Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Reconstruction Of The Civil War - 879 Words

The Civil War can be described as one of the bloodiest and gruesome war ever fought on American soil. The Civil War was fought between the Union and the Confederates. The Civil War lasted for 5 years and during that 5 year period many people ended up dying, 620,000 people to be exact and millions injured, but while the numbers can be appalling; it isn t even the beginning. The war led a schism to happen in the U.S, the whole country was divided and devastated. Abraham Lincoln the president who helped lead the Union against the Confederates, knew that the only way to make the U.S functional and great again was to join both sides back together during this time period after the civil war, which would later come to be known as reconstruction. Lincoln s plan first started in late 1863 when he issued a proclamation of amnesty and Reconstruction, which meant that any state that rebelled against the Union could form an Union government whenever a number equal to 10 percent of those that voted in 1860 pledged allegiance to the constitution and the Union and received a presidential pardon. Some groups were excluded from the pardon:Confederate officials; senior officers of the confederate army. (Chapter 17, Page 712 ). But before he could see the seeds he planted bear fruit he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Lincoln s death elevated his Vice-president Andrew Johnson to the White House. Like Lincoln, Johnson also had plans on how to restore the U.S; hisShow MoreRelatedReconstruction Of The Civil War1108 Words   |  5 PagesAmerica’s Mindset Although the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction brought great hope to America’s four million former slaves, the efforts of Congressional Reconstruction ultimately failed to establish equal rights for the freedmen because the racist mindset still dominated American society at the time and Democratic influence steadily overcame Republican control in Congress. Despite the Union’s victory, the end of the Civil War brought many significant national problemsRead MoreThe Civil War and Reconstruction1315 Words   |  5 Pages Reconstruction The main issue between the states that seceded from the Union and those that remained in the former unity was that of states rights, of which the right for citizens to own slaves was of primary concern. It is often argued that one or the other was the main reason for the conflict, but they both played a major part because the people of the Northern United States and the Southern states of the nation lived such different lives. It is true that people in the North had owned slavesRead MoreReconstruction Of The Civil War951 Words   |  4 PagesHistory 11 7 May 2015 Reconstruction In the beginning of 1865, the Civil War came to a close, abandoning over 620,000 dead and a destructive path of devastating all over the south. The North now was confronted with the task of reconstructing the destroyed and aggrieved Confederate states. On April 11, two days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s submission, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his last public address, during which he designated a merciful Reconstruction plans and encouraged sympathyRead MoreReconstruction Of The Civil War847 Words   |  4 Pages Microtheme One - Reconstruction The Reconstruction happened in period following the end of the American Civil and the main goal was to reintegrate the Southern Confederate States back into the Union after they had been defeated by the Union (Northern States). As would be expected, the process was met with many challenges as the interests of both groups had to be addressed. There was debate over the terms under which the Confederate States would be allowed back into the Union, and whether it wasRead MoreThe Civil War And Reconstruction977 Words   |  4 Pagescalled the Reconstruction period â€Å"America’s Second Revolution†, his characterization was correct. Reconstruction can be viewed as a revolution because the previous social order, slavery, was replaced suddenly by a more favorable one, freedom for African-Americans. There was a long period of politicization for incorporating free African-Americans into white society. Reconstruction also revolutionized the preconceived notion that the states ha d autonomous power. The Civil War and Reconstruction were revolutionaryRead MoreReconstruction Of The Civil War1560 Words   |  7 PagesPrior to the Civil War, the United States’ economy was essentially agricultural based; slavery in the South was the key player in its prosperous economy. Hence, it is no wonder the South stood in defense of slavery’s permanence when challenged with the demand for abolition. The Southern proslavery Confederate states fought against the Northern antislavery Union states during the Civil War. The Union prevailed in the war and once the Confederates seceded and left the United States with a new predicament:Read MoreThe Civil War : The Reconstruction1398 Words   |  6 PagesThe civil war ended in 1865 and what followed was a kerfuffle, otherwise known as â€Å"The Reconstruction.† This was a period of violence and turbulent controversy ranging from racial issues to economic problems. In the book Reconstruction, Eric Foner wrote that â€Å"When the Civil War ended, the white South genuinely accepted the reality of military defeat, stood ready to do justice to the emancipated slaves, and desired above all a quick reintegration into the fabric of national life. Before his deathRead MoreCivil War Reconstruction1031 Words   |  5 PagesThe period after the Civil War was a very difficult time in the United States history. This time was known as the Reconstruction period and it was a very controversial time. There were many issues that had to be addressed such as what to do with the free blacks in the south and how states would be readmitted to the Union. This era saw the rise of the Radical Republicans. The government was going through changes, southerners were going through changes, and blacks were going through changes. WhitesRead MoreReconstruction Of The Civil War1054 Words   |  5 Pages As the civil war was ending many people could see that the odds of th e north winning increased dramatically however many people can argue this idea based on the several events that took place during the second phase of the civil war. Carl Schurz concluded, â€Å"The Civil War was a revolution, but half accomplished.†(Roark et al 434) Reconstruction started before the civil war ended until 1877, when people of the United States tried figuring out how to put the country back together. Many people hadRead MoreThe Civil War And Reconstruction1357 Words   |  6 PagesCivil War/ Reconstruction - Following the Civil War, the United States underwent a huge process of reconstruction to unifying and reconstructing the war-torn state. The nation still remained utterly divided between North and South in essentially all aspects of life including religion, race, and government. President Andrew Johnson,who succeeded President Abraham Lincoln enacted various policies in order to unite the country. These policies included friendly policies that pardon ed Southerners while

Monday, December 16, 2019

Bar Mitzvah Free Essays

Whitney McClain April10th, 2013 Religions 9:30-10:45 Bar Mitzvah Party I chose to try and attend a Bar Mitzvah ceremony after your brief description of the festivity in class. I did not know anyone that was Jewish so I asked around my job. It just so happened that my co-worker was jewish and had a friends whose son was going to have a bar mitzvah. We will write a custom essay sample on Bar Mitzvah or any similar topic only for you Order Now The ceremony was held at the conference on okaloosa island. I did do some research so I was not totally ignorant of what was about to come and also to be expected of me. I did dress formally due to the fact the event was held at night At the beginning of the service Aaron the 13 year old son took the stage to prepare to read from the Torah. The elders were beside Aaron and began to then chant the word before giving the spot light to him. They then passed the microphone and let him read his chosen passage from the book. This only lasted for about six minutes. I found this to be interesting because the moment was so short but would last a life time. It signified so much more than the actual act of reading the torah. It was a moment of happiness of becoming a man building up to all of which he had trained for; and a moment of proudness for family and friends. After he was done reading his piece we clapped, and sung in celebration. Some of Aaron’s friends begun to throw candy at him to be funny. They threw the candy somewhat harder than what I expected, but it was all fun and games and rather mischievous. After the service was finished I watched everyone in the ceremony interact with one another. Everyone was quite happy and it showed on their faces it was a high spirited environment. The rest of the ceremony was the after party which I did not attend since I had to work in the morning. What I gathered from my experience I was that the Jewish religion seems like a very disciplined and traditional practice. Those aspects mean very much to them and has molded their society to what it is now. Everyone was put through certain steps and earned their way toward adulthood. I understand that before the bar mitzvah several things are required of them. They are put into school and work to achieve or earn their celebration. I respected this because it gave them a good sense of their being. It instilled in the children what it is to become an adult. That things are not going to be handed to but earned and with that becomes responsibility. Now that Aaron is 13 he is seen to be old enough to follow the commandments, as an adult. I believe he intends to do so and follow his teachings. How to cite Bar Mitzvah, Papers

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Social Theory Greek Philosophers

Question: Discuss about theSocial Theoryfor Greek Philosophers. Answer: Introduction The term social theory deliberately goes to explain different phenomenon happening in the society along with different conclusive evidences which shows how the society works. Also, what are the different principles to which the society uses in order to establish a unique set up where people work and live together to make the best of the available resources. The coherent benefit and speculations which have been made by the social theories presented by many Greek philosophers have shown how these theories made way for other theories to seep in. The parent theory made different branches which further went on to explain different things such as how society operates on positivity and how different people view their social contract with the ruling government. The social contract explains different ideological theories related to the people and the government. It predicts how the people have different set of rights which are associated with the government and how these rights are never to be infringed by the ruling parties. The social contract deals with different mutual collaborations which are done by the people and it provides the necessary promulgation where people submit different actions into obtaining these basic fundamental rights (Mallinson et al., 2013). The submission of the people involves different actions such as the obedience towards the states legislations and being good citizens by abiding the law and paying the implemented taxes. This provides the ripple effect where people get their rights by submission; these rights include the right to choice, the right to association of the people where they are allowed to associate with any organization they want. The right to free movement in the social contract allows the person to live independently in the society by being completely free and living their life. This specific report deals with different child theories which are correlated to the Social theories and explain behavior of the society and its people in the reference points of cultures, languages and different ideologies. The theories which would be deal in this critical research analysis paper would be covering Positivism and anti positivism. The school of thought who would be provided in this report would be that used by different Greek philosophers and the philosopher dealing with the classical Social theories is Auguste Comte. The second philosopher who would be compared in this particular research paper is Herbert Spencer. The ground breaking works of these thinkers has much provided people about the prior knowledge of society and has laid down different attributes into finding out the reasoning behind different actions of the people. The theories laid out by Comte have been related to several other children theories which show society functionalism and the collaboration of M eta physics to the world. The key factor which can be said which has been established through all the works of these researchers and their schools of thoughts can be explained as the involvement of science in every rational behavior and choice (Meyerhoff et al., 2015). It explains how these researchers have valid contributions to the world by incorporating sociology with other free thinkers and hence can relate these things in close patches. Theory of Positivism The basic etymology of the word positivity revolves around a very simple definition which not only defines the word but rather sets out different precedence as to how these words are interlinked with the habits of the people (Payne et al., 2014). The word explains that positivity revolves around the society as a school of thought in people and sets out distinct amount of border lines for different things to be judged on. It is the optimistic point of approach towards every decision. Hence, states out its facts through careful implementation of principles which have been narrated by the father of sociology and the original presenter of this theory, Augustus Comte. However, the theory of Positivism goes beyond the scope of other things into explaining the reasoning behind different actions. It goes to a point where it provides evidence to how knowledge is not only validated when it enters into the system of the human being but how knowledge defines the entire scope of the society. The empirical approach which has been taken by Augustus is that all knowledge which has the power of changing different decisions enters into the system of the person on the basis of different validations. These validations are often made by different senses in the person and thus the empirical approach is defined. The relation and idea by Augustus into relating society all together with Positivism and knowledge validation has been explained because of the relative laws which are often used in Physics. Many notable Greek Researchers before the emergence of this theory explained the validation through poetic means and related society and positivism through the art of poem. Science has always acted out to be a liaison between different interpretations of the people regarding different things and hence makes it easy for understanding the behavior of the people (Hernndez-Campoy and Conde-Silvestre, 2012). This theory not only restricts different assumptions which are made by the people when perceived and received with new knowledge but also defines their evaluation based on pure logic. The theory explains that all knowledge should be considered logical through explanations and thus whatever does not hold a pure logic behind it can be defied and waved off as obsolete and insufficient. The prior knowledge without logical factors and scientific reasoning can never explain how the society works. This later caught in many different areas of the world, around different schools in the midst of the 20th century. The branches of positivism have been observed to be on the great rise ever since the emergence of the theories. It soon found its ways into the influential worlds and books of economics and psychological advancements (Kendall, 2013). This particular evidence not only screams out how Augustus explanation of knowledge being closely confined towards logic in the society soon caught on a larger platform. But it also shows how different people started to believe in the legitimacy of the belief itself. The cultural integration of positivism with different languages and people has also been observed. However, like every other socio logical theories around the world, positivism has also been met with different contradictions and debates. They have been purely focused on proving that how this is not they key explanation towards knowledge in humans and the society as a whole. The changing conditions of the scientific methods and belief as well as new economic beliefs have also predicted that h ow the rebuttal of this theory has raised in the form of theory of Anti positivism. It shows that it has not been narrated but has only came in the front due to the open rise to the existent form of belief. The Process of Evolution in Society The basic fundamental principles which were provided by Comte in the reference of more existence of rational and critical thinking in the society can be related to the different stages of evolutions which man has surpassed and reached to its full entirety. Comte in his theory of evolution of societies explains that there are crucial stages to where people gain more attributes and the human mind starts to accept the change that occurs within his self and the society around him (Reiter and Rojo, 2014). The three stages which relate positivism closely together with different actions of the society are mentioned below and hence establish strong principles together with other philosophers who had worked in the earlier stages. The Theological Stage Comte has explained the theological stage to be quite crucial in reference to different activities going around in the society. He explains how positivism can be reached and has been accomplished crucially through different people believing in a unified power which has defined different limitations on the people (Halfpenny, 2014). Comte believes the theological stage of man is the developing stages which ensure the belief in the existence of God and his supreme reign over the people as the commanding body in every aspect of a mans life. The decisions are widely effected and changed by the different doctrines presented in the peoples belief of religion around different societies. The Metaphysical Stage The metaphysical stage has been explained by Comte as the second step in the ladder by the man into making different decisions based on the previous stages. Just like moving up different steps, Comte deducted that man needs different decision and to make the judgments against these decision require different analytical and critical analysis. Since the first stage explains how the belief in God is established in a person, the second explains the importance of practicing the established belief from the first stage. This belief when practiced throughout different platforms depending on the religion further provides the essential practice needed to move on to the third stage of self realization and to realize the importance of humanity and their rights in the society (Bleicher, 2014). The Positivism Stage The final stage which is derived by the person while moving on the verge of achieving evolution in the society is explained as the positivism stage where the doctrines of different religious belief are realized by the people. It simply means where people begin to realize their duties as to other things other than just the guidance provided by the religious attributes. These stages also helps the people into establishing close encounters of making different decisions regarding humanity and hence guide the people to make different quantitative analysis towards the rational behaviors in the society. Many researchers focusing on the theory of positivism in the later centuries and the prime of their careers have focused their specialized attention towards how the theories presented by Comte. It was set out by similar contradictions and assumptions which have been made by Marks theories regarding the human behavior in the society and how the evolution stages. They have been provided by the Comte which show development of the individual in three stages ideally makes him more self concerned and aware of his duties as an individual in the society. This sets out important precedence in the ambit of rational behavior in the society and shows how different people have different choices. Also, when it comes to validating information and making decisions based on the information which is purely empirical and derived from their own senses. Anti Positivism Theory The anti positivism theories have long sprang up into the existence since the Greek philosophers lost their control of many dominant schools in the world. Hence, new German thinkers emerged with greater ideas and thus shaped different attributes of the people by providing more logical reasoning. It showed how the positivism shaped out of existence and how it is only limited towards a scope which cannot give further implementations to the people. The Germans extensively worked on developing completely new school of thoughts amongst the people and created avenues which allowed the people to finally question what they had believed in the earlier times. Philosophers like Robert Merton believed in strong critical analysis of their theories which gives out different aspects to the people. These Anti positivism theories not only challenge the overall evidences and implementations provided by the people in the theories. But also create different avenues for the people to give room to more qu estions, deliberations and the validity of the theory of positivism in to their lives and to make it essential enough to finally effect their decisions in the longer run (Geeslin and Long, 2014). The theories of positivism which have been made essential elements of the 19th centuries have made the people to look at broader perspectives of the world and to belief. It does not mean that only the scientifically evidences can promote the validity of information, but rather there are other influential problems and critiques available in the society which helps the people to deduce the possibilities of new acceptance (Coulmas, 2013). Sociologist like Paul Lazarsfeld developed different methods to deviate the extensive use of sociology and the use of more science in the aspects of human life. It is done while making decisions so that the world operates on the principle of having broader visions instead of limited ones. References Bleicher, J., 2014.The Hermeneutic Imagination (RLE Social Theory): Outline of a Positive Critique of Scientism and Sociology. Routledge. Coulmas, F., 2013.Sociolinguistics: The study of speakers' choices. Cambridge University Press. Geeslin, K.L. and Long, A.Y., 2014.Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition: Learning to use language in context. Routledge. Halfpenny, P., 2014.Positivism and Sociology (RLE Social Theory): Explaining Social Life. Routledge. Hernndez-Campoy, J.M. and Conde-Silvestre, J.C., 2012.The handbook of historical sociolinguistics. John Wiley Sons. Kendall, T., 2013.Speech rate, pause and sociolinguistic variation: studies in corpus sociophonetics. Springer. Mallinson, C., Childs, B. and Van Herk, G., 2013.Data collection in sociolinguistics: methods and applications. Routledge. Meyerhoff, M., Schleef, E. and MacKenzie, L., 2015.Doing sociolinguistics: A practical guide to data collection and analysis. Routledge. Payne, G., Dingwall, R., Payne, J. and Carter, M., 2014.Sociology and Social Research (RLE Social Theory)(Vol. 74). Routledge. Reiter, R.M. and Rojo, L.M., 2014.A sociolinguistics of diaspora: Latino practices, identities, and ideologies(Vol. 6). Routledge.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Yamamoto Essay Example For Students

Yamamoto Essay Yamamoto, the man who planned Pearl Harbor increased my knowledge about thepeople of Japan because it introduced me to their culture, and the life andtimes in Japan before World War II. In Japan, the family is the basic unit ofsociety. For example, if a Japanese has the unfortunate occurrence of producingonly daughters, they will insist that one of their daughters husbands changeshis last name to keep their daughters last name alive. It was, also, notunusual for people to change their last names. Isoroku Tankano was born in 1884. In 1916, he changed his last name to Yamamoto, because the name Yamamoto was anhonorable and ancient one in the history of Japan. One such figure was TatekawaYamamoto, who fought against the Emperor, and his forces at the Battle ofWatkamatsu, during the Bosshin War. Since he was one of the leaders of therebellion, when he was captured, he was beheaded at Watkamatsu. Since Tatekawahad no sons, Isoroku was also the future of the Yamamoto clan. Not uncommon inJapan was the fact that men got married for the purpose of producing sons tokeep the family name alive. This is exactly what Isoroku did. In 1918, he gotmarried to Reiko, who, ironically, was from Watkamatsu. They had 4 childrentogether, 2 sons, and 2 daughters. It was the standard Japanese family, themother in charge of the household and of raising the children. He never reallyloved her, because he had many extramarital affairs, and 2 of the women heloved. The life and times in Japan right before World War 2 aresimply explained: T he Imperialist Japanese Army, otherwise known as theyoung Turks was steadily gaining power in the government, wasassassinating anyone who did not share in their views for a united Asia(Yamamoto received many death threats, because he wanted to avoid war with theU.S.A. or with Great Britain at all costs), and was using propaganda to convincethe Japanese to believe in a united Asia. The Emperor could not stop what wasgoing on in his country because Emperors stayed out of the daily life of hispeople. When I say that the government is to unstable, I mean that it is toosusceptible to being taken over by an army. For example, in the 1930s, theImperialist Japanese Army was using their influence over the Minister of War totake over Manchuria, and eventually the Japanese government, and they were usingassassination as the chief method of wiping out any political opposition. Also,if I moved in Japan, the culture shock would be enormous, starting with thesimple language barrier, and the differ ence in religion. Isoroku Yamamoto wascorrect in his thinking that war between the U.S.A., Great Britain, and Japanshould be avoided at all costs, and in the event of war between the U.S.A.,Great Britain, and Japan, Japan would lead in the beginning, like the first 6 to12 months, but would eventually lose the war. One quality I admire aboutYamamoto is that he was able to do a task that he was totally against. Forexample, even though he was against going to war against the U.S.A. and GreatBritain, when the Imperialist Japanese Navy appointed him Commander of theCombined Fleet, he immediately went to work on a battle plan (Which we all knowresulted on the attack on Pearl Harbor). Another quality of Yamamotos that Iadmire is that he led his life to the fullest. He was an avid gambler, both atthe table, and at a time of war. One such gamble he took was on April 18, 1943when he flew in a battle and was shot down. The truth is that the Americansdecoded Japans naval code, found out the det ails of Yamamotos flight, and F.D.R. We will write a custom essay on Yamamoto specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 , .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .postImageUrl , .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 , .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:hover , .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:visited , .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:active { border:0!important; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:active , .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0 .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ucc0d6138e680a01507580f02038d3ff0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Greenspan - The Case For The Defence In-Depth Revi Essay Order now himself ordered American pilots to ambush Yamamoto and the Japanese. Japan didnot know that the U.S.A. decoded their signal. Yamamoto also had certain ideals,or standards of excellence. For example, he believed that the students at theKasumigaura Aviation Corps were not being trained harsh enough, so he made thetraining there a lot tougher, he made all the students there shave their longhair, but he finished the security rounds for the students, showing he had aheart. Isoroku Yamamoto did not have to overcome many hardships on his climb tothe top of the success ladder except for being poor. Another particular negativeincident, which occured in 1928, when he was overseeing a training exercise inthe Sea of Japan, was when all of a sudden, overcast clouds appeared and thepilots could not see the ship at all, and then, over the radio, one of thepilots kept on describing how he had 30 minutes of fuel left in his tank, 25minutes of fuel left, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and then,there was no more contact with any of the planes, they all crashed into thewater, and Yamamoto did not sleep, eat, or drink until all the bodies wererecovered. Isoroku Takano was born in 1884, in a medium sized city calledNagaoka. In 1901, Isoroku won an appointment to the Imperial Naval Academy, onthe little Island of Eta Jima, off the coast of Hiroshima. He won an appointmentthere because on a competitive entrance examination, he scored second out of thetop students in the entire nation. His appointment signaled changing times inJapan, because, even though that all the enemies had not completely passed on,it signaled that the new government was making strides to unify the new Japan. At the Academy, Isorokus speciality was gunnery, which meant that he wouldbecome a deck specialist In 1904, upon his graduation at the Japanese NavalAcademy, Isoroku joined the Imperial Japanese Navy aboard the cruiser Nisshin asa deck officer, and as a gunnery specialist. The Nisshin was one of the cruisersused in the Russo Japanese war. In August,1905, Isoroku was sent to thegunnery school at Yokosuka Naval Base. In September of that year, he waspromoted to sublieutenant. In October, 1905, He received a letter ofcommendation for the brave action taken in the Battle of Tsushima Strait, whichmeant that his career was on the rise. He remained at Yokosuka until 1907, whenhe was transferred to the ship Kagero, and his naval career resumed slowly, asit should during a time of peace. In 1908, the sublieutenant served aboard theMaezuru, in Manchurian waters. In 1911, Isoroku was promoted to Lieutenant,moving slowly up the chain of experience and promotion in a peacetime navy. Isorokus father died on February 21, 1912, and around this time, his motherfell gravely ill. He received military leave, to tend to his dying mother. Hewanted to quit the navy, but his mother would not let him. In August, 1912,Isorokus mother died. In 1913, Isorokus career moved into high gear. Hereceived an appointment to the Naval Staff College at Tsukiji. In 1915, Isorokuwas promoted to lieutenant commander. Graduation from this college was requiredif you wanted to hold a staff position in the Japanese navy and in 1916, hegraduated from the Naval Staff College. Also in 1916, there were some personalchanges in Isorokus life. First and Foremost, as mentioned previously, Isorokudropped his last name Takano and changed it to Yamamoto. Also, Yamamoto realizedthe time was correct to get married, and on August 31, 1918, Yamamoto and Reikowere married at the Navy Club in Shiba, Tokyo. On April 4, 1919, Yamamoto traveledto America aboard the Suwa Maru. Of course, he traveled in first class . He wentto Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was enrolled in a special course forforeigners at Harvard University titled English E. He also studied Petroleumresources, since it is of great importance to Japan. In December, 1919, Yamamotowas promoted to commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy. While in America, hewas interested mostly in aviation. He read in newspapers, and on the radio thatGeneral Billy Mitchell of the U.S.A. Army trying to convince Congress thatairplanes could sink a battleship, but nobody believed him. He left America in1922. In 1922, Yamamoto was appointed to teach at the navy staff school. InAugust, he left the school, and took a job as an executive officer aboard thecruiser Kitakami. Also in 1922, Yamamoto and his wife had a son, Yoshimasa, andone of his obligations as a member of the Yamamoto clan was fulfilled. In 1923,he was promoted to captain of the Imperial Japanese Army, and in June, he wasappointed to the cruiser Fuji. He held this position for a year before heconvinced his bosses to let him teach at the Kasumigaura Aviation Corps. Late in1924, he all of a sudden became executive officer, and director of studies. He institutedharsh new dress codes, and somewhat changed the curriculum. At first, thestudents complained, but they eventually settled down. In 1925, Yamamoto had adaughter, Sumiko. He was also appointed as a Japanese naval attack. He left forAmerica on January 21 aboard the ship Tennyo Maru. His job was to observe allactivities of the U.S.A. Navy, particularly to the adherence to the Naval Treatyof 1922. In the spring of 1928, it was time for Yamamoto to go home. In the sameyear, Yamamoto was appointed to command the cruiser Akagi. In the end of 1929,he was appointed to the Naval Affairs Bureau of the Navy Ministry. Also in 1929,Yamamoto had a second daughter, Masako. He was also appointed to the delegationthat would be sent to the London Naval Conference in 1930. One part of theJapanese group sent to the London Naval Conference in 1930, the fleet faction,wanted equal treatment compared with the U.S.A., and Great Britain. Another partof the Japanese delegation, the treaty faction would be quite happy with 70% ofthe Navy that the U.S.A., or Great Britain had. The old portion was 66%, andafter the conference, it remained at that figure. While at the conference,Yamamoto was promoted to Admiral. His new job would be to develop new naval,air, and aircraft weapons. On October 3,1933, he was appointed to command theFirst Air Division of the Navy. In 1936 Yamamoto was named head of theaeronautics department of the navy. This job lasted only a short time, becausehe reluctantly accepted an appointment as vice minister of the navy, in the sameyear. Soon after his appointment, it was rumored that he was a primary targetfor an assassination. He held this position until August 30, 1939, when he wasappointed Commander of the Combined Fleet. Soon after his appointment, he beganplanning his attack on Pearl Harbor . On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy, ledby Isoroku Yamamoto, attacked Pearl Harbor, and Japan took an early lead in thewar. The turning point of the war was the Battle of the Midway, when the U.S.A. .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d , .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .postImageUrl , .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d , .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:hover , .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:visited , .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:active { border:0!important; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:active , .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u9b1fb107b987c318b07c49fb1d52a01d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: lee night Essaycracked Japans code. On April18, 1943, Yamamotos plane was ambushed by American forces, and Yamamotos planewas shot down, killing him instantly. The decision to ambush Yamamotos planewas made by F.D.R. Yamamoto was a very loyal man, a patriot, if you will. He did hisjob even when he disagreed with it, he flew a plane even though it was notnecessary, and he cared about everyone he knew. From the American point of view,he was an evil man who killed many, put to the Japanese, he was a patriot, and ahero.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Defendants breif on negligence essays

Defendants breif on negligence essays Plaintiffs Brief on Negligence v. ) IN THE MOCK TRIAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA PLAINTIFF ESTATE OF DORIS DAYLIGHT The court should compensate Mrs. Daylights Estate for: 2. Mrs. Daylights unborn child becoming HIV positive, 3. The foreseeable result of the plaintiffs alleged actions, her inevitable premature death 4. Pain and suffering, which she will endue in the brief period before her death and her childs death and 5. Exemplary damages awarded to discourage this type of alleged negligence. The tort of negligence is doing or failing to do something, which involves conduct, which falls below the standard regarded as normal or desirable by the community . The elements which must be proven before a defendant can be found liable for negligence are: 1. The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, 2. The defendant breached this duty of care, and 3. This breach of the duty of care caused the plaintiffs injury. The first element of negligence is that the defendant owed a duty of reasonable care to the plaintiff. Reasonable care must be taken to avoid acts or omissions which can be reasonably foreseen to injure your neighbour . Clearly Doris is Eggleheads neighbour as she is someone who is likely to be affected by any of the doctors acts or omissions due to her relationship with Rock Hard. Dr Egglehead owes a very high standard of care to his patients concerning their health. The health and welfare of a patient is a doctors paramount duty, higher even than his duty to maintain confidentiality . It is clear from the facts of this case that Dr Egglehead owed a high duty of care to Rock Hard and Doris Daylight and that Doris Daylights infection can be directly linked to the defendants blatant breach of this duty. The plaintiff is within the class of persons who were at risk of foreseeable injury if the defendant failed to properly coun...

Friday, November 22, 2019

JFK’s Brain and Missing Body Parts of Historical Figures

JFK’s Brain and Missing Body Parts of Historical Figures Remember when you were a kid and one of your goofy uncles was always trying to scare you by â€Å"stealing your nose† between his thumb and forefinger? While you quickly figured out your nose was safe, the phrase â€Å"until death do us part† takes on a whole new meaning for some very famous deceased people whose body parts have been oddly â€Å"relocated.† John F. Kennedy’s Vanishing Brain Since that horrible day in November 1963, controversies and conspiracy theories have swirled around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Perhaps the most bizarre of these controversies involves things that happened during and after President Kennedy’s official autopsy. In 1978, the published findings of the congressional House Select Committee on Assassinations revealed that JFK’s brain had gone missing. While some doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas testified that they had seen First Lady Jackie Kennedy holding a part of her husband’s brain, what happened to it remains unknown. However, it is documented that JFK’s brain was removed during the autopsy and placed in a stainless-steel box that was subsequently handed over to the Secret Service. The box remained locked in the White House until 1965, when JFK’s brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, ordered the box to be stored in the National Archives building. However, a National Archives inventory of medical evidence from the JFK autopsy conducted in 1966 showed no record of the box or the brain. Conspiracy theories regarding who stole JFK’s brain and why soon flew. Released in 1964, the Warren Commission report stated that Kennedy had been struck by two bullets fired from the rear by Lee Harvey Oswald. One bullet reportedly went through his neck, while the other struck the back of his skull, leaving bits of brain, bone, and skin scattered about the presidential limousine. Some conspiracy theorists suggested that the brain was stolen in order to hide proof that Kennedy had been shot from the front, rather than from behind - and by someone other than Oswald. More recently, in his 2014 book, End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, author James Swanson suggests that the president’s brain had been taken by his younger brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, â€Å"perhaps to conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedys illnesses, or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications that President Kennedy was taking.† Still, others suggest the much less glamorous possibility that the remains of the president’s brain simply got lost somewhere in the fog of confusion and bureaucracy that followed the assassination. Since the last batch of declassified official JFK assassination records released on Nov. 9, 2017, shed no light on the mystery, the whereabouts of JFK’s brain remains unknown today. The Secrets of Einsteins Brain The brains of powerful, intelligent, and talented people like JFK have long been favorite targets of â€Å"collectors† who believe a study of the organs might reveal the secrets of their former owners’ success. Sensing that his brain was somehow â€Å"different,† super-genius physicist Albert Einstein had occasionally expressed his wishes to have his body donated to science. However, the creator of the groundbreaking theory of relativity never bothered to write down his wishes. After he died in 1955, Einstein’s family directed that he - meaning all of him - be cremated. However, Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, decided to remove Albert’s brain before releasing his body to the undertakers. Much to the displeasure of the genius’ loved ones, Dr. Harvey stored Einstein’s brain in his home for nearly 30 years, rather unceremoniously, preserved in two plain Mason jars. The rest of Einstein’s body was cremated, with his ashes scattered in secret locations. After Dr. Harvey’s death in 2010, the remains of Einstein’s brain were transferred to the National Museum of Health and Medicine near Washington, D.C. Since then, 46 thin slices of the brain have been mounted on microscope slides displayed at the Mà ¼tter Museum in Philadelphia. Napoleon’s Man Part After conquering most of Europe, diminutive French military genius and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on May 5, 1821. During an autopsy done the next day, Napoleon’s heart, stomach, and other â€Å"vital organs† were removed from his body. While several people witnessed the procedure, one of them reportedly decided to leave with some souvenirs. In 1916, heirs of Napoleons chaplain, Abbà © Ange Vignali, sold a collection of Napoleonic artifacts, including what they claimed to be the emperor’s penis. Whether actually part of Napoleon or not - or even a penis at all - the manly artifact changed hands several times over the years. Finally, in 1977, the item believed to be Napoleon’s penis was sold at auction to leading American urologist John J. Lattimer. While modern forensic tests conducted on the artifact confirm that it is a human penis, whether it was ever really attached to Napoleon remains unknown. John Wilkes Booths Neck Bones or Not? While he might have been an accomplished assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a lousy escape artist. Not only did he break his leg just after murdering President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, just 12 days later, he was shot in the neck and killed in a barn in Port Royal, Virginia. During the autopsy, Booth’s third, fourth, and fifth vertebrae were removed in an attempt to find the bullet. Today, the remains of Booth’s spine are preserved and often displayed at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. According to government assassination reports, Booth’s body was eventually released to the family and buried in an unmarked grave in a family plot at Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery in 1869. Since then, however, conspiracy theorists have suggested that it was not Booth who was killed in that Port Royal barn or buried in that Green Mount grave. One popular theory contends Booth escaped justice for 38 years, living until 1903, supposedly committing suicide in Oklahoma. In 1995, Booth’s descendants filed a court request to have the body buried at Green Mount Cemetery exhumed in hopes that it could be identified as their infamous relative or not. Despite having the support of the Smithsonian Institution, the judge denied the request citing previous water damage to the burial plot, evidence that other family members had been buried there, and publicity from the â€Å"less than convincing escape/cover-up theory.† Today, however, the mystery might be solved by comparing DNA from Booth’s brother Edwin to the autopsy bones in the National Museum of Health and Medicine. However, in 2013, the museum denied a request for a DNA test. In a letter to Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who had helped craft the request, the museum stated, â€Å"the need to preserve these bones for future generations compels us to decline the destructive test.† The Salvaging of Stonewall Jacksons Left Arm As Union bullets zipped around him, Confederate General Thomas â€Å"Stonewall† Jackson would famously sit â€Å"like a stone wall† astride his horse during the Civil War. However, Jackson’s luck or bravery let him down during the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, when a bullet accidentally fired by one of his own Confederate riflemen ripped through his left arm. In what was the common practice of early battlefield trauma treatment, surgeons amputated Jackson’s tattered arm. As the arm was about to be unceremoniously thrown onto a pile of similarly amputated limbs, military chaplain Rev. B. Tucker Lacy decided to save it. As Chancellorsville Park ranger Chuck Young tells visitors, â€Å"Remembering that Jackson was the rock star of 1863, everybody knew who Stonewall was, and to have his arm just simply thrown on the scrap pile with the other arms, Rev. Lacy couldnt let that happen.† Just eight days after his arm was amputated, Jackson died of pneumonia. Today, while most of Jackson’s body is buried at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia, his left arm is entered in a private cemetery at Ellwood Manor, not far from the field hospital where it was amputated. The Travels of Oliver Cromwells Head Oliver Cromwell, the sternly Puritan Lord Protector of England, whose parliamentary or â€Å"Godly† party tried to ban Christmas in the 1640s, was far from a wild and crazy guy. But after he died in 1658, his head really got around. Starting as a Member of Parliament during  the reign of King Charles I (1600-1649), Cromwell fought against the king during the English Civil War, taking over as Lord Protector after Charles was beheaded for high treason. Cromwell died at age 59 in 1658 from an infection in his urinary tract or kidneys. Following an autopsy, his body was then buried - temporarily - in Westminster Abbey. In 1660, King Charles II - who had been exiled by Cromwell and his cronies - ordered Cromwell’s head placed on a spike in Westminster Hall as a warning to potential usurpers. The rest of Cromwell was hanged and re-buried in an unmarked grave. After 20 years on the spike, Cromwell’s head circulated around small London area museums until 1814, when it was sold to a private collector named Henry Wilkinson. According to reports and rumors, Wilkerson often took the head to parties, using it as a historic - though rather grizzly - conversation-starter. The Puritan leader’s party days finally ended for good in 1960, when his head was permanently buried in the chapel at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Assess Competitive conditions in the banking industry in Saudi Arabia Essay

Assess Competitive conditions in the banking industry in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example udi Arabia, the need to establish and develop a modern banking industry was felt, and as a result the foundations of a full-fledged banking industry was laid in the year 1952 (Homoud, 2011). Keeping in view the significant growth and developments in the banking industry of the country, the question arises that whether the banking industry of Saudi Arabia is competitive enough over the past few years (Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, 2014). In this paper, the researcher has made use of the method put forward by Rosse and Panzar (1977) for the measurement of the extent to which competition exists in the banking industry of a country. In this regard, the researcher has presented estimates of the Rosse-Panzar H Statistic by making use of information pertaining to financial performance of selected Saudi Arabian banks. After the introduction section, the report includes a brief review of the banking sector of Saudi Arabia, a discussion of the theory, methodology and data considered in conducting this study, empirical results obtained from analysis of information and conclusions reached thereon. Today, the Saudi Arabian banking industry is regarded as amongst the fastest growing and developing in the world. Apart from the fact that the operating environment in the country for banks is competitive at present, the industry is expected to gain more competency owing to the fast paced technological and regulatory developments in the region and all over the world. The competency, resilience and strength of the Saudi Arabian banking industry is also evident from the fact that during the recent financial crisis, the industry managed to report positive growth figures, and also showed consistency in its growth in lending operations. At present, the Saudi Arabian banking industry is largely run by private sector and therefore capital lent in the country largely moves from the private sector (Homoud, 2011; Almazari & Almuman, 2012). As per the statistics published by the Central

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Explain and summarise the main reasons why such a large firms fail to Essay

Explain and summarise the main reasons why such a large firms fail to grow - Essay Example The point of concern is that in the today’s world, most of the entrepreneurs do not possess these characteristics and that is the reason why they are not able to grow their businesses successfully. An entrepreneur should be able to understand all business practices and cross-cultural issues in order to make a permanent place in the market. Understanding of the cultural, political, and economic environments of the country is also very important for an entrepreneur to be successful. There exist many reasons, which stop the firms from making a rapid growth. Some of the most significant reasons include poor execution of strategies, improper management structure, unfriendly economic environment, unskilled staff, lack of capital, lack of quality services, improper use of profits, overhead costs, unavailability of the technology, overexpansion, and ineffective marketing planning. These factors make it very difficult for most of the firms to grow rapidly and successfully in the market . Let us discuss all of these factors in some detail in order to get a better understanding of the issue. Improper Management Structure Improper management structure is one of the reasons behind the failure of most of the firms. A firm needs appropriate management structure not only to grow but also to survive in a market. ... Management of a business cannot be done by one or two individuals rather a business requires the efforts of all of the employees working for the firm in order to be successful. A proper management structure is very critical for the growth of a business. A single person cannot control a firm employing a large number of people. The managers of the businesses need to transfer controls to the employees in order to motivate them and also to make them feel valued. In this way, the employees begin to work hard for the firm, which results in increasing the productivity and profitability of the business. A single person does not have all required skills and abilities to run a business. For the proper management of a new business, different areas of a business such as finance, purchasing, selling, production, and hiring and managing employees require the efforts of different people having relevant educational and professional backgrounds. Therefore, the managers should not only empower the emp loyees but also should make them take appropriate decisions for the proper growth and development of the firms. Poor Execution of Strategies One of the main reasons why most of the firms fail to grow in the market is poor execution of business strategies. Most of the managers do not possess the ability to develop and implement appropriate business strategies. A well-developed strategy is a key towards success of a business. A business cannot stand among its competitors without having a well-structured business plan. It is because a business plan includes appropriates set of actions which make a business grow in a market. So without having clear goals and objectives and without looking at different aspects of the business, it becomes very difficult for an entrepreneur to make the

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Essay Example for Free

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Essay Artificial intelligence (AI) results to simulation of intellectual practice such as comprehension, rationalization and learning symbolic information in context. In AI, the automation or programming of all aspects of human cognition is considered from its foundations in cognitive science through approaches to symbolic and sub-symbolic AI, natural language processing, computer vision, and evolutionary or adaptive systems. (Neumann n. d.) AI considered being an extremely intricate domain of problems which during preliminary stages in the problem-solving phase of this nature, the problem itself may be viewed poorly. A precise picture of the problem can only be seen upon interactive and incremental refinement of course, after you have taken the initial attempt to solve the mystery. AI always comes hand in hand with machine logistics. How else could mind act appropriately but with the body. In this case, a machine takes the part of the body. In a bit, this literature will be tackling about AI implemented through Neural Network. The author deems it necessary though to tackle Machine learning and thus the succeeding paragraphs. Machine Learning is primarily concerned with designing and developing algorithms and procedures that allow machines to learn – either inductive or deductive, which, in general, is its two types. At this point, we will be referring to machines as computers since in the world nowadays, the latter are the most widely used for control. Hence, we now hone our definition of Machine Learning as the study of methods for programming computers to learn. Computers are applied to a wide range of tasks, and for most of these it is relatively easy for programmers to design and implement the necessary software. (Dietterich n. d. ) Machine learning techniques are grouped into different categories basing on the expected outcome. Common types include Supervised, Unsupervised, Semi-supervised or Reinforcement learning. There is also the Transduction method and the ‘Learning to learn’ scheme. A section of theoretical computer science, Computational Learning Theory is the investigation on the computation of algorithms of Machine Learning including its efficiency. Researches on Machine Learning focuses mainly on the automatic extraction of information data, through computational and statistical methods. It is very much correlated not only to theoretical computer science as well as data mining and statistics. Supervised learning is the simplest learning task. It is an algorithm to which it is ruled by a function that automatically plots inputs to expected outputs. The task of supervised learning is to construct a classifier given a set of classified training examples (Dietterich n. d.). The main challenge for supervised learning is that of generalization that a machine is expected in approximating the conduct that a function will exhibit which maps out a connection towards a number of classes through comparison of IO samples of the said function. When many plot-vector pairs are interrelated, a decision tree is derived which aids into viewing how the machine behaves with the function it currently holds. One advantage of decision trees is that, if they are not too large, they can be interpreted by humans. This can be useful both for gaining insight into the data and also for validating the reasonableness of the learned tree (Dietterich n. d. ). In unsupervised learning, manual matching of inputs is not utilized. Though, it is most often distinguished as supervised learning and it is one with an unknown output. This makes it very hard to decide what counts as success and suggests that the central problem is to find a suitable objective function that can replace the goal of agreeing with the teacher (Hinton Sejnowski 1999). Simple classic examples of unsupervised learning include clustering and dimensionality reduction. (Ghahramani 2004) Semi-supervised learning entails learning situations where is an ample number of labelled data as compared to the unlabelled data. These are very natural situations, especially in domains where collecting data can be cheap (i. e. the internet) but labelling can be very expensive/time consuming. Many of the approaches to this problem attempt to infer a manifold, graph structure, or tree-structure from the unlabelled data and use spread in this structure to determine how labels will generalize to new unlabelled points. (Ghahramani 2004) Transduction is comparable to supervised learning in predicting new results with training inputs and outputs, as well as, test inputs – accessible during teaching, as basis, instead of behaving in accordance to some function. All these various types of Machine-Learning techniques can be used to fully implement Artificial Intelligence for a robust Cross-Language translation. One thing though, this literature is yet to discuss the planned process of machine learning this research shall employ, and that is by Neural Networks.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

hamlet Essay -- essays research papers

Hamlet’s soliloquy, â€Å"To be or not to be, that is the question,† found in Act 3, Scene 1, of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, is one of the most recognized and famous soliloquies in all of English literature. Hamlet uses this moment alone to ponder what he will do in response to his father’s death. In this statement, Hamlet explores the idea of living and dying and what can be found in death. Is death like a dream while one sleeps? Or do we cease to sleep? Or is it just nothing? These are questions that Hamlet considers while deciding the fate of King Claudius. Hamlet wants to seek revenge on Claudius for killing King Hamlet and for marrying the queen, yet he knows that if he were to kill Claudius, he himself would also be killed. Hamlet’s debate of life versus death makes him question the advantages and disadvantages of existence and whether or not it is right to end his life or that of another. â€Å"To be or not to be† or more simply stated is it better to live or die. During this famous soliloquy, Hamlet wonders whether he should take action against his "sea of troubles" and seek revenge for his father's death or live with the pain of his father's murder. He also wonders that if he were to commit suicide, what could he expect in the afterlife. He questions whether or not suicide is morally right in an otherwise painful world. Hamlet has such grief that he frequently longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he commits...

Monday, November 11, 2019

Congestive Heart Failure Health And Social Care Essay

Approximately five million Americans are populating with Congestive Heart Failure ( CHF ) and each twelvemonth about 550,000 new instances are diagnosed. CHF is a status where damage occurred to the bosom, ensuing in the bosom is incapable to present sufficient oxygenated blood to the variety meats in order to back up the organic structure ‘s demands. There are many causes that lead to CHF, for illustration bosom onslaughts, infection, high blood pressure, valvular diseases and intoxicant. [ 1 ] C: UsersosmDesktoposmdocumentsBio Report about CHFsymptoms of CHF.bmp CHF patients would chiefly endure from fatigue, shortness of breath and swelling in mortise joints, legs and venters. Along with the promotions in engineering, there are interventions to assist CHF patients. So, what are the possible interventions available to command and alleviate the symptoms? Symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure hypertext transfer protocol: //www.clivir.com/lessons/show/symptoms-congestive-heart-failure-is-worsening.html ( 125 words )Solution for Congestive Heart Failure ( CHF )Drugs TherapyThere are two rules in the intervention of CHF. First, take or command the underlying cause such as high blood pressure, valvular disease and thyrotoxicosis. In some instances, the jobs of CHF could be removed if the cause were treated early plenty. Second, command the marks and symptoms. These are done by utilizing three types of drugs: water pills, vasodilatives and positive inotropic drugs.Diuretic drugsFor CHF patients, the important symptoms would be the puffiness of venters, legs and mortise joints. Excess fluid would besides show in or around the lungs, taking to shortness of breath. The cause to these symptoms is sodium and H2O keeping. Therefore, water pills which act to cut down Na and H2O keeping by advancing the flow of fluid through kidneys are normally prescribed. The illustrations of Diuretic drugs are Thiazide water pills ( bendrofluazide ) , loop water pills ( Lasix and bumetanide ) and K sparing water pills ( Aldactone ) . [ 2, 5, 6 ] The pick and the dose of water pills depend on the badness of CHF and age. In mild CHF, thiazide water pills would be sufficient whereas in terrible CHF, cringle water pills or combination of thiazide and cringle water pills are recommended. [ 29 ] Normally, patients are asked to keep a low Na diet as good. In add-on, it is normal for patients taking water pills to see frequent micturition. When there is no extra fluid, the symptoms could be relieved and the external respiration would be easier. Besides frequent micturition, water pills besides cause the organic structure to lose K and Mg. Hence, it is critical for physicians to order K and Mg addendum to patients to guarantee that they do non endure from malnutrition. Other side effects of taking water pills include desiccation, hypokalemia, hearing perturbations, and low blood force per unit area. [ 2, 27 ] ( 408 words )VasodilatorsVasodilators dilate either arteriolas, or venulas, or both to cut down the work burden of the bosom so that bosom could pump with higher efficiency to transport oxygenated blood. ACE inhibitor is one of the vasodilatives. It serves to suppress the action of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme ( ACE ) from change overing Angiotensin I to Angiotensin II. Angiotensin II is a neurohormone which causes vasoconstriction of the bosom vass, taking to high blood pressure. Besides, Angiotensin II besides causes the organic structure to let go of aldosterone – a substance that causes our kidneys to retain Na and fluid, doing hydrops. [ 3, 29 ] So, bEnce, Hdy forestalling the formation of Angiotensin II, both high blood pressure and hydrops could be controlled. Therefore, among vasodilatives, ACE inhibitors are ever the first pick as they have extra action besides vasodilatation. They are besides proven to protract the lives of CHF patients by decelerating down the procedure of bosom harm. [ 25 ] Other illustrations of vasodilatives are hydralazine, prozosin and the illustrations of ACE Inhibitors are captopril, enalapril and lisinopril. [ 4, 5, 29 ] Different vasodilatives have different consequence on arteriolas and venulas. Drug Arterial distension Venous distension Hydralazine++–Calcium adversaries+++ACE inhibitors++++Prazosin++++Salbutamol++++Nitroprusside++++Nitrates+++Opiates+++Consequence of different vasodilatives on arteriolas and venulas Retrieved from â€Å" The Drug Therapy of Cardiovascular Disorders † ( 613 words ) Although ACE inhibitors have been the most normally used drugs for CHF patients, there are side effects. The possible side effects are pecking, dry cough, low blood force per unit area, declining kidney map and electrolyte instabilities, and seldom, true allergic reactions. [ 2 ]Positive Inotropic DrugsPositive Inotropic Drugs serve to increase the cardiac end product by increasing the force of cardiac contraction. Cardiac glycosides are the most normally prescribed positive inotropic drugs. Cardiac glycosides enhance the cardiac contraction by commanding the bearer protein, Na – K pumps in the cell membrane. It inhibits the conveyance of Na ions out of the cells, ensuing in high intracellular Na concentration. This inhibits the map of the 2nd membrane ion pump, NCX, from pumping Ca ions out of the cell and Na ions in. [ 22,29 ] Accumulation of Ca ions inside the cell consequences in a stronger and faster contraction as more Ca is released when stimulated. Q PhosphorusVentricular end- diastolic force per unit areaLow end product symptomsCardiac OutputNormal Congestive symptoms CHF CHF+ Inotropic drug Untitled.jpg The Frank-Starling curve shows the consequence of positive inotropic drugs. It would increase the cardiac end product ( indicate P ) and that would let the ventricular end-diastolic force per unit area to fall without cardiac end product falling below normal ( indicate Q ) , keeping normal cardiac end product. Retrieved from â€Å" The Drug Therapy of Cardiovascular Disorders † ( 811 words ) Other illustrations of positive inotropic drugs are phosphodiesterase inhibitors ( Xanthines, Enoximone ) , adrenoceptor agonists and illustration of cardiac glycosides is Digoxin. Cardiac glycosides should non be used or uneffective in the undermentioned conditions: left ventricular outflow obstructor, constricting pericarditis, chronic cor pulmonale and thyrotoxicosis. [ 25 ] Congestive Heart Failure Positive Inotropic drugs Vasoconstriction Reduced cardiac end product Increased after-load Reduced nephritic blood flow Increases chymosin & A ; Angiotensin Vasodilators and water pills Sodium and H2O keeping ACE inhibitors Diuretic drugs Summary of the mechanisms of action of drugs used in CHF intervention Retrieved from â€Å" The Drug Therapy of Cardiovascular Disorders † By and large, the initial intervention of CHF is by water pills. If the response towards water pills were deficient, combination of water pills and vasodilatives chiefly ACE inhibitors is common. In terrible CHF, a combination of a diuretic with either a vasodilative or a cardiac glycoside from the start, continuing to a combination of all three if necessary is recommended. [ 28 ] ( 962 words ) As mentioned above, to handle CHF, foremost is to take or command the implicit in cause. Thus, for CHF caused by high blood pressure, it is indispensable to handle high blood pressure. A combination of ACE inhibitors and water pills can be used. It is more effectual than utilizing ACE inhibitors or water pills entirely. The chart below shows that the blood force per unit area of the patients is lowest when combination of ACE inhibitors and water pills is used. The chart shows the comparings of the hypotensive effects of Capoten ( ACE inhibitors ) , water pills and the combination of both in patients with indispensable high blood pressure. Retrieved from Handbook of Hypertension ( 1061 words ) In add-on, medical research workers have found that Aldactone can better the endurance rate of patients with CHF. [ 4, 6, 7 ] They besides prove that the consequence of Aldactone, a diuretic which is an aldosterone adversary can be enhanced by ACE inhibitors as it besides inhibits the stimulation of aldosterone. [ 27 ] Through the survey of RALES ( Randomized Aldactone Evaluation ) test, the study showed a 30 per centum decrease in overall mortality with Aldactone ( 35 versus 46 per centum for placebo ) and it is enhanced by ACE inhibitors. [ 6 ] Graph demoing the decreased mortality rate by 30 per centum with Aldactone ( 35 versus 46 per centum for placebo ) hypertext transfer protocol: //cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/uptodate/congestive % 20heart % 20failure/Treatment/Use % 20of % 20diuretics % 20in % 20congestive % 20heart % 20failure.htm Degree centigrades: UsersosmDesktoposmdocumentsBio Report about CHFchart demoing cut down mortality httpcmbi.bjmu.edu.cnuptodatecongestive % 20heart % 20failureTreatmentUse % 20of % 20diuretics % 20in % 20congestive % 20heart % 20failure.htm.gif Last, drugs therapy should be assisted by lifestyle alterations. Changes like modest exercising, quit smoke, abstaining from intoxicant and diet with low Na and fluid are utile to alleviate the symptoms and better life ‘s quality. In fact, analyze shown by American College of Cardiology in March 2009 stated that 30 proceedingss of exercising twice a hebdomad, under the attention of your heart specialist, can cut down the hazard of hospitalization or decease. [ 16 ] ( 1233 words )Economic DeductionTreatments like medicines or hospitalization has become the basic demand for CHF patient and both caused great fiscal load and economic impact. The cost of CHF admittances to the infirmary ranges from 8 to 15 billion dollars a twelvemonth. [ 14 ] Based on The British Heart Foundation, 2004, over 625 million lbs per twelvemonth in direct medical costs in the UK is used for CHF. Besides, CHF patients are frequently prescribed with more than a individual medicine in a class. [ 15 ] This had further increased the cost for medicines. Degree centigrade: UsersosmPicturesGraph for deduction 2.jpg The chart illustrates Top 4 medicine classs, by New York Heart Association category of bosom failure, prescribed for patients with chronic bosom failure. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //ajcc.aacnjournals.org/cgi/content/full/11/5/474 Due to the high cost, medical insurance are utile when it comes to medical fees. However, it is of import for the patients to be cognizant that the claiming process is sometimes complex and time-consuming. Therefore, patients should ever be financially prepared. ( 1390 words )Social ImplicationCHF patients would endure from symptoms such as hydrops, weariness and shortness of breath. They have to command their diet, monitor their weight to do certain there is no unstable keeping and take a heap of medical specialties to command the symptoms. For patients who are tobacco user and alcoholic, they would hold to fight to discontinue their bad wonts as good. They will shortly happen it hard to work and finally neglect to carry on day-to-day activities like bath and frock by themselves. Due to the sudden alterations in their qualities of life, they tend to be emotionally stressed. They would go anti-social as they developed low self-esteem and anxiousness. Thus, aid and societal supports from households, friends and health professionals are of import for CHF patients. In my sentiment, the authorities and non-governmental organisations should collaborate to supply aid for CHF patients and advance healthy life style through runs and negotiations to cut down the instances of CHF.Benefits and hazardsMedicines are proven to be effectual in alleviating symptoms and cut downing mortality of CHF patients. Patients barely enjoy their lives like playing with their grandchildren or going as they experience fatigue and shortness of breath. However, with these drugs available, CHF patients get to protract endurance and alleviate the symptoms. Hence, they would hold more cherished clip to be with their households and friends. In contrast, drugs therapy does hold hazards. Different types of medicines have different hazards of side effects. Some of the side effects are mild but some are non. For illustrations, although water pills relieve symptoms of CHF, it has side effects like low blood force per unit area and desiccation. Besides, it is rare but non impossible that some drugs cause terrible side effects. ACE inhibitors, for case, may do an utmost decrease in infection-fighting white blood cells. [ 26 ] Treatments are needed to last but hazards are inevitable. is isTherefore, CHF patients are advised to follow the doses prescribed by physicians consequently and be cognizant of the side effects before taking the medical specialties. ( 1720 words )Alternate SolutionsCardiac Resynchronization Therapy ( CRT )Ventricles of a CHF patient frequently do non pump in unison and the contraction would be out of synchronism. As a consequence, the left ventricle can non pump sufficient oxygenated blood to the organic structure. In this status, CRT is frequently recommended. CRT, besides known as the biventricular pacesetter, is a specially designed pacesetter which treats the hold in the ventricles contraction of the bosom. It keeps the right and left ventricles pumping in unison by directing little electrical urges through the leads. [ 10 ] This device has 2 or 3 lead wires positioned in the bosom. The leads are implanted through a vena in the right atrium and right ventricle and into the coronary fistula vena to gait the left ventricle. [ 11 ] Biventricular Pacemaker Heart Illustration Diagram of biventricular pacesetter hypertext transfer protocol: //www.medicinenet.com/biventricularpacemaker/article.htm CHF patients are at hazard of arrhythmia, which is any upset of bosom rate or beat. [ 12 ] Thus, physicians would urge a combination of implantable cardioverter defibrillator ( ICD ) and biventricular. ICD helps by observing the irregular bosom beat and present a daze to acquire the bosom rhythm back to normal. Surveies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have shown that an ICD with biventricular better life quality and may cut down mortality by up to 40 per centum in patients with CHF. [ 13 ] ( 1932 words )Heart TransplantHeart organ transplant is a surgical process to take a morbid bosom and replace it with a healthy bosom from a giver who has been declared brain-dead but remains on life support. [ 8 ] It is a accomplishable intervention option for terrible CHF patients when their conditions are beyond control of drugs and devices like CRT and ICD. After bosom organ transplant, energy and mobility of patients can be restored. However, the hazard of bosom organ transplant is high. The new bosom transplanted may neglect to work or rejected as it is considered as a â€Å" foreign organic structure † . [ 17 ] Thus, the immune system is suppressed to forestall rejection. By stamp downing the immune system, receivers are at hazard of acquiring infections and malignant neoplastic disease as their organic structure immune system can non support them any longer.A AGermanyA 22.9 %A AItalyA 10.7 %A AFranceA 10 %A ACanadaA 9 %A ABelgiumA 6.8 %A AAustriaA 5.5 %A ANetherlandsA 3.8 %A APolandA 3.6 %A ACzech RepublicA 3.1 %A ASpainA 2.7 %A AAustraliaA 2.6 %A ANorwayA 2.1 %A ATaiwanA 1.9 %A ABrazilA 1.5 %A ASwedenA 1.5 %A AArgentinaA 1.5 %A AColombiaA 1.4 %A AMexicoA 1.4 %A ADenmarkA 1.3 %A AIrelandA 1.1 % pie chart of bosom transplant.jpg Pie chart demoing the per centum of bosom graft in the state surveyed in 2002 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_tra_hea-health-transplants-heart ( 2076 words ) In fact, there are some conditions where bosom organ transplant is non recommended, for illustration for those who have malignant neoplastic disease, infections, hapless map of other variety meats, malnutrition or diabetes. [ 8 ] Consequently, terrible CHF patients would be evaluated by bosom graft squad to make up one's mind whether they are suited campaigners for bosom organ transplant before their names are added into the state waiting list. After the organ transplant, careful monitoring and interventions are ongoing procedure to do certain no infections, rejections and other hazards. [ 9 ]Evaluationâ€Å" Medical research workers have found that Aldactone can better the endurance rate of patients with congestive bosom failure † This infusion is taken from mention, [ 4 ] , hypertext transfer protocol: //www.medicinenet.com/congestive heartfailure/page5.htm. This beginning is dependable since the similar information is found in beginning [ 6 ] . Besides, the wellness information of the web site is provided by professionals and experts in the Fieldss of medical specialty and health care. The physicians of Medicine Internet are besides the writer of the â€Å" Webster ‘s New WorldTM Medical Dictionary † for the first to 3rd editions ( May, 2008 ) . Therefore, with them as the writer or editor, the beginning is dependable. Furthermore, this website complies with the â€Å" HONcode † criterion for trusty wellness information. Another beginning which I found dependable is, [ 8 ] , hypertext transfer protocol: //www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/ article/003003.htm. It is really utile in supplying the elaborate information related to bosom organ transplant. The information of this beginning is a service from the U.S. National Library of Medicine ( NLM ) , the National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) , and other authorities bureaus and health-related organisations which is trustable. Besides, this beginning is one of the five victors of â€Å" 2005 World Summit on the Information Society awards † for e-health and it besides complies with the â€Å" HONcode † criterion for trusty wellness information. [ 24 ] In add-on, Consumer Reports on March 2009 mentioned that the beginning, Medline Plus is recognized as the authorities wellness web site that is â€Å" most dependable and easiest to voyage † . This farther ensures the dependability of this beginning. ( 2385 words )

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Aztec religion Essay

The U. S has the highest murder rate of any industrialized country in the world. Does this surprise you? Well, although it is a fact, and most people would think this is unethical. This should also be true for Aztec society. Which deserves the Greater Emphasis? Human Sacrifice, or Aztec Agriculture? I believe historians should focus more on human sacrifice because, even though the Aztecs were resourceful and well organized in agriculture, they were barbaric when it came to human sacrifice. They killed off 2,300 men who were prisoners of war (Doc.D). We have to take into consideration that these sacrifices had families and lives and people who cared about them that were cruelly ripped away from them. The Aztecs could’ve showed the love and dedication for their gods another less violent way. What the Aztec did to the sacrifices was in-humane. When they killed the sacrifices, they would rip of their hearts, throw the hearts to the shrine dedicated to the gods and let the dead bodies roll down the temple steps bathed in its own blood. Even though other groups of people did human sacrifice, the Aztec were ruthless and held no remorse for their victims. Aztecs sometimes just went to war with another group of people just to capture people and make them sacrifices, called â€Å"flower wars† (Doc. D). What the Aztec did was just horrible and I think historians should focus more on human sacrifice than agriculture. There was a humungous scale of sacrifices, as well as spiritual importance, and they surprisingly didn’t kill these people with evil eyes or hatred. The Aztecs hade feeling toward sacrifices. The Aztec sacrificed a huge scale of people! In one day they would sacrifice 2,300 prisoners (Doc. D). That is the same population of an average school! Not only did they sacrifice so much of population, they also gave up resources and the best people to sacrifice! If this wasn’t a factor, could you imagine how much more advanced the Aztec agriculture could become?

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Service Quality Essay Example

Service Quality Essay Example Service Quality Essay Service Quality Essay University of Nottingham The Dark Side of Customer Relationship Management in the Luxury segment of the Hotel Industry Akshay Jaipuria MA Management Abstract Today, service organizations are shifting their focus from â€Å"transactional exchange† to â€Å"relational exchange† for developing mutually satisfying relationship with customers. Extended relationships are reported to have a significant impact on transaction cost and profitability, and customer lifetime value. Serving the customers, in true sense, is the need of the hour as the customer was, is and will remain the central focus of all organizational activities. The hotel industry, especially the luxury segment hotels needs to be purely customer-centric and focus on the customer needs and duly fulfill them. Customers will not blindly accept poor service quality from a luxury hotel. They expect high quality of service in return for the money they spend on luxury hotels. This paper is an attempt to explain the dark side of CRM in the luxury segment of the hotel industry with the help of the ‘gap model’ available in literature which suggests that gaps in service occur at various instances. The author explains that the gap model is a useful tool to explain the dark side partly. There is more to the dark side like privacy issues, unwillingness of customers to build a relationship with the service provider and changing tastes and preferences of the customer. Ritz- Carlton Hotel Company, L. L. C. has been chosen as a single case study and the research questions have been addressed for the industry at large using Ritz- Carlton as a classic example of superior service quality to the customers. Some simple measures to reduce the dark side have been mentioned, which addresses the third and last research question. The project would contribute as a useful guide to luxury hotels, giving them some valuable information on what the customer expectations are and if they are duly met then service gaps shall not occur. This paper shall provide scope for luxury hotels to improve their overall service quality and strengthen their position in the industry. The relevant existing theory has been reviewed and the subject has been explored, using the ‘gap model’ (Parasuraman et al 1998) mainly. Based on the research findings and analysis, recommendation has been given to reduce the dark side at Ritz-Carlton and luxury hotels in general. Table of Contents Abstract0 Table of Contents2 Acknowledgments4 Chapter 1: Introduction5 Chapter 2: Literature Review7 2. 1 What is Customer Relationship Management? 7 2. 2Customer satisfaction, loyalty and business performance9 2. 3CRM and Service Quality13 2. 3. 1 Customer’s perception of quality:13 2. 3. 2 The Perceived Service Quality approach16 2. 3. 3 Gaps between customer expectations and perceptions:17 2. . 4 Service Guarantee24 2. 3. 5 Service Recovery26 2. 3. 6 Complaints management28 2. 4 Do all customers want a relationship with their service provider? 29 2. 5 Synopsis31 Chapter 3: CRM and Hotel Industry32 Chapter 4: Methodology and Research Design34 4. 1 Overview34 4. 2 Research objectives34 4. 3 Research design35 4. 4 Case study: An introduction36 4. 5 History of case study37 4. 6 Types of Case Study37 4. 7 Choice of cas e: Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company38 4. 8 Components of the Case Study38 4. 9 Data collection39 4. 9. 1 Documentation41 4. 9. Focus Groups41 4. 9. 3 Interviews43 4. 10 Data Analysis49 4. 11 Key issues of Data collection: Reliability and Validity50 4. 12 Synopsis51 Chapter 5: Case study52 5. 1 Ritz-Carlton: An Overview52 5. 2 Ritz-Carlton and the â€Å"Gold Standards† of Service Quality54 5. 2. 1 The Credo54 5. 2. 2Motto55 5. 2. 3 Three Steps of Service55 5. 2. 4 Service Values55 5. 2. 5 Employee Promise56 5. 3Ritz-Carlton: Current Reality57 Chapter 6: Research Findings59 6. 1 Focus groups findings59 6. 1. 1 Does the gap model explain the dark side of CRM? 59 6. 1. Is there more to the dark side of CRM than what is explained in the gap model? 61 6. 1. 3 How can the dark side of CRM be reduced? 62 6. 2 In-depth interview findings63 6. 2. 1 Customer Interviews64 6. 2. 2 Employee Interviews67 Chapter 7: Analysis of Research Findings70 7. 1 Does the gap model explain the dark side of C RM? 70 7. 1. 1 Ritz-Carlton and the ‘Gap model’70 7. 1. 2General Inference for the luxury hotel sector75 7. 2 Is there more to the dark side of CRM than what is explained in the gap model? 76 7. 2. 1 Willingness to build a relationship76 7. . 2 General Inference for the Hotel Industry79 7. 3 How can the dark side of CRM be reduced? 79 Chapter 8: Conclusion and Further research83 References85 Appendices93 Appendix 1Consent Form93 Appendix 2CRM and ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’94 Appendix 397 Appendix 4100 Appendix 5108 Acknowledgments Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance. Will Durant (1885-1981) U. S. author and historian I would like to thank all those who helped me through the project phase of the MA Management program. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Prof. Dave Wastell for his enlightenment of my knowledge of CRM and the hotel industry, valuable advice and kind support throughout the process of dissertation completion Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents and sister who were always there to motivate me. I would also like to thank my close friends at Nottingham for being around to discuss my ideas and giving me emotional support when I was stressed. I would like to thank all the focus group members for giving their valuable time and thoughts to my project. I would like to thank all the customers and employees of Ritz-Carlton for sharing their valuable thoughts which helped me shape this project. Lastly, I would like to thank the academic and library staff at University of Nottingham for their support throughout this year. Chapter 1: Introduction In the mid-twentieth century, mass production techniques and mass marketing changed the competitive landscape by increasing product availability for consumers. However, the purchasing process that allowed the shopkeeper and customer to spend quality time interacting with each other was also fundamentally changed. As a result, customers lost their uniqueness becoming an â€Å"account number†. Shopkeepers lost track of their customers’ individual needs as the market became full of product and service options. Many companies today are striving to re-establish their connections to new as well as existing customers to boost long-term customer loyalty (Chen and Popovich, 2003). The world has come full circle from selling to marketing and from seller’s market to buyer’s market. The customer today has the option to buy what he thinks he should and from whom, being in his best interest. Product development, technological improvement, cost optimization and excellent service facility are very important for any organisation but their importance is only if the customer appreciates it. For example, both diamond and coal are carbon but they are priced differently due to different valuations by the customer. Therefore, any business begins and ends with the customer (Sugandhi, 2002). Thus, service organizations are shifting their focus from â€Å"transactional exchange† to â€Å"relational exchange† for developing mutually satisfying relationship with customers. Extended relationships are reported to have a significant impact on transaction cost and profitability, and customer lifetime value. Serving the customers, in true sense, is the need of the hour as the customer was, is and will remain the central focus of all organizational activities. The paper explores â€Å"The Dark Side of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the Luxury segment of the Hotel Industry† using the ‘gap model’ of Parasuraman et al (1985) and suggests generic strategies to reduce the dark side. The researcher was motivated to choose the hotel industry because of his deep rooted passion for luxury hotels. The importance of this research is that it helped the researcher familiarize himself with the use of primary with a blend of secondary research to analyze a given situation. This piece of work shall contribute to the academic community as there is not much literature available on the dark side of CRM for the luxury hotels. It shall also benefit the management of luxury hotels to understand what the customer expects in terms of service quality. The aim of this research is to highlight the dark side of CRM in the luxury segment of the hotel industry using The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as a classic example of high service quality. The research objectives are as follows: 1. Does the gap model explain the dark side of CRM? 2. Is there more to the dark side of CRM than what is explained in the gap model? 3. How can the dark side of CRM be reduced? This paper is divided into seven chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the paper. Chapter two provides the reader with necessary literature available on CRM. Chapter three provides information on CRM and the hotel industry. Chapter four discusses the research design including interviews and focus groups that have been used for primary research. Chapter five provides an overview of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company . Chapter six provides a summary of the research findings. Chapter seven is an analysis of the research findings addressing the research questions, one of which provides recommendations to reduce the dark side. Chapter eight is a conclusion of the paper. The following chapter provides the literature review. Chapter 2: Literature Review Modern marketers are rediscovering the ancient mantras for success in corporate world and blending them with contemporary marketing practices. Long term survival and competitive advantage can only be attained by establishing an emotional bond with the customers. A shift is taking place from marketing to anonymous masses of customers to developing and managing relationships with more or less well known or at least some identified customers (Gronroos, 1994). This section shall provide general literature on CRM and its link with customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and business performance followed by literature on CRM and service quality in details. The ‘gap model’ shall be introduced and literature on service guarantee, service recovery, and complaint management shall be provided. This would lead to the privacy issues related with CRM. 2. 1 What is Customer Relationship Management? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) â€Å"is the core business strategy that integrates internal processes and functions, and external networks, to create and deliver value to targeted customers at a profit. It is grounded on high-quality customer data and enabled by IT† (Buttle, 2004). CRM is a business strategy to identify, cultivate, and maintain long-term profitable customer relationships. It requires developing a method to select your most profitable customer relationships (or those with the most potential) and working to provide those customers with service quality that exceeds their expectations. McDonald, 2002) An organization’s survival depends largely on harmonious relationships with its stakeholders in the market. Customers provide the ‘life-blood’ to the organization in terms of competitive advantage, revenue and profits. Managing relationships with customers is imperative for all types and size of service organizations. A sound base of satis fied customers allows the organization to move on the path of growth, enhance profitability, fight out competition and carve a niche in the market place. Bennett (1996) described that CRM seeks to establish long term, committed, trusting and cooperative relationship with customers, characterized by openness, genuine concern for the delivery of high quality services, responsiveness to customer suggestions, fair dealings and willingness to sacrifice short term advantage for long term gains. Schneider and Bowen (1999) advocated that service business can retain customers and achieve profitability by building reciprocal relationships founded on safeguarding and affirming customer security, fairness and self esteem. It requires that companies view customers as people first and consumers second. Trust, commitment, ethical practices, fulfillment of promises, mutual exchange, emotional bonding, personalization and customer orientation have been reported to be the key elements in the relationship building process (Levitt,1986; Gronroos, 1994; Morgan,1994; Gummesson,1994; Bejou et al,1998 ). CRM refers to all business activities directed towards initiating, establishing, maintaining, and developing successful long-term relational exchanges (Heide, 1994; Reinartz Kumar, 2003). One of the results of CRM is the promotion of customer loyalty (Evans Laskin, 1994), which is considered to be a relational phenomenon, (Chow Holden, 1997; Jacoby Kyner, 1973; Sheth Parvatiyar, 1995; cited by Macintosh Lockshin, 1997). The benefits of customer loyalty to a provider of either services or products are numerous, and thus organizations are eager to secure as significant a loyal customer base as possible (Gefen, 2002; Reinartz Kumar, 2003; Rowley Dawes, 2000). Recent developments in Internet technology have given the Internet a new role to facilitate the link between CRM and customer loyalty (Body and Limayem, 2004). It is common knowledge that a dissatisfied and unhappy customer will share his unfortunate experience more than a satisfied customer. It is also observed that a fraction of unhappy customers choose to complain while others simply switch their loyalty to others service providers. Loss of customer is loss of business along with the opportunity for business growth and profitability. Feedback collection from the customer is essential for the supplier to ascertain customer satisfaction and scope for improvisation (Sugandhi, 2002). The fundamental reason for companies aspiring to build relationships with customers is economic. For survival in the global market, focusing on the customer is becoming a key factor for companies big and small. Establishing and managing a good customer relationship is a strategic endeavor. Having a CRM software installed does not ensure a successful customer relationship. For this to happen business processes and company culture have to be redesigned to focus on the customer. CRM software can be only a tool to implement a customer strategy. It is known that it takes up to five times more money to acquire a new customer than to get an existing customer to make a new purchase. Improving customer retention rates increases the size of the customer base. Thus, customer retention is essential. (Baumeister, unknown). 2 Customer satisfaction, loyalty and business performance The rationale for CRM is that it improves business performance by enhancing customer satisfaction and driving up customer loyalty (see figure 4). There is a compelling logic to the model, which has been dubbed the ‘satisfaction-profit chain’ (Anderson and Mittal, 2000). Satisfaction increases because customer insight allows companies to understand their customers better, and create improved customer value propositions. As customer satisfaction rises, so does customer repurchase intention (Anderson, 1994). This in turn influences actual purchasing behaviour, which has a significant impact on business performance. [pic] Figure 4: Customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and business performance (Buttle, 2004) Customer satisfaction has been the subject of considerable research and has been defined and measured in various ways (Oliver, 1997). Customer satisfaction may be defined as the customer’s fulfillment response to a consumption experience, or some part of it. Customer satisfaction I a pleasurable fulfillment response while dissatisfaction is an unpleasurable one (Buttle, 2004). Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are two ends of a continuum, where the location is defined by a comparison between expectations and outcome. Customers would be satisfied if the outcome of the service meets expectations. When the service quality exceeds the expectations, the service provider has won a delighted customer. Dissatisfaction will occur when the perceived overall service quality does not meet expectations (Looy, Gemmel Dierdonck, 2003). Sometimes customer’s expectations are met, yet the customer is not satisfied. This occurs when the expectations are low (Buttle, 2005). For example, the customer expects the flight to be late and it gets late. Customer satisfaction is considered to be one of the most important outcomes of all marketing activities in a market-oriented firm. The obvious need for atisfying the firm’s customer is to expand the business, to gain a higher market share, and to acquire repeat and referral business, all of which lead to improved profitability (Barsky, 1992). Studies conducted by Cronin and Taylor (1992) in service sectors such as: banking, pest control, dry cleaning, and fast food; found that customer satisfaction has a significant effect on purchase intentions in all four sectors. Similarly, in the health-care sector, McAlexander et al. (1994) found that patient satisfaction and service quality have a significant effect on future purchase intentions. Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000) Customer loyalty can be defines as â€Å"customer behavior characterized by a positive buying pattern during an extended period (measured by means of repeat purchase, frequency of purchase, wallet share or other indicators) and driven by a positive attitude towards the company and its products or services† (Looy, Gemmel Dierdonck, 2003). Practitioners and researchers have not clearly identified a theoretical framework, identifying factors that could lead to the development of customer loyalty (Gremler and Brown, 1997). However, there is a consensus amongst practitioners and academics that customer satisfaction and service quality are prerequisites of loyalty (Gremler and Brown, 1997; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Those technical, economical and psychological factors that influence customers to switch suppliers are considered to be additional prerequisites of loyalty (Selnes, 1993; Gremler and Brown, 1997). Recent studies also indicate that the firm’s image may influence customer enthusiasm: value, delight, and loyalty (Bhote, 1996). (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000) Loyalty behaviors, including relationship continuance, increased scale or scope of relationship, and recommendation (word of mouth advertising) result from customers’ beliefs that the quantity of value received from one supplier is greater than that available from other suppliers. Loyalty, in one or more of the forms noted above, creates increased profit through enhanced revenues, reduced costs to acquire customers, lower customer-price sensitivity, and decreased costs to serve customers familiar with a firm’s service delivery system (Reicheld and Sasser, 1990). Yi’s â€Å"Critical review of customer satisfaction† (1990) concludes, â€Å"Many studies found that customer satisfaction influences purchase intentions as well as post-purchase attitude† (p. 104). Customer loyalty can be viewed in two distinct ways (Jacoby and Kyner, 1973). The first views loyalty as an attitude. Different feelings create an individual’s overall attachment to a product, service, or organization (see Fornier, 1994). These feelings define the individual’s (purely cognitive) degree of loyalty. The second view of loyalty is behavioural. Examples of loyalty behaviour include continuing to purchase services from the same supplier, increasing the scale and or scope of a relationship, or the act of recommendation (Yi, 1990). The behavioural view of loyalty is similar to loyalty as defined in the service management literature. In brief, there are two dimensions to customer loyalty: behavioural and attitudinal (Julander et al. , 1997). The behaviour dimension refers to a customer’s behaviour on repeat purchases, indicating a preference for a brand or a service over time (Bowen and Shoemaker, 1998). Attitudinal dimensions, on the other hand, refer to a customer’s intention to repurchase and recommend, which are good indicators of a loyal customer (Getty and Thompson, 1994). Moreover, a customer who has the intention to repurchase and recommend is very likely to remain with the company. (Kandampully Suhartanto, 2000 and Hallowell, 1996) Customer attitude being difficult to measure, for financial and practical purposes, customer retention is widely used as an indicator of customer loyalty. Researchers have combined both views into comprehensive models of customer loyalty. Dick and Basu (1994) came up with a two-dimensional model of customer loyalty identifying four forms of loyalty according to relative attitudinal strength and repeat purchase behavior. The true loyal are those who have high levels of repeat purchase behavior and a strong relative attitude. Spuriously loyal customers tend to be more motivated by impulse, convenience and habit i. e. if the conditions are right. Latent loyalty applies to those customers who are loyal simply because they have no other choice. Lastly, there will always be some customers who shall not be loyal to any particular brand. 2. CRM and Service Quality Service quality is essential for an organization’s survival and growth. Interest in service quality emerged in 1970s. Ever since, the topic has attracted substantial attention among researchers and practitioners (Gronroos, 2001). Service quality is a form of attitude representing a long-run, overall, evaluation, which is different from customer satisfaction, a more short term, transaction specific judgment. The level of customer satisfaction is a result of the customer’s comparison of the service quality expected in a given service encounter with perceived service quality. This implies that satisfaction assessments require customer experiences while quality does not (Caruana, Money and Berthon, 2000). 2. 3. 1 Customer’s perception of quality: Quality of a particular service is whatever the customer perceives it to be. Service quality as perceived by the customer may differ from the quality of the service actually delivered. Services are subjectively experienced processes where production and consumption activities take place simultaneously. Interactions, including a series of moments of truth between the customer and the service provider occur. Such buyer-seller interactions or service encounters have a critical impact on the perceived service. The Nordic Model, originated by Christian Gronroos and developed by others, adopts a disconfirmation of expectations approach. This claims that customers have certain expectations of service performance with which they compare their actual experience. If the expectations are met, this is confirmation; if they are over performed, this is positive disconfirmation; if they are underperformed this is negative disconfirmation. According to Gronroos (1984), the quality of service as perceived by customers has two dimensions; a technical or outcome dimension and a functional or process-related dimension. What customers receive in their interaction with a firm is clearly important to them and their quality evaluation. This is one quality dimension, the Technical Quality of the outcome of the service production process. However, as there are numerous interactions between the service provider and customers, including various series of moments of truth, the technical quality dimension will not count for the total quality which the customer perceives he has received. The customer will also be influenced by the way in which technical qualitys include the accessibility of ATM, a website, appearance and behavior of waiting staff, how service employees perform their task, what they say and how they do it. Interestingly, other customers simultaneously consuming the same or similar services may influence the way in which customers will perceive a service. Thus, the consumer is also influenced by how he receives the service and how he experiences the simultaneous production and consumption process. This is the second quality dimension, the Functional Quality of the process, closely related to how the moments of truth of the service encounters themselves and are taken care of and how the service provider functions. Illustrated in figure 1, there are the two basic quality dimensions, namely, What the customer receives and How the customer receives it; the technical result or outcome of the process (technical quality) and the functional dimension of the process (functional quality. An organization’s image is an important variable that positively or negatively influences marketing activities. Image is considered to have the ability to influence customers’ perception of the goods and services offered (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996). Thus, image will have an impact on customers’ buying behaviour. Image is considered to influence customers’ minds through the combined effects of advertising, public relations, physical image, word-of-mouth, and their actual experiences with the goods and services (Normann, 1991). Similarly, Gronroos (1983), using numerous researches on service organizations, found that service quality was the single most important determinant of image. Thus, a customer’s experience with the products and services is considered to be the most important factor that influences his mind in regard to image. For instance, if the service provider shares a positive or favorable image in the minds of the customers, minor mistakes will probably be overlooked or forgiven. However, if the image is negative, the impact of any mistake will often be considerably greater than it otherwise would be. This entire combination shall lead to total quality. [pic]Figure 1: Two service quality dimensions (Gronroos, 2001) 2. 3. 2 The Perceived Service Quality approach Gronroos (1982) introduced a service oriented approach to quality with the concept of Perceived Service Quality and the model of Total Perceived Service Quality. This approach is based on research into consumer behavior and the effects of expectations concerning goods performance on post-consumption evaluations. In previous sections, the two basic quality dimensions (the what and the how) in the minds of the customers has been discussed. However, the quality perception process is more complicated. It is not the experiences of the quality dimensions alone that determine whether quality is perceived as good, neutral or bad. Figure 2 illustrates how quality experiences are connected to traditional marketing activities resulting in a Perceived Service Quality. Good perceived quality is obtained when the experienced quality meets the expectations of the customers i. e. the expected quality. If expectations are unrealistic, the total perceived quality will be low, irrespective of the experienced quality measured in an objective way being good. As illustrated in figure 2, the expected quality is a function of factors, namely, marketing communication, word of mouth, company/local image, price, customer needs and values. Marketing communication includes advertising, direct mail, sales promotion, websites, internet communication and sales campaigns. These are directly under the control of the company unlike the image and word of mouth factors which are indirectly controlled by the company. Image of the company plays a central role in customer perception of service quality. Thus, it is imperative that image be properly managed. External impact on these factors could possibly occur, but they are a basically a function of the previous performance of the firm, supported by for instance advertising. Lastly, the needs of the customers as well as the values that determine the choice of customers also impact on their expectations. Thus, the level of total perceived quality is not determined simply by the level of technical and functional quality dimensions, but rather by the gap between the expected and experienced quality. [pic] Figure 2: Total Perceived Quality (Gronroos, 2001) 2. 3. 3 Gaps between customer expectations and perceptions: There exists a gap between expected service quality and perceived service quality. In an attempt to explain such gap, Parasuraman et al (1985), came up with a ‘gap model’ which is intended to be used for analyzing sources of quality problems and help managers understand how service quality can be improved. The model is illustrated in figure 3. Figure 3: The Gaps Model (Source: Parasuraman et al, 1988) Firstly, the model demonstrates how service emerges. The upper portion of the model includes phenomena related to customers, while the lower portion includes phenomena related to the service provider. The expected service is a function of the customer’s past experience and personal needs and of word of mouth communication. It is also influenced by the market communication activities of the firm. The service experienced, which in this model is termed as perceived service, is the outcome of a series of internal decisions and activities. Management perceptions of customer expectations guide decisions regarding service quality specifications to be followed by the company when service delivery (i. e. the execution of the service express) occurs. The customer experiences the service delivery and production process as a process-related quality component and the technical solution received by the process as an outcome-related quality component. As illustrated, marketing communication can influence the perceived service and also the expected service. This basic model demonstrates the steps that have to be considered during analyzing and planning service quality. The five discrepancies (so-called quality gaps) between the various elements of the structure are a result of inconsistencies in the quality management process. The ultimate gap (Gap 5) i. e. the gap between expected and perceived (experienced) service is a function of other gaps that possibly occurred in the process. The five gaps are discussed below: 1. The Management Perception Gap (Gap1): This gap occurs when the management perceives the quality expectations inaccurately due to inaccurate information from market research and demand analyses, inaccurately interpreted information about expectations, nonexistent demand analysis, bad or nonexistent upward information from the firm’s interface with its customers to management and numerous organizational layers which stop or change the information that may flow upward from those directly involved in customer contacts. Necessary action to open up or improve the various internal information channels has to be taken in such situations. 2. The Quality Specification Gap ( Gap 2): This gap signifies that service quality specifications are not consistent with management perceptions of quality expectations due to planning errors or insufficient planning procedures, bad management of planning, lack of clear goal-setting in the company and insufficient support for planning service quality from top management. The planning related problems vary depending on the size of the first gap. However, even if there is sufficient accurate information on customer expectations, planning of quality specifications may fail due to lack of real commitment to service quality among top management. Commitment, dedication and devotion to service quality among management as well as service providers are of highest importance and priority in closing the Quality Specification Gap. 3. The Service Delivery Gap (Gap 3): This gap means that quality specifications are not met by performance in the service production and delivery process due to specifications which are too complicated and/or too rigid, employees not agreeing with the specifications and therefore not fulfilling them, specifications not being in line with the existing corporate culture, bad management of service operations, lacking or insufficient internal marketing and technology and systems not facilitating performance according to specifications. The possible problems here are many and varied and usually the reasons for the existence of a Service Delivery Gap are complicated and so are the cures. The reason for this gap can be divided into three categories: management supervision, employee perception of specifications and rules/customer needs and wishes, and a lack of technological/operational support. Management and supervision related problems may be varied too. For instance, supervisors may not be encouraging and supportive of quality behavior or the supervisory control systems may be in conflict with good service or even with quality specifications. In an organization where control and reward systems are decided upon separately from the planning of quality specifications, which is the case often, there is inherent risk of a Service Delivery Gap occurring. Often non-essential or important activities are controlled, perhaps even rewarded; and activities that contradict quality specifications are encouraged by the control system. Control and reward systems partly determine the corporate culture, and goals and specifications that do not fit the prevailing culture tend not to be well executed. The cure here involves changes in the way managers and supervisors treat their subordinates and in the way supervisory systems control and reward performance. Since the way in which performance requirements of the specifications, on one hand and existing control and reward systems on the other hand, are in conflict with each other, an awkward situation may arise for personnel when a customer contact person realizes that a customer requires different behavior on the part of the service provider than that expected according to the company’s specifications. It must be noted that situations where the service provider is aware of the fact that the customer is not receiving what he expects and may feel that the demands and wishes of the customer are justified and perhaps could be fulfilled, however, the service provider is not allowed to perform accordingly, may ruin the motivation for quality-enhancing behavior among personnel. The skills and attitudes of personnel may cause problems if the wrong people are recruited. For instance, the firm may have employees who are unable to adjust to the specifications and systems that guide operations. Furthermore, the workload perceived by employees may be a problem. For example, there may be too much paperwork or some other administrative tasks involved, so that quality specifications cannot be fulfilled and a result of which, the service provider does not possess time to attend to customers as expected. Lastly, the technology or the systems of operating, including decision making may not be suitable to employees. The problem may be the employees, but it is quite probable that technology and operational and administrative systems have been introduced inappropriately. Perhaps the technology and systems do not support quality behavior, or they have been improperly introduced to the employees. To close the Service Delivery Gap, the problems need to be dealt with effectively and efficiently. 4. The Marketing Communication Gap (Gap 4): This gap occurs when promises given by market communication activities are not consistent with the service delivered due to market communication planning not being integrated with service operations, lacking or insufficient coordination between traditional external marketing and operations, the organization failing to perform according to specifications, whereas market communication campaigns follow these specifications and an inherent propensity to exaggerate, and, thus, promise excessively. The reasons for Marketing Communication Gap can be divided into two categories: the planning and executing of external market communication and operations and a company’s propensity to over-promise in all advertising and marketing communication. The cure in the first situation could be creating a system that coordinates planning and execution of external market communication campaigns with service operations and delivery. For instance, every major campaign could be planned in collaboration with those involved in service production and delivery for Dual goal to be achieved. First, promises in market communications become more accurate and realistic and second, a greater commitment to what is promised in external campaigns could be achieved. The second category of problems i. e. over-promising can be dealt with by improving planning of marketing communication and/or closer management supervision. 5. The Perceived Service Quality Gap (Gap 5): This gap signifies that the perceived or experienced service is not consistent with the expected service resulting in negatively confirmed (bad) quality and a quality problem, bad word of mouth, a negative impact on corporate or local image and lost business. However, this gap may also be positive, which leads either to a positively confirmed quality or over-quality. If a Perceived Service Quality Gap occurs, the reason could be any one or a combination of those discussed above or other additional reasons. Addressing these gaps could be a basis for developing service processes in which expectations and experience consistently meet and a good perceived service quality will enhance. Some of the possible strategies that could be adopted by organizations to close these quality gaps are tabulated in Table 1. Gaps |Possible strategies to close gaps | | | | |1 |Change of management (in extreme situations), otherwise normally, learn from front-line customer contact | | |staff, flatten the hierarchical structure, include expectations data in consumer records, market research| | |for improvement in the knowledge of the characteristics of service competition, etc. | | | |2 |Change in firm’s priorities, Commitment to develop service standard s wherever possible, feasibility | | |assessment of customer expectations, develop a standards documentation process, automation of processes | | |wherever possible and desirable, activities outsourced wherever competencies are lacking, development of | | |service quality goals, etc. | | | |3 |Investment in people: (recruitment, training and retention), investment in technology, redesigning | | |workflow, encourage self organized teams; improve internal communication, clear job specifications to | | |avoid ambiguity, reward service excellence, etc. | | | |4 |Brief the advertising agency of the company, external communication of what the customer can expect | | |through advertising, training employees not to over-promise, penalize employees who over-promise, | | |encourage customers to sample the service experience, excel at service recovery, encourage and manage | | |customer complaints, etc. | Buttle, 2004; Gronroos, 2001 and Looy, Gemmel Dierdonck, 2003) 2. 3. 4 Service Guarant ee An organization tries to balance its customers’ expectations with the delivered service. A service guarantee promises the customers a certain service quality and backs up such promise with a payout, making services more ‘tangible’, reducing the perceived risk of purchasing a service. â€Å"A service guarantee makes the customer a meaningful promise and specifies a payout and an invocation procedure in case the promise is not kept. Each of these elements is equally important in making a guarantee successful† (Looy, Gemmel Dierdonck, 2003) The key elements of this definition are discussed below: The Promise Through introduction of a service guarantee, an organization makes a credible promise to its customers. For example, PTT Telecom promise to connect new telephones within three working days and to fix telephone lines within a day and a half. This promise is a credible one in a European context, where shorter lead times are highly desirous by customers (Looy, Gemmel Dierdonck, 2003). In defining a promise, a company should be careful not to promise what would be expected anyway. This may negatively signal that service failures are likely to be expected. Some promises are limited in scope i. e. guarantee only less important service aspects or are highly conditional, excluding all major causes of service failure. For example, Lufthansa guarantees that its customers will make their connecting flights if there are no delays due to weather or air-traffic control problems. Ironically, these two problems cause in total 95 percent of all flight delays. Furthermore, the guarantee is applicable only if all flights including connecting flights are with Lufthansa (Lufthansa airlines, 1987). The presence of a service guarantee can support the perception of service reliability, which is one of the most critical determinants of customer satisfaction. However, sometimes a guarantee may give out a negative message, indicating that service failures may occur due to customers wondering why it is necessary to provide a guarantee. For example, Lufthansa promises its customers that their luggage will arrive with them. However, this created the perception that lost luggage is more a problem with Lufthansa than its competitors (Lufthansa airlines, 1987). The effectiveness of communicating a service guarantee also depends on the source of the message, especially if the form has a history of service problems, making it difficult for a service firm with bad service reputation to send out credible message. The Payout In a situation where promises are not kept, the customer shall receive a payout which will encourage the customer to communicate all service failures, which has a double effect: Service recovery: The customer who claims his payout is less likely to defect or spread a negative word of mouth. Hence, service recovery becomes a possibility. Service quality improvement: Each claim represents valuable information about quality errors and their possible causes, but the avoidance of future payouts functions as an incentive to all staff to participate in improvement projects. In order to achieve service recovery, the payout has to be meaningful to customers. It should not only make up for all the damage and inconvenience suffered bu t also make the customer ‘whole. ’ For example, the payout offered by the Dutch bus service organization, â€Å"Interliner,† makes their customer ‘whole’ by guaranteeing that their passengers will reach their connecting flights and buses. A refund would not adequately compensate the passenger who missed a connection. Therefore, any passenger who would have to wait for more than fifteen minutes for a connection due to delay by Interliner would be taken to his destination by taxi at Interliner’s expense (www. interliner. nl). A payout can also be too high. For example, in India atleast, Domino’s Pizza offers customers its pizza free of charge if they were not delivered within thirty minutes from ordering. The Invocation Procedure The final aspect of the service guarantee is the invocation procedure. Invocating a guarantee should be either easy or proactive. For example, supermarkets Hoogvliet (Netherlands) and Match (Belgium) promise short queues at their checkouts. If all tills are not manned and if some customer is the third one (Hoogvliet) or the fourth one (Match) in the queue, he does not have to pay (Hoogvliet) or receives a significant discount (Match). An example of unconditional satisfaction guarantee which is easy to invoke is that of Superquinn’s Goof Card System. Superquinn is the leading supermarketing chain in the Greater Dublin area. Periodically, customers who participate in the loyalty saving system called ‘Superclub’ receive a ‘Goof Card’. Each time Superquinn ‘goofs’ i. e. produces a service failure, the customer simply has to point it out to any member of staff, and he shall receive thirty bonus points worth ? 1. The guarantee offers unconditional satisfaction guarantee as customers are able to define the goof themselves, however, for further help to customers, Superquinn lists ten examples of goofs. The invocation of PTT Telecom’s guarantee for example is proactive as well. After each connection or repair, PTT Telecom makes an after-sales call to the customer trying to assess customer’s satisfaction. If there is a failure of promise, the customer is immediately informed of the payout (Looy, Gemmel Dierdonck, 2003). 2. 3. 5 Service Recovery The real test of the customer orientation of a service provider takes place when service failure has occurred. Ideally, quality should be high throughout and failures should not occur in the service processes. However, in reality employees makes mistakes, systems break down, customers in the service process may cause problem for other customers, etc. Service recovery is a strategy for managing mistakes, failures and problems in customer relationships (Gronroos, 2001). As defined by Tax and Brown (2000) (in gronroos 2001), â€Å"Service recovery is a process that identifies service failures, effectively resolves customer problems, classifies their root cause(s), and yields data that can be integrated with other measures of performance to assess and improve the service system. † Service recovery includes all actions taken by company when there has been a service failure. Services fail for different reasons- sometimes technical service fails; sometimes functional service quality (Keaveney, 1995 in Buttle, 2004). Problems caused by a service failure are two-fold; factual and emotional problems (Gronroos, 2001). In a problematic situation when service recovery is called upon, customers are often frustrated, possess high expectations and tend to have a narrower zone of tolerance that normal (Tax et all, 1998). Therefore, service recovery could be risky (Smith and Bolton, 1998) and needs to be well managed. Service recovery performance can be better if the employees are more committed to the visions, strategies and service concepts of the firm. Moreover, empowered employees can be expected to perform better in recovery situations, inclined to deal quickly and effectively with service failures (Boshoff and Allen, 2000). When companies resolve problems quickly and effectively there are positive consequences for customer satisfaction, customer retention and word-of-mouth (Tax et al, 1998). Service recovery process should be developed and exercised to maximize fairness as perceived by the customer (Ruyter and Wetzels, 2000). In addition to mistake correction, quick response and adequate compensation are considered crucial elements of service recovery (Johnston and Fern, 1999). It has been discovered that customers who have been let down, then well recovered, are more satisfied than customers who have not been let down all (Hart et al, 1990). A well managed recovery has positive impact in development of a trusting relationship between a firm and its customer and may also deepen the customer’s commitment towards the service provider (Tax et al, 1998). Service recovery is an important factor influencing perceived service quality and is a criterion which can have a positive effect on functional quality. Satisfaction with the service can be increased through good service recovery (Spreng, Harrell Mackoy, 1995). According to Patrick Mene, Director of Quality at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company â€Å"1-10-100 rule of service recovery†, what costs the firm one pound, euro or dollar to fix immediately will cost ten the next day and hundred later on (Patlow, 1993). An example of quick service recovery is an incident that took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. A group of four MBA students from Europe had attended a seminar at the hotel and wished to spend a few hours of leisure time at the swimming pool before leaving for the airport. When they arrived at the swimming pool around mid afternoon, they were politely told that the pool area was closing because the area was to be prepared for an evening reception and dinner. The students explained that during their stay at the hotel, that was the only time they could spend at the pool before returning to the freezing temperature of their country and they had been looking forward to this opportunity. The waiter requested them to wait while he sorted out the situation. After a short while, a supervisor arrived to inform them that the hotel unfortunately had to close the entire pool area for evening preparation. However, he added that a limousine was waiting for them outside the main entrance to take them and their luggage to Biltmore Hotel where the pool area would be at their disposal. This limousine was at the Ritz-Carlton’s expense undoubtedly. This delighted the group and their already favorable perception of the hotel was improved further. They also engaged in considerable amount of positive word-of-mouth communication (Gronroos, 2001). 2. 3. 6 Complaints management Customers complain under one or both of the conditions: their expectations being underperformed to a degree that falls outside their zone of tolerance or unfair treatment. Complaints management process should be developed to take a positive view of customer complaints. Customers who complain provide an opportunity for the service firm to identify root causes of problems as well as win back unhappy or dissatisfied customers to retain their future value (Buttle, 2005). A complaints management process should allow company to capture complaints before customers spread a negative word-of-mouth or take their business elsewhere (Buttle, 1998). Up to two-thirds of customers who are dissatisfied do not complain to the organization (Richins, 1983). However, they may complain to their social networks. Dissatisfied customers are likely to inform twice as many people about their experience than customers with a positive experience (TARP, 1995 in Buttle, 2005). According to Wilson (1991), only 4 percent of the dissatisfied customers actually complain, providing valuable feedback to the company. The remaining 96 percent choose to simply leave the business and go elsewhere. Companies choose to deal with complaints efficiently to bring about customer retention, continuous improvement in service quality and build a customers of each such benefit are mentioned below Recognition: A customer may feel more valued and important when recognized and addressed by name Personalization: For example, over time, a hotel manager may understand a customer’s particular preferences or expectations Power: For instance, some of the power asymmetries in relationships between banks and their customers may be reversed when customers feel that they have personal relationships with their bank officers and managers. Risk reduction: Risk may be in the form of performance, physical, financial, social or psychological. High levels of perceived risk are uncomfor table for many customers. A relationship has the ability to reduce, or even eliminate risk. For example, a customer may develop a relationship with a garage to reduce the perceived performance and physical risk attached to having a car serviced. The relationship provides the assurance that the job has been skillfully accomplished and the car is safe to drive. Status: For example, customers may feel that their status is enhanced by a relationship with an organization, say, the Hilton. Affiliation: people’s social needs can be met through relationships. For example, many people join particular forums or associations to be a part of a community. However, there are some customers who would be satisfied with the service quality and perhaps decide to be loyal, but not want a relationship as such with the supplier for privacy issues. It is a known fact that suppliers wish to increase their sales to customers. In order to know and analyze their customers, companies collect extensive data on their customers through various channels. One popular rather common channel is through loyalty programs and cards. Examples include Tesco loyalty cards, Hilton hhonors program, British Airways frequent flyer cards, etc. The companies provide some benefits to customers and collect data like contact name, history of purchase, money spent in the past on company’s services, etc. However, if the data is mishandled or incorrectly handled, it can destroy the trust and loyalty in the relationship. (Vargas, 2006) Privacy and data protection are key concerns of customers, who are increasingly concerned about the amount of information that organizations have about them and the uses to which information is put. In reality, most customers are unaware of the quantity of information available to companies. Some customers may wish to simply not join any loyalty programs in order to secure their privacy and prevent intrusion into personal information. 2. 5 Synopsis This section has provided available literature about CRM. The gap model explained shall be a strong basis for explaining the dark side of CRM. Privacy issues shall be given importance as well. The customers’ perception of service quality is to be given supreme priority by the hotel industry. It is important how customers perceive the service quality to be. What they receive and how they receive corresponding to their expectations helps them judge the service quality to a large extent. Chapter 3: CRM and Hotel Industry The hotel industry today has been recognized as a global industry, with producers and consumers spread around the world. The use of hotel facilities such as: room, restaurant, bar, nightclub or health club; are no longer considered a luxury. For many people these services have become an integral component of lifestyle. Moreover, in the last two decades, demand for and supply of hospitality services beyond that of the traditional services intended for travelers have escalated the growth of the hospitality industry globally, leading to intense competition in the market-place. One of the greatest challenges facing hotel organizations today is the ever-growing volume and pace of competition. Competition has had major implications for the customer, providing increased choice, greater value for money and augmented levels of service. Additionally, there is little to distinguish one hotel’s products and services from another. Thus it has become imperative for hotel organizations to gain a competitive advantage. There are two strategies most commonly used by hotel managers in order to gain a competitive advantage, which are low-cost leadership through price discounting and developing customer loyalty by providing unique benefits to customers. Hotels that attempt to improve their market share by discounting price run the serious risk of having a negative impact on the hotel’s medium- and long-term profitability. As a result, it is quality of service rather than price that has become the key to a hotel’s ability to differentiate itself from its competitors and to gain customer loyalty. Getty and Thompson (1994) studied relationships between quality of lodging, satisfaction, and the resulting effect on customers’ intentions to recommend the lodging to prospective customers. Their findings suggest that customers’ intentions to recommend are a function of their perception of both their satisfaction and service quality with the lodging experience. However, satisfying customers alone is not enough, since there is no guarantee that satisfied customers will return to purchase. It is now becoming apparent that customer loyalty is significantly more important than customer satisfaction for success. Numerous examples illustrate that it is important that the hotel industry develop customer loyalty, as opposed to relying solely on pricing strategies. Researchers have shown that a 5 per cent increase in customer loyalty can produce a profit increase of 25 per cent to 85 per cent (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Hence a dedicated focus on customer loyalty is likely to become a necessary prerequisite for the future survival of hotel organizations. In the hotel industry, Customer relationship management (CRM) is more than the practice of collecting guest-centric data. It’s the art of using historical, personal, and experiential information to personalize a guest’s stay while generating incremental revenue opportunities. For instance, knowing a traveler is an avid sports fan creates the opportunity to market tickets to a game; knowing a guest had a less-than-memorable experience in the hotel restaurant gives you a chance to win them back the next time they are in town. With the latest offerings in CRM, hoteliers can develop comprehensive guest profiles from reservation information and demonstrate to guests that the property is in touch with their needs, drive guest-centric data down to the transaction level, allowing employees and guest-facing technology to deliver greater value to the guest, generate a realistic profile on the spending and stay patterns of guests, allowing the property to create guest-centric marketing for increased loyalty and spending, etc. Microsoft, 2006). To summarize, the shift in the sales and marketing landscape requires the hotel companies to be as advanced as technology will allow in managing their customer relationships. â€Å"There will be a sea change from management of customer data to management of customer relationships†. Hotel companies must carefully consider how they store, track, analyze and act upon every aspect of their relationships with their guests and booking customers. † The emphasis should be on using the data intelligently to predict consumer behavior, such as loyalty and usage patterns, and to use the customer knowledge to anticipate the customer needs or problems (EURHOTEC, 2000). Chapter 4: Methodology and Research Design 4. 1 Overview Methodology can be defined as (i) â€Å"a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline†, (ii) â€Å"a particular procedure or set of procedures or (iii) â€Å"the analysis of the principles or procedures of inquiry in a particular field†, the common idea being the collection, the comparative study, and the critique of the individual methods that are used in a given discipline or field of inquiry (Wikipedia, 2006). This chapter of the paper provides an overview of the research design (i. e. the case study) used for research about the hotel industry. The objectives of the research have been mentioned followed by a definition of research design and the qualitative approach of the case study. The researcher then presents his justification for choosing Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as his case example leading to methods of data collection for the research conducted along with each method’s strengths and weaknesses. This chapter concludes with discussion on data analysis and the reliability and validity issues with data collection 4. 2 Research objectives A review of the present literature is a stepping stone in compiling the objectives behind the research. In this regard, the literature review enabled an understanding of how can the hotel industry improve its business performance through service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The service quality is provided by hotels to ultimately satisfy the customers and the hotel managers must know what their customer wants rather than blindly assuming. Even though the service quality may be satisfactory, there may be a gap between the expected service quality by the customer and their experienced service quality. The hotel management has to strive to bridge these gaps to improve service quality and customer satisfaction and attempt to bring about customer loyalty which in turn would impact business performance. The literature review also highlighted that there is possibly a ‘dark side of CRM’ which refers to privacy issues of the customer and doubts about customers willing to build relationships in the long run. There is also not ample literature available on the customer’s perspective i. e. how he customer feels about what the hotel provides him with, if the hotel actually provides them with what they promise to deliver, if the customers value all they receive and how much, the privacy issues and possibly customers’ reaction to certain experiences during their stay, just to name a few not so explored sides of CRM. Inspired by the above, the research objectives are as follows: 1. Does the gap model explain the dark side of CRM? 2. Is there more to the dark side of C RM than what is explained in the gap model? 3. How can the dark side of CRM be reduced? . 3 Research design A research design can be explained as the â€Å"detailed blueprint used to guide a research study toward its objectives† (Aaker, Kumar and Day, 2003). Research design provides the â€Å"glue that holds the research project together. A design is used to structure the research, to show how all of the major parts of the research project the samples or groups, measures, treatments or programs, and methods of assignment work together to try to address the central research questions† (Social research methods, 2006) The process of designing a research study requires some interrelated decisions to be made. The most significant decision is the choice of research approach which determines how the information will be obtained. The choice of research approach is dependant on the nature of the research to be conducted. Research approaches can be categorized into one of the three general categories of research i. e. exploratory, descriptive and casual (Aaker, Kumar and Day, 2003). Exploratory research: This type of research is undertaken when one is seeking insight into the general nature of a problem area, the possible decision alternatives and relevant variable that are to be considered. The research methods are loosely defined, highly flexible, unstructured and qualitative. The researcher begins without firm preconceptions as to what will be the outcome. The absence of structure allows a thorough pursuit of ideas and clues about the problem situation. Such research is conducted because a problem has not been clearly defined. Explor