Satires Analysis

Satires Analysis John Donnes Life and Satires Analysis John Donne was born in 1572 in Breadstreet, London. Many call him the founder of metaphysical poets. He and his two siblings were raised by their mother after their father died in 1576. Donne and his family were strict Roman Catholics, but Donne later questioned his religion. His brother Henry died in prison in 1953 of a fever. He was in prison for giving sanctuary to a priest and it was soon after this that Donne wrote his first book of poems. The book was entitled Satires, and it has long been considered one of his best works. This really says a lot about his ability considering that it was his first published work. During this time Donne did very well for himself and he had what seemed to be a very promising career. All he had gained was ruined when he secretly married Anne More, daughter of Sir George More. More had Donne and his friends thrown in Fleet prison for several weeks. He was then fired from his job and he and his wife lived in poverty for almost ten years. Soon after this they moved to Pyrford, Surrey where they began to raise a family. Finally, in 1609 Sir More and Donne reconciled and More paid his daughters dowry. This helped them greatly financially. They also received help from friends and soon returned to their feet. Donne worked many odd jobs over the next few years and published many works. In two different works he denounced his Catholic faith. He later joined the Anglican Church and became a preacher. His wife died not long after, just as things were beginning to look up for Donne. They had twelve children together and only seven of them were alive when she died. Donne then returned to London in 1920 where he wrote the majority of his works. In 1621 he was chosen to be the Dean of St. Pauls and he held that position until he died. While in London he also became quite engrossed with death. The last thing Donne wrote before he died was Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness. He died on March 31, 1631 before the great fire of London destroye d the city in 1666. Donnes monument survived the fire and it can be seen still to this day. Donnes book Satires was written early in his career. He was in his early twenties when it was completed. It consists of five different satires and it was quite popular. The first three were written around 1593 and the last two were written around 1597. The exact dates of his elegies and satires are not known, but they were probably written around the same time. The book wasnt published right away, but it circulated more than his songs, sonnets, and elegies did combined. His songs and sonnets were more popular and revealed more of his inner self and his soul. The book is about average poets, politics, religion, and other Elizabethan topics. â€Å"The Satyres are considered by some to be among the best examples of their particular genre, formal verse satire, but this genre, based upon Roman models and especially on Juvenals satire, had only a brief vogue in the 1590s† (Zivley 87). Donnes first satire is entitled â€Å"Nones Slave†. â€Å"The object of the speakers contempt and the subject of ‘Satyre I is ultimately his own fallen state and, by extension, the fallen state of man† (Lauritsen 123). He explores many different ways of asserting his freedom in the corrupt, distorted English government. It depicts the ins and outs of court life. Donne believed one should be able to do as he wished. He didnt think anyone should be limited by the government or their religion. Most of Donnes early poetry dealt with this topic. He wanted prestige and a more worldly position without obeying the current laws to obtain it. Donne was the victim of Englands oppressive legal system numerous times and he still fought for the freedom he deserved. The protagonist is continually being distracted from his studies by a young boy. The two characters are complete opposites and they butt heads. The protagonist is a simple, peaceful man and he doesnt care for materia l things. The boy isnt quite as simple and he is very materialistic. He judges his friends by their appearance and social standing. The second satire condemns vices and it includes very little praise. It centers on corrupt lawyers and fraud. Cocus is an earlier poet and he is the antagonist of the satire. â€Å"The description of Cocus in ‘Satyre II is the only extended portrait of a contemporary writer in Donnes satires, and even in that poem he reserves most of his scorn for Cocuss behavior as a lawyer† (Dubrow 80). He uses fraud to harm his clients and others. Their losses become his personal gain. The protagonist seems to be a guardian to Cocus and he calls him up for judgment. He goes on an unrelated rant when asked to account for his own actions. However, he isnt afraid to condemn Cocus when asked about his practice. The protagonist believes lawyers to be the worst of all sinners. He even places them below Satan himself. In Donnes third satire entitled â€Å"Of Religion†, he describes some of the most radical thoughts of Europe in the 16th Century. In this poem he criticizes all authority in that time. He especially criticizes both the Catholic and Protestant faiths. Nothing religious or secular was safe from Donnes criticisms. â€Å"Most critics agree that the satire represents a transitional stage in the progress of Donnes religious thought from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism while they differ on whether it illustrates his struggle to renounce the faith in which he was raised or his search for a new faith† (Moore 41). He also stated that we are all responsible for the state of our own souls. The protagonist is the only character included in this satire. He starts out in a state of depression and his mood gradually improves. This improvement comes through a chain of questions and reasoning. He is now on a search for spiritual truth. He believes that there is only one true religion f or mankind. He just isnt sure which religion is the right one. This is by far the most popular and recognizable of the five satires. In Donnes fourth satire he speaks of many different things. He wrote about the assault of foreigners in England, perpetual rights, Guianas rarities, Danes massacre, and Roman Catholic historians. Foreigners were highly unpopular in England and they were often harassed and assaulted. He spoke of perpetual rights or promises of offices given to people. Danes massacre refers to the killing of all the Danes in England by order of Ethelred on November 13, 1002. The Roman Catholic historians that Donne spoke of were Jovius and Surius. They were both known as liars and took much blame from Donne. A young antagonist appears in this satire, and he is much like the antagonist in the second satire. The protagonist serves as a reflection of Donne himself. â€Å"Despite the playful tone, however, the emphasis is firmly on the speakers guilt† (Bradbury 95). Donne criticizes the protagonist for his many sins. His fifth satire is a persuasive poem and it is based on The Courtier written by Castiglione. It also returns to the second satire by including the theme of law. It showcases his public duty much like his other four satires. In this one his public duty is to serve as Sir Thomas Mores secretary and it is addressed to his patron, Sir Thomas Egerton the moral courtier. Officers who take advantage of their suitors are now under attack. This satire is usually the most ignored and the least understood. There has always been much speculation over the meanings of John Donnes works. Critics still view him highly although his works are often misinterpreted. He was and still is considered one of the greatest metaphysical poets of his time. Works Cited Bradbury, Nancy M. Speaker and Structure in Donnes Satyre IV. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 25.1 (1985): 87-107. JSTOR. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. Dubrow, Heather. â€Å"No Man Is an Island: Donnes Satires and Satiric Traditions. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 19.1 (1979): 71- 83. JSTOR. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. Lauritsen, John R. Donnes Satyres: The Drama of Self-Discovery. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 16.1 (1976): 117-30. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. Moore, Thomas V. Donnes Use of Uncertainty as a Vital Force in Satyre III Modern Philology 67.1 (1969): 41-49. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. Zivley, Sherry. Imagery in John Donnes Satyres. Studies in English Literature 6.1 (1966): 87-95. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.

Customer Contribution to Improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry

Quality Management in Services Drago Constantin Vasile The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania E-mail: [email  protected] com Abstract The actors on the today business stage have no more well-defined roles with clear and rigid borders between them. Hospitality industry in particular is a good example how it has been blurred the roles that customers play in dealing with service providers. The study reveals that customers can influence the quality of hospitality service through performing a qualitycontrol function. This involves a series of activities to be achieved by them: (1) on-the-spot quality control, (2) service failure control, (3) quality consultancy, and (4) co-production control. However there are some difficulties and the hospitality organizations need a structured approach to overcome them. Developing a strategy to enhance the effectiveness in performing this function is an important challenge for the hospitality organization management. Our study recommends five courses of actions to be included in such a strategy. They envisage (1) increasing the customer`s knowledge of the firm`s quality standards,(2) encouraging customers to voice their concerns, (3) training customers (and employees) to manage the interpersonal encounter, (4) motivating customers to involve in performing the quality-control function and (5) training customers about their tasks in coproduction. Keywords: quality, hospitality industry, hospitality service, service, customer JEL Classification: L83, M31, M11 Introduction The issue of quality has taken an increased importance in business, being associated with a competitive advantage that can ensure the firm`s profitability and survival (Maddern et al. , 2007). The recognition of the nature and the important role of quality in business is the result of an evolution of quality ideas over time. To this respect, Dale and Cooper (1992) describe four stages (i) quality inspection, (ii) quality control, (iii) quality assurance, and (iv) total quality management. The last involves a shift of paradigm: a changing culture where quality is a basic value of the organization and the goal is a steady improvement in quality, as a strategy to gain competitive advantage. The assumption is that suggestions for improvements may come from any level in the organization (Barnes, 1995). But, in our opinion an important aspect is that valuable suggestions may come from the exterior of the organization, in particular from customers. The aim of this study is to discuss the challenge caused by managing service quality in the hospitality industry. The key questions are how customers may contribute to improving Vol XI †¢ Nr. 26 †¢ June 2009 441 Customer Contribution to improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry quality and what approach should adopt the hospitality organizations to enhance their contribution. The specific characteristics of the hospitality services cause an inherent involvement of the customer into their design and/or provision. In this context we claim that customers may perform a quality-control function and the actions firms can take regarding the co-option of customers` competence must be encouraged because of their beneficial effects. Our line of reasoning relies on theories and concepts from the international scientific literature and on the practice in the hospitality organizations. The evaluation of the issue of customers` contribution is made from the original perspective of integrating separate aspects within a function of quality control that can be assigned to customers of the hospitality services. The first section of the study presents the characteristics of hospitality services which provides the main explanation of the customer`s participation. The second section describes the activities that are included in the quality-control function. The last section discusses the difficulties that may be encountered in performing this function and it is presented a model of a strategy for enhancing customer contribution to improving hospitality service quality 1. Quality in the hospitality services Quality is an important topic in management and marketing research but there is no agreed definition of the word among scholars and practicians. Faced with the great number of points of view, Garvin (1988) describes several categories of the way in which the concept can be defined. A first perspective is that high quality is identified by customers with the help of their senses, for example by looking to the furniture design in a hotel room, by testing the food, by perceiving the atmosphere of a restaurant. A more technical point of view is represented by definitions based on superior product/service attributes`, or those underlining `conformance to specification` which involves carrying out operations with zero defects. Finally, other definitions are customer-oriented. So, it is recognized that the customer decides what quality means based on the fitness for use from his/her perspective, or on the basis of the best value received for his/her money. When dealing with the topic of qua lity in the hospitality industry, we have to take into consideration some particularities that result from the nature of the hospitality services. The characteristics like intangibility, heterogeneity, simultaneity, perishability (Ioncica, 2000) have an impact on the ways quality is managed. For example, in their well-known study, Parasuraman et al. (1985) conclude that service quality is founded on a comparison between what the customer feels should be offered (expectations) and what is provided (performance). More than that, as relieved by Gronroos (1984), customers do not evaluate only the outcome of the service (the technical quality) but they also take into consideration the service delivery (functional quality). For instance, in a restaurant setting, the delicious food served to the guest is the technical quality of a service; while how the guest is treated and served by the waiter is the functional quality. Both of them give influence to the customer in perceiving the service quality. In the context of our study, we also mention other significant implications. One is the fact that hospitality services are generally consumed at the point of production, which makes inspection of the service output very difficult. This requires the presence of an inspector at the service delivery (Barnes, 1995). The job can be performed by an employee of the hospitality company, but also the customer may be involved in the process. 442 Amfiteatru Economic Quality Management in Services Another significant aspect of a hospitality sale is that it can be define as a human experience for consumers. A visit at a hotel is finished without a product to be taken home; in exchange, the guest will remember the whole experience. Pine and Gilmore (1998) point out that experience is different from service, as different as the last is from goods. They consider that â€Å"an experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event. Commodities are fungible, good tangible, services intangible, and experiences memorable. † (Pine and Gilmore, 1998, p. 98). For example, theme restaurants such as Hard Rock Cafe offer food, but this is a prop for entertainment. Also, luxury hotels like Burj-al Arab do not provide accommodation but memorable moments of life for â€Å"guests†. That`s why, in this paper we`ll use the equivalent terms of customers and guests (i. e. buyers of experiences). Finally, hospitality services usually involve the customers` participation in helping to create the service value (Calycomb et al, 2001). The degree and forms of participation are very different. Sometimes, it is low, when all that is required is customer`s physical presence (e. g. attendance at an evening show in a all inclusive resort); other times, it is higher, when guest is part of the service experience (e. g. ctive involvement of the audience at the evening show). In this paper we are interested of the customer`s participation in the area of managing quality. 2. The service quality control function of the customers A function is a general category of activities that a person must perform. For example a managerial function refers to the activities performed by managers to develop and maintain work environments in which people can accomplish goals effectively and effic iently. Fayol first suggested a set of five functions that were widely accepted and are popular until today. In this field of quality management in the hospitality organizations, we think that an important function is performed by customers, namely service quality control function. Some arguments support this opinion. One argument is that the changing dynamics of business has modified the traditional roles of customers who have become active players in the creation of value. As Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2000) put it customers possess knowledge and skills that are useful to companies and they tend to engage themselves in an active dialogue with manufacturers of products and services. So, from the company`s point of view, they become part of an enhanced network from where competence can extracted in the benefit of all parties involved in the value chain. The customers` competence is an essential issue in the hospitality industry where they play key roles in the production and provision of services. Other arguments are provided by the research dealing with the customer`s roles. Much of the existing literature focuses on their roles as sources of income or proxy marketing agents who disseminate information about venues or brands (Lugosi, 2007). However, there is a literature that offers insights towards a customer-firm partnership perspective. LangnickHall (1996) describes five distinct roles for customers: (1) resource, (2) worker (or coproducer), (3) buyer, (4) beneficiary, and (5) outcome of transformation activities. All of them involve different degrees of participation with various possibility of co-opting customer`s competences. For example, as a resource customers supply inputs that â€Å"can include any of the factors of production: capital, natural resources, ideas, or any tangible or Vol XI †¢ Nr. 6 †¢ June 2009 443 Customer Contribution to improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry intangible contribution to production activities† (Langnick-Hall, 1996, p. 798). Bitner et al (1997) suggest that consumers may participate in the construction of service experiences in three ways: (1) as productive agencies (e. g. providing inputs); (2) as contributors to quality, satisfaction and value (e . g. patrons of a bar may see it is as partly their responsibility to entertain themselves in the venue); and (3) as competitors (e. g. ustomers choose to provide services for themselves, for example, by purchasing alcohol and consuming it at home). Ford and Heaton (2001) highlight that customers may take responsibility for entertaining fellow consumers, directing the behavior of staff and guests, and providing critical feedback. In this paper we focus on the active involvement of the customers in assessing quality of hospitality services. The hospitality services involve a person-to-person interaction, i. e. an interactive process between service providers and receivers. In this context perceptions and actions of both partners should be taken into consideration when evaluating and managing quality. In this respect, customers` actions may be regarded as components of a genuine quality-control function. The main activities that are included in the quality-control function are presented in figure 1. CLIENTS †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ QUALITY CONTROL FUNCTION On-the-spot control Service failure control Quality consultancy Co-production control FIRMS Figure 1 – The components of the customer quality control function On-the-spot quality control. The hospitality firm`s commitment to service quality is highly dependent on the employees who have tasks of the delivery of the service and who are part of the service through their attitude and behaviors. They are ultimately responsible for the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of customers with the experience they have (Presbury et al. , 2005). Managers spend time to supervise, train, motivate, and reward the employees so that they should produce excellent guest experiences (Ford and Heaton, 2001). However a manager, say, in a hotel cannot be present all the time near each of his/her subordinates. On the other hand, guests in a hotel are very often in contact with frontline employees, talk to them, and see their job performance. So, they have the opportunity to control the employees` activity and react when the last fail to behave as expected. It is also important that customers should have adequate knowledge and experience in evaluating the employee`s job performance and in assesing the quality of the service delivery. Many hotel guests who are familiar with hotel services meet this requirement. In conclusion, many customers do have the willingness and the necessary competence to signal nonconformance to quality standard in the activity of frontline staff. More than that, they can take corrective actions through negative comments, praise, or tips. The same aspects are valid for customer`s interactions with each other. For example, in an all-inclusive resort the guests dance together, play games and make sport, or attend evening 444 Amfiteatru Economic Quality Management in Services shows with extensive participation. In many such situations, customers help each other in case someone fails in performing adequately his/her part in the common hospitality experience. Service failure control. A type of control activity similar to the former is linked with customers' formal complaints and suggestions in case of service failure. Chung and Hoffman (1998) identify three categories of service failures: (1) Service system failure (e. g. cold food, slow service, insect problems, dirty silverware); (2) Failures in implicit or explicit customer requests (e. . food not cooked to order, lost reservations); (3) Unprompted and unsolicited employee actions (e. g. wrong order delivered, incorrect charges, rude behavior of employees). Hospitality services have a great propensity to fail due to their intangible and experiential nature, or the simultaneous production and consumption. The organizations cannot also guarantee error-free in advance due to o ther several factors. One is the high â€Å"human factor† (Susskind, 2002), namely high level of human interaction between frontline staff and consumers, giving rise to variability in service quality. Other ones are uncontrollable external factors (e. g. customer late arrival) or the possible confusion as to what exactly the firms have been promised. On the other side, the today`s restaurant or hotel guests are more demanded and educated, so it is more difficult to meet their expectations (Lee and Sparks, 2007). Quality consultancy. Customers often provide valuable consultation before and after the service experience (Ford and Heaton, 2001) and a significant area of interest concerns the service quality. Generally, this activity consists in providing information by the customer about what he/she likes or dislikes about the guest experience. The typical methods by which the firm collects such information are surveys, mostly in form of comment cards or detailed questionnaires. A comment card encourages guests to provide observations or suggestions about their service experience. The small size, easy distribution, and simplicity are considered sufficient factors to make customers to fill them out. Questionnaires address, inter ales, the business’s physical and service attributes areas (e. . rating the hotel room on a Likert-type scale) so that when analyzing the data managers could get an idea of the relative importance of these attributes to guests’ overall satisfaction. Co-production control. The most important way in which guests can participate in service experiences is that of active co-producers. In this case, the customer behaves as a partial employee who contribute s effort, time, or other resources to either design the service or perform some of the service delivery activities (Caycomb et al, 2001; Lengnick-Hall, 1996). Consequently, quality of a service is dependent on the quality of customer`s resources (e. g. adequate information about his or her needs), contributions, or behaviours (e. g. the way in which he/she interacts with the service provider). Hence, the necessity that quality control should be parted between organization and customer in function of each party contribution to the service design and provision. For example, a prerequisite for service quality is the firm`s understanding of customer`s needs, but also the firm must ensure the clarity of the customer`s tasks, i. . what is expected and how is expected to perform. On the other hand, the quality of customer`s participation depends on his or her ability and motivation to do the work. In addition to co-producing their own experiences, guests are often part of each other’s hospitality experience (e. g. enjoying the meal with other people at a restaurant). Again, the quality of participation can influence positively or 445 Vol X I †¢ Nr. 26 †¢ June 2009 Customer Contribution to improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry negatively the experience for others. Successful hospitality organizations look for opportunities to include their guests as a part of each other’s experience in positive ways. 3. The strategy to enhance customer contribution to improving service quality The quality-control function exists in a certain degree in almost all the hospitality interactions. The first step of a successful organization is to recognize the value of customer`s participation. On the other side, the performance of the quality-control function by customers is not an easy task due to a number of risks and limitations in the process. On-the-spot inspection of the frontline personnel`s job performance may give rise to defensive reactions. Sometimes it is possible that employees should not appreciate or accept guests` comments even when they are responsible for the quality failure caused by their poor performance. This has a potential of conflict resulting in hurt feelings and, finally, unhappy customers. The risk is higher if customers have excessively high expectations about the services the hospitality organization has to deliver. This element of confusion has a negative impact on the effectiveness of the quality-control function operation. Another risk does not come from a guests` intervention but from their lack of reaction, when they do not voice their concern. This is a loss for the hospitality organization because the management receives no more a qualified help of the experienced customers who possess the competence to supplement its effort of improving service quality. Concerning service failure, customers` typical reactions are exiting silently and never to return, continuing to patronize the establishment despite their dissatisfaction (but they will spread a negative word-of-mouth), or voicing their complaints to the operator (Kim et al, 2009; Susskind, 2002). Customer`s complaint is the most valuable reaction because it can give rise to prompt corrective actions of the service provider, such as fixing product and service delivery problems. The difficulty with the customer`s function of quality consultant is represented by the fact that he/she must accomplish two basic condition. First, he or she must possess adequate knowledge and experience. Second, he or she has to possess the willingness to participate in activities that involve spending time. Besides these aspects, a problem resides even in the methods by which the hospitality organization collects information from customers. Most of them are quantitative data – such as rates of customer`s perceptions as a point on a scale – provided by questionnaires or comments cards. But these methods might not help the hospitality organizations to obtain insights on what guests are thinking about the quality of the service experience. For example, as Pullman at al. (2005) point out, if hotel guests rate their perception of employee friendliness as 7 points out of 10 points, instead of 8 points, it is not very clear what this difference in perception means. Finally, co-production implies the division – in various proportions – of the hospitality service provision between staff and guests. This introduces some uncertainty in the system in comparison with the situation when only trained and motivated employees do the entire job. Firstly, customers may have poor abilities to do their work. Secondly, some of them may prefer not to act as co- producers (e. g. they prefer to be served by waiters instead of preparing, say, salad by themselves). 446 Amfiteatru Economic Quality Management in Services These difficulties highlight a number of issues that are important to be taken into consideration. Consequently, we think that a strategy to enhance customer contribution to improving hospitality service quality has to include five courses of action: †¢ Increasing the customer`s knowledge of the firm`s quality standards; †¢ Encouraging customers to voice their concerns; †¢ Training customers (and employees) to manage the interpersonal encounter; †¢ Motivating customers to involve in performing the quality-control function; †¢ Training customers about their tasks in co-production. Increasing the customer`s knowledge of the firm`s quality standards. Customers have to be very familiar with the quality standards of a service in order to perform effectively the quality-control function. However, the hospitality organization has a role to play by helping customers to know better its performance standards and relevant rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. Advertising is a means by which firm can express its value proposition but also other communication methods are adequate. For example, the manager making the table rounds at a restaurant and the hotel manager talking with a guest have the opportunity to clarify such issues. Encouraging customers to voice their concerns. A dissatisfied or upset guest who simply walks quietly away is an inconvenient situation for the hospitality organization not only because it loses one customer or more customers (taking into account the negative word-ofmouth communication). The firm loses valuable information about a service failure. From another point of view failing in expressing a feedback, the guest abandons his/her role of quality-controller. The organization must prevent it, for example trough clearly inviting customers to express their opinion about the quality of the service experience, explaining how a complaint should be lodged, or simply how to give feedback. In case of service failure, adequate service recovery (i. e. actions addressing the customer complaint) can restore customer satisfaction (Kim et al. , 2009). A distinct issue is that of the customer`s involvement as a quality consultant. The firm may increase the effectiveness of the consultancy process through collecting not only quantitative data but encouraging customers to provide a more detailed feedback. For example, a section can be included on the comments cards asking open questions. Thus, the customer is allowed and encouraged to explain good or bad incidents, or to mention employees and their actions that have made pleasant or problematic the service experience. Training customers (and employees) to manage the interpersonal encounter. Making suggestions to the employee who fails in observing the quality standards requires appropriate behaviors of the both parties in the encounter. This is even more significant in case of complaints. In terms of transactional analysis, the customer who indentifies a service failure and makes a critical comment or lodge a complaint is in the psychological ego state of â€Å"Parent†, using evaluative, critical, disapproving behaviors. Usually, this ego state activates another one, the â€Å"Child† ego state, involving confronting responses, anxiety, blaming others, anger. Such a transaction is not productive at all because it gives rise to defensive (i. e. aggressive or passive) attitudes. Generally, the most effective human relationships and performance come from the â€Å"Adult† ego state. Hospitality organizations must encourage and help the customer to adopt an Adult behavior which involves a rational approach of the case, providing and collecting clear and relevant information, or making Vol XI †¢ Nr. 26 †¢ June 2009 447 Customer Contribution to improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry claims with calm behaviors. The same is valid for employees who must be trained to always react in a friendly manner to customer`s observations and complaints. Motivating customers to involve in performing the quality-control function. Customers must be motivated to engage in performing the quality-control function. A motivator for undertaking the role of on-the-spot controller can be the fact that the guest feels qualified to do it and that he/she has paid for the service. But, most of them may prefer not to assume additional burdens upon them. This is a critical aspect in performing quality consultancy tasks, or in co-participation. Because hotel guests may not accept to spend time to answer open questions unless there are some incentives to be received, the management may make some promisses like free dessert if the customer will become a â€Å"consultant† in a program of improving quality. Being member in a focus group involves sometimes the remuneration of the participants. Finally, customers` motivation to the quality of co-participation is a complex issue because of the great variety of situations and degree of involvements. An interesting contribution to the topic has been made by Schneider and Bowen (1995), who has identified several possible incentives for co-production: (a) productivity increases that result in lower prices, (b) increased self-esteem because of increased control, (c) more discretion and opportunities to make choices, (d) shorter waiting times, and (e) greater customization (cited in Langnick-Hall, 1996). It is the duty of the organization to define appropriate ways to motivate its own co-producers. Training customers about their tasks in co-production. Co-production involves special care because of the degree of uncertainty it introduces in hospitality service provision. To enhance service quality it is essential that customers should know what and how they are expected to perform their tasks. Hospitality organizations have several responsibilities. First of all, they must identify suitable services for co-participation and the degree of customer`s involvement in designing and providing the service. Then, it is necessary a careful selection of the customers who are able and willing to become co-participant in service provision (Do they have the necessary skills? Is the experience too dangerous? Is this participation in accordance with their expectation? ). Finally, customers must be trained so that they should understand their specific roles and contributions to co-production. In this respect, the organization may receive a valuable aid from other guests who are co-participants and who can help with training the `colleagues` to perform better. But even in this case, the organization has a responsibility to look for opportunities to â€Å"include their guests as a part of each other`s experience in a positive way† (Ford and Heaton, 2001, p. 1). Conclusions The study examines the complex interactions between hospitality firms and their customers and from the perspective of the former`s involvement in the organization`s quality management. The customers` role is quite extended in this area and has multiple facets. Thus, based on relevant international literature, the first research question receives the answer that customers may contribu te to improving hospitality service quality through accomplishing on-the-spot control, service failure control, consultancy, and co-production control. A quality control function is proposed to summarize and describe these activities. The value of the theoretical model resides in providing a unitary view of some actions of customers that seem to be disparate but have the same end of addressing service quality issues. So, the firm`s managers may go further from simply recognizing the value of 448 Amfiteatru Economic Quality Management in Services customer`s commitment to quality assessment and control and this conceptual framework may help with deepening their understanding of these processes. Also, the study put into light the obstacles hindering the performance of the above mentioned function. Following this line of reasoning, several courses of actions are suggested to be adopted by the hospitality organizations to enhance customers` contribution to managing service quality, which addresses the second research question. The findings have significant implications for shaping a strategy to enhance customer contribution to improving hospitality service quality. The core of this strategy is constituted by intensifying the two-way communication between the two parties involved in the hospitality service experience. On one side, transmiting information about the firm`s quality standards may eliminate customer`s possible confusion as to what exactly the firms have been promised. On the other side, the firm has to encourage customers to express their concerns, to give feedback, to lodge complaints when necessary, to communicate observations and suggestions about the quality of service experiences. Finally, an important aspect is also the perspective of the Transactional Analysis, underlining the effectiveness of objective and problem-oriented Adult-Adult relationships between customers and hospitality firm`s employees. Further research can be developed on the basis of the theoretical model and strategy presented in this paper, aiming to testing the customer quality control function and identifying good practice of its performance. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Barnes, D. , Managing operations, The Open University, Milton Keynes, 1995 Bolwijn, P. T. , Kumpe, T. , â€Å"Manufacturing in the 1990`s – Productivity, flexibility and innovation†, Long Range Planning, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1990 Chung, B. , Hoffman, D. K. , â€Å"Critical incidents†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 39 No. 3, 1998 Claycomb, C. t al. , â€Å"The customer as a productive resource: a pilot study and strategic implications†, Journal of Business Strategies, 2001 Dale, B. G. , Cooper, C. , â€Å"Total quality and human resources: An executive guide†, Blackwell, 1992 Dutta, K. et al. , â€Å"Service failure and recovery strategies in the restaurant sector†, Int ernational Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 19, No. 5, 2007 Ford, R. C. , Heaton, C. P. , „Managing Your Guest as a Quasi-Employee†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, April 2001 Garvin, D. A. , Managing quality, Free Press, New York, 1988. Gronroos, C. „A service quality model and its marketing implications†, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 18, No. 4, 1984 10. Ioncica, M. , Economia serviciilor, Ed. Uranus, Bucursti, 2000 Vol XI †¢ Nr. 26 †¢ June 2009 449 Customer Contribution to improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry 11. Kim, T. et al, „The effects of perceived justice on recovery satisfaction, trust, word-ofmouth, and revisit intention in upscale hotels, Tourism Management, no. 30, 2009 12. Lee, Y. L. , Sparks, B. , „Appraising tourism and hospitality service failure events: A Chinese perspective†, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, no. 31, 2007 13. Lengnick-Hall, C. , â€Å"Customer contributions to quality: A different view of the customer-oriented firm†, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1996 14. Lind, M. , Salomonson, N. , „A pragmatic conception of service encounters†, AIS Special Interest Group on Pragmatist IS Research, Inaugural Meeting, Paris, Dec. 2008 15. Lugosi, P. , „Consumer participation in commercial hospitality†, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2007 16. Maddern, H. et al. , „Customer satisfaction and service quality in UK financial services†, Discussion Papers in Management, University of Exeter, No. 0, 2007 17. Ok, C. et al. , â€Å"Modeling roles of service recovery strategy: a relationship-focused view†, Kansas State University, 2002 18. Parasuranam, A. , et al. , „A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, 1985 19 . Pine, B. J. ; Gilmore, J. H. , â€Å"Welcome to the experience economy†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, No. 4, 1988 20. Prahalad, C. K. and Ramaswamy, V. , â€Å"Co-opting customer competence†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78, No. 1, 2000 21. Presbury, R. et al. „Impediments to improvements in service quality in luxury hotels†, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2005 22. Pullman, M. et al. , „Let me count the words: quantifying open-ended interactions with guests†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 46, 2005 23. Susskind, A. M. , „I told you so! : Restaurant customers' word-of-mouth communication patterns†, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly , No. 43, 2002 24. Widjaja, D. C. , „Managing service quality in hospitality industry through managing the ‘moment of truth’: a theoretical approach†, Universitas Kristen Petra, 2002 450 Amfiteatru Economic

Financial Management - Behavior of Prices under Different Versions of EMH Free Essay Example, 1750 words

A strong form of EMH includes the effects on prices of all sorts of information, historical, published, and even non-published. This also includes the insider information as well as the information held by the directors or other senior officials of the company. Any sort of manoeuvrings of buyers and sellers will not impact prices, whatsoever. It is highly impossible to test this form of EMH even if the acquirer has insider information. The only possibility available is to buy or sell the holdings before the information of takeover is published or leaked. So much so that creative accounting technique cannot influence the takeover bids under the strong form of EMH. Under this form, current prices will reflect the present value of future cash flows. Any price exceeding the net value of assets based on market prices under a strong form of EMH will entail goodwill value of the takeover deal. Evaluation of takeover bids under the different version of EMH EMH theory was introduced in the l ate sixties, and prior to that inefficiency was believed to exist in stock markets. We will write a custom essay sample on Financial Management - Behavior of Prices under Different Versions of EMH or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page But there is a behaviour approach to this study as well that advocates that rationality plays no role in takeover bids and investors are motivated by greed, fear, and other emotions. If EMH theory is to be believed then the fundamental mechanism of pricing does not seem to work. A weak form of EMH suggests that the movement of pricing takes into account the impacts of past movements of pricing and the historical information.

The Business Factor of McDonalds planning - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2814 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? MacDonald s is the largest food chain in the world and is number one in annual sales. MacDonald also offers a variety of products keeping in view the socio-religious factors. They also offer drive-through services for customers on the move, promoting itself as a time efficient company. Business factors Growth of MacDonald: McDonald s has been looking for a growth strategy for a very long time. And their foreign operation amount for more than half the company s revenue. McDonald has over 30,000 restaurants over 100 countries in the world today. And they maintain the top position in the fast food industry for the past 50 years. Their sale roses to 5.8% at the restaurant chains European outlets in 2006, boosted by the United Kingdom launch of a new bacon burger and a price game in Germany. MacDonald s performed strongly in other markets, reflecting its steady recovery from sharp sales down turn in 2002. They have added healthier option to its menu to try to attract more and new customers. Over the past few years, MacDonald has been offering a wider range of salads and fruits as well as premium strength coffee to gain more customers. The trading sales of Macdonald s have risen to 6.3% in the fourth quarter and were up 5.7% for 2006 as a whole. This was achieving through a better strategies by making the meals relevant and affordable to the customers. MacDonald Business Declines after 2006: The company was hit by the global economic slowdown and scarcer over the safety of beef in overseas markets. MacDonald faces a further criticism over the effect of its products on the health of consumer. But instead MacDonald continues to be ambitious with plans to add more than a thousand restaurants this year to its chain of 30,000 outlets worldwide. The company was critics about the product of their foods and how its affect the people health by contribution to the fattening of the people .this was a very serious case with lead MacDon ald to think of a better strategy to retain their customer and also help the people on the health product. Business changes of Macdonald After going through allot of complains and critics about the product, the company sales started to drop down and the management now thought of a better strategy to retain their customer and also make them happy. The company now introduce a LOW-FAT yogurts and a choice of salads will be among the new lines on offer. Customer service will be improved and the firm will stop its rush to open new restaurant and concentrate instead on keeping customer and attracting new ones to existing branches. MacDonald labour cost control and business competitors: The company have tried to control their labour cost by employing the right people to do the job properly to over shadow their competitor. During the critic of their product, other little restaurant started coming out and crating names to them self. But now MacDonald get the right people wi th the right skill to provide a better customer services to their customer in other to retain them and get new once. They also provide a better technology that will make it quicker and easier to serve their customer and keep them happy. 2.2 Human Resources Requirement Before Macdonald would open a new branch, they have to take a good look on the following; ? Identifying personal requirement of every staffs should be the first thing. ? The numbers of staffs they need in the company at a particular time. The number of staffs can help improve the company sales. Companies don t like running short of staffs; there prefer having enough staffs that will provide a better services to their customers. Macdonald always knows the right time to get more staffs for assistance especially during lunch break. They make sure customers are served in a good way and a fast way. ? Skills: the skills of staffs can also be important. Employee skill can help the company to provide faster serv ices and render a better customer services. ? Experience: working experience is another important Human resources requirement. Someone with a good working experience always does the job well because he/she has done the job before and was corrected before. Macdonald make sure their staffs under go through a special training before there can start serving the customer. This will help the company to render the best services to the people. ? Qualification: this is another human resources requirement that help to give the worker confident on what they are doing. The qualification of every staffs will determine how the staffs are going to render and learn more about the company. It will also determine how a staff can render a better communication with the customer and the managements of the company. Someone with a degree is going to have more self confident in doing the business than someone with a high school certificate. These are the requirement the organisation need to look i nto to achieve its objectives. The Human Resources Requirement can be very important in every organisation. Organisation Requirement: This can be internal or external; Internal: labour requirement can be is what the organisation should consider. The number of labour the organisation needs at a particular time and place. Labour can be very important in every organisation in other to render a better services. Skill Requirement: These are the skills the company need to provide to improve and increase their sales. With the skills, a good marketing strategy can be made and it will help to increase the sales of the company. Good working Environment: The working environment is another important human resources requirement. A good working environment will enable the worker to provide quicker and better quality goods and services to the customer. Good communication between the manager and staffs: They should be a better communication between the staffs and manager in other for the management to get the staffs opinions about the product and services they are rendering. In MacDonald, it is very hard for you to point out who is the manager and who are the staffs. The relationship with manage are so close that every worker keep smiling to themselves. The good relationship between the staffs and the managers can also help the company to get to their goals. EXTERNAL FACTORS: Government Policies: The government policies are big issues that affect every company. The government can make a change at any time and this will affect every business and the economy. Employment: Employment is a big issue that is hitting the United Kingdom economy now. The increase in VAT and the cut in benefit have also affected the people. So the increase of unemployment has raised more. Education: MacDonald providing Education for staff to give more ideas about the economic and organisation is very important. But not all organisations are willing to do that especially wi th the increase in fees and vat. Training: This is another important thing that most company love to do. Sending of staffs to special training, letting them to attend seminars.etc will also help the organisation to reach their objective because the staffs will know more about business and will be able to render better services. Demand for labour: with the increase in vat and the cut in benefit, we find out that the demand for labour became very high. Everybody wants to work to get money. Not allot of people are spending much now. Everyone is trying to save money. Supply for Labour: the demand for labour is high and the supply for labour is low. Not allot of company are willing to employ staffs now because of the changes made by the government. Every organisation is trying to lower their expensive and purchase.s 2.3 HUMAN RESOUCES PLANS FOR MAC DONALDS HR S ROLE Purpose STRATEGIC FRAME WORK MC DONALD PEOPLE MEASUREMENT Our role is to foster a high perfor mance culture that is supported by our talented and engaged people and organisational resources essential for sustaining superior business performance. We will achieve this by designing processes, providing tools, and transferring knowledge to our leaders required for developing and continuously improving such a culture. Recruitment and selection Employment Experience /development Employee Talent/skills Rewards Employment images The overall aim is to obtain at minimum cost the number and quality of employees required to satisfy the human resources need of the organisation. Provides a positive employment experience through respectful employment treatment and compliance with labour and employment laws. and also developing the staffs by providing training and allowing them to attend seminars. Establish a strong talent management plan to identify and develop talent at all levels while creating a diverse workforce Implement the global total reward strategy t o support a strong pay for performance culture Communicate a compelling Mc Donald s employment brand that tell our story and builds respect for Mc Donald s. Employee commitment External Best Employer Recognition Employee pride Customer experience-competitive advantage https://www.scribd.com/doc/26247206/Mcdonald-s-Strategic-Human-Resource-Management These plans generally serve one of the two purpose either they provide direction for those organisation that have not integrated Human Resource Management into strategic plan or they are used as implementation plans which support Human Resources Management goals, Strategic, and Measures. These plans are particularly important to those organisations that do not integrate Human Resources Management into the wide plan because it helps them map out where they want the Human Resources. Most of these plans focus on internal Human Resources office program activities and the HR always try to accomplish their mission to en able them achieve their objectives. 2.4 How Human Resources plan contribute to meeting the MacDonald objectives: Staff retention: Macdonald tries to keep their staffs and give them promotions to enable them become a manager of a branch someday in the future. Staff retention is very important to most organisations. This will help the staffs to know what really is happening within the organisation and try to suggest a best opinion to fight that out. Employee development: this is another important human resource plan. Employee development is another best way to improve customer services in the company. Providing the employee with training and good skills on how to render a good service can keep the employee and customer happy. And it will help the organisation to reach its objectives. Up skilling: This is the act of providing worker extra training to make them better. For example sending staffs to additional training and meetings. Up skilling will also help the company to h ave the best staffs that will render the best services to their customers. Re skilling: This is the act of teaching someone something new especially an unemployed person. Re skilling will help the person to get ideas about the company and how to render better services. Macdonald Human Resource planning is concerned with getting the right people, using them well and developing them in order to meet the company goals. In order to meet their objectives, MacDonald aim successfully, it is necessary to identify the means of using people in the most effective way and to identify any question that are likely to occur for example recruiting the best people and coming with solutions. 3.1 THE PURPOSE OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANISATION In simple terms, an organisation s human resources management strategy should maximize return on investment in the organisation s human capital and minimize financial risk. Human Resource seeks to achieve this by aligning the s upply of skilled and qualified individuals and the capabilities of the current workforce, with the organisations ongoing and future business plans and requirements to maximize return on investment and secure future survival and success. In ensuring such objectives are achieved, the human resources function purpose in this context is to implement the organisation human resource requirements effectively but also pragmatically taking account of legal, ethical and as far as is practical in a manner that retains the support and respect of the workforce. Recruitment and Selection: According to Edwin B. Flippo, Recruitment is the process of searching the candidate for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation. Selection is the process that leads to employment of persons who possess the ability and qualification to perform the jobs which have fallen vacant in an organisation. The recruitment and selection has help MacDonald to bring in the best and right people to do the job well and lead them to achieve the objectives. Health and Safety: This is the procedure for identifying workplace hazards and reducing accidents and exposure to harmful personnel and exposure to harmful personnel in accident prevention, accident response, emergency preparedness and use of productive clothing and equipment. Equity and Diversity: These are two distinct concepts which work together to encourage a workplace that values difference in individuals and fairness. Workplace diversity maintains the basic principle of equity and therefore, includes measures of remedy any employment-related. Training and Development: it is very important that new employees are given adequate training. Macdonald provides the best training and development for their staffs to enable them to give out the best services to their customer. Pay: Macdonald is a big restaurant with so many branches around the world and help to reduce the unemployment around us. The Company give a good pay to their staffs and encourage them to work. Performance: The Company always chose a right time to check the performance of their workers. The performance of the worker can help the company to make the right changes at the right time and the right department of the workers. These has help MacDonald to build a better services. 3.2 THE REGULATORY REQUIRMENTS ON HUMAN RESOUCES POLICIES IN AN ORGANISATION: The Employment Act 2008 Strengthens, Simplifies and clarifies key aspects of United Kingdom employment law. The Act brings together both element of element of the previous government s employment relation strategy increasing protection for vulnerable worker and lightening the load for law abiding business. The Employment Relation Act 2004 is mainly concerned with collective labour law and trade union rights. It implements the fining of the review of the employment relations act 1999, announced by the secretary of state in July 2002. The centrepiece of the 1 999 act was the establishment of a statutory procedure for the recognition of trade unions by employers for collective bargaining purpose. Employment Right Act 1996(ERA) was passed originally by conservative government 1996. It consolidated a number of previous statutes dating from the contracts of employment act 1963. It deals with right that most employees can get when they work, including unfair dismissal, reasonable notice before dismissal, time of rights for parenting, redundancy and more. Work and families: choice and flexibility, which was published in October 2005. It aims to establish a balanced package to right and responsibilities for both employers and employee In line with the government better regulations agenda. The work and families legislation will: Extend maternity and adoption pay from six months from April 2007, toward the goal of a year s paid leave by the end of the parliament. Extend the night to request flexible working to carer of adults from Apr il 2007. The Equal pay act 1970 is an act of the United Kingdom parliament which prohibits and less favourable treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment. It was passed by parliament in the aftermath of the 1968 ford sewing machinists strike. National minimum wage act 1998 : An Act to make provision for and in connection with a national minimum wage, to provide for the amendment of certain enactment relating to the remuneration of persons employed in agriculture; and for connected purposes.[31st July 1998] The Disability Discrimination Act 1995(c50) is an act of the parliament of the United Kingdom which has now been repeated and replaced by the equality act 2010. Formerly, it made it unlawful to discriminate against people in respect of their disabilities in relation to employment, the provision of goods and services, education and transport. The EU working time directive (2003/88/EC) is a European Union Directive, which creates the rig ht for EU workers to a minimum number of holidays each year, paid breaks, and test of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours work while restricting excessive night work and, a default right to work no more than 48 hours per week. It was issued as an update on an earlier version on 22 June 2000. Excessive working time being a major cause of stress depression and illness, the purpose of the directive is to protect people health and safety. Data protective Act 1998 an act to make new provision for the regulation of the processing of information relation11 to individuals including the obtaining, holding, use or disclosure of such information. [16 July 1998] How is Mc Donalds regulation policy management Under the employment right and responsibility MacDonald doesn t give equal right and selection. The prefer to employ the younger once rather than a old once due to the fact that young once are more energetic and fast than the older once and this is a discrimination. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Business Factor of McDonalds planning" essay for you Create order