Management problem solving Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Management problem solving - Essay Example The very fact that now people are being considered as resource instead of liability marks the importance of human beings constituting this resource. Moe's too believes in valuing the contribution of its workforce. But at times situations arise which present not only a challenge, for the HR manager, to come out with effective solution to the issue but it also provides a wholesome learning experience i. Moe's is basically into services i.e. service sector organizing i.e. Moe's mission basically centers on welcoming the hunger of its customers and then satisfying it. The smiling staff spread the fragrance of a hearty "Welcome to Moe's!" when the customer walks in. Therefore Moe's is into hospitality events and not in production and manufacturing I used to tell the boys that customer satisfaction is the key to our success, and believed in positively motivating them to excel in life. Motivation in simplest terms can be defined as a means of providing motives. Motives can act towards making or breaking the work, towards doing a job more efficiently or for distorting the work environment. The lack of any positive motivation by the managers often results in an automatic provisioning of negative motivation.

Diabetes WA Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Diabetes WA - Research Paper Example The support of the NDSS is also shown carefully in this paper. In this particular paper most of the information are taken from the diabetes WA website and from some relevant secondary sources like books, journals and online reviews. Introduction: The Diabetes WA is a noble organization which is been helping people since long time in Western Australia. However, to have a strong position within the market the proper and suitable funds are required and at the same time the awareness must be distributed accordingly to attract more people towards it. The advertising and the marketing communication tools play a vital role in this matter. The proper advertising strategy is a must to keep the sustainability intact within the market for a longer time. The target group, micro and macro environmental factors are very much important in this scenario. It is very important to understand that no matter how strong a company is, but if it doesn’t have the potential to reach the target customer s or the target group then all of its strength will be lost very soon. Industry background: Diabetes is one of the most dangerous diseases in the medical field. It can create many problems like feeling weak, Wight loss, etc. the type 2 1 diabetes can be very stressful, it can have major effects on the human health (Weiner et al; 2003, 197). Diabetes has become a most common disease in Australia. It is been predicted that the diabetes would affect more than one million people in Australia (Hastings 2007, 322). It has been seen that one hundred and fifty people are diagnosed with diabetes every day in Australia. There are basically two types of diabetes and they are type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Among these, the type 2 diabetes is the fastest growing form of diabetes (Hastings 2007, 322). And this type of diabetes is mostly seen among the adults who are aged above forty. In the recent time almost 7 percent of the population in Australia had been detected with diabetes and it was predict ed that it would be almost 3.3 million Australians would carry diabetes within 2031 (Diabetes WA annual report 2010, 4). Within this industrial back ground a proper advertising strategy is very much important for the organization to attract the target group. The DAGMAR approach is important in this scenario and the innovative promotional activities are also very vital. From these figures it is very clear that the diabetes industry is growing very fast and it is taking a shape which is huge enough to rule the medical industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry. However, in this case the main mission of the Diabetes WA is not to create more diabetic patient it basically to help the people to prevent the diabetes. There are many micro and macro environmental factors are involved in this factor. The diabetes is a chronic disease and it can be fetal in some cases. However, the growth of the diabetes depends on many factors like living style, food habit, sugar intake etc. the macro an d micro environmental factors are very much involved in this case. And all these factors are closely related with the advertising strategies. The advertising campaign is basically to build the brand awareness about the NDSS and Diabetes WA. The growing industry and the growing number of diabetic people in the Western Australia have given a great potential to this particular advertising campa

Economic Analysis of Shanghai Port

Economic Analysis of Shanghai Port GROUP MEMBERS: Li Zhou (043-867-118) Botao Lin (053-077-129) Mingwei Tang (038-307-138) Yihong Wu (014-113-138) Introduction and Background: Introduction: Shanghai port is one of the most famous ports in the world; it is also the worlds busiest trading port. Shanghai ports foreign trade accounted for the major coastal port throughput of about 20% in China, government use Shanghai port to implement open-door policy and participate in the international economy. As statistics shown, Shanghai cargo and container throughput are among the top in the world in 2010. Location: Shanghai port is located in the central China coastline. â€Å"Situated at the junction of the West/East transport route by the Yangtze River and the South/North route along the seacoast† (shanghai port). Size: â€Å"Shanghai covers an area of 3,619.6km ² at the mouth of the Yangtze.†(Ship technology )The total quay length of about 20 kilometers and has 293 thousand square meters of warehouses.†(Port profile). Shanghai Port is the largest port in China. History: On November 17th 1843, Shanghai port was forced to operate by the Qing Government. A lot of foreign businessmen start swarmed into Shanghai. â€Å"They took notorious actions like appointment of foreign harbor master, designation of foreign vessel anchorages and berths, demarcation of apron waters, building of warehouses and yards, drug smuggling, human trafficking.†(Shanghai). This rampant phenomenon always occurs, but incompetent Qing government had no power to solve and prevent the phenomenon. After the Qing government reforms its own institutions, Shanghai port consolidated the rights and began to focus on trade. In 1853, â€Å"Shanghai became the largest foreign trade port in China. After the 1870’s, Shanghai Port evolved into the shipping center in China where contemporary industrial clusters took shape at both sides of Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek.†(Shanghai). At the beginning of the 20th Century, â€Å"Huangpu Fairway Bureau dredged and harnessed several sections of the Wusong Estuary and the Huangpu River so that 10,000-tonnage vessels might sail into the Huangpu River at high tide.†(Shanghai).Because a lot of investment development of the port, Shanghai port developed very rapidly. It facilitated the transport of goods; as a result Chinas economy has improved dramatically. Through more than half a century of endless efforts, Shanghai Port has become a one of the most modern and famous ports in a world. In the future, the Chinese government will continue the development of the port of Shanghai; it has become an important symbol of China. Globalization: Driven by open-door policy and economic globalization, the port became an important international connecting channel node. As an important port, Shanghai port is one of the most effected ports about international trade in the world. Therefore, China began to spend a lot of money and labor to develop the port of Shanghai. Under the influence of globalization, China is known as the worlds factory, most of the worlds low-cost products are made à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹in china. Moreover, Shanghai port not only maintains a good state, but it also has a perfect transportation system, as a result China developed close trading relationship with other countries. More and more international companies build factories or look for factories in China. This will stimulate the Chinese and the world economy. People witnessed the phenomenal growth of globalized Shanghai Port. Over the past decade, Shanghai’s throughput has increased more than two times of the original. In year 2008 to 2012, despite the economic crisis, Chinas port economy is still in a rising state. Compared with neighboring countries: South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Shanghai port has a clear price advantage. This is also a reason why numerous companies choose Shanghai. Shanghai port cargo throughput currently still has steady growth of 4.9 percent average annual growth rate. Since 2010, Shanghai is emerged as the worlds largest container port, and its containers throughput reached a record-breaking of 32.5 million TEU. Shanghai is a high efficiency, strong hinterland accessible world-class port. Cultural Considerations: Shanghai has different position in different times. In ancient times, from the Qin Dynasty to the Tang and Song dynasties, it gradually forms the edge of the center; from the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, it is in the prosperous city. In modern times, it is a Chinese mega-city. It is the largest port, the foreign exchanges base, the economic center, and most importantly one of the national cultural centers in China. Since 1949, it is still the Chinese mega-cities, Chinas industrial base, the financial backbone of the 1990s in the forefront of reform and opening up in China. Shanghai is located in the midpoint of the Chinese mainland coastline, the sea of the Yangtze River, where is on the â€Å"T shaped intersection. After shipping developed into such geographical conditions on the advantages of the port, through the Huangpu River, the Grand Canal and the southern waterways dense spider web, Shanghai became the hub of the Yangtze River Delta foreign trade. Therefore, since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanghai is one of the important foreign trade ports in China. After entering the modern history of the development of shipping and technology, the rapid development of oceanic trade, located in the Western Pacific hub of Shanghai route, ideal for port development and shipping trade of the world. Shanghai North and Tokyo, Osaka, Japan, the East and San Francisco, Los Angeles area, south of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, distances are relatively modest, after the opening of the Suez Canal, and the European transport more convenient. Remediation of the Hu angpu River in the early 20th century road carried, increasing the port’s deep-water berths and shoreline, construction of a number to meet the needs of large shipping docks, warehouses and stacks, a large port of Shanghai as an international condition more perfect. Competitive factors – locally, regionally, and internationally. SWOT Analysis: Strengths Strong market leadership: in 2010, shanghai overtook Singapore to become the busiest and largest port in the world. â€Å"China’s Shanghai port has retained its title as the worlds busiest container port in 2013 with a total throughput of 33.6m teu, up 3.4% from 32.5m teu in 2012.à ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã‹â€ shanghai)† Advantageous geographical location: Shanghai port located at the front edge of the Yangtze River Delta and near major global shipping routes. It’s one of major hub port in china and the china’s most important gateway for international trade. The port of shanghai is equipped with world’s biggest crane, high-tech trials and one of most advanced control systems that any containable. Moreover, they have some of best container port operators in the business. Weaknesses: 1) The port facilities cannot cope with such an increasing volume of exports and imports. Small player compared to its competitors: there is no doubt that shanghai is busiest and largest port in the world. However, compare with other competitor, Shanghai port has low port productivity. In time million tons of silt washed down the Yangtze River. Because of insufficient water depth, shanghai port is unable to accommodate big ship. (except Yangshan deep water port) Opportunities: 1) Government support: The government pay attention on shanghai port. â€Å"The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (PFTZ) officially launched and the existing Yangshan Free Trade Port Area will be included in the new zone.†(Free) 2) With the global expansion of business, more and more countries need to do the trade with china and import goods from china. Moreover, most â€Å"well know† brand’s majority of its goods are assembled or made in the Chinese mainland. 3) Deep-water port started operationà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¡Shanghai Yangshan port is able to accommodate big ship. Threats: The competition is increasing. The port of shanghai will face increasing amount of competitors from neighboring port. The rising fuel price and labor price. Successful Factors: The geographic of shanghai port is a key factor that lead to the success of this key seaport. Shanghai port located at the front edge of the Yangtze River Delta and near major global shipping routes. The shanghai port comprises a deep water port and a river port. â€Å"With a favorable geographical location, it made shanghai port becomes a key area of development for coastal trade during the Qing dynasty from 1644 to 1912.†(The world) The policy of government is a key factor that leads to the success of this key seaport. In 1842, China opened port to foreign trade. Throughout most of the Chinese history, Shanghai port plays an important role in import and export trade. â€Å"In 1991, the central government allowed Shanghai to initiate economic reform.† As result of this policy, the port of shanghai has developed rapidly. In 2013, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone officially launched and its first free trade zone is established in China. It definitely attract foreign investor investing in shanghai. With the global expansion of business, more and more countries need to do the trade with china and import goods from china. Competitive Factors: Shanghai Port is the worlds busiest container port in 2010. In 2010, Shanghai also took a quarter share of Chinas foreign trade. China is the largest container market in the world today. Consequently Beijing is focusing attention on Shanghai and hopes it will be a world-leading international shipping and financial center by 2020. In its 12th five-year plan, Beijing also emphasized the importance of the development of Hong Kongs maritime industry. The ports are considered crucial gateways: Shanghai to the booming Yangtze River Delta region and Hong Kong to the hugely successful Special Economic Zones in the Pearl River Delta region of southern China. Shanghais proximity to the Yangtze River Delta is expected to contribute to significant growth in port traffic driven by exports. However, with the development of the Yangshan Port approximately 27 kilometers from the coast of Shanghai, the Port has established competitive transshipment capabilities. Asias dominance in world seaborne trad e will require the continued development of ports and bonded areas to attract associated maritime services. Infrastructure is crucial but it is not the whole story: competitive strategies and collaboration through effective government policy will help shape the future success of individual ports. Although it has been suggested that the Port of Shenzhen may overtake the Port of Shanghai by the end of the decade, Shanghai’s increasing dominance in transshipment and more generally as a maritime center makes it a crucial comparator port to Hong Kong. This working paper will first identify the key features of the ports of Hong Kong and Shanghai. In order to identify disparities and opportunities, it will examine the regulatory framework of the Port of Shanghai, including incentives for the maritime industry. There is a substantial body of academic research concerning interaction between ports: predominantly in the fields of economics, management and transport logistics and geography. It is perhaps only through such a broad spectrum of analysis that the overall competitiveness of a port can be properly assessed–it is impossible to attribute the success or demise of a port to a single factor. Moreover, modern ports are a complex agglomeration of stakeholders including terminal operators, regulatory bodies, logistics companies, shipping lines, and many more. Although it is the intention that the present working paper focus on two specific aspects of maritime competitiveness, namely governmental regulation and policies, the wealth of discourse on port competition and integration is instructive and reference will be made where relevant. Process of the Seaport: Our goods will ship to Canada from Shang Hai seaport. Our good is clothes. We are going to ship our good by container ship. We will use closed general cargo container. We decided to use FCL as our containerized service, because our goods have huge export volume. We are going to pick regional service routes as our trade routes, because we have sufficient volume to commitment of direct services between Shanghai and Canada. If we want to ship goods to Toronto, we will use Macro land bridge internationalism, because it saves time and money. We will sign clean bill of lading with master of the ship to indicating the apparent order and condition of the goods received on board. Sustainability: â€Å"Shanghai is the largest Chinese city by population and the largest city proper by population in the world.†(from) â€Å"Shanghai is a global financial center, and a transport hub with the worlds busiest container port.†(from) â€Å"Shanghai sits on the Yangtze River Delta on Chinas eastern coast, and the main seaports area distributed along the Yellow River.† (shanghai) The Yangtze River and Huangpu River can provide fresh water for the seaport, and it is also ensures that the width of the ship into the territory and a lot of space ship anchor. There are some data shows that Shanghai seaport has all kinds of harbor berths of 1140, and wharves line length is 91.6 km. Container throughput in the feeder container volume 2,026,000 TEUs, international transit boxes 785,000 TEUs, domestic container throughput of 3,137,000 TEUs. By the end of 2006, Shanghai seaport container liner route to reach 2106 flights per month, of which 498 flights are ocean routes. In the first five months of 2013, Shanghai seaport handled 12.7 million TEU, but its biggest rival Singapores container volume was just 12.1 million TEU. Because of the low labour costs, more and more manufacturers would love to set up factories in western China. Therefore, Shanghai expected the throughput’s average annual growth rate to be about 10% in the next five years. Based on above six points, Shanghai is a big city that has great potential and sustainability of seaport in the future. Financial Analysis: Commodity description: clothing, T-shirt, fitted top in pima cotton jersey. Price per piece/unit: 1.3 CAD. Quantity of product: 10000 pieces. Total weight of shipment Weight: 18kg/per carton*100 = 1800kg. Total cube of shipment: 24m^3 Total Quantity: 100cartons. Carton: 80cm*50cm*60cm 0.8m*0.5m*0.6m = 0.24m^3 0.24m^3*100 = 24m^3 = 20ft container INCOTERM chosen: CIF and shanghai port as to incoterm 2010. Port of loading: Shanghai Port of destination: Montreal Total export price: 13000CAD. Total freight amount in Canadian dollars: ocean freight 1350CAD, inland freight 300CAD Total: 1350 CAD. Insurance premium (if applicable):0.8% war 0.08 Profit margin: 30% Total/final export price (based on INCOTERM chosen): 13000*(1+15%-9%)/ (1+15%) +1650 = 13632.6087 CAD 13632.6087/ (1 1.1*0.0088 0.3) = 19748.24531 CAD Citations About the Port of Shanghai.Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission. N.p., n.d. Web. 12Mar.2014. Port of Shanghai: Port Profile Freight Statistics, Container Shipping — Dedola Global Logistics.Freight Forwarder, Global Logistics, Supply Chain, Customs Broker Dedola Global Logistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 12Mar.2014. Port of Shanghai.Ship Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 12Mar.2014. from Shanghai Pudong airport to the Westin Bund Center.SHANGHAI. N.p., n.d. Web. 12Mar.2014. Shanghai.Artistopia Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 12Mar.2014. Shanghai retains crown as worlds busiest container port in 2013. Seatrade Global – Maritime News | Offshore News | Shipping News. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. free trade zone raises hopes-shanghai. BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. PortArea .com | World Leading Port Agent Center Port of Shanghai. PortArea .com | World Leading Port Agent Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. WPS Port of Shanghai review. World Port Source. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. The worlds busiest, handles 736m tonnes every year. Mail Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

Judaism in William Finns Falsettoland Essay -- Jewish Religion Religi

Judaism in William Finn's Falsettoland Judaism and Jewish culture have always been central to William Finn, writer of a trilogy of short works following Marvin, a homosexual living within the Jewish faith. Falsettoland itself forms the final part of the trilogy whilst In Trousers and March of the Falsettos are the first two instalments respectively. Christianity condemns homosexuality within its faith, therefore, surely Judaism would take a moral stand and condemn any theatrical portrayal of such events? Did the Reform movement which began to grow in America in the 1830s have any effect upon the time Falsettoland was written, and, if so, how was Falsettoland as a music theatre work subject to such effects? From the outset it is important to define the boundaries within which the term ‘Judaism’ and ‘Reform Judaism’ will be used. This paper focuses upon Judaism (be it Orthodox or Reform) within America and does not focus upon the origins of Judaism in Europe. Although perhaps some beliefs and moral standings were reflected across the Atlantic, for the purposes of this argument this will be negligible. When analysing the musical content of Falsettoland it is important that one does not get carried away on the intended meaning, although only suggested as a guide and personal response to the music, the analysis is by no means definite and as the author intended. We’re free to borrow from both European operatic tradition and American musical tradition, toss out what we don’t need and invent whatever creature we want, whatever we choose. And above all else, entertain.[1] Jewish life in America changed dramatically throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The majority of Jews being those wit... ...omosexuality? http://urj.org/ask/homosexuality/> Ø Storr, A. Music and the Mind (HarperCollins, 1997) Ø Volkman, E. A Legacy of Hate: Anti-Semitism in America (Franklin Watts, 1982) Discography =========== Ø Finn, W. Falsettoland (New York: DRG Records Inc, 1990) --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] LaChiusa, M.J. ‘I Sing of America’s Mongrel Culture’ in New York Times 14 November 1999) [2] Finn, W. Vocal selections from Falsettos (Warner Bros Publications Inc, 1992) p.86 [3] Storr, A. Music and the Mind (London: HarperCollins, 1997) p.187 [4] Rossoff, R.D. What is Judaism’s view on Homosexuality? Accessed 10 January 2005 [5] Katz, L.. ‘What is a Bar Mitzvah?’ In Your Guide to Judaism [6] Volkman, E. A Legacy of Hate: Anti-Semitism in America (Franklin Watts, 1982) p.10

Martin Luther King Speech

Martin Luther King Speech 1. Type of Document: Speech 2. 8/28/1963 3. Martin L. King 4. Black People 5. Document Information A. List three things the author said that you think are important: 1. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. 2.Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, which has come back marked â€Å"insufficient funds. † But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. 3. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. B. I think the document was written to specifically address not just black Americans but to p eople of all faiths, colors and persuasions.Martin Luther King Jr. knew that they were all in need of liberation from the cruel customs and habits of the nation’s past, which held back every one of another, no matter what the circumstances were or us in one way. C. â€Å" The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom†D. 1. The document states that when The Emancipation Proclamation was signed, it was the opening of new hope to millions of Negro slaves and was to put an end to all slavery. 2. About a hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, the Negro was still not free. The life of the Negro was sadly crippled by segregation and discrimination. Whites cheated the Negros like absolute g arbage and it lead to them living in poverty and in exile in his own land.E. Where there any Negros backs in the time when segregation was a major conflict that had some advantages over other Negros? F. Martin Luther King’s most famous speech draws heavily on his theological education and his superior command of the art of rhetoric. King basically starts out by pointing out that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, which ended slavery in all the southern states and then from there he moves on to discuss the â€Å"check† of freedom.He then states that the check has been returned due to insufficient funds which basically means that, â€Å"We the people refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. † King final lines of his speech comes back to his introductory idea, that even though black people were freed of slavery in 1865 when the Emancipatio n Proclamation was signed, they never actually have been free people.

Justify The Proposed Approaches Essay

My campaign has various links to the national campaign which has the same topic as mine. This campaign is called ‘reducing underage drinking; a collective responsibility. This campaign used the mass media approach and the community development approach similar to my campaign. In my campaign I have used three approaches and have embedded them into the creation of my campaign. These are the role of mass media, national campaign and involving health e educators. The first approach would be the role of mass media. As I have mentioned in a previous task, media can be presented in various forms such as through the television, radio, Magazines newspapers and billboards. I have chosen to use the media approach because I think it will be more applicable to my target audience. The age group that my campaign applies to are very knowledgeable in the world of media. Having our own twitter page gives our campaign the opportunity to be seen on a large scale, on an off change that someone coul d see our twitter account it could be very beneficial for them. However using the media as an approach does some with some disadvantages, such as not being able to teach vital skills. Using the media in our campaign didn’t allow us to go into detail and give the personal support that some individuals may need. Using twitter didn’t allow us to write much, only short sentences. This approach relates to the health belief model. The health belief model suggests that people will only seek help when they have to. Our target audience was forced to listen to our campaign as we were presenting it to them. But to them go away and search our twitter page because they needed help happens on their own accord, and has nothing to do with us. They will be seeking help because they believe that they may have been one of the teenage binge drinkers we aware talking about. The second approach is uses were the social marketing approach. Using this approach made me use my brain strategically to see if what I was doing in my campaign would had related to my audience. Using the social  marketing approach I decided to use an app to get some information across. Using an app was a good idea for my target audience. Most people in the room had an iPhone and were excited to hear that there was an app available. The excitement made people download it, hopefully the information on the app, and the help that is provided will have a positive effect on the adolescence. The model I used the theory of reasoned action. This is because my audience had had the intention to drink when they drink. But after my campaign and the information I showed them that intention changed. They now realised the problems that come with drinking at obsessive measures, and have changed their intentions to not wanting to drink. Now that the people who were in my audience have changed their intentions. According to the theory of reasoned action they will no longer be involved in drinking activity.

Music of new millenium essays

Music of new millenium essays Competencies are one of several factors, including performance results in determining annual pay adjustments. Valuing the how (high impact behaviors) of performance as well as the what (results). Reinforcing high impact behaviors through pay delivery. Critical to success, but a bad place to start; a good place to continue. Necessary for Top Performance but not Sufficient to Guarantee it Personal Attributes and Behaviors that Predict Longer-Term Success Job measurement is designed to calibrate organization roles. One compared to another. Focus is on the job, not the person in the job. The person is very important to us, but how the person is performing in the job comes later. The most critical feature of a job is what are its outputs. What are we asking the job to do for the organization. Compensation system design is not just about how much you pay but the relative relationship between roles and pay. When it comes to compensation, individuals are rarely objective about the impact of their own role or performance in that role. People, by nature, like to keep track of their career progress. Titles are important. Organization status is important. Pay is important. It is how we keep track. There is never enough money to go around. Compensation management is about balancing the allocation of a very scarce resourc ...

Homeschool vs Public School Essay

Homeschool vs Public School Essay Homeschool vs Public School Essay Although home schooling provides the opportunity for individualized learning based on the student's strengths, public schools provide trained educators and social opportunities for character development. Many people believe that one is better than the other. There are many disadvantages and advantages to both methods of schooling. Many parents today are deciding to home school their children to bring them out of a potentially dangerous environment that is public school. It is estimated that parents are now teaching over two million children at home, rather than in public or even private schools. Home schooling greatly benefits many students and parents. Home school provides a flexible schedule for the child and the parent. If the child has problems in one subject they can spend more time on that subject then having to rush on to another one where the child is more proficient. Another great advantage of home schooling is the ability to build better relationships within the family. When being with the parents all day as a teacher and a parent the student/child is able to get closer to their parent and is more likely to confide in them as opposed to a public schooled child. With special cases such as children in gymnastics, any child athletes, traveling families, and teenagers who might work all day having the flexibility of when you actually learn and do your school work is very beneficial. There are also some disadvantages to home school. Some of the parents who home school their children do not have the credentials to do so. This could be a matter of opinion of if it really matters or not if the parent is accredited to teach education. In public schools each teacher is educated in that specific subject so they are a sort of expert when it comes to that subject. When parents choose to home school their children they also have to take in the expense and this can be a huge disadvantage to some. The expenses include the curriculum, supplies and equipment, homeschool group dues, extracurricular activities, field trips, transportation and lost income. When adding all of these things up compared to public schooling it can be a discouraging factor. Public schooling has many great aspects to which most children excel in. First of all the students have the advantage of learning within a group setting, which is always conducive for critical thinking and learning. The wide variety of extracurricular activities provided at public schools is a huge selling point compared to none with homeschool. Also in a public school setting the students have a wider variety of curriculum to choose from as opposed to homeschool. Public school is also filled with students from different backgrounds and socioeconomic classes. This is the same environment adults live in so it is good for students to be able to see their different views, beliefs, and backgrounds. Another advantage of public schools is the diversity of people when it comes to their ethnic, disability, and social background to help students see how to socialize with others different from themselves. All in all, learning in a group setting, socializing with different kinds of people, and a choice of extracurricular activities make public schools very appealing. As appealing as public schools may seem there is definitely a down side to them as well. For example, public schools tend to have a high student to teacher ratio which makes for a rougher learning experience for those who struggle in school. Not having enough of that one on one attention can be very discouraging for a student who does not understand a certain topic or subject. Scheduled learning accompanies public schooling and can be tedious and frustrating to those who

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Essay Sample

I. Introduction Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ launched the 787 Dreamliner. a super-efficient aeroplane in order to run into the turning demands and penchants of an international audience across the Earth. An international squad of top aerospace companies is constructing the aeroplane. led by Boeing at its Everett. Washington installation near Seattle. ( Boeing. com ) Harmonizing to Boeing’s statement. the 787-8 Dreamliner will transport 210 – 250 riders on paths of 7. 650 to 8. 200 maritime stat mis ( 14. 200 to 15. 200 kilometres ) . while the 787-9 Dreamliner will transport 250 – 290 riders on paths of 8. 000 to 8. 500 maritime stat mis ( 14. 800 to 15. 750 kilometres ) . Additionally. the 787 jets provide air hoses with odd fuel efficiency. which overall is good to the planetary environment. The aircraft utilizes 20 per centum less fuel than likewise sized aeroplanes. The ends for betterments in fuel efficiency do non impede the aircrafts speed public presentation. The 787 will besides go at a similar velocity as today’s fastest broad organic structures. Mach 0. 85. Overall. the air hoses will that use the 787 Dreamliner will bask more cargo gross capacity. better interior environment. increased comfort. and more efficient public presentation. The background on the 787 plan shows the aircraft was launched in April 2004 with a record order from All-Nippon Airways. Numerous clients from across the universe have placed orders for 870 aeroplanes valued over $ 178 billion. doing it the most successful twin launch of a new commercial aeroplane in Boeing’s history. First flight of the 787 Dreamliner occurred on December 15. 2009. First bringing of the 787 to ANA took topographic point on Sept. 25. 2011. II. Beginnings of Construction Project Risk Uncertainty in building undertakings including that of building the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may originate from many beginnings and frequently involves many participants in the undertaking. Therefore. it is necessary for each participant to seek to minimise their ain hazard. This may make a clang between the assorted participants and as a consequence may be damaging to the undertaking. In order to extenuate these hazards. the construct of â€Å"risk sharing/risk assignment† contracts has gained credence by the federal authorities. This type of contract acknowledges the duties of the proprietors. the contract monetary values are expected to be lower than those in which all hazards are assigned to contractors. Beginnings of hazards in building undertakings may be classified as follows ( PM Book. 2012 ) : 1. Socioeconomic factors a. Environmental protection B. Public safety ordinance c. Economic instability d. Exchange rate fluctuation 2. Organizational relationships a. Contractual dealingss b. Attitudes of participants c. Communication 3. Technological jobs a. Design premises B. Site conditions c. Construction processs d. Construction occupational safety The environmental protection motion has contributed to the uncertainness for building because of alterations in the demands and the length of clip required for blessing taking into history clip for re-evaluations and added costs. A similar standard applies for Public safety ordinances. This will act upon the timeline and the budgets allocated for the undertaking itself. Economic conditions which have been fluctuating enormously in recent old ages besides contribute to project uncertainness. Changes in involvement rates and rates of rising prices will act upon the ability to finance a building undertaking. However. the uncertainness stemming from these fiscal facets of building should be at least mitigated or ideally eliminated with proper calculating techniques. During periods of economic enlargement. major capital outgos will raise the costs of building. and during periods of economic downswing these same costs may worsen. In order to command costs. some proprietors attempt to utilize fixed monetary value contracts so that the hazards of unanticipated eventualities related to an overheated economic system are passed on to contractors ( PM. 2012 ) . Businesss must factor in that contractors will raise their monetary values to counterbalance for the extra hazards. Technological alterations besides lead to a beginning of hazard among building undertakings. Promotions in new engineerings may show jobs to interior decorators and builders. hence increasing the hazards. New installations or engineerings may render the former obsolete and therefore impact the nature of the building. III. Systems to Address Construction Project Risk a. People- Make your squad accountable Each squad lead should be responsible for their squad. and each squad should be held accountable for the hazards involved in their section. They should be cognizant of the elements of the undertaking they are responsible for presenting and do them accountable by keeping review meetings each hebdomad to mensurate advancement. b. Technology-Forecast the hazards upfront Using the appropriate informations and engineering. it is of import to place the hazards of a undertaking up front. A hazard is an unanticipated event that mightnegatively impact on the undertaking in the hereafter ( Young. 20120 ) . Each hazard must be documented to analyse and find its likeliness and impact on the undertaking. c. Planning-Plan hazards sagely Proper planning will let building undertaking hazards to be known upfront. Therefore. a hazard program can be developed. The hazard program will enable the squad to place actions that can be taken to cut down the likeliness of the hazard happening. It will let for alternate scenarios or backups to be available. IV. Catastrophic Failure Fault Tree Discussion of Fault Tree A possible ruinous failure in building undertakings can happen from alterations in the economic conditions. Due to the recent province of the economic system. there have been legion alterations to the loaning market. These alterations may turn out ruinous to Boeing and its building of the 787 Dreamliner aircrafts. For illustration. in the scenario listed above. alterations in the ability to finance the undertaking may either render in unaffordable or may detain the expected timeline of completion. In the instance that Boeing is unable to afford the undertaking. it would hold to abandon the building of the aircrafts ; therefore it would be unable to present the aircrafts to the assorted air hoses which have ordered them. Therefore. it is of import for the company to maintain these factors in head when developing the undertaking hazards. For illustration. if the involvement rates were to lift. Boeing would be held accountable to pay higher costs to develop the aircrafts. Furthermore. if the Bankss were stricter in their loaning policies a higher down payment may be required. In both instances. if the company is unable to afford the higher involvement payments or the higher down payment. they would hold small room for dialogue and may hold to abandon the undertaking. However. if they are able to cover with these factors. which they should give. they must make a quantitative hazard analysis prior to the executing of the Dreamliner undertaking in order to guarantee the company’s ability to go on with the aircraft development in the instance of alterations in economic conditions. V. Course Project Part 1 The development of this state-of-the-art aeroplane will include an international squad of aerospace companies led by Boeing. The progresss in this aeroplane will cut down the usage of fuel by 20 % . addition lading capacity. increase maritime stat mis in a mid-range aeroplane. and better rider comfort. Boeing expects gross revenues of 3. 500 units over the following 20 old ages. ( Norris A ; Wagner. 2009 ) To truly understand the impact of multiple suppliers. along with the logistics to organize assembly. I will exemplify. discuss. and supply a decision utilizing two determination tree analyses. The first mistake tree will detail the bringing system and place the failure that could ensue in bringing failure. The 2nd mistake tree inside informations the deficiency of labour to piece the aeroplane. Both pose consequences that have the possible to financially impact the undertaking. The mistake tree diagram will supply a ocular representation of the hazard and assist analyse the cause by looking backwards to place the root cause. VI. Fault Tree One Discussion of Fault Tree One There are over 40 Companies/Business Units lending to the success of developing the 787 Dreamliner. Nine of the Companies/Business Unit of measurements are located outside of the United States. Given these two elements entirely there are a figure of mistakes that could do the concluding assembly and completion day of the month to be impacted. The first likely cause for losing the completion day of the month is the supply concatenation. The supply concatenation flow ensures the stuff is available harmonizing to the stock list degrees to go on edifice. Supply concatenation push systems help maintain stock list degrees set harmonizing to contractual understandings. When the quality throughput of the constituent is less than 95 % . the demand is increased. Quality steps are in topographic point to alarm the provider when the throughput is less than 95 % as desired but extra demands with decreased quality demands maintain the provider from presenting. Original programs called for particul ar manufactured points for each constituent yet the provider elected to utilize a less expensive option which isn’t meeting quality demands. To assist extenuate the provider hazards. find the supplier’s attitude to safety. quality. and environmental facets to presenting constituents. Another intervention would be to name an onsite provider affair director responsible for subscribing off on any provider and/or design alterations. It would besides be helpful to hold back to endorse contracts with sub-contractors. VII. Fault Tree Two Discussion of Fault Tree Two In the 2nd mistake tree I illustrated the impact of labour on the bringing of the 787 Dreamliner. The labour to piece the aeroplane constituents at the Boeing installation in Everett is critical to guarantee the on-time bringing of the aeroplane. The brotherhood labour to piece the Dreamliner is under contract reappraisal. the contract will run out two months prior to the first assembly. The termination of the mechanic contract and failure to get at a new reciprocally acceptable contract would take to a possible work stoppage. Discussion between the labour brotherhood and the company would be required to intercede the difference. The deficiency of a via media would do a important impact on the scheduled completion day of the month. However. dialogues to decide this difference are required to guarantee employees experience reasonably compensated and do non walk out during assembly. The usage of hazard intervention should supply a lower limit of efficient operation of the organisation. internal controls. and conformity with the Torahs and ordinances. To help with labour intervention hazard. re-allocate internal staff and cross train non-union members to finish the assembly of the aeroplane. Assess the proficient accomplishments required. develop a accomplishment demand profile for assembly. and place other critical accomplishments required for replacing. Treatment could besides include the constitution and care of an internal/external accomplishment profile of current. old. and possible employees to help should a labour work stoppage occur. VIII. Undertaking Risk Summary Financing of Dreamliner 787 Aircraft Time period: 5 old ages Submission Date: February 17. 2013 Commentary on Extreme or High hazards to the undertaking and their direction: High hazards of losing ability to build the coveted figure of 10 aircrafts per month based on alterations in the cost construction. Inability to present these concluding merchandises would go against footings and understandings with assorted air hose companies across the Earth and would be damaging Boeing’s being and unity. Drumhead hazard profile: High Hazard †¢ Interest Rate Changes †¢ Changes in loaning market Hazard description †¢ Higher involvement rates would increase costs of funding †¢ Difficult to obtain funding Hazard intervention and control sum-up †¢ Lock in the involvement rate at a fixed rate instead than go forth room for variableness †¢ Negotiate prior to the start of the undertaking and lock the understanding Duty †¢ Project Manager. finance squad. and accounting squads †¢ Project Manager. finance squad. and accounting squads Commentary on important alterations during the last period: Reviewed loaning standards and utilizing economic prediction informations determined the hazards involved. Besides. signed and locked all fiscal rates of involvement and loaning to guarantee their long term stableness. Commentary on the position of the hazard direction system in the undertaking: The undertaking has high hazards associated with funding. but proper analysis of economic hazard factors and executing of the hazard interventions give it a high potency for success. Although it is a drawn-out undertaking. it may necessitate extensions in the timeline allotted but should non hold any demand to abandon the full undertaking itself. IX. Decisions Overall. the completion of the Dreamliner 787 aircraft by Boeing seems to be come oning although it has encountered certain holds. The Boeing squad must see the hazard factors that are lending to these hazards and go on to explicate mechanisms to cut down this hazard. Based on the hazard appraisals conducted in this undertaking. at that place do non look to be any possible menaces of complete undertaking forsaking. By looking at the ruinous hazard tree. if the undertaking directors plan consequently the lone jobs that should originate from alterations in economic conditions would be holds in the timing of aircraft bringing. Proper prediction and hazard appraisal would render the chance of undertaking failure to be minimum since the company would do it a point to avoid the possible hazards. Above I merely identified one hazard analysis technique nevertheless there are many others available. Many are qualitative and don’t show the dependences between events. The tree technique I used above takes into consideration the logical combination of causes that contribute to the identified failed event. The mistake tree technique brings sufficient understanding to the nature of the failure and how to pull off the failed event ( s ) . Fault tree one helped me place that an onsite provider affair director would hold eliminated the failure along with standard work. signifiers and signatures to authorise such alterations to the measure of stuff for the constituent. Similarly. mistake tree two identified equal compensation as the root cause of the delivery/labor failure. Treatment of the hazard could hold included pull offing the hazard earlier in the contract and/or set uping a contract span or extension to avoid a work stoppage. Furthermore. an analysis of the mistake trees would let any possible menaces to the completion of the undertaking to be minimum of they are addressed rapidly and expeditiously. Boeing has undertaken a immense undertaking in the design and development of a new aircraft to function the demands of assorted air hoses across the Earth. Once the undertaking overcomes the minor obstructions it has presently faced. it will turn out to be rather successful. Undertaking directors must go on with regul ar hazard appraisals throughout the continuance of the aircraft development in order to guarantee that all the undertaking ends are met. and all the clients are satisfied. Ten. Works cited Cortez. A. ( 2010 ) . The complete idiot’s usher to put on the line direction. New York. New york: Penguin Group. Fraser. J. . A ; Simkins. B. ( 2010 ) . Enterprise hazard direction. Hoboken. New jersey: John Wiley A ; Sons. Inc. Kerzer. H. ( 2011 ) . Project direction prosodies. kpis. and splashboards. Hoboken. New jersey: John Wiley A ; Sons. Inc. Norris. G. . A ; Wagner. M. ( 2009 ) . Boeing 787 dreamliner. Minneapolis. Manganese: Zenith Press. Schuyler. J. ( 2010 ) . Hazard and determination analysis in undertakings. ( 2 ed. ) . Newtown Square. PA: Undertaking Management Institute. Inc. Boeing Websitehttp: //www. reuters. com/article/2011/11/08/uk-boeing-dreamliner-glitch-idUSLNE7A603L20111108. Kelly. Tom and Peterson. Kyle. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. smartplanet. com/blog/thinking-tech/belly-landing-what-causes-landing-gear-to-fail-video/9127. Peterson. Kyle. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. reuters. com/article/2012/02/06/us-boeing-idUSTRE81512U20120206. PM Book. hypertext transfer protocol: //pmbook. Ce. cmu. edu/02_Organizing_for_Project_Management. hypertext markup language. Young. Raven hypertext transfer protocol: //www. ravensbrain. com/2010/05/tips-for-reducing-project-risk. hypertext markup language. Turner. A. ( 2011 ) . The birth of the 787 Dreamliner. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing.

ELL Families and Schools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ELL Families and Schools - Essay Example Some ELLs are introduced to English in some sort of way at home and at an early age. Oftentimes, however, this is in a decontextualized fashion and children who have had not had sufficient outside interaction with precise language practice do not function properly when they are placed in a regular classroom. "Educators should not categorize these children as having language disabilities; rather they should recognize that a sociocultural factor has influenced the children's verbal performance and has pinpointed the area that must be addressed by oral language instruction in the classroom" (Ruiz, 2008, pg. 1). Knowledge about print is another area of interest in this particular category. This is particularly important because a child's reading abilities are derived from their knowledge of print and related areas. Knowledge of print begins before a child even begins school. At that time, they also start to learn how to associate letters with sounds (Ruiz, 2008). Background knowledge is another sociocultural influence on ELLs. ... anguage learners with limited English proficiency can do as well as more proficient students on reading comprehension tasks when they do prereading activities that activate and extend the background knowledge pertinent to the tasks" (Ruiz, 2008, pg. 1). The last sociocultural component that has been identified for ELLs is sense of story. "That is, an internal sense of the usual components of a story: setting, main character(s), problem, attempts to resolve the problem, character reactions to the attempts, and resolution" (Ruiz, 2008, pg. 1). Bilingualism and Home Language Use There is much controversy surrounding whether or not learning more than one language at a young age will confuse a child and hinder his or her progress and school. However, research shows that there are many benefits for bilingual children and the sooner they start utilizing a second language, the better. According to IRC (2008, pg. 1), "A large number of research studies show very clearly that bilingualism can increase children's language abilities and help their progress in school. However, for children to experience these beneficial effects of bilingualism, it is important that both their home and school languages continue to develop. Children who can read and write as well as speak two languages have a major advantage not just in school but also in finding jobs after school." The problem with bilingualism in schools occurs when children do not have a solid first-language foundation and then are not taught or encouraged to use their initial language (IRC, 2008). Parental and Community Resources for English Acquisition There are federal and state programs readily available to ELLs, but many individuals do not take advantage of them or do not know how to gain access to them. There are

Civil liberties Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Civil liberties - Essay Example Classification of certain things for the safety of the whole society is important and the Patriot Act maintains this classification. Warrants and wire traps should be classified when a terrorist is under question and our rights to know about the surroundings are limited in these situations. However the classification and limited rights should only apply to a person who is known to be linked to terrorist acts. The authorities should make sure that a person is dealing with terrorism before he is taken into consideration for limited rights. In my view our rights should be limited and we should not know about any of the movements done by the government agencies. These acts of limitations would help the government agencies to exploit the terrorists and eliminate terrorism from the grass root level. In conclusion it can be said that our right to know has become very limited in the world today because of the increasing terrorism all over the world.

Kant - Three Propositions from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Essay

Kant - Three Propositions from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals - Essay Example In his second proposition, Kant iterates that the moral worth of an action derives from its maxim and not from its consequences. In further deliverance of this notion, Kant determines that a prescribed action done from duty is determined in its moral worth only by virtue of the principle, or maxim, in â€Å"accordance with which it is decided upon†. This implies that the moral worth of the will to do an action lies NOT in its motive or the desired effect from that action, but in the actual principle of the will. In Kant’s view, a will is genuine and morally sound if it is derived from duty alone instead of any ancillary motive where duty simply plays a complementary role instead of being the motivating factor in its entirety. Thus, it must necessarily follow that the person taking the action has recognized an a priori goodwill principle that they seek to fulfill by taking that action; thus, the action has been brought about from duty instead of being committed for a pur pose beyond that which imposed by the goodwill, rendering it of sound moral worth. Kant recognizes a third proposition in a similar way which at first seems like in stark contrast to his second proposition but in essence, follows through with the same elements of rationality by inciting a â€Å"respect for law† which imposes a duty to respect the moral law.... Such morality requires a conception of reason, which in normal daily lives goes well beyond our basic desires. In these arguments, Kant sets out to establish the foundational principle of a set of morals. What he is trying to show is that this foundational moral principle draws from a rational will in all of us, and it is this rational will that makes us possess the autonomy to act morally. This autonomy is essentially derived from duty and has the capability of denouncing all inclinations (second proposition) in order to pursue actions that are done strictly in respect of moral law (third proposition). As he rounds up his arguments in this work, he puts it clearly that there are universal moral laws, and any action that is agreeable should not only obey a moral law, but should be done to ensure morality is upheld (Kant 4:400). Any action that is not done for the sake of a moral law even if it conforms to a moral law is not logically necessary. Thus, it is prudent to observe and link the second and third propositions in pursuit of the universal law of morals. Kant seems to maintain that the second proposition is directly linked with the third proposition. However, the notion of respect seems to suggest otherwise as it exists in the third and not in the second proposition. What, then, is respect? Respect is a notion unhinged to the personal faculty of desire and is therefore not an inclination. In plain English, thus, respect is an attitude which impels goodwill actions. An action done by reason of inclination, as opposed to one by reason of respect, would seek a desired effect, and is NOT an action from duty, but an action for a purpose. This brings us to a consideration of the

Using Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Assignment - 10

Using Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer - Assignment Example CFRP technology expands less when exposed to intense or extremely low amounts of thermal energy than traditional metallic materials. Car bodies made of CFRP technology will endure high and low-temperature fluctuations without expanding or contracting in contrast to those made of traditional metallic components such as aluminum or steel (Huber, 2010, p. 12). Third, CFRP technology is light in terms of mass because of their low densities. Unlike steel and aluminum, CFRP composites have the extremely high strength to mass ratios. In automobile body structural design, it is paramount that the external architecture is extremely low in energy usage, thereby raising energy efficiency. Vehicles with CFRP composites can reach high speeds within a shorter time while using minimal energy and still maintain a great deal of its shape after an impact unlike those with bodies of traditional metallic components (Huber, 2010, p. 12). Fourth, CFRP technology has excellent durability. Aluminum and steel in vehicle body structures weaken quicker than CFRP technology because of their inferior fatigue features. When the vehicle is under tension of repeated usage, the CFRP body maintains sturdiness and even shape. High durability leads to decreased life cycle expenses for users of CFRP technology (Deng, 2008, p. 2). Dan Carney argues ways anisotropy relates to composite materials and metallic materials, as well as ways to minimize this issue by studying Ferrari. Using CFRP technology in vehicle production is hard in contrast to manufacturing custom race vehicles, very low capacity, and costly automobiles. This difficulty leaves room for aluminum although vehicle designers and manufacturers acknowledge CFRP composites as the perfect blend of strength and mass. Carney uses Ferrari as a case study of the trouble with CFRP.

Cosmological Argument. The forms of cosmological arguments Essay

Cosmological Argument. The forms of cosmological arguments - Essay Example Cosmological arguments usually strive to explain the existence of God in many forms. Many philosophers in the past, from Aristotle and Kalam to Aquinas, tried to argue the existence of God in different ways (Taliaferro 21). The several forms of cosmological arguments usually explain the existence of God in the following ways: that there is the existence of things, that it is possible for the same things not to exist and that those that are non-existing, yet they exist, must have been caused to exist. On this note, it is an illogical fact that things cannot bring themselves into existence since they must exist to bring themselves into existence. The argument shows that an infinite number of causes that can bring something into existence cannot exist. This is because there is no initial cause of an infinite regression of causes, meaning that the cause of existence is not there. Cosmological arguments try to prove that the universe has a cause since it exists. This shows that all things have an uncaused cause, and the uncaused cause must be God (Craig and Moreland 52). The most successful cosmological argument is Thomas Aquinas’ argument of contingence. Aquinas (1225–1274) was a theologian born in Medieval Europe. ... One has to use all the five arguments since all of them form the basis of his argument (Craig and Moreland 56). The Argument from Motion Using the works of Aristotle, Aquinas through observation, concluded that any moving object is able to move because another supreme object or supreme force makes it move. He observed that there must have been a mover that was making the objects move. This mover must have been unmoved and it must have been God. Aquinas believed that of all the things that were moving, none could move itself. This means that nothing can move itself. He also noted that in order that all objects to be in motion, the first object to be in motion needed a mover. He also said that the mover was unmoved and was God and that movement cannot last forever. Aquinas believed that all things must be at rest and motion is unnatural. According to him, motion is any change that occurs, for example, growth, rotation, etc. He concluded that a supernatural power must have put the state of motion (Craig and Moreland 61). The Argument of Causation of Existence In the argument of causation of existence, Aquinas said that it was logical that nothing can create itself. There must have been a previous object, which created it. This first object must have been uncaused cause and it must have been God. He concluded that causation of all things that exist, are other things and that nothing can be the cause of itself. The things that cause other things to exist cannot be an endless string of objects; therefore, the first uncaused cause is God (Craig and Moreland 63). The Argument of Contingence The argument of contingence is the modal argument. Aquinas argued that an uncaused

Bobby and the Role of Women in Burning Chrome by William Gibson Essay

Bobby and the Role of Women in Burning Chrome by William Gibson - Essay Example The Burning Chrome by Gibson has featured women in the entire piece. Bobby, a character in the Burning Chrome uses women according to his desires and plans. He has been described as having a new woman every few days. Bobby uses women in a specific manner. Bobby uses women for his personal gain. He uses them as assets when he realizes that they offer certain opportunities for his own growth. As stated in the work, â€Å"†¦Bobby read his future in women; his girls were omens, changes in the weather, and he'd sit all night in the Gentleman Loser waiting for the season to lay a new face down in front of him like a card†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gibson 189). Bobby was on between the two hackers who act as the main characters in the story. Bobby Quine is an expert dealing with software issues while Automatic Jack deals with hardware issues. Also important in the story is Rikki who is a girl that Bobby has become infatuated with and wants to use her to get what he wants. Gibson establishes a dis tinctive insignia by writing about the matrix simulator and techno-centaur disguising Jack Automatic. He also writes about Rikki Wildside and her Zeiss Ikon eyes, boutique and Simstim deck. Gibson does not leave out an aspect of world war III, an event he puts as a past event but featuring a puppet house where women worked as prostitutes for three-hour shifts (Gibson 190). Bobby Quine and Jack Automatic exhibit emotion and vestigial morality as they hack into Chromes computer system. They steal from the child-faced witch who has cold gray eyes and destroy her power base to an extent that she cannot use the power anymore (Cavallaro 90). They also destroy her by completely by sapping off her ability to defend herself against her enemies. Bobby is a schemer and a strategist. Bobby together with jack use their computer literacy prowess to exploit women and take advantage of their powers and strengths. Bobby and Jack use Rikki Wildside because they have realized an opportunity of exploit ation in her. Rikki is a prostitute who offers her services at the puppet house to get money so that she could buy a fashionable pair of new eyes. She also intends to make enough money so that she can fly to Hollywood and become a Simstim star. Jack bought a virus-program from Russia from Finn, who also bought it from someone. It is from this scenario that we learn that the person killed the original thief who had stolen the program from the owner. Bobby hacks into Chrome's computer system using that program (Cavallaro 92). He then makes use of the communication web to interfere and change the flow the communication web. Meanwhile jack encourages Bobby to hack into Chrome’s computer. As stated in the story, â€Å"†¦but Bobby was already there, leaning forward to drive the Russian program into its slot with the heel of his hand. He did it with the tight grace of a kid slamming change into an arcade game, sure of winning and ready to pull down a string of free games. A si lver tide of phosphenes boiled across my field of vision as the matrix began to unfold in my head, a 3-D chessboard, infinite and perfectly transparent. The Russian program seemed to lurch as we entered the grid†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gibson 195) Jack helps Bobby in his schemes taking advantage of the trust and love of women to him, for his gain. Jack betrays his friend Bobby by having an affair with Rikki who is in a love relationship with Bobby. Rikki also betrays her Bobby and Jack by working as a prostitute and

Cosmological Argument. The forms of cosmological arguments Essay

Cosmological Argument. The forms of cosmological arguments - Essay Example Cosmological arguments usually strive to explain the existence of God in many forms. Many philosophers in the past, from Aristotle and Kalam to Aquinas, tried to argue the existence of God in different ways (Taliaferro 21). The several forms of cosmological arguments usually explain the existence of God in the following ways: that there is the existence of things, that it is possible for the same things not to exist and that those that are non-existing, yet they exist, must have been caused to exist. On this note, it is an illogical fact that things cannot bring themselves into existence since they must exist to bring themselves into existence. The argument shows that an infinite number of causes that can bring something into existence cannot exist. This is because there is no initial cause of an infinite regression of causes, meaning that the cause of existence is not there. Cosmological arguments try to prove that the universe has a cause since it exists. This shows that all things have an uncaused cause, and the uncaused cause must be God (Craig and Moreland 52). The most successful cosmological argument is Thomas Aquinas’ argument of contingence. Aquinas (1225–1274) was a theologian born in Medieval Europe. ... One has to use all the five arguments since all of them form the basis of his argument (Craig and Moreland 56). The Argument from Motion Using the works of Aristotle, Aquinas through observation, concluded that any moving object is able to move because another supreme object or supreme force makes it move. He observed that there must have been a mover that was making the objects move. This mover must have been unmoved and it must have been God. Aquinas believed that of all the things that were moving, none could move itself. This means that nothing can move itself. He also noted that in order that all objects to be in motion, the first object to be in motion needed a mover. He also said that the mover was unmoved and was God and that movement cannot last forever. Aquinas believed that all things must be at rest and motion is unnatural. According to him, motion is any change that occurs, for example, growth, rotation, etc. He concluded that a supernatural power must have put the state of motion (Craig and Moreland 61). The Argument of Causation of Existence In the argument of causation of existence, Aquinas said that it was logical that nothing can create itself. There must have been a previous object, which created it. This first object must have been uncaused cause and it must have been God. He concluded that causation of all things that exist, are other things and that nothing can be the cause of itself. The things that cause other things to exist cannot be an endless string of objects; therefore, the first uncaused cause is God (Craig and Moreland 63). The Argument of Contingence The argument of contingence is the modal argument. Aquinas argued that an uncaused

Social Cultural and Economic Context of Zimbabwe Essay Example for Free

Social Cultural and Economic Context of Zimbabwe Essay The fall of the Ian Smith led Rhodesian government led to Zimbabwe gaining its independence in 1980. The ZANU PF government led by then Prime Minister Mugabe of the ZANU PF party embraced a policy of national reconciliation between races in order to encourage amity, nation-building and economic growth between the country’s white minority and black majority racial groups. This lead to a period of growth throughout the 1980s, the economy performed extremely well, which led the Central government expenditure to triple and increase its share from 32. % of GDP in 1979 to 44. 6% in 1989(Hazzlewood, 1967:284). Having inherited a socially skewed system of allocation of resources from its predecessor, the ZANU PF government began to rectify this distribution of resources from the mainly white domiciled areas in the urban areas and commercial farms to rural parts of Zimbabwe focusing on provision of clean water (Transitional National Development Plan, pp. 61-62), and providing educational resources in areas where prior to independence there had been none (International Education Journal, 2005, 6(1), 65-74 Gibbs Y.  Kanyongo). However towards the end of the 80’s the growth experienced shortly after independence waned and by the early 90’s Zimbabwe fell into an economic crisis forcing it to implement IMF and World Bank proposed Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) which was designed to lure investors into the country and remove any limitations on growth on the country. This policy forced the government to create a free market place in which the government’s reach would be miniscule and market forces would rule the day (Dansereau, ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, p. 3). This policy eroded what little socio-economic gains that had been made in the first decade of the newly independent state (L. Sachikonye, ‘Whither Zimbabwe? Crisis and Democratisation) by introducing government spending on the socialist policies such as free education and projects with the intention of improving the infrastructure of the country to those habitant in the rural areas of the country who had been neglected by the former colonial government. This was followed by the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) included among other things, removal of price and wage controls, reduction of government expenditure, a 40 per cent devaluation of Zimbabwean Dollar, removal of subsidies on basic consumer goods, a radical restructuring of various parastatals and other public enterprises (Sichone, 2003:1). SAPs also coincided with the years of drought (1992, 1993, 1995) which put a heavy burden on an economy that was mainly reliant on commercial agriculture through its export of teas, cotton and tobacco. This already fragile economy was later shattered by the war veterans unbudgeted pay outs in 1997 which culminated in what is widely referred to as â€Å"Black Friday†14th of November 2007(L. Mambondiani :newzimbabwe. com). Already reeling the economy took another hit via the chaotic fast-track land reform that took place in 2000 which led to the United States freezing lines of credit by means of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001. This land reform led to vastly inexperienced persons receiving large tracts of farmland with virtually no experience which resulted in a substantial decrease in agricultural yields (Dancaescu, Nick.  Note. Land reform in Zimbabwe. 15 Fla. J. Intl L. 615 (2003). This led to an enormous decline in agricultural production which in turn led to chronic food shortages which were borne by the people of Zimbabwe. This further compounded by underperforming state owned enterprises whose debt obligations were undertaken by the government. This led to rampant inflation which by 2008 had reached +11 000 000 per cent July leading to the rebasing of the currency by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe by removing 3 zeros and issuing new bearer checks which did nothing to alleviate the situation as the zeros quickly reappeared . On top of all this Zimbabwe also had a spiralling external debt amounting to US$3 968 million. With the harmonized elections of 2008 which resulted in the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) there was the complete abandonment of the Zimbabwean dollar and the adoption of the multi-currency (South African Rand, Tswana Pula and the US Dollar). This led to some growth which although was very small was a positive change as compared to what Zimbabwe had experienced in the last eight years. Upon becoming the Prime Minister Of Zimbabwe in the Independent era from 1980 Mugabe preached a policy of reconciliation involving members of competing political parties in his early cabinet such as Joshua Nkomo leader of PF ZAPU and other whites who had previously worked under the colonial regime. However these policies were not to last long as from 1983 to 1984 there was a major suppression of Nkomo and his supporters based on what could be defined as ethnic basis. With government setting curfews in Matabeleland here Nkomo’s support base resided which was mainly the Ndebele tribe as opposed to the Shona tribe which Mugabe hailed from. The sending in of the army, in particular the North Korean trained 5th brigade which attempted to supress the â€Å"dissidents† through a campaign of mass violence campaign, known as the Gukuruhundi, or (strong wind) which resulted in as many as 20,000 civilian deaths. This eventually led to Nkomo’s part agreeing to be swallowed by ZANU PF via the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987 thereby making Zimbabwe for all intents and purposes a one party state. This status-quo remained for much of the 90’s with ZANU PF stifling any opposition to its power by amending the constitution following the lapsing of the 1980 Lancaster agreement, restoring corporal and capital punishment and denying recourse to the courts in cases of compulsory purchase of land by the government. Attempts by students trade unionists and workers to protest via demonstrations being curtailed via banning of anti-government protests by the police. This growing swell of antagonism by these various groups culminated in the creation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999. In 2000 besides the clear voter intimidation of opposition supporters the MDC managed to win 57 of the 120 seats in the parliamentary elections. These effect of these results then coloured the months leading up to the 2002 presidential election where intimidation and violence was rife towards opposition. The outcome of these elections were Mugabe wining by a large margin although international observers did call them to be rigged in the sense that the pre-election environment was neither free nor fair, and the election itself was marred by significant fraud and rigging regional opinion was however mixed. The resulting legal challenge against these results by the MDC by 2004 still did not have a ruling which resulted in the the United States, the EU, and other European countries imposed travel restrictions against senior Zimbabwean officials and embargoed the sale of arms to Zimbabwe. The US and the EU also froze the financial assets of selected ruling party officials. In 2005 the MDC party then spilt into two separate parties with one retaining the MDC name under Welshman Ncube and the other being called MDC-T which was under its founding party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The acrimonious split occurred over differing views over the party’s participation in the 2005 Senate elections. Tsvangirai’s camp didn’t want to contest these elections on the premise that the MDC had released a statement in 2004 stating that they would not participate in any elections till conditions prevailed for free and fair elections whilst the Ncube led faction was of the opposite opinion. In 2008 the harmonised elections first round the Tsvangirai led MDC was adjudged to have won won 47. % and Mugabe won 43. 2%, thereby necessitating a run-off. These figures however seen by many international observers to have been massaged as the results for the first round of elections took nearly five weeks to be released. The period leading up to the runoff between Mugabe and Tsvangirai saw an unprecedented wave of violence aimed towards supporters of MDC-T, resulting in the death of up to a 100 of Tsvangirai’s supporters leading him to pull out of the election s citing this violence. This resulted in the Government of National Unity (GNU) which was mediated by the Southern African Community Development (SADC) where a power sharing coalition was negotiated between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Ncube. The GNU was given a life span of five years in which the negotiated terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which govern it where meant to be put into legislature with the hope of putting in systems such as a new constitution that will reform Zimbabwe to the point of having free and fair elections. Implementation of the GPA has however been fraught with disagreement with the pure lack of sincerity on ZANU PF’s part on stalling the reforms such as the repealing of repressive legislature like the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which have been used to bar the MDC’s and civil society from holding rallies to simple internal meetings.

Romantic God Child

Romantic God Child The Romantic period began in the mid-eighteenth century and lasted till about the mid-nineteenth century. It is characterized by a reaction against the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism centuries. They preferred the country to city and the natural instead of the planned. They write in a more free lyric; therefore, stimulating the language of the common people. They would emphasize in the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the visionary, and the transcendental. An easy way to think about the Romantic writers is they are natural. They also had many literary forms of writing: Gothic tales, sentimental comedies, sentimental novels, historical novels, serialized fictions, metrical romances, ballads, and lyrics. When discussing the lyric form there is different ways to write a lyric. One is the sonnet which is idealized with love, nature lyric that celebrates the majesty of nature, dramatic monologue is a speech of an individual character, reflective lyric is used for public or priv ate dignity which personal emotion is involved, and lyric of morbid melancholy expresses the sorrow and pain of bereavement. In William Blakes â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper†, both innocence and experience is a life lesson of a little boy. Blake is known for his traditional ballad style of writing. In his stories â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† both innocence and experience, I find that they both have a turning in upon self and a heightened examination of human personality. Though it may not jump out at you, I found the children to be turning themselves to God. One turning towards God, and the other away. As a young child we are unsure about the truth about God and ourselves. We also will believe what we are told and anything we are told. In the innocence version of â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† young Toms dream made him examine his life and turn himself to self, self being God. All Tom needed was a dream. In the occurrence of having this dream about his friends and seeing them in black coffins, and seeing an angel suddenly appear to free them. Tom knew then there is a God and he can and will see his friends again. As he wakes up the next morning he is a much happier boy, knowing that he will get the chance to have fun with Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack. Tom examined his life so he could go on living with a faith and knowing that he will be in heaven one day, by doing that he turned himself to self (God). As a young child all it took was a dream, but for an older adult it takes much more. As Tom grows-up I think his faith will grow much stronger. I would wonder why is that? We should h ave all have the faith like Tom did, in just a dream. It worked for Martin Luther King Jr. In the experience version of â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† you will find a different story and a different type of faith. As you walk down the snowy street you will find and young boy doubting his faith in self and complaining about his life. He says that he may act happy to his parents but he is not. He does not like how his parents dress him or what they make him learn, but he acts happy to them. This little boy blames his unhappiness on God. The one that his parents go into the church to worship while he must sit outside and smile and act happy all dressed in clothes of death. This little boy is examining himself, but also others around him, comparing himself to the other children playing and having fun. This young boy is turning himself away from God. And as this young man grows his faith in God will only seize to become more hateful. Even though people may view and look upon the Romantic period as love stories and heroes, it is like anything else in life, it is not what it seems. The Romantic times also had their dark times and talked of unhappiness. Still they had their own taste in literature, they spoke more modern, more natural or you could say more down to earth. They relied more on themselves and what happens in the everyday life, not a crazy imagination. Their thought began with their feelings and test for truth was an inner test. I think that Blake shows us all how the true test is within. That we must examine our lives and faith in God before anything else. That without God we will be like the little boy in the experience version of â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† and we will blame God for everything, even the things that we should not.

Summary of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn :: Huck Finn American Literature Essays

Summary of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The narrator (later identified as Huckleberry Finn) begins Chapter One by stating that the reader may know of him from another book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by "Mr. Mark Twain," but it "ain't t no matter" if you have not. According to Huck, Twain mostly told the truth, with some "stretchers" thrown in, though everyone--except Tom's Aunt Polly, the widow, and maybe Mary--lies once in a while. The other book ended with Tom and Huckleberry finding the gold some robbers had hidden in a cave. They got six thousand dollars apiece, which Judge Thatcher put in trust, so that they each got a dollar a day from interest. The Widow Douglas adopted and tried to "civilise" Huck. But Huck couldn't stand it so he threw on his old rags and ran away. But he went back when Tom Sawyer told him he could join his new band of robbers if he would return to the Widow "and be respectable." The Widow lamented over her failure with Huck, tried to stuff him into cramped clothing, and before every meal had to "grumble" over the food before they could eat it. She tried to teach him about Moses, until Huck found out he was dead and lost interest. Meanwhile, she would not let him smoke; typically, she disapproved of it because she had never tried it, but approved of snuff since she used it herself. Her slim sister who wears glasses, Miss Watson, tried to give him spelling lessons. Meanwhile, Huck was going stir-crazy, made especially restless by the sisters' constant reminders to improve his behavior. When Miss Watson told him about the "bad place," Hell, he burst out that he would like to go there, as a change of scenery. Secretly, Huck really does not see the point in going to "the good place" and resolved then not to bother trying to get there. When Huck asked, Miss Watson told him there was no chance Tom Sawyer would end up in Heaven. Huck was glad "because I wanted him and me to be together." One night, after Miss Watson's prayer session with him and the slaves, Huck goes to bed feeling "so lonesome I wished I was dead." He gets shivers hearing the sounds of nature through his window. Huck accidentally flicks a spider into a candle, and is frightened by the bad omen.

Unexpected Influences in Great Expectations Essay -- Great Expectations

When one thinks of a strong, influential person, they most likely will first think of a world leader or president. These are examples of influential leaders, but in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, the most influential characters on Pip are people who would appear to be minor female characters in the novel. One would assume since the time of Great Expectations was set the first half of the 19th Century, which was the time of the Victorian Era, that the men of the novel would have a greater influence on the women of the novel. However, Pip is impacted greatly by women throughout his life, even more so than men. Pip's greatest female influence in life was Estella, but the purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of more minor characters on Pip, such as: Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, and Biddy. Their influences on him change as he grows and matures. The first real female influence Pip had was his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery. Pip's parents had died long before and he had never known them. Mrs. Joe then stepped up and raised Pip. She is not what one would call a positive influence. Mrs. Joe was considered a mother figure to Pip and she was always proud to proclaim to neighbors and friends that she â€Å"brought him up by hand.† Pip did not know what that expression meant. He said: â€Å"Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand† (Dickens 6). Everyone in town thought Mrs. Joe was such a kind soul to take in her orphaned brother, but no one really understood how horribly she treated Pip and Joe. In chapter two, one can get an... .... Pip learned from Biddy that money and fame is not everything, and that the best things in life are often the things one already possesses. She also taught him patience and kindness through her own actions. All three females: Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, and Biddy, taught Pip many things, both good and bad. Mrs. Joe taught Pip things the wrong way through abuse, but she also unknowingly taught Pip how to care for people. Miss Havisham took advantage of Pip and taught Pip to be wary of trusting others, but at the same time, taught Pip how to forgive . Biddy was the wisest of Pip's influences and acted as a support to Pip who was always there for him. While Estella was one of the biggest influences in Pip's life, the smaller influential female characters also had huge impacts on Pip and helped shape him to the man he became.

Massacre of Arwal Essay

The massacre of Arwal is described by many as a post-independence Jallianwala Bagh, and justly so, in our opinion, say the two judges, while presenting a blow account of the felony committed by the State against the poor and landless in Arwal. The report on Arwal massacre was submitted by the Indian Peoples Human Right Tribunal which came into existence on January 10,1987. Two members of the Tribunal, Justic T. U. Mehta and Justice P. S. Potti inquired into the Arwal incident. The y went to the place of the incident and made on the spot inquires, they heard and recorded evidence from eyewitnesses to the incident and from the persons who had gone there immediately after the killings, including journalists, politicians, lawyers and other public spirited persons. They held sitting in Patna, Delhi and Arwal where they invited the state government and its officials to come to depose before them and to cross examine those who appeared as witnesses before them. The tribunal which began its work in January 1987, formally submitted its report on July30,1987. The report which is now available in print runs into 92 pages, and is a damning indictment of the Bihar Administration whose leaders and minios show up as a gang of criminals, liars, forgers and frauds, who have no respects for any of the decencies and norms of civilized life. In any civilized society where justice prevails and the rule of law is practiced, all of them should have been serving life-terms. But in Bihar , where these dregs of society are in control of the state, they have succeeded in criminalizing the entire state establishment and in letting loose state violence against the poor and the downtrodden with a brazenness that has few parallels in history. The firing in our opinion in our opinion amounted to brutal murder of 21 valuable citizens of this country governed by the constitution which proudly speaks of protecting the lives of the citizens of the country and aims at establishing an equitable order through equality, fraternity and brotherhood which are obviously not empty platitudes of a political theorist. It is very distressing to find that in spite of the demand of respectable citizens of this country , journalists and various public organizations not interested in politics. the Government of Bihar has remained adamant in not ordering any judicial inquiry. It appears tha5t a one man commission which was non-judicial was ordered to enquire into matter, but even the report of that commission is kept secret by the government. Such obduracy of a government with regard to such a vital question of public importance is something which can not imagined in loudy proclaiming that we are striving for an egalitarian society and working for the poor and the oppressed with a view to bring their life up he desired standards. The report should be made to reach the widest possible audience in the country and abroad. One copy may also be sent to the jury for awarding the Nobel peace Prize since the newspapers in India report that India’s Prime Minister has recommended by some faceless characters for Nobel Peace Prize. The report would provide a lot of material to write the citation on the peace of the graveyards that Rajiv Gandhi and his Government of criminals were imposing in Bihar.

Chef Satisfaction

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