Saturday, August 31, 2019

Fast food restaurant Essay

The pace of modern life is fast, and nowhere is it faster than in America. We want fast transportation, fast communication, fast computers, fast photos, fast music, fast repairs, and fast service from the businesses we patronize. It is from the last of these that we got fast food. At first, it was a matter of fast service. Fountain and Fast Food Service was the title of a trade magazine, which published statements like this from 1951: â€Å"The partners have become old hands at spotting the type of conventioneer that will patronize their fast food service. † Gradually service disappeared, and in 1954 we find fast food by itself in the title â€Å"Fountain and Fast Food. † Incidentally, the trade magazine renamed itself Fast Food by 1960. In February of that year, the magazine noted, â€Å"Delicate scallops are really fast food†¦ because they come ready to cook. † And in July it remarked, â€Å"Fast food type restaurants do the lion’s share of business for breakfast and noon meals eaten out. † The fast food revolution was a quick success throughout the land, and two decades later it was conquering the world. â€Å"The U. S.outcry against infiltration from the south is matched in vehemence by our neighbors’ outcry against fast-food imperialism and the gradual Americanization of their own societies. † noted the Christian Science Monitor in 1982. Thanks to fast food, families that formerly ate home cooking now eat out or bring back take-home fast food in record numbers. Its virtue is speed, not quality. Its less than ideal nutritional value may have influenced the coining of another term twenty years later, one that also puts a four-letter epithet in front of food: junk food (1973). Gale Encyclopedia of US History: Fast FoodTop. Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > US History Encyclopedia Fast food is what one eats in the vast majority of America’s restaurants. The term denotes speed in both food preparation and customer service, as well as speed in customer eating habits. The restaurant industry, however, has traditionally preferred the designation â€Å"quick service. † For hourly wage earners—whether factory hands or store clerks—take-out lunch wagons and sit-down lunch counters appeared at factory gates, streetcar stops, and throughout downtown districts in the late nineteenth century. For travelers, lunch counters also appeared in railroad stations nationwide. Fried food prevailed for its speed of preparation, as did sandwich fare and other fixings that could be held in the hand and rapidly eaten, quite literally, â€Å"on the run. † Novelty foods, such as hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, came to dominate, first popularized at various world’s fairs and at the nation’s resorts. Soft drinks and ice cream desserts also became a mainstay. Thus, â€Å"fast food† also came to imply diets high in fat and caloric intake. By the end of the twentieth century, the typical American consumed some three hamburgers and four orders of french fries a week. Roughly a quarter of all Americans bought fast food every day. The rise of automobile ownership in the United States brought profound change to the restaurant industry, with fast food being offered in a variety of â€Å"drive-in† restaurant formats. Mom-and-pop enterprise was harnessed, largely through franchising, in the building of regional and national restaurant chains: Howard Johnson’s, Dairy Queen, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Taco Tico. Place-product-packaging was brought forcefully to the fore; each restaurant in a chain variously shares the same logo, color scheme, architectural design motif, and point-of-purchase advertising, all configured in attention-getting, signlike buildings. Typically, fast food restaurants were located at the â€Å"roadside,† complete with driveways, parking lots, and, later, drive-through windows for those who preferred to eat elsewhere, including those who ate in their cars as â€Å"dashboard diners. † Critical to industry success was the development of paper and plastic containers that kept food hot and facilitated â€Å"carry-out. † Such packaging, because of the volume of largely nonbiodegradable waste it creates, has become a substantial environmental problem. In 2000, Mcdonalds—the largest quick-service chain—operated at some 13,755 locations in the United States and Canada. The company’s distinctive â€Å"golden arches† have spread worldwide, well beyond North America. Abroad, fast food came to stand as an important symbol of American cultural, if not economic, prowess. And, just as it did at home, fast food became, as well, a clear icon of modernity. Historically, fast food merchandising contributed substantially to the quickening pace of American life through standardization. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, it fully embraced mass production and mass marketing techniques, reduced to the scale of a restaurant. Chains of restaurants, in turn, became fully rationalized within standardized purchasing, marketing, and management systems. Such a system depends on a pool of cheap, largely unskilled labor, the quick service restaurant industry being notorious for its low wages and, accordingly, its rapid turnover of personnel. Bibliography Jakle, John A. , and Keith A. Sculle. Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Pillsbury, Richard. No Foreign Food: The American Diet and Place. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1998. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. —John A. Jakle Gale Encyclopedia of Food & Culture: Fast FoodTop Home > Library > Food & Cooking > Food & Culture Encyclopedia What is termed â€Å"fast food† in the United States today most commonly consists of hot, freshly prepared, and wrapped food items, served to customers across a counter or through a drive-up window. Known as both â€Å"fast food† and â€Å"quick-service food† in the restaurant industry, these items are routinely sold and delivered in an amount of time ranging from a few seconds to several minutes; they now vary widely in food type, encompassing virtually all kinds of meats, preparation methods, and ethnic cuisines. Inexpensive hamburgers and french fried potatoes are still the products most readily identified as fast food, but the list of items sold in the format continually increases. Fried fish and shellfish, hot dogs, chicken, pizza, roast beef, and pasta are commonly sold at quick-service outlets. In addition to these staples, many quick-service restaurants sell a broad menu of Americanized Mexican, Greek, and Chinese foods. Some fast-food outlets offer specialty items, such as sushi, clams, or ribs, and others even sell complete â€Å"home-cooked† meals over their counters. Though menus and delivery formats vary greatly, fast food’s chief common denominators include immediate customer service, packaging â€Å"to go,† and inexpensive pricing. The precise origins of fast food are vague, probably predating written history. Hungry people are as old as civilization itself, as are entrepreneurs eager to satisfy their hunger. Food vendors in ancient cities sold prepared items to passersby on the street. The actual foods varied greatly, depending on period and culture, but they generally comprised simple, inexpensive fare sold to people of modest means. Immigrants brought a variety of food styles to America, often preserving these for decades as a comforting connection with their ethnic past. Though many immigrant foodways were elaborate and ritualistic, most groups had one or two simple items that they consumed on a daily basis. As a rule, immigrant groups preferred their indigenous grains: corn from the Americas, rice from Asia, and wheat from Europe. Often these served as the basis for the â€Å"peasant† foods of their homelands. Pasta and flat breads came over with Italians; tortillas, beans, and tamales arrived with northbound Mexicans; and Germans brought dark breads, along with a variety of fatty sausages (which later mutated into the hot dog). Asian immigrants continued to eat rice as the basis of their diet. In the early twentieth century fast food remained primarily the fare of the masses. Vendors wheeled their pushcarts daily to factory gates, selling their wares to hungry workers. Often catering to the tastes of the particular factory’s dominant ethnic group, they charged customers pennies for basic items such as sausages, meatballs, or stew. Though popular among male industrial workers, this pushcart version of fast food never became mainstream cuisine. The urban diner was the transitional phase between the vendor’s pushcart and modern fast food. Most early diners were small restaurants, with limited seating, sometimes constructed out of converted railway carriages or streetcars. They served simple foods to working-class customers on a â€Å"short-order† basis, usually cooking each meal individually when ordered. Menus varied, but fried foods were common. Though diners often emphasized speed in delivering food, customers routinely lingered before and after eating. The hamburger still stands out as the single most important American fast food, though the precise origin of this meat sandwich is the subject of historical disagreement. People have eaten chopped beef throughout the ages, and it was long a fixture in many world cultures. The lineage of the American hamburger seems to point directly, as its name indicates, back to the German city of Hamburg. First appearing on American restaurant menus in the mid-nineteenth century, ground beef patties bore the title â€Å"hamburg steak. † By the century’s close, vendors regularly sold meatballs wrapped in slices of bread at county fairs and summer festivals. Regional legends attribute the invention of this snack to several different individuals, but its true originator remains a mystery. The Rise of Modern Fast Food Our modern image of the fast-food restaurant dates back to 1916, when Walt Anderson began selling â€Å"hamburger sandwiches† from an outdoor stand on a Wichita street corner. Anderson simply flattened a meatball and placed it between two halves of a bun. His sandwich quickly became popular, attracting long lines of hungry buyers. By 1921, Anderson had joined local insurance broker Edgar â€Å"Billy† Ingram to form the White Castle System. After opening several identical restaurants in Wichita during their first year, the partners quickly spread their business to neighboring cities, then to nine major urban areas throughout the Midwest and on the East Coast. What separated the White Castle System from earlier short-order restaurants was its very streamlined menu, comprising only hamburgers, coffee, Coca-Cola, and pie; a uniform architectural style; and strict standardization of food quality, preparation methods, and employee performance. By the close of the 1920s, White Castle’s aggressive marketing and rapid spread had made the hamburger one of the most popular foods in America. Other entrepreneurs soon noticed White Castle’s success in the hamburger business. Very closely copying White Castle’s products, architecture, and company name, competing new chains also thrived, carrying the hamburger craze across the nation to smaller cities and towns. The White Tower chain appeared in 1925, eventually challenging White Castle’s dominance in several northern cities. Krystal’s, opened in 1929 in Chattanooga, soon became the hamburger powerhouse of the southeastern states. White Castle’s hamburger sandwich, along with its many imitators, became a daily staple for many working-class Americans. It proved so successful, in fact, that by 1930 the president of the American Restaurant Association identified the fast-food hamburger as the most important food item in the nation. Hamburgers became even more a mainstream food during the 1930s. The larger restaurant chains began marketing their products to middle-class buyers, and even more Americans became burger lovers. Despite the harsh economy of the Great Depression, most fast-food chains continued to thrive, and in many cases grew considerably. Most continued selling the White Castle–style hamburger, but late in the decade the Big Boy chain spread east from California, introducing its new double-decker hamburger sandwich along the way. By the end of the Depression, America was a solidly hamburger-eating culture. After prospering in the Depression, however, the fast-food industry suffered a serious setback during World War II. Shortages of necessary foodstuffs, such as meat, sugar, tomatoes, and coffee, meant limited menu offerings and often a significant loss of business. Attempting to continue providing meals to their customers, fast-food restaurants experimented with different items that were still in abundance, including soy patties, chili, and french fried potatoes. Even more damaging than commodity shortages was the very low unemployment rate, which meant that most workers bypassed the restaurant industry in favor of higher-paying work. Adjusting to this labor shortage, chains soon replaced their all-male workforce with women and teenagers, two groups who would become their most common employees. Despite attempts to find palatable alternative foods, and despite the shifts in workforce, much of the fast-food industry was a casualty of the war; by 1945, more than half of America’s restaurants had closed down, including several of the major fast-food chains. Rebuilding the fast-food industry after the war proved a slow process. No single chain emerged to claim dominance, and little innovation occurred. Individual companies struggled to restore their prewar prosperity, and new regional chains tried to gain a foothold. Suffering the effects of escalating costs and still under the threat of continued shortages due to unstable food supplies in war-torn countries, fast-food restaurants often had to double prices to remain in business. As population shifted from America’s cities to suburbia during the 1950s, the fast-food industry quickly followed. Early chains such as White Castle and White Tower, resisting moving to the suburbs, were quickly eclipsed by upstart franchised chains. Burger King and McDonald’s outlets became common fixtures at suburban crossroads, selling burgers, fries, and shakes to hungry families. Burger King’s Jim McLamore and McDonald’s Ray Kroc each sought to build one of his restaurants in every American town, and they opened hundreds of new Burger Kings and McDonald’s each year in the 1960s. To accomplish this rapid expansion, they relied heavily on franchise investors, enforced strict product uniformity throughout their chains, and aggressively advertised in every newly opened territory. With McDonald’s and Burger King’s success, Burger Chef outlets soon appeared nearby. Arby’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell were not far behind. By the late 1960s, fast food no longer meant just hamburger restaurants, but had diversified to include quick-service pizza, roast beef, chicken, and tacos. To give an idea of the dimensions to which the fast-food industry has grown, in 1999 Americans consumed over 26 billion pounds of beef, much of it as hamburgers. In that year McDonald’s alone had more than ten thousand restaurants in the United States, from which it grossed in excess of $13 billion in revenue. Criticism of Fast Food Despite the widespread popularity of fast food in modern American culture, critics abound. Since the 1930s, articles and books have condemned the industry, exposing allegedly poor sanitary conditions, unhealthy food products, related environmental problems, and unfair working conditions. Whether it warrants the attention or not, the fast-food industry is still regularly cited for exploiting young workers, polluting, and contributing to obesity and other serious health problems among American consumers. American beef consumption, and more specifically the fast-food hamburger industry, is often blamed for the burning of the Amazon rain forests to make way for more grazing lands for beef cattle. Early foes of fast food cited the deplorable filth of many hamburger stands, in addition to claiming that the beef ground for their sandwiches was either spoiled, diseased, or simply of low quality. In fact, many critics maintained that much of the meat used in fast-food hamburgers came from horse carcasses. The high fat content of fast food was also controversial. Despite deceptive industry claims about the high quality and the health benefits of their products, in the 1920s and 1930s concerned nutritionists warned the public about the medical dangers of regular burger consumption. This distrust and criticism of fast food continue today, extending even further to include dire warnings about the industry’s use of genetically modified and antibiotic-laden beef products. Most major chains have responded to recent attacks by prominently posting calorie and nutritional charts in their restaurants, advertising fresh ingredients, and offering alternatives to their fried foods. Despite a few more health-conscious items on the menu, fast-food chains now aggressively advertise the concept that bigger is better, offering large â€Å"super-size† or â€Å"biggie† portions of french fries, soft drinks, and milkshakes. Critics point to this marketing emphasis as a reason for an excessive and greatly increasing per-capita caloric intake among fast-food consumers, resulting in fast-growing rates of obesity in the United States. Increased litter is another problem that critics have blamed on the fast-food industry. Selling their products in paper wrappings and paper bags, early outlets created a source of litter that had not previously existed. Wrappers strewn about city streets, especially those close to fast-food restaurants, brought harsh criticism, and often inspired new local ordinances to address the problem. Some municipalities actually forced chains to clean up litter that was imprinted with their logos, but such sanctions were rare. Fast-food wrappers became part of the urban, and later suburban, landscape. Since bags and wrappers were crucial in the delivery of fast food, the industry as a whole continued to use disposable packaging, superficially assuaging public criticism by providing outside trash receptacles for the discarded paper. Years later, environmentalists again attacked the industry for excessive packaging litter, criticizing both the volume and the content of the refuse. By the early 1970s, the harshest criticisms focused more on the synthetic materials used in packaging, and less on the carelessly discarded paper. Critics derided the industry’s use of styrofoam sandwich containers and soda cups, claiming that these products were not sufficiently biodegradable and were clogging landfills. Facing mounting opposition from a growing environmental movement, most of the major chains returned to packaging food in paper wrappings or small cardboard boxes. Labor activists have criticized fast-food chains’ tendency to employ inexpensive teenage workers. Usually offering the lowest possible wages, with no health or retirement benefits, these restaurants often find it difficult hiring adults for stressful, fast-paced jobs. Many critics claim that the industry preys on teenagers, who will work for less pay and are less likely to organize. Though these accusations may have merit, the industry’s reliance on teenage labor also has inherent liabilities, such as a high employee turnover rate, which result in substantial recruiting and training costs. Companies have countered criticism about their use of teenage workers with the rationale that they offer young people entry-level work experience, teaching them: both skills and responsibility. Despite the relentless attacks, hundreds of millions of hungry customers eat fast food daily. The media constantly remind American consumers about its supposed evils. Most are conscious of the health risks from fatty, greasy meals; most realize that they are being served by a poorly paid young worker; and if they choose to ponder it, most are aware that the excessive packaging causes millions of tons of trash each year. But they continue to purchase and eat fast food on a regular basis. Fast food remains central to the American diet because it is inexpensive, quick, convenient, and predictable, and because it tastes good. Even more important, Americans eat fast food because it is now a cultural norm. As American culture homogenized and became distinctively â€Å"American† in the second half of the twentieth century, fast food, and especially the hamburger, emerged as the primary American ethnic food. Just as the Chinese eat rice and Mexicans eat tamales, Americans eat burgers. And fast food has grown even beyond being just a distinctive ethnic food. Since the 1960s, the concept has extended far beyond the food itself, with the term becoming a common descriptor for other quick-service operations, even a metaphor for many of the negative aspects of mainstream American life. Theorists and pundits sometimes use the term â€Å"fast food† to denigrate American habits, institutions, and values, referring to them as elements of a â€Å"fast-food society. † In fact, â€Å"fast-food† has become a frequently used adjective, implying not only ready availability but also superficiality, mass-produced standardization, lack of authenticity, or just poor quality. In the last two decades of the twentieth century, fast food gained additional economic and cultural significance, becoming a popular American export to nations around the world. Some detractors claim that it is even deliberately used by the United States, as a tool of cultural imperialism. The appearance of a McDonald’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on the streets of a foreign city signals to many the demise of indigenous culture, replacing another country’s traditional practices and values with American materialism. In fact, the rapid spread of American fast food is probably not an organized conspiracy, rather more the result of aggressive corporate marketing strategies. Consumers in other countries are willing and able to buy fast-food products, so chains are quick to accommodate demand. Thought of around the world as â€Å"American food,† fast food continues its rapid international growth. Bibliography Boas, Max, and Steve Chain. Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald’s. New York: Dutton, 1976. Emerson, Robert, L. Fast Food: The Endless Shakeout. New York: Lebhar-Friedman, 1979. Halberstam, David. The Fifties. New York: Villard Books, 1993. Chapter 11 discusses the origins of the McDonald’s empire. Hogan, David Gerard. Selling ’em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food. New York: New York University Press, 1997. Jakle, John A. , and Keith A. Sculle. Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Langdon, Philip. Orange Roofs, Golden Arches: The Architecture of American Chain Restaurants. New York: Knopf, 1986. McLamore, James, W. The Burger King: Jim McLamore and the Building of an Empire. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998. Mariani, John. America Eats Out. New York: William Morrow, 1991. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Tennyson, Jeffrey. Hamburger Heaven: The Illustrated History of the Hamburger. New York: Hyperion, 1993. Witzel, Michael Karl. The American Drive-In: History and Folklore of the Drive-In Restaurant in the Car Culture. Osceola, Wisc. : Motorbooks International, 1994. —David Gerard Hogan AMG AllGame Guide: Fast FoodTop Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Games Guide Release Date: 1989 Genre: Action. Style: Maze Random House Word Menu: categories related to ‘fast food’Top Home > Library > Literature & Language > Word Menu Categories Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier For a list of words related to fast food, see: Cuisines, Meals, and Restaurants – fast food: cheap, mass-produced dishes served quickly at walk-in or drive-in outlets; convenience food Wikipedia on Answers. com: Fast foodTop Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia For other uses, see Fast food (disambiguation). A typical fast food meal in the United States includes a hamburger, french fries, and a soft drink. Pictured here are burgers from In-N-Out Burger McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut fast food restaurants in the United Arab Emirates Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out/take-away. The term â€Å"fast food† was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951. Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating,[1] or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchise operations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations. [2] Contents 1 History 1. 1 Pre-modern Europe 1. 2 United Kingdom 1. 3 United States 2 On the go 2. 1 Filling stations 2. 2 Street vendors and concessions 3 Cuisine 3. 1 Variants 4 Business 5 Employment 6 Globalization 7 Criticism 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links History.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Dream of equal schooling Essay

Mr. Borsuk also found that with the exception of the element of religion in the voucher schools—an issue many feel is a violation of the separation of church and state– â€Å"it’s the same story that’s being played out in urban classrooms across America—a story of poverty, limited resources, poor leadership and broken families. † (2006). Based on firsthand experience observations garnered from visiting each and every voucher school that would allow it, Borsuk concluded that at least ten of the 106 schools visited appeared to â€Å"lack the ability, resources, knowledge or will to offer children even a mediocre education†¦. most of these were led by individuals who had little to no background in running schools and no resources other than state payments. † (Borsuk 2006). Nine of the voucher schools would not allow the reporters to observe their work, making one wonder why the secrecy? Like everything on earth, some bad must come along with the good. Alex’s Academics of Excellence happened to be a school begun by a convicted rapist, and kept on enrolling students even after allegations of drug use by staff on school grounds and a DA’s investigation. Thankfully, Alex’s, along with three others have closed—as a result of outside intervention, not due to parental outcry. Conservatives have focused on the undeniable problems in our public school systems as a reason for the voucher system. They say that the voucher system gives â€Å"choice† to parents and students, but in reality they are more interested in privatizing the schools, effectively removing them from â€Å"public oversight and responsibility. † (Special Voucher 2000). The alternative to the voucher system would be to â€Å"invest in our public schools, not abandon them,† according to the more liberal stance. Our society knows how to teach children, it just tends to do that job in unequal measures. Many times a disproportionate amount of money is spent on the already privileged children rather than on the low income areas. Perhaps the largest distinguishing factor in voucher schools comes down to religion. Many of the students in the voucher program schools pray together in class, read the Bible, the Torah, or attend Mass. Even parents who are not particularly religious feel their children will get a better education and learn moral values when placed in a parochial school. While the religious aspect is a sticking point for those who advocate the separation of church and state, the religious schools are the fastest growing area of voucher schools, and many parents who were interviewed felt their children were receiving a much better education in a parochial school than they did in public schools. Martin Carnoy, a Stanford University professor has been critical of the voucher system, pointing to the fact that other states are not participating. â€Å"No other places jumped on the bandwagon, and I think the reason is they don’t see anything spectacular and terrific happening. Basically, they can live without it. † (Borsuk 2006). It is felt in many sectors that the voucher program has been a huge drain on resources, taking away money and attention from the some 85,000 students who still attend regular MPS schools. These students are effectively losing out so that others can attend private schools. (Borsuk 2006). How do other states feel about the voucher system? The Florida State Supreme Court ruled on January 5, 2006 that Governor Jeb Bush’s pilot voucher program was illegal because it â€Å"violates the provision in the state constitution that prohibits using taxpayer money to finance a private alternative to the public education system. † (OnWEAC 2006). The decision was 5-2 and the court stated that the voucher school program hurt public education because it diverted public dollars into private systems. Voucher schools are being rejected at a national level as in November, 2005, a group of 23 House Republican’s â€Å"bucked its party’s leaders and defeated an effort to include a private school voucher plan in the House budget reconciliation bill. † (OnWEAC 2006). The question remains: What is the future of the Wisconsin Voucher system? From September, 2005 to January, 2006, the number of low income students attending voucher schools dropped sharply, a decline of nearly 1500 students. This could be due to the fact that three voucher schools were closed because they did not meet minimum standards, or perhaps the reasons are more far-reaching. (School Choice 2006). The Laws have recently expanded the eligibility of voucher recipients, now allowing students who are in schools that have ranked in the â€Å"academic emergency† or â€Å"academic watch† category for the past three years to receive vouchers. (School Choice 2006) The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently upheld a very controversial state law that prohibits students from using publicly funded vouchers for religious schools. Justice Donald Alexander wrote that the â€Å"state is not compelled to pay for religious education; even though the U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that these programs are constitutionally permissible. † (School Choice 2006). Although this was a Maine case, the issue may soon arise in Wisconsin as well. Wisconsin has done its best and tried many alternatives, gone down many roads to improve the education of their children. Nobody can fault them for this, however it is clear that it is still far from a level playing field, and that more reforms are in order, more programs that guarantee each child a quality education. References: Borsuk, Alan J. (January 3, 2004). Dream of equal schooling is unrealized. Accessed on May 3, 2006 from: http://www.jsonline.com

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Nursing Home Administrator Essay

The delivery of Healthcare is a high touch enterprise that calls for interaction among every stakeholder within the healthcare sphere. Communication, whether interpersonal or intrapersonal, is a crucial part of these dealings and may be transformed by the intellectual use of communication tools. Information is the means of support of healthcare. Therefore, communication systems are the backbone that supports the whole idea. Care of patients in the nursing homes now almost unavoidably entails many different people, all with the need to share patient information and talk about their organization. As a result there is an ever increasing attention in the information and communication technology that sustain health services. There exists a huge gap in the wide understanding of the function of communication services in the delivery health care. This paper will review different types of communication methods for the health care organization, including the advantages and disadvantages of using traditional, electronic, and social media for health care communication. The review will then discuss effects of HIPAA and other regulations on the use of these media for health care communication. The significant role that communication plays among people in healthcare is often neglected. Basic and very important to all healthcare managerial functions, communication is the means used in the transmission of information and additionally makes an individual understood by the target audience. In a situation in which a nursing home faces transition of management and the residents are unable to communicate effectively, have no local family, and have not indicated that they approve the release of their medical information is a crisis many health care administrators face every day. In such situations, communication is a key challenge for administrators for they are solely mandated to provide information, which consequently affects performance in the organization. A communication system is any formal or informal structure that an organization uses to sustain its communication requirements. The system involves components like people, the message that is needed to be conveyed, the technology that mediates a conversation, and an organizational structure that characterizes and limits the conversation that occurs. They are therefore bundles of different kinds of components and the utility of the general system is measured by the correctness of all the components combined. The situation above poses a challenge due to the barriers between reception and feedback. Most of the people to be displaced have no idea why and may even lose their privacy in the process. In order to solve the crisis above, it is mandatory to review the pros and cons of different kinds of communications. Electronic communications are fast, they are cost-effective and quite convenient. However, these attributes enclose intrinsic disadvantages. The technology that helps people to keep on the go also may invade privacy and cut into valuable time meant for other social activities. Devices such as cell phones with mobility technology and portable computers facilitate communication at all times. This allows one to work and visit sites in public locations, such as trains and other social gatherings. This has enabled people to stop traveling long distances to work and may do so from home. The technology also encourages productivity, for instance, a person intending to meet a professional deadline may save valuable time by working on a mobile gadget before getting to the workplace. Electronic communication is also convenient and instantaneous. It distributes with the need to mail or fax a document that can be stored online or on a portable electronic device to protect it against any kind of loss. These advantages facilitate learning and research. A visit to a clinical website may help out an individual with a complicated health problem. Despite the good attributes, modern electronic communications leave individuals vulnerable to cyber-attacks and other forms of online criminal attacks. Additionally, online conversations may pose a physical threat to children. It also exposes people to violent materials and pornography that may become addictive and eventually a health issue. Interruptions and distractions brought about by the modern electronic communications compromise quality time and if left unchecked may damage an individual’s intelligence quotient. Another platform that has received a lot of attention lately is the use of social media in addressing health care issues and extraction of patient information readily available in the social sites. The social media outlets are widespread. An advantage of using it is that it is wide-reaching, user-centric and collaborative in nature. If health care centers embraced the platform, then an interactive channel is guaranteed as most of the users are cooperative. The social sites include blogs, wikis, videoconferencing, multimedia blogging, and the diverse websites. Traditional media usage in health care communication is well embraced due to the minimal threats contained. Traditional methods have a simple system of getting information and allow one to make informed decisions. They are simple to learn and understand. However, the traditional media cannot cover all the patients’ needs because of the lack of services and the one way channel. The traditional means is not interactive and may not always target the right audience. It does not always give accurate information and may be biased. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) created in 1996 is a charter with mandated regulations that institute standards to guard the privacy of every individual’s independently exclusive health information. Health care centers must conform to these privacy regulations and all the rules on the subject of the way health centers may or may not use or disclose protected health information (PHI). The regulations intend to shelter the identity, personality and privacy of healthcare patients. Consequently, specific aspects of the healthcare employee culture are needed to change in the manner that employees distribute information and discuss their clients. Healthcare establishments are also mandated to put into effect HIPAA fulfillment from within. This creates additional administrative and training costs. Knowledge of HIPAA effects on healthcare organizations helps to assess the costs, effectiveness, and benefits of the HIPAA regulations. Patients must make contact with the administration so that permission for healthcare providers to share information with each other is obtained. It is illegal for healthcare providers to acquire records from social networks. This only poses as a barrier to effective communication. According to this paper, communication is essential for any administrator to solve a health care crisis. Whether the health care patient in a nursing home understands the consequences of a new management or not, he or she is entitled to correct information regarding how the process will transpire. Organizations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are a good establishment to protect their (patient) privacy. However, certain sections of their standard regulations need to be changed for the sake of the illiterate persons without local families and completely unaware of whether to consent to his or her information being shared. With new developments in communications, health car e providers should face smooth communications rather than the old hard system. References HIPAA Compliance Guide: http://www.hipaacomplianceguide.com/ U.S. HHS, Administrative Simplification in the Health Care Industry: http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 18

Questions - Assignment Example ime when he got used to my presence he started letting me take some of the toys that weren’t his favorite, although I wasn’t allowed to take the favorite ones. When he realized that I didn’t insist on taking his toys he abandoned his greed and even started passing me some of his favorite toys. Approximately two hours had passed from the very first moment of our meeting to the moment he voluntary gave me his favorite toys. Probably the reason why it took so long for the toddler to socialize was that he was nurtured to be self-centered, though it wasn’t his natural condition because he easily got socialized when his parents weren’t present during the process of communication. Thus the best way for toddlers to learn socialization skills is to actually socialize them. If they start integrating into different groups of other toddlers (like kindergarten) or simply interact with people other than their parents, they will eventually learn the skills by them selves and will socialize more rapidly in the future. 3. A simple game I suggested for a 17 month-old toddler was to construct a small tower (from two to three stages) of ordinary wooden toy blocks. I explained to the boy what I wanted him to do and in the meantime I was showing how exactly he was supposed to construct the tower using the toy blocks. He absolutely got the task and started building the tower. However, sometimes it was quite difficult for him to hold the toy blocks and don’t drop them until he puts them on the right place. The skill he was supposed to learn was the skill to hold an object tight in his hands and be able to twist it to the exact side that he needed to put it down on another object. The toddler experienced certain difficulties with holding the toy blocks because it frequently happened that while twisting a block to the right side he dropped the object and ruined the entire construction. Notwithstanding the difficulties, he learned how to do it in another hour and eventually

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Development Theory and Impasse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Development Theory and Impasse - Essay Example The development theories at that time were based on metanarratives mainly because of the popularity which was contained by Marxists and neo Marxists. The beginning of impasse in development theory occurred when the capitalist system caused the Western development which was considered to be exploitative by nature (Schuurman, 1993). The development impasse is a significant feature of the world economy and global development. This paper is focused on describing the development theories and the impasse in development theories in a detailed manner. It also aims to evaluate the causes of this impasse in development theories. Development Theory Development theory is an aggregate of multiple theories, which aims to propose methods by which a society can be congealed into a developed and progressed form. The development study deals with the ways by which the desirable changes in the society can deliberately be delivered on a social level. There are many theories, which come under the umbrella term of development theory. Some of these theories are: 1. Dependency Theory 2. Modernization Theory Dependency Theory Dependency theory is a set of multiple theories relating to the scope of social sciences. It aims to describe the reasons for the failure of developing countries to develop on the economic field.... ntrols the global economy which creates inequality in power and resources by which the non industrialized countries becomes unable to progress and match to the global economy in spite of the investments by industrialized countries. This is the main argument of dependency theory for the global development (Munck & O'hearn, 1999). Modernization Theory Modernization theory is a development theory which explicates the process by which the industrialized countries become developed. It aims to describe the process of modernization by which societies became developed and industrialized. It emphasizes on advancements in technology and industrialization in order to actualize the development in society. It also incorporates many political and social changes in a society to become a developed society. One of the social changes is the emphasis on the advancement in the institution of education. It actually describes the process by which the industrialized North American societies and the industr ialized societies of Western Europe were developed. It proposes that if a developing country adopts this process of modernization, by which the developed countries were modernized, only then that developing country can be converted into a developed and industrialized society (Munck & O'hearn, 1999). Impasse in Development Theory The impasse in the development theory is largely contributed to the Marxist influence on development sociology. To understand the impasse of development theory, it is important to neutrally attain the core understanding of each theory including dependency theory and Marxist influence on development theory (Booth, 1985). Marxism and Neo Marxism The time period of 1970s and 80s were significantly influenced by Marxist theory and Neo Marxism regarding the development

3. Discuss the trends in terrorism that you envision for the upcoming Essay

3. Discuss the trends in terrorism that you envision for the upcoming decade - Essay Example It is not a recent issue but a common debate today. The use of technology in such acts has exploited all the means of communication (the internet, telephone etc). These organizations plan to kill a larger number of people in a minimum time period. The ratio of natural deaths has decreased as compared to mob killings due to bomb blasts and terrorism. One can define it as â€Å"Terrorism is a term used to describe the method or the theory behind the method whereby an organized group or party seeks to achieve its avowed aims chiefly through the systematic use of violence. Terrorist acts are directly against persons who as individuals, agents or representatives of authority interfere with the communication of objectives of such groups† (Engene, 2004, p. 6) It would not be wrong if one states that terrorism evolved from the 9/11 attacks on the World trade center. Not merely the south East Asian region but the rest of the World as well is highly affected by the terrorist activities. The advancement in the past decade would leave a far more powerful effect of the decade to come. ("Conference on terrorism," 2008) The vast use of technology, fewer incidents and larger killings, use of weapons of destructions all these changing trends n terrorism must be carefully examined by the government as well as other organizations. Close check upon such activities would help in calculating future trends, identify and target the anarchist. These trends in terrorism lead to different government policies to control and reduce terrorism. (Levy, 2007, p. 125) Engene, J. (2004).  Terrorism in western europe: Explaining the trends since 1950. (p. 6). Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=8VR765amvzAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=trends in terrorism&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mBjIUJXwMOrI0QWt-oHoDg&redir_esc=y Conference on terrorism in south & southeast asia in the coming decade. (2008). In  CONFERENCE ON TERRORISM IN SOUTH & SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE COMING

Monday, August 26, 2019

Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. ___ (2011) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. ___ (2011) - Essay Example Acker & Malatesta (2013) highlights that the Fourth Amendment grants each person’s right to security at home in contradiction of irrational searches and seizures with no violations. The State Court’s ruling intended at eliminating instances where police created exigent conditions to avoid obtaining a warrant. The respondent appealed his sentence for possessing drugs as stated in a police search of his apartment (Doyle, 2011). The unwarranted search to Mr. King’s home was the belief by the police that there were drugs in his apartment. Then, the police had knocked on the respondent’s door and revealed their presence upon which the respondent’s room smelt burning drugs as detected from the door. According to the police, the situation called for urgent measures that prompted entry into the apartment to avoid further evidence demolition. Consequently, the Kentucky Supreme Court held to the illegality of the police search as founded on the Fourth Amendment and that the police developed the urgency. However, the U.S Supreme Court approved certiorari to investigate this decision. In November 21, 2005 at Fayette County Circuit Court, a bench accused Mr. King with trafficking marijuana, first-degree precise substance handling, and second-degree tenacious crime. The grand jury’s decision held that marijuana smoke prompting further investigations but did not vindicate warrantless search. Consequently, the respondent was granted the right to appeal. At the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Mr. King’s appeal occurred on March 14, 2008 maintaining that the police created the exigent conditions and that there was no exception to possessing a search warrant. However, the court supported the need for immediate action to prevent evidence demolition. The Kentucky Supreme Court granted Mr. King’s discretionary review on January 21, 2010 reversing the decision

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Public relations news release Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Public relations news release - Assignment Example h almost 19 years of experience in the academia, impressed the Grove search committee enough to be considered eligible for deanship of the business school at Grove. While having served in different academic positions over the years including vice deanship at a business school, Suarez has never been the dean at any school before. â€Å"This is my dream job and there is no place I’d rather be than at one of the best institutions in the world,† Suarez added. Born and raised in Joplin, Suarez is a married man in his fifties and fathers two children. â€Å"We feel fortunate to be able to secure a person who is so highly qualified to lead our outstanding business program,† said Luke Hammer, 62, a former CEO at Logitech and the current president at Grove. â€Å"We expect great things from Carlos Suarez, and we know he’ll take us to new heights.† Grove College is a private college that seeks to equip its students with the skills and knowledge needed to excel globally. The nationally ranked business school at Grove offers degrees in finance, management, marketing and accounting among others, with a total current enrollment of 10,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Gold Marilyn Monroe and Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair Essay

Gold Marilyn Monroe and Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair - Essay Example The essay "Gold Marilyn Monroe and Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair" analyzes wo paintings, Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair by Frida Kahlo and Gold Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol. Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, by Frida Kahlo hangs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, currently on show among other masterpieces of the time. Kahlo painted this medium-sized canvas in 1940, shortly after her divorce from Diego Rivera. Theirs was a tempestuous relationship, shown by their remarriage the following year and the content of this picture, which shows Kahlo after she sheared off most of her long hair . Many art critics have opinions about why she painted herself in such a masculine way: short hair, man’s suit, unladylike posture. It is perhaps to state that after her husband’s infidelity with her own sister Cristina, she was making herself unattractive, unfeminine and unapproachable. Others say she always had masculine tendencies, shown by her relationships with women. The tru th lies somewhere between, more related to grief and mourning than to statements of gender. Kahlo was part Jewish. She was very close to her German-Jewish father Wilhelm Kahlo , and was probably expressing the Jewish way of grieving something lost, something dead: her love. The verse from Jeremiah (Ch 7, v 29), in the Old Testament: ‘Shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains.’ And in Micah Ch 1:1, ‘Weep, you people of Judah! Shave your heads in sorrow...’ are well known. It is almost certain Kahlo would have known.

Friday, August 23, 2019

The essay should be presented as a Journal opinion article. The

The should be presented as a Journal opinion article. The article should be timely and address an economic issue of curren - Essay Example The short and long term implications of immigration laws are imperative for determining employment rates and productivity of the US workforce. In the short run, immigration is said to slightly decrease the employment rates or in other words, increase unemployment rates however the long run implications are positive. The matter has been the center of debate and has affected the US immigration policy greatly. While many try to make a case against reform in US immigration laws, credible sources in the available literature have established that long term impacts of immigration on the US workforce is positive as it enhances labor productivity. In their opinion article titled More Immigration Means More Jobs for Americans, John Dearie and Courtney Geduldig have given useful statistics that suggest that immigration improves employment as it creates jobs for the common people (n.pag.). It mentions how immigrants make up on a small percent of the total American population yet contribute a sig nificant percent to the economy by means of small businesses. Because most immigrants are self-employed and own several small scale sole-proprietorships and partnership businesses, they create jobs for the people thereby helping to reducing the unemployment rates. ... ed by Dearie and Geduldig is consistent with current findings which Giovanni Peri has described in his article The Impact of Immigrants in Recession and Economic Expansion. Peri’s article mentions the long run positive effects of immigration on the US economy as it increases productivity (4). Immigrants bring in new ideas and creativity along with them leading diverse distribution of organizational workforces. Although it may seem like immigrations negatively impact the US labor market as they saturate jobs and cause unemployment in the short run, the long run implications are promising. However, it seems to long before the long run positive impacts become observable. Even though short run effects of immigration may reduce employment, it increases average income in the long run (Peri, 4). So, the long effects of immigration are positive on employment, productivity, and income. However, it is also important to note that the immigration must adapt to economic changes in order fo r it to improve variables such as employment, productivity, and average income. The current US immigration laws do not allow the immigrants to adjust to economic changes because it makes them unresponsive to the economic conditions. In order for legal immigration to improve organizational productivity, average income, and employment rates, immigration must adjust to economic cycles thereby leading to improvements in the US economy. These adjustments are the hardest to carry during prolonged periods of economic downturns and therefore amendments in the US immigration policy is required to allow the inflows to be responsive to economic changes thereby helping to boost economic activity and hence result in greater jobs for the people. Thus, a reform in the current US immigration laws may provide a

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Role of a Manager within the Functional Areas of Business Essay Example for Free

Role of a Manager within the Functional Areas of Business Essay Abstract According to the University of Phoenix MBA Overview Module (n.d.), there are 11 functional areas of business that managers play an important role. However, for the purposes of this paper, we will focus on in my opinion the four major functional areas of a business (management, human resource, finance and marketing) that managers play a key role, regardless of the company size. Each line of business have specific duties and responsibilities, however, they all come together to work for the success of the company. Management Management is the practice of coordinating and overseeing the work of others so that organizational goals can be accomplished. Managers ensure business success through efficiency and the effective use of employees, the businesss most important resource (University of Phoenix, n.d.). Managers are the first line of defense to interpret the culture and atmosphere management wants to present to the business as a whole. In addition, they must provide the tools and resources to employees for the company to accomplish the goal’s management has implemented. If the goals are not being performed employees have to work with management to address the changes and make corrective actions to maintain positive stability in the business environment. Human Resource Managers use Human Resource management throughout the employee life cycle, including hiring, training, proper compensation for work, and taking disciplinary actions to remediate, if necessary (University of Phoenix, n.d.). Managers also use human resource to address educational and health benefits, complaints about other co-workers and immediate supervisors. One of Human Resource most important role is hiring new personnel. Managers have the responsibility to hire qualified candidates for positions available in the company. According to Dobre (2012) â€Å"in order to evaluate the ability of an employee, managers  should determine whether the worker has the right skills and knowledge to perform a certain job properly†. Managers must be proactive when a person shows weaknesses in position. Manager should identify the skills or experience employee lacks and offer solutions, such as training, coaching or better feedback (Dobre, 2102). Human Resource managers handle personnel issues, which allow immediate managers in all line of businesses to focus on the departmental goals. Finance Depending on the size of a business Accounting and Finance is one line of business, however, for the purposes of this paper Finance will be focused as one line of business. Finance addresses the process of setting up and maintaining the fiscal success of the firm, including revenue (University of Phoenix, n.d.). Finance is imperative for the survival of a business. Managers determine clear, precise goals at beginning of the year for company wide budgets that cover all line of businesses. Managers also must have detailed research strategies and make sound decisions for the financial investments of the company. Marketing Managers use marketing to identify what products or services to offer, how to advertise their wares to consumers, how to ensure they are meeting the needs of their customers, and how to create a good image for the firms b rand (University of Phoenix, n.d.). There must be a consensus from upper management trickled down of a budget that will allow the company to have a chance to benefit from marketing. Managers must employ various tools to get an edge over the competition that convince consumers to buy their product (also known as a competitive advantage). SWOT (strength weakness opportunity threat) analysis can also determine company strengths and weakness and external opportunities and threats from the competition or the demographics the company targets. According to Berri, Leeds, Leeds, and Mondello (2009), the most successful managers take advantage of market inefficiencies or find previously undiscovered niches. Managers must be aware of the different factors that determine the success of the company’s marketing campaign. Conclusion The role of managers within the functional areas of business was discussed briefly in four lines of businesses. The four lines of businesses also work together to support the operations of the company. Human Resource works with Finance to set company budgets so bonuses, incentives wages according  to performances can be determined. Management works with Marketing and Finance to determine strategies to capitalize on product market area and set budgets for the year. Management works with Human Resource to make sure policy and procedures are up to date with standards. Management works with Human Resource and Finance to determine profitability of company in terms of increasing, decreasing or no change in current staff positions. These are examples of several reasons line of businesses come together although not limited. Each line of business have specific duties and responsibilities, however, they all come together to work for the success of the company. References University of Phoenix. (n.d.). MBA Overview Module. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, MGT521-Management website. Berri, D.J., Leeds, M.A., Leeds, E.M. Mondello, M. (2009, May). The Role of Managers in Team Performance. International Journal of Sport Finance, 4(2), 75-93. ProQuest database. Dobre, O.I. (2012, December). The Impact of Human Resource Management on Organizational Performance. Management Research and Practice, 4(4), 37-46.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Italian or German Essay Example for Free

Italian or German Essay In this paper, I was interested in exploring whether or not bilingual children were more likely to have delayed language development compared to their monolingual peers. I looked at several resources that each focused on a different aspect of language development. All the information came from noted experts in the field of child development, although the types of resources differed. I began with an article that sorted through much of the existing data on bilingualism in order to create a foundation for the subject. Then I looked at additional readings to see whether or not they supported the information from that source. The first article, by Ellen Bialystok, is itself a review of existing literature and studies regarding the acquisition of literacy among children who have been bilingual since birth. She writes that most research focuses on literacy development for learners in their second language, second language literacy in monolinguistics or the cognitive and linguistic aspects of achieving fluency in a second language. Studies that look at how true bilingual learners acquire necessary skills for reading and writing are few, but among those that she reviews, important discoveries may provide insight into how those children can achieve literacy. Children need three language skills before they can learn to read and write. They must have an oral competency with the literary forms of a language, an understanding of the symbolic meanings of print, and the metalinguistic awareness of phonology. This information comes from studies of monolinguistic children, but each of these skills is influenced by bilingualism. The question to be answered is, Does bilingualism have a positive, negative or neutral effect on the acquisition of literacy? All of the above, as it turns out. It depends upon the skill. According to Bialystok, several studies have shown that vocabulary size is smaller in bilingual learners, although these studies are limited and may have been influenced by the verbal abilities of the individual subjects. Regardless, weaker oral language skills contribute to difficulties in literacy acquisition. Another building block for reading and writing is the understanding that the printed symbols encode meaning and represent the spoken language. This skill appears to be transferable across languages, giving bilingual learners an advantage in its mastery. Individual languages have different specifics, but the generalities extend across all languages. Bialystok reviewed studies that examined children’s understanding of the invariance of print, or that a particular arrangement of notations always corresponds to the same spoken word, and their understanding of the rules that govern the correlation of the printed forms to the meaning of the text. Bilingual learners were much more aware of both of these concepts, giving them an advantage over their monolinguistic peers. The last prerequisite for literacy is phonological awareness. Bialystok found that studies of this metalinguistic concept revealed differing levels of competence depending on the language. Some languages, such as Italian or German, are more transparent and have more consistent spelling patterns. English is more difficult because of the many irregularities and exceptions to the rules in the language. Due to the many differences, it appears that bilingual learners develop phonological awareness separately, meaning that the knowledge of two languages has a neutral impact on this skill. A very limited number of studies indicated monolinguistic and bilingual learners each had some advantages in different phonological tasks but that most of these differences equaled out by the first grade. The following three articles look at one or more aspects that Bialystok addressed. Each has a slightly different focus and purpose, but all try to answer the basic question of whether bilingualism is an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to the language development of young children. The article, â€Å"Bilingual Acquisition,† on the Earlychildhood News website, is aimed at parents and educators of young children and focuses on some of the most common concerns about the effects of bilingualism. The author, Fred Genesee, is an expert in his field and therefore is a reliable source. The general tone and the presentation of the article seem to be geared towards parents and educators who fear that children will be delayed in developing language skills if they are exposed to more than one language in their preschool years. Genesee reassures readers that bilingual children do not show a significant difference in their language development other than the differences that occur among all children. His findings are consistent with Bialystok’s regarding vocabulary size. Although bilingual children may have smaller vocabularies in each of their languages compared to monolingual speakers, the total number of words from both languages tends to give bilingual children larger vocabularies. Genesee points out that the differences in vocabulary size are usually not very great once children begin school. This article does not spend much time discussing how to ensure that children achieve literacy in their second language without sacrificing ability in their first. This makes sense because most readers on this website are more likely to be interested in making sure that their non-native English speakers will be able to catch up to their peers. Genesee comments a few times that it is important for children to continue to hear both languages in order to remain bilingual. He encourages parents to use the language that they know best and to provide opportunities for children to hear their first language in the community and their homes. The next article is actually a chapter entitled â€Å"Young Bilingual Children and Early Literacy Development† from the book, Handbook of Early Literacy Research. This reading examines the development of literacy among bilingual children and takes into account how the amount of exposure to each language affects that development. In this study, the authors, Patton O. Tabors and Catherine E. Snow, looked at the effects of bilingualism during three time periods: birth to age 3, ages 3-5, and then ages 5-8. Children at each of these three periods were at different stages of language development and presumably had different language influences. First, the study looked at the various combinations of language exposures for infants and toddlers. The children were grouped into four categories. In the first, both the family at home and the members of the surrounding community used the home language, in this case, Spanish. English input was limited. The second group heard their native language at home, but the outside community spoke English. This is often the case among families who have come from countries that do not have large numbers of immigrants to the U. S. In the third and fourth groups, the children heard both their first language and English at home, but only the third group heard both in the community These different levels of exposure mean differing levels of bilingualism, and that has an impact on later literacy development. Beginning at about age 3, children could be placed into three types of classrooms: a first-language only, a bilingual or an English-language classroom. The children who come from the first or second exposure groups mentioned above did very well in both the first-language and bilingual classrooms. They received support from home in the language of instruction, which strengthened their development. Children who spoke both their first language and English at home also did well in bilingual classrooms, and they did better in English-only classrooms than their peers who spoke no English at home. The danger for the last group, which heard their first language at home only and not in the community was that they began to lose proficiency in their first language. Bilingual classrooms are particularly beneficial for them. What to do during these early school years, first and second grades, is a subject of much debate. Proponents of single language instruction believe that it is best for children to learn in the second language. However, underdeveloped oral command of the language leads to significant problems when trying to learn to read. Some evidence shows that these children fail to grasp the meaning of what they’ve read. In addition, these children rarely, if ever, become literate in their native language, which contributes to a loss of their heritage and culture. The best way for bilingual children to achieve literacy, according to these authors, is for them to become proficient in their first language and then transfer those skills to the second. This idea is supported by Bialystok. Tabors and Snow do mention some concerns with this approach, such as when should children begin the transition to the second language and should they continue to develop literacy skills in their first language after that transition. In the final article, the researchers, Stephanie M. Carlson and Andrew N. Meltzoff, designed a study to determine if bilingual children have any other advantages over their monolingual peers. Particularly, the study examined the effects bilingualism has on young children’s executive functioning. Their conclusions found that bilingual children are much more adept at conceptual inhibition, or in ignoring previously relevant information. Bilingual children do not switch back and forth between languages. Instead, they keep the relevant language in focus and ignore input from the irrelevant language. In doing this, these children have a lot of practice in inhibitory control, and that ability is transferable to other behaviors. For their study, Carlson and Meltzoff looked at three different groups of children: native bilinguals in Spanish and English, English monolinguals, and English monolinguals who were in a language-immersion kindergarten. The researchers controlled for numerous variables, including a family’s socio-economic status and the children’s verbal ability. The children participated in several experiments designed to test executive function when engaged in delay tasks or conflict tasks. In one of the tests of inhibition, children played a sorting game. They were given cards with either a rabbit or a boat that were either red or blue. First, children were asked to sort by shape, and then by color. To make the task more difficult, the examiner then switched to a set of cards that had gold stars on some of them. Children were instructed to sort by color if the card had a gold star, and by shape if it did not. Another test was â€Å"Simon Says,† using the typical rules. In order to test delay, children were given two bowls with treats in them. One bowl had more than the other. Children were given a bell and told that if they waited while the examiner left the room, they could have the larger snack. However, if they didn’t want to wait, they could ring the bell for the examiner to come back, but then they could only have the smaller snack. Several other studies also tested delay ability. As hypothesized, bilingual children outperformed monolingual children in conflict tasks, or tasks in which they had to follow new directions and ignore the previous ones. The children in the language-immersion program did not do any better than their monolingual peers. But what the researchers found most significant was that in looking at raw scores for all groups, the bilingual children did not show a difference in executive function. As the authors note, this means that the bilingual children were doing â€Å"more with less,† since they were at a disadvantage in several important factors, including SES and parents’ education levels and lack of home-based reading. This suggests that bilingual children are compensating for their disadvantages through increased cognitive functioning resulting from their abilities to process two languages. Bilingualism is a complex idea with multiple facets. Debate about English-only instruction will continue, especially in light of the ongoing debate about immigration. Bilingual children may face many difficulties, but in some aspects, they have the advantage. Works Cited Bialystok, E. (2007). Acquisition of Literacy in Bilingual Children: A Framework for Research. Language Learning, 57: Suppl. 1, 45-77 Carlson, S. M. , Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). â€Å"Bilingual Experience and Executive Functioning in Young Children. † Developmental Science. Volume 11, Issue 2, pp. 282-298. Genesee, F. (2008). Bilingual Acquisition. Retrieved on April 23,2010, from http://www. earlychildhoodnews. com/earlychildhood/article_view. aspx? ArticleID=38 Tabors, P. Snow C. (2003). Young bilingual children and early literacy development. In S. B. Neuman D. K. Dickinson (Eds. ), Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 159-178). New York: The Guilford Press. Retrieved from: http://books. google. com/books? hl=enlr=id=iDguatyRT_ACoi=fndpg=PA159dq=bilingual+children+have+delayed+language+developmentots=N5ysWJOWTnsig=cnsR9nhU5FVlfgKuFU3B_Bh6bt8#v=onepageq=bilingual%20children%20have%20delayed%20language%20developmentf=false Appendix 1. The Genesee and Tabors Snow articles came from using the Google search engine. The Bialystok and Carlson Meltzoff articles came from using EBSCO. Access to these databases was supplied by the University of California. 2. Search terms used were Bilingual-Children-Language-Development, entered all together for Google and for EBSCO, entered as Bilingual, Children, and Language Development as search terms for subject keyword and using the boolean â€Å"and†. 3. The Genesee article was on a website for early childhood education. It was specific to that website and was just one of the articles presented. It was a primary source. The Bialystok was a literature review of numerous studies, making it a secondary source. Both the Carlson Meltzoff and Tabors Snow articles were primary sources. They were reports of research studies that each set of authors conducted themselves.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Customer Loyalty In Indian Mobile Telecommunication Services Sector Marketing Essay

Customer Loyalty In Indian Mobile Telecommunication Services Sector Marketing Essay INTRODUCTION Service organizations in India are facing tough competition in the global market because of liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy. Hence, it is helpful for service organizations to know the customer service quality perceptions in order to overcome the competitors and attract and retain the customers. Because of the globalization and liberalization of Indian economy, Indian service sector has been opened for Multinational companies. In order to overcome the competition and to retain the world class service standards, Indian companies have been forced to adopt quality management programs. Nerurkar (2000) analyzed the SERVQUAL dimensions in India and concluded that service quality should form the basis for all customer retention strategies. Services are defined as: the activities, which are involved in producing intangible products as education, entertainment, food and lodging, transportation, insurance, trade , government, financial, real estate, medical, consultancy, repair and maintenance like occupation. Quality has become a strategic tool for obtaining efficiency in operations and improved business performance (Babakus and Boller, 1992; Garvin, 1983; Phillips, Chang and Buzzell, 1983). This is true for the services sector too. Several authors have discussed the unique importance of quality to service firms and have demonstrated its positive relationship with profits, increased market share, return on investment, customer satisfaction, and future purchase intentions (Rust and Oliver, 1994). One obvious conclusion of these studies is that firms with superior quality products outperform those marketing inferior quality products. Service quality can be concisely defined as the personal experience of the customer with the service provider. Service quality is playing an increasingly important role in the present environment where there is no further scope for the companies to differentiate themselves other than the quality of the service provided by them. Delivering superior service quality than the competitors is the key for the success of any organization. But, the companies face difficulties in measuring the quality of services offered to the customers. Because unlike measuring the quality of goods, the measurement of the quality of services offered by the companies is difficult due to the three unique features of services viz. intangibility, heterogeneity, and inseparability. Hence the only way of measuring the quality of services offered by the service provider is the measurement of the customers perception of the quality of service they are experiencing from their service providers. Quality has been defined differently by various authors. Some prominent definitions include conformance to requirements (Crosby, 1990), fitness for use or one that satisfies the customer. According to production philosophy of Japan, quality has been defined as zero defects in the firms offerings. Though initial efforts in defining and measuring service quality emanated largely from the goods sector, a solid foundation for research work in the area was laid down in the mid-eighties by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985). They were amongst the earliest researchers to emphatically point out that the concept of quality prevalent in the goods sector is not extendable to the services sector. Being inherently and essentially intangible, heterogeneous, perishable and entailing simultaneity and inseparability of production and consumption, services require a distinct framework for quality explication and measurement. As against the goods sector where tangible cues exist to enable consumers to evaluate product quality, quality in the service context is explicated in terms of parameters that largely come under the domain of experience and credence properties and are as such difficult to measure and evaluate (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985). One major contribution of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) was to provide a terse definition of service quality. According to these authors service quality means relating the superiority of the service with the global judgement of a person about it and explicated it as involving evaluations of the outcome (i.e., what the customer actually receives from service) and process of service act (i.e., the manner in which service is delivered). In line with the propositions put forward by Gronroos (1984) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988) posited and operationalized service quality as a difference between consumer expectations of what they want and their perceptions of what they get. Based on this conceptualization and operationalization, they proposed a service quality measurement scale called SERVQUAL. Quality has become a strategic tool in obtaining efficiency in operations and improved performance in business. This is true for both the goods and services sectors. However, the problem with management of service quality in service firms is that quality is not easily identifiable and measurable due to inherent characteristics of services which make them different from goods. INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR In the year 1984, one of the members of parliament stood up and said to the erstwhile telecom minister about the pathetic state of affairs regarding the telecom services in our country. To the question posed, the minister replied that telephone is a luxury and not a necessity and if the honourable Member of Parliament is not happy with the service then he can return the connection as there were a lot of Members of Parliament waiting to get one. Getting a telephone connection was even more difficult than acquiring Maybach (one of the costliest cars in the world). The father of telecom revolution in our country was the erstwhile Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi, wherein he called Mr. Sam Pitroda who initiated the Digital telephony revolution in our country. Advances in technology coupled with reforms of 1991 and the fundamental, structural and institutional changes brought about in that period were instrumental in setting up the tone for future growth and development. Today, India is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world with current sub-scriber base nearing 490 mil-lion and looking positive to touch 500 million subscribers by 2010. India, the fastest growing telecom market in world, registered a CAGR of around 34% over the last decade and has left analysts around the world totally in awe. Among the various segments, cellular or mobile segment has been the key contributor and specially prepaid services, with its wide offerings of services, has been leading the growth wave. With the upcoming 3G allotment, the sector is likely to grow at a good rate riding on better and possibly a whole new range of services. OVERVIEW OF INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR 15 years back, no one had thought that India will become a country with more number of GSM subscribers than fixed line sub-scribers. With 490 million sub-scribers by 2009, teledensity has risen up to around 42%, and thus the other half is yet to be brought to the mainstream. Going by the current data, the subscriber base grew to around 494.07 million in August09, registering a growth of 42.67% over the last year. As per the estimates of Stock watch the expected mobile subscriber base will touch around 771 million by the year 2013. Telephony services i.e. (mobile and basic) and internet services dominate the Indian Tele-com services market. With a CAGR of 29% from 2002 to 2007 with revenues of $20 billion, it is expected to stabilize at 16% by 2010 with revenues in the range of $43 billion. Over the years, wire-less services has acquired almost 92% of the total telephony market, with State owned BSNL as the leader in the landline domain and Bharti Airtel being the leader in cellular s ervices with other players like Reliance, Idea Cellular and Vodafone giving it a tough competition. SERVICE PROVIDERS IN SECTOR The Indian mobile services market is more or less equally divided between GSM and CDMA customers with the former capturing around 53% of the sub-scriber base. Currently there are 11 players who are fighting tooth and nail to increase even one single percentage point in their market share. While Bharti Airtel dominates the GSM arena, Anil Ambani led ADAGs Reliance communications has been leading the CDMA services space in mobile telephony but the good sign for the sector is that revenues of all the incumbents have increased leading to an increase in their revenues. In GSM, Bharti Airtel is given a tough competition by Vodafone and Tata Teleservices which operates Tata Indicom and in CDMA; it is considerably behind Reliance communications in terms of market share. With Mobile number portability coming into the scene, the war will be fiercer in this space and there will be a huge swapping of subscribers among the existing players. SERVICE PROVIDER WISE MARKET SHARE AS ON 31-03-2010 Serial No. Name of Telecom Company Market Share 1 AIRCEL 6.06% 2 BHARTI AIRTEL 22.33% 3 BSNL 11.95% 4 HFCL 0.06% 5 IDEA 10.99% 6 LOOP 0.50% 7 MTNL 0.90% 8 RELIANCE 17.72% 9 SISTEMA 0.60% 10 STEL 0.09% 11 TATA 11.07% 12 UNINOR 0.47% 13 VODAFONE 17.27% SOURCE: TRAI GROWTH PROSPECTS: TELECOM IN INDIA Indian telecom industry has set an example by penetrating the market to an extent of around 43% in a span of 10 years when analysts and experts were extremely sceptical about India as a market. The growth has not been restricted only to the higher section of the society, now it is driven primarily by the rural market as well and the acceptance has been in-creasing considerably over the years. On an average approximately 8 million users are added per month to the kitty thereby making India the worlds fastest growing telecom market and thus happens to be the country offering highest Return On Investment for the telecom companies. To support the growing telecom market, the government is supporting telecom manufacturing by providing tax sops as well as setting up Special economic zones (SEZ) for the sector. TRENDS IN THE INDUSTRY 3G spectrum will be the next growth wave in the industry and also the source of additional revenues for the companies. Foreign players such as ATT and NTT DoCoMo have show great interest for the same. The spectrum allotment is a major investment opportunity and is estimated to attract an investment of around US$8-10 billion during 2008-11. The state owned incumbent BSNL has successfully launched its 3G service under the proposed India-Golden 50 scheme but could not create that much of buzz though for not being aggressive in marketing the same. WiMax on the other hand promises seamless connectivity with speed of more than 4 Mbps in tough terrains also. With the growing number of smart phones entering the market coupled with buzz created by the social networking websites, one can surely expect a substantial amount of people using their mobile phones for the internet. The telecom ministry is planning to auction few slots in WiMax in near future. Value Added Services on the other hand is the constant source of revenue and a means to en-gage subscribers. The expected revenue from Value Added Services will be around US$ 4.0 billion by 2015. The concurrent developments like M-Commerce, focus on localization, availability of content in vernacular languages, availability of mobile TV are few out of many growth drivers for the VAS industry. With the customer data at their disposal, telecom companies are generating knowledge and information by churning out this data to serve their customers better. The future for the Indian Telecom industry looks bright with fierce competition making way for consolidation. The growth will be majorly driven by rural sector which is currently attracting good investment not only from the players but also from the government. The biggest challenge will be to keep in touch with the rural customers as setting up customer touch points requires investment with not much tangible returns as the number of subscribers is still pretty low. As of now the penetration in rural areas is around 10% as opposed to around 30% in urban landscape. The industry currently is nicely poised with great new policy changes and new players entering the market to make it more fruitful for the consumers. THE REVIEW OF LITERATURE Several studies were conducted on the issue of service quality in various countries. Some studies were consulted for proper understanding of the concepts discussed in this study. Various models have been developed to determine measure and assess the determinants of service quality. SERVQUAL is based on the idea of a gap between expectations of the customers about service quality by service provider and their assessment of actual performance of service by service provider. Since Parsuraman et al. (1988) developed the SERVQUAL instrument many researchers have used and developed the 22-item scale to study service quality in different sectors of services industry. The following studies are consulted for the present study: A. Parsuraman, Leonard L. Berry, and Valarie A. Zeithaml, (1988) in their study described about development of 22-item instrument in the assessment of service quality perceptions of customers in service and retail firms, which was called as SERVQUAL. This study was revolutionary as it didnt depend on the earlier dimension of goods quality in the manufacturing sector. The initial study based on the focus groups yielded 10 dimensions of service quality that included access, competence, courtesy, credibility, security, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communication, and understanding the customer. In concluding remarks, authors proposed that SERVQUAL scale can help a vast range of service and retail firms to assess the customer expectations and perceptions of service quality as it had a variety of potential applications. Johnson, William. C, and Anuchit Sirikit (2002) conducted a study on the landline and mobile users of the Thai telecommunication industry using the SERVQUAL scale (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles). The study was conducted with the objectives of finding whether service quality ratings predict a competitive advantage among Thai telecommunication firms as indicated by future customer intentions and whether SERVQUAL reliably assesses service quality perceptions/expectations among customers in the Thai telecommunication industry. G.S.Sureshchandar, Chandrasekharan Rajendran, and R.N.Anantharaman (2003) critically examined the service quality issues from the customers point of view. In their study conducted in a developing country, India, authors selected three groups of banks for their study viz. Public sector, Private sector, and foreign banks. Authors in their study found that in terms of the customer perceptions of service quality, the technological factors appear to contribute more in differentiating the three sectors and the people-oriented factors appear to contribute less in differentiation among three sectors. In terms of performance foreign banks topped among three groups, and performance of public sectors banks is even less than private sector banks. Ndubisi, Nelson Oly, and Chan Kok Wah (2005) conducted a study on the Malaysian banking sector. The study concluded by saying that banks can generate customer satisfaction by exhibiting trustworthy behaviour, commitment to service, communicating information to customers efficiently and accurately, delivering services in a competent manner, handling potential and manifest conflicts skilfully, and improving overall customer relationship quality. Najjar, Lotfollah, and Ram R. Bishus (2006) study on the US banking sector using a nondifference score of SERVQUAL scale focused on the importance of improving service quality in the banking sector. The study used statistical tools like ANOVA, Factor Analysis, and Regression to analyze the data. The final results of the service quality analysis showed that reliability and responsiveness were the two most critical dimensions of service quality and they are directly related to overall service quality. The findings of the study substantiated the findings of Berry et al. where reliability and responsiveness were shown to be important factors of service quality. Abdolreza Eshghi, Sanjit Kumar Roy, and Shirshendu Ganguly (2008) conducted an empirical study in Indian mobile telecommunication services sector and concluded that reputation is intertwined with the perceived service quality and customer satisfaction, and with the help of public relation campaigns and innovative communication strategies, positive corporate reputation can be build and maintained, which ultimately help to increase customer satisfaction. Study was conducted in Indian cities namely Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. 32 variables related to service quality were considered for the study, which were identified from the past literature. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to derive the conclusions. Based on values of beta coefficients hierarchy of factors was framed. In their analysis relational quality, competitiveness, reliability, reputation and transmission quality factors emerged as significant predictors of customer satisfaction. In hierarchy of factors competitiveness, relational quality, and reliability were more important than rest factors. RESEARCH GAP As per the literature reviewed for the present study in the Indian mobile telecommunication sector no integrated study about service quality attributes, customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in Indian context has been conducted. So as per the stiff competition in the market between these mobile telecommunication companies, it is important to find out whether any relationship exists among service quality attributes, customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Also customers have different mindset towards these companies about services provided by them. The Indian mobile telecommunication sector is vast and there are big business opportunities for service providers. With almost all the public and private companies offering the same kind of services and network coverage, the quality of service offered to the customers became one of the important differentiators for all the service probiders to maintain their competitive advantage in the market. Ser vice quality refers to the perception of the customers of the organization regarding how well the organization is fulfilling their service needs. As said in the introduction, measuring the quality of services provided is possible only through the perception of the quality of service that the customers are experiencing from their service providers. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Although research on the service quality of telecommunication services based on customer perceptions has been conducted widely, no recent studies have been conducted which examine the effect of the service quality dimensions on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty in an integrated model in Indian context. This research attempts to examine the effect of service dimensions/attributes on perceive service quality, value, satisfaction, and service loyalty based on the research objectives which presented as follows:   1. Using mobile telecommunication services setting in India, what are the specific attributes of service quality that influence customer value, and customer satisfaction.   2. Using mobile telecommunication services setting in India, what are the specific predictors (service quality attributes, customer value, or customer satisfaction) which influence customer loyalty. Will the proposed path model predict individual path relationships among service quality attributes, customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty? Research Model Research model for the present will be developed based on the constructs namely service quality attributes, customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. It will include hypothesized relationships among above mentioned constructs, and statistically this model will be tested. Hypotheses of the study Hypotheses will be developed with support from past literature to test the relationships among the followings: Relationship between service quality attributes and customer value Relationship between service quality attributes and customer satisfaction. Relationships among service quality attributes, customer value, and customer satisfaction. Relationship between customer value and customer satisfaction. Relationships among attributes of service quality, customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Justification of the Study   This research is designed to help both academicians and practitioners understand the extent to which service quality, customer value, and customer satisfaction relate to customer loyalty in a telecom environment. The assessment of the most important attributes in telecom services set up can provide important cues, which may be used to review characteristics of the sector as experienced by customers. These cues can be used to improve customer value and customer satisfaction, which will lead to improved customer loyalty.  Finally, this study contributes to the service marketing literature by applying concept of service quality, customer value, customer satisfaction, and loyalty in a telecommunication services setting in India, as one of developing country in Asia. RESEARCH DESIGN To create a research design for the study appropriate measures and model are considered as per requirement of the research work. The focus of present research work is investigation of relationships among attributes of service quality, customer  value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in Indian mobile telecommunication services sector. Since present research work will be based on primary data, which is to be collected from Indian mobile telecommunication services users with the help of structured questionnaire, a field based survey design will be used as data collection method. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Many researchers have conducted researches in the field of service quality and customer satisfaction such as Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994), Zeithaml et al. (1988, 1991, 1993, 1996), Cronin and Taylor (1992, 1994), Hartline and Jones (1996), Johnston (1997), Lassar, Chris Manolis, and Winsor (2000), cronin, Brady, and Hult (2000), Caruana (2002), and Abdolreza Eshghi, Sanjit Kumar Roy, and Shirshendu Ganguly (2008). In the year 1985, pioneer research was conducted in the field of service quality by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry. In their research they came out with service quality dimensions, and succeed in developing five gaps of service quality model. Researchers defined service quality as gap between customers expectations and perceptions about quality of service offered by the service provider. With the help of this research they were able to develop service quality scale to measure the quality of service quantitatively, and scale was named as SERVQUAL. In 1988, Pararsuraman et al. conceptualized the dimensions of SERVQUAL scale namely Tangibility, Responsiveness, reliability, Assurance, and Empathy. For these five dimensions a total of 22 items were selected in the service quality instrument. After development of service quality instrument, many researches were conducted in different service set ups by using SERVQUAL. To examine the process of delivery of service quality, customer value and their impact on behavioural intentions of customers Hartline and Jones (1996) developed a model, which included same theories and concepts as earlier taken by Bolton and Drew (1991a), Boulding et al. (1993). In their research work, they came out with strong evidences that specific performance cues of employees have significant effect on overall quality and as a result this quality had significant impact on overall customer value. Effect of overall customer value was found relatively more on behavioural intensions as compared to overall quality. Whereas effect of specific performance cues was mediated by overall customer value and overall quality. In the year 2000, Cronin, Brady, and Hult conducted research in various service industries by taking into consideration service quality, customer value, customer satisfaction, and behavioural intentions. They found in their study that service quality, customer value, and customer satisfaction have direct impact on behavioural intentions, if all these three are taken collectively, whereas indirect effects of service quality and customer value increased their impact on behavioural intentions. Caruana in 2002 developed a model showing mediation role of customer satisfaction between service quality and customer loyalty. Results of the research provided evidences for the proposed model and confirmed the mediating role of customer satisfaction between service quality and customer loyalty. Many past studies have specified linkages among service quality, customer value, customer satisfaction, and behavioural intentions. However the results do not confirm which of these three variables or their combinations have direct impact on behaviour intention. In the past literature it has been found that bivariate relationship exists between behavioural intention and all three constructs. Zeithaml et al. (1996) found that service quality is an important determinant of behavioural intention, but the exact relationship was not discovered. Therefore this type of partial relationship determination may lead to omitted variable bias and hamper the results. To overcome this biasness, an integrative model is needed so that true relationship may be developed and can be tested in a model. Caruana (2002) suggested the role of customer value and reputation of an organization can be considered as new constructs to relate customer satisfaction with customer loyalty. The present research expands the previous researches conducted by various scholars and includes the model developed by Hesketts, Sasser, and Schlesinger (1997), popularly known as Service Profit Chain. Service Profit Chain model suggests that there is positive direct relationships among profit, growth, value of products offered to the customers, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, productivity, service quality attributes. With the use of customer friendly strategies satisfied employees deliver better quality of services and able to retain the customers for a long time for the betterment of organization. Service quality attributes and customer value directly influence customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction directly affects customer loyalty. Consequently loyalty of customers towards organization leads to phenomenal growth and finally adds to the profits of the organization. Therefore proposed research model for the present study is shown in figure below: Conceptual research model of service quality attributes, customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.