Business related topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Business related topic - Essay Example The laborers provide highly  crucial  service to the company and contribute to a significant  amount  the success of the company. They  ensure  the  match  in availability and quality with  consumer  expectations safeguarding the reputation of the company. As such, it is  right  that they  have  comfortable  conditions such as health coverage and decent pay  consequent  with  reasonable  working hours. This  way  they also are able to  give  their best raising  output  levels. Legally, there are safety regulations and accepted conditions that such laborers can  get. Adhering to such might save the  company  from legal problems and avoid its name tarnished. It would also improve operational efficiency, thus increasing  output, reducing labor costs, and increasing profitability. Though the company executives  ascertain  that the company is taking care of its employees (Duhigg  and  Barboza  7), there are still complaints on the same. In order to ensure that both the company and laborers are  comfortable, representatives from both sides need to meet and discuss their issues. They can agree on  crucial  issues and  do  away with unnecessary expenditures. Such agreements and their implementation need to be left open for  scrutiny  by the public and government institutions thus ensuring they adhere to regulations. This would also help  lay  the truth in the  open  and  hold  either side  true  to their

Training in Banking Sector Essay Example for Free

Training in Banking Sector Essay Abstract The purpose of this study was to identify the training needs among employees of Public sector bank. In the current dynamic business environment training has become indispensable. The biggest challenge of human resource managers is to train the employees to produce desired results. In the cyclical process of training, training needs analysis is the first step which analyses the areas where training is essential. Total 100 respondents responded to the pre-tested questionnaire, for which Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated to confirm its reliability, which resulted in the score of 0. 860. The major findings and evaluation have been done by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The findings can be used to design future competency based training programs. Keywords: Performance, Skills, Training, Training needs. I. Introduction The banking sector in the recent years has been undergoing intense structural and organizational changes, globally. The trend towards globalization of financial markets and services and deregulation of domestic banking systems has been the driving forces behind the drastic change in this sector. The Information technology era has enabled development of new financial instruments, decentralization of work and decision making responsibilities. The extensive competition, greater demand for providing better product and services, dynamic business environment prevailing in the commercial banking sector has increased more demand from employees in order to meet the requirements the above all has posed critical challenges for employees and HR managers in particular. Thus, training is no longer considered a casual phenomenon or holiday for a selected few; instead it ought to be a process of human resource development for fulfillment of defined objectives (Khandelwal, 1978). And to achieve the desired results transformation in the context and mechanism of training programs becomes indispensable (Lynton and Pareek, 1990).â€Å"Training† refers to a systematic approach to learning and development to improve individual, team, and organizational effective-ness (Goldstein Ford 2002). Denby (2010) explains that training helps to expand the scope of available skills within the workforce and improve expertise and adds enhancing the capabilities of the team supports retention. Every organization strives to achieve their objectives, and in banking sector the major goals include maximizing funds and improve the level of services. And the most desirable goal is to improve employee’ performance which results in overall organizational performance. In current scenario, to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, sustaining customers by delivering high quality service becomes essential. To achieve all the above mentioned objectives training the bank employees becomes vital. Every training program starts with an analysis of training needs. Identifying training needs of employees is considered to be an essential requirement to design an effective training program and it also contributes to the training strategy of an organization. II. Purpose And Importance Of Identifying Training Needs In the stages of the systematic training cycle, Identifying training needs and its analysis is the important first stage and following stages of the cycle are training design, training delivery and training evaluation respectively. Identifying training needs must be carefully planned, conducted and have clear outcomes to ensure that training interventions are implemented effectively and that they lead to meaningful changes in service delivery(Gould D, Kelly D, White I, 2010). Training can be considered successful only it is implemented to match and complement the business needs and objectives. The assessment begins with a needs which can be identified in several ways but is generally described as a gap between what is currently in place and what is needed, now and in the future. ). â€Å"The rationale for developing a training program relies heavily on identifying training needs, and justifying the costs and benefits to the organization. Without a clear understanding of needs, training efforts are at best randomly useful or at worst, useless. The trainer will only be successful and perceived as such to the extent that needs are carefully assessed, and programs developed and carried out that meet those needs† (Brown, 2002). Identifying the training needs serve as the key to cost effectiveness, and it also serve as valuable part of the development and growth of a business (Andy Taylor, 2009). Identifying and Analyzing training needs is a part of an ongoing cyclic process (Andrew Knowles, 2009) and also states that with clear understanding of what is to be achieved and some knowledge of organization itself, training needs analysis on staff can be performed within the organization to identify learning needs. In a very recent study Stanley (2010) states that common types of needs analysis focus on surveys, collecting questionnaires, data from supervisors, observing and formally or informally interviewing employees and analyzing employee’s performance tests and productivity reports. Thus, surveying, interviewing and testing the employees can help to determine the training needs and in this study we attempt to identify training needs of clerical staff employees of public sector banks through a well-constructed questionnaire. III. Review of Literature Human resource development is defined as ‘the process of increasing the capacity of the human resources through development. It is thus a pro cess of adding value to individuals, organization as a human system’ (Mclagan, 1989). Though all practices of personnel management results in development of human resources, but to prepare qualified, flexible, and well prepared employees training is considered as the central activity (Bartel, 1994). Training, in this regard, is seen as a very much useful among all human resource management practices for coping with ever increasing expectations of various facets of customers in retail banks. Noe (2009) states that training is a planned effort by a company to facilitate employees learning of job-related capabilities. These competencies include knowledge, skill, or behaviours that are critical for successful job performance. Donald Kirkpatrick (1994) classical model which has acquired wide acceptance over the years identifies four level of training evaluation; Level One – Reaction, Level Two – Learning, Level three – Behaviour and Level Four – Result. The training system comprises of inputs, process and outcomes (Ziderman, 1997). Training-related changes should result in im-proved job performance and other positive changes (e.g., acquisition of new skills; Hill Lent 2006, Satterfield Hughes 2007) that serve as antecedents of job performance (Kraiger 2002). Leigh, et al., (2000) stresses that assessing and analysing training needs is important because this builds the foundation by identifying the kinds of HRD intervention needed for an effective effort.â€Å"Analyzing training needs provides a focus and direction for the investment an organization has to make in its people† (Bartram Gibson, 1994). â€Å"Many businesses face the prospect of wasting valuable training budget because they do not know how to accurately identify what their internal needs are, and thus cannot design the most suitable training and enhancement program† (Denby, 2010).Success of training depends on positive attitude of the employees about participating in the training activities (Noe Colquitt, 2002). Additionally, Reid (1986) states â€Å"The quality of training can be no better than the quality that the analysis permits† IV. Objectives of the study The research objective of this study includes: * It collects and analyse the various views expressed by bank employees in favour of training needs. * Identification of degree to which employee’s need training on certain factors. * Examination of the differences in training needs between male and female employees. V. Study Hypothesis H1: There is an association between the Number of training programs attended by employees and their view that analytical skills require high degree of importance from the aspect of training. H1: There is statistically significant difference between the length of service of the respondents in the preference towards training on advanced computer skills, planning skills and perpetual skills respectively. VI. Methodology A pre tested questionnaire was administered to 100 public sector bank employees of clerical grade in Chennai, Tamilnadu .The response received from the employees through the questionnaire were analysed using simple percentage analysis, chi square test, one way ANOVA test and inter correlation analysis. VII. Results and analysis In relations to the objective of the study, questions in the questionnaire were designed to recognize to what degree the employees think the training program provided by the bank should focus on following factors ;Interpersonal skills, Oral communication skills, Written communication skills, Public speaking skills, Mentoring skills, Teaching/Training skills, Supervising skills, Leadership skills, Negotiating skills, Client service skills, Analytical/logical thinking skills, Creativity, Decision making, Planning skills, Administrative/Clerical skills, financial skills, Advanced Computer skills, Technological skills, Performing skills, Perceptual skills, Stress Management Skills. In the following analysis we use chi-square and one way ANOVA to prove the formulated hypothesis mentioned above.

Food and beverage sector in the consumption service

Food and beverage sector in the consumption service The service consists of four categories which are people processing (direct at a customer), possession processing (direct at customers physical possessions), mental stimulus processing (direct at peoples mind), and information processing (use technology direct at a customers assets). The people and possession processing are based on tangible service while the mental stimulus and information processing are based on intangible service. In this assignment we choose the food and beverage sector in the service consumption which is based on people processing service. This is a common sector on worldwide. It is the daily routine and needs for everyone. In this sector, different people have different tastes of food, so it will split into different food and beverage sector such as Western, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and other foods form different countries. As a customer, we have three-stage model of service consumption in buying and using a service of our choice, which are pre-purchase stage, service encounter, and post-purchase stage. The Secret Sanctuary is the restaurant that we are chosen. It not just provided the food and beverage service, it also provide the accommodation service. Actually, it is called Secret Sanctuary Boutique Cottage Kuching and created by Cyril Lim. The Secret Sanctuary is a unique boutique cottage located inside Taman Stutong Indah at Jalan Setia Raja (JG blogs 2009). It is like Minangkabau or Padang style house and exotic garden. The Secret Sanctuary is a peaceful garden because it provides a great place for a quiet retreat to get away from the hectic busy city life (JG blogs 2009). This place is for customers to find inner peace, creativity, beauty, love and truth (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). The Secret Sanctuary classifies as a three star hotel, that provides room service, restaurant service, and facilities available service which is waterfall pool, Jacuzzi, stream room, fish spa, open air hot tub, garden shower, gym, Wi-Fi access, and BBQ. For the facilities available service, they jus t provide to those customer who wish to pay RM30 per person (RM15 per children) for the charged of use the facilities available (Cyril 2010). The Secret Sanctuary provides the restaurant service to the guests and also the outsider customers. The foods of its restaurant are based on western foods. THE THREE-STAGE MODEL OF SERVICE CONSUMPTION Pre-purchase stage The pre-purchase is first stage model of service consumption. Pre-purchase is defined as a series of information acquires according to consumer-specific decision making evaluation, which recognize salient information from different resources depending on situation (Hoffman, 1998). Pre-purchase can also being defined as customer decision on their initial decision making pertaining to their purchase of a product or service that being reflected by their underlying needs (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). At pre-purchase stage, we start to be aware of our needs and wants. Such awareness of our needs and wants enable further consideration into the decision making process in later stage, service encounter. It also enables a further implementation of information search and alternative evaluation in pre purchase stage. We awareness needs a restaurant for our friendship reunion and we wants provide the western food and beverage services. This tangible service is based on people processing that provide service directed at the customer. Under information search stage, it plays a relative important role in defining our needs and wants as discussed earlier. When we decide what to the service needed, we will seek for information prior our consumption. Such information search can either be active or passive, depending on the level of involvement and perceived risk associated to the search of information. Active and passive information search normally provided by family, friends, colleagues, advertisement, mass media or organization. For our information search, that is provided by our friends. In addition, information search can also come from both internal and external sources. For example of internal information search are personal preferences and self involvement. Oppositely, external information search such as internet, catalog, and advertisement. Such purchase of service is considered limited decision making mainly because consumers unlikely will purchase such service on the daily basis. This also define the level o f low involvement consumer have on purchasing such service. We information search also come from internet search and Privilege Book which can provide our restaurants information and the environment. Apart from information search and awareness of our needs in consumption service, at pre-purchase stage, we also do alternatives search. Such alternative search enables us to have more choices on our consumption. When we from information search, we have three alternative choices which are Tray Cafe, Secret Sanctuary, and Friends n Family. At this stage, we are concern on our choices between different service provided by both Secret Sanctuary and its competitors which are Tray Cafe and Friends n Family. We not only evaluate the service provided by Secret Sanctuary, but also similar service provided by other competing service providers. Tray Cafe is a memories restaurant that they provide a wall to let customers write down their comments and inside the restaurants memories. But the Tray Cafe does not have a seat to provide a group customers seat on together. However, the Friends n Family is an ordinary western food restaurant and they provide less choice of the food and beverage. As for Secret Sanctuary, it not just a restaurant, it also is a unique Boutique Cottage. The Secret Sanctuary has a graceful environment provide to customers. It can provide a seat like a peaceful garden for our friendship reunion. For our decision making, we are discussing on Facebook and compare the entire three restaurants. After discussion, we are decide to choose the Secret Sanctuary because its service and environment provide be close to our needs Service encounter After making a pre-purchase decision, we will consume a service encounter of the Secret Sanctuary. A service encounter is a period of time during the customer interacts directly with a service provider. Secret Sanctuary is providing us the tangible service (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The service encounters as moment of truth which is metaphor by Richard Normann. The point of Normann is a service organizations life of the relationship that is at stake on building long-term relationships with their customers (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The Secret Sanctuary is our decision for friendship reunion place. The Secret Sanctuary is our decision for friendship reunion place. We requests from them to provide the food and beverage service and the happy environment possess a peaceful sanctuary for away from the hectic busy city life and also providing a memorable reunion for us. Throughout service delivery between customers and organization that consists of different level of services which is high-contact services and low-contact services. Most of the restaurants are focuses on customers service rather than inanimate objects (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). But, Secret Sanctuary is focuses on customers service and also the exterior and interior of its building, equipment, physical facilities and furnishing. Secret Sanctuary not only a restaurant, it also is a boutique cottage. It provide a garden style home-stay, is a great place for us because we does not feel the hectic busy city life but a peaceful garden. It is providing high-contact service on their environment and the facilities to their customers. For their low-contact service as customers undertake the self-service on beverage and take order. To conceptualize the service factory as a system that integrated marketing, operations, and customers themselves. It is known as the servuction system which is combining the terms service and production. This conceptual framework to embrace three overlapping elements, there are service operations, service delivery and service marketing system (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The service operations can be divided into those relating to the service provider and those relating to the tangible services such as equipment and physical facilities (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The Secret Sanctuary is satisfied our requirement because it provides us a graceful and freedom environment (high-contact service). In Secret Sanctuary, we needs to go their bar counter and take an order by self (low-contact service). Service delivery is concerned with the process of delivery between the product service and customer (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). During the service delivery, the customer will start evaluating the quality of service they are receiving and deciding whether its services meet their expectation. The Secret Sanctuary is a restaurant to provide the western foods. For their restaurant services, they does no provide the service delivery on beverage which is undertake our self-service from their bar counter. But, they were providing the food delivery service on customer seat. In addition, they have prepare a book in the bar counter which is for customer to write down their feeling of the Secret Sanctuary and leave down the contact number, so they can inform them to come their event together. The service marketing system of Secret Sanctuary is a full-service of accommodation and restaurant. The Secret Sanctuary is providing the best facilities to attract customer such as waterfall pool, fish spa, BBQ, and Wi-Fi access. Additional service encounter, they are through their sites to introduce their services and also provide the map of their place. Post-purchase stage After service encounter, we then enter the post-purchase phase. During the post purchase stage, we will evaluate the service performance that we have received and compare it with our prior expectations (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). Post purchase produce satisfaction and loyalty, which are aim of most marketing strategies. The product is evaluated to dissatisfaction or satisfaction. If it is dissatisfaction, customer may produce complaints. The complaints must be handling properly to reserve dissatisfaction. If it is satisfaction, loyalty may perform and the customer is committed to the service. Comparison of the Secret Sanctuarys service performance with our received and prior expectations, it satisfied our prior expectations. Whatever it is expensive than Tray Cafe and Friends n Family, but it provide us the foods service with the best behavior of their employees, comfortable and graceful environment. Therefore, we are satisfaction its employees service behavior and the environment provided. Post purchase dissonance is a doubt or anxiety about the correctness of ones decision after a purchase has been made (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). Customers satisfaction is a purpose of the proximity between the customers expectations and the services perceived performance. If the performance is below the customers expectations, then the customer will be dissatisfied and will suffer the consequences resulting from the mismatch. Dissatisfied customers will reduce the cognitive dissonance and customer will exhibits risk-reducing behavior. Although the Secret Sanctuary satisfied our expectations, but if we were go frequently that prices provide is expensive for us. So, we will loyal in occasionally. Customers may attempt to modify the facts of the purchase scenario, mostly by reducing the proposed price paid for the goods when it meets dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is the feeling experienced by a customer whose expectations have not been met by a service. However, the purchase has resulted in complete dissatisfaction and goods returning are not probable, this strategy is to hide the good away in an attempt to forget about the purchase. On the other hand, word-of-mouth (WOM) plays an important role in the advertising. Word-of-mouth is used to reduce the cognitive dissonance following a major purchase decision. Nevertheless, word-of-mouth serves functions of ego defense otherwise as a means of enhancing the status of the information giver, as well as dissonance reduction. Purchase satisfaction is the ultimate goal of marketing. It results when perceptions of product performance match expectations that are at, or above, the minimum desired performance level (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). It happens when the purchase expectations are fulfilled; there is a tendency for customers to repurchase and loyalty to the services. Repeat purchase is a pattern of customer behavior that involves the purchase of the same product or services over time (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). However, consumers develop certain expectations about the ability of a product to fulfill instrumental and symbolic needs. If the services meet the needs, satisfaction is likely to result. In the other round, if the expectations are not meet, dissatisfaction is being experiences. In this case, we are satisfied about the services provided by Secret Sanctuary. Secret Sanctuary provided us the delicious food and a garden style home-stay for our reunion. In addition, it is a great place for a quiet retreat to get away from our hectic busy city life, so, it let us enjoyed and relax for our reunion on this place (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). The owner of Secret Sanctuary (Cyril Lim) ever said that, this little cottage is also for those who want to enjoy the sights and sounds of this hidden island paradise. This place will give an ambience of local culture as well as Zen living all under one roof (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). While in our future intention, we cannot go there frequently. Our reason is although the Secret Sanctuary provides us the satisfaction services but their price of food and beverage are expensive, so, we do not have ability to go there frequently. However, we will go there occasionally. CONCLUSION As a result of overall performance, we should through the three-stage model of service consumption before buying or using the service of our choice. When we decide our event, we start to be aware of our needs and wants. For we awareness our needs and wants, we enable a further implementation of information search and alternative evaluation in pre-purchase stage. After that, we enable consideration into decision making process in later stage, service encounter. During the service encounter, we will request service from our chosen supplier and service delivery. After service encounter, the customers then enter the post-purchase phase. At post-purchase stage, customers evaluate the service performance they have received and compare it with their prior expectations. Finally, the customers will make a future intentions whether they loyalty or disloyalty on their chosen supplier. As a conclusion of Secret Sanctuary, it is a unique boutique cottage for accommodation and restaurant business. It provides the service of our needs and wants. Secret Sanctuary let us to enjoy the sights and sounds of this hidden island paradise for our reunion (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). We are satisfaction about their delicious food (western food) and its building style. In future intention, we were going there occasionally because the price of food is expensive and we do not have ability to go frequently.

Narrowing the Defining Boundaries of Magical Realism :: Latin American Literature Essays

Narrowing the Defining Boundaries of Magical Realism Latin American author Elena Garro wrote works such as "Recuerdos del porvenir," "Andamos huyendo Lola," "Testimonios sobre Mariana," and "The Day We Were Dogs." The short story "The Day We Were Dogs" (1964) uses events that are questionable to the reader even though the characters do not question. Because these events are questioned by the reader, it is not a Magical Realist story. This story might have been miss identified because it was written by a Latin author. In "The Day We Were Dogs," the author uses magical elements to help tell the story two sisters and there day as "dogs?". These elements seem to be magical by means of Magical Realist techniques, but becuase the author dosen't make it clear as to whether these two sisters are dogs or if they are pretending to be dogs the reader hestitates. After reading the following passage, the reader might conclude that the two girls are pretending: Eva got up and disapeared among the plants. She returned running and threw herself down next to Toni."I told them to cook for three dogs and no people." I didn't ask anything. Next to Toni the house had lost its wieght. Two ants were walking on the ground of the day; an earthworm peeked out of a hole, I touched it with my fingertip and it became a red ring. There were bits of leaves, little pieces of branches, tiny pebbles, and the black earth smelled of magnolia water. The other day was off to one side. Toni, Eva, and I watched without fear its gigantic towers and stationary winds, purple and mulberry colored."You, what is your name going to be? Look for your dog name, I'm looking for mine." "I'm a dog?" "Yes we are dogs." (208) Then readers read this following passage and questions the decision they had made by reading the former passage: The dogs got to the gate; it was hard for them to open the door; the bolts were very high. (209) By making the reader hesitate (Todorov) about whether this is supernatural or real, this story could be placed into the Fantastic genre, but we can't put it into this genre because it also has an element of the Sublime in it. The Magical Realist technique that the author uses is the closeness or near merging (Faris) two different days. This becomes apparent when the narrator states that it was "a day with two days in it" (206).

“Old Man and the Sea” book report Essay

I decided to read this book for two reasons. My friends have read this book in the past and said it wasn’t too bad. Second, it is one heck of a short book. I finished this book in 2 days. As the sample book report says, this book is only 27,000 words long. The book lived up to what my friends had said about it. The book was one of the best classic stories I have read, it had a good story and good description. Hemingway could paint the pictures in my mind. I have read other shot stories of his, back in eighth grade, but they pale in comparison to this masterpiece of writing. The story was about and old man (really? ) who is a fisherman. He goes out every day to go fishing, but he has no luck for about 80 days. But one day, he goes out alone and hooks a humongeous whale size marlin. He can’t bring it in because it is too big. He has to wait until it gets tired so he can harpoon it. He goes 2 days fighting the fish, without food or rest. until he finally gets his chance. But when he thinks it is all over, there is still more trouble ahead. The fish is too big to be placed in his small boat, so he has to strap it to the side. Meanwhile, the blood from the harpoon shot leaks out into the sea and attracts sharks. While the old man is returning home from his expedition, he has to fight off the sharks from eating his prize. But it doesn’t take to long for the sharks to take lots of big chunks out of the fish. He ends up killing all the sharks and he gets home safely, and exhausted. Ernest Hemingway is an author of the past. Compared to a more modern author, like say, John Grisham, he has different and unique qualities. Hemingway likes to use lots of descriptive phrases, while leaving little room for actual character discussion. Grisham, on the other hand, makes sure that there is a lot of character dialog throughout his stories. Hemingway doesn’t really have a set climax of his story, while Grisham has a definite peak to his books. This just goes to show you how book writing styles differ through the years. I didn’t find any flaws or things in the book that I had a problem believing or comprehending. You just have to read a book and take it how it is. I don’t really see a need to critique such a great book. In conclusion, this book is one of favorite classics, and I would recommend this to a friend because of it’s great story, descriptions, and length.

Child Labor in Overseas Manufacturers essays

Child Labor in Overseas Manufacturers essays The issue of whether overseas manufacturers of U.S. products employ child labor in their factories is of great importance to marketing departments not only because the practice is abhorrent but because when exposed, such practices reflect negatively on both the company's management While most consumers around the world agree that they do not want the merchandise they purchase produced by child laborers who are underpaid and working under harsh or otherwise unacceptable conditions, companies who find that they have directly or indirectly used such child laborers can find it a difficult problem to manage. McDonald's found this out after charges that the give-away toys they use to market their "Happy Meals" to children were created by child laborers in China working under near-slavery conditions (AP, 2000). McDonald's argued that they did not know child laborers were used. They had contracted with a supplier by the name of "Simon Marketing, Ltd.," located in Hong Kong. This company passed the tasks on to "Pleasure Tech Holdings," who gave the work to "City Toys, Ltd." in mainland China (AP, 2000). When City Toys was located, underage workers explained how they got false identification documents so they could lie about their age credibly. When this information surfaced, McDonald's explained that they followed a strict code regarding child labor and that they periodically executed unannounced site inspections at the factories supplying them with manufactured goods (AP, 2000). However, many did not find this a credible explanation, because an inspection at neither Simon Marketing, Ltd. nor Pleasure Tech Holdings would have shown any manufacturing, and reporters visiting City Toys had no trouble ferreting out the problem. Toy manufacture is not the only area where third world countries sometimes employ child labor. The practice occurs in other industries ...