The Taiwan hospitality industry developed after experiencing a business cycle

 

Chapter 1

The Problem and its Background

1.1 Introduction

The Taiwan hospitality industry developed after experiencing a business cycle with its initial high during the implementation of the Six-Year National Development Plan applicable for the years 1991 to 1996. However, hospitality industry becomes low during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 but a rise in the performance of the hospitality industry at present among other external and internal factors affecting the number of tourists whose needs the industry meets becomes apparent Global Hospitality News Archive, 2003).

Actually, the hotel industry in Taiwan is delineated into international and domestic hotels based on business ownership and domestic hotels are also subdivided into domestic company owned hotels and family owned hotels depending on the scale of operation and ownership of the hotel. These hotels differ in a variety of ways according to the manner that they utilize their available and created resources and business strategies to actualize their business goals.

Despite the differences in the scale of operation, organizational structure and business strategies of international and domestic hotels, the common objective is to utilize and maximize their resources to achieve a high brand equity founded upon efficient and excellent quality of service that results to customer satisfaction and eventually to customer loyalty.  International and domestic hotels build a strong industry through their ability to cater to the diverse needs of customers in terms of price, customer relationship, accommodation arrangements, and other diverse hospitality needs of customers. Although there is competition among international hotels, international and domestic hotels, and among domestic hotels it cannot be denied that these hotels provide distinct hospitality services giving customers options for their service preferences.

  According to Taiwan Travel Agency (2005), travelers are more likely to stay in an international tourist hotel that offers high-level of accommodation to customers, such as outstanding services on food and beverage, social activities, meetings, and entertainment. Travelers are also willing to wait in line for a particular facility that they prefer to stay based upon intangible qualities such as the intangible, inalienable, heterogeneous and convenient characteristics.

On the other hand, the family owned and operated hotels are in a disadvantageous position to compete with the international tourist hotels. Factors such as the overhead costs to operate, the building appealing, location, and limited number of rooms, etc. are causing them to be unable to adjust with the tourists’ unpredictable demand at any time. For that reason, it becomes a challenge to the family-owned hotels to survive competition and sustain a high accommodation rate.

With tough competition within the tourist hotel industry, how a hotel, regardless its size, can deliver intangible values as the core competence in order to attract consumer and enhance brand image recognition, to sustain high customer loyalty, is a key question in this study.

Aiming to dedicate this research to the tourist hotel industry in Taiwan, the author will focus on the hotels in the selected cities of Taiwan, including three major urban areas in Taiwan. The author will also visit the selected five-star hotels as well as the selected small family-owned hotels in Taipei, Teaching, and Kaohsiung. The purpose is to gather the accommodation information within the past two years for this research.

1.2  Aims and Objectives

In an attempt to distinguish the differences on Brand Image, Service Quality, Customer Loyalty, and Customer Satisfaction between International Tourist Hotels and Domestic Hotels in Taiwan, the study intends to establish the quality dimensions related to the Taiwanese hotel industry, and then analyze the factors that influence the above mentioned elements known to maintain and determine Competitive advantage in the service, hotel and tourism industry. In addition, the study will also address the decision making process performed on customer reservation in the hotel industry, based on the hotel’s management environment and customer relations.

The study aims to produce results that may be applicable to the real hotel operations in Taiwan through sales tactics in order to establish a strong foundation of customer loyalty based on the inter-dynamic relation.

Particularly, the research’s objectives, in the context of the Taiwanese hotel industry, are to:

1)                 Discuss customer satisfaction and what can influence service   quality.

2)                 Discuss service quality and what can influence brand image.

3)                 Discuss service quality’s connection and influence to customer loyalty.

4)                 Discuss brand image and how this can influence customer loyalty.

5)                 Discuss customer loyalty and what may be the most important variable within this concept.

Finally, the author will summarize all the factors related to customer satisfaction and conclude on what can influence brand image and customer loyalty.

1.3 Definition of Terms

1.3.1 Definition of Satisfaction

As Oliver (1981) asserted, customer satisfaction is the response or a kind of mood coming out from the pleasant surprise that the customer obtains in buying experience. Similarly, Westbrook (1981) observed that it is a state of a kind of mood to be satisfied which reflects the evaluation in real experience. And Churchill & Suprenant (1982) stressed that customer satisfaction is the kind of purchase and result of using the products; the customer relatively expects the remuneration of the result for the emerging input cost.

It is a relative judgment that Ostrom & Iacobuci (1995) considered a customer would be either satisfied or unsatisfied during a buying experience, which is the result of not only the quality but also the interests obtained at the same time considering the cost associated with the experience. Kolter (1999) also noted that satisfaction could be expressed in the level of the joyful degree that a person feels related to the consciousness performance of the products and expectation to the products that this person purchased.

1.3.2 Service Quality

According to Levitt’s point of view (1972), service quality means the serving result in accordance with customer’s pre-established standard. He further defined quality of service as closely related with material, equipment, and personnel surface, not to mention the way to provide service: it is the service quality that yields the best results. In addition, Gronroos (1984) thought that customer's service quality of the consciousness is the result via the course income of service and consciousness that are relatively expected.

Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1985) stated that the service quality is perceived as the level of customer expectation and the customer consciousness disparity during which the service is delivered, namely Service quality = Service expected - The service of the consciousness. If the service level of the consciousness is lower than the service level expected, then the quality of serving is perceived as low; On the contrary, if the service level of the consciousness is higher than the service level expected, then the quality of service is high.

PZB (1985) attempted to characterize the service quality as follows: 1.To a customer, service quality is more difficult to assess than the quality of the products; 2.Service quality recognition usually comes from a customer's result expectance the result after comparing with the real service performance; 3.The assessment of service quality must not merely include the assessment to course of serving but also must include the assessment which serves the result.

1.3.3  Definition of loyalty

Dick & Basu (1994) believed that customer’s loyalty could be regarded as the personal attitude and the intensity behaviour to purchase again. Jones & Sasser (1995) stated that customer's loyalty is the customer’s will toward purchasing again in the future for specific products or service. They mentioned that customer's loyalty could be either for a long term or a short period of time: long-term loyalty is customer's long-term purchase, it is when customer encounters better manufacturer or products to be loyal; In a short time, customer will turn to the new goods or services.

Griffin (1996) emphasized that customer's loyalty will influence the customer's purchase behavior and ” customer satisfaction “ is only the behavior or a kind of attitude. Furthermore, Seybold (1998) thought that enterprises profit would improve by protecting customer's loyalty for the following reasons:

1.      The longer the enterprise can sustain the relationship with its customer, the more income that enterprise can obtain from the same customer and the basic incomes of the enterprise will increase.

2.      The quantity that the loyal customer purchases will also significantly increase.

3.      The loyal customer will recommend new customer for the enterprises.

4.      The loyal customer would willingly pay higher expenses in order to get the satisfactory products and service, so it does not need price or other inducements.

1.3.4 Definition of brand Image

Keller (1993) thought the image of the brand will have significant impact on consumers purchase behavior and will be reflected in consumer's memory to the consciousness of the brand associated with purchasing decision. Another set of information linked with node of the brand and how it is formed in the memory of association department of the brand: include the brand image meaning represented toward consumer awareness of brands.

Based on consumer’s brand concept, Dobni (1990) regarded image of the brand as the subjective consciousness phenomenon, it is not as easy to understand but is forming via consumer's reason or the perceptual one. In addition, since the Brand Image does not physically exist in the products and in the entity, it would be influenced and meld by its own declaration of specialties of the content and by the persons who accept the image throughout the purchase activity; Therefore, it is more important to consult the image of the brand than the consciousness appeared of fact.

Aaker (1991) explained that the image of brand is usually associated with the organization in a meaningful way and it is reflected the attitude of group of characteristics such as: Product performance, customer's interests, compare price, the user/the customer, famous person/person, life style/personality, product category, competitor, etc. Each of those characteristics has different level of intensity in influencing the brand image.

Biel (1992) expressed the image of brand for the product attributes and linked back the product to the associated brand name to come to the conclusion: The characteristics of brand image can be divided into to materials and flexibility' materials, not rigid, to the tangible and intangible such as consumer special feeling, etc. 

1.4 Background of the Study

People travel to experience different cultures, interact with different kinds of people and taste different cuisines first hand.  They travel because they have the urge to set forth and discover for themselves the beauty of this planet they call home.  Pictures and images from postcards, magazines brochures and television advertisements fall short of providing fulfillment that actually being in the place can surpass.

This pilgrimage to see the wonders of nature has both helped sustain and end lives, depending on who is speaking.  The phenomenon of tourism has taken the world by storm.  An industry often built on the places natural wonders, it has proven to be very profitable. 

Capitalizing on what has been in existence, all the investors have to do is frame the view with hotels, restaurants and bars to make the people feel like it was nature that came to them and not the other way around. The main idea is to present the natural beauty of the place and at the same time offering the comforts of home.  Tourism is an opportunity for people to play (Smith, 1989). Tourism in its true sense represents a human behaviour that Berlyne (1962) calls “Human exploratory behaviour.”  This human behaviour includes expressive culture like the arts, sports and folklore.

Given the expanse of tourism, it is important to break down its components to have a better understanding of how the industry operates.  The first thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the impact of tourism in economics. As stated earlier, tourism has become one of the world’s largest industries.  It, therefore, follows that the financial aspects of this industry has been contributing a lot to the improvement of world economy.         

According to Momsen (1999), the World Travel and tourism council estimated that tourists are spending 3.6 trillion dollars on goods and services directly or indirectly which is about 10.6 percent of the 1996 gross global product.  And because of the number of people availing tourism services it has provided one out of ten jobs worldwide or around 25.5 million people employed in tourism related companies. According to an article in the Westin Bulletin in 1994 (as cited in Geron, 1997), out of nine workers worldwide, one is employed in the tourism industry.

In the midst of all the travelling being done by people everyday, it cannot be helped that those who are far away from home wants to seek refuge in accommodations that feels like home.  This means that people who are travelling want to feel secure and comfortable while staying in hotels. Include in the wide web of the tourism is the hotel industry.  They are the ones who ensure that tourists can temporarily come home after a tiring day of sightseeing. They are the ones to make sure that tourists feel at home while they are away from home. In addition, the hotel industry provides various services for varied needs of the market. They offer vacation, business and convention services. This means that they cater to a wide variety of customer types.

According to Bain and Co. (as cited in Bashkaran, 2005), the cost of gaining new customers is 6-7 times more expensive than retaining customer and a 5 percent increase in customer retention can also increase profit by 25-95 percent. This, to a certain degree, proves that there is an indirect relation between customer satisfaction and increase in sales through increased customer retention.

The hotel industry, in general, is a customer centric industry.  Companies that choose to enter in the said industry must be prepared to accept that in order for them to make profit they must put the customer considerations on top of profit making itself.  This means that they would have to invest a great deal of capital, time and effort to create their own image that would eventually lead to patronage. Therefore, it is important that hotel management implement programs that will teach their employees the value of providing quality service all of the time. In addition, it has been stipulated that customer satisfaction, usually obtained through quality service, results to customer retention, increased profitability and increased brand equity. 

Therefore, customer interaction is part of the nature of hotel employees. This also means that customers create images of the hotels based on their relationship with the hotel employees. This is the case since hotel employees represent the hotel in the perspective of the customers. Their conception of the hotel in general is based on every single interaction they have with the hotel employees. Therefore, one unpleasant incident can result to the customers’ thinking that hotel is no good.

With this, it can be stated that customer relationship is one of the key aspects that needs to be focused in order to provide quality service to hotel customers. Customer relationship management programs are part of total Quality management since they are processes that hotel managements take in order to improve the quality of service they provide.  Furthermore, it is important to implement an effective customer relationship program since they result to more satisfied customers. With this, the question becomes how are customer satisfied?

According to John (2003), customer satisfaction can be achieved by businesses if they are customer focused and being customer focused means that the business is interested in understanding their customers and their endeavors, as well as their interests and perception of the value of the products and services that the business is offering.  Moreover, this interest should not wear out with the passing of time; it must be embedded in the business’ culture.  Once this is achieved, ensuring profit while serving customers will be a lot easier to balance. Serving the customer means that the business is actually considering what the customers need.  Customer focused businesses will usually include products and services developed with the thought of providing total value to the customer in mind. 

In order to build up Competitive Advantage, International and domestic hotels will be able to keep up with the demands of a growing market for the industry by allowing customers to experience goods and making the industry service-based instead of price-based thus building brand image.   It is important that the service employed is also superior in quality so customer satisfaction may ultimately be attained. 

Customer Satisfaction serves that basis in which Competitive Advantage and hotel performance may be measured.  This consequently yields customer loyalty due to mutual trust and consistent experience of satisfaction due to the impressive meeting of expectations as well as preferences. 

1.5 Business Significance

The purpose of customer relation management is to create customer's value as the starting point, and maintains a life-long relationship with the customer. In order to improve the customer service and improve customer loyalty to gain the competitive advantage, hotel industry must manage and find out the tactics suitable for continuous relationship marketing, an approach that seeks to deepen and broaden relationships with existing and potential customers by targeting, tailoring, and measuring outcomes.

Also, the service qualities that the hotel industry offers will be improved as a result. As long as the hotels can increase the customer loyalty base, the frequent patronage from customer will boost up the hotel industry profit. It is one of the most important tactics for the hotel industry in Taiwan currently.      

Once the author discovers the relationship on quality factors that can influence band image, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and the findings can then be utilized by both the international tourist hotels and family-owned hotels, to develop databases, trend analysis, and other marketing tools to identify and drive efficiency their revenues. Therefore, service quality can be personalized and offered to attract more loyalty customer bases thus improve operating profit. The results would be a win-win situation for both travelers and lodging providers.

As earlier stated, the study aims to produce results that may be applicable to the real hotel operations in Taiwan through sales tactics in order to establish a strong foundation of customer loyalty based on the inter-dynamic relation.  This will also yield a better delivery of services. 

The findings of the research being proposed can prove to be valuable for Taiwanese hotel managements, hotel employees and customers. The hotel industry in Taiwan can benefit from the research by being informed about the brand image, service quality, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction trends as well as their effect and impact on the industry particularly in Taiwanese International Tourist and Domestic hotels. This way they will be able to use the findings of the research in formulating a perceived effective promotion, marketing and management program suited for their case.

In addition, employees will be able to benefit from these said programs that their companies will implement since they will be given the opportunity to enhance their skills and be more competitive both inside and outside the company.

Lastly, customers will also benefit since all of the improvements are geared towards providing them with high-quality services. The benefits are thus, holistic and not just benefiting a particular group or sector.  The benefits of the hotel affects from the administration to its employees and especially its customers.  The study may detail the methods that will boost the Taiwanese hotel industry that will not only bring an upsurge of interest and returns in that industry sector, but also the country it belongs to as a whole.  Once the country will benefit from the rewards of the Taiwanese hotel industry, the Chinese citizenry will experience an added improvement in their way of life.  The effects of this research thus proceeds in a chain that will benefit the Taiwanese and the Chinese.  As this is a study belonging in the HRM industry, it will also contribute greatly to international hotel and human resources management as a case study and a historical development of such industry. 

1.6  Scope and Limitation 

As the study will determine the Difference on Brand Image, Service Quality, Customer Loyalty, and Customer Satisfaction between International Tourist Hotels and Domestic Hotels in Taiwan, it will only focus on these three subject topics and categorizations.  Although separate studies will be performed on these three subject matters in the review of related literature for background information purposes and in order to situate the research.  It will also be essential to put the research in the context of the hotel industry and more particularly, the Taiwanese hotel industry.  There are still specifications in this general umbrella topic which would be International Tourist Hotels and Domestic Hotels. 

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THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM

THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM

 

Introduction

 

The adversary system ( 2000) is a remnant of the common law system English judicial system. The system is not indicated in the present Constitution nor is it sealed, generally, by any form of legislation. Yet, the adversary procedure is the key element of the country’s criminal justice system. An individual accused with a crime is not merely the accused. He is considered as the defendant, a person who maintains the capability to oppose and challenge the government's charges. The adversary system acquires commendations from a lot of quarters for the reason that, it is contended that the self-interest of those involved will inspire them to more comprehensively arrange their submissions to the fact finder than if a more composed investigator were commissioned with the duty. ( 1998) Similarly, it is understood that a impartial and objective fact finder is less probable to demonstrate any form of bias for the reason that he or she has no agenda in the manner that the investigation is carried out or how trial groundwork are prepared. ( and , 1995) The adversarial system functions on the supposition that truth will win through from the disagreement involving two opposing parties.

 

           Perspective

In a 1988 documentary,        in his work on the        , talked about the story of the arrest and conviction of        . Apparently,       was accused of the murder of a police officer in Dallas in 1976. In this film, the role of the police in the adversarial system of the criminal justice system is highlighted. This calls for the police to recognize a suspect from the proof accessible, and if there is adequate evidence in opposition to them, to take legal action to that individual and ascertain their guilt. The reason of adversarial justice necessitates that the police and the prosecutors will not carry on with a court case, even supposing they are in no doubt that they recognize who performed a crime, until they have enough proof to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the individual they charged of the crime is guilty. This process provided the death sentence to      .  

   

To Kill a Mocking Bird

 

In the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, the adversarial system is placed to in the context of the actual world where bigotry exists. In a setting where racial prejudice is adamant, the defendant’s day in court dwindles by the minute. The responsibility of the professional, particularly the counsel, to provide all people in the community is respected. When the character of Atticus approved to represent      , a physically damaged African American charged of sexual assault of a Caucasian female, he is aware that the case will be almost impracticable and unfeasible to succeed. As an irate cluster of individual plan of hanging       at his cell, Atticus both symbolically and literally puts himself amid the men and      . In this scene, the lead character’s desire to maintain the innocence of the defendant and provide him with the fair trial is given weight.

 

The Grisham Adaptation

 

The movie adaptation of          ’s novel, the       , a group of wealthy businesspeople intends to bend the adversarial system by “buying” their exoneration through the jury. To guarantee that the case does not place them and their associates on the pit that may well reclassify that steadfast Second Amendment, they employ the most thriving jury specialist in the trade, master manipulator        , who has even negligible conscience than the corporation’s chief counsel         . The legal representative for the claimant,      , condemns the very thought of cherry-picking the members of the juries who will be judging the case, but is ultimately drawn by        , who tenders his consulting services for free purely for the reason that he trusts in the importance of the case.         has no personnel or concealed communication instruments, merely a file full of freely accessible particulars and annotations and common sense.

 

Spielberg’s Precognition 

 

In the movie directed by Spielberg, The       is a representation of a judicial system absent the adversarial system. This is because a triad of individuals known as the “precogs” judges an individual of a crime even before it is carried out. In a vision of 2054, revealed a society of Utopian characteristics where crime is virtually inexistent. In this setting, the role of the police force is vital for the reason that they are the basic instrument to avert the crime. This is displayed in the early parts of the movie where the full force of law enforcement is employed just to apprehend a single “precriminal.” The case of the lead character played by represents the flaw in the system, where a justice system devoid an adversarial system is fully susceptible of inequitable and discriminatory outcomes.     

 

Lumet’s Views

 

In order for justice to win through, human bigotry, regardless of the difficulty of its deterrence, has to be stricken out of the equation. Later in the film       , it is seen that the character of       does not convincingly confirm that the defendant has not carried out the crime; without a doubt, albeit he fiercely weakens a number of the stronger proof demonstrating the fault of the defendant there is as much proof to propose that the defendant is actually culpable. What he accomplishes is to put just an adequate amount of reservation in the heads of the other members of the jury as to compel them to reassess their opinion. Therefore, the movie is a support of the legal system of its adversarial procedure by adhering to the tenets of the law. Similarly, it can be perceived as a condemnation of it, revealing just how effortlessly a jury can be influenced by blurring the matter with extensive suppositions and inferences.

 

The Verdict

In movie The Verdict,       prevails over alcoholism and ineptitude, on top of the defense's perverse actions, to be triumphant on a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, this win is still marred by deception and barely credible chance. In the same way, the film explicitly portrays the alarming world of settlement compromises when the parties involved agreed to solve the issue outside the courts.       furthermore included a fine settlement succession, in which an additional influenced judge attempted to pester the claimant's legal representative into acquiring a paltry settlement offer.

 

Conclusion

 

The performance of the adversarial criminal trial cannot be established exclusively by allusion to the principles that are described in the Constitution, the directives instituted in statutes, or the pledges that are assured in court judgments. The adversary system has been collectively created so that its prerequisites may be satisfied by the terms of an overstrained and underskilled public prosecutor without problems, which has a slight possibility of granting his or her client with a just court trial. If the hearing is to be made in excess of an uncomplicated way station heading towards a certain guilty verdict, then public defenders have to be provided the capability to challenge the government's argument from a position of parity.

 

References

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The Concepts Of Facilities Management

The Concepts of Facilities Management

 

Pitt and Tucker   discussed the Facilities management as with the interdisciplinary coordination of all business support services and maintenance function in the buildings such as care of offices, commercial or institutional buildings, like hospitals, hotels, office complexes, arenas, schools or convention centers and the like. Facilities management can be also defined  as the integration and alignment of the non-core services, including those relating to premises.  They are all  required for the daily  maintenance and operation of a business in helping the entire organization to achieve its  mission and main goals of putting the business. ( "Performance Measurement in FM", Property Management Vol. 26 No. 4, 2008 pp. 241-254). Facilities management has been   in its  new developments and continuous innovations in any  industry that  is in accordance with the  customer's expectations, as well as adding the core value of the business. ( Mudrakm, et al.)

Additionally, the   International Facility Management Association  (IFMA) stated that FM is "a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, processes and technology." Even the European facility management association admitted that FM is "integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities." Therefore, the scope of FM is focus on space and infrastructure of the building or office through  planning, design, construction, maintenance, occupancy, furniture and fixtures and most of all cleaning programs.  In this connection, the support of the   facility administrative  management is very essential by providing the facility staff with  information technology that is based on  computer-aided facility management(CAFM). Apparently, the role of FM is coincide with the roles of facility managers in the organization.  Most facility managers are doing their tasks through  two levels.  The first one is by strategic-tactical, and the other one is by operational function.  The strategic-tactical, the owners must be informed on the possible effects of the facility managers' decisions and the restrictions and conditions of the services they are going to provide to the clients as well as to the entire departments  of the company.  The  latter type  gives the facility manager a  full responsibility to  ensure that proper operation in all areas of  the  building or office  are safe, well maintained, and  promotes cost saving  objectives  for the occupants. These factors can be achieved successfully if  health and  occupational safety  compliance is given extra consideration by the business owner together with the local, state and national laws in the  business communities.  Next is the industrial hygiene is also important in operating everyday the business; so as the indoor air quality  ventilation for the workers.  Another one is the display screen regulations as the guidelines to follow by   the entire workforce;  at the same time, the safety rules for contractors must be given emphasis in order to avoid any untoward incidents in the workplace. The risk assessment program, control of  hazardous substances  to protect the  health condition of  the working people are all crucial in determining the efficiency and effectivity  of facility management in a particular office or building.   And, the most overlooked aspect of  maintaining a building is the fire safety program. Keep in mind that a proper fire safety  protection measures   play a vital role in maintaining   business facilities that include the implementation of the  fire protection and safety,  installation of the smoke or heat detectors, as well as the installation of fire alarm systems, sprinkler systems, fire extinguishers, dry risers, and fire stopping.  On the other hand, there must  be also an access control of the security guarding  system in the office or building just in case,   any untoward incident occurs in the work place. And to help the security department to do their task a little bit easier, the sue of CCTV system is very rampant nowadays in every commercial buildings and establishments  in order to secure the  total security of the occupants as well as the building facilities and the   building administration too.  Aside from all those mentioned aspects of facilities management, the heating, ventilating, air conditioning and  refrigeration, preventive and predictive maintenance, corrective maintenance/reactive repairs, both building automation and fabric-decorative systems, grounds maintenance and horticulture, computerized maintenance management system, periodic statutory testing and inspections, lifting-working equipment, electrical systems among many others are all included in the  regular  maintenance of an office building or any commercial establishment.

( www.ifmashanghai.org/.../Facilities-Management)

Correspondingly, FM was only its inception in China today;   the SCCA-TONGJI-RICS (Shanghai) Learning Center, organized  seminars with  the theme "Facilities management in China's development," The seminar was able to discuss the concepts of facilities management, as well as the distinction of the traditional property management from the analysis of facilities management in the Chinese business environment with  the   challengers and opportunities in the  business  setting.  And, what  facilities management can do  in the daily operation of the business.

( www.ifmashanghai.org/.../Facilities-Management)

References:

 (Mudrak, T., Wagenburg, A.V. and Wubben, E. (2004), “Assessing the innovative ability of FM teams: a review”, Facilities, Vol. 22 Nos 11/12, pp. 290-5). Retrieved from

 www.ifmashanghai.org/.../Facilities-Management

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Daycare

 

            High quality daycare have planned program of activities and temporal routine, there are means of proper training that introduce discipline into young children’s often unruly lives. The daycare leaves little doubt that young children require such discipline to absorb the complicated rules of social living. Children are reportedly prone to uncontrolled aggressiveness, natural curiosity about sex, the craving and competition for the teachers' affection, tantrums, excessive shyness, the important principle of "social sharing" might be quite incomprehensible to infants until two years of age. Given such a discursive production of the normal child, it is not surprising that "all nursery school experts believe that three and four year olds need control.

            However, daycare has some negative aspects and these are: Out of home childcare is not as convenient like in-home childcare especially during cold winter mornings. Secondly, a child is more likely to pick up pink eye, colds and other illnesses if he/she is around a large number of children. Since most daycares have policies that need sick children to stay at home, a mother still have to make alternative childcare arrangements whenever the child is sick. Finally, it is very difficult to find the appropriate daycare, there is no assurance that where will be an available daycare when you need it.

High-quality daycare is apparently a necessary technology for making the useful individuals that American society will need in the future, because its defining methods and means of training and discipline resemble those of the modern barracks, factory, school, hospital, and prison. In an important sense, it is merely another application of a tried-and-true technology for making useful individuals. It merely starts that process earlier in life, producing a normal child who is prepared to be fashioned into a serious student, dedicated soldier, conscientious worker, cooperative patient, and contrite prisoner -a "useful individual." It is hardly surprising, then, that such scientific means of correct training would become an unquestioned fact of modern American life -- a life lived within a great network of disciplinary mechanisms. That is the fate of the normal child and useful individual of the twentieth and, perhaps, the twenty-first century. As the popular daycare discourse examined here seems to conclude, it only makes sense that the young should learn to accept this fate at the earliest possible age.

 

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Healthcare Organization and Delivery

 

Healthcare Organization and Delivery

MT-371

Midterm Project by Stephanie Selvidge

In what two ways have each of the following impacted the cost of health care in the United States?

1. Health insurance

The assortment of components of health care cost increases are not independent but interact. But a main cause of the increased cost of medical care is clearly the growth of third-party payments, including private health insurance and various government programs, of which Medicare and Medicaid are the most important (Stewart, 1995). Third-party payments affect all the other causes of health care cost increases. In majority of cases, payment for healthcare services and products are provided by a third-party. Many of working-age persons have their healthcare services and products paid for by their employer.

Payments from third-party increase the amount of medical services demanded by consumers by making them insensitive to the prices. This increased demand in turn allows the physicians to increase the supply of services rendered and to also increase their fees and earnings, attracting malpractice lawyers and tempting dissatisfied customers. Pharmaceutical companies and suppliers of medical technical equipment are encouraged to increase their research spending, their advertising, prices, and sales also at the same time. Even if pharmaceutical drugs are not covered in many insurance contracts, the fact that other medical costs are covered makes the consumer more willing to pay high prices for the medicines. These effects are made worse by tax subsidies for health insurance obtained through employers that lead to the purchase of insurance that is excessive in quantity and inaccurate in coverage (Stewart, 1995).

Health insurance coverage is currently the primary means for access to medical services when unexpected medical crises arise and for everyday health concerns. The high costs of health insurance and medical services has led to reliance on (1) employer-provided health insurance coverage, and (2) federal- and state-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs (Hong & White-Means, 1999).

2. Advances in medical care

Rapid advancements in science and technology, along with investor dollars, have created major advances in medical care. These emerging technologies in medicine, which were increasingly housed in hospitals and physicians' offices, not only laid the groundwork for the coming shift in the way health care was delivered, but also increased healthcare costs.

Technology standards like electronic information and other tools have significantly increased healthcare costs. Strongly associated with technological advances is also the issue of how quickly new treatments are made available to the general public (Thomas, 1993). Although of course this is beneficial for the consumer, this would mean increased healthcare cost on their parts. Indeed all these advances have helped improve health care services for the consumers, but it also added extra payment or cost on their part.

Advances in medical care also made way for the provision of healthcare services to the financially less privileged. Hospitals began generating capital funds from paying patients who in the past had been treated at home. The importance of admitting privileges rose along with the criteria for receiving these privileges. Many physicians began making deals with the hospitals to admit their private patients. The hospitals in effect became the workshop for physicians where their private patients would pay the hospital charges and physician fees. In turn, this arrangement enabled both the physician and hospital to provide free care for the poor in the hospital dispensaries. Seriously ill poor patients were generally admitted to both municipal and private hospitals as "service cases," where they were supervised by attending and cared for by students and house officers (Marsh & Yarborough, 1990).

3. Aging demographics in the U.S.

The growing elderly population is largely the outcome of new technology, public health as well as medical technology, saving lives and postponing death. The introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 improved access to medical care for the poor and many of the elderly, contributing to life extension past age sixty-five (Stewart, 1995).

This age group uses an uneven share of medical resources. In the elderly group, the social and personal requirements of residents who need some assistance with daily activities and health care are emphasized. Its an important distinction, in that the design of housing, services, activities, employee training, and such is truly customer-centered, or in other words, suited to their age group/population. At present there are many institutions or organizations that are specifically for the elder populations in the United States.

For Americans aged over 65 years and certain disabled persons, the federal government program Medicare pays for the majority of hospital and physician services consumed.

The growth in the number of elderly, coupled with the previously-mentioned large increases in the cost of health care, are making long-term care for the elderly populations very expensive (Thomas, 1993). Although many of the most promising medical innovations will result in better health and longer life for the elderly populations, they will also increase--not decrease—healthcare costs and spending.

4. Government support for healthcare

Local government is a large portion of the overall health care safety net in the United States, providing direct-care services and funding such items as public hospitals, transportation, educational outreach, and housing subsidies (Ketchum, 2001).

As stated at the start of the paper, various government programs have contributed to the rising cost of health care in the US. The social awakening of the 1960s brought the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid as a means to give adequate healthcare to the poor. Its effect on the overall health care system in America was overwhelming (Marsh & Yarborough, 1990). Americans belonging to the low-income brackets can enroll in a state-administered Medicaid program that pays for select healthcare services.

The role of the government in regulating health care providers will be limited to ensuring that providers and payers do not engage in anticompetitive practices and that the safety of consumers and patients is protected (Hackey, 1998). This means that the government tries its best to reduce the healthcare costs at all levels for the consumer’s benefits.

5. Consumer expectations

Almost all healthcare consumers would want to go to the “best” hospital in town, see their own doctor, and have access to the same new medicines. When one falls ill, gets a certain level of medical care, and tells the neighbor about it, the other's expectations are raised accordingly (Kleinke, 2001). Each individual consumer shares a common need for health and a desire for the absence of illness through the demand for health care services and products. This in return affects the healthcare costs.

Since consumers expect so much of healthcare, the healthcare providers are pushed to offering consumers a range of choices. Consumer expectations are fueling demand for health information that they can understand and services that they want. Consumers would want to know what their care options are and what health plans are available to them. By offering consumers a choice of healthcare services and plans, various healthcare organizations encourage the development of price competition among competitors. Price competition among healthcare providers could generate in a cost reduction of a range of healthcare services.

The empowerment of the consumer is perhaps the most exciting and potentially the most threatening of all the developments in healthcare. In a consumer-empowered marketplace, once dominant, name-brand players compete on a level playing field with those with a fresh approach and a strong customer focus. In a consumer-empowered marketplace, information flows freely, facilitating comparisons of quality, value, and price. In a consumer-empowered marketplace, there is less reliance on "experts" to make decisions because consumers have the information to participate actively in those decisions (Clarke, 2000).

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

If the three cards are to be drawn and without any replacement from the deck of cards. Determine the probability that the event B1 ∩ B2 ∩ B3 wherein B1 is the events that the card is red ace, B2 is the 10 or jack, and B3 is greater that 3 but less than 7

Solution:

First, it is important to determine the events

            B1 : the card is red ace

            B2 : The card is 10 or jack

            B3 : the card is greater than 3 but it is less than 7

Then,

            P(B1) = 2/52

            P(B2/A1) = 8/51

            P (B3/ B1 ∩ B2) = 12/50

To get the probability of

P (B1 ∩ B2 ∩ B3) = P (B1)P(B2/B1) P(B3/(B1 ∩ B2)

                             = (2/52)(8/51)(12/50)

                             = 8/5525

 

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