Psychological Experience of Prototyping †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Psychological Experience of Prototyping. Answer: Introduction In the world today, people have focused on applying entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to better their lives in terms of running their individual jobs. Many entrepreneurs are having difficulties in attracting customers and making huge profits. The worst thing is that Customers are running away from this supplier resulting in damages and loss of items. The solution lies in the field of design that has enabled people to be innovative and creative. This creativity aims at making them competitive in the market by making products different and of value to the customers (Adams, Daly, Mann, 2011). It also helps in finding solutions to problems. During my first lecture of the first week, we began by an introduction from students and lecturer. I was so keen to know more about the content of the unit. The lecturer introduced the unit and finally discussed entrepreneurship and design thinking basics. We covered the definition of design thinking and the differences between design and design thinking (see blog # 2). It was defined as a method used by entrepreneurs to solve clients problems and give them solutions. It is more focused on the solution than the problem itself. This helped me form a basis of what my expectation at the end of the unit. It also helped me as an entrepreneur to know the methods to use in solving clients problem. In addition, I had a problem capturing information since the lecture spoke in a low tone. This made me attend the next lesson prior to time so that I occupy the front seat next to the lecturer. The basics of design thinking are that it requires imagination, reasoning and exploring possibilities (A lves, Marques, Visser, 2006). This helped me to generate the desired outcome to the customer. Design thinking framework After the introduction, the next activity was to discuss design-thinking framework. We learned that this framework combines problem-solving with art and design approaches. This framework involves observation for discovery, identifying scope and opportunity of innovation. Generate ideas and opinions, testing and deciding solution see blog # 10). This framework will help me to understand and discover ways of innovation that will contribute to growth and value of my customers (Beckman Speer, 2006). The teacher asked to give a brief overview of what he has taught. He pointed at me and I gave the process correctly. In addition, I learned that listening carefully to what the teacher says is important since it will assist me to understand clients problem and solve it in the right way. In our next class activity, our lecturer taught us about innovation, the lecturer used a piece of A4 size paper to demonstrate design a birthday shape. He folded the paper from the Conner and glued the ends together. The outcome was a cone cape. Innovation is coming up with new methods of designing something (see blog # 4). We learned that Customers are to innovation for a company to succeed. Companies innovate in order to be more competitive and increase customers. From the activity, I discovered that the feedback clients give about the company is the basis for innovation (Blank Dorf, 2012). I learned that innovations that companies make, either cause market success or market failure. Involving customers in innovation is very important. This is because customers form the backbone of the organization. These customers buy our goods and services depending on their needs. These needs should satisfy them and if not satisfied they give feedback through the complaint (Alves, Marques, Visser, 2006). From the activity, I realized how important customers are and that as a future manager of a company I need not ignore those complaints but instead they should help them improve and correct the mistake.it is clear that those complains forms the basis for innovation. Challenges of innovation in business In the process of designing and innovating new products in the market, the existing products face challenges. After companies launch new products and services in the market, they ignore and forget about the old product. When users of such products come, they find that the product they need is of low quality or is missing in the shelves (see blog 4). Many at times they get irritated and decide to move to the next merchants thus reducing the volume of their clients (Beckman Speer, 2006). Many entrepreneurs are having difficulties in attracting customers and making huge profits. The worst thing is that Customers are running away from this supplier resulting in damages and loss of items. From this lesson, I learned that as much as the companies introduce new products in the market, they should not ignore or discontinue old products for the sake of retaining loyal customers (Brown, 2009). This will help me to offer customer satisfaction in a way that meets their requirements. Product development in the market needs creativity (Brown, Design thinking. ,2008). Creativity involves skills and knowledge to design a new product. Design thinking provides entrepreneurs with concepts, methods, and tools to be creative (see blog # 5). Any success of the company involves customers. They are involved when they purchase products. The process of development involves uncovering opportunities, generating ideas, experimenting and finally applying the idea. I learned that design process involves divergent and convergent thinking in order to come up with appealing methods for the benefit of the company. Through this, I will be able to generate multiple choices and selecting from the choices. From this activity, I learned that people have various design thinking in one particular thing and everyone view things differently concerning similar things (Doorley Witthoft, 2012). This differences in ideas lead to solving different needs depending on the nature of the business. We learned that product promotion is making a product known to the customers. When organizations want to launch a new product they do it through marketing advertisements. Visual and graphics are the use of pictures and drawings to represent certain information. Through design thinking, we come up with appealing pictures and wordings that attract customers (see blog # 6). I learned that for organizations to advertise their products, they should employ few words with many pictures in order to catch the attention of people. Many customers use pictures more than words to enhance their understanding. From the activity, I learned how to explain an idea using a drawing. This will help me to generate solutions by receiving other peoples feedback. For any communication to be complete, feedback from customers will help correct our problems. These solutions are identified through design thinking (Dorst, 2011). Design thinking will help me learn more on problem-solving, customer development, creativity, and teamwork and product solution. It helps students to embrace their creative confidence. Therefore using design-thinking principles on entrepreneurship will help me meet their goals. This activity involves defining what a journey map is and who uses it. We defined as a visual representation of customer experience.it shows how customers interact with business or brand product through different channels known as touchpoints (see blog # 7). Any information from the customer to the organization portal or website to make the purchase is a touch point. This helps businesses to track and understand customer habits (Liedtka, 2000). Analysing these touch points helps me to understand why, how and when clients visit and engage with products. In addition, it helps in making VDD based on the experience of the customer. They may include understanding clients behavior, feelings, and thoughts across the journey. This will help me ensure customers needs and goals are made. I also learned the importance of journey mapping as a design tool. This tool contains information about the challenges we face as an organization. Knowing the problem will prepare managers to identify the possible issues they may encounter towards the journey to a successful life (Farrell Hooker, 2011). Principles of design thinking The next activity we learned about principles of design thinking. This is guidelines to follow when designing something they involve explore, assess, build prototypes and find new ideas. This topic will help me to explore the issue in varying perspectives to determine whether being focused on the issue (see blog # 3). After assessing ideas I will be able to find the right solution. This shows how design thinking follows a predetermined guide to reach a solution Design thinking is used by many professionals. It helps eLearning professionals, organizations, individuals and learners to perform their duties. Through design thinking users of the internet are able to design applications on their phones, institutions portal to enable customers to solve their problems easily and faster (see blog # 10). Schools have been able to design students and staff portal to enable them to manage their activities. Students now days are able to online exam interact with lecturers online. They also use social media platforms for communication and socialization. It is a solution to most challenges. This helped me to know how design thinking in eLearning benefit can be used to integrate instructions and develop a future process in achieving performance. I learned that in any organization there are challenges that the company or an individual face. For us to identify the problem we have to ask the client about how they have benefited from the problem. There are several ways of identifying a problem from the organization or customer. These include survey, use a questionnaire or face to face interview. In our case face to face, the interview is preferred because it will enable us to generate immediate feedback and solution (see blog # 10). I noticed that individual interview would help managers find problems in some products by asking users. Interview questions are part of design thinking for product assessment to gather more information about the problem as well getting responses from the respondents (Gerber Carroll , 2012). We need to seek opinions and suggest new ideas to solve and improve the problem. Many of us are surprised by the story clients to give (Alves, Marques, Visser, 2006). We generated the effects of the application to the owner. From the lesson to my surprise the task revealed the real problem and solutions many of us do. The effects, solutions, and feedback will help us find solutions in order to improve on our activities in the organization (Liedtka, 2014). Design thinking and communication Communication involves passing information from one group to another. It involves the sender, receiver, feedback, and message. For information to reach the receiver there has to be a channel through which information passes. For communication to be complete, the receiver has to send feedback. Poor channels of communication may result in misunderstanding of the message (see blog # 3). Interpretation and understanding of message will help in passing the correct message. One can pass information in pictorial representation in relation to what he wants to pass using design thinking. From this activity, I learned the importance of communication channel in a large group. It is difficult to give the right solution when the problem is misunderstood (Beckman Speer, 2006). I learned why I should follow instruction while passing information from one group to another. In addition, I discovered why I should ask for clarity and feedback in order to pass message in the correct manner in whichever circumstance not only in the unit. This will help me to give the right solution to the problem at hand. In the activity of presentation, communication applied whereby each and every group member speak in the classroom and another person writes on the board. This taught me listening and confidence in passing information (see blog #12). As part of the sessions activity, we must be able to apply the knowledge of design thinking in real life situations. It is clear that sometimes the organization may not realize their weaknesses but through the customers, they find issues and correct them. If you are a manager you can ask clients how they find the company and using their feedback you can build on the strategies for improvement (see blog # 11). We used at least 10 designs techniques to elaborate the concept. Of development, mind mapping, journey mapping, visualization, brainstorming, prototyping, value chain analysis, and test assumptions were used. During the class, we presented various problems and their solutions using design tool. I noticed that students have good ideas and must make use of them to make innovative products in order to be competitive in the market (Brown, 2009). This motivated me and prepared me for the future concerning my career as a management design student. From the activity, I learned many thi ngs including preparation for a good product development, applications of design tools on different problems, how to manage clients in terms of time specification. Conclusion The design is linked to future improvements based on building up ideas. The objective of design thinking course was to help me as an entrepreneur design better products through innovation. The purpose was to help in personal and organizational development. Through problem stages of problem identification, I will be able to use the design thinking to help me to develop an innovative and practical solution to problems. Through the end of the course, I will be able to develop an understanding of the important phases and approaches in design thinking and learn how to implement new skills and knowledge in career and personal life. This will help me in building an effective solution to the problem. For one to be innovative he or she needs to use design thinking to brainstorm the idea. The process of design thinking will help me to extract, learn, teach and apply the techniques in solving issues in an innovative and creative way. This shows how design thinking helps designers, employees, ma nagers, and freelancers to do their activities. For entrepreneurs I suggest: We teach staff on design thinking to help influence the culture of any start-up business and in the field of business.it will help them to learn how to get out of problems within a short period. It gives a basis for understanding users. The design thinking approaches used is observation and empathy. It will entrepreneurs reflect on customers behaviour which will help them solve managerial issues in future. Design thinking is user-friendly. It involves understanding motivations and needs. It requires teamwork. This will help entrepreneurs to learn and get new ideas. Design thinking is an important tool to strategy development and business changes. Therefore, making use of design thinking process will affect the whole country in terms of growth and customer satisfaction. References Adams, R., Daly, S. R., Mann, L. M. (2011). A professional: Three lenses into design thinking, acting and being. Design Studies, Chicago. Alves, J., Marques, M. J., Visser, M. (2006). Stimulation of creativity and innovation in a small multidisciplinary NPD team. Paper presented at the RD Management Conference. Taiwan.: Taipei Hsinchu, Beckman, S., Speer, L. (2006). Learning about design: Observations from ten years of new product development class projects. America: Industrial Designers Society of America. Blank , S., Dorf, B. (2012). The startup owner's manual: The step-by-step guide to building a great company. Pescadero: CA: KS Ranch. Brown, T. (2008, 06 23). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, pp. 85-92. Brown, T. (2009). Change by design: How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York: NY. Doorley, S., Witthoft, S. (2012). Make space: How to set the stage for creative collaboration. Hoboken, NJ: John Whiley Sons. Dorst, K. (2011). The core of design thinking and its application. Design Studies, 521-532. Farrell, R., Hooker, C. (2011). Design, science, and wicked problems. Design Studies. NJ. Gerber, E., Carroll , M. (2012). The psychological experience of prototyping. Design Studies, NJ. Liedtka, J. (2000, 06 34). In defense of strategy as design. California Management Review, p. 45. Liedtka, J. (2014). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Managment, 925.

George Carlin Essay Research Paper George CarlinWhen free essay sample

George Carlin Essay, Research Paper George Carlin ? When JFK Jr. gets into a New York cab to travel to the airdrome does he state, ? Take me to JFK, and how does he experience about that.1? ? I don? Ts like voguish nutrients. When I hear saut? ed boneless coon bear inguen, ? I think I? m in the incorrect topographic point. There is such a thing as pretentious nutrient. Puree of groundhog, marinated chiropteran mammillas, weasel chops, hedgehog cacciatore. Or fried bird of Jove. ? A cat said to me late C? Monday we? ll go to Baxter? s, they have truly good fried eagle. ? I? m believing do I truly wan na cognize this individual 2? There you have it two good illustrations that give you the penetration to the head of George Carlin. George Carlin was born on May 12, 1938, in Manhattan? s Morningside Heights. Which as Carlin grew up he called? White Harlem. We will write a custom essay sample on George Carlin Essay Research Paper George CarlinWhen or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 3? In 1940 Carlin pa, a newspaper advertizer died, and forced his female parent to travel to work to back up the household. Working as a secretary, George and his brother Patrick, spent much of there clip entirely around the house and the vicinity. Because he was, entirely a batch Carlin became a rough critic of the universe around him. Carlin was a category buffoon in school, neer turned in his prep, and when he did, it was so sloppy that you would necessitate the Rosetta Stone to decode it. At the age of 14, Carlin began to see through organized faith and that prompted him to drop out of Catholic high school. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the Air Force, and was assigned a radio detection and ranging machinist on the B-47 aeroplanes. There in Shreveport La. He met a wireless station proprietor, Joe Monroe, of KJOE. There he was asked to disc- jockey and be a newscaster. By the clip, he was twenty ; he had his equivalency sheepskin, military duty completed and had three old ages ra dio experience. After his discharge from the Air Force, he moved from wireless station, to radio station. In Fort Worth, Texas, he met up with Jack Burns, and Carlin now had person to feed off. The peddled their act to local cafes and even graced The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1962, Burns broke up with Carlin, and he reassessed his act. Furthermore, for three old ages he sat around and absorbed all of the dirt the universe was acquiring into. In Late 1965 he appeared on the Merv Griffen Show and evolved the? News Caste, ? and Wonderful Wino. Fo R five old ages, he used the Wino/Caste act, but so in 1970 he had a disclosure: ? I? m pissed off! ? 4 Then, shortly after his Las Vegas show was cancelled because of fowl linguistic communication. The revolution had begun. Before this, cartoon strips and histrions had to be careful about what they said on wireless or telecasting. Nevertheless, Carlin broke those regulations, stating what was on his head and so some. A supreme Satirist, Carlin abused anything and everything, from Nixon to the Beatles. The large event came in 1972 when Carlin was arrested at Summerfest in Milwaukee, for making his Seven Words You Can? t Say on Television After that his popularity skyrocketed, he brought up freedom of address issues and the populace listened. One critic wrote, ? Carlin is physical and abashed up at that place. He lurches about like an orangutan pausing to make impromptu callisthenicss or to unburden his voice box with a few oinks, croaky growls, or cardinal shrieks. His repertory of gestures and subverbal sounds is that of teenage lout in an rapture of ennui? the category buffoon in short. In shutting, I will go forth you with a quotation mark, 5? You Know when you? re In a Small Town When: 1. The eating house closes at tiffin so the waitress can travel place and eat. 2. The city manager? s name is? Greasy Dick, and besides looking on the ballot it besides is on his drivers license. 3. The Fashion Boutique/Post Office is located in one corner of the hardware shop between the used milking machines, and the wage lavatory. 4. The constabulary station is closed eventides and weekends, but is has lit mark that gives clip and temperature. 5. The newspaper prints the crossword mystifier on the front-page right above the crease and the replies right below. 6. The nothing codification has three figures and has a denary point. 7. The Narcotics Anonymous Chapter has merely one member and he whacked out on spread dressing. Bibliography: George Carlin, Brain Droppings ( Easton Press, 1997 ) Charles Moritz, Current Biography ( H.W. Wilson, 1976 ) Footnotes: 1. George Carlin, Brain Droppings ( Easton Press,1997 ) 259 2. Carlin 8 3. Carlin 23 4. Carlin 65 5. Carlin 21 Bibliography Brain dungs

Alternate Dispute Resolution at Darden Restaurants and Hooters of America Essays

Alternate Dispute Resolution at Darden Restaurants and Hooters of America Essays Alternate Dispute Resolution at Darden Restaurants and Hooters of America Paper Alternate Dispute Resolution at Darden Restaurants and Hooters of America Paper ADR at Darden Restaurants and Hooters of America More companies are turning to alternate dispute resolution (ADR) as an alterative to the judicial system for settling employee disputes. There are some clear advantages and disadvantages to ADR for both employers and employees. The best-designed ADR programs are those that are fair and impartial. A good ADR program should seek to find the best possible outcome for both parties while saving time and money and preserving relationships. The least effective ADR programs tend to be unfair and perpetuate the imbalance and bargaining power discrepancy frequently found in employer-employee relationships. In this paper, I will compare the ADR programs of Darden Restaurants and Hooters of America. My basis for comparison will be measured primarily on how well they address the advantages of ADR equally for the employer and the employee. It should be noted that Darden’s is considered to be a model program due to its comprehensiveness and fairness. By contrast – perhaps unsurprisingly – it is disappointing to see that Hooters has constructed an ADR program that offers little justice to its employees. Advantages of using ADR ADR can save vast amounts of time and money. While lawsuits can take years and thousands of dollars to settle, through ADR, conflicts can often be resolved in a matter of weeks or months at a greatly reduced cost. There are potential savings in court costs, attorney fees, and expert witness fees when a dispute is settled through mediation, arbitration, or a combination of both. Potential disadvantages of ADR are the wasted time and increased cost that are incurred when a dispute goes through ADR but still ends up in court. At Darden, there are four ways to resolve workplace disputes – Open Door Policy, Peer Review, Mediation, and Arbitration. Each is designed to encourage settlement without litigation and each is promoted as an effective alternative to litigation that is fair to all parties. The first step toward resolving disputes at Darden is use of the open door policy. If the employee is not satisfied with the first three steps of the ADR program mentioned above, the matter can move on to the final step: arbitration. The court has determined that the Darden program appears to meet the legal tests for ADR. It is important to note that Darden does not expect to reduce expenses via reduction in the payout of damages and compensation to employees with legitimate claims; rather, their expected cost savings lies in reducing court-related fees. In stark contrast, Hooters’ ADR program is a one-sided agenda designed to help the company win arbitration cases and save time and money. The ADR program takes advantage of the company’s superior bargaining power: employees must sign the agreement to arbitrate disputes in order to be eligible for raises, transfers, and promotions. Employees are allowed only five days to review and decide if they will accept or reject the agreement. Hooters’ ADR agreement states that the company has the right to change the rules and procedures at any time – even while in the midst of an arbitration proceeding – without notice. In addition, the rules require employees to disclose their cases to the company, along with a list of witnesses and a record of facts known to each witness. Hooters, meanwhile, is not required to reciprocate by disclosing the details of its defense. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit summed it up by stating that the Hooters rules are â€Å"so one-sided that their only purpose is to undermine the neutrality of the (arbitration) proceeding. † The basis for a workable ADR program is that it should guarantee neutrality; a neutral party is hired or retained to hear and decide on cases. At Darden, the choice of a neutral party is governed by outside rules preventing abuse in the selection of a biased arbitrator or mediator. The neutrals at the proceedings are experts belonging to the American Arbitration Association (AAA). AAA is a public-service, non-profit organization serving businesses and government. Meanwhile, Hooters’ mechanism for selecting a panel of three arbitrators is crafted to ensure a biased decision maker. The employee and the company each select an arbitrator. These two arbitrators in turn select the third arbitrator. The biggest problem with this process is that all of the arbitrators must be selected from a list created exclusively by the company. Hooters can nominate its managers or select arbitrators who have a financial interest in the company to be placed on the list. Anyone deemed as being against the company can be taken off the list. ADR is a legitimate and potentially highly beneficial alternative to litigation, and its use can save employers and employees both time and money. ADR can decrease the adversarial dynamic between parties and offer greater flexibility in settlements. Further, it provides the potential to preserve business relationships. Darden Restaurants has a good ADR program that addresses these issues.

Report about Greece Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Report about Greece - Essay Example This has been the state of affairs affecting Greece. This paper looks at the turnaround experienced by Greece through analysis of the country’s GDP growth and its economic performance of the region. The GDP of Greece since 2008 has been on the rocks according to statistics provided by the World Bank (2014). The nation has experienced a mere 0.46 percent growth since this time with a low of -2.80 percent in 2010 (Tradingecomomics, 2014). Based on this, it is clear that the nation is facing an economic crisis. Despite this there is, the nation is forecasted to do better as it is now picking up from the low it experienced as shown in the graph below. From the above, one can see that the GDP of the state has been taking a downward trend, but has picked up in the last few years. This can be attributed to the reforms placed in the employment sector. According to BBC’s Mark Lowen (2014), through the job cuts and firm restructures, the rate of unemployment has reached an all time high of 28 percent and contrasts the turnaround experienced by the nation in terms of economic growth. Before, at least 50,000 jobs a year were made available to the citizens of the nation and the economy was growing at 5 percent annually. After the crash, the inverse was experienced with the rate of growth plummeting and the unemployment rate increasing rapidly. In accordance with Herbert Grubel (2013), the problem resulted from the instability of prices. That is to say inflation caused by those in government. The problem began when wages were reduced, resulting in the leaders increasing the nominal wages in the public sector. The higher wager resulted in the printing of more money, increasing the deficit experienced by the nation. All this resulted in inflation in the region and led to the collapse of the Greece economy and thus the increased rate of unemployment and the fall in the growth of the GDP. According to N. Roubini (As cited by George Alogoskoufis, 2012),

History of Health and Human Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

History of Health and Human Services - Essay Example The development of human services is thus affected by the beliefs and values held by the society over time. Since beliefs and values keep changing, the human services field develops accordingly.3 The current health and human services can thus be viewed as representing the current attitudes, beliefs, and values of the contemporary American society. There are also questions as to which group of people and the types of problems should be helped, to what extent and how. Many people and events have also shaped the development and direction of the field. This paper will try to outline the history of Heath and Human Services field from the start of US history up until the year 1880. It will try to explain the main pioneers of this field among other issues such as the main Acts. However, it will first give a brief history of the era before US independence in order to understand the development of the field better and its foundation. Pre-independence Era The US human services are based on the Elizabethan poor laws of 1601 of England. According to Woodside and McClam this law guided the social welfare practices in England and US for the next 350 years by specifying who was to provide what services to those in need.4 Before inception of this law, the early communities used to believe that diseases were caused by supernatural beings such as demons. The work of medicine men was thus to exorcise the evil spirits. As society progressed, so did their beliefs and development of human services field. The Hippocrates were more civilized began to attribute diseases and disabilities to brain malfunction as opposed to demons. Diseases were thus treatable with use of exercise, vegetable diets and change of lifestyle.5 The renaissance era marked the beginning of formal state intervention in provision of social services. The state established the poor laws which segregated people into three categories. The poor were placed in shelters and some were sent to poorhouse or almshouse. These houses were under poor conditions and lacked essential services; they were congested, food was in short supply not forgetting the stigma associated with such houses. Most people were against helping the poor and saw it as a means of promoting laziness. The situation was worsened by the industrial revolution. There was growth of urban centers due to introduction of the factory system. This led to mass migration of people from rural to urban areas hence an increase in urban poor and prompting the need for public institutions to cater for them.6 The new beliefs during this period were centered on the protestant work ethic. This was the belief that hard work portrays virtuousness and deserves to be rewarded while laziness deserved punishment.7 As such, wealth was considered as the reward for hard work and poverty as punishment from God. This philosophy was neither considerate of the poor in society nor those with disabilities or could not find a job. The poor were not to be helped but to be encouraged to work hard so as to earn a living and improve their well-being. The introduction of the less eligibility concept was geared towards encouraging people to work. It maintained that assistance given was to be lower than the lowest wage paid to any working person.8

The Turnover Culture In The Hotel Industry

The Turnover Culture In The Hotel Industry Part B Abstract It is revealed that high labor turnover is a major global problem in hotel industry. The human resource management in the hotel industry is facing challenge about retaining employees and minimizes the turnover. Therefore, it is worth to investigate about the human resource management in the hotel industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the labor turnover in hotel industry, and its associated the factors affecting the labor turnover and how to manage the labor turnover. The labor turnover in hotel industry is influenced by the work related factors, external factors and external factors. According to some statistics, the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry is very high. Moreover, some retention strategy are propose to overcome the labor turnover are discussed including training, employee motivation and employee recognition. Section 1 : Introduction Reason for choice of topic The tourism industry is the leading industry in many countries. Hong Kong tourism industry contributing $162.8 billion or 10.8% of gross domestic product in 2009(http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/, http://www.tourism.gov.hk/textonly/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html ) and Thailand tourism industry generate 6.5% of gross domestic product in 2008 (http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism.asp). Accommodation is an essential element of tourism service and it is vital to the quality of the tourist experience, as it constitutes a major part of consumption. This study is to investigate the labor turnover in the hotel organization. It is general known that the hospitality industry has a major challenge about the labor turnover and staff stability rates. These problems are usually occur in the front-line staff as it is related to a lot of unfavorable working conditions in hotel, such as the long working hours, unstable working schedule and lack of promotion opportunities. Therefore, many people are not willing to enter to the hotel industry or some people have work for many years in hotel industry but shift to another industry because of those unfavorable working conditions. Besides, the human resource management in the hotel industry are facing some serious problems about retaining the employees and recruits the right people to fill in the right job. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the factors that cause the front-line employees to quit the job. In addition, to discuss what the human resource management can do to retain the st aff and manage the labor turnover in the hotel organization. Another reason for choosing this topic to study is the authors want to become the human resource manager in a hotel. Therefore, it is vital that the author have a clear understanding of what challenges that the human resource management are facing and to use the specific approach to overcome those problems. 1.2 Academic objectives of dissertation This paper aims to achieve the followings objectives: To find out what is the meaning of labor turnover and have an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry To discuss the factors that influence labor turnover in hotel industry. To explain the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry. To find out what the human resource management can do to managing the labor turnover. Outline of sections In section 1, the author talked about her reason for choice this topic and the major objectives through this project. In section 2, the authors explained the concepts of labor turnover briefly and provide an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry. In section 3, the author would explain the factors influence the turnover in the hotel industry and have an understanding of the cost of labor turnover. It could help to show the labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry. Moreover, in section 4, the author wants to make others understand how to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry. Finally in section 5, would be the summary and conclusion about this project. Section 2: Literature review 2.1 What is labor turnover? According to Price (1977, p.15) the term turnover is defined as the ratio of the number of organization members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period and also each time a position is vacated, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995, p. 345). Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover affects both workers and firms: workers may need to learn new job-specific skills, whilst firms incur the costs of hiring and training new workers (Brown et. al., 2009). The new workers may be more highly motivated and more highly skilled. Hence, turnover may enhance firm performance. However, high labor turnover causes problems for the firm as it is costly, lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary, where the employees leave of their own free will, and involuntary, where the employer decides that employment should terminate. Retirement can fall into either category (Boella, 2000). Most often the voluntary turnover arises where some employees leave to escape negative work environment factors and other are pulled away from the organization by more attractive opportunities and Cheng and Brown (1998) stated that people quit their job for many reasons, but most reasons are not related to management. In recent study, the involuntary turnover can applied to those employees have a poor performance or have did some serious mistakes then the organization would encourage them to quit than fire them. 2.2 The turnover culture in the hotel industry Everyone knows that the hotel industry is a highly labor-intensive industry but the high labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. Some theorists such as Mobley (1977), Price (1977), Price and Mueller (1986) identified a range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover. According to the research Griffith University, the primary reason for managerial and operational turnover was voluntary resignation, followed by an internal transfer. Performance related terminations were very low. The main motivating factors for executives, managerial and supervisory staff to change jobs, within the hotel industry, were better career opportunities and better working hours. Changing jobs outside the industry was primarily motivated by higher salaries, working hours and better career opportunities. The data suggests that higher wages and better working hours are the major drivers for managerial employees to leave. Similarly, operational staff seek better wages, better working hours and improved career opportunities. In the pervious years, a small among of staff in hotel industry will stay for longer than five years but the voluntary turnover is gradually increase compared with the last decades. According to Kennedy and Berger (1994, p. 58) they stated that, in the hospitality industry, the highest turnover occurred during the first 4 weeks (in employment). The cause of turnover is often poor human resource decisions and the unmet expectations of newcomers. 2.3 Factors affecting employee intent to leave in the hotel industry There are many factors affecting employee turnover. According to a widely accepted though, employees usually quit their jobs because of lack of wages. However, many studies show that there are also many complex factors affecting employee turnover other than wage, such as the management of the company, economics, and psychology. In the following section, some factors affecting employee turnover are discussed. 2.3.1 Work Related Factors The work related factors are other factors that will influence the labor turnover in the hotel industry. The following section will mainly focus on the job satisfaction, pay, working environment, work performance, promotion opportunities and the organization commitment how to influence the labor turnover. 2.3.1.1 Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities (Khatri et. al., 2003). According to Davis (1981), job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. In addition, Oshagbemi (2000) has defined job satisfaction as individuals positive emotional reaction to particular job. The term job satisfaction is considered an attribute that exists as the equity of a variety of desired and non-desired job-related experiences. It is also defines as the degree of fit between the features of a job and employees expectations. In addition, there are researchers who view that job satisfaction is a result of both employees expectations and aspirations and their existing status (Clark Oswald, 1996). When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job, and the basic reason is that they expect to have a more sati sfying job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers. Price and Mueller (1981) stated that job satisfaction has an indirect influence on turnover through its direct influence on formation of intent to leave. Another study stated that employees with higher degree of trust would have higher levels of job satisfaction in the hospitality industry (Gill, 2008). 2.3.1.1.1 Pay According to the past study, the average annual wages of hotel are very low compare with the other industries such as the IT technology and education industry. A low starting salary is found in the frontline department in the hotel industry such as the housekeeping, Food and Beverage and front office. It was shown that dissatisfaction with pay is among the significant factors responsible for turnover (Pavesic and Brymer, 1990; Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Pay is received by the staff and money is equivalent to staffs effort to provide service. The salary, compensation and fringe benefit received by the staff are also the pay. Therefore, if the pay is increase, it can reduce the labor turnover. The relationship between pay and job satisfaction has received considerable attention (Churchill, FordWalker, 1974; Lawler, 1995). The pay was the most important job attribute contributing to job satisfaction in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Therefore, higher pay is significantly related to greater job satisfaction. The staff will be more satisfied with their job when the actual pay is more than the expected pay. The other situation that causes the staff to be more likely to leave their organization is that when they perceive that they are receiving lower salary but they know the other people elsewhere are offered better pay. Therefore, offering higher wages than competing organization will enable the organization to retain some talented worker. 2.3.1.1.2 The work itself The work itself is a critical dimension in employee job satisfaction (Luthans, 1992; Lawler, 1995; Qu, Ryan Chu, 2001; Groot Van Den Brink, 1999) and Glisson and Durick (1988) considered the worker and the nature of the work itself as two important factors affecting job satisfaction. The internal satisfactory factors are related to the work itself, such as: feeling of achievement, feeling of independence, self-esteem, feeling of control and other similar feelings obtained from work. And the external satisfactory factors such as: receiving praise from the boss, good relationships with colleagues, good working environment, high salary, good welfare and utilities. There is a relationship between job satisfaction and stress. Barsky, Thoresen, Warren and Kaplan(2004) argued that high level of work stress will be decrease the job satisfaction and finally leaving the organization because workers feel their job duties are difficult to fulfill. Price (1977) divided job stress into four types: lack of resources to perform, the amount of workload, the clarity of the role obligations and the role conflict. Those job stresses will also make the employees intent to quit the organization. 2.3.1.1.3 The supervision Supervision, being one of the dimensions of job satisfaction (Rust et al., 1996), is defined from the employee-centeredness perspective, it is manifested in ways such as checking to see how well the subordinate is doing, providing advice and assistance to the individual, and communicating with the worker on a personal as well as an official level (Luthans, 1992, pp. 121-122). Some information show that, satisfaction with supervisor will influence job satisfaction positively and finally decrease the labor turnover. If the supervisor provide more concern and social support to the employees, they will be more satisfy and the turnover will be decrease. 2.3.1.1.4 The promotion opportunities Price (2001) stated that promotion opportunities are the potential degree of movement to a higher level status within an organization. The promotion opportunities are also the important category to define the employees are satisfy or dissatisfy, because promotion opportunities are usually associated with increase the salary. However, the result show that hotel sector are lack of promotion opportunities rather than not having enough fair promotion policy (Iverson and Derry. 1997). Due to the hotel industry are lack of promotion opportunities, it will reduce the chance to retain the talented employees in the organization. When employees suffering from unfair treatment, they will change their job attitude immediately and may quit in long run (Vigoda, 2000). 2.3.1.2 The Organization Commitment According to Pennstate (2006), organizational commitment is the relative strength of an employees attachment or involvement with the organization where he or she is employed. Organizational commitment is important because committed employees are less likely to leave for another job and are more likely to perform at higher levels. There are three dimensions of organizational commitment, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Turnover literature has consistently found a strong relationship between turnover and organizational commitment, indicating that employees with low commitment are likely to withdraw from the organization. Alternatively, a positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and career progress or internal promotions indicating that promoted employees are more likely to exhibit higher organizational commitment. 2.3.1.3 Work Performance Employees work performance is another factor affecting labor turnover. According to a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (2003), it was found that the employees having high performance were not willing to leave their jobs. At this point of view, if the employees having low performance leave their jobs for any reasons, labor turnover is not an important matter for the company. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job performance. Low wages, exclusion from prizes, unsuitable jobs are also among the reasons causing low performance and high employee turnover. 2.3.1.4 Personal Reason Some employees also leave their jobs because of personal reasons. A principal reason that employees leave their jobs is lack of incentives (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Employees may simply want recognition or an opportunity in advance. For example, The Ritz Carlton Company has reduced employee turnover by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and orientation, establishing realistic career opportunities and creating long-term incentive and reward systems. 2.3.2 Demographic Factor Most voluntary turnover models include demographic variables such as age, gender, race, tenure, marital status, number of dependents, and educational experience. However, this paper only focuses on the level of education, gender, marital status and age. 2.3.2.1 Level of Education One of the major challenges of the hospitality industry is the retention of highly educated employees. We define highly educated staff as employees who have followed a higher education program at a bachelors or masters level successfully ( Deery and Shaw, 1999). Carbery et al. (2003) noted that those more highly educated managers or non-managers are more likely to intent to make a turnover decision. One research study by (Blomme et. al., 2010), it shows that among alumni of the Hotel School The Hague who are working worldwide has shown that within 6 years after graduation about 70% of all graduates from the hotel school The Hague leave the organization in which they are working. The more highly educated staff will be less easily satisfied with their jobs than those staff with lower education level because the highly educated staff have higher expectations in job status and salary and they may not be willing to join or stay in the hotel industry. In addition, the external labor market s will provide many opportunities for those highly educated people to satisfy their high expectation on financial benefit. (Wong, Siu Tseng, 1999) 2.3.2.2 Gender Some study noted that, the female and male have their particular behavior that would influence the labor turnover. According to a study conducted by(Doherty and Manfredi,2001:62), it was found that women workers leave their jobs more than men workers, because the roles of women have to taking care of children, having baby in a society and doing house work. In addition, Hersch and Stratton (1997) stated that women, especially married women, spend more time engaged in household activities and are substantially more prepared to quit their job for a family-related reason than men . Some women workers also do not want to return to their jobs after having baby. On the other hand, the study conducted by Tang and Talpade (1999), it stated that males tended to have higher satisfaction with pay than females, whereas females tended to have higher satisfaction with co-workers than males. Its means that women tend to rate social needs as more important than men such as working with people and being helpful to other. Men tend to consider pay more important than do women. Women often begin their careers with much lower expectations than men do and they are willing to take career risks and change employers to do so. Finally, women workers usually work at the entry level jobs in hotel and accordingly get less pay than their men co-workers. According to a study conducted by Iverson (2000) in the USA, it was found that women managers in hotel got very less wages than men managers whether in the beginning or top of their careers. In a similar study, it was found that men workers got more wages than women workers got (Burgess, 2000). It was also found that in order to balance the wage differences among men and women workers, basic and routine job were given to women workers than men workers. 2.3.2.3 Marital Status According to Pizam and Ellis (1999), it stated that marital status could influence labor turnover. Those married employees are most concerned with the balance between their work and family life. Hom and Griffeth (1995),stated that married employees will not want to have a voluntary turnover. Because they have many concerns about the financial needs for their family. If they cannot afford the long and unstable working hours, they will tend to give up the job. However, this issue mostly occurs on women. Therefore, they will have more time for family life and take care of their child. On the other side, the unmarried employees will consider factors related to their jobs such as promotion opportunities and organization commitment more than those married employees (Wong, Siu Tsang, 1999). Therefore, they are less satisfied with their job than married employees. 2.3.2.4 Age In recent study, Hartman and Yrle (1996) points out that the Generation Y employee mostly creates the labor turnover in hospitality industry. In addition, the study conducted by Iverson and Deery (1997), it stated that younger employees have a higher propensity to leave than older employees. The problem was arisen in this decade; as the employees born in the baby boomer are retire gradually. The baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964. They have been through periods of war; therefore have less opportunity in education institutions. They tend to demand more stability in their workplace, and they are very loyalty to their employees. On the other hand, the Generation Y employee who was born between the years 1979 and 1994, they can adapt the changes easily and seek a higher standard of life therefore, they consider more about their interest in the work. Furthermore, they usually change their job, as they want to gain more experience and make their life more diversity. 2.3.3 External Factors The external factors are the factors that we cannot control and very difficult to predict. Some of these factors include political shifts, legislation, new or modified regulations, global economic conditions, technology changes and major mining disasters. In some study, the hotel industry is quite easily influenced by the global economic conditions. The economic situation could predict most of the labor turnover within the industry. Therefore, the unemployment rate affects the employees perception on job satisfaction. If the economic is down turn, the employees who perceive a high level of job dissatisfaction, they may still stay in organization because they dont want to lose their current job and also the job market is a lack of opportunities for them to get a better job. On the other hand, if the economic condition have improve, the employees will leave the organization immediately to find a better job. Therefore, it may create the high level of labor turnover when the economic have improved. In the later part of the literature will focus on how to manage the labor turnover in order to minimize the labor turnover within the hotel industry. 2.4 The cost of labor turnover In the previous section, some of the critical factors that affect the labor turnover are discussed. The following section will focus on the cost of labor turnover and its impact. Labor turnover is a significant cost to hotel and it may be the most significant factor affecting hotel profitability, service quality and skills training. (Davidson et. al., 2009). The cause of labor turnover is multidimensional, such as low morale, low productivity, low standard of performance and absenteeism. According to the statistics from TTF Australia(2006), the annual cost of replacing managerial employees was $109,909 per hotel and the annual cost of replacing operational employees was $9,591 per employee. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). Another study stated that the Marriott Corporation alone estimated that each 1% increase in its employee turnover rate, costs the company between $5 and $15 million in lost revenues (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991).Therefore, the cost of labor turnover is very high. Labour turnover is not only a significant tangible dollar cost but also an intangible or hidden cost associated with loss of skills, inefficiency and replacement costs (Lashley Chaplain, 1999). The direct impact of labor turnover will cause financial suffering such as administrative cost and Lashley (1999) refers to lost investment in training and lost staff expertise as particular examples of turnover costs and opportunity costs. For the indirect impacts caused by high labor turnover are lack of manpower, poor quality of service and low morale of employees and also if turnover increases, service quality may decline as it takes time and resources to back fill departing employees, especially at busy hotels (Lynn, 2002). Labour is a significant cost and the leakage of human capital through unnecessary turnover is an element of critical importance to bottom line performance. A number of HRM practices have been suggested as potential solutions for turnover, such as investment in training, offering organisational support, adopting innovative recruitment and selection processes, offering better career opportunities (Cheng Brown, 1998; Forrier Sels, 2003; Hinkin Tracey, 2000; Walsh Taylor, 2007; Walters Raybould, 2007) and adopting measures to increase job satisfaction and commitment. 2.5 How to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry? High staff turnover is the common problem in hotel industry, it is also a major factor affecting workplace efficiency, productivity, and hotel cost structure. Labor turnover represents a challenge for contemporary HRM strategies and practices. Therefore, in this section, it will turn to focus on how to manage the labor turnover from the human resources perspective. In the previous section, the cost of labor turnover in the hotel is discussed. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). The turnover cost are very high, thus the awareness of the importance of employees staying with an organization is evident. Hinkin and Tracey (2000) advocate that hospitality executives who understand the value of human capital and adopt organizational policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will outperform the competition. Effectively designed and well implemented employee retention programs that increase employee tenure more than pay for themselves through reduced turnover costs and increased productivity (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000). According to 2500 supervisors, managers and executives within this sector, the top five most important aspects a company can provide to retain their people are as follows: communication, Leadership, Career path, development and understanding aspirations and helping the individual towards achieving them.(Baum ,2006) This shows that, the employee are highly concern for this five elements to determine their job satisfaction. Therefore, when HRM design for a retention scheme, they can consider those five elements before their decision. 2.5.1 Training In organizations where employees receive the proper training needed to assume greater responsibilities, turnover rates are generally lower. Several studies show that training activities are correlated with productivity and retention (Delery and Doty, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Kallenberg and Moody, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Shaw et al., 1998; Terpstra and Rozell, 1993; US Department of Labor, 1993, Walsh and Taylor, 2007; Youndt et al., 1996). Staff is a unique asset in the company. Therefore, many hotel have invest a huge number of money per year for staff development. Because they realize that provide training to their employees would enhance the organization produtivity and improve their job performance. For the long-term purpose, training can solve the problem of high labor turnover in a hotel. Moreover, the hotel industry are now have a general shortage of the middle management staff. Therefore, the training should be around to develop and train new management personnel. For example, in 2004 Shangri-La Hotel Resorts Shangri-La Academy was born, this is a full-time facility that handles internal training for progression up the ranks. In addition, the Intercontinental Hotel Group also launched an in-house training center in order to groom their high potential employees to take on managerial positions within their company. Those measures of the Shangri-La Hotel and the Intercontinental Hotel Group is to do the retention of their employees and confront the trend of shortage of experienced staff and try to minimize the labor turnover. 2.5.2 Motivate the employee Staff motivation is as vital to success as any skill or personal attribute and its also plays a key role in staff retention. Motivation is the process by which a persons efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal.(Stephen Coulter, 2006:482) . Staff motivation is a key element in retaining staff and help them increase the job satisfaction thus the labor turnover rate may be decrease. It is essential for the management of hotels to develop efficient HRM polices and practices that enable them to motivate competent employees who can contribute to the achievement of their objectives. This requires employees at different levels of management and at different stages in their career in order to maintain high morale and high performance (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). If hotel managers can satisfy their employees, it will help them to improve customer satisfaction in the long run and retain them. (Tsaur and Lin, 2004). 2.5.3 Employee recognition, rewards and compensation Numerous studies have addressed the impact of employee compensation, rewards and recognition on turnover and retention. If the hotel manager gives more recognition, rewards and compensation to their employees, it can minimize the turnover. Several research studies found that highly competitive wage systems promote employee commitment and thus results in the attraction and retention of a superior workforce (Becker and Huselid, 1999; Guthrie, 2001; Shaw et al., 1998). Shaw et al.s (1998) study further noted that employees will remain with an organization as long as it serves their self-interest to do so better than the alternatives available to them elsewhere. The study also found that companies providing incentive plans to employees are more likely to experience lower turnover rates among non-managerial employees. Milman (2003) concluded that the most significant retention predictors included intrinsic fulfillment and working conditions rather than monetary rewards. Similarly, the study by Walsh and Taylor (2007) revealed that although compensation and work-life balance are important, it is the absence of opportunity for professional growth and development that affects management retention and turnover (Walsh andTaylor, 2007). Section 3: Summary and Conclusions Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover may enhance firm performance but high labor turnover causes problems for the firm such as lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary and involuntary. High labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. A range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover. The reasons of labor turnover in hotel industry can be classified as work related factors, demographic factors and external factors. For the work related factors, job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. It is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers.

Civil War Medicine :: essays research papers

Civil War Medicine In the Civil War era medical advances were few and so were surgeons. This time period is known in medical history as the â€Å"Medical Middle-Ages†. This was the beginning of the technology of today. In this time doctors or physicians were known as surgeons. At the beginning of the war the United States Medical Corp. consisted of less than one hundred people on staff. This included the United States Surgeon General, thirty-six surgeons, and many assistant surgeons. Soon after the war started twelve of the thirty-six surgeons left for the Confederacy. Though the Confederacy had few surgeons they kept up the pace very well. It was because the surgeons knew very little about diseases that two out of every three soldiers that died in the war died from disease. Most soldiers died from diseases such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough. There were also many deaths from the lack of cleanliness in the hospitals. In some cases they would reuse wound dressing and put some straw over used bedding and dirty floor. When the top layer got dirty they would put a new layer on. Most of this changed when women were allowed to help in care for the men. It was Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton who were first to offer their help followed by many women’s organizations. Most of the women who offered their help and support had to do so by voluntary acts. Dix was appointed Superintendent of Women Nurses. One of the standards that Dix established for her nurses was that they be plain looking and middle-aged. Recruits nicknamed her â€Å"Dragon Dix†. Contrary to popular belief surgeons did use anesthesia in most surgeries. It is stated by Geocities that â€Å"A patient only having a bullet to bite was basically a myth†.