Gender issues and changes at work facing human resource management and Essay

Gender issues and changes at work facing human resource management and promoting equality at work through diversity - Essay Example One important fact to question is one that begs an inquiry into why women fail to move up the employment hierarchy. One possible explanation has to do with the perception that women do not "fit in" with the traditional "male" profile. This is most prevalent in the choice of employment conceived by children which translates to future adult employment aspirations. As children career choices are guided by hobbies, skill sets and the notion that some careers are more attractive than others. In so doing, the traditional gender roles play a crucial rule. Female children tend to aspire to employment with fits the traditional gender roles of women being employed in a subservient position while male children tend to aspire employment which places men in dominant positions such as that of upper level managerial positions. This bias in the rating process may lead to subjec ¬tive selection and promotion decisions. In fact, in a HRM survey on work place diversity and the decision to promote individuals within an organization indicates that subjectivity plays a vital role. Other barriers cited by this survey include lack of developmental exposure and experiences provided to women, and selection through word-of-mouth networking from current male employees. Fur ¬ther, most of these organizations steer their women em ¬ployees into staff positions.

Barriers To Learning Encountered Children With Down Syndrome Psychology Essay

Barriers To Learning Encountered Children With Down Syndrome Psychology Essay Causes and Risks of Downs Syndrome. Initially, I would like to mention what is Down syndrome (DS). Down syndrome, also referred to as Trisomy 21, is a situation in which additional genetic material played a significant role in the way a child matures, both physically and intellectually. It is a genetic disease that affects approximately one in every 1,000 babies. Each person has 46 chromosomes, which are divided into 23 pairs. Each mans sperm has 23 chromosomes and each womans egg is the same, so that when the arrest takes place and the sperm fertilizes the egg, shaped a young man with a full complement of chromosomes. Sometimes mistakes are made and caused chromosomal abnormalities. Down syndrome is one of them. A child born with Downs syndrome has an extra chromosome in every cell in his body. So far, we do not know what causes the presence of an extra chromosome. It can come from either the mother or the father. It is significant to remember though that faults in chromosome distribution are not rare. However, there is a specific link with older mothers. Most babies with Down syndrome are born to women under the age of 35, simply because as a woman reaches the latter years of her reproductive life, the probability of a fault in chromosome distribution rises progressively. What we do know is that nobody should be blamed. A child with Down syndrome is likely to be born in any family, almost with the same rate in any population. It can happen to everyone. Although Down syndrome cant be averted, it can be discerned before a child is born. For those parents who have a proportionately high recurrence risk for Downs syndrome, future pregnancies can be monitored by chromosome studies on fetal amniotic cells, with early termination of the pregnancy when the fetus is destined to have Downs syndrome. The health difficulties that can go together with DS can be dealt with, and there are many resources within communities to help kids and their families who are living with the situation. At this point, I should mention that the syndrome was first noted by British physician John Langdon Down (hence the name), where in 1866, he noticed that many people having no connection with each other, located in different institutions, had similar physical characteristics.  It was not until 1959, however, that an additional chromosome was recognized as the cause. Types of Syndrome Down There are three major types of the Down syndrome. The child is likely to have Trisomy 21, i.e. the presence of additional genetic material on the 21st pair of chromosomes (three 21 chromosomes instead of two). About 95 percent of people who have Down syndrome have Trisomy 21. The remaining 5% of the population composed of two other types: The removable type, due to partial or total binding on chromosome 21 with another chromosome, which, in fact, is the extra chromosome pair 21. This type creates important implications for subsequent births and its consequences should be investigated by a specialist geneticist. The mosaic type, the people of this type have cells that  other  have three chromosomes 21 and other normally  two. The ratio of prevalence of these two cell types is random. It is the most rare type of syndrome Down. Moreover, there are  slight external features of the syndrome, the children have fewer health problems and also slight mental retardation. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder characterized by a variety of physical and mental problems, which result  to  slow development in all aspects. We cannot always predict with assurance the degree of cognitive and behavioral development of children with DS, since this depends on the education, the family environment, the accompanying problems and also the attitudes of society in which the child lives . However, we can assure that within the appropriate school context, which in most cases should be the mainstream school, and with appropriate supportive assistance, 80-% of children can be trained successfully on social skills and acquire basic school knowledge. It is important before we deal with the education of a person with DS to know the particularities of learning and to take into account both the selection of learning objects and the teaching method we are going to use (Polychronopoulos, 2001). Like in all the other children  we also find large individual differences in the physical, mental and psychological characteristics in DS people. However,there are many features that affect their education and need to know who deal with it. Another difficulty the people with Down Syndrome confront is the auditory memory, which is the ability to listen, to process and understand the sounds, thus distinguishing the stimuli. The lack of auditory memory makes worse the processing of auditory information and makes it almost impossible to acquire fundamental knowledge grammar and syntax. Fortunately, the long-term memory, which allows us to withdraw persons, events and processes of the past, works well. It has also been found that in contrast to the auditory memory, the visual memory is more effective, a significant element which should be considered when deciding how to present information to these students (Sue Buckley and Angela Byrne, 1994 ). The skills of children with Down syndrome in arithmetic  are not yet sufficiently investigated, we know that in this area the children with Down syndrome encounter the most difficulties. The delayed and deficient language development is one of the reasons for this difficulty. Language is an indispensable tool for thinking,comparison and manipulation of objects and activities and also is a link to the numerical system. So people are finding difficult to perform such cognitive functions and to follow the instructions and explanations of the teacher. The limited short-term memory is another important reason for difficulties encountered by children with Down Syndrome. To be able to perform additional activities such as add, subtract or multiply numbers with our minds, we must be able to maintain information briefly in our short memory. That is why people with Down  confront many difficulties  to make calculations, unless they have ahead of them, specifically things. These children are stuck at the stage of concrete thinking and are unable to move to the abstract-symbolic thinking.

Cinematography of Hitchcocks Psycho :: essays papers

Cinematography of Hitchcocks Psycho Alfred Hitchcock is renown as a master cinematographer (and editor), notwithstanding his overall brilliance in the craft of film. His choice of black and white film for 1960 was regarded within the film industry as unconventional since color was perhaps at least five years the new standard. But this worked tremendously well. After all, despite the typical filmgoer’s dislike for black and white film, Psycho is popularly heralded among film buffs as his finest cinematic achievement; so much so, that the man, a big name in himself, is associated with the film, almost abovehis formidable stature. Imagining it in color, Psycho would not appear as horrific, and maybe it would also not be, as a whole, as unified as it now stands, nor memorable. Black and white has a quality of painting things

Heritage Assessment

Heritage Assessment NRS-429V | Culture and Cultural Competency in Health Promotion John Thomas 3/24/13 The Heritage Assessment tool is primarily used as a device to evaluate health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration of a person’s cultural beliefs and values (Spector, 2006). This assessment helps aid in providing quality patient care in that it helps to meet and respect the needs of different types of people and their respective backgrounds (Spector, 2002).This particular paper serves to compare and contrast the ethnicities of Indian, Caucasian, and Arabic families using health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration as evaluation markers. The purpose was to identify and isolate different groups of people and their unique health practices and traditions that were based off their heritage or background. An assessment of these ethnicities led to several discoveries that I believe could truly improve our methods of health care. Cultural awareness is an essential part of life, especially in this country that is considered to be the melting pot of the world.Cultural awareness can be defined as understanding and appreciation the difference between oneself and people of other backgrounds and cultural beliefs (Shen, 2004). Cultural competence is a term used to refer to awareness and skill acquired to be able to care for people of different ethnicities and cultures (Purnell, 2002). The heritage assessment tool serves as a questionnaire of sorts that is used by personnel in management or care-providing positions in order to gain a better familiarity of a patient/client’s values before providing care (Spector, 2002).These can include questions about everything from their childhood experiences to varying health practices carried out in their homes. These all contribute in helping the nurse/caregiver to be culturally sensitive and utilize the questionnaire to provide quality care to the patient without unknowingly overstepping any boundaries. The Indian family I observed and talked to was my own. Growing up in India had a huge impact on my life and the choices I still make today. Upon working out the Heritage Assessment tool, I found that I still hold deeply rooted ties to my homeland and that I have tried to raise my children in the ame way. Though lifestyles are completely different when comparing the person living actually in India to the individual with an Indian background, a plethora of factors pertaining to health still carry over. Indian families tend to eat foods that are heavy with spices and capsaicin. Studies have shown that these have a number of health benefits including weight loss. When looking into some of the decisions that my family has made that seem to stand out from my friends of different background, diet and religion seem to stand out the most.Indian families are acutely aware of balance and moderation and this can be seen in the average meal. Religion is also a key factor in heal th protection. I have found that families will turn to God to keep their loved ones safe. Being from an Indian Catholic family, I am painfully aware this can also have its down side. For example, Catholicism discourages the use of contraceptives. This is a serious issue when understanding how this affects the growth of the AIDS epidemic not only among Indians but the rest of the world.In terms of restoration, there are more herbal remedies and natural medicines involved than antibiotics and pills. My wife still makes an array of teas and extracts for our children before resorting to taking them to a doctor. The Arabic family I talked to had a surprising number of parallels to my own. They were also driven by religion when it came to health protection. An illness was often considered to be unlucky and a curse from Allah for your sins. The diet high in spices and vegetables seemed a reasonable method of health maintenance.The values of the Arabic values were much stricter than the oth er families I talked to. An incident comes to mind of when it is very important to keep the values and traditions of the patient in mind. A Muslim woman was pregnant and nearing her due date. When it came time for her delivery, the only available Gynecologist was male and went through with the standard procedure and she delivered a healthy baby boy. The woman however, was shunned from her community because the doctor was a man who was not her husband.Situations such as these are important to keep in mind when providing care to patients. The Arabic family also was more open to natural medicine and homeopathic medicine and sought to find a way to cure themselves before seeking outside help at a medical facility. Lastly, the Caucasian family that were my neighbors seemed the most different from the families that I had talked to but the most open and attentive to the world around them. Though their diet was not the best, they seemed more inclined towards exercise and consumption of vita mins to maintain their health and protection of their health.They were also much better about keeping up with regular doctors’ visits and checkups and opted for more immunizations and vaccinations. They seemed more up to date and modernized in all aspects of health. They were also more trusting of modern medicines and prescriptions. They heavily relied on the healthcare system for health restoration even for the simplest medical issues. In conclusion, all three ethnicities have varying lifestyles that contribute to their current status of health. It is important to keep in mind that this is not an accurate report of that general culture.Rather it is an extremely small sample that I found to compare to other families in a somewhat suburban town. I found it very interesting that even with drastically different beliefs and values, all three cultures seemed to value their immensely, even though each had their own traditions and methods so as to preserve that state of health. From the stories and experiences I have heard in talking with these people, I believe it is more imperative than ever that nurses direct more attention to the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment tool.References Purnell, L. (2002). The Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of transcultural nursing,  13(3), 193-196. Shen, Z. (2004). Cultural competence models in nursing. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  15(4), 317-322. Spector, R. E. (2002). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  13(3), 197-199. Spector, R. E. (2004). Culture care: guide to heritage assessment and health traditions. Prentice Hall. Heritage Assessment Heritage Assessment Cultural competency is an essential part of nursing. Catering to the population of the United States as a nurse, one must embrace the cultures of others to provide competent care that will address the needs of the patient in a holistic manner. Beliefs of health management and care differ for all cultures. Being familiar with all backgrounds and cultures is a key factor in providing culturally appropriate care for patients. Illness and the care for illness and disease is viewed differently from culture to culture.The ability to understand and respect the differences among all cultures needs to be utilized by all healthcare providers. Since the perception of illness and disease and their causes varies by culture, these individual preferences affect the approaches to health care. Culture also influences how people seek health care and how they behave toward health care providers (Cultural Diversity, 2012). As health care providers we must learn how to take the proper steps in assessing cultural backgrounds of patients.Asking the appropriate questions can help create a treatment plan that will provide quality care that tends to the patients cultural beliefs as well. In assessment of three cultures: Filipino, Chinese, and Asian-Indians although they share similar views on health care they also have some differences as well. Health beliefs of the Chinese culture are centered on harmony and how to achieve it. Influences of this harmony involved, Yin/Yang, Relationship of elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water, Psychosomatic Integration, Buddhism, and Taoism.In all the listed influences balance is the key factor that they share. Knowledge of historical experiences of Filipino cohort groups may provide health care providers with additional insights into an older person and the family members’ responses to clinical encounters and the recommended plan of care (McBride, 1996). Indigenous health beliefs of the Filipino culture like the Chinese culture centered on balance. The Filipino people call it â€Å"timbang† which is translated into balance. The belief that a rapid shift from hot to cold will end in illness for the individual, thus causing the body to be imbalanced.For Asian-Indians Hinduism is a social system as well as a religion; therefore customs and practices are closely interwoven. â€Å"Karma† is a law of behavior and consequences in which actions of past life affects the circumstances in which one is born and lives in this life. Despite complete understanding of biological causes of illness, it is often believed that the illness is caused by â€Å"Karma† (Alagiakrishnan, 1996). They believe that the body was connected and looked at as a whole. Mind, body and spirit are one and health is highly tied to all factors of the whole being.Asian- Indians also believe in balance that needs to be attained mentally, physically and spiritually to achieve balance within the entire being. Health prote ction for the Chinese culture derives from traditional Chinese treatments such as acupuncture to help realign the energy of the body, herbology to protect the body from illness or to get rid of the illness in the body and correct the â€Å"chi† within the individual. The most common is the use of yin/yang. Some Chinese elders will avoid food that can be considered cold food because of fear that it will throw their body off balance and diminish the harmony.Meditation and prayer is a form a protection used by the Filipino, Chinese and Asian-Indian Culture. Meditation is most often seen in Chinese and Asian-Indian culture than the Filipino cultures. Religion plays a huge role in cultural beliefs in health protection. Although all cultures believe in different forms of a higher being or power, nonetheless traditional elders of the cultures seek faith as a form of protection from illness and disease. Health restoration among the Filipino, Chinese and Asian-Indian cultures share th e similarity of balance.Just like the focus of health promotion, restoration is also centered around a form of balance, depending on the culture that is being addressed. The Chinese culture use methods of yin/yang and cupping with the use of heated bamboo cups to reduce stress of the mind and body. The Filipino culture uses â€Å"heating† which acts as a balancing tool to achieve harmony. Filipino cultures uses healers to aid in removing illness from the body through methods of herbs, prayer and rituals. The Asian- Indian culture also uses elder healers to restore health back into the body.Since the cultures being compared are all of Asian descent. The cultures show significant similarities as far as the goals they are trying to achieve: promote, maintain and restore health to the body. The balance of all aspects of the body showed grave importance in all cultures. The methods however are different in the sense of rituals that are preformed, the Gods that are prayed to for pr otection, and the types of herbs that are used to create medicine. The ancient and traditional methods mentioned are practiced and exercised more by the elder generations of the cultures.As more generations are being born here in the United States it seems as if the rituals and methods of healthcare are becoming fused with western medicine as well. Incorporating was has been passed down from generation to generation as well as things learned from physicians and nurses here, the younger generation of the cultures somewhat pick and choose cultural practices and methods that they feel would best suit the issue that is being experienced. In a situation such as a minor cold is starting to become an issue, the families will use traditional methods such as hot teas, soups or broths to restore the balance.On the other hand if the issue is too great to be just treated on a traditional level, they will seek medical attention and take the proper medicine to get better. The Conclusion Although the genetic makeups of all the cultures are distinctly different, all the cultures still share similar ties in tradition. The Filipino and Chinese culture share more similarities but knowing the history of the two countries one can see that the Filipino people was taken over by the Chinese for sometime. Thus, their influences are seen in many traditions of the Filipino culture. ReferencesMelen McBride, RN, PhD (1996). HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE OF FILIPINO AMERICAN ELDERS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. stanford. edu/group/ethnoger/filipino. html. [Last Accessed 22 February 13]. Linda Ann S. H. Tom, M. D. (1996). Health and Health Care for CHINESE-AMERICAN ELDERS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. stanford. edu/group/ethnoger/chinese. html. [Last Accessed 22 Februray 13]. Kannayiram Alagiakrishnan, M. D. (1996). HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE OF ASIAN INDIAN AMERICAN ELDERS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. stanford. edu/group/ethnoger/asianindian. html. [Last Accessed 22 Februray 13]. Heritage Assessment Heritage Assessment NRS-429V | Culture and Cultural Competency in Health Promotion John Thomas 3/24/13 The Heritage Assessment tool is primarily used as a device to evaluate health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration of a person’s cultural beliefs and values (Spector, 2006). This assessment helps aid in providing quality patient care in that it helps to meet and respect the needs of different types of people and their respective backgrounds (Spector, 2002).This particular paper serves to compare and contrast the ethnicities of Indian, Caucasian, and Arabic families using health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration as evaluation markers. The purpose was to identify and isolate different groups of people and their unique health practices and traditions that were based off their heritage or background. An assessment of these ethnicities led to several discoveries that I believe could truly improve our methods of health care. Cultural awareness is an essential part of life, especially in this country that is considered to be the melting pot of the world.Cultural awareness can be defined as understanding and appreciation the difference between oneself and people of other backgrounds and cultural beliefs (Shen, 2004). Cultural competence is a term used to refer to awareness and skill acquired to be able to care for people of different ethnicities and cultures (Purnell, 2002). The heritage assessment tool serves as a questionnaire of sorts that is used by personnel in management or care-providing positions in order to gain a better familiarity of a patient/client’s values before providing care (Spector, 2002).These can include questions about everything from their childhood experiences to varying health practices carried out in their homes. These all contribute in helping the nurse/caregiver to be culturally sensitive and utilize the questionnaire to provide quality care to the patient without unknowingly overstepping any boundaries. The Indian family I observed and talked to was my own. Growing up in India had a huge impact on my life and the choices I still make today. Upon working out the Heritage Assessment tool, I found that I still hold deeply rooted ties to my homeland and that I have tried to raise my children in the ame way. Though lifestyles are completely different when comparing the person living actually in India to the individual with an Indian background, a plethora of factors pertaining to health still carry over. Indian families tend to eat foods that are heavy with spices and capsaicin. Studies have shown that these have a number of health benefits including weight loss. When looking into some of the decisions that my family has made that seem to stand out from my friends of different background, diet and religion seem to stand out the most.Indian families are acutely aware of balance and moderation and this can be seen in the average meal. Religion is also a key factor in heal th protection. I have found that families will turn to God to keep their loved ones safe. Being from an Indian Catholic family, I am painfully aware this can also have its down side. For example, Catholicism discourages the use of contraceptives. This is a serious issue when understanding how this affects the growth of the AIDS epidemic not only among Indians but the rest of the world.In terms of restoration, there are more herbal remedies and natural medicines involved than antibiotics and pills. My wife still makes an array of teas and extracts for our children before resorting to taking them to a doctor. The Arabic family I talked to had a surprising number of parallels to my own. They were also driven by religion when it came to health protection. An illness was often considered to be unlucky and a curse from Allah for your sins. The diet high in spices and vegetables seemed a reasonable method of health maintenance.The values of the Arabic values were much stricter than the oth er families I talked to. An incident comes to mind of when it is very important to keep the values and traditions of the patient in mind. A Muslim woman was pregnant and nearing her due date. When it came time for her delivery, the only available Gynecologist was male and went through with the standard procedure and she delivered a healthy baby boy. The woman however, was shunned from her community because the doctor was a man who was not her husband.Situations such as these are important to keep in mind when providing care to patients. The Arabic family also was more open to natural medicine and homeopathic medicine and sought to find a way to cure themselves before seeking outside help at a medical facility. Lastly, the Caucasian family that were my neighbors seemed the most different from the families that I had talked to but the most open and attentive to the world around them. Though their diet was not the best, they seemed more inclined towards exercise and consumption of vita mins to maintain their health and protection of their health.They were also much better about keeping up with regular doctors’ visits and checkups and opted for more immunizations and vaccinations. They seemed more up to date and modernized in all aspects of health. They were also more trusting of modern medicines and prescriptions. They heavily relied on the healthcare system for health restoration even for the simplest medical issues. In conclusion, all three ethnicities have varying lifestyles that contribute to their current status of health. It is important to keep in mind that this is not an accurate report of that general culture.Rather it is an extremely small sample that I found to compare to other families in a somewhat suburban town. I found it very interesting that even with drastically different beliefs and values, all three cultures seemed to value their immensely, even though each had their own traditions and methods so as to preserve that state of health. From the stories and experiences I have heard in talking with these people, I believe it is more imperative than ever that nurses direct more attention to the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment tool.References Purnell, L. (2002). The Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of transcultural nursing,  13(3), 193-196. Shen, Z. (2004). Cultural competence models in nursing. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  15(4), 317-322. Spector, R. E. (2002). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  13(3), 197-199. Spector, R. E. (2004). Culture care: guide to heritage assessment and health traditions. Prentice Hall.

Icts in the Tourism Industry and Its Influences on the Tourist Consumer Behaviour

The tourism industry often needs a various range of information to satisfy and attracts its consumers and most of this information is delivered promptly to the customers with the help of the information and communication technologies (Poon, 1993). And as result, the global tourism industry is rapidly changing and the information and communication technologies ( ICTs) such as the internet is altering the structure of tourism industry and how it market his products and conducts its promotion. In order to understand the role and impacts that ICTs has in the wider tourism industry and to find its influences on the tourist consumer behaviour, it is advised to first know what ICTs are and to comprehend the study on consumer behaviour based on the tourism industry. Information and communication technologies are defined as the collective term given to the most recent development in the mode (electronic) and the mechanisms (computers and communications technologies) used for the acquisitions, processing analysis, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and application of information (Poon 1993 cited in Buhalis 2003, p 7). It can also be defined as â€Å"the use of digital tools for business functions and processes† (Cooper et al 2005, p. 704). When tailing about ICTs, it consist of hardware (self service terminals), software (front office applications), and telecommunications (broadcast of images, teleconferencing †¦ ), and the groupware (tools for group communications such as email). The last one is the humanware which consist of skilled people responsible for the maintenance and programming. Any of these are used in the tourism industry for a better management of operation and communication between stakeholders. The Tourism industry had really gained from the evolution of information technology with the emergence of computerised networks that change the whole stage of the distribution and marketing of tourism products. The most popular and successful applications of ICT used in the tourism industry are the computer reservation systems, the global distribution systems and the internet. In the early 1970s, the airline industry developed the computer reservation systems, an application that became the most important channel of distribution for airlines, and even big hotel companies and tour operators started using it after they recognized the benefit of computerised system. The computer reservation system (CRSs) is† essentially a database which manages the inventory of a tourism enterprise, whilst it distributes it electronically to remote sales ffices and external partners† (Buhalis, 1998). It created the possibility for suppliers to quickly confirm the booking reservations made by consumers but the consumers were also able to use the CRSs to access information of different destinations, packages holidays, and hotels, and used that information to compare prices to find the best deal. The computer reservation system gave tourism organisation the power to manage their products and trade with the rest of the world. The mid 1990 saw the computer reservation system emerged into the global distribution systems (GDSs), the â€Å"system that distribute reservations and information services to sales outlets around the world† (Giaoutzi and Nijkamp 2006, p. 24). It did not just contains information of flights and hotels like the CRSs but had a wide range of services and products linked to tourism such as entertainment, car rental, lodging, train ticketing. Both the CRSs and the GDSs are known also to reduce the cost of communication, and to provide information on the competition. During the time that the GDSs was developing, the internet and World Wide Web was providing direct opportunities for tourism suppliers to interact with its customers by offering less expensive information on services and destinations. Companies like easy-jet uses the internet to offer its services directly to the customers and because the internet also offers consumer the possibility to tailor their own holiday, which is why websites like expedia are becoming expanding and popular. During every step of a transaction or deal of the tourism product, there is a lot of information that need to be exchange between every party involved. So the information and communication technologies role is to help the clients and tourism intermediaries have accessed to accurate information and data. These exchanges of information need to be done quickly as the suppliers rely on it to meets the customers’ requests. So the use of ICTs in the tourism industry has turned into a universal feature and power that help and manage information and transfer them all over the world instantaneously. And Buhalis (1998) states that the day to day operations of the tourism industry have been affected by the use of the ICTS. The distribution and marketing function of the tourism industry has been transformed as they use ICTs to target the consumers meet their needs and also the adoption of information and communication technologies by the airlines companies has been an advantage point for them as it help them control and manage reservations. So t goes to say that the fundamental structure of the tourism industry has been reformed by ICTs and businesses involved in tourism will need to keep improving their services to meet the increases level of customer demand that now require fast and accurate information. Despite the fact that the information and communication technologies has broaden the industry capacity of distribution, there are also some issues brought by the same ICTs that could impacts the future operation of the travel industry. According to Thorn and Chen (2005), the risk of losing human resource in business is higher with the application of ICTs. The increase of demand of employees with new technology skills has left existing employees in fear of losing their jobs as businesses are looking for way to accommodate those customers who need their suppliers to respond to new sophisticated demand and information. In this case, it is up to the management team of each tourism business who adopt the use of new technology to offer some intensive training for staff in order to success. But beside the human resource impact, the most talked about impact is the issue of disintermediation in the tourism industry. Disintermediation happen when suppliers and companies are met by a growing pressure from competitors and rising prices (Werthner and Klein, 2001), so to survive in this new technology environment, they set up their own distribution channel such as a website where they can directly offer the consumers the opportunity to tailor their own holiday and look through various range of products online. And by doing that they often save money and Thorn and Chen (2005) raise the fact that travel agencies are quite a risk because of disintermediation which result to booking at travels agents going down by 35% and also they are at risk of losing some of their commissions that came from selling products from tours operators and airlines companies. ICTs caused then to deal with competitions and those who cannot often lose their business but there are always customers who look for the physical contact when it came to book their holiday. The need of face to face interaction still gives travel agents the chance to stay in the tourism chain. Over the years, the information and communication technologies also had an impact on the consumer too, because of the improvements that ICTs bring on the quality of services given by tourism organisations. By allowing consumers to make fast reservations or save money by comparing price through the internet, ICTs created a new type of consumers who are now becoming more ophisticated and skilled. With the consumer behaviours changing, it is up to the tourism organisations to try and understand the motivation behind their choice of destination, or figure out the type of environment that influence their decision to purchase a product instead of another. All of these researches and their answers are quite important as it would help suppliers and companies develop new marketing strategies for products that would reach the appropriate market. The study of consumer behaviour is based on finding out the reason why consumers purchase some products and trying to understand how they came to the decision of making that decision (Swarbrooke and Horner, 1999). This study gives organisations some clues on the why and how that customer came to make a choice between various destinations or products, so with any results find from this study, it will enable them to target the customers and persuade them to buy their products because of the consumer previous making decision purchase. But for the consumers to make a decision there is a lot of factors that come to play and influence them toward the right product. Those factors are the determinants (what make you choose a holiday or not) and motivators (the drive to travel) (Swarbrooke and Horner, 1999). Determinants in consumer behaviour can be internal and external. Internal determinants often consist of factors which are personal to the customer such as choosing a travel destination based on work or business obligation, fear, health problems or commitment with family. Some of those are quite important and they tend to determine and have an effect on the type of travel to book or they can also prevent the consumer to travel. In the external determinant category, consumer can be influenced by the media around them, friends and sometimes a marketing campaign. Motivators in the other hand are the reasons that push the tourists toward travelling. Often motivators are split into two different categories, the general motivators and the specific ones. Some general motivators mentioned by Thomas (1964, cited in Moutinho, 1987) are the cultural and educational motivators which push tourists to discover new culture and lifestyle, to do some sightseeing or explore monuments, and he also identified pleasure, adventure and relaxation as other motivators that provide people with a reason to travel, especially when trying to switch off from the daily routine of their life and just go on holiday to have some fun. And regarding the specific motivators, Moutinho (1987) also contributed in the study by aying that specific motivators tends to come from knowledge, previous experience , recommendation or opinions given by relatives and friends; and it can also come from the travel organisation via the media. The study of consumer behaviour in tourism is helped by various models and processes adapted from others researchers which show clarifications on what goes on when consumers are deciding to make a purchase. In order to understand some behavi our of tourists, this essay will go through the destination decision making process, the recreational behaviour model and stimulus-response model of buyer behaviour. The tourism industry provides two types of products, the tangibles and the intangibles, but because most of it is intangibles, it is difficult to evaluate the products before purchasing so, it often down to images and information of the tourism products that the consumers can make a purchase decision. The tourist decision making process by kotler (1998) shows, that before coming to a decision about buying a product, the consumer goes through various steps. These stages are the need of recognition; information search; evaluation of alternatives; selection of services or products; and the post purchase assessment. In the need of recognition of the buying decision process, the first thing for consumers is to acknowledge that they have a problem or need to purchase a service or products. And by being aware of their need, it is now up to the consumers to find a solution that would give them satisfaction at the end. So it’s next to the second stage of information search where the customer is motivated into doing some intense research to find the correct information which will lead to a decision. There is lot of ways for the tourist to find the information needed. He can go through the search stage by using his own knowledge of the products or he will rely on the external search (Pan and Fesenmaier, 2006) which consist of advertising resources and personal ones. Brochures, travel books and relatives are some of the examples of sources that consumers used to find information, and because of these external sources, tourism organisation identify and learn about the sources since they provide consumers with valuable information that sway their decision. The internet is also another source for consumer to gain access to information in this stage of the decision making with Lake (2001) stressing that almost 95% of people collect information related to travel via the internet and with 93% admitted to visit websites of tourism companies. After gathering enough information, the next move for the consumer is the evaluation of alternative where come the process of comparing and finding the best solution of their problems. Often at this stage, the quality of the products and services will determine how much it is going to satisfy the consumer when they are trying to compare it the products with other alternatives (Kotler, 1998). During the purchase decision process, Kotler (1998) normally consumers have a tendency to buy their favourite brands or products but occasionally the purchase decision become influenced by other people around the consumers, for example parents who are planning to book a holiday with younger children, will not choose an adult oriented holiday destination because they need to consider their children before going into the purchasing stage. Purchasing the products or service from a specific supplier is the fourth step and it will be wrong to think that paying for the vacation is the end of the purchase decision process. In the post purchase evaluation, the consumer will make an assessment like some feedback to see if they had a happy experience when they used the products. A good experience will often lead the consumers to reuse the same products and verbally promote it. And the tourism organisations also find the post purchase stage really valuable to them as the satisfaction level of consumer will turn into loyalty toward the products or services. In the recreational behaviour model, researchers are looking to observe how consumers behave when they decide to travel and (Clawson and Knetch, 1966 cited in Hanlan, Fuller and Wilde, 2006) said that deciding to travel is not a simple process because it also has five phases that make use of some stages of the destination decision making process. The recreational behaviour model start with the anticipation phase where the consumer is thinking about the trip and where all the planning of the trip is being done by including the stage of need of recognition and search of information that was mentioned in the destination decision making process. After the planning phase, it is the travelling to the site stage which can also includes the mode of transport that the consumer is going to use to reach the destination. For example using the orient express as a mode of transport can be seen as a luxury travel experience by itself for the consumer even before they reach their destination. So once at the destination, the model next phase is the behaviour on the site where the consumer arrive to the destination and make use of the services available to him. The behaviour of the consumer once on site is widely influenced by his experience of the services offered. Everything that happened to the consumers during the stay at the destination will impact the last stage of this model, as after travelling back home, the consumers have to have a recollection and recall stage which will consist of the post purchase evaluation stage that Kotler identified in the decision process. Compare to other models of consumer behaviour, the stimulus-response model of buyer behaviour by Middleton (1994) has been modified in order to help the tourism organisation have an understanding of the consumer behaviour during the buying process. In this model, the determinants and motivators that influenced the buying behaviour of the consumer are separated from each other, and at the same time this model also looks at the impacts that the communication channel used by tourism organisation has on the tourist buying process. The stimulus response model of buying behaviour has been based on four elements with the buyer characteristics and decision process being at the core of the buying behaviour. The travel stimuli, the communication channels, the characteristic of the consumer together with the decision process have all an effect on the consumer buying behaviour. The characteristics of the buyer which is made of the motivators and determinants influence the consumer recognition of the travel stimuli and if the consumer is interested by the products that the travel stimulus offered, the decision making process will determine when the buying process will began. The development of Information and communication technologies transformed the tourist behaviour when it comes to searching, booking and buying processes. In the information search, the consumer has the opportunity to find a wide range of information provided by the accommodation sectors, the destinations and airline companies by the use of new technology. And for making their booking, the reservation system put in place allow the consumers to access and make payment online. So it is clear to say that the tools of ICTs allowed companies to embrace technology to be essential to their communication and marketing approach in order to give consumer the freedom to undertaken any process without the help of an intermediaries. The change in consumer behaviour by ICT has been strongly influenced by the internet because it helps the suppliers communicate directly with the consumers who offer the possibility to tailor the products to their taste and need. (Buhalis and Law, 2008) So to finish, this essay has shown that the development of information and communication technologies and its use in the tourism industry had quite an impact on the structure of the industry. It did bring new opportunities to the business by opening different channel for the promotion and distribution of the tourism products and ICTs also allow the customers to quickly receive information no matter the distance. But the loss of human interaction with the use of ICT and the disintermediation has been some of the challenge or problems that the development of technology brought in the industry. So to be successful and retain their customers, tourism organisations has to adopt the technology and adapt it into their businesses. And by trying to understand the effect that information and communication technologies has on the consumer behaviour, I went on to gather information of three different models based on what goes on the mind of the consumer when they are trying to choose a destination, or buy a product. In the models mentioned in this essay, the consumer is often guided with the help of information gathered during the information search stage to make a decision and these models always end with the feedback stage where the consumer expresses their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. References – Buhalis, D. 1998 â€Å"Strategic used of information technology in the tourism industry†. Tourism Management, 19 (5), pp 409-421 – Buhalis, D. (2003). E-Tourism: information technology for strategic tourism management, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited – Buhalis, D and Law, R (2008) ‘Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the internet – the state of tourism research’ Tourism Management 29, 609-623 – Cooper et al (2005) Tourism, Principles and practice. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education limited – Giaoutzi, M and Nijkamp, P. (2006) Tourism and regional development: new pathways. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd – Hanlan, J, Fuller, D and Wilde, S (2006) ‘Destination decision making: the need for a strategic planning and management approach’, Tourism and Hospitality Planning and Development, Vol. 3, No. 3, 209-221 – Kotler, P. H. (1998) Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control, 8th Ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc. – Lake, D. (2001) Americans Go Online for Travel Information. [WWW] Available from:

Yoshino Paper

Yoshino Paper Yoshino Paper Bryan Johnston 9/13/12 Intensive College Composition 1 So what does race really mean? Most people just think that ones race is determined by the color of their skin or how they look. This is not the case; the way a person acts determines their race as well. It is very hard to put a finger on what Yoshino thinks â€Å"race† really is. He was taught at a young age to assimilate into the American society. He was told to be proud of his Japanese heritage, but to act completely American in America and completely Japanese in Japan(Yoshino 300). This is sad but true; society doesn’t mesh too well with things out of the norm. Everyone and everything is forced to assimilate to what society proclaims is â€Å"acceptable† in this day and age. On the contrary racism is like a mirror. For example in the U.S the majority is white and the Asians are considered a minority, but in Japan the whites are the minority. They are forced to assimilate to their culture. In America, Asians are stereotyped as v ery smart. On the opposite end in Asia, whites are considered to be less intelligent(Yoshino 303). Yoshino talks about how different hairstyles are associated with certain races, especially in the Rogers vs. American case. In the 1980’s American Airlines said that none of their workers were permitted to wear their hair in braids. Rogers found this highly racist, and brought the company to court. She did not end up winning this case, but American had no logical defense as to why braids were

Investigation into Doctors Paid to Review SSD Applications

Investigation into Doctors Paid to Review SSD Applications Investigation Requested into Doctors Paid to Review SSD Applications The chairman of a Congressional Ways and Means Subcommittee has requested a federal investigation into the process under which states hire doctors to review applications for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits.U.S. Representative John Larson of Connecticut has formally requested the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal governments fiscal watchdog, investigate how doctors review applications for disability benefits. His action follows a recent report which raises concerns that many qualified applicants may be unfairly denied in a rush to process applications quickly to be compensated for more money.What the Proposed Investigation Would Examine The producers of the report sought information from the Social Security Administration (SSA) on the performance of doctors who review disability cases. The SSA estimated such a report would cost $2.3 million. This led Larson to ask the GAO for its own examination on a state-by-state basis.Larson wants the GAO t o examine paying doctors on contract- and the compensation doctors receive for each case. He also wants to know what qualifications these physicians hold, including any performance measures to which they are held. The ultimate goal is an analysis of the quality of their decisions. The GAO reserves the right to accept or decline such requests for an audit.How Applications Are Reviewed The SSA oversees the SSD program on a federal level. The agency, however, delegates the review of individual applications to the states. It is up to the states to determine who qualifies.The states hire doctors to review applications and make recommendations on eligibility, often paying a flat fee per case. In some instances, physicians appear to speed through as many as five applications per hour.Experts worry this is not enough time to review detailed medical records and issue an accurate determination regarding an applicants approval or denial of benefits. They also feel long wait times place undue h ardship on those who have been wrongfully denied benefits.  In 2017, more than 9,570 SSD applicants died while waiting for an appeals decision.We Can HelpIf you are disabled and unable to work, call Disability Attorneys of Michigan for a free confidential consultation. We’ll let you know if we can help you get a monthly check and help you determine if any money or assets you receive could impact your eligibility for disability benefits.Disability Attorneys of Michigan works hard every day helping the disabled of Michigan seek the Social Security Disability Benefits they need. If you are unable to work due to a physical, mental, or cognitive impairment, call Disability Attorneys of Michigan now for a free consultation at 800-949- 2900.Let Michigan’s experienced Social Security Disability law firm help you get the benefits you deserve.Disability Attorneys of Michigan, Compassionate Excellence. detroit disability lawyer., Michigan disability lawyer, Social Security Disa bility