Facebook and Privacy Essay

Objective Summary: Ex-Apple Engineer, Peter Warden, has collected public fan page data from 215 million Facebook pages, revealing current trends, such as ‘God’ being the number one most popular fan page among Facebook users in the Southern U.S., whereas ‘Barack Obama’ featured heavily for San Francisco users, and ‘Starbucks’ was number one in Idaho. Warden plans to release this data to the academic community because he sees great potential in the data that can be extracted from these sites. This process is called data harvesting. The article suggests future academic work in this area is likely to occu impacting on people’s privacy. (FACTS – 100 words) Response: The ETHICAL issue central to this article is privacy and control. On one hand, Warden claims his intentions are altruistic (helpful to others) and that the data he is making visible here is a matter of public discourse. However, the FACTS are that individual users who are generating this data have neither been consulted about the data collection nor have they given permission for Warden to use it. Clearly Warden does not VALUE other’s people’s privacy as much as he WANTS (emotion) to create the website. The argument could be made that once a user ‘becomes a fan’ of a page on Facebook or, indeed, publishes any content to the internet, that information becomes public. User who have deployed privacy settings to carefully maintain a strong sense of control over their profiles, however, might well feel very ANGRY about this use of their data. Facebook can harvest that data (and does, for targeted advertising purposes) because they have a commitment to those adve rtisers (emotion)and engineers like Warden can develop data-trawling engines to collect accessible information across a massive dataset. The LAW needs to be much clearer about the rights of consumers, companies and advertisers in these situations. As Facebook is presumably bound by its own set of critically considered ETHICAL guidelines, these are neverthess underpinned by commercial VALUES and a vested interest (emotion) in keeping the data of its users from competitors. Warden claims to be operating under his own set of ethics that privilege (value) the furthering of knowledge. The issue then shifts to the academic community. Warden contends that one of his central motivations for collecting this data was so that he could share it with the academic community. Although this claim may be true, most (if not, all) Universities have clear ETHICAL guidelines for research that explicitly VALUE and therefore require consent from participants. If none of the users gave consent for their data to be collected in this way, this in effect denies them a sense of AGENCY. Thus, academically, this data is tainted. While its implications are important the trends it makes visible are crucial to understanding the localised structures of social network sites like Facebook. Personally, I would believe people should be able to tick a box that gives consent for the use of their personal material. I do not believe, either, that it should be one of those boxes you are obliged to tick before being able to use a site: that removes my personal AGENCY and I VALUE this very much. It should be up to me to decide whether other people get my data. If this sort of system was in place, everyone would know the FACTS, everyone would understand what is going on and no one would feel (emotion) betrayed or exposed unfairly.

Coca Cola Company Industry and Competitive Analysis

Jan Bernadette Balingit’s Autobiography Hi! My name is Jan Bernadette Tolentino Balingit,I was born on December 08 1999. My favorite color is violet and my favorite cartoon character is Hello Kitty. I am the only one girl between my two brothers. And I live in Sisiman, Mariveles, Bataan. And I’m taking schooling at Bepz Multinational School. And I want to play all day but not always because I want to first my study. I’m 13 yrs. old now. When I grow up I want to be an Optometrist like my mother, because I want to be like her.To be an Optometrist, I will finish first my study because when I will not finish my study I will not be an Optometrist. I’m nearer and nearer to that stage because I’m Grade 6 now. And I will introduce to you my FAMILY members: Maria Victoria T. Balingit-Mother, Benny Balingit – Father, John Benedict T. Balingit – Older brother, John Vincent T. Balingit – Younger brother. My very memorable experience is when we go to Enchanted Kingdom with my family especially me.And after we eat there we make â€Å"Gala† then we decided to take a ride in the rides named â€Å"Space Shuttle† we fall in line there in about 25 minutes. Then when it’s our turn we sits at the middle seats. And when the rides start moving we all get nervous and when we go down from the rides we all get dizzy. And my dad searching for a nurse to get our blood pressure we need to take a rest first. And when the nurse is there to get our blood pressure my mother’s blood pressure is the highest blood pressure at all. Project In English Submitted To: Fatima Acuna Submitted By: Jan Bernadette T. Balingit

Thai Research Report

Annenberg Pubic Policy Center Case 25. 1 A study by the Annenberg Pubic Policy Center investigested one major area of business decision :pricing practices. Specificially,the study addressed consumer knowledge and attitudes about the practices of online retailers adjusting their prices according to customer characteristics,such as how frequency they buy from the retailer. For example ,a website selling cameras charged different prices for the same model depending on whether visitor to the site had previously visited sites that supply price comparisons.In general,charging different prices is called price discrimination and legal unless it discriminates by race or sex or involes antitrust or price-fixing laws . The Annenberg study consisted of telephone interviews conducted with a sample of 15,000 adult,screened to find persons who had used the internet in the preceding 30 days. The questionnaire gathered demographic data and data about Internet usage.In addition,the interviewer read 17 statement about basic laws and practices related to price discrimination and the targeting of consumers according to their shopping behaviors. Respondents were asked whether each of these statements was true or false. Case Exhibit 25-1 Exhibit 25. 1-4 summarize some of the results from this study Questions 1. The information provided here is not detailed enough for a formal report,but assume that you are making an information report in a preliminaly stage of the reporting process.Which of these findings do you want to emphasize as your main point? Why? 2. Prepare a writtrnt summary of the findings,using at least two table or chart 3. Prepare two tables or charts that would be suitable to accompany an oral presentation of these results. Are they different from the visual aids you prepare for question 2? Why or Why notM Case Exhibit 25. 1-1 Selected Information about the Sample Sex | |Male |48% | |Female |52% | |Online Connection at Home | |Dial up connection only |31% | |Cable mo dem |18% | |DSL |25% | |Cable or DSL with another method |13% | |Don’t know |4% | |No connection at home |9% | |Self-Ranked Expertise Navigating the Internet | |Beginer |14% | |Intermediate |40% | |Advanced |34% | |Expert |12% | Source: turow,Joseph,Lauren Felfman,and Kimberly Meltzer, â€Å"Open to Exploitation:American Shoppers online and Offline, â€Å"APPC report,June 2005,p15 dowloaded at http:/annenbergpubicpolicycenter. org/Downloads/information_and_society/turow_appc_report_web_final. pdf,accessed August 22,2011 Case Exhibit 25. 1-2 Responses to Selected Knowledge Questions Statement |Response | | |True |False |Don’t Know | |Companies today have the ability to follow |80% |8% |12% | |my activity across many sites on the web | | | | |It is legal for an online store to charge |38% |29% |33% | |different people different prices as the | | | | |same time today | | | | |By law a site such as Expedia or Orbitz |37% |32% |31% | |that compares prices on different airlines | | | | |must include the lowest airline prices. | | | |It is legal for offline store to charge |29% |42% |29% | |different people different prices as the | | | | |same time today | | | | |When a website has a privacy policy,It |59% |25% |16% | |means the site will not share my | | | | |information with other website or | | | | |companies | | | | *When the number do not add up to 100%. It is because of a rounding errow Boldface type indicates the correct anwer. Source: turow,Joseph,Lauren Felfman,and Kimberly Meltzer, â€Å"Open to Exploitation:American Shoppers online and Offline, â€Å"APPC report,June 2005,p20 dowloaded at http:/annenbergpubicpolicycenter. org/Downloads/information_and_society/turow_appc_report_web_final. pdf,accessed August 22,2011 Case Exhibit 25. 1-3 Respones to select Attitude Question Statement |Response | | |Agree |Disagree |Nature |Don’t know | |It okay if a store charges me | | | | | |price based on what it knows | | | | | |about me |8 % |91% |- |1% | | It okay if an online store I |11% |87% |1% |1% | |use charges different prices for| | | | | |the same products during the | | | | | |same hour | | | | | |It would bother me to learn that|76% |22% |1% |1% | |other people pay less than I do | | | | | |for the same product | | | | | |It would bother me websites I |57% |41% |2% |1% | |shop at keep detailed vior | | | | | |buying beha | | | | | |It okay if a store I shop at |50% |47% |2% |1% | |frequency use information it has| | | | | |about me to create a picture of | | | | |me that improves the services it| | | | | |provide for me. | | | | | *When the number do not add up to 100%. It is because of a rounding errow Boldface type indicates the correct anwer. Source: turow,Joseph,Lauren Felfman,and Kimberly Meltzer, â€Å"Open to Exploitation:American Shoppers online and Offline, â€Å"APPC report,June 2005,p22 dowloaded at http:/annenbergpubicpolicycenter. org/Downloads/information_and_society/turow_appc_report_web_f inal. pdf,accessed August 22,2011

Diversity Plan PowerPoint Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Diversity Plan - PowerPoint Presentation Example en looking for players or the sports leaders the sports management board should cast their nets wider in order to recruit people from different ethnic and cultural groups (Cunningham, 2011). The management board should also establish mean of encouraging the underrepresented groups to participate in sports. A campaign should be established to encourage all students to participate in different sports. Those who join the sports should not be discouraged. They should be trained and offered with moral support in order to like the games (Cunningham, 2011). The sports management team in the college should also create a sports culture that enables all students to be involved fully. The culture will enable each person to enjoy sports and join the games of their interest. In the college, there should be an environment that gives everybody an opportunity to compete, officiate, play, coach and volunteer in sports. Inter-ethnic competition should also be burned, and all students should play as a team regardless of the race (Cunningham,

Researching Academic and Examination Stress in Secondary School Essay

Researching Academic and Examination Stress in Secondary School Students - Essay Example Literature Review Across the globe, it has been noted that American students are among the most tested, taking over hundred million standardized tests year in year out (Mayer 2008, p.21). Presently, test score are more significant for secondary students since they have the perception that their future is significantly dependent on performing well on high-stakes standardised tests such as tests for admission in colleges the likes of ACT or SAT, state sponsored proficiency tests and advanced placement exams. Although testing is undeniably an expedient tool for making decisions as regards to stimulating a student from one grade to the other, teacher accountability and college admissions, it over and over again puts tremendous pressure on high school students. According to various research studies, it has been evidenced that examinations (testing) has the potential of producing anxiety among high school students. Moreover, these studies have linked testing with doing a great deal in lowe ring students’ self-esteem as well as increasing their fear of failure (Hardy 2003, p.1). Over the past few years, the number of students enrolling for advanced placement course has been on the increase, with students being subjected to high-stakes tests on completing the course. A great percentage of these students feel pressured by their teachers, parents as well as the learning institutions to such higher level advanced placement courses since they are in possession of their college applications (Rothman 1995, p.15). Additionally, students in some cases tae many advanced placement courses so as to assist them feel better about themselves following their enrolment to... This esaay stresses that American students are among the most tested, taking over hundred million standardized tests year in year out. Presently, test score are more significant for secondary students since they have the perception that their future is significantly dependent on performing well on high-stakes standardised tests such as tests for admission in colleges the likes of ACT or SAT, state sponsored proficiency tests and advanced placement exams. Although testing is undeniably an expedient tool for making decisions as regards to stimulating a student from one grade to the other, teacher accountability and college admissions, it over and over again puts tremendous pressure on high school students. This discussion declares that the phrase high-stakes tests used in earlier paragraphs has to been used in the definition of tests which have consequences to students, schools, teachers and even school systems. For instance, students may be deprived of enrolment in certain courses in the event that their scores miss the mark of meeting established gates. Additionally, these students may end up being retained at a grade level until that time they will meet a certain score. In some cases, they may also be prevented from graduating. High school junior and/or senior students ordinarily have a feeling that they ought to meet demanding college admission test score requirements for them to be accepted in majority of the colleges. As thus, attaching the aforementioned high-stakes scores more often than not intensifies the anxiety associated with standardized tests.

Misdiagnosis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Misdiagnosis - Coursework Example Furthermore, it caused serious harm to the patient; thus, he should be punished for it. If the doctor knew that he was already overworked and therefore not in the best condition to attend to a patient, he should have assigned the case to another doctor instead of forcing himself to attend to the patient. He should have used his better judgment that something wrong might happen if he insists on attending to the patient. 3. Aside from the medical profession, another profession that can be held liable for negligence is a pilot (presumably he survives the crash) who knew that he was not feeling well when he flew the plane, yet still insisted on flying it which eventually resulted in an airplane crash. It may also be applicable to a captain of a ship who allowed the ship to navigate even if he knew that there was over capacity. A restaurant owner or chef may also be held liable for negligence if it served food which they knew beforehand was no longer fresh or was already contaminated but still served it to their customers. Food manufacturers may also face the same charges if they do not make sure that all the ingredients in the food that they manufacture are safe for human consumption and would have no harmful side effects. 4. If I was a member of a jury hearing a case of negligent homicide against a physician, my only preconception is to determine whether another doctor handling the case would have done the same as the physician being indicted. Also, I would like to know if the doctor has a tinge of doubt on his diagnosis and if he did, did he ask the opinions of other experts in the field. Another consideration is whether the doctor has the necessary competence and qualification to diagnose the patient and if he does not possess such skills, was the patient aware of this. Michon, K. (n.d.). Medical malpractice: Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis.

Global Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Global Business - Assignment Example However, expansion into global markets also brings with it certain risks which organizations have to manage in order to successfully build their presence into new markets. (Dlabay and Scott, 2011) International organizations, in order to successfully enter into any foreign market, has to actually understand the social and cultural context of the market, its political and economic systems along with further understanding the regulatory environment of the market. What is also critical to understand that global organizations have design and develop their strategies in a manner which can help them to manage a trade-off between the risks and returns and ensure that all the risks are identified and assessed strategically in order to allow the organization desired results? This paper will therefore discuss and compare Republic of Congo with that of UK in terms of its political, economic, regulatory environment etc. This paper also aims to use different theories which can be used to analyze entry of City College Norwich into the Democratic Republic of Congo. Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC is located in Central Africa in the northeast of Angola. The total area of the country is over 2 million kilometers, less than one-third of US, with both and sea and water covering the whole area and as such country is accessible from land as well as seas. The overall population of the country is over 77 million with majority of the population belong to Congolese origin. 50% of the population is Roman Catholic followed by Protestants. Muslims and other religions also exist in the country however, overall the country is a Christian majority country. It is also important to note that over 43% of the population falls in the age group of 0-14 years old whereas significant portion of the population is between the age of 15 to 54 years. (Cia.gov, 2015) DRC has remained a volatile country since its

In class short essay- cl Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

In class short - cl - Essay Example ankine, opens an account of casual racism that is delivered in the second person in a unique informal move where the use of â€Å"you† by the speaker is fluid. In most of the cases, it is the speaker herself, but in some instances, it involves the reader or a different character with haunting results. The poetic form in this work can be considered as a manifestation of the divide that is evident in American lives in regards to invisible racism and other aspects. In the poem Brain on ice, terms like â€Å"terrorized† and â€Å"horror† portray a fierce and passionate mood in the perception of the narrator on the El Train, with the line â€Å"Of being robbed, stabbed, raped† honing the superimposed theme of the poem (Warr). The narration of the poem starts with an account of the El Train experience with the narrator making himself the terrorist in the view of other people regardless of being innately innocent. What makes the poem interesting is the fact that it does not have a predictable direction and its language creates open metaphors including the empty seat that it refers to as â€Å"undefiled seat† (Warr). The seat is not dirty since in the thoughts of the author, all the introverts and withdrawn passengers will perceive the individual who sits on it as being possibly dirty. Fear is usually impractical and based on a lacking of knowledge, and the poet is aware of this as well as the fact that human beings are not able to escape it. Conversely, in the Black Tar, as Son and Jadine come together, the involvement separates the impressions as well as self-deceptions that were holding together the world as well as how people related with each other at the estate. They journey back to the US to seek a place where they will have a sense of belonging only to discover that their homes have spite for each other. The author writes in what can be considered as black vernacular while borrowing figures of speech and phrases that are exclusive to the community where she was

Economics of the environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Economics of the environment - Essay Example Pollutants causing the creation of ozone include volatile compounds and nitrogen oxides that come from industries. Once the pollutants are in the atmosphere, ozone, which is a potent greenhouse gas, is formed. The impact of ozone cannot be underestimated. Plants are animal life are destroyed since ozone reduces the rate of photosynthesis. As a result, the atmosphere will contain too much carbon dioxide. Statistics indicate that number of people living in extreme poverty has risen at an enhanced rate than the increase in income levels. Despite the impressive economic growth rates, some countries like Asia Pacific have not been able to reduce poverty. However, some countries like East Asia have grown and transformed economically. Ironically, the largest people living in poverty are found in these regions. South Asia, particularly, is the poorest in the world. Most people in these areas lack access to sanitation, education and the basic needs. The increased poverty goes hand in hand with the global inequality. In mid 20th century, international community responded to the issue of poverty by enhancing the structural adjustment, post-war reconstruction and campaigns for equality in economic growth (Fenwick et al.1029-030). The cost benefit analysis involves compiling the costs and benefits of a project, and translating them to monetary terms then discounting them over time. This enhances the determination of the present value for future costs and benefits. Projects with more benefits than costs are the ones that are accepted. The environmental benefits are unavailable, yet the costs remain known. This is controversial when determining what to measure and the values being measured. The economic analysis requires a good understanding of the effects of the project (Pimentel 229-52). Taking the cost analysis of the Millennium Development Goals in poverty eradication, there are different strategies that have been put

Electronic commecial law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Electronic commecial law - Essay Example Emphasis has been given on the illegal content of websites – mostly due to the expansion of the phenomenon. In fact, it has been proved, that many organizations, which virtual world services,1 have been unable to prevent the publication of such information through the Internet – referring to the involvement of these organizations in the hosting or the transmission of such information.2 In practice, the above organizations cannot be held responsible for the illegal content that they host or they transmit; the key term for the use of the above benefit is that these organizations are characterized as Internet Service Providers (ISPs).3 In case that these organizations do not meet the above requirement, they cannot ask for the exception from liability for the content they host or they transfer.4 The above issue is explored in this paper; emphasis is given on the European law establishing the protection of ISPs from liability for the information they host or they transmit; r eference is also made to the UK and the USA case law that has been developed in the specific field. The Directive 2000/31/EC is set under examination and evaluation; it is concluded that the existing European law regulating the protection of ISPs from the liability for the content they host or they transmit need to be further improved; the potentials for broad interpretation of its rules has been found to be partially negative for the resolution of disputes arising in regard to the study’s main issue. 2. European Law on the protection of Internet Service Providers from liability for content they transport or host – European, UK and US case law The issue of responsibility of ISPs for the information they host/ transmit has been resulted because of the expansion of Internet – both in terms of commerce, i.e. of the use of Internet for the development of commercial transaction and in terms of the characteristics of the users, i.e. of the use of Internet by people of all ages, even by children. Under these terms, the introduction of legislation referring to the creation and management of this content was quite necessary. At this point, the criteria on which the characterization of content as illegal would be based needed to be set; in accordance with Kleinschmidt (2010) the content published in the Internet is usually considered as illegal when it has one of the following forms: ‘pornography without age verification, child pornography, hate speech, or extreme violence’5. At this point, it should be made clear that the participation of an ISP in the publication of illegal content can set the ISP under the risk of two different forms of liability: a) liability for the damages caused to one or more of its users – because of the illegal content, b) liability for the damaged caused to a third party – being offended from the illegal content in the publication of which in the Internet the specific ISP has taken part – either by hosting or transmitting the content involved.6 Under normal conditions, ISPs would be held liable for the following reasons: a) for hosting or transmitting illegal content, b) for breaching the copyright laws in regard to the products of art (speech, song, painting and so on); the activity of the second category would be related with that of the first category since the material acquired by violating the copyright laws can be considered as ill

Skills required for a successful health and safety practitioner Essay

Skills required for a successful health and safety practitioner - Essay Example Technical training also equips individuals with numerous other skills that enhance their success in the profession. Slide 3, Among such skills is communication. Health practitioners interact with their patients on numerous platforms. Such interactions require adequate communication. Among the most essential roles of a health practitioner is diagnosis a process that requires a patient to describe his feelings to a health practitioners (Patel and John 91). Slide 4, The health practitioners must understand the descriptions and make accurate diagnosis thus advising appropriate treatments. The need for effective communication skills commands proficiency in language. As the medium for communication, the health and safety practitioners must have the ability to speak the appropriate language and do so appropriately in order to enhance the effectiveness of the communication processes (Storey and Craig 21). Slide 6, Health and safety practitioners must understand relevant laws. Laws and codes of conduct are vital in the practice since they help curb the rise of legal tussles that may jeopardize the career of an individual. Ethical codes on the other hand influence the decisions that safety and health practitioners make thus ensuring that the practitioners uphold the values of a society (Stellman 55). Slide 7, The nature of the career requires the practitioners to make decisions urgently in order to overcome challenges. The conditions are always precarious and a decision can either save or lose a life. Despite such, the health and safety practitioners must always make such decisions and advise their patients appropriately. This requires the practitioners to have effective analytical skills in order to analyze their circumstances and device appropriate decisions to help overcome the

Juvenile Detainees Essay Example for Free

Juvenile Detainees Essay Criminal Justice and the juvenile justice systems are almost the same but are different. When corrections’ officials have to deal with juvenile detainees, such a situation needs to be dealt with care. In identifying such situations, we will look at child development, punishment and deterrence. Juvenile detention officers work with incarcerated youth. Although juvenile detention officers deal with many of the same realities as other corrections officers, juvenile detention officers have the opportunity to assist young offenders in their attempts to be rehabilitated into responsible adults. In a sense a Juvenile detention officer is the perfect blend of a jailer and social worker. While the Juvenile detention officers must be alert and tough enough to work with young criminals, he or she must also be committed to helping troubled youngsters change their life. Since Juvenile detention officers work with youth, they have to see to it that young offenders receive all the services they need and that they are meeting their legal and therapeutic obligations. As such, Juvenile detention officers are responsible for making sure that inmates arrive on time to appointments within their facility and outside of it. According to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, a juvenile detention officer, Prepares detained youth for court appearances, transports and escorts detained youth to medical, criminal justice, social services and judicial facilities as needed according to departmental and facility policy and procedures. Of course, this implies keeping track of incarcerated youth and not letting them flee. Aside from insuring that juvenile offenders receive proper care and keep appointments, juvenile detention officers teach wayward youth how to function in society by acting as models of proper adult behavior. For instance, juvenile detention officers in Kitsap County, Washington are expected to Assist juveniles in cultivating appropriate social, behavioral, and interpersonal skills and attitudes useful in community living; lead recreational activities and give instruction in games. Juvenile detention officers may also lead the youngsters in cleaning and maintenance activities in order to model good hygiene and to demonstrate proper adult housekeeping habits. Although there is an emphasis on rehabilitation and inmate care in juvenile correctional facilities, juvenile detention officers are subject to the hazards of working in a locked facility with young criminals. In addition to rehabilitation and treatment related activities, juvenile detention officers may have duties similar to those of any other corrections officer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the duties of detention officers include searching for contraband, weapons and drugs, resolving conflicts between inmates, and enforcing discipline. This means monitoring vehicles and packages coming in and out of locked facilities as well as frequent personal and room inspections. Juvenile detention officers are, of course, responsible for knowing the whereabouts of all inmates and preventing them from leaving the locked facility. Laws we have regulated the way we have set up punishment for juveniles. The punishments we have in tact usually serve to rehabilitate the juvenile to do better in the future. Our laws have extended that to sealing juvenile records for the sake of protection. Juvenile crime and punishments can be different from the types of punishments that are ordered in adult criminal cases. The first court established expressly for juveniles was built in Chicago in 1899 to address the issue of juvenile crime and punishments. Juvenile crime and punishments peaked in 1994. The 1990s saw a swell of public scrutiny over the perceived juvenile crime epidemic. In an effort to crack down on juvenile crime and punishments, many state legislatures have adopted harsher laws regarding juvenile crimes. In my opinion, the best two ways to prevent juvenile crime is strengthening families and education. In American Samoa, a block grant was introduced and tested from 2002 to 2004. This block grant was for Preventing Substance abuse targeting the families and children. The idea behind the program was to seek if a problem existed, what the effects of substance abuse and how it can be fixed. The interesting factor and I suppose the most important was how the Samoan family evolved from closely knit and knowing every aspect of their children’s whereabouts to children becoming simple renters in the parent’s homes. Long story short, American Samoa was awarded funding for 10 years or so long as the program is needed. The theme of the program was strengthening families. I believe that it is an important part in anyone’s life. Sociologist’s believe that one’s environment affects one’s way of life. However, in some unfortunate cases, not everyone has the chance to grow up with a traditional family. The idea is, one’s family should be the biggest and the most important supporters in their lives. We define our familes different, whether it is a mother, a father, brother, sister, grandparent or even your best friend’s family. The point is having the sense of strength in one’s home is important to one’s success or failure. Strengthening families can be accomplished by offering help to those that need it through information and education. Which leads to my second point is education. Juveniles feel lost as do most of us that don’t know what to do or which direction to head to. Through education we get an idea of where we would like to go in our lives. Some juveniles do not have access or do not see the importance of education until there is support, programs, and resources available to them. We promote education through the media and all sorts of things, but are we really making it available for everyone? My mother in law always tells us, children are like cameras, they take images of everything around them. The product of these images are the problems we face today. Reference: Seiter, R. (2011). Corrections: An introduction (3rd ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc

Authenticated Color Extended Visual Cryptography

Authenticated Color Extended Visual Cryptography Authenticated Color Extended Visual Cryptography with Perfect Reconstruction R. Sathishkumar, Gnanou Florence Sudha Abstract Visual Cryptography Scheme (VCS) is an image safeguarding scheme which encrypts the secret text based image into multiple binary images called shares, which are then transmitted to participants. These shares are then stacked over by the participants to decrypt the secret image, however with reduced quality. In Extended Visual Cryptography Scheme (EVCS), these binary shares are encoded with cover images to generate meaningful shares. In order to enhance the decoded EVCS secret image quality, Two in One Image Secret Sharing Scheme (TiOISSS) was implemented, which offers perfect retrieval of the secret image. In this proposed scheme, the TiOISSS implemented for color secret image with meaningful color shares with perfect reconstruction is proposed. This scheme uses Adaptive Halftoning technique to improve the EVCS image quality. Further, a color authenticated image and a text message are encoded in the meaningful color shares to suppress any fake shares from the intruders, thu s improving the security of the proposed scheme. Experimental results depict that the improvement in quality and security of the scheme. Index Terms Image Security, Visual Cryptography Scheme, Adaptive Halftone, Polynomial Image Secret Sharing, I. Introduction With the swift development in the networking technologies, digital data are transmitted across the world over internet. Thus, security has become a vital issue in both communication and the complex encryption gives ways to secure the information from the intruders. Image encryption has a vital role in variety of applications like telemedicine, medical image processing, military applications, etc. In the traditional way of encryption, the data will be encrypted with a security key and the decryption must be done with the same key. Hence, the security key is essential for proper decoding of the secret data. VCS is one such encryption method proposed by Naor and Shamir [1-2] to hide a secret image in the form of n noisy pictures called shares such that the secret data is retrieved by Human Visual System (HVS) by stacking the n shares. The traditional VCS is relaxed for threshold VCS in which at least any k number of shares are sufficient to decode the secret image [3-4]. The VCS has been proposed to hide the gray images by suitably halftoning it to binary images [5-7]. These schemes were proposed with noisy shares, that may invite intruders attention. R. Sathishkumar is with Department of Electronics Communication Engineering, Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Institute of Engineering and Technology (PKIET), Karaikal, India. ([emailprotected]) Gnanou Florence Sudha is with Department of Electronics Communication Engineering, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry, India. ([emailprotected]) By suppressing this weakness, VCS were implemented with meaningful shares from the cover images, and is referred as Extended Visual Cryptography Scheme (EVCS) [8-9]. The VCS has further been extended for natural color images. Rijmen et al [10] proposed a VCS for color secret image with pixel expansion, in which each secret color pixel is expanded into a block of 22 color sub-pixels to generate two color shares. Huo et al [11] proposed the VCS for gray-level and color images using color decomposition and halftone technology, while retaining the advantage of traditional monochrome visual cryptography. Huo et al [12-13] proposed an improved model by using binary encoding to represent the sub-pixel blocks. In [14], Huo et al adjusted the contrast to reveal the secret image with better quality, but the noisy shares reveal the secrecy of the image. Der et al [15] proposed a color VCS with an additional authentic image, but the scheme suffers from the visual quality. Polynomial image secret sharing (PISS) was implemented with perfect decoding of secret image [16]. In [17], Sian et al implemented a Two in One Image Secret Sharing Scheme (TiOISSS) wherein the vague secret image is decoded using VCS in the 1st decoding stage and the better quality secret image is decoded using PISS using computations. Peng et al [18] improved the TiOISSS using GVCS with gray PISS values in the shares. Srividhya et al [19] improved the TiOISSS image quality by applying adaptive halftoning. However, the scheme is implemented for gray images with noisy shares. In [20], TiOISSS was implemented for meaningful shares, but the lossless recovery of the decoded image was not achieved. The existing model of TiOISSS are implemented for gray images and generates noisy shares and that may invite the intruders to insert the fake shares. In this proposed scheme, existing TiOISSS [20] is extended for natural color image with RGB color decomposition method. Further, before applying PISS algorithm, the color secret image is permuted at bit level, block level and pixel level to improve the security. This scheme generates meaningful shares based on the color cover images. Additionally, a color authentication image and a textual secret message are shared to validate the authenticity of the decoded secret image. Experimental results of the proposed scheme show that the weaknesses of the existing TiOISSS schemes are attempted, color TiOISSS are implemented with the enhanced quality and improved security. This paper is organized as follows. The VCS for gray scale and color images, TiOISSS and its related works are discussed in section II. The proposed Authenticated Color VCS is discussed in section III. The experimental results are discussed in section IV. The Quality analysis and Security analysis are discussed in section V and section VI. The conclusion is presented in section VII. II. Related Works The objective of the proposed scheme is to extend the TiOISSS for color images, with improved quality and perfect reconstruction. This section discusses the related works pertaining to existing TiOISSS and its limitations. Visual Cryptography Scheme Moni Noar and Adi Shamir implemented the visual secret sharing scheme in 1994 [1], which requires computations only in the encryption stage. The decoding of secret image is done by human visual system (HVS). In (k, n) threshold visual secret sharing scheme, n noise like shares are generated. Any k or more number of shares are required to decode the secret image. With (k-1) or lesser shares, the secret cannot be reconstructed. In basic (2, 2) VCS, every binary secret image pixel is expanded into 22 sub-pixels in the 2 number of noisy shares, as per the sub-pixel coding table shown in Fig. 1. For every white pixelof the secret image, any one out of the six sub-pixels are randomly selected for both the shares. Similarly, for every black pixel of the secret image, any one out of the six sub-pixels are randomly selected for share 1, and its compliment sub-pixels for share 2. Thus, by stacking the two shares, the white pixels are decoded with 50% gray level. However, the black pixels are reconstructed with full black sub-pixels. With the individual shares which has equal percentage of white and black pixels, the secret image information is not revealed. The share size and therefore the reconstructed image are doubled due to pixel expansion. Fig. 1 Sub-pixel coding table Adaptive Halftoning Halftoning technique is a process of converting the continuous tone image to monochrome image or binary image. The VCS is generally suited for monochrome images. Many techniques like AM halftoning, FM halftoning, etc. are available for converting the gray scale image to binary image. In [16-18], Error diffusion based on FM halftoning with is implemented. But, this results in scattered white pixels in the place of darker areas of gray image. The proposed work utilizes the Adaptive Halftoning [19] where in the dynamically determined threshold for halftoning, results in better contrast for both constantly varying images and sharp transition images. The human eye perceives the tiny dots as white and denser dots as black, in the halftoned image. A gray scale image and its halftoned image is shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 a) Continous tone b) Halftone Extended Visual Cryptography Scheme (EVCS) The shares generated in the VCS bears a noise like image. Though, it may reveal no clue about the secret image, it may however raise suspicions about the secret. In order to overcome the weakness of noise like VCS shares, they are embedded with the individual cover images, thus generating the meaningful shares. The VCS with meaningful shares are referred as Extended Visual Cryptography Scheme (EVCS). The meaningful shares depict the cover image and not the secret image. However, on overlapping the meaningful shares, the secret image is decoded. Color Visual Cryptography Scheme Conventional VCS is applicable only for binary images. For grayscale image, it is to be halftoned to binary image as discussed in section II-B. In the proposed scheme, adaptive halftoning is implemented. The color image is generally constituted by either subtractive or additive models as in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 a) Subtractive model, and b) Additive model In the subtractive model, with primary color components as cyan (C), magenta (M) and yellow (Y), the other colors can be obtained with proper mixing of CMY components. The color printer is based on subtractive model. In additive model, the desired color is achieved from proper mixing different Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B) color components. By mixing the RGB components of equal intensity, white color can be obtained. Computer monitor is based on additive model. The secret color image can be decomposed into Red, Green and Blue frames. The individual frames will then be a gray pattern of the corresponding color components. These frames are adaptive halftoned to obtain the binary images which can be used for generation of shares in Red, Green and Blue components. By concatenating these RGB components of each shares, the corresponding color shares are obtained. Overlapping the color shares, the color secret image is decoded. Polynomial Image Secret Sharing Scheme (PISSS) PISS scheme was first implemented [16] to hide a secret image. Though, it contradicts the advantage of VCS, by involving mathematical calculations in both encrypting and decrypting stages, it offers perfect retrieval of the secret image pixels. The PISS is implemented for TiOISSS with perfect reconstruction [20]. The polynomial in equation 1, encodes the image pixels to cipher data, which is then embedded in GVCS shares. in which are the sequential k pixels of the image and P is the prime number. In the decoding phase, the Lagrange interpolation formula in equation (2) is used to derive the polynomial coefficients, By substituting the pixel position for , where, , keeping as the variable, the polynomial coefficients is derived, Further, the decoding polynomial equation can be derived by from the polynomial coefficient and the encoded image pixels in equation (3). The original secret pixel value can be retrieved from the equation (3), by substituting the image pixel position ,. A large prime number of 251, which is within the gray pixel range, can be considered for encrypting the grayscale image. TiOISSS Two in One Image Secret Sharing Scheme (TiOISSS) [18] combines the merits of both PISS to achieve perfect reconstruction VCS to decode the vague secret image by HVS. Hence, it involves two levels of encoding and decoding phases. The encoding phase starts with generating n VCS shares and n PISS shares from the same secret image, followed by replacing the black pixels of VCS shares by the gray-valued pixels of PISS shares to generate GVCS shares, which are transmitted through n users. In the decoding phase, the GVCS shares from the users are overlapped to reconstruct the vague secret image, in the 1st stage level with just HVS. This process does not require any mathematical computations. Further, Inverse PISS is applied to the gray pixels of GVCS shares to perfectly retrieve the secret image, in the 2nd stage level of decoding. III. Proposed scheme In existing TiOISSS [19], the noisy shares were generated, which make attract the intruders to create a fake shares to forge the legitimate user. In the proposed scheme, the existing TiOISSS is modified for color images. The meaningful color EVCS shares are generated by embedding a color authentication image. The RGB components of color secret image and the cover images are extracted as in Fig. 4. The modified TiOISSS is applied for each color components to generate the corresponding the color components of GVCS shares. By concatenating the RGB components, color GVCS shares are obtained. The vague color secret image and the authentication image can be decoded, in the first decoding phase. Additionally, to provide additional authenticity, a 216 bits of textual message is embedded in the two LSBs of white pixels of all GVCS shares, which are then decoded in the 2nd phase. The RGB components of color secret image and the authentication image are then retrieved by applying Inverse PISS. The stages involved in the proposed modified color TiOISSS with the generation of meaningful EVCS shares and including an authentication image are discussed in the following sections. EVCS Share generation EVCS shares are generated from the individual RGB components of the secret color image, authentication image and the cover image. The Left half of the secret image is considered for generating the left half of VCS shares (LS1 and LS2) as in Fig. 5. By considering the authentication image, the right half of VCS shares (RS1 and RS2) are generated. For each RGB components of the secret image, the following steps are followed to generate the corresponding RGB components of the VCS shares. 1.From the left half of secret image (LS), the left half of share1 (LS1) and the left half of share2 (LS2) are generated. 2.For every black pixel of the halftoned authentication image, corresponding subpixels of left half of share 2 (LS2) with one pixel modified from white to black is placed in the corresponding subpixel location of right half of share 1 (RS1). Thus, the RS1 and LS2 will decode the vague authentication image. 3.For each black pixels of RS, the corresponding sub-pixels of the right half of share 1 (RS1) with modified location of black pixels is placed in the corresponding subpixel location of right half of share 2 (RS2). 4.VCS shares are obtained by combining the left half and the right half of each shares. To overcome the weakness of noisy shares, cover images are embedded to generate the meaningful shares. Each RGB components of the VCS shares are processed as shown in Fig. 5, with the corresponding RGB components of the cover images. For every black pixel in each cover image component, the corresponding sub-pixel location of the respective VCS share component is modified such that one white pixel converted to black. The location of the converted black pixel depends on the pixel value of the secret image in the corresponding location. Thus, the EVCS shares components are generated from the VCS shares and the cover images. GEVCS Share generation The color secret image is first decomposed into RGB components and the pixels of each component are permuted in three levels to improve the security. In the proposed scheme, the 128 bit of encryption key is used as formatted in Fig. 6 is used to perform the permutation in bit level, block level and pixel level with respective 32-bit keys. The permutation order key defines the order of permutation performed which is required in reverse permutation operation. The GVCS share order defines the share order to be processed to retrieve the embedded key from the GVCS shares. The size of the textual secret message embedded in the GVCS shares is defined in the 16-bit Secret Message length. The PISS shares are generated from the permuted color secret image as detailed in section II-E. The resultant PISS values and the authentication color image pixels are embedded into the black sub-pixels are the EVCS shares. Prior to embedding these PISS values, it is truncated by a factor ÃŽÂ ±, (ÃŽÂ ± = 1, 2, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ 16). This truncated value along with its remainder in GEVCS shares will be darker near to black, providing better visual quality. Thus, the truncated permuted PISS values, the color authenticated image and the textual secret message are embedded into EVCS shares to generate the GEVCS shares as detailed in the Fig.7. Decryption of the Secret image The decoding of the secret image is done in two phases. In the first phase, the two GEVCS shares are overlapped to decode the vague color secret image. To verify its authenticity, RS1 and LS2 of the GEVCS shares are superimposed to decode the authentication image. In the second phase of decoding, the encryption keys and the secret messages are extracted from the white pixels of each GEVCS shares. The PISS values are retrieved from the GEVCS shares. Inverse PISS is applied to reconstruct the secret image and the authentication image are perfectly. The process is explained in Fig.8. IV. Experimental Results The experimental results of the proposed Authenticated Color Extended TiOISSS with perfect reconstruction are discussed in this section. This scheme is implemented for truncation factor, ÃŽÂ ± = 7 and adaptive halftoning technique is applied for VCS share generation. The 256256 sized color secret image and the 256128 sized color authentication image are considered as shown in Fig. 9(a) 9(b). The color cover images of 256256 size are shown in Fig. 9(c) 9(d). The Adaptive halftoning version of the secret image and cover images are shown in Fig. 9 (e), 9(f) 9 (g). Applying VCS over the halftoned authentication and the secret image with pixel expansion, m = 4, two VCS shares of 512512 are generated and is shown in Fig. 9 (h) 9 (i). The GVCS shares generated from VCS shares by embedding PISS values as detailed in section III-B are shown in Fig. 9 (j) 9 (k). In the first level of decoding, the two GEVCS shares are overlapped to decode the vague color secret image. To verify the authenticity, LS2 and RS1 are overlapped to reveal the vague authentication image. They are shown in Fig. 9 (l) 9 (m). In the 2nd decoding phase, by applying Inverse PISS and reverse permutation over the extracted gray pixels of the GEVCS shares, the perfect reconstruction of both the color authentication image and the color secret image is decoded as shown in Fig. 9 (n) 9 (o). V. Quality Analysis The parameters like Contrast, Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) of the Authenticated Color Extended TiOISSS are analysed. Contrast Contrast which represents the visual quality of the image, is given by the normalized difference between the mean grayness of the white secret pixels and the mean grayness of black secret pixels in the decoded image. In this scheme, contrast [20] is calculated among the group of decoded pixels valued more than the threshold, (C0) and the group of decoded pixels valued lesser than the threshold, (C1) and is given by, Contrast between the color secret image and its 1st decoded secret image for adaptive halftoning technique and between the authentication image and its 1st decoded output has been tabled in Table I for various truncation factor, ÃŽÂ ±. The contrast is improved SSIM It is a measure of resemblance between two images and it is calculated for two common sized (NÃÆ'-N) windows x and yof the two images. SSIM is given by where and are the average of y and x. and are the variance of x and y, is the covariance of x and y and are two variables to stabilize the division, L is the dynamic range of the pixel values and and by default. The SSIM between the color secret image and its 1st decoded secret image for adaptive halftoning technique and between the authentication image and its 1st decoded output has been tabled in Table I for various truncation factor, ÃŽÂ ±. The SSIM is improved resulting in increased similarity between the secret image and the decoded secret image. PSNR The Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) is a measure to estimate the image quality between two images. Based on the pixel difference between the reconstructed image and the original image, PSNR is defined as where MSE denotes Mean Squared Error and s = 255, the maximum pixel value of the image. The PSNR between the color secret image and its 1st decoded secret image for adaptive halftoning technique and between the authentication image and its 1st decoded output has been tabled in Table I for various truncation factor, ÃŽÂ ±. The PSNR is higher for lesser value of the truncation factor. TABLE I Comparison of Secret Image and 1ST PHASE DECODED Secret Image Secret image vs Decoded Secret image (1st phase) Auth image vs Decoded Auth image (1st phase) ÃŽÂ ± Contrast SSIM PSNR Contrast SSIM PSNR 1 Not possible, No Truncation Not possible, No Truncation 2 0.1324 0.2556 3 0.1314 0.2446 6.7766 0.1720 0.1260 4.3907 4 0.1330 0.2452 6.5423 0.1708 0.1498 4.1201 5 0.1322 0.2380 6.5246 0.1762 0.1769 4.1499 6 0.1319 0.2352 6.4209 0.1752 0.1950 4.0422 7 0.1318 0.2328 6.3584 0.1753 0.2082 3.9912 8 0.1325 0.2348 6.3265 0.1746 0.2217 3.9447 9 0.1320 0.2322 6.3640 0.1772 0.2277 4.0184 10 0.1317 0.2316 6.3082 0.1771 0.2351 3.9738 11 0.1313 0.2292 6.3050 0.1761 0.2378 3.9582 12 0.1312 0.2291 6.2671 0.1768 0.2444 3.9383 13 0.1311 0.2307 6.2571 0.1765 0.2476 3.9250 14 0.1307 0.2286 6.2791 0.1750 0.2436 3.9232 15 0.1302 0.2280 6.2373 0.1760 0.2510 3.8964 16 0.1312 0.2322 6.2348 0.1751 0.2528 3.8830 Table II shows the comparison of meaningful shares with the corresponding cover images, which depicts that meaningful shares offers better visual quality. TABLE II Parameter Comparison for GVCS Shares vs Cover Images, for ÃŽÂ ± = 7 Proposed Scheme GEVCS 1 GEVCS 2 Contrast 0.1239 0.1746 SSIM 0.2803 0.1807 PSNR (dB) 6.1746 6.2839 Table III shows the comparison of different halftoning techniques, which shows that the adaptive halftoning offers better visual quality. TABLE III Parameter Comparison between the Secret Image and 1st decoded Secret Image, for Different Halftoning, for ÃŽÂ ± = 7 Halftoning Technique AM Halftoning FM Halftoning Adaptive Halftoning % Improvement FM vs Adaptive Contrast 0.0947 0.0988 0.1318 33.40 SSIM 0.0755 0.1823 0.2328 27.70 PSNR (dB) 6.1453 6.2268 6.3265 1.60 VI. Security Analysis The security of the proposed scheme is discussed here with the following security aspects. Authentication image for additional security With any one of the GEVCS color shares, the hackers may generate the other counterfeit shares, such that the legitimate receiver may get a bogus secret image instead of the original secret image. To overcome this weakness, a color authentication image is encoded into the GEVCS shares. In the 1st level of decoding, the vague authentication image is reconstructed and is used to validate the genuineness of the secret image, thus enhancing the security of the scheme. Further, the perfect retrieval of the authentication image is achieved by computations, in the 2nd decoding phase. Histogram of Shares Fig. 10 shows the histogram pattern of the color GEVCS share 1, for truncation factor ÃŽÂ ± = 7. It can be observed that the pixels occupy value up to 36 (i.e. 28/ÃŽÂ ±) and at 255. By choosing different values of ÃŽÂ ±, the pixel distribution of GEVCS shares can be limited accordingly. Unlike the original secret image, where pixels are distributed over the entire range, GEVCS shares are secured with limited pixel distribution, thus enhancin

Customer Satisfaction with Self Service Checkout

Customer Satisfaction with Self Service Checkout Chapter 2 This chapter explains about the possible literature review about the self service checkout system and its operation in relation with customer satisfaction and retention. It will introduce you to some of the theories about the self service technology, customer satisfaction and retention. At the end, you will find the critical review of this literature review and possible arguments and recommendations. Literature Review As companies/supermarkets have race to introduced technology that enables the customers to get service on their own (Bitner, M. Amy, L. Ostrom and Matthew, L. 2002). Growing number of customers interacted with the technology to create service outcomes instead with a service firm employee (Matthew, L. Amy, L. Ostrom, Robert, I. And Bitner, M. July 2000). The overall affect model is based on the consumers feelings toward the use of technology (Pratibha A. and Dabholkar 1996). The Supermarkets which introduce self-service checkout systems wish to gain rapid acceptance and usage of these technologies by potential consumers. (Jungki, L. and Allaway, A. 2002) According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is â€Å"a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new.†Drejer (2002) argues that innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: â€Å"†¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources †¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution †¦Ã¢â‚¬  The sales profit is a simple conceptual framework chain to linking with the employee satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction and financial performance. This sales profit chain is the relationships between employee and customer satisfaction (Gary, W. and Loveman, 1998). The benefit of the customer reten tion and satisfaction has been characterized by using the repurchase intention or a factor score of quite a few measures repurchase goal, and price tolerance. So that the purpose to use the customers management strategy that is the based on managing both satisfaction and benefit of customer retention (Narayandas, D. 1998). Performance expectation and the actual performance have major significance in the Evaluation process, as we need to determine the dimension of product and service performance. Most customers do not switch from satisfied seller to their competitors, but, there are several factors that could affect customer behaviour to switch to different service provider such as mistake in core service failure, service encounter failures, variable prices, inconvenience, responsive to service failures, attraction by competitors, ethical behaviours and involuntary switching etc. (Hawkins, Best and Coney, 2004) Retailers need to analyze what makes a new product from the point of view by the customer if customers facing problems understanding the reason behind the introduction of new self-service checkout systems (SSC) they will not use the system. As we launch new self-service systems, we need to analyse the consumer behaviour as well. The consumer should be involved in some way or another at most stages in the introduction of self-service checkout system. Every retail or sales companies should take care of customer wants and needs (Wright, R. 2006). Consumers feel a sense of pleasure in understanding that they have found a unique store that they can, and do, frequent. This suggestion is suggested on the notion of value as a function of both worth (Oliver, 1999) and scarcity. People feel good when they find something of worth that is not easily available the feel good feeling from the ordinary and the mundane, is different from satisfaction in that it consists qualitative effects such as enjoyment and happiness. In contract, satisfaction is an evaluative judgment (Oliver, 1997) and more cognitive in nature (Howard and Sheth, 1969). Satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive evaluation resulting from the fulfilment expectations. Satisfaction is a judgment based on either a cognitive or emotional appraisal, made by the customer whether his or her expectations were met (Oliver, 1997). Positive affect is a pleasurable emotional response (Bogozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer, 1999). â€Å"If organizations want to consider total customer experience, satisfaction by itself is a weak measurement† (Barlow and Maul, 2000) As a result, when a consumer experiences more differentiation value in the store, consumer will be more likely to feel more positive responses toward the store (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) The literature in retailing and customer behaviour has identified commitment as ones â€Å"motivation† to keep a relationship with the retailer (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997 and Fournier, 1998).The self-service checkout system (SSC) into the service come across necessitates research to improved understand customers attitudes toward overhaul providers and technologies, and their intentions to employ technology-based facility delivery systems. In this research, the authors build up and experiment three structural models that include a pecking instruct of consumer attitudes toward together the psychological and the technological factors of the come across to better appreciate their intentions to utilize Self Service Technologies. The result indicates that intentions to exercise self-service technologies options are ambitious by manifold, hierarchical attitudes. In calculation to the direct belongings of attitudes toward exact self-service technologies and individual employees, the findings corroborate that higher direct worldwide attitudes toward service technologies pressure intentions to use self-service technologies. fascinatingly, the findings indicate that heavy self-service technologies users rely more on attitudes toward specific self-service technologies than do light self-service technologies users, who rely more heavily on universal attitudes toward self-service technologies when formative intention to utilize an self-service technologies. (James, M. Matthew, L. Meuter and Carol, F. 2003) Kano Model Analysis: The customer satisfaction model from professor Kano is a marketing and quality management approach that can be used for assessing and establishing customer satisfaction and happiness. Kano model has six categories of customer quality characteristics, but, only the first three specially relate to customer satisfaction. (Kano, 2007) These factors are: a) Basic factors b) Excitement factors c) Performance factors Basic factors The prerequisite factors that will cause dissatisfaction if they are not met, but, do not establish customer satisfaction. If they are fulfilled or cross expectations customer regard this as essential and basic factors contribute to market entrance ‘threshold Excitement factors These requirements if they are met can increase customer level satisfaction, but, if they do not meet the requirements, do not cause customer dissatisfaction. These factors come to customers as surprise and create satisfaction. A company can come out from crowd from competitors in a positive way using these factors. Performance factors These factors are concerned with the performance level. So, we can conclude that customer satisfaction is directly related to the performance level, if the performance level is high, then, customer satisfaction will be met, but, if the performance level is low, cause dissatisfaction. These factors are directly related to customer desires, wants and needs etc. So, company should try to be competitive in a market. Illustration of features or needs vs satisfaction (Adapted from Prof. Kano, 1994) Customer point of view in relation to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) Researcher forecasting about the adaptation of the self service checkout system have been gone against the past recommendation, instead, customers are using this technology more and embrace this technology with open arms. Reasons for Supermarket to adopt this technology: Customers do prefer to use their bank cards in privacy and anonymity. Queue awaiting time reduction; Need for self-service; Quick payment; Shoppers feel empowered; Retail market is shifting towards radio frequency identification which will replace the bar code. However this might be a foundation for increasing working hours, as supermarkets not depending on a cashier. Due it is not many research have been done in the UK practise might be relevant for this research and will be in future referred as a compare base. Theoretical Framework Porters competitive advantage theory is a classical and one of the foundational in business literature, however lately it was criticized by some authors (Day and Wensley, 1988 and Hunt and Morgan, 1995). Therefore some complementary concepts have been suggested. In order to reinforce research the Porters value-chain theory was complemented with the more current Value-Network model of Stabell and Fjeldstad (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998). Value-chain theory and the value network model are presenting the different activities of a company where value can be cond and added through SSC systems. This model allows the researchers to investigate the different activities of companies on which the implementation of technology-based self-service as an innovation can have an effect. Theoretical Framework Implication In order to fully understand the impact of introducing Self Service Checkout system (SSC) in ASDA supermarkets it is necessary to look into: role and importance of innovation in a business context, product life cycle connected to SSC; competitive advantage theory and complementary concepts, value chain theory, and finally the importance of customer relationship management in the ‘new self-service economy. Innovation Before we are going to analyze stage it is important to understand what innovation in business context is. The full understanding can be obtained through definition of the term. According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is â€Å"a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new.† Drejer (2002) argues that â€Å"innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation†. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: â€Å"†¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources †¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution †¦Ã¢â‚¬  In the following relation, the innovation in a business context is a product, device, service, programme, service provider, or methods of services delivery that are new, unusual, or in other ways different from those previously used and positively reflects in overall output of the organization in form of added value directly to the organization or its customers. In the case of this research, innovation in form of SSC brings changes into service delivery. In order to understand the impact of the innovation it is necessary to understand to which area of service delivery it related. Dabholkar (2003) made a classification of technology in service delivery with three dimensions. †¢ â€Å"By whom the service is delivered and who operates the technology†. †¢ â€Å"Where the service is delivered (at the shop or in customers home); and how the service is delivered†. Depending on which category the service belongs to different factors will affect the customers evaluation of the service quality. This classification can be useful in guiding companies in the development of their marketing strategies when implementing SSC systems. Table At service site At customers place Direct contact Customer goes to service site and performs service using technology at service site. E.g. ATM, self-service at retail checkouts. Customer uses technology from home/office to perform service. E.g. internet shopping. Indirect contact Customer goes to service site and uses automated telephone system to perform service. E.g. automated wake-up calls at Hotels. Customer calls automated telephone service from home/office to perform service. E.g. automated ticket-ordering over telephone. Source: Dabholkar, 1994 in Anselmsson, 2001, page 13. Shadowed cell is the relevant technology for this research. Using this type of SSC, the customer goes to the service site and performs the service by using the technology provided at the service site. This implies a greater importance and wider range of quality issues in the interactive marketing function of the organisation. Product/service life Cycle In a business context everything is going through different level, stages of performance. It is similar to the any life development. From the cell of life to the maturity and death, the products are repeating same way from idea to implementation and ultimately death. Particularly in our case the service as well as product must be planned and introduce to employees, customers and eventually be accepted by them. It is crucial for the managers to adjust and control its performance while it goes through different stages. The effect respectively will be also different on different stages. Therefore, considering the life cycle of SSC systems is important when investigating the effects on company competitiveness. The product life cycle tend to go through the five stages of products: †¢ Service/product development; †¢ Market introduction; †¢ Growth stage; †¢ Mature stage; †¢ Stage of decline. Each stage is different in effectiveness of the product, expenses, revenue, etc. The first stage usually money intensive as there is no sales revenue and all expenses are covered by different organizations activities, in our case no effectiveness gain from reducing cost of operation. Stage two is quite expensive in our case as technological cost is very high. The purchase of the machineries and shops infrastructure adjustments to accommodate it are required. Moreover the staff and customers trainings and special promotions materials must be prepared. The third stage is continuous use of SSC by customers and therefore operational cost reduction becomes positive revenue, which might cover the marketing expenses. The fourth stage is characterised by very low costs of operation as number of customers who is using it increased. The final stage might come as soon as more efficient and productive technology will arrive and current become outdated. (Day, 1981) The progression of a product through these stages is not certain however. Some products may stay in the mature stage forever, for example commodities such as milk, others might not even rich stage of maturity. These products go through their life cycle as marketers â€Å"marketing mix† strategies change. For example, advertising is informative stage of the introduction, maturity stages, winning in the growth and in the decline stage reminder-oriented. In the early stages the promotional budget tends to be highest, and as the product gradually taper off matures and decline. Product characteristics, pricing, distribution also tend to change. (Day, 1981) The concept of product life cycle, applied to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) innovations, has also been introduced as an important concept that also contributes to affecting competitiveness. The Value-Chain Porters value chain framework today still is the ‘accepted language for representing and analyzing the logic of firm-level value creation, and is also a framework for analyzing firm-level competitive strengths and weaknesses. In value chain analysis â€Å"competitive advantage is understood by these discrete activities of the value creation process that contribute to the firms relation cost place and produce a basis for segregation. These activities are the ‘building blocks from which a product or process is created that is valuable to the firms customers. The different activities have different economics and thus contribute differently to the valuable characteristics of the product or process†. The value creating activities in Porters model are divided in two levels. â€Å"Primary activities consist of directly interact to create and bring value to the customer, while support activities facilitate and develop the performance of the primary activities†. The primary activity level consists of five actions: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, promotion and sales and service. The maintain actions are procurement, technology growth, human supply management, and firm infrastructure. It is important to note that the different activity categories are not the same as organizational functions. Using the value chain for analysis, â€Å"costs and assets are assigned to the value activities as a first step, and are further analyzed as â€Å"structural drivers† related to the scale and scope of the firm, linkages across activities, and environmental factors. Cost and value drivers are usually analyzed separately. Moreover, drivers are partly related to internal relationships, partly to external factors, and partly to relationships between internal and external factors as well. The main drivers of value are policy decisions made by product and segment choices when the firm is established or repositioned†. (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998) According to Porter, â€Å"the value-creating logic of his value chain with its generic activity categories is valid for firms in all industries. However, he further states that the specific activities that are vital to a firms competitive advantage depend on which industry the firm operates†. (Porter, 1985, 1990) Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) however have investigated the application of the value chain model to a variety of industries and have experienced problems in applying the value chain frame work to more than two-dozen firms. They have found that the value chain is suitable for describing and understanding the value creation logic of manufacturing firms, but that it proves problematic when analyzing activities in service industry firms. They argue that â€Å"problems arise from difficulty to assign and analyze activities in terms of the five generic primary value chain categories proposed by Porter, leading to unclear explanations of value creation†. Therefore, Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) suggest that â€Å"the value chain can be considered as one of three generic value configurations to facilitate the understanding and analysis of firm-level value-creation logic for a broad range of industries and firms†. The additional two value models besides the value-chain are the value network and the value shop. The importance shop model applies to firms where price is created by â€Å"mobilizing income and performance to resolve an exacting customer difficulty†, for example professional service firms dealing with medicine, law, architecture and engineering. The value network model refers to firms that generate cost by â€Å"facilitating an organization relationship among their customers using a mediator technology†. Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) also propose alternative presentation formats for both models that represent their unique value creation logic. For the purpose of this research both Porters value chain and Stabell and Fjeldstads value network is of importance. Although Stabell and Fjeldstad state that according to their findings the value chain is mostly useful for manufacturing firms, for our investigation of supermarkets ‘traditional operations, the value chain is most fitting, with one small alteration. However, in also considering the introduction of a new type of service offering through technology-based self-service checkouts, it is found necessary to complement the value chain model with the value network model in order to be able to capture the value adding activities of SSC. The combination of the different value-creating logics, as suggested for this research, has also been proposed by Norman and Ramirez (1993). Since the main purpose of the research is to investigate the effects of SSC in supermarkets, the value network is of central importance, which is discussed in further detail below. The Value Network â€Å"Value networks use a ‘mediating technology to link clients and customers who wish to be interdependent.† According to Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998), â€Å"the firm provides a networking service through the mediating technology and thus facilitates exchange relationships among customers distributed in space and time†. For the consideration of SSC, the value network idea is modified to mean that the firm is the network itself, linking its customers not to each other but to the firm itself, facilitating a more interdependent exchange relationship between the firm and its customers. Customer Satisfaction â€Å"To measure the customer satisfaction of how your organisation`s `total product` performs in relation to a set of customer requirements.† (Gower, 1999) If you like to measure the customer satisfaction of the customers and you need direction exactly what you are measuring. Understanding the concept of customer satisfaction is very easy and can be done by assuming yourself as a customer in a supermarket. Satisfaction is simple. If you get what you wanted and your requirements are met, you are satisfied. The starting point of a customer satisfaction management is to set the objectives. There are different customer satisfaction objectives that can be set. * Customers` requirements (important ratings) * Customer satisfaction (Satisfaction ratings) * Comparison with other organizations * PFIs (priorities for improvement) * Customer satisfaction index * A track able measure of satisfaction * The internal perspective Firstly, you should identify customers` requirements and there are many things customers want and need but we need to identify most relative of customer requirements. Secondly, you must measure customer satisfaction. Organisational performance is directly related to customer satisfaction and list of customers` requirements. Thirdly, if you could go a bit further to analyse the customers` requirements as compared to other same organisations. (In our example `supermarket`) This will give you the opportunity to get the benchmarking. By using benchmarking, you could analyse the requirements of your supermarket customers` as satisfied or not satisfied. Fourthly, after getting the customers` satisfaction measures, you can use these measures to produce some survey outcomes and the first of that step is to identify the PFIs (Priorities for improvement) Fifth, you will need to measure the overall customers` satisfaction. We call it a satisfaction index and it will indicate us to monitor progress from the one year to the next for the overall customers` satisfaction. Finally, customers` satisfaction survey has to be done inside the supermarket to know about the understanding of employees about their customers` requirements. It will help any supermarket to indentify that if their employees know about their customers` requirements and can indentify gaps. An internal survey can also be used to help the management to make the decision making process and strategic management. (Gower, 1999) Achieving Customer Satisfaction: â€Å"Customer satisfaction is measured frequently. Sampling is extensive. Surveys are quantitative as well as qualitative. The measures are taken very seriously. They are reviewed unfailingly by Top management: the development of such measures is taken very seriously as the development of budgetary measures or product reliability measures. Evaluation of people in all functions at all levels is significantly affected by the satisfaction measures†. (Tom Peter, a Passion for Excellence) Customer delight seems very credible people say things like: In today`s competitive markets customer satisfaction is no longer enough; you have to delight the customers, give them something they did not expect to keep their business. In customer satisfaction, the link between customer loyalty, customer retention and profitability can make get better customer satisfaction. It has been shown that customer retention can boost profit of the supermarket as it is very easy to keep the existing customers than getting new customers. After getting the trend data and established the satisfaction- loyalty ratio in your market for your organisation, you make some models. Some companies now have `business performance models` based on their customer satisfaction management survey results that have quantified the exact links between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales and profit. They know that how much one percent improvement in customer satisfaction will improve loyalty how much that contributes to profits. Precisely, this is a very powerful forecasting tool. Customer Satisfaction and the Performance: Customer satisfaction can be defined as more loyal customer and it involves emotional and complicated process. Every customer has certain level of product or service expectation and desire. If customer expectation level increased as a result of using that product or service, then, customer experiences satisfaction. (Simon Homburg 1998, Page 44) However, â€Å"Satisfaction has also recently been described as the emotional reaction to this cognitively defined process of comparison†. (Homburg and Rudolph 1995, page 31) In this context, customer experiences that the outcome of the process of comparison will not always give the correct result about the expected satisfaction outcome and actual level of satisfaction outcome. Instead, direct effect of these outcomes or satisfaction levels also interacts with satisfaction. (Bolton et al. 1991 page 376) The customer satisfaction has been in research for long time, mostly research and investigation has been done on the customer satisfaction, but, not on the customer retention. It is the experience and attitude of the employee in closest contact with customers that customers are satisfied, loyal and customer retention has been achieved. The Satisfaction is an â€Å"a overall attitude of customer towards the service provider† (Levesque and McDougall, 1996) The companies are more successful, later research has showed if they adopt customer retention rather than customer satisfaction. (Knox, 1998) Customer satisfaction brings many benefits. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive; they purchase more items, not go to competitors and stay longer. (Zineldin, 2000) Customer satisfaction is directly related with the customer complaint process management. If customer complains more, then, it increases more customer satisfaction. Customer complains about the product or service he/she receives, then, supermarket can achieve more customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001) â€Å"The product innovations, staff service, price, convenience and business profile are all determinants of customer satisfaction†. (Athanassopoulos, 2000) Later, Bejou et al. (1998) propose that â€Å"customer satisfaction can be enhanced through relationships, provided they are developed and managed to the customer`s satisfaction† Customer retention is not directly related with the customer satisfaction. Sometime customer do not change service provider because of the alternative circumstances, but, customer satisfaction level remain the same. Sometime customers do not have any choice to change their service provider, so, they stick with their existing provider. Hallowell (1996) argues that customer satisfaction cannot produce life time customer loyalty even though customer satisfaction has been increased, but, retention can be related with customer satisfaction. Retention can be understandable as â€Å"to do business or exchange a commitment to continue with a particular company on an ongoing basis†. (Zineldin, 2000) Retaining old customers are easy and cheap to keep as compared to the new customers because they are more loyal and less price sensitive. They keep their loyalty to their existing service provider and do not change their loyalty to the new service provider. It increases customer retention, satisfaction, lower price sensitivity, higher market share, higher productivity and higher efficiencies. (Reichheld, 1995) The authors suggest that in order to retain customers, companies should always change and developing their product and services to meet the ever changing needs of customers. â€Å"The concept of acquiring, developing and retaining customers from a cognitive and affective perspective†, they provide examples of how cognitive and affects are used to increase retention. (Desai and Mahajan, 1998) â€Å"Customer satisfaction is a direct determining factor in customer loyalty, which, in turn, is a main presentation of customer retention†. (Gerpott et al., 2001) Customer satisfaction can be achieved by customer retention. Customer complaint process can boost the stage of customer satisfaction that result in customer retention. Employee perspective is also very important with relation of the customers. Individual relationship with the customer can boost the level of customer satisfaction. It is direct related with the mental theories of customer and employee perspectives. Managers should be aware of customer wants and needs as well as employee mental perspective. Different employees keep different level of relationship with the customers that could affect the customer satisfaction and retention level. Therefore, Managers must keep eye into employee/customer relationship and set realistic goals to achieve. (Spreng et al, 1995) Customer Retention Customer retention is directly linked with the customer satisfaction. The framework guide managers to decide which part of customer satisfaction has more collision, which part of customer satisfaction needs to be improve and make strategies to retain existing customers. An individual level model of loyalty and customer retention has been developed, that can be used to predict effects of service level improvement at supermarket. â€Å"Customer satisfaction has been changed recently from transactional marketing to relationship marketing†. (Grà ¶nroos, Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1994) â€Å"To all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges† (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) â€Å"Customer satisfaction has been treated as essential instrument for the customer retention has gained significant importance in relational marketing approaches†. (Rust and Zahorik, 1993) Kotler sums this up when he states: â€Å"The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction† (Kotler, 1994) â€Å"The assumption that satisfaction/dissatisfaction meaningfully influences repurchase behaviour underlies most of the research in this area of inquiry†. (Bloemer and Poiesz, 1989) It is the continued repeat shopping with the supermarket, when c

The brain :: essays research papers

Occipital, Frontal, and Temporal Lobes The occipital lobes are the center of our visual perception system. They are not particularly vulnerable to injury because of their location at the back of the brain, although any significant trauma to the brain could produce subtle changes to our visual-perceptual system, such as visual field defects and scotomas. The Peristriate region of the occipital lobe is involved in visuospatial processing, discrimination of movement and color discrimination (Westmoreland et al., 1994). Damage to one side of the occipital lobe causes homonomous loss of vision with exactly the same "field cut" in both eyes. Disorders of the occipital lobe can cause visual hallucinations and illusions. Visual hallucinations (visual images with no external stimuli) can be caused by lesions to the occipital region or temporal lobe seizures. Visual illusions (distorted perceptions) can take the form of objects appearing larger or smaller than they actually are, objects lacking color or objects having abn ormal coloring. Lesions in the parietal-temporal-occipital association area can cause word blindness with writing impairments (alexia and agraphia) (Kandel, Schwartz & Jessell, 1991). Frontal Lobe The Frontal Lobe is responsible for cognition and memory. The prefrontal area gives one the ability to concentrate, judgment and inhibition as well as personality and emotional traits. The premotor area is responsible for storage of voluntary activities and motor patterns. The motor area provides voluntary motor activity. Language is a motor speech. Temporal Lobe Location of the temporal lobe is near the temples just above the ear canal. Functions of the temporal lobe are to: Control hearing; from birth a baby can hear completely. The temporal lobe in the brain is fully developed before the baby is born. Language use; talking is very closely linked to hearing, and since people can hear they react by using language as means of communication. Emotions, especially fear plays a part in this role. Some complex aspects of vision, including the ability to see patterns such as faces. When the temporal lobe is damaged it causes:  · Deficits or limitations in understanding and comprehending spoken words  · May cause a lack of fear if the emotional responses are no longer working (a person seeing a snake may not be afraid because they don’t understand what the object even is)

Stress :: essays research papers

This report is on stress, what causes it, how and why, and how it can be cured. It will tell you all about stress, why it's important for people to understand, and what it can do to you and other people. Stress affects everyone and everything, that's why it's important that we all be properly educated on it. First we need to understand what stress is. Stress is basically the body's nonspecific response to any demand. Another way of describing stress is any nervousness or anxiety. Almost all people relate the word stress to discomfort or pressure. What they are actually thinking of is distress, which is often referred to as stress. There are many things that cause stress. In my opinion, this is the most important part of this whole report because knowing the cause for stress can help you avoid stressful situations. Just about any problem using thought can cause stress. One of the most stressful of all things, especially for teenagers, are social events. Popularity, friends, relationships, and looks are more stressful things to teenagers than parents. However, adults tend to face such stressors as meeting deadlines, fear of failure, anger, and frustration at the workplace. Everybody is effected by stress when it comes to things like wars, pollution, poverty, overcrowding, and crime. It is important to learn how to live with these situations, because it is nearly impossible to get through life without encountering them. Most people know that stress could be bad, but how bad? Physicians have proven that stress-related disorders, diseases brought on or worsened by psychological stress, are more likely to happen to people with very busy lives. The sad results of too much stress can be: depression, drug use, crime, dropping out of school, accidents, and even suicide. These psychosomatic disorders commonly involve the autonomic nervous system, which controls the body's internal organs. Some kinds of headache and back and facial pain, asthma, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, and premenstrual stress are examples of stress-related disorders. (Funk & Wagnall's.) Respiratory disorders also can be affected by stress. Most common of these is asthma which may be caused by emotional upsets. (Funk & Wagnall's.) In addition, emotional stress can cause or aggravate many skin disorders, from those that produce itching, tickling, and pain to those that cause rashes and pimples. Treatment of stress-related disorders is sometimes limited to relieving the particular physical symptom involved; for example, hypertension may be controlled with drugs. (Funk & Wagnall's.) Psychological treatments are attempts to help the person to relieve the source of stress or to learn to deal with it. Combinations of physical and psychological treatments are often recommended. There are many type of "toys," that help deal with stress also,

Labor Rate

Labor rate variance is the difference between the actual labor rate and the applied overhead rate (standard rate multiplied by the number of actual hours worked). Consider this and respond to the following: †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Our workers are all under labor contracts. Therefore, our labor rate variance is bound to be zero. † Do you agree or disagree that the labor rate variance will be zero if all workers are under labor contracts? Explain giving reasons. The concept of labor rate variance and its application are accurately identified and explained with pertinent examples. The labor rate variance is the difference between the actual labor rate paid and the standard rate, multiplied by the number of actual hours worked. The formula is: Actual rate – Standard rate x Actual hours worked = Labor rate variance. An unfavorable variance means that the cost of labor was more expensive than anticipated, while a favorable variance indicates that the cost of labor was less expensive than planned. There are a number of possible causes of a labor rate variance. The labor rate variance will not be zero because workers ate under contract. Wage rates paid to workers are quite predictable. Nevertheless, rate variances can arise because of the way labor is used. Skilled workers with high hourly rates of pay may be given duties that require little skill and call for lower hourly rates of pay. This will result in an unfavorable labor rate variance, since the actual hourly rate of pay will exceed the standard rate specified for the particular task. In contrast, a favorable rate variance would result when workers who are paid at a rate lower than specified in the standard are assigned to the task. However, the lower-paid workers may not be as efficient. Finally, overtime work at premium rates will result in an unfavorable rate variance if the overtime premium is charged to the direct labor account. Direct labor variance is the difference between the standard cost and the actual cost of production. Considering this, answer the questions that follow: †¢What effect, if any, would you expect poor quality materials to have on direct labor variances? If poor quality materials create production problems, a result could be excessive labor time and therefore an unfavorable labor efficiency variance. Poor quality materials would not ordinarily affect the labor rate variance †¢How must a company plan to mitigate the risks associated with direct labor variances? The standard labor rate established by a company is an average, usually pertaining to average quality workers. Newly hired workers will likely get paid less which creates a favorable labor rate variance. They will also work more slowly than more experienced workers creating an unfavorable labor efficiency variance. The opposite is true if a company employs highly skilled workers The production supervisor hires production workers and assigns each a wage rate. He is able to give them raises and terminate them if necessary. For this reason, if a labor rate exists, we inquire with the production supervisor to try to determine the variance cause. The production supervisor oversees the production workers and monitors the efficiency with which each of these workers works. For this reason, if a labor efficiency exists, we inquire with the production supervisor to try to determine the variance cause

Case of Aline Deneuve

Case of Aline DeNeuve This case Aline DeNeuve is written by Alvin Turner, from St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Canada. There are a lot of issues in this case. Aline talked with five random employees to secure their views on having another retreat and to take their opinion how effective was the previous retreat. The first employee she talked with was Heather. The main issue over here is mostly stereotypical and racial discrimination. Heather told she doesn’t like retreats. She also said that she was ignored to give a promotion six months ago by her supervisor Jack as she was Chinese, and that her supervisor doesn’t like foreigners.She also stated that the three day retreat held once a year won’t solve the anti-social atmosphere between the employees. This problem occurred because Heather was upset with Jack for the reason she was not promoted by him. Categorization is an OB concept which falls under stereotyping. This is a comparison process for social identity, and that comparison begins by categorizing people into different groups. Heather thought she was categorized by her supervisor Jack as she was from China. Homogenization is another OB concept that falls under stereotyping. It is a simplified process of comparing people in various groups.Here people tends to think that, people with in a group are very much similar to each other despite the fact that everyone is an individual and have their own different characteristics. Heather thought that jack was homogenization towards her as she belonged from China, and was from some kind of Chinese group. Heather also thought that Jack was discriminating towards her as she was a foreigner, and so didn’t give her a promotion. There were also internal attribution factors in Heather as she regularly took large numbers of sick days from work, for the reason she thought her supervisor was discriminating her.She also had fundamental attribution error. Fundamental attribution error is a bias, re fers to our tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of the person’s behaviour. Heather thinks that she is biased by her supervisor. These problems can be fixed in various ways by Heather. Awareness of perceptual biases is one of the ways her problems can be solved. Training on diversity awareness can lessen discrimination by making people aware of methodical discrimination as well as biases that occur through stereotyping. Awareness of perceptual biases can make people more watchful of their opinions and activities.Thus, Heather might have a better point of view about Jack, and might think more positively about the outcomes that come in real life. Another way of fixing her problem is by improving self-awareness. It is a more powerful way to minimize perceptual biases; it provides evidence that the individual’s own conduct and choices reflect these biases. Therefore Heather can have a better and positive view of what is happening in her su rroundings and how positively she can take them. However, Heather can have a conversation period with her supervisor and discuss all the matters that are bothering her.This might help her understand Jack in a better way and stop all kinds of problematic issues they have between each other. The second employee Aline talked with was Jack. Jack is the manager of marketing department. He did not want to attend the retreat. He was upset as he was not promoted to the director position. Jack thought that he was passed over because he was black. He suggested that the organization should invest more money in its security purposes as he thinks lot of employees are taking home office supplies. He also thought that the company should design a better job orientation and socialization program for the new employees.The problem over here was Jack thought that he didn’t get the promotion because he was black; he assumed that he was racially discriminated. He also made a very serious statement about other office employees, that they have been taking office supplies to their home. This to my thought was really offensive to other employees especially when he had no evidence to prove them. The only positive statement that I thought Jack made was having a better designed job orientation and socializing program for the new employees. This step would really help the new comers to get involved in various activities in an organization.In this part of the case I found two problems that took place with Jack. The first one was Jack thinking stereotypically about himself. His thinking was more of stereotypical because he thought he was racially discriminated in the organization and so was not given a promotion to the director position. The solution to this problem can be diversity awareness training. This training will help Jack to minimize discriminating thoughts in his mind. He also needs to improve his self-awareness in himself which will let him know what he thinks about himself .The second problem associated with Jack was accusing other employees of the organization, for taking office supplies to their home. This is a very serious offensive issue. To me Jack thinks like this because he is having some internal issues with his fellow employees. This can be fixed from the Johari Window model. It helps to get to a mutual understanding which eventually encourages disclosure of argument. Jack can also have a formal conversation with the organization’s promotion giving team to get to know why he wasn’t selected for the director position; this might really help him to get to know the real facts.The third employee Aline had a conversation with was June, manager of customer service. She was also not keen to attend the retreat as she thought that the previous one was a waste of time. She also doesn’t like her job anymore as it became too stressful for her. She also stated that the company kept on promising her that it will hire more customer serv ice representative, but haven’t hired anyone. She also mentioned that it is getting hard for her to maintain her marriage with such a stressful job beside. June also said that she got tired of answering customer’s silly questions.The first problem June had was shortage of customer service representative which made her working condition stressful. She can write a letter to the organization’s head stating the entire problem that she is facing and asking for an immediate solution. The fact that June’s marriage life is getting affected from her work life falls in an OB concept, work-life balance. People tend to lose control of their marriage life due to a stressful condition in their work life. This problem can be solved by the means of virtual work.She can request the company to work from her home instead of working in the office using information technology. This will let her to for work from the comfort of her home; allowing to have a better and balanced l ifestyle. Many survey came up with results that on an average, a person working in a call center works no more than two years. However, I think June should leave her current job and look for a better one, because doing something that she doesn’t like, won’t be productive for her or the company. Fourth employee Aline spoke with was Alison, supervisor of employee benefits and services.Alison also expressed disagreement in attending another retreat. She said that some male and female employees think that retreats are an opportunity for hitting on one another. She also mentioned that the company should develop a policy regarding inter-office dating. She also stated that the management is contributing to these factors by not taking actions to stop such behaviour in work place. As Alison has very strong views to her religion she is very unsatisfied with the kind of environment that goes in work place, because most religious views are strong and conservative.This is more of a n issue than a problem. This issue falls under categorical thinking, as religious views falls under a specific category. In this categorical thinking people tries to relate every possible action in the base of that category, as Alison did by judging most of the situation in religious views. To overcome this issue Alison can go through a behaviour modification session, it is also known as operant conditioning and reinforcement theory. It helps people understand that learning and visualising completely depends on the environment and the situation.The last employee Aline talked with was Richard. Richard said he will be pleased to attend a retreat because he always felt these types of ventures are a great way to improve interpersonal relationship and to socialize with senior management. Richard was the only employee amongst the five employees who had positive and inspiring attitude. There was no problem that I could find from this conversation. Instead he was more inspirational for the other employees. He is extroverted, as he seems more outgoing, sociable, and assertive. The organization should take a lot of immediate actions to resolve these problems.The company can encourage its employees to join on various training sessions on improving self-awareness, awareness of perceptual biases, meaning full interactions with one another in office environment, behaviour modification, etc. The company can set up free training sessions to help their employee learn the visuals of work life in a modified and better way. One of the best alternatives can be, giving new employees not only job training but also other training to keep office environment healthy and good. MD Samiul Karim Shaown A00355188 Micro Organizational Behaviour MGMT-2383-1C