The need for for formal government regulation to ensure societal Essay

The need for for formal government regulation to ensure societal checks and balances on perhaps wayward corporations - Essay Example The need for changes in management structure was particularly evident after HIH incident when the board composed of the chief executive’s friends and associates failed to assess effectively the management performance, deterring non-executive directors from controlling processes inside the company. (Siladi, 2006 ) As trust towards company insiders as well as to auditors, analysts or regulators was shattered, governments started to think over regulations which would prevent such unfair practices. Different countries responded differently to the problem of inadequate corporate governance system. While Australia and the UK have issued recommendations based on ‘comply and explain’ principle, the USA has introduced more severe measures where non-compliance results in criminal punishment. The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 set firm regulations for senior management, non-compliance with which results in 20 years of imprisonment and fines up to $5 million. (Loeb 2005) Many countries reviewed their regulations concerning the work of the directors. The recommendations or regulations issued in each of countries converge in several issues concerning directors: the presence of independent non-executive directors in the board, participation of non-executives in nomination and remuneration committees, control and decision-making function of the executives, their fair remuneration. Loeb, L. Executive Summary: Sarbanes-Oxley: Worse than No Solution at All? Available at Ziff Davis CIO Insight. 2005 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Past-News/Executive-Summary-SarbanesOxley-Worse-than-No-Solution-at-All/ [accessed 17 Dec.

Frankenstein and Prometheus Essay Example for Free

Frankenstein and Prometheus Essay Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein can be compared to the myth Prometheus by J.M Hunt in several ways. Frankenstein and Prometheus both created life in their own way and faced consequences that they had not expected to encounter although they differed in that Frankenstein abandoned his creation and abhorred him whereas Prometheus wanted to help and care for his creation. Both Frankenstein and Prometheus developed creations easily but did not realize the consequences behind it. In the novel Frankenstein Victor always wanted to understand the cause of life and death and he set his mind into finding the answer. â€Å"I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet (Shelley 58). Victor was excited to understand that what he has created was the answer to his problems. Prometheus also felt the same way when he was creating his creation. Prometheus had the task to create man. â€Å"Prometheus had the task to create man. â€Å"Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure (Legend of Prometheus). Prometheus’ task in creating life was easy, as for Frankenstein it was much harder as he spent months creating it. With the goal of creating life they both faced consequences because of their actions. Frankenstein and Prometheus ended up with severe consequences when they had created life. When Victor left Geneva for Ingolstadt an incident had occurred. Once day he received a letter from his father. â€Å"William is dead! That sweet child, whose smiled delighted and warmed my heart, who was so gentle, yet so gay! Victor, he is murdered! (Shelley 73). When Victor had read the letter he was shocked. Upon returning to Geneva he realized the monster had murdered his brother. Prometheus also faced consequences when he created man. When Zeus discovered that Prometheus lied to him he took fire away from man. Prometheus then lit a torch from the su and brought ti back again to man. Zeus was enraged and punished Prometheus. â€Å"Take [Prometheus] to the Caucasus Mountains and chain him to a rock with unbreakable adamant chains. Here he was tormented day and night by a giant eagle learing at his liver (Legend of Prometheus). The pain wouldn’t end for Prometheus because his liver would grow back again. Frankenstein and Prometheus faced consequences that ended in Frankenstein losing his loved one Prometheus being physically tortured day and night. Despite their punishment, Frankenstein exhibited actions that led him to become a bad creator, and Prometheus showing qualities of being a good creator. Frankenstein fathered his monster with his own hands. He labored for years in order to successfully breathe life into his creature. Then later once it was alive he abhorred him. When the monster was alive Frankenstein said â€Å"Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance†¦ [Frankenstein] passed the night wretchedly†¦ Mingled with this horror [Frankenstein] felt the bitterness o f disappointment† (Shelley 59). This shows that all he wants to do with he creation is run away from it and to never see it again. Although Prometheus showed different qualities towards his monster. Prometheus fought to protect the human being he had given life to. â€Å"Prometheus lit a torch from the sun and brought I back again to man† (Legend of Prometheus). All he had tried to do was help his creation. Frankenstein and Prometheus differed because Frankenstein tried to hurt and abandon his creation but Prometheus did the opposite to his creation. Frankensten can be compared to the myth of Promethheus in many ways. When both are read the reader can infer many clear similarities between the two. Both Prometheus and Frankenstein faced consequences but treated their creations in different ways.

The Existence Of God Essay -- Religion Theology Essays Papers

The Existence of God Works Cited Not Included For centuries, the idea of God has been a part of man's history. Past and present, there has always been a different integration consisting of the believers and the non-believers of God. The group of those who have "faith" in God tend to be related to one religion or another. On the other hand, the skeptics find the existence of God somewhat puzzling and try to seek the answers through scientific methods. Even as of today with all the modern technologies and the development of sciences, we still do not have a definitive answer to the question "does God exist?" Among many philosophers and scholars who have tried to answer this question, we shall look upon Rene Descartes' theory on the existence of God. In terms of believers and non-believers, Descartes would be one of the believers. Before we go any further, we must ponder upon several questions. What is God? Does God exist? If such God does exist, then where does this being come from? Why do believers and non-believers hold on to their beliefs as they do? What significance does the existence of God have upon mankind? These are only the tip of the iceberg amongst the vast array of unanswered questions related to God. Though there are so many uncertainties as we have just mentioned, the existence of all other uncertainties in our world may explain why the existence of God is so real to many people. For the believers, God provides a convenient answer to all these questions except for the answers regarding God itself. The following are some of the general arguments for the existence of God. The first argument comes from the theory of design; there are orders in the universe which can't be occurring by mere chance. Secondly, the existence of God explains the arguments regarding the efficient causality; as the world exhibits orderly causal sequences, something had to start it all up. Thirdly but not the least, God provides an answer to the question of the origin of life and its destination after death. ( For the sake of convenience, we shall borrow some theological ideas from Christianity, the Christian God, to exemplify our comparisons.) As an example, God is the creator of all, and there is a place in heaven, a kingdom of God, for those who have faith in God. This helps believers understand their identity and alleviate the fear of ... ...inite faculties of knowledge hold the potential of having mistakes. In the above discussion, I was trying neither to prove nor disprove the existence of God; I was, however, trying to offer some skepticism upon statements which many people have claimed about the existence of God. Although Descartes embraces quite a grand statement on the issues of God, I felt that his beliefs were biased towards his own perception and lacked evidence in proving that God exists to the point beyond reasonable doubt. I believe that neither Descartes nor modern science have been able to successfully prove whether God exists or not. What's really important, no matter whether such a being exists or not, is that the ideology of God has certainly existed throughout the history of man. Moreover, the power of this ideology of God has proven to be overwhelming among the believers who have faith in its religion. Even for the non-believers or so called atheists, the ideology of God has an effect and/or an influence on them in one way or another. On a larger scale, it is not an exaggeration to say that our society is built on the ideology of God. What is your opinion? "In God we trust?"

Hamlet Betrayed :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Hamlet Betrayed Many things contribute to the fact that Hamlet gets himself in trouble. It is not Hamlet’s poor attitude that gets him in trouble, but the way he over analyzes every situation and event. The first thing is when the ghost of Hamlet’s father tells him about his uncle’s betrayal towards him. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spy on him, which makes Hamlet examine their every move. Polonius sets up deceiving and devious plans toward Hamlet, making him act mad. Hamlet’s Mom, Gertrude, displeases Hamlet by marrying Claudius so quickly after his father’s so called "accidental death". Hamlet does not know how to deal with this situation, so he thinks about what to do for many weeks. To deal with all of the problems, Hamlet decides to put on his "antic disposition" to fool those around him. In this essay I will investigate the behavior and the actions that the Ghost, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Polonius, Laertes, and Gertrude do, to make Hamlet acted the way he does. Hamlet is in shock when he is told his father has died. He has no reason but to believe that his death was accidental, until he speaks with the ghost of his father. He believes the appearance of the ghost raises a suspicious question about his death. "My father’s spirit- in arms! All is not well" (I;ii;255-256). The ghost explains to Hamlet that Claudius murdered him and that he would like Hamlet to avenge his death. "Revenge his foul most unnatural murder" (I;v;75). The ghost also tells Hamlet that Claudius has seduced Gertrude. He says that Hamlet is not to take action against his mother. " Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, to prick and sting her" (I;v’84-87). But Hamlet does not follow that order. He intends to ask his mother if she has betrayed his father. "Soft, now to my mother, O’heart, lose not thy nature, lot not ever the soul of Nero enter this firm bo som" (III;ii;362-364). Hamlet gets into a big argument with Gertrude and ends up killing Polonius, thinking it was Claudius behind the curtain. Hamlet defends himself by telling his mother what he did, is no less terrible than her marrying Claudius. "A bloody deed almost as bad, good mother, as killing a king, and marry with his brother" (III;iv;29-30).

Old tech vs new

New technology â€Å"The front porch† by Chester convey,† television destroying childhood† by rose batched and, â€Å"on the fear of death† by Elisabeth kibble-Ross. Those topics as authors has mentioned about how the way thing are now then past and how the way things compare to present. The modern world Is changing day by day and becoming more Innovative. The deferent things we use every day such as ours phones and cars and many more. The use of cell phone and cars keep connected with friends and family, but It has also Increased public rudeness.The old technology Is linked to the new technology. Without the old technology, the new technology wouldn't be found or exist. According to past, the first car ford model T was Invented In early sass's, without that being Invented the newer model would be found. Old technology was not as complex as newer technology. For example, when I was younger, I remember going out with my grandfather in his â€Å"Marti Suzukià ¢â‚¬  which is an Indian model car back in 2002. Currently, I am now driving 2013 Toyota corolla.The differences between these two cars are great. The Marti Suzuki only had radio and air conditioning working only, compare to that car, the Toyota corolla has many feature such as Bluetooth, CD player, navigation and much more feature. Early 1900, the phone was to only used to be called people and now it is we have lots of option such as testing, playing games, video calling, and many more. Another example, when I was in India, I had phone called Monika. I only can call from that phone. That phone is limited to calling only.Currently, I have the Samsung galaxy so, and this phone as any option and feature such as testing, playing games, video calling, and many more. For instance, when I came to USA back in 2008, my parent gave me phone g on my birthday. That phone was slow and takes time to load things such as video, games, websites and etc. Compare to that phone, and I bought another phone in 2010. The I phone g was getting better because that phone loads everything faster than phone g. That how we can tell that the technology is getting better and better.The technology matter because if we didn't had computer, cars, phone or any another genealogy, we would able to talk with relatives, we would not able to drive, or we would not able find things or learn from computer. However, the deference between new technology and old technology Is great because without the old technology, the new technology wouldn't new exist. The old technology was the foundation for the new technology. We have world changing day by day and I predict that technology will continue grow and become more and more Innovative. Old tech vs. new By stationmaster compare to present.The modern world is changing day by day and becoming more innovative. The different things we use every day such as ours phones and cars and but it has also increased public rudeness. The old technology is linked to the new exist. According to past, the first car ford model T was invented in early sass's, without that being invented the newer model would be found. Old technology was would not able find things or learn from computer. However, the difference between new technology and old technology is great because without the old technology, the will continue grow and become more and more innovative.

Cannabis Essays

Cannabis Essays Cannabis Essay Cannabis Essay Cannabis static-a plant species, HEMP, marijuana and hashish are obtained from TECH Active Psychoactive ingredient in marijuana and cannabis products 80 Compounds or chemicals are in WEED Where does best weed/resin come from? Dry arid climates, such as N. Africa Hashish- Drug containing the resin of cannabis flowers TECH is about 8-14% FAT SOLVABLE Amandine- Naturally occurring chemical in the brain that fits into tech sensitive receptor sites, producing the same effects as marijuana. Motivational syndrome amiability 1st barbiturate- barbaric acid- discovered by Alfred bare Lethal does and effective dose are very close Brain stem medulla- respiratory depression Mentality Milton mentality drug person on drugs, wakes up takes more without realizing theyve already taken drugs, and It kills them Painlessnesss Mentality drugs. 1960-1961 example- Valid 1st epinephrine Labium Neurotransmitter it effects GAB GHB- powerful depressant, abused to induce euphoria and sedation. Used as a date rape drug Nitrous oxide and ether Laughing gas/analgesics, Ether- nerve tonic for toothaches and other pains Most dangerous compound inhalants acetone benzene Hallucinogens Illustriousness Accurate way of what kind of a trip having on a hallucinating Hallucinogens Chemically similar to serotonin LSI Belladonna what witches rubbed on them ERGOTS SST Anthony fire Fungus moldy rye / lysergic acid people had to bake with infected grain Infected rye was associated with devil possession and witches Intermingling of senses kinesthesia LSI doesnt produce dependency it controls the user, the body has a fast ability to build a tolerance, and not taken for a fast high. Cannabis By wonderment

Journey to the Center of the Earth †Book Reviews

Journey to the Center of the Earth – Book Reviews Free Online Research Papers Journey to the Center of the Earth Book Reviews The book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne, tells as the story of an amazing journey of three brave men to the core of the Earth. This story shows as the relationships between three absolutely different men, who travel together through impediments and dangers. From the beginning to the end of the story Jules Verne, opens to us unbelievable occurrences and describes tiny details of a fantasy world that lay deep inside in the center of the Earth. Author describe in this story a lot of science inventions that were incredible for that time, but today we can see these inventions in our everyday life. Journey to the Center of the Earth is an adventure story that has some elements of fantasy and science fiction. These qualities make this story exciting and unpredictable to the last page of the book. I chose this book because fantasy and science fiction are my favorite genres, but at the same time, I like story with unpredictable and happy end, and Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of that kinds of stories. The main idea of this story is to show to us that there is nothing impossible and unbelievable if you are brave and believe in your convictions without any doubts. For me the most exciting episode in this story it is the voyage on a self-made raft in the subterranean ocean during a storm. This episode is an example of boldness of three travelers who continually struggles with enormous troubles on their way to the goal. Moreover, writer demonstrates meaning of a friendship between people in a difficult situation. During the journey travelers together, solve many difficult tasks. Thus, when Henry lost his last hope to be rescued he heard a voice of his uncle and Hans who were searching for him all this time when he was sitting in this gloomy place. Once a genius scientist Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew Harry found in an old book one strange piece of paper with a secret codified map. This story started on the 24th of May, 1863, into a little house, No. 19 Konigstrasse, one of the oldest streets in the oldest portion of the city of Hamburg, but continued in a mountain of Iceland. This story describes us a long and dangerous journey through rocky cliffs and deep precipices to the crater, which contains the shaft that leads to the center of the Earth. Journey to the center of the Earth open to us a new clandestine world with new creatures and gigantic people that live in the center of the Earth. This journey last about four month, but the most exciting thing in this journey is that it started in one crater in Iceland and finished in another crater in Sicily that laid about 1200 km from the first one. The real journey to the center of the Earth started in a mountain of Iceland where Professor and Harry found a guide Hans who was a native Icelander. First, they achieved the mountain Sneffels in Iceland it was the place where they found an enter to the subterranean world. When they achieved the Sneffels, they disclosed another problem, they were not sure about which of the three shafts was that shafts that lead to the center of the Earth, so they spent some days solving this problem nevertheless they found the right way to the core of the Earth. The main goal that Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew Harry set was to achieve the center of the Earth, but finally this expedition exceeded all their expectation. They found subterranean world with ocean, dinosaurs and giant people. However, the most important event of their journey was the discovery that they made in a core of the Earth, they proved that inside of our Earth there is a secret world. When they came back home, people met them like a heroes. The main character of this story is Professor Liedenbrock. Professor Liedenbrock is a scientist who worked in a sphere of geology, it is necessary to mention that he was one of the most famous experts in geology of that time. He is a tall and spear man of iron constitution with restless eyes that always in a constant motion. He belongs to that kind of people who always do that they decided before and it is very difficult to change their decision. In all difficult situations, he is a leader who always makes a right decision, but this property of his temper sometimes is unbearable for his companions. Another character of this story is Harry, he is very young and smart, and he always trying to dispute with his uncle Professor Liedenbrock. During the entire journey, he is thinking about dangers that lie and wait for them in the center of the Earth, and this quality sometimes does not let him think sensibly. The third character it is an Icelandic guide Hans. For me it is the most interest ing person in this story because he took part in this dangerous adventure just because of money and the most comical thing that Professor Liedenbrock paid him his salary every week even when all of them were on the edge of death. His main dignity is that he has a talent to be calm and coolheaded in very dangerous situations. I think that this book is excellent. This story is fast paced, exciting, original and charming. When I read this book I it was very simple for me to imagine the pictures that were describing in this book. As a matter of fact, this book is outstanding because it was written in 1864 and at that time, it was impossible to imagine a journey to the center of the earth, so this book is really cool. Therefore, we can understand how far ahead of his time Jules Verne was in comprehending science. Before reading this book, I have not ever thought that inside our planet may be something like a hidden world with oceans and ancient animals, but now it is not very hard for me to imagine this. Consequently, this book has changed my imagination and understanding of the world in general. When I try to place myself on the place of one of the characters and imagine myself deep under the Earth, my heart sinks and I am starting to understand feelings of Harry who was alone in the heart of the planet. And I also think, that this book shows very well the deep knowledge of sciences of the author who wrote this excellent book. When you read it, you learn a lot of new information about geology and physic. I have a very good impression of this book because I have learnt a lot of new information about world, I read about national traditions of people who leave in a mountain of Iceland. And it was also very interesting to read a story that was written more then hundred years ago. Therefore I want to advise everybody to read this book. Research Papers on Journey to the Center of the Earth - Book ReviewsMind TravelThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayThe Fifth HorsemanThe Spring and AutumnHip-Hop is ArtHonest Iagos Truth through Deception19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

Ways To Avoid Plagiarism In Academic Papers

Ways To Avoid Plagiarism In Academic Papers Today, when the Internet is rich with all kinds of data, its extremely easy to find content for most academic papers. Thats awesome, but its not always that simple to use information from the net in your paper same time avoiding plagiarism. But you still can do it simply following some easy steps while writing your academic paper so that it will be 100% unique. Paraphrasing When you need to write an academic paper on the specific subject, the first thing to do is to find as much information as you can. Next, you need to read the material and write it in your own words. Make sure you dont copy more than 3 words in a row from the other text you have found online. If you want to literally use the same words (more than 3 words one after another), you should use quotation marks. The right use of quoting will be explained more properly further as the text goes. Citing Citing can be a very effective way to make your paper original. When you are completing some academic assignment, you should just go through the paper formatting guidelines (i.e. MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.) that your university uses or other institution that issued the request for a research. Citing usually entails the addition of information about the author(s) and the publishing date or other things like that. When it comes to web content, citing quotes usually engages the extension of a page number or the paragraph number. Its really that simple. However, make sure to do it properly. Quoting Now we are back to quoting. So, when quoting some other writer, you need to use the quote exactly the way it presents in an original document. Nobody wants to be wrong cited. Still, most universities hate to see quotations with 30 words or more as every student should be competent to adequately paraphrase most works. Sure, this technique is time-consuming, but such effort will pay off with a high grade! Be sure your quotation is not too long and one more thing, make certain to do quoting right to avoid plagiarism accusation. Citing Your Own Content If you are writing an academic paper and need to use some of the content from your previous papers, you need to cite yourself. So, treat the content the same as you tend to do with someone elses writing. It might sound strange, but if you use the same text you have used before that will be characterized as self-plagiarism, and thats not admissible. Referencing Its important to include a reference page that has works presented at the end of your academic paper. Just like for citing, this page must meet the standards for paper formatting of your university. That information must be very explicit and to include all important information. If you want to avoid plagiarism, you should go through the directions on this page very carefully. Checking Edit your academic paper faithfully and look for plagiarism before you turn it to your professor. The steps mentioned here before are crucial for academic paper writing. Also, you should consider using plagiarism detection services such as WriteCheck. It can be a good way to check your paraphrasing and other skills from this article. Likewise, most educators and universities use the some kind of plagiarism checkers to assess students papers. So, dont take the chance of submitting your work before checking it first. Plagiarism may cause you severe problems with your academic degree or even career troubles in the future. If you need expert advice while checking your paper, or if you are not sure what to include in your work, consider asking for help from Essay Writing Place. Our professional writers are ready to help with any college assignment. We want to share our knowledge, skills and experience and assist students when they need it. Well gladly help with preparing a reference list, quoting sources, editing paper or any other problem that may appear in the process of writing. If you feel that you cant cope with the task yourself, let us help you!

Coke Heist Commercial as an Effective Ad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Coke Heist Commercial as an Effective Ad - Essay Example My goal in this paper is to bring these criteria into the advertising discussions by connecting them to the success of CocaCola heist advertisement. To achieve this goal, I have divided my essay into three subsections. In the first section, I put emphasis on the importance of the music in the commercial. In the second section, I discussed the environmental setting of a commercial and in the third section, I expounded the need for a collaborated teamwork in production. I end my paper with questions that need to be answered in another research. 1. Soothing music. According to advertisers, the role of the music in an advertisement is to increase the effectiveness of communication. When there are no lyrics in the music, advertisers said that music has been assigned a dominant role to carry the message of the ad. (Alpert & Alpert,1991, pp. 232-238 ). Listeners relate to the appropriateness of the music to the ad. For instance, popular rap sounds are not appropriate for the Coke heist ad and is not fit for the concept. a. Impact. A musical structure consists of elements such as sound, harmony, melody, and rhythm. The impact of the music could be seen from the consumer’s perception of whether it is fit or does it relate to the central idea of the ad. We see that consumers become receptive of the ad when the music brings forth pleasant thoughts and association, memories and imagery and what is important for an advertiser is whether there is the positive or negative association with the ad. My own perception of the music is it creates an element of suspense that thrills me to wait for the end of the commercial. It is funny, It excites the imagination, but not soothing because it is not calming. A soothing music is calming and pacifying. 2. Environmental setting. I find that setting is very important in commercial and preparation because it provides a sense of direction and purpose. Coke, in this commercial used systems, thinking that utilized non-traditional designs and setting and was able to project a holistic environmental issue of the insects interacting with people and reacting to thirst and happiness.  Ã‚  

Case Study 6 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Case Study 6 - Research Paper Example Dell was accessible and delegated authority believing in, â€Å"turning loose talented people who can be relied upon to do what they’re supposed to do.† Dell also spent 30% of his time at company operations and meeting with customers. The issues with Dell's performance are his lack of understanding the employee's initially and Dell's inability to communicate. The Five tasks of crafting and executing strategy by â€Å"Crafting and Executing Strategy† are discussed below: 1. â€Å"Developing a strategic vision of where the company needs to head and what its future product/customer/market/technology focus should be.† Dell took the right approach in desiring to sell directly to the customer, custom to the customers needs build-to-order computers. Dell also wanted to take the discount pricing approach for the company. 2. â€Å"Setting objectives and using them as yardsticks for measuring the company’s performance and progress .† During the early y ears the company did not seem to have many hard set objectives. Dell's objective was to adhere to the strategic vision while also improving quality control. Dell also began to partner with key suppliers and incorporating e-commerce technology and use of the internet. 3. â€Å"Crafting a strategy to achieve the objectives and move the company along the strategic course that management has charted. â€Å" Dell began to increase his workforce, and his marketing capabilities in order to sell directly to individuals desiring a 2nd and 3rd computer. By doing this Dell became a cost leader, due to direct sales. 4. â€Å"Implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively.† By allowing the company to be managed by a more experienced person in the early stages of the company Dell was able to implement and execute the discount strategy very well. 5. â€Å"Evaluating performance and initiating corrective adjustments in the company’s long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or execution in light of actual experience, changing conditions, new ideas, and new opportunities.† Dell was able to become one of the industry leaders in quality, price, and market share within a 20 year period. When Dell realized the margin was low on using retail stores to resell dell computers, the company made the correct adjustments and began to only sell, as was their strategy, directly. 2. What are the elements of Dell’s strategy? Which one of the five generic competitive strategies is Dell employing? How well do the different pieces of Dell’s strategy fit together? In what ways is Dell’s strategy evolving? Dell's strategy involved: â€Å"1. Selling direct to customers is the most efficient way to market the company’s products because it eliminates wholesale and retail dealers that impede Dell’s understanding of customer needs and expectations and that add unnecessary time and cost. 2. Allowing customers to purc hase custom-built products and custom-tailored services is the most effective way to meet customer needs. 3. A highly efficient supply chain and manufacturing organization, grounded in the use of standardized technologies and selling direct, paves the way for a low-cost structure where cost savings can be passed along to customers in the form of lower prices. 4. Dell can deliver added value to customers by (1) researching all the technological options, (2) trying to determine which ones are â€Å"

Improving of Leadership Skills by Learning English for International Case Study

Improving of Leadership Skills by Learning English for International Students to be Ready for Graduate Programs - Case Study Example Different Supports Needed to Improve the English Language Skill In order to enhance the English language of the students for the purpose of preparing them for their graduate program at the University of Regina, certain support is very much essential from the viewpoint of the students. The most important forms of support that the graduate students need are academic acculturation and that of English support. In terms of English support, the students have already acquired a brief knowledge regarding the subject topic of English but still the students need certain consequential refining in their skills based upon English i.e. either grammatically, in terms of vocabulary or through any other ways (Crown, 2003). In this connection, it has been observed that most of the students face certain difficulties in particular aspects that include integration of quotes in essays, formatting and effective lead-in to the quotes. These are certain specific areas in which the students must improve which would help them a lot for their graduate programs in the long-term (Crown, 2003). Moreover, the students need to develop themselves in the area of their critical thinking that would help them to improve their English language. The aspect of critical thinking is regarded as the capability to imagine clearly and rationally. It includes the capability to greatly focus upon independent as well as reflective thinking. There lie various useful functions of critical thinking that might help the students towards enhancing the medium of language i.e. English for their graduate program (Lau & Chan, 2012). The various useful functions of the aspect of critical thinking include understanding the coherent interrelation between the conceptions of the subject topic, recognizing, generating as... This report approves that the teachers as facilitators assisted as well as supported the students and the learners by delivering several skills and capabilities which ultimately helped the English learners or the students to enhance their several aptitude skills such as writing and listening. Moreover, the facilitators also assisted the students or the learners to acquire a brief idea regarding various cultural aspects along with learning several diversification related facets that prevailed in the classroom. In addition, the facilitators assisted the students to learn vocabulary, resolve grammatical errors along with capably write various assignments, projects and proposals that ultimately helped the students or learners to complete their graduation program successfully. The aspect of learning English is very much essential in order to raise as well as to enhance various skills and capabilities such as English writing, reading and listening. In order to improve the above discussed s kills, the students or the learners have to learn English by a considerable level. This essay makes a conclusion that from the overall analysis it can be said that by learning English, the international students can enhance their leadership skills by a significant level. Various barriers as well certain wide gaps were faced by the students or the English learners while learning English but the teachers as facilitators played a major role in order to overcome those barriers and gaps. Along with the major part played by the teachers, the introduction of ESL program or course also can help the students or the English learners to acquire a broad view regarding English which ultimately would help them to progress their writing, reading and listening skills and capabilities.

Bonds and Interest Rates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bonds and Interest Rates - Essay Example When interest rates go up compared to the coupon rate, bond prices would fall in the market and when interest rates fall, bond prices would go up.   Bond price and interest rates have an inverse relationship. When interest rates go up compared to the coupon rate, bond prices would fall in the market and when interest rates fall, bond prices would go up.   2. The calculations involved with pricing a bond and a stock a) A bond is priced by converting the future cash flows from the coupon rate and the maturity payment to their present value. The discount rate for calculating the present value is the investor’s required yield.  The formula is shown below. An Excel worksheet has PV calculation as a built-in macro.  Bond Price =    C / (1+r)) + C / (1+r) 2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦   C / (1+r) n    + M / (1+r) nWhere,    ‘C’ is the Coupon rate                          Ã¢â‚¬Ëœn’ are the number of payments         à ‚                 Ã¢â‚¬Ëœr’ is investor’s required yield  Ã‚                        M is the maturity value of the bond   Ã‚     b) The price of a stock is determined using the Dividend Discount Model where the future dividends to be paid out by the company are discounted to a present value. An assumption often made is that there would be a growth in the rate of payment of dividends as the company grows in the future.

Critical analysis essay Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical analysis essay - Dissertation Example The book is a historical work that uses statistical data as reference for representing views and opinion. The presentation of data in the book is narrative and creative but the data incorporated are comprehensive information and considered historically important in nature (Yergin and Stanislaw ch.5; 14). Based on the date presented, the book can be viewed as both historically and economically essential. The authors Yergin and Stanislaw presented a different perspective on the various concepts in the market through their own definition of terms such as globalization etc. Globalization is perceived as the periods of domination of free markets and is positive based on the effect it can bring about to the standard of living of the people. In addition the authors believe in the accomplishments and importance of capitalism (Yergin and Stanislaw ch.13). The views and opinions of the authors are evident in the book. This can be considered as an indication that the book is meant to make a sta tement and not a historical narrative.

Bonds and Interest Rates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bonds and Interest Rates - Essay Example When interest rates go up compared to the coupon rate, bond prices would fall in the market and when interest rates fall, bond prices would go up.   Bond price and interest rates have an inverse relationship. When interest rates go up compared to the coupon rate, bond prices would fall in the market and when interest rates fall, bond prices would go up.   2. The calculations involved with pricing a bond and a stock a) A bond is priced by converting the future cash flows from the coupon rate and the maturity payment to their present value. The discount rate for calculating the present value is the investor’s required yield.  The formula is shown below. An Excel worksheet has PV calculation as a built-in macro.  Bond Price =    C / (1+r)) + C / (1+r) 2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦   C / (1+r) n    + M / (1+r) nWhere,    ‘C’ is the Coupon rate                          Ã¢â‚¬Ëœn’ are the number of payments         à ‚                 Ã¢â‚¬Ëœr’ is investor’s required yield  Ã‚                        M is the maturity value of the bond   Ã‚     b) The price of a stock is determined using the Dividend Discount Model where the future dividends to be paid out by the company are discounted to a present value. An assumption often made is that there would be a growth in the rate of payment of dividends as the company grows in the future.

Drug Patch Design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drug Patch Design - Research Paper Example The patch I shall design would work for at least 60hours at a stretch and would work on all types of skin. Here I shall examine the rates of design patch on fast skin and slow skin to help me come up with an efficient design for all. The parameters that I shall be controlling and altering are membrane thickness L, diffusivity D, and the concentration of Scopolamine in the reservoir Cp. The second layer acts as the reservoir in which the drug is added in a predetermined concentration. It is from this layer that the drug would diffuse into the layer layers and ultimately into he skin. The final layer which would stay in touch with the skin of the wearer would be membranous and permeable such the drug can easily diffuse out of the patch and into the skin. When the patch is put on, the drug slowly diffuses out of its layer into the next layer and travels right down to the skin layer and diffuses through it. It crosses the body barriers and enters the blood stream continuously thereby ensuring that the astronauts would not suffer from motion sickness as long as they wear a working patch. I plotted the graph of concentration versus time in the body to understand which concentration lasted longer in the body since my aim was at least 60 hours.From these plots I selected the best effective concentration. All this was studied for maximum diffusivity (D2) and fast skin (l2). The main purpose is to design a perfect patch which can be worn by all astronauts and which would work efficiently for a long stretch of time. If the time it is required to work for is less than or exceeds its requirement the patch would not be usable. On the other hand another rimportanat factor would be the concentration since a slightly higher concentration may have negative side effects on the astronauts. The several layered patch would last for a long time thereby supplying the drug to astronauts in order to curb motion sickness passed simulation tests and could now be used

the president of Bright-Lite’s president Essay Example for Free

the president of Bright-Lite’s president Essay The issue concerning stock should be tackled carefully by the president of Bright-Lite’s president. Presently he should argue in favor of Beverly Patton, because it is true that a high volume of stock is kept that will probably turn to obsolete. However, attention should be placed by the president in how favoring Beverly because we cannot go to the other extreme, since such side is hazardous too to the financial health of Bright-Line Shirt Company. The reason for such a suggest stems from the trade off that exists in inventory that all business organizations that keep stock face. When holding stock there are two main risks that face the opposite direction. On one side there is the risk that the company purchases a lot of stock that will not be used and will eventually turn obsolete, as the case at hand. Keeping high volume of stock holds other disadvantages apart obsolescence. For example, the greater the stock volume the higher the resources entrusted for such asset. Indeed organizations that keep high volume of stock incur greater holding costs, such as wages of employees working in stores, insurance and other related overheads. In addition, by keeping a high volume of stock a substantial part of the firm’s working capital will be tied up in stock. We ought to keep in mind that cash is the lifeblood of the organization and an appropriate cash buffer balance should be kept to cater for other working capital commitments like payments to suppliers apart from inventory. The other extreme side, which encompasses keeping low volume of stock, is also dangerous. If the company ends up without inventory, there is the risk that the firm will not be capable to meet the demands of the customers. As a result, orders will be lost and the organization might lose a part of its present market share. In this respect an appropriate balance between these two side should be kept and this is the reason why the president should be careful in how favoring Beverly. Reference: Drury C. (1996). Management and Cost Accounting. Fourth Edition. New York: International Thomson Business Press.

A Good Muslim In 21st Century

A Good Muslim In 21st Century In this report I am going to tell about the life of a good Muslim in 21st century. Basically in this report I discuss that what are the current issues through which Muslims suffer and what should they do according to Quran and Sunnah to over come from all of these issues and how they can be a good Muslims how can they spend life as a good Muslim in 21st century we discuss all it here in the lights of Hadees and Sunnah Muslim should follow Islamic point of view to better understand their lives and follow the proper path according to the shariyat because this is only way through which we can please ALLAH and take reward from. Islam is the only one who gives us understanding about good and bad deeds and through following the Quran this understanding developed in us and we are able to become good Muslims in this modern time of 21st century. Shedding Complexes and Avoiding Violence Only some may know the reality about Muslims and Islam, but the image of Muslims every where is not good. Islam and Muslims has been projected as a threat to peace. Some perceive it as a threat to their personal security. we Muslims have these perceptions about ourselves as we are not as we ought to be, i.e., as Muslims are described in Quran and Sunnah each of these perceptions has some connection with truth, but its not true as it stands. Developing an excellent ummah in 21st century In our journey to develop an excellent ummah that can be exemplary to all the people of the world we need to look inward of the major challenges within the Muslim societies today. Violence within the Muslim societies and countries around the world We should acknowledge that there are many problems in the ummah which must have to be resolved. It ranges suicide bombing through terrorist attack on innocent Muslims and non-Muslims around the world. The problem of violence with in the ummah must be resolved by Muslims we must work together in a concerted effort to create a peaceful society in the context of 21st century global world. Sectarian conflict within Muslim societies It is very bad that the whole world is watching that how Muslims killed the other Muslims. The sectarian violence involving Sunni Shiah conflict must be resolved Muslim leaders throughout the world must begin to preach on the universal message of Islam. It should never reach the level of violence and killing which we are seeing today Low educational level of Muslims worldwide today Muslims worldwide are facing the challenges of being uneducated and ignorant ummah we see many Muslims that have very low education achievement because Muslim parents are not sending their children to school due to poverty and lack of realization of the importance of education If this trend continues we will see the majority of Muslims will be on the lowest in the society Mohammad a 21st century prophet: The teachings of Muhammad (SAWW) changed the life of Arab but that was not just for the nation before 21st century but also for us to follow the Islam and Sunnah and the teachings of Islam even prophet Muhammad (SAWW) character changed the person Umar Ibn Al- Khattab who preaches the idol made of dates he become the leader of whole Muslim due to teachings of Muhammad (SAWW) We the Muslims believe that the teachings of the Muhammad are not just for the one time but we can take benefit from these teachings even though we are living in 21st century we can represent a good nation through follow the teachings of Islam 21ST Century Muslim leadership Muslims in the 21st century facing lots of challenges not only here but also in West we always rely on our past scholars but now we have many different challenges which we have to face and try to find out another ways to overcome this we have a great problem of knowledge and terminology. The translation is not only just translation of words but we should see the realities in it which comes from the religious reference. The way we translate the concept of Islam is wrong and the notion, terminology is also wrong I really think that if there is challenge for us in 21st century here and everywhere is to be able ( and its not something that just come from the scholar it can be come from every single Muslim it is Some thing which is very essential in our religion that our religion is just not the religion of elites it is the religion of every single mind single heart to come back to understand our terminology and the priorities of our religion Islam Great problems of Muslims of 21st century The problem is the psychological crisis based on the lack of knowledge and lack of deep understanding of Islam because the whole process of this religion is all about liberation of all kind of alienation the first enemy is your own ego the second is perception through which we see world from our own viewpoint that is lack of humanity. Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) saying is: Ifshus Salam baynakum: spread peace among yourselves, between yourselves, with the people everywhere. Because the highest objective of Islam is peace among all Muslims. Muslims should get rid of Haram The Muslims of 21st even in every century are smart enough to understand that what the concept of Haram in Islam there is many things which we should avoid for example: Turning away from remembering god Using gold or silver utensils Black magic Swindling fraud Altering a dead person will Murdering or wounding another or severing one of his limbs Drink alcoholic beverages Stealing Spreading corruption and evil ways Taking Riba so onà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ These all things are Haram in Islam and the Muslims if they want to represent themselves as a good in front of world or especially in front of ALLAH one should leave these types of acts because of these acts Muslims can be out from the boundaries of Islam which will be very big punishment from Allah Follow Halal Halal is the thing or an action which permissible to use or engage according to Islamic law If we want to be a good Muslim we should always try to eat and do Halal things Muslims should earn from the Halal way according to shariyat not in means of cheating and fraud because for Halal in Quran there are strict laws. The Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi WA sallam, said: Seeking Halal earning is a duty after the duty. In other words working to earn a Halal living is itself a religious obligation second in importance after the primary religious obligations like prayers, fasting and hajj. O ye who believe! Eat of the good things wherewith we have provided you, and render thanks to Allah if it is (indeed) He whom ye worship (2:172) ALLAH likes Halal things and ordered Muslim to eats Halal and does all Halal things. As I show in above heading that Allah doesnt like Haram acts. In 21st century there are lots of Haram things which from Muslims addicted so if we want to b a good Muslim in 21st century we prove our selves as a good Muslim to avoid these things in the modern world. In Surah 5:5 of the Quran, it is written: The food of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] is lawful for you as your food is lawful for them. Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet (Saw) said: O People! Allah is al-Tayyib (Pure), and He only accepts that which is pure! Allah has commanded the believers what He has commanded the Messengers, for He said, O Messengers! Eat from the pure foods, and do right, and He said, O you who believe! Eat from the pure and good foods We have given you.' Being a good Muslim The typical Muslim will be always honest in abiding the laws principles of Islam. to praying five times prayers which is the basis that we know that there is only one GOD who is Allah and Muhammad(SAWW) is the last prophet of Allah A good Muslim not only follows the Islam by him self but also teach about it and force to follow by his fellow beings and understand that it is necessary to fasting 30 days in the month of ramzan. A good Muslim always lowers his gaze while talking to others especially to the women and keeps distance with stranger women other than his wife daughter mother sister. A good Muslim follows brotherhood and feels the emotions of other Muslims. Quran tells us that a good Muslim should perform HAJJ at least once in his whole life. But now the Muslims are busy in many bad activities and now the Muslims of 21st century are far away from the teachings of Islam shariyat and Sunnah they just live their present life by forgot they this life is not long-lasting it will be end soon they should understand the life after death which is long-lasting and which is thousand times better than this present life. The charm the luxuries and the entertainment of this of this world make Muslims blind they dont understand that they are doing wrong things. Allahs Messenger (SAWW) said: If any one of you improves (follows strictly) his Islamic religion then his good deeds will be rewarded ten times to seven hundred times for each good deed and a bad deed will be recorded as it is. [Sahih Bukhari Book #02, Hadith #40] Muslim youth in 21st century As the 21st century come to an end we have to look through that what we have done and what we loose in responding to Quranic challenges to create a good society because is also seeking the one who is the ideal of entire humanity because our prophets also wants to see that what are the results of their hard work in terms of spreading Islam and too full fill the Allahs desire this is such an tough task and in this regard Quran reminded us continuous that A man receives but only that for which he strives; that his endeavors will be judged, and only then will he receive his recompense in full. (53:39-41) Due to which Muslims has to strive to earn their final reward in full. How to maintain momentum in strive to remain a true Muslim. Muslim youth who is the main target of modernization that was taking place an uncontrollable pace In the Muslim world. Two decades 1960 1970 independence of the two nations Asia and Africa created the new national identities The period was ripe for considering the role of the past heritage, religious, moral and cultural, in the new age of rationalism and secularism. and the nation developed in modernization without give importance to Islam this is the act of non Muslims they developed church instead of developing mosque and madarsa to spread Islamic teaching which is unfair to the Muslims due to which Muslims also struggle to spread Islam through our leaders Through marriage and parenthood Islam seeks to impart moral education. even the young girls also face greater challenge in maintain their moral tact when they out in society there are very little understanding the ways in which Muslim girls existence because any girl do hijaab people consider her as old fashion but that girl shows Islam towards us and she lives according to Islam. Our leaders should arrange programs for the youth to understand them the meaning of Islam and make recommendations to implement to create the awareness of Islam among youth to be a good Muslim. May Allah guide us of all the path of prosperity submission to the will of God CONCLUSION In this report I discusses about the life as a good Muslim 21st century and through the research I recognized that in the modern world of 21st century the Muslims have to do hard struggle to be a good Muslim In front of Allah and to please Allah through follow Islam Quran Sunnah and in the lights of Hadith and should get rid of bad things as soon as possible and spread Islam to create awareness of Islam not to worry about the people because once you reach that destiny Allah will your hands and give you reward in the term of JANNAT.

College Laziness or Stupidity? The Internet Versus The Library as a Res

What makes the Internet so appealing? Whether it exists to have every answer to every problem or that the Internet provides its users with a virtual reality to be whomever they so choose, the Internet can be regarded as something that has advanced the human race into a new age while others see the Internet as an infernal contraption that has ruined society. Despite the Internet’s useful features, the uses among average college students have corrupted the idea of the Internet being a place to gain intellectual knowledge and has turned them into lazy, good for nothing halfwits. The standards most college students live by (in terms of using the Internet daily) is not enough to get them through four or more years of college. This can be stated with the utmost accuracy because to succeed at the highest level in college one must learn to use the library as a resource. The Internet makes up one of the most heavily used appliances that every college student literally depends upon. From streaming videos to surfing the web, it can be effortless to simply type just a few words into the search bar and hit enter, thereby eliminating hours of mindless work that (let’s face it) nobody likes doing. What should be called for is that many teachers across the nation should enforce a policy that restricts students from using the Internet as a primary source. The fact that many students are prepared to cut hours of work that can help them in the future is something that needs to change, and the only way it can is if teachers require students to use the library to look up and use books as a primary source when searching for information on projects One of the many reasons that I dislike the use of the Internet being a prominent part in the life of ... ... "Good Things about the Internet." Today's Parent 08 2004: 151-2. ProQuest. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Steinberg, Jacques. "Free College Notes on Web: Aid to Learning, Or Laziness?" New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast) ed.: 0. Sep 09 1999. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. Apr. 2014. Thompson, Christen. "Information Illiterate Or Lazy: How College Students use the Web for Research." Portal: Libraries and the Academy 3.2 (2003): 259-68. ProQuest. Web. 28 Thurmond, Bradley H. "Student Plagiarism and the use of a Plagiarism Detection Tool by Community College Faculty." ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. Wang, Yu-Mei. "Internet Uses in University Courses." International Journal on E-Learning 6.2 (2007): 279-92. ProQuest. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. Wegner, Daniel M., and Adrian F. Ward. "How Google is Changing Your Brain." Scientific American 12 2013: 58. ProQuest. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

Moby Dick

Moby Dick is a story about man’s abiding fascination and struggle with the sea, and his desire to unravel the mysteries of the deep. The sea in Herman Melville’s 1851 novel becomes the context within which the author explores profound and universal themes about life and living. The story tells the story of vengeful captain as seen through he a stowaway sailor, Ishmael, who wanders and aboards the whaling ship, Pequod. The Pequod is commandeered by a certain Captain Ahab, whom Ishmael meets only when the Pequod has gone to sea.Later on, Ishmael realizes that Captain Ahab has more sinister plans which went beyond simple commercial endeavors. While the Pequod is a whaling ship and her crew is supposed to catch whales for trade, Captian Ahab intends to use the ship and her crew to exact vengeance on a whale that has gravely injured and disfigured him. The whale’s name is Moby Dick, and the novel revolves around Ahab’s chase for this great creature amid the vas t and unforgiving sea, as seen through the eyes of young Ishmael. Ishmael plays no actual role in the unfolding of the story; rather, he serves as the author’s narrator and the instrument by which the author expresses his profound musings on whales, whaling, and whalers and the relationships that each has to the other.Much scholarly discussion has been made on Moby Dick and the underlying themes that buttress the story. As such, this paper intends to take on the story and frame the analysis within the context of one specific passage in the book. The particular quote goes:  Perhaps they were; or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in the far horizon; but lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic oceans at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and e very strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly-discovered, up-rising fin of some indiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it. (p. 152)These words were told by an experienced whaler to a young and impressionable lad, like an old man passing on his wisdom and life experiences to the next generation, in the hopes that they might glean valuable lessons from it. The whaler notices that the young sailor has been going out to sea for three years already, without catching a single whale all those times. Thus the whaler goes to reflect on the elusive whale and the seemingly endless search for them. â€Å"Perhaps they were; or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in the far horizon†¦Ã¢â‚¬ At first sight and given the context of the book, it is obvious that the whaler is talking about whales in this line. The whaler waxes about the vastness of the ocean and that somewhere in this immense space lie an abundance of whales, whales which he has spent all his life hunting. However upon deeper analysis, one can see that the whaler is not just talking about whales. He is waxing about one’s search for dreams and the hopes for a better life, and that one can spend a lifetime chasing without ever catching those precious dreams. On the other hand, those who remain true to the chase and never turn their back on the sea will eventually be rewarded by a harvest of fulfilled dreams.†¦But lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Again the whaler speaks of whales and why most of them are hard to find. The whaler speaks of those who lose themselves in the vastness of the sea because of their youth and lack of direction. This perhaps is a veiled warning to the young sailor that life can be misleading and deceitful, and those who are too reckless may find themselves irretrievably lost.†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Takes the mystic oceans at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Here the whaler explains why whales can get lost. The whales are tempted by reckless instincts to explore the unknown. Enticed by the mysteries and beauties of the deep, the whale may be coaxed into plunging into deep waters where he is not equipped with the capacity to survive. Whales, being mammals, need oxygen to breathe, and as such, they need to break the surface of the water every once in a while.When whales go too deep or explore too far, their oxygen reserves may run out too soon, and they run out of air before they can swim to the surface. Young whales that are too reckless drown because they gave in to the temptations of the deep. In contrast, older whale s, wiser and more experienced, know how far they can go in the ocean. Again the whaler may very well be waxing about life, and how the impudence and lack of respect for the sea can lead sailors and whales alike to the eternal embrace of the ocean’s depths.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Every dimly-discovered, up-rising fin of some indiscernible form seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it.† This again is an elaboration of the deceitful nature of appearances; that physical forms almost always belie its true nature. Often the ones that come in the most attractive guises are those that are the most destructive in life, and whales, just like humans are tempted just the same.The passage discussed in this paper symbolizes the very essence of what the novel is about. It talks about youth and dreams, and how such can be easily lost and wasted. It also talks about how whales, just like humans, can fall into the illusion o f invincibility and fall prey to all kinds of temptations. The quote is also representative of man’s constant struggle to understand and tame nature.The whales, as described by the veteran whaler, are abundant, but given the vastness of the sea, are hard to find. The whales are also symbolic of all the things that we are obsessed about, regardless of whether it is a futile chase or not. As Ishmael said, â€Å"There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (361) Perhaps, the whaler as he was saying those words is also waxing about his own life, and how it once was so full of promise. In the same token, he might also be talking about Captain Ahab and how he has lost himself in the empty pursuit of revenge. The line which describes how whales may be lost may be representative of Ahab’s own disregard for his life and those of his crew; he is consumed with the desire to exact r evenge, and he will never find rest until he meets the whale once again. In that sense he is lost and drowning in his blind obsession with vengeance.The passage encapsulates the tremendous scope of Moby Dick as it tackles simultaneous social, religious, and personal issues all in one novel. While the book is a story of adventure and a chronicle at sea, it is a tale of life and all the wonderful and terrifying things about it.   That the quote being analyzed in this paper lends itself to so many interpretations speaks of the character of the novel itself. Moby Dick can be different things to different people. A person’s interpretation of the book also depends on their current situation and their perception of the story changes when their situation changes as well.Moby Dick is largely heterogeneous and mutable, constantly shifting and redefining itself (Brodhead 4) and does not lend itself to be limited to a particular literary genre. And the fact that it succeeds at being el usive, is a part of the character of the novel itself. Like the elusive Moby Dick, the novel itself is indefinable in the immensity of its scope. However, while the novel tackles a myriad of themes, his choice of the sea as the general setting is explained in Ishmael’s words, â€Å"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.† (14) Indeed, the sea’s appeal is universal and it touches to some basic aspect of our common humanity. By the sea, we feel intimations of our smallness and greatness all at the same time.Indeed, the book Moby Dick is filled with veiled and not-so-veiled philosophical musings about life and living. The sea has always been considered symbolic of life and its hidden meanings and challenges. Moby Dick, while fictional is not a product of the author’s imagination. Herman Melville knew what he was talking about, having worked in a whaling ship whe n he was twenty-one years old.Herman, just like Ishmael, feels like an outsider of life, an outcast because of the circumstances of his lowly birth. It has often been said that Ishmael is Herman’s alter ego, through which Herman was able to express himself and all his thoughts about his life. The sea in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick represents life, in all its magnificence and enormity and the beauty and dangers that lie in its surface. Like Ahab, we all long to master our ship and triumph over the monsters of the deep. Not because of sheer folly but because of our fundamental need to understand the unknown.ReferencesMelville, Herman. Moby Dick. Plain Label Books. 1851.Retrieved on December 13, 2007 from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=cYKYYypj8UAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=moby+dick&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=moby%20dick&f=false.Brodhead, Richard. New Essays on Moby-Dick. Cambridge University Press. 1986.

Wise Travel Tips And Tricks From Frequent Travelers

Frequent Travelers Many people have vacation horror stories to tell. Usually, poor planning is the reason behind such negative talk. The tips listed here will help you to have an enjoyable vacation experience. Leave your valuables at home. If you decide to bring valuables, you could lose them, or they could even be stolen. Air travel requires a bit of planning. If an airport Is In a major city, It can be quite difficult to get to, especially during rush hour when traffic is at its heaviest. Pack what you can the night before our flight so you are sure to be ready to leave the next day.Dont walt until the last minute to prepare for your flight. There is little else that could be worse than not making your flight. Anytime you are going to be driving to a different city before going on a cruise, check to see if there is a hotel that has fee parking, and get there the night before. You may want to contact the hotel administration about potential deals that they offer on parking even if i t doesn't look like any are available. Prior to flying, make a quick trip to the gym. Being on a flight for a long period of time can be iresome.Your legs and back can cramp up from sitting a long time. Working out prior to a long flight can relax your body and reduce uncomfortable feelings in your body due to the flight. Always go out of your way to tip any bell station and housekeeper appropriately. The typical tip is a dollar per bag of luggage and anywhere from two to five dollars per day for housekeeping. Doing so will ensure that you have a nice relationship with both during your hotel stay. Stores tend to overcharge for these Items, and the space saved Is minimal, so save the money.Try olding your clothes in innovative ways that will take up less space. Following these tips can help you find even more room In your bags. Taking sleeping pills will help you get through a long flight. This can help you to sleep in a situation that many are uncomfortable In, on board an airplane Take a mild sleeping pill to get you through the flight. Nothing too strong, but enough to make you drowsy. Refrain from taking sleeping medication before you actually take off. If your flight Is delayed, you will likely need to remain wide awake to make other arrangements.Make sure that your assports are valid. Different areas of the world have different rules regarding passports. Most countries will not permit you to enter with an expired passport if it is within a given time frame. These periods usually range anywhere from a year to three months. The reason for some of the worst stories about traveling happen because the traveler didnt think ahead and plan correctly. You now have the advice needed to take the worry from your vacation and find the relaxation that you deserve. Wise Travel Tips And Tricks From Frequent Travelers By bassantbadr planning.If an airport is in a major city, it can be quite difficult to get to, especially your flight so you are sure to be ready to leave t he next day. Don't wait until the last overcharge for these items, and the space saved is minimal, so save the money. Try tips can help you find even more room in your bags. Taking sleeping pills will help uncomfortable in, on board an airplane. Take a mild sleeping pill to get you through sleeping medication before you actually take off. If your flight is delayed, you will because the traveler didn't think ahead and plan correctly. You now have the advice

Measurement of Sevice Quality of Apollo Using Servqual

Dissertation Project Report On Measurement of Quality at Apollo Hospitals using Servqual Submitted by Richa Kumari A0102208164 MBA (M&S) 2010 Under the Supervision of Faculty Mentor Prof. (Dr. ) P. K. Bansal Faculty Amity Business School AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH SECTOR 125, NOIDA – 201303, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA 2010 DECLARATION I Richa Kumari, student of Master of Business Administration (Marketing &Sales), Class of 2010from Amity Business School, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh hereby declare that the dissertation done by me on the topic â€Å"Measurement of Quality at Apollo Hospital using Servqual† is true to my knowledge. The information collected by me is authentic & is done through data analysis & interpretation & I have a thorough knowledge of the project. The content of this report is based on the information collected from visiting Indraprastha Apollo hospitals in Delhi. I further declare that the matter embodied in this project report has not been submitted to any other university or institute for the award of any degree or diploma. PLACE: Noida DATE : Richa Kumari Amity Business School Amity University, Uttar Pradesh CERTIFICATE FROM FACULTY GUIDE This is to certify that Richa kumari, student of MBA (M&S), Amity Business School, Amity University; Uttar Pradesh has successfully completed the dissertation project under my guidance. The project report and data submitted by her is authentic and genuine to my knowledge. Prof. Dr. P. K. Bansal Faculty guide Faculty, Amity Business School Amity University, Uttar Pradesh ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It takes immense pleasure for me to express my sincere gratitude to all the helping experience I had during my dissertation. The Project was done by me under the guidelines of my Faculty Guide Prof. Dr. P. K. Bansal was a source of enormous learning for me. I am highly obliged to him for their continuous unconditional support & guidelines. A special word of thanks from me to all the respondents whose cooperation and interaction was a great help. As a student of AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL, NOIDA I got the golden opportunity to work on the topic â€Å"Measurement of Quality of Apollo Hospital using Servqual†. I also feel highly obliged to my program leader Mrs. Aparna Goel and some of the faculties in ABS who in several ways were my inspiration & helped me to put in the best of my efforts. I am deeply indebted to my parents, family members & friends for their support during the course of my dissertation. Last but not the least; the report was completed successfully because of the grace of God. Richa Kumari Amity Business School EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Service firms like other organizations are realizing the significance of customer-centered philosophies and are turning to quality management approaches to help manage their businesses. This paper starts with the concept of service quality and demonstrates the model of service quality gaps. SERVQUAL as an effective approach has been studied and its role in the analysis of the difference between customer perceptions and expectations has been highlighted with support of measurement of quality at Apollo Hospital. Outcomes of the study outline the fact that although SERQUAL could close one of the important service quality gaps associated with external customer services, it could be extended to close other major gaps and therefore, it could be developed in order to be applied for internal customers, i. e. mployees and service providers. Quality Health Care  is an achievement of optimal physical and mental health through accessible, cost-effective care that is based on best evidence, is responsive to the needs and preferences of patients and populations, and is respectful of patients’ families, personal values and beliefs. The report covers the survey of Apollo Hospital Services, Delhi. It focuses on the dynamics of the the overall service provided, the trends over a period of time, and the key challenges faced by the industry. TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION I * CERTIFICATE FROM FACULTY MENTOR II * ACKNOWLEDGEMENT III * EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IV * CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION * CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW * CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY * SAMPLE DESIGN * RESEARCH DESIGN * DATA COLLECTION METHOD * SAMPLE SIZE CHAPTER 4 DATA INTERPRETATION * DATA ANALYSIS * FINDINGS * LIMITATIONS * CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION &RECOMMENDATION * APPENDICES V * REFERENCES VI * BIBLIOGRAPHY VII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Earlier in the medical literature, the quality of service i. e. the  characteristics that shape the experience of care was rarely discussed beyond technical  competence. This research measures and analyzes  some routine encounters in Apollo, a hospital of international standard from a service quality point  of view. The study has led to the following two premises: First, if high-quality service had a greater presence  in practices and institutions, it would improve clinical  outcomes and increased satisfaction of patient and doctors while reducing  cost. It will also create competitive advantage for those who  are expert in its application. Second, many other industries  in the service sector have taken service quality to a high level,  their techniques are readily transferable to health care, and caring for patients can learn from them. Healthcare industry The healthcare industry in India comprising of hospital and allied sectors, is projected to grow at 23 per cent per annum and to touch US$ 77 billion by 2012 from the current estimated size of US$ 35 billion, according to a Yes Bank and ASSOCHAM report. The sector has registered a growth of 9. 3 per cent between 2000-2009, when compared with the growth rate of other emerging economies such as China, Brazil and Mexico. According to the report, the growth in the sector would be driven by healthcare facilities, private and public sector, medical diagnostic and pathlabs and the medical insurance sector. Today Hospital industry is an important component of the value chain in Indian Healthcare industry. It renders services and is recognized as healthcare delivery segment of the healthcare industry. It is growing at an annual rate of 14%. The hospital industry accounts for half the healthcare sector’s revenues and was estimated to be worth USD $25 billion in 2008. The dismal performance by the Indian government in providing healthcare infrastructure has created tremendous opportunities in the private sector. The huge pent up demand for quality healthcare and increase in healthcare spending in the long-term are fundamentally strong drivers in this market. The factors contributing to its bright future is based on increased healthcare  consumption, increasing instances of lifestyle-related diseases, medical tourism, and growing  health  insurance. The key challenges for the industry include significant capital requirements and a shortage of medical professionals. Ensuring high quality of healthcare service is another key issue for service providers. Healthcare spending in India accounts for over 5 per cent of the country’s GDP. Of which the public spending in percentage is around 1 per cent of GDP. The presence of public health care is not only weak but also under-utilized and inefficient. Meanwhile, private sector is quite dominant in the healthcare sector. Around 80 percent of total spending on healthcare in India comes from the private sector. Inadequate public investment in health infrastructure has given an opportunity to private hospitals to capture a larger share of the market. In addition the demand for hospital services has been increasing due to the rise in lifestyle related diseases that accompany prosperity. Hospitals serve an important function in India’s healthcare system. They provide in-patient and out-patient services and also support the training of health workers and research. Indian hospitals can be broadly classified as public hospitals, private and not-for-profit hospitals. Corporate hospital chains that provide tertiary healthcare services in large towns and cities have also been established. However, the number of hospital beds in India is around 1. 1 per thousand people. This is significantly lower when compared to most developed economies. The current outlook for the hospital services is positive. Technological innovations in service delivery, increased affordability, improved service quality and supportive government policy initiatives are some of the factors that are likely to impact growth of the sector. This is a pointer to significant opportunities that exist for service providers. Moreover, the future of healthcare is not restricted to the large domestic market alone. Emerging trend of medical tourism indicates the possibility of Indian healthcare services opening to the whole world. Health Care and Service delivery Health  Service delivery  refers to the way inputs such as finance, staff, treatment, equipment and drugs all deliver a range of health interventions to consumers seeking to access health care. Improving Service delivery  depends on having key resources that are well organized and managed. Health services include personal health services that are preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic or rehabilitative; whilst non-personal services cover areas such as mass health education/ promotion programs, health legislation and the provision of basic sanitation facilities. Incompetence or breakdown in the process of care-giving may be the result of problems in practice, products, procedures or systems. A key issue facing development agencies is the utilization of health services as they are often inaccessible or mistrusted by consumers. Lack of managerial capacity at all levels of the health system is increasingly cited as a binding constraint to scaling up services and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Apollo Hospitals With over  8065 beds across 46 hospitals in India and overseas, neighborhood diagnostic clinics, an extensive chain of Apollo Pharmacies, medical BPO as well as health insurance services and clinical research divisions working on the cutting edge of medical science, Apollo Hospitals is a healthcare powerhouse one can trust with their life. Apollo Hospitals, India is a union of exceptional clinical success rates and superior technology with centuries-old traditions of Eastern care and warmth, with 16 million patients from 55 countries. Apollo Hospitals Group is at the Forefront of Medical Tourism to make India the Global Healthcare Destination. Its mission is to bring healthcare of international standards within the reach of every individual. They are committed to the achievement and maintenance of excellence in education, research and healthcare for the benefit of humanity. Dr. Prathap C Reddy is the Founder & Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group. Led by Apollo Hospitals Group, Indian Healthcare today has developed International delivery capabilities and has demonstrated International excellence in all specialties with major cost advantages for people from overseas. Apollo Hospitals has successfully treated over 60000 foreign patients from across the world in last five years and the numbers are looking up every year. By constantly measuring our deliverables, they have succeeded in creating infrastructure that meets the needs of the future that incorporates the latest technology and provides superior healthcare delivery systems. Their immediate agenda includes setting up of healthcare facilities in all major Indian cities, 23-hour hospitals, pharmacies, a pharmaceuticals business and finally, a Health Maintenance Organization that will give millions of people access to all these facilities. The telemedicine technology that has been successfully introduced by Dr. Reddy in India will be a key enabler in transforming the healthcare delivery in India. His blueprint for the nation includes setting up of many rural hospitals. Apollo Hospitals Group is the acknowledged leader in bringing super speciality world-class healthcare to India. It is presently the largest integrated healthcare company in Asia. Apollo Hospital  would mean any of the hospitals owned by  Apollo Hospitals, a  healthcare  corporation that operates 38 hospitals in South Asia. It is the largest healthcare provider in Asia and the third largest in the world and is headquartered in  Chennai, India. Apollo Hospital  Delhi  is the first hospital in India to be accredited by the JCAHO and is affiliated with  Johns Hopkins  international, the  Mayo Clinic, and many major hospitals in the United States and Europe. In addition to hospitals, Apollo operates Nursing and Hospital Management colleges,  pharmacies, diagnostic clinics, medical transcription, third-party administration and telemedicine. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Apollo Health and Life Science Limited, the Apollo Group has set up a chain of nearly 60 branded day-to-day retail clinics on a franchised basis across India and the  Middle East. This is the first time healthcare delivery has been successfully franchised in India. Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, the largest healthcare group in Asia. Indraprastha Apollo is one of the largest corporate hospitals in the world. It is the third super specialty tertiary care hospital set by the Apollo Hospitals Group, jointly with the Government of New Delhi, India's capital. It is a 695 bedded hospital, with the provision for expansion to 1000 beds in future. The hospital is at the forefront of medical technology and expertise. It provides a complete range of latest diagnostic, medical and surgical facilities for the care of its patients. The hospital started functioning from July 1996, its mission being Medical Excellence with a Human Touch. Cost of treatment Apollo Hospitals is considered one of the most expensive treatment facilities when compared to their local counterparts. A similar treatment and care in a regular hospital would cost significantly lesser. However, their facilities, infrastructure and quality of medical faculty are far superior to anything else in the country, seemingly justifying this increased cost. Medical Milestones * Employs over 4000 specialists and super-specialists and 3000 medical officers spanning 53 clinical departments in patient care * Achieved a 99. 6% success rate in cardiac bypass surgeries, over 91% of these were beating heart surgeries * Conducted over 55,000 cardiac surgeries First Indian hospital group to introduce new techniques in Coronary Angioplasty, Stereotactic Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery. Performed over 7,50,000 major surgeries and over 10,00,000 minor surgical procedures with exceptional clinical outcomes * Pioneered orthopaedic procedures like hip and knee replacements, the Illizarov procedure and the Birmingham hip re-surfacing technique * Pioneered the concept of preventive healthcare in India * First ho spital group to bring the 64 Slice CT-Angio scan system * First hospital group in South-East Asia to introduce the 16 Slice PET-CT Scan * First to perform liver, multi-organ and cord blood transplants in India * Equipped with the largest and most sophisticated sleep laboratory in the world CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Kotler (1999) points out an unchangeable principle for a successful business are to satisfy the customers’ need. Consumer service is closely related to customer satisfaction and consumer satisfaction has a critical influence on the profits and performance of institutions and organizations (Fornell, 1992; Mittal & Lassar, 1998; Wong, 2000). That is why organizations emphasize the importance of consumer service and satisfaction. Just as the dashboard of a car provides timely feedback on vital performance measures, so should an organization’s dashboards inform decision makers and board members on where the organization is headed and how it is progressing toward its strategic objectives. The consumer service perspective is closely associated with the evolution of the business strategies in the Health Care industry. To manage and improve quality, these successful organizations are coming to the conclusion that quality must be measured. This ensures accurate measurement of customer satisfaction versus that delivered by competitors. Service Quality is a service that is consistent with customer expectations and stated obligation in Customer Care, performance & Value. Quality itself has been defined as fundamentally relational:   ‘Quality is the ongoing process of building and sustaining relationships by assessing, anticipating, and fulfilling stated and implied needs. ‘ One cannot separate the process and the human factor, therefore there is a believe that Quality, when built into a product, generates emotions and feelings within those who have taken part in it's creation. Quality is doing the right things right and is uniquely defined by each individual. Error-free, value-added care and service that meets and/or exceeds both the needs and legitimate expectations of those served as well as those within the Medical Center. Organizations that constantly measure themselves in relation to competitors are able to quickly capitalize on their emerging strengths and address weaknesses before they become problems. Service Quality Quality applies to every product either it is physical product, information product or service product. But when Service Quality is talked about it is all about satisfying the targeted customers through meeting their requirements (Zulfikar Ali). Quality cannot be measured without a clear definition or standard. Likewise, Measuring Quality leads directly to the identification of areas for improvement or enhancement—the first step in Improving Quality. Service Quality models There are a number of models which try to capture and define Service Quality. Each has their strengths, and weaknesses. The core definition of Service Quality is â€Å"Customers thinking they're getting better service than expected†. This is often referred to as the perception gap, i. e. the gap between what the customer expects and what they think they got. It's worth noting that both sides of the gap are in the customers mind. You may actually deliver better Service then your competitors, but if the customer thinks that your Service is worse then that's all that matters. Because the perception gap is based on the difference between what a customer expects to receive from a Service and what they think they received both sides of the gap are â€Å"soft† – they are based on customer impressions rather than a â€Å"hard† definable quality. This means the perception gap is difficult to measure, difficult to manage and is likely to change with time and experience. Nevertheless it's vital to business success. Elements of the model A management model should identify and relate those key elements that require systematic management attention (Brogowicz et al. , 1990). The elements proposed to fit in the model are: * Management’s perceptions of customer expectations and perceptions about the service; * Vision, mission, service strategy and directions to eliminate the gaps; * Service analysis, translation of perceptions into service quality specifications and service design; * Financial and human resources (HR) management; * External communication; * Service delivery system (production, delivery and ‘part-time’ marketing). Some models which are the result of some significant research are: The KANO Model states â€Å"What do customers expect as a minimum standard†, and â€Å"what actually makes a difference if the service provider does it better†. Professor Noriaki Kano (1984, the Japanese quality guru), introduced a two-factor quality model, commonly known as â€Å"Kano's Curve†. The curve illustrates the difference between must-be attractive and linear quality elements. The strength of the Kano model is that it identifies that some aspects of service are simply required to be there whereas others serve to genuinely provide competitive advantage and that there are diminishing returns to be gained from simply focusing on must-be qualities. However Kano does not provide diagnostic tools to identify or measure the different aspects, and suggested the changes with time or environment. The PZB Service Quality Model The service quality model and the role of consumers’ and learners’ satisfaction is an essential part of service quality studies. The â€Å"GAP† model of service quality from Parasuraman et al. (Zithaml & Bitner 1996) offers an integrated view of the consumer-company relationship. It is based on substantial research amongst a number of service providers. According to the PZB model, there are five gaps. The first gap refers to the difference between customers’ expected service and management’s perceptions of customers’ expectations. This gap means that management may not correctly perceive customer expectations. The second gap refers to the difference between management perceptions of customers’ expectations and service quality specifications. This gap means that although the people in management level may perceive the correct expectations of the customers, they may not have suitable and sufficient service quality specifications. The third gap refers to the difference between service quality specifications and the real service delivery. This gap means that although the service providers may have suitable and sufficient service quality specifications, they may not have the satisfactory service delivery in the real situation. That may be because service providers lack well-trained employees to deliver satisfactory service. The fourth gap refers to the difference between the service delivered and external communication about the service with customers. That is, the service providers may not have suitable and sufficient communication with the customers or the service providers may have commitments that exceed what they can do or they may not sufficiently inform the customers of what they have done. The fifth gap is the difference between consumer expectation and their perception of service quality – measured by the difference between what customers expect and what customers perceive about the service. In addition, gap 5 is a function of gap 1, gap 2, gap 3, and gap 4; that is, Gap 5= f (gap1, gap2, gap3, gap4). This means that the service quality is closely related to management perception, marketing, personnel management, communications with customers, service specifications and delivery. Based on theoretical development of the PZB Service Quality Model, the SERVQUAL (SERVice QUALity) instrument was proposed. RATER A complementary analysis of the perception gap is the RATER model also produced by Zeithaml (1990). RATER identifies the 5 key areas which together form the qualities of a service offering from a customer perspective. Where the Gap model describes how the provider can minimize the perception gap. RATER focuses on the dimensions of customers expectations. The RATER factors help provide specific dimensions which can be used to analyse and measure customer expectation. Figure 1: PZB Service Quality Model A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41-50. Source: Parasuraman, A. , Zeithaml, V. A. & Berry, L. L. (1985). | RATER dimensions sorted by relative importance (Zeithaml 1990)| Dimension| Description| Relative importance| Reliability| Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately| 32%| Responsiveness | Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service| 22%| Assurance | Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence| 19%| Empathy| Caring individualised attention the firm provides its customers| 16%| Tangibles | Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials| 11%| THE ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS-The SERVQUAL and SERVPERF Based on preliminary knowledge about the service quality model and the consumer satisfaction concept, there are two major assessment instruments (SERVQUAL and SERVPERF). The SERVQUAL (SERVice QUALity) instrument was proposed by the Parasuraman et al. (1988). They initially developed a 97-item instrument to measure the service quality attribute. After eliminating the items with low correlation, they extracted five factors (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) with 22 service quality items, and claimed the generic nature of the five-dimension instrument. Because the disconfirmation-based SERVQUAL instrument has advantages such as better diagnostic power (Jain & Gupta, 2004), and the parsimony of the instrument (Rohini & Mahadevappa, 2006), most researchers in the service quality area tend to prefer the disconfirmation-based SERVQUAL instrument (Abdullah, 2006; Brady, 2001). However, some researchers have been questioning its drawbacks related to the disconfirmation-based model (Redman & Mathews, 1998), process orientation, dimensionality, measuring scale, and the gap scores (Buttle, 1996; Coulthard, 2004; Clewes, 2003; Wetzels, Ruyter, & Lemmink, 2000). To resolve problems related to the disconfirmation-based SERVQUAL instrument, Cronin and Taylor (1992) propose the performance-only SERVPERF (SERVice PERFormance) instrument to measure service quality. Comparing the validity and reliability of the SERVPERF with that of the disconfirmation-based SERVQUAL, they claim that SERVPERF is better than SERVQUAL in overall service quality measurement in empirical tests (Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Brady, Cronin, Brand, 2002; Jain & Gupta, 2004). The debate related to adoption of SERVQUAL or SERVPERF in service quality studies is not yet resolved. SERVPERF has better explanatory power in overall service quality measurement. On the other hand, SERVQUAL has better diagnostic power because of the P-E score measurement. Thus, selection of the service quality instruments will be determined by the intention of the researchers, service providers or decision-makers (Jain & Gupta, 2004). Research Papers â€Å"Provider Competition and Health Care Quality: Challenges and Opportunities for Research†, by HERBERT S. WONG, PEGGY, M NAMARA states that during the last several years, health care quality issues have emerged as important considerations in developing and implementing public policy. This report highlighted health care delivery problems, patient safety concerns, and health disparities issues. Health care quality is difficult to define because different audiences view health care quality from. Clinicians may define quality based on medical outcomes or processes. Economists may define quality based on concepts of social welfare and may include features that consumers happen to care about, but that clinicians do not (e. g. , the appearance and size of hospital rooms). Health plans may further differ and focus on concepts of preventive care or organizational efficiencies. Researchers need to understand what their measures are capturing and should interpret their findings accordingly. Once health care quality has been defined, investigators interested in conducting applied empirical research are confronted with the challenges of creating proxy measures that capture the essence of the health care quality of interest. An initial problem is whether data even exist to create proxy measures for quality. The physician services market was one of the two health care provider groups on which the conference focused. However, the lack of available data about the care administered by physicians has stymied research on physician competition and quality. With literally hundreds of thousands of patient care physicians, current data systems are not structured in a way that makes accessing data and using data for research purposes pragmatic. Even if data were available, researchers must still overcome the challenges of how best to measure physician quality—an area that is currently not well understood. Patient satisfaction measures, which seek to quantify patients’ experiences with healthcare services, represent another dimension of quality still in the developmental stages. The article by Patrick Romano and Ryan Mutter in this supplement documents the studies that examined hospital competition and hospital quality, identifies the variety of hospital quality measures employed, and highlights the challenges of measuring hospital quality. As Romano and Mutter noted, the science of creating hospital quality measures has focused primarily on the clinical definition of quality, and such research is still largely in its infancy. At the heart of the challenges confronting researchers is determining whether observed differences in hospital quality measures are â€Å"true† differences. Confounding factors that may influence their accuracies include severity of illness, underlying patient risk, and the hospital’s overall case mix. Moreover, how well specific data elements are coded varies widely and ultimately affects the accuracy of the corresponding hospital quality measures. Many observers of medical markets believe that hospitals should compete on the basis of health care quality. However historically, hospital merger cases have focused on their effects on prices, costs, and the nature of the competitive environment, largely discounting health care quality issues. Health care markets are unique and extremely complex. While this invitational conference focused only on hospital and physician providers, the research opportunities and challenges outlined here apply to other health care markets as well. Mark Pauly’s article provides some preliminary thoughts on the concepts and the history of the relationship between competition and quality in health care markets. Health care markets are complex. Hospitals compete with one another, physicians compete with one another, and hospitals and physicians interact in many ways. Multiple external factors may influence hospital and physician competitive behavior. Measurement Challenges As mentioned earlier, the science of quality measurement is largely in its infancy and will continue to develop. The main challenges confronting researchers are determining the validity of the current set of measures and improving or developing new measures. The research field involved in inpatient quality measurement appears to be moving in three broad directions. First, researchers are exploring ways to further evaluate and validate the current set of inpatient quality measures. One approach being considered compares existing inpatient quality measures based on administrative data with information from medical records. Organizations such as individual health plans and veterans’ hospitals often have access to a richer source of clinical information, which could be used for this type of assessment. Second, current inpatient quality measures could be improved if the quality of the information collected is better. For example, in their article, Patrick Romano and Ryan Provider Competition And Health Care Quality Mutter mentioned that external-cause-of-injury codes (i. e. , â€Å"E Codes†) are sometimes under reported and vary substantially across the different organizations collecting such data. Many inpatient quality measures rely on accurate coding to identify the relevant observations. Existing measures could be improved if E Codes are collected more consistently. Finally, another broad approach is to supplement current administrative information with additional clinical information that could be used to refine or to create new measures. The availability of this clinical information could be used to improve measures of quality. As the science for better quality measures advances, analysts face a number of important research questions. While some critics argue that existing measures do not capture all clinical information, proponents argue that if there are no systematic biases across hospitals, precise patient-level information may not be needed. Consequently, is the science of quality measurement â€Å"good enough† for aggregate studies of competition and quality? Are they good enough for individual hospital comparisons? How will new measures with better information compare with existing measures? The Evolving Science of Quality Measurement for Hospitals: Implications for Studies of Competition and Consolidation PATRICK S. ROMANO The literature on hospital quality is young; most studies have focused on few conditions and outcomes. Measures of in-hospital mortality and complications are susceptible to bias from unmeasured severity and transfer/discharge practices. We describe the strengths and limitations of various approaches to quality measurement; summarize how quality has been operationalized in studies of hospital competition. three mechanisms by which competition may affect hospital quality, and propose measures appropriate for testing each mechanism. To evaluate the effects of competition and consolidation in health care markets on quality of care, it is essential to understand the capabilities and limitations of the tools currently available for measuring quality. The number and scope of these tools have grown considerably over the past two decades. These developments have created new opportunities to understand how competition and consolidation affect quality of care, although critics may still challenge the validity of any particular quality measure. The fundamental problem is that quality of care has multiple dimensions, and organizations that perform well on one dimension may not perform well on others. It is all too easy to arrive at the wrong conclusion if one focuses on a single measure, or even on multiple measures of a single dimension. In this paper, a standard definition of health care quality and an associated typology of quality problems is set. It describes the three general approaches to quality measurement, focusing on their strengths and limitations for studies of the impact of hospital competition and consolidation. Next summarizes how these measures have been applied in previous studies, and how the authors of those studies have dealt with concerns about confounding and endogeneity. It describes a conceptual framework that may be helpful in identifying promising measures for future studies in this area. 1. Definitions of Quality and Quality Problems In this paper, they have adopted a clinical perspective on quality of care. Avedis Donabedian (1980), one of the founders of the modern science of health care quality measurement, defined the quality of medical care as â€Å"the management that is expected to achieve the best balance of health benefits and risks (taking) into account the patient’s wishes, expectations, valuations, and means the social distribution of that benefit within the population. † The American Medical Association (1984) defined high-quality care more narrowly as care that â€Å"consistently contributes to the improvement or maintenance of the quality and/or duration of life. Perhaps the most authoritative definition was published by the Institute of Medicine (1990), which defined quality of care as â€Å"the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with curren t professional knowledge. † All of these definitions attempt to distinguish between quality and other non-price aspects of service, which might be classified as â€Å"amenities. † Amenities include aspects of appearance, comfort, and convenience, such as the number of television channels available to hospital patients, the number of menu choices, and the quality of decoration. In making this distinction, they acknowledge that the line between amenities and quality may become blurred, especially with important patient-centered measures such as telephone response time, wait time for appointments, clinic hours, prompt complaint resolution and claims payment, and patient satisfaction. Nonetheless, this distinction is useful because it focuses attention on whether provider organizations expend resources in ways that were likely to improve patient outcomes, or in ways that are designed to give the appearance of quality. this paper, also follow the Institute of Medicine’s (1999) typology of quality problems (Chassin et al. , 1998) as involving inappropriate overuse (i. e. too much care), inappropriate underuse (i. e. , too little care), and misuse. Although this conceptualization may state Pauly’s (2003) definition of quality as â€Å"everything about some good or service relevant to consumers’ well-being that is not measured by quantity,â⠂¬  we prefer to place all provider judgments and recommendations regarding appropriate care in the category of â€Å"quality† rather than â€Å"quantity. † 2. Approaches to Quality Measurement Donabedian (2003) has described the three broad approaches to quality measurement as structure, process, and outcomes. This useful schema has been widely adopted by the health services research and quality improvement communities. Structural measures describe the conditions under which care is provided, and encompass material resources such as facilities and equipment, human resources such as the credentials and experience of health care providers, and organizational characteristics such as patient volume and team nursing. Process measures describe the content of health care, and encompass health care providers’ activities in the realms of screening, diagnosis, pharmacotherapy, surgery, rehabilitation, patient education, and prevention. Finally, outcome measures describe changes attributable to health care, and encompass mortality, morbidity, functional status and pain, as well as patients’ health-related knowledge, behaviors, and satisfaction. Although this schema remains conceptually useful, it is sometimes difficult to apply. For example, the shared features of â€Å"high-reliability organizations† (Reason, 2000) include both the structural conditions under which professionals work and how that work is performed. 3. Integrating Outcome and Process Measures of Quality Given that quality of care is a complex and multidimensional concept, no single measure of either process or outcome is likely to provide an adequate summary of the effects of competition and consolidation. Hospitals that perform well on risk-adjusted outcomes for one condition often perform poorly for unrelated conditions (Rosenthal, 1997; Chassin et al. , 1989), making it useful to consider a spectrum of conditions. Similarly, explicit process measures must be developed and implemented on a condition-specific basis (Ashton et al. , 1994). It may be particularly useful to consider outcome and process measures together, as an integrated approach would offer a more complete assessment of quality and elucidate the pathways by which market forces affect patient outcomes. Observed agreement between process and outcome measures at the provider level would support the construct validity of each measure. Disagreement would suggest: (1) information bias attributable to misclassification on either measure; (2) confounding of outcome measures due to unmeasured severity of illness; (3) selection bias due to selective enrollment or dropout of high-risk patients; or (4) an incorrect conceptual model, based on an assumed process-outcome linkage that does not actually exist Competition in Medical Services and the Quality of Care: Concepts and History MARK V. PAULY Consumers of medical services care about both the price they pay (directly, or indirectly through insurance) for that care and the quality of the care for which they pay. While both an unambiguous measurement of quality and the process by which quality is produced are in many ways unknown, it is surely possible for producers, consumers, and regulators to detect and analyze large (enough) variations in relevant qualitative characteristics. Sometimes, in some places, and with some providers, quality is higher than at other times, places, and providers. To some extent the final level of quality is (from an analyst’s perspective) going to be random; some quality variation is bound to be due to unknown forces and accidents. However, to some extent as well the supplier decisions which affect quality are explicit and rational, and likewise the consumer choices about which provider or which supplier to use depends on perceived quality. Economically Efficient (Optimal) Quality From an economist’s perspective, â€Å"quality† in its most general sense just means anything and everything about some good or service relevant to consumers’ (actual and perceived) well being that is not measured by quantity. Since the definition of quantity is somewhat arbitrary—for hospitalization for example, is it the number of hospital admissions, the number of hospital days, or some amalgam of inpatient services and outpatient services? the definition of quality will depend on how we define quantity. If we define quantity by surgical admissions, then average length of stay would be one dimension of quality, prevalence of wound infections would be another, and patient satisfaction would be a third. Th ere can also be qualities that do not have this ordering—for example, the color of the walls, the temperature of the room, or even the length of stay—but these factors are usually not very important. It is focus on â€Å"ordered† qualities. However, just because people prefer more of some characteristic to less does not necessarily mean (or even usually mean) that the market will or should â€Å"maximize quality† in that dimension. If we think of some unequivocally-ordered characteristic, from an economic viewpoint the optimal level of quality, given some total quantity, is that level at which the marginal benefit from additional quality (measured in money) just equals the marginal cost of adding to quality. The optimal length of stay is not infinite, the optimal amount of space in a patient’s room is not enormous, the optimal number of medical errors is not zero (though it could be much lower than at present). Of course, it is possible, indeed, likely, that optimal quality will be different at different quantities (quality and quantity can be substitutes or complements). It is certain that the optimal level of quality, given quantity, will be different for different people, depending on the value they attach to quality. The â€Å"right† quality depends on the patient as well as on the illness or procedure, and it depends on the patient’s preferences (backed up by ability to pay) as well as on the patient’s physiological state. A more complex question is the optimal variety of quality levels when people have different preferences but it is too costly to produce a different quality level for each person. This definition of optimal quality when applied to medical services certainly includes everything that would be embodied in a clinical definition of quality. However, there are some differences between the economic and what we might call the â€Å"health services research† perspective. One difference is that the economic definition will probably include more features (that consumers happen to care about but clinicians do not). One can think of cases in which consumer preferences about such things as â€Å"travel time,† â€Å"bedside manner,† â€Å"respect,† and â€Å"discomfort† do become important. The other difference is that the economic definition will probably require a more careful consideration of marginal cost relative to marginal benefit than would be embodied in the clinical view of â€Å"ideal quality. † 2. Quality Options with Inefficient Suppliers: A Diagrammatic Analysis Although the foregoing seems fairly basic, there are some aspects of the normative notion of optimal quality that may be controversial in both health policy and health services research, and some aspects of the positive aspects of market supply that are both confusing and contentious. A key issue for much of the literature is that of the existence of tradeoffs. The previous discussion implicitly assumed that higher quality costs more—that cost (which really just represents an index of the sacrifice of all other goods consumers value) and quality trade off. Yet many observers of medical care markets in the United States have the strong opinion that cost and quality don’t usually trade off—that higher quality implies lower cost or that it is at least an open question (Leatherman et al. ,2003). Improving the Service Quality of Distance Education( Rui-Ting Huang,USA / Taiwan) states that the success of a distance learning program is dependent on the quality of supporting services. This research relates to services, gaps in service, business models, continuous quality improvement, and maintaining a competitive edge. Distance Learning has become an important learning option for education systems (Yilmaz, 2005) and training solutions in the Human Resource Development (HRD) area (Felix, 2006). The growth of the distance learning industry has been faster than expected (Huynh, Umesh & Valacich, 2003). Most importantly, in terms of organizational training, an investigation from the Fortune-500 companies indicates that over 80% of companies use distance learning or plan to do so (Hammond, 2001). Through distance learning, organizations have a more convenient, practical and cost-effective way to train the employees (Hammond, 2001; Whitney, 2006; David, 2006). Due to the growth and competition in the distance learning market (Huynh, Umesh & Valacich, 2003), DL research includes the study f consumer aspects such as consumer services and satisfaction (Shaik, 2005; Granitz & Greene, 2003; Huynh, Umesh & Valacich, 2003). Feedback from learner give the instructor important data to determine how well the instr uctional program satisfies individual learner needs (Steyn & Schulze, 2003; Long, Tricker, Rangecroft, Gilroy, 1999). This in turn offers service providers in the marketplace important information to streamline the business process to improve the quality of distance learning services (Granitz & Greene, 2003; Steyn & Schulze, 2003). Quality services and support will help the service providers, institutions and organizations in DL get a competitive advantage in the marketplace (Shaik, 2005). As the distance learning industry has become mature in the educational marketplace (Huynh, Umesh & Valacich, 2003), it is providing learners with convenient and flexible learning alternatives (Alexander, 1999; Tarr, 1998). It is also giving organizations alternative cost-effective and timely training solution to effectively and efficiently implement the human resource development plans (Hammond, 2001; Whitney, 2006; David, 2006). ). The focus on consumer service may offer the service providers new insights (Moisio & Smeds, 2004) to help them streamline the business process, improve the quality of future service in distance learning (Granitz & Greene, 2003; Steyn & Schulze, 2003) and gain long-term competitive advantages (Shaik, 2005). Mary Nugent ( 2002, vice president and general manager of Subscription Services for BMC Software Inc. a leading provider of enterprise management)said that an increasing number of companies are relying on service providers to manage their mission-critic al applications, service providers are realizing that they need an improved method for consistently delivering reliable and highly available service at a competitive cost. Measuring the performance and availability of Web and enterprise applications is inherently difficult. Without accurate and timely measurements it is all but impossible to measure customer satisfaction and Quality of Service (QoS). Due to the cost of developing and implementing such a solution, service providers are finding they need to partner with others in the marketplace to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are being met and the end-user experience is optimized. A quality end-user experience is what service provider clients require service providers must deliver in order to survive. Online shoppers are not tied by brand loyalty since they can get what they need at many different sites. Companies that want to achieve customer loyalty must deliver value through the customer experience. By outsourcing to service providers for this expertise, companies are entrusting their business and reputation on the solutions they offer. This makes it doubly important that service providers choose solutions that deliver on their SLAs. Principles Of Quality Customer Service 1. Quality Service Standards -Publish a statement that outlines the nature and quality of service which customers can expect, and display it prominently at the point of service delivery. 2. Equality/Diversity -Ensure the rights to equal treatment established by equality legislation, and accommodate diversity, so as to contribute to equality for the groups covered by the equality legislation (under the grounds of gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller Community). Identify and work to eliminate barriers to access to services for people experiencing poverty and social exclusion, and for those facing geographic barriers to services. 3. Physical Access -Provide clean, accessible public offices that ensure privacy, comply with occupational and safety standards and, as part of this, facilitate access for people with disabilities and others with specific needs. 4. Information -Take a proactive approach in providing information that is clear, timely and accurate, is available at all points of contact, and meets the requirements of people with specific needs. Ensure that the potential offered by Information Technology is fully availed of and that the information available on public service websites follows the guidelines on web publication. Continue the drive for simplification of rules, regulations, forms, information leaflets and procedures. 5. Timeliness and Courtesy -Deliver quality services with courtesy, sensitivity and the minimum delay, fostering a climate of mutual respect between provider and customer. Give contact names in all communications to ensure ease of ongoing transactions. 6. Complaints -Maintain a well-publicised, accessible, transparent and simple-to-use system of dealing with complaints about the quality of service provided. 7. Appeals -Similarly, maintain a formalised, well-publicised, accessible, transparent and simple-to-use system of appeal/review for customers who are dissatisfied with decisions in relation to services. 8. Consultation and Evaluation -Provide a structured approach to meaningful consultation with, and participation by, the customer in relation to the development, delivery and review of services. Ensure meaningful evaluation of service delivery. 9. Choice -Provide choice, where feasible, in service delivery including payment methods, location of contact points, opening hours and delivery times. Use available and emerging technologies to ensure maximum access and choice, and quality of delivery. 10. Internal Customer -Ensure staff are recognised as internal customers and that they are properly supported and consulted with regard to service delivery issues. Performance measurement In Health care, the patients’ satisfaction has been widely used as a critical dependent variable to evaluate success of the service provider. The patient is one of the important stakeholders in the health care arena (Yeung, 2001; Yang & Cornelious, 2004). And it is reasonable that the patients’ perception will be considered as a crucial indicator to evaluate the quality of service(Steyn & Schulze, 2003). In the business area, consumer satisfaction often denotes whether the service provider met the consumers’ need (Steyn, & Schulze, 2003). Anderson, Fornell and Lehman (1994) propose there are at least two viewpoints in the definition of consumer satisfaction. The first viewpoint is a transaction-specific perspective, which refers to the consumers’ post-purchase appraisal or judgment of the products or service based on expectations at the specific purchasing time or location. The second viewpoint is cumulative satisfaction, which refers to consumers’ overall appraisal of purchasing and consuming experience toward the products or service. Therefore, we may regard patients’ satisfaction as the patients’ overall post-use evaluation toward the health care service. Performance measurement is a fundamental building block of TQM and a total quality organisation. Historically, organisations have always measured performance in some way through the financial performance, be this success by profit or failure through liquidation. However, they do not map process performance and improvements seen by the customer. In a successful total quality organisation, performance will be measured by the improvements seen by the customer as well as by the results delivered to other stakeholders, such as the shareholders. A simple performance measurement framework includes more than just measuring, but also defining and understanding metrics, collecting and analysing data, then prioritising and taking improvement actions. It is important to know where the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation lie, and measurement plays a key role in quality and productivity improvement activities. The main reasons it is needed are: to ensure customer requirements have been met, to be able to set sensible objectives and comply with them, to provide standards for establishing comparisons, to provide visibility and a â€Å"scoreboard† for people to monitor their own performance level, to highlight quality problems and determine areas for priority attention,to provide feedback for driving the improvement effort Quality-related activities that will incur costs may be split into prevention costs, appraisal costs and failure costs. Prevention costs are associated with the design, implementation and maintenance of the TQM system. They are planned and incurred before actual operation, and could include: Product or service requirements – setting specifications for incoming materials, processes, finished Products/services;Quality planning – creation of plans for quality, reliability, operational, production, inspection; Quality assurance – creation and maintenance of the quality system; Training – development, preparation and maintenance of programmes. Appraisal costs are associated with the suppliers’ and customers’ evaluation of purchased materials, processes, products and services to ensure they conform to specifications. They could include: Verification – checking of incoming material, process set-up, products against agreed specifications; Quality audits – check that the quality system is functioning correctly; Vendor rating – assessment and approval of suppliers, for products and services. Failure costs can be split into those resulting from internal and external failure. Internal failure costs occur when the results of work fail to reach designed quality standards and are detected before they are transferred to the customer. They could include: Waste – doing unnecessary work or holding stocks as a result of errors, poor organisation or communication; Scrap – defective product or material that cannot be repaired, used or sold; Rework or rectification – the correction of defective material or errors; Failure analysis – activity required to establish the causes of internal product or service failure. External failure costs occur when the products or services fail to reach design quality standards, but are not detected until after transfer to the customer. They could include: Repairs and servicing – of returned products or those in the field; Warranty claims – failed product that are replaced or services re-performed under a guarantee; Complaints – all work and costs associated with handling and servicing customers’ complaints; Returns – handling and investigation of rejected or recalled products, including transport costs Effective quality improvements should result in a future stream of benefits, such as: †¢ Reduced failure costs †¢ Lower appraisal costs †¢ Increased market share †¢ Increased customer base †¢ More productive workforce Service Quality Management (SQM) Service quality can be defined as â€Å"the collective effect of service performances which determine the degree of satisfaction of a user of the service†. In other words, quality is the customer’s perception of a delivered service. Service-quality management, refers to the monitoring and maintenance of end-to-end services for specific customers or classes of customers. As larger varieties of services are offered to customers, the impact of network performance on the quality of service will be more complex. It is vital that service engineers identify network-performance issues that impact customer service. They also must quantify revenue lost due to service degradation. The service-mapping tool comes in next. Performance data is mapped onto service-quality data. Take a customer using Multimedia Messaging Services, or MMS. If a video download is interrupted many times during a session, the customer will lose interest. The operator’s revenue will be lost with it. To avoid this situation, key quality indicators (KQIs) like availability can monitor the QoS offered to customers. From a customer’s point of view, the availability KQI measures how successfully he or she can access and use the MMS service. With the service mapping tool, it’s possible to combine KQIs from multiple key performance indicators (KPIs) across different service resources. KPIs measure a specific aspect of the performance of either a service resource or a group of service resources of the same type. A KPI is restricted to a specific resource type and derived from network measurements. By following this top-down approach, the service-mapping tool provides several benefits. It helps operators manage end-to-end quality of service from a customer’s perspective. It also allows them to reuse key performance indicators and key quality indicators across services and products. Lastly, it helps operators drill down to the service elements that are responsible for quality degradations. Service quality also demands a simple and easy-to-use user interface. With this interface, Network Operations Center (NOC) staff and service managers can monitor service-quality objectives against thresholds. These thresholds may be internal targets for the network operator. Or they could be derived from Service Level Agreement (SLA) definitions. When the service quality falls below the contracted levels, managers could then initiate corrective actions. They could focus on the service degradations that affect the greatest number of customers. A set of standard reports for different user communities should also be available. For new services, marketing and sales may be interested in reports on service usage and service uptake. National regulators may also request historical service quality against given service objectives. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY Cooper and Emory (1995) defined research as a systematic inquiry aimed at providing information to solve problem. This chapter will present a detailed idea about how the research will be conducted. In this chapter research methodology, the sample selection methods, data collection methods & data extraction from the Questionnaire and data analysis will be studied and explained. At the end of this chapter validity and reliability issues will be discussed to follow the quality standards of the research. Research strategy will be a general plan of how researcher will go about answering the research questions that has been set by researcher. It will contain clear objectives, derived from research questions specify the sources from which researcher intend to collect data and consider the constraints that researcher will inevitably have such as access to data, time, location and money, ethical issues. (Thornhill et. al. , 2003) Based on three conditions 1) form of research question 2) requires control over behavioral events and 3) focus on contemporary events Yin (1994) identified five research strategies in social science. These are – experiments, surveys, archival analysis, histories and case studies Most important condition for selecting research strategy is to identify the type of research question being asked. â€Å"Who†, â€Å"What†, â€Å"Where†, â€Å"how† and â€Å"Why† are the categorization scheme for the types of research questions. Two possibilities need to investigate by asking the â€Å"what† question. First, some types of what questions are justifiable for conducting an exploratory study and the goal is to develop pertinent hypotheses and propositions for further inquiry. Any of the five research strategies can be used in that situation- exploratory survey, exploratory experiment, or an exploratory case study. The second type of what question is actually form a â€Å"how many† or â€Å" how much† line of inquiry and the outcomes from a particular situation. The survey or archival analysis is more favorable than other strategies. If the researcher needs to know the â€Å"how† question, the better strategy will be doing history or a case study. (Yin 1994) Research Purpose Research can be classified in terms of their purpose. Accordingly, they are most often classified as exploratory, descriptive or explanatory (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003). Exploratory research is useful when the research questions are vague or when there is little theory available to guide predictions. At times, researcher may find it impossible to formulate a basic statement of the research problem. Exploratory research is used to develop a better understanding (Hair, Babin, Money & Samouel 2003). Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening, to seek new insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light. It is particularly useful if researcher wish to clarify the understanding of a problem. There are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research: a search of the literature, talking to experts in the subject, conducting focus group interviews (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003). Descriptive research describes some situation. Generally things are described by providing measures of an event or activity. Descriptive research designs are usually structured and specifically designed to measure the characteristics described in a research question. Hypotheses, derived from the theory, usually serve to guide the process and provide a list of what needs to be measured (Hair, Babin, Money & Samouel 2003). The object of descriptive research is to portray an accurate profile of persons, events of situations. It is necessary to have a clear picture of the phenomena on which researcher wish to collect data prior to the collection of the data (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003). Explanatory Research establishes causal relationships between variables. The emphasis here is on studying a situation or a problem on order to explain the relationship between variables (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2003). Explanatory studies are designed to test whether one event causes another (Hair, Babin, Money & Samouel 2003). The purpose of the research is mainly descriptive and explanatory. It is descriptive because descriptive data has been collected through detailed interviews and it is also explanatory since we will explain the relationship between the service quality variables and customer satisfaction and how these dimensions affect customer satisfaction. It is somewhat exploratory nature since Data Collection Method Data was collected by primary as well as by secondary data c