Air France Flight 447 Crash 2009 Engineering Essay

Air France Flight 447 Crash 2009 Engineering Essay On May 31, 2009, Air Frances flight AF447 left Rio de Janeiro to take its 228 passengers to Paris. After sending the last message to Brazil ATC three hours after the flight took off, the aircraft suddenly disappeared while passing through the equatorial ITCZ. The aircraft computer system managed to transmit 24 fault messages indicating speed sensor problems to the Air Frances Paris Centre before it went missing. In the early morning hours of June 1, 2009, the aircraft dived into the Atlantic Ocean killing all passengers onboard. The investigation positively identified the main cause of the disaster as the pitot tube or the speed and temperature sensor malfunction located underneath the aircrafts cockpit. The cause of the pitot tube malfunctioning was determined to be due to the accumulation of ice crystals around it. Consequently, the aircrafts computerized navigational system was affected resulting in failure of different flight control systems. However, the physical evidences recov ered from the crash site suggest that the main pilot was not in the cockpit during the critical moments of the flight. Moreover, bodies of passengers and crew were found scattered in the crash indicating the possibility that they were not prepared for a crash landing. The analysis of the incident points to the possibility that the control of the aircraft during its final hour was left in the hands of a less experienced third officer. In general, the weather condition in the area where flight AF447 flew is the main causal factor that caused the pitot tube to malfunction. Another is Air France continuous use of a particular pitot tube that was implicated in a number of aircraft incidents in the past. Human error is also a contributing factor when the pilot made a very bad decision of flying through a known danger zone while others were diverting their route to avoid it. Another is the possibility that the captain was never in the cockpit during the critical hour as evidenced by the un prepared crew and passengers. Human error was involved in the safety design of the aircrafts computerized navigational system as evidenced by the sudden shut-down of the flight computers during the most critical moments of the incident. Finally, the worlds aviation industry and associated organizations are considered causal factors for their failure to set proper guidelines and standards for pitot tubes and travel across ITC zones. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4 The Crash of Air France Flight 447 5 2.1 Background 5 2.2 Weather Condition 7 2.3 The Air Traffic Controllers 10 2.4 The Passengers of Flight AF447 11 2.5 The Aircraft and its Navigational Computer Systems 12 2.6 The Flight Crew and Human Errors 18 2.7 The World Aviation and other Organizations 23 Discussion and Conclusion 25 References 29 Appendices 32 Introduction On May 31, 2009 at 19:03 Brazilian local time, Air Frances flight AF447 was on its way to Paris from Rio de Janeiro carrying 228 passengers and crew when it encountered some technical problem. The A330 Airbus flew over the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where it encountered numerous thunderstorms and on the morning of June 1, 2009, the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all passengers and crew. The rescuers found small pieces of the aircraft indicating that it had landed like a flat hand into the waters with the nose slightly pointing upwards. The results of the investigation suggest that the cause of the incident was a malfunctioning pitot tube that was gradually covered by ice crystals during the flight. The pitot tube failed to send speed data to the aircrafts computerized navigation system resulting in a chain of problems and eventual loss of control. Four minutes before the aircraft finally hit the Atlantic Ocean, the computer system sent 24 messages informing the Air France Paris centre of the occurring failures. The last message sent by the pilot to Brazil and Senegal ATC was the one informing them that the aircraft reached high level 350 three hours after takeoff. The ATC never heard from the aircraft again and there was no way to monitor since the aircraft was out of the radar range. The investigation of the incident reveals some surprising details such as the absence of the pilot from the cockpit during the final hour of flight AF447 and dead bodies of passengers and cabin crew that seemed unprepared for an emergency landing. Moreover, the aircrafts position when it hit the water appears it had lost track of its altitude while the pilot was struggling to bring the nose up. The weather condition in the ITCZ area is undoubtedly the causal factor in flight AF447 crash since the extreme weather condition rendered the pitot tube useless. However, it could have been a successful flight if the pitot tube was designed to withstand such weather conditions or if the pilot took a diversion avoiding passing through a dangerous area. To summarize in a nutshell, three major causal factors are involved in flight AF447 disaster namely weather, pitot tube, and human error. The following sections discuss the details of the incident including background information before the disaster, the causal factors that may have contributed to the disaster, graphs and other details, discussion, and conclusion. The Crash of Air France Flight 447 Background The A330-200 Airbus, Air Frances flight AF447, was on its way to Paris from Rio de Jenario when in the early hours of that ill-fated day of June 1, 2009 something terrible and unexpected happened. Brazilian ATC got the last message from the AF447 and then all contact was lost. The plane was carrying 228 passengers and crew when it suddenly disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. This set the background for one of the worst catastrophe in the aviation history, which killed 228 people. After hours of search and inquiry about the lost aircraft, the Air France officials did a detailed investigation of the messages transmitted from the plane before the accident. Except for some printout data indicating problems measuring air speed and difficulty in the in-flight computer control systems, the Brazilian and Senegalese air traffic controller reported that the plane never sent any distress signals. After about five days of the incident, the wreckage of the aircraft was found floating on the Atla ntic. About a month later, several pieces of the aircraft and some bodies were recovered but the flight data recorder or the black box was never recovered due to the extreme depth of the ocean (Kilner 2010, p.121). Sudden disappearance of flight AF447 causing a terrible air disaster and its discovery couple of days later, completely wrecked in pieces in the Atlantic Ocean, raises a lot of questions as to what went wrong. Various theories are given as well as various opinions. To unravel the mystery of AF447 air crash, a number of elements need to be evaluated. Since the black box was never found, people have no way of telling the actual cause of the crash. It may be because of the problem reported in the last message or some other problems after that. However, since there was no distress signal sent to the ATC except for some flight data printout of problems in air speed and computer control systems resulting in technical failures, the aircrafts flight control system would top the list. Second most prominent element that was evaluated in the investigation was the human error; the crew and particularly the pilots who were supposed to contact the ATC in case of any emergency. There were also some speculations about an explosion before the aircraft hit the water due to the presence of a long oil slick near the crash site (CNN World 2009, p.1). However, the constituting elements in this type of an accident is not limited to the people directly involved in the flight or terrorism, but extends to the prevailing weather, the control agencies, and other people who are responsible for commercial aviation (Kilner 2010, p.121). Weather Condition Meteorological analysis on the weather condition on AF447 crash doom day revealed its role in the cascade of events that occurred. There is substantial evidence that the thunderstorm and lightening resulted in raging turbulence, which affected the plane. The first thunderstorm encountered by AF447 was near Sao Luis in Brazil, followed by a dense cluster of thunderstorm and lightening in the Fernando de Noronha area, which comes in the ITCZ, the low pressure belt area at the equator. Such thunderstorms can create updrafts, which can reach up to 100 mph pooled up with downdrafts caused by cool air and vertical dry air mixing, which can lead to severe turbulence to aircraft. Other flights that were scheduled to fly the same night on the same route took a diversion of about 90 miles to avoid the storm zone, which encompassed about 50,000 feet of altitude. Then what prompted the experienced pilot and crew members of AF447, even after knowing the trouble, to enter the trouble zone? Would any pilot opt to fly in such a bad storm? This needed a serious thought and on investigating this matter it was observed that due to the small thunderstorm that the aircraft faced in the Sao Louis area before entering the huge thunderstorm front, the flights weather radar system may have got confused and thus the pilot and the crew were not aware of the big storm that was coming towards them. This reasoning is possible as aircraft radar system works on radio echoing principle. The tilt of the radar antenna beam helps the aircraft to detect the weather forecast. If by any means the tilt of the radar is set to a different angle then it is possible that the weather that might affect the aircraft ahead be missed (Ian Gilbert, 2005). This revelation about the weather condition and the radar operation raises another question as to when the weather condition was dangerous why AF447 did not try to avoid the storm and go around it. The satellite images obtained during the investigation showed that flying through the storm was inevitable for the Air France flight, as the storm covered approximately 400 miles and was in the route of the destination, making it impossible for the aircraft to go over or around the storm; unless they flew back. In such a situation, the only source to rely on for the pilot and the cabin crew would have been the onboard weather radar to navigate through, but the radar can only detect rain and not the turbulent wind shear. It is quite possible that these tempestuous weather conditions may have led to structural or electrical failure that was reported by the automated computer communications between the AF447 and Air France Paris headquarters. It is generally accepted that the weather in the route where flight AF447 was flying is very bad as evidenced by a number of accidents occurring particularly in that part of the equator. The weather forecast on that day was bad and it was up to the pilot to avoid the heavy thunderstorms they would encounter en-route to their destination. According to the analysis conducted on the incident, two engine planes like the A330 Airbus can withstand such conditions and flexible enough to go around any heavy thunderstorm. However, the weather condition on this situation may be too severe and created some unexpected problems for the aircraft (Kilner 2010, p.122). According to the analysis of the Baringer et al. (2010, p.182), there are evidences to suggest that the weather was an influencing factor in the crash of flight AF447. The report points to the large warm pool directly underneath the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ which was very active during that year. The Air Frances commercial flight that started its trip on the night of May 31 flew over the ITCZ passing an area of strong cumulus towers overnight. Equatorial weather data for the whole year of 2009 suggest that rainfall over the equator and tropical Pacific is 150% above normal (See satellite images in Figure A-1, p.32 and Figure A-2, p 33 in Appendix A). Aside from the ITCZ, there were also speculations about the occurrence of a microburst, a weather phenomenon that was implicated to a number of aircraft crashes like the Continental flight 3407 in New York and Delta Flight 191 in 1985 which killed 135 people (see Figure A-3, p.33 in Appendix A). According to McCormick et al. (2003, p.165), weather can play a role in accidents particularly in air transports. For instance, some of the most common affect of weather is reduced visibility, turbulence and gusting conditions, wind shear, ice and rain water on runways, and microburst conditions. In the annual review of aircraft accidents in 1995 conducted by the U.S. National Safety Board, weather contributes to 39 percent of fatal accidents while the majority at 87 percent is pilot error. The chart provided by U.S. National Safety Board shows the most usual initiating events of aircraft accidents and the most likely contributing factors. (See figure B-1 and B-2, p.34 in Appendix B) The Air Traffic Controllers In context to AF447 crash, ATC data becomes the prominent evidence in understanding the most probable reason behind the crash. The ATC details showed that the last contact made by the crew was with Brazilian ATC at 01:33 UTC, as the aircraft approached the Brazil Atlantic radar surveillance edge. After this routine message, the only information received was the 24 automated error messages received detailing flight problems and warnings, which was about 40 minutes after the last contact made at the Brazilian ATC. The last automated error message transmitted was at 2:14 UTC which mentioned about the cabin depressurization after which nothing was heard about the Air France 447. On deeper analysis of the ATC communication data that transpired during the flight, it shows that between 21:40 hr and 23:18 hr, there was successful communication between the crew and ATC. At 1 h 35 min 46 sec, the controller reported the aircraft to maintain an altitude of FL350 and to give TASIL estimate. Between 1 h 35 min 53 sec and 1 h 36 min 14 sec, the ATLANTICO checked with the crew on the estimate time of their reaching the TASIL point, which went unanswered. (BEA 2009, p.33). All these details point towards a strong possibility that the crew of flight AF447 was trying to contact the ATC before the incident but due to distance and bad weather conditions, the crew failed to get through. The ATC on the other hand had no radar coverage of that area and no weather data to warn the crew before it took off (Kilner 2010, p.122). The transcript of the investigation clearly stated that the pilot of flight AF447 reported flight level 350 which means the plane had reached its proper altitude after 3 hours. This is the last communication sent by AF447 with the ATC. In case there was a single message asking ATC for help then there might be some reason to implicate ATC on the incident, but there was none (Traufetter 2010, p.6). At this point, even the investigation conducted after the crash did not mention anything linking the Brazilian and Senegalian ATC to the incident except that they have a limited capability. The Passengers of Flight AF447 Aside from the angle of terrorism, the passengers seem an irrelevant factor contributing to the incident particularly when there was no indication of explosion in the recovered aircraft parts. However, one cannot eliminate the possibility that someone disabled the pilots and ditched the plane into the ocean. The possibility of terrorism is narrow and it cannot be eliminated completely but since there were actual distress messages from the aircraft before the crash, the possibility is irrelevant to consider. For instance, there were indeed data to prove that the aircrafts navigational system was failing minutes before the crash. Moreover, the rescue team sent to the crash site found considerable evidence that show that the crash occurred so suddenly that the bodies of passengers were not prepared for an emergency landing. The stewardess was also not sitting in the emergency seat and the life jackets were not used. From an ordinary passenger who may have been travelling through a commercial airline number of times, it is easy to visualize how crew members assigned in the cabin would prepare passengers in an emergency situation. If the imminent crash is known beforehand, passengers will be prepared for emergency landing and will be found almost in the same position and location during the rescue. Apparently, the report says that they were scattered everywhere indicating that cabin crew and passengers were not informed and wearing no seatbelts (Faith 2010, p.6). This surprising fact is linked to the man in control of the aircraft minutes before the crash. If the captain is the one maneuvering the plane, was he as an experienced and responsible person would not order or inform his cabin crew to prepare for an emergency? The passengers and even the cabin crew were mere victims and not in any way connected or contributed to the crash. The Aircraft and its Navigational Computer Systems The Airbus A330 is a modern aircraft and most commercial aircrafts are generally well-maintained. However, this aircraft model had been previously reported in one or two cases involving air speed measurement problems like the incident involving A340 flight from Tokyo to Paris, several months before the AF447 incident. Going by the investigation details, a day before the accident, the captain of AF447 had complained about some problem with the VHF1 selection key on RMP1, which was looked into. The routine Type A checks that were done on this aircraft type also did not identify any anomalies. These facts clearly indicate the otherwise good condition of the aircraft before the tragic flight. Measuring and maintaining the required air speed of the aircraft especially at high altitudes is very relevant. When air speed is not measured correctly, the pilot has a hard time controlling the plane particularly while flying in a very bad weather condition. In air transport, the most dreaded challenge faced by the pilots when things go out of control at high altitudes is the coffin corner, the area where the margin of error becomes very narrow. AF447 may also have faced the same fate with no chance of escape. On close speculation of the events that happened on 1st June, 2009 at 3 AM BST time, two main events surface. The A330 airbus reported that it has encountered bad weather and severe turbulence and ten minutes later the autopilot got disengaged as per the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). The succession of these two events indicate that flying the 233 ton heavy aircraft and managing the internal condition was becoming tough for the crew at the advent of storm battering the aircraft from all sides. Reviewing the error messages that were received at the Air France Paris headquarters, it was evident that the three Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) computers were showing different information. This information is the compilation of the data received from the pitot tubes that is then transferred to aircraft computers. Speed is a crucial factor in aerodynamics. At high altitudes, speed alteration can be treacherous. As the air becomes thinner at higher altitudes, the more speed is required to push the plane forward and to maintain its lift. If the speed is less, the plane will start stalling. At the same time, if speed becomes too much then because of passage of more air above the wings the center tends to move backwards pushing the nose of the plane down resulting in nosedive. As reported from the ACARS, it got 24 error messages from the autopilot before losing the connection. It becomes very clear from this fact that the crew members of AF447 were unaware of the actual speed and various equipments were showing inconsistent speeds. A big issue that comes up here is whether it was a complete system failure that occurred? The fact that during the vigorous attempts to save the aircraft and the passengers the plane was sending data to the maintenance facility gives a clear evidence that there was some electricity in the plane, which is impossible in case of 100% system failure. So that aspect can be completely eliminated. Investigating the automated error messages, it included 19 warnings and 5 failure messages. The equipment failure messages included the failure of cabin pressure control, autopilot, and flight controls. The warning messages were about the disengaged autopilot and disagreement between the air data systems, also warning about the cabin vertical speed. These messages and data strongly point towards speed discrepancies that happened in the aircraft due to equipment failure. From this standpoint, pitot tube is also being implicated as the most likely cause of the disaster as Pitot tube is a component of the aircraft maintenance computer or the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). The system transmit messages via satellite to ground stations which were the same messages received by the ATC before the AF447 incident. Going by reports, based on Air France Airbus earlier incidents, it was identified that the existing Pitot tubes had a high probability of malfunctioning in cold and icy conditions. The problems that were highlighted at that time due to Pitot tube malfunctioning were fluctuating and wrong speed indications, automatic switch off of the autopilot, and even a false warning under extreme conditions. On 1st June, 2009 before AF447 vanished into the Atlantic, the first automatic error message that ATC reported was that the aircraft was fluctuating badly, which followed by automatics switch off of fly-by-wire system. On comparing both the reports and facts of the incident, the vulnerability of the pitot tubes that were attached to the aircrafts cockpit comes out more distinctly, which in turn decided the fate of the aircraft and its passengers on the doom day. A330-200 Airbus had three pitot probes fitted to its aircraft, so it seems like all the three pitot tubes got iced up simultaneously. Most probably, all three of them were unable to tolerate the extreme conditions faced by AF447. According to BEA investigation report, it was identified that the present pitot tubes are certified only to handle temperatures of -40C. From the meteorological details and satellite images obtained on crash day in and around the ITCZ area, it is very obvious that the aircraft was in the bulk of the cloud fields for a significant amount of time due to the heavy thunderstorms and the super-cooled water in the clouds may have blocked and disabled all the three pitot tubes. Pitot tubes malfunction had caused several incidents in 2008 and generated similar messages or print out data that preceded the flight AF447 crash in June 1, 2009. According to Hichri (2009, p.5), unlike other commercial airlines which upgraded their pitot tubes, Air France did nothing about the problem. Examining the initial physical evidence found on the scene and the information sent by flight AF447 before it crashed, investigators said that the aircraft went through a heavy turbulence without a fully functioning flight control system. The flattened and crushed nose cone of the aircraft tells the story of its high speed impaction with the water. Consequently, the pilot may have struggled to revive their flight management computers while the aircraft was breaking up due to excessive speed (Aviation Human Factors 2009, p.2). Failure of in-flight computer systems is not a novel issue. In fact, it was the mostly considered causal factor in previous aviation incidents. For instance, the causal factor in the shutdown of the busy Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in April 19, 2006 was caused by software malfunction. The communication failure between FAA Air Traffic Control Center and the aircraft in September 14, 2004 at the Los Angeles International Airport was due to the sudden and unexpected computer shut-down. The crash of Korean Air Flight 801 was also partly caused by malfunctioning Minimum Safe Altitude Warning system or MSAW and the failure of FAA to adequately manage the system. Another is the crash of American Airlines Flight 965, where errors in navigational computer programming are the leading cause of the incident. Similarly, the onboard automating reporting system in Air Frances Flight AF447 sent a total of 24 error messages while the computerized navigational systems failed throu ghout the aircraft (Wong et al., 2009, p.1-8).. After several months of investigation, the scenario depicting the final hour of Flight AF447 was constructed. (See figure C-1, p 35 in Appendix C). This scenario suggests that the horrific disaster was caused by a very small technical failure a false reading from the temperature sensor covered by ice crystals (Traufetter 2010, p.1). Since there was no more airspeed to gather and display, the autopilot and the automatic throttle system also malfunctioned and the computer automatically entered the emergency control mode. At this point, the pilot could no longer control the aircraft as it sped towards the ocean at 2, 500 feet per minute. As a natural reaction, it can be expected that the pilot tried every second to regain control of the aircraft by restarting the flight computer, but evidence suggests that he failed. The disaster in this scenario took place in a matter of four minutes after the pilot lost control of the navigational system due to failure of the temperature probe. Another causal factor suggested by Anleitner (2010, p.123) is the material used in the wiring of this type of aircraft. Kapton an insulating material used in the wiring of most modern aircraft has been shown to decay over time. The same material was one of the suspected causal factors in Swiss Air Flight 111 incident in 1998, TWA 800 disaster, and being considered as a potential contributing factor in the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic. When completely decayed, this type of material contributes to short circuit or strong electrical arcing which can ignite fuel vapor. Computers have been blamed for several disasters including the death of 22 American servicemen due to faults in the Blackhawk helicopters computer-based fly-by-wire system. Similarly, an Iraqi Scud missile penetrated the U.S. military barracks due to the failure of the computerized Patriot missile defense system. The failure of the Hubble space telescope was also associated with programming error that shut down the onboard computer unexpectedly. Much worse is the downing of the Korean Air Lines flight 007, sinking of the HMS Sheffield in the Falklands, and the Nepalese A320 disaster caused by faulty software running a computerized fly-by-wire system (Forester Morrison 1994, p.3). The Flight Crew and Human Errors The flight crew of flight AF447 was very experienced but according to Kilner (2010, p.122), too much experience can make some people overconfident. There is, therefore, a possibility that the pilot of flight AF447 overestimated his capability and underestimated the danger ahead. The fact that the pilot decided to fly despite bad weather forecast is an indication of extreme confidence, which novice pilots would never do in such a situation. A less experienced person would probably delay the flight, re-route, or make an emergency stopover in an airport somewhere before the ocean. There is indeed a possibility of a pilot error or errors contributed by one of the crew. For instance, the first officer and the navigator are all working inside the cockpit and their functions if not performed correctly can lead to unimaginable disaster. The first officer is in charge of communication between the plane and the ATC and any mistake can put the plane in a critical situation. The first officer is also in charge of assisting the captain and can put the aircraft in or out of the automated mode, which if done out of procedure or if the captain is not aware can result in sudden or severe dive. Similarly, any wrong input of the navigator in the flight computer can result in wrong flight directions which are very dangerous (McCormick et al. 2003, p.120). In Air Frances flight AF447, the computer system had warned the pilot and the crew of faults very early in the flight. In fact, 24 error messages reached the Air France centre in Paris before the crash. The pilot could have heeded the warnings and turned back, but he never did and in fact took the chances maneuvering over numerous thunderstorms in the ITCZ area. Human error not only exists in inputs or confusions over a navigational chart and communication but does exist in ignorance of warnings also. According to Faith (1997, p.164), pilots are trained individuals that would likely follow set procedures precisely. However, these trainings and familiarity with procedures can sometimes create problems particularly when independent thinking is required. For instance, a certain pilot for Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 flying from Frankfurt to London suffered the most fatal pilot problems a pilot could have indecisiveness. Having years of experience and training, the pilot was considered perfectly competent, but with a tendency to go by with routine procedures regardless of circumstances. Heathrow Airport was clear and most pilots decided to land on it rather than in the foggy area of Gatwick; however, the Ariana Afghan flight 701 pilot decided to land on Gatwick and while nearing the airport, thinking of something else, the pilot was surprised by a thick fog and tried to pull the aircraft nose up but it was too late. Consequently, a second pause killed 43 passengers and all the o ccupants of the house swept by the aircraft. Apparently, the pilot had a second thought on landing the aircraft at the Gatwick airport He was actually hesitating and this may be the reason why he was not concentrating and paused a moment during the approach. The possibility of human error in flight AF447 is great. Although, the weather is the major contributing factor that caused the instability of the aircraft, the warnings from the weather forecast and those released by the computer system could have saved all 228 passengers and crew, if the pilot listened to them and made emergency landing to the nearest available airport. Clearly, the pilot decided to depart from Brazil despite the bad weather on his route and while experiencing tremendous pressure from the ITCZ area, he never decided to return. Confusion inside the cockpit happens, and in an aircraft accident in Dulles International Airport in 1975, confusion over the approach chart and the air traffic controller instructions brought a descending aircraft to a ridge (Johnson Palanque (2004, p.20). According to Forester Morrison (1994, p.2), regardless if the problem is directly associated with computers, the cause of failure is eventually human error. This is because they were designed by humans and the software running them are also produced by humans. Another problem is human input which in many occasions is the cause of computer glitches. For instance, when an American Airlines jet crashed in Colombia, the investigators found out that the pilot missed one letter of the computer command. This very small error sent the plane crashing into the mountain and killed 163 innocent people. The pilot, the investigator reported, entered the coordinated for Cali, their actual destination was coordinates, but made a mistake in one letter of the code which sent the aircraft to the opposite direction towards Bogota (Pfleeger Atlee 2009, p.43). Incidents like these are good example how humans, regardless of advanced computer systems can take erroneous actions res

Servqual Tool in Emirates Airlines

Servqual Tool in Emirates Airlines Servqual Tool The quality of services in emirates airlines: the challenges of continuous improvement Introduction In this paper the concept of quality is discussed to examine its development and applications. Service quality is reflected upon with an elaboration of the seminal SERVQUAL tool in a separate section. The paper also contextualizes customer satisfaction within the overall discussion on quality and business performance. Customer satisfaction and service quality are both also reflected upon to contextualize requirements of the changing times, and the adaptability of these two- inexplicably interconnect pillars of business performance. Quality and customer satisfaction are implicitly linked together in this paper in different sections – they remain linked by their respective definitions upfront. Business performance is an undercurrent to the discussion in this paper given the origins and nature of developments surrounding quality. Customer satisfaction is explicitly a key performance measure but its interconnections with profitability and loyalty are pondered over in trying to ela borate on the concept of market orientation. The paper is divided into four sections- the first one looks at quality in general mapping its development. The second section discusses service quality and its measurement. The third section looks at customer satisfaction and other key variables that shape customer orientation. The last section provides a profile and critique of SERVQUAL. Quality Quality has always concerned the societal intent of consumption. The reasons are fairly colloquial at one level where lack of quality can result in insufficient and unsatisfactory delivery of requirements from a product or service. At another level – given the growing complexity of the business processes over the last century quality has evolved into a discipline – characterized by an equally intertwined interface between control, assurance, and management in general (Dooley, 2006). Broadly speaking in the business context quality is the ‘perception of the ability’ of a product to satisfy its users. By extension it also applies to the processes and management of the processes that shape the product. However, the satisfying paradigm underpinning quality has multiple manifestations: â€Å"conformance†, â€Å"fitness for use†, â€Å"basic minimum requirements vs. attractiveness†, and as a matter of â€Å"interest and individual disposition† to name a few (e.g. Juran, 1945; Pirsig, 1974; Corsby, 1981; Kano, 1984; Reeves and Bednar, 1994). The definition of quality is rather difficult to come by because of the sheer nature of its wide applicability and strands of origin- ranging from the practical business origins to metaphysical origins. The American Society for Quality aptly captures this subjectivity in understanding quality by stating it as †¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"a subjective term for which each person has their own definition† (Wade, 2005; ASQ, 2007). Quality management is made up of two complementary aspects one is quality assurance and the other is quality control. The former is about ensuring a basic minimum standard through upfront production process design. The latter is about reviewing and monitoring output to wean out the ‘defectives’. Assurance is thus inherently preventive and control is mainly curative in a functional sense (Gunter, 1998). Irrespective of the disparate origins, quality management can be safely said to be largely associated with the idea of excellence. A range of concepts and their operationalisation stem from this broader view of quality and mark the growth in research and practice of quality management. Six Sigma, Quality Circles, and Total Quality Management- are but a few from amongst numerous such frames of reference (dti, 2007). The idea of quality at the advent of the century had been around as a selection paradigm- accepting the superior and rejecting the inferior and biased towards ‘control at best’- most of the time the evaluation came from the end user. Along the business value chain as production became large scale after the 1st World War- quality assurance procedures started becoming formalized. It was not only the ‘end of the road’ customer assessment but also a series of filters ensuring only the better quality output being delivered to the customer made control and assurance an important in house practice . The inspection oriented quality control schema had its problems mainly in terms of competent individuals that could ensure monitoring despite not being the ‘know all’ skill set champions. Formalized roles of inspection and quality manager thus emerged and along side assurance models provided a great lift to quality management as a capability. Generic tools for quality management like the control chart emerged in the 1920s and statistical process control matured towards the middle of the century. The revival of the manufacturing of war torn Japan on mature principals of quality control and management finally brought quality management into the forefront. By the end of 1970s it was a global pre-occupation with everyone trying to imitate the success of Japanese low cost and high quality products (dti, 2007; Dooley, 2006). When the word total quality came to the fore in 1970s and finally pinned quality management as a fundamental capability that ran through the organization. The West’s take on quality management was more about ‘standards’ than ‘culturalisation’-but based around the same operational frameworks as in Japan. These gave rise to national standards in response to the need to have a quality association with the national economy as a whole. At the business level quality is now a key management responsibility (Gitlow et al., 1989). Aside from the generalized profile of emergence of quality management above there are a few key landmarks that need to be noted. The first is probably the statistical developments in the 20s and 30s and the emergence of concepts related to probability of acceptance, risk, tolerance levels, and sampling aspects (Shewart, 1931; Dodge and Romig, 1959) establishment of standards and societies also marked the 1930s and 40s (Hutchins, 1995; Dooley, 2006). Industrial production was never under as much pressure as in the II world War. While quality assurance could not keep up with the pressure control came to the forefront to ensure acceptable working products. The maturing of the statistical processes and standards in this regard was a key development. The large scale transmission of these standards to the then military suppliers ensured that the War provided an acceleration to the diffusion of quality management standards and systems (Dooley, 2006; Grant and Lang, 1991). With the end of the war in the formative phase of reconstruction quality was again given a ‘less rushed’ attention. The role of top management, the interface between organisation wide processes, among others found attention. Total quality control came to the fore as a holistic concept with a stage gate approach right from design to delivery to consumer (Fiegenbaum, 1951, 1957, 1961). As mentioned, the post war Japanese revival is a key factor in development of quality management. Over the 1950s and 1960s the ideas of cultaration of quality with pride in workmanship, top management support, liberalized communication and quality circles took hold stemming from Japanese success. The good practice concepts like quality circles emerged as competencies that were tightly woven into the culture of business unique to Japan and required some effort when it came to imitation by the west (Koyangi, 1964; Deming, 1967; Juran, 1967). Quality became integral to organisational behaviour, goals, and associated personnel development. The coining of ‘Total Quality Management’ (TQM), encapsulates this coming of age of quality management as an indispensable competency in the competitive arena that is augmented by increasing customer expectations (Deming, 1986; Anderson et al., 1994; Akers; 1991; Stratton, 1990). The main characteristics-changes and developments though numerous can be safely said to be around making quality: a responsibility for everyone, a necessity rather than a differentiator, relate better to services and information, and ever increasing set of non-manufacturing industries. relate to best practices, dissemination and learning recognized a key function and accordingly resourced in organizations reinforce the primacy of the customer (Green and Welsh, 1988; Marquardt, 1991; Dooley, 2006) As TQM goes from strength to strength the balance between assurance, control, and the new fangled third strand – learning is becoming vital given the dynamic nature and complex requirements that are associated with quality (Green and Welsh, 1988). The standardized tools need to be customized for organisational applications with a sense to create the competitive edge-because the omnipresent paradigm itself is tending to defeat the objective to seeking the competitive edge through quality (Dean and Bowen, 1994). Context specificity or in other customization of model and tools is the call of the day for research and practice alike The generic nature however needs to be preserved in the background given wider economic and societal association of quality management. For instance, as new frontiers like e-commerce open a fertile bed of quality concepts and models will be very valuable for learning and adaptation to the economic and social context (Doty et al., 1993; Dooley, 2006). . However, having an adaptable bed for quality management across diverse industries to draw from is not sufficient. The societal realties have also undergone transition – quality needs to broaden its founding grounds to reflect on new aspects like information management and the virtual realm where quality may have to question its own foundations that are deeply rooted in manufacturing. The successful adaptation to non-manufacturing i.e. services however, is evidence of the emergent nature of quality management that can take on fresh challenges. Service Quality Service quality is a subjective concept that remains challenging to define and to measure (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). This associates itself and can be understood as the application of total quality in the service sector in the main and also implying the service function in frontline delivery of product in other industries. The understanding of service quality has been synthesized from extant literature by Jennifer Rowley (1998). In her work it is seen as a â€Å"perception judgment from a comparison of what they feel service organizations should offer and the performance of the organisation offering the services†. There is no dearth of definitions that try to pack in comprehensiveness to this abstract concept. For instance, Hedvall and Paltschik (1989) refer to ‘willingness and ability to serve’ with a mention of ‘access’, Lehtinen and Lehtinen(1982) view service quality in a three-dimensional space that looks at ‘interactive, physical and corpo rate’ quality facets. Furthermore Gronroos (1984) simplifies the idea by seeing service quality as shaped by ‘technical and functional’ aspects of quality (Rowley ,1988). The link between service and performance and by extension satisfying the customer is challenging because services have a unique combination of characteristics. The first of these combinations is their intangibility- causing issues in measurement as they are a function of the ‘experience’ of the customer. The next is their perish ability –meaning that they cannot delivered from existing stock and thus lending a dynamic nature to service delivery that is difficult to condition. The third is inseparability between production and consumption of service and the last is heterogeneity or customizability as each end user receives a different level-nature of service partly owing to individualized perceptions that are involved in assessment (Zeithaml et al., 1985; Rowley, 1998). The need is thus to work on ‘perceptions’ to assess quality given the cognitive frame of reference that dominates the characteristics of service. The associated requirement is to be able to classify services so as to peg a cognitive frame on a type of service Such an attempt has provided for groupings within the service industry as a starting point to deliver customized measurement models (Dotchin and Oakland, 1994). The influences on consumer expectations have also been classified to augment such efforts (Gronroos,1994) . While the seminal work towards generic developments like SERVQUAL (Parasuram et al., 1988) that is discussed in detail in the last section of this paper, provide founding grounds to service quality measurement- literature sees several issues in the applicability of this generic framework. This also relates to the inclusion exclusion and reconfiguration of the understanding of service attributes and the industry categories discussed before (e.g. Sasser, 1978; Dotchin and Oakland, 1994). A critical perspective on SREVQUAL comes later but upfront – it is of essence is to recognize the importance and complexity in measurement given the sheer abstractness of the idea of service and its quality. The customization of measurement efforts and models in light of different service industry groups has been key to efforts at improving measurement (Dotchin and Oakland, 1994). In SERVQUAL the conceptualization of satisfaction has been found to be too simplistic and the multiplicity of the ‘total experience’ is arguably not captured – this is in addition to the non-customized generic nature of the SREVQUAL tool. A longitudinal and sometimes phenomenological analysis is suggested to capture these nuanced but important characteristics of service quality (Singh, 1991; Rowley, 1994). However, the difficult in devising a comprehensive tool still disposes wider practice of measurement to simplistic methods. Important adjustments and realizations like the use of ‘importance and satisfaction grid’ (Harvey, 1995) provide a very useful feedback and prioritization. For instance, high importance and poor satisfaction is a combination that merits urgent management attention. Another important variable in the service quality metric that needs to be accounted for is the nature of the contract. Again this is because of the attribute of ‘psychological contracts’ that is unique in nature to services (Thornrow, 1998). This has found particular appeal in measurement related to provision of public services. Having formal, informal and psychological components in service contracts provide a platform for balancing expectations and perceptions. These are otherwise very difficult to manage given the basic characteristics of service discussed at the onset of this section. Finally the perceptual plane needs to be also looked at with a balance though by classical definition the perception of the customer is the defining feature of quality-for service quality in particular the perception of the provider and the resultant psychological interface is also key to the metric. The role of customers is also not to be taken uni-dimensionally. There are different st akeholder brackets eg. users, influencers, deciders, approvers that associate with a service category and also vary in their significance (Rowley, 1988). These influence the generic satisfaction and associated performance variable. Given this multiplicity and the psychologically complex nature of interactions, the ‘relationship exchange’ process (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) is key to providing some cognitive stability to overtime service quality measurement. It is also a suitable conduit to ensure that feedback is smoothly translated into strategic action for improvement. Such relationships can be supported by associating service with some ‘bonds’ (Chu and Lin, 2004). For instance, providing unique services, incentives, and even building social ties between provider and customer. However, on the other hand, the impact of such relationships on service quality needs to be moderated for a reliable assessment. They provide grounds for stabilizing the psychological map to better associate performance and expectations but at the same time bias it. Get help with your essay from our expert essay writers Customer Satisfaction Broadly speaking customer satisfaction is a performance indicator of the extent to which a firm has managed to meet customer expectations through its business deliverables. Having formed the foundation of the marketing concept for nearly half a century the attempts at harnessing the good practices and measurement approaches is a much explored realm when it comes to customer satisfaction (e.g. Drucker, 1954; Levitt 1960; Gronroos, 1990). Over the last few years customer satisfaction has received a reinvigorated interest. Possible reasons for this have been seen as the after effects of a maturing TQM paradigm that is linked with several recognition awards, and also, arrival of national customer satisfaction barometers (Garvin, 1991; Johnson et al., 2001; Helgesen, 2006) The associated concept of customer relationship orientation is posits a strong link between customer loyalty and profitability with customer satisfaction (Zeithaml, 1988; Oliver, 1996). While customer loyalty has been referred to as central to ‘competitive advantage’ (Porter, 1985; Chao, et al., 2007)- this is delivered through customer -satisfaction. This is the basic rationalization behind customer satisfaction being so central to both short term and long term performance assessment. That the ‘ultimate aim of any firm is to achieve customer satisfaction’ remains the central thesis of market orientation (Levitt, 1960). Customer orientation seeks to align â€Å"organizational values, beliefs, assumptions and premises† to deliver a mutually enabling relationship between the customer and the firm (Day, 1994; Strong and Harris, 2004). Strong and Harris ( 2004), define a set of tactics that can deliver customer orientation. They define three sets of tactics. The first define relational tactics (essentially relationship marketing) that engages a nurturing philosophy for long run gains. The second tactic as human resource tactic is more about the direct interface with frontline of the customer and rest of the organisation –essentially empowering the front line through training and support to reap rewards of realized quality of experience of the customer. The final tactic relates to procedural aspects that routinise and systemize customer care and support systems. The study posits that there is a strong interaction and dependency between the three tactics. This key work that examines customer satisfaction and its manifestations under the customer orientation paradigm shares ground with some key extant literature (Narver and Slater, 1990) However, other studies tend to put one set of such aspects – though differently labeled as more important than the others. For instance, Chao et al. (2007) say that while satisfaction remains an abstract idea sometime there is an overt component of interpersonal relationship building that because of over emphasis- instead of complementing customer orientation tends wean resources away from conditioning deliverables to meet consumer expectations. Research suggests that such a lopsided drive is ill-found in the long run While relationship marketing remains important it has to be pegged on consumer satisfaction from products and services for sustainability (Chao et al., 2007). Businesses need to focus attention on relationship building. This however has to be conditioned for long run profitability. Customer satisfaction through meeting expectations from goods, transaction services and pure services, and a sustained follow up and support culture has to be the basis for relationship building. For instance, financial incentives/offers are likely to be ineffective and short lived if quality is undermined. As most of the research in customer orientation gets focused on relationship building this is an important consideration to use as a moderator. Value to the customer can never be undermined for seeking short term profitability. This is because such profitability is not suitably tied in with satisfaction which in turn guides customer loyalty. Views to the contrary also exist mainly from some practitioners. Bruce Clapp (2007) of the Carlson marketing group says that â€Å"relationship strength is more important than satisfaction as a true indicator of loyalty. Customizing the experience of our customers, in-branch and in home, impacts the strength of relationship as it builds. In the experience, ensuring our message is relevant requires that we be closer to our customer. The communication we use, whether direct mail, e-mail or in person, must be tailored to the needs of the customer at an individual level. The term mass customization has gained ground as we look for ways to become partners with our customers and be there when they have a financial need†¦changing the perception about communication from irrelevant to relevant†¦.mattered † (Bruce Clapp in ABA Bank Marketing, 2007) The above text signifies another important side to the changing times that of information and its quality as a deliverable that has become a key product attribute. Relationship management that works to harness this may improve the quality perception of its product without making changes to the product itself. The result is then improved customer satisfaction. The level of abstraction in the idea of ‘satisfaction’ and the changing times with an information overload -have created shadow characteristics for products and services. The idea of ‘value’ is ever more a backdoor into customer satisfaction. Customer orientation in the milieu of discussed tactics that include relationship management and the intertwining of satisfaction, loyalty and profitability is a complex arena. It is thus not strange to see that the core variable – customer satisfaction that inhabits the arena is often found missing from hundreds of studies that explore business performance (Capon, et al., 1990 –review of 320 empirical studies). The inter-linkages are so strong that even controlling for the satisfaction part (if a suitable measurement was deployed) tends to capture most of the variation in most cases. Given that studies seek to look at different sets of variables for instance, in say, production management exclusively – they understandably steer clear of satisfaction measurement and inclusion – resulting in poor significance and scope of such studies. Studies which do involve the customer factor in examining performance have more significance in results but have their own issues. These are to do with industry specific nuances where the interaction between customer satisfaction, loyalty and profitability vary a great deal (e.g. Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Soderlund and Vilgon, 1995; Page et al., 1996). Accounting for the differences in methods and measurements the issue remains that the customer orientation metric is also industry specific. Though it is omnipresent and universally central to business goals the way it manifests itself is what may vary across business types. For instance, the rate at which profitability increases with loyalty and conversely loyalty increases with satisfaction may vary (Helgesen, 2006). In the days when customer was not inundated with choices -the notion of satisfaction was relatively stable despite its metaphysical connotations. As the number of choices has gone up so is the fickleness of satisfaction. Satisfaction can thus no longer be the guiding tenet for loyalty. The relationship perspective has thus become very important – and as argued above is widely contested in terms of how important? To the extent that it takes away resources from developing the arguably ‘real’ good or service it is overdone. However the ‘value’ it brings in terms of influencing consumer selection in an ambiguous setting of multiple satisfying options remains critical. The issue is that of a balance without a quality good or service to back up the relationship promise failure is imminent. However without being able to retain customers or attract them to quality products and services as there is always a ‘better’ out there investments in the â €˜real’ good or service is also low yielding. The challenge of customer satisfaction as the key variable in consumer orientation is to condition itself to the changing notion of ‘value’ that is now integral to information flows in every consumer-provider interaction. This conditioning should take into account the factors that affect loyalty and profitability because a knock on effect on these is very likely. Finally, there is also industry specificity to consider to an extent but to a lower extent- the times have not changed enough to question the centrality of consumer satisfaction- they are just placing new demands on it. Servqual The recognition of the importance of customer -‘assessment and perception of the quality’ of service has led to the emergence of concept behind SERVQUAL, and its delivery as a tool. This was primarily through the work of Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithmal (1985, 1988, and 1991). The development is a good example of research being driven by the interests of the industry and in the process delivering an instrument of direct utility to the industry. In this section SERVQUAL is reflected upon with a view to explain its foundations, ponder over- the developments, posited advantages and critiques, and in the process, provide a holistic perspective on this key development in service quality management. The basic concept behind SERVQUAL works on a ‘gap’ between the expected and perceived quality of service. The nuances on how this gap has been dealt with in this model –instrument, issues surrounding subjectivity, reliability and validity, and applicability across industries, have provided for generous discussion and developments over the last two decades. The customer view based on a set of questions is primary and the only view that matters in assessing this gap. The original ten dimensions that comprised SERVQUAL namely: reliability, competence, access, responsiveness, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding customer and tangibles – were eventually synthesised into five. These dimensions were based around the following areas: â€Å"(1) tangibles: physical facilities and personnel presentation; (2) reliability: performing the promised service dependably and accurately; (3) responsiveness: helping customers and providing prompt servi ce; (4) assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and performance; and (5) empathy: caring, individualised attention the firm gives to its customers† (Parasuraman et al., 1988, 1991; Shahin, 2007). These provided for a rationalisation for 22 questions for customers to generate the gap metrics. These questions have since been pondered upon to reflect on the possibility of supplementary questions. Attempts have also been to tailor the instrument to work around reliability, validity and customisability issues. The last implies to the discussions in literature relating to the issues surrounding the generic nature of the instrument, and the need for reflecting on it given the range of applicability to a wide spectrum of industries (e.g. Buttle, 1996; Sullivan Estyes, 2006; Nyeck et al., 2002). SERVQUAL is popular in both the profit and non-profit sector (arguably more so in the latter) primarily due to the generic yet very useful nature of the investigative questions to a range of industries. It has the hallmarks of a good instrument – in being low on time consumption, easy to use and though argued recognised by practitioners to have acceptable reliability and validity. The comparable aspect for benchmarking reasons is also of great appeal (e.g. Brysland and Curry, 1984). It can provide a useful progress chart if done over successive years both for self assessment against set goals and comparative assessment to feedback into objectives and planning. Francis Buttle’s critique of Servqual (1996) provides some key shortcomings. The first one has to do with the subjectivity of expectations and perceptions. The second relates to the assumption the model makes about a â€Å"direct relationship† between service and quality- a perception that shares ground with the ‘gap model’ discussed later in this paper. The final rather philosphical but valid point is related to subjectivity and asks one to reflect on whether the right things are being measured for the desired assessment (Buttle, 1996). Luis Lages and Fernandes (2005) get metaphysical and question the â€Å"level of abstraction† associated with respondent customers. The posited Service Personal Values (SERPVAL) scale to refkect this presents three dimensions of service value to â€Å"peaceful life, social recognition, and social integration†(Luis et al., 2005) . In this scheme of things as a possbile supplement to SERVQUAL – customer staisfaction relates to all dimensions and loyalty and repurcahse intentions are the attributes than can be distilled from the assessment (Kang et al., 2002). The validity position that has been contested in research also stems from the assumption in SERVQUAL as being generalizable across industries and products. Such research posits that some of the areas/dimensions outlined above may have higher or lower position given the nature of the industry or product, and by extension suggests requirement for some customisation in applying the tool. The attempts to make SERVQUAL more robust and improve its application are ongoing. This also indicates the utility of the instrument’s design as a time tested foundation for service quality measurement (e.g. Carman; 1990, Cronin et al, 1992; Brian et al, 2000). Illustrated below is a template of the SERVQUAL instrument Figure 1: The SERVQUAL Instrument DIRECTIONS: This survey deals with your opinions of __________ services. Please show the extent to which you think firms offering _________ services should possess the features described by each statement. Do this by picking one of the seven numbers next to each statement. If you strongly agree that these firms should posses a feature, circle the number 7. If you strongly disagree that these firms should possess a feature, circle 1. If your feelings are not strong, circle one of the numbers in the middle. There are no right or wrong answers – all we are interested in is a number that best shows your expectations about the firms offering ________ services. E1.They should have up-to-date equipment. E2.Their physical facilities should be visually appealing. E3.Their employees should be well dressed and appear neat. E4.The appearance of the physical facilities of these firms should be in keeping with the type of services provided. E5.When these firms promise to do something by a certain time, they should do so. E6.When customers have problems, these firms should be sympathetic and reassuring. E7.These firms should be dependable E8.They should provide their services at the time they promise to do so. E9.They should keep their records accurately. E10.They shouldn’t be expected to tell customers exactly when services will be performed. E11.It is not realistic for customers to expect prompt service from employees of these firms. E12.Their employees don’t always have to be willing to help customers. E13.It is okay if they are too busy to respond to customer requests promptly. E14.Customers should be able to trust employees of these firms. E15.Customers should be able to feel safe in their transactions wi

Endless Witch Trials: Salem, Massachusetts, McCarthy Hearings, and the KKK :: essays research papers

What is the difference between witches in today’s society and witches in the past? Why were people accused of being witches? What were the punishments people got when they were accused of being a witch and found guilty? How is the witch trials repeated in history?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When someone talks about witches what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Most people think of witches from movies such as the witch in the â€Å"Wizard of Oz† or in â€Å"Snow White and the Sevens Dwarfs†. These two witches are looked at as old, ugly and dressed in black from head to toe. People also think of witches in today’s society riding on brooms and chanting evil curses on their enemies. In the past witches could be anyone from the family doctor to the next door neighbor. The word witch comes from the old English word Wicca which means male witch. Witch also means to cast a spell on others. No matter how a witch is looked at, it’s all about mystery and magic. In Massachusetts there are two Salem’s, Salem town and Salem village. The villager wanted to be separated from the town. The accusing began in the village at the Parris’s home because of Reverend Parris wanting to accuse people. Then the Parris’s allies the Putnam’s started to get accused of witchcraft. In Salem people were accused to be witches because they were different or an outcast in the community. Tituba, who was a slave in the Parris household, was an easy person to accuse of practicing witch craft because she was black, mysterious and had a different religion and traditions. If people didn’t attend church they would also be accused of being a witch. Sarah Good was a beggar who everyone thought was mean spirited and always grumbling things to people even if they did give her money or food. She also smoked a pipe, which also gave people a reason to say she was performing witch craft. Sarah Osborne was another person accused of witchery becaus e she married her servant. Martha Corey, a well known church woman was accused because she was to inherit land from her husband who past way. Other people wanted to take that land from her, so they put a false accession on her. Other people in the village were accused because people didn’t like them or they weren’t in good social standings.

Sarbanes Oxley :: essays research papers

â€Å"Effects of a widening trade deficit and the necessary government policy† â€Å"Trade Gap Widens, Fuels Calls for Tougher Stance on China† WSJ, 4/13/05, A2.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The U.S. current account (trade deficit) hit a monthly high rising 4.3% in February to $61.04 billion. The increased deficit reflects the rising costs of imported oil and increased consumer demand for foreign goods. Imports rose by $2.58 billion from January to February as Exports remained constant.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The widening trade deficit over the past two years has economists concerned about the longevity of attracting foreign capital. This is especially true between China and the U.S. where the deficit has increased 50% from 2004, making it the largest deficit of any single country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a result, there is pressure from industry officials to consider stronger trade guidelines to correct for this widening deficit. The U.S. cites the fixed yuan-dollar exchange rate for keeping China’s currency relatively weak and therefore encouraging the consumption of Chinese goods in world markets.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The U.S. government is considering a 27.5% tariff on all Chinese products entering the U.S. if Beijing refuses to raise the value of their currency. This purpose of this tariff would be to offset China’s currency advantage, but critics argue it may increase the price of Chinese-made goods more than a currency adjustment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To assess the validity the proposed policies for this scenario, we will analyze this issue using intermediate economic theory as a framework.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The current account is of great concern to U.S. policymakers as a long-run surplus or deficit may have undesirable effects on the national welfare. Large imbalances can also create political pressures for increased trade restrictions, as is the case in our study. Therefore, it is important to determine how monetary and fiscal policies will affect the current account with respect to output and the exchange rate. We can illustrate the relationship between the exchange rate, output, and the current account in terms of the AA-DD framework. The XX curve shows the combinations of the exchange rate and output where the current account balance would be equal to some desired level (equilibrium). The XX schedule is upward sloping because, ceteris paribus, an increase in output encourages spending on imports and worsens the current account if it is not accompanied by currency depreciation. The point labeled A, is where the graph is in equilibrium and the economy is at full employment (Yf) with a given exchange rate, Eo.

The Metamorphosis of Guy Montag Essay -- essays research papers

Ray Bradbury originally wrote his novel, Fahrenheit 451, as an indictment against the censorship evident during the McCarthy era of America, and it has since become one of the few modern science fiction books that can be considered a classic. The adulation of this novel is due to its plethora of symbols, metaphors, and character development. Bradbury’s character development is singularly impressive in this book because he shows the evolution of the main character, Guy Montag, â€Å"from book-burner to living-book† (Johnson 111). His maturity is displayed by his growing understanding of the world in which he lives and by seeing the flaws in his society. Bradbury illustrates Montag’s metamorphosis with him changing from a mindless burning drone to his maturation and acceptance into a society of like-minded booklovers. The first words of Bradbury’s novel state, â€Å"it was a pleasure to burn† (Bradbury 3). These words sum up the beginning character of Montag; he enjoys burning, and his job is to â€Å"answer alarms not to put out fires, but to start them (Moore 103). Guy Montag is a fireman, a man who is trained to spray kerosene on books, and light them in a spectacular show. He has never questioned his job or the reasoning behind burning books. He takes pride in his position, even shines his â€Å"beetle-colored helmet† as he hangs it on its hook (Bradbury 4). With fire Montag â€Å"bring[s] down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history†, and he revels in the power of destruction that fire holds (Bradbury 3). His only view of fire is a product of his job as a fireman; he sees fire as a machine, which simply burns and devours the freedom of the people. In this period of his life, Montag feels comfortable with machine, especially the machines that produce fire. He see s nothing wrong when his wife lip-reads his words instead of listening to him speak. When Montag first meets his young neighbor, Clarisse, he thinks of her in a mechanical mindset (Johnson 111). He sees them walking, as if â€Å"fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry [them] forward† (Bradbury 5). Hence, Montag feels comfortable around the soulless technology of his society; he loves to burn and to destroy, and he cannot think about the morals that surround his job and his culture. Montag is first pushed towards rejecting his society when he meets Clarisse. She is brave enough to questi... ...ll circle in Fahrenheit 451 because he has progressed from his ignorance to becoming one of the few people who are brave enough to defy society by preserving books. The final message Bradbury leaves in the novel is a message of hope. Montag, who carries a piece of the Bible in his mind, returns to the city in hopes of resurrecting it after a bomb had destroyed it. His one desire is to search and perhaps find his wife. In the last few lines he quotes the Book of Revelations: â€Å"[a]nd on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations† (Bradbury 165). This quote assures mankind that they â€Å"must have faith and endure before [they] can enjoy the fruits of victory† (Sisario 107). The lasting moral is that in order to overcome the continual destruction and rebirth of mankind, the human race must use its creative mind and intellect (Sisario 107). Thus, Montag, along with the human race, was burnt to ashes at the beginning of the book, and at the end was reborn with a wholly new outlook on his society and a plan to prevent his consumption by fire hereafter.

Radisson Blu Methodology

The capacity of the hotel is 188 different types of rooms (economy, business class). Also, the toll offers the opportunity for business meetings or special events in the 9 meeting rooms including help of coordinator and personalized menus. These 9 meeting rooms are capable to accommodate up to 220 people. The Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel cooperates with three other service enterprises: restaurant Ever Gusto that serves Italian cuisine, Sunshine Piano Bar which offers various selections of cocktails and Casino Labor.The Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel enterprise offers facilities such as 1 2-hour room service, free high-speed wireless internet, sauna and car parking. Nightly rates in Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel are from 876 DECK (1 17 EURO). 2 The purpose of this project is to analyze what problems Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel is encountering and be able to conclude with reliable solutions. In this project we are going to focus on two main topics: service delivery system and cus tomer's satisfaction as they are inherent from each other. We will use both primary and secondary data.The primary data consists of information from questioners that We asked visitors of Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel to answer. The secondary data will be based on reliable books, customer's reviews and official weapon of the hotel. Also we will use two theoretical frameworks in order to make our project valid and make an objective conclusion. The first one will be SMS model (service management system model), which consists of five elements: market segment, service concept, service delivery system, image and culture and philosophy.Precise description of five elements of SMS model will help us to characterize the service enterprise of Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel. The second model is The Gap Model. Main purpose of using this model is that it is orientated directly on customer Hotels in Denmark 2014, available from: http://www. Radiation's. Com/hotels/ mark, accessed on 16 of Decembe r RADIATIONS BLUE ELMSFORD, LABOR 2014, available from: http www. Radiation's. Com/hotel-labor accessed on 1 7 of December 3 satisfaction. We will take a closer look on all the possible areas where problem could be at by analyzing each area with five gaps.Finally, we conducted anonymous survey among hotel clients as we tried being close in contact With the one decision maker – the guests – providers of reliable information. In our project we decided to balance the value of primary and secondary outcome data to prove we took in consideration every possible aspect of customer satisfaction. Therefore we decided to take in consideration customer ‘ s reviews on page www†. Trapdoors. Com considering this page as a reliable source. Applying critical thinking by evaluating customer satisfaction was essential for us.The reason why our project is going to be based mostly on secondary data is the flexibility of it. All data that is going to be used in our project will be specified at the end of it. We chose to write our project about Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor because we found this topic interesting. We want to find out how it is possible that four-star grand chain hotel can have so many complaints. And also, we think that this issue is relevantly serious because it is important that customers expectations would be similar to what hotel can actually provide. 2.Delimitation As a part of our delimitation we delimiter ourselves from doing qualitative research with the management of the hotel as We did not get the opportunity to talk to the manager of the Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel, as the topic of our project is mostly about customers complains, we understand that the manager was not interested and did not give us an opportunity to interview him. We delimiter ourselves from budgeting how much the renovation and Seibel changes would cost Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel. It is not possible for us to calculate possible budget in this s tage as we are not in direct contact with the management of the hotel.Other fact is the prices for materials and labors are also unknown for us. 3. Problem area We were interested to find out what is the reputation and how does Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel deal with the customers. According to the reviews that we managed to find on the weapon www. Trapdoors. Com the hotel had 1 80 reviews and in only 50 visitors rated the hotel as â€Å"Excellent† (1 1 travelers) Very good† (40 travelers). This gives us information that only 4 28. 33% of actual customers that rated the hotel were satisfied with the provided service. The most of visitors rated hotel as â€Å"Average† (76 travelers) which is 42. 2% and the part that made us focus on service delivery system and customer satisfaction in this hotel was the number of people that rated hotel as â€Å"Poor' (39 travelers) or â€Å"Terrible† (14 travelers) which also gives approximately 29,44% of unsatisfied cus tomers. Despite the fact that it is a famous chain hotel, which is represented as a luxurious hotel, it has a lot Of complaints. The most common complaint is that the Radiations Blue Limned Hotel is old and due to that customers are experiencing sleeping pattern disorders because of noises. The hotel from outside looks renewed, but inside it needs capital renovation.For example, as Hotel is next to the famous street Comfort Anne Gad with all bars and clubs of Labor city, guests can hear everything through old, non-sound proof windows. Another complaint would be related to service delivery system. Customers are complaining about the staff and its attitude to hotel's guests. They are complaining that employees are rude, impolite and that they do not perform heir job. And other very common complaint was the price. Most of the customers that rated Radiations on BMW. Trapdoors. Com said that the price does not match with the service that hotel actually provides. Our goal is to find the s olution how Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel could improve their service delivery system and manage to match the expectations of their customers to what they actually receive after visiting the hotel. 4. Research questions In Order to keep our project well coherent, we will develop three research questions, on which will be based our whole report and which we will answer later. 1. What are guest complaining in Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor? 2. Why are customers of the Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor complaining? 3.How should the service delivery system be improved in Radiations Blue Limited Hotel in Labor in order to reduce guest complaints? Radiations Blue Limited Hotel, Labor 2014, available from: http:// www. Trapdoors. Co. UK/Hotel_Review-g189529d206747-Reviews- accessed on 18 of December 5 5. Methodology As already mentioned before, in this project the main focus will be on service delivery system and customers satisfaction. Our main goal is to represent the Rad iations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor by using primary and secondary data and two theoretical frameworks.Furthermore, based on our gathered information we are going to analyze what exactly customers are complaining about. And finally we will try to make a solution of which the hotel could benefit. We will concentrate on service delivery system and how it should be improved. Theoretical Frameworks In this project we are going to use two theoretical frameworks. The first one is Service Management Model (SMS model), which will help us to represent precisely the Radiations Blue Elmsford Hotel in Labor and also present what toll has to offer to their potential customers.The second one is GAP model – Diagnosing Failure Gaps in Service Quality. By using Knowledge Gap, Standards Gap, Delivery Gap, Communications Gap we will be able to diagnose where is the main problem and it will help us to conclude with reasonable solution. 4 5. 1 SMS Model The SMS model (service management system m odel) has the character of a system consisting of components and emphasizing the relations among them. 5 Thus now we are going to use SMS model, which consists from five elements: service concept, service delivery system, market segment, image ND culture and philosophy.Precise description of five elements of SMS model will help us to characterize the service enterprise of Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel. The market segment Radiations Blue Limited hotel does not have a precise market segment. However, according to www. Trapdoors. Com, 96 customers was visiting hotel for business purpose, which is 53% of all 180 reviews. Besides, in the official website of the hotel it is emphasized that there are available rooms for business conferences. So, we can make a conclusion, that the common guests in hotel are business travelers.Nevertheless, families, couples and people who travels alone, also chose Radiations Blue Limned hotel. 4 4th edition Services Marketing -? page 327-328 , Diagnosing F ailure Gaps in Service Quality 2nd edition Service management: Strategy and leadership in service business – page 58-60, SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6 The location of the hotel is very convenient as it is located in the city center, where customers can use public transport. Besides, Labor train station is 750 meters away and Labor airport is 6 kilometers away, which says that market segment focuses not only on local visitors, but on foreign as well.Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel is a part of Radiations Hotel Group, which makes the enterprise of hotel to be the part of international group. 6 Speaking about customers visiting enterprise, they are expecting what hotel says it can provide. However, Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel does not meet customer's expectations and that is way hotel has complaints. The service concept The service concept often consists of a complex set of values, where some products are more important and may be called core services, while others are periphera l.Also there are both tangible and intangible services, which is he reason why often it is difficult to specify them in concrete form. The service enterprise Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel sells the rent of the rooms, food and drinks at the restaurant ‘Ever Gusto†, play of the games (e. G. Blackjack, poker) at the â€Å"Casino Labor† and other hotel facilities, such as wireless internet, room service or sauna. All of these services are intangible, except food and drinks at the restaurant. The core product in Radiations Blue Limned hotel is the rent of the rooms. This is the most common service that customers of the hotel buy.Meanwhile customer's interaction with other customers can be seen waiting in the line in reception, playing games in casino and eating at the restaurant. In conclusion, customer's copulation operates through complaints, reviews, recommendations and interaction with other customers. The service delivery System Service delivery system depends fr om three subcomponents: personnel, client and technology and physical support. Service organizations are personality-intensive, which means they are focusing on developing human resources.Client plays and complex role in the service 7 5th edition Marketing for hospitality and tourism – page 231, What Is A Product? 8 organization, since he not only receives and consumes the service but also serves as a component in Its production and delivery. Thus, in a service business, clients must be selected and managed as carefully as employees. Finally, services almost always involve social interactions and physical tools are critical to the functioning of such interactive systems. It is difficult to describe this part due to it is the biggest problem in Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel.In this part we will describe how hotel is represented in the official website of the hotel. Physical evidence and technology plays a big role as it is grand chain hotel. Exterior of the hotel is good-look ing, but interior needs renovation. However, hotel from the inside on the official website looks attractive as well. Customers claims (www. Trapdoors. Com), that in certain rooms smell is not pleasant and because of the street Comfort Anne Gad it is noisy during the nights. On the website it is emphasized, that rooms are modern. Also it states that room services are available 12 hours per day.Service delivery system does not meet needs and expectations expressed by the customers. Customers interact with service delivery system while ordering the room, buying food and drinks, during check in and check out and during room services. However, guests are complaining about employees. It means that personnel have a lack of knowledge how to deliver sciences, when there should work well-trained employees. The image The image mainly depends on what company actually provides and who the customers actually are. Although, deviating from current reality, image can be used as toll for the creation of a new reality.Radiations Hotel Group has a good reputation worldwide, however it's part Radiations Blue Limited does not have a positive opinion from the customers ho has visited this hotel. Considering all information on official website, we think that this hotel is presented as luxurious grand chain hotel and this image is attempted to be establish in the market. Logo of this hotel says â€Å"Radiations Blue, Hotels & resorts†. â€Å"Radiations† is the name of the founder of this group. â€Å"Hotels & resorts† is the name of one of the brands that Radiations group owns. And â€Å"Elmsford† is the name of the fjord that is next to the hotel. The weapon Of Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel is well-design, it is easy to use. There is provided all information about hotel (e. G. Rooms, services, history ND price), where guests can search for 8 Radiations History 2014, available from: http://www. W. Radiations. Com/section/ about. Story/about. Sidemen, acces sed on 1 2 of December 9 other Radiations Blue hotels as well. The service enterprise wants their customers to recognize them. And it is already achieved – Radiations Blue operates more than 230 hotels in the whole world and it is worldwide known group.The culture and philosophy The efficiency of the service organization depends on its culture and philosophy, which shape and rejuvenate the very values and ethos on which the company thrives. The main value for Radiations Blue Elmsford hotel is customer satisfaction. As already mentioned in our project, Radiations Blue Limned Hotel is a part of Resized Hotel group, which is working with â€Å"Yes Can! † special customer satisfaction pogrom since 1995. It is a core service philosophy, reflecting and powering commitment to always offer alternatives taking in to consideration guests, supplies, personnel and community.This programmer is applied to all Resized groups and it is a tradition of innovative and contemporary servic e concepts, based on customer needs. 9 5. 2 GAP model In order to explain the GAP model itself, it is easier to start with defining and explaining the basic knowledge needed to successfully understand the model. The main purpose of GAP model is to define the service quality that is provided by certain company or organization towards their customers or clients. Logically we should start with explain what the quality and service quality is.There are many definitions of what service quality is, so in this case we decided to not stick with only one but many other theories of different researchers and scientists as we think it suits for our project the most. Many scientists and researchers are trying to develop certain definition of service quality and service perspective. Gar ¶morons presented his research about service quality which focuses on a model that is a comparison between customer expectations of the service and their experience of the service they have received before. This model is named â€Å"total perceived service quality'.He puts the main focus on what customer is really looking for and what they evaluate, the service quality is 9 OUR CULTURE 201 3, available from: http://move. Resized. Com/ accessed on 1 7 of December 10 based on two dimensions. The first dimension is the technical quality and this dimension refers to the outcome, what is delivered or what the customer test from the service. The next dimension is the functional quality which refers to the manner in which the service is delivered or how it is delivered. Both dimensions affect the corporate image and the perception of quality in various ways.

How is the theme of childhood presented Essay

The Romantic era ushered in a whole new way in which children were perceived. Romantics did not believe in the â€Å"Seen but not heard† attitude towards children. The Romantics often busied themselves trying to understand what made a man, what shaped a person’s personality to create the adult. Three poems in The Lyrical Ballads, all by Wordsworth, deal exclusively with the theme of childhood. They are We are Seven, Anecdote for Fathers and The Idiot Boy. A famous quote by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rosseau states that â€Å"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains†. By this he meant that we are all born without any laws or morality and that these are ideals we gain only as we age and get exposed to them by society. This sentiment is reflected in the aforementioned poems, as this belief is one of the reasons children were so celebrated by the Romantic movement, they were untainted by the societal rules forced upon them, and so were a part of nature in a way an adult could not be. In We are Seven, Wordsworth relates a conversation between the poem’s narrator and a young girl. The young girl claims to have sixth brothers and sisters, however she says that two of them are dead. Despite the narrator’s attempts to convince her that makes only four brothers and sisters, five overall, he eventually concedes that is â€Å"Throwing words away† as the girl is not able to truly comprehend the realities of death. In this poem Wordsworth juxtaposes the cynicism of the narrator’s view of death with the innocence of the young girl’s view. The narrator’s view is that although she did have six brothers and sisters, she now only has four. The girl’s brother and sister are no longer alive and thus cannot be considered human, and equally can no longer be the girl’s brother and sister in any real sense, so he only recognises her as having four siblings. The girl however does not see death in that manner. Although she is aware that they are dead, she is not able to properly understand what this means. As the author says â€Å"What should it know of death? † To her, even though they are dead, they are still her brother and sister, just as much as her others and so she sees herself as one of seven children. In the poem Wordsworth gives a vivid description of the girl, referring to her as â€Å"rustic† and having a â€Å"Woodland air†, which overtly links her to nature. The fact that the narrator says that her beauty â€Å"makes me glad† shows that Wordsworth is indirectly calling the girl, her innocence and nature, which the girl is close to, a wonderful thing which should be celebrated. Both The Idiot Boy and Anecdote for Fathers deal with the imagination. In Anecdote for Fathers the narrator asks his son whether he prefers their home at Kilve or Liswyn Farm. The child clearly has never contemplated this, however as his father originally praises Kilve more than Liswyn Farm, he says that he prefers Kilve, as he believes that is what his father wants to hear. His father however questions his answer, which the child is not prepared for. Looking around in panic he sees a weather vane and responds with â€Å"At Klive there was no weather-cock, and that’s the reason why†. The narrator is ecstatic with his son’s answer, as he sees his son’s ability to imagine an innocent answer so easily. The father wishes that he could â€Å"Teach the hundredth part of what from thee I learn† The tone of excitement in the father’s response seems to stem from Wordsworth lamenting the fact that although he is able to understand how children are able to use their imagination in such ways, he is unable to mimic them, as he has already succumbed to the social ideals. In The Idiot Boy Wordsworth the effect of society on an adult by comparing the imagination of a child and his mother. In this poem a woman, Betty, is caring for her sick friend, Susan. Although Susan requires urgent medical care, Betty cannot leave her alone in her state, so she sends Johnny, the â€Å"Idiot Boy†, her mentally handicapped son. She gives him very clear instructions that he is to go straight to the doctor and straight back and not stop. Hours later he has not returned and Betty begins to worry about â€Å"sad mischances, not a few†. In the end Betty decides to go and look for him. As she is out calling his name, she starts to imagine her son being dead or hurt based on what she sees. For example when she sees a pond she imagines that her son may have drowned in it. Eventually she discovers that Johnny is safe and well, and has merely been playing for hours, imagining himself picking stars out of the sky, being a hunter and being a warrior. The contrast between the imagination of a child, with an extra layer of innocence due to his mental handicap, and his mother is incredibly stark. While Johnny’s imagination has kept him content for hours, Betty’s has, in a shorter space of time, made her start to contemplate suicide due to the grief it instilled within her. We then find that Susan has recovered for exactly the same reason that Betty felt such despair, all she was able to think about were horrible ways in which Betty and Johnny could’ve been hurt and was able to draw strength from her sadness at being unable to help. In the end, when asked what he had been doing for hours, Johnny merely replies â€Å"The cocks did crow to-whoo, to-whoo, and the sun did shine so cold†. Wordsworth called this response Johnny’s â€Å"glory†, which very accurately sums up the Romantic ideal of childhood and innocence being a thing to cherish, which was one of the messages Wordsworth and Coleridge tried to present with the Lyrical Ballads.