Implement Change Management Processes Essay

During the demonstration of skills did the student: (Tick if completed) ⠝‘ Plan IT system changes ⠝‘ Current system evaluation ⠝‘ Organisation needs vs benchmark ⠝‘ Identify technology system change needs ⠝‘ Access changes ⠝‘ Prioritise changes ⠝‘ Implement change ⠝‘ Monitor and review implementation Trainer’s Name:Date: / / Trainer’s Signature: Reviewed Auditor’s name:Date: / / Auditor’s Signature: Instructions for assessor(s) Ensure that all activities are completed. Ensure the completeness of this form before handling to the training manager. Provide a copy of this document to the student. Results of this assessment are to be recorded in to the SAFHIN system. Person responsible for recording to SAFHIN: SAFHIN Code: Instructions for students This unit will be assessed in simulated environment. The task should be completed in reasonable timeframe which will be determined by assessor and depends on circumstances of particular task. After completion of the each project you have to complete the documentation and handle it to your trainer/assessor. OH&S and safety rules must be observed. The assessment will be stopped immediately if the work practices are unsafe. Scenario A local graphic studio is based on the Apple platform. The new management is considering the change of the platform for Windows 7. The cost of maintenance, application and hardware support is indicating that the new platform could be more viable than the Apple. Your tasks are: Based on the organisational requirements, business strategy and project requirements develop an IT change management plan document. †¢ Research and develop change procedures and conventions. †¢ Identify key personnel responsible for change management policies and procedures for the company, and those responsible for authorizing and implementing the change management plan. †¢ Identify training needs of staff and management in relation to the changes that will take place. †¢ Evaluate current IT system and determine changing user or business patterns. †¢ Determine current benchmarks. †¢ Compare the organisational needs against performance benchmarks to identify possible changes in the organisation. †¢ Assess proposed changes to determine impact to the organisation. Plan a schedule for the changes that will take place and include the schedule in the change management plan being documented. †¢ Prioritise the changes according to needs. †¢ Allocate resources across the changes that will happen. Implement the plan and obtain new performance benchmarks. Record data from the new performance benchmarks and compare against previous performance data to measure change performance. Update the training requirements of the staff as necessary in accordance with the new performance benchmarks. Record, document and submit the results to appropriate person. Produce required documentation. Attach zipped files produced as part of this project. Document the file structure and each file in individual document. Instructions for trainer You will be required to participate with student on behalf of client. Provide student with your â€Å"client† e-mail for this scenario (client.company@aoi.edu.au). Interview Record Sheet |Unit(s) of Competency |ICASAS601A Implement change-management processes | |Student’s Name | | During the demonstration of skills did the student: (Tick if completed) ⠝‘ All sections of the practical assessment task are completed according the requirements and instructions. ⠝‘ OH&S policies and procedures were followed during the work. ⠝‘ Student has demonstrated communication skills on the appropriate level Trainer’s Name:Date: / / Trainer’s Signature:Student’s Signature: Reviewed Auditor’s name:Date: / / Auditor’s Signature: Instructions for assessor(s) Ensure that all activities are completed. Ensure the completeness of this form before handling to the training manager. Provide a copy of this document to the student. Results of this assessment are to be recorded in to the SAFHIN system. Person responsible for recording to SAFHIN: SAFHIN Code: Interview/Discussion Trainer will conduct the interview with the student after the completion of the project. Student will be asked to present their work. Trainer will ask questions related directly to the project or scenario, trying to establish enough evidence for each element of competency, where required. Student will have the opportunity to explain the approaches and methods used in this project. Student should provide trainer with enough evidence of his competence against each criteria. Trainer must ensure that the student fully understands the area, and is competent in each element of this competency. Trainer has to also ensure that the underpinning knowledge for each unit of competency is verified. Where applicable the practical demonstration of the knowledge can be demonstrated. The duration of the interview will be up to 2 hours. The interview/discussion will be documented in stand-alone document. The references to the performance criteria are to be noted as well. Suggested questions for the interview Discuss the process of planning IT system changes Discuss the process of identifying technology system change needs Discuss any difficulties that you have experienced during the process ———————– Assessor’s comments Assessor’s comments

Accounting and Auditing: Crazy computers

FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) plays the role of determining Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to ensure proper accounting standards are followed. According to FASB, revenue is recognized once it is earned.Commission in Crazy Computer's case is recognized immediately since Crazy Computers collects the cash on behalf of Third Party insurance and then pays it. Commission however should not be added to sales because when balancing the equation, Sales is equal to opening stock plus purchases less closing stock.This means that by adding commission to sales the equation may not balance and it will be exaggerated. The commission revenue consists of income and it is therefore used in the final statements of accounts to calculate the profit of the business.Commission received from TPI can therefore be used when coming up with profits for the year. In case Third Party Insurance agrees to re insure, revenue to be obtained from Third Party Insurance (TPI) will only be recogni zed after Third Party Insurance pays up the amount to Captive Insurance Company (CIC).Commission revenue can only be recognized immediately if Crazy Computers will automatically be deducted from the $110 that the company gives to Third Party Insurance so that it does not have to wait for TPI to pay. This would mean that Crazy Computers would have $165 at the end of the sale then give $25 to TPI.However, it may not show whether the computers on their own were able to sustain themselves without the boost from the commissions earned. When Crazy Computers introduce CIC, they will still get the commission but it will be offset when the amount received from TPI is added.Even as Crazy Computers recognizes revenue from sale of third party insurance on behalf of TPI, it should be careful when it comes to receiving the money back for re-insurance through CIC. The best method to account for the funds to be collected from the Captive Insurance is to do them separately from Crazy Computers.This is because Crazy Computers and CIC are two different kinds of businesses. FASB advices that in order to check the progress of a business it is good to gauge its profitability which is done by subtracting the expenses from sales made by the business.This will ensure that when it comes to paying claims, revenue received from Crazy Computers should not be used for CIC obligations. It will also ensure that the money collected from CIC is not to be used in the computer business unless Crazy Computers borrows from CIC.If Crazy Computers was to account for CIC revenue together with the computer revenue, calculating profits would get complicated since the revenue received is not made from sales only. In other words, treating the two businesses as separate entities will ensure the profitability of the two can be determined.Crazy Computer's idea to create a wholly owned subsidiary would be a good idea if the Third Party Insurer agrees to re-insure with them. Based on the transaction illustrat ed in the case study, currently Crazy computers pay $110 for insurance such that TPI takes responsibility for any obligations from customers.Because CC gets commission for every sale made then from the $200 received it is left with $80 after paying the sales persons $10. With the introduction of CIC and if TPI agrees to re insure with CIC, CC will get $ 85 back out of the $110 paid to TPI.This means that cash received goes up from $80 to $165. CIC would therefore be profitable. However, in case of any third party obligations CIC will be solely responsible. This is why it is extremely important for Crazy Computers to ensure that CIC's income does not mix with computer income so as to ensure each department can sustain its own expenses.Word count (635).ReferenceFASB. (2008). Financial Accounting Standards and Revenue Recognition.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http/www.fasb.org.

Business Society Planet

By accessing different articles discussing the concept named â€Å"The Triple Bottom Line†, I have developed the fundamental knowledge associated with one of the vital factors of sustainability and its impact on the global business. In the process of investigation, I have gained the significant understanding by reviewing the work developed by Timothy F. Slapher, who is a Ph.D. from Indiana University. Thanks to the particular work, I achieved the suitable perception regarding the meaning and concepts of the triple bottom line (TBL) and its applicability to the business (Bocken, et al., 2014). Over the past decade, maintaining or achieving sustainability is one of the key goals of the companies, whether it is a profit making, non-profit, or government enterprise.   From the different research works conducted by the previous scholars and academics, I have observed that the businesses from multiple genres find it challenging to measure the required degree of sustainability rega rding the operations and activities. Therefore, measuring the required level of sustainability is an unavoidable approach for the modern day businesses to ensure the achievement of sustainable growth (Boons & Là ¼deke-Freund, 2013). Different researchers like John Elkington strove to measure the sustainability during the mid-1990s by encompassing a unique framework gauging the performance of the corporate businesses of America. From the overall analysis of the theoretical works developed related to TBL, I have obtained the understanding that the particular factor reflects a useful accounting framework incorporating three magnitudes of performance: social, financial, and environmental (Bocken, et al., 2013). All of these perspectives apply to the operations of the business organizations to ensure the induction of ecological and social measures, which creates some significant challenges in different sectors. By the application of different studies, I have gained the knowledge that there are â€Å"five types of sustainable capital available for the business†. These capitals are responsible for shaping up the goods and services produced by the firm with the inclusion of quality. The identified process subsequently helps to promote the enhancement of healthy lives within the respective society. The five forms of capitals are known as manufacturing capital, financial capital, social capital, human capital, and natural capital (Seuring, 2013). I identify the suitable differentiation regarding these five individual types through analysing a project developed to provide appropriate explanation. In case of the natural capital, it refers to the available stock or energy of the business responsible for producing the goods or services for the community. The stock may include the renewable or non-renewable resources or the major processes like the climate regulations. On the other hand, human capital in the form of knowledge, skills, and motivation of the individuals are also liable to produce the product by the business. Social capital deals with the institutions helping to develop the human capital by the productive collaborations from others like the businesses, communities, or trade unions (Welford, 2013). Manufacturing capital suggests the fixed assets or materials supporting the production process. Lastly, financial capital plays the most important role to the overall economy while providing understanding to the business regarding the types of capital to be owned or traded. Combining all of these capitals in the right place to produce the goods or services is a highly challenging task for the global businesses, as the process requires the suitable availability of needful sources.   Dunphy et al. (2003) have identified â€Å"The Six Phases of Business Approaches to Sustainability† stating six framing principles for the designing the economic models of the organizations in a non-linear world. Based on the analysis of the particular work, I understand that these policies should need to be treated as the philosophy for the organizations and the business practices must need to be developed accordingly. The concepts of these principles are based on managing uncertainty, ability to adopt, maintaining openness, developing the participatory cultures and tools, shaping up a value-based approach, and establishing the system of change (Kolk & Buuse, 2013). All of these concepts are needed to be maintained by the business for promoting the development of a sustainable presence in the modern day environment. In the process of managing uncertainty, organizations face challenges diagnostically regarding the detection of underlying patterns and hidden relationships drivi ng the particular type of chaos. On the other hand, the modern day business environment is highly competitive and dynamically changing (Seuring, 2013). Therefore, the global companies are facing a considerable amount of difficulty regarding the ability to adapt and response accordingly while continuously learning to become agile. Lastly, I have come to know about some important examples where businesses successfully able to adopt the sustainable requirements to become a sustainable organization in the global context. The leading names like Starbucks and Ford have adopted the best practices required to develop sustainable business operations through changing and modifying their policies (Bocken, et al., 2014). Specifically, I have observed that the activities of these companies are altered dramatically by considering the critical climate change policies identified by their respective country government.   Bocken, N. M. P., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes.Journal of cleaner production,  65, 42-56. Bocken, N., Short, S., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2013). A value mapping tool for sustainable business modelling.  Corporate Governance,  13(5), 482-497. Boons, F., & Là ¼deke-Freund, F. (2013). Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda.  Journal of Cleaner Production,  45, 9-19. Kolk, A., & Buuse, D. (2013). Business models for sustainable energy development.  The European Financial Review,  2013(April-May), 64-69. Seuring, S. (2013). A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management.  Decision support systems,  54(4), 1513-1520. Welford, R. (2013).  Hijacking environmentalism: Corporate responses to sustainable development. Routledge.  

The Importance of High Academic Achievement and the Pursuit of a Essay

The Importance of High Academic Achievement and the Pursuit of a Career - Essay Example What I really mean by the career regimes lies in the fact that the world is on the upward move. It is always growing and expanding and not being stagnant at any point in time. For me to look up to the future and visualize myself standing with the top management gurus, I feel pride in stating that I can relate with what they do, work and feel like. (Brown, 2002) I can relate with their respective concepts of career development and the manner in which they have taken an upward growth path. I believe that I can always contribute in a better manner towards the society if I work in an organization because this is something that comes from within – it is naturally inclined for me to act, think and feel the same way. The implications that stand in the way of my career development include my understanding related with the niche segments of the pertinent area of business and comprehension which I can attain in the wake of finding out more and more as to what exactly is happening in the local terrains and on the global front. These career concepts offer me a range of options to start with. I could look at the respective areas and hence train myself in accordance with the needs of the time. High academic achievement would back up what I have learned and make me feel experienced within the midst of things. I would feel a sense of ease and belongingness with the different activities, norms and procedures if my academic achievements are sound and fitting in the real sense of the word. This will eventually introduce me to different people who have similar interests as well as open up avenues of expansion as far as my career growth is concerned. Therefore, one can easily see that a successful pursuit of a career is related with close harmony with the kind of academic achievement that one has over a period of time. My pursuit would eventually become an easy task if I know the path that I would be leading up towards my ultimate destination or the goal to put it in

Athelets and Drugs Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Athelets and Drugs - Research Paper Example "Although they have legitimate medical uses, steroids are increasingly being used by individuals as a way to quickly build up muscle and increase strength"(Goldberg, 316). Anabolic steroids or anabolic-androgenic steroids are derived from naturally occurring testosterone (male anabolic hormone). Both androgenic and anabolic steroids have their origins in the Greek words means "masculinize." They are used by athletes who want to build up body muscle, for weightlifting, football, and any other sport that require explosive amounts of strength" (Mohun, 21). Steroids use are illegal and banned by most, if not all, major sports and organizations. If a participant is caught using steroids they can be suspended, fined, or even expelled from their particular sport. So why do athletes take this explosive drug you ask' "First, it involves certain personality traits found in many athletes, especially in those who desire, above everything else, to be champions. Second, it has to do with a number of pressures exerted by the sports world on modern competitors" (Dolan, 35). Professional Athletes have a huge influence on other athletes and their fans. Mark McGwire, a retired professional baseball player, openly admitted to taking androstenedione during his record breaking season. Few years back, NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth tested positive for steroids and was banned from playing in a championship college game. He claimed that taking steroids are safe, once it is in small amounts (Nardo, 28). Numerous retired baseball players, such as Ken Caminiti, are coming forward in the news stating that steroid use is widespread in major league baseball. These are men who us "regular Joes" look up to and idolize and if they are saying its okay to use steroids then that makes fans and young kids think it is okay too. Side effects of Steroids Some of the side effects of steroids include "shrinking of the testes, increased acne, loss of hair, extreme aggressiveness, liver damage, high blood pressure, prostate problems, and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke due to an elevation in LDL levels" (Sallis, 131). But there are also women who use steroids as well. "Their side effects consist of deepened voice, rougher skin, extreme aggressiveness, mustache darkens, baldness may occur, and all the heart and organ problems that men are susceptible to" (Dolan, 31). b. Amphetamines and Cocaine Another drug used in sports is Amphetamines, which are classified as stimulant drugs because they instill that same sense of well-being (Dolan, 45). These stimulants include a whole range of substances, from caffeine, through amphetamines to cocaine. All these substances stimulate the body, mentally and physically. Cocaine is one of the most widely publicized recreational drugs. "The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that about six million Americans use cocaine on a regular basis"(Nardo, 55). This number includes people in all professions from professional sports to police officers. But, professional athletes who use the drug both for recreation and as an energy booster before games have been hit unusually hard by the drug. "Seemingly indestructible heroes have been brought to their knees," says William Gildea, a sportswriter for the Washington Post. Example of cocaine abuser athlete Bethea was the number one draft choice of the late nineteenth

7. The prospect of Turkish membership in the EU has led to the Essay

7. The prospect of Turkish membership in the EU has led to the emergence of increasingly stringent conditions for membership. Discuss - Essay Example Expansion has largely been carried out in the countries of the former Soviet Union and this organization continues to come under pressure to expand eastward. Accordingly Turkey, a predominately Muslim country straddling the border between Europe and Asia, is seeking membership into one of the most exclusive multilateral clubs in the world. Undertaking an analysis the candidacy of Turkey for membership in the EU, the following will discuss the major obstacles to the inclusion of Turkey within this exclusive multilateral club. This essay will begin with a concise overview of the European Union and will address the evolution of the EU following the collapse of state-led communism in Eastern Europe. This led to an increased desire for the EU to expand and the ramifications of this incredible and for some, unimaginable, fact will be analyzed with respect to the EU. We then turn to an analysis of enlargement, the ever-increasing demand for growth, the trajectory in which the EU has grown and finally, the reasons why Turkey is not a suitable candidate for membership in the European Union. We will explore the domestic and historical factors which make Turkey a poor candidate for EU membership and will conclude with a broad overview of our overall analysis (Warleigh 13; Fierke & Wiener 1-24). The European Union (EU) is a supranational body composed of constituent member states, found largely on the European peninsula. Democracy, negotiation, and collective decision-making through multilateralism are all inherent attributes of the modern EU. Today, membership in the European Union is actively sought by nearly all countries on the European peninsula as well as by one country straddling both Europe and Middle Asia (Turkey). Although there were initially only five members of the precursor to the European Union (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and West Germany), there are presently 27 countries in the EU and they

Research paper - Same Sex-Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Research paper - Same Sex-Marriage - Essay Example Then voices are raised in all quarters and the media also plays its undue role in projecting it out of proportion. Thus, one marriage that involves individuals from the same gender becomes an issue that seems to be made a mountain out of a molehill. The society needs to be quite broad-minded when someone suggests something positive in the direction of same gender couples that choose to marry. The reason for the same is that gays and lesbians are being continuously discriminated against in being refused the right to marry legally. Thus this brings to light just about everything from retirement programs, health care, parenting rights to social security benefits as well as the significant medical decisions. Same sex marriages come about due to one form of stagnation within the people’s minds and the role of one and all within the domains of the same sex marriage debate is significant nonetheless. Though the government might not approve of a marriage between members of the same sex, they just should not impose a law on their sense of ethics related with these very individuals. Since gay marriages are not at all at peril to the public welfare and one’s day-to-day life is not affected by the same, the right to marry anyone one so decided to choose for him or herself should thus be in accordance with the rights the United States of America states that are both "self-evident" as well as "inalienable" in its Declaration of Independence that was brought into notice of one and all a few years back. (Allen, 2006) The problem continues for some people who are of the view that since homosexual parenting can be harmful for children, thus allowing such marriages to be carried out in the first place must be declined and the state must do something that would disallow the people from doing the same. They also say that as homosexual unions are not built around lifetime commitments and also that they are not good environments to

Business Strategy 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Strategy 2 - Essay Example Mission Statement: Mission statement is a statement which is used to describe why the organization exists and to explain what the company does to achieve the vision. The mission of a company is the one which changes as the organization develops. An example of such a statement is that of Wipro, which reads, ‘Our mission is to be a RF System Solution Provider, through its innovative research and design works for a new world of broadband wireless communications’ (Wipro Techno, 2010). The statement of company highlights its working towards the vision that has been set down by the company. Vision: The vision of a company can be defined as the intended future that the company aims at reaching. This is a long term view and is the basis for all the planning of the organization. An excellent example of this is the vision of Wipro which reads, ‘Contribute for global e-society, where a wide range of information is being exchanged beyond time and space over global networks, which breaks down the boundaries among countries, regions and cultures, allowing individuals to take part in various social activities in an impartial, secure way. Continous effort to enhance people’s lifestyle and quality by means of developing new technology in wireless communication’ (Wipro Techno, 2010). Core Competencies: The core competencies of an organization are the basic knowledge, abilities and skills that a company possess. This helps in classifying the organizations and to learn what the organization is best at doing. For the example of Wipro, as explained by the President and COO for Wipro Infocrossing, Sameer Kishore, ‘IT infrastructure management is our core competency and we will bring a well-proven data center transition and managed services methodology to help CSG meet its goals’ (Wipro Corporate, 2010). Strategic Approach: The strategic approach used by Wipro is one which is goal

EC coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EC coursework - Essay Example It does not therefore implement the directive. Anil works as an electrician for North West Electricity PLC, a privatized utilities company. His wife is expecting a baby in May 2006. In February 2006 he applied for paternity leave and was refused on the grounds that his contract does not provide for it. Unlike EC regulation which is binding in its entirety and directly applicable to all member-states of the European Union1, a directive is binding only as to the result to be achieved2 and upon the member-state to which it is addressed. It also leaves to the national authorities the choice of form and methods by which to implement the said directive. Relevant to this problem is the question of direct effect of the subject directive without the need for it to be implemented by national law. According to the doctrine, Community law creates rights in favour of individuals, which the national courts are duty bound to protect.3 Stated otherwise, direct effect refers to the principle whereby certain provisions of Community law may confer rights or impose obligations on individuals that national courts are bound to recognize and enforce. ... without need of national implementing legislation.6 The period for implementation of the directive has already expired, as stated in the given facts. As counsel for Anil, I would advise him to initiate proceedings against his employer North West Electricity PLC in the proper forum and against the State, if the first action is denied. Re: Brian I would advise Brian to make his application with his employer, Quickfoods Ltd and if denied pursue the same actions as Anil would be taking in his case. Before denial, Brian would have no locus standi to file the necessary action in national courts. Re: Anil (and Brian if his application is denied) Because Anil has already been denied, I will rely on the cases of Becker7, Marshall8 and Ratti9, which allowed the filing of proceedings against member-states relying on individual rights conferred by directives and file the proper action to ask the national court and/or the European court to exercise the duty of consistent interpretation "so far as is reasonably possible" expounded in Marleasing10. In our case, we will endeavour to convince the national and/or the European court(s) that the case involves the issue of vertical direct effect and not horizontal direct effect if seen solely from the point of view of compelling the clients' private employers to grant the paternity rights granted under the directive instead of the existing statutes. My advice will be bolstered by the concept of standing in national law. National courts of first instance would only grant standing where a specific individual right has been identified and violated. The first action will be filed with the Court of First Instance. If the national court of first instance exercises jurisdiction over the case but denies the reliefs prayed for, I would

Japanese Death Rituals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Japanese Death Rituals - Essay Example This peculiar aspect of the Japanese death rituals is quiet confusing. While on the one side, the Japanese exhibit a ceremoniously discernable respect for a deceased individual; on the other side they consider the death to be some sort of an infectious occurrence that has the potential to pollute the family members and close ones of a dead person. Japanese abhorrence for cats in their death rituals and their fascination with directions is really typical. The practice of digging a woman's grave deeper then that of a man's though unusual is perhaps indicative of the subaltern status of the women in the Japanese society. One universal aspect of the Japanese beliefs about death is that a funeral in Japan is considered to be a predominantly community event where the members of a community or a neighborhood do everything possible to help a bereaved family perform the necessary funeral rituals and extend the possible material and emotional support to the family members of a deceased person, so as to help them come to terms with their grief. Also, the close affiliation of death and funerals in Japan with religious beliefs, ceremonies and rituals is something that is common to a majority of the world cultures and societies. The special reverence shown by the Japanese for a dead person by lighting incense and candles and such other rituals are also universal in their approach.

Harrison Bergeron Essay Example for Free

Harrison Bergeron Essay Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional society adopted the theories of Social Contract and Social Justice to establish a new social and legal order. The people amended the constitution to attain equality for all. With the amendments, they created laws to make a uniform citizenry out of their people and in the process stripped them of their individuality. These laws were also intended to make them think and act alike which was their idea of equality. As to who is benefited from such extreme version of social control depends on whose viewpoint it was coming from. Despite their unrestricted freedoms no one was ultimately benefited in this kind of system. It was no guarantee of peace and absolute control, as in the case of Harrison. His physical and mental states were no match for the handicaps. Once both powers were unleashed and unrestrained what resulted was a blending and coordination that produced a beautiful symphony of dance and music. It was symbolical of the good things that can happen or that can be achieved if we let our natural gifts, talents and skills work for the common good. There can be unity in diversity and peaceful co-existence may be possible. In a controlled society as this fictional one, there were no norms, values, and culture that may identify them. For norms, values and culture were what will set them apart. This was a robotic society where the norms were that which are forced upon them because of the handicaps some were made to wear. Acceptable norms were absent because the standard (equality) was built into the system. In effect one had a common standard to follow in which to comport oneself, no less and no better that the others. There was only one value that stood, no one was above the other in appearance and in the treatment he gave and he got. Culture should define who and what this society was, but what would make it truly unique? There was nothing neither appealing nor interesting in it because everything went against the natural ways of man. People followed rules not out of their volition. How were they to know the good was turning bad, and worse was turning worst, if something in their brains signaled a censure. This restraint was basically against their good and benefit, but they had no choice but to obey what was programmed in their system. Once, this was a society that had reached the extreme end of the balance with their all-out freedoms and unchecked rights of individuals. The situation had reached unmanageable proportion that they had to resort to dramatic crisis control which brought them to the other extreme end by way of the encroachment on their rights and freedoms. This society took not only the people’s freedoms but their right senses as well. In what they figure to be the correct moves to effect change, their agitation towards a freak of nature was alarming, like when â€Å"some things about living weren’t quite right †¦ April not being Springtime† (Vonnegut, 1961). Law and society have interchangeable attributes. Law may change a society and society may change the law. In the case of Harrison Bergeron, society had made 3 amendments to their constitution out of desire for and necessity to change. They wanted to regulate and curb freedoms to a comfortable magnitude. The change in the law made this society a strictly tempered one. Lawyers and the legal system do not have a place in this society anymore. The Handicapper General proceeded to punish without trial law breakers. The only crime that can be committed was taking one’s handicaps off and that did not need investigation and defense. The crime and the criminal are self-evident. The fictional society does not have any direct similarities in today’s time. However, the inference to the curtailment of freedoms is plenty. When a society does not allow an artist to express his heart in his art, the Harrison Bergerons to criticize the government which should be for, by and of the people, and ease the fear of ordinary citizens, they are the translations of Vonnegut’s transgressions of freedoms in his fictional society. Instead of seeking for equality in the extreme, working with diversity might be the better option.

The Tyranny of Choice Essay Example for Free

The Tyranny of Choice Essay Happiness is a long standing abstract concept. It starts from choosing the best options there is, induced by properly allocating and utilizing resources, and maintained when one can truly enjoy the gains from it while accepting the imperfection of his or her choices. And as such, every individual is always in search for happiness and well-being.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Utility and happiness are two intertwined notions (Verme, 2007, p. 2). The quest for attaining true happiness starts with choosing which options are best and what things should be utilized. The result of which comprises a persons well-being. The choices that an individual makes greatly affect the level of satisfaction one attains.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, the relationship between well-being and choice is ultimately complicated and not at all predictable. In making a choice, a person is usually thwarted by the abundance or lack of choices. Sometimes, the wideness of choice varieties creates a great amount of confusion for the person and as such it also increases the probability that the choices he or she might make will become regretful. The same way that the lack of choices gives a person a limited space of discovering better options. As such, opportunity costs engraved in every option open for an individual contribute to confusion, thus making it harder to choose and at the same time increasing the chances of regretting whatever choice that was made (Schwartz, 2004, pp. 2-7).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Making choices is immensely complex. Thus it causes people to become weary and conscious on selecting their options in order to avoid making choices that they will soon feel sorry about in the end. Individuals develop a false sense of looking for the â€Å"best option†, or settling down for a â€Å"good enough† choice. These kinds of individuals are labelled as either maximizers or satisficers (Schwartz, 2004, pp. 4-7).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Maximizers are individuals who are most keen on looking for the best option. They tend to strive hard in achieving this goal at the expense that in the process of their quest for looking for the best possible choice present, they are being daunted by the appearances of more choices. In the end, they become less satisfied of the choices they have made and they are more prone to experiencing regrets and depression (Schwartz, 2004, pp. 2-7).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, satisficers are individuals who aim on ending up with a choice that is â€Å"good enough† for them. They seek not the best there is, but on finding something that can adequately meet their standards and is equally useful and worthy of their choice. These people experience less depression on the event that the option they chose did not work out as satisfying   as possible. They are more probable to be happy with their choice because they do not expect too   much from it, and hence are quite surprised when they gain positive effects from it (Schwartz, 2004, pp. 4-7).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Given the complexity of making choices, the people are still and always keen on the gift of freedom of choice. Even though the process of choosing makes people vulnerable to regret and depression, the right to choose what people think is best for them adds to the happiness and well-being that a person can attain. The freedom of choice and how it is always linked to peoples fulfillment is always an integral factor in measuring happiness (Verme, 2007, p. 3).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As such, it is a false notion for maximizers that the absence of choices will make them less prone to regrets. The same goes for satisficers that more choices will make them more happy. Being happy and satisfied rests on the individuals choice. To become truly happy, a person should know how to appreciate what he or she has; being contented with the choice he or she has made and stop thinking of what might have been if he or she decided to chose another option; and most importantly, do not expect too much out of something. Choosing something that is good enough can become the best choice if a person knows how to handle his or her priorities well. References Schwartz, B. (2004). The Tyranny of Choice. Retrieved June 27, 2008, from www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bschwar1/Sci.Amer.pdf Verme, P. (2007). Happiness and Freedom.   Retrieved June 27, 2008, from www.ppdoconference.org/session_papers/session15/session15_paolo.pdf

Are Wars Good for the Economy?

Are Wars Good for the Economy? Mr. PRAKHAR MAHESHWARI Are Wars Good For Economy? INTRODUCTION â€Å"War, n: A time-tested political tactic guaranteed to raise a president’s popularity rating by at least 30 points. It is especially useful during election years and economic downturns.† Chaz Bufe, American Anarchist Author Wars. Invasions. Fights. The reason for these and the final consequence of these is economy. Communities, kingdoms and countries have been fighting countless wars and invading other countries and kingdoms in search for wealth and money. The Mughals and the English came to India having knowledge that the country was full of gold and had massive wealth. Americans declared war on Iraq in search of the precious oil. Even particular individuals fight with their own kin and family for property, wealth and money. But is destruction of life and property the only thing which happens before, after even during a war? This project deals with precisely that. The project focuses on the economic development and/or economic destruction of USA during world wars. However, the project isn’t strictly focused on only US. Countries like Britain, France and Germany needed to be given a special mention in such kind of a topic. Wars make or break a country. And it is an integral question that we must ask ourselves: Are wars really good for economy? ECONOMY AND WORLD WARS There are several reasons to enter a war. Although economic reasons are the most important, patriotism, loyalty and friendship towards a nation and the belief of â€Å"helping the needy and the right out† not only decides if a nation should enter a war but also decides which side that country would join. World War 1 The United States entered the war very late. They were participants for approximately an year and a half – from April 1917 to November 1918.[1] This little participation in terms of days was very different from the point of view of contribution. The number of Americans serving the Army was more than a staggering four million. Not only did they provide men to the fighting nations, they also equipped them with great supply of raw materials and weapons and ammunition.[2] Before the war, the American economy was in a bad shape. However, the buying of U.S. weaponry and goods for war by the fighting Europeans and when the U.S. itself joined the conflict, the economy boomed.[3] Hugh Rockoff writes that if the United States had not converted the opportunity of making and delivering goods and weapons to the European Allies, it would have been next to impossible for the country to enter and win the war.[4] The massive production of such goods, which were added only after looking at the demands made by the European countries, ensured easy entrance of the United States.[5] Also, the goods were made in such a way that the country itself would need it if it enters the war.[6] The Americans had actually realized that the spoils of the war, if they won, would be huge and the profits were not ignorable. Hugh Rockoff also observes that â€Å"Entry into the war in 1917 unleashed massive U.S. federal spending which shifted national production from civilian to war goods. Between 1914 and 1918, some 3 million people were added to the military and half a million to the government.†[7] Infact, the impact of such employment was that the rate of unemployment came down from 7.9 percent to 1.4 percent.[8] This was not only due to the addition of men in the armies but also because labours and workers were required in large numbers to new manufacturing jobs like manufacturing guns, war infrastructure and developing technology.[9] U.S. exports to the European countries, due to this war in 1917, shot up to almost three times the year 1913’s exports. While U.S. exported goods worth $1.5 billion dollars in 1913, the sales were in excess of $4 billion dollars in 1917.[10] Now let us assume that the United States had got nothing to do with the war. It was a neutral country and was not supplying any goods to any European country. Also, let us assume that the raw material used to produce these exports for the European countries were only able to manufacture about half as much value when such goods were transported to other countries which were not at war.[11] Based on these assumptions, if we calculate the value in output in the year 1917, the loss would come out to be a bit more than $2 billion dollars per year.[12] In 1917, this was worth 3.7 percent the U.S GNP and about 6.3 percent of the total U.S. cost of war.[13] Rockoff estimates â€Å"the total cost of World War I to the United States at approximately $32 billion, or 52 percent of gross national product at the time. He breaks down the financing of the U.S. war effort as follows: 22 percent in taxes, 58 percent through borrowings from the public, and 20 percent in money creation. The War Revenue Act of 1917 taxed excess profits profits exceeding an amount determined by the rate of return on capital in a base period by some 20 to 60 percent, and the tax rate on income starting at $50,000 rose from 1.5 percent in 1913-15 to more than 18 percent in 1918. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo crisscrossed the country peddling war bonds, even enlisting the help of Hollywood stars and Boy Scouts. The prevalence of patriotic themes created social pressure to purchase the Liberty bonds (and, after the armistice, the Victory bonds), but in practice the new bondholders did not make a tangible personal sacrifice in buying war bonds, sin ce the yields on these debt instruments were comparable to those on standard municipal bonds at the time. As can be seen, patriotic motives were not sufficient to alter market prices of assets during the war.†[14] Due to this war, various infrastructural projects were taken up and developed like Railroad, fuel and granaries. Since men had to go to war, the women took up the initiative of working in companies, etc. This ensured the economic freedom of women and more and more women started working. It is often said that the one’s gain is another’s loss. Wars are no different. Where one country’s, the United States’, economy was going through a positive transformation, the economies of the European powers were humbled. Even though the Allies won the war, the major participants, the British and the French, suffered massive losses. Saints have said that â€Å"Everything that shines is not gold.† They may have â€Å"won† the war, but economically, they had been fooled by this shine. However, the losses were restricted mainly to the battle fields. Overall, even the British economy (in terms of GDP) grew by around 14-15% during the four to five years of the world war. However, the country lost its men fighting for the country.[15] As discussed earlier, war also involves patriotism and many civilians hence started saving and investing in wars rather than the normal consumption. These investments were used majorly for ammunitions. The Government’s share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose from 8% to 38% in these five years.[16] The story of the Germans, the losers of the war, was however very different. Not only they had to give huge taxes and compensation, there economy was brought to the knees. Germany, just like any other country, had to borrow money from various banks, the axis powers and even its citizens. When the Germans lost, they had to pay back even these creditors. The Germans were left in huge debts and their economy was destroyed. And the main cause of their destruction was the Treaty of Versailles. Supposed to be a peace treaty, many people claim it to be an important reason of the Second World War. This treaty literally forced the Germans to pay huge compensations – a total sum of  £6.6 billion.[17] This amount was way beyond the financial capacities of the Germans. Economy doesn’t only mean the money or financial capacity. It also means the territorial extend of the country. After all, even territories are the properties of a country. After the First World War, Germany had to give up large chunks of its territories to the Allied Forces. â€Å"The Versailles treaty deprived Germany of around 13.5% of its 1914 territory (some seven million people) and all of its overseas possessions. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, and Belgium was enlarged in the east with the addition of the formerly German border areas of Eupen and Malmedy. Among other territorial re-arrangements, an area of East Prussia was handed over to Lithuania, and the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia. The German army was limited to a maximum of 100,000 men, and a ban placed upon the use of heavy artillery, gas, tanks and aircraft. The German navy was similarly restricted to shipping under 10,000 tons, with a ban on submarines.†[18] The other financial and economical clauses of the treaty are dealt with in Article 248 to 312 with certain Annexes. Hence where some countries were enjoying the spoils of war, the other countries had to pay heavy compensations and reparations. World War 2 World War 2 was no different when the reasons for the war are given a thought. The world had seen one of the greatest economic tragedies ever in the form of the Great Depression of 1929, just 6 years before the start of the Second World War. There was chaos on the streets as people lost on jobs and the unemployment rate was on an all time high, crossing the 25% mark. The companies were going bankrupt, economy was in a disaster and depression, as the name phenomenon suggests, was spread across the world. It was evident that another war was on its way. With the rise of Adolf Hitler and economic woes of Germany after accepting the Treaty of Versailles, Germans had to wage wars, once again with the Allied Powers. The U.S., like the previous war, joined this one later, approximately by 2 years. The country, however, like before, started producing and manufacturing wartime goods for the â€Å"worst case scenario†. When the United States got involved in the Second World War, the demand for labor shot up. To fight a war, country needs weapons and for that the country needs manufacturing facilities and labor in huge numbers. The national employment suddenly fell to a minimal 10% in just a few months of the declaration of war by the country from its 1940 level.[19] The country was at war and weapons and infrastructure need to be built up with a rapid speed. Even fortification of borders and military bases abroad was equally important.[20] All these factors coupled with the fact that weapons and military equipments, vehicles and other wartime instruments needed to be transported and mobilized ensured vast labor requirement.[21] The Employers wanted to fill the vacancies as fast as possible so as to meet the production demand. This however, brought in vacancies in other non-war areas. These positions were then filled by women and non white people. They had been excluded from a long time from such industries which payed highly and involved high skills. Hence war meant employment for the whole country.[22] War doesn’t only bring profits. It brings massive destruction to life and property. Britain gave us the Industrial Revolution, and the very same industries, which were the pride of the Great Britain, were left nothing more to rumble. The damage that these facilities incurred, not only in Britain but also in other European countries, was much more than what they had incurred in the previous wars.[23] Where the damages incurred by France were approximately thrice of their total annual income, Britain suffered heavy losses in the form of damages to residential houses.[24] About 30% of the homes in Britain were destroyed by Germans in the Second World War, first by the aerial blitz and then by bombs and rockets.[25] The Germans, losing the war again, had their country divided into West and East Germany. While West was influenced by the capitalist USA, the East was the communist USSR. The economic woes for Britain and France were not limited to their own countries. They had to let go many important colonies as they had exhausted their money and resources and had none left for their militaries in these areas. India gained its independence as the growing revolts and violence in the country left Britain shocked. Britain had no more resources to deal with these violent outbursts and had to leave the country, just like they had to leave many other territories. USSR and US strengthened their economies during cold war, but USSR, after the recession of 1970, could not recover like the US and had to surrender in the cold war. It has been seen by historians that whenever countries have not gone to war or had no threat of being attacked, their economy have not grown or grown but with a very low percentage. But the wars, apart from developing or destroying economies, affect common man too. Inflation and rise in taxes are the two main effects. These are however short term. â€Å"Increasing taxes reduces consumer spending, which does not help the economy improve at all. Suppose we decrease government spending on social programs. Firstly weve lost the benefits those social programs provide. The recipients of those programs will now have less money to spend on other items, so the economy will decline as a whole. Increasing the debt means that well either have to decrease spending or increase taxes in the future; its a way to delay the inevitable. Plus theres all those interest payments in the meantime.†[26] Lack of wars The European countries in the western side of the continent have very little or no threat of being overtaken by another country in the present times. The politicians and ministers are therefore not criticized for not developing the economy faster. Infact, when these ministers lose their office, they are â€Å"garlanded† with income boosts from counseling and consultation as well as speaking fees. If not these, then they retire to an amazing and dreamy holiday spot.[27] This however is not true for the countries that face constant danger from their neighbors or other countries. An example would be that of China and Japan. The Japanese face great pressure, both territorial and geographical from the Chinese.[28] This is true for India and Pakistan. India today is the largest importer of ammunitions as she faces constant and grave danger from its parted neighbors, Pakistan. Hence where countries like India face constant danger from almost all its neighboring countries, they are the highest importers of ammunitions and weapons and countries like Switzerland, which are considered to be one of the most peaceful countries, hardly import any weapons.[29] US spend approximately $650 billion dollars in ammunitions.[30] This is what wars can do. They can make a country develop its resources and infrastructure. CONCLUSION As we can see, wars have the ability to develop an economy. In this project we dealt with three types of outcomes of a war. And each type had its representative. In the first type of outcome, the country wins. They win and enjoy a good deal of compensation. There economy grows by leaps and bounds, the rate of unemployment declines, infrastructure develops and the spoils of war compensate the losses they suffer. An example of this is the United States. While they joined late in the world wars, they had a great say and impact on the war. They had already developed their weapons and ammunitions and had gone to war with preparation. The second type of outcome is one in which although the country wins the war, they are badly hurt as far as economy is concerned. Their industries are destroyed, territories left damaged and even the spoils of war are not enough for their recovery. Britain and France are good examples of these. They â€Å"won† the Second World War but ended up losing m ore than what they won. They exhausted all their resources and their colonies gained independence. The third type of outcome is one in which the country loses; Germany being the example. Germany lost both its wars and had to pay damages which the obviously couldn’t. Infact, they had to ask for loans from the same countries they had to pay the damages. But leaving aside these so called boosters of economy, can any war, battle or fight justify the loss of human life? How can we as humans put a value to a person’s life? Economy may get boosted but for a short while. The damage to life, however, is a very very long one. In conclusion, I would like to say that war, like alcohol, is an addiction. Initially it tastes good, you think that all the worries are now away. But it’s not long before the person indulging himself in such addiction realizes that the pleasure was momentary, what he faces now is scars for life, which no money or economy can remove. [1] Price Fishback, U.S. Economy in World War I (eh.net 2010) http://eh.net/encyclopedia/u-s-economy-in-world-war-i/> accessed 28 June 2014. [2] Price Fishback, U.S. Economy in World War I (eh.net 2010) http://eh.net/encyclopedia/u-s-economy-in-world-war-i/> accessed 28 June 2014. [3] Carlos Lozada, The Economics of World War I (nber.org 2014) http://www.nber.org/digest/jan05/w10580.html> accessed 29 June 2014. [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] Ibid. [8] Ibid. [9] Carlos Lozada, The Economics of World War I (nber.org 2014) http://www.nber.org/digest/jan05/w10580.html> accessed 29 June 2014. [10] Price Fishback, U.S. Economy in World War I (eh.net 2010) http://eh.net/encyclopedia/u-s-economy-in-world-war-i/> accessed 28 June 2014. [11] Ibid. [12] Price Fishback, U.S. Economy in World War I (eh.net 2010) http://eh.net/encyclopedia/u-s-economy-in-world-war-i/> accessed 28 June 2014. [13] Ibid. [14] Carlos Lozada, The Economics of World War I (nber.org 2014) http://www.nber.org/digest/jan05/w10580.html> accessed 29 June 2014. [15] Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War: Explaining World War I (1st, Basic Books, 1988) 249. [16] Ibid. [17] London Jewish Cultural Centre, Economic effects of the Treaty of Versailles (theholocaustexplained.org 2009) http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks4/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-german-economy-c-1919-29/economic-effects-of-the-treaty-of-versailles/> accessed 29 June 2014. [18] Michael Duffy, Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919 (firstworldwar.com 2009) http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles.htm> accessed 29 June 2014. [19] David Siminoff and Deb Tennen, World War II: Home Front (shmoop.com 2009) http://www.shmoop.com/wwii-home-front/economy.html> accessed 29 June 2014 [20] Ibid. [21] Ibid. [22] Ibid. [23] Dr. Susmit Kumar, Consequences of World Wars I and II (susmitkumar.net 2010) http://www.susmitkumar.net/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=66:consequenses-of-world-wars-i-and-iiItemid=38> accessed 29 June 2014. [24] Ibid. [25] Dr. Susmit Kumar, Consequences of World Wars I and II (susmitkumar.net 2010) http://www.susmitkumar.net/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=66:consequenses-of-world-wars-i-and-iiItemid=38> accessed 29 June 2014. [26] Jodi Beggs, Are Wars Good for the Economy? (about.com 2014) http://economics.about.com/cs/issues/l/aa032003c.htm> accessed 29 June 2014. [27] Tyler Cowen, The Lack of Major Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth (nytimes.com 2014) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/upshot/the-lack-of-major-wars-may-be-hurting-economic-growth.html?_r=0> accessed 29 June 2014. [28] Ibid. [29] The 15 countries with the highest military expenditure in 2013 (table). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (2011). [30] Ibid. Georgia OKeeffe | Artist Biography Georgia OKeeffe | Artist Biography Georgia OKeeffe Georgia O’Keeffe is one of many famous American painters. Her paintings of flowers, skulls, horns, and pelvises against a colorful New Mexico background are what made her known to the art world (Zophy 448). There are so many interesting facts about Georgia O’Keeffe, which include her education and teaching, her major works and where they are, the honors she has received, and her charcoal drawings. Georgia and her siblings attended the Number Five District school house. This school was called the Town Hall School. Georgia once stated, â€Å"My memories of childhood are quite pleasant, although I hated school. I left the local school when I was twelve, and was sent to a convent school in Madison, Wisconsin. It was the one year I ever really learned anything,† (Robinson 24). While Georgia attended the Sacred Heart School, she was in the advanced section of her class. â€Å"At the convent in Madison, I don’t even remember wanting to do anything I shouldn’t,† she said (31). In 1902, she was sent to the big public high school in Milwaukee. She didn’t pay much attention to the academics and did not like the art teacher either. In the art room of the high school, she realized that the world through which she walked was a never ending source for her work. Since the age of ten, she knew that painting would be her life long profession (Zophy 448). Georgia first taught at the Chatham Episcopal Institute in Williamsburg, Virginia. The six weeks at Chatham showed Georgia how to continue her art, live in the country and be able to live off her artworks. It showed her a life she might make for herself after all (Robinson, 79). Georgia was offered a teaching position at the University of Virginia. When she wrote to a friend in Texas to get a reference, her friend told her about an opening in Amarillo. She immediately took the position in Amarillo. â€Å"I was very excited about going to Texas, where Billy the Kid had been,† (Robinson, 86). â€Å"Later she went to West Texas State Normal College in the Texas panhandle. Her teaching methods were unofficial. Georgia was head of her own department. She taught the students the methods of design, drawing, costume design, interior decoration, and the teaching of drawing† (Robinson, 159). â€Å"One of Georgia’s many famous paintings is the Jack-In-The-Pulpit series. This series is a powerful celebration of the strong thrust of spring and of the dark secret tower enfolded in green. Due to the natural design of the Jack, the paintings have been viewed as sexual. Georgia did not like her paintings to be put into that category† (Robinson, 354). Another series of Georgia’s paintings is the â€Å"Corn† series. â€Å"She got the inspiration to paint this series while living with Albert, her husband, in the country. She loved working in her garden which is where the vision came to her. The design of the young plants while she was looking down onto them made an exciting and stirring statement to her† (Robinson, 269). The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum opened on July 17, 1997 in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was built for the purpose of preserving and presenting the life work of one of America’s famous artists, this museum now houses a permanent collecton of O’Keeffe’s art (â€Å"Georgia†). O’Keeffe Museum’s Director, Peter H. Hassrick, added, â€Å"O’Keeffe’s life and work are central to the Santa Fe mix. When people visit Santa Fe, they think of Georgia O’Keeffe, and an institution devoted to her artistic accomplishments, located in the region that inspired much of her work, is long overdue.† (â€Å"Georgia†). â€Å"There are more than eighty paintings, watercolors, drawings, pastels, and sculptures in the collection. One of the centerpieces of the collection is â€Å"Jimson Weed†, a large-scale flower painting, one of her favorite flowers, created in 1982. She liked to make more than one version of her paintings† (â€Å"Georgia†). â€Å" The museum’s long-range plans include the building of a study center on the museum grounds providing scholars, students, and the general public with reference materials on the life and art of Georgia O’Keeffe and her fellow artists† (Robinson, 423) â€Å"Another place that Georgia’s paintings can be seen is at the National Gallery of Art. â€Å"Secretary of Treasury, Andrew W. Mellon, first wrote of his interest in creating a national art museum in Washington, D.C. in the year of 1928. Later in 1937, Congress passed legislation to build the National Gallery of Art as an independent agency within the Smithsonian Institution. Four years later, the National Gallery of Art was dedicated by President Roosevelt in the evening of the seventeenth of March which was attended by over 8,000 guests† (â€Å"National†). â€Å"The mission of the National Gallery of Art is to serve the United States of America in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art, at the highest possible museum and scholarly standard,† (â€Å"Mission†). â€Å"The 291st Gallery in New York was the first gallery to recognize her talent. There were few galleries in New York that showed American art because each artist had their own special style† (â€Å"Younger†). It soon closed shortly after its opening in 1917 (â€Å"Younger†). Georgia had received many great honors throughout her life. Here are some of them: in 1935 she was recognized for excellence in her field by the New York League of Business and Professional Women. â€Å"Later, in May of 1938, she received her first honorary degree, a doctorate of fine arts, from the college of William and Mary, in Williamsburg† (Robinson 423). In 1939, she was chosen as one of the twelve most outstanding women of the past fifty years. â€Å"Her painting, Sunset-Long Island, was picked to represent New York at the World’s Fair† (Ahsby, 432). â€Å"In 1942, she was given a second honorary degree, this one from the University of Wisconsin. In 1946, Georgia received an honor from the Women’s National Press Club, as one of ten women who had reached distinction in their fields† (Ashby, 451). Thirty-one years later, on January 10, 1977, Georgia was given the Medal of Freedom, which is America’s highest civilian award and was awarded to her by president Gerald Ford (â€Å"The Award†). Georgia recieved another award from a President in April of 1985. This one was the National Medal of Arts, given to her by President Ronald Reagan. This is the highest award given to artists and art supporters by the United States Government. â€Å"With this medal, the President recognizes the extent of creative expression of America’s artists. This is a lifetime achievement award.† (â€Å"The Award†) Georgia was given this medal one year before her death (â€Å"National†). â€Å"In 1962, the American Academy of Arts and Letters elected her into membership. That same year she was honored with the Bandeis University Creative Arts Award. In 1966, she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences† (Robinson 507). â€Å"Georgia O’Keeffe also did many charcoal drawings. Her very first charcoal drawing was titled the â€Å"Special No. 15,† a very early drawing of the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. It sends a remarkable and significant sense of place. Then eighteen years later in 1934, she drew â€Å"Special No. 40.† She wrote, â€Å"This is from the sea – a shell – and paintings followed. Maybe not as good as this drawing.† Also in this group of Georgia’s drawings is a rare charcoal drawing of her friend, the African American painter Beauford Delaney from the 1940’s. In 1959, she made a charcoal drawing of a riverbed in a desert, which was inspired by sketches she made during one of her first airplane rides† (â€Å"Philidelphia†). â€Å"Another one, â€Å"Banana Flower No. 1,† was chosen by Albert to be shown in his gallery. Because of her high standards when drawing flowers, some people thought there was some hidden meaning in them† (â€Å"American†). â€Å"She also drew â€Å"Maybe a Kiss† in 1916, another of a series, because of a boyfriend who left â€Å"(Robinson 133). In 1934, she drew the â€Å"Eagle Claw and Bean Necklace (Robinson, 406). â€Å"All of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings and drawings had a reason to be drawn. The first reason is because she loved nature.† Many times, she said, â€Å"You know how you walk along a country road and notice a little tuft of grass, and the next time you pass that way you stop to see how it is getting along and how much it has grown?† (Robinson 233). Many of Georgia’s visions came from nature, she would tell people this by saying, â€Å"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment,† (Robinson, 33). She would walk through the pines and hear â€Å"singing woods,† (Robinson, 118). â€Å"On the prairie she noticed how dried bones and skulls had a beauty of their own. She liked the color, strength, and shapes of these.† (Robinson, 119) â€Å"Another reason for her charcoal drawings is because of her emotions. In the nineteenth century, and in earlier decades of the twentieth century, art critics enjoyed the sentimental and long discussions of the emotional qualities in the paintings they saw: sadness, tenderness, passion, rage – all four were great feelings to be kept in print† (Robinson, 178). â€Å"It seemed she did most of her charcoal drawings when she was sad or lonely† (Ashby, 133). She once told a friend that art was a force that passed through the soul (Robinson, 28). Summing up her life, Georgia moved to Abiquiu, New Mexico permanently after her husband died in 1946. She had visited there many times before and fell in love with the place. She rented a ranch and stayed there six months out of the year (Ashby 204). â€Å"Her style was known as modernism. Some of her most innovative works were in watercolors, pastel, and charcoal† (â€Å"O’Keeffe†). By the year of 1984, she was blind (Robinson 249). â€Å"She spent the rest of her life with a nurse. She died on March 6, 1986 at a hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was ninety-nine years old. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered into the â€Å"windy landscape† near her house at Ghost Ranch† ( Robinson, 550). This paper has some of the many interesting facts about Georgia O’Keeffe, including: her education and teaching, her major works and where they are, all of the honors she has received, and her charcoal drawings. Georgia O’Keeffe had a ve ry interesting life, this term paper only touched on part of it. Works Cited â€Å"American.† Arkansas Art Center. 2000. 20 Feb 2008. . Ashby, Ruth, and Deborah Gore Ohrn. â€Å"Georgia O’Keeffe.† Herstory: Women Who Changed the World. New York: Penguin Books, 1995: 202-204. â€Å"The Award.† Presidential Medal of Freedom. 2007. 20 Feb 2008. . â€Å"Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.† Traditional Fine Arts Online, Inc. 1997. 22 Feb 2008. . â€Å"Mission Statement.† National Gallery of Art. 2008. 21 Feb 2008. . â€Å"National Gallery of Art.† National Gallery of Art. 2008. 19 Feb 2008. . â€Å"The National Medal of Arts.† National Endowment for the Arts. 22 Feb 2008. . â€Å"O’Keeffe on Paper.† Traditional Fine Arts Online, Inc. 1996-2001. 22 Feb 2008. . Robinson, Roxana. Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life. New York: Harper Row, 1989: 24-550. â€Å"Special.† Philadelphia Museum of Art. 1996-1999. 20 Feb 2008. . â€Å"Younger American Artists.† National Gallery of Art. 2008. 21 Feb 2008. . Zophy, Angela Howard, and Frances M. Kavenik. â€Å"Georgia O’Keeffe.† Handbook of American Women’s History. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1990: 448. Bradford Assay: Standard Quantitative Method Determination Bradford Assay: Standard Quantitative Method Determination The Bradford assay is a standard quantitative method for the determination of protein concentrations. Bradford reagent used in the assay contains Coomassie Blue which produces a characteristic blue colour upon binding to proteins in solution (Bradford, Anal. Biochem. 72: 248, 1976).. Using a spectrophotometer the absorbance of the coloured product can be determined. Analysis of multiple samples may involve the use of a microtitre plate so that samples can be replicated and more reliable results obtained. The use of microtitre plates also automates the process so results are produced very quickly. Samples are pipetted into multi-well plates and the absorbance values measured using a multi-well microtitre plate reader equipped with a 595 nm filter. Part 1 Calibration Data for the Bradford Assay A calibration curve for the Bradford assay in the range 0.2- 1.0 mg/ml was obtained using three replicates for each concentration, using a microtitre plate. These data are shown in Figure 1 below. Linear Regression Analysis was performed and the equation of the line of best fit, y=mx +c, was produced (where y represents absorbance, x is the concentration of protein, m is the slope of the line of best fit and c is the intercept of the line on the y-axis). Q1. Describe the relationship between protein concentration and absorbance for the Bradford assay calibration curve. Q2. What is meant by a line of best fit? Q3. Comment on the value of R2 Using the values of the equation of the line of best fit, the absorbance value for each standard was used to calculate the actual concentration of protein in each replicate. The mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation ((mean/SD)x100%) were calculated and are presented in Table 1 below: Comment on the reproducibility of the assay in the range 0.2 to 1.0mg/ml of protein. Part 2 Investigation of the effects of detergents on the absorbance of a set concentration of protein, using the Bradford Assay. Background You are part of a research team that is looking at the different proteins involved in a cell signalling pathway which leads to the increased synthesis of a specific protein, P. One technique used in this work involves the use of cells kept under tissue culture conditions. These cells are treated with inhibitors, after which they are broken open by solubilisation of their membranes (cell lysis) and the soluble cell contents taken up into solution. Before analysis of the solution for levels of P, the total protein content of each lysate has to be determined. One of the reagents in the buffer solution that can be used to solubilise the cell membranes is a detergent. Detergents can cause interference in a protein assay. In an investigation using the Bradford assay, two detergents at different concentrations were exposed to a set concentration of protein (0.5mg/ml). These are sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and Triton X. The absorbance values were converted into protein concentrations using the equation of the line of best fit from the calibration curve and the data subjected to statistical analysis (One Way ANOVA). Mean data are compared in Tables 2 and 3, and Figures 2 and 3.

The Black Friday Takeover Essay -- Hollydays, Thanksgiving

â€Å"Mommy, why didn’t I get what I wanted for Thanksgiving this year?† This question seems absurd in a modern-day context, but in the future, it could be a question that is asked much too often. With holiday-themed advertisements in the media and holiday discount deals already visible on the shelves, it is no wonder that Black Friday and the holiday shopping season are creeping up closer and closer to Thanksgiving. Black Friday is a popular phrase used to describe the chaotic shopping frenzy that takes place every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. In recent years, the chaos of this so-called â€Å"holiday† has only escalated; consumers are trampling one another to get the best deals, and retailers are scrambling to keep up with their competitors. However, this year, many large department stores in the United States are opening their doors on Thanksgiving day in preparation for Black Friday (Zilman). This unprecedented event brings light to a star tling change in American society. Black Friday’s inevitable takeover of Thanksgiving will ruin the holiday itself and negatively impact traditional familial values because it will force Americans to embrace materialism in place of graciousness. Thanksgiving is a traditional American holiday dating back to colonial times. The commonly-known First Thanksgiving is a story that all American children learn. The Native Americans teach the Pilgrims to grow food to last the winter. At the end of the harvest, the Pilgrims and Native Americans come together to celebrate and give thanks for the friendship they have and for all of the blessings they have received. Modern Thanksgiving, although based off of the First Thanksgiving, has evolved considerably. It is traditionally celebrated by fam... ...Jennifer. â€Å"With Thanksgiving-Night Openings, Do Retailers Risk More Than Busting Doors?† Forbes.com. n.p., 14 Nov 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2013. Stein, Joel. â€Å"Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation.† Time.com. n.p., 20 May 2013. Web. 15 Nov 2013. Tozzi, John. â€Å"The Branding of Black Friday.† BusinessWeek.com. n.p., 20 Nov 2012. Web. 11 Nov 2013. Tuttle, Brad. â€Å"What’s on Tap for Black Friday.† TIMEBusiness.com. n.p., 20 Nov 2012. Web. 16 Nov 2013 Zilman, Claire. â€Å"Why Macy’s relented to an early Thanksgiving opening.† Fortune.com. n.p. 17 Oct 2013. Web. 7 November 2013. â€Å"Black Friday Ads Leaking Earlier Than Ever Before on FatWallet.† PRNewswire.com. n.p., 30 Oct 2013. Web. 13 Nov 2013. â€Å"Restaurant Chains Open Thanksgiving Day.† RestaurantNews.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. â€Å"10 Things You Didn’t Know About Black Friday.† usnews.com. n.p., 2009. Web. 10 Nov 2013.

One Day at Work Essay -- Descriptive Writing Examples

One Day at Work Every day, I followed the same old routine. Get up, eat breakfast, find my work vest, get dressed, leave. White polo shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Little red PharMor vest. Every single day. No variation, no chance for change or creativity. When working somewhere as mundane as a grocery store, you almost pray that something exciting happens to you during the day. But never does a cashier hope to encounter a tremendously irascible customer, the way that one summer day turned out for me. I followed my humdrum routine, arriving for work on time, punching in, and returning to the front to begin my shift. The store was mostly calm, except for the constant beeping of the registers, the bickering of elderly couples, and the hum of activity swirling about the manager's desk. In other words, there was nothing out of the ordinary at all at good old PharMor. I was used to the noise, to the persnickety comments from customers, and to our sarcastic managers. Just when I thought I'd heard every possible complaint, seen every possible accident - it got worse. ...

Karl Marx and His View on Religion Essay -- Marx Religion Religious Es

Karl Marx and His View on Religion Karl Marx, the founder and main advocator of his Marxist philosophy, wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. This document was the basis for all of his thoughts and ideas of the world at the time being. One of the major topics that he spoken on was how religion affected the society and how it was an institution that was not actually necessary to exist. Marxist VS Religion Marx saw religion as an evil that existed in society and that it brought down all the people that believed in that religion. Marx said that, ?It [religion] is the opium of the people,?[1] and in saying this, Marx meant that religion was contagious on society. Once the society had a taste for the religion, they became totally engulfed it in, and then they do not want to get out of that way of live because they see it as a good way to live. Then even if people wanted to get out of the religion it was hard to get out because the whole society had already been infected by the ?opium.? With the idea of equality of all people no matter what race or previous financial situation, the concept of a god was in complete opposition of the Marxist philosophy. ?Marx?s idea of God as a projection of alienated human beings whereby God becomes in rich proportion as humanity becomes poor.?[2] Marx is criticizing society and their overall views of how religion should be treated. The society is letting God become the main focus of their lives, and since they are giving almost all their attention to God, they are becoming oblivious of the other members of the society and the relationships between each other. As society was becoming distracted by ... ...what they have in the natural life on earth. With everyone living under the regulations of Marx?s ?religion? no one would have to have another structure of life. Works Cited: 1. David McLellan, Marxism and Religion: a description and assessment of the Marxist critique of Christianity (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 13. 2. McLellan, 5. 3. McLellan, 167. 4. Rev. John J. Ming, S.J., The Characteristics and the Religion of Modern Socialism, 2nd ed. (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1908), 202. 5. Ming, 9 6. Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong, Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975), 13. 7. Ming, 224. 8. Bociurkiw and Strong, 10. 9. ?Marxism,? 2000, (28 October 2001), 1. 10. McLellan, 159.

An Hour To Live, An Hour To Love’s Summary Essay

â€Å"An Hour to Live, an Hour to Love† was written based on a true story of the best gift ever given. Richard Carlson wrote the letter ‘an hour to live’ to his wife, Kristine Carlson as their 18th anniversary gift. Three years letter, Richard passed away and Kristine wrote a reply ‘an hour to love’ as a tribute to the authenticity of Richard’s wisdom. Richard mostly talked about his life throughout his marriage but it portrays reality as I read the book. He took Stephen Levine’s quote as an inspiration which says, â€Å"If you had an hour to live and could make just one phone call, who would it be to, what would you say†¦ and why are you waiting?† We all will eventually die, so he said in life we might want to jump ahead and look back to have a clearer view and precious what we have now when there is still plenty of time. If he has an hour to live, he would have called his life partner, Kris. Kristine helped him not to take himself or life very seriously. She changed Richard’s life while in college. He was a college tennis player but he plays to please the people who saw the potential in him. The problem is his heart was not into tennis, not anymore at least. So, it was Kristine who taught him to listen to his heart and encouraged him to make the big turning point in his life by quitting tennis. To have left one hour to live, Richard wishes he would already say goodbye to his friends and family. He would love to tell Kris how much he loves her for she has been there all along during his highest highs and lowest lows. He loves how Kristine will help remind him when he forgot to listen. He admires Kristine for how she showers love on their family and being incredibly kind to other people too. He wonders Kristine’s ability to never sweat the small stuffs. For Richard, Kristine’s love is unconditional as during his lowest lows in life when he was struggling from his writing career and wishes things he shouldn’t have but Kristine took it all very calmly. All she did was listened to him without judging and showed him that they are still blessed with healthy children and that’s all that matters. When he was grieving upon his grandma’s death, Kristine calmed him down just by being there for him. He thought Kristine’s humanity is amazing as when Richard has always sweated over all the small stuffs, she taught him that â€Å"we always teach best what we most need to learn.† If he could live his life again, he would like to spend less time talking and more time listening. Then, he would spend far less energy wanting things he didn’t have, and far more energy enjoying what  he already has. Moreover, if he could live his life over again, he would rarely if ever be in such a hurry and let happiness catches up to him instead of chasing down happiness. And for him, that’s what Kristine has always been able to do, which is to be present with him. He also would never put off so easily and so often what he wanted to do. Finally, if he is given the chance to live his life over, he wishes to be more loving to Kris and to everyone else and expect far le ss in return. And why are you waiting? He mentioned his girl who says, â€Å"Mommy I get another of these?† Which means, I get another day to live? It gives Richard goose bumps every time he heard that but he admires a child’s gratitude towards life. Richard is not saying that neither obligations and responsible in life is not important, nor your goals, ambitions, dreams and obstacles to overcome but he is teaching us to start appreciating things that make us happy and content, things we will talk about during our final hour of life. He wanted people to realize before it’s too late.

Fayol’s Principles Of Management In Mcdonalds Essay

How Far Henri Fayols Principle Of Management Is Relevant With Contemporary Public Administration stepped down as director, he published his â€Å"14 Principles of Management† in the book â€Å"Administration Industrielle et Generale.† Fayol also created a list of the six†¦ Premium Principles Of Management aspects of Egyptian life were highly organized. There were much inefficiency, Principles of Management MGT503 VU  © Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 2†¦ Premium Principles Of Management of corporate governance, many of whom are now very actual and applicable. FAYOLS PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT First authority and responsibility are linked†¦ Premium Principles Of Management  new ideas, imagination and visions to the managers and the organisation. . Guide to research. Fayol’s principles of Management. . Division of work . Authority†¦ Premium Principles Of Management for any job, he should also have the concerned authority. Fayol’s principle  of management in this regard is that an efficient manager makes best possible use of his†¦ Premium Principles Of Management course presents the principles of management, emphasizing managerial functions and behavioural concepts and its practical applications in the organsation. Goals†¦ Premium Principles Of Management for any job, he should also have the concerned authority. Fayol’s principle of management in this regard is that an efficient manager makes best possible use of his†¦

Chef Satisfaction

African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(18), pp. 4118-4134, 18 December, 2010 Available online at http://www. academicjournals. org/AJBM ISSN 1993-8233  ©2010 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Drivers of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance Ming-Chun Tsai1, Ching-Chan Cheng2* and Ya-Yuan Chang3 Department of Business Administration, Chung Hua University, No. 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Road, Hsinchu City, Taiwan 300, Republic of China. 2 Department of Food and Beverage Management, Taipei College of Maritime Technology, No. 212, Sec. , Yen Ping N, Taipei City, Taiwan 111, Republic of China. 3 Department of Business Administration, National Chung Hsing University, No. 250, Kuo Kuang Road. , Taichung City, Taiwan 402, Republic of China. Accepted 18 November, 2010 1 This study aims to combine empowerment, internal marketing, leadership and job stress to propose an integrated model of hospitality industry employees ’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance. The subjects of this study were hospitality industry employees from Taipei City, and the structural equation modeling was adopted to validate path relationships in integrated model.The findings showed that employees’ job satisfaction directly and positively influences organizational commitment, but does not directly influence job performance. Employees’ job satisfaction enhances job performance only through organizational commitment. Internal marketing, empowerment and leadership also positively influence job satisfaction. Empowerment and leadership enhance employees’ organizational commitment. Internal job stress negatively influences employees’ job satisfaction and external job stress enhances employees’ job performance.According to the findings, this paper realized the main factors which influence hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational comm itment and job performance, which can function as criteria for human resource management in the hospitality industry. Key words: Hospitality industry, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance. INTRODUCTION With the change of the industrial structure in recent years, the output value of the service industry has become more than 70% of the GDP in most advanced countries (CIA, 2009). Thus, the service industry plays a significant role in national economic development.In 2008, as the world encountered a financial tsunami, the governments of different countries selected potential service industries and supported them with resources, in order to energize economic development. The hospitality industry is a typical service industry, and it is critical service industry around the world. In Taiwan, the scale of the hospitality industry has been increasing year by year. According to the Statistics Department, Ministry of Economic Affairs, in 2001 the business volume of the hospitality industry in Taiwan was NTD 261. 3 billion.In 2006 it passed NTD 300 billion and in 2009 it reached NTD 321. 7 billion. However, the hospitality industry refers to labor services and relies on manpower in areas such as production, delivery and restaurant service. Thus, the hospitality industry is mainly based on services. As mentioned in Bitner’s (1995) framework of the service marketing triangle, service providers play a critical role in the service industries. In service industry management, regarding the importance of employees, Heskett et al. (1994) proposed the framework of service profit chain.In the service profit chain, there are critical linkages among internal service *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email  protected] tcmt. edu. tw. Tel: +886-2-28102292 ext. 5009. Fax: +886-2-2810-6688. Tsai et al. 4119 quality, employee satisfaction/productivity, the value of services provided to the customer, customer satisfaction and company’s profits. This cha in shows that internal service quality can enhance employee satisfaction, which will enhance employee productivity and further result in external service value and enhanced customer satisfaction. Finally, the company can make a profit (Zeithaml et al. , 2009).Therefore, satisfied employees make satisfied customers. Service personnel satisfaction significantly influences organizational commitment and job performance on customer satisfaction and corporate operational performance (Ladkin, 2002; Dunlap et al. , 1988; Tansuhaj et al. , 1988; Chowdhary, 2003; Yang and Chen, 2010). How to enhance service personnel satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance is a critical issue in service industry management. In past research on employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, many scholars (Babin and Boles, 1998; Bernhardt et al. 2000; Van Scotter, 2000; Koys, 2003; Testa, 2001) have validated that employees’ job satisfaction positively influence s job performance and organizational commitment. In studies on factors of employees’ job satisfaction, job performance and organizational commitment, the service profit chain proposed by Heskett et al. (1994) and service marketing management model indicated by Tansuhaj et al. (1988) on overall service industry both demonstrated that management's internal marketing activities produce job satisfaction and commitment to the organization.In addition, many studies have found close relationships between leadership, employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance (Billingsley and Cross, 1992; Yammarino and Dubinsky, 1994; Burton et al. , 2002; Avolio et al. , 2004; Chen and Silverthorne, 2005). The above studies have mainly focused on the educational service industry, retail industry, manufacturing service industry, medical service industry and governmental institutions, but have not conducted indepth explorations on the hospitality service industry.Hopfl (1994) indicated that in the service delivery, firstline employees must be empowered to some degree in order to cope with customers’ special demands. Thus, job empowerment can be treated as important management to encourage first-line service personnel and immediately solve customers’ differential demands. Avolio et al. (2004), Caykoylu et al. (2007) and Chen et al. (2008) respectively conducted empirical studies on medical personnel and employees of the telecommunication industry, banking industry and postal industry, and found that empowerment positively influences employee satisfaction and organizational commitment.One issue worthy of further study is the extent of how empowerment positively influences hospitality industry employee satisfaction and organizational commitment. In addition, first-line employees face different customer demands and supervisor requirements, therefore job stress is a critical issue for them. Jamal (1990) and Jex (1998) suggested that reducing em ployees’ job stress could enhance employees’ job satisfaction and job performance. Williams and Cooper (2002) and Ouyang (2009) indicated that proper job stress would enhance employees’ job performance.In the hospitality industry, the influence of job stress from external customers and internal supervisors on employees’ job satisfaction and job performance is an issue worthy of further exploration. Based on the above, internal marketing, leadership, empowerment and job stress are possible factors of service industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, and these factors are validated in various service industries.However, the outcomes in different service industries are not the same. For the hospitality industry, it is important to validate and analyze the influences of the above factors on employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance. Thus, this study intended to combine i nternal marketing, leadership, empowerment and job stress and proposed an integrated model of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance.Hospitality industry employees in Taipei City were treated as the subjects, and the researcher probed into factors of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance in order to function as criteria for management in the hospitality industry. LITERATURE REVIEW Job satisfaction The term â€Å"job satisfaction† was proposed by Hoppock (1935) who suggested that job satisfaction means employees’ emotions and attitude toward their jobs, and is their subjective reaction toward their jobs.The definition of job satisfaction is generalized into three categories: (1) Definition of generality: Job satisfaction refers to the affective reaction to one’s job as the most (Ozer and Gunluk, 2010). Job satisfaction, which is one of the most important necessities for an individual to be successful, happy and productive, is a feeling of satisfaction, that is, an outcome of the perception of what the job provides for an individual (Ay and Av aro lu, 2010); (2) Definition of difference: This refers to the degree of satisfaction and the difference between ndividual actual returns and required returns. For instance, Porter and Lawler (1968) suggested that the degree of satisfaction depends on the difference between a person’s actual returns and expected returns; (3) Definition of criterion framework: Peoples' subjective perception and interpretation on objective traits of organizations or jobs would be influenced by individual criterion framework. According to Smith et al. (1969), job satisfaction is the outcome after a person interprets the job traits according 4120 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. o the criterion framework. The influence of certain work situations on job satisfaction is related to many factors, such as comparisons between good and bad jobs, comparisons with others, personal competency and past experience, etc. Job performance Kane and Lawler (1976) suggested that job performance refers to the record of the results when employees have practiced a job for a certain period of time. According to Schermerhorn (1989), job performance refers to the quality and quantity accomplished by individuals or groups after fulfilling a task.After a certain period of time, measurements of employees’ job performance could serve as criterion for promotions, wage adjustments, rewards, punishments and evaluations. Cascio (2006) suggested that managers must specifically define performance to allow the teams or employees to recognize the organizational expectations in order to fulfill the organizational goals. In other words, managers must set concrete goals, trace the fulfillment degree and evaluate the teams’ or employees’ performance.Van Scotter and Motowidlo (1996) suggested that employees with a high degree of job enthusiasm will demonstrate extra effort and devotion, and will actively seek out solutions to problems at work in order to enhance their job performance. Robbins (1998) divided the measurement of job performance into job result, job behavior and personal traits. Lee et al. (1999) divided job performance into efficiency, efficacy and quality. Efficiency refers to the employees’ output rate and is the ability to accomplish tasks before deadline.Efficacy refers to the employees’ goal accomplishment rate and proposals. Quality refers to the employees’ error rate and complaint rate, supervisor satisfaction, customer satisfaction and colleague satisfaction. This study suggested that in the application of this construct to measure hospitality industry employees’ job performance, efficiency should refer to the employees’ speed in customer service, efficacy should mean the accomplishment of tasks assigned by customers, and quality should mean the employees’ performance in customer service.As to measurement, Shore and Thornton (1986) indicated that self-evaluation allows individuals to participate in performance evaluation and serves as a criterion. Based on the above, according to the views of Lee et al. (1999), this study divided job performance into efficiency, efficacy and quality, and measured hospitality industry employees’ job performance using employee self-evaluation. Smith et al. (1969) proposed the Job Description Index (JDI) to measure job satisfaction, with the constructs including wage, promotion, job, supervisors and colleagues.Black and Gregersen (1997) found a positive correlation between job satisfaction and job performance. Organ (1990) suggested that when employees are satisfied with their work, they are willing to sacrifice themselves and devote to their organization. Organizational commitment From the perspective of attitude, Porter et al. (1974) indicated that o rganizational commitment is a person’s active and positive intention to identify with and internalize organizational goals and value.According to Reyes and Pounder (1990), organizational commitment is the strong belief and intention to identify with organizational value, devote to and stay with the organization. Mathews and Shepherd (2002) suggested that organizational commitment refers to workers’ attitude, behavior and connection between individuals and the organization. Guest (1995) indicated that organizational commitment is at the core of human resource management. It transforms traditional manpower management into the core of human resources.Organizational members’ attitude or intentions particularly indicate the importance of employees’ organizational commitment. Dee et al. (2006) suggested that organizational commitment is a person’s intention to devote to and be loyal to the organization. Lambert et al. (2006) suggested that organizational commitment is the structural phenomenon of trading between individuals and organizations. It increases with time, but it does not lead to a transferable investment outcome. Thus, in theoretical study and practical use, scholars have valued organizational commitment in human resource management.In recent years, many scholars have probed into organizational commitment from the view of Porter et al. (1974). Thus, this study also followed the above view and divided organizational commitment into value commitment, effort commitment and retention commitment. This study further treated these three constructs as criteria to measure hospitality industry employees' organizational commitment. Definitions of these constructs are thus shown: (1) Value commitment: a strong belief and identification with organizational goals and values. 2) Effort commitment: the intention to devote more to the organization. (3) Retention commitment: a strong intention to continue being part of the organization. I nternal marketing Internal Marketing (IM) is the process of handling staff as internal customers and projects as internal products that satisfy the needs and desires of the customers and adhere to the company’s goals (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991). Rafiq and Ahmed (1993) suggest that internal marketing involves â€Å"a planned effort to overcome organizational resistance to change and to align, motivate Tsai et al. 4121 nd integrate employees towards the effective implementation of corporate and functional strategies†. Joseph (1996) suggested that internal marketing is can be applied to marketing and human resource management, combining theoretical techniques and principles in order to encourage, recruit and manage all employees in the organization and constantly improve external customer service and mutual services. In addition, Ahmed et al. (2003) defined internal marketing as the employees’ evaluation of the reward system, internal communication, training and development of the company.Internal marketing empirical research in the service sector has proven that internal marketing has influenced on internal customers (that is, employees) satisfactions. Berry and Parasuraman (1991) suggested that the advantages of internal marketing implementation in organizations are as follows: (1) To acquire and keep excellent talent; (2) to provide a common vision so that employees have job purpose and meaning; (3) to give employees the ability and knowledge to accomplish the work; (4) to encourage employees to share the results of teamwork; (5) to create job designs be based on the findings of marketing studies.The aforementioned views reveal that corporate implementation of internal marketing allows employees to enhance service quality, which increases the production and profits of the companies. The implementation of internal marketing in the organizations results in an internal service culture, raises service consciousness and increases profits (Par asuraman et al. , 1985). Based on the views of these scholars, internal marketing is critical for organizations and influences external marketing to further enhance customer satisfaction.According to the these definitions and based on the views of Rafiq and Ahmed (1993) and Ahmed et al. (2003), this study treated employee evaluations of reward systems, internal communication, and training and development of companies as criterion for measuring internal marketing of the hospitality industry. Leadership Leadership refers the process of influencing the team to accomplish the goals (Robbins and Coulter, 2005). Leaders are key success factors of an organization (Bass, 1985; Daft, 2002).Skillful leaders recognize and use the interpersonal relationships of the team and strengthen the members’ loyalty and morale. Effective leaders must learn skills such as patiently sharing information, trusting others and recognizing the timing of interventions (Steckler and Fondas, 1995). In recent years, numerous scholars have tried to discuss leadership from new perspectives. New studies of leadership theory have particularly stressed the influences of demands between leaders and subordinates, the interaction of personality traits and situational factors on leadership (Bargal and Schmid, 1989).Corporate leaders must select a proper leadership according to their subordinates’ different demands for supervision, in order to enhance employee satisfaction and fulfill expected goals. Bass and Avolio (1997) divided leadership into transformational leadership and transactional leadership. In transformational leadership, subordinates trust, respect and are loyal to their leaders. Leaders can develop their subordinates’ potential and enhance their confidence by changing their values and beliefs in order to increase their organizational commitment, intention and motivation to create exceptional outcomes.Transformational leadership can be divided into ideal traits, ideal behavior, the encouragement of inspiration, and the stimulation of wisdom and individual care. In addition, transactional leadership means leaders and members remain in the process of negotiation and mutual benefit instead of a persistent one-purpose relationship. Social exchange theory is treated as the theoretical base. When subordinates act according to their leaders’ expectations, they will have returns with a specific value. Transactional leadership can be divided into contingent rewards, and active and passive exceptional management.Most quantitative studies on leadership have created questionnaires using the MLQ scale designed by Bass and Avolio (1997). The MLQ scale includes two constructs (transformational leadership and transactional leadership). This study also designed a leadership questionnaire for the hospitality industry according to the MLQ scale. Empowerment Empowerment signals a transition away from traditional development that confined people’s role to that of passive recipients, effectively rendering them dependent on handouts in the form of foreign aid (O’Gorman, 1995).Bowen and Lawler III (1992) define empowerment as sharing with frontline employees four organizational ingredients: (1) Information about the organization's performance; (2) rewards based on the organization's performance; (3) knowledge about contributing to organizational performance; (4) power to make decisions that influence organizational direction and performance. Murat and Thomas (2003) suggested that empowerment does not simply refer to telling employees that they are empowered, but aims to allow the employees to recognize what power has been authorized.Boudrias et al. (2004) suggested that in managerial circles, empowerment application includes two types: (1) Empowering the responsibility of decision-making to subordinates while emphasizing rich work environments 4122 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. and diverse authority, information, resources and support, and providing the opportunity to learn in order to improve performance; (2) psychological empowerment, which refers to employees’ experiences of empowerment that are inferred as a mediating variable of empowerment and expected results.According to Sherman (1996), empowerment acknowledges that employees have the power to change in order to encourage employees to increase their competency. Kanter (1993) suggested that empowerment can keep employees from feeling helpless. Organizations could thus reduce negative effects such as low morale. The most significant effect of empowerment is to enhance employees’ abilities and self-efficacy (Conger and Kanungo, 1988).Bowen and Lawler III (1992) suggested the advantages of empowerment for organizations below: (1) To rapidly respond to customer demands and questions; (2) a high degree of employees’ job satisfaction; (3) positive interactions with consumers; (4) employees with creative thoughts; (5) the creation of loyal cu stomers. About the definition of psychological empowerment, Spreitzer (1995) defines this concept as the psychological state that employees must experience for managerial empowerment interventions to be successful.Spreitzer's (1995) measure of empowerment was used to define psychological empowerment and comprises four components: Self-determination, competence, impact, and meaning. (1) Self-determination reflects autonomy in the choices and decisions an individual can make regarding work allocations. (2) Competence refers to self-efficacy specific to work or the task—the confidence that one can perform well within a particular work domain. (3) Impact is the degree to which an individual can influence strategic, informational, or administrative decisions made at the organizational level. 4) Meaning involves the fit between a person’s values and beliefs and work role requirements. Job stress Blau (1981) defined stress as the incompatibility between a person’s comp etency and environment. Job stress extends upon the general definition of stress and is a kind of conceptual process that implies a person’s cognition and reaction to danger or threats (Fleming et al. , 1984). Pearson and Moomaw (2005) suggested that job stress is caused by work situations and people will have unpleasant feelings such as anger, tension, frustration, worry, depression and anxiety. Cooper et al. 1988) attributed job stress to factors intrinsic to the job, management's role, relationships with others, career and achievement, organizational structure, home and work. The sources of stress influence job performance. When an employee can no longer handle the stress, he will fail in his work (Jamal, 1990). Blau (1994) suggests that stress source can divided into external stressors and internal stressors. In addition, stress in the workplace frequently hits you with a double whammy of two-way pressures that come from a combination of both internal and external stresso rs (Stress management tips, 2010).Matteson and Iancevich (1982) suggested that proper stress results in sense of challenge or satisfaction for people. Without such stress, a person will lack motivation and originality. In past research on the influence of stress on job performance, the Yerkes-Dodson principle indicated a reverse U relationship between job stress and job performance (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908). In other words, an increase in work stress will enhance job performance. However, after work stress reaches a certain degree, the increase will reduce job performance. An Empirical study by Huber (1981) also reached a similar finding.However, excessive job stress will increase employee turnover rate (Parasuraman and Alutto, 1984) and further enhance the personnel and training costs of firms. Based on the view of Blau (1994) and characteristics of the hospitality industry, this study divided employees’ job stress in the hospitality industry into external pressure and inter nal stress thus: (1) Organizational external stress: an excessive workload, business stress and load. (2) Organizational internal stress: a lack of participation in job decision-making, without supervisory support, health advantages after changing jobs, anxiety, tension, etc.METHODOLOGY Construction of theoretical model Testa (2001) suggested that job satisfaction is the antecedent variable of organizational commitment and there is positive correlation. The research of Slattery and Selvarajan (2005) indicated that job satisfaction positively influences organizational commitment. In addition, Babin and Boles (1998) treated hospitality service personnel as subjects, and found a positive correlation between job satisfaction and job performance. In other service industries, it has been proved that there is a positive relationship between employees’ job satisfaction and job performance (Chen and Silverthorne, 2005).In addition, Mowday et al. (1982) pointed out that organizational commitment positively influences employees’ job performance. Powell (2000) also validated that organizational commitment positively influences employees’ job performance. Based on the above, the hypotheses are proposed as follows: H1: Job satisfaction positively influences organizational commitment. H2: Job satisfaction positively influences job performance. H3: Organizational commitment positively influences job performance. Regarding the exogenous variables of job satisfaction, Tsai et al. 4123 rganizational commitment and job performance, the service profit chain proposed by Heskett et al. (1994) argued that management’s internal marketing activities produce job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. Tansuhaj et al. (1988), Heskett et al. (1994) and Rafiq and Ahmed (2000) indicated that internal marketing positively influences employees’ job satisfaction, and internal marketing further results in better employees’ customer-oriented beh avior (Arnett et al. , 2002). In addition, corporate implementation of internal marketing positively influences employees’ organizational commitment (Tansuhaj et al. 1991; Heskett et al. , 1994; Chang and Chang, 2007). Based on the above, the hypotheses are proposed as follows: H4: Internal marketing positively influences job satisfaction. H5: Internal marketing positively influences organizational commitment. Besides internal marketing, Morris and Sherman (1981) suggested that leadership can integrate team relationships at work in order to enhance organizational commitment. Leaders’ leadership and support positively influences the employees’ organizational commitment (Billingsley and Cross, 1992; Burton et al. , 2002).The research of Bass (1985) and Hughes and Avey (2009) showed that transformational leadership significantly and positively influences job satisfaction and employee performance. The study of Dubinsky (1994) indicated that leadership (transactional leadership and transformational leadership) positively influences employees’ job satisfaction. The research of Chen and Silverthorne (2005) found a positive correlation between the leaders’ leadership score and employees’ job satisfaction. Based on the above, the hypotheses are proposed as follows: H6: Leadership positively influences organizational commitment.H7: leadership positively influences job satisfaction. H8: leadership positively influences job performance. In addition to internal marketing and leadership, Bowen and Lawler III (1992) suggested that empowerment can enhance employees’ job satisfaction. According to Blanchard et al. (1996), the empowered teams can increase job satisfaction and employees’ identification with their jobs. Based on the research of Fulford and Enz (1995), and Caykoylu et al. (2007), service industry employees’ cognition of empowerment positively influences job satisfaction.Wilson and Laschinger (1994), Mc Dermott et al. (1996), Avolio et al. (2004) and Chen et al. (2008) found that there is a positive correlation between empowerment and employees’ organizational commitment. Lee et al. (2006) studied hotel employees and found that empowerment has a significant effect on organizational commitment. Based on the above, this study developed the following two hypotheses: H9: Empowerment positively influences job satisfaction. H10: Empowerment positively influences organizational commitment. Finally, the studies of Jamal (1990), Borg and Riding (1993), Chiu et al. 2005) and Chen and Silverthorne (2005) pointed out that there is a significant and negative correlation between employees’ job stress and job satisfaction. In addition, Jex (1998) suggested that a reduction of employees’ job stress will increase their job performance. Mughal et al. (1996) argued that anxiety caused by job stress is the main factor of job performance. However, according to the Yerkes-Dodson pri nciple, there is a reverse U nonlinear relationship between job stress and job performance (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908; Huber, 1981).In addition, there can be a positive or negative relationship between job stress and job performance. Williams and Cooper (2002) and Ouyang (2009) also suggested that proper job stress can enhance employees’ job performance. However, according to the view of Blau (1994), job stress can be divided into external and internal job stress. Therefore, according to the above theory, this study divided job stress into internal and external job stress and constructed the following two hypotheses: H11: Job stress negatively influences job satisfaction.H11-1: External job stress negatively influences job satisfaction. H11-2: Internal job stress negatively influences job satisfaction. H12: Job stress significantly influences job performance. H12-1: External job stress significantly influences job performance. H12-2: Internal job stress significantly influences job performance. From H1 to H12, this study constructed an integrated model of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, as shown in Figure 1. Data collection Taipei City is the largest international city in Taiwan, and it has numerous international chain hotels.This study treated employees of well-known hotels and hospitality companies in Taipei City as its subjects. From February 1 to April 15, 2010, the researcher targeted 13 well-known hospitality companies (including Grand Hyatt, The Westin Taipei, Howard Hotel, Grand Formosa Regent, Royal Hotel, K-Hotel, The Grand Hotel, Caesar Park Hotel, Landis Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, La Marche, Wang Steak and Tasty) and conducted a survey on their employees using stratified sampling. There were 50 questionnaires distributed to each hotel or restaurant.A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed with 604 valid returns; the valid return rate was 92. 92%. Measurement The questionnaire content included job performanc e, job satisfaction, leadership (transformational and transactional), internal marketing, organizational commitment, empowerment and job stress (external and internal stress). The operational definitions of the construct items are shown in Table 1. This study conducted the survey using a closed questionnaire, and the participants were anonymous.A five-point Likert scale from â€Å"strongly disagree† to â€Å"strongly agree† was used. According to result of 50 pretest questionnaires, Cronbach’s of the constructs were above 0. 7, indicating a high degree of consistency in the constructs of the questionnaire. Statistical methods The study first applied SPSS version 12. 0 to process the descriptive statistic analysis, reliability analysis and related analysis on the effective questionnaires, and understand the sample structure and the internal consistency and relation between various variables.Second, this study assessed the properties of measurement scales for conv ergent validity and discriminant validity, and constructed composite reliability by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using maximum likelihood to estimate parameters. Finally, it applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to verify the path relationship of the research model, and applied LISREL 8. 70 software as the SEM analysis tool. RESULTS Profile of the respondents This study targeted hospitality industry employees in Taipei 4124 Afr. J. Bus. Manage.External job stress Internal job stress Empowerment Job satisfaction Job performance Internal marketing Organizational commitment Leadership Figure 1. Research framework. Taipei, Taiwan as subjects and successfully collected 604 valid questionnaires. Subsequently, the study applied the frequency distribution table to show the sample characteristics of this study. The sample structure attribute distribution is shown in Table 2. As shown in Table 2, there are more female employees (53. 6%) and most of the subjects are 21 to 30 years o ld (49. %), followed by below 20 years old (42. 1%). Most of the subjects have a college degree or above (81. 0%), and most have worked for 1 to 5 years (52. 5%). In addition, most of the subjects are part-time employees (70. 2%). The structure of the samples is similar to the structure of the human resources of the hospitality industry in Taiwan as investigated by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan (2009). In the hospitality industry, most employees have worked for 1 to 5 ears, are young, and have a senior high school, vocational school or college educational level. Descriptive statistics, reliability and validity analysis Analysis of descriptive statistics According to Table 3, the employees’ perceived internal marketing degree was only slightly higher than ordinary (median = 3). As to the leadership, the transformational leadership degree was higher and the transactional leadership degree was lower. The employees’ perceived competency empowerment was higher and their decisionmaking empowerment was lower.The employees’ external job stress was higher and internal job stress was lower. The employees’ job satisfaction with the perceived relationship with colleagues was higher, and their satisfaction with wages, welfare, promotions and growth was significantly lower. As to organizational commitment, the effort commitment was higher whereas retention commitment was lower. As to job performance, hospitality industry employees’ job performance with their perceived efficiency and efficacy was higher but their job quality was lower.Reliability and validity analyses In accordance with accepted practice (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988; Fornell and Larcker, 1981), this study assessed the properties of measurement scales for convergent validity and discriminant validity, and construct Composite Reliability (CR) (that is, construct reliability). Table 3 lists the measurement items of the construct sc ales, standardized coefficient loadings of the confirmatory factor analysis results, construct CR and AVE (Average Variance Extracted) for each multi-item construct in our research model.The measurement model of this study provided a good overall fit with the 2 data (GFI and AGFI 0. 85, CFI, NFI and NNFI;0. 9, ? / d. f ;3, RMR and RMSEA 0. 08). Composite reliability for all constructs in our research model were more than 0. 7, respectively. In general, the measurement scales used in this study were found to be reliable. The AVE for all constructs were more than 0. 5, respectively, all Tsai et al. 4125 Table 1. Operational definitions. Constructs Internal marketing Definitions Employees’ evaluation on reward system, internal communication, training and development.Leadership is divided into transformational and transactional leadership and are defined thus: (1)Transformational leadership: In order to meet employees’ demands, leaders care and encourage employees, includi ng ideal traits, ideal behavior, encouragement of inspiration, stimulation of wisdom and individual care. (2) Transactional leadership: the relationship between leaders and subordinates is based on exchange, mutual benefit, fairness degree of contribution and return, including contingent rewards and active and passive exceptional management. Managers empower employees to make daily decisions.It is the degree of employees’ perceived empowerment, including meaning, ability, self-decision-making and influence. Incompatibility between individual ability and environment. It includes external job stress (such as workload, performance stress and job objective loads) and internal job stress (including lack of participation in job decision-making, without supervisory support, health advantages after changing jobs and tension). A person identifies with the organizational goals and values and internalizes them to show positive and active intention, including effort commitment, value com mitment and retention commitment.Degrees (including efficiency, efficacy and quality) of employees’ accomplishment of organizational goals. Source Rafiq and Ahmed (1993) Ahmed et al. (2003) Leadership Bass and Avolio (1997) Empowerment Spreitzer (1995) Job stress Blau (1994) Organizational commitment Porter et al. (1974), Brooke et al. (1988) Borman and Motowidlo (1993); Shore and Thornton III (1986) Lee et al. (1999) Job performance exceeding the benchmark of 0. 50 for convergent validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).Discriminant validity is established if the AVE is larger than the Squared Multiple Correlation (SMC) coefficients between constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Our results demonstrate that the AVE values for all constructs were more than SMC coefficients in Table 4. This result indicates sufficient discriminant validity for all constructs in this study. Analysis and hypothesis testing Path analysis of research model According to the reliability and validity an alysis above, the model of this study involved convergent validity, discriminant validity and internal consistency.Thus, this study validated the path relationships of the model using SEM. First of all, according to model fit analysis, the fit measures were acceptable (GFI, AGFI ; 0. 85, CFI, NFI, IFI 2 ; 0. 9, RMR and RMSEA; 0. 08 and ? /d. f ; 3). In 2 the research model, the R of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance were respectively 0. 65, 0. 75 and 0. 72, which were all above 60%. Thus, the overall research model revealed the relative explained power. Regarding the causal relationships among latent variables of 4126 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. Table 2.Profile of the respondents (n=604). Background variable Gender Male Female Age Below 20 years old 21 – 30 years old 31 years old Educational level Below senior high and vocational school Above college Frequency Percentage Background variable Seniority 280 46. 4 Below 1 year 324 53. 6 1 – 5 years A bove 6 years 254 300 50 42. 1 49. 7 8. 3 Position High and medium level supervisors Basic level supervisors Basic level employees (full-time) Part-time employees Frequency Percentage 255 317 62 37. 3 52. 5 10. 2 26 42 112 424 4. 3 7. 0 18. 5 70. 2 115 489 19. 0 81. 0 Table 3.Measurement scales and properties. Constructs Internal marketing Variables Reward system Internal communication Training and development Transformational leadership Transactional Leadership Meaning Ability Self decision-making Influence Job loading Performance stress Job objectives Lack of participation in decision-making Without supervisors’ support Influence of job on health Tension Salary and welfare Promotion and growth Job content Relationship with colleagues Relationship with supervisors Value commitment Effort commitment Retention commitment Efficiency Efficacy Quality Mean (S.D. ) 3. 38 (0. 81) 3. 44 (0. 77) 3. 43 (0. 77) 3. 51 (0. 77) 3. 34 (0. 84) 3. 38 (0. 89) 3. 53 (0. 89) 3. 36 (0. 90) 3. 13 (0. 89) 3. 22 (0. 85) 3. 17 (0. 88) 3. 12 (0. 82) 3. 01(0. 90) 2. 79 (0. 95) 3. 29 (0. 97) 2. 93 (0. 99) 3. 04 (0. 93) 3. 16 (0. 73) 3. 39 (0. 83) 3. 56 (0. 85) 3. 32 (0. 90) 3. 39 (0. 87) 3. 79 (0. 87) 3. 27 (0. 94) 3. 54 (0. 84) 3. 60 (0. 82) 3. 41 (0. 80) Loading 0. 79 0. 85 0. 78 0. 87 0. 73 0. 81 0. 75 0. 64 0. 60 0. 81 0. 83 0. 81 0. 65 0. 76 0. 67 0. 79 0. 60 0. 81 0. 71 0. 66 0. 75 0. 75 0. 71 0. 74 0. 82 0. 84 0. 70 CR 0. 85 AVE 0. 65 Leadership 0. 78 . 64 Empowerment 0. 79 0. 50 External job stress 0. 86 0. 67 Internal job stress 0. 81 0. 52 Job satisfaction 0. 83 0. 50 Organizational commitment 0. 78 0. 54 Job performance 0. 83 0. 62 X2/d. f 2. 78, GFI = 0. 92, AGFI = 0. 85, CFI = 0. 96, NFI = 0. 95, NNFI = 0. 95, RMR = 0. 074, RMSEA = 0. 08. Tsai et al. 4127 latent variables of the research model, ? is the standardized path coefficient representing the direct effect among latent variables. A higher value indicates a stronger path relationship. According to the result of path analysis (Figure 2), organizational commitment (? 0. 70, P;0. 001) and external job stress (? =0. 10, P;0. 05) were shown to positively and significantly influence hospitality industry employees’ job performance. Organizational commitment was the most influential on job performance. Influences of job satisfaction (? =0. 09, P;0. 05), internal job stress (? =-0. 02, P;0. 05) and leadership (? =-0. 03, P;0. 05) on job performance were insignificant. Therefore, the higher the organizational commitment and external job stress, the better the employees’ job performance.On the contrary, job satisfaction did not directly influence hospitality industry employees’ job performance, and would only influence the employees’ job performance by organizational commitment. Therefore, in order to enhance hospitality industry employees’ job performance, it is critical to enhance employees’ organizational commitment. In addition, regarding the variables of organizational commitment, empowerment (? = 0. 5, P;0. 001), leadership (? = 0. 36, P;0. 001) and job satisfaction (? =0. 24, P;0. 01) were shown to positively and significantly influence organizational commitment.However, the influence of internal marketing (? = 0. 07, P;0. 05) on organizational commitment was insignificant. It indicates that the higher the empowerment, leadership evaluation and job satisfaction, the higher hospitality industry employees’ loyalty to the organization. Finally, regarding the variables of job satisfaction, empowerment (? = 0. 17, P;0. 01), internal marketing (? = 0. 45, P;0. 001) and leadership (? = 0. 21, P;0. 01) were shown to significantly and positively influence hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction. Internal marketing is the key factor which enhances employees’ job satisfaction.Internal job stress (? = -0. 19, P;0. 001) significantly and negatively influenced job satisfaction. However, external job stress (? =0. 06, P;0. 05) did not significantly influence job satisfaction. It indicates that the higher the empowerment, the higher internal marketing. As the leadership is more significant and the internal job stress is less, the employees’ job satisfaction is higher. Hypothesis testing According to the above analytical result, this study reorganized path coefficient and the results of hypothesis testing, as shown in Table 5.Analysis of overall effects This study further analyzed the total influences of exogenous variables on dependent variables, and the result is shown in Table 6. It indicates that the most influential exogenous variables of job satisfaction are in this order: internal marketing, leadership and internal job stress. Internal job stress revealed a negative effect. The key exogenous variables of organizational commitment were the same as those for job performance: the first were empowerment, followed by leadership and internal marketing.Analysis of the difference of sampl es with different characteristics This study probed into the difference of latent variables of hospitality industry employees with different attributes (example, gender, age, educational level, seniority and position) using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as the criterion for improving human resource strategies in the hospitality industry. According to the analytical result shown in Table 7, as to gender, the means of different constructs did not reveal significant differences (p;0. 05).As to age, older employees tended to perceive internal marketing, leadership, empowerment, organizational commitment and job performance higher. Regarding educational level, employees with a higher educational level had significantly more internal job stress than those with a lower educational level. As to perceive internal marketing, leadership, empowerment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, employees with a lower educational level revealed a significantly higher degree than those with a higher educational level. As to seniority, only perceived empowerment revealed a significant difference.Employees with higher seniority tended to perceive empowerment higher. Regarding positions, part-time employees’ external job stress, empowerment, internal marketing, leadership, organizational commitment and job performance were significantly lower than other fulltime employees and supervisors. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The influence of service industry employees’ performance on customer satisfaction and corporate operational performance has been broadly discussed and validated in past research (Tansuhaj et al. , 1988; Bitner, 1995; Chowdhary, 2003).However, in comparison to employees in other service industries, those in the hospitality industry have long working hours and low incomes. Thus, the employees have low employment intentions and a high turnover rate (Kao and Lin, 2004). Therefore, how to effectively enhance employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance is a critical issue in hospitality industry management. This study combined exogenous variables, such as internal marketing, leadership, empowerment and job stress, and proposed an integrated model of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment 128 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. Table 4. Discriminant validity of each construct. Internal marketing Internal marketing Leadership Empowerment External stress Internal stress Job satisfaction Organizational commitment Job performance a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h Leadership 0. 64 0. 15 0. 00 0. 04 0. 30 0. 33 0. 18 b Empowerment External stress Internal stress Job satisfaction Organizational commitment Job performance 0. 65 0. 42 0. 24 0. 01 0. 03 0. 39 0. 31 0. 18 a 0. 50 0. 01 0. 01 0. 21 0. 28 0. 30 c 0. 67 0. 26 0. 00 0. 01 0. 01 d 0. 52 0. 08 0. 02 0. 02 e 0. 50 0. 34 0. 4 f 0. 54 0. 30 g 0. 62 h represent the AVE of each construct. Other numbers represent the SMC coefficie nts between constructs. External job stress Internal job stress 0. 06 -0. 19*** Empowerment 0. 17** 0. 45*** Job satisfaction 0. 21** 0. 24** -0. 02 0. 09 0. 70*** 0. 1* Job performance -0. 03 Internal marketing 0. 07 0. 50*** Organizational commitment 0. 36*** Leadership Figure 2. Path analysis of the research model. *p;0. 05; **p;0. 01; ***p;0. 001. Tsai et al. 4129 Table 5. Path coefficients of SEM analysis and results of hypothesis testing.Hypothesis and path H1 Job satisfaction organizational commitment H2 Job satisfaction job performance H3 Organizational commitment job performance H4 Internal marketing job satisfaction H5 Internal marketing organizational commitment H6 Leadership organizational commitment H7 Leadership job satisfaction H8 Leadership job performance H9 Empowerment job satisfaction H10 Empowerment organizational commitment H11-1 External job stress job satisfaction H11-2 Internal job stress job satisfaction H12-1 External job stress job performance H12-2 Intern al job stress job performance * p;0. 5; ** p;0. 01; *** p;0. 001. Path coefficients 0. 24** 0. 09 0. 70*** 0. 45*** 0. 07 0. 36*** 0. 21** -0. 03 0. 17** 0. 50*** 0. 06 -0. 19*** 0. 1* -0. 02 Hypothesis testing Support Not support Support Support Not support Support Support Not support Support Support Not support Support Support Not support Table 6. Overall effects of exogenous variables.Path Empowerment job satisfaction Internal marketing job satisfaction Leadership job satisfaction External job stress job satisfaction Internal job stress job satisfaction Empowerment organizational commitment Internal marketing organizational commitment Leadership organizational commitment External job stress organizational commitment Internal job stress organizational commitment Empowerment job performance Internal marketing job performance Leadership job performance External job stress job performance Internal job stress job performance Overall effects 0. 7 0. 45 0. 21 0. 06 -0. 19 0. 541 0. 178 0. 410 0. 014 -0. 046 0. 394 0. 165 0. 306 0. 115 -0. 069 4130 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. Table 7. Analysis of the mean difference of employees with different attributes. Organizational commitment Empowerment Internal stress Attributes Gender Male Female F value Below 20 years old 21-30 years old Above 31 years old F value Below senior high school Above college F value Below 1 year 1 – 5 years Above 6 years F value High and medium level supervisors Basic level supervisors Basic level employees Part-time employees F valueCategory 3. 430 3. 407 0. 168 3. 471 3. 346 3. 578 3. 817* 3. 560 3. 385 6. 107* 3. 496 3. 369 3. 383 2. 350 3. 386 3. 544 3. 567 3. 368 3. 024* 3. 416 3. 428 0. 044 3. 474 3. 342 3. 646 4. 868** 3. 597 3. 381 8. 167** 3. 488 3. 366 3. 469 1. 987 3. 467 3. 585 3. 558 3. 368 2. 814* 3. 405 3. 303 3. 272 3. 336 3. 318 3. 615 4. 089* 3. 489 3. 317 5. 802* 3. 266 3. 356 3. 625 6. 699*** 3. 596 3. 637 3. 493 3. 268 7. 289*** 3. 214 3. 125 2. 156 3. 182 3. 118 3. 373 2. 6 03 3. 229 3. 151 0. 997 3. 130 3. 164 3. 306 1. 343 3. 423 3. 365 3. 92 3. 097 4. 299** 3. 029 2. 989 0. 456 3. 018 2. 994 3. 035 0. 115 2. 880 3. 037 4. 513* 2. 969 3. 023 3. 069 0. 627 2. 981 3. 065 2. 984 3. 009 0. 144 3. 279 3. 309 0. 328 3. 341 3. 236 3. 412 2. 732 3. 401 3. 270 3. 895* 3. 338 3. 275 3. 235 0. 992 3. 250 3. 338 3. 388 3. 268 1. 137 3. 461 3. 504 0. 503 3. 495 3. 422 3. 800 5. 571** 3. 652 3. 444 7. 223** 3. 499 3. 440 3. 656 2. 244 3. 744 3. 841 3. 708 3. 373 11. 177*** 3. 519 3. 510 0. 023 3. 591 3. 412 3. 740 7. 354*** 3. 661 3. 480 6. 196* 3. 489 3. 506 3. 651 1. 330 3. 615 3. 46 3. 598 3. 463 3. 000* Age Educational level Seniority Position * p;0. 05; ** p;0. 01; *** p;0. 001 Job performance Job satisfaction Leadership Internal marketing External stress Tsai et al. 4131 organizational commitment and job performance. In the 2 model, the explained power (R ) of the exogenous variables on endogenous variables such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance was above 50%, indicating that the relation model constructed by this study revealed positive prediction validity.In the relationship between employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, this study found that hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction directly and positively influences organizational commitment. The results meet the statement that service industry employees’ satisfaction can enhance employees’ organizational commitment (Testa, 2001; Slattery and Selvarajan, 2005; Yiing and Ahmad, 2009). However, job satisfaction does not directly influence hospitality industry employees’ job performance. This finding is different from the research results of other scholars (Babin and Boles, 1998; Bernhardt et al. 2000; Van Scotter, 2000; Koys, 2003; Chen and Silverthorne, 2005). In addition, organizational commitment directly and positively influences hospitality industry employees’ j ob performance. The result demonstrates that organizational commitment can enhance employees’ job performance (Huber, 1981; Mowday et al. , 1982; Gregson, 1992; Powell, 2000). Based on the above findings, although hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction does not directly influence job performance, it enhances their job performance through organizational commitment. Therefore, there is n indirect relationship between job satisfaction and hospitality industry employees’ job performance. Organizational commitment is the moderator. â€Å"In practice, hospitality industry employees have low income,† cohesion and loyalty upon hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction will further enhance job performance. Regarding the factors of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, this study found that hospitality industry employees’ positive perception of internal marketing, leadership and empowerment strengthen their job satisfaction.Internal marketing is the major factor of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, followed by leadership, internal job stress and empowerment. The findings meet other scholars’ suggestions that leadership (Yammarino and Dubinsky, 1994), job stress (Jamal, 1900; Jex, 1998; Chen and Silverthorne, 2005), empowerment (Bowen and Lawler III, 1992; Fulford and Enz, 1995; Dickson and Lorenz, 2009) and internal marketing (Rafiq and Ahmed, 2000; Hwang and Chi, 2005; Gounaris, 2008) significantly affect service industry employees’ satisfaction. In practice, employee training can give them greater problem-solving abilities and encourage employees and care about employees can give them pleasant working environment. The internal marketing will enhance cohesion and loyalty of employees and will further enhance job performance of employees. † Based on the above, in order to enhance employees’ job satisfaction, the hospitality industry sho uld first make efforts on internal marketing and satisfy employees’ demands and desires by reinforcing internal communication, implementing reward systems, increasing educational training and reducing employees’ errors at work.Supervisors’ leadership is also a key factor which enhances hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction. Therefore, the employees’ perceived supervisors’ leadership is an important issue for the hospitality industry to enhance job satisfaction. In hospitality service, there are usually a number of unexpected problems for customers and employees. Thus, sufficient empowerment is critical. The employees can not only solve problems immediately, but also be encouraged. Regarding employees’ organizational commitment, it is influenced by employees’ job satisfaction.Hospitality industry employees’ positive perception of empowerment and leadership enhance employees’ organizational commitment. Th is finding meets the findings of other service industries (Morris and Sherman, 1981; Burton et al. , 2002; Avolio et al. , 2004; Lee et al. , 2006; Chen et al. , 2008). â€Å"In practice, supervisors should sufficiently empower their employees according to different jobs and profession. Thus, employees would properly demonstrate their competency and be more autonomic at work and more flexible when dealing with emergencies.This will enhance cohesion and loyalty of employees. † However, internal marketing does not significantly influence employees’ organizational commitment. This finding is different from the results of other service industries (Tansuhaj et al. , 1991; Tansuhaj et al. , 1998; Naude et al. , 2003; Chang and Chang, 2007). However, this study also found that empowerment, leadership and internal marketing increase employees’ organizational commitment through job satisfaction, suggesting that internal marketing indirectly influences organizational comm itment.Based on the above, in order to enhance employees’ organizational commitment, sufficient empowerment is the key strategy for the hospitality industry. Through empowerment, hospitality industry employees recognize value and trust from the organization, and their identification with the organization would be enhanced. However, the influence of supervisors’ leadership on organizational commitment is only second to empowerment; thus, employees’ perceived supervisors’ leadership is the critical measure to enhance employees’ organizational commitment.The influence of internal marketing on organizational commitment is lower than empowerment and leadership; however, it relatively increases hospitality industry employees’ organizational commitment. In terms of the influences of job stress on job satisfaction and job performance, this study found that internal stress and external stress reveal different effects. Internal job stress negatively i nfluences hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction. This result meets the findings related to other service industries. Job stress reduces employees’ job satisfaction (Jamal, 1990; Borg and 4132Afr. J. Bus. Manage. and Riding, 1993; Jex, 1998; Chiu et al. , 2005; Chen and Silverthorne, 2005). For this study, it is possibly because most hospitality industry employees have a heavy workload. When in a stressful work place over a long term, they tend to have internal pressure, such as tension and being without supervisory support. Thus, how to reduce employees’ internal job stress is an important issue for the hospitality industry. In addition, although external job stress will not influence job satisfaction, it is a key factor for enhancing hospitality industry employees’ job performance.The results meet the statement that proper job stress might enhance employees’ job performance (Williams and Cooper, 2002; Ouyang, 2009). Therefore, although the construction of a proper workload and performance objectives will result in some external job pressure for employees, it is relatively effective for enhancing job performance. Regarding the overall effect, empowerment is the most critical factor of hospitality industry employees’ organizational commitment and job performance, followed by leadership and internal marketing.Internal marketing is the most important factor which enhances hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, followed by leadership and empowerment. In addition, internal job stress negatively influences employees’ job satisfaction, and external job stress positively affect employees’ job performance. According to the above results, empowerment, leadership, internal marketing, external and internal job stress influence job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance differently.Therefore, it is necessary to consider focusing on the types of employees that can enhan ce (or reduce) the exogenous variables in order to increase hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance. Thus, this study further conducted difference analysis using attributes of the subjects, and found that younger parttime employees with lower seniority and a higher educational level revealed a lower perceived empowerment degree.Younger part-time employees with a higher educational level have a lower degree of perceived leadership, and younger part-time employees with a higher educational level have a lower degree of perceived internal marketing. Thus, in order to enhance hospitality industry employees’ overall degree of perceived empowerment, leadership and internal marketing, managers should first target younger part-time employees with a higher educational level. In addition, employees with a higher educational level perceive relatively more internal job stress, but part-time employees’ xternal job stress is relatively less. The results can serve as references for human resource management and job distribution. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS According to the research findings, hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction positively influences organizational commitment. However, many employees are unsatisfied with their wages, welfare, promotion and growth. Thus, it is suggested that the hospitality industry should re-evaluate the fairness of wages and benefits and further enhance promotion and growth systems in the organization in order to strengthen employee satisfaction.In addition, organizational commitment is the most critical factor to enhance job performance. Job satisfaction should enhance job performance only through organizational commitment. It indicates that the enhancement of organizational commitment is an important strategy of human resource management in the hospitality industry. It should particularly allow employees to accept organizational objectives, values an d beliefs, and enhance the employees’ loyalty and devotion.Empowerment (in particular) and leadership are key factors for increasing hospitality industry employees’ organizational commitment. In addition, internal marketing is the most important factor to enhance hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, followed by leadership and empowerment. This study suggests that hospitality industry supervisors should sufficiently empower their employees according to different jobs and profession. Thus, employees would properly demonstrate their competency, and be more autonomic at work and more flexible when dealing with emergencies.As to younger part-time employees with lower seniority and a higher educational level, it is suggested to enhance educational training and flexibility, giving them greater problem-solving abilities and sufficient empowerment. In addition, this study suggests supervisors to select transformational leadership or transactional leadership according to the attributes of the employees’ jobs so that employees, particularly younger part-time ones with a higher educational level, will perceive their supervisors’