Explain Why It Is Important to Recognise Essay

All these things will affect the opportunities each child receives and the breadth of the experiences they receive. The sooner any changes are spotted in a child or young person the the more help and support can be given to them and these can be addresses and referred to suitable agencies or professionals with in the school team. Example 1 A child that has been playing or standing alone during playtime for a few days in a row may find their development may become affected. It can affected a child’s social and intellectual development. Socially the child wouldn’t be playing with other children their age and this can affect confidence and self esteem, this in turn may affect them intellectually as the child maybe unwilling to work with the same children within the classroom and start to segregate themselves from their peers, due to this the may not learn the same as their peers and their experiences may becoming limited , they may find themselves learning at a different pace. Example 2 A child who has a hearing impairment may find their language skills being undeveloped or they may be delayed. This may then have a knock on effect with the child’s/young person’s ability to interact and socialise with others of the same age. Early recognitions means the child can be referred to appropriate agencies and special needs teachers within the school to assist and work with the child and help identify their needs and put in place a plan of action. Example 3 Abuse of any nature can affect a child’s development, it is important to look for signs of abuse in children/young people and follow child protection guidelines in any suspected cases of abuse. A once bright and chatty child may become withdrawn and shy away from adult attention. The child maybe showing signs of aggressive behaviour and/or exhibiting signs of self harm. Abuse can affect a child from infancy through to adolescence and then into adulthood. It can set back a child’s physical development, such as a tense mealtime can affect the child’s ability to eat. It can hold backs a child’s mental development such as their intelligence and memory and put the child at greater risk of developing mental health problems. Abuse can also affect a child’s emotional development , they may lack the ability to feel and to express a full range of emotions appropriately and/or the ability to control their own emotions. Abuse can also put a child at greater risk of developing one or more behavioural problems such as:- learning difficulties problems with relationships and socialising rebellious behaviour aggressive and violent behaviour anti social behaviour and criminality self isolating behaviour (making people dislike you) negative impulsive behaviour (not caring what happens to you) Example 4 Children and young people may find themselves going through a parental divorce or be part of a single parent family or they may have become part of a step family. They may even be part of a large family with several siblings. These circumstances can affect a child’s development, they may find themselves lacking support from a parent(s), they may find themselves being bullied within the home by step siblings or even their own siblings, there maybe the lack of a positive role model or someone to look up to. Some children living within a step family may find themselves being singled out or pick on, there may be friction between the two families. All these factors can cause stress upon a child/young person, they may cause them to have low self esteem and no confidence therefore impacting on a child’s social and emotional development. Example 5 A child that has difficulty using fine motor skills may be affected greatly and it is important that it is recognised and is responded as early as possible

Is Violence in the Media Controversial? Essay

Do you have a particular song or movie that you just really love. If you do, have you ever considered the kind of music you listen to or the movies you watch influence the decisions you make about almost everything. This may be really obvious, but a lot of people underestimate it: It’s the power of the media. Media is very powerful and extremely influential. And as teenagers, our minds are a lot more absorbent to the things we see and hear around us. That’s why I think media should be censored. Probably the most common example of the influence of media on teenagers is the Columbine shooting. Public controversy about violent content in the media has a long history that extends as far back as the first decade of the twentieth century in the United States. The earliest controversies revolved around depictions of criminality in the movies, and the very first case of movie censorship occurred in 1908, when the police in Chicago refused to provide a permit for the public display of the movie The James Boys in Missouri. Authorities objected to the content of the film because it focused on violent law-breaking (Hoberman, 1998). The scientific study of the effects of media violence may not extend as far back as 1908, but it was only a few years later that media violence became a focus of the first major investigation of the content and effects of movies. Violence in the media has become a contradictory topic. While some individuals believe that media violence places society in danger of chaos, others find that violence in the movies and on television has no negative effect on societal communities. Research has shown that there are pros and cons to having violence displayed in the Violence in the Media 3 media. The study of media sources (particularly violence in video games, television, and movies) with real-world aggression and violence over time. There doesn’t seem to be many positive aspects to violent television shows or movies, but there’s at least one advantage to watching violence, such as catharsis. There will always be the debate over why some people react with violence after watching violent media and some do not, but the fact remains that there are few good reasons to see so much violence in such explicit detail. Many social scientists support the correlation however; some scholars argue that media research has methodological problems and that findings are exaggerated (Ferguson & Kilburn, 2009; Freedman, 2002; Pinker 2002; Savage, 2004). Measuring aggression and its causes has always been an important focus for social psychologists, partly because excessive aggression isn’t tolerated in our society, and overly aggressive individuals often find themselves in jail because of their behavior. The first experiments on the impact of media violence on human behavior were conducted by psychologists and sociologists who applied theories of social learning and modelling behavior i.e. they thought that people saw violent behavior on TV and copied it. The more violent behavior they saw, especially violence that went unpunished, the more likely they were to behave in a violent manner themselves. Since the 1960s and Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiments, there have been many studies by social psychologists attempting to establish a causal relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior. Violence in the Media 4 Complaints about the possible harmful effects of mass media appear throughout history; even Plato was concerned about the effects of plays on youth. Various media/genres, including dime novels, comic books,jazz,rock and roll, role playing/computer games,television,movies,internet (by computer or cell phone) and many others have attracted speculation that consumers of such media may become more aggressive, rebellious or immoral. This has led some scholars to conclude statements made by some researchers merely fit into a cycle of media-based moral panics. Several scholars (e.g. Freedman, 2002; Olson, 2004; Savage, 2004) have  pointed out that as media content has increased in violence in the past few decades, violent crimes among youth have declined rapidly. Although most scholars caution that this decline cannot be attributed to a causal effect, they conclude that this observation argues against causal harmful effects for media violence. A recent long-term outcome study of youth found no long-term relationship between playing violent video games or watching violent television and youth violence or bullying. Violence in the Media 5 Pro: Catharsis Theory The catharsis theory implies that daily interactions cause individuals to accumulate frustrations. These frustrations could lead to the individual committing violent acts if not released by other means. According to this theory, watching others engage in violent acts on television or in the movies relieves the individual of daily frustrations, and creates a society filled with less violence. In essence, the catharsis theory deems media violence as a positive attribute because an individual can release tension without physically harming another individual. Con: Violent Thoughts Researchers have undertaken studies that support the idea of media violence initiating violent thoughts in children and adults. According to the theory of observational learning, children learn through example. As such, kids who unable to decipher the difference between reality and fantasy will imitate behavior viewed on television. If not corrected, these children have the potential to exhibit violent as children and throughout their adult lives. From the perspective, violence in the media initiates violent thoughts that individuals eventually carry out. Violence in the Media 6 Pro: Reinforcement Theory The reinforcement theory holds that media violence reinforces prior beliefs about violence in society. When speaking of media portrayals, the reinforcement theory indicates that violent acts seen in the media occur in society when aggressive behavior already surrounds the viewer. Individuals  who learned that violence is wrong will not be influenced by the media to commit such acts. In fact, people whose believe violence to be bad will use such behavior in the media to strengthen their opposition. Con: Justifiable Violence Regardless of an individual’s beliefs about violence, The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) holds that aggressive behavior in the media presents the idea of violence being a justifiable solution to societal problems. According to CMPA, many television shows with a protagonist through violent acts. While good ruling over evil is a positive concept, some television shows and cinemas do not demonstrate the human consequences of violent acts. Failure to exhibit such consequences informs the viewing audience that violence is the only justifiable means of solving a problem and aggressive behavior has no consequences associated with it—a concept that is certainly untrue in society. On top of all that, seeing these themes at such a young age helps desensitize him to it when it occurs in reality. In an ideal world, all there would be more child appropriate television, and parents may do more to shield their kids from the guns and explosions that is today’s media. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world, so I think the media should set their violent content to â€Å"low†, not â€Å"overkill†. Also, not only is their proof that the lack of non-violent television is getting to our kids, but the media has, (whether intentionally or not), shown in a sense, what the violence on television has done to children. The Effect of Violence in the Media on Children Television, movies, and video games are a big part of children’s lives in today’s technologically advanced society. However, there is a big controversy questioning the effects of these media outlets on children. Much of society claims to have proof for the belief that media violence affects children negatively. However, I am skeptical of the evidence that is stated to prove that claim. I feel that society has placed the blame on these mediums for the violent acts, however serious or trivial, that children commit way too easily, before they even begin to examine the parenting of today’s society. National Association for the Education of Young Children supports the reinstitution of FCC standards  establishing limits on violent depictions during hours children are likely to watch television. Standards would also control the degree to which violence is depicted so as to be perceived by children as a normal and acceptable response to problems, as equated with power, as leading to reward or glorification of the perpetrator. An additional strategy would be to develop a parental guidance rating system for network. Violence in the Media 8 Conclusion There are many issues surrounding this age-old debate and the perceived effects of violence in the media. Over the past fifty years various studies have both proved and disproved the links between violence in the media and aggression in real life. But somehow the same questions keep coming up: Who is responsible for the violent content in the media? The arguments on each side of the debate are very powerful, and draw on years of discussion, and anxiety about the effects media violence might be having on our society as a whole. Parents need to be aware that much of what children watch on television is not specifically intended for children. It has been estimated that only 10% of children’s viewing time is spent watching children’s television; the other 90% is spent watching programs designed for adults. Parents can assist children in finding alternatives to viewing adult television. You need to sift through the research material and have a look at the different views of parents, psychologists, academics, audiences and media producers. Check who has authored any given report, and how that might affect their conclusions e.g. are they affiliated to a religious group, or an industry association? The irony at the heart of the Violence in The Media debate is that a lot of the media coverage of this topic which condemns violence, actually incorporates violence and is designed to stimulate violent reactions. REFERENCES 1. Savage, J., & Yancey, C. (2008). The Effects of Media Violence on Criminal Aggression; A Meta-Analysis,† Criminal Justice and Behavior. : Sage. 2. Berkowitz, L. (1965). â€Å"Some Aspects of Observed Aggression†. Journal of personality and social psychology 12 (3): 359–369 3. Bender, H.E., and Kambam P., Pozios V. (2013). Does Media Violence Lead to the Real Thing. 4. Brown, Governor of California Supreme Court of the United States (personal communication, June 27, 2011) Entertainment Merchants Association. 5. Freedman, Jonathan L. (2002). Media violence and its effect on aggression: Assessing the scientific evidence. Toronto 6. Ferguson, C. J.; Kilburn, J. (2009). â€Å"The Public Health Risks of Media Violence: A Meta-Analytic Review†. The Journal of Pediatrics 154 (5): 759–763 7. Singer, D., & Singer, J. (1984). TV violence: What’s all the fuss about? Television & Children, 7(2), 30-41.

Triple Jump Phase

Montrail Brooks Dr. Livingston AES 364 Muscular Analysis Introduction Block starts was create first created to help the grounds keeper take better care of the running surface with was made of clay or cinder. Starting blocks has came a long way from being a single holes dug in the ground to the high tech, lightweight, but yet expensive running aid their now. To properly observe and describe the breakdown of the hop, skip, and jump phases, while determining the muscles that cause these movements.The triple jump, referred to as the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event similar to the long jump. The only difference between the two is that the hop, skip, and jump involve a hop and a step, whereas the long jump involves just a jump. In the first phase of the triple jump, the competitor builds momentum by sprinting down the runway, planting their lead foot at the marked board, and â€Å"hops† into the air, cycling one leg around into phase two.After completing the cycle, the lead foot strikes the ground again initiating the â€Å"skip†, where the opposite leg is brought up and the body goes into the bounding position. Finally as the body is coming out of the bounding position, the opposite leg hits the ground in order to propel or â€Å"jump† the body forwards, aiming for distance rather than height, into the pit. [pic] The phases In the triple jump, there are three joints that aid in movement of the hip, the knee, and the ankle. Together the three joints allow optimum distance and proper stability for the jumper.The hip, which holds the femur and pelvis, allows the jumper to extend as his foot strikes the board. While keeping the knee in flexion, he pushes off into the cycling pattern. In the skip phase, the hip will remain in a flexed position as the trail leg goes into extension. When in the jump phase, the hip allows the leg to go from an extended position, to a partial flexed position. The knee, which hold the fibula, tibia, femur, a nd patella, just like the hip is a very important part of the triple jump process.In the initial â€Å"hop† phase, the knee extends, but quickly switches to flexion throughout the cycling pattern. During the â€Å"skip† phase the knee will remain in flexion, while extending the opposite leg. Following the second phase, the lead leg switches to the trail leg, which remains in flexion for the final â€Å"jump†. Finally, the ankle is made up of three separate joints: the talocrucal joint, inferior tibiofibular joint, and subtalar joint. These joints, just like in the kinetic chain, are where the power originates from.In the â€Å"hop† phase, the ankle of the lead leg will remain dorsi flexed, and the trail leg will be slightly plantar flexed, but will quickly draw up into the dorsiflexion. As the jumper enters into the â€Å"skip† phase the ankle will remain dorsiflex, while the trail leg switches to the front. This will allow the trail leg to go dors iflex, and the lead leg to deliver a powerful push-off into plantarflexion. [pic] The muscles and their functions in the Hop, Skip, and Jump phase.The muscles involved in the triple jump are the quads: rectus fermoris (allow hip concentric flexion and knee eccentric extension), vastus lateralis, medialis, and intermedius (helps the knee eccentric extend); the hamstring muscles: semimembranosus, semitendious, and biceps femoris (allows the jumper to extend the hip and normally pair with the help of the eccentric gluteus maximus); and finally, the lower leg muscles: concentric tibialis anterior, the concentric extensor digitorum longus (which provide the ankle with the ability to perform dorsiflexion), the peroneus longus, soleus, and gastrocnemius (which allow eccentric planterflexion for that last jump push-off). The main stabilizer, the gluteus medius, acts as a front plane stabilizer and restricts the leg from turning in vargus or valgum, allowing the leg to plant. Conclusion An i mportant factor in determining the power and momentum developed in the sprint start is the angle of the front leg in the set position.Most literature accepts that an angle close to 90 degrees is the ideal angle in this position. It allows the knee extensors to work best at the correct time for maximum power and momentum to be developed. An angle in excess of 90 degrees may allow a faster leg speed out of the blocks but will not develop the same power and momentum. Borzov (1980) in his investigations into an optimal starting position varies a little, with a suggested ideal front leg angle of 100 degrees. Opinions on rear leg angle vary between 110 degrees and 135 degrees. Tellez & Doolittle (1984) suggest an optimal angle of about 135 degrees for the rear leg because it allows the lever to move more quickly and allows greater impulse from a static position.They also suggest that an early body velocity provided by the rear leg drive past the front leg is a better mechanical position t o accelerate through a more prolonged application of force. Conclusion An important factor in determining the power and momentum developed in the sprint start is the angle of the front leg in the set position. Most literature accepts that an angle close to 90 degrees is the ideal angle in this position. It allows the knee extensors to work best at the correct time for maximum power and momentum to be developed. An angle in excess of 90 degrees may allow a faster leg speed out of the blocks but will not develop the same power and momentum.Borzov (1980) in his investigations into an optimal starting position varies a little, with a suggested ideal front leg angle of 100 degrees. Opinions on rear leg angle vary between 110 degrees and 135 degrees. Tellez & Doolittle (1984) suggest an optimal angle of about 135 degrees for the rear leg because it allows the lever to move more quickly and allows greater impulse from a static position. They also suggest that an early body velocity provide d by the rear leg drive past the front leg is a better mechanical position to accelerate through a more prolonged application of Reference: Track and Field News Presents: Technique and Drills for the Long Jump and Triple Jump. Gary Derks. Fundamental Aspect of the Triple Jump for Dummies By: Fritz Spence and Gerald Masterson, PH. D.

Marketing design Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Marketing design - Case Study Example Michael E. Porter suggests that businesses must search for a sustainable competitive advantage, which comes from developing a distinctive way of competing (Goett, 1999). As part of the marketing strategy for the oxygen bar, methods for setting it apart as a distinctive brand will be addressed. Population growth and changing demographics are examples of social trends that can have an effect on sales (Nickels et al, 2005). As part of a well-organised PESTLE analysis, the identification of external factors directly affecting the success of the oxygen bar has revealed several relevant issues that could positively impact its survival within the market. It might be argued that oxygen bars are a socio-cultural trend towards better health, as oxygen has been said to boost energy, heighten concentration, reduce stress and detoxify the blood (Davis, 2003). The actual effects of frequenting the oxygen bar are socially independent, meaning that those individuals who have used the bars have found different personal satisfactions regarding oxygen usefulness for health and well-being. However, understanding that oxygen bar popularity has been on the increase globally, similar external social factors towards better, healthy living might well impact a strong customer loyalty to the servic e. In the mid-term, it is possible that new developments in health-related, professional research might indicate a different social trend towards health initiatives, negating positive consumer perceptions of oxygen effectiveness. It might be argued that consumer preferences fluctuate periodically, however, an individual need only witness extensive literature available on UK health studies to visualise a growing trend in better health awareness. Therefore, in the mid-term, no dramatic fluctuations Oxygen Bar 4 in socio-cultural values regarding customer discontinuation of the oxygen bar concept are anticipated. Economic factors, in the short term, do not necessarily affect the ongoing success of the Andrews Adult School Oxygen Bar as the pricing structure for the service will be kept at competitive levels. Pricing will be discussed later in the analysis, but it has been determined that the bar will be maintained at an affordable level, allowing for a broader market to be targeted for bar advertisements. From a community perspective, the oxygen bar will open new job opportunities (especially for the campus student population) and might be accepted for its positive economic impact on the community. In the mid-term, assuming the oxygen bar maintains a level of business and profit success in the community, advancing economic impacts could include more job opportunities to staff the business due

Privatization of Prison Systems in the United States Assignment

Privatization of Prison Systems in the United States - Assignment Example career-orientated and not so likely to create large staff turnovers, thus causing added expenditures in training new personnel to take the empty positions. Working through the state system provides correction workers with better benefits and there is less turnover of the staff. A) Corrections officers receive a fairly stringent education process in how to conduct their jobs when engaging with the prison population (Dempsey & Forst 2013). The emphasis is now more on keeping staff in place and encouraging open lines of communication, mentoring with senior partners, encouraging professional pride and development, and also providing efficient compensation in salaries and benefits (Peak 2012). In alignment with the state employees, who observe the state guidelines in handling inmates through their daily processes, rehabilitative services, which are provided to inmates as part of their incarceration, also have state guidelines to be observed (Culp 2012). Therefore, the state-administrated facility will operate strictly on the state’s guidelines in handling prisoners and also making sure the public is protected as well, while in the process of engaging in rehabilitative services (Allen & Sawhney 2009; Peak 2012). Accordingly, state standards must be met, particularly where the well-being of the prisoner is concerned, B) The second argument in favor of keeping the corrections system under public administration is the financial aspect in regards to building and running correction facilities. It has been shown in research (Culp 2010) that even while private-sector facilities, run by companies who tout the money-saving advantages of using private sector facilities, often will begin costing more as the years go by, and eventually costing just as much as state run facilities, but... This paper reviews the aspect of whether it is better to move the Federal prison system into the private sector, or maintain them as federally run. There are pros and cons to both systems, but the most glaring issue is whether private sector companies which run prisons, will actually stay in business, or disappear overnight because of insolvency or by being bought out by another larger company.At present, there is an oligarchy of four to five companies who run the nation’s prison systems nationwide. This does not leave much room for a smaller actor to get into the business, particularly as expenditures are usually the same for both public and private sector facilities, as based on federal standards in service provisions. In the review of whether prison systems should move to privatization or not, the final outcome is that there needs to be a secure system in place, particularly where financial accountability is concerned. There must also be government oversight and audits to m ake sure the billing system is also accurate and that charges for non-existing products and personnel do not occur, as has been seen in some previous cases.If it is a question of whether more institutions might be built to house the offenders, then going to the private sector may be the best way to go. However, it is hardly likely that costs to the prison systems will actually be reduced accordingly, especially when only four to five private companies exist to accomplish these goals.

Business Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Decision Making - Essay Example Statistically speaking, there are two types of hypothesis namely, the null and the alternative hypotheses. During a statistical test, the null hypothesis is tested against the alternative hypothesis. It should be noted that "null" means nothing and that null hypothesis means that nothing is present (Hyperstat Online 2008). Statistical tests are conducted in order to test the viability of the null hypothesis. On the other hand, the alternative hypothesis is an alternative hypothesis which can be assumed if the null hypothesis is rejected. In the case of snack foods, hypothesis testing can be used in order to make business decisions. For example, the company is deciding whether to launch a healthier brand of corn chips to target weight watchers. After an intensive and extensive data gathering, the company wants to test if the introduction will have an impact in their current market share of 35%. Thus, they will need to conduct either one or two tailed test. A one-tailed test looks for an increase or decrease in the parameter under consideration while a two-tailed test looks for any change in the parameter. We will illustrate this further by applying the five steps in hypothesis testing. The first step in hypothesis testing is stating the null hypothesis. For both one and two tailed test, the null hypothesis that the market share will remain 35% can be stated as Ho: x = 36%.

Child Abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Child Abuse - Essay Example It is due to this clinical background training in systematic investigation techniques, and evidence in collecting of data (, e.g. bruises, lacerations) that allows the forensic nurse to be part of child abuse prevention/investigation team.   Child abuse can be defined as physical abuse/neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse/ neglect. While child abuse has been known to involve the physical, psychological, social, emotional, and sexual maltreatment of children, the survival, safety, self-esteem, growth and development of the child is threatened (Hick, 2006, p. 127). The extent of child abuse is depressingly wide. It crosses all economic, cultural, religious, and geographical boundaries. Physical abuse of children covers such things as deliberate violence that causes any kind of injury or even death to a child. As Richard J. Gelles (1982) states in his article â€Å"Child Abuse and Family Violence†, physical acts of child abuse include punching, biting, kicking, beating, and threatening to use or using a weapon against a child (28). Signs of this type of abuse can be found on the body in the form of bruises, scars, broken bones, burn marks, or deformities. However, such injuries may not be present even though ab use has occurred. As stated by Gelles (1982), many children have been pushed downstairs or punched and kicked by their parents without receiving a concussion or broken bones (28). Physical neglect involves the negligence of a guardian to provide the necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical attention necessary to the physical well-being of a child. Sexual abuse, which sometimes occurs along with physical abuse, involves an adults use of a child for sexual gratification. Very often, it is a family member that perpetrates the abuse, but sometimes strangers are involved. Alvin A Rosenfeld offers the following precise definition:   The phrase, sexual abuse of children refers to a disparate array of situations that

EEO Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

EEO - Essay Example The development of the EEO guiding principles can be traced back to the enactment of Civil Rights Act in 1883, which prohibited political favoritism in filling federal posts. Executive orders 0948 and 10955 issued in 1940 and 1961 respectively marked the first, concrete steps in the elimination of workplace discriminatory policies touching on race, creed or color. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 added the gender concept in the fight to equality (Pole, 1993). Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, was the most comprehensive law that laid the foundation for later executive orders as well as legislative reviews. It not only prohibited outright discrimination on the classes named above in addition to religion and national origin, but also established a commission to fast implementation. The subsequent executive orders such as 11246 (1965), 11375 (1967) and 11478 (1969) were mere affirmations of clauses in Civil Rights Act of 1964 with very little effect to what was already a public policy (Pole, 1 993). Nonetheless, Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 mandating equality of persons aged between 40 and 70, the 1990 enactment on disability and the more recent legislations incorporating pregnancy and sexual harassment have explicitly contributed in designing an inclusive equality principle within the workplace. Arguably, women have been a major beneficiary block that has gained considerably with the progressive institutionalization of the equality principle nationally since the enactment of Civil Rights Act. Hillary Clinton’s shot at the presidency in the run up to the 2008 presidential elections not only demonstrated the extent of the break through to the executive ranks long dominated by white males, but also signified a general acceptance of woman leadership from a society that has come full cycle in confronting a rather conservative past full of untenable

The Negative Effects of Alcholism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Negative Effects of Alcholism - Essay Example This study is hereby written with the objective of presenting relevant issues confounding alcoholism, specifically, the negative effects of this illness. It further aims to determine various solutions to address this preventable dilemma. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services define alcoholism, also known as â€Å"alcohol dependence,† as â€Å"a disease that includes four symptoms: craving: a strong need, or compulsion, to drink; loss of control: The inability to limit one’s drinking on any given occasion; physical dependence: Withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety, occur when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking; and tolerance: The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol in order to â€Å"get high.† (2001, par. 1) â€Å"The American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have both recognized addiction (including alcoholism) as an illness, not a lack of willpower†. (Dossey, Keegan, & Guzzetta, 2000, 514). Definitely, this is a fact that pervades people from all walks of life depending on diverse factors. According to Dossey, et.al. (2000), â€Å"although there are many types of addictions to various substances, alcohol addiction is the most prevalent in the United States, afflicting at least 11 million people†. There are a multitude of scholarly researches written on alcoholism and diverse concerns related to it. This paper aims to delve into the negative effects of alcoholism to individuals. Through secondary sources from books, journals and electronic references, appropriate materials would enable one to proffer a comprehensive and objective view of the topic. Starting with a background of alcoholism, a general view of the illness is presented. The findings would initially proffer the rationale for drinking. It would determine how one is considered to be addicted to alcohol. Then, the negative effects of alcoholism would be presented. Finally, key facts and

Turkish Music and Folklore Poetry Research Paper

Turkish Music and Folklore Poetry - Research Paper Example The essay talks about Turkish literature, which is nearly 1500 years old. It flourished greatly under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish music and folklore poetry both form a part of the Turkish literature, and has been extremely popular amongst the Turkish people for centuries, thus ensuring that these cultural traditions remain preserved. The oldest written records of Turkey have been found to be that of the 8th century Orhon inscriptions (in the Orhon river valley situated in Mongolia). Between the 8th and 9th century there came a new wave where literary representation was in an oral form, like the Manas epic and Book of Dede Korkut. Thus, we find that Turkish literature had two forms, the oral compositions and written books, and these two traditions remain separate from each other until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. It was only in 1923, after the republic of Turkey was created, that the two forms of literature came together to from the modern literary type. My arti cle will explore the literature of Turkey, pertinent to Turkish music and folklore poetry. It will study to find the relation between Turkish music and its folklore poetry, while exploring the history of the music as it developed through the various ages. It will also explore and analyse relevant data in its endeavour to find out the importance of music and the role it plays within the realms of Turkish poetry. The paper concludes that Turkish music developed from the folklore poetry and the two terms are synonymous with each other.

Theme of Fahrenheit 451 Essay Example for Free

Theme of Fahrenheit 451 Essay The theme of Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury contains a setting of a world where society itself was destructive. In this story characters and society are portrayed to be soulless and self-centered. Immoral things such as killing in this society have no affect on characters and ignorance is considered as the norm. By the setting containing an environment where life has no importance and entertainment is more valuable, this aspect does affect the characters’ attitude, decisions and general behavior entirely. There are a few examples that describe perfectly how the setting impacts the character such as Clarisse, Mildred and Guy. Even though all characters are set in a dystopia, not all characters react the same way. Most characters are consumed by their surrounding, while the setting reflects others. In the scene where Montag and Clarisse had their first encounter, the mood is set as romantic and relaxing. The city streets are empty and calm with the moon shining down and creating a silhouette as the wind lightly blows through them. It isn’t a cold night but refreshing. Clarisse walks slowly towards him enjoying every moment of the wind brushing against her body and hair. Everything seems to be in slow motion where there is no cars rushing down the road. The streets are quite and full of tranquility. The only characters that are walking down the street are Clarisse and Montag. This setting reflects on the true nature of Clarisse’s personality. The setting describes a relaxing atmosphere where everything seems to fall into place and this is how Clarisse attitude is towards life it self. The general behavior of this character shows how the little things are what matters, enjoying the surrounding and admire the small things, which was no longer appreciated. Unlike Clarisse, Mildred is a city girl who needs to feel the rush. Her attitude towards life made her fit perfectly in the society she was set in. only caring for the thrill and anything that would keep her distracted at the moment. In the scene where Guy shows Mildred the hidden books he has collected throughout the year, one can see how the setting explains Mildred’s behavior towards her husband and society. In the scene where both character is located in their home everything seemed to be separated, Mildred had her parlor while Guy has an empty room. The atmosphere is dry and cluttered, giving the feeling of a non-welcoming home. In the scene when Guy takes the books out from the ventilator to show Mildred, the secret he has been hiding from her for so many year, Mildred looks down to the books as if the floor has open and let out a family of rodents. She slides down the wall as if the universe crashed into million of pieces. Fearful of what lies ahead, she trembles and as ks Guy to stop himself before he get any deeper then what he is in. This setting not only shows the emptiness between Mildred and Guy but also how weak and influenced by society Mildred is. One of the scene were setting can be seen as a huge impact is when Guy Montag is in the subway. This scene is described as a dark place with jet-black tiles. The atmosphere is full of emptiness and helplessness. Guy Montag is shown to be an emotional mess, confused by his thoughts and physically numb. As he looked at the Bible and tried to understand as much as he could from the book, he remembered a moment in his childhood when he was tying to fill a sieve with sand. This memory compared the words of the Bible to the sand. He felt as if the words were slipping out of his mind because he couldn’t concentrate over the loud announcement repeating itself in the train stations radio. When he notices he wouldn’t collect any information because of the distraction Guy went into frenzy. Guy yelled trying to over come the voices of the train station radio. The place itself is a trap to Montag and he is not able to breathe or concentrate. Slowly, Montag gives up and hopes someone will come to his rescue, to take him back to his old life when things were simpler. One can see how the setting causes anger and frustration in Montag. This setting shows how Montag’s internal point of view can be express through the tiles of the subways. This setting supports Montag’s frustration and sees how it affects his behavior in general. As shown through out the essay setting contains a huge impact on the characters. Setting is nothing more then an extension of the character itself. The best example is the setting of Guy Montag in the train. Everything seems to foreshadow an event were something bad is going to happen from the tiles to the atmosphere of the place that was described. Though the characters play out the events of the story, the setting is what makes the character react and behave the way it does. In scene when Montag meets Clarisse the setting is what showed her true behavior and all the aspect of Clarisse. A setting is more then just a place but in general it is what impacts the characters to behave and react as they do in the story.

To Kill a Mockingbird Chapters 16-21 Questions Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Chapters 16-21 Questions Essay Chapter 16: 1. Atticus and his sister disagree on many things, mostly the treatment of colored people and how important the reputation of the finch family is. Alexandra believe that she is above colored people, especially Calpurnia and that Atticus shouldn’t let his children go to church her because it’s a disgrace to their family. Atticus believe that colored people deserve the same amount of respect as white people and that Calpurnia is a member of the finch family and should be treated like one. 2.Atticus says simply a mob is made up of people, despite the location or situation the mob is in. Plain and simple, no labels attached, the mob is just people. 3.Mr. Underwood was covering Atticus at the jail because even though he doesn’t like colored people, he knew Atticus was doing his job but defending Tom Robinson. 4. Mr. Dolphus Raymond like to spend his time with colored people instead of people of his own race. The people of Maycomb despise him for it and think that he only prefers them because he is constantly under the influence of alcohol. 5. Judge Taylor appears to be a very laid back person, but in actuality he listens very carefully to everything people say. I think the Judge purposely acts like this in court so that people think he’s not paying attention and accidentally say something they shouldn’t have, think that he isn’t paying attention anyway. Chapter 17: 1.Atticus want to reveal that Mayella’s injuries match something that he father could do and not Tom Robinson. 2.The Ewell’s are considered ‘poor white trash’ because the live next to all the colored people, none of them work, Mr. Ewell has seven children, none of them have any manners and none of them bathe regularly. Chapter 18: 1. Mayella could be described as disgusting because she is an Ewell and they are very poor dirty people and also the way she treats people is dirty (p.240). She could be described as pathetic because she is constantly crying and is trying to accuse a crippled man of raping her when it is very hard physically for him to do things (p.248). 2. Tom’s physical appearance is important because Mayella and Mr. Ewell both said that Mayella was beaten on the right side of her body by someone probably left handed. Tom Robinson is right handed and he has no use of his left arm because of an accident he had when he was a kid.†¨ He appears to feel satisfied. It seemed as though he wanted to get back at Mayella for the pain she caused Tom. But all he was doing is smart talking her just like any lawyer would. Chapter 19: 1. Tom Robinson is essentially the symbol of a mockingbird. He is kind and attempts to bring a little kindness to Mayella Ewell who is suffering. The Ewells, Bob Ewell in particular, brings nothing but hate, ignorance and sadness to everyone. He is essentially the opposite of Tom. He even abuses his daughter in the worst possible way. 2. Atticus mentions Tom’s previous record because he went to show the jury the Tom was answering all of the questions truthfully. 3. Toms version is that Mayella invited him inside, then threw her arms around him and began to kiss him. Tom tried to push her away. When Mr. Ewell arrived, he flew into a rage and beat up his own daughter, while Tom ran away scared. 4. He said he felt sorry for her because he knew how her father treated her. He would beat her for the slightest thing and it was hinted that her farther used her in a bad way. It was a mistake because he showed compassion to a white woman and when her father found out that he helped her she was so terrified that she said she did not ask for help he just wanted to take advantage of her and used the excuse about the dresser to get in the house. She also knew she had flirted whit him and was afraid he would say something. 5. Scout believes Mayella is lonelier than Boo Radley because Mayella lives in a place where no one really cares about her and she’s all by herself, while a least Boo has Nathan to take care of him. Chapter 20: 1. Mr. Raymond says that he leads people on into thinking he’s a drunk so that way they some way to justify why he does what does. 2. He tells Scout and Jem about his life because he wants them to know that rumors aren’t always true and that he doesn’t really care what others think, as long as he’s happy people can think whatever they want of him. 3. Atticus explains to the jury that Tom Robison is a good man, that Mayella was trying to take advantage of him and that Tom is innocent. He comments that the bruises on Mayella are most likely from Mayella’s father and that Mayella is a bad person trying to cover up what she did by blaming Tom Robison. Atticus tries telling court room that he knows that no matter what the evidence points to the jury will side with the white man. He says people should discriminate based on color. Atticus tries to make the jury see that they will be convicting an innocent man just because of his skin tone. Chapter 21: 1.Scout knows the verdict before it’s said because her father told her that when the jury comes back after discussing and don’t look at the defendant, then she knows right away that they found him guilty. 2.The colored people stand up out of respect for Atticus. They understand the sacrifices Atticus made when taking this case. They understood the dedication he put into the case, knowing he wasn’t going to win since the beginning. Despite losing his case, they stand because they knew he did his best.

Analysis of the Hotel Industry in Malaysia

Analysis of the Hotel Industry in Malaysia CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview Basically, this chapter is an introduction of the research topic. In the Section 1.2, it briefly introduces the background of this study. Introduction of hotel industry in Malaysia is included in Section 1.3. Next, problem statements are explained in Section 1.4 while the research objectives are laid out in Section 1.5. Besides, Section 1.6 and Section 1.7 have included the scope of study and the significance of this study respectively. Lastly, Section 1.8 is about the explanation of the organization of this study with a flow chart attached depicting the tasks to be carried out. 1.2 Background of Study In todays increasingly competitive and complex business environment, being sustainable in the business arena is no longer the mission of any of the organization, but to grow. Competitive advantage gives organization to shield and isolate itself temporary from the intensive competitive environment. This advantage could be taken away when competitors improved their products or services that potentially make more appealing to customers. Therefore, organization requires a never-ending process of continuous improvement. The word kaizen has been used by Japanese for describing this ongoing process of unending improvement by setting and achieving of ever-higher goals that involves both managers and workers (Imai, 1996; Heizer Render, 2006). Over the years, organizations from every industry keep coming out new products, either with a different exterior or equipped with better and more advanced features. For example, todays mobile phones have almost the same function as a computer except with a smaller screen and size, auto industry comes out cars that strongly emphasize on performance, safety, comfortably, elegance and so forth. Same thing goes to services, organizations come out with services that are tailored to every customers. As a result, this provides what the customers are really wanted and undoubtedly, customer satisfaction increased. For instance, Tune Hotels has made all services as optional, from breakfast, air-conditioned room to water-heated bathroom (TuneHotels.com, 2009). All of these are normally being provided as a package in any other hotels. As a consequence, customers have the right to select which services they want and they are being charged according to what services they have selected. To sum it u p, organizations in 21st century are being very innovative in serving their customers. Instead of merely come out with novel products and services, organizations have to look into the quality issue of the products or services produced. Customers will never be satisfied if the products or services they received have no quality, regardless of how novel and unique it is. Here we need to look into quality issue. According to Blankenship and Petersen (1999), W. Edwards Deming is known most widely for his work in quality management. Demings 14 points help Japan in achieving very high levels of quality in products and turn out to be a great shock for the westerners because Japanese goods were perceived at low quality and cheapness before this. He used statistics to examine production processes for flaws and greatly influenced Japanese industry as it rebuilt in the years after World War II. Today, TQM is a popular topic for quality management. TQM is called total because it entire the whole organization, from the supplier to customer (Sharmma, 2008). In other words, TQM talks about the satisfaction of customer, supplier, and employee. Furthermore, quality assurance systems such as statistical process control, quality control and better conformance quality are lined to better business performance (Dick, 2000). Other than that, people in todays world are relatively concern with the quality of the products and services they purchase. With the advancement of Information Technology (IT), gathering information regarding quality for various products has no longer a time-consuming task. All of this information can be gathered with only a few clicks. For that reason, quality has become one of the considerations at customers pre-purchase stage. Since the quality has become more and more important nowadays, a non-govermental organization (NGO) named International Organization of Standardization (ISO) has published the ISO 9000 series of quality standards at year 1987 (Dick, 2000). The ISO 9000 series of international quality system standards provides a framework for a basic quality assurance system and a good starting point for achieving total quality (Evan Lindsay, 1999). Generally speaking, businesses can base the development of their products and services on reference documents which have broad market relevance. This, in turn, means that they are increasingly free to compete on many markets around the world. As on the customer side, the worldwide compatibility of technology which is achieved when products and services are based on International Standards brings them an increasingly wide choice of offers (ISO, 2009). By implementing TQM, both the organizations and customers can enjoy ever greater benefits. From the aspect of organizations, in reality, both the tangible and intangible ones are offered by TQM, such as cost savings for the employer and greater job satisfaction for the employee (Gunasekaram, Goyal, Martikainen, Yli-Olli, 1998). According to Shemwell, Tavas, Bilgin (2008), the key to sustainable competitive advantage lies in delivering high quality service that will in turn result in satisfied customers. In addition, Dick (2000) has proven that better quality does have a consistent positive relationship with improved business performance. Figure 1.1: Two Ways Quality Improves Profitability (Adapted From: Heizer and Render, Operations Management, 2006.) Also, Heizer and Render (2006) says profits can be increased by improved quality as the figure depicted above. Firstly, improved quality generally leads to both sales gains and reduced cost. This is because improved response, higher prices and improved reputation are all make sales gain happened. Moreover, reduction of cost happens when productivity increases, rework and scrap costs decreases and warranty costs decreases. Therefore, profits will be increased when expenditures (costs) have been lowered and revenue (sales) has been increased. 1.3 Hotel Industry in Malaysia As a sub-sector to services sector, tourism has an increase in foreign exchange earnings from RM17.3 billion in year 2000 to RM46.1 billion in 2007 (Bank Negara Malaysia [BNM], 2008). It shows that tourism had a growth in its revenue for 166% in a period of only 7 years. This is largely due to the effects of campaigns â€Å"Visit Malaysia Year† (Poon Low, 2005) and â€Å"Cuti-cuti Malaysia†. Up-to-date, tourism has recorded total receipts of RM49,561.2 million for the year 2008, an increment of RM3,491.2 million from year 2007 (Tourism Malaysia Corporate, 2009). Spillover effects have been generated by the increase in tourism activities into other sectors of the economy. In other words, the steadily growth of tourism industry has contributed to the growth of all related industries and businesses. These included hotel industry, retail businesses, restaurants and transportation (Bank Negara Malaysia [BNM], 2008). Hotel industry plays a very important role in complementing tourism as it provides accommodation to travelers and tourists. Nevertheless, hotel industry has been a major player in the growth of the Malaysian economy, which contributing approximately 50 percent of the nations real GDP (Awang, Ishak, Radzi, Taha, 2008). As today, there are approximately 105 hotels with different ratings and sizes in Kuala Lumpur alone (Malaysian Association of Hotels [MAH], 2009). This has shown that Kuala Lumpur has an incredibly high density of hotels. Here the problem arises, how is the hotel industry in Kuala Lumpur cope with the never ending increase of tourists and travelers? In this context, it seems not possible to provide more rooms by simply adding the number of hotels in Kuala Lumpur. This is because the land area of Kuala Lumpur has only 244km ², meaning that there will be 1 hotel in every 2.3km ². In this sense, hoteliers have to find other ways to increase their productivities. In recent years, governments from all over the world have been putting more and more emphasis in developing services industry in their countries. They are all now aware of the unique characteristic of services and its importance in supporting a countrys economic growth. Business services showed the strongest growth in terms of value added and economic productivity (Wirtz Ehret, 2009). Theoretically, any organization in developing countries must endeavor continuously to improve productivity in order to increase profitability (Oluleye Olajire, 2001). As a consequence to the Malaysia economy, a higher amount of GDP will be recorded, more and more employment will be provided and so on. Hence, these have made hotel industry as a key sub-sector to services industry and these social responsibilities should not be overlooked by hoteliers in Malaysia. 1.4 Problem Statements In general, Malaysian will have perception saying that things made by western countries and Japan have higher quality, things from China have no quality and so forth. This is partially true in reality, majority of the Malaysians opt to buy import goods where there is an option for them. Therefore, local made products are usually having less supports from Malaysian as it has been perceived to be low quality in terms of unreliable and unattractive (Damodaran, 2009). This shows that local made products have lesser competency even in local market. Consequently, government encourages both the manufacturer and services provider to look seriously in quality issue by giving several incentives (Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council [MREPC], 2009). However, the outcomes of it are not up to the expectation. This may due to the inadequate research carry out in Malaysia. Thus, organizations especially the small size ones will definitely lack of information when trying to implement quality man agement system. Kuala Lumpur is one of the major cities in Malaysia with an estimated of 1.6 million of population at the year 2005 (KL City Plan 2020, 2009) and it is to be said as the fastest growing region in Malaysia. This figure says that Kuala Lumpur is the most densely populated district in Malaysia. Moreover, Kuala Lumpur has a vast number of tourists and it increases over years. Just to name a few, its major tourist destinations include Dataran Merdeka (the Independence Square), House of Parliament, the Istana Budaya, the Istana Negara (National Palace), the Kuala Lumpur Tower, the Muzium Negara (National Museum), Petaling Street and etc (Tourism Malaysia, 2009). With the limited land that Kuala Lumpur has, it is almost impossible to build more hotels in order to cater the increasing number of tourist in the near future. Therefore, several actions have to be taken in order to best serve the tourists with the limited number of hotels in Kuala Lumpur. This is to ensure that the receipts from tourism will not be negatively affected while the hotel industry can continuously contribute significantly to GDP. As time goes by, Human Resource Management (HRM) has become a popular topic than ever before. Organizations have understood the importance of employees (human resources). At the same time, empirical research studies have been done by researchers to further understand and prove those theories related to motivate and compensate employees. Dessler (2005) says that employee satisfaction and performance are positively related. Therefore, hoteliers must understand the importance to maximize their employee satisfaction as this could lead to greater business performance. However, by solely compensating employees with both monetary and non-monetary rewards has its limitation. Performance will stop increasing when the problem arises are not come from employees but the management. For instance, it could be lacking a well-planned system in executing tasks, ineffective communications in organization and so forth. In other countries, TQM has been so popular for a period of time as it helps organiz ations to achieve even higher of performance. In other countries, plenty of research studies have been carried out to investigate which TQM factors are the most influential to the particular country. Unlike in Malaysia, the number of TQM study that can be applied is limited and lacking of guidelines for hoteliers is still a major problem. Someone could say that hoteliers can simply use the findings from other countries as a guideline for implementing the TQM. But, there is always a high possibility that those mentioned as important factors are not important in Malaysia, when compared to the original country that the research is carried out. In other words, it is imperative to understand the applicability of the findings from other countries. The applicability of some of the findings from research still remains questionable. For example, information and analysis, one of the TQM factors is said to be extremely important to developed and developing countries but it is not persuasive enough to apply on third world countries. This is because they probably lack of necessary infrastructure. Therefore, it can be said that Malaysias hoteliers are actually lack of a blueprint when initially applying TQM to their respective hotels. In other words, hoteliers may not known which factors of TQM can generally lead to better performa nce in the Malaysia. Furthermore, with the limited of number of such research available to Malaysia, it has nothing to show hoteliers how strong the impact of TQM factors is to labor productivity, thus lack of motivation to change their routine and ways of doing business. When this occurs, Malaysia hotel industry can never be improved, previously owned competitiveness can be competed away and GDP can be affected. 1.5 Research Objectives The general objective of this study is to identify the impact of each of the selected TQM factors towards the labor productivity. Next, it is then to be expressed in term of its level of correlation between each of the independent variables and the dependent one. Therefore, this result could be used by the Malaysia hoteliers in increasing their labor productivity as these findings will show which of the independent variables plays a more important role in achieving higher labor productivity in the Malaysia context. The following objectives are specifically derived from the problem statements: To identify the relationship between the chosen independent variables and dependent variable; To investigate the level of impact for each of the chosen TQM factors towards labor productivity; To determine whether high TQM commitment hotels will generally generate higher labor productivity than the low TQM commitment hotels; and To provide insights and recommendations for improvement to Malaysias hoteliers at the end of the research. 1.6 Scope of Study The scope of this study covers a discussion on TQM as well as the importance of productivity. As the scope of both TQM and productivity are broad, this study will primarily focus on the aspect of TQM factors and labor productivity. Besides, this study investigates the relationship between selected TQM factors and labor productivity. Theoretically, those selected TQM factors is to be said to have influences on the labor productivity. Therefore, this research is also carried out with the intention to identify the degree of impact of the selected TQM factors towards labor productivity, either a stronger or a weaker one. Moreover, this research is intended to provide useful and relevant findings for hoteliers in Malaysia, in order to achieve the ever higher labor productivity in Malaysia hotel industry. Therefore, it is targeted to hoteliers in Malaysia primarily located in Kuala Lumpur. Lastly, a questionnaire has been included in this study and carried out on hoteliers of Kuala Lumpur in order to measure the impact of TQM factors towards labor productivity. 1.7 Significance of Study The importance of this study is to explore the relationship between the selected TQM factors and labor productivity in the context of Malaysia hotel industry. Similar research studies have been done to prove the relationship between the TQM factors and productivity. However, most of it were not focusing on the hotel industry. Some of them might have focused in hotel industry, but the issue of applicability remains noticeable. For that reason, this study is focusing in the Malaysia hotel industry as an applicable guideline and reference for the Malaysia hoteliers. Besides that, this study will be able to contribute relevant information to the Tourism Malaysia Promotion Board (Malaysian Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism). In Section 1.3, it shows the importance of tourism is to the nation GDP. Furthermore, hotel industry is relatively important to the country as an accommodation means for tourists to visit Malaysia. In addition, through this study, government is now able to identify unsuitable approaches and strategies. Therefore, essential action such as coming out new incentives scheme can be taken to effectively replace the old ones. Thus, national resources can be distributed and used even more effective and efficient than ever. As to hoteliers, this study helps to lighten their worries when first implementing the TQM as they are now getting more supporting evidence from this study. According to Yesawich (1997), building customer loyalty is one of the biggest challenges for the hotel industry. Successfully implemented TQM contributes to customer satisfaction. From customer satisfaction, loyalty and profits are positively related. In other word, TQM can potentially overcome one of the biggest challenges in hotel industry. At the same time, organizations can enjoy the benefits from TQM such as creating competitive advantage, providing unique services and so forth. 1.8 Organization of Study The organization of this research study comprises of 5 chapters. This research study begins with Chapter 1 that covers the introduction for the chosen topic. It consists of the background of study and hotel industry in Malaysia. Next, problem statements, research objectives, scope of study and the significance of study are laid out in different section. Lastly, organization of study that shows the overall flow of this study ends the Chapter 1. Chapter 2 provides the literature review for the chosen topic. It includes all the related empirical studies that have been done by the previous researchers. Several of viewpoint, definition and argument have been included in this chapter as well. For instance, different point of views from different researchers for the same variable can be found here. Chapter 3 outlines the overall methodology being used in this research study. It shows the research framework together with the explanation and hypothesis of the framework. Besides, data collection method, sources of data, sampling method and sampling size will be discussed in separated section. Furthermore, there is the outline of the questionnaire development and scaling techniques before discussion of data analysis and measurement close the chapter. Chapter 4 discusses the findings and the results of this research study. Therefore, all related chart, graph, data will be included in this chapter. This chapter basically ends with the interpretation and discussion regarding all of the findings. Finally, conclusions and recommendations will be formed and given to readers. It concludes which TQM factors have a stronger effect and vice versa. Besides that, limitations of this study will also be included. The following figure shows the overall outline of this study. Figure 1.2: Flow Chart of Study CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview This chapter develops and provides the foundation for this research study. Previous works done by other researchers that relate to labor productivity, total quality management, customer focus, human resource management, information analysis, leadership and strategic management are all presented in this chapter. Besides, in order to gain a better understanding of this research, viewpoints from different researchers are then compare and contrast in this chapter. 2.2 Labor Productivity In the 21st century, productivity growth plays an important role in GDP growth of any nation. According Chapman, Murray Mellor (1997), the use of sales per employee has been widely used to measure labor productivity for individual companies. Besides, Sauian (2002) says that in knowledge-based economy, competitive advantage can be maintained through â€Å"high productivity† and efficiency. In the other way round, labor productivity is an important element used to gauge competitiveness in producing goods and services (Sauian, 2002). Moreover, Hoffman Mehra (1998) argues that high productivity effects are impossible to sustain without a quality-based process-oriented environment which emanates from the support of employees, upper management, and the organization. Malaysia registered a productivity growth of 2.9 percent from RM 48,113 in year 2007 to RM 49,526 in year 2008. Furthermore, productivity contributed 62.2 percent while employment contributed 37.8 percent to the GDP growth of 5.98 percent. This growth surpassed several major countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As shown in Figure 2.1, the Rep. of Korea recorded a productivity growth as much as 3.6 percent, the USA (2.1 percent), the Japan (0.8 percent), the Australia (0.4), the Germany (0.1 percent) and the rest had zero or negative growth (Malaysia Productivity Corporation [MPC], 2009). Figure 2.1: Productivity Growth of Malaysia and Selected OECD Countries, 2008 (Adapted From: MPC, Annual Productivity Report 2008) Thomas (1994) defined the simplest form of labor productivity (LP) as the hours of work divided by the units of work accomplished. In general, LP is a measure of output from a production as per unit of input. Therefore, it can be expressed as: LP From the above formula, LP consists of the total output and total input. It can be in terms of a particular production, a department, an organization or even a nation. In general, if we want to increase productivity, it is necessary to increase the systems output, if the input is to remain constant. Similarly, if the systems output is to maintain the status quo, then we need to utilize less input. From a different aspect, if both output and input are increased, then it is mathematically obvious that the rate of increase of output should be higher than the rate of increase of input, if productivity needs to be improved (Sauian, 2002). Therefore, in order to achieve higher LP, input and output should be manipulated in various ways. Schonewille (2001) said the effectiveness of training is lower compared to initial education when comes to contributing to labor productivity. Even thought training has smaller effects on labor productivity, still the estimated coefficient is positive (Schonewille, 2001). A number of researchers have proven the positive impact of quality on productivity, whereas both can influence positively profitability (Bylund Lapidoth, 1994). This relationship has been generally accepted within the manufacturing industry (Chase Aquilano, 1995). However in reality, LP is a much more complex phenomenon which largely depends on quite diverse factors such as workers competence, motivation, supervision and so forth. Also, management does affect LP (Enshassi, Mohamed, Mayer, Abed, 2007). Chapman and Al-Khawaldeh (2002) has investigated the relationship between TQM implementation and labor productivity in industrial companies in Jordan, as shown in Figure 2.2. The results of data analysis indicate that there is a positive relationship between TQM (and each TQM element) and labor productivity. Interestingly, it is found that companies with ISO 9000 certification has high positive slope whereas companies without ISO 9000 certification has low positive slope. 2.3 Total Quality Management (TQM) TQM emerged in the mid-1980s in response to Japans invasion of US markets with their high quality-low price automobiles and electronic products. Quality has been defined differently as conformance to requirement (Crosby, 1979), fitness for use (Juran, 1979), continual improvement (Deming, 1982) and as define by customers (Ford, 1990). Whereby, Spitzer (1993) called TQM â€Å"the only source of sustainable competitive advantage†. Also, TQM is continually satisfying agreed customer requirements at lowest cost through harnessing everyones commitment (Burton Franckeiss, 1994). In theory, TQM seems to assure performance improvement for any organization. But, in practice, TQM works for some organization and not for others (Terzioski, 2006). According to Chapman and Al-Khawaldeh (2002), TQM is a key strategy for maintaining competitive advantage and is a way of managing organizations to improve its overall effectiveness and performance towards achieving world-class status. During the last two decades or so, simple inspection activities have been replaced or supplemented by quality control, quality assurance has been developed and refined, and now most companies are working towards TQM (Dale Bunney, 1999). Dale (1999) indentifies four discrete stages: inspection, quality control, quality assurance and TQM, as shown in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.3: The four levels in the evolution of Total Quality Management (Sources: Adapted from Dale Bunney, Total Quality Management Blueprint, 1999) Inspection is defined as â€Å"activities such as measuring, examining, testing or gauging one or more characteristic of an entity and comparing the results with specified requirement in order to establish whether conformity is achieved for each characteristic† (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). Quality control is defined as â€Å"operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements for quality† (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). Quality assurance is defined as â€Å"all the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system and demonstrated as needed to provide adequate confidence that an entity will fulfill requirements for quality† (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). TQM is the highest level which involves the application of quality management principles to all aspects of the business, including customers and suppliers. It is then defined as the management approach of an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). A number of research studies have been carried out to investigate the impact of TQM factors and implementation (Sila Ebrahimpour, 2005; Khan, 2003; Terzioski, 2006). Miller (1993) reported that success with TQM depends on the facilitating conditions. Leadership, human resource management and some other TQM factors are found to have positive impact on business results (Sila Ebrahimpour, 2005). Therefore, these findings can be reasonably useful in assisting managers so that they can allocate resources to improve their typical routines to obtain the best results. Next, five TQM factors have been selected as the independent variables for this study, namely (1) Customer Focus, (2) Human Resource Management (HRM), (3) Information and Analysis, (4) Leadership and (5) Strategic Planning. It is said that customer focus pays more attention on the customers whereas the rest of TQM factors have focused on the internal aspect of the organization. As for HRM, it focuses on the practices involved in carrying out the â€Å"people† of a management position. Information and analysis is said to be the information and communication technology used to further enhance labor productivity as automation has been widely used. Leadership is important as it creates synergy for achieving favorable business results whereas strategic planning is a set of process undertaken in order to develop a range of strategies that will contribute to achieve organization direction. Further elaboration and review for each variable will be discussed in different sub-section lat er. 2.3.1 Customer Focus According to Dean and Bowen (1994), customer focus is as important as many other TQM practices to organizational performance. Being customer-focused keeps us aware of quality, or rather it focuses our quality initiatives on what really matters to the customers (Cox, 1997). Also, Piercy (1995) says that TQM has too much focused on the internal aspect of the organization and much less attention on the customers. Customer satisfaction begins by discovering precisely what customers want and gearing every practice to their exact expectations (Kearney, 1994). Customer focus has changed mass production to mass customization. In addition, being far from depersonalizing the world, technology has the power to return us to being treated as individuals while getting all the benefits inherent in large-scale enterprise (Cox, 1997). Sousa (2003) pointed out the importance of customer focus lies in the fact that it is the starting point of any quality initiative. However, it has not received enough attention from quality management researchers (Cai, 2009). In the final decade of twentieth century, the term, customer-centered competition has been introduced. Customer-centered company is a company that focuses on customer developments in designing its marketing strategies and on delivering superior value to its target customers (Kotler Armstrong, 2008). It is common to hear the statement â€Å"customer is always right† in any organization. This could be the trend that organization is to focus on customer needs to be customer-led, to be market-oriented, to care for customers and so forth (Piercy, 1995). These are to make total customer satisfaction a strategic foundation for achieving competitive advantage (Kearney, 1994). Customer focus has been therefore defined as the degree to which firms continuously satisfy customer needs and expectations (Philips, Chang, Buzzell, 1983). The difference between customer focus and customer understanding is, according to Lagrosen (2001), mainly a matter of perspective. Customer focus means the activities of the companies are intended to benefit the customer but the customer is seen from the companies own perspective. Therefore, effects are usually being made to gain information about the customers needs and wants, although always in a set framework that originates in the companies view of the product and its features. Whereby, customer understanding needs perspective to be shifted. It means the company needs to gain entry to the customers own perspective and adopt the customers framework of viewing the product (Lagrosen, 2001). Cai (2009) found that organizational customer focus affects customer relationship practices, which subsequently influence production performance and customer satisfaction, and production performance and customer satisfaction lead to financial outcomes. Ooi, Bakar, Arumugam, Vellepan, and Loke (2007) says TQM practices such as teamwork, reward and recognition, customer focus and organizational trust are positively associated with job satisfaction within their organization. For instance, customer focus was found to have a direct influence on emplo Analysis of the Hotel Industry in Malaysia Analysis of the Hotel Industry in Malaysia CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview Basically, this chapter is an introduction of the research topic. In the Section 1.2, it briefly introduces the background of this study. Introduction of hotel industry in Malaysia is included in Section 1.3. Next, problem statements are explained in Section 1.4 while the research objectives are laid out in Section 1.5. Besides, Section 1.6 and Section 1.7 have included the scope of study and the significance of this study respectively. Lastly, Section 1.8 is about the explanation of the organization of this study with a flow chart attached depicting the tasks to be carried out. 1.2 Background of Study In todays increasingly competitive and complex business environment, being sustainable in the business arena is no longer the mission of any of the organization, but to grow. Competitive advantage gives organization to shield and isolate itself temporary from the intensive competitive environment. This advantage could be taken away when competitors improved their products or services that potentially make more appealing to customers. Therefore, organization requires a never-ending process of continuous improvement. The word kaizen has been used by Japanese for describing this ongoing process of unending improvement by setting and achieving of ever-higher goals that involves both managers and workers (Imai, 1996; Heizer Render, 2006). Over the years, organizations from every industry keep coming out new products, either with a different exterior or equipped with better and more advanced features. For example, todays mobile phones have almost the same function as a computer except with a smaller screen and size, auto industry comes out cars that strongly emphasize on performance, safety, comfortably, elegance and so forth. Same thing goes to services, organizations come out with services that are tailored to every customers. As a result, this provides what the customers are really wanted and undoubtedly, customer satisfaction increased. For instance, Tune Hotels has made all services as optional, from breakfast, air-conditioned room to water-heated bathroom (TuneHotels.com, 2009). All of these are normally being provided as a package in any other hotels. As a consequence, customers have the right to select which services they want and they are being charged according to what services they have selected. To sum it u p, organizations in 21st century are being very innovative in serving their customers. Instead of merely come out with novel products and services, organizations have to look into the quality issue of the products or services produced. Customers will never be satisfied if the products or services they received have no quality, regardless of how novel and unique it is. Here we need to look into quality issue. According to Blankenship and Petersen (1999), W. Edwards Deming is known most widely for his work in quality management. Demings 14 points help Japan in achieving very high levels of quality in products and turn out to be a great shock for the westerners because Japanese goods were perceived at low quality and cheapness before this. He used statistics to examine production processes for flaws and greatly influenced Japanese industry as it rebuilt in the years after World War II. Today, TQM is a popular topic for quality management. TQM is called total because it entire the whole organization, from the supplier to customer (Sharmma, 2008). In other words, TQM talks about the satisfaction of customer, supplier, and employee. Furthermore, quality assurance systems such as statistical process control, quality control and better conformance quality are lined to better business performance (Dick, 2000). Other than that, people in todays world are relatively concern with the quality of the products and services they purchase. With the advancement of Information Technology (IT), gathering information regarding quality for various products has no longer a time-consuming task. All of this information can be gathered with only a few clicks. For that reason, quality has become one of the considerations at customers pre-purchase stage. Since the quality has become more and more important nowadays, a non-govermental organization (NGO) named International Organization of Standardization (ISO) has published the ISO 9000 series of quality standards at year 1987 (Dick, 2000). The ISO 9000 series of international quality system standards provides a framework for a basic quality assurance system and a good starting point for achieving total quality (Evan Lindsay, 1999). Generally speaking, businesses can base the development of their products and services on reference documents which have broad market relevance. This, in turn, means that they are increasingly free to compete on many markets around the world. As on the customer side, the worldwide compatibility of technology which is achieved when products and services are based on International Standards brings them an increasingly wide choice of offers (ISO, 2009). By implementing TQM, both the organizations and customers can enjoy ever greater benefits. From the aspect of organizations, in reality, both the tangible and intangible ones are offered by TQM, such as cost savings for the employer and greater job satisfaction for the employee (Gunasekaram, Goyal, Martikainen, Yli-Olli, 1998). According to Shemwell, Tavas, Bilgin (2008), the key to sustainable competitive advantage lies in delivering high quality service that will in turn result in satisfied customers. In addition, Dick (2000) has proven that better quality does have a consistent positive relationship with improved business performance. Figure 1.1: Two Ways Quality Improves Profitability (Adapted From: Heizer and Render, Operations Management, 2006.) Also, Heizer and Render (2006) says profits can be increased by improved quality as the figure depicted above. Firstly, improved quality generally leads to both sales gains and reduced cost. This is because improved response, higher prices and improved reputation are all make sales gain happened. Moreover, reduction of cost happens when productivity increases, rework and scrap costs decreases and warranty costs decreases. Therefore, profits will be increased when expenditures (costs) have been lowered and revenue (sales) has been increased. 1.3 Hotel Industry in Malaysia As a sub-sector to services sector, tourism has an increase in foreign exchange earnings from RM17.3 billion in year 2000 to RM46.1 billion in 2007 (Bank Negara Malaysia [BNM], 2008). It shows that tourism had a growth in its revenue for 166% in a period of only 7 years. This is largely due to the effects of campaigns â€Å"Visit Malaysia Year† (Poon Low, 2005) and â€Å"Cuti-cuti Malaysia†. Up-to-date, tourism has recorded total receipts of RM49,561.2 million for the year 2008, an increment of RM3,491.2 million from year 2007 (Tourism Malaysia Corporate, 2009). Spillover effects have been generated by the increase in tourism activities into other sectors of the economy. In other words, the steadily growth of tourism industry has contributed to the growth of all related industries and businesses. These included hotel industry, retail businesses, restaurants and transportation (Bank Negara Malaysia [BNM], 2008). Hotel industry plays a very important role in complementing tourism as it provides accommodation to travelers and tourists. Nevertheless, hotel industry has been a major player in the growth of the Malaysian economy, which contributing approximately 50 percent of the nations real GDP (Awang, Ishak, Radzi, Taha, 2008). As today, there are approximately 105 hotels with different ratings and sizes in Kuala Lumpur alone (Malaysian Association of Hotels [MAH], 2009). This has shown that Kuala Lumpur has an incredibly high density of hotels. Here the problem arises, how is the hotel industry in Kuala Lumpur cope with the never ending increase of tourists and travelers? In this context, it seems not possible to provide more rooms by simply adding the number of hotels in Kuala Lumpur. This is because the land area of Kuala Lumpur has only 244km ², meaning that there will be 1 hotel in every 2.3km ². In this sense, hoteliers have to find other ways to increase their productivities. In recent years, governments from all over the world have been putting more and more emphasis in developing services industry in their countries. They are all now aware of the unique characteristic of services and its importance in supporting a countrys economic growth. Business services showed the strongest growth in terms of value added and economic productivity (Wirtz Ehret, 2009). Theoretically, any organization in developing countries must endeavor continuously to improve productivity in order to increase profitability (Oluleye Olajire, 2001). As a consequence to the Malaysia economy, a higher amount of GDP will be recorded, more and more employment will be provided and so on. Hence, these have made hotel industry as a key sub-sector to services industry and these social responsibilities should not be overlooked by hoteliers in Malaysia. 1.4 Problem Statements In general, Malaysian will have perception saying that things made by western countries and Japan have higher quality, things from China have no quality and so forth. This is partially true in reality, majority of the Malaysians opt to buy import goods where there is an option for them. Therefore, local made products are usually having less supports from Malaysian as it has been perceived to be low quality in terms of unreliable and unattractive (Damodaran, 2009). This shows that local made products have lesser competency even in local market. Consequently, government encourages both the manufacturer and services provider to look seriously in quality issue by giving several incentives (Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council [MREPC], 2009). However, the outcomes of it are not up to the expectation. This may due to the inadequate research carry out in Malaysia. Thus, organizations especially the small size ones will definitely lack of information when trying to implement quality man agement system. Kuala Lumpur is one of the major cities in Malaysia with an estimated of 1.6 million of population at the year 2005 (KL City Plan 2020, 2009) and it is to be said as the fastest growing region in Malaysia. This figure says that Kuala Lumpur is the most densely populated district in Malaysia. Moreover, Kuala Lumpur has a vast number of tourists and it increases over years. Just to name a few, its major tourist destinations include Dataran Merdeka (the Independence Square), House of Parliament, the Istana Budaya, the Istana Negara (National Palace), the Kuala Lumpur Tower, the Muzium Negara (National Museum), Petaling Street and etc (Tourism Malaysia, 2009). With the limited land that Kuala Lumpur has, it is almost impossible to build more hotels in order to cater the increasing number of tourist in the near future. Therefore, several actions have to be taken in order to best serve the tourists with the limited number of hotels in Kuala Lumpur. This is to ensure that the receipts from tourism will not be negatively affected while the hotel industry can continuously contribute significantly to GDP. As time goes by, Human Resource Management (HRM) has become a popular topic than ever before. Organizations have understood the importance of employees (human resources). At the same time, empirical research studies have been done by researchers to further understand and prove those theories related to motivate and compensate employees. Dessler (2005) says that employee satisfaction and performance are positively related. Therefore, hoteliers must understand the importance to maximize their employee satisfaction as this could lead to greater business performance. However, by solely compensating employees with both monetary and non-monetary rewards has its limitation. Performance will stop increasing when the problem arises are not come from employees but the management. For instance, it could be lacking a well-planned system in executing tasks, ineffective communications in organization and so forth. In other countries, TQM has been so popular for a period of time as it helps organiz ations to achieve even higher of performance. In other countries, plenty of research studies have been carried out to investigate which TQM factors are the most influential to the particular country. Unlike in Malaysia, the number of TQM study that can be applied is limited and lacking of guidelines for hoteliers is still a major problem. Someone could say that hoteliers can simply use the findings from other countries as a guideline for implementing the TQM. But, there is always a high possibility that those mentioned as important factors are not important in Malaysia, when compared to the original country that the research is carried out. In other words, it is imperative to understand the applicability of the findings from other countries. The applicability of some of the findings from research still remains questionable. For example, information and analysis, one of the TQM factors is said to be extremely important to developed and developing countries but it is not persuasive enough to apply on third world countries. This is because they probably lack of necessary infrastructure. Therefore, it can be said that Malaysias hoteliers are actually lack of a blueprint when initially applying TQM to their respective hotels. In other words, hoteliers may not known which factors of TQM can generally lead to better performa nce in the Malaysia. Furthermore, with the limited of number of such research available to Malaysia, it has nothing to show hoteliers how strong the impact of TQM factors is to labor productivity, thus lack of motivation to change their routine and ways of doing business. When this occurs, Malaysia hotel industry can never be improved, previously owned competitiveness can be competed away and GDP can be affected. 1.5 Research Objectives The general objective of this study is to identify the impact of each of the selected TQM factors towards the labor productivity. Next, it is then to be expressed in term of its level of correlation between each of the independent variables and the dependent one. Therefore, this result could be used by the Malaysia hoteliers in increasing their labor productivity as these findings will show which of the independent variables plays a more important role in achieving higher labor productivity in the Malaysia context. The following objectives are specifically derived from the problem statements: To identify the relationship between the chosen independent variables and dependent variable; To investigate the level of impact for each of the chosen TQM factors towards labor productivity; To determine whether high TQM commitment hotels will generally generate higher labor productivity than the low TQM commitment hotels; and To provide insights and recommendations for improvement to Malaysias hoteliers at the end of the research. 1.6 Scope of Study The scope of this study covers a discussion on TQM as well as the importance of productivity. As the scope of both TQM and productivity are broad, this study will primarily focus on the aspect of TQM factors and labor productivity. Besides, this study investigates the relationship between selected TQM factors and labor productivity. Theoretically, those selected TQM factors is to be said to have influences on the labor productivity. Therefore, this research is also carried out with the intention to identify the degree of impact of the selected TQM factors towards labor productivity, either a stronger or a weaker one. Moreover, this research is intended to provide useful and relevant findings for hoteliers in Malaysia, in order to achieve the ever higher labor productivity in Malaysia hotel industry. Therefore, it is targeted to hoteliers in Malaysia primarily located in Kuala Lumpur. Lastly, a questionnaire has been included in this study and carried out on hoteliers of Kuala Lumpur in order to measure the impact of TQM factors towards labor productivity. 1.7 Significance of Study The importance of this study is to explore the relationship between the selected TQM factors and labor productivity in the context of Malaysia hotel industry. Similar research studies have been done to prove the relationship between the TQM factors and productivity. However, most of it were not focusing on the hotel industry. Some of them might have focused in hotel industry, but the issue of applicability remains noticeable. For that reason, this study is focusing in the Malaysia hotel industry as an applicable guideline and reference for the Malaysia hoteliers. Besides that, this study will be able to contribute relevant information to the Tourism Malaysia Promotion Board (Malaysian Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism). In Section 1.3, it shows the importance of tourism is to the nation GDP. Furthermore, hotel industry is relatively important to the country as an accommodation means for tourists to visit Malaysia. In addition, through this study, government is now able to identify unsuitable approaches and strategies. Therefore, essential action such as coming out new incentives scheme can be taken to effectively replace the old ones. Thus, national resources can be distributed and used even more effective and efficient than ever. As to hoteliers, this study helps to lighten their worries when first implementing the TQM as they are now getting more supporting evidence from this study. According to Yesawich (1997), building customer loyalty is one of the biggest challenges for the hotel industry. Successfully implemented TQM contributes to customer satisfaction. From customer satisfaction, loyalty and profits are positively related. In other word, TQM can potentially overcome one of the biggest challenges in hotel industry. At the same time, organizations can enjoy the benefits from TQM such as creating competitive advantage, providing unique services and so forth. 1.8 Organization of Study The organization of this research study comprises of 5 chapters. This research study begins with Chapter 1 that covers the introduction for the chosen topic. It consists of the background of study and hotel industry in Malaysia. Next, problem statements, research objectives, scope of study and the significance of study are laid out in different section. Lastly, organization of study that shows the overall flow of this study ends the Chapter 1. Chapter 2 provides the literature review for the chosen topic. It includes all the related empirical studies that have been done by the previous researchers. Several of viewpoint, definition and argument have been included in this chapter as well. For instance, different point of views from different researchers for the same variable can be found here. Chapter 3 outlines the overall methodology being used in this research study. It shows the research framework together with the explanation and hypothesis of the framework. Besides, data collection method, sources of data, sampling method and sampling size will be discussed in separated section. Furthermore, there is the outline of the questionnaire development and scaling techniques before discussion of data analysis and measurement close the chapter. Chapter 4 discusses the findings and the results of this research study. Therefore, all related chart, graph, data will be included in this chapter. This chapter basically ends with the interpretation and discussion regarding all of the findings. Finally, conclusions and recommendations will be formed and given to readers. It concludes which TQM factors have a stronger effect and vice versa. Besides that, limitations of this study will also be included. The following figure shows the overall outline of this study. Figure 1.2: Flow Chart of Study CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview This chapter develops and provides the foundation for this research study. Previous works done by other researchers that relate to labor productivity, total quality management, customer focus, human resource management, information analysis, leadership and strategic management are all presented in this chapter. Besides, in order to gain a better understanding of this research, viewpoints from different researchers are then compare and contrast in this chapter. 2.2 Labor Productivity In the 21st century, productivity growth plays an important role in GDP growth of any nation. According Chapman, Murray Mellor (1997), the use of sales per employee has been widely used to measure labor productivity for individual companies. Besides, Sauian (2002) says that in knowledge-based economy, competitive advantage can be maintained through â€Å"high productivity† and efficiency. In the other way round, labor productivity is an important element used to gauge competitiveness in producing goods and services (Sauian, 2002). Moreover, Hoffman Mehra (1998) argues that high productivity effects are impossible to sustain without a quality-based process-oriented environment which emanates from the support of employees, upper management, and the organization. Malaysia registered a productivity growth of 2.9 percent from RM 48,113 in year 2007 to RM 49,526 in year 2008. Furthermore, productivity contributed 62.2 percent while employment contributed 37.8 percent to the GDP growth of 5.98 percent. This growth surpassed several major countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As shown in Figure 2.1, the Rep. of Korea recorded a productivity growth as much as 3.6 percent, the USA (2.1 percent), the Japan (0.8 percent), the Australia (0.4), the Germany (0.1 percent) and the rest had zero or negative growth (Malaysia Productivity Corporation [MPC], 2009). Figure 2.1: Productivity Growth of Malaysia and Selected OECD Countries, 2008 (Adapted From: MPC, Annual Productivity Report 2008) Thomas (1994) defined the simplest form of labor productivity (LP) as the hours of work divided by the units of work accomplished. In general, LP is a measure of output from a production as per unit of input. Therefore, it can be expressed as: LP From the above formula, LP consists of the total output and total input. It can be in terms of a particular production, a department, an organization or even a nation. In general, if we want to increase productivity, it is necessary to increase the systems output, if the input is to remain constant. Similarly, if the systems output is to maintain the status quo, then we need to utilize less input. From a different aspect, if both output and input are increased, then it is mathematically obvious that the rate of increase of output should be higher than the rate of increase of input, if productivity needs to be improved (Sauian, 2002). Therefore, in order to achieve higher LP, input and output should be manipulated in various ways. Schonewille (2001) said the effectiveness of training is lower compared to initial education when comes to contributing to labor productivity. Even thought training has smaller effects on labor productivity, still the estimated coefficient is positive (Schonewille, 2001). A number of researchers have proven the positive impact of quality on productivity, whereas both can influence positively profitability (Bylund Lapidoth, 1994). This relationship has been generally accepted within the manufacturing industry (Chase Aquilano, 1995). However in reality, LP is a much more complex phenomenon which largely depends on quite diverse factors such as workers competence, motivation, supervision and so forth. Also, management does affect LP (Enshassi, Mohamed, Mayer, Abed, 2007). Chapman and Al-Khawaldeh (2002) has investigated the relationship between TQM implementation and labor productivity in industrial companies in Jordan, as shown in Figure 2.2. The results of data analysis indicate that there is a positive relationship between TQM (and each TQM element) and labor productivity. Interestingly, it is found that companies with ISO 9000 certification has high positive slope whereas companies without ISO 9000 certification has low positive slope. 2.3 Total Quality Management (TQM) TQM emerged in the mid-1980s in response to Japans invasion of US markets with their high quality-low price automobiles and electronic products. Quality has been defined differently as conformance to requirement (Crosby, 1979), fitness for use (Juran, 1979), continual improvement (Deming, 1982) and as define by customers (Ford, 1990). Whereby, Spitzer (1993) called TQM â€Å"the only source of sustainable competitive advantage†. Also, TQM is continually satisfying agreed customer requirements at lowest cost through harnessing everyones commitment (Burton Franckeiss, 1994). In theory, TQM seems to assure performance improvement for any organization. But, in practice, TQM works for some organization and not for others (Terzioski, 2006). According to Chapman and Al-Khawaldeh (2002), TQM is a key strategy for maintaining competitive advantage and is a way of managing organizations to improve its overall effectiveness and performance towards achieving world-class status. During the last two decades or so, simple inspection activities have been replaced or supplemented by quality control, quality assurance has been developed and refined, and now most companies are working towards TQM (Dale Bunney, 1999). Dale (1999) indentifies four discrete stages: inspection, quality control, quality assurance and TQM, as shown in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.3: The four levels in the evolution of Total Quality Management (Sources: Adapted from Dale Bunney, Total Quality Management Blueprint, 1999) Inspection is defined as â€Å"activities such as measuring, examining, testing or gauging one or more characteristic of an entity and comparing the results with specified requirement in order to establish whether conformity is achieved for each characteristic† (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). Quality control is defined as â€Å"operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements for quality† (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). Quality assurance is defined as â€Å"all the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system and demonstrated as needed to provide adequate confidence that an entity will fulfill requirements for quality† (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). TQM is the highest level which involves the application of quality management principles to all aspects of the business, including customers and suppliers. It is then defined as the management approach of an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society (BS EN ISO 8402, 1995). A number of research studies have been carried out to investigate the impact of TQM factors and implementation (Sila Ebrahimpour, 2005; Khan, 2003; Terzioski, 2006). Miller (1993) reported that success with TQM depends on the facilitating conditions. Leadership, human resource management and some other TQM factors are found to have positive impact on business results (Sila Ebrahimpour, 2005). Therefore, these findings can be reasonably useful in assisting managers so that they can allocate resources to improve their typical routines to obtain the best results. Next, five TQM factors have been selected as the independent variables for this study, namely (1) Customer Focus, (2) Human Resource Management (HRM), (3) Information and Analysis, (4) Leadership and (5) Strategic Planning. It is said that customer focus pays more attention on the customers whereas the rest of TQM factors have focused on the internal aspect of the organization. As for HRM, it focuses on the practices involved in carrying out the â€Å"people† of a management position. Information and analysis is said to be the information and communication technology used to further enhance labor productivity as automation has been widely used. Leadership is important as it creates synergy for achieving favorable business results whereas strategic planning is a set of process undertaken in order to develop a range of strategies that will contribute to achieve organization direction. Further elaboration and review for each variable will be discussed in different sub-section lat er. 2.3.1 Customer Focus According to Dean and Bowen (1994), customer focus is as important as many other TQM practices to organizational performance. Being customer-focused keeps us aware of quality, or rather it focuses our quality initiatives on what really matters to the customers (Cox, 1997). Also, Piercy (1995) says that TQM has too much focused on the internal aspect of the organization and much less attention on the customers. Customer satisfaction begins by discovering precisely what customers want and gearing every practice to their exact expectations (Kearney, 1994). Customer focus has changed mass production to mass customization. In addition, being far from depersonalizing the world, technology has the power to return us to being treated as individuals while getting all the benefits inherent in large-scale enterprise (Cox, 1997). Sousa (2003) pointed out the importance of customer focus lies in the fact that it is the starting point of any quality initiative. However, it has not received enough attention from quality management researchers (Cai, 2009). In the final decade of twentieth century, the term, customer-centered competition has been introduced. Customer-centered company is a company that focuses on customer developments in designing its marketing strategies and on delivering superior value to its target customers (Kotler Armstrong, 2008). It is common to hear the statement â€Å"customer is always right† in any organization. This could be the trend that organization is to focus on customer needs to be customer-led, to be market-oriented, to care for customers and so forth (Piercy, 1995). These are to make total customer satisfaction a strategic foundation for achieving competitive advantage (Kearney, 1994). Customer focus has been therefore defined as the degree to which firms continuously satisfy customer needs and expectations (Philips, Chang, Buzzell, 1983). The difference between customer focus and customer understanding is, according to Lagrosen (2001), mainly a matter of perspective. Customer focus means the activities of the companies are intended to benefit the customer but the customer is seen from the companies own perspective. Therefore, effects are usually being made to gain information about the customers needs and wants, although always in a set framework that originates in the companies view of the product and its features. Whereby, customer understanding needs perspective to be shifted. It means the company needs to gain entry to the customers own perspective and adopt the customers framework of viewing the product (Lagrosen, 2001). Cai (2009) found that organizational customer focus affects customer relationship practices, which subsequently influence production performance and customer satisfaction, and production performance and customer satisfaction lead to financial outcomes. Ooi, Bakar, Arumugam, Vellepan, and Loke (2007) says TQM practices such as teamwork, reward and recognition, customer focus and organizational trust are positively associated with job satisfaction within their organization. For instance, customer focus was found to have a direct influence on emplo