Employee Turnover and Its Effect on Performance of a Hospitality Industry Essay

Hospitality industry is an industry that provide the servives of food, drink and lodging facilities. The hospitality industry comprise of commercial and welfare sector. The commercial sector includes the hotel, restaurant, inn, guest house, vending services etc and the welfare sector are the hospitals, aged and welfare homes, etc. in the cause of this research, we will be looking in the commercial sector narrowing it down to the hotel sector. According to ( )the ratio of the number of workers that had to be replaced in a given time period to the average number of workers Employee turnover is the process of replacing one worker with another for any reason. A turnover rate is the percentage of employees that a company must replace within a given time period. When employees leave a company and have to be replaced, that’s called turnover. Some employees will always retire, move away, go back to school, or leave the workforce. This level of turnover is not only unavoidable, it can be beneficial. It brings new people into the organization with new ideas and a fresh perspective. Employees’ turnover is a well-recognized issue of critical importance to the organizations. Lack of employees’ continuity involves high costs in the induction and training of new staff. Organizational productivity is also one of the challenges that arise as a consequence of turnover (Siong et al, 2006). Employee’s turnover is a widely researched phenomenon. A huge amount of theoretical and empirical literature identified various factors/reasons responsible for employees’ turnover. However, there is no standard reason why people leave organization (Ongori, 2007).

Flaws in Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Essay

Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is by any means a classic. However, there are several flaws. First of all the coincidence that everything happens with in my mind detracts some from the story. The other major problem is that the book seems to drag on and on the closer you get to the end, as if Twain had a page quota to fill and was not worried about the story. The other problem brought up on our hand-out was Huck’s lack of seriousness in what was a very serious situation for Jim. As for the coincidence part, it appears most obviously as you read towards the end. For example Huck ends up at Aunt Polly’s, and I was thinking, yeah†¦ right those chances are about one in a million. And then after Huck tells Aunt Polly that he is Tom, Tom shows up†¦ uh-huh, I bet. It is things such as those I just mentioned that make it very difficult for me to read a book without becoming frustrated. It is probably because I am used to real life and like it or not real life is just not that perfect. My other gripe was that Twain seems to ramble on and on and on an†¦.. To me it seems as if the story that he was writing became faint shortly after the time when Huck says, â€Å"It’s me. George Jackson, sir†(pg. 95). I do have to give him that the feud was interesting filler, but you can only take so much filler. Then when John Wayne (The Duke) and Elvis (The King) come along there seem to be four or five stops along the river that except for one little detail, are the same. Please excuse the jump back, but how coincidental is it that you have a Duke and a King on the same raft in the middle of the Mississippi river (yes I do know they are not really royalty but that does not matter)? Even during all of this complaining I have done I did find humor in such things as when Huck was observing some local â€Å"loafers† and their discussions about borrowing and lending chewing tobacco. â€Å"Here, gimme back the chaw and you take the plug. † (pg. 138). I can just picture four or five guys laying around chewing tobacco with spit/tobacco juice running down their chins, probably in dirty overalls with no shirts on underneath and boots, to complete the look, three or four days of beard waiting to be shaved, and oh yeah, a nice old straw hat. The picture of this I have in my head is just so vivid that it disgusts me now. I think that is one of the reasons this is such a great book, the imagery. The final thing mentioned was Huck’s lack of seriousness or that he was too humorous or too wrapped up in fantasy for the situation both he and Jim were in. Here as opposed to the things I attacked above I will have to be on the side of the defense. My foremost reason is that I do not think Huck realizes the seriousness of the predicament. Huck is a boy that lives in Hannibal, MO during the times of the Civil War, he probably does not know any other ways to deal with anyone who is a slave or is trying to escape. Put yourself in his shoes once and think of the trouble you might have. Then think how you would deal with these problems. Would it be in the way many kids do, with a bit of fun to try to alleviate some of the tension? Take the time when Jim thinks Huck is dead and he shows up scaring Jim to the point of carrying out a conversation with a â€Å"ghost†. Jim says † I alwuz liked dead people, en done all I could for ? em†¦ â€Å"(pg. 40). Read that section over and see if it does not seem to be in good taste, if you can call anything done by Huck â€Å"tasteful†. I think it does. My final task is to come up with a new ending. I think my ending goes like this: Huck and Jim find the mouth of the Ohio river as planned and venture upstream by any means available. As they continue up the river the bond between the two runaways becomes ever stronger. When they reach the free states and Jim is officially free. After waiting around a while the two begin to get money in any way they can. When it is enough Jim buys his wife and children out of slavery, and Huck takes a cut (not too much, just enough to get home). Once home Huck starts all over with his ever interesting plots (not without the help of Tom Sawyer). Time passes and over the years Huck misses Jim and eventually embarks on a quest. The quest to find Jim. This journey would be much like the journey he and Jim took just a few years ago. This time though, there is no John Wayne and Elvis to make the story drawn out and boring towards the end. Then Huck finds Jim, meets the wife and kids, and goes back home to lead a normal (or as normal as can be) life working as little as possible and living off his $6000.

PressureToday

Today in our modern society cheating in school is growing at a rapid rate, but who is to blame, is it the school system is it students or is it the teachers. I strongly believe that it is not only the student's fault but the school systems as well. To begin, cheating among students has rapidly increased. The numbers are crazy; statically 2 out of every 3 kids have cheated on a test, homework, ect. â€Å"Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse 64% of students cheated on a test in the past ear and 38% did so too or more times up from 60% to 35% in a 2006 survey'(David Crary).Which raises the question why are so many students cheating. Its not like they don't know everybody knows that cheating is wrong, you learned that as a kid and you constantly here it till you are out of school. I believe that students cheat because they want a good grade and that they don't trust themselves enough to write down what they think when they can Just look over there shoulder and get an answers they think s better than theirs so they can get a good grade, because in this day and age the difference of one A or B can mean a good collage or a great one.As the demand for higher educated people grows so does the pressure and that's why students cheat, because they can easily take a C, D, or even an F if they wanted to and not cheat, but their logic is why get a easy F when you can gets a easy A. Next is the school system and how it works, and how I believe it greatly impacts and influences the students of are modern generation to cheat.To explain, are school ystem is revolving around grades and scores and if you get a A then you are considered smart and you fully understand the topic and are more likely to get accepted into a good school, but since we are seeing so many students cheat because of this system that we are initially hurting are generation and really only making more of are generation not as smart as the previous generations. Part of the reason high school students cheat is to get into a good University, but as the universities get more competitive and raise their standards even higher it really nfluences and pressures us high school students to cheat.So we can do good and initially get into the universities we want. I believe we should change the school systems to a system were there are no grades and we should Just focus on trying to make are students understand the material as opposed to Just getting a good score not knowing if the student understand the material of Just cheated to get a good grade to pass on to the next grade and initially get into a good University later on in his or her future. pressure By sammy2314

Legal advice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Legal advice - Essay Example Winter Ltd is a company which sells books on the internet and is now willing to expand its business by selling CD’s & DVD’s, but for this purpose it needs capital and now has approached Spring Bank for a loan of 2 Million. For Spring Bank, just like all other banks, it is an opportunity to grasp and on the same time it has to be very careful about the collaterals and security offered by Winter Ltd. as to repayment of the loan because every loan has an inherent risk of default. In case of intangible assets the risk involved might be of some other nature as compared to loans which are secured against some physical asset. In order to avoid any risk Spring Bank would have to be very careful of all the circumstances and financial condition of Winter Ltd. before extending loan facility to them. It would be appropriate that before reaching a decision as to loan for Winter Ltd, we must consider the types of loan which can be offered to them by the bank. There are commonly two major types of loans which are being offered to commercial entities to support their business and the same can be considered in case of Winter Ltd, too. These are Overdraft Facility or Term Loan. Overdraft is an arrangement between client and its bank in which continues flow of cash is guaranteed in a bank account; bank agrees to provide a facility of loan to an agreed limit. In such a case this overdraft facility might be one time relaxation or may be a permanent feature of account operation with the client. In such case this overdraft may be created and paid off in continues manner. Customers credit cards are also useful links for his credit worthiness.2 This facility, however, is not flawless and involves risk on part of bank mainly. Bank is providing this facility on the basis of client’s reputation and is without any collateral which means it is an unsecured loan and hence invites a lot of caution on part of bank to allow

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE EFFECTIVE CARE MANAGEMENT OF A PATIENT WITH Essay

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE EFFECTIVE CARE MANAGEMENT OF A PATIENT WITH CHEST DRAIN FOLLOWING A STABBED WOUND AT THE RIGHT SIDE - Essay Example However, the cases of hemothorax and pneumothoraces have dominated the list of recent nursing care emergencies resulting chest injuries as observed by Mowery et al. (2011, p.513). As a senior nurse in the ortho/general surgical department, my healthcare team is bound to encounter such medical emergencies. On the other hand, it is of paramount importance to have relevant expertise in the aforementioned ortho/general surgery portfolio so as to keep an excellent edge in offering the required leadership and professionalism in nursing emergency care. For that reason, this module provides an ideal opportunity to learn and internalize the approved medical manoeuvres in the management of patients with chest drain that has caused pneumothorax. The knowledge will enhance my professional development, nursing competency, clinical exposure and personal confidence in handling similar chest drain cases in the future. This paper focuses on experiential reflection on the effective nursing care manage ment of chest drain patient with pneumothorax with reference to the analytical application of Gibbs Model 1998 (Nicol 2012). Accordingly, the chronology of this reflection examines the details of the case, the resulting personal feeling about it and the professional sense drawn from such clinical experience. Objective application of this model enables the learner to acquire practical insights that will go a long way to improve the fidelity of the portfolio as well as her professional performance in the relevant medical department (Gibbs 1988; Oelofsen 2012, p.22). Case Summary The simulation hitherto involves a 50 year old male patient brought to the ortho/general surgery department with a stub wound on the right side of the chest. From clinical diagnosis, the patient developed chest drain from the stub penetration which has consequently caused pneumothorax. Based on the facts that the chest injury was penetrative with no medical history of spontaneous pneumothorax, this clinical em ergency could be classified as open traumatic pneumothorax as reiterated by Sharma and Jindal (2008, p.35). This is the situation at hand for which the medical team seeks to apply the best line of care and treatment to stabilize the patient towards full recovery from traumatic pneumothorax. Reflective Nursing Care Management for Chest Drain Patient Description of what happened The patient presented at the hospital with chest injury sustained from an apparent stub wound. As such, pre-treatment nursing care management required rapid assessment of the situation to accurately diagnose the case and establish the magnitude of the

Stigmas of Mental Illness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Stigmas of Mental Illness - Essay Example Thus, it will result in a lack of understanding of the mentally ill by the society. The mentally ill, shameful of being seen as psycho, lunatic, crazy, and as a black sheep, will often stay silent about their condition which, in turn, deprives them of essential services. Evidently, there is little that has been done to educate the public of the predicaments and stigmatization that mentally ill people face (Eric, 2010). Some of the stigmas faced by the mentally ill when they disclose their conditions include rejection and ridicule at schools or workplaces, discrimination in social relationships, housing, employment as well as the rejection and ridicule on their families (Eric, 2010).The media has also been observed to exacerbate this discrimination, by presenting this illness negatively (Eric, 2010). This paper shall seek to understand the effects of adverse representations of the mentally ill. It will also show how society creates a vicious cycle of effects that leads to the mentally ill not getting the facilities that they would require to lead a happy and productive life. Through research and interviews, it will be established that some of the stigmas of mental illness include rejection and ridicule at school or work. Family members of the mentally ill are also affected with these similar rejections. Media portrays mental illness in a negative light and, thus, does not promote awareness issues. First, this study will explore how people are treated at work and school when they disclose their mental illness. Second, it will explore the impact that disclosing a mental illness has on family members. Lastly, it will explore the treatment of the media towards mental illness. A mentally ill patient faces two kinds of stigma. The most prevalent is the public stigma. This is the reaction that that the public has on the mentally ill (Corrigan & Watson, 2002). Most people with mental illness face a higher level of discrimination in western countries than

The Belmont Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Belmont Report - Essay Example It also offered guidelines for the ethical treatment of subjects, accurate risk appraisal, guidelines for the selection of subjects, and the definition of informed consent. The Belmont report defined practice as an intervention that had a reasonable chance of enhancing the well being of the individual patient involved. Practice has as its objective the "...diagnosis, preventive treatment or therapy" of the patient involved ("The Belmont Report"). Research is the process that is designed to "...test an hypothesis, permit conclusions to be drawn, and thereby to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge" ("The Belmont Report"). Research has a predefined protocol, procedures, and end point objectives. Experimental treatments may be designated as practice if there is a basis for likelihood of improving the patient's condition. The Belmont report was based on 3 ethical considerations. First, the patient's autonomy must be respected. In cases where a patient lacks autonomy such as incapacitation, measures must be taken to protect the individual. Second, efforts must be made to secure the patients well being. The maxim of 'do no harm' must be respected and harm should not be inflicted for the sake of research. It is also recognized that research often involves risk and harm may be the ultimate result. The opportunity for benefit must be weighed against the risk.

The Invention of the television in the US Research Paper

The Invention of the television in the US - Research Paper Example As it was invented television used combination of optical, mechanical and electronic technologies to capture and display images but as the technology advanced, then more developments took place. The history of television date back in 1884 where Paul Gottlieb a German university student aged 23 came up with an electromechanical television system that employed a scanning disk. As the time went by, more improvement of television was being done for example in 1927 a Russian inventor by the name Leon Theremin developed a mirror drum based television and on the same year Philo Farnsworth came up with the first working television system that had to scan the images and on the same time display the device (Tedham, 1937). This was first displayed in the press in 1928 and thus paved way to broadcasting. The first working television made Germany and United States governments to sign an agreement to exchange their television patents and technology so that the speed of development could be achieve d in many countries thus having transmitters and stations in their respective countries. In 1936, the first BBC started to transmit the first public services that amazed many people in all corners of the world. In 1939, United States started came up with more television technologies despite signing of agreements with the Germany government though the Second World War prevented the development to take place on large scale. This meant that United States had to wait until the end of the Second World War. In 1948, the use of television was in large scale in United States and thus coming up with a true regular commercial television that used programming and thus immergence of legendary people who could broadcast and model among other things (Alan, 1940). This made the ownership of television to increase year by year for example United States had a 96.7% ownership in 1995 and majority of people having more than one

Key issues to consider when designing for people with disabilities Essay

Key issues to consider when designing for people with disabilities - Essay Example ‘People with disabilities have historically been marginalised in education, employment and community living’ (Key, 2001). This sector must be recognized as having potential to success, hand in hand with the rest of the population and having the ability of contributing substantially to the overall development of the society and nation as a whole. The rapid advancement of technology has facilitated a wide ranging scope of enabling the people with disability, giving them a strong platform to prove that they are not disabled but differently abled persons, under different circumstances, whose potential when fully exploited, can make a visible impact on the socio-economic scenario of the nation. The various enabling factors, facilitated by the emerging technologies, especially in the field of computers and information technology, have proved a milestone in the lives of the people with disabilities. They have restored the faith in the vast potential that was hitherto hidden and provided them with a means to achieve socio-economic independence, giving them self respect and a future to look forward to. It is therefore, no wonder that computers have been considered as one of the most important inventions of the century. Sensitization is a very important tool in creating appropriate atmosphere that would promote and inculcate the concept of equality and an innate sense of expectation from this sector as is the normal practice. To achieve this objective, necessity of the hour is designing a computer system that would promote the cause of enabling the persons with disability so that they can gain self respect by becoming financially independent. Hence the key issues that must be taken into account while designing and developing the system constitute very important aspect of the system itself. The following issues may be considered as highly relevant to the design and development of computer system which would

Why Healthcare Practitioners are Unwilling to Change Practice Patterns Assignment

Why Healthcare Practitioners are Unwilling to Change Practice Patterns - Assignment Example However, despite the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) rules being approved by the American Medical Association in 2008 and this logistical development subsequently making it easier for the reception and transfer of payments, healthcare services providers have not yet come to significantly use them. Conversely, healthcare practitioners may find it hard to change their practicing patterns because of the unfavorable balance between inadequate healthcare resources and the unreasonable demand for the same services. Doctors and nurses may, for instance, want to make their practice more patient-friendly by elongating consultation hours, but the queue in the waiting room may not allow this. One can take a compassionate approach when dealing with physicians who loathe evidence-based systems. In this effect, it will be gainful to facilitate dialogue with physicians, so as to understand their point of view, in lieu of singling out individual physicians for professional malpractice. For a hospital leader, it will also be important to make an initiative of presenting solid evidence. The corollary to this is that upon seeing pieces of relevant information that bring about a significant difference, healthcare practitioners will gradually come to appreciate evidence-based systems. Integrating these efforts with information Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems and clinical decision support will also help solve this problem. This statement is indeed legitimate since the odds of dying in a healthcare center are greater than the risk of an air crash. Particularly, chances of dying in a healthcare institution because of human error are 33,000 times higher than the danger of dying in an airplane crash (Hammond, 2008). Although it is indeed true that the danger of dying in a hospital is more imminent than that of an airline accident, yet, this should not be construed to mean that healthcare practitioners are more careless, compared to pilots  and the flight crew.  

ENVS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

ENVS - Essay Example Hayes, astrazine cause development of ovaries in male frogs. One advantage of animal testing is that it helps researchers to discover treatments for both animals and humans. One of the disadvantages of animal testing is that it can be misleading since animals may react to drugs in different ways as humans. In addition, animal testing leads to mistreatment of animals. Testing on animals is justified because it has helped researchers to discover many effective treatments. Additionally, animals should be used because their lives have less value compared to humans. Testing upon animals can give accurate results because the bodies of most animals used for tests function like humans. Scientists have proved that lab animals and humans do not have big difference. In addition, most of the drugs used today were discovered through animals testing. For instance, antibiotics and HIV drugs used by humans today gave positive results when tested on animals. Other methods of testing are less effective compared to animal testing. In addition, surgery and organ transplant techniques used on humans today were acquired through animals testing. Tyrone says that rats are the most relevant animals used to simulate humans in laboratories. Humans cannot be used in labs tests because it will be unethical to expose to humans chemicals during lab tests. According to him, the use of rats produces accurate results because rats have regular reproduction, genetic purity and many resemblances to human biology (Hayes). If I were a farmer, would not use atrazine to increase my crop yield. This is because the herbicide will only increase yields for a short period since it causes land degradation. Additionally, it will negatively affect my health. Research outcomes show that it causes obesity and cell mutation. Additional ways of increasing crop yield apart from using chemicals encompass organic farming. In organic farming, one uses decomposed animal products or plants to fertilize

Ancient Homosexuality Essay Example for Free

Ancient Homosexuality Essay The modern self is primarily built up of one’s history, body, religion, politics and entertainment – a Freudian composition of what identity is. And all of these things, the very factors that make the modern self the way it is, roots from the ancients. Cicero once thought that without the knowledge of the past, once shall remain a child, hence, Simon Goldhill’s Love, Sex and Tragedy: How the Ancient World Shapes Our Lives. With Cicero’s principle in mind, Goldhill wishes his readers to have a full understanding of who they are and how they came to be the way they are. Among the very controversial societal issues that Goldhill discussed pertained to homosexuality. Sexuality, in the time of the Greco-Romans, meant a love-affair with the phallus. They paraded it in the theatres, processions, public road, and even public memorials. The phallus was part of the classical man’s body, sexuality and sensuality – which, by the way, not only applies to men, but for females as well. The Greco-Romans had a profound relationship with sexual organs and acts, which, the modern man – apparently influenced by the rules of Christianity, might find obscene. A part of Simon Goldhill’s discussions on sexuality is the root of homosexuality. The Greeks had a particular fondness over a scenario where a bearded male desires a beardless lad. In today’s terms, this is the so-called pedophilia, as practiced through the inter-crural activity. This involves the placing of one’s penis between the partner’s thighs, may it be front or rear, followed by thrusting to attain sexual pleasure. Greeks from the seventh century, reinforced pederasty among men from the upper-class society, especially in their twenties, to acquire a young boy approximately aged 12 to love and nurture until he grows to marry at age 30, and later take a boy of his own. Practicing pederasty reinforced late marriage for these males, in the hopes of reducing the possibility of overpopulation, as well as to improve the education – initiation and instruction, of the ancient Greek youth. On Greek vases, one can find a picture of the bearded man – erastes, and the beardless youth – eromenos, as the erastes touches the eromenos’s genitals. The erastes takes the intiative as the eromenos remains passive. But, the ancient Greeks prohibited the relationship between a bearded man with yet another bearded man, and it was shameful that a bearded man becomes the passive one – or pathikos. The pedagogical pederasty is an illustration of a father-son relationship, where the erastes acts as a substitute father to help the young lad on his way to manhood, maturity, and to orient him to become a productive part of the society. The erastes demonstrates this affection by little presents ranging from a bottle of oil to money. The relationship was beneficial in both parties – the erastes provides education, protection, love and a role model for the eromenos – who offers beauty and admiration in turn. In modern theory, this is called sexual reciprocity. Gay does not necessarily mean one is less man or woman than a heterosexual. The ancient Greeks have never defined it in that way. Pedagogical pederasty and the sexual reciprocity that follows it are acts that only show the so-called love – in whichever form you wish to see it, may it be erotic or platonic. However, if we do know the origins of homosexuality, how does it actually affect us as individuals? We do obtain the full understanding of our identities in terms of our sexuality, and the understanding of others’ sexuality. This book simply implies the basic lesson of respect.

Psychological Contract: Work-Life Balance in Retail

Psychological Contract: Work-Life Balance in Retail Title: A contemporary analysis of the concept of work life balance and the effects of the psychological contract within the business. Geared towards retail. A compiled list of the 6 main sources of information that could be used with justification as to why they are relevant and a paragraph on key theories/models, analysis tools that would be used in this dissertation. A total of around 600 words. With regard to the paper recently completed, this addendum represents some further thoughts and resources which would be required to expand the work into a wider study. There are three themes which would need to be pursued in a more detailed examination of this topic. The nature of the generic Psychological Contract. The nature of the Psychological Contract in the Retail Sector, and its relationship with marketing. The nature of HRM and SHRM (Strategic Human Resources Management) in the Retail Sector. These themes would need to be explored across a range of material, beginning with secondary sources, and ideally extending into qualitative primary research involving HR professionals, and retail staff themselves. The six main related secondary and primary sources. Guest, D.E., and Conway, N., (2004), Employee Well-being and the Psychological Contract: A Report for the CIPD, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. This source is essential because it provides an insight into both the agreed definitions of the psychological contract within the HR profession, and the application of that model in their vocational practice. Buchanan, D., and Huczynski, A., (2006), Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text, Prentice Hall/Financial Times, London. This source is essential as a prà ©cis of the relevant motivational theories, work of Herzberg, McGregor, Maslow, Adams, Vroom, Porter and Lawler. Analysis of the implications of McGregor’s X and Y theories of reward/coercion, and Herzberg’s concept of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, as set out in Brooks, I., (2003), Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation, 2nd Ed, FT-Prentice Hall, London, and Fincham, R., and Rhodes, P., (2005), Principles of Organisational Behaviour, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Within the extrinsic and intrinsic reward model, extrinsic rewards may be thought of as those of material considerations and working conditions, whilst intrinsic rewards are more honorific and interpersonal. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions index, as set out in Hofstede, G., (2003), Cultures and Organizations: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival, Profile Business, London, and Gerte Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Website, INTERNET, available at http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php?culture1=95culture2=18#compare [viewed 26.10.08], would need to be employed to assess the different motivational models and tolerances which are increasingly visible in a multi-cultural workforce, and a globalizing retail sector. This would have to take account of Hofestede’s ideas of power distance, collectivism/individuality, long or short-term orientation, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance. A comparative study of employee relationships between retail workers in Waitrose and the John Lewis partnership, and an other large retail group, i.e. Tesco’s, Woolworth or Argos. The rationale for this is that the John Lewis group is the only one to deploy an extensive profit sharing remuneration scheme with its employees. Comparative primary study of attitudes between retail employees and customers of the John Lewis partnership, and another, non-profit sharing retail group in the UK. To be carried out through a combination of†¦ questionnaires comprising binary yes/no responses and written answers to set questions. A small number of in-depth and semi-flexible individual interviews. Key theoretical approaches here would be evolved around a balance of phenomenological and positivist research formats, to obtain qualitatively useful data, which could also support statistical models with a possible wider application. McGregor’s extrinsic/intrinsic scale model questionnaire could be employed to lend a positivist dimension to the attitudinal data produced. This paper outlines some key themes in contemporary retailing HRM, focusing particularly on the significance of the psychological contract within the business, and the concept of work life balance. It argues that contemporary economic and trading conditions have tended to expose the way in which both issues are treated in the retail sector, and attributes this to continued trends for tertiary and part-time employment patterns. As Hooley et al. observe, ‘†¦Well developed marketing resources (assets and capabilities), when deployed in the marketplace, can lead to superior market performance. Satisfied and well motivated staff (a prime marketing asset), for example, can make a significant contribution to creating satisfied and loyal customers’ (Hooley et.al., p.21). At boardroom level however, contemporary pressures on costs may impinge upon staff CPD and retention. In the first instance, it may be helpful to foreground the concept of the psychological contract itself. As Sonnetag observes, ‘There is relatively consistent empirical evidence for a positive relationship between specific aspects of individual well being and.performance.’ (Sonnetag, p.4110 ). One way in which this symbiosis between employee motivation and output can be achieved, is through a management style which exceeds the formal terms of the contractual obligation in terms of an equitable relationship. As Williams indicates. ‘..this interpersonal aspect to fairness reminds us that there is a social basis to the exchange relationship between employer and employee and we might expect this to be part of the psychological contract.’ (Williams,1998: p.183). The concept of the psychological contract rests on the idea that workplace relationships inevitably develop beyond those encapsulated in explicit frameworks, hierarchies, and job descriptions. It is there fore perfectly feasible for management to de-motivate staff even though they are formally empowered to do so – by breaching ‘informal’ or psychologically accepted principles. As Guest and Conway point out, ‘†¦built on the three pillars of fairness, trust and delivery of the deal between organizations and employees, a positive psychological contract is the best guarantee of good performance outcomes.’ (Guest and Conway, 2003: p.vii). There is much empirical evidence to suggest that retail employers are acting to redress percived inadequacies in this area. For example, as Murray reports, fast-food giant McDonald’s has acted to improve its image since the term ‘McJob’ entered the Oxford english Dictionary, denoting ‘†¦an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Murray 2008: n.p.) Part of the response has been to initiate CPD programmes which combine flexible working arrangements with learning programmes to develop staff skills and accreditation. Other retail management and service sector managers also see this as the route to recruit and retain the best staff. As Jack Constantinides, vice-president HR and business partner for Monster for Europe West and Prague explains, ‘People are looking for more from their job than just a chunky pay package – including job satisfaction, career prospects, training, benefits and crucially work-life balance’. (Murray 2008: n.p.). This suggests that, where costs will allow, more mature businesses may see the creation of value as the route to business stability through intrinsic as well as extrinsic employee reward. However, contemporary trading conditions may militate against the expenditure of such on-costs, at least for the time being. As Taylor reports, ‘The disclosure last week that Marks and Spencer wants to reduce redundancy benefits for staff has sparked union fears that the retail group is preparing the way for large-scale job cuts.’ (Taylor 2008: n.p.). MS are obviously not the only high-profile high street victims: As Kilgren and Braithwaite observe of the troubled Woolworth chain, ‘Up to a third of the 1,000 retail division staff at head office may lose their jobs†¦ PwC, auditor to Woolworth’s, pointed to material uncertainties which may cast significant doubt about the companys ability to continue as a going concern.’ (Kilgren and Braithwa ite, 2008: n.p.). When discussing the issue of work life balance amongst retail employees, it is arguably unhelpful to regard this couplet as representative of a homogeneous and undifferentiated employee group. In a sector strongly associated with casualized, part-time, and often female labour, it is important to recognize the way in which different social groups may derive a satisfactory relationship between their home and working lives. As Kirby observes, ‘At a time when female â€Å"returners† are set to become an increasingly significant element in the UK workforce, British retailing remains highly dependent on part-time female labour. At the same time, working conditions appear not to be as attractive as they might be. Pay remains low and career prospects and training opportunities are poor, especially for part-time employees†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Kirby 1993: p.205). It is at this point that the psychological contract and work-life balance are arguably drawn closer together, a point which may be reinforced by considering the motivational theories of Adams. As Huczyinski and Buchanan explain, ‘Adams proposed that we compare our rewards (pay, recognition) and contributions (time, effort, ideas) with the outputs and inputs of others. Equity thus exists when these rations are equal. Rewards can include a range of tangible and intangible factors†¦Inputs similarly relate to any factor that you believe you bring to the situation†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Huczyinski and Buchanan 2007: p.249). In other words, employers face a range of competing challenges when balancing employee satisfaction with business objectives. Bibliography Braithwaite, T., and Kilgren, L., ‘Woolies plans job cuts in bid to reduce its costs’, Financial Times, 18 September 2008, INTERNET, available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/96ef9e80-8519-11dd-b148-0000779fd18c.html, [viewed 14.10.08], n.p. Murray, S., ‘Staff want more than just their pay packet’, Financial Times, 8 July 2008, INTERNET, available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eafbdc08-46af-11dd-876a-0000779fd2ac.html, [viewed 14.10.08], n.p. Bromley, R.D.F., and Thomas, C.J., (ed), (1993), Retail Change: contemporary issues, UCL Press, London. Guest, D.E., and Conway, N., (2004), Employee Well-being and the Psychological Contract: A Report for the CIPD, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Hooley, G., Saunders, J., Piercy, N., (2004) Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning (3rd Edition) Prentice Hall, Essex Kirby, D.A. ‘Working conditions and the trading week’, in Bromley, R.D.F., and Thomas, C.J., (ed), (1993), Retail Change: contemporary issues, UCL Press, London, pp.192-207. Sonnetag, S., (ed), (2002), Psychological Management of Individual Performance, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester. Stacey, K., and Rigby, E., ‘Retail supply chain begins to turn rusty’, Financial Times, 8 Oct 2008, INTERNET, available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a67ef3ae-94d3-11dd-953e-000077b07658.html [viewed 14.10.08], n.p. Taylor, A., ‘Inquiries on how to shed staff soar’, Financial Times, 25 Aug 2008, INTERNET, available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c8bed96-723c-11dd-a44a-0000779fd18c.html [viewed 15.10.08], n.p. Van der Lippe, T., and Peters, P., (2007), (eds), Competing Claims in Work and Family Life, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Williams, R.S., (1998) Performance Management: Perspectives on Employee Performance, International Thomson Business Press, St.Ives.

Modern Retail On Traditional Formats Scm Applications Marketing Essay

Modern Retail On Traditional Formats Scm Applications Marketing Essay Indian retail industry has always played an important role in improving the GDP growth rate and lifestyle of the country. The industry which traditionally comprised on mom and pop stores spread hither and thither is in the revolutionary phase in the present era. The way retailing is done has come a long way with the emergence of organised or modern retail outlets. There are big players like Big Bazaar, Spencers and Vishal Mega Mart to name a few who have changed the face of retailing in India. These modern retail outlets have enormous financial and technological support as compared to the traditional and unorganised retail outlets. An attempt is made in this paper to study the evolving formats of modern retail and to know their impact on the traditional distribution partners like retailers and distributors. This paper also throws light on the supply chain management tools used by the modern retail outlets through case analysis. Impact of Modern Retail on Traditional Formats SCM Applications Abstract Indian retail industry has always played an important role in improving the GDP growth rate and lifestyle of the country. The industry which traditionally comprised on mom and pop stores spread hither and thither is in the revolutionary phase in the present era. The way retailing is done has come a long way with the emergence of organised or modern retail outlets. There are big players like Big Bazaar, Spencers and Vishal Mega Mart to name a few who have changed the face of retailing in India. These modern retail outlets have enormous financial and technological support as compared to the traditional and unorganised retail outlets. An attempt is made in this paper to study the evolving formats of modern retail and to know their impact on the traditional distribution partners like retailers and distributors. This paper also throws light on the supply chain management tools used by the modern retail outlets through case analysis. Introduction to Indian Retail Industry Indian Retail industry, the industry which stands second in terms of employment generation after agriculture is undoubtedly characterized by the widely dispersed retail outlet situated at each nook and corner whether its urban India or rural. It is the industry which is unlikely known for its unorganized formats. Paanwalas and kiranawallas, street hawkers present everywhere are the various firms operating hither and thither; and meeting the basic needs of the general public and creating a means of earning livelihood for many. In India, the retail industry is broadly divided into the organized and unorganized sectors. The total market in 2005 stood at Rs. 10,000 billion, accounting for about 9-10% of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP). Of this total market, the organized sector accounted for Rs. 350 billion (about 3.5 % of the total) of the total revenues. According to AT Kearney, the organized retailing industry is expected to cross Rs. 1000 billion revenue mark by 2010. Tradi tionally, the retail industry in India comprised of large, medium and small grocery stores and drug stores which could be categorized as unorganized retailing. Most of the organized retailing in India had recently started and was mainly concentrated in metropolitan cities. Within a short span of five years retail sector in India has witnessed great changes mainly on account of a gradual increase in the disposable incomes of the middle and upper-middle class households. In order to reap the benefit of growing economy more and more corporate houses including large real estate companies are coming into the retail business, directly or indirectly, in the form of mall and shopping center builders and managers, hence the sea change in retail sector is highly evident. Indian Organized retail Sector and the Major Players: The Industrial Policy Resolution, 1991 has given a new tool known as LPG i.e. Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization which resulted in several structural and demographic changes of the Indian Economy. These changes marked the beginning of the new era of Retailing in India and helped the retail industry to grow. Besides this last decade has witnessed the growth of GDP at the rate of 6.6 per cent, resulting in increased income levels and higher purchasing power for the population. Though the early signs of organized retail were visible even in the 1970s when Nilgiris (food), Viveks (consumer durables) and Nallis (sarees) started their operations but the retail still had a long way to go. While these retailers gave the necessary ambience to customers, little effort was made to introduce world-class customer care practices and improve operating efficiencies. Moreover, most of these modern developments were restricted to south India, which is still regarded as a Mecca of Indian Retail. Turn around in Indian retail has taken place in various phases and the journey is still in continuation. Notable among the early entrants were players like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloon, Ebony, Foodworld, Subhiksha, etc.   Thus one can easily make out that the major players of organized retail sector in India are: Figure 1 The Study Research Problem: The aim of this paper is to study the emergence of modern retail and its impact on traditional channel partners like retailer and distributors. The research problem can be formulated in terms of following questions: What are new retail formats? What supply chain management tools are employed by modern retail? What impact these outlets will have on retailers and distributors? The provide answers to these questions, the objectives of the study are: To study the emerging retail formats To study the impact of modern retail outlets on the traditional distribution system To study the variety of SCM tools employed by the modern retail formats To analyze the role of SCM application in modern retails formats Research Methodology: To gather the required information for this study, both secondary and primary source of data was used. Active primary data was collected from the retailers and distributors in both the cities through structured personal interviews. The information other than this was collected through traditional secondary sources like journals, news articles, websites and books. The scope of the study is limited to the two cities Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, India. These cities differ in terms of their population, demographics, size and volume of business and the marketing strategies used by the non-durable and durable goods manufactures in two different cities. Further they are un-researched in this aspect. Sample profile of respondents: The data was collected from the various types of retail formats dealing in consumer non-durable and durable goods like tooth paste, soap, chocolates, cold drinks, refrigerators, mobile phones and televisions. The inclusion criterion was the availability of the products chosen for the study. Following tables describe the sample profile: Sample of Dealers/Retailers Sample Descriptors Profile of Durable Goods Dealers Profile of Non-Durable Goods Retailers Sample Size (N) 50 Retailers/Dealers 50 Retailers Area Moradabad and Delhi Moradabad and Delhi Retail Format Multi Brand Outlets, Exclusive and Dealers cum distributors General Store / Provisional store Confectionary Store, Supermarket, and Departmental Store Inclusion Criteria Availability of Products Availability of Products Table 1.1 Sample of Distributors Sample Descriptors Profile of Distributors Profile of Distributors Sample Size (N) 30 Distributors 15 Distributors Area Moradabad and Delhi Moradabad and Delhi Brands HUL-5, Godrej-3, Cadbury-4, Pepsi-4, Coke-4, ITC-5, Pillsbury-3, Nestle-2 Sony-1, LG-2, Samsung-2, Nokia-2, Motorola-2, Neelkamal-2, Supreme-2 and Whirlpool-2 Inclusion Criteria Availability of Products Availability of Products Table 1.2 Emerging Retail Formats in India India is watching resurgence of Retail sector whereby it has grown from the traditional Mom and Pop stores present here and there in the neighbourhood catering to the convenience of the consumers to the emergence of shopping centers mainly in urban centers with facilities like car parking and finally growth of modern retail formats like hyper and super markets trying to provide customer with 3 Vs- Value, Variety and Volume (Lakshmi Narayanaswamy, Mudit Sharma,). A brief description of the various modern formats of retailing emerging in India: i. Malls: Malls are an upcoming trend in retail market. They form largest share of organized retailing today. Located mainly in metro cities, in proximity to urban outskirts. Ranges from 60,000 sq ft to 7,00,000 sq ft and above. They lend an ideal shopping experience with an amalgamation of product, service and entertainment; all under a common roof. Examples include DLF City Center, The Metropolitan and Big Bazaar around Delhi, Crossroads and R-Mall in Mumbai and Spencers in Chennai are revolutionizing the way middle class Indian consumers shop. These malls have very efficient and effective supply chains which ensure product availability and tracking of the product is feasible easily. ii. Specialty Stores: A specialty store concentrates on a limited number of complementary merchandise categories and provides a high level of service in an area typically under 8,000 square feet (Levy, Michael 2006); Chains such as the Bangalore based Kids Kemp, the Mumbai books retailer Crossword, RPGs Music World and the Times Groups music chain Planet M, are focusing on specific market segments and have established themselves strongly in their sectors. Since this format has less diverse product range thus it is comparatively easy to manage supply chains. iii. Discount Stores: According to Levy and Weitz a Discount Store is a retailer that offers a broad variety of merchandise, limited service, and low prices. Discount stores offer both private labels and national brands, but these brands are typically less fashion-oriented than brands in department stores. The discount stores or factory outlets, offer discounts on the MRP through selling in bulk reaching economies of scale or excess stock left over at the season. The product category can range from a variety of perishable/ non perishable goods. The coverage of products in this kind of format is quite extensive and the demand fluctuation is also high thus if offers challenges in managing supply chains effectively. iv. Department Stores: Levy and Weitz defines Department stores as the retailers that carry a broad variety and deep assortment, offer some customer services, and are organized into separate departments for displaying merchandise. These are the large stores ranging from 20000-50000 sq. ft, catering to a variety of consumer needs. They can be further classified into localized departments such as clothing, toys, home, groceries, etc. Departmental Stores are expected to take over the apparel business from exclusive brand showrooms. Among these, the biggest success is K Rahejas Shoppers Stop, which started in Mumbai and now has more than seven large stores (over 30,000 sq. ft) across India and even has its own in store brand for clothes called Stop!. It is one of the most complicated retail formats catering to the most diversified set of consumer needs. It becomes very difficult to manage the inventory of so many products and brands. v. Supermarkets: As defined by Food Marketing Institute Supermarket is self-service food store with grocery, meat and produce department and minimum annual sales of 2 million. In India, there is growing number of such stores especially in metros and big cities (Anjali, Gupta 2006). These are located in or near residential high streets. These stores today contribute to 30% of all food grocery organized retail sales. Super Markets can further be classified in to mini supermarkets typically 1,000 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft and large supermarkets ranging from of 3,500 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft. having a strong focus on food grocery and personal sales. vi. Hyper Market: Combination food and drug stores average 4,600 square meters of selling space. Hyper markets are even larger, ranging between 7,400 and 20,400 square meters. The Hyper markets combines supermarket, discount and warehouse retailing principles. Its product assortment goes beyond routinely purchased goods and includes furniture, large and small appliances, clothing and many items. The basic approach is bulk display and minimum handling by stores personnel, with discounts offered to customers who are willing to carry heavy appliances and furniture out of the stores. Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. (PRIL) is now emerging as Indias first Hyper Market chain. Modeled along the lines of global Hyper Market Chains like Wal-Mart, the Big Bazaar will stock several product categories. vii. Convenience Stores: These are relatively small stores 400-2,000 sq. feet located near residential areas. They stock a limited range of high-turnover convenience products and are usually open for extended periods during the day, seven days a week. Prices are slightly higher due to the convenience premium. viii. MBOs: Multi Brand outlets, also known as Category Killers, offer several brands across a single product category. These usually do well in busy market places and Metros. Supply Chain Management Tools Employed by Modern Retail Formats: The rate at which transformation is taking place in Indian Retail Sector is unprecedented; the entire retail sector is under going sea changes. The organized retail sector is no doubt having a vast ocean of opportunities in front of it but it possesses certain challenges too. The task of an effective and efficient retailer is to satisfy the customer at the right time with the right product at the right cost, all the time. The challenges that a retail organization faces are many like: huge stock-keeping units (SKUs), seasonal variations of product lines necessitating the introduction of new SKUs, complex tax structures, the sheer geographic spread of the country, changing consumer demands, etc. This level of efficiency calls for retail automation and integrated supply chain management on the part of retailer and a retail organization has to plan to make this system work properly and try to satisfy the needs of every customer without fail. The discovery of automatic identification technologies has been a boon to retailing; they were first introduced globally in the 1960s to assist logisticians identify products in the supply chain. Following are the recent developments in the technologies to trace the goods in the supply chain: i. Barcodes Multi-dimensional barcodes: Corporations have become obsessed with driving down logistics-related costs, including transportation and warehousing. In order to facilitate the movement of goods in transit and to reduce the cost of transportation and to ease the process all most all items in a distribution centre are marked with UPC barcode. In fact, Walmarts buying office has a sign reading, If Your Product Doesnt Have a Barcode, Dont Bother to Take a Chair in Our Waiting Room. Even in India the Retailers in organized sector are beginning to barcode all their products; organizations like Foodworld (RPG Group) and Shoppers Stop (Raheja Group) have urged their vendors to supply merchandise only with standard barcodes. ii. RFID: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an early technology starting to emerge. In order to stop the pilferage of goods in over crowded retail stores this technology plays a great role. It is expected that in coming few decades, RFID will directly connect physical products to logistics systems as the only truly automatic identification technology. This technology helps to track the product and customers use pattern even post-purchase. P G currently tags (RFID) a small number of cases and pallets of products as part of a trial with Wal-Mart stores in USA. The company is focusing on the supply chain and has not even begun to think about whats going to happen to the items post-sale. iii. Retail Software: Most retailers in the organized sector in India have to use retail software in their back end and front end operations and are constantly looking to upgrade their systems as they evolve. To help this growing retail sector get the best, many Indian software companies have developed software packages to suit the different and varied requirements of these retailers. Among the few who are in. the market is Chennai-based Polaris Retail InfoTech Ltd, a subsidiary of Polaris, which has entered the market with its software, Retail Excel. Reputed organizations like Wipro Infotech, Tata Consultancy Services and NCR Technologies have created robust, retail automation software. The Chennai-based T.V. Sundaram Iyengar Sons are currently test-marketing their new point-of-sale system for small and medium retailers in grocery and other related segments. The Bangalore ­ based VMoksha Technologies has developed software for the retail segment while Pune-based Zensar Technologies has tied up with th e RPG group for retail software. The list of that developing retail software is growing by the day. There are many other packages like MS Retail, Shopper, Retail Pro, Retail Magik, etc. that help enable the fast implementation of retail automation in India available in the market. Not to mention large ERP packages like IDA, SAP Retail, BAAN, Island Pacific, etc. Analysis and Findings Impact of Modern Retail Outlets on Traditional Distribution System: The number of modern retail outlets is growing day by day. The customers show shopping preference for these outlets but the extent to which they will influence the traditional retail is uncertain. There are certain categories of products which customers prefer to shop from the modern retail outlets. While the customers still prefer neighbourhood retail stores for their daily groceries and requirements. The analysis of the data collected from traditional channel partners is: The data was collected by the traditional retailers dealing in non-durable products in Delhi and Moradabad to know the impact of modern retail on their business. It was observed that in Moradabad 70% of the retailers feel that the impact of modern retail formats will be important and they too need to work on their formats to meet the customer and companies requirement. Other 20% said it is going to have average influence on their business and it can be cope-up whereas 10% retailers were of the view that it will not have influence on their business. They also opined that they are in operation from last so many years and facilities like home delivery and credit which they provide to their customers are not provided by these new formats. While retailers in Delhi were of different opinion, 15% retailers pointed out that modern format have already influenced their business highly and their sales have decreased by 50% and other 40% said that the influence is important on their business and they need to react accordingly. Around 40% retailers said that it is having average influence whereas 5% retailers located in the residential areas said that the influence of the modern formats is unimportant for their business. Figure 2 The data collected from the durable products dealers also reveals the mixed response towards the growth of modern retail outlet. In Moradabad 70% of the dealers said the impact of modern retail will be important and they too need to work on their formats to meet the customers expectations and companies requirements. Other 30% retailers were of the view that the facilities like home delivery and credit which they provide to their customers will help in marginalizing the impact of new formats. While dealers in Delhi were of different opinion, 15% dealers pointed out that modern format have already influenced their business highly and their sales have decreased by 50%. Other 40% said that the influence is important on their business and they need to react accordingly whereas 5% retailers located in the residential areas said that the influence of the modern formats is insignificant on their business. Impact of Modern Retail on Traditional Retail Outlets 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Highly Important Important Average Unimportant Importance Percentage Moradabad Delhi Figure 3 Apart from retailers, modern retail outlets also have influence on the distributors. It was observed from the data collected by the non-durable distributors that 70% distributors of different non-durable brands under consideration said that the impact of the modern retail formats on their business is going to be moderate as they are the one who supply to these formats. But other 20% said that the big modern retail outlets make purchases directly from the companies thus their will be significant impact. While other 10% feels that the impact is going to be high. Figure 4 Majority of the distributors dealing in consumer durables like Mobile Phones said that the impact of modern retail is going to be high because outlets like Big Bazaar, Subhiksha have already started procuring directly from the companies and they pass on the margins to the customers. While for products like CTVS, refrigerators and moulded furniture the impact is going to be moderate and distributors can provide better geographical coverage and inventory turnover. They also shared that may be in near future, the companies seeking advantage of reducing the distribution margin through direct supply to these outlets can lead to have moderate impact on their business. Impact of Modern Retail on Durable Goods Distributors 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Very High High Moderate Low Very Low Degree/Products Responses Mobiles T.V./Refrigerators Moulded Furniture Figure 5 Case-Study Analysis of SCM Applications in Modern Retail- (a) TANISHQ Tanishq is a division of Titan Industries Ltd, Indias largest jewelry maker. It is Indias only fine jewellery brand with a national presence, and an acknowledged leader in the branded jewellery market. Tanishq is sold exclusively through a company-controlled retail chain with over 60 boutique stores spread over 39 cities. This network is supplied and supported by a network of 32 CFAs (Clearing and Forwarding Agents). With the network of boutique stores poised to grow, the Tanishq management had to increase visibility along the supply chain, CFAs and boutiques across the country. The Tanishq team picked Wipro Infotech, Indias premier IT solutions company, to put together the solution. The Wipro Infotech team designed a web-based solution, Goldmine, to facilitate the flow of information between various distribution entities. Goldmine offers a platform for the sales, management and factory teams of Tanishq to monitor key activities and parameters along the distribution chain. It also se rves as an integration platform to pull together existing information systems in the company such as SAP/Oracle, DOS-based point-of-sales systems in boutiques, without modifications. Wipro Infotech developed the solution using the .NET framework with an ASP .NET presentation layer. Challenges addressed: The most significant supply chain management issues addressed by Tanishq are in the areas of reducing cycle time, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs in the areas of tracking movement of goods and sales indenting, order status, sales visibility, communication (reports) and exception reporting. Goods in transit: The new system provides details of goods that have been dispatched from the factory to the CFA and then to the boutiques. This functionality also enables tracking of stock return cases from the boutiques to the CFA. And from there on to the factory. This helps the organization track goods in transit and monitor loss of goods effectively if any. Indenting: The ordering of goods by the boutiques is automated. They can refer to online product catalogues and price lists before placing orders. Goldmine enables online indenting for replenishment, shop-specific indenting as well as customer-specific indenting. Such online indenting is based on norms set by the administrator for each variant. Hence, the company can enforce prudent credit norms through Goldmine at the point ­ of-sale system. Say a boutique has a great track record, selling Rs 20,000 ­25,000 worth of bangles, but not up to the Rs 50,000 level it had reached in the past, the company can set prudent indenting levels for gold for that boutique. This information is transmitted to the point-of-sale system via Goldmine and is actually enforced. Previously, under the manual system, the company had no means of systematic enforcement of such norms. . Order status: This functionality provides visibility on the status of orders placed by boutiques. This is made possible by the daily synchronization between the Oracle system at the factory and the web-based solution. Boutique users no longer have to send emails or call up anyone to find out the status of their orders. They get it at their own convenience from Goldmine. Sales visibility: With sales information flowing in from the boutique into Goldmine, visibility of sales from each boutique is improved. Management can now track the effectiveness of marketing programmes and promotions at the boutique level, according to category and price band. Bestseller information for all boutiques is currently available on demand. Communication and exception reporting: Goldmine provides a platform for dissemination of information through content uploads, bulletin boards, and so on. Information on local gold rates (the most important component of material cost), market information, promotion scheme details and product catalogues are transmitted in real time. The company has over 40,000 product variants, so this system capability is crucial. The system also provides for discussion on queries raised by users at the boutiques for producing and modifying new and existing products. Discussions between factory users and boutique users are tracked and an escalation mechanism with alerts is in place in case queries are not handled promptly. Future plans: As Goldmine builds up the supply chain database, Tanishq intends to build a data warehousing application enabled with advanced data mining using SQL server. This will facilitate the use of relevant business intelligence in real time in the boutiques during a customer touch. Market leader Tanishq will set its benchmarks in retail automation and its applications for many in the industry to follow in future. (b) SHOPPERS STOP Shoppers Stop has implemented the US-based retail ERP system JDA. JDA facilitates the integration of all retail functions in Shoppers Stop efficiently. Efficiencies in the buying process: It is JDAs merchandise management system that now performs the buying process and merchandise management control practices. Pursuant to range width and assortment plans, purchase orders are issued to suppliers through the central merchandising function. The actual delivery of stocks is then controlled on a weekly basis through the delivery authorization process mechanism. The delivery authorization number acts as a tool to control the overall inventory position. The delivery authorization is issued to vendors on a weekly basis based on the previous weeks actual sales and on the forward sales plan (forecast). The vendors then despatch the goods to the distribution centre based on the purchase order and delivery authorization. Every distribution centre gets a copy of the delivery authorization issued for the week. At the distribution centre support is provided by the warehouse management system (WMS) of JDA, which manages the warehousing function mos t efficiently. The challenges at Shoppers Stop are the spread of the 14 stores across the country in varying large sizes, ranging from 25,000 sq ft to 55,000 sq ft, the large SKU base, etc. Also, it has more than 300 suppliers who supply stocks to three distribution centres, which then redistribute merchandise to the 14 stores. Variety, colour and size of merchandise play a very important role in delivering a great shopping experience to the customer. Profitable growth: Shoppers Stop views SCM as an enabler of profitable growth; it firmly believes that ERP, if used well, can cut costs greatly by reducing cycle times and inventory levels. One of the key drivers of the profit-driven operation is the significant development in the retailer-supplier information integration in the supply chain the emergence of retailer control over the movement of suppliers goods into the retailers distribution centres. This has led to more complex relationships involving suppliers, third-party distributors and retailers through supplier-retailer collaboration where major suppliers and retailers have the opportunity to exchange timely information on consumer demand and put into practice the most appropriate product flows. SCM at Shoppers Stop: SCM at Shoppers Stop coordinates and integrates all activities associated with moving products, services and information into seamless processes linking all the partners in the chain, including the various departments, vendors, transporters and other service providers. The system facilitates perfect supply chain coordination with an able information system that controls all SCM activities. SCM at Shoppers Stop begins and ends with the customer. The guiding philosophy is to improve the organizations performance by managing constraints and uncertainties inherent in the earlier system. The focus is on using new tools and techniques. The first step in SCM is merchandise planning and sourcing. In Shoppers Stop, SCM is seen from a strategic perspective rather than just as an operational issue. Core supply chain issues such as month-end sales peaks, forecasting inaccuracy, constraint-based planning and so on continue to create problems for Indian retailers even after ERP implementation. Many organizations implemented SCM as a tool to contain costs. and identifying means for reducing pressure on margins due to competition. The mindsets of organizations underwent a transformation when they accepted to consider the use of such integrated SCM from end-to ­ end. The first step in SCM is merchandise planning and sourcing. The range width and assortment planning process is used to develop meaningful sales and space plans. The planning process starts six months before the actual beginning of the season to fill an agreed amount of footage with a product that matches customer demand. The challenge is to develop a balanced range which provides the appropriate mix of colour, price, st yling and fabric so that the customer is given the best possible choice at all times. Also on the agenda is having a mix of own-label products and brands in such a way that it aligns with the companys strategic goal of increasing own-la

benefits of technology :: essays research papers

Ever since it developed, there has been controversy over whether or not mechanical inventions benefit our lives. Doug Rennie’s article, â€Å"Faxed to the Max†, says â€Å"the timesaving devices we created give us more freedom to do what we want have instead imprisoned us in our own technology.† Although this may be true to some people, everyone has the power to resist technological devices. People can chose to use these tools to enhance their lifestyles, like they can chose to use a hammer or a saw for a project; they don’t necessarily need it, but it would save time and energy. It is the ability to mistreat these inventions that makes some people uneasy towards about using technology in their daily lives. Although it can be abused in many ways, technology used properly is a tool that aids in education, health and communication.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Our physical health has benefited greatly from technology. Through inventions like the pacemaker and artificial limbs, a tremendous amount or people have had better physical conditions. This biological technology is not favorable to all. Some say that it is better for nature to do its work and people should not interfere. The spread of new inventions can soon get out of hand. For example, if we have the ability to clone humans, our lifestyles will change. People will abuse this power by being careless about their health. They believe people think technology can save them in the end, so they can exercise less and eat more unhealthy foods. On the other hand, curative inventions have saved lives and allowed people to lead healthier ones. There can be ways to make technology accessible to only certain people, but there is no reason to stop the usage of these medical products if they can help save lives. An example of one of these products is the pacemaker, invented by Canadian electrical engineer, John Hopps. Because the heart stops beating when it cools, he found that mechanical or electric stimulation could make the heart start up again. Since then, many were given healthier lives. Prosthetic limbs have also played a great role in helping the lives of amputees. Artificial limbs with sensors and microchips have recently been designed so that these people can maintain an active lifestyle rather than being confined to wheelchairs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Technology plays a very important role in the communication of people today. With the touch of a button, the Internet and the cellular telephone can allow us to transmit our message to someone on the other side of the planet.

An Application of Relational Dialectics Essay -- When Harry Met Sally

An Application of Relational Dialectics Leslie Baxter and Barbara Montgomery are interested in the communication that occurs in close relationships. I am going to focus on the three relational dialects which consist of connectedness-separateness, certainty-uncertainty, and openness-closedness. These three dialects are central to Baxter's and Montgomery's theory but they want to go more indepth than previous theorists have on these specific dialects. I will discuss this theory in the context of "When Harry Met Sally." Connectedness-Separateness: Billy Crystal plays "Harry," a man who believes that women and men can not be friends. Men always have sex on their minds so it interferes with the chance to be plutonic friends with women. He shows a separateness from women because he doesn't want to get to close to Meg Ryan who plays "Sally," a woman who believes the exact opposite. Their relationship starts out with contraditions and continues throughout the movie. As years pass, they meet up with one another again and continue their argument over the relationship between men ...

Ethics and Compliance Paper Essay

Starting in Seattle with one store, Starbucks has grown across the country and has become a household name delivering one of the best tasting coffees in existence. The first Starbucks opened in 1971, serving fresh roasted coffees. â€Å"Today, more than 15,000 stores in 50 countries, Starbucks are the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world† (Starbucks, para. 7, 2010). The organization has been successful because of excellent managerial skills and implementing sound business decisions. Starbucks mission statement reads as follows: â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time† (Starbucks, 2010, p. 1). The company values its relationships with communities, its stores, business partners, shareholders, and employees. Responsible ethical character and compliance helps the Starbucks brand protect its reputation. This paper will explain the role of ethics, procedures, Securities and Exchange Com mission (SEC) compliance, and evaluate the financial performance of the Starbucks organization. Ethics and Compliance Policies A successful organization builds its reputation on honesty and trust displayed to customers and business partners. Starbucks conducts business in an ethical manner that protects reputation and supports its culture by unceasingly striving to do what is right. Starbucks has a commitment to company values that successfully employs a Business Conduct Helpline and a Business Conduct Web-line for questions and guidance. Starbucks has incorporated an Anti-Retaliation Policy and does not tolerate retaliation against anyone reporting misconduct. The organization is an equal opportunity employer and use best practices in the hiring process. Business practices include and are not limited to accurate and truthful business transactions and comply with laws and regulations in any country the company operates in, and encourage partners to understand and adhere to the rules. Starbucks has an outside agent who facilitates and ensures an honest and ethical relationship with government officials throughout the international arena. Partners associated with the Starbucks brand must practice ethical conduct in sales, services, and promote fair competition. Matters dealing with conflicts of interest, gifts and entertainment, and securities are also addressed and implemented by the company. The company closely monitors proprietary information such as new ideas, company records including financial and audit details. Starbucks explains the Ethical Decision-Making Framework to identify ethical issues, give any possible solutions, pursue ideas from others, and take the best approach to resolve unethical matters and follow-up on results. The aforementioned framework empowers each Starbucks associate and affiliate to take responsibility to help maintain Starbucks ethical and honest reputation. â€Å"Ethical behavior is doing the right thing, and ethical dilemmas are everywhere in finance† (Keown, Martin, Petty & Scott, para. 1, 2005). Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulations According to Ethisphere.com, (2010), Starbucks is one of the most ethical companies in the world for 2010. One of the key points to being an ethical business is to file reports for investors, government bodies, and the public to view. Starbucks complies in one way with the ethics policies set in place by the directors and organization by providing accurate data. The financial records of Starbucks are available to the investors, public and government in a timely manner via the website. The requirement set by the Securities Exchange Committee for a public business is to provide accurate reports in a timely manner. Starbucks publishes an annual report to the Starbucks website for anyone to find via the Internet. The annual report contains cash flow statements of income and expenses. The reports show that Starbucks is performing well even during a tough economic time. The annual report also contains a statement of Starbucks critical accounting policies. Starbucks believes that critical accounting practices are important. Starbucks considers its policies an asset impairment, stock-based compensation, operating leases, self insurance reserves and income taxes to be the most critical in understanding the judgments which are involved in preparing the consolidated financial statements, as stated in the annual report on Starbucks website, (2010). Financial Ratios for the Past Two Years Starbuck’s financial records allow investors, the government, and the public to have a firsthand look into the financial stability of the company. The financial records are available for several years; this allows the long-term financial success of the company to be easily accessible and available anyone wanting to know about the company. As an investor with interest in expanding into Starbucks there are several things the investor should look for. The current ratio allows investors the ability to measure how well a company can pay back short-term debt (Keown, Martin, Petty, & Scott, 2005). Starbucks ability to pay back debt in 2009, increased over 2008. In 2008 Starbucks closed several unprofitable locations (Starbucks Investor Relations- Financial Release, 2009) resulting in the decrease of overhead costs for those locations; allowing for additional funds and increasing the ability for Starbucks to pay back short-term debt. This increases the stability of Starbucks. The availability of extra funds allows Starbucks the opportunity to invest those funds in profitable time value investments. The funds could be invested in the company for improvements or costs for innovate new products. The extra funds could also pay necessary expenses outright. This allows the company to have lower amounts of outstanding credit or loans. The lower the amount of outstanding loans and credit allows for lower credit fees and lower costs. *Current Ratio 2009 2008 Current AssetsCurrent Liabilities 599.81581.0 269.82189.7 37.93% 12.32% Investors can also look at the Debt Ratio of Starbucks. The debt ratio shows the amount of debt a company carries in relation to their assets (Keown, Martin, Petty, & Scott, 2005). Companies must carry some debt to do business effectively. However, the company does not want to carry too much debt. Starbucks has expenses that must be paid for; some of these can be paid using credit. However, the company should ensure they are not charging unnecessarily. Starbucks must also show they are paying off their debt. Starbucks debt ratio decreased from 56.08% in 2008 to 45.38% in 2009 (Starbucks Investor Relations- Financial Release, 2009). Tends in the Ratios This shows a positive financial trend. The company had larger debt in 2008 and was able to repay a good portion of the debt without increasing debt somewhere else in the company, ultimately lower the overall debt of the company. This positive trend will increase the credit status of Starbucks. This will allow the company to have credit available if needed in the future. *Debt Ratio 2009 2008 Total DebtTotal Assets 2531.15576.8 3181.75672.6 45.38% 56.08% Investors can also look at the Return on Equity Ratio. The Return on Equity Ratio measure the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholder equity (Keown, Martin, Petty, & Scott, 2005). The main reason investors invest into companies is to make money!! If the investor does not make a sizable return on their investment, they may take their money and decide to invest elsewhere!! The investor wants to have confidence the company is going to make solid decisions that will increase the profitability of the shareholders. Starbucks has seen a decrease in Return on Equity. In 2008 Starbucks Return on equity was 21.10% and in 2009 it fell to 19.64% (Starbucks Investor Relations- Financial Release, 2009). This is a negative trend for Starbucks. Investors do not want to lose money! The decrease was minimal, yet it was a decrease. Overall the company has solid financials. This one negative issue can become a major problem if Starbucks continues to make decisions that allow shareholders equity to decrease. *Return on Equity 2009 2008 Net Income Common Equity 598.23045.7 525.82490.9 19.64% 21.10% *All numbers are in millions Conclusion In conclusion, Starbucks has proven itself to be a good investment for any investor. The organization has been in the business for 30 years and has showed substantial growth throughout. The organization started out with one location and has grown to over 15,000, which are located throughout the globe. The organization as a whole strives to uphold ethical behavior, not only set by the SEC but as well as for them. Not only does the organization uphold a high ethical behavior for them but as well only does business with those who have the same mentality. This was proven by being ranked one of the most ethical places to work and this was according to Ethisphere.com. Even though there was a small decrease in the return on equity from 2008 to 2009, which consequently could be because of the recession that most businesses have been affected by, Starbucks has still proven strong that the organization is still a good investment. The organization has shown an increase in profit and a decrease in debt. All and all, Starbucks is a good investment for anyone who is interested in getting into the business, which the organization has shown through good business decisions and ethical behaviors. Reference Keown, A. J., Martin, J. D., Petty, W. J., & Scott, D. F. (2005). Financial Management: Principles and Applications. Pearson Prentice Hall. Retrieved online on November 22, 2010 located at https://portal.phoenix.edu/classroom/coursematerials/fin_370/20101109/. Starbucks Investor Relations- Financial Release. (2009, 11 4). Retrieved November 20, 2010, from Starbucks: http://investor.starbucks.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=99518&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1492291&highlight= SEC. Gov, (2010). The Investor’s Advocate: How the SEC Protects Investors, Maintains Market Integrity, and Facilitates Capital Formation. Retrieved on November 22, 2010 online located at http://www.sec.gov/about/laws/sea34.pdf Starbucks. (2010). About Us. Retrieved online on November 22, 2010 from http://www.Starbucks.com Starbucks website, (2010). Investor relations. Retrieved on November 22, 2010 from Starbucks website http://www.starbucks.com Starbucks website, (2010). Annual Report. Retrieved from Starbucks website on November 20, 2010: http://www.starbucks.com

Formal and Informal Communication: an Organizational Approach

courtly and In globe communicating An organisational approaching By Masayu Shahnaz Winarko Student come up 43005860 Faculty of Economics, Business and Law University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2012 face-lift This paper stands on the discussion of full-dress and sluttish communicating and its usage in organisational approach. Although twain pro forma and inner confabulation support the well-being of disposals, studies put forward that free communion has taken a big part in find out the productiveness in organizations and it has derived umpteen benefits and numerous a(prenominal) ch tout ensembleenges. Managers should know how to deal ith such liaison and optimize the advantages that will create apprise added for the political party and overcome the obstacles it might create. legion(predicate) enquiryes dumbfound studied and given turn ups on this matter and its application in businesses worldwide. 1. entry conference gets in every las t(predicate) champion section in intent, from some staral to sea captain issues. It is inevitable that it supports the catamenia of fond life and fellowships work range. It has been taking an most-valuable well-disposed occasion in organizations in that locationfore, many another(prenominal) studies condense in the discussion of organizational communion. It is believed that twain starchy and in testis intercourse bear on rganizations productiveness (Litterst & Eyo). However, unlike stiff intercourse, wanton chat is less manageable and unstructured. internal communion plays a si revolutionaryy portion in find the contribute of scientific field by generating red-hot ideas or improving the existed idea (Hagstrom). glob AND bothday intercourse AN organizational 1 move up Since slack discourse has a untroubled impact on organizational performance, motorbuss should be able to manage the flow of not merely when dress, but as well loose c onference. As business grows and the requirements demand in surviving within the argument keep adding on, xecutives should make the most impressive white plague of every resource visible(prenominal) and by improving the flow of conference is 1 of the ways. This bring will let an analysis in dealing with handlerial challenges regarding controlling the flow of cosy chat and what managers should do to make the best of it. 2. lit Review 2. 1 colloquy conversation is the action at law to convey kernels with divergent take, such as words, symbols and signs. found on Duncan and Moriarty (1998), converse is a human action that links people together and creates relationship. In order to create a favored converse, t requires triad elements they atomic number 18 the sender, the content and the receiver. Both the sender and the receiver welcome to share the same understanding so that the message can be full transmitted. The conquest of dialogue is determined by how the message is understood by the receiver. As defined by pretend and guess (2002), conference is the transfer of meaning and in that respect are seven essentials of conference, which are people, message, bring, noise, context, feedback and effect. Although thither are 126 antithetic definitions on talk (Ruben & Stewart, 2006), but many scholars defined it as an exchange of information.Ruben & Stewart (2006) as well stated that advantage in unrivalleds vocation may well depend on conference. Not entirely in the individualist performance, parley also determines organizations performance. This present weigh will backsheesh out the importance of testicle and sexual conference and its applications within an organization. 2. 2 orchis Communication established colloquy is an make and structured conference within an organization. The intercourse expires in many flows. Upwards 2 testis AND IN prescribed talk AN organisational come near confabulation indicates the communication from employees to executives. down(prenominal) ommunication represents the flow of communication from executives to lower train employees. Horizontal communication shows the flow of communication within the same aim of party, for poser the communication flow of stigma manager and finance manager. The last ane is one-sided communication, which represents the communication of the upper take of a particular division with the lower direct employees in an different division. The types of orchis communication within an organization that are normally employ are meetings, conference, phone calls, caller-up bulletin and interview. 2. 3 folksy Communication open communication is nevitable in every organizational entity. By communicating with some other people, employees can find similarity in hobbies, opinions and experiences, which result in being friends. casual communication is based on social relationship among people (Litterst & Eyo, 1982). In testic le communication is relaxed, casual and paste by means of word-? of-? mouth. Informal nedeucerks are communication links amongst individuals and sections that bypass the formal structures in an organization (Smith, 2011). at that get are four flows in communication networks the first one is wiz strand in which one somebody tells another someone, the minly one is confabulate hain in which one psyche tells the others, the trey one is probability chain in which one person tells another person who pass the news to someone else and the one- poop one is the cluster chain in which one person tells other two or three people who ranch the news to other two or three people as well. in that location is another grievous term in promiscuous communication, which is grapevine. Grapevine is best exposit as the way inspect travels through organizations. Robbins and colleagues (2008) indicate the characteristics of grapevine it is not controlled by instruction, it is some(preno minal) believable and reliable for the employees and it serves he self-? interests of those in the group. 2. 4 Differences surrounded by ball and Informal Communication semi-formal AND cosy COMMUNICATION AN organizational 3 approach No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Elements Definition Flexibility microscope stage of control Evidence field of force prescribed Communication Informal Communication Takes beam through Passing formal channels Flexible by Cannot be controlled No documentary proof is not followed formal channels Not flexible Controlled instruction Has documentary proof Official correct are luxuriouslyly maintained is theme Flow of information Flows upwards, Flows freely to all downwards, horizontal directions and iagonal 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 2. 5 Differentiation and panegyric Studies have attempted to determine which one between formal and light communication has the most impact in organizations. look into refer that formal communication takes intent in the authority in organizational hierarchy (Dow, 1988 Jablin, 1987), differentiation of labor and vary tasks (Dow, 1988 Jablin, 1987) and mechanism for coordination of work (Dow, 1988). Meanwhile, business communicators potently believe that idle 4 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN organizational work upion Speed Secrecy Rumor anguish Time MisunderstandingCost Mistakes Slow Can be maintained occur Not belie Requires some(prenominal) condemnation misunderstanding valuable Very low Very unfluctuating Difficult to maintain Small find oneself of rumor to Rumor can occur Can be falsify slight snip occur less(prenominal) dearly-won Very high Not much candidate of Misunderstanding may communication plays an historic affair in increase innovations within organizations (Johnson, 1990). Johnson, Donohue, Atkin and Johnson (1994) conducted a study on the means of formal and intimate communication within an organization through three main perspectives salience, channel fact ors and channel usage. The enquiry suggested that the employees erceive cosy communication as much(prenominal) impelling and better use in achieving beau mondes mission. However, in impairment of cultural means, formal communication is sensed as a more(prenominal) bewitch way to communicate. 3. event Study startle and Tomic (2011) conducted a search regarding the fiber of knowledgeable communication in creating partnership fire score image and preferences. In this interrogation, the object was an foreign turnkey contractor specializing in pet graphic symbolum and gas industry. This fraternity employed more than 38,000 employees all over the world at the time this research was conducted. This high society operates in business market, so not many eople acknowledge this companys population. However, this company concerns about its mail image. They use formal approach in spreading its globe to college graduates by coming to the university and do presentations on i ts company profile. Nevertheless, formal communication completely does so much. They also rely to a great extent on informal communication role to spread the word-? of-? mouth on the burnish of the company. For causa, people know from their acquaintances that this company gives high salary to their employees and this news draws them to working for this company. The mho example of case study comes from the research ofAndrea, Arnaldo and Romano (2011). The case was about Italian hint mineral water and soft crisp company. In 2008, the company held 16% of the instalment mineral water in Italy, 12% in soft booze and 19% in tea-? based drink. Its ROE was 18. 1% while its competitor was only 13. 8%. Its inventory turnover was 12. 6 compared to its study competitor whose inventory turnover was only 6. 15. The study focuses on determining the role of formal and informal communication in making this FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL 5 APPROACH company a leader in its filed. The study was conducted in three measurements. The first one is dentifying the units that engage in the process of purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. The s pure tone is tracing the flow of formal and informal communication during those activities. The final step is to identify how both formal and informal communication improved over time that results in a synchronized work flow of the company. The study suggested that formal communication was super grand in achieving internal consolidation (Andrea, Arnaldo & Romano, 2011), while informal communication is important in problem solving because it occurs in real time (Pagell). 4. Conclusion ground on the present and former studies conducted y many scholars on various objects (focuses on organizations in this matter), it can be conclude that both formal and informal communication are important in the productivity of the company and its performance as a whole. Managers should identify in which field the communicat ion should be optimized and which way to use. There are several differentiations in the work do on which it is better to use any formal or informal communication and managers should be well aware of it so they would not imply the wrong manner of communication. As in optimizing the informal communication, managers should use personal approach as it ravels luxuriant and is more favorable by the employees. Moreover, informal communication can be used in building company brand and image, so managers should be really heedful that only the good entertains of the company is transmitted through informal communication. 6 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH References Andrea, F, Arnaldo, C & Romando, P 2011, chemise study understanding how formal and informal communication move purchasing, manufacturing and logistics integration, Advances In Management, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 22-? 32. archetypal, I, Tomic, M 2011, egg and informal communication channels in creat ing starchy and Informal Communication an organisational ApproachFormal and Informal Communication An Organizational Approach By Masayu Shahnaz Winarko Student enumerate 43005860 Faculty of Economics, Business and Law University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2012 glom This paper concentrates on the discussion of formal and informal communication and its usage in organizational approach. Although both formal and informal communication support the well-being of organizations, studies suggest that informal communication has taken a big part in determining the productivity in organizations and it has derived many benefits and many challenges. Managers should know how to deal ith such affaire and optimize the advantages that will create value added for the company and overcome the obstacles it might create. many a(prenominal) researches have studied and given results on this matter and its application in businesses worldwide. 1. cornerstone Communication occurs in ev ery atomic number 53 section in life, from personal to professed(prenominal) issues. It is inevitable that it supports the flow of social life and companys workflow. It has been taking an important role in organizations in that locationfore, many studies concentrate in the discussion of organizational communication. It is believed that both formal and informal communication affect rganizations productivity (Litterst & Eyo). However, unlike formal communication, informal communication is less controllable and unstructured. Informal communication plays a strong role in determining the result of scientific field by generating new ideas or improving the existed idea (Hagstrom). FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL 1 APPROACH Since informal communication has a strong impact on organizational performance, managers should be able to manage the flow of not only formal, but also informal communication. As business grows and the requirements requisite in surviving within th e ambition keep adding on, xecutives should make the most effective use of every resource usable and by improving the flow of communication is one of the ways. This study will raise an analysis in dealing with managerial challenges regarding controlling the flow of informal communication and what managers should do to make the best of it. 2. belles-lettres Review 2. 1 Communication Communication is the activity to convey messages through different channels, such as words, symbols and signs. Based on Duncan and Moriarty (1998), communication is a human activity that links people together and creates relationship. In order to create a victorious communication, t requires three elements they are the sender, the message and the receiver. Both the sender and the receiver have to share the same understanding so that the message can be richly transmitted. The success of communication is determined by how the message is understood by the receiver. As defined by Gamble and Gamble (2002 ), communication is the transfer of meaning and there are seven essentials of communication, which are people, message, channels, noise, context, feedback and effect. Although there are 126 different definitions on communication (Ruben & Stewart, 2006), but many scholars defined it as an exchange of information.Ruben & Stewart (2006) also stated that success in ones race may well depend on communication. Not only in the individual performance, communication also determines organizations performance. This present study will rank out the importance of formal and informal communication and its applications within an organization. 2. 2 Formal Communication Formal communication is an unionized and structured communication within an organization. The communication occurs in many flows. Upwards 2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH communication indicates the communication from employees to executives. descending(prenominal) ommunication represents the flow of c ommunication from executives to lower level employees. Horizontal communication shows the flow of communication within the same level of company, for example the communication flow of brand manager and finance manager. The last one is diagonal communication, which represents the communication of the upper level of a particular division with the lower level employees in another division. The types of formal communication within an organization that are commonly used are meetings, conference, phone calls, company bulletin and interview. 2. 3 Informal Communication Informal communication is nevitable in every organizational entity. By communicating with other people, employees can find similarity in hobbies, opinions and experiences, which result in being friends. Informal communication is based on social relationship among people (Litterst & Eyo, 1982). Informal communication is relaxed, casual and spread through word-? of-? mouth. Informal networks are communication links between ind ividuals and sections that bypass the formal structures in an organization (Smith, 2011). There are four flows in communication networks the first one is hit strand in which one person tells another person, the second one is gossip hain in which one person tells the others, the threesome one is probability chain in which one person tells another person who pass the news to someone else and the fourth one is the cluster chain in which one person tells other two or three people who spread the news to other two or three people as well. There is another important term in informal communication, which is grapevine. Grapevine is best set forth as the way gossip travels through organizations. Robbins and colleagues (2008) indicate the characteristics of grapevine it is not controlled by management, it is more believable and reliable for the employees and it serves he self-? interests of those in the group. 2. 4 Differences between Formal and Informal Communication FORMAL AND INFORMAL CO MMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL 3 APPROACH No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Elements Definition Flexibility level of control Evidence Discipline Formal Communication Informal Communication Takes place through Passing formal channels Flexible by Cannot be controlled No documentary proof is not followed formal channels Not flexible Controlled management Has documentary proof Official champaign are highly maintained is Discipline Flow of information Flows upwards, Flows freely to all downwards, horizontal directions and iagonal 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 2. 5 Differentiation and favourable Studies have attempted to determine which one between formal and informal communication has the most impact in organizations. inquiry suggest that formal communication takes role in the authority in organizational hierarchy (Dow, 1988 Jablin, 1987), differentiation of labor and narrow down tasks (Dow, 1988 Jablin, 1987) and mechanism for coordination of work (Dow, 1988). Meanwhile, business communicators potently believe that informal 4 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH Speed Secrecy Rumor overrefinement Time MisunderstandingCost Mistakes Slow Can be maintained occur Not distorted Requires much time misunderstanding overpriced Very low Very sporting Difficult to maintain Small chance of rumor to Rumor can occur Can be distorted Less time occur Less pricey Very high Not much chance of Misunderstanding may communication plays an important role in increase innovations within organizations (Johnson, 1990). Johnson, Donohue, Atkin and Johnson (1994) conducted a study on the means of formal and informal communication within an organization through three main perspectives salience, channel factors and channel usage. The research suggested that the employees erceive informal communication as more effective and better used in achieving companys mission. However, in terms of cultural means, formal communication is comprehend as a more let way to communicate. 3. Case Study First and Tomic (2011) conducted a research regarding the role of informal communication in creating company brand image and preferences. In this research, the object was an supranational turnkey contractor specializing in anele and gas industry. This company employed more than 38,000 employees all over the world at the time this research was conducted. This company operates in business market, so not many eople acknowledge this companys existence. However, this company concerns about its brand image. They use formal approach in spreading its existence to college graduates by coming to the university and do presentations on its company profile. Nevertheless, formal communication only does so much. They also rely heavily on informal communication role to spread the word-? of-? mouth on the acculturation of the company. For example, people know from their acquaintances that this company gives high salary to their employees and this news draws them to working for this company. The second example of case study comes from the research ofAndrea, Arnaldo and Romano (2011). The case was about Italian leadership mineral water and soft drink company. In 2008, the company held 16% of the discussion section mineral water in Italy, 12% in soft drink and 19% in tea-? based drink. Its ROE was 18. 1% while its competitor was only 13. 8%. Its inventory turnover was 12. 6 compared to its study competitor whose inventory turnover was only 6. 15. The study focuses on determining the role of formal and informal communication in making this FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL 5 APPROACH company a leader in its filed. The study was conducted in three steps. The first one is dentifying the units that engage in the process of purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. The second step is tracing the flow of formal and informal communication during those activities. The final step is to identify how both formal and informal communication improved over t ime that results in a synchronized workflow of the company. The study suggested that formal communication was highly important in achieving internal integration (Andrea, Arnaldo & Romano, 2011), while informal communication is important in problem solving because it occurs in real time (Pagell). 4. Conclusion Based on the present and former studies conducted y many scholars on various objects (focuses on organizations in this matter), it can be reason that both formal and informal communication are important in the productivity of the company and its performance as a whole. Managers should identify in which field the communication should be optimized and which way to use. There are several differentiations in the work progress on which it is better to use each formal or informal communication and managers should be well aware of it so they would not imply the wrong system of communication. As in optimizing the informal communication, managers should use personal approach as it rav els tumultuous and is more favorable by the employees. Moreover, informal communication can be used in building company brand and image, so managers should be really wide-awake that only the good values of the company is transmitted through informal communication. 6 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH References Andrea, F, Arnaldo, C & Romando, P 2011, Case study understanding how formal and informal communication affect purchasing, manufacturing and logistics integration, Advances In Management, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 22-? 32. First, I, Tomic, M 2011, Formal and informal communication channels in creating