Effect of Employee Satisfaction of Driving Customer Satisfaction Essay Example for Free

Effect of Employee Satisfaction of Driving Customer Satisfaction Essay Its common sense when people feel great about the place where they work†¦ they provide better customer service Dick Clark, Group leader of Financial services at Monsanto Customer satisfaction is the main aim of every organization running a business everywhere. Various level managers consider the importance of customer satisfaction and try to pass this issue to the lower levels that have direct contact with the customers. Those front-line employees should be satisfied themselves in order to deliver customer value. (bulgarella, 2005). Some researchers and business pioneers went further to include employees as internal customers whom they seek to satisfy their needs in order to make sure that they will do the same with the external customers (Harrison, 2003) and this highlights the direction towards the study on the employee satisfaction and its factors. In Egypt, employee satisfaction should be one of the most highlighted topics in every business field and should gain wider interest day after day. The emphasis on these kinds of studies will help improve the service standards and, consequently, raises the satisfaction levels of employees and external customers of any organization. From this perspective, the researchers decided to investigate the sense of career development and its effect on employee satisfaction (Research1 or R1). The second part of the research will be devoted to measure the effect of employee satisfaction on delivering customer satisfaction (Research2 or R2). The main research questions are designed as: Q1: How can the sense of career development affect employee satisfaction? Q2: what is the effect of employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction? Hypotheses: H1: Sense of career development has an effect on employee satisfaction. * Components of career development on this research paper are: * Quality of Employees ‘Lives. * Social and economic contribution to society. H2: sense of employee satisfactions affects Customer satisfaction. R1: The relation between sense of career development and employee satisfaction. When the researchers decided to define employee satisfaction, they called back the definition of the word satisfaction from the dictionary and it was found as gratification of an appetite and pleasure (Wilson Learning, 2006). Satisfaction researchers can never ignore Maslows human satisfaction pyramid that starts with physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem and self-actualization needs (Parvin, 2011) Scholars vary in their definitions to employee satisfaction; Reilly defines job satisfaction as the feeling that a worker has about his job or a general attitude towards work or a job and it is influenced by the perception of one’s job. (C.R.Reilly, 1991). Some employee-satisfaction theories depends mainly on the individual factor or the employee himself; employees objectives, age, social status, gender and education level have the major impact on determining the degree of his satisfaction and loyalty in his job (Ann, 1992) while others, such as Alan Witt, go in deeper analysis to study Fit or Lack of Fit or the Want-Have Dilemma between the employees requirements and the organizational offerings (Ann, 1992) Papers agree on a main drive for employee satisfaction in any organization; employers must work on enhancing the sense of career development for their employees. However, career development itself is a broad concept that needs to be clarified. Sears defined career development as the total group of physiological, sociological, educational, physical and economic factors that direct the individuals career (Patton McMahon, 2006). This definition classifies the components career development to: 1. Physiological component 2. Sociological component 3. Educational component 4. Physical component 5. Economic component When going to a deeper practical definition, Careers England, one of the most recognized organizations in career guidance industry that has a wide variety of partnerships with various associations (Careers England, 2012), defined career development as follows: Career development is the lifelong process of managing progression in learning and work. The quality of this process significantly determines the nature and quality of individuals’ lives: the kind of people they become, the sense of purpose they have, the income at their disposal. It also determines the social and economic contribution they make to the communities and societies of which they are part (Careers England, 2012) This definition analysis Career Development terminology to the following components * Quality of individuals lives * Social and economic contribution to society When linking both definitions together, the researchers can identify the main components of career development to two main categories 1. Quality of individual lives: a. Salary paid to employees b. working conditions c. physiological and safety needs d. the purpose they have 2. Contribution to society * Achievements and contribution to society economically and socially R2: the relation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. To measure the degree of employee satisfactions effect on customer satisfaction, the meaning of customer satisfaction should be clear for the researches and the readers; A comprehensive definition of customer satisfaction in terms of pleasurable fulfillment is given by Oliver (1997): â€Å"satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, providing (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including under or over fulfillment† (Siskos, 2010) According to an exhaustive review of Yi (1991), customer satisfaction may be defined into 2 basic ways: either as an outcome, or as a process: 1- The first approach defines satisfaction as a final situation or as an end-state resulting from the consumption experience. 2- The second approach emphasizes the perceptual, evaluative and psychological process that contributes to satisfaction. (Siskos, 2010) (R2) will try to measure the degree of dependence of both factors on each other through surveys with employees and customers. Bibliography Ann, M. (1992). A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP. SOUTHWEST TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY, Political Science. Texas: The Digital Library. attia, s. (2008). Healthcare quality and moder. emerald insight, 3. bulgarella, C. (2005). Employee Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction. Guide Star rerearch. C.R.Reilly. (1991). Organizational Behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, pp. 427- 458. Careers England. (2012). MAKING A POSITIVE IMPACT. Careers England. Careers England. Careers England. (2012). Why Career Development Matters. 1. Harrison, C. (2003, 11). Turning Customer Service Inside Out! Retrieved 10 1, 2012, from expressionsofexcellence.com: http://www.expressionsofexcellence.com/ARTICLES/InsideCS.html Parvin, M. (2011, December). FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION OF PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, 1, 115. Patton, W., McMahon, M. (2006). Career Development and Systems Theory. QueensLand university, Faculty of Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Siskos, E. G. (2010). Customer Satisfaction Evaluation. Greece: Springer Science+Business Media. Wilson Learning. (2006). Redefining employee satisfaction: business performance, employee fullfilment and leadership practices. Edina: Wilson Learning Inc.

Business Plan for Mobile Phone Shop

Business Plan for Mobile Phone Shop The purpose for this business plan to study the feasibility to establish a mobile phone showroom in Abu Dhabi City, the capital of United Arab Emirates. The showroom will offer Nokia mobile phones as main product. Along with that we will offer a wide range of accessories and relevant spare parts. MyPhone provides both mobile phones products and services to make them useful to private users. We are especially focused on providing customer satisfaction to our esteemed customers. The products include both hand held mobile telephone sets and servicing the products after sales along with giving the necessary training and support. The only way we can hope to differentiate well is to define the vision of the company to be a technology ally to our clients. We will not be able to compete in any effective way with the chains using boxes or products as appliances. We need to offer a real alliance. The benefits we sell include many intangibles: confidence, reliability, knowing that somebody will be there to answer questions and help at the important times. The definitive worldwide standard for wireless communications has just broken through the 200 million-customer barriers. However, the GSM industry is one of the most impressive success stories of the 1990s and currently generates more than $100 Billion a year in subscriber revenues alone. We have some major mobile phone distributors in the city, such like Emirates Computers, Juma Al-Majed and Jumbo Electronics. If our strategy works, we will have differentiated ourselves sufficiently to not have to compete against these stores. Our strategy hinges on providing excellent service and support. This is critical. We need to differentiate on service and support, and to therefore deliver as well. Our business is a retail store. The ideal place for the prospected Showroom will be at the new constructed shopping center in Tourist Club Area at East Side of Abu Dhabi City. In order to hold costs down as much as possible, we concentrate our purchasing with Nokia Regional Office in Jabel Ali at Dubai. We are going to have four major employees: Manger, Sales Lady, Technician and accountant. There are some factors that will affect severely on the growing of our proposed business, such like: Customer is looking into factory guarantee for replacement the defected sets. Nokia corporation will grant us immediately this kind of warranty. Usually customers are insisting in buying only the original spare parts and accessories. Therefore we are going to offer only original spare parts and accessories to gain the customer satisfaction. 1.1 Vision Statement: MyPhone is such a vendor. It serves its clients as a trusted ally, providing them with the loyalty of a business partner and the economics of an outside vendor. We make sure that our clients have what they need to run their private and business life as well as possible, with maximum efficiency and reliability. Our ambitious is mission critical, so we give our clients the assurance that we will be there when they need us. 1.2 Products: MyPhone provides both mobile phones products and services to make them useful to private users. We are especially focused on providing customer satisfaction to our esteemed customers. The products include both hand held mobile telephone sets and servicing the products after sales along with giving the necessary training and support. In mobile phones, we support three main lines: The less feature mobile telephone set, which is our smallest and least expensive line, initially positioned by its manufacturer as low-income users. We use it mainly as a cheap mobile phone for workers and non- professional people. The Power User is our main up-scale line. It is our most important mobile telephone set for high-end individual as classified for medium range of income, because of they are the majority of the users, and they are requiring sets with more features and large capacity batteries. However, we will offer a luxury type of mobile telephone set with extreme fancy looking and elegant design, for the upper class of the society and manly for the Ladies who are impressed for such model as part of their prestige in the society. In service and support, we offer a range of walk-in service and guarantees through our well capable workshop and professional technician. 1.3 Key Features of Products: The only way we can hope to differentiate well is to define the vision of the company to be a technology ally to our clients. We will not be able to compete in any effective way with the chains using boxes or products as appliances. We need to offer a real alliance. The benefits we sell include many intangibles: confidence, reliability, knowing that somebody will be there to answer questions and help at the important times. These are complex products, products that require serious knowledge and experience to use, and our competitors sell only the products themselves. Unfortunately, we cannot sell the products at a higher price just because we offer services; the market has shown that it will not support that concept. We have to also sell the service and charge for it separately. 1.4 Production of Product: As we are attending to be as a distributor only for one of the major brand of Mobile Phone in the market Nokia. Therefore we will import or stock directly, and it will not be any kind of production in our firm. Moreover, our business will depend on retailing and not on production. 2) Company Industry: 2.1 Overview of the Industry Community: The Industry: GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications): The definitive worldwide standard for wireless communications has just broken through the 200 million-customer barriers. Achieving this milestone of 200 million subscribers to GSM services is the powerful result of the continuing need for people to communicate and access information on the move. With four new customers every second, the latest figures exceed, yet again, all industry predictions and demonstrate the persistently dramatic growth of GSM throughout the world. As at the end of 1997, there were more than 200 million mobile phone subscribers worldwide and the global sales volume was over 100 million units, an increase of about 50% from the previous year. By the end of the year 2001, it is believed that the global subscriber base will have grown to approximately 600 million. Coupled with the subscriber increase, the mobile phone sales volumes are growing due to the rise of the replacement market. GSM has established itself as the worlds leading digital wireless standard, and it is believed that the current growth rates will continue for the foreseeable future. At present levels, it is confident in the predictions that by the year 2005, it will have achieved between 700 million and One Billion GSM customers worldwide. The GSM industry is one of the most impressive success stories of the 1990s and currently generates more than $100 Billion a year in subscriber revenues alone. Its impressive growth rates are once again attributed to soaring global markets and the sustained penetration of new emerging markets. In all the markets it has been starting to see a widespread take-up of a host of GSM value added services, beyond voice usage, including data and text applications. This demonstrates how GSM is an evolving technology that offers exciting new services and opportunities for subscribers. The future is even more exciting, as the development path for the GSM standard is clearly mapped out and presents an exciting era of applications and services that will stretch the bounds of the imagination. It is moving closer and closer to the delivery of third generation services, which will see multi-media applications, internet access and access to real-time video, via GSM-based networks and handsets. This will ensure that GSM continues to be the standard of choice and heralds continued massive customer growth in the years to come. The Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Etisalat: The UAE has a prominent status in the field of telecommunications as its achievements are reaching the quality and standards of the developed countries. The demands for telecommunications facilities in the UAE are growing at a phenomenal rate. The local Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETISALAT) which is 60% state-owned controls this sector and 40% owned by private UAE investors. Since its creation in 1976, Etisalat has increased the number of telephone lines from 50,000 to over 850,000 and plans to raise switching capacity by an annual rate of 100,000. In the UAE, demand for new lines is growing at about 12% per year. Etisalat, motivated by the realization that attractive infrastructure would encourage many businesses to locate in the UAE, has become one of the most profitable telecommunications organizations in the Gulf region and has joined in a number of projects, ranging from a 19,000 kilometers fiber-optic cable to link Europe with South-East Asia. The first stage of the cable link is to lay the so-called Fiber-Optic Gulf (FOG), which will use the most modern submarine technology and provide the UAE with links capable of carrying around 120,000 voice channels at any one time. Etisalat is the name that spells reliable communications in the UAE with global connectivity. Etisalat provides services on a par with the best in the world and has an advanced communications network, which is virtually fault free. All switching systems are digital, common channel signaling system number 7 (SS7) has been introduced, and an analog mobile radio network has been operating successfully for several years. Some of the state of the art services being offered by Etisalat: Telephone Service: This is done through public call offices, pay phones, smart card and credit card operated pay phones, smart card operated pay phones, and others. A report by the Etisalats director general showed that the direct telephone switchboard lines increased by (10 %) lines yearly and totaling 850,000 at the end of 1999. Telephone lines percentage also increased from 29 to 31 for each 100 people which places the UAE in the lead of the Gulf region. The report also indicated an increase of 27.9% in public phones with an amount of 20,000 at the end of 1999 compared to 12,078 in 1995. As far as mobile phones are concerned, the number of subscriptions reached 1.2 million in end of 1999 compared to 128,495 in 1995. As it is roughly one-in-two of the population and 30,000 to 40,000 new phones were being sold each month. Thus Etisalat maintained its leading position among the countries of the region by realizing the highest growth rates of mobile phones at 50 phones for every 100 people. The Global System for Mobile GSM Communication The digital mobile system which gives a new dimension to mobile communications has been in growing demand because of its satisfactory requirements for national mobile radio networks. These are high performance, international compatibility, fully digital operation, and encrypted air-interface. The UAE is one of the first countries in the Gulf region to introduce this service to serve the social and economic developments in the country. One of the main benefits of the GSM, is the ability to use the GSM service on most of the GSM networks around the world, Charges: GSM service connection Dhs 200 once only GSM service subscription Dhs 90 per quarter SIM card Dhs 30 Call charges (Normal Rate) Dhs 0.39/min. 7:00am to 2:00pm and 4:00pm to 12:00am, (For all days of the week) Call charges (Cheap Rate) Dhs 0.21/min. 2:00pm to 4:00pm and 12:00am to 7:00am, (on all days of the week) International Calls Normal IDD rates apply Emirates Internet: The UAEs window to the world offering connectivity to an unlimited number of network, computers, and users worldwide. The Emirates Internet was established in June 1995. The number of Internet subscribed reached over 25,000 by the end of November 1997. Fax Plus: A new fax plus state-of-the-art service with a host of advanced facilities which lets the person operate even without owning a fax machine. Paging Service: This radio paging service enables people on the move to be in touch in an easy and economical way almost anywhere in the UAE. According to Al Ittihad Newspaper, the UAE is ranked 7th worldwide, with 10% of the population using this service. Voice Mail Service: This includes videoconference service, consultation services, and interactive information service. ATM Service: The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a new service launched recently in order to speed up connections to customers. This is a broadband communications technology, which provides a way of transporting data from a wide range of applications using one seamless network. This service is being introduced to cater for the growing needs of education and business in the UAE and as part of Etisalats planning for the future. Satellite A new satellite company called Al-Thurayya Satellite Communications Organization was launched in January 1997. Its capital is worth $25 million and owned 26% by Etisalat, 20% by the Abu Dhabi Investments Company, 10% by the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), and 10% by Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), and 44% is owned by other Arab government. The company was set up to own and operates the Thurayya satellite system, which will serve the rapidly expanding mobile phone sector. It will cover the Arab states and part of Europe and the Indian sub-continent. The Community: Abu Dhabi City: Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Its population was estimated 850,000 on 1998, with 70% males. The Gross National Product was estimated on the same fiscal year at Dhs. 65,850 per Capita which equivalent to U.S.$ 17,870. The Gross National Private Local Consumer was Dhs 25,040 per capita. The Gross National Government Consuming was Dhs 10,582 per capita. The Gross National Expenditure was Dhs 48,926 per capita. Which can be lead to be one of the highest per capita in the world. Abu Dhabi is very Modern City. Most of its constructions are less than 15 years old. Since it is the U.A.E. capital, it is containing all the headquarters of the Federal Ministries and other government departments and authorities, beside all the oil and gas companies headquarters, more than 63 local and international banks and many regional offices of the multinational companies. In addition to that, Abu Dhabi has One public women university Zayed University, two campuses of Higher Colleges of Technologies and several colleges branches. 2.2 Major Competitors: a) Major Distributors: We have some major mobile phone distributors in the city, such like Emirates Computers, Juma Al-Majed and Jumbo Electronics. If our strategy works, we will have differentiated ourselves sufficiently to not have to compete against these stores. Strengths: national image, high volume, aggressive pricing, and economies of scale. Weaknesses: lack of product, service and support knowledge, lack of personal attention. b) Other Local Stores: There are more than one hundred retail mobile phone Stores in Abu Dhabi city. These tend to be small businesses, owned by people who started them because they liked mobile phones. They are under-capitalized and under-managed. Margins are squeezed as they compete against the major distributors and against each other in an attempt to match prices. The competition based on price more than on service and support. When asked, the owners will complain that the major distributors squeeze margins and customers buy on price only. They say they tried offering services and that buyers didnt care, instead preferring lower prices. We think the problem is also that they didnt really offer good service, and also that they didnt differentiate from the major distributors. Moreover they are depending in the gray market. 2.3 Comparative Advantages: The marketing of mobile services to business users, and more recently to consumers, has resulted in spectacular growth in the number of subscribers in Gulf Area. Operators now face the challenges of rising customer quantity, the prospect of declining revenue per subscriber, and the scrutiny of performance by investors. Achieving success in these new market conditions calls for a change in strategy from mobile operators a fresh approach to marketing, distribution and customer service to attract more new customers whilst retaining existing customers and protecting future revenue. The buyers understand the concept of service and support, and are much more likely to pay for it when the offering is clearly stated. There is no doubt that we compete much more against all the box pushers than against other service providers. We need to effectively compete against the idea that businesses should buy mobile phones as easy and friendly appliances that dont need ongoing service, support, and training. Our focus group sessions indicated that our target professional users think about price but would buy based on quality service if the offering were properly presented. They think about price because thats all they ever see. We have very good indications that many would rather pay 10-20% more for a relationship with a long-term vendor providing back up and quality service and support; they end up in the box-pusher channels because they arent aware of the alternatives. Availability of the stock is also very important. The buyers tend to want immediate, local solutions to problems. However, our value proposition has to be different from the standard retail shops. We offer our target customer, who is service seeking and not self reliant, a vendor who acts as a strategic ally, at a premium price that reflects the value of reassurance that sets will work. Moreover, our competitive edge is our positioning as strategic ally with our clients, who are clients more than customers. By building a business based on long-standing relationships with satisfied clients, we simultaneously build defenses against competition. The longer the relationship stands, the more we help our clients understand what we offer them and why they need it. Service and Support Our strategy hinges on providing excellent service and support. This is critical. We need to differentiate on service and support, and to therefore deliver as well. 2.4 Future Products Services: We must remain on top of the new technologies, because this is our bread and butter. For telephone sets, we need to provide better knowledge of cross GSS and WAP technologies. Also, we are under pressure to improve our understanding of direct-connect Internet and related communications. Finally, although we have a good command of accessories, we are concerned about getting better at the integration of technologies that creates fax, WAP, E-mail, and voice mail as part of the mobile Telephone set. 3) Operations: 3.1 Location Premises: Our business is a retail store. Therefore in this type of business the customer will come to it, not the sales person has to go to the customer. It is kind of pulling sales strategy not pushing sales strategy. Thus, the physical location will be the key to success or failure to this business. However, the ideal place for the prospected Showroom, after taking in consideration the locations for the others competitors, will be at the new constructed shopping center in Tourist Club Area at East Side of Abu Dhabi City. As in new shopping center, we will enjoy the being in the summit reputation beside the advantage of parking lot availability, which has become a great problem in the city in these days. The shop will be at the ground floor. To grantee that all the visitors of this particular Shopping Center will have the chance to see the place and they will be aware that a new mobile showroom will be available for them. Furthermore, we can utilize the front of the showroom to demonstrating the products in front of the shoppers, They will see and know what kind of products we are offering before they have even entered to the showroom. The area for the place is suggested to be not less than 100 square meters that can be distributed as the following: Lounge with area of 50 square meter. Two small offices one for the showroom manager and the other for the accountant with area of 6 square meters for each of them. Store with an area of 5 square meters, for the products with necessary cabinets. Service Area of 20 square meters furnituing with necessary tables, counter and cabinets. 3.2 Purchase: Our costs are part of the margin squeeze. As competition on price increases, the squeeze between manufacturers price into channels and end-users ultimate buying price continues. With the mobile phone sets, our margins are declining steadily. It is being squeezed to more like 13-15% at present. In the main-line accessories a similar trend shows, with prices declining steadily. In order to hold costs down as much as possible, we concentrate our purchasing with Nokia Regional Office in Jabel Ali, which offers 30-day net terms and overnight shipping from the warehouse at Jabel Ali in Dubai. We need to concentrate on making sure our volume gives us negotiating strength. Moreover, In accessories and add-on we can still get decent margins, 25% to 40%. 3.3 Resources: a) We are going to have four major employees: Employee Responsibilities Manger Supervising and Purchasing affairs Sales Lady Sales Affairs Technician Workshop Affairs Accountant Accounts and Bookkeeping We are in need for very little equipment to run the project; this equipment will be bought. As no trend in United Arab Emirates to rent such equipment. 4) Management: The management in the our firm believes very strongly that relationships should be forthright, work should be structured with enough room for creativity, and pay should be commensurate with the amount and quality of work completed. 4.1 Management Structure: Owner Manager Accountant Sales Lady Technician 4.2 Professional Services Employee Training: A) Legal Affairs: Especially in the beginning, therefore we have already negotiated with a very respectful Advocate office in Abu Dhabi City, who is having a good experience in the commercial and civil affairs. He will take care for all the Legal Affairs, including Renting Contract, Maintenance Contract, and Labor/Employee Contracts, Revising the purchasing and banking agreements, etc. B) Accounting Procedures: The financial information is too essential for an well-organized business firm. Therefore a bookkeeping system has to be maintained to include all the account procedures. Moreover, all the payments to be made preferably by checks, and not by cash. The daily sales to be deposited in the bank next working day. However to organize the purchasing of the goods, They would be imported by the banks letter of credit (L.C.) only. C) Insurance Expenses: Our mobile phone showroom should insure the business along with its stock. As our business requires insurance for such robbery crimes or thefts. Further, we will insure our staff. We can estimate the insurance premium at Dhs. 6,000 for the First year. As revenue increases in the second and third year of Business. D) Banking Affairs: As the purchasing of the main product will be from Jabel Ali warehouse of regional company of Nokia, therefore the financing of such deals should be on Letter of Credit (LC). We will intend to open two current accounts with two different banks, which will give us more flexibility in the finance procedures. Employee Training: We will have only four staff. These staff will hire them, with sufficient experience in the relative field. Therefore, no training is mainly required at the beginning. However, the regional office of Nokia in Jabel Ali Free Zone, they are organizing such training session, whenever new product is introduce to the market. Therefore we are planning to send our technician to these training session whenever they will be made available. 4.3 Risks Plans to Minimize: There are some factors that will affect severely on the growing of our proposed business, such like: Customer is looking into factory guarantee for replacement the defected sets. Since we are purchasing directly from the regional office in Jabel Ali free zone. Therefore, Nokia corporation will grant us immediately this kind of warranty. However some other retail shops are buying their product from the gray market in Dubai. In this case, they can not offer any kind of grantee in their products. Moreover, we are attending to put this information on all of our advertising campaigns and sale brochures. Usually customers are insisting in buying only the original spare parts and accessories (which are coming from same manufacture). Therefore we are going to offer only original spare parts and accessories to gain the customer satisfaction. 4.4 Implementation Schedule: Activity Deadline Required Time Start Date Renting The Space Jan 31,2001 One month Jan 2, 2001 Decoration Mar. 31, 2001 Two Months Feb 1, 2001 Hiring the Staff Mar. 31, 2001 One month Mar. 1, 2001 Furnishing April 30, 2001 One month April 1, 2001 Importing the goods April 30, 2001 Two Months Mar. 1, 2001 Grand Opening May 1, 2001

Great Expectations Book Review

Great Expectations Book Review Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, first published in 1860, is a classic fictional novel. The novel doesnt really have a genre, possibly a drama or adventure, but its more like just his story so Id say just a normal fictional novel. The story is set in 1812 to 1840 in an English town surrounded by marshes, Pip lived outside the town, once receiving his fortune he moved to London though. The novel tells of Pip, a young orphan, and his story, his life. Pip was raised by his sister, only known as Mrs. Joe, and her husband Joe. In the beginning of the novel Pip is in a graveyard, where his parents are buried, and he is approached by a shady looking man, who is in fact an escaped convict, the convict asks Pip to bring him some tools so he can escape and Pip does this. This becomes very important in the novel. One day Pips uncle takes him to play at a rich, weird old ladys house, Miss Havisham, here Pip meets Estella, who he falls in love with, though Estella only toys with Pips feelings and doesnt like him at all. Pip then becomes Joes apprentice blacksmith, but Pip struggles as a blacksmith and isnt very happy. Then one day a lawyer called Jaggers appears and announces to Pip that he has been left a large fortune and needs to move to London immediately. Pip moves to London, meets many new people and has some fun. Then one night a convict breaks into Pips room, the same convict that Pip helped when he was just a little boy, and the convict, Magwitch reveals that he made a fortune in Australia and he gave Pip his mysterious fortune. Pip is shocked but decides that he will help Magwitch escape from London, and so they escape. Pip begins to like Magwitch as they get to know each other and Pip discovers many things about his past. As Pip is about to help Magwitch escape London Pip is nearly killed, Magwitch eventually does escape and kills somebody, he is sentenced to death and hence Pip loses his fortune. Pip then goes and works abroad as a merchant, many years later he returns home and meets his childhood love, Estella, they get together, with Pip believing they will be together forever. Two main characters of Great Expectations are Pip and Estella. Pip is the main character is the novel, he is also the narrator. In the beginning of the novel Pip is a young child but as the book goes on he ages and is an adult by the end. Pip is a good boy, he always tries to do what is right, and is quite sympathetic, e.g. helping Magwitch, always caring for Mr. Mrs. Joe. Pip is always looking to improve himself, whether it is learning to read and write as a boy, or learning to become a gentleman. He is of the lower classes, until he receives his fortune, and he desires to become an upper class, largely so he can impress the girl he admires, Estella. Estella is an important character in the novel. As a girl she had been raised by Miss Havisham to be cruel and heartless towards men. When she meets Pip she acts cruel and heartlessly, toying with his emotions. Though Pip still loves her, maybe he saw something inside her, or he just longed to be in the upper class. She then married an upper class man, who treated her badly, this would have changed her, gotten rid of her coldness and cruelty. So when Pip returns she is kind, and they get together. The themes in this novel include social class, aspiration, wealth and crime. I think that Charles Dickens in this novel was trying to say that social class doesnt matter, and that desire to become better and change should be congratulated. The novel is set in first person, with the narrator, Pip, also being the main character. The language used is pretty weird, with some old English sort of stuff in there. Once you get used to the language its pretty good and not that hard to follow. Overall, I thought this novel was pretty good, for an old book. The language used was a bit hard to get at times, and sometimes the story was a bit slow, but overall I thought it had a good story and I liked it. Estella was an interesting character I thought, normally the girls are loving and the guy isnt really interested or too busy doing other stuff, but this time Pip loved her and she was totally uninterested and cold. And the twist with Magwitch having supplied Pips fortune I thought was good as well. 7/10 on the scale of goodness.

Social Responsibilities :: essays research papers fc

Social Responsibilities: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Health Aspect a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Find better ways to cut down on fat and calories Is Starbucks adding to the growing weight problem with American society? You be the judge. I personally was shocked at the nutritional facts on their products (Figure 1). Some fast food places offer healthier products than some of the Starbucks products (Figure 2). The nutritional facts circled in red in figure 1 and figure 2 shows that one cup of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Crà ¨me with whip is less nutritional than an entire meal at McDonalds. Imagine what the nutritional facts would look like if you included a Classic Coffee Cake with your coffee beverage! (Figure 1.2)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Starbucks nutritional values listed below are not completely accurate as shown in the following statement: â€Å"The nutrition information for beverages is based on Starbucks ® standardized beverage recipes. Because each of our beverages is handcrafted and may be customized, some variation can be expected. The data is calculated using ESHA Research’s Genesis ® R&D software. All data is rounded to meet current United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) packaged foods labeling regulations.† Works cited: (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_info.asp) This means that depending on your taste, the fat content and calories could be more than what is shown in the chart. Figure 1 – Starbucks Nutritional Facts (Beverages) (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_info.asp) Figure 1.2 – Starbucks Nutritional Facts (Food Items) (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_freshfood_detail.asp) Figure 2 – McDonalds Nutritional Facts (http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal) What is Starbucks planning to do to lower fat and calories in their products? Starbucks is offering non-fat milk and soy to help trim down the fat and calories. The alternative ingredients do alter the flavor a bit, so it may not be the choice of most customers. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Advertise to public about fat content of their products It seems like Starbucks doesn’t want the general public to really know how bad the nutritional facts are right up front in their stores. If you walk into a Starbucks store you see mostly pictures of some of their least nutritional coffee beverages because they look the most appetizing. I think if more people knew how bad Starbucks products were they would see a significant reduction in revenue. This would be especially true with today’s low carb, low fat health trends. Starbucks does however provide a nice nutritional facts chart on their website, but who is looking at the website while ordering anyway? So as far as I can tell Starbucks plans on feeding America’s sweet tooth and will continue to fatten them up.

Media Ownership :: essays papers

Media Ownership Ownership of the media by a small handful of companies has created several problems for democracy since it’s existence. Because the media has been such a major source of information for us Americans we must learn to be skeptical of these large corporations and their motives. Commercialism and the lack of diversity of the media are two such problems that have been created due to these large corporations. The main source of money for any media outlet, whether it is CNN or the local newspaper, is from advertisers, not the audiences like you would expect. â€Å"In a survey of 118 news directors around the country, more than half, 53 percent, reported that advertisers pressure them to kill negative stories or run positive ones.† News directors have also reported that outside TV consultants have been brought in to stations to critique their newscasts and improve ratings by often issuing blanket edicts about what should and should not be covered in doer to attract the most advertising dollars. (Just, 1) This fact now being known makes us aware that the media is often swayed from criticism of the products or mistakes of the corporations that give them this money. Important defects or corporate issues that we need to know about have possibly gone unannounced due to the fear of losing sponsors and profit. The only way to guarantee diversity of opinion in the media is to have diverse ownership over it. The airwaves are a limited resource with a few channels still remaining. The Federal Communications Act says that the airwaves belong to the public, which has somehow has gone ignored over the years. Having been exposed to a less diverse range of ideas over the past few decades has left us assuming that what we see and hear in the media is all that there is out there. This is obviously no way to maintain an active marketplace of diverse ideas and opinions. This is defiantly no way to keep a true democracy. (Bagdikian, 2-3) As you can see the corporate ownership of the media has become a problem to our existing democracy. Not only has the media become extremely commercialized it has also taken away the diversity that we need to make an honest judgment about something of importance to us.

Malaysian Legal History Essay

The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a crown colony on 1 April 1867. The colony was dissolved in 1946 as part of the British reorganisation of its south-east Asian dependencies following the end of the Second World War. The Straits Settlements consisted of the four individual settlements of Malacca,Penang (also known as Prince of Wales Island), Singapore (with Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands). The island of Labuan, off the coast of Borneo, was also incorporated into the colony with effect from 1 January 1907, becoming a separate settlement within it in 1912. With the exception of Singapore, Christmas Island, and the Cocos Islands, these territories now form part of Malaysia. The Island of Penang in highligh was under the governance of Sultan of kedah however its noted that after the esthablishment of English East India company an agreement was penned by the Ruler of Kedah and the company for penang. Now in judging what is the â€Å"’lex loci† of the island will require answers to two questions as below: i) Was the Island a â€Å"settled† or â€Å"ceded† colony?. ii)Was the law of Kedah to be applied to island of Penang on ground that the island was â€Å"ceded†? For the first 20 years after esthablishment , it was noted that the only law in place was â€Å"Regulations of 1794† or â€Å"nature of law†. On March 1807, the English Crown granted the first charter of justice, which resulted in the esthablishment of Court of Judicature in Penang. The effect of this charter could be seen in Kamoo v Basset, In re Goods of Abdullah and Reg v Willans. The Kamoo v basset (1808) case, notes that the plaintiff a native of Bengal, had agreed to be an employed by the defendent who was an army officer in the Bengal Native Infantary. However upon severe mistreatment by the employer an Police Majistrate complaint was made by the plaintiff. The plaintiff filed and action for assault,battery and false imprisonment against the defendent,claiming damages for $600. The verdict in short noted payment to plaintiff in $150 with cost. In the Goods of Abdullah (1835) is noted the principle issue is whether a Muslim,who died in Penang,device his entire property by means of will? However it was decided that the will of Abdullah being esthablished as a valid instrument. In the case of Fatimah Ors v Logan Ors it was noted that since 1786 , Penang being then a desert and uncultivated island,inhabited except by few intinerant fisherman and without any fixed institution was ceded by the Rajah of Kedah to Captain light,an office of EIC,for and on behalf of the company. This fact was important in this case in view of the platiff’s petition to obtain a decree of the court declaring that the deceased died intestate. Three preliminary question arised in this case which were, i) Wheter the capacity of the deceased to make a will is to be decided by Mohamedan or by English law. The verdict was given as the deceased’s capacity to write a will will be decided by â€Å"lex loci† and not by Mohamedans law. Other Important cases in aspect of the â€Å"lex loci† includes Choa Choon Neoh v Spottiswodde, Isaac Penhas v Tan Soo Eng, Shaik Sahied v Sockalingam Chettiar. Reception of English Law in Malay States. As noted earlier common law and equity was applied in the straits settlements by virtue of the three charter of justice. The charters however did not apply to the Malay states. The introduction of the Resident system in Perak according to the Pangkor Treaty 1874, allowed the introduction of english styled courts by the Sultan and english judges were appointed. It should be noted that beggining with the civil Law Enactment No 3 of 1937,such judicial practise received the official stamp of approvalby legislature. Section 2 (i) of the enactment provides that â€Å"save in so far as other provision has been or may hereafter be mada any written law in force in the federated Malay states,the common law of england,and the rules of equity,as administrated in england at the commencement of this Enactment shall be in force in the Federated Malay states. On case which can be disscussed in terms of â€Å"common law† are the Goverment of Perak v A.R Adams (1914) , which concerns damage to the plantiff’s land by the defendent. The question which was arised was wheter the defendant is exempt from liability on the ground that he was without wilfulness or negligence using his land on the principle that a man must use his own land and not to damnify another. The court found the defendent guilty under all circumstances he is liable for the damage caused. In re the will of Yap Kwan Seng, which the deceased gave direction in his will that his hose and land be held in trust for ever for a family house for ancestral worship and as family burial ground in accordance with chinese customs. The Issue before the court was whether such a custom was valid a not. The arguments made were (1) That the rule against perpetuities does not excist in and should not be adopted in the federated malay states, (2) That even if the rule be applied,the trust are saved from offence agaist it, (3) That having regard to chinese customs the trust should be regarded as religious and charitable and therefore without offence to the rule. During the proceeding of this case it was noted that the rule agaisnt perpetuities has never been applied in the states. However it was concluded that to regard these trust either as trust for religious purposes or as trust concerning or benefitting the community at large or any portion of it,it follow that there is no way to be sa ved or excepted from repugnancy to the rule of perpetuities and are therefore void. In the case of permodalan plantations sdn.bhd v Rachuta sdn.bhd (1985) can be discussed as legal set off which is based on english statute is not included in the expression â€Å"the common law of england†. Only equitable set –off is part of the local law and consequently the court can only deal with and equitable set-off.

Organizational Archetypes Essay

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine Mintzberg’s organizational archetypes and to explain why an organizational template is a good idea. It will also explore briefly, the subject of teamwork and leadership and why there are not enough true leaders today. Organizational Archetypes To be successful, an organization has to be made up of quality people. It also has to be structured in such a way as to promote success. Successful businesses today are based on structural archetypes that were products of the work of Henry Mintzberg, a renowned management theorist. Henry Mintzberg graduated from McGill University and has written 15 books and about 150 articles all dealing with organizational structure. According to him, an organization’s structure comes from its strategy, the environmental forces it experiences, and the way the organization itself is built. When all of these work well together the organization will be successful, but if they do not interplay nicely the organization will not be successful (Markgraf, 2014). To better illustrate the idea he was promoting Mintzberg came up with basically five different structural archetypes. A couple of them may be referred to by different names but the five included are 1) the simple or entrepreneurial archetype, 2) the machine bureaucracy archetype, 3) the professional archetype, 4) the divisional archetype, and 5) the innovative (also known as adhocracy) archetype (Mintzberg’s Organizational Configurations, 2014). Each of these archetypes demonstrate a different way that a business can be structured and each of them are like an umbrella, encompassing a number of different types of businesses within each. But together, they represent the organizational structure of pretty much every business that has any type of success. So this begs the question: What are the key features of each archetype? First, we have the simple or entrepreneurial archetype. This kind of structure basically consists of one large unit with one or just a few top managers. It is relatively informal compared to other organizations and the lack of standardization allows it to be more flexible. This category is made up of mostly small or very young companies. As it grows this type of business structure begins to become inadequate as the decision-making load proves to be too much for the small management staff (Mintzberg’s Organizational Configurations, 2014). Next we have the machine organization. This group is made up of mostly large manufacturers and government agencies. For the most part, tasks are formalized and there is a high level of standardization which allows the organization to function much like a machine. Jobs are clearly defined and procedures are regularly analyzed for efficiency. This works well but the downside is that this formalization can lead to specialization, and this can result in functional units having conflicting goals that are inconsistent with the corporation’s objectives (Mintzberg’s Organizational Configurations, 2014). Third, and closely related to the machine structure, is the professional organization. While also being very bureaucratic, the difference is that decision-makers are highly trained professionals who have control over their own work. These specialized skills and the autonomy that these highly trained professionals enjoy makes the decision making more decentralized in this structure and that makes it much more complex. This type of organization is the kind where we find schools and universities falling within (Kokemuller, 2014). In large and mature organizations you will often find the next archetype, and that is the divisional organization. In this type there are many different product lines and business units. There is a central headquarters with a number of autonomous divisions making their own decisions. One of the strengths of this type of organization is that with the autonomy of the separate divisions it leaves the central team to focus on the big picture. It also allows them to make sure that necessary support systems are in place  for the entire organization. A significant weakness of this type is that with so many autonomous divisions you end up having a significant duplication of resources and activities and at times even conflict between divisions since they are competing for the same company resources (Kokemuller, 2014). The last archetype is the innovative organization or â€Å"adhocracy†. This is best suited to new companies that need to be innovative just to survive. Filmmaking, pharmaceuticals, and consulting businesses all fall within this category. Within this type of organization power is delegated to wherever it is needed which can bring up some control issues, but at the same time gives them unequaled flexibility. They can also move their talent around to get them involved in any project where they may be needed. This allows them to respond very quickly to change. Because the talent moves around to where it is needed, teams can be self-organizing and the sharing of authority can be just as effective when shared horizontally as it is when shared vertically. This really sets an â€Å"adhocracy† apart from other archetypes because in all the others authority really only flowed vertically to varying degrees. But here we have horizontal sharing too, which as we mentioned, can result in some problems with control and who has final authority over some decisions. But for the most part this is a very successful type of organization for project-based companies or those that require the ability to adjust to quick changes quite often (Mintzberg’s Organizational Configurations, 2014). So, we find that Mintzberg’s five archetypes cover most successful businesses that we see. But these archetypes are broad descriptions of the organization. To really understand individual organizations we need to get more specific. This is where templates come in handy. They can be based on the archetype, but they illustrate more specifically how things will be structured and relate to each other in the business. They can quickly make clear what the purpose, mission, and goals are for the organization. You need templates because they can be used to very quickly see the current state of the organization and how different resources can be manipulated to improve the business. A template also makes it much easier to show employees the purpose of the business, how it is to run, and what their role will be.  In this way it serves as a visual aid (Microsoft, n.d.). Mintzberg also made the claim that we have too many managers and too few leaders. This paper supports that statement. A manager is a position to be filled. In businesses with a high turn-over of employees, such as the fast food industry or quick-marts, someone may be promoted to the position of manager but only because there is no other choice. It is not because they are qualified. This happens a lot today. So we have a lot of managerial positions being filled by persons who are untrained and do not possess true leadership skills. Then once promoted a lot of managers seem to want to be friends first and leaders second. It is not a bad thing to have a friendly relationship with your workers, but not at the expense of leading them properly. The result is that the business suffers. But it is a hard fact to change since we have such a big turnover in workers today (Peshawaria, 2003). So in conclusion, Mintzberg was a theorist with several good ideas. His work in the field of organizational and managerial theory has helped people for decades to better understand how businesses should be classified and how they should be structured and run. By studying his ideas a person can certainly better understand the benefits and weaknesses of basing an organization on a particular type of structure and also how the decision making process should be handled. References Kokemuller, N. (2014). Mintzberg’s Five Types of Organizational Structure. Retrieved August 16, 2014, from Houston Chronicles: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mintzbergs-five-types-organizational-structure-60119.html Markgraf, B. (2014). Mintzberg’s Five Types of Organizational Structure. Retrieved August 16, 2014, from azCentral: http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/mintzbergs-five-types-organizational-structure-2705.html Microsoft. (n.d.). Business organizational chart. Retrieved August 16, 2014, from Microsoft.com Templates: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/business-organizational-chart-TC006088976.aspx Mintzberg’s Organizational Configurations. (2014). Retrieved August 16, 2014, from mindtools.com: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_54.htm Peshawaria, R. (2003, May 19). Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders. Retrieved August 16, 2014, from LeadershipNow.com: http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2011/09/too_many_bosses_too_few_leader.html