Cma Assignment

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/0959-6119. htm Job satisfaction and organizational commitment of hotel managers in Turkey Ebru Gunlu Tourism Management Department, Faculty of Business, Dokuz Eylul University, Buca, Turkey Job satisfaction and commitment 693 Received 30 March 2009 Revised 13 August 2009, 23 September 2009, 12 October 2009 Accepted 12 October 2009 Mehmet Aksarayli Econometrics Department, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Dokuz Eylul University, Buca, Turkey, and Nilufer Sahin Percin ? ? Trade and Tourism Education Faculty, Nevsehir University, Nevsehir, Turkey Abstract Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify the effects of job satisfaction on organizational commitment for managers in large-scale hotels in the Aegean region of Turkey and, in addition, to examine whether there is a signi? cant relationship between the characteristics of the sample, organizational commitment, a nd job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Two structured questionnaires were administered to large-scale hotel managers in the tourism industry.The survey instruments were adopted from the validated Minnesota Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire of Meyer-Allen. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 13. 0. Findings – The ? ndings indicate that extrinsic, intrinsic, and general job satisfaction have a signi? cant effect on normative commitment and affective commitment. In addition, the ? ndings suggest that the dimensions of job satisfaction do not have a signi? cant effect on continuance commitment among the managers of arge-scale hotels. When the characteristics of the sample are regarded, age, income level, and education have a signi? cant relationship with extrinsic job satisfaction whereas income level indirectly affect affective commitment. Research limitations/implications – Participant s are limited to the managers of large-scale hotels in Aegean region of Turkey so the results could not be generalized to the whole country; however, the number of respondents is assumed to be suf? cient to provide comprehensive results.Practical implications – Although job satisfaction is found to affect organizational commitment, practitioners should not disregard the fact that there is an interactive relationship between the two factors; otherwise, the organizations might be at risk. In addition, the governmental support is very important in minimizing the effects of seasonality problem in tourism. Originality/value – The previous research studies in Turkey generally have focused on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction correlation among the employees in different sectors of Turkey but usually within one organization.Upper level managers’ views and the tourism sector have sometimes been neglected. This research was conducted to address this de? c it in Turkey in terms of reaching various hotels in a region, trying to measure the viewpoints of the upper level managers, and conducting the research in a labor-intensive sector such as tourism. Keywords Job satisfaction, Turkey, Hotels, Managers, Developing countries Paper type Research paper International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Vol. 22 No. 5, 2010 pp. 693-717 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0959-6119 DOI 10. 108/09596111011053819 IJCHM 22,5 694 Introduction The need for close interaction and communication in service organizations generally threatens the satisfaction of the consumers, since the production and consumption process cannot be separated. For the accomplishment of guest satisfaction, the satisfaction of employees in the lodging organization is imperative. It should be noted that job satisfaction is a key factor to maintaining high performance and ef? cient service, which will directly increase the productivity of the organization.Researchers have focused on job satisfaction and link this concept to other variables such as organizational commitment, stress and burnout, empowerment, organizational performance, motivation, turnover intention, and sometimes demographic and personal characteristics (Chen, 2006; Fairbrother and Warn, 2003; Furnham et al. , 2002; Gaertner, 1999; Ghiselli et al. , 2001; Jernigan et al. , 2002; Karatepe et al. , 2006; Lam et al. , 2001; Linz, 2003; Silva, 2006; Spence Laschinger et al. , 2002; Tepeci and Bartlett, 2002; Tsigilis et al. , 2004). Most of the research (Chen, 2006; Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001; Kim et al. 2005; McDonald and Makin, 2000; Silva, 2006) has addressed the satisfaction and commitment level of the employees, but only a few of them (Lau and Chong, 2002; Lok and Crawford, 2004) have considered managers’ viewpoints. However, managers are the core points of the service production; therefore, their impact on the employees is very important. If the managers are not satis ? ed and not committed to the organization, their effectiveness in managing a hotel should be questioned. Thus, this research aims to investigate the satisfaction and commitment level of the managers in the Aegean region, especially those at four- and ? e-star hotels, in Turkey. A main appeal of these hotels is that they enable their guests to experience the effects of seasonality. Consequently, turnover rates are higher. The study analyzes whether the managers working in these seasonal hotels are satis? ed and committed to their organizations and whether their demographic variables have signi? cant effects on their satisfaction and commitment levels. In addition, the study meets the needs of the professionals within the tourism sector and provides feedback concerning the job satisfaction and organizational commitment relationship of the managers.Since the important factors that are associated with satisfaction (compensation, fringe bene? ts, social status, working condition, etc. ) and commitment (normative, continuance, and affective) are addressed, the professionals may try to evaluate their conditions and try to make synthesis why they are satis? ed and committed and/or vice versa. In addition, analysis included both the important characteristics of the tourism sector such as: (1) seasonality; and (2) ownership and the effects of demographic variables such as: . gender; . age; . educational background; . income; . ourism education; . experience in the sector; and . experience in the current organization on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Literature review Job satisfaction phenomenon Job satisfaction in a narrow context might be accepted as: [. . . ] the feelings or a general attitude of the employees in relation with their jobs and the job components such as the working environment, working conditions, equitable rewards, and communication with the colleagues (Glisson and Durick, 1988; Kim et al. , 2005). Job satisfaction and commitment Lock e (1969, p. 317) de? ed job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as â€Å"that job satisfaction is the pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job as achieving or facilitating one’s job values (Schwepker, 2001, p. 41)†. Job dissatisfaction is â€Å"the unpleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job as frustrating or blocking the attainment of one’s values†. Herzberg et al. (1959) de? ned the best known popular â€Å"theory of job satisfaction†. Their two-factor theory suggests that employees have mainly two types of needs, listed as hygiene and motivation.Hygiene factors are the needs that may be very satis? ed by some certain conditions called hygiene factors (dissatis? ers) such as supervision, interpersonal relations, physical working conditions, salary, bene? ts, etc. The theory suggests that job dissatisfaction is probable in the circumstances where hygiene factors do not exist in so menone’s working environment. In contrast, when hygiene needs are supplied, however, it does not necessarily result in full satisfaction. Only the dissatisfaction level is decreased (Furnham et al. , 2002).In this research, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) Short Form is used as the survey instrument. According to the scale, job satisfaction is considered as an attitude as mentioned above and there are three employee attitude’s facets of job satisfaction. These are classi? ed as intrinsic, extrinsic, and general reinforcement factors (20 factors). In order to evaluate intrinsic job satisfaction, there should be some important key factors to be addressed such as ability utilization, activity, achievement, authority, independence, moral values, responsibility, ecurity, creativity, social service, social status, and variety. For extrinsic job satisfaction, these factors are advancement, company policy, compensation, recognition, supervision-human relations, a nd supervision-technical. In addition to extrinsic and intrinsic factors, there is a general job satisfaction facet in which there are two more factors such as working conditions and co-workers. When intrinsic, extrinsic and these two factors are summed up then general job satisfaction is formed (Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001). De? ing organizational commitment There have been various studies in the literature addressing the concept of organizational commitment. Mowday et al. (1979) underlined a concept named as attitudinal commitment, whereas Price and Mueller (1986) de? ned it as behavioral commitment. Another approach was that of Meyer and Allen (1991). This is one of the most widely recognized approaches in organizational commitment literature. They suggested that organizational commitment was a multidimensional three-component model where: (1) affective attachment to the organization is de? ed as affective commitment; (2) perceived cost associated with leaving the organization is de? ned as continuance commitment; and 695 IJCHM 22,5 (3) an obligation to remain with the organization is de? ned as normative commitment (Buchko et al. , 1998; Lok and Crawford, 2001; Meyer and Allen, 1991; Meyer et al. , 1993). To conduct this research, Meyer and Allen’s multidimensional three-component model is regarded as a starting point. Organizational commitment is de? ned as: [. . . ] the relative strength of an individual’s identi? cation with and involvement in a particular organization.Conceptually, it can be characterized by at least three factors: (a) a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values; (b) a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization; and (c) a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization (Mowday et al. , 1979, p. 226; Mowday et al. , 1982, p. 27). 696 According to Mowday et al. (1979), organizational commitment is an attitude, which exists between the individual and the organization. That is why, it is considered as a relative strength of the individual’s psychological identi? ation and involvement with the organization (Jaramillo et al. , 2005). Hence, this psychological conceptualization addresses affective commitment where it includes three factors: identi? cation, involvement, and loyalty (Banai et al. , 2004). In addition to this earliest construct, some researchers such as Angle and Perry (1981), Hrebiniak and Alutto (1972) and McGee and Ford (1987) underlined another important dimension labeled as â€Å"continuance† commitment where an individual is committed to the organization not because of a general positive feeling but because of extraneous interests such as pensions, family concerns, etc. Shaw et al. , 2003). This two-dimensional construct has been revised by Meyer and Allen in 1991. They have developed a three-component model of affective, continuance, and normative commitment as mentioned above (Jernigan et al. , 20 02; Lok and Crawford, 2001; Meyer and Allen, 1991; Meyer et al. , 1993). According to Meyer and Allen (1997, p. 11): [. . . ] individuals who have strong affective commitment remain in the organization because they feel they want to, some with a stronger normative commitment remain because they ought to and those with strong continuance commitment remain because they need to.In addition, some researchers address that the individual is in? uenced by society’s norms, which is the sign of â€Å"social exchange theory† (Jernigan et al. , 2002, p. 565; Lok and Crawford, 2001, p. 594; McDonald and Makin, 2000, p. 86; Spence Laschinger et al. , 2002, p. 65). At this point, the impact of culture on organizational commitment (Kirkman and Shapiro, 2001; Randall, 1993) should be addressed. National cultures’ in? uences on individual behaviors are well established and the differences between cultures are quite signi? cant in Hofstede’s (1980) research. Individualism and collectivism† cultural dimension seems to be one of the related with organizational commitment since Hofstede (1980) claims when a person is alienated from individualism, he/she needs to be a part of a group where sometimes the organization they work for is one of these groups. When Turkish culture is analyzed, Hofstede’s ? ndings imply Turkish culture as the 28th country (1 – most individualistic and 40 – most collectivist) where it is closer to being a collectivist society (Tastan, 2006). In that frame, Turkish managers are ? upposed to be the member of a collectivist society and consequently this tendency should increase the organizational commitment level of Turkish managers. When Hofstede’s (1980) â€Å"Masculinity and Femininity† dimension is analyzed, the ? ndings prove that feminine values are stronger in Turkish culture. Since relationships, self-sacri? ce and emotions are important characteristics of feminine societies (Karakas, ? 2006), therefore Turkish managers are supposed to have higher affective and normative commitment. Are job satisfaction and organizational commitment related?Most of the research has treated job satisfaction as an independent and organizational commitment as a dependent variable (Gaertner, 1999; Jernigan et al. , 2002; Lok and Crawford, 2001; Mowday et al. , 1982). As Mowday et al. (1982) suggest, commitment and job satisfaction may be seen in several ways. Job satisfaction is a kind of response to a speci? c job or job-related issues; whereas, commitment is a more global response to an organization. Therefore, commitment should be more consistent than job satisfaction over time and takes longer after one is satis? d with his/her job (Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001, p. 6). Feinstein and Vondrasek (2001) analyzed the effects of job satisfaction on organizational commitment among the restaurant employees and the ? ndings proved that satisfaction level would predict their commitment t o the organization. Gaertner (1999, p. 491) also analyzed the determinants (pay workload, distributive justice, promotional chances, supervisory support, etc. ) of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The ? ndings showed that job satisfaction is a cause of organizational commitment. Jernigan et al. (2002, p. 67) examined the role that speci? c aspects of work satisfaction play as predictors of organizational commitment type. The researcher found out that affective commitment varied with one’s satisfaction with aspects of the work context. In that frame, the role of the managers cannot be denied since they are the key people in the management level responsible for carrying the organization toward success. Maxwell and Steele (2003) conducted their research among hotel managers and identi? ed some key issues that would increase the commitment level such as: . high levels of equal pay; . employer’s interest in them; . o-operation and trust between the employees as well as between the other managers in the hotel; and . opportunities to engage in social activities. Payment strategy (compensation) is accepted as extrinsic job satisfaction variable; employer’s interest in terms of independence, security is intrinsic job satisfaction variable where recognition is an extrinsic variable; co-operation and trust in terms of moral values are intrinsic whereas in terms of working conditions they are general job satisfaction variables; opportunities to engage in social activities re? ect the activity side of intrinsic job satisfaction.On the other hand, some researchers have admitted that organizational commitment may be an independent variable with job satisfaction as an outcome (Bateman and Strasser, 1984; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992). Although most of the research studies claim just the opposite, Bateman and Strasser (1984) suggest that organizational commitment has an effect on job satisfaction, which in turn will affect the turnover intenti on. These research studies argue that the managers who are highly committed to the organizations may experience higher levels of job satisfaction (Lau and Chong, 2002).Job satisfaction and commitment 697 IJCHM 22,5 698 According to the research of Lau and Chong (2002), highly committed managers strive for the organizational goals and interests. This attitude would affect the budget emphasis and managers’ behavior. Therefore, satisfaction is suggested as an outcome rather than an antecedent. In this study, as in the vast majority of research, the model suggests that job satisfaction is an antecedent of organizational commitment where the dimensions of job satisfaction have a signi? cant effect on the dimensions of organizational commitment.Job satisfaction and organizational commitment research: the tourism sector Aksu and Aktas (2005) investigated job satisfaction of middle and upper level ? managers in ? ve-star hotels and ? rst-class holiday villages. The ? ndings indicate that the working conditions should be improved in order to increase general job satisfaction (working conditions, extrinsic job satisfaction, and intrinsic job satisfaction) of the managers since promotion, morale conditions, ? nancial rewards, compensation and fringe bene? ts, working hours are important factors that affect the satisfaction level of the managers. Lam et al. 2001) suggest in their research that training and development programs for newcomers and well-educated employees in service industry might help improving job satisfaction. In the following years, Lam et al. (2003) conducted their research and focused on the socialization process of the newcomers. The ? ndings showed that if some people who are assumed as important ones by the respondents think that they should feel themselves satis? ed then the intention to leave the organization decreases. These ? ndings should prove that the mentors or seniors in an organization and the supervisors are likely to encourage the newcomer employees, in? ence job satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Kim et al. (2005, p. 171) examined the relationship between employee service orientation (customer focus, organizational support, and service under pressure) and employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employees’ intention of leaving. The sample consisted of restaurant employees and the ? ndings are as the followings: . customer focus of service providers are negatively associated with job satisfaction but positively related with organizational commitment; . organizational support is positively associated with job satisfaction; and . rganizational commitment is negatively associated with intention of leaving the organization. Karatepe et al. (2006) examined the effects of individual characteristics (self-ef? cacy, effort, and competitiveness) on frontline employee performance and satisfaction. What is a practical implication for a manager in this research is that unless a mana ger is not committed to provision of service quality, he/she should market a career rather than a job only and attract competitive and self-ef? cacious employees. In addition, the manager should maintain a healthy environment for minimizing con? cts arising from competition. Tepeci and Bartlett (2002) also conducted a research among frontline employees. They suggest that employee satisfaction is based on individual values as well as organizational factors (organizational culture). Consequently, the satis? ed employees will satisfy the customers and eventual, ongoing pro? tability will be the result. Gonzalez and Garazo (2006, p. 23) suggest that the managers of hotels should put great emphasis on front line employees to stimulate job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior.Therefore, service communicative leadership and service encounter practices in? uence employee organizational citizenship behavior and improve job satisfaction of the employees. Ghiselli et al. (2001) focused on food service employees, which included managerial levels. The respondents indicated that salary; bene? t packages, working hours, family, and quality of life were the reasons for satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction. The assistant managers were more likely to tell of their intent to leave than are higher level managers.Research hypotheses In an attempt to achieve the research goals, ? ve hypotheses are developed. Two possible antecedents of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which remain free of research so far, are the demographic variables: activity duration and hotel ownership. Therefore, the ? rst two hypotheses of this research focus on these so-called variables. It is sometimes argued whether the activity duration of the hotel (for example, a city hotel open for 365 days each year, and a resort hotel, which has a seasonal characteristic) affects the mood of the current employees.It is apparent and usually indicated in the literature that â€Å"seasonal ity† is an operating challenge. This challenge affects the attraction, training, and retention of competent employees (Angelo and Vladimir, 199; Ninemeier and Perdue, 2005). Therefore, the ? rst hypothesis in the study is: H1. Hotel activity duration has an effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Employees working in an independent hotel are considered to have limited career possibilities and to seek better opportunities in chain or franchise hotels. Such employees are usually considered to have lower organizational commitment.Since it is believed that there are fewer career opportunities in independent hotels, employees might be expected to experience lower satisfaction when compared to employees working in chains. An independent hotel, however, is usually a family-owned business that struggles in a competitive environment where the giant brands are stronger (International Labour Organization, 2001). On the other hand, managers working in independent hotels experience more involvement because they often have signi? cant contact with the individual or family who owns these hotels.Bonds of trust and friendship form which results in greater affectivity and normative commitment towards their organization. While owner-managers strive for the ? nancial success of their businesses, they also have many opportunities to develop their technical, operational, and interpersonal skills. Thus, the second hypothesis is: H2. Hotel ownership has an effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Most of the researchers have claimed that organizational commitment and job satisfaction are interrelated (Chen, 2006; Mowday et al. , 1982; Spence Laschinger et al. 2002). This would imply a relationship between the dimensions of each variable as well and leads to the third hypothesis: H3. There is a relationship between the dimensions of managers’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction and commitment 699 Many researc hers have discussed job satisfaction as an antecedent of organizational commitment (Bartol, 1979; Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001; Gaertner, 1999; Hrebiniak and Alutto, 1972; Mowday et al. , 1982; Yousef, 1998). This research is conducted to explore this premise further. The fourth hypothesis is: H4.Job satisfaction affects organizational commitment. There have been many researchers who examined the relationship between demographic variables – for example, age, gender, education, experience in the ? eld, experience in the organization, etc. to name a few – and organizational commitment and/or job satisfaction (Mowday et al. , 1979; Sarker et al. , 2003; Steers, 1977). Regarding the previous researches, this study also examines the relationship between the demographic variables, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Therefore, last hypothesis is: H5. There is signi? ant relationship between the characteristics of the sample, job satisfaction and organizational c ommitment. Methodology The sample consisted of the managers of four- and ? ve-star hotels in Aegean region of Turkey. What might be considered as a limitation was that the research was conducted in only one region, and could not, therefore, be generalized to the whole country. The sample size and the number of the respondents were assumed to be suf? cient in providing comprehensive results. Two different scales were used in conducting the study: Meyer-Allen Organizational Commitment Scale and Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale.Measures Organizational commitment scale. In this study, Meyer and Allen’s (1997, pp. 118-19) three component model of organizational commitment was used to determine hotel managers’ commitment level. According to Meyer and Allen research, these three mentioned components showed in time that affective, normative, and continuance commitment are very different and represent different aspects of commitment. Affective commitment is how individuals feel themselves to be involved within the organization; they believe in the organization’s values and objectives and desire to be loyal members (Banai et al. 2004, p. 378). In normative commitment, people feel obliged Job satisfaction scale. The widely accepted and used â€Å"MSQ† was developed by Weiss, Dawis, England, and Lofquist in 1967. The MSQ is a ? ve-point Likert type scale where the respondents were requested to state their perceptions of different items on the scale using the following ? ve categories: 5 – totally satis? ed, 4 – satis? ed, 3 – neither satis? ed nor dissatis? ed, 2 – dissatis? ed, 1 – totally dissatis? ed. The MSQ measures intrinsic satisfaction, extrinsic satisfaction and general satisfaction. The questionnaire consists of 20 items.In the intrinsic satisfaction category, the items include activity, independence, variety, social status, moral values, job security, social service, responsibility, ability utilizat ion, creativity, authority, and achievement dimensions. In the extrinsic satisfaction category, the items include supervision-human relations, supervision-technical, company policy, compensation, career progress, and recognition dimensions. General satisfaction is the sum of the intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction dimensions and two additional dimensions including working conditions and co-workers (Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001, p. ). MSQ is a widely recognized and trusted scale that highlights important components that form job satisfaction and has been used to measure job satisfaction with three dimensions by several researchers (Chen, 2006; Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001; Hancer ? and George, 2003; Lau and Chong, 2002) and demonstrated satisfactory results and reliability values. Data collection and analysis. The research was conducted during the high season in 2006. The total number of four- and ? ve-star hotels in Turkey in 2006 is 632 (Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey, 2 009). In this year, the number of four- and ? e-star hotels in the Aegean region was 108. Of the total, 48 were four-star, and the remaining 60 were ? ve-star hotels (Ekin Group and TUROFED, 2006). The population was selected randomly with a sampling ratio of 25 percent. A total of 48 managers in four-star hotels and 75 managers in ? ve-star hotels were reached for a total sample of 123 managers. A total of 43 managers were middle level; whereas, 80 were lower level managers such as supervisors. The reasons why these two levels were included in the research vary as the following: . The top-level managers were not reached because they were reluctant to ? l in the questionnaires due to their busy schedule. . Middle level managers such as department heads have a high span of control in their organization and their authority is high when they make the decisions and they have the responsibility to carry the departments to the organizational goals. . On the other hand, there was a huge po pulation of supervisors because they have a large work load and heavy responsibilities. The returned 123 surveys were included for the statistical analysis. The pro? le of the research sample is shown on Table I. This number of 123 managers was presumed to be suf? cient for statistical analysis (Cochran, 1977).The Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 13 was used to explore the data. The analysis included reliability testing and factor analysis. Consequently, hypotheses are tested; frequency test, t-test, ANOVA, regression and correlation analyses are conducted. Assessing organizational commitment. The organizational commitment scale was ? rst subjected to reliability testing. It was realized that of the 18 items, ? ve had negative effect on measuring general attitude. When they were removed from the analysis, the Cronbach’s alpha on the remaining 13 items was 0. 75. In order to see whether the Job satisfaction and commitment 01 IJCHM 22,5 Gender Male Female Educati on High school Undergraduate Graduate Post graduate Tourism education bacground Yes No Class of the hotel Four stars Five stars Managers’ distribution according to the class of the hotels Four stars Five stars Income level ($) 375 and below 375-565 565-752 752-940 940-1,228 1,228 and above Hotel type City Resort Hotel status Independent Chain Management levels Middle Low Descriptive statistics Age Working period in the tourism sector Working period in the current organization n 78 45 21 26 56 20 88 35 12 15 48 75 4 17 24 37 15 26 90 33 71 52 43 80 Mean 31. 49 9. 09 3. 79 % 63. 36. 6 17. 1 21. 1 45. 5 16. 3 71. 5 28. 5 44. 4 55. 6 39. 0 61. 0 3. 3 13. 8 19. 5 30. 1 12. 2 21. 1 73. 2 26. 8 57. 7 42. 3 34. 9 65. 1 SD 5. 607 4. 867 2. 581 702 Table I. Pro? le of research sample distribution of the values was adequate for conducting analysis, the Kaiser-Meyen-Olkin (KMO) measure was used with a result of 0. 647 (. 0. 50). In addition, Bartlett’s test of sphericity measure i ndicated that the multivariate normality of the set of distributions was normal, showing a signi? cant value, p ? 0. 000 (, 0. 05). Therefore, the data were feasible for conducting the factor analysis (Hair et al. , 1998).In observing the commonalities, it was found that the values were not smaller than 0. 40. This indicated a strong association among the variables. In addition the eigenvalue criterion was assessed. Factors having eigenvalues greater than 1 were assumed to be the new factors of the research, which should be retained. The eigenvalues of factors were 3. 372 explaining 26 percent, 2. 274 explaining 18 percent, and 1. 580 explaining 12 percent of cumulative variance. The three factors explain 56 percent of cumulative variance. To determine which items were loaded on which factor, rotated component matrix was inspected (Table II).The ? ndings suggest that there are three factors related to organizational commitment, which are listed, respectively, as normative, affective , and continuance. Items two to six loaded on the affective commitment factor; items one, 14, 16, 17, and 18 loaded on the normative commitment factor; items seven to ten loaded on continuance commitment. The reliability level of affective commitment was 0. 76, normative commitment was 0. 78, and continuance commitment was 0. 55. Since the reliability of continuance commitment was low, this factor was excluded from the analysis.In order to examine the relationships between the variables, descriptive Job satisfaction and commitment 703 Item no. Keyword Normative 16 To deserve 18 Career development 17 Responsibility 1 Career 14 Accuracy Affective 4 Affective commitment 6 State of belonging 5 Special meaning 2 Problems of management Continuance 9 Necessity 10 Alternative 8 Negativeness 7 Desire Extrinsic 19 Appreciation 12 Policy of organization 5 Management style 17 Working conditions 20 Feeling of Success 13 Wage 15 Decision 11 Skill 16 Method Intrinsic 10 Leading 9 Help 3 Differeren t behavior style 4 Prestige 8 Position General Intrinsic JB ? xtrinsic JB Factor loads 0. 791 0. 751 0. 750 0. 631 0. 582 0. 831 0. 738 0. 724 0. 650 0. 685 0. 679 0. 605 0. 519 0. 774 0. 743 0. 694 0. 688 0. 652 0. 651 0. 561 0. 491 0. 491 0. 766 0. 735 0. 670 0. 636 0. 635 Mean SD Reliability Eigenvalue 0. 78 3. 372 Variance (%) 25. 937 3. 358 0. 8807 3. 462 0. 8243 0. 76 2. 274 17. 495 0. 55 1. 580 12. 152 3. 821 0. 6745 0. 76 5. 014 35. 815 3. 492 0. 7315 0. 85 1. 983 14. 167 0. 5809 0. 83 Notes: Extraction method: principal component analysis; rotation method: equamax with Kaiser normalization; rotation converged in ? ve iterationsTable II. Rotated component matrix of organizational commitment and job satisfaction scale IJCHM 22,5 704 statistics were used. Normative organizational commitment level was determined to be greater than was affective organizational commitment. Assessing job satisfaction. The data gained from the application were subjected to reliability analysis. Sin ce 20 of the items showed a negative effect on the scale, they were excluded and only 14 items were retained. Cronbach’s alpha for the remaining 14 items was 0. 83. The KMO measure was conducted, and the result was 0. 826 (. 0. 50).In addition, Bartlett’s test of sphericity measure, showing that the multivariate normality of the set of distributions was normal, indicated a signi? cant value, p ? 0. 000 (, 0. 05). Therefore, the data were feasible for use in conducting the factor analysis (Hair et al. , 1998). Before performing the factor analysis, commonalities were inspected. Since there were no values smaller than 0. 40, factor analysis was applied. The eigenvalue of the ? rst factor was 5. 01, which explains 36 percent of the cumulative variance. For the job satisfaction scale, the two-factor structure was accepted.Job satisfaction dimensions have been classi? ed as extrinsic and intrinsic by some researchers (Furnham et al. , 2002; Graham and Messner, 1998; Lam et al. , 2001); thus, the items were loaded into two factors, and the factor analysis was limited to only two factors. With regard to the eigenvalue of 1. 983, the second factor represented 14 percent of the cumulative variance. In short, it can be stated that both of the factors together explained 50 percent of the cumulative variance. Based on the factor analysis, it was determined that there was a two-factor structure.Items three, four, eight, nine, and ten were loaded on intrinsic job satisfaction; and items ? ve, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 were loaded on extrinsic job satisfaction. The reliability level of intrinsic job satisfaction was 0. 85, and the reliability level of extrinsic job satisfaction was 0. 76. In the factor analysis, it was observed that the items loaded to factors similar to those in the original scale. Therefore, the total of the factors were considered as the overall (general) satisfaction, which had a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0. 83.Table II shows th e rotated component matrix of the job satisfaction scale where component 1 represents extrinsic and component 2 represents intrinsic dimensions. In order to examine the relationships between the variables, descriptive statistics were used. As seen in Table II, reliability of the intrinsic job satisfaction level of the managers was greater than was extrinsic or general job satisfaction. Results A total of ? ve hypotheses were tested. For the ? rst two hypotheses, t-tests were conducted to determine the differences in organizational commitment and job satisfaction within the subcategories related to: . otel activity duration; and . hotel ownership. Signi? cant differences that were found are presented and discussed in the following paragraphs: H1. Hotel activity duration has an effect on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. H1 suggested that the activity duration of a hotel has an effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The activity duration re? ects the r esort hotels’ and city hotels’ serving periods. The results of the analysis for the H1 are shown in Figure 1. 4. 2 3. 9 95% CI 3. 6 3. 3 3. 0 2. 7 4. 2 3,552 3,396 3,727 City 3,586 3,359 Independent 3. 95% CI 3. 6 3. 3 3. 0 2. 7 GeneralJSl AffectiveOC NormativeOC IntJS t = 2,122 p = 0. 036 t = –1,805 p = 0. 074 t = 1,438 p = 0. 153 t = 0. 232 p = 0. 818 3,794 3,642 Resort 3,57 3,33 3,083 3,648 3,356 3,292 3,873 Chain Job satisfaction and commitment 3,314 705 3,739 3,458 3,831 3,783 3,623 ExtJS t = 0. 498 p = 0. 137 AffectiveOC GeneralJS NormativeOC t = 0. 021 p = 0. 983 t = 1,895 p = 0. 061 t = 0. 741 p = 0. 460 ExtJS IntJS t = –0. 729 p = 0. 467 t = 2,270 p = 0. 026 Figure 1. 95 percent con? dence interval of the variables according to the hotel’s activity duration and hotel ownershipIt can be observed that affective commitment as well as general, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction of the city hotel managers was greater than that of the res ort hotel managers, but normative commitment was smaller. Based on the t-test results, using a con? dence interval of 95 percent, there was determined to be a signi? cant relationship between affective commitment of managers and the activity duration of the hotel in which they were employed. Managers working in city hotels had more affective commitment than the resort hotel managers did.This result may be explained by the seasonal characteristics of the tourism sector. Since the managers work for 12 months in a city hotel, they may experience security, social services, advancement, recognition, when compared to resort hotel managers. These obtained job satisfaction components may then increase the managers’ commitment to the organization. Since the turnover rate is lower and managers work for longer periods in city hotels, it may be claimed that the managers can form a state of belonging and a special meaning since they work for an organization for long periods.Therefore, the y may have higher affective commitment than the managers who need to leave the organization at the end of the season: H2. Hotel ownership has an effect on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The H2 was tested to determine whether there was a signi? cant difference in organizational commitment and job satisfaction of managers working in independent hotels versus those working in hotel chains. Figure 1 shows the results of the analysis using a con? dence interval of 95 percent. As seen in the ? ure, independent hotel managers’ affective and normative commitment and their general and extrinsic job satisfaction were higher than the commitment and satisfaction of chain hotel managers. However, in analyzing the results of the t-test, ownership of the hotel was only signi? cant in relation to extrinsic job satisfaction. Managers working in independent hotels had greater extrinsic job satisfaction than did managers of chain hotels. In terms of extrinsic job satisfaction, this result supports the fact that, managers working for independent hotels experience more involvement because independent IJCHM 22,5 706 otels are usually family-owned enterprises and usually the managers are the owners themselves where company policy does not create any obstacle or strict rules for the free movement of the managers. Managers have the opportunity to advance in shorter time intervals and may have the opportunity to develop themselves whether in technical or human relations issues because they are very much involved with most of the departments’ ongoing activities since specialization is less in these smaller hotels when compared to chains. In addition, the results indicate managers in independent hotels show higher affective and normative commitment.This is due to the fact that because organizational climate, company policies are smoother in independent hotels and the managers develop affectivity and feel themselves a very important piece of the organization . On the other hand, since the employers trust in them and these managers themselves are somehow like the owners of the hotel, they learn everything within the organization, spend most of their time to achieve the goals of the organization because achievement is identi? ed with their personal success and the owners of the hotel have con? ence in them; the managers feel a kind of obligation to stay and they may feel that they should not leave since they have loyalty. If the manager is the owner of the hotel at the same time then the affectivity level and normative commitment level is supposed to be the highest because their personal goals are the organizational goals and because prestige and the brand also represent the owner’s reputation: H3. There is a relationship between the dimensions of managers’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. In order to test H3, correlation analysis was performed.According to the correlation matrix, there was a positive and sign i? cant relationship between general job satisfaction and affective (sig. (two-tailed) 0. 001; Pearson correlation: 0. 309) and normative commitment (sig. (two-tailed) 0. 000; Pearson correlation: 0. 439) of managers. In addition, there was a positive and signi? cant relationship between: (1) intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction (sig. (two-tailed) 0. 000; Pearson correlation: 0. 403); (2) extrinsic job satisfaction and affective (sig. (two-tailed) 0. 000; Pearson correlation: 0. 349) and normative commitment (sig. (two-tailed) 0. 00; Pearson correlation: 0. 464); and (3) affective and normative commitment (sig. (two-tailed) 0. 020 signi? cant at the 0. 05 level; Pearson correlation: 0. 210). H4. Job satisfaction affects organizational commitment. H4 was tested using regression analysis. Organizational commitment was considered as a function of job satisfaction and served as the dependent variable in the regression analysis. The results of the analysis indicated that affective an d normative commitment dimensions were functions of general and extrinsic job satisfaction. As seen in Table III, the regression coef? ients had positive values indicating that as job satisfaction levels increased, organizational commitment increased as well. This result supports the model of the research and previous researches (Bartol, 1979; Gaertner, 1999; Hrebiniak and Alutto, 1972; Mowday et al. , 1982; O’Reilly and Caldwell, 1980; Stumpf and Hartman, 1984): Model AffectiveOC ? f(GeneralJS) AffectiveOC ? f(IntJS) AffectiveOC ? f(ExtJS i ) NormativeOC ? f(GeneralJS) NormativeOC ? f(IntJS) NormativeOC ? f(ExtJS) R 0. 31 0. 137 0. 349 0. 439 0. 172 0. 464 R2 0. 095 0. 019 0. 122 0. 193 0. 029 0. 215 F 12. 773 2. 31 16. 805 28. 847 3. 671 33. 177 Sig. 0. 01 0. 131 0. 000 0. 000 0. 058 0. 000 Coef? cient Value 1. 627 0. 309 2. 675 0. 137 1. 889 0. 349 1. 162 0. 439 2. 660 0. 172 1. 636 0. 523 t-test 3. 320 3. 574 5. 863 1. 52 5. 164 4. 099 2. 682 5. 371 6. 266 1. 916 5. 055 5 . 76 Sig. 0. 001 * 0. 001 * 0. 000 * 0. 131 0. 000 * 0. 000 * 0. 008 * 0. 000 * 0. 000 * 0. 058 0. 000 * 0. 000 * Job satisfaction and commitment b0 b1 b0 b1 b0 b1 b0 b1 b0 b1 b0 b1 707 Note: Coef? cient is signi? cant at: *0. 01 level (two-tailed) Table III. Regression analysis H5. There is signi? cant relationship between the characteristics of the sample and organizational commitment and job satisfaction. -test, ANOVA, and correlation analysis were conducted to determine the differences in organizational commitment and job satisfaction within the characteristics of the sample. For the variables â€Å"gender† and â€Å"tourism education background† t-test was applied and for the variables â€Å"education† and â€Å"income level† ANOVA was applied. â€Å"Age†, â€Å"experience in the sector†, â€Å"experience in the current organization† were subject to correlation analysis. Signi? cant differences that were found are presented and d iscussed in the following paragraphs and on Table IV. Most of the researchers have found a signi? ant relationship between age and job satisfaction (Hulin and Smith, 1965; O’Brien and Dowling, 1981; Rhodes, 1983). Savery (1996) in his research, claimed that as people grew older their intrinsic job satisfaction level became less important although age, income level and job satisfaction have a direct relationship. This is a similar result that was found in this research. It is clearly seen that extrinsic job satisfaction increases due to the increases in age and income level whereas intrinsic job satisfaction is not affected. Sarker et al. (2003) found in their research that job satisfaction has a signi? ant relationship with tenure. In relation tenure seemed to be a predictor of extrinsic job satisfaction rather than intrinsic job satisfaction of hotel employees. The employees remaining in the organization have increased extrinsic rewards while the dissatis? ed ones choose to leave the organization. When gender is regarded, in this research no signi? cant relationship is deducted. This is supported by some of the previous researches (Garcia-Bernal et al. , 2005; Ghiselli et al. , 2001; Karatepe et al. , 2006). Education has a direct relationship with job satisfaction supporting the previous researches (Kavanaugh et al. 2006; Lam et al. , 2001; Linz, 2003). Since the education level goes further, it results with increases in expectations for extrinsic rewards. If the expectations are ful? lled, then job satisfaction increases. Income level is the other demographic variable that has been examined through studies and positive relationship between extrinsic job satisfaction and income has been deducted (Clark and Oswald, 1996; Shaffer, 1987). This is an expected result since people with higher level of income ful? lls their extrinsic rewards and feel more 708 IJCHM 22,5 Gender tist p Tourism education tist p Education Fist p 20. 35 0. 352 20. 335 0. 739 0. 2 91 0. 832 0. 904 0. 442 2. 484 0. 064 2 0. 881 0. 380 0. 333 0. 739 0. 632 0. 528 2 1. 604 0. 111 0. 484 0. 629 1. 606 0. 111 Income Fist 3. 218 p 0. 009 * * AOC ($375 and below) ? 3. 5446 AOC ($375-$565) ? 3. 5344 AOC ($565-$752) ? 3. 5841 AOC ($752-$940) ? 3. 5893 AOC ($940-$1,228) ? 3. 3088 AOC ($1,228 and above) ? 3. 1300 Age Correlation 0. 098 p 0. 285 Experience in the sector Correlation 0. 290 p 0. 752 Experience in the current organization Correlation 20. 006 p 0. 946 0. 833 0. 529 1. 588 0. 169 0. 082 0. 370 2 0. 048 0. 601 0. 065 0. 477 0. 165 0. 070 0. 013 0. 886 0. 009 0. 922Note: Correlation is signi? cance at: *0. 05 and * *0. 01 levels (two-tailed) Table IV. The relationship between the characteristics of the sample and organizational commitment/job satisfaction AffectiveOC NormativeOC GeneralJS IntJS ExtJS 2 0. 641 0. 523 0. 184 0. 854 3. 074 0. 030 * 0. 704 0. 551 ExtJS (high school) ? 3. 2152 ExtJS (under graduate) ? 3. 3647 ExtJS (graduate) ? 3. 5021 ExtJS (post g raduate) ? 3. 5589 0. 591 0. 707 ExtJS ($375 and below) ? 3. 2588 ExtJS ($375-$565) ? 3. 2969 ExtJS ($565-$752) ? 3. 4477 ExtJS ($752-$940) ? 3. 5357 ExtJS ($940-$1,228) ? 3. 7647 ExtJS ($1,228 and above) ? 3. 7239 0. 055 0. 48 2 0. 009 0. 925 2 0. 047 0. 603 3. 529 0. 005 * * 0. 223 0. 014 * 0. 037 0. 681 0. 085 0. 353 satis? ed due to the increases in the total income. When the relationship between income level and affective commitment is regarded, it is evident that income level is mostly related with continuance and normative commitment (Iverson and Buttigieg, 1998; Morrow, 1983) rather than affective commitment because if the need for higher income is met, the person begins to feel that he or she should stay in the organization. The affective commitment is usually linked to moral issues whereas pay is considered as a tangible tool that satis? s a person and fastens the individual to the organization because of obligance not because of affectivity. Discussion and conclusions Acc ording to the research ? ndings, the continuance commitment component was not particularly relevant for top level managers in the study. This result is congruent with the mobility characteristics of the tourism industry. Whereas, persons exhibiting continuance commitment remain in their organizations because they need to stay (Meyer and Allen, 1997). Since tourism consists of accommodation, food and beverage, travel, entertainment components, employees can decide to work in many different organizations.In order to measure continuance commitment in future research, it is necessary to adapt the scale to the needs of the tourism industry. When the job satisfaction levels of these managers were evaluated, the intrinsic job satisfaction level of the managers was higher than were general and extrinsic job satisfaction levels. The tourism industry provides a very dynamic working environment where employees including the managerial levels as well may utilize their abilities and achieve thei r career plans.On the other hand, wages are often lower than they are in other industries; the industry is not highly respected, company policies vary, and working conditions are challenging and tiring because of long working hours. This can result in lower levels of extrinsic and general job satisfaction. In addition, when the organizational commitment components were compared, the normative commitment level of the managers was higher than their affective commitment. This result can be explained by the working conditions in the tourism industry, as seasonality is the most important characteristic.Consistently, the result of the t-tests (Figure 1) suggests that managers working in city hotels have more affective commitment than resort hotel managers do since they are employed during a whole year, and they feel more committed to the culture and moral values of the organization when compared to the seasonally employed managers (Angelo and Vladimir, 1994; Ninemeier and Perdue, 2005). I n relation with hotel ownership, managers working in independent hotels had a higher level of extrinsic job satisfaction than did managers working in chain hotels. Managers who begin in smaller independent organizations ? d it easier to grasp the scope of the entire organization. This is a signi? cant challenge for managers in major multi-national organizations where many aspects of the business are compartmentalized. In addition, generally managers working in independent hotels are usually the owners and/or relatives of the owners. They have independence, authority, advancement opportunities, better income levels, they set the rules and company policies, they are very much involved with operation within the hotel therefore their technical, human and operational competency increase.In independent hotels, the climate is a family style; there is trust and con? dence between the owner and the managers. That is why the manager feels usually free in movement, his Job satisfaction and com mitment 709 IJCHM 22,5 710 organizational goals represent his success therefore he tries to do the best and takes them as personal goals. Since there is trust in him, he feels himself responsible for achieving these organizational goals. The other important demographic variables that were tested in order to ? d out their relationship with organizational commitment and job satisfaction were age, income level, tourism education background, education level, experience in the sector, experience in the current organization, gender. It was seen that as the educational level, age and income level of the managers increase their extrinsic job satisfaction increase; whereas, their income level increase their affective commitment decrease. These results support the previous researches (Garcia-Bernal et al. , 2005; Ghiselli et al. , 2001; Karatepe et al. , 2006; Linz, 2003; Shaffer, 1987).It is evident that the improvement in the education level results with increases in expectations for extrin sic rewards. When the expectations are ful? lled then job satisfaction increases. Education level is also tied to income level because as indicated before since the quali? cation of manager increases then the salary and related bene? ts will be higher when compared to lower level educated individuals. This will result with a more extrinsically satis? ed manager. The results showed that there is a negative relationship between the income level and affective commitment.Income level is mostly related with continuance and normative commitment (Iverson and Buttigieg, 1998; Morrow, 1983) rather than affective commitment. Age is the last important variable that has a signi? cant relationship because people staying in the organization will demand more extrinsic rewards as related with tenure. Since the age and tenure increases, managers are more satis? ed with the increases in their total income and might be accepted as extrinsically satis? ed. When the model was tested, the analysis of job satisfaction and organizational commitment indicated the following (Figure 2): . There is a positive and signi? ant relationship between general job satisfaction and normative and affective commitment. . There is a positive signi? cant relationship between extrinsic job satisfaction and affective and normative organizational commitment. Job satisfaction Intrinsic Extrinsic 9 General ? 1= 0. 43 ? 1 = 3 52 0. Figure 2. The ? ndings of tested model Normative ?1 = 0. 349 = ? 1 0. 3 09 Affective Organizational commitment Continuance . . There is a positive signi? cant relationship between intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction. There is a positive signi? cant relationship between affective and normative commitment.Job satisfaction and commitment The regression analysis results suggest that the job satisfaction components; intrinsic, extrinsic and general; have a signi? cant relationship with normative and affective organizational commitment. What should be underlined is that extrinsic job satisfaction had a higher signi? cant relationship with normative and affective organizational commitment. Therefore, it may be suggested that extrinsic job satisfaction is more effective in increasing organizational commitment of the employees when compared with intrinsic and general job satisfaction factors. The ? ndings and the results of H3 and H4 support the ? dings of the previous researchers (Bartol, 1979; Feinstein and Vondrasek, 2001; Gaertner, 1999; Mowday et al. , 1982; O’Reilly and Caldwell, 1980; Stumpf and Hartman, 1984) indicating that job satisfaction has an effect on organizational commitment. Since the commitment levels of the managers are higher in city and independent hotels. This is due to the fact that tourism sector is a seasonal structured sector. Organization owners and shareholders should, therefore, minimize the seasonal effects in order to increase managers’ commitment levels and should ? nd the tools to increase their job satisfaction.The results of this study have indicated that extrinsic job satisfaction should be increased for hotel managers. Extrinsic job satisfaction levels can increase when managers satisfy their esteem needs, work permanently, are independent, show initiative, and can lead their subordinates. This will result in increased affective and normative commitment levels. If the owners and the shareholders focus on these underlying issues, this may provide opportunities to increase the extrinsic job satisfaction levels of the top and/or middle managers especially in resort hotels. This result is supported by Ghiselli et al. (2001).They indicate that since the managers ? nd their job intrinsically satisfactory and rewarded in the longer period they have more extrinsic needs. According to the ? ndings, normative commitment obviates affective commitment by the effect of seasonality. Managers working in city and/or independent hotels feel affective commitment more when compared with t he others. Therefore, managers working in resorts must feel that being a member of their current organization is privileged for themselves especially for their career. In addition, they should feel that developing their careers in the current organization is much more possible and important.When the responsibilities are supported by authority and the effort expended by the organization increases, a commensurate increase in level of organizational commitment is possible. That is why owners of the hotels should focus on these issues related to the organizational commitment and job satisfaction levels of the hotel managers and should show interest in knowing the managers’ ideas, opinions and suggestions. The owners also should: . give the managers necessary freedom to take decisions in order to reach personal and organizational goals; . provide them opportunities to improve themselves by additional training programs; 11 IJCHM 22,5 . . . . 712 . . . provide counseling and career development support; reward them by incentive programs, fringe bene? ts; empower them and encourage their participation in some top-level discussions as in the board of directors; encourage them to develop some projects and form their own team; give more ergonomic and convenient working conditions; provide them necessary budget to socialize the employees and enable them to participate in social activities; and enable them to put some goals according to their own evaluations and give them more initiative.The seasonality problem exceeds the attempts of the owners; it additionally depends on governmental policies. The suggestions to purify the negative impacts of seasonality to be carried by Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey might be as follows: . to increase the tourism products; . to increase promotional and marketing efforts by; explaining the economical, social, political importance of the sector to the locals, private organizations and public sector; to maintain a consistent social, political, economical system in order to improve the image of the country; . o improve the infrastructure of the regions that play importance in the off-season periods; . to adopt trend and changes in world tourism to Turkish tourism sector in terms of culture, technology, management, social life; . to provide sources for the sector to improve the country image; . domestic tourism should not be only a demand source in the off-season but should be developed and encouraged to be consistent during a whole year. For this purpose the average income level of the national tourists should be improved and increased as well and some incentives for holiday should be provided such as credit offers; and . upply should be diversi? ed and new alternative tourism types should be developed (for example, golf, thermal-health, incentive, meeting and convention, yachting, winter tourism, etc. ). To enable this diversi? cation, the private enterprises should be supported and encouraged by invest ment opportunities. Further research recommendations For future research being conducted in the tourism industry, it is desirable to adapt Meyer and Allen’s Three Component Model of Organizational Commitment and Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire to the characteristics of the tourism industry. Since continuance organizational commitment was not signi? ant in the result of this research, speci? c researches analyzing the reasons below this result can be questioned and analyzed. However, this kind of a research can also be conducted in the other components of the tourism industry such as travel agencies, entertainment organizations and/or food and beverage establishments. In addition, cross-cultural researches comparing job satisfaction and organizational commitment of managers in different tourism destinations should be encouraged. References Aksu, A. and Aktas, A. (2005), â€Å"Job satisfaction of managers in tourism: cases in the Antalya ? egion of Turkey†, Mana gerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 479-88. Angelo, R. M. and Vladimir, A. N. (1994), An Introduction to Hospitality Today, Educational Institution of the American Hotel and Motel Association, Orlando, FL. Angle, H. L. and Perry, J. L. (1981), â€Å"An empirical assessment of organizational commitment and organizational effectiveness†, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 26, pp. 1-13. Banai, M. , Reisel, W. D. and Probst, T. (2004), â€Å"A managerial and personal control model: predictions of work alienation and organizational commitment in Hungary†, Journal of International Management, Vol. 10, pp. 75-92. Bartol, K. M. (1979), â€Å"Professionalism as a predictor of organizational commitment, role stress and turnover: a multidimensional approach†, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 22, pp. 815-21. Bateman, T. S. and Strasser, S. (1984), â€Å"A longitudinal analysis of the antecedents of organizational commitment†, Academy of Management Jour nal, Vol. 27, pp. 95-112. Buchko, A. A. , Weinzimmer, L. G. and Sergeyev, A. V. (1998), â€Å"Effects of cultural context on the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment: a study of russian workers†, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 43, pp. 109-16. Chen, C. F. 2006), â€Å"Short report: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and ? ight attendants’ turnover ? ntentions: a note†, Journal of Air Transport Management, Vol. 12, pp. 274-6. Cheng, Y. and Stockdale, M. S. (2003), â€Å"The validity of the three-component model of organizational commitment in a Chinese context†, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 62, pp. 465-89. Clark, A. and Oswald, A. (1996), â€Å"Satisfaction and comparison income†, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 61, pp. 359-81. Cochran, W. G. (1977), Sampling Techniques, Wiley, New York, NY, p. 75. Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey (2009), Statistical Reports, available at: www. ultur. go v. tr (accessed August 25, 2009). Ekin Group and TUROFED (2006), Pocket Hotel Guide, Ekin, ? stanbul. I Fairbrother, K. and Warn, J. (2003), â€Å"Workplace dimensions, stress and job satisfaction†, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 18 No. 10, pp. 8-21. Feinstein, A. H. and Vondrasek, D. (2001), â€Å"A study of relationships between job satisfaction and organizational commitment among restaurant employees†, Journal of Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure Science, available at: http://hotel. unlv. edu/pdf/jobSatisfaction. pdf (accessed April 15, 2007). Furnham, A. , Petrides, K. V. , Jackson, C.J. and Cotter, T. (2002), â€Å"Do personality factors predict job satisfaction? †, Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 33, pp. 1325-42. Gaertner, S. (1999), â€Å"Structural determinants of job satisfaction and organizational commitment ? n turnover models†, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 479-93. Job satisfaction and commitment 713 IJCHM 22,5 714 Garcia-Bernal, J. , Gargallo-Castel, A. , Marzo-Navarro, M. and Rivera-Torres, P. (2005), â€Å"Job satisfaction: emprical evidence of gender differences†, Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 279-88. Ghiselli, R. F. , La Lopa, J. nd Bai, B. (2001), â€Å"Job satisfaction, life satisfaction and turnover ? ntend among food service managers†, Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Adminis

The Enlightment and the Role of Women in Society

The Enlightenment and the Role of Women in Society The Age of Enlightenment was a large cultural movement of educated individuals around the 17th and 18th centuries. The purpose of the Enlightenment was to challenges ideas that were rooted in faith and tradition, mold society using reason, and advance knowledge through a new scientific method. Different societies rose during this time period and discussed a wide range of topics. One widely discussed topic was the role of women in society. Societies mainly debated over the role of women in the public sphere.Two documents, specifically, had a great impact on the Enlightenment era. The first of the two, being Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King, was written by a group of working women who addressed the King simply asking for a better education and to be enlightened in order to be better wives and mothers. The next document, from Condorcet, radically insisted that women should gain political rights like men. Although these two documents both had impact during the Enlightenment, they varied in principles and amount of effectiveness during the period of the French Revolution.The French Revolution culminated things such as the middle class and the grievances of women. On January 1, 1789, the King was shown the Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King. These rights demanded by the women included the right to a decent education, and the right to earn a respectable living, avoiding the road to prostitution. These demands were far from radical and the petition made it specifically clear that they were not asking for equality with men. The women explained, â€Å"We ask to be enlightened, to have work, not in order to usurp men’s authority, but in order to be better esteemed by them. The Petition of Women depicted a society that accepted social roles, understands the importance of education and had steadfast faith in their king. This group has accepted the French society’s pre-chosen po sition for women. Women in the Petition seem perfectly aware of France’s specific role for them. They speak quite frankly about their role in French society, almost to a point where it feels as if they are happy to be in their current position. They recognize they are â€Å"continual objects of the admiration and scorn of men† and they do not attempt to change the status quo.Instead, these women seem willing to comply with society’s expectations, as long as there is a form of profit directed toward them. Indeed, they explicitly state, â€Å"To prevent social ills, Sire, we ask that men not be allowed, under any pretext, to exercise trades that are the prerogative of women – whether as seamstress, embroiderer, millinery shopkeeper, etc. etc. ; if we are left at least the with the needle and spindle, we promise never to handle the compass or the square. They understand that society is treating them unequally and they believe that accepting society’s norms and receiving a form of gratification is better than fighting over something out of reach and receive nothing. The women’s argument ended up to be quite successful through their respectful tone to the King and the modest requests. They carefully insisted that they did not want to become equal with men and simply wanted education and enlightenment. They also use a large amount of flattery in order to lighten the King’s mood.The women express themselves to the King by saying things like â€Å"the love we have for your majesty† and how â€Å"we see in you only a tender father, for whom we would give our lives a thousand times. † With these small requests and the women’s adulation toward the King, the overall argument seems like it would be fairly strong during the period of the French Revolution. In the document On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship, Condorcet argued for the political rights of women, something no revolutionist had ever dared to do before.He acknowledged that woman were equal in humanity through reason and justice. Condorcet rejected the idea that women’s physical differences were a good enough reason to reject them of their civil and political rights. Although he did in fact recognize women’s limitations, not in gender, but in the lack of education and different circumstances. Many that are opposed of these statements also argue that giving women political rights would disrupt the social order, assuming that women would abandon their domestic affairs.He reassures those by saying, â€Å"It is natural for a woman to nurse her children, to care for them in their infancy; attached to her home by these cares, weaker than a man, it is also natural that she lead a more retiring, more domestic life. Women would therefore be in the same class with men who are obliged by their station or profession to work several hours a day. † Although the effectiveness of Condorcet’s document seems sound in today’s society, back during French Revolution period, this would be considered fairly weak.These types of statements were highly due to the beliefs that women possessed certain characteristics that perfectly matched them to their domestic duties. Women were deemed unqualified for a voice in the political realm because of their much great proneness to feelings, flawed rationality, and weaker sense of justice. Although this campaign ended unsuccessful, women did benefit from many of the changes that happened in matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance.Women in the Enlightenment were extremely limited due to society’s preconceived notions. Documents like On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship and Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King gave society new ideas and philosophies that have never been revealed before. Although much of the document’s intentions failed, they opened the eyes of society and society too k its first step into gaining the ability to reason about sexual differences and one day grant women the full rights of citizenship.

Glass Castle Essay

However, there are some far more substantial themes and symbols taking place within the novel. These themes require a little more critical thought, and aren’t directly delivered to the reader. One of these themes being the heavy emphasis placed on the glass castle, and also metaphorically what it signifies to Jeanette and her father, Rex. Through extensive deliberation and thought, the meaning of the glass castle becomes clear. It stands for the contrast between how Jeanette views her father, and how everyone else sees him. The idea of the glass castle in itself is the idolized version of Rex that Jeanette sees, while the reality of it never being completed, represents the views that everyone else has. Throughout the novel there are multiple instances that show the strong love and trust Jeanette feels for her father. A bond that remains strong, even when other member’s of the family have lost some of that trust. This contrast of emotions can best be described through various quotes given throughout the novel. â€Å"In my mind, Dad was perfect, although he did have what mom called a bit of a drinking situation† (Walls 23). This is one of the first occasions where the reader is introduced to the contrasting feelings about Rex that members of the Walls family have. Jeannette, despite already knowing that her father has a drinking problem at a young age, still feels that her father can do no wrong. This sets the scene for how most of the book develops, Jeannette idolizing her father, despite the slight disdain visibly felt by others. â€Å"We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Clause myth and got nothing but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,’ dad said, ‘ you’ll still have your stars† (41). This is yet another example of the strong bond developed between Rex and Jeannette. However, it is important to note this quote is delivered at a time when Rex is still in relatively good standings with the rest of the family, besides just Jeannette. On that Christmas, even though he couldn’t provide his children with material gifts, he was still able to deliver a memorable gift, which the children could cherish for the rest of their lives. I swear honey, there are times when I think you’re the only one around who still has faith in me,’ he said. ’I don’t know what I’d do if you ever lost it. ’ I told him I would never lose faith in him. And I promised myself I never would† (78-79). This quote perfectly sums up the relationship Rex had with his daughter. It also further exemplifies th e acknowledged differences between how Jeannette feels about her father, and how the rest of the family feels. Even though Rex has let Jeannette down just as many times as Lori, or Brian, she is still able to somehow see past these faults of Rex’s. Throughout this novel the character’s general feelings on Rex sway dramatically. Even Jeannette’s feelings for her father are tried at some points. Yet through everything that happens she never truly loses faith in her father. Jeannette always maintains a sense of respect and love for Rex, despite the tribulations he has brought the family through. Even up to his last moments on his deathbed, Jeannette’s positive feelings for her father remain strong. This contrasted affection between what Jeannette feels for Rex, and what everyone else thinks, is what the glass castle really signifies.

An assessment of what ive learned this semester in class Essay

An assessment of what ive learned this semester in class - Essay Example Still, the book is instrumental in making sure that I make correct choices for my personal life. In this article, I would like describe and share my experiences in college in the course of this spring semester in English 252B. Right from chapter one of the course book, we learnt the true definition of success. In this case, I discovered that success is a choice that a person makes. As such, the choices we make while in college have a direct impact on our success. According to the course book that I have mentioned above, success is defined as staying on course to your outcomes and experiences, creating wisdom, happiness, and unconditional self-worth along the way, (pg.3). Before I undertook the course, I defined success as a mare act of accomplishing set goals and targets. However, this changed once I read the book; the success is no longer the act of just passing exams, but the power of our choices that go hand and hand with accomplishing set goals and targets. By drawing illustration from the Downing work, we find that â€Å"The main ingredient in all success is wise choices. That’s because the quality of our lives is determined by the quality of the choices we make on a daily basis (3)†. T hese lines have been lingering in my mind and I have used them as my guide for nit only the entire semester, but also the rest of my course and entire life. Another discovery that I have made is that there exists two types of individuals; the victims and the creators. In chapter 2 Downing explains that the extent at which a person accepts personal responsibility determines if someone fits the description of a victim or a creator. To describe the creator dimension of a person, I would describe an example: in this case, when I have to choose between completing school work and taking a rest after a long day working, I would instead take a day off from work. That way I have taken the role of a creator as I

Plight of the Irish Woman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Plight of the Irish Woman - Essay Example As compared to other works created by Joyce, Dubliners is very different since it represents the thoughts of the Artist when he himself was a young man. His later work gained much critical acclaim for its stream of consciousness approach and the experimental works therefore the controversy surrounding and the banning of Ulysses often takes precedence over the short story collection. That is the primary reason why Joyce is appreciated, respected and remembered more for his novels than his collection of short stories. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of material that has been created in terms of analysis of the Dubliners and the various individual stories contained within. Eveline is the shortest story contained in the collection and offers some very interesting insights towards both the writer and the times he lived in. There are a number of firsts associated with this particular piece since it is the first story in the Dubliners to be written in the third person, it experiments with stream of conscious writing and it was the first time Joyce wrote from the point of view of a woman (Voogd, 2000). Eveline The story begins with Eveline sitting at the window of her house where she can watch the avenue lined with houses. She remembers her family members and the neighbors she had as a child when she played on the field which is now covered with houses. Now that she is a young woman, her mother is dead and her siblings have grown up. She has had a life of hard work at her home as well as the store where she earns a living. The story clarifies that Eveline plans to leave Ireland for ever but it does not make any hints at the beginning of the story if she actually would go through would her plan or not.

Management Strategy Perspectives and Paradoxes Essay

Management Strategy Perspectives and Paradoxes - Essay Example In such environ, it is important for an organisation to find a 'differential aspect' of its product or service in order to survive the market competencies, otherwise the organisation will be driven out of the business ruthlessly. "Having a competitive advantage is like having a gun in knife fight". The paper explores this statement and illustrates the key factors through which a firm can attain this competitive gun while all the competitors remain fighting with their competitive knives. It goes for a gross understanding of the term 'competitive advantage', realising how it can be interpreted as 'a gun in the knife fight', plus analysing and examining a bunch of important issues underlying this concept. The focus of this paper remains to be the factors that need to be addressed by an organisation in its quest to dig out a competitive advantage to create and maintain its position in the market that is unbeatable for its competitors in a specific point in time. There happen to be several areas where a firm can manage to obtain a competitive advantage against its competitors. These areas are discussed in this paper with the help of the literature available on the given subject. "Having a competitive advantage is like having a gun in a knife fight". Consider a fight in which everybody has got a knife as weapon and using it in all ways to win the battle. During this fight, one of the fighters manages to acquire a gun. A gun in a knife fight implies having a weapon or an advantage through which any battle or competition could be won in way that nobody else could be able to claim victory for a long time. In the context of businesses, this statement entails having a competitive advantage or that aspect of an organisation, which can be utilised to fight the battle of competition and gain a superior weapon over other competitors. An exploration of this statement first of all lies in a profound understanding of the term competitive advantage and the necessary issues associated with it. The statement will be explored further in the paper after an illustration of what actually is meant by the term 'competitive advantage'. A competitive advantage is simply an aspect of the organisation that it possesses or offers to the customers. In order for an organisational aspect to constitute as a 'competitive advantage', it has to be unique in the market not adopted by any other current or potential firm in the market. This phenomenon can also be understood in the words of Barney (1991, p102) as, "a firm is said to have competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors". This value strategy can be in any form, as long as it is providing benefit to the customers and the organisation directly or indirectly. For instance, if a firm manages to produce its products at a lower cost than all other firms in the market, it is a direct benefit to the customer in the form of reduced prices and an indirect benefit to the organisation in the shape of enhanced sales. This can only become possible when the firm has identified uni que ways to lower the product costs, either unknown or inapplicable to other firms. Porter (1985, p3) illustrates the conception of competitive advantage as the ability of a firm to create value for its customers in a way that proposes more benefit

Assess the importance of Kerensky, Trotsky and Lenin in the outcome of Essay - 1

Assess the importance of Kerensky, Trotsky and Lenin in the outcome of the February and October revolutions of 1917 - Essay Example 12). In 1912, Kerensky was elected to become a member of the Fourth Duma in which he represented the Trudoviks. Kerensky was an active member in both camps of the Petrograd Soviet and the provisional government. It is worth noting that initially he was used as a bridge between the two principal bodies. During his time in the provisional government, he was the minister for justice, war, and became the prime minister later in his career (Acton, Cherniaev, & Rosenberg, 1997, p. 56). On the other hand, Lenin believed that Kerensky was not taking the Russians to the right direction and as a result, he used the Bolshevik party to engage the people in a revolution. The Russians were against the First World War and they thought that the Tsars were not fighting for their rights. When Lenin got the control of the government, he became more tyrannical than any other ruler in the history of Russia. This is despite the fact that the Russians believed that Lenin would fight for the rights of the common citizen (Kennan, 1989, p. 194). Strikes, food riots and the ensuing war made Russia ungovernable. When Lenin arrived by train from Switzerland, he was against the war and could not stomach Kerensky because he thought that he was not for reforms. Lenin mobilized the people and especially the army by promising them economic reforms and ending the war. Leon Trotsky was born by the name of Lev Davidovich Bronshtein and he initially supported Meshevik Internationalists. Prior to October Revolution, which occurred in 1917, he had joined the Bolshevik Party. He went ahead and became a prominent leader of the Bolshevik party. Despite the fact that he supported people and workers, he was later removed from power by the rise of Josef Stalin. By the time the February Revolution erupted during 1917 spring, Kerensky was among the most vocal leaders for the revolution. The fact that he was an

Amtrak Travel Scholarship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Amtrak Travel - Scholarship Essay Example Already, I wish to look beyond seeing rugged coastlines, beautiful canyons, and unspoiled forests and majestic mountains. For me, train travel offers priceless social amenities as well, particularly as I travel with fellow Americans who patronize Amtrak for its safe, comfortable and affordable vacation, business or adventure packages. Together, we can experience while on route the freshness, breadth and buoyancy that characterize American lifestyle. Already, I have prepared a travel plan which starts with Amtrak’s historic multi-tour along the east coast strip where America as a country was born, then cut across for a coast-to-coast journey to the west along the footsteps of our early pioneers. Finally, I wish to try Amtrak’s awesome northeast route which will take me at 150 miles per hour bullet speed to the end of my roundabout journey of a lifetime, namely Washington, D.C. the nation’s hub (IndependentTraveler.Com). As a whole, I wish to see myself as having gone through the greatest railway journey I can experience.

Investigating Leadership Development practices in Private Sector in Literature review

Investigating Leadership Development practices in Private Sector in Oman - Literature review Example e changes within the organization, it is important for the leader to first understand the fears of the employees as well as anticipating their questions (MacKenzie, 2013). It is this understanding which will assist in the leader gaining support for a change instead of opposition which might lead to the failure in the structure of the organization. The leader has to realize that organizations that are successful in enforcing change do so through embracing strategic value of communication with employees. The leader should ensure that communication takes place before the change is implemented, during the change process, and after the transition of the organization. Therefore, it is essential that throughout the entire transition process of the organization, to constantly have communication. It has been claimed that in order for a leader to be effective, the first strategy that he should have in mind involves focusing on issues related to the people (Cashman, 1997). In such a scenario, the leader can focus solely on convincing the most talented people within the organization as well as those who hold key positions to accept his vision for the organization’s future. The need to convince such individuals is based on the fact that they are the ones who are most likely to offer resistance in case they are not convinced of the strategies being adopted by the leader. Therefore, continuity should be ensured through an understanding of the business and the leader’s realization that his vision affects the successful future of the organization (Harris & Cole, 2007). If a leader does not put this understanding into consideration when making decisions, he might face a challenge where a pivotal talent does not exist. The presence of communication between the leader and key employees; his ensuring that employees are empowered and the creation of a culture that enables them thrive are an integral part of focus on people during integration. The effective communication from the

Taking Business Abroad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Taking Business Abroad - Essay Example , between 2012 and 2013, seen basically flat sales (221M in 2013 and 222M in 2014), which is a problem for achieving growth for this High Street firm. The company was, however, able to raise its net income from  £3.1 million to  £5.3 million between 2013 and 2014 as a result of reduced selling, general and administrative costs in its operational model (Bloomberg). In 2011 and 2012, the company reported no profitability. Thornton’s, as a High Street company, provides gourmet chocolate products under a premium pricing structure to cater to the higher resource consumer in the United Kingdom. It is positioned in its market against quality, attempting to build a premium brand identity to gain interest from its more affluent target customer segments. The firm’s recent advertising strategies included The Art of the Chocolatier and Chocolate Heaven since 1911 as a means of using traditionalism and quality/sophistication to gain interest in markets that lean toward premium products. Fortunately, Thornton’s does not operate in a highly saturated competitive environment, competing against such brands as Cadbury which are not targeted at the high resource consumer. After 103 years of operations, Thornton’s has managed to create a brand that stands out among lower cost, less quality chocolate products and has a reputation for superiority with many UK consumers. Thornton’s, with flat sales volumes, requires a strategy to achieve growth in a market where consumption levels are not growing sufficiently. In the UK, Thornton’s is in its maturity stage which makes it difficult to achieve revenue growth without altering its existing business model and seeking new markets. This report identifies opportunities for Thornton’s PLC to enter the Chinese market as a means of enhancing sales growth and improving the financial position of the firm. The company’s most significant competitor is Cadbury, a company that produces chocolate products targeted at mass markets, but

Ethics and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics and Religion - Essay Example This paper approves that speaking about ethics and religion it is impossible to ignore the notion of theology. Theology itself is a science about spirits and God. Theology analyses all the religious features and makes the interpretation of it into a simpler knowledge, it discusses the main religious issues. One of the main tasks of the theology is to define the difference between the religious traditions of every culture, to point out the main factors which determined the formation of the ethical norms in these cultures, to define the reasons of the difference using the historical background of a nation. Speaking about ethics as about a branch of theology we should pay attention to the fact that theology is strongly connected with the mentality of every nation and with the special features of its religion. Theological history of every religion has a great impact on the way of formation of the ethical norms and categories. It proves that these two sciences are interdependent and influ ence each other. According to Robert Gascoigne â€Å"any discussion of the relationship between religion and ethics has to come to terms with misunderstandings that have developed over the centuries, which Christians themselves are often responsible for because of a fundamentalist use of the Bible or because of other aspects of Christian tradition†. This essay makes a conclusion that it is worth saying that the problem of ethics and religion is impossible to solve and to come to a certain points. The process of interconnection of these two notions is developing.

Children Dealing With Obesity Essay Example for Free

Children Dealing With Obesity Essay Obesity is a sensitive issue for adults’ so one can imagine how a child with obesity is affected mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually; emotionally: children have low self-esteem, mentally: children are stressed, physically: children are overweight, and it affects their well-being altogether. This is why it is so important that mandating that Parent, Teachers, and the community is educated on Childhood Obesity. After closely evaluating the situation and speaking to various parents, physicians, and viewing the actions of the children it has shown that all children are not Obese because of bad parenting. Obesity in children can come from various medical problems in children such as a thyroid issue meaning that his or her metabolism is not functioning correctly, or a pituitary gland issue meaning that he or she is growing too fast. Childhood obesity can also be genetic meaning that the child can be prone to it because of family history; no matter what the issue or problem it is necessary that we as a community be educated and parents should involve themselves in their child’s activities as well. The National Academies (2015) website recommends that the Government, families, industries, communities, and schools should support the children by showing leadership and commitment in evaluating prevention programs, food intake, make the evaluation capacity stronger by having good quality interventions. Schools can begin by monitoring students by placing cameras in the school cafeterias, and also schools and families can monitor the amount of food placed on a child’s plate, making sure that the plates are colorful with adequate fruits, veggies, whole grains, and dairy, caregivers and families should also monitor physical activities and the consumption of water. According to The National Academies (2015), â€Å"There will be a greater likelihood of success when public, private, and voluntary organizations purposefully combine their respective resources, strengths,  and comparative advantages to ensure a coordinated effort over the long term† (Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?). In order for this policy to be analyzed, the cameras had to be viewed, attestation, and possibly re-educate everyone. It seems to be working; the children are drinking more water, and eating healthier, and has included more quality physical exercise in his and her program. Parents are asking the right questions and getting more involved as well, parents are spending more and more time with their children as the teachers. Group sessions are working because the child has begun to speak up more, and is smiling and loving themselves more and more each session. Parents and teachers attended workshops to educate them in the maintenance and long-term prevention of obesity. One in five children are overweight, while one-third are obese that is why parents need to learn major factors that stimulate the development of childhood obesity. There should be some sort of consequences given if the stakeholders: being parents, schools and physicians are not willing to cooperate and get involved, possibly higher insurance premium until he or she cooperates, as for the teachers and or schools, begin by minimizing the school funds, because the schools funds are to educate and make sure the child is healthy and safe. In the conclusion the child’s lifestyle, nutrition, and environment needs to change for the better of the child. Parents need to be more educated on the illnesses that can and will develop unless these workshops are attended. It is understandable that organic foods and even most healthy foods and beverages are expensive and are not affordable, but parents can help by baking and not frying, by not supporting fast foods; schools can help by offering fruits instead of chips and junk food, offer milk instead of soda, and both parents and schools she push more water. References The National Academies. (2015). The National Academies Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11722page=70 Shi, L. (2014). Introduction to Health Policy. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.

Ethical Issues in Video Games

Ethical Issues in Video Games Are Ethics Important /Relevant in Visual Media? Discuss This essay aims to understand what video games are and which kind of ethical questions they pose from various perspectives and to determine which ethical problems video games pose. These issues will be described using ethical conceptual terms and will be explained using ethical theory to attempt to reach a verdict on the ethical nature of video games. Philosophers and ethicists are interested in the ethical dilemmas in the intersection of arts, culture and technology posed by video games, while game designers might be interested not only in the argument for ethics in games, but also the implementation of ethical discussion that may lead to more mature, challenging products. The term game covers a wide range of different activities and pastimes. Soccer, tennis, monopoly and Grand Theft Auto V (2014) can all be categorised as games, with very different experiences and rules. They do however; hold similar elements that define them as the same class. To understand what exactly games we can refer to Jesper Juulwho states that aÂÂ   game isÂÂ   a rule-based system withÂÂ   a variableÂÂ   andÂÂ   quantifiableÂÂ   outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effortÂÂ   inÂÂ   order to influence the out-come, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequencesÂÂ   ofÂÂ   theÂÂ   activityÂÂ   areÂÂ   optionalÂÂ   andÂÂ   negotiableÂÂ   (Juul, 2004). Video games are utilized through the use of computer power and the computer controls the rules in which the game is played with the player interacting through the use of a video display Juul merged different approaches and concepts to allow researchers to share their findingsin a common language. Juuls definition outlines the difference between the different levels of functionality and fundamental rules created in most games. (Miguel sicart, 2005)This means that video games can be analysed as self-contained worlds and systems separately and also how they interact with each other. Neither takes into account the player or the intentions the player has while interacting with the game. This separation is important while attempting to gain an ethical understanding of a game because it entrusts the player with moral attributes and gives the ability to the player to create their individual experiences based on their own values and cultural influences. In short, games are made up of a precise set of rules that creates a world that a player experiences. (Zimmerman Salen, 2003). It could also be said thata video game only exists when being interacted with even though it is possible to outline its rules, which are the objective nature and could be treated as a important part of the construction of the players experience. Understanding the ethics involved in video games will require the researcher to determine precisely how a computer game as an object with moral attributes and experiences is created. Aristotles distinction between potential and actuality can be used here. For example, if a player reads a rule book for a game of any type they can have an overall view of what that game consists of. It does not however, give the user a complete overview of the history of chess or many other elements of the game such as the type of player you are in competition against or a view of flaws that may be present in a particular opponents stra tegy. The substance of any type of game is not just its rules but also the practical existence of those rules. To fully understand this relationship we can use a classic distinction of Aristotelian metaphysics that is potentiality and actuality According to Aristotles metaphysics, things present a capability of evolving into a different and more complete state, this can also be referred to as the actuality of that thing. The classic example would be a boy being the potentiality of a man. Aristotle also argues that actuality is prior and has priority over actuality: before defining what the potentiality might be, we have to be aware of its actuality; and it is this actuality which is the reason why the potentiality is not only acquired, but developed. (Stanfordedu, 2016) In regards to video games, just like any other form of games, this means that the rules of a game are only viewed as the potential contained within the game, only by playing the game can we understand the potential places the game can be taken. In a game like Candy Crush (2014), different coloured pieces of candy fall down the screen and need to be matched with the same type candies, the goal is to avoid filling the screen are the conditions for the game that which the players abide by in order to play the game successfully. The rule set contains the ways the game can be played, but only the presence of a player will activate those potentialities and make them become a game (Miguel sicart, 2005)

Case Study of Best Buy

Case Study of Best Buy In 1966 Richard Schultze and James Wheeler saw an opportunity in opening a specialized electronics store in St. Paul, Minnesota. Soon after opening, The Sound of Music became an immediate success in the industry. By the year 1969 the company grew so fast, Schultze decided to publically trade The Sound of Music. Over the next few years, The Sound of Music was able to raise their annual revenues to over $1 million. In 1981, a tornado hit the Roseville, Minnesota store. In order to salvage what they could from the storm wreckage they held a huge storewide sale which was advertised as The Best Buy. The sale was such a huge success that Schultze decided to hold it annually. Sound of Music became widely known for this annual best buy sale, therefore in 1983, the board of directors decided to officially change the name to Best Buy Co., Inc.  [1]   Best Buy went on to become the leading consumer electronics retail store in the Nation. By 2008 they had opened their 1000th store (Lawrence being #837). Due to their success, Best Buy was able to expand their business by building additional stores throughout the nation as well as expanding internationally in countries such as UK, Canada, Mexico and China. Best Buy was able to achieve such growth because of the rapidly growing consumer electronics market. Best Buy was joined in the Industry by competitors such as GameStop, Radio Shack, hhgregg and Conns Inc. (Yahoo financial).  [2]  Other competition includes Wal-Mart, Nebraska Furniture Mart and other big super stores. By being the Industry Pioneer, Best Buy has been able to maintain positive annual revenues as well as a large market share. Business Information Best Buy is one of the International leaders in the sale of electronics. They offer a wide variety of products that are needed as well as wanted in the entertainment industry. Best Buy carries movies, games, music, computer hardware as well as software, and television entertainment equipment. They also provide many home appliances which are sought after by people throughout their market. Best Buy is successful because it provides customers with entertainment as well as equipment and the newest technology as it becomes available in the market. Geographical Reach Best Buy offers its services and products to people not just throughout our country, but in many different countries as well. Their first international venture came in 2001 with the acquisition of Future Shop. Future Shop was the leading consumer electronics retailer in Canada. Since 2001, Best Buy has expanded by establishing stores in Canada as well as the UK, China, Mexico, and they are looking to establish a position in Turkey in the future. Market Performance The market for consumer electronics is a very saturated market. Most of the electronic needs in the industry are spoken for by current businesses, therefore it is very difficult for any new competition to enter into the market and successfully compete. Best Buy has been able to capture a substantial amount of the market for electronics. Between the five main competitors for electronics, Best Buy has a $17.5 billion market capitalization, which is number one out of all 5 electronic specialists. It is hard to quantitatively compare Best Buy to businesses such as Wal-Mart, Target and Nebraska Furniture Mart because these firms sell a variety of other products to different industries. After interviewing Supervisor, Jeremy Brown he discussed the service you will receive when you shop at Best Buy. Best Buy is the place you know you will receive the best service and help from employees in searching for the item you came in to buy.  [3]  Given the data found, Best Buy has been able to pe rform as the market leader in the electronics Industry. Best Buy has the greatest Brand awareness in the Industry. They have very loyal customers because of their Geek Squad business which was opened in 2004. The Geek Squad operates to assist customers in learning how to use the products that they previously purchased from Best Buy, as well as servicing any customers equipment which is in need of repair or replacement. Jeremy Brown said, It benefits Best Buy having a complimenting business like Geek Squad because it allows us to offer the whole solution to the customer. We can repair, protect, as well as install any product the customer would need us to.  [4]  By offering a variety of products and services in the electronic industry, Best Buy can tailor to any needs of the existing market. Financial Performance In the end of the February 2010 fiscal year, Best Buy reported revenues of $49,694 million. This was a 10.3% increase from the previous year. Net profit in 2010 was $1,317 million which was a 31.31% increase from 2009. Best Buy, which is publically traded on the New York stock exchange is currently up 42.59. Best Buys revenue per share is $121.49. According to Yahoo finance the company has a strong balance sheet, with $840 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of the most recent quarter in August 2010, meaning that Best Buy has created a successful trend of positive cash flows.  [5]   Internal Analysis Since Best Buys inception in 1966, the companys top executives have used numerous strategies to keep their earnings increasing at a steady pace. Changing the way that people shop in their stores was a key internal strategy for Best Buy. In 1984, they introduced the superstore format for the first time. This allowed for sales to rise and for them to secure a 42% market share. In 1989, Best Buy introduced its Concept II stores. The new stores had a large warehouse attached to the store so that more inventory could be kept on site and thus help with inventory management. The new stores also had self-help information guides and answer centers for customers seeking personal attention. This move had both positive and negative reactions. The customers liked it so sales rose, but some suppliers thought that the lack of sales representatives would lead to lesser sales. In 1994, the Concept III stores were introduced and they had even more self-help service. Then Hitachi and Kenwood pulled their products from Best Buy stores because they believed that salespeople were key to selling their product. Despite the minor setbacks, revamping the stores to tend to the customers wants was working as sales continued to rise. Concept IV stores launched in 1998 and they implemented digital displays as well as new departments such as home theatre and digital imaging. This new store design was a tremendous success as Best Buy recorded record sales of $224 million in 1998, a 137% increase from the previous year. Then in June, Best Buy changed the way its products were sold again by selling consumer electronics on its website. From expanding to a superstore to selling its products online, Best Buy has tweaked and changed its distribution medium to allow for its profits to keep going up. Probably the largest factor in Best Buys success is its expansion into new markets and offering of new products. The consumer electronic industry is constantly changing as technology improves and new markets are created. Best Buy stores are always stocked with the most up to date products. In 1982, they started selling VCRs and appliances. Then in 2000, Best Buy partnered with Whirlpool to start offering KitchenAid brand appliances. In 2008, they even bought a majority holding in Napster. They were also the first third party retailer to sell Apples iPhone. Now, theyve opened Apple stores inside the Best Buy megastores. In 2006, they tried the digital music market as they launched the Best Buy Digital Music Store and in 2010, they launch their web-based movie service. Best Buy is constantly looking for new markets that they could feasibly dive into and start selling new products.  [6]   Another way Best Buy tailors their stores for the customer is by purchasing another company. Magnolia Hi-Fi, one of Best Buys competitors, was bought by Best Buy in 2000 for $87 million. This allowed for Best Buy to later put Magnolia Home Theatre stores inside of hundreds of Best Buy superstores. As technology increased in the consumer electronics market, there was a growing need for technical support and assistance with different, more complicated electronics. So in 2003, Best Buy acquired Geek Squad in order to better accommodate to the customers needs. Geek Squad gives Best Buy full technical support right there in the store for all of the electronics that they sell. In 2006, Best Buy acquired Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath, a retailer of high-end home improvement products. So, Best Buy is also looking to move to new markets via an acquisition.  [7]   Best Buy also uses a rewards program to help boost sales. Their rewards program gives the customer a $5 Best Buy gift card for every $100 that he spends at Best Buy. This gives an incentive for customers to spend more money and to buy their electronics at Best Buy since theyre getting 5% of their money spent back. Plus, giving out a free gift card will help boost sales. If someone has a $5 gift card, they are more likely to go and buy something. But there arent many things that cost $5 or less, so usually, the customer will end up spending more than $5, all because he had the gift card in the first place. The rewards program has been very successful for Best Buy and has lead to increased sales.  [8]   Best Buy is a successful consumer electronics retailer that has been around for over 40 years. Whether its changing the layout of the store, selling new products in new markets, expanding through acquisition, or implementing a rewards program, Best Buy uses many strategies and tactics to not just survive in the consumer electronics market, but to thrive, and Best Buy has been thriving for over 40 years. Comparison To Competiton Best Buy has a sizeable piece of the consumer electronics industry, but they still face heavy competition from many other retailers and online stores, just a couple of them being Wal-Mart and Amazon. Best Buy is not the price leader when it comes to consumer electronics, but they do seem to be the leader when it comes to providing extensive knowledge about products, and selling services with them. Their competitive advantage  [9]  is being able to display products in an appealing setting while providing customers with insight to their product needs. This has proven a successful strategy and has attracted a lot of traffic in their stores. One metric Best Buy seems to lead the retail industry in is in-store sales per square foot. Best Buys current sales per sq. ft is around $830, compared to Wal-Marts $680, and HHGregs $380. This an important metric because it helps track how much of their store front space is being utilized, as leasing for space usually constitutes a large share o f a companys costs. Forbes Magazine1 says that 74% of Best Buys stock price is directly proportional to its sales per sq. ft metric. This is much of the reason Best Buy has been so successful and why theyve been able to keep growing so rapidly. Best Buy has also remained successful for its ability to get products out of the store. Latest figures show Best Buy having inventory turns  [10]  of 6.1, the same as Target, much better than Sears 2.9 or Radio Shacks 3.2. Close to Best Buy was HH Greg with 5.8. Amazon and Wal-Mart both have higher turns but Amazon is all online with no store front, and Wal-Mart is a much larger company with a better supply chain and a far broader array of products while also focusing on a cost-leadership strategy. Though Best Buys differentiated strategy has been successful, it can possibly encourage consumers to come into Best Buy to become educated about products, and then turn around go buy them at Wal-Mart or off of the internet. To better differentiate themselves, Best Buy has focused on services to add to their products, of which would not be available unless otherwise purchased from Best Buy. These services include extended services plans, installations, and repairs. These services usually have high profit margins and can constitute a significant amount of revenue, while giving customer professional installations and peace of mind. Wal-Mart is also on Best Buys trail, now adding expanded electronics department in many of its stores and has added personnel to provide customer assistance, similarly to Best Buy stores. Given Wal-Marts supply chain and price leading capabilities, they remain a constant threat to Best Buy. Amazon remains a threat as their prices are usually always lower, and consumers can shop from home and never have to go to the store. Although Best Buy provides this service, they cannot match the price, and with no other way to differentiate themselves through the limited online experience, price remains the deciding factor. For these reasons Best Buy continues to try to set its self apart and take advantage of its strengths. Its recently used it large distribution network to get into the used game market. It will buy used games, send them to a center to be refurbished, and sells them at relatively low prices. This is helping the huge retailer compete directly with small retailers such as Game Stop. With their size, Best Buy has an opportunity to steal market share in this industry. External Analysis The general environment involves several external factors that would have unpredictable and dramatic effects on firms strategy, such as demography, socio culture, politics, technology, economy and globalization. However, it is difficult to monitor all aspects of the general environment, so most managers only focus on their own industry structure. As the leading consumer electronics retailer in the United States, Best Buy primarily faces the economic segment and the global segment. First of all, the economy affects all industry. During the financial crisis period from 2008 to 2009, the stock price of Best Buy, Inc hit to $16.42 in the third quarter of 2009 fiscal year, dropping approximately 65.43% in four months and touched the lowest price in past 5 years; the net income of 2009 decreased to 1.003 million, comparing with previous annual net income of $1.407 million, thus distracting the investors.  [11]  The worst situation may be that total operating cash flow reduced by 148 mi llion from 2008 to 2009, which significantly limited the companys internal operating activities. However, with the recovery of the domestic and global economy, the companys net income climbed to $1.137 million by February 2010, which is 13.36% higher than previous annual performance. Also the stock price reached about $42.83 per share recently. Secondly, for global segment, Best Buy divided its operating portion into two parts, domestic and international. The company tends to expand its market to attract multinational customers, to use lower costs of resource, and to access more opportunities to grow up. Besides the domestic market, Best Buy established 2453 stores in Europe, Canada, China, Mexico and Turkey at the end of fiscal 2010. Although the general environment inevitably affects the firms strategy, the company is usually more directly influenced by forces in the competitive environment. Through the Porters five-force model of industry competition, the company would have a deep realization of developing trend and ability of restructuring and improvement. The Threat of New Entrants There are few new major entrants in Consumer Electronics Appliances Retail because this industry is already mature in United States and the entry barriers are relatively high. Obviously, Best Buy has the advantage of economies of scale with 1069 stores across the all states. Its major competitors, Wal-Mart, target, Amazon, apple Inc also share the rest of market through the physical stores and web-based sales channel. Moreover, the capital requirement for entering the consumer electronics industry is normally huge, including the investment in negotiation with distribution channels, inventory systems, purchasing of infrastructure, employee training and so forth. Another barrier exists in the product differentiation. Since the consumer electronic retail industry is not highly innovative, customers loyalty and brand identification are difficult to change. The Bargaining Power of Buyers The Power of buyers in consumer electronic retail industry is relatively high because that the switching costs are almost close to zero. In most circumstances, customers are price sensitive. According to the firms annual report, Best buys business is most profitable in the fourth quarter because of the discounts of products in holiday season. The Bargaining Power of Suppliers Partially, Best Buys business depends on offering a broad selection of name-brand products, so establishing a long and stable relationship with suppliers is important for the firm. Since the suppliers of Best Buy are not dominated by a few companies. In fact, In fiscal 2010, our 20 largest suppliers accounted for just under 60% of the merchandise we purchased, with five suppliers Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba -representing 35% of total merchandise purchased.  [12]  In other words, the concentration relative to buyer industry is low, thus leads to the low suppliers power. The Threat of Substitute Products and Services Best Buy offers almost the same electronic products as Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon. How can it differentiate from those competitors? The answer is Geek Squad. It is a subsidiary of the Best Buy and primary offers services in-store, on-site and also provides 24-hour telephone and emergency support, including repairing computers, adding cars navigation, transferring data, fixing personal digital products and so on. As their first pledge states: We are dedicated to giving you the best service possible and well prove it. If youre not completely satisfied, well do our best to correct the problem, Fast and Free.  [13]  This strategy is difficult to imitate and brings the firm high profits. The Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors in an Industry In order to compete with so many competitors in this industry, Best Buy needs to consider the settlement of price, to face the advertising battles, to continuously improve the customer services and warranties. In addition to low industry growth rate, low product differentiation, and low switching costs, the intensity of competitive rivalry is pretty high. After the analysis of the companys general and competitive environment, Best Buy has reached success through expanding, providing prior and high-quality service, well established relationships with customers and suppliers, and differentiation. Recommendations for the Future As the leading company in the Electronics Industry, Best Buy already has a competitive advantage over its competitors. In order to gain even more market share for their company there are steps Best Buy could take in becoming more specialized. If they kept their focus on the specific aspects of the electronics industry that the everyday consumer does not necessarily know, consumers would feel even more comfortable purchasing specific electronic products. This way they would be differentiating themselves from their main competitors and be considered as a superior business all together. An advantage that Best Buy has is the production of their own products, such as Rocketfish, Dynex, Init. This allows for Best Buy to gain higher margins on products that are sold. Therefore we feel that it is important for Best Buy to market their products strongly. By increased advertising and promotion on such products, consumers will begin purchasing Best Buys own products rather than other competing name brands such as Sony and LG. It is also important for Best Buy to continually enhance their employee relationship within the Company. A job at Best Buy is highly sought after, however it is important for them to keep their employees interests in the company high. By maintaining good employee relations they are also ensuring that their employees speak of them highly outside of work which ensures their customer relations in good order as well. It would be beneficial if Best Buy would keep enhancing their Reward and Benefit Systems for their employees. By doing so, moral and interest in the company will increase and the Company will see improvements in their performance. One example of such reward systems that Best Buy already has in place are what they call Blue Crew Bucks. This system is used to pay a bonus to stores who perform the highest and their employees. While Sarah Ballard, Vice President of Human Capital for Best Buy developed this system and thought it was a great idea employees thought differently. Thr ee months after it began, she realized that employees didnt agree. Store managers told her that some workers thought Best Buy wouldnt pay up; others just didnt understand the program. After realizing that employees were upset she was able to talk to managers of each store and clarify how the program worked. By continually receiving feedback from employees and the management team, Best Buy is able to make sure that everyone is satisfied with their work environment and with how things operate.  [14]   As new products are constantly entering the market along with rapidly developing technology it is important for Best Buy to keep up with the market and make sure they always provide the newest products for customers immediately. With the latest products such as the I-Pad and X-box Kinect consumers will only consider shopping for these at the stores they know will be the first to carry them. It is important for customers to know when they want to purchase that new item they can do so at Best Buy. Jeremy Brown stated, It is so important to have the newest items for customers when they come out. Upon the new items release we must make sure that we have enough of the product to cover the demand and place them at an appropriate location in the store to maximize the items appeal.  [15]  Making sure these new products are placed so that they can be easily identified by consumers when they enter the store is very important for the company. This will attract consumers into the store in th e first place, in hopes that upon purchasing the new item, they will also decide to purchase other items. After analyzing Best Buys competitive approach in their corporate strategies, it is apparent that they have established themselves as the leader in the consumer Electronics Industry. The resources that Best Buy has at their expense allow for them to have a remain competitive in the electronics industry as a leading electronics retailer. The process by which Best Buy utilizes their resources is a valuable asset, for the company strives to continually strengthen their competitive approach. They can continue to strengthen this by focusing on great employee relationships, keeping up with the newest technology and products in their stores and focusing on specific products where they have a competitive advantage above competition.