The Context in which Health and Social Care Managers Operate is as Essay

The Context in which Health and Social Care Managers Operate is as Important as the Decisions they Make - Essay Example Management also finds its application in the social and health care industry because it is a versatile discipline. Managers are present at almost every level of a health care providing facility. This brings us to the context of management at a health care facility. Managers in a health care industry, also referred to as healthcare administrators, perform the typical functions expected of a manager. These functions include planning, leading, directing and controlling the involved health care services. Healthcare managers work closely with other medical service professionals like physicians and economists in ensuring effective delivery of healthcare services to the society. In their practice, healthcare administrators base their professional duties to healthcare policies operating within a given social setting. According to Stephen (2007), health and social policies guides health professionals in their healthcare provision responsibilities. At this juncture, it is procedural to underst and management from an academic perspective. According to Armstrong (1999), scholars with potential of developing their careers in the healthcare administration industry receive training concerning theories, practices and policies within the actual healthcare management environment. These educational processes include evaluation of different cases, which aims at helping a student to develop an insight on the application of management theories in real life situations. This brings us to the context of the case study. The case on Ellen’s story provides an illustration on how management applies during actual delivery of healthcare services. Ellen finds herself in a nursing home after developing a health complication. On arrival at the nursing home, Ellen had given up on her life. She was unable to respond to her needs and decided to life a life of dependency. However, healthcare providers at the nursing home helped Ellen to recover. Ellen recovered upon completion of her stay at the nursing home. Ellen is in a position to perform some of her hobbies and economic activities which includes knitting. In addition, Ellen came out confidently and started engaging in social activities like sports. The underlying issue in this case concerns the provision of healthcare and the management activities that facilitate effective delivery of healthcare to the society. According to Armstrong (1999), efficient management services during healthcare service delivery is responsible for the successful recovery of Ellen. Ellen was in a compromising state of desperation when she entered the nursing home. Medical providers acknowledged that Ellen would require intensive and time consuming healthcare in order to help her recover. Upon acknowledgement of this fact, the responsible professionals, who included the facility administrators and nurses decided to commit their efforts towards helping Ellen recover. This context illustrates a situation concerning the effectiveness in health care management and quality service delivery to the society. In the context of Ellen’s case, the main contextual factors with respect to the underlying subject of healthcare are healthcare administration and quality of services delivered to the involved parties. The entire case highlights the elements of management and service provision. Since this essay deals with the aspect of management, we will appraise these contextual factor

The French Headscarf Affair Essay Example for Free

The French Headscarf Affair Essay The Headscarf affair which took place in France during the 1990s is a clear representation of the French refusal to revise their national identity. As the rate of post-colonial migration rose, so did the population of Muslims living in France. This rise of Muslim population spurred the start of the Headscarf affair which was used as a tool, against Muslims, to prevent the revision of the French national identity. The affair was justified by three main reasons, 1) to protect the idea of Secularism, 2) to achieve a â€Å"visible integration† and 3) to prevent the inevitable Islamic invasion of France. These three justifications, when considered in conjunction with each other, are able to show how the Headscarf affair in France is representative of a French refusal to revise their national identity and incorporate their new post-colonial migrants into their society. The French held high the ideology of Republic Universalism, a notion that aimed to decrease traces of difference between people, resulting in a national ‘sameness’. From this, the idea of Secularism was formed which aimed to provide a clear barrier between the State and religion. If the French could succeed in executing the idea of Secularism, they could separate the state from religious practices which would in turn remove any â€Å"religious divides that exist in society† which would lead to a religious sameness which in turn would add to the national identity of France and would prevent a revision of this identity. The Headscarf affair became the French government’s tool to the protection of Secularism in France. In 1989 the affair began when headmaster Ernest Cheniere refused to let three girls, each wearing an Islamic Headscarf into school ‘on the grounds that it would contravene with the principle of Secularism. The affair continued to gain momentum until in 1994 Francois Bayrou, the Minister for Education, put a ban on the wearing of any â€Å"Overt† religious symbols to school, with the aim of removing any religious divides and promoting equality and sameness. This rapid growth of the affair from the point of a refused entry to a ban on the Headscarf not only shows the French dislike towards the Muslim community but also indicates how the Headscarf affair, through the implementation of Secularism, represents the French refusal to revise their national identity. To the French it seems that appearance is more than reality when it comes to the idea of national identity. It can be argued that the French, with consideration to the post-colonial influx of Muslims, were only after a â€Å"visual integration†. It did not matter if the nation was actually unified and could be identified on a deeper more patriotic level; the focus was on the appearance of the nation. If the citizens of France appeared to have one identity, an identity that promoted the idea of sameness, as discussed earlier, then the national identity of the country was upheld. In order, however, for the French to retain this identity of visual integration and sameness, something had to be done about the Muslim women who were â€Å"emphasising religious differences† by wearing the headscarf. Action was taken against visual setbacks to national identity in 1994 when, as previously stated, Francois Bayrou placed ban on the wearing of all â€Å"overt and ostentatious† religious symbols. His justification was that the wearing of such symbols ‘separated students’ by causing visible â€Å"barriers to assimilation†, integration and unification. Clearly, the aim of Bayrou was to demolish any visible differences between the citizens of France and retain this visible unification that was deemed to be the French national identity. Ironically however, excluded from this ban were the Christian Crucifix and the Jewish Kippa, both being deemed â€Å"discreet. † Had Bayrou been consistent in his ban of visible and ‘overt’ religious symbols, his justification of the separation of children may have been plausible. With this ironic exclusion in mind we are now in a position to examine the real underlying factor as to why the Headscarf affair began in the first place and why the French used it to protect a potential revision of their National Identity. The primary and underlying factor contributing to the French Headscarf Affair during the 1990s is the French paranoia of the â€Å"phenomenon of Islamicization. † The French were convinced that with the mass influx of post-colonial Muslims, an Islamic invasion of France would come and with this invasion would come the rapid demise of the already established French national identity. As the wearing of the headscarf became more apparent on Islamic women in France, the French paranoia grew stronger with the Front National party going as far as proclaiming that the Muslims were â€Å"implanting themselves symbolically by the wearing of the headscarf. † In an attempt to protect their country from Islamic invasion and a potential revision of their national identity, the French implemented the ban on Islamic Headscarves and recruited support for this ban from the French community. The government used the media as their main source of recruitment; often portraying Muslim girls as tools used by the Islam’s to infiltrate France. Newspapers began to sprout exaggerated and bias headlines such as â€Å"Headscarves, the plot: how are Islamists infiltrating us† and articles declaring that â€Å"the fact that Muslim girls wished to wear a headscarf was a clear sign of Invasion. † With the support of the majority of the citizens in France, the French began executing the headscarf ban around the country in a desperate attempt to defend their nation from â€Å"the invasion by a troubling stranger and the fear of losing supremacy† and in turn prevent themselves from having to completely reconstruct their national identity. As we can see by examining the French Headscarf Affair and its three primary reasons of justification, the protection of Secularism, the achievement of â€Å"Visible Integration† and the prevention of an Islamic invasion, the Headscarf affair of the 1990s does in fact represent a French refusal to revise their national identity and incorporate their new post-colonial migrants into their society.

Employee Turnover In The Hospitality Sector In China

Employee Turnover In The Hospitality Sector In China People are one of the most significant resources for business, especially in the people-intensive and service- intensive hospitality industry (Kong and Baum, 2006). Additionally, front office plays a role of reception and marketing as well as the brain in the hotel, and it is an important factor that has impact on hotels image and reputation. An increasing number of research in China and in the world are keen on investigating human resources management about the turnover in hospitality industry (Liu,2002; Baum et al.,2006). Gustafson (2002) indicated that high employee turnover had been widely accepted and documented in the hospitality industry. The study also showed the relationship between managers perceptions and staff turnover. Moreover, Poulston (2008) found the poor training was associated with workplace problems, and improving in the training part is likely to reduce the thorny problems such as under-staffing. The result proved via questionnaires indicated that in the hospitality industry, the employers were not generally looking for hard technical skills, especially in the front line positions, but rather soft skills (Nickson et al., 2005). Such soft skills encompass attitude and it was also the essential parts affect staff aspirations about changing work all the time. In brief, turnover in hospitality is affects not only including psychological factors but also physical factors. It is clear that China has a bright future in the hospitality industry, and absolutely it is with potential to open the outside world and thus to obtain advanced international management skills as a result. China is still facing the problem of shortage of quality personnel and high staff turnover which might relate to culture of bias to the hotel jobs (Kong et al., 2006). Due to the importance of about turnover in the hospitality industry, some of the psychological and physical factors may similar be all around the world, yet in China, culture differentials also exist about the job nature in the hospitality industry. 2.2 Turnover KPMG (1991) and Timo (1999) pointed out that high staff turnover rates in the hospitality industry are largely higher than manufacturing industries in Australian labor market. Timo (1999) indicated that hospitality sector employment is always described as a mode of instability and flexible form of employment. In addition, findings in Timos survey (2005), a unit of percentage can evidence this statement: only 23.2% of employee respondents had been employed by the hotel 3-5years. It is also worth mentioned that only a little more half or 56.5% of respondents had been employed for less than two years. Similarly, about half of the manager respondents have been employed by one hotel for more or less two years. A survey conducted by Kong and Baum (2006) found that 75% respondents in front office was their first experience of working in hotel sector. Only about 30% respondents indicated that they plan to stay on their job for one to three years. This percentage largely reflects the potentia l workforce turnover in hospitality environment. Awareness about staff turnover cannot just stay on the surface, it must recognize that staff instability is not only the loss of talent, but that also would result in more costs in hotels. According to the survey by Mitchell (2001), he indicated that turnover is costly in any kind of operations. Cost here is a general concept. It concluded intangible and tangible factors. The former involved loss of experience, technical skills, relationships knowledge etc. The latter is concerned about adding money to recruitment, training, creating of candidates. Additionally, Hinkin and Tracey (2008) also published a report regarding the cost profiles associated with staff turnover in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. They divided the turnover cost into hard costs, soft costs and opportunity costs. Meanwhile they listed five cost categories during the recruitment, selection, training and development, and performance. The authors found out that the results that the managers spent a great amount of tim e and money in recruitment and selection new staff because of the poor quality of the candidates pool and high turnover rates existing in the hotels. The front office is the first place that customers have contact with a hotel, which employees provided the first impression to the customers about the hotel service. In other words, the front office represents the hotels image and as a consequence staff in front office must know all the answers concerned in hotel to make customers happy( Kaye, Thomas, 2000,pp24-P25). Meanwhile, the clerks in hotel front office face big challenge on daily work. Working stress is one of the reasons that caused staff turnover can be found (Lo and Lamm, 2005). Pressure caused by working challenge may give rise to staffs leaving desire and foreshadowing the final turnover in the hospitality. Moreover, several physical factors have an effect on staff satisfaction about the current job. In Hinkin and Traceys (2000) work, they analyzed major causes for turnover arose, poor working environment, low wages, unreasonable management and lacking guiding for employees and poor training is also mentioned in this work. From the literature it is evident that human resource challenges found that there are many regions all around the world are confronted with the same issue about staff turnover and specifically, the problem of seasonal employment in tourist regions trouble the hotel managers a lot. Martin et al. (2006) published a research paper and summarized that the bad image of tourism hospitality industry, unfavorable working environment, few development and promotional opportunities, these are all the candidates perceptions and the most significant factors for managers to improve and in order to attract and retain the workforce. Specifically, there is an outstanding issue in the hospitality industry that the staff working in hotels is younger and younger and it has closely relationship with turnover issue. According to a New Zealand survey, almost half or 40% of the employees in hospitality sector are less than 25-years-old, the biggest group of the staff being 15-19 year (Whiteford and Nolan 2007).Working in hotel, as well as in front office, the most significant requirement for the staff is not skill levels but service attitude. Selection methods for recruitment can discern such feature, it relied 79% on application forms, 74% on curriculum vitae or/and 89% on interviews and references (60%) (Nickson, Warhurst and Dutton, 2005). A pertinent study conducted by Norris (1995) found that there are low barriers for person to enter most of the hotels, to be front-line personnel. Therefore, low barriers interests young workforce to looking for job in hospitality industry. Meanwhile, the youth staff in front offic e is one of the reasons for its workforce instability. Play and work, this notion may attract those employees to choose jobs in hotel which has low skill barriers to enter as well as opportunities to travel and exciting. (Accirrt, 1996; Chalmers and Kalb,2001) In other words, with the phenomenon of the seasonal turnover, human resource managers in the hotel cannot ignore the using of the students as a temporary labor pool (Farnsworth, 2003). There is no doubt that the close relationship among the local hospitalities and the hospitality manager schools and the tourism manager colleges, they can help provide potential workforce to the hotels. Also, the author advocates that hospitality operators should provide job related training to the students and improve their working competitive strength. Organizational commitment, missions, goals and direction Organization commitment is playing a significant role which as a factor reducing employee turnover in the hospitality industry (Kazlauskaite et al,.). According to Greenberg and Baron (2000, pp.181) definition, organization commitment is an extent to which an individual identifies and is involved with his or her organization or is unwilling to leave it. And there are three types of organizational commitment: affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1991). Among these three types of commitment, affective commitment may be considered most desirable for an organization. In addition to the reduction of employee turnover, according to Schuler and Jacksons research result (1999), they found out that employee organizational commitment was also seen to be important for quality improvement and maintain the importance of such human resource practices as teamwork, appropriate feedback system. Furthermore, employee empowerment as a factor can enhanc e organizational commitment. Empowerment is a rather complex process and it is hard to definite until now, but Lovelock and Wright (1999) define empowerment in service industry as the authorization of an employee without asking for a supervisors approval to help customers to find out service problem solutions and make appropriate decisions. And with regard to the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment, Sigler and Pearson (2000) found the positive relationship between them and Janssen (2004) indicated that psychological empowerment can be viewed as a way to stimulate an individuals commitment to the organization. Basically, empirical evidence suggests that the hotels organization mission, goals and direction influence employee retention and job productivity. And the organization development direction and support had a significant impact on employee job satisfaction and overall commitment (Kim, Leong, Lee, 2005). Susskind et al.s (2000) research also indicated that perceived organizational support strongly insfluences job satisfaction and employees commitment to their organizations. US Department of Labor (1993) on high performance work practices revealed that involving employees in decision-making, goals and the direction of an organization through participation in terms will help reduce turnover rate and produce job employee satisfaction. Furthermore, Cho et al. (2006) also reported that organizations which non-managerial employees are more likely to experience higher turnover rate comparting with which have high-performance work practice in the organization. Hotel culture and communication According to Becker and Huselid (1999), hotel culture creates competitiveness since it changes staffs working behavior by making them act consistently with the hotels desired corporate culture, thus influencing employee retention. Most of other researches indicated that there were uncovered similar findings between hotel culture and staff turnover rate and retention. For instance, according to Milman and Ricci (2004), they revealed that among the most powerful indicators to predict hourly staff retention in the hospitality industry were positive experiences with the hotels policies and with the hotels humane approach to staff. Work environment and job design In terms of the working environment and job design, most of the studies found that employees who had positive experience with regards to working hours, sense of fulfillment with their jobs and higher level of job satisfaction are more likely to stay with current employer. Although employees care lots about the monetary rewards which can be a top motivator for employee retention, having a comfortable working environment and flexible working hours were also important motivators (Wildes, 2007).The research work performed by Martin (2004), he pointed out the working situation has a quite important influence on the staffs perception and working attitudes. Accordingly, the working performance also impacted by the employees satisfaction of the working environment. Continuously improving the ethical problem in the hospitality, it will ultimately lead to the lower staff turnover and the successful retention of the talent workforce. What is more, the result that hourly employees retention was predicted by self-fulfillment and working conditions, even over monetary rewards was confirmed by empirical studies of lodging properties in Central Florida (Milman Ricci, 2004). Hires and promotions According to the searching result, numerous of the studies examine the impact of hiring and promotion activities on retention and performance (Becker Huselid, 1999; Cho, Woods, Jang, Erdem, 2006; Huselid, 1995; Milman, Hourly employee retention in small and medium attractions: the central Florida example, 2003). Based on the Pfeffer (1999) research, hotels which wishing to succeed in todays global competitive environment must make adequate HR investment and build staff who possess better skills and capabilities than their competitors. In addition, it is important that selective hiring procedures can ensure effective retention of the most qualified employees while lowering staff turnover in the long term (Huselid, 1995). Customer relationship The relationship between employees and customers is a connection that cannot be ignored. A theory about employees and customers satisfaction was tested by Heskett (1990), clients satisfaction is base on the employees satisfaction in the hotel. More precisely, employees in the hotel are the significant factor which is root for hospitality operation. Furthermore, the research study by Dienhart et al. (1992) found that there were positive relationship between customer centeredness and the staffs constructive views of job involvement, job security and satisfaction. If staff can feel that the hotel takes good cares of them, in return, they will provide a better service to customers to meet and/or exceed their expectation. They are more likely lead a higher satisfaction both staff and customers, also to better staff performance, thus making them less likely to leave (Arnett, laverie, McLane, 2002), positively influencing staff retention. Training High quality level training is one effective measure for staff retention. Several studies show that the close relationship between training activities and productivity and retention. In hotels where staff receives the proper training needed to assume greater responsibility, turnover rates are generally lower (Youndt, Snell, Dean, Lepak, 1996). And meanwhile Youndt et al. (1996) theorize that human resource practices designed to develop talented and ream-oriented workers improve staff productivity and customer satisfaction. With the same working situation for choosing, to the candidates, they prefer to apply for work at the hotel properties which have done well with the career progression image (Martin et al, 2006). Alexander and Nuchols (1994) also support a positive relationship between high quality level training and employees turnover. Moreover, work by Poulston (2008) investigated that some turnover is redeemable, meanwhile some is inevitable. In such a case, if hotel provides p roper training focus on individual development features, employees are likely to stay long, and try their best to enjoy a complex and stressed environment. Obviously, hotels with substantial training opportunities should experience lower turnover rates according to Shaw et al.s (1998) research. However, an interesting finding also by Shaw et al. (1998) included a positive relationship between training and the discharge rate. They indicated that hotels provide more training opportunities are concerned about staff skills and performance, and therefore experience a high percentage of staff terminations. Conversely, hospitalities that experience a high discharge rate initiate training activities because of lower workforce skill levels. Employee recognition, rewards and compensation The most notable among hotels retention initiatives is compensation and benefits. Numerous studies have addressed the impact of employee compensation, rewards and recognition on turnover and retention (Walsh Taylor, 2007). In terms of wages, a survey by Norris(1995) indicated that workforce in hotel are usually low paid, compared with government average wage, staff in hotel earns just about 73% of the whole industry average. Another survey conducted by Choy (1995) pointed out that hospitality employees average annual salaried have been found to be about 16.5% to 31.6 % below than the hotel industry average and government average wage. Additionally, highly competitive wage system promotes employee commitment and thus results in the attraction and retention of a superior workforce (Guthrie, 2001). And other further survey noted that staff will remain with an organization as long as it serves their self-interest to do so better than the alternatives available to them elsewhere (Shaw, J enkins, Gupta, 1998). Although several study investigated the compensation can strongly influenced the staff turnover rate, also several other research have indicated that compensation in the form of base or variable pay may not be sufficient to attract or retain staff. The most important retention predictors included intrinsic fulfillment and working conditions rather than monetary rewards were confirmed by Milman (2003). Moreover, the absence of opportunity for professional growth and development affects hotels turnover rate and retention instead of compensation and work-life balance (Walsh Taylor, 2007). Leadership and human resource management partnership Furthermore, another survey (Gustafson, 2002) found that the frequency of managers in hotel sector filling in for workers has a negative relationship with turnover. If front offices managers working side-by-side with front-line clerks, teamwork sense developed from staff so that they will recognize that they are needed. At the same time, the managers action will lead to a sense of belonging and heightened communication, and therefore they would be less likely to leave. Contrarily, poor management, conflict between manager and front-line employees are all negative for daily operation in front office. It is not only negative for customer satisfactory, but also passive for staff to set career perspective it will lead employees more likely to turnover. A survey by Tutuncu and Kozak (2007) noted that supervision within the hospitality industry can bring job dissatisfaction, and otherwise staff turnover. What is more, Chew et al. (2005) reveals that hotel with a value profile of either eli te or leadership, complemented with strategic HRM effectiveness will enhance financial performance. Instead of just focusing on single practice like staffing, the simultaneous use of multiple sophisticated human resource practices was assessed, which was identified as a link between organization-level outcomes and groups of high performance work practices (Huselid, 1995). All the prior work has consistently found that the effective of human resource management initiatives increased staff productivity and retentions. Specially, recruitment and training process, working environment, labor-management and performance appraisal, promotion and incentive compensation system that all been linked with valued firm-level outcomes (Huselid, 1995). Although the effects of human resource management practices on employee turnover and retention of organization-level is significant, many of the research in the hotel industry paid more attention to the individual-level predictors of turnover (Shaw, J enkins, Gupta, 1998). 2.3 Turnover in China According to the statistics from China National Tourism Administration Office(2008), it is shown that Chinas current tourism related staff were around 6million, while the actual the need of that are about 8 million or more. Therefore, the talent gap between the practical situation and the expectation is about 2 million. On the other hand, the loss of existing tourism practitioners was very serious. The ordinary turnover rate is 5% to 10% in the general industry, while the turnover rate is as high as 20% or more in the tourism industry, especially the higher qualification, the higher rate of brain drain. (The Yearbook of China Tourism, 2008) The increased mobility of human resources in the hotel industry was becoming increasingly prominent, the brain drain had become a primary problem troubled hotel mangers. The turnover rate in other industries was about 5% to 10%, while the appropriate turnover rate in hospitality industry was about 8%. However, China Tourism Association, Human Resource Development and Training Center did an investigation in twenty three domestic cities in thirty three of two to five stars hotels human resource department, and found that the average turnover rate was 23.95% (Wang, 2009). According to statistics, it can be seen that the hotel staff turnover rate was 3 times more than the appropriate turnover rate, and it showed a gradual upward trend. Zhang and Wu (2004) also indicated that one of the key issues of human resource challenges of Chinas hotel was the high staff turnover rates. A paper published by Zhao et al. (2006) introduced that the high turnover rate in Hospitality industry is a universal existence question which puzzles the managers a lot. The literature concluded some reasons of employees turnover: instable work, little chance for promotion, pursuit higher returns and display their values, want to obtain the respect of personality, etc. Additionally, the author Fei (2009) did an investigation on the negative influence of hotel turnover, including cost allowance, undermine the team morale, and reduce the credibility of brand, loss business information, and decline the service quality. After analyzing the reasons that leading to the staff instability in China hospitality industry, Zhao brought forward some countermeasures: improve the staff training, make plans for staff career development, and focus on communication to strengthen the emotional management, improve the hotel and cultural construction to foster people-oriented management concept. Meanwhi le Fei analyzed the potential development direction from different angles of social factors, corporate factors and individual factors to elaborate the importance of staff loyalty. Many hotel staff graduated from hotel management and have quite potential to be outstanding employees in hospitality industry, but all these outstanding staffs instability was also troubled their corporate managers a lot. Research from Zhang (2006) was focus on investigating the reasons of hotels outstanding employee turnover and introduced the ERG theory, after that he tried to solve the core issue in the hospitality industry: how to maintain the outstanding staff and pursue the hotels long-term stability and development. In this report, Zhang indicated that the outstanding employees outflow from their desire of leaving and the ERG theory used here to analyze the employees core requirement to prove that staff advantages should be discovered. Additionally, the author enumerates some positive examples to expound some recommendations for hotel and employees to establish loyalty mutually. It terms of the human resource management, dynamic management, relative to the static management, is also a research issue in China. Chen (2006) found out that in order to control the mobility of the employees and reduce the turnover and loss, the hotel should carry out the comprehensive, systematic and long-term dynamic management. Additionally, Chen advocated that investigate the hotels turnover situation, the searchers would not only investigate the external internal environment changing but also do some researches about the human resource inflow outflow and human resource flowing in the corporate at the same time. After that, Chen indicated the most important countermeasure was to establish the warning mechanism. Zhang and Wus (2004) did research about the human resources issues the hotel facing in China. It must mention that the authors analyze challenges the Chinese hotels were facing via hospitality perspectives, travel perspectives and university perspectives, and indicated the hospitality industrys expectation of education. They found that human resource challenges were playing a negative role in the development of Chinas hotel and tourism industry, the critical issue was the staff retention and human resource shortages, at the same time, the education level and the industrys expectation gap also became a thorny topic. All the organizations and the government would establish communication to enhance the graduates skills level and experiences, decrease the gap of expectation and practical operation, in order to enhance the retention rate in hotel and improve the problem of human resource shortage. According to Chinas culture, with the one-child policy, there are not enough citizens are born to supply workforce demands. In addition, the countrys relatively outdated educational system cannot lead the colleges and universities to provided outstanding human resources with types of skills in an increasingly globalized economy. One of the most important factors contributing to the high level turnover rate in hospitality industry in China is work-life balance, long hours working shift and heavy workloads instead of the technological working, especially in the front line post (Michael, 2008). The same evidence could be finding out in much of the related western hospitality and tourism industry work. Deery and Iverson (1996), Deery and Shaw (1999) and Ghiselli et al. (2001), all these research investigated the constructs like organization commitment and job satisfaction are significant elements contribute to staffs intentions to leave an organization. Additionally, work stress and pers onal attribute plays a decision role on leaving an organization (Deery M, 2008). As mentioned above, work-life balance (WLB) also is one of the influence factors that impact on the staff turnover rate in hotel (Wang and Walumbwa, 2007), while Dagger and Sweeney (2006) focus on life quality and staff turnover relationship research. 2.4 Turnover in Guangdong Province Based on the related HRM theories, such as learning organization, situational leadership, quality of working life and employee satisfaction, Chen (2007) deeply investigated the human resource management situation in one hotel in Dongguan which is a industrialized city with rapid economic growth, he got the result that no matter an international brand hotel or a local hotel, the issues of staff turnover and management brought out a series of problems in Guangdong Province. On one hand, due to the labor-intensive industry, the hospitalities have to operate with a large number of employees; On the other hand, the staffs that hard recruited were unable to retain. According to the identification of the basic turnover environment, the author analyzed the high turnover rate and the investigating the countermeasures based on the three parts: external environment, staffing department and human resource department. In Guangdong Province, many of the researchers found that training quality was a significant element on the issue of turnover in the tourism industry, especially in the hospitality industry. Dai (2005) made a hard working on doing the research about the different training approaches and quality between western countries and China, and set the Guangdongs Hotels as examples, pointed out the differences in terms of the importance of training, investment in training, training contents, training approaches and methods, and the training effectiveness and evaluation. According to Shen (2008), she also focused on investigating the important role of the training in the hospitality industry. She kept her mind on searching the hotel training effect assessment with an instance of Intercontinental Hotel in Guangdong. The author pointed out that the personnel quality would be the big issue during the management. Its meaningful influence not only present on the Human-Resource department, the whole hotel, but also on the employees themselves. One positive effect of training for the hotel, it could have a direct economic benefits, and training as an investment process on the staff. The assessment of the training can provide employees with consciousness of the hotels benefit changing based on their capacities and enhance of their senses of achievement, improved employees job satisfaction and loyalty to the hotel. According to the geographical situation in Guangdong province, its a developed area with lots of small medium enterprises as well as the hospitality industry provides a great amount of job opportunities to attract workforce from all the other provinces. It must mention that most of the workforces who live in other places go back to their hometown for the Spring Festival and its the peak period of labor-turnover (Wang, 2009). 2.5 Conclusion and research question After searching the literature with the issue of turnover in hospitality industry, and according to comparing among those researches, several similar points about the situation and reasons on the turnover can be found between Chinas hospitality industry and other countries. Although Chinas hospitality is developing with many thorny problems including staff turnover accompanied by Chinese culture. In this paper, the author aim to find out the following questions, and analyze the relationship among all the influenced factors. Accordingly, the author proposes a mode of managerial turnover cognitions set up by Carbery R. et al (Figure 1) with the purpose of helping identify the four sets of variables and define the hypotheses. The figure showed above, which identified the variables as possible of the hospitality turnover, involve Career Issues, Job Issues, Organizational Commitment and Covariates and so on. Based on the variables listed above, they can be classified into Demographic variables, Human capital variables, and Psychological variables according to this paper specific investigation of the staff turnover in the front office in hospitality. Demographic variables Age, gender and marital status are all demographic variables that influence the hospitality industry front offices staff turnover. There was a phenomenon that the a great amount of staff in front office were youth employees, almost accounts for 40% of the staff were less than 25 years old (Whiteford and Nolan 2007). And in China, in particular the loss of tourism management students of the phenomenon was particularly serious (Dou, 2009). In the research conducted by Hellman (1997), indicated that older staff was more likely represent a lower degree of mobility due to the concerned about the formal and informal benefits associated with age in the work place. On the contrary, it is important to think about whats the main reason for the highest turnover rate of the youth staff. As a result, it is hypothesized that: H1: Younger employees represent higher turnover. Human capital variables Specifically, in hotel front office, education level, working experience and salary level are related human capital variables that impact the employees turnover. Finding from human capital theory would suggest that staff with relatively higher education levels could more cognitive about their career development road relatively and could not change their current job straight away. Wong et al. (1999) found that individuals with relatively higher education levels are better informed of the external labor market and they are relatively good at comparing cons and pros with the current positions. As a result, it is hypothesized that: H2: Employees with higher levels of education attainment represent lower turnover. Psychological variables Thomas (2000) and Lamme(2005) indicated respectively working as a front line employee especially working in the front office, was a stressful job and full of challenge. Hinkin (2000) stressed the influenced factors about turnover were various, concludi

Robert Pirsigs Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Essay

Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values Confronting crises of technological annihilation and personal madness, Robert Pirsig finds each to be a manifestation of a deeper crisis of Reason. In response) he suggests an alternative to our current paradigm of rationality, the "art of motorcycle maintenance." By showing that our understanding and performance derive from our emotional and evaluative commitments, he challenges the cultural commonplace which construes "subjective" states as distortions of "objective" reality. In so doing, he asserts that "wholeness" or sanity may be achieved only through "passionate caring," and an awareness and acceptance of how our emotions and values shape our experiences. Further, he shows that technology, a manifestation of our values, may be controlled only through emotional and moral commitment. A restorative rhetoric, on Pirsig's analysis is, then, one in which the passions and values are recognized as the very ground of being in and interpreting the world. The crisis of reason As he begins his "Chautauqua," Robert Pirsig finds himself in a twofold crisis. He characterizes the public dimension of the crisis as arising in large part from the technological fragmentation of nature and man. Having transformed nature from a field of daffodils into a field for its own potential appropriation, technology, as Marshall McLuhan has noted, now also "shapes and controls the scale of human association and action" (McLuhan 8). Seemingly indifferent to human values and developing under its own logic, technology increasingly isolates us from our natural environment, from one another, and even from ourselves. For though we may be in touch with Belgrade or Toky... ...ight give, the Sophist being "a hunter of young men of rank and distinction who works not by violence, but by persuasion." ("The Middle Speech of Plato's Phaedrus," Journal of the History of Philosophy, 9 [1971], 421). Pirsig admits that his defense of the Sophists against Plato is not original; indeed such a defense dates to the nineteenth century. Everett Lee Hunt elaborates this point in his "On the Sophists," in The Province of Rhetoric, ed. Joseph Schwartz and John A. Rycenga (New York: Ronald Press, 1965); and in "Plato and Aristotle on Rhetoric and Rhetoricians" (Historical Studies of Rhetoric and Rhetoricians, ed., Raymond F. Nowes [Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell Univ. Press, 1961], p. 20), he writes: "It is to Hegel that the Sophists owe their rehabilitation in modern times." Hunt also shows that Lewes, Grote, Sidgwick and John Stuart Mill all joined in the defense.

 The Traits of Winston and Julia from Orwell’s 1984

Throughout one’s life, there are people whose similar and contrasting personalities help one to learn more about themselves. In George Orwell’s 1984, Orwell demonstrates a character foil between the protagonist Winston and his love-interest Julia. Although Winston and Julia’s views on life, and the Party are different, they are similar in their hopes to rebel against the Party, leading to their overall downfall and doomed relationship. Throughout 1984, Orwell contrasts Winston and Julia’s views on life. Winston is concerned with the future of Oceania.He analyzes all hope for the future and finds that it lies in the Proles. He begins to see beauty in everything free, for he longs to be free himself. This is shown when he finds beauty in the old Prole woman. â€Å"It had never occurred to him that the body of a woman of fifty [†¦] could be beautiful. † Although her appearance may have not been completely attractive, Winston sees that her beauty w ithin was great. He has an appreciation for her and the freedom that she signifies. Winston saw the true beauty within the woman, as opposed to Julia. Julia could find nothing beautiful about the woman.This is shown when in sight of the woman Julia says, â€Å"She’s a metre across the hips, easily†. Julia only sees things as they appear and cannot find a deeper meaning for the important things in life. As well, Julia is young, as opposed to Winston, therefore she has less experience about how the world works. This is thought of by Winston after a conversation about Winston’s wife, Katharine. â€Å"She was very young, he thought, she still expected something from life, she did not understand that to push an inconvenient person over a cliff solves nothing†.Julia is naive and believes that when there is a problem it is best to be fixed the easiest way possible. Julia and Winston both recognize their different views on life. As the conflict rises in the novel , one sees how Julia and Winston have different levels of intellect and on their thoughts towards the Party. Winston is a very intellectual man and he thinks his decisions over thoroughly. He knows that his actions have consequences. This is shown when he says, â€Å"We are the dead. † He has experienced what happens to those who commit crimes and he knows it is only a matter of time until both Julia and  he are killed.He sees life only as the little time he has left and is constantly living in the past, and regretting the bad things he had done. Julia on the contrary is a carefree woman and can be impulsive at times. She simply lives in the moment. This is shown when she says, â€Å"Don’t you enjoy being alive? Don’t you like the feeling: [†¦] I’m real, I’m solid, and I’m alive! † She is also naive because she does not think about the repercussions of her actions. She doesn’t understand what will happen to her once she is caught by the Thought Police and she focuses on enjoying life while she can.Winston and Julia’s views on the Party became an obvious difference in their relationship. Throughout 1984, one sees how Winston and Julia both demonstrate the possession of a rebellious trait. Although they both make it their goal to rebel against the Party, both characters do it in different ways. Firstly, to other Party members Julia appears to be completely orthodox. She is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League and appears to love Big Brother, but in reality Julia rebels against the Party by having illegal sexual affairs with other Party members, leading her to Winston.As well she has a great amount of hatred for Big Brother. Her entire character is a contradiction. This is shown when Julia says to Winston, ‘You thought I was a good Party Member. Pure in word and deed [†¦] It’s this bloody thing that does it’ she said, ripping off the scarlet sash of the Anti-Junior Se x League and flinging it onto a bough. † The act of her throwing off the Anti-Sex League sash, demonstrates her ability to rebel and deceive the Party. As Julia allows Winston to see her form of rebellion, Winston begins to believe it is healthy and normal to rebel against Big Brother.Winston rebels by keeping a secret diary in which he writes messages against the Party and his hopes for the future. He eventually devotes his life to the Brotherhood and commits thoughtcrimes against the Party. This is shown when Winston writes, â€Å"DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER†. His thoughtcrime focuses on the downfall of the Party and the end of totalitarianism. One sees that both characters aim to rebel against the Party, while Julia rebels on a personal level, only doing so from the waist down and Winston commits his crimes by hoping to make an impact on the Party and change for the future.In conclusion, Winston and Julia’s relationship is formed through their similar need to rebel against the Party, while their different views on the Party and life strengthens the particular character Orwell portrays them to be. Although both characters chose to rebel, they each do it in a different way. Winston finds beauty and appreciation in freedom , while Julia is blinded by her own needs. As well Julia lives in the moment while Winston is constantly remembering his past. The personality traits of a person can depict their future, including their achievements and downfalls.

10 Research Essay Topics on Applied Anthropology

10 Research Essay Topics on Applied Anthropology If you are writing a research essay on applied anthropology, there are many great facts that you can use to help your work. Below you will find a short list of helpful facts on applied anthropology: Applied anthropology requires individuals to use research and data methods and tools to solve current issues in the world. This field applies the study of human beings in terms of biology, language, culture, and behaviors so as to better understand each variant. Individuals in this field have to use ethnography, observation and data collection to better understand another culture or person. Through the presentation of anthropological information, one person can review and observe the differences, comparisons, and evolutionary information pertaining to another person or another group. From that they are able to garner a more holistic ideology or viewpoint about humans. Those who work professionally in this field work under the Society for Applied Anthropology which defines the field as one where scientific investigation is used to better understand and relate groups of humans to one another. Through that study those working in the field are encouraged to apply principles of each group of people to help them deal with practical problems. Having an interpreter who fills the position directly above the doctor in a medical facility will allow the doctor to gain better results with many East Asian cultures. The interpreter in this scenario functions as a cultural leader as well, helping to define not only phrases but practices by the doctor toward the physician. With the Hmong people, the father or grandfather fills the seat of highest respect and each person in the family has a rank, but given that the youngest, second generate daughters are often the ones who speak the most English, doctors tend to make the mistake of addressing them directly so that they can translate. This is seen as insulting to the highest level as the doctor speaks to the person in the family with the lowest social standing and ignores the person with the highest. Having interpreters around who can function as cultural liaisons can mitigate this risk. Ethnology is a subfield which focuses on the study of the culture. Biology or physical study is another subfield which focuses on the biological or physical differences among people. Archeology is a third subfield which focuses on the study of archeological sites and findings, often in relation to groups of people who are no longer living or who have migrated throughout the centuries. The final subfield is that of linguistics which focuses on the linguistic changes between different groups of people. This final subfield can be used to track the linguistic changes over time in different communities and countries, tracing the influence that another group might have had. This can reveal the migration patterns or the trade expansion of one group to others. Different African communities along a well-known trade highway might each exhibit a few Arabic words, which imply that they had trade with Arabic people who clearly took that road to travel to the African communities. The application of anthropology will generally use all four subfields if possible to help businesses, corporations, and governments provide perspectives that are not naturally found in those fields. The human data brought by an anthropologist to law enforcement, or the creation of public policy, or even western medicine can develop a view of what things could have been, what things are, and how to advance communication and understanding between them. The Hmong people, for example, had issues with the law during the 1990’s because they would not administer medications to their children the way the hospital prescribed. However, explaining the laws does not always come easily especially when the belief systems of the Hmong interfere with any ability to find a correct translation. If a child was intubated and needed to be fed through the tube, the parents might not understand the risk of asphyxiation and instead think that the doctors are trying to harm the child. Even with the he lp of a remedial translator, there are not words in the Hmong language for many of the medicinal and health problems or solutions in Western medicine due to the fact that the Hmong only have one main type of ailment, which is when a bad soul or dab has interfered with that person. This is where applied anthropologists would take their knowledge of the Hmong beliefs and language and then create a middle ground for educating them about western medicine requirements. Anthropologists today are hired as cultural brokers, to help mediate government negotiations or business deals or even regular medical exchanges as mentioned above between two cultures. They are often the person who will explain how a CEO, for example, should dress before meeting with a new client in another country, as well as who to address first, how to address them, when to sit/stand and where, whether or not to bring a gift and if so what type of gift, what should be printed on the business card, etc†¦ Other roles fulfilled include working as a program developer for administrative goals, researching specific goals for companies or organizations working in other countries or with other cultures, and fulfilling corporate employee tasks. The study of the human race is broken down into three key components. The first component is a holistic one, the second is the analysis of the cultural and the biological development of humans, and the third is the evolution of all things such as cultures, language, and biology. The first component analyzed cultural and biological development in a holistic fashion, more broad in function. The second component can examine differences between various cultural groups to showcase the internal or external differences. But another application is to look over the internal and external differences between members of the same group. The third component is one which helps anthropologists to see how humans have changed and adapted over time. The comprehension of how other groups function and interact with one another, helps groups of people to see what they have in common with diverse groups. It also helps people understand how culture and humans influence other cultures and how they can change the environment in which they live. These are great and helpful facts that can be used in research essay writing on applied anthropology in real life. You can also make use of suggested topics on this sphere of studies and consult the writing guidelines on research essays. Use everything you can to produce an excellent paper! References: Eddy, Elizabeth M., and William L. Partridge.  Applied anthropology in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978. Ervin, Alexander M.  Applied anthropology: tools and perspectives for contemporary practice. Allyn Bacon, 2005. Foster, George McClelland.  Applied anthropology. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. POLICY, TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF. A new field of anthropology.  Anthropology of Policy: Perspectives on Governance and Power  (1997): 1. Shackel, Paul A., and Erve Chambers.  Places in mind: Public archaeology as applied anthropology. Psychology Press, 2004. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Three propositions for a critically applied medical anthropology.  Social Science Medicine  30.2 (1990): 189-197. Van Willigen, John.  Applied anthropology: an introduction. Greenwood Publishing group, 2002.