Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Human Resource Essay

Question 1: How would you forecast the manpower needs of Ya Kun? Ya Kun can forecast their manpower by using trend analysis, ratio analysis, scatter plot and computerized system. The personnel can use either one of these method of finding new recruitment. Based on trend analysis, Ya Kun find new recruit by using their past experienced which means that they can provide an initial estimate of future staffing needs, but employment levels rarely depend just on the passage of time. They looked their past performance of sales, productivity and so on to estimate their employee also because if their performance goes beyond their expectation like Ya kun that have many outlets throughout the world, they may required more employee either full time or part-time. Other forecasting method that Ya Kun can use to forecast their manpower is ratio analysis. In this method, Ya Kun forecast based on the historical ratio between some causal factor (like sales volume) and the number of employee required such salespeople. In this case, Ya Kun need more employee because they need more salespeople to run the business in each of their outlets. The sales volume for Ya Kun also one of the factor that Ya Kun need to recruit employee. Compared to trend analysis, ratio analysis assumes that productivity remains about the same. Personnel also can use scatter plot to forecast their manpower. In this method, the personnel may use two related variables to indicate the relation between the two such as sales volume and number of employee. If these two factors are related, then the points will tend to fall along straight line then the personnel can forecast the need of new recruitment. Computerized forecasting also is one way that personnel can use to forecast their need of manpower. With programs like these, employers can more accurately estimate how many employee that they need to projected productivity and sales. Many firms use computerized employee forecasting system for particularly for estimating short-term needs. In Ya Kun case, their personnel may need this program because they have many outlets that need more part-time worker to replace fulltime worker if needed. Question 2: What are the advantages and disadvantages of Ya Kun’s hiring part-time workers? Part-time workers are those who whether by personal choice or due to employment conditions beyond their control work fewer hours than the regular, full-time staff of a business over the course of a year. There is no specific number of hours that makes someone full or part-time, but a full-time worker will usually work 35 hours or more a week. The advantages of Ya Kun’s hiring part-time workers are part-time workers are less expensive than full-time workers. This is because some of them are paid less than half of what full-time workers, who do the same work, are paid. In other hand, part-time workers will not get benefits same like full-time workers such as insurance or sick pay. So Ya Kun’s can save significant amount of money by hiring part-time workers. Most of the part-timers are student, since it allows them to balance their academic needs with their school needs and they are often willing to learn new tasks and responsibilities when doing their work. Therefore, they will do their job better than full-time workers and this will increase labour productivity of Ya Kun’s. Furthermore, Ya Kun’s only hiring part-time workers when the full-time workers go on vacation or become ill. Students are particularly useful in meeting these periods of high demand in order to ensure that the needs of Ya Kun ’s customers are met and will increase in Ya Kun’s output as well. The disadvantages of Ya Kun’s hiring part-time workers are Ya Kun’s need extra time to train part-time workers to get knowledge about their work and they also need to be guide by someone before they can do their work by their own. Besides that, it will increase training cost of Ya Kun’s. Part-time workers have to go for training before they can start their work in order to avoid from low skilled workers. This also will affect productivity of Ya Kun’s. Moreover, part-time workers have higher absenteeism rates. This is because most of the part-time workers are student and they only doing part-time work to get extra money or just for fun. Besides that, they do not think about their commitment so they keep absent to work. Question 3: A good attitude and commitment are two important attributes that Ya Kun looks for in its job applicant. Is a job interview an effective method to assess these two attributes? What else can Ya Kun do to get reliable information on these two attributes? It is good to have job interview, but conducting a case test and attitude test would help to assess the attribute. Recruiting via the internet: The recruiter should be given complete description about the job and who will be qualified to apply for the job. A simple test could be done to screen the applicants online. Afterwards, a job interview will be needed. Advertising: The employer should advertise their ads where they’ll reach your prospective employees. The recruiter should be given complete description about the job and who will be qualified to apply for the job. Afterwards, a job interview will be needed. Private employment agency: The recruiter should be given complete description about the job and who will be qualified to apply for the job. Afterwards, a job interview will be needed. Walk-ins: This involves direct interview, which is the effective way to measure good attitude and commitment rather than just simply looking at the resume. Question 4: What suggestion would you make to Ya Kun to improve its recruiting processes? From the case Ya Kun Kaya Toasts, we can see that Ya Kun used the recruitment and selection process through advertised in Chinese and English newspapers as well as trough recruitment notice at their outlets. There are few steps to applicants should be undergo before they can be select and recruit by Ya Kun Kaya Toasts. It start from the interview by two manager, screened primarily for their level of commitment and willingness to work shifts, screened for other desirable qualities, until when they successful then they need to go through 2 week training and remain on probation for 3 months. However, Ya Kun still thinking the way how to improve its recruiting process. The reasons why is because the main challenge Ya Kun face in its recruitment efforts is finding employees with the right attitude, because the technical skill required are relatively easy to learn. Other than that, there are some applicants were unwilling to work shifts, making it difficult for Ya Kun to hire them because shift work is inevitable in the food and beverage retail industry. Look at the case, challenge economic times are prompting employers especially Ya Kun manager to rethink how they go about recruiting process. So, there are several suggestions would we make thinks to Ya Kun can do to improve its recruiting processes. Firstly, from job opening for the outlet staff the point in your advertisement should reach your target prospective employees. Use the guide AIDA (attention, interest, desire, and action) to construct advertisements. You must attract attention to the advertisement. From that case, Ya Kun should state in the ad that all the responsibilities and qualifications required for work at Ya Kun. For example, under the responsibilities and qualifications required the applicants should be education because we know that the person who educated has the right attitude toward the job. Moreover, don’t forget to include the required for â€Å"work shifts interested only† in the advertisement. So that, during the interview period manager not wastes their time recruit the applicants. Secondly, recruitment materials have a more positive impact if they contain more specific information. That means, at the application form the manager should provide applicants with information on aspects of the job that are important to them, such as salary, location, and diversity. For example, pay the salary base on their schedule of shift work. As we look at the case, some applicants were unwilling to work shifts because they not satisfy about the salary especially when they work at second shift period from 3 P.M to 11 P.M. The reason because at that time, number of customer may be increase because that time are pass the work time and they may like to hang up at Ya Kun coffee shop with their friend and family. Moreover, the manager of Ya Kun also can do the job rotation which is the periodic shifting of a worker from one task to another. That means, results depend on how job satisfaction is measured. Thirdly, using application forms to predict job performance. In this stage, manager should already get all the application forms from the applicants who apply for that job after the certain period of job opening for the outlet staff or recruitment notice at their outlets. It is possible for the Ya Kun manager to use application form information to predict which candidates will be successful and which won’t, in much the same way that one might use test for screening. The basic process involves conducting statistical studies to analyze the relationship between biodata responses on the application form and measure of success on the job. It is important to choose the biodata items in order to look at their life style as well as other criteria such as their background, education, and others. So, we can evaluate the candidates during the interview session whether they pass or not. Conclusion It is important to understand the nature of the business that we are in before doing the recruitment and selection process. Different nature will result different way or step to look at the employees which is really suitable to apply as well as to be accept to work at that company or industry. From the case it start with personnel planning and forecasting where it is the process of deciding what position the Ya Kun industry will have to fill, and how to fill them. Filling open position with their internal sources of candidate make Ya Kun has several advantages. For example, Ya Kun has a family –style environment and established â€Å"promotion-from-within† policy and many more. Then as result, not only the organization build the good structure and enhance performance, but the emphasis on good attitude and character in the selection of outlet staff has help Ya Kun build a pool of hardworking and committed workers. Ultimately, the main goal that the Ya Kun will achieve is make it big through the improvement its recruiting process in the future. That all the improvement for Ya Kun has to face in order to take the challenge by increasing the commitment of all staff toward the company.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

“Rainbow’s End” by Jane Harrison Essay

The instinctive need for humanity to belong is through acceptance of one through relationships and their social status in society. When an individual seeks acceptance in the wider world in order to belong, it is up to them as to whether or not they are accepting of others. This idea is challenged as society is the boundary preventing an individual from trying to belong. This notion is expressed throughout the play Rainbows End by Jane Harrison and the film The Sapphires directed by Wayne Blair. Whereby both composers use various techniques to explore the belief that one seeks to belong through relationships and culture. An individual may feel that to truly belong they must discard all differing thoughts. In a way finding a way to be accepted is the focal point of belonging. This idea is demonstrated in the play Rainbows End, in the â€Å"Waters rising† scene whereby the audience is under the impression that an individual seeks to belong through acceptance within a relationship . Further In the scene, we see Errol asking Dolly to move into the city with him, through the exchange of dialogue between Errol and Dolly. Errol says â€Å"I want you to come away with me† with dolly responding â€Å"Away?† and Errol â€Å"Yes to the city†. Through the use of a demanding tone in Errol’s voice â€Å"I want you† indicates Errol is able to offer a better life for dolly. Symbolising the idea that acceptance in a relationship can make one feel as though they belong, to the point where they can live together as one. As a result, the viewers can understand that both Errol and Dolly are accepting of each other and the different worlds they come from. In a similar way, Wayne Blair explores the idea that a sense of belonging can emerge where there is a perception of acceptance without limitations. This is illustrated in the film The Sapphires whereby Dave is accepted into Gail’s family and asks her parents for her hand in marriage, the humorous dialogue between Gail and Dave and Gail’s father saying â€Å"Marriage eh? That’s fine I suppose but you’ll have to learn about ceremonial law†¦spears and duck under boondies†¦want to go shooting?† As a result of the choices taken upon by Dave and Gail it has led them to marriage. Emphasizing on the idea that there are no limitations as to how far Gail can go with her relationship with Dave. As a result being accepted without limitations brings about personal satisfaction that is both Dave and Gail feeling a sense of belonging to each  other. In another manner, Jane Harrison challenges the idea that no matter how far one goes to be accepted in order to feel they belong. It does not always bring personal satisfaction. This is illustrated further on in the â€Å"Queens’s visit† scene where Gladys comes home disappointed as she didn’t get the chance to see the queen. This is highlighted in â€Å"if they’d given us proper houses†¦ but hessian! Like a band aid over a sore†, through the use of an angry tone, the audience can depict the desperate measures Gladys has gone to that is the white gloves and dressing up to look presentable did not bring personal satisfaction due to her address, cultural background and socio-economic background. This is further exemplified in the connotations of an exclamation mark in â€Å"but hessian!† indicates Gladys’ furiousness. Furthermore, through the use of a simile in â€Å"Like a band aid over a sore† specifies the aboriginal community is the sore that needs covering up, which is done by the hessian. In a similar way ones social status can be challenged if they are from two worlds. This is evident in the scene whereby Gail and Cynthia interrupt Kay’s Tupperware party with her â€Å"white† friends. Through the use of costuming the audience can see Kay has adopted the fashion of the white community. This is evident in the use of a close-up shot on facial expressions of the four women, disgust verse embarrassment. Gail looking in disgust and Kay in embarrassment, highlights Kay’s social status is important to her as it makes her feel as though she belongs. In this case Kay belonging to the Australian society, which is predominantly â€Å"White†. In conclusion, the instinctive need for humanity to belong through relationships and social status can affect the choices individuals make and direct their actions. This notion is challenged throughout the play Rainbows End and the film the sapphires whereby the need to belong is through acceptance of others in relationships and social status, although may not always bring about personal satisfaction to the individual trying to belong, it can also bring disappointment. 2. Into the World The French Prisoner by Janos Pilinszky and The survivor by Tadeusz Rozewicz Entering new worlds may be easy for one to do, although it is the memories held within the past that can have ripple effects on an individual’s future. It is the actions  undertaken by the individual in the past that can affect them mentally and psychologically. This notion is presented in the poems The French Prisoner by Janos Pilinszky and The Survivor by Tadeusz Rozewicz. Whereby both composers have used various techniques to illustrate the idea that memories in the past can leave a feeling of guilt and remorse on an individual’s future, especially when trying to enter new phases in life. Past experiences depicts how one lives their life in the future, it is up to the individual as to whether or not they can move on. This view is illustrated in the poem The French Prisoner whereby the persona is reliving the memory he has of the French prisoner. In the use of Binary opposites â€Å"Joy and revulsion the same as happy and unhappy†. Emphasizes the personas loss of control of himself as a person due to a guilt-ridden memory he has of the French prisoner that is not helping him escape when he had the chance. This is further highlighted in the use of disturbing imagery in â€Å"the bare palm that crammed at his mouth, and clung there so that it ate, too† shows the viewers of the desperation of the dehumanised prisoner eating like an animal. As a result of this memory the persona, has become mentally unstable to the point where it’s almost as if he is the French prisoner reliving this guilt. In a similar manner, Tadeusz Rozewicz has explored in a similar way that recollections from previous events can impact one physically. As one tries to enter into a new journey of self-discovery it may be difficult to do so if there is a constant reminder of events that happened in the past, stopping them from doing so. This is evident in stanza one through the use of violent imagery in the connotations of â€Å"led to slaughter† illustrates the pain and suffering they had gone through, as a result of this not being able to move on into a new life in the future. This is further revealed in â€Å"I survived† meaning he physically made it out of such horrifying events. Furthermore, through the use of binary opposites â€Å"man and beast, love and hate, friend and foe† tells the audience how mentally disturbed he is that he cannot tell the difference between synonyms and antonyms. As a result of this, the trauma the persona had gone through personally within the past shape how they live they’re life in the future. This is illustrated in the distorted reality in â€Å"virtue and crime weigh the same† indicates the views of the world from his eyes are inaccurate due to witnessing the horrific events of war. In conclusion, an individual trying to move into a new  journey of self-discovery may find it difficult to do so especially when they have horrific recalls of the past. This concept is carried throughout the poems The French Prisoner by J.P and The Survivor by T.R. Where both composers emphasize that moving into new phases is not easy and takes time to adjust to it, physically and mentally especially when the persona is carrying a sense of guilt and remorse.

Factors influencing News editors’ decisions Essay

Factors influencing News editors’ decisions Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   News form an important part in the society because it helps in providing people with information as well as keeping people updated on events and happenings that are taking place across the world. The factors which I think news editors consider in making a decision include: Age of the targeted audiences. The editors have noted that the age group of those who read the Newspapers and those who watch TVs is different in that the older generation prefers written content unlike the younger generation who prefer visuals and audio which is available through television (Halan, 2009).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Secondly, the difference in taste and preference of the audiences also affects the choice of news presentation by the editors. There are people who prefer a combination of the visual and audio (Islam, 2008). Therefore, the use of TV to present some news makes a greater impact than when the newspapers are used. Furthermore, news editors aim at being providers of exclusive news for their audiences. Therefore, to maintain exclusiveness with their news as compared to their competitors, news editors would choice an alternative that would make them exclusive to the audience(Halan, 2009). This will enable them to achieve higher sales in terms of newspapers or high viewing rate if they use the TVs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally, the other factor that I think may be an influence on the choice of news presentation, whether through a newspaper or television is whether the news is meant for international or the national audience(Islam, 2008). To reach a wider audience internationally or nationally, news editors would prefer a means that is easily accessible to majority of the targeted audience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Therefore, in conclusion, it is my view that age, exclusivity, taste and preference of the targeted audience, and national or international interest that the news is aimed at form the factors that influence the decision of the editors. The end result is for them to achieve more sales, higher viewing rates as well as enhanced reputation. References Halan, Y. C. (2009). Communication skills: Effective editing; a practical handbook to develop good editing skills. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. Islam, R. (2008). Information and public choice: From media markets to policy making. Washington, D.C: World Bank. Source document

Monday, July 29, 2019

Understanding persuasive speeches Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Understanding persuasive speeches - Assignment Example Fernandez delivery to convince the audience of his ideas. He conclusively establishes trust and influences the audience using evidence and proof to back up his claims. Persuasively, he presents the audience with new ideas, shaping their beliefs, values, and attitudes, causing them to consider his team eventually, an idea that they were not so enthusiastic about initially. The speaker, Fernandez, employs pathos in his delivery, revealing the challenges he encountered while relocating to study in the US. The strategy is in a bid to appeal and relate sympathetically to other students who might have had similar experiences. In his well-organized sequential presentation, he applies repetition and humor to foster emphasis of crucial points on a light note. He employs hand gestures effectively to aid his visual part of the delivery. The main points are well articulated. The introduction is inherent with humor, creating a light moment in revealing himself to the crowd. In the conclusion, he relates with the audience`s approval of him presenting his entire team to the stage. The speakers tone is bold and sympathetic with varied volume to reflect the magnitudes of the issues he addresses. Citations are relayed in revelation of challenges he encountered in his relocation. The quality of the delivery is exceptional according to the standards of persuasive speech. Fernandez speech is effective in recalling the initial subject matter and systematically presenting himself as viable

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Educational Philosophy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Educational Philosophy - Research Paper Example From all of the theories presented about pre-service teacher, the most common and well known theories are that of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). Lev Vygotsky was an educational theorist, who has presented numerous theories about the impact of culture on child’s mental and behavioural development. He also presented ideas about pre-service teachers. According to him, students should be inspired and motivated enough to present their own creativity and knowledge in their writings. He further states that the person who is interacting with child has most of the responsibility for problem solving but slowly and gradually his responsibilities transfer to the child. Example: If the theory of Lev Vygotsky is implemented in the premises of today’s classrooms, then it can bring profound changes. Children must be allowed to utilize their own thoughts and creativity, be it in art work, writing or any other intellectual activity. In extra-curricular activities, children should be encouraged to bring those projects which reflect any notion of their immediate culture or background in order to value diversity in classroom. Kolb (1984) stated that effective pre-service teachers need to have ability in four different areas; observation, experience, conceptualization and experimentation. Kolb (1984) states that teachers need to openly and fully involve themselves in providing new experiences to the students. Teachers need to present and reflect these experiences from several different perspectives, in other words, teachers should provide reflective observation. They must also conceptualize those observations with supportive logics and facts. At the end, they should use these concepts for problem solving and decision making which is the fourth component, namely experimentation. Example: After the students bring in projects or related material about their respective culture, the duty of teachers start. Teachers should acknowledge other students about each student’s culture.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

USA World Bank Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

USA World Bank - Case Study Example USA World Bank has been a very successful firm, both for consumers and small businesses domestically and internationally. Like all companies, it needs to come up with new and exciting products for its customers so that they remain committed to the company. The Board of Directors wants the company to launch just one product each year. This one product can focus on the consumer side or the small business owner side. However this can result in conflicting ideas internally and as well as with conflicting customers. It is the decision of the president and vice president to come up with the new product and launch it in the current time frame.Each year Managers at USA World Bank are required to launch a new product for their bank. This has become the tradition that the president and vice president of New Product Development brainstorm and then create an idea for the product and then present it to the Board of Directors for approval. In recent years the all the new products launched have bee n marginally successful therefore there is increased pressure on the president and vice president this year to deliver the goods. Without concurrent launching of new products, USA World Bank feels that it would lose its market share and its huge customer base to other new and agile banks. [3]Like any company UWB, wants to maximize its profitability while satisfying its customer needs. It takes into consideration the customer requirements and prioritizes the needs to identify which customers its product will be targeted towards. The Company faces a dilemma in this scenario whether to launch a Consumer Product or a Small business Owner product. Catering to one or the other will create a bad reputation from the other side. The second stakeholders are the general consumers. They have the right to purchase the product from UWB and to be or not to be a part of the company. They want to maximize the utility they get on purchasing the products from the company. Their interests clash with the interest of the Small Business Owner Card holders and they are given higher priority. The third stakeholders are Small Business Owners for whom a different kind of card is being sought to be produced. They have the right to purchase the product from UWB and to be or not to be a part of the company. They want to maximize the utility they get on purchasing the products from the company. Their interests clash with the interest of the general consumers because they are given lesser priority. [1] Problem Statement USA World Bank will cater to all customers to increase market share and market value by building close customer relationships. End-State Vision USA World Bank will add value to its customer base by offering affordable products and incentives to increase its market share. Alternative Solutions Alternative solutions are generated from the problem at hand. Mary Monroe wants to go ahead with the Consumer product while Jim and executives emphasize for the Small Business Owner product. Brian is confused whether to go for both products or simply do more research to find out which one is more feasible. Here is the list of alternate solutions Launch General Consumer Product Launch Small Business Owner Product Launch Both Products These alternatives are included in the secondary alternatives as the company wants to launch the product this year without any delays. Delay launching product until further research studies are not completed Don't launch any product this year Analysis of Alternative Solutions There are 4 different goals that have been identified for USA World Bank from this scenario. The cost is not considered that important like Brian Allen said therefore it is assigned a rating of 2. A

Friday, July 26, 2019

Critical Thinking English- A New Earth Chapters One to Ten Essay

Critical Thinking English- A New Earth Chapters One to Ten - Essay Example These emotions are therefore borne out of our reaction to things, and thus, these emotions can be evil. Nevertheless, from Tolle’s book and from this class, one learns that nonreaction is the more spiritual way and that it can be learned only through the view that change is inevitable. From Chapter 3, I particularly like: â€Å"Nonreaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for nonreaction is forgiveness. To forgive is to overlook, or rather to look through†¦the ego to the sanity that is in every human being as his or her essence† (Tolle 41). Oftentimes, when I react to my boyfriend’s comments or to how he behaves, I would normally react with tantrums. However, after that, I somehow realize that I have acted in a stupid way or that something was not right and that no matter how valid the emotion was, it did not seem to be helping the relationship. Afterwards, I would also feel selfish and thus apologize to my boyfriend for my reaction no matter how m uch I did not want to apologize. Before I became a part of this class and before I read Tolle, I thought long and hard about how to appropriately react to the many different hurts that I expect I would get from my boyfriend or from the relationship itself. Little did I know that the flaw was not in the method of reacting to the hurt or to the situation but it is in the whole concept of reaction itself. I believe people, especially I, would normally react to situations because they do not understand the spiritual principle about nonreaction. True strength, according to Tolle, is not reaction but nonreaction. Moreover, nonreaction happens in us when we see only the ego of another person and not his essence. When we begin to see the essence, we forgive almost automatically and we lose the natural tendency to react. In my case, I particularly like the quote from Tolle not because I follow it but because this is something I still have to go through. Ever since we were young, we were alwa ys told to react, and everything that we have learned is based on the idea of human emotion – that certain things can trigger specific emotions in a human being. Somehow, this concept indirectly also teaches us that we are at the mercy of our emotions, and that we cannot do anything except react. Our society has also taught us to react to political matters as well as anything else that happens in the world of fashion, in the news, and even in science and technology, where our emotions do not actually matter or where our emotions would somehow make us feel justified, recognized and vindicated. Our religions have also taught us the same feeling of being vindicated when we have proven others wrong and ourselves morally right and upright. This is true in my case. I feel the vindication whenever I shout at my boyfriend after he does something I did not particularly like. It is the time that I feel I am right, and I feel I am superior and lofty, and most of all – right. Neve rtheless, as long as we rely on our emotions to vindicate us, we will forever react to things around us and we will forever be subject to sorrow and suffering. The key therefore is change. If we are to experience strength from nonreaction, then we have to free ourselves from our emotions, and therefore we have to change. From Chapter 8, the line that appeals to me is: â€Å"Once you see and accept the transience of all things and the inevitability of change, you can enjoy the

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Health and Safety at work course work Coursework

Health and Safety at work course work - Coursework Example Thus Planning-I consists of five separate entities that are deeply interlinked. VISION OF PLANNING 1:- Keeping house in efficient and productive order, set timelines for every project, pursue relentlessly, while onus of every project is with a specific person. To be a success story, Planning – I Wing will work on the motto of ‘Reach out to all, net and tune well domestically within ERRA and beyond in the sister Organizations, Institutions and Ministries for the collective well being of the Earthquake (EQ) affected people and good reputation of ERRA’. Achievements have no limits, efforts have no bounds. Field is vast open. Let everyone see and judge, who runs the fastest and for how long. CHANNELS FOR COMMUNICATION: - The channels that are used in the wing are mainly the documentation accompanied by the verbal communication. The following are the modes of communications. 1) DOCUMENTATION AND APPROVALS: - Any new project to be implemented or any alteration or advanc ements in the projects conducted by the ERRA are documented properly. And the approvals for all the activities are approved by bottom approach. 2) STAFF AND EMPLOYEE MEETINGS: - All the staff meetings and employee meetings are being conducted in a regular manner depending upon the sensitivity of the projects. These meetings are conducted in the same departments or rather with collaborative department of choice as per the requirements. 3) INTERNET AND EMAIL NOTIFICATION:- Most of the notifications are given to the department via email notifications and phone calls directly. So there is a strictness to check the emails notifications daily so that every person must be updated with the current situation regularly. 4) FAX: - If there is a meeting or any negotiations or problems that need the communication with other department, then there is a three way communication procedure that includes fax along with telephone and email notification. 5) VERBAL: - Also there is a way communication by the direct boss to the employee verbally if he or she has to notify something or there is any important issue that needs discussion. HASAWA IMPLEMENTATION:- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 promotes the safety and health at workplace and it is very effective in promoting the good health. It involves the duties imposed on employers, employees, contractors, suppliers of goods and substances for use at work, persons that are in control of work premises, and those who has a charge to manage and maintain them, and persons in general. So the duties of the HASAWA are applied on all of the employees and all other important persons that can contribute even a pinch towards promoting good health or violating health regulations. BEST CHANNEL TO PROMOTE HASAWA IN THE DEPARTMENT:- The best way to aware people and to implement HASAWA is through telecommunication and workshops. The reason for this channel is due to the reason that in Pakistan, there is shortage of electricity and there is m uch obvious that the electricity is not a reliable source for notification for any activity or information. So emails could be unreliable in this case which could be a big problem. And also the telecommunication is not much expensive in Pakistan and here there is lot of networks giving many cost effective packages. As

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Hanson- understanding the text Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hanson- understanding the text - Essay Example However, he contradicts his opinion by mentioning that the large population can only be sustained by either agriculture, or starves by service production, claiming that both are unattainable (Hanson 428). This contradiction of ideas shrinks the sense in his argument. The population that lived in the 19th century made great impacts on present Californians consumption. Hanson refers to this generation as â€Å"type of Californian† and classifies it to having disappeared. Worth noting, the generation carried away with them the ideologies and traits that best suited Californians, â€Å"credo that once made us what we were† (Hanson 431). In the words Hanson classifies Californian as having adequate resources to sustain its population. Fore fathers toiled hard to better the next generation. Casual work created a better life, but the current service production such as acting movies, saving newts makes results into trauma. Therefore to Hanson, Californians can’t substitute hard work to entertainment as less toiling as the former is the source of the

Modern French History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern French History - Essay Example This political development, particularly the French Revolution, is related to the European authoritarianism in the sense that it influenced significantly the trajectory of this political thought. It was recognized as a new approach – a transformative social upheaval – crucial in influencing the development of future European regimes with its successes. The French Revolution has led to a strategic shift in the political landscape in Europe, particularly in the growth of authoritarian governments. The democratic ideology of the revolution were power is being given back to the people became popular. Even when the revolution and the ensuing governments turned antidemocratic, the French became enamored with the government and supported it with a strong sense of nationalism (Hampson and Crocker, 167). Under Napoleon Bonaparte, the empire became popular and France’s neighbors became wary not just about the French expansionist ambitions but also about the developments in the country. Interstate conflicts such as the Crimean War flared in Europe. In addition, however, there was a widespread fear that the revolution would be replicated in each of the European countries. As a result European governments started cooperating and enforcing policies such as White Terror aimed at preventing the spread of democratization and nationalism. Many of European governments became more authoritarian, rejecting demands for constitutions, electoral and social democracy and national self-determination (Hampson and Crocker, 167). With the French Revolution, the concept of a new type of revolution has been brought forward. Here, there was the ideology for struggle but without establishing democratic governments afterwards. The principle underpinning this development is how power vacuum is created during revolutions, and authoritarianism became critical in the maintenance of the balance of power. This can be demonstrated in the case of the Russian experience. Lenin and M arx heavily used the French revolution as a model for their vision for Russia. Lenin embraced the French conception of revolutionary democracy, which Marx’s theory of revolution has also recognized (Clarke and Foweraker, 770). Based on their doctrines, Bolshevism emerged. Its Jacobin type of revolution became successful in toppling the Russian monarchy and the state descended into extreme authoritarian regime under Joseph Stalin. The French Revolution is also linked to the revolutions in many states in Europe such as Germany, Poland, Italy and Austria in the year 1848. Also known as the Spring of Nations, it was considered a Europe-wide revolt, event extending as far as Latin America. While the upheaval was eventually crushed, it has brought about changes such as the limitation to Denmark previously absolute monarchy and how serfdom was abolished. The legacy of the French Revolution, with its democratic ideology and imperialist practice, rested on the manner and degree by whi ch countries in Europe reacted in their respective circumstances. An important dimension to the French Revolution is how preceding scholars and nationalists recognized the necessities of terror and the mix of violent and murderous personalities who led it. According to Shlamentokh, there emerged a benevolent attitude towards the participants to the revolution in contemporary Europe or immediately after uprising. For example, there was the manner by which the terrorist Collot

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Reaction paper on article that I have which related to gun issue

Reaction paper on that I have which related to gun issue - Article Example ublished on April 23, 2012, says that America has now become a battleground in the literal sense where one could see many deaths and violent attacks off and on. The report throws light to the fact that majority of the American possess guns as there is provision in the American law that allows people to have guns for their self protection. The history of the past few years show that majority of these attacks were not for self protection, but an act of violence due to some psychological disorders, or a student taking revenge upon his classmates on trifles. The report opens with the stories of some recent attacks and the prevention methods adopted by some of the schools preparing for gunmen. However, the threat of the gun still continues and majority of the Americans fear that they may encounter with a violent gunman during their journeys. It said that there is about one gun for every American. The report adopts the data of the General Social Survey, conducted by the National Policy Opinion Center at the University of Chicago, when they identified that there is gradual decline in the gun ownership in the past few years. However, it is a contradiction to note that the number of the people having guns, and the power of the gun lobby are increased. There are many reasons identified for the increase of guns. It includes activities of The American Firearms, the innumerable firing ranges, private clubs, and so on. The American Firearms School is open to all and the authorized persons give training to the public. One of the main reasons of the increase of the guns can be attributed to the private sellers or classified ads that possess the lion share of the gun market. This fact clearly exposes the reason why or how an average a hundred thousand Americans are killed or wounded with guns a year. The National Rifle Association, founded in 1871 also promotes the growth of this field through training and publication of the magazines like The Armed Citizen. Another reason for

Monday, July 22, 2019

The Value of Liberal Arts Essay Example for Free

The Value of Liberal Arts Essay Liberal Arts can be defined as the study of general knowledge, humanities, fine arts, natural science and social science, instead of technical studies. These subjects are considered necessary for people in society. A Liberal Arts education is valuable because it is intellectual, it teaches you how to think, and heightens creativity. Studying Liberal Arts will enhance my skills and will develop me into a well-rounded person with a Nursing career. Unlike most professional studies with a focus on career goals, Liberal Art prepares at student for the real world. Most students are not aware of the importance and value of a Liberal Arts education. Courses like English, History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Christianity teaches you how to write and understand. It gives you a better understanding of the world and improves your communication skills. With such a variety students will be more decisive about ideas, beliefs, problems, and choices. This will prepare them for the dilemmas they will face in the world. Higher education is not about simply finding a good job after graduation. A liberal college gives you values and standards that will make you a better person. With a nursing major I will need the communication skills that a Liberal Arts education will give. This will help me interact better with my patients and co-workers and understand differences. Working in a nursing home or hospital I will experience different people and beliefs. I have some skills, but an education with a variety will give me an advantage over nurses with a basic 2-year degree that is career orientated. I interpret it as HBU giving me a foundation. Nursing pre-requisites concurrent with Liberal Arts pre- requisite gives me stepping stones into the nursing program. I will gain more knowledge this way and once I do enter the program I will be well balanced. Some of my acquaintances think that the pre-requisites are harder than the actual program because of the variety, but I disagree. Some of my high school classmates wanted to attend HBU but were deterred because of the Liberal Arts and Christianity requirements. They felt social gatherings like convocation and bible studies were unnecessary and boring, but they help you develop better morals and discipline. They will lack these features that I will have. Liberal studies require you to be artistic and think outside the box. Managers at the odd jobs I have had lacked those features, and that’s why they were bad employers. A liberal college gives students a smaller learning setting which enables us to develop relationships with teachers and students. It’s much better than a major that’s strictly pre-med or pre-pharmacy. It’s very different from a non-liberal college. It helps develop relationships between the teachers and students. This is impossible at a school with over a hundred thousand students. I was not aware of how liberal this college was until my SOAR orientation. Courses like Philosophy and Psychology can be applied to life. In my opinion, high school wasn’t liberal enough. My friends and I would find ourselves asking, â€Å"When are we going to use this stuff?† and â€Å"Why don’t they teach us stuff that’s useful?† Where can we apply chemistry if we’re not a Chemist? I thank GOD for bringing me to HBU. When I graduate I know I will be well prepared for the world. The medical field is a stressful career. You really have to be well- rounded because you are dealing with people. As a nurse you have to understand your patients especially when you are in a nursing home. Overall, I am really enjoying this experience. HBU has this spirit that makes me feel great.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Building on Porters Value Chain Model for Design Management

Building on Porters Value Chain Model for Design Management Building on porters value chain model (1985), design management creates value at three different levels: management of design activities, integration of design function into all business processes and decisions to the design vision within the company vision and strategy (Sinha, 2002). What is Design? Design is a process of seeking to optimise consumer satisfaction and company profitability through the creative use of major design elements (performance, quality, durability, appearance and cost) in connection with products, environments, information and corporate identity (P Kotler, GA Rath, 1984). It involves a wide range of professions in which products, graphics, services, interiors and architecture all take part. Design is a problem solving, systematic, creative and a coordinating activity (Borja de Mozota, 1998). It is a creative and management process. Design is a process that has four essential characteristics (Walsh et al, 1992). The 4Cs Creativity: the creation of something new Complexity: decisions on large number of parameters and variables Compromise: Balancing multiples and conflicting requirements Choice: making choices between many possible solutions to a problem at all levels Why is Design Important? Design enhances products, communication, environment and corporate identity. Design objective is to create high satisfaction for target customers and profits for the enterprise. It is an important strategic tool in firms unending search for a sustainable competitive advantage. Design seeks to discover and assess structural, organisational, functional, expressive and economic relationships with the task of enhancing global sustainability, environmental protection, giving benefits and freedom to entire human community, supporting cultural diversity despite the globalisation of world. (Borja de Mozota, 2003). Designers play an important role in how companies use information, how product information is documented and communicated (Lawson 1990, vossoughi 1998, French 1994). Design involves finding and identifying problems as much as solving them (Lawson, p.136, 1994). What is Design Management? Peter Gorb, 1990 defines design management as the effective deployment of the design resources available to a company by line managers in order to help the company achieve its objectives. Design management involves managing the creative process within the corporation and managing the company according to design principles. it is about managing the processes of innovation and design. Design management analyzes the diverse elements necessary for the successful integration of design as an essential component of design strategy (Gianfranco Zaccai). Importance of design management pg 68 Creativity is a process which results in a novel work that is accepted as tenable or useful or satisfying by a group at some point in time (Stein 1956). Creativity has been considered as a type of problem solving (Matlin, 2002). Puccio, 1997 illustrated that creativity contributes to effective leadership and discovering new and better ways of solving problems, the effective use of human resources and the rapid growth of competition in the business. Design is regarded as a creative process. The process has five phases, each having a different objective and corresponds to the production of visual outputs. (Borja de Mozota, 2003) These design phases are identical no matter what the design project is. PHASES OBJECTIVE VISUAL OUTPUTS 0. Investigating Idea Brief 1. Research Concept Visual concept 2. Exploration Choice of style Rough of ideas, Sketches, Rough of presentations 3. Development Prototype detail Technical drawings, Functional  model, 3-D mock up for visual  correctness 4. Realization Test Documents of execution,   Prototype 5. Evaluation Production Illustration of the product The design process (Borja de Mozota, 2003) In preliminary phase, the idea is generated and the problem is identified which can be solved by the design. In phase 1, the designer analyzes the positioning of product and discovers the technical and functional parameters of the project. In phase 2, the designer makes rough sketches of different possibilities using all his creative resources for the clients. Selection is made between different solutions which are to be developed in phase 3. In phase 3, the selected solution is formally represented in three dimensions. The model is used for various tests and the final model is then adopted ending the creative process. In phase 4, the designer works on realization of a prototype for the project. This requires the collaboration of different departments. In phase 5, tests are launched in three different directions: technical control, calculation test, and marketing evaluation. FCUK French connection, also known as fcuk, founded in 1972 by Stephen Marks was designed to create fashionable clothing aimed at a broad target market. French Connection offers a fashion-forward clothing range with a quirky spin on design, priding itself on quality and affordable prices. Fcuk represents French Connection United Kingdom, and is the casual French Connection clothing range; it has developed into a brand name which is highly renowned and an acronym that relates to the French Connection logo. The French Connection brand operates in the fashion-orientated high street retail market offering a fashion-forward range of quality products at affordable prices. Customers, typically aged 18-35, appreciate that the brand is at the leading edge of high street fashion and offers quality and style in its products. The design teams are based in London and products are manufactured in specialist facilities in Europe and Asia (Fcuk.com, 2009). French Connections operations cover several dist ribution channels, from their own retail outlets, wholesalers in North America, franchises, mail order, to concession stores in a variety of department stores such as Selfridges. French Connection is now one of the most recognisable fashion brands on the high street with a global reach, operating in over 30 countries, with over 1,000 stockists worldwide (fcuk.com, 2009). In February 2001, French Connection paid  £23 million pounds sterling to its US joint venture partner Best of All Clothing who had been operating the 24 French Connection stores before the buyout. Now French Connection holds complete independent ownership. Product/service offering The company design ranges of products for both men and women from underwear to outerwear, casual wear to suits, denim, accessories and childrens wear. French Connection has expanded into new markets at a phenomenal rate and the product range is now hugely diversified. The company began by selling clothing to the mens and womens market, originating as a fashionable clothing range, and has now extended its brand in recent years to include fashion accessories, make-up, toiletries, even condoms and not forgetting more recently alcoholic drinks. Brand licensing plays an important part of the companys strategic plans for expansion with licensing deals revenue. The company has developed into a brand licensing company rather than solely a fashion retailer. The brand had even expanded into radio, with the launch of FCUK FM. The core plan behind the idea is to target 18- to 35 year old to the brand in the future. Fcuk follows a specific pattern to achieve its organisation goals. FCUK advertise d Scent to bed in publications, print ads in magazines that included cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Maxim and FHM whose readerships were primarily consisted of girls in their early and middle teenage years. Fcuk remained convinced that the campaign was right for its target market. Focus remains to produce fashion-forward products to build on the success of the ladies wear ranges (Fcuk.com, FY09 presentation). USPs French connections controversial ad campaigns with the fcuk fashion developed the brands bold, and witty attitude that has made customers think; with a desire to be innovative, distinctive and yet be affordable and accessible. Their adverts are not like the usual fashion advertising, they leave it open to interpretation of the customer. Fcuk witnessed a sudden fall in late 1980s, but it became one of the hottest brands in England in late 1990s and early 2000s, thanks to its controversial marketing campaign and subsequent rebranding. FCUK has always adopted out of the way advertising and selling techniques, for example their logo FCUK, or the eye catching visuals on the high streets. Accessories such as hats, sunglasses, backpacks, fragrances and the companys new cosmetics line complement the brands fashion (Plunkett 2009). The fcuk logo works as a unique selling point for the brand and separates it from its competitors. Also the exclusive designs, customer satisfaction and service pr ovided by the employees are the unique selling points of the brand. French connection has become synonymous with style and fashion. It strives to maintain the brand credibility and its uniqueness in the market. Innovation and creativity are the characteristic of the designs and the company blends high quality with exciting ideas as well as affordability. Multi -Channel Strategy Apart from the store network such as mail order and the internet the company uses a number of other lucrative channels. With e-tailing, French Connection realised how important their online business is, where they were adamant to win the rights to fcuk.com. In addition to these varied channels deployed, French Connection also grants licenses to retailers worldwide in order to expand their business into new markets. French Connection is aware of the volatility of expanding into new markets. Therefore they are more cautious and get involved with their licensees to follow progress. FCUK and the Market French Connection operates as a multiple specialist fashion retailer, competing against the likes of Zara, HM, Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, Next, River Island and Warehouse. This industry is highly competitive with numerous international brands fighting in the segment. As like all other fashion retailers FCUK has monitored the progress of the Spanish clothing brand Zara. Due to Zaras lean production and efficient logistics, it has taken over a huge share of the market. To compete with them, the design and production teams at FCUK now only commit to less than sixty percent before the launch of the season .The company acknowledges that speed-to-market is crucial in order to give customers what they want, when they want, at the price they want. It sells its products at higher price points than the likes of Zara and HM. However daring its marketing may have been, French Connections clothes were in reality considerably less interesting than those stocked at faster-growing rivals Zara and HM, and the truth finally caught up with the company in 2004. That year, sales began to slow significantly, encouraging the company finally to drop the FCUK slogan from its advertising. That tactic failed to arrest the decline in performance. In May 2009, French Connection announced that like-for-like sales in the UK and Europe rose by 2% during the 3 months ending 16th May, thanks to a strong performance in the women wear sector. Total retail sales in the UK and Europe were up by 8% over the period. French Connection said that women wear had continued to show growth, but that menswear remained difficult (mintel.com). Read Supply chain report. http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm Conclusion French Connection has set a personality to its brand, which is exciting and original; this is considered to be exceptional with the number of different brands in the high street. The key to their success is a combination of their stylish clothing range, affordable pricing, merchandising, and controversial advertising. As the brand is continuously innovating itself, they aim to create more fashionable clothing ranges by taking the opinion from important people in the fashion industry. The advertising will remain innovative and creative but will focus more on the clothes itself; creating a unique look that is distinctively, French connection. The brand celebrates individual fashion whilst constantly developing products, market and future goals to expand

Compensation and Benefits: Minimizing the Employee Turnover

Compensation and Benefits: Minimizing the Employee Turnover CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Studies Employee turnover is the hottest and current issue that always discusses by the government, since we are confronted with the global economic crisis on 2008. The crisis of economic is directly affected to the corporation, especially the production line and manufacturing company. The unexpected crisis will arise in the employee turnover rate happened no matter for the voluntary or involuntary case and it achieved the highest rate within the past 20 years in Malaysia as well. Therefore, other than the efforts and measurements had been taken by the government like donated sustention fund to secondary industry, the efforts of employers are vital to minimize the employee turnover. On the other hand, the advance knowledge likes the significant of the compensation and benefits package toward the employee and the preference of employees toward the different types of the compensation and benefits package are necessary to implant and infuse to all the employers in order to retain their quality workers. There are some factors are directly influenced to the employee turnover in the real working environment. The employers will enjoy the benefits if they manage to retain their employees or minimize the employee turnover problem by implementing the felicitously compensation and benefits package. The higher employee turnover rate is considering the severely problem to a particular country because it is absolutely bringing negative effects in progressing development. The employee turnover rate definitely cannot be terminated, but I sincerely wish that this problem can fully minimize. I strongly believe that the compensation and benefits ways might be able to minimize the employee turnover in the working place. 1.2 Introduction Turnover rate is considering the severely problem to a particular country because it is absolutely bringing negative effects in progressing development. The employee turnover rate definitely cannot be terminated, but I sincerely wish that this problem can be fully minimized. I strongly believe that the compensation and benefits ways might be able to minimize the employee turnover in the working place. This research is related to how the compensation and benefits way in minimizing the employee turnover rate. In fact, compensation and benefits play a vital role in retaining the employees in an organization. Compensation and benefits can be defined as the process that taken by the Human Resource Management on every single day like setting the rules and procedures around the salaries, a direct way as cash paid and indirect way like given benefits to the employees. This element is highly mentioned in the employment contract and concerned by the employees as well. On the other hand, compensation and benefits can be taken as different meaning from the perspective of a member of society, a stockholder, a manager, or an employee. Therefore, let us recognize the meaning by each perspective of the group. Compensation and benefits can be seen as a reflection of justice in society; stockholders are also interested in how employees are paid. Some believe that using stock to pay employees creates a sense of ownership that will improve performance, which will, in turn, increase stockholder wealth; for managers compensation influences their success in two ways. First, it is a major expense and second is the power to influence employee behaviors and to improve the organizations performance; the pay individuals receive in return for the work they perform is usually the major source of their financial security. Hence, pay plays a vital role in a persons economic and social well-being. Employees may see compensation as a return in an exchange between their e mployer and themselves, as an entitlement for being an employee of the company, or as a reward for a job well done (Milkovich and Newman, 2008). Employees will emphasize more to the compensation and benefits that provide by the organization or company because they contribute their times, efforts, talents and they wish to get better return in compensation and benefits. The compensation and benefits package for the employees is like the exchange value between the employer and employee. The employers offer the benefits packages such as health care, dependent care, income protection and so on to mitigate t employees no matter for current or future risk. The employees contribute their efforts in order to appreciate the compensation and benefits package that offered by the employers. Compensation and benefits include pay received directly as cash (for example: base, merit, incentives, cost-of-living adjustment) and indirectly as benefits (for example: pensions, medical insurance, program to help balance work and life demands, brightly colored uniforms (Milkovich and Newman, 2008). Nowadays, the employees are more emphasizing to cash compensation but there are still quite numbers of employees prefer to non-cash compensation like benefits. Employees may concern to what packages have been offered by the employers and ultimately increase their self-wealth. Employees may have different preferences towards the compensation and benefits package because it takes as the motivation tool to them if it can suit or fit to them. It is crucial to all the employers in understanding the preferences of employees toward the compensation and benefits package because they are come from various genders, religious, geographic location, and age and so on. The employers might be able to retain the workers if apply the proper compensation and benefits to the employees. Employees often desire to get a liberally and fair compensation and benefits package for their own expectation because it will directly influence to employees job satisfaction. Meanwhile, this factor will lead to employees turnover if they thought they didnt deserve expectation returns. Therefore, compensation and benefits is the deep knowledge that should implant to all the employees because it will definitely assist them to retain their workers. Apart from that, employee turnover can be defined as the number of permanent employees leaving the company within the reported period versus the number of actual Active Permanent employees on the last day of the previous reported period (physical headcount). The number of leavers, that are included in Employee Turnover, only includes natural turnover (resignations, termination, retirement, etc.); it does not reflect any redundancies. Planned redundancies are reported and explained separately if relevant for employee turnover (Laurus Nobilis, 2008). Mobley (1982) defines employee turnover as the common voluntary cessation of membership in an organization by an individual who receives monetary compensation for participating in that organization. This definition primarily focuses on separation from an organization rather than on accession, transfer, or other. Besides, employee turnover can be also defined as the number of workers who leave from their workplace under certain circumstanc es. All the organizations will definitely encounter with the employee turnover because it is unavoidable and inevitable but manageable. Employee turnover can be categorized as voluntary and involuntary turnover. Voluntary turnover occurs when employees leave the organization deliberately (i.e. quitting); this can be contrasted with the involuntary turnover, which occurs when employees leaving the organization without choosing to do so (i.e. being fired or laid off) (Lee, Weller, Trevor, 2008). Sometimes voluntary turnover happened because the employees desire to seek more salary, while the involuntary happened when they are considered as redundant capital. Therefore, compensation and benefits might be able to influence the voluntary turnover as the cost and expenses will be incurred or increase if voluntary turnover happened in particular organization. The organizations have to spend more costs to provide training and development and seeking for the new employees if they are not able to retain their employees. 1.3 History In English, â€Å"compensation† means something that counterbalances, offset, or make up for something else. However, if we look at the origin of the word in different languages, we get a sense of the richness of the meaning, which combines entitlement, return, and reward. In China, the traditional characters for the word â€Å"compensation† are based on the symbols for logs and water; compensation provides the necessities in life. In the recent past, the state owned all enterprises and compensation was treated as an entitlement. In todays China, compensation takes on a more subtle meaning. A new word, dai yu, is used. It refers to how you are being treated- your wages, benefits, training opportunities, and so on. When people talk about compensation, they ask each other about the dai yu in their companies. Rather than assuming that everyone is entitled to the same treatment, the meaning of compensation now included a broader sense of returns as well entitlement. â€Å"Compensation† in Japanese is kyuyo, which is made up of two separate characters ( kyu and yo), both meaning â€Å"giving something.† Kyu is an honorific used to indicate that the person doing the giving is someone of high rank, such as a feudal lord, an emperor, or a samurai leader. Traditionally, compensation is thought of as something has given by ones superior. Today, business consultants in Japan try to substitute the word hou-syu, which means â€Å"reward† and has no associations with notions of superiors. The many allowances that are part of Japanese compensation systems translate as teate, which means â€Å"taking care of something.† Teate is regarded as compensation that takes care of employees financial needs. This concept is consistent with the family, housing, and commuting allowance that are still used in many Japanese companies. These contrasting ideas about compensation- multiple views (societal, stockholder, managerial, employee, and even global) and multiple meanings (returns, rewards, entitlement) add richness to this topic (Milkovich and Newman, 2008). That is the reason why compensation and benefits are more emphasized by the employers because it is essential in minimizing the employee turnover. 1.4 Research Objective 1.4.1 To identify the relationship between compensation and benefits in minimizing the employee turnover. The research conducted on the link between dissatisfaction with the pay and voluntary turnover appears to be inconclusive. Tang (1991) recommended that the most crucial reason for voluntary turnover is regarding to higher wages/career opportunity. There is an inverse relationship between relative wages and turnover (i.e. establishments with higher relative pay had lower turnover) (Martin, 2003). Salary growth had a pronounced effect on turnover in the studies that related to compensation. Particularly, salary growth effects on turnover were greatest for high performers, that is, high salary growth significantly reduced turnover for high performing employees. Compensation and benefits package are defined in this study as it helps to retain the workers and minimize the turnover rate (Park, Ofori-Dankwa, Bishop, 1994; Trevor, Barry, Boudreau, 1997). 1.4.2 To identify the preference of components of compensation and benefits toward the employees. According to Milkovich and Newman, (2008) the employees contribute their efforts in order to appreciate the compensation and benefits package that offered by the employers. Compensation and benefits include pay received directly as cash (for example: base, merit, incentives, cost-of-living adjustment) and indirectly as benefits (for example: pensions, medical insurance, program to help balance work and life demands, brightly colored uniforms. The employees might have different types of preference based on their requirements. Some of them will prefer to directly as cash but some of them will prefer to indirectly as benefits. The preference of components of compensation and benefits are defined in this study as it helps to distinguish their desired needs and retain the talented workers in an organization. 1.4.3 To identify the significant of the compensation and benefits package toward the employees. Pay and pay-related variables have a modest effect on turnover (Griffeth et al, 2000). Their investigation also integrated studies that examined the relationship between pay, a persons performance and turnover. They concluded that when high performers are inadequately rewarded, they will choose to leave an organization. Milkovich and Newman (1999) stated that where collective reward programs substitute individual incentives, their introduction may tend to higher turnover among high performers. The significant of the compensation and benefits package toward the employees is defined in this study as the turnover will definitely incur higher cost expenses if an organization may not be able to retain their workers. 1.4.4 To identify the advantages if the company able to retain their employees. Employee turnover is a topic of immense importance to public and private sector organizations. In part, this importance reflects the tremendous costs—financial and otherwise—often associated with the turnover (Staw 1980; Balfour Neff 1993). Financially, turnover may lead to increased personnel expenses—particularly in the areas of recruitment and training (Staw 1980; Balfour Neff 1993). However, employee turnover can also bring about a loss of organizational knowledge, history, and memory (Staw 1980; Moynihan Pandey 2008). Therefore, all those consequences will not happen if an organization success to retain their employees. The advantage to retain employees is defined in this study as it guarantees to help the process of development. 1.4.5 To recognize the satisfaction and expectation of employees in diversified industry that may influence the employee turnover. A theory stated that there are two basic types of needs, which are the need for psychological growth or motivating factors and the need to avoid pain or hygiene factors (Herzberg, 1973). The motivating factors comprise the essentials like achievement and advancement. These are positive elements that contribute towards job satisfaction and motivation. Hygiene factors such as company or organizational policies, quality of supervision, working condition, salary, relationship with peers and subordinates, status and security are negative elements in Hygienes factors that could cause dissatisfaction at work. The satisfaction and expectation of employees are defined in this study as it plays a vital role in manipulating the employee turnover. 1.5 Problem Statement How to implement compensation and benefits package in order to minimize employee turnover? How to recognize the preference of employees toward the compensation and benefits package? How the important role of the compensation and benefits package to the employees in their real working environment? What benefits for a particular company if the employee turnover rate is low? How to examine the satisfaction and expectation of customers toward their compensation and benefits package? 1.6 Scope of Studies The scope of studies is focused on the compensation and benefits package that implemented to the employees at several industries because it is efficiency in minimizing the employee turnover. Besides, this research is a tendency to the theoretical factors but not technological way. Moreover, this research also discussed with the preference of the compensation and benefits package by the employees because everybody has different demands in the real life. This research provides the knowledge about the factors that lead to employee turnover and the significant of implementing compensation and benefits in retaining the employees. Therefore, the employers must take actions in order to prevent the increment of employee turnover. 1.7 Organization of Research This research is basically divided into three main areas; The first part is literature review and the journals that have been collected will be used. Besides, the journals will assist to identify the role of compensation and benefits to minimize the employee turnover. There are some other independent variables will be examined toward the employee turnover. Moreover, through the reviews, a framework will be developed, a framework will be developed and to understand the variables. Once the framework is being done, a questionnaire will be created to understand the preferences of the compensation and benefits package toward the employees. This questionnaire will then be distributed for results. It will present the significant of the compensation and benefits package in the real working environment. The third part of the research will be analyzed once the collected result of the questionnaire comes with scientifically conclusion and reasons. After that, I will formulate some measures in order to make the situation become more favourable. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter discussed about the relationship between compensation and benefits toward the employee turnover. The literatures of the research relevant to this area of study are explored and the same are organized based on the topic of discussion, compensation and benefits, organization culture, supervisor, Job Analysis and job characteristic, and working condition. 2.1 Employee Turnover According to Campion, (1991) the turnover principle includes various dimensions with the most obvious being whether it is voluntary or involuntary. Although the turnover decision might be classified, but it seems failed to fully consider because it might hide with several but complexity reasons. Additionally, there are some troubles with turnover dimension and lack of agreement on the explanation of ‘voluntary because it depends on who you ask as to why the employee left his or her job. Maertz and Campion (1998) defined the voluntary turnover as the management aspect agrees that the employee had the physical chance to continue employment with the company and at the time of termination as well. There was no impediment to continued employment from physical disability or from corporation management through the conveyed of voluntaries, such as non-mandatory retirement, quitting for family resettlement, or quitting for a self-perceived more desirable job. That is, even though the em ployee may know to stay is extremely costly but he/she still does the same decision because employee turnover implies with an individual choice. The limitation of article is the further investigation should be carrying out to examine the factors that lead to voluntary turnover because it is extremely incurring more expenses if an organization desire to employ new workers. Besides, this article didnt list out the main reason of involuntary turnover which is reluctant to workers especially during the recession period. The employees were being informed that their organization encountered with this problem severely and forced to leave the organization eventually. Sometimes the employees could be able to contribute more to an organization, but they couldnt to do so. This issue supposes to discuss with all the readers as well as the public. Grifeth and Hom (1994) stated that employee turnover will definitely contribute to the potential benefits and disadvantages for an organization. For instance, dislocation of poor performance, infusion of new knowledge and technology, reducing labor costs when facing stiffer competition, maintaining ties with exiting employees and providing new business ventures, or enhancing promotional opportunities for the remaining staff can be considered as positive ramifications. The negative effects cover economic costs, productivity losses, impaired service quality, lost business opportunities, increased administrative burden and loss of morale among the remaining staff. Employee turnover incurred some influences toward the organization but basically negative effect will definitely more than the positive effect and this is the main reason some organizations are implementing the compensation and benefits package to retain their workers. In addition, employee turnover costs are not only monetary but the company may have also lost the ‘knowledge possessed by the departing employee (Gomez-Mejia et al, 2001). Intelligence and knowledgeable workers are really hard to acquire in the market nowadays. Knowledge not only plays the role as the core of competence but is also a value-created device, especially for those organizations that face the global competitive challenges in the market. The knowledge that is embodied in human beings (as human capital) and in technology has always been central to companies visibility and economic development. Harnessing new technologies and innovation will be the source of long-term employment and productivity growth for companies and countries in a knowledge-based economy (Noe et al, 2002). The limitation is this article is the negative effect of employee turnover didnt explain widely and brief. We strongly agree that the negative effect is definitely more than the positive effect because it extremely influenced to the development of parti cular organization. The negative effect has incurred no matter in monetary or non-monetary aspects. The publics are interesting to know how the negative effects affect an organization if they didnt retain their talented employees. Hence, the author might list some latest examples to readers about the negative effect toward an organization regard to turnover problems. All the managers of particular organization definitely take some measurements in order to prevent the employee turnover. According to Abassi and Hollman (2000) turnover is the circle of rotation of workers around the labor market between the firms, jobs and occupations; and between the states of employment and unemployment. This workforce activity can be diversified into two categories which are voluntary and involuntary turnover. Involuntary turnover can be defined as the dismissal of employees, whereas voluntary turnover occurs when employees resign. Voluntary turnover often results in departing employees migrating to competing firms, creating an even more critical situation, since this knowledge can now be used against the organization. In conformity to Kransdorff (1996) voluntary turnover has in fact been accelerating over the past decade, as recent studies have shown that employees on average switch employers every six years. This situation demands senior management to consider the repercussions of voluntary turnover, and immediately create contingency plans. The turnover of best performers will d irectly cause the senior management been caught unprepared. Johnson et al (2000) said that functional turnover such as bad performers left and good performers stay can help to reduce sub-optimal organizational performance; excessive turnover can be detrimental to the firms productivity. This can result in the loss of business and relationships, and can even make vulnerable the realization of the firms objectives. To compound the negative side-effects of turnover, not all the departing employees are considered sub-optimal performer. According to Abassi and Hollman (2000) dysfunctional turnover (i.e. good performers leave, bad performers stay) damages the organization through decreased innovation, delayed services, sluggish implementation of new programs, and degenerated into productivity. Such activity can radically affect the firms ability to flourish in todays competitive economy; leaving even the most striving firms unable to succeed due to the inability to retain the right employ ees. If it is presumed that the smartest and most talented employees are often the most upwardly mobile, then strong organizations may become unable to actualize strategies and complete key business transactions, if they do not proactively manage their turnover. The limitation in this article is it didnt state out of the measurement to solve the employee turnover. In this study, it just examined to us about the voluntary turnover and sorted as functional and dysfunctional turnover. As what the author mentioned in this article, the managers were caught unprepared once this issue happened to them. Therefore, the author supposes to discuss some measurements to deal with the turnover problem after explain the definition and effect to each turnover. Employee loyalty is the foundation of customer satisfaction in the organization (Abassi and Hollman, 2000). While employee loyalty has often enabled firms to retain strong employees, senior management cannot be longer relying on relationships to incentive good workers to stay. Abassi and Hollman (2000) said that eroding employee loyalty is highlighting the importance of attracting and maintaining good people as the key to strategic staffing in the modern workplace. This is forcing organizations to revisit their HR practices to meet the diverse needs of the workforce in order to retain strong employees, and therefore, maximize the overall success of the firm. Abassi and Hollman (2000) highlighted five reasons for employee turnover in the organization: Hiring practices; Managerial style; Lack of recognition; Lack of competitive compensation systems; and Toxic workplace environments. Morrell (2001) examined that turnover means voluntary cessation of membership of an organization by an employee of that organization. Besides on that, turnover intention is broadly defined as attitudinal (thinking of quitting), decisional (intention to leave), and behavioral (searching for a new job) processes proceeding with voluntary turnover (Sager et al., 1998; Khatri, 2001). According to Dess (2001) employee turnover incurs some significant costs, both in terms of direct costs (replacement, recruitment and selection, temporary staff, management time), and also (and perhaps more significantly) in terms of indirect costs (morale, pressure on remaining staff, costs of learning, product/service quality, organizational memory) and the loss of social capital. Apart from that, employee turnover is a major concern for companies in many Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan (Khatri, Chang, Budhwar, 2001). Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has re cognized the importance of workforce turnover as a sustainability issue, which has included turnover as a core social performance indicator in its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI 2002). Moreover, employee turnover is giving restless nights to human resource managers in the textile sector of Pakistan. There are two reasons to explain why the textile sector has been selected. Bohla and Hameed (2001) analyzed there is an alarming employee turnover rate i.e. 12%. The textile industry represents Pakistans biggest employer as well as the key sector for the economy having almost 68% of total export income is the largest sector of Pakistan. The limitation in this article is the author didnt list out the employee turnover rate that occurs in Malaysia. The data and statistic are important because it can alert how severely for the case of unemployment that caused by voluntary and involuntary turnover. Besides on that, the author may discuss why the turnover problems occur severely in Asian countries if compare to Europe? Is it the Asian people encounter with certain troublesome? This issue must fully examine in order to minimize until the lowest percentage. DeBare (2001) examined that one of the major reasons for employee turnover in the retail sector is that stores have established to be a training ground, allowing the employee an opportunity to gain valuable skills. All new hires of employees such as cashier and general manager that stand in different levels are given extensive training at a majority of larger companies in todays market. Meanwhile, manyâ€Å"mid-career† individuals are less likely to change directions; there has a tendency showed that the criteria such as money, better scheduling, increased or better hours are preferred most by younger employees and experience is their tool to secure a position at elsewhere. Besides on that, there has an outlook which determined that the moving from one job to another is perfectly conducted among the majority of employees especially those younger than 30 if it allows for more pay, and continued growth and development. In addition, the high turnover rate in retail stores attract s potential hires due, mostly to the â€Å"revolving door† effect. There are always employees coming and going, which allows for opportunities to exist. The limitation in this article is low-career individuals didnt discuss by the author regard to their turnover problems. Most of them desire to seek better pay and benefits package if they feel dissatisfied to what they received currently. The young teenagers are not only seeking for better pay in their job, they also desire to get a more challenging job if compare with those who are 40 years old and above. Lane et.al (1996) discussed that it is interesting to note that even though retail and services consist of 20 percent of U.S. jobs, those same sectors create nearly 50 percent of worker turnover. In addition, Lane, (2000) had analyzed that only 16.6% of cashier jobs are created as new positions, the remaining 82.4% is related to turnover while 11 low-skill occupations with 6.5 million job openings per year and only 1million are new jobs. Jovanovic (1979) examined that some turnover is required under economic theories of job matching. Therefore, some positive turnover must be beneficial, since it is rational for both employers and workers to continue an employment contract only if the workers productivity is matched by their pay, while mismatches should separate. Dess and Shaw (2001) noted that no organization-level studies have yet supported the curvilinear, inverted U-shaped, cost-benefit prediction. Much more common is the finding of a negative link between turnover and performanc e. Glebbeek and Bax (2004) said that the position has some diverse today because it just with having found signs even though not statistically significant ones, of an inverted U-shaped relationship. According to Harris et.al (2006) found a curvilinear relationship, but at an aggregate level in a cross-firm study using Australian data. Moreover, there is an existing of usual negative relationship (Shaw, Gupta, Delery, Duffy, Johnson, and Lockhart, 2005). However, â€Å"unobservable† such as the management ability, affect performance and confound the true turnover-performance link are the difficulty of testing these theories empirically. The limitation in this study is the author do failure in testing other theories that influence to turnover. All the level of publics can understand more toward the factors that lead to turnover if the author success to examine it. In addition, the study cant deliver a clear picture to the public about the U-shaped, cost-benefit prediction and s o forth. The public couldnt catch the real meaning about this if they just simply glance through the article. According to Gimpelson and Lippoldt (2001) the total turnover rate around the world was 46% in 1998. Besides, the turnover of unskilled workers was high in the mid of 1990s while firms seem that hoarded white-collar labor. Brown and Earle (2003) correspondingly find that labor flows, particularly job destruction and separation in the Russian industrial sector increased in magnitude during the 1990s. The total worker flows were nine percentage points higher in 1999 than in 1990. In addition, the churning rate which defined as the worker flows less the absolute value of employment change was 30-40% during the 1990s. Gimpelson (2004) examined a survey of 304 Russian industrial enterprise Designing a Research Study: Types of Research and Methods Designing a Research Study: Types of Research and Methods Basic Concepts of Research 1.1 INTRODUCTION: During the last two decades and more, the socio-business environment of the world has witnessed dramatic changes in its nature and scope. Emerging from a historically economic role, the business organization has evolved in response to the social and political stigma of national public policy, explosive growth in technology, price struggle, competition of new entrants, frequent change in customers taste and desires etc. These factors and more have created new knowledge needed for the manager and new problems for social/managerial decision making. In such a complex and uncertain environment, business managers (or social scientists) need to understand how to identify information and to find out the emerging problem to make prompt and effective decision making. The studies of research methods provide the knowledge and skills that the managers/social scientists need to solve the problems and meet the challenges of a fast-paced decision-making environment. In recent years, exploring the research output particularly in the areas of humanities (management studies) and social sciences (economics, commerce, history, sociology, etc.) have been treated as an increasing concern among the researchers. Management is said to be in practice with the dawn of civilization. As a discipline, it is hardly a century old. Starting off as a scientific approach to the organization of things, it borrowed heavily from disciplines like economics, sociology, psychology, mathematics and statistics. Now it is a distinct body of knowledge having the potential for theory and practice. Though management in general is said to encompass the aspects like planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling, the discipline has spread itself to the specialized areas recently. Thus there are management concepts as applied to finance, production, human resources, information technology, rural management, operations and marketing. Each of these areas have grown to be a major discipline for research and teaching. In fact, there are number of institutions situated across our countries which are dealing with such issues but still lots of work have to be done. The pre-occupation with methodology is largely peculiar to any discipline of research, particularly in humanity and social science research in India. The first staging post in the life of a young academician is to produce some evidence of creativity. Not only can the route to this be taught, but also attempts to do so take away from the spirit of independent research. On the other hand, the young researchers need to be fitted out with the basic tools of analysis. Before analyzing the definitions of research, it is worthwhile to discuss some basic concepts related to decision-making. 1.2 PROBLEMS OF DECISION-MAKING: For a common man, decision-making problem requires a choice among alternative course of action so as to achieve the objective(s). The word ‘problem, in a general meaning, reflects that something has gone wrong. There are numbers of alternative course of action among which choice has to made are often called in management discipline as ‘management strategy and in economics as ‘economic decision-making. Presently, the business applications of economics and commerce are attracting more and more intellectuals to its fold. No wonder, the queen of social sciences has emerged as the heart of business sciences. Economics and commerce applies its traditional tools and concepts for the better and efficient management of business. Hence, the tools of applied economics and commerce are basically concerned with the application of economics in management decision-making. There is no doubt that it enables the new age managers- the managers of 21st century business enterprises to p erform their role of convincing and executing complex strategies. While managers have considerable information about the outcome for many decisions, they must frequently make decisions in situations in which the outcome of a decision cannot be known in advance. A manager may decide, for example, to invest in a new product development or to increase the level of technology or to change the price of a product and/or any other similar alternatives to increase profits and sales. Even after studying hundreds of technical reports, numbers of annual reports of different companies, available case studies in the literature etc., a manager may still not be in a position with confidence to choose the appropriate alternative(s). Managerial decision making leads to problems like: which products are to be produced?; what price is to be charged?; what quantity of the products are to be produced?; what should be the promotional expenditures?, how much would be the investment expenditures?, etc. Thus, decision making is a process of selection from a set of alternat ive courses of action which is thought to fulfill the objectives of the decision problem more satisfactorily than others. Similarly, a social science researcher at the beginning of a research projects not only in a position to decide which subject area to choose (whether to choose consumer behaviour by analyzing household consumption pattern and household budget or to analyze the effectiveness of various government policies that are meant for removing poverty, unemployment, etc., and/or number of such related alternatives like dowry deaths, women empowerment, women crime, sex ratio etc.), but also what should be the subject area, what should be the methodology, what is the amount of budget available for research, how much time is available with the researcher and so on. It is a widely accepted fact that business decision-making process has become increasingly complicated due to the over growing complexities in the business world more particularly soon after the adoption of the concept of globalization by major economics of the globe. Thus, it requires that the decision maker (s) has to follow some basic rules and processes which will help them to make efficient decisions under conditions of risk, uncertainty and complexities. Hence, decision-making problem may be defined as ‘a task of identifying the alternative courses of action among a number of alternatives available of achieving given objective(s), then to analyze all the alternatives by collecting required information and at the end choosing the best alternative to achieve the desired objective in most efficient way. The elements of decision making process may be: The decision maker himself/herself Identification of the decision problem Identification of the source or the environment in which the problem exists and need solution Selecting some alternative courses of action among the feasible alternatives and The final selection of the choice of the alternatives 1.3 STEPS OF DECISION-MAKING PROCESS: The researcher (pronounced for decision-maker who may be an executive or research team) while going for decision-making always gets confused, thinking from where to start in order to identify the alternative. Systematic inquiry of the problem is a common and fundamental threat. The process of systematic inquiry requires careful planning of an orderly investigation. But there is no hard and fast rule that the decision maker should follow all the steps in a sequence that is derived below rather he/she can choose few important ones based on their convenience and requirements of the study. Following are some fundamental steps which may help the decision maker to get the path of searching the alternatives. 1. Analyzing the objectives: At the initial stage of going for identification of a problem the decision maker has to understand completely the mission, vision and the objective of the concerned organization i.e., he/she has to first understand what their organization wants from them (in case of business problem). For instance, if the decision-maker is associated with a private enterprise then he/she has to understand that the motto of their organization is to maximize profit or sale and/or both for achieving rapid growth. On the other hand, a public enterprise not only based on profit maximization but also is based on welfare criteria. Where as in case of social science research the research has to analyse what is the basic purpose of research? Who is the funding agency and what it wants? What the associated persons or institutions expect?, and a number of such related problems. 2. Defining the problem: The second step, after the objective(s) been identified, is of defining or identifying the problem. Problem identification is the top most tasks in the process of decision-making. It justifies the adage that ‘a problem well defined is a problem half solved. This adage emphasizes that an orderly definition of the problem (which ultimately leads to decision-making) gives a sense of direction to the existing problem. 3. Identifying possible alternative solutions: The third step in the process of identifying the alternative course of action is of specifying few alternative(s) among the numbers of alternatives selected at the initial stage of research (as discussed in point 1 above). But due to a number of reasons the decision maker cannot choose all the alternatives that is possible to solve the problem rather he/she has to limit the horizon and should concentrate on a limited alternatives. This requires considering the variables that may put more impact on the problem identified. In such a way, relationship among the variables and with the problems has to be established. Here, various hypotheses can be formulated which will at the end serve as alternative solution of the existing problem. Box-1.1: Narottam Paper Limited and Economic Recession The ripple effects of the 2008 Global economic meltdown had begun to hurt the Rupees 2,556 crore of Narottam Paper Ltd. Like all other business houses in India, Narottam Paper Ltd., was also finding the growing tough. The general trend of soaring prices and contraction in demand had started affecting the sale of the company products. Its customers were also focusing on correcting their inventory positions (using existing stocks of materials to keep production lines and marketing activities rolling). Consequently, they were not buying much from the company. Even the investors did not like when they saw- Narottam Paper Ltd., stock fell from Rs. 63.50/- on 1 January, 2008 to a low of Rs. 12.08/- on 18 January 2009. The company was in the midst of Economic crisis. In such a chronic situation of the company, Mr. Partha Sarathi, Managing Director of the company, realized that some strong means must be taken to extricate the company from its present crisis. To this end, Mr. Partha Sarathi held several brainstorming sessions with the companys Research and Development team and finally, identified the focus areas on which decision is needed. The identified areas are: Necessity of changing companys strategic planning policies Managing working capital flows Cutting various costs Paying attention to employee productivity Searching new market potentials Thus from the above case study it is clear that the company in wrongly in the trap of economic recession. To combat this recession, the company had identified five alternatives. Solution of each of the five alternatives may help the company to achieve its desire objective(s). 4. Evaluating alternative course of action: Now, among these alternatives, some alternative requires long time to execute, some may be expensive for the decision-maker to execute, some may go beyond the limit of the decision-maker and the one which satisfies all the criteria of the decision maker. Thus, the decision-maker has to collect relevant data or information on each possible alternative those satisfy all the requirements of the decision-makers, hence, are finalized to solve the existing problem. Data are regarded as the basic input to any decision-making process in both business studies and social science. The processing of data gives statistics of importance of the study. Some data may be available in form of reports published by various government departments, annual reports of the industries, thesis/research publications in various libraries of institutes/universities, etc., are called as secondary source of data. Where as, in some case the decision-maker has to collect the fresh information with the help of various tools of data collection like questionnaire, door-to-door interview, focal group discussion, field study, etc., which are called as primary source of data. The collected data are then coded and entered in computer for execution of the result. Proper tools and techniques of optimization are used for classification and analysis. Techniques such as regression analysis, multivariate analysis and operation research techniques like linear programming, simulation techniques, etc., are used to obtain a desirable solution. This solution may be one that helps the decision-maker to achieve the desired objective. Now, with this process the decision maker gets optimal solutions to all the possible alternatives that he/she has been identified in the initial stage of research. 5. Validation of the results: After the course of action is finalized, now it is time to execute the action in reality i.e., called as decision-making. The process of validation of results ensures the credibility of the results. This requires constant monitoring so as to achieve the desired result. For this, the decision maker has to consult with the experienced professionals in the related area of study, consultants who are closely associated with such studies, academicians who are carrying on research in the related area(s), etc. The figure 1.1 derived shows the flow chart of the decision-making process showing how the process of decision-making moves in research. 1.4 WHAT IS A RESEARCH? Research is a diligent enquiry and careful investigation for new knowledge through systematic, scientific and analytical approach in any branch of knowledge. Constant search and research are the guiding factors of research which helps to discover new facts (Kumar, 2002). The search for new knowledge also helps to accept or reject or modify existing fact or knowledge that is already available in the existing literature. For a common men, the word research implies a detailed study of a subject especially in order to discover (new) information or to some it implies in search of a new finding. Where as, the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines the word as, ‘a careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge. The Random House Dictionary of the English language defines ‘research as diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications etc. The definition of research gets its real meaning with the words of Clifford Woody, who defines it as ‘research is a careful inquiry or examination in seeking facts or principles, a diligent investigation to ascertain something. John W. Best in his contribution titled ‘Research in Education opines research as ‘the systematic and objective analysis and recording of controlled observations that may lead to development of generalizations, principles, or theories, resulting in prediction and possibility ultimate control of events. P.M. Cook defines research as ‘it is an honest, exhaustive, intelligent searching for facts and their meaning or implications with reference to given problem. It is the process of arriving at dependable solutions to problems through the planned and systematic collection analysis and interpretation of data. The best research is that which is reliable verifiable and exhaustive so that it provides information in which we have confidence. M. H. Gopal opines as ‘it is essentially a systematic inquiry seeking facts through objective verifiable methods in order to discover the relationship among them and to discover from them broad principles or laws. K. V. Rao visualizes the concept as ‘research is an intensive and purposeful search for knowledge and understanding of social and physical phenomena. It is a method for the discovery of true values in a scientific way. It is not merely an accumulation of knowledge but a critical and scientific analysis of social facts and formulation of generalizations as a basis of action and foresight. The encyclopedia of Social Sciences (Mc-Million) defines research as, ‘Research refers to a critical and exhaustive investigation of experimentation having as its aim the revision of accepted conclusions in the light of new discovered facts. Where as, the word ‘methodology is the combination of two words ‘method which implies a particular way of doing something plus ‘logus the Latin word which implies ‘study thus, ‘methodology implies ‘a systematic way of studying something. The research method may be defined as all those methods and techniques that are used for conducting the research or search. Hence, it refers to the behavior and instrument used in selecting and conducting research techniques and research design. Some experts, who are continuously associated with research methodology since a long, have categorized the research methods in three categories. They are: First category is one where those methods are included which relates to the collection of data or information. In the second category, different statistical techniques are used for establishing relationships between variables. Where as, the third category consists of those methods which are used to evaluate the accuracy of the results obtained. Where as, Dhondyal (1994) defines research methodology as ‘a procedure designed to the extent to which it is planned and evaluated before conducting the inquiry and the extent to which the method for making decisions is evaluated. According to C.R. Kothary (1990), research methodology is, ‘when we talk of research methodology we not only talk of the research methods but also considers the logic behind the methods we use in the context of our research study and explains why we are using a particular method or technique and why we are not using others so that research results are capable of being evaluated either by the researcher himself or by others. There exists large numbers of definitions in research literature defining the term research methodology. All the definitions are defined differently by different experts based on their need and requirements of their study. Few properties can be summarized as below: (1) Research is a scientific process. (2) It leads towards the solution of an existing problem. (3) It directs towards the development of new principles of theories or modifies the existing literatures that will be helpful in predicting future occurrences. (4) It is based upon observable experiences or empirical evidence. (5) The process of search for new knowledge demands accurate observations and descriptions of the fact(s). (6) It involves gathering new data for new purposes. (7) It is characterized by patience and unhurried activities. (8) It is carefully recorded and reported. (9) It is the task of experts or specialists in the related discipline of the study. (10) It is an intellectual task. From the above derived definitions and more other such definitions that already exist in the literature, research methodology may be summarized as a way to systematically solve the research problem. Research methodology constitutes research methods used in context of research study and explanation of using of a particular method or techniques and the why other available techniques are not used. So that research results are capable of being evaluated either by the researcher him self or by other persons who have keen interest in the study area. Hence, research is a systematic approach consisting of enunciating the problem, formulating hypothesis, collecting the facts in relation to the problem, and reaching certain conclusions, either in the form of solution towards the concerned problem or in certain generalizations for some theoretical formulation. 1.5 OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH: Like that of every discussion, research is also having some basic objectives. The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the applications of scientific procedures. Young (1988) has analyzed some important objectives of research as follows: No two human beings behave equally. Human psychology is the most complicated matter to predict in the society. There are always fluctuations found in their behaviour. Hence, in order to maintain equilibrium and stability, it requires understanding the human behaviour. Thus, research helps to explore and understand human behaviour and their social life. Research helps in portraying accuracy in the characteristic of a particular individual, situation or a group in the society / organization and leads to designing the strategies of development. Test of human beings for a particular good is always changing. Thus, human nature is to search for new things. Research helps to extend, correct or verify knowledge that is either in hidden or not discovered, Two kinds of explanations for unexplained social phenomena, It helps in predicting the frequency with which a certain thing occurs or with which it is associated with something else. To provide new insights into organized society and its social structures. To test or challenge existing theories and revise them in the light of new evidence(s). Here existing theories are either tested or new theories are developed or are modified. To understand the organizational culture, social life, social environment, decision making process, etc., and there by to gain a greater measure of control on other human behaviour in the organizational and socially context. 1.6 FEATURES OF RESEARCH: Every research has its specific features or characteristics. Some important features are cauterized below: Research gathers or collects new knowledge or data from either primary or first hand sources and secondary or already existing sources. The process of research is systematic and accurate. Research secures experts or skilled personnels for any investigation. Research is characterized as logical and objective, applying every possible test to verify the data collected and the process employed. There is no question of biasness in research. Research eliminates personal feelings and references from the activity. It is the process of investigating new knowledge. Research endeavors to organize data in quantities terms as far as possible. Research in some cases where the research scope is broader is time consuming. Research redlines courage and hard work, hence, it requires patience. The process of research is highly purposive and pin pointed. It generally deals with a significant problem which demands a solution. The process of research usually involves, a pre-determined step, formulation of one or more hypothesis, research design, methods of data or information collection and presentation of data and is carefully recoded order reported. 1.7 FACTORS REQUIRE FOR A SCIENTIFIC/ GOOD RESEARCH: A good research follows the standards of the scientific methods. Hence a research team while executing any research work should consider following factors carefully. Purpose clearly defined: The problem or the decision to be made should be clearly defined by the researcher. The decision statement should include its scope, limitations and the summery (meaning) of all words /terms that are significant to the research. The researcher should be clear about the purpose of his/her study (research) to match with the mission of his/her organization for whom the research is meant for. 2. Should be based on ethics: Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles or rules of behaviour. While going for study, proper care should be taken at designing the research procedure i.e., the issues related to study. Safeguards against causing mental or physical harm to participants should be considered. It should not hamper religious and sensitive norms while conducting research and interacting with the respondents. For example, if the researcher has keen interest to know the behaviour of a particular group of people who are affected by HIV+. Now while interacting with these people, the researcher should ask questions very carefully in a simpler manner without causing any harm to their sentiments. 3. Research design/methodologies should clear and planned: The research should also have clear understanding about the objective of the study. In other words, the nature of data required, the behaviour of the respondents, the procedure of data collection, sample coverage, methods of data collection, models to be used, computer software to be implemented etc., should be explained clearly. 4. The Researcher should be a skilled expert: The person involved in the research should be an expert in the concerned field of study. He/She should be clear about the procedure, objectives, methodologies and techniques of research. They should be capable enough to handle the respondents. The behaviour of the researcher should be calm and saver. Necessary care should be taken in case where the study is based on some sensitive issues. The researcher should have a clear command on the sample area, the language, the mature of the respondents. The most important requirement is that they should have enough patience and keen interest in the study. 5. Unbiased analysis of results: There should be no biased decision after getting the results of study. No question of sympathy, kindness, relationships, etc., should be involved in the research process. No political interferences should be there in the process of analysis of the study. For example Mr. X is doing some research work (let it be a Ph. D) under the guidance of Mr.Y and they are relative. Now, if they do the research work in normal process it may take several years and it may have some value addition in the shape of outcome of the study. But, since Mr. X is Mr. Ys relative, the basic objective of such research may be only getting a degree. Thus they will try to finish the work very early without doing a proper work. In such cases Mr. X may be awarded the degree but the result may not have any value addition to the existing literature. 6. The conclusions should be justified: The conclusion should be specific and to the point as per the purpose of study. The objective(s) derived and hypotheses formulated at the beginning of the study and conclusion drawn at the end of study shows the gap between â€Å"What was to be done and what you performed†. This helps in gap analysis. The exact findings should be represented without biasness. The validity of the conclusions should be specified. 7. Scope for further research: The research procedures used should be described in sufficient details and there should be ample scope for the other researcher for further research, if necessary. The limitations of the study should be clearly mentioned. Problem identification is the top most tasks in the process of decision-making. As it is a known fact that, solution of one problem, gives birth to a number of related other problems, thus, the researcher should clearly mention about the limitations of the study. The limitation may be in the form of limited or small sample, less budget, less time span, parameters that have been identified are less in quantity, the study is narrow in scope, methodology chosen may be purposive, etc. 1.8 TYPES OF RESEARCH: Researches are of various types. It is basically categorized on the nature of work. Professor R. Panneerselvam has classified some important types of research as follows: 1. Exploratory Research: Exploratory research is the fundamental one and is of an initial research type which the researcher carried out at the initial stage of study. In other words, here the researcher analyses the data and explores the possibility of obtaining as many relationships as possible between different variables without knowing their end-applications. A general study is conducted without having any specific objective(s) of study. Here a number of hypotheses are developed for an existing problem. There are three sources from which exploratory research develops in the mind of a researcher. They are survey of literature, experience survey and study of existing case(s). a. Survey of Literature: The very beginning phase of searching a problem is the survey of literature. Survey of literature is the study, involves collection of available literatures in the required area of research where the researcher has limited experience, and critical examination and comparison of the above materials is needed for better understanding of the concept. This research also helps the researchers to update with the past data, data sources and results, which are useful for related researcher in future. Some examples of survey of literature are searching a problem from available journals, books, periodicals, reports published by different government and non-government agencies etc. b. Experience Survey: Experience survey gathers the experiences of skilled specialists in terms of their skill, expertise and knowledge. Hence this survey is the survey of experiences of experts/specialists in a particular field which acts as a data base for future research. These expertises have been developed over a period of time or through some other related studies. Some of the examples of the experience survey are materials planning, demand forecasting, man power planning, union / state government budget analysis, investment decisions analyzing the employment and unemployment situation etc. c. Study of case(s): This is a special kind of study oriented to have insight into research topics. This kind of study is mainly case study oriented. It lays emphasis on reviewing the available real story cases in the literature. Based on the available real case histories, a researcher can proceed in his/her own research study. Two real case stories which are based on effective service facility provided by two multinational companies to gain customer loyalty are analysed in Box-1.2 and Box-1.3 below. Box-1.2: IFBs Home Demo IFB Industries Limited has been adopting the strategy of home demo to build a good will among its customers. Mr. Satyanarayan has purchased a micro-oven of this company in the month of November, 2008. Soon after the purchase, one sales manager came to him to his house and explained the couple about a number of operations of the microwave with live demos. He has spent more than 20 minutes with the couple and made them aware about a number of functions, instructions, procedures regarding the handling of micro-wave with life demos. This is how IFB is attracting the customer by providing them some service satisfactions at their door step. By identifying such more real life experiences, the researchers can develop some new studies based on the similar line. Box-1.3: Whirlpools Marketing Research Strategy Whirlpool of India Limited is giving considerable emphasis on marketing research. The company strategy shows that it believes in planning research in advance. Even though this process seems to be difficult in reality, but for achieving its objective, the company is maintaining complete