outlined in the SWOT analysis this will help improve and develop the company significantly because the employee would contribute to the full potential and would also create a good working environment which means less staff turnover. I suggest that you should postpone in growing for the moment and consider improving on the weaknesses that I outlined in the SWOT analysis. I suggest that you should consider growing in the future rather than now. I found out that: †Weakness are not necessarily indicating bad things of the organization but showing a path to a better future†¦.† ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (1990) Northcraft. G page 437 You should consider improving the weaknesses into strengths as this would be beneficial in the future when you should consider to grow (it is not necessary yet) by improving weaknesses the business would function better and more advantages would be gained such as more share and profit. Performance Management In the report given to me (case study) I see that you have a problem on monitoring the ‘field based’ staff. This is a important issue as the staff may or may not be doing what you have told them this would cause all sorts of issues with your company for example you may be losing money, valuable resources and time. Field based staff may be difficult to manage but there are ways. Staff that work in the office are easier to evaluate on what and how that are doing. When managing or monitoring employees you have to be aware of their privacy and not to breach that mutual line as this may inevitably cause conflict in the work place. But When you can’t be present to observe employee performance, be sure that you have the right processes in place through which you can learn about how they’re doing this can be undertaken for ‘field based’ staff also. These processes should be open, fair, and understood by everyone. Options for obtaining input about performance in your absence may include, but are not limited to, the following: * Evaluate the output and products of the employee’s work. * Have routine one-on-one meetings with your employee and include discussions of performance. * Every so often review and discuss with your employee the standards of performance for his or her job and your expectations. * Ask your employee to do periodic reports and share them with you for discussion. * Obtain feedback from customers – in writing when possible. * Do brief stand-up check-ins or phone calls to ‘field based’ staff as well as ‘office based’ staff. * Ask an appropriate person who is present day-to-day to serve as a work leader or give the person authority to act in your stead, and ensure that everyone understands the person’s role. * Perform routine spot checks of the employee at work. * Ask for confidential evaluations of employee performance by peers (or direct reports of supervisors). This process should be clearly understood by everyone and applied fairly to all. Performance Appraisal Systems and Motivation Performance appraisal systems are designed to serve the company’s and employee’s interests. They are used to inventory the abilities and resources of employees and to let an employee know where he stands so that he will be stimulated to improve his performance. Employee motivation can be enhanced and performance improved with the monitoring of employees’ performance level and the use of feedback to advise those employees about their effectiveness. Performance feedback exchanges can be ongoing and informal, on a day-to-day coaching basis or on a formal basis, annually. I found this statement: ..Employers want to be sure their employees are doing a good job, but employees don’t want their every sneeze or there trip to the toilet logged†¦ Managing People 2nd edition Tomson. R I think that employee monitoring is acceptable to a reasonable level but should nod be exceeded. I used to work at ‘KFC’ (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and the manager was constantly monitoring me and other staff that work there. I can understand this as people in other restaurants have tampered with food for example a ‘Mc Donald’s’ restaurant in USA Mississippi once was shut down because of food tampering. So to some degree a lot of monitoring needs to be undertaken. But I think you should use some of the procedures I have given for example I would recommend these: * Perform routine spot checks of the employee at work. * Obtain feedback from customers – in writing when possible some sort of feed back sheet of possibly a questionnaire * Do brief stand-up check-ins or phone calls to ‘field based’ staff * Ask your employee to do periodic reports and share them with you for discussion. Motivation Staff motivation is the one of the most significant factors in managing people. No one style is better than another for motivating employees, but it is essential that leaders are aware of their staff motivation style and are able to adapt for different circumstances. Some circumstances will call for a strong direction to inspire staff motivation other circumstances will call for staff motivation to be influenced by a more advice-giving approach. The necessary skill is in knowing what motivates people and satisfying the needs of individuals and groups at a given time. Staff motivation in regard to reward and recognition means taking account of and balancing the needs of the organisation and its objectives as well as the needs of the people expected to achieve those objectives. One of the worlds most successful Software and Hardware entrepreneurs stated: â€Å"When we create a desirable workplace and find good ways to have work/life balance, we’ll attract and we’ll retain the best people and that’s our competitive advantage.† Lewis Platt, CEO, Hewlett-Packard (1001 Ways to Reward Employees 2000) Source: www.nelson-motivation.com/hpackard/ceo Hear is an example of a motivational theory: Douglas McGregor, was a American social psychologist, he proposed his famous X-Y theory in his 1960 book ‘ The Human Side of Enterprise ‘. Theory X and theory Y are still referred to commonly in the field of management and motivation. Mc Gregor’s X-Y Theory remains a valid basic principle from which to develop positive management style and techniques. McGregor’s XY Theory remains central to organisational development, and to improving organisational culture. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y THEORY X THEORY Y 1. Workers must be supervised as closely as possible, either through direct oversight or by tight reward and/or punishment systems. 1. People usually do not require close supervision and will, if given a chance to control their own activities, be productive, satisfied, and fulfilled. 2. Work is objectionable to most people. 2. Work is natural and enjoyable unless it is made offensive by the actions of organisations. 3. Most people have little initiative, have little capacity for being creative or solving organisational problems, do not want to have responsibilities, and prefer being directed by someone else. 3. People are ambitious, desire autonomy and self-control, and can use their abilities to solve problems and help their organisations meet their goals. Creativity is distributed â€Å"normally† across the population, just as is any other characteristic. 4. People are motivated by economic factors and a need for security. 4. People are motivated by a variety of needs only some of which involve economics or security. Figure Obtained from: MANAGING PEOPLE R. Tompson, 2nd Ed, Pub: Institute of Management I think that employee motivation in regard to reward and recognition means taking account of and balancing the needs of the organisation and its objectives as well as the needs of the people expected to achieve those objectives. I think that motivation should also have been included in the SWOT analysis. I think you should also consider how you can motivate staff you could use the web site I have given above for more information. The more you motivate staff the better they will work, this will also help with the monitoring of employees. You should also consider looking at the various patterns used by managers to encourage motivation in the work place, for a good example see Appendix 3. Rewards There are a staggering amount of reward types and schemes, you just have to make sure you have the right ones chosen for your business because performance of staff is the key to the success of any organisation. One of the main rewards that I think is relevant for your business is PRP (Performance Related Pay) One of the key contributors to effective performance is a well-designed performance management process. Such a process should incorporate objective setting, the day-to-day management of performance, the review or appraisal of performance, and rewarding performance. Your employees are your most important asset, they are the people who shape and form the company’s future. Rewarding staff can develop healthy in-house competition between individuals, teams or even departments. Another major factor in rewards are employment benefit packages. Reward and incentive programs are a popular part of employee benefit packages. Many employees value such offerings as flexible scheduling, tuition assistance, and child care in order to satisfy personal needs and professional development. I think that you too should consider re designing your employment package. Nowadays society, it is becoming more and more common to support these reward systems with the overall business strategy of an organisation in order to satisfy business needs and to improve shareholder value. In addition, many organisations are developing or restructuring their rewards programs based on employee performance. This trend is likely to continue as costs continue to increase and competition continues to thrive in a highly unpredictable economy. Some other useful reward types that can be used are as follows: Social Rewards: Which include praise, employee recognition, and social acceptance within the business. Psychic rewards: Which include self esteem, job satisfaction, and feelings of accomplishments You could also give piece-rate pay, commissions, merit pay and bonuses. When I was talking about the business and how it will grow in ‘Conclusion of Growth’ in the first part I think that in order for the business to grow you need the best employees you can get. So you would need to have the reward schemes that the employees are looking for. I the way you are rewarding employees at the moment is not working in fact ‘I know it is not working’ I think you should use the PRP (Performance Related Pay) method, and also consider giving annual bonuses. Also if you give PRP (Performance Related Pay) you will sort out the problem you have with the monitoring of ‘Field based staff’ as they too will be attracting more customers for the business. You should also give bonuses if the company is making a stable profit as this would encourage more work to be completed. Employee Turnover/Retention One of the most difficult problems companies had to cope with in the increasingly volatile business climate of the 1990’s was the high rate of employee turnover. When employees, particularly long-term employees leave a company that has made a substantial investment in them, they take with them training, skills, experience, and productivity. Output is inevitably diminished during the training process of new employees, no matter how qualified. additionally, a high level of workplace turnover rends the types of social bonds that encourage other employees come to work and maintain their normal levels of productivity. ..In today’s workplace, employers are not only having a hard time attracting employees, but are also having a difficult time keeping them.. (Harkins, 1998) I found out that employees leave for a variety of reasons, including poor supervision, unchallenging positions, limited advancement opportunities, lack of recognition, limited control over work, perceived pay inequity, and the perception of more favorable opportunities in other companies. Measuring Absence Obtained from: MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES J. Weightman, 2nd Ed, (1996), Pub: Cromwell Press This overall figure, however, leaves many questions unanswered. For example, is the absence rate a reflection of a few employees suffering from long-term ill-health or are a substantial number of employees being regularly absent for relatively short spells? A more in depth way to monitor absence and retention is give in Appendix 1. Hear I found some of the ways in which to help with retention: * Align your employees with company goals and visions * Establish department goals and standards * Set employee goals and performance measurements * Conduct performance reviews that test the established goals * Train managers to effectively coach their staff * Identify barriers & find strengths to build upon * Isolate key performance gaps and craft a plan to improve performance * Define the relationship between job satisfaction, goal alignment and individual performance growth I suggest that you should consider some of the points above in order to combat turnover/retention. You should regularly try to monitor staff absence. Try to make the rate as nearer to 8.5 % as possible if it goes over this may be critical to the business. You should have a maximum number of days for employees to comply by, for example I work as Safeway Petrol station in the Penn, employees there are only allocated 50 hours off of work (excluding sick or acceptable absence). You should check out Appendix 1 in how to measure turnover and retention in your organisation. Training and Development There are a number of advantages to training and development and this is another point that was added in the SWOT analysis that needed to be improved in order for the business to function properly and effectively. Training has become the most important feature of a successful organisation. Training is necessary because it improves profitability and/ or more positive attitudes towards profit orientation. Enhances the job knowledge and skills at all levels of the organisation. The work force gets a high morale. Due to proper training employees can identify with organisational goals, corporate image gets improved. Training fosters realism, openness and trust. A boss an the subordinates get to work in a better environment and relationship. Some typical reasons for employee training and development can be initiated for a variety of reasons for an employee or group of employees, for example: * When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed * To â€Å"benchmark† the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort * As part of an overall professional development program * As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organisation * To â€Å"pilot†, or test, the operation of a new performance management system * To train about a specific topic I found out some key topics for employee Training and Development they are as follows: * Communication- The increasing diversity of today’s workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs. * Computer skills- Computer skills are becoming a requirement for conducting administrative and office tasks. * Customer service- Increased competition in today’s global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers. * Diversity- Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity * Ethics- Today’s society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today’s diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace. By giving the appropriate training and development you can gain a lot of advantages. The general benefits from Employee Training and Development are: * Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees * Increased employee motivation * Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain * Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods * Increased innovation in strategies and products * Reduced employee turnover * Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training (not a good reason for ethics training!) * Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training I think that training aids in developing leadership skill, motivation, loyalty, better attitudes and other aspects that successful workers and managers usually display which we discussed earlier in the report. The quality of work is also increased and so is the productivity. Its cost effective as well, it cuts costs in different areas e.g. production, personnel, administration etc. it develops a sense of responsibility to the organisation for being capable and knowledgeable. Labor management is also improved, as workers instead of feeling ignored, feel taken care of which develops a sense of loyalty Communication Effective communication skills are vital for success in a business environment with most business people being engaged in some form of communication activity most of the time reading, listening, writing or talking. Business communication is, however, different from educational or literary writing and speaking it requires precision, clarity and efficiency since business people just do not have the time to savor an idea or an expression. †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Moreover, unethical behavior in the workplaces arising from the lack of ethical communication by the top management to the first-line supervisors proves the fact that employees are either directly or indirectly rewarded for unethical acts or harshly abandoned for going against the norm of practicing corruption†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Zimmerman: Jansen and Von Glinow, 2001, p. 119). As explained in this text that I researched into, Jansen and Von Glinow through their in-depth study that encouraging â€Å"counter norms† in an organisation is also a form of promoting corrupt standards in a company in order to save the firm’s name or to avoid charges by this means reflecting the decreasing ethical communication in organisations. There are many factors that help establish an organisation’s ability and skill in maintaining the stability and organisation among its employees/members. One of these factors includes attaining an organisational communication process through effective communication skills. The most prominent forms used by most organisations are the development of verbal and non-verbal communication since these are the most obvious ways of communication that provide a dialogue for employees and the management in an organisation. However, what is not realized by both the employees and management is that listening is one important communication aspect that precedes verbal and non-verbal communication. I think that in order to attain effective communication verbally or non-verbally, communicators must first learn to listen in order to assess carefully the issues at hand and the required action that must be taken. If you have a look at Appendix 2 it shows you different types of communication processes. I would recommend that you try to focus on the ‘complete network’ as this would make communications in your business better. Overall Report Conclusion and my Recommendations I think overall this is what we should be doing in order to maintain and run a successful business: * Growth- we should not be growing just yet as there are to many problems as indicated in the SWOT analysis. We should be improving on the weaknesses and consider to grow and expand in the future. * Performance Management- monitoring needs to be undertaken but only to some degree that is acceptable by you and the employees. But I think you should use some of the procedures that I have indicated in this previous section (please refer to Conclusion for Performance Management). * Performance Appraisal Systems and Motivation- Performance appraisal systems are designed to serve the company’s and employee’s interests. * Motivation- You have to consider Douglas McGregor Theory X and Theory Y. to offer the best motivation go through the chart that I have drawn and consider what you can do to have a successful motivated staff. Look at Appendix 3 for patterns of managerial approaches to motivation. * Rewards- if you offer better rewards and better benefit packages then Turnover/Retention will be low, and employees will work more and contribute their highest potential. * Employee Turnover/Retention- you need to make sure that you monitor employees sickness and absenteeism and make sure it dose not go over 8% Check Appendix 1. * Training and Development- if you train and develop employees better the function of your business will be better, you should try to encourage more employees to gain different skills and knowledge. You should also try to offer recognised qualifications. * Communication- look at Appendix 2 I recommend that you try to bring in the process of complete network communication. There are numerous factors that help conclude an organisation’s ability and skill in maintaining the stability and organisation among its employees/members, one of these factors includes attaining an organisational communication process through effective communication skills.    References I recommend that you look at the following text as this will help you improve on the factors mentioned in this report and also help you with difficult decisions about your business. I recommend looking at this text: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR: INDVIDUALS, GROUPS AND THE ORGANISATION I. Brooks (1999) 1st Ed, Pub: Financial Times HUMAN RESOURCE STRATAGIES Salman, (1998) Pub: The Open University MANAGING PEOPLE R. Tompson, 2nd Ed, Pub: Institute of Management ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR: A MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE G.B.Northcroft & M.A.Neale (1990), Pub: Ronda Colour PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT GA Cole, 4th Ed (1997), Pub: Ashford Colour Press MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES J. Weightman, 2nd Ed, (1996), Pub: Cromwell Press The following Web-Sites are useful also: www.bized.com www.hrmang.co.uk www.humanrecourses.co.uk/text/hrissues www.resourcemanage.co.uk

“Marketing, Consumerism, Materialism and Ethics the...

INTRODUCTION Gone are the days when â€Å"buyer beware† was the trend. The sellers used to dictate their terms as the competition was less. But after the Liberalization, Globalizations and Privatization in 1991, more companies entered into India. This changed the situation form â€Å"Buyer’s beware† to â€Å"Sellers beware†. It became more difficult for the companies to sustain in the cut throat competition. They had to shift their focus from product centric to customer centric. Companies had to think smart instead of working hard. There was a need of decisive plan of action to survive in the market. The quality of the product was taken for granted by the customer and with competition heating up companies had to differ themselves from their†¦show more content†¦In order to address these challenges, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on marketing ethics over almost 50 years offers a citation analysis and develops a unique marketing ethics impact factor (MEIF). We contribute to the ï ¬ eld in three important ways. First, it presents a state-of-the art picture of marketing ethics research. This provides an account of the research focus in each decade, assesses the importance of speciï ¬ c topics in the debate and identiï ¬ es existing research gaps. Second, we identify the most inï ¬â€šuential papers and researchers in the marketing ethics area. Third, we evaluate the most important journals in terms of their impact on marketing ethics. To this end, we have developed an MEIF. This improves the ability to judge a journal’s inï ¬â€šuen ce on this particular sub-discipline. Does the Individualist Consume More? The Interplay of Ethics and Beliefs that Governs Consumerism across Cultures Abstract: Individualism leading to more consumerism seems to be a bit of truism nowadays in the media. The USA is particularly indicted for being too individualistic and consumerist. Past research has mostly indicated a positive relationship between the two. However, past research has not suggested a negative association between individualism and consumerism. This paper offers support for such a negative relationship by showing that an individual’s ethical values can temper the consumerist nature of individualists. DataShow MoreRelatedOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagespose important challenges to organization members about issues such as: †¢ The relationship between organization control and freedom. †¢ The nature of power and authority in organizations. †¢ The relationship between individualism and collectivism in modern organizations. †¢ The relationship between organizations and society. †¢ The ways in which organizations are design ed. †¢ The relationship between organizations and leadership and management. †¢ The development of understanding of organization culture