The Womans Bible and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Genesis

The Woman's Bible and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Genesis In 1895, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of other women published The Womans Bible. In 1888, the Church of England published its Revised Version of the Bible, the first major revision in English since the Authorized Version of 1611, better known as the King James Bible. Dissatisfied with the translation and with the failure of the committee to consult with or include Biblical scholar Julia Smith, the reviewing committee published their comments on the Bible. Their intent was to highlight the small part of the Bible that focused on women, as well as to correct Biblical interpretation which they believed was biased unfairly against women. The committee did not consist of trained Biblical scholars, but rather interested women who took both Biblical study and womens rights seriously. Their individual commentaries, usually a few paragraphs about a group of related verses, were published though they did not always agree with one another, nor did they write with the same level of scholarship or writing skill. The commentary is less valuable as strictly academic Biblical scholarship, but far more valuable as it reflected the thought of many women (and men) of the time towards religion and the Bible. It probably goes without saying that the book met with considerable criticism for its liberal view on the Bible. An Excerpt Heres one small excerpt from The Womans Bible. [from: The Womans Bible, 1895/1898, Chapter II: Comments on Genesis, pp. 20-21.] As the account of the creation in the first chapter is in harmony with science, common sense, and the experience of mankind in natural laws, the inquiry naturally arises, why should there be two contradictory accounts in the same book, of the same event? It is fair to infer that the second version, which is found in some form in the different religions of all nations, is a mere allegory, symbolizing some mysterious conception of a highly imaginative editor. The first account dignifies woman as an important factor in the creation, equal in power and glory with man. The second makes her a mere afterthought. The world in good running order without her. The only reason for her advent being the solitude of man. There is something sublime in bringing order out of chaos; light out of darkness; giving each planet its place in the solar system; oceans and lands their limits; wholly inconsistent with a petty surgical operation, to find material for the mother of the, race. It is on this allegory that all the enemies of women rest, their battering rams, to prove her. inferiority. Accepting the view that man was prior in the creation, some Scriptural writers say that as the woman was of the man, therefore, her position should be one of subjection. Grant it, then as the historical fact is reversed in our day, and the man is now of the woman, shall his place be one of subjection? The equal position declared in the first account must prove more satisfactory to both sexes; created alike in the image of God -The Heavenly Mother and Father. Thus, the Old Testament, in the beginning, proclaims the simultaneous creation of man and woman, the eternity and equality of sex; and the New Testament echoes back through the centuries the individual sovereignty of woman growing out of this natural fact. Paul, in speaking of equality as the very soul and essence of Christianity, said, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. With this recognition of the feminine element in the Godhead in the Old Testament, and this declaration of the equality of the sexes in the New, we may well wonder at the contemptible status woman occupies in the Christian Church of to-day. All the commentators and publicists writing on womans position, go through an immense amount of fine-spun metaphysical speculations, to prove her subordination in harmony with the Creators original design. It is evident that some wily writer, seeing the perfect equality of man and woman in the first chapter, felt it important for the dignity and dominion of man to effect womans subordination in some way. To do this a spirit of evil must be introduced, which at once proved itself stronger than the spirit of good, and mans supremacy was based on the downfall of all that had just been pronounced very good. This spirit of evil evidently existed before the supposed fall of man, hence woman was not the origin of sin as so often asserted. E. C. S.

Problems With the New PSAT Your Questions, Answered

Problems With the New PSAT Your Questions, Answered SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The College Board had some issues with the new PSAT, including late score reports from their Fall 2015 test. Here, we’ll talk about whether these problems will affect you, and we’ll point you in the right direction if you still have issues getting your scores. PSAT scores are especially important to high school juniors who are hoping to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. If you're a high school junior, you’ll want to make sure you read our NMS score section - we’ll answer all your questions about National Merit Semifinalist cutoffs. Finally, we’ll talk a bit about what this means for theCollege Boardin general. This isn’t the first problem that they’ve had with their standardized tests in recent years - could this delay in score reports speak to more serious problems with the maker of the SAT? Read on to find out! Slow Score Reports: What Happened? As you may already know, students who took the October 2015 PSAT had to deal with delayed score reports. These late scores were most frustrating for high school juniors who were hoping to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. Here's what happened: Over 4 million students took the new PSATin fall 2015and were supposed to get their scores back by the end of 2015. It turns out that scores weren't officially released until January of 2016, about a month later than expected. At the time of release,many students and counselors who were trying to access the site reported that it was running very slowly, probably due to heavy traffic. All in all, it sounds like it was a pretty frustrating experience. Perhaps even more frustrating?It seems that students are still having trouble accessing their scores, even after their official release. OnJanuary 21, some test-takers were told that their scores were still "delayed," and it would be another 5-7 days before they'd have access to them. The College Board explained that additional delays were due to their new online score report system. They claim that scores are indeed available, but new protocols for actually accessing the scores are â€Å"confusing† students and counselors. If you're looking for solutions, you've come to the right place. How Does This Affect You, and What Should You Do About It? This score report delay affected high school students who took the PSAT in October of 2015. If you haven't already, you may be anxious to check your PSAT for a variety of reasons. Here, we'll break down common issues you might run into if you can't get your scores, in addition to the steps you can take to remedy these issues. Problem #1: the Lack of Access to Your Scores Is Frustrating A lack of access to your scores won't affect your scores in any way nor will it affect your eligibility for the National Merit Scholarship. We can’t help you feel better - you’re right to be frustrated! - but knowing that a delay won’t affect any important outcomes might ease some of your frustration. Problem #2: You Were Hoping to Get Score Feedback to Prep for the SAT If you’re still waiting for your scores, try taking a College Board SAT practice test. You’ll end up with a head start in SAT prep! Just rememberthat the College Board switched over to the redesigned SAT starting in March 2016 and make sure to take one of the newpractice tests. Problem #3: You Can't Figure Out If You Qualify for the National Merit Scholarship This delay won’t affect your eligibility for the scholarship, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re anxious to learn if you qualify. Remember, though, that it's impossible to know if you qualify before the NMSC sends out letters to semifinalists - score cutoffs change from year to year, so all cutoff parameters currently available are just estimates anyway. See our next section about steps to take to get your hands on your scores, and continue reading for more info about NMS score cutoffs. Here's everything you need to know to unlockaccess to that score report. What Can You Do to Get Your Scores? If you're still waiting for delayed PSAT scores, here are the steps you should take: Make sure you have your Access/ID Code for College Board's online score report system. If you don't have this code, you can call PSAT services at 866-433-7728. Some students reported logging into the score report system, only to see a prompt telling them that their scores were delayed or that there was no record of them taking a College Board test. If this happens to you,don’t panic. Either wait a couple of days and try again or call PSAT Services. If you aren't able to access your scores and need them ASAP for a particular reason, call PSAT services (see a pattern yet?) and ask if they can expedite them. Your high school guidance counselor is likely aware of these score issues, and may have more information about how they affect students at your particular school. If you have specific questions or concerns, make an appointment to check in with this counselor. What's the Deal With National Merit Scholarship Score Cutoffs? Now that you know what's going on with PSAT score delays, we can get to the juicy stuff: how can you figure out whether you qualify for the National Merit Scholarship? Just to make it clear again, delays in score reports will not affect whether you qualify for the NMS. In fact, semifinalists won’t be notified of their award status until early September 2016. Even though PSAT-takers won't get official notice of their scholarship status until later this year, you're probably wondering whether you can estimate your eligibility ahead of time. The bad news? Exact score cutoffs change from year to year. This year has been extra special because along with the SAT overhaul, there's been a total change in the PSAT as well - it's scored in a completely new way. The good news is that we've been keeping track of these changes and have come up with estimated score cutoffs for National Merit Scholarship eligibility. See ourestimated PSAT score cutoffs for each state, in addition to how they compare to the â€Å"old† PSAT scoring system cutoffs. What's Going on With the College Board? Should You Avoid the SAT? Hopefully, we’ve helped you plan how to get your hands on your scores, or at the very least, reassured you that you won’t experience any long-lasting consequences as a result of this delay.You may, however, be experiencing some bigger concerns about the maker of the PSAT and SAT after this fiasco. What does this delay say about the reliability of the College Board, if anything at all? First, you should know that the College Board is in the midst of a pretty significant transition -they moved from the SAT that most of you are probably most familiar with to a brandnew version of the test. January 2016 was the last month that the â€Å"old† SAT was administered. It makes sense that if there were to be technical glitches, they’d be happening now - when the College Board is switching over to a new test and new score report system. However,this transition doesn’t necessarily explain other recent issues that that the College Board has had, including: Dropping two sections of the 6/10/15 SAT test because of printing issues, leading to questions about the validity of students’ scores from that day Widespread cheating on the SATin countries where The College Board reuses previously administered tests, and cheating in the US due to a data breach Delays in reporting SAT scores to colleges, which led to issues for students who were hoping to make early application deadlines last fall So what do we think is going on? The College Board as a company might be experiencing general organizational, operational, and technical issues as they attempt to update themselves to stay relevant in the standardized testing business. These issues are major, yes, but they shouldn’t necessarily dissuade you from taking the SAT if it’s the right test for you. That being said, the new SAT is looking a lot more like the ACT than it used to - if you’re very concerned about technological issues and/or delays affecting your test or your scores, you might look into taking the ACT in addition to (or even in lieu of) the SAT. That doesn’t mean, however, that the ACT hasn’t had its fair share of issues and delays. Ultimately, here's our advice about the best approach to the SAT:take the test (or tests) that’s right for you. At a certain point, it seems that a degree of technological and organizational issues is unavoidable, but the College Board and the ACT do try to mitigate the effects their mistakes have on test takers. For example, during one of the last SAT crises (the printing issues in the 6/10/15 test), the College Board analyzed all viable options for responding, which included: A) Adjusting the curves on the exam B) Canceling all scores for the test C) Dropping the particular sections that were affected, and calculating scores based on students' performance on the other sections In this particular case, The College Board chose Option C - students didn't have to retake the test, and their scores weren't "docked" or otherwise affected. Each situation will be different, but in general, the College Board wants to make its test-takers happy - if students are suspicious of the SAT or think the College Board isn't reliable, fewer students will choose to take the test, and that's bad for business. What's Next? Chances are you're pretty interested in the National Merit Scholarship - perhaps you could use some more guidance when it comes to getting your hands on some of that college cash. Read about how to become a National Merit semifinalist and National Merit finalist. Check in on updated score cutoff estimates for the award. If you're looking for a one-stop read, you should definitely read our complete guide to the National Merit Scholarship competition and how to win it. Got your PSAT score, but not sure what to do with it? Check out our guide to understanding your PSAT score. Disappointed with your scores? Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Introduction To Luke Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Introduction To Luke - Term Paper Example To begin with, it must be noted that there is no clear indication that the above mentioned text was written by Luke. It is the tradition of Church that attributes the Gospel to this apostle. However, there are several indications which contribute to acknowledgement of his authorship: Luke was a highly educated person for his time, had a personal acquaintance with the Biblical characters, respected people who belonged to a lower class and was wealthy enough to devote time to create a Gospel (Bock, 1994, 138). Similar to the authorship, there is not a direct indication of date. Just like many of the ancient texts, the originals were lost and the researchers are able to work with the copies which were created afterwards. According to one approach, the Gospel of Luke should be dated 80 or 90 Common Era; however, some researchers tend to move the creation of the text a decade further. In addition that that, some scholars point out that mentioning of various contemporary events, such as conflict in the manuscript families or heresy of Marcion, provides enough basis to move the time of the creation of the scripture even further. The question of sources is another interesting one when it comes to evaluation of the Gospel in question. The main basis for the narration is the Gospel of Mark which was written roughly a decade before. However, since this text featured more factual information, Luke uses the so called Q source in order to present the complexity of the teachings of Jesus. Finally, there a part of the Gospel, around one third, that is unique to Luke. The structure of the Gospel in question is traditionally divided into six sections. The first part is the formal introduction, containing address to Theophilus. The next section is the description of birth of Jesus and his boyhood. Afterwards there is a part which tells the readers about baptism of Jesus and his fight against the

Managing Cahange Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Managing Cahange - Essay Example The resources within the surgery are fairly well supplied. There is a good system in place to keep the prescriptions secure. There is a fully computerised clinical system, to maintain appointments, prescriptions, consultations etc. The practice is almost paper free and working towards becoming papers less. There is an open surgery every morning, so that patients receive emergency care when it is needed. Drug clinics run every Thursdays to cater for the drug addicts within the area. The staff is bilingual which means that the practice can provide service to in different languages to a wide range of nationalities within the area. The practice receives additional income for filling in insurance forms and solicitor's reports. The reputation of the surgery locally means that patients are received by word of mouth and through it's central location. Weaknesses There are 2 floors, so the surgery would find it difficult to employ disabled staff due to the fact that they would not be able to travel up and down the stairs. The refurbishments on Earl's Court Road mean that more patients will be attracted to the area the surgery is in. Due to the size of the premises it is possible to offer complimentary therapies, which means additional services for our patients i.e. osteopath, homeopath, acupuncturist etc. There is no named person to check the stock, which leads to the surgery running out of stock. This also leads to confusion as to where the stock is. This uses up the reception staffs time which could otherwise be used dealing with patients queries. The surgery requires a new clinical software upgrade, to speed up service and...The Practice moved in to its location in 1990 and is being fully computerised since then and now is nearly paperless. Doctors and staff record all patients' data on the clinical system. The Practice linked to the STHA for Registration and Items of Service claims and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for Radiology and pathology results. The Practice has monthly Practice meetings to deal with any matters of concern. To produce a SWOT analysis of the practice and its services involving and considering the views and opinions of the entire practice team and its patients. In order to determine future planning of the practice's services. The refurbishments on Earl's Court Road mean that more patients will be attracted to the area the surgery is in. Due to the size of the premises it is possible to offer complimentary therapies, which means additional services for our patients i.e. osteopath, homeopath, acupuncturist etc. There is no named person to check the stock, which leads to the surgery running out of stock. This also leads to confusion as to where the stock is. This uses up the reception staffs time which could otherwise be used dealing with patients queries. Due to the central location of the surgery the running costs are higher. The area provides patients with different cultural backgrounds which affects maintaining a high standard, because of the language differences. Change

A History of Greece Essay Example for Free

A History of Greece Essay Western Civilization owes much of its development to Greek history because most of the current principles and knowledge of man was derived from this ancient culture. The foundations of mathematics, science, medicine, philosophy, politics and even the different forms of art nowadays were first established long before Christ was born in these Mediterranean islands. The Bronze Age (3000 BCE to 1100 BCE) Bronze became a heavily used metal in Greece during 3000 B. C. It was used to make different tools and ancient battle weapons that were all part of Greek daily life. The three great civilizations that are worth studying were born on different parts of Greece. The Minoans settled on Crete at around 2600 B. C. This community got its name from Minos, a legendary son of Zeus, who ruled Crete and rid it of sea pirates (Minos, 2007). By the year 2000 B. C. , these people were able to establish a very dynamic community life marked by favorable trade activities that helped make its citizens rich. The people of Minoa became known for their palaces and socio-economic political organization. The first evidence of Greek writing called Linear A, came from this period. There remain specific evidences that Minoans held great but peaceful influence over the islands of the Aegean despite being naval conquerors. At around 1500 B. C. , records seem to imply that a volcano on Santorini erupted which caused major earthquake and huge tidal waves that could have wiped out the Minoan civilization (Greeka, n. d. ). Mycaenaeans, another community evidenced to have come from the north in around 2000 B. C. , settled on the main island and became the center of trade after the reign of the Minoans. The previous centuries’ records show that these two civilizations had a complex relationship in that it had strong business connections to each other but were also competing in their dominance of the Mediterranean. However, with the sudden disappearance of the Minoan civilization, the Mycenaeans became the trade hub during the 1400 B. C. to 1200 B. C. with â€Å"much of the Minoan cultural tradition transferred to the main island† (Mycenaean Civilization, 2007). Some of their differences with the Minoans, however, were shown through their use of armors in battles and better fortified territories. Mycenaeans are also noted for their beards. The people of Mycenaea chose to live in smaller units or kingdoms but were united by one dialect. The story of the Trojan War seems to be based on some facts between the Mycenaeans and the â€Å"inhabitants of the Troad, or Troas, in Anatolia† which is now Turkey (Trojan War, 2007). There are indications that when Troad was afflicted by a terrible fire, the Mycenaeans wanted to conquer the city. The greatness of Mycenaean community ended at around 1200 B. C. when â€Å"crops began to fail and famine† gripped Greece (Ancient Greeks, n. d. ), This caused â€Å"peasant rebellions and internal warfare (Greeka, n. d. ). The Cycladic community began in the different isles of the Aegean which were in the middle of Crete and mainland Greece. The Cyclade area was a vital location because it was the Greece’s business connection to the rest of Europe and Asia from which the Greeks learned many of their agricultural practices. This time period was characterized by a very fast growth in population and very dynamic development in all aspects of society. Sculpture using marble and pottery were popular art forms during this period in this area of Greece. The Dark Ages (1100 B. C. to 800 B. C. ) The Dark Ages are called so because little evidence could indicate what happened during this time frame. There are some findings that Dorians, a Greek-speaking tribe from the North, may have caused the decline of Mycenaean civilization. â€Å"The Dorians kept power entirely to themselves, creating a ruling military class which they solely occupied’ (Dorian, 2007). It seems that the centralized systems were broken and that monarchies dominated the political structure. This period’s significant contribution to Greek history, however, seems to show that it was at this time when Homer wrote the Iliad which included the epic of the Trojan War (Greeka, n. d. ). Archaic Period (800B. C. to 500 B. C. ) During the Archaic Period, Aristocratic Republics replaced the political structure of Greek civilization and foreign influence abound. It is during this time that human and mythological figures began to appear in different art forms. The first Olympic game was held in 776 B. C. wherein a cook named Koroibas won the 600 foot race called stadion (The Games, n. d. ). These festivals were held for the God on Mount Olympus, Zeus. People felt that Greece at his point in time, was overpopulated and began to migrate to other European territories bringing with them their advanced culture. Coins became a currency at around 600 B. C. (Ancient Greek Civilizations, 2003) due to the influence of traders from Asia Minor where the first coin was supposedly made. Panathenaic festivals became popular sometime in 566 B. C. This very important occasion celebrated for numerous days sometime between July and August, supposedly Athena’s birthday, was well-anticipated because anyone can join except for slaves. It consisted of contests, processions and sacrifices (The Panathenaic Festival, n. d. ). Democracy Another very significant contribution of this period is the birth of democracy in Athens at around 508 B. C. There were two types of people in Greece. Men who were born in the city they resided in were called citizens while all other individuals are considered non-citizens. Only citizens have the choice of politicians and vote in plebiscites. There were large conventions called â€Å"The Assembly† that must be attended by at least 6, 000 citizens before it was considered official enough to be heard by the government. This meeting was done regularly wherein citizens may address their concerns regarding laws that needed to be implemented. A body of law-makers called Council was made up of 500 citizens which was changed annually. The members held the task of making new laws and debated on how these could be best implemented. Life in Greece There was an â€Å"agora† in the middle of each Greek city (Ancient Greeks, n. d. ) which was sort of like a town square wherein merchants can trade their various goods whether native or foreign. This was the center of commerce wherein anyone, even foreigners, was allowed to buy what they wanted. It was also where men may hang out to with friends, know the latest political announcement or trade views with foreigners. Very few women could be seen in the agora and they were mostly female slaves who have been sent by their rich masters to shop for market goods. The most important infrastructure of the city were built around the agora. Because of the hot climate, Greeks prefer to wear light clothes which are evidenced on the carvings that present-day archeologists have been able to study. Depending on the warmth, some men even prefer to wear only their loincloth. During cold weather, they place a cloak over their normal clothes which are tunics or â€Å"chitons† square shaped textile that are held at the shoulders using pins and around the waist by belts (Ancient Greeks, n. d. ). Women often wore a fancier shorter version called a peplos that was worn on top of the chiton. To take off boredom, these tunics were usually dyed and embroidered according to tastes. Protection for the feet was usually used when outside of the house and these came in the form of sandals and leather boots. Brooches and pins were necessary jewelry to fasten their chitons. The women adored every form of jewelry. The wealthy females also used make-up and allowed their slaves to fix their hair according to what was in fashion. At around 500 B. C. , men saw it fashionable to wear beards and short hair styles. Greek women family members usually shared the tasks of cooking but the wealthier ones could hire slaves to handle the responsibility. The diet was a merry mixture of fruits and vegetables during the summer and dried versions during the winter. Sometimes, the families are able to store enough fruit and make cheeses in summer months which could be enough to tide them over the winter. Those who were near the sea enjoyed its produce as long as the weather permitted a catch. Meat was considered to be an expensive food and the poor of society cannot afford it. When occasions do allow the impoverished to eat meat, they take advantage of the situation to eat every edible part†¦even the brains. The Role of Women in Greece Women enjoyed very little freedom in Greek society. Only wealthy women were allowed to get music or writing lessons at home. Only the rich seven year old boys were sent to the gymnasium (school) and returned after eight years to wait for another three years to become citizens. However, girls were not allowed to get education outside of the confines of her house. Much of a girl’s knowledge in music, dancing, cooking and weaving are imparted by their mothers. They were expected to follow whatever their husbands or fathers asked. A girl can get married even when she is just fifteen years old and is expected not to go back to her former home anymore. It is the wife’s responsibility to run the chores of the house and ensure the good services of the slaves. Because the streets were considered unsafe, most women are tied down to spend most of their time at home. Every now and then, the husband may give the woman a reprieve from boredom by taking her to the theater or allowing her to be accompanied outside the house by a male servant. Aside from doing housework, women made the clothes, blankets and whatever textile needs of their families. They also were expected to prepare the food needed for winter. How the Gods Influenced Greece The Greeks believed in many gods and built temples for each one. Each god was powerful up to a certain extent depending on what they ruled on: Poseidon was the god of the Sea, Hades ruled the underworld, Hera was the goddess of youth, Aris was the god of war, Athena was the goddess of wisdom, Apollo was the god of truth, and many more. Whenever misfortune beset them, the Greeks believed that these were caused by the gods’ anger. The temples were usually constructed on hilltops to show that the god or goddess was protecting their community. The area on which a temple is built is called acropolis. One can tell the riches of the city by looking at its temples. The wealthy ones built their temples using stone and had many different forms of artwork to beautify it. Each temple had a huge statue of the god or goddess. Athens built their statue of Athena using ivory and gold (Ancient Greeks, n. d. ). Sacrifice offerings such as food and animals were placed on a table within the temple before the individual pursues to worship his god in the courtyard which had an altar. Intellectual Growth in Greece Although the Greeks attributed most of the occurrences of their daily lives to the activities of the gods, at around 500 B. C. , they began to find out more about the world. Philosophers and many scholars who thirsted for more knowledge regarding mathematics, medicine, astronomy and geography lived during this time. Some of these famous people are Plato, who wrote about politics, Aristotle whose interest led him to discover many information on biology, Parmenides who hypothesized that the world was spherical, Archimedes who invented the Archimedian screw that spiraled irrigation to high farmlands and Phythagoras who is still popular in the mathematical arena for his right angles. The Abode Most homes in Greece at that time were made of stone or clay. There were bungalows and two-storey houses with roofs made of tiles or reeds. The flooring was also made of tiles to ensure the cool temperature inside the houses. These houses were built in the middle of courtyards with walls and a sturdy gate. Altars were not only found to be in the temples but also within the courtyards of the houses as well. This was where the family members can worship their gods and leave their food and wine as offerings. Wood was the primary element used to make furniture but these can sometimes be accentuated with ivory and different metals. More families lived in the rural areas compared to the cities wherein the rich usually prefer to reside. The wealthy may have residences in the city while their servants take the responsibility of maintaining their countryside homes. The poorer farmers had the help of the children to do the agricultural chores such as herding sheep and goats or ploughing the fields. Crops like grapes and olives grew well in the stony land but wheat to make bread had to be bought from Egyptians. These grapes either became raisins or wine while the olives became oil or pickles. Farmers also took care of farm animals because they are excellent sources of basic needs like clothing, milk and meat. The Persian Wars The Persian Wars began to affect Greek life in 490 BC, â€Å"with a Persian invasion in Greece led by Darius the Great of Thrace† (History of Ancient Greece, n. d. ). Darius’ army was almost crushed by his first attempt to conquer the Danube if not for the Ionian Greeks who were his allies at that time. However, this made the Ionians realize that they should rebel from the empire and they asked for the support of the other city-states to go against Persia. This started the popularly known Ionian Revolt. Only the Athenians gave ships to the effort and were able to win the war. The Persians proudly retaliated, recaptured their supremacy in the battle of Lade in 494 B. C. and destroyed the city of Miletus by massacring or enslaving the inhabitants (Setzer, n. d. ). Angered by the Athenian bravado, Darius sought to battle on mainland Greece at around 492 B. C. but the ship that held his army became badly hit by a storm. Another fleet was sent and this time, Eretria was completely destroyed. The next target was Athens and the army went onshore at Marathon which led towards Athens. The Athenians tried to ask Spartans for help but due to â€Å"a religious festival, the Spartans were detained, and the 10,000 Athenians had to face the Persians aided only by 1,000 men from Plataea† (Greco-Persian Wars, 2007). However, the Athenians under the leadership of ten generals including Miltiades, were able to block this attempt which made the Persians retreat and reorganize to try and attack from the Saronic Belf. They were surprised to find the Athenian army back in their territory and ready to fight them again. The Persians went back to Asia Minor, defeated. A runner was sent to Athens to deliver the good news and this was how the Marathon Race got its name (The Persian War, n. d. ). After a decade from the first attempt of invasion, Darius’ son, Xerxes took the throne of Persian Emperor and wanted to target Greece. His strategy involved less violence because instead of attacking head on, he decided it would be best to send envoys to start negotiating with the different cities to surrender without battle. He constructed a bridge at Hellespont and ensured that a canal was dug across the isthmus to protect his army from storms while rounding the Cape of Mount Athos (Setzer, n. d. ). He collected his troops from every satrapy (territory within the Persian Empire) which numbered about 150,000 of the best soldiers from Persia and Mede while his naval fleet had about 1200 ships that were prepared against an estimated 300 brave warriors from Athens and Sparta. The large army of the Persians resulted to a slower pace in their attack and this gave the Greeks a chance to plan out their defense (Greco-Persian Wars, 2007). The different cities of Greece held a meeting to plan their defense which resulted to the delegation of the army to Sparta while Athens was in-charge of the navy fleet under Themistocles, an Athenian statesman (Kreis, 2006). They also consulted the Delphic Oracle. The oracle of Delphi was at Mount Parnassus where a Pythia (woman supposedly used by the God Apollo as his medium) could be asked to predict answers to their questions (Roach, 2001). The Pythia foretold that they would lose the battle and that their only chance of success was through a wooden wall. There were so many interpretations that could mean â€Å"wooden wall† but in the end, the Athenians took it to imply that the wooden walls were their ships. The Spartans suggested that the only way to position themselves well against the great army of Persia was by blocking them at the Isthmus of Corinth. The Athenians and authorities from Central Greece did not agree because their territories will be pillaged by the Persians before they reach the Isthmus of Corinth. However, Evaenetus, commander of the 10,000 Hoplites who decided to help Greece agreed with Sparta and so the minute number of soldiers repositioned themselves at the Isthmus of Corinth. The Spartans and Hoplites were at an advantageous position in Thermopylae until a â€Å"traitorous Greek led a Persian force through the hills to the rear of the Greek forces† (Kreis, 2006) for a surprise attack that led to a massacre. On the naval side, the Athenians left their city which allowed the Persians to burn it. Themistocles realized that battling with the Persians in the open sea will make them lose because of their minute number. He realized that the only way to win against the Persians was to turn their large army into their own handicap. This he did in the Battle of Salamis – a very narrow strait between Athens and the Island of Salamis. â€Å"He sent his best slave to Xerxes to tell him that the Greek navy was retreating to the Isthmus of Corinth to form a combined force with the army† (Moerbeek, 1998). He tricked Xerxes by sending a misleading message that the time of the Persian army to attack was at hand. Xerxes then allowed his unsuspecting contingent to enter the strait between Athens and the island of Salamis where a surprise attack by the Greeks was waiting for them. This caused the eventual defeat of the Persians. By 479 B. C. , the Greek forces had all conquered the Persian army and navy (Kreis, 2006). Conclusion The fast paced development of civilization owes its foundations to the very intelligent and industrious Greeks. Every aspect of modern day life has its roots on Ancient Greek mathematics, logic, philosophy, science, art and even politics. Wars were intelligently won through cunning minds and not annihilating weaponry. Our modern world can truly learn so much just by looking at its past. References Ancient Greek Civilizations. (2003). In Minnesota State University Mankato Online. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www. mnsu. edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/timeline. html Ancient Greeks. (n. d. ). In Anglia Campus Online. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www. angliacampus. com/public/pri/history/greeks/index. htm Dorian. (2007). In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from Encyclop? dia Britannica Online: http://www. eb. com:180/cgi-bin/g? DocF=micro/175/77. html Greco-Persian Wars. (2007). In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from Encyclop? dia Britannica Online: http://www. britannica. com/ebc/article-9037907 Greeka. (n. d. ). Greece History: Stone Bronze Age. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www. greeka. com/greece-stone-bronze-age. htm History of Ancient Greece. (n. d. ). In Think Quest. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://library. thinkquest. org/10805/history-g. html Kreis, S. (2006). Lecture 7: Classical Greece. In The History Guide. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://www. historyguide. org/ancient/lecture7b. html Minos. (2007). In Encyclop? dia Britannica. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from Encyclop? dia Britannica Online: http://www. britannica. com/eb/article-9052881 Moerbeek, M. (1998). Warfare in Hellas. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://monolith. dnsalias. org/~marsares/warfare/battle/salamis. html Mycenaean Civilization. In The Columbia Electronic Encyclopledia, 6th ed. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www. infoplease. com/ce6/history/A0834633. html The Panathenaic Festival. (n. d. ). Brooklyn College Classics Department. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://depthome. brooklyn. cuny. edu/classics/dunkle/athnlife/rligious. htm The Persian War. (n. d. ). In Think Quest. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://library. think quest. org/CR0210200/ancient_greece/persian_war. htm Roach, J. (2001). Delphic Oracles Lips May Have Been Loosened by Gas Vapors. In National Geographic News. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://news. nationalgeographic. com/ news/2001/08/0814_delphioracle. html Setzer, T. (n. d. ). The Persian Invasion of Greece. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www. cais- soas. com/CAIS/History/hakhamaneshian/greece_invasion. htm Trojan War. (2007). In Encarta Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia: http://encarta. msn. com

Scarlet letter :: essays research papers

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel about three individuals whose lives are forever changed. The story takes place in a Puritan village in Boston, in the 1600's. A woman named Hester Prynne has committed adultery and is subject to wear a letter "A" on her dress, representing adulteress. Her secret lover, Dimmesdale, does not come forth, and she does not reveal his identity. Hester's husband, Chillingworth, becomes a sick man, living off other people's sufferings. The act of adultery has weakened each character, and isolated them from the community. The three characters find it harder and harder to live each day. Hester Prynne is a strong character, but she also gives in to weakness. She moves to the outskirts of town because she does not want her life to be observed by every town's person. Although she carries herself proudly, inside she feels sorrow for herself and her child, Pearl. Hester wears the scarlet letter even though she can take it off and refuse to wear it. Hester feels every isolated from the world, because she is an outcast in the village. Villagers look at her as a bad example and a bad person. As time goes on, Hester feels like she has to give back to the world. She feels like she has done damage to the community, and therefore Hester helps the sick and makes clothing for the less fortunate. Hester tries to deal with her situation the best she possibly can. Dimmesdale is the weakest character in the novel. Dimmesdale keeps his guilt and sin inside of his self, and by doing so it tears him apart. He does not want the village to know of his sin, because as a minister, he feels he must be looked up to. Dimmesdale keeps to himself and little by little his health fades. He fasts and fasts until he faints and he whips himself on the back as punishment. He has so much guilt built up inside of him after years and years that he decides he must confess to the village upon the scaffold. "For thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order, and God is merciful! Let me now do the will which he hath made plain before my sight. For, Hester I am a dying man. So let me make haste to take my shame upon me!" Dimmesdale is saying that he deserves the punishment that God will give him, and he is ashamed of his sin.

Freemark Abbey Winery Essay

1. Construct the decision tree for William Jaeger. 2. What should he do? Jaeger should choose to harvest later and wait for the storm. If the storm does come but destroys the grapes, he can decide whether to bottle wine or not to protect winery’s reputation. In either way, he will gain higher revenues from harvesting later than harvesting immediately: EV of â€Å"Do not harvest & Bottling†: $39240 EV of â€Å"Do not harvest & Not bottling†: $39240-$12000*0.6*0.5=$35640 EV of â€Å"Harvest†: $34200 If the winery’s reputation is of great importance for long term profitability, he should choose to sell the wine in bulk, or sell the grapes directly to avoid impairing reputation. Besides, Riesling wines contribute only about 1,000 cases of wine, and the whole winery produced about 25,000 cases of wine bottled each year. Since the Riesling takes only about 4% of winery’s total production and the decision analysis only affects a small proportion of winery revenues, an expected value approach is used (not expected utility approach). However, if Jaeger is extremely risk average or the winery could not afford any risks at that time, he could choose to harvest immediately to reduce uncertainty. 3. Incorporate the option that Jaeger can obtain perfect weather information on the path of the storm into your decision tree. Note that the type of storm remains uncertain. 4. What should he do now? And at most how much he is willing to pay for this piece of information? With perfect information of whether storm strikes or not, Jaeger should still choose to harvest later and wait for the storm. EV of â€Å"Harvest† stream: $34200 EV of â€Å"Do not harvest† stream: $39240 (no matter Jaeger decides to bottle  not-up-to-standard wine or not) When Jaeger decides to â€Å"bottling† not up-to-standard wine, EV of â€Å"Information† stream: $39240 When Jaeger decides to â€Å"not bottling† not-up-to-standard wine, EV of â€Å"Information† stream: $34200*0.5+$37200*0.5=$35700 (â€Å"Information, Storm strike, Do not harvest & Not bottling†: this option will not be chosen as its EV is $34080, smaller than EV of â€Å"Information, Storm strike & Harvest† $34200) As the option â€Å"harvest later and wait for the storm† will bring the highest revenues no matter Jaeger decides to bottle not-up-to-standard wine or not to protect reputation, he should stick to the strategy of harvesting later. Even if the perfect information is free-of-charge, and he decides to bottle not-up-to-standard wine to get more monetary returns, the expected value is the same as â€Å"do not harvest and do not gain perfect information†. If he chooses to get perfect information, and decides to not bottle not-up-to-standard wine, the expected value will be lower. Because the perfect information cannot affect his choice from an ex ante position, it is worthless and he is willing to pay for zero. In this case, the information cannot predict the storm type, so the perfect information is worthless for Jaeger. If the perfect information can predict the storm type, it is valuable and Jaeger will be willing to pay.

Attitudes Towards Error Correction Essay

Introduction The present study focuses on the way in which error correction is done and the significance of errors in the Romanian context. In designing it, I did not use my knowledge on causes of errors as I was not interested to find out whether it can be established a correlation between students’ mother tongue, the target language and the production of errors. I oriented this study towards a narrower issue: the attitudes of teachers, students and native speakers of Romanian towards error correction. In order to do this, I used the following classification of correction techniques: self – correction, peer correction and teacher correction. My research instrument for finding out teachers’ and learners’ attitudes towards error correction was the questionnaire. In constructing my questionnaires my sources were David Nunan’s books entitled ‘Language Teaching Methodology. A Textbook for Teachers’ (1991) and ‘Research Methods in Language Learning’ (1995).The questionnaire is a research instrument which involves asking questions of other people and it is classified as ‘introspective’, since it involves respondents reporting on themselves, their views, their beliefs and so on. According to Nunan (1995:115) ‘introspection is the process of observing and reflecting on one’s thoughts, feelings, motives, reasoning processes, and mental states with a view to determining the ways in which these processes and states determine our behaviour’.Very often the questionnaire is answered by reading the questions and then ticking responses, or by writing in short answers. Thus, it is easier for the researcher to deal with the data collected and this is one of the reasons I chose it. The Theory of Questionnaire Design and Analysis Questionnaire preparation †¢Purpose The first thing to be very clear about was the purpose, that is, I had to know exactly the reason why I was setting up the questionnaire and what I wanted to find out. I tried to imagine the range of responses in order to know whether they would tell me what I needed to know. †¢Handling the data Again, it was important to imagine the completed responses. They needed to be in a form that was simple and convenient to analyse. This meant organising the questionnaire form so that it would be easy for me to record and discuss the results. †¢Practical details I needed to know how many copies of the questionnaire I would need and how I was going to ensure the maximum return completed questionnaires. †¢Anonymity I established whether the questionnaires were going to be anonymous. In case of anonymity, people might be more honest and informative in their responses. In case of non-anonymity, I might have been able to have follow-up interviews on selected questionnaires. I might also have been able to send reminders to those who had not responded. Questionnaire Design †¢Clarity It had to clear the informants why they were filling in the questionnaire: what was intended to achieve. It had to be clear whether or not the questionnaire was supposed to be anonymous. The instructions had to be very clear and explicit. The informants had to know whether the answers were to be ticked, crossed, circled or written out and where. †¢Simplicity I needed to know whether the questionnaire was laid out in a straightforward manner and whether the layout helped respondents to find their way through it. †¢Types of questions Questionnaire items can be relatively closed or open ended. A closed item is one in which the range of possible responses is determined by the researcher. In contrast, an open item is one in which the subject can decide what to say and how to say it. Questionnaires can consist entirely of closed questions, entirely of open questions, or a mixture of closed and open questions. The advantage of closed questions is that they usually make the questionnaire easier and quicker to fill in. they also make for quicker and more reliable scoring of the responses. The disadvantages of the closed questions are that they usually take longer to devise than open questions. Instructions on how to answer them have to be very clear. This means that the questionnaire designer has to anticipate all or most of the possible answers, so there may be little unexpected information in the responses. One corresponding advantage of open questions is that they are comparatively easy to design, but one may have some difficulties in trying to score and analyse the responses. It is also likely that responses to open questions reflect what the respondent wants to say. †¢Relevance Probably the most frequent mistake in designing questionnaires is asking unnecessary or irrelevant questions: for example, wanting to know whether the respondent is male or female, when his information has nothing to do with the purpose of questionnaire. †¢User – friendliness A lot of what I have been saying can be summarised by making the point that, since no one enjoys answering questionnaires, they should be made as ‘user – friendly’ as possible. This means they should not be too long, they should not be intensive (e.g. by asking questions that may embarrass the respondents) and they should not be confusing or perplexing. Piloting the Questionnaire An issue that affects questionnaires is that they should be piloted to see whether they work as planned. Even if I was going to distribute only a small number of questionnaires, I had to try them out on one or two people beforehand. In the piloting stage, I inquired: †¢whether the instructions were clear and easy to follow; †¢whether the questions were clear; †¢whether the respondents were able to answer all the questions; †¢whether the respondents found any of the questions irrelevant, patronising or irritating; †¢how long the questionnaire took the respondents to complete; †¢whether the respondents had any comments or suggestions that would help to make my questionnaire more effective. I piloted my questionnaires on two students. Drawing on the lessons learnt from the pilot I made the following changes: †¢I gave clear written instructions; †¢I eliminated questions five and six as they weren’t very clear and their answers were included in the variants of question seven †¢I changed the third variant from question three. Instead ‘uncomfortable’ I used the term ‘embarrassed’ as I thought that when producing an error students might show a sensation of embarrassment. This may be the result of teacher’s and even their classmates’ presence, more than a sensation of discomfort, which cannot be clearly defined. The questions that were unclear were given clear instructions about how to answer them. I tried to make my questionnaire user-friendly by changing the introduction. The questionnaire for learners was given in Romanian, as my subjects were beginners. As I was interested in teachers’ opinions I constructed a separate questionnaire. I piloted it on one teacher. After the piloting stage I made the following changes: I made my questionnaire user friendly by changing the introduction and I gave clear instructions about how to answer the questions. In addition I made a questionnaire for native speakers of Romanian as I thought that by administering it I might get useful and interesting opinions that could help me draw some conclusions concerning error correction in general and not necessary in the context of teaching / learning English. The purpose of questions Questionnaire for learners of English Question 1: to see how they find out learning English. Question 2: to find out what importance students give to error correction Question 3: to see how they feel when committing an error Question 4: to see whether they learn from their errors Question 5: to see what correction techniques students usually prefer Question 6: to find out which correction techniques students find more useful Question 7: to see whether they are interested in the errors committed Question 8: to find out what colour students prefer the teacher to use when providing correction Questionnaire for teachers of English Question 1: to know what is the respondents’ experience in teaching English Question 2: to see how they found teaching English Question 3: to find out what colour teachers use when providing correction Question 4: to find out the way in which correction is carried out Question 5: to find out the way in which they correct errors Question 6: to know what correction techniques teachers use in classroom Question 7: to find out which of the correction techniques teachers find to be more useful Question 8: to see whether they are aware of students’ feelings concerning correction Question 9: to know what they think to be the results of correction Questionnaire for native speakers of Romanian Question 1: to find out the respondents’ age Question 2: to know how they find learning a foreign language Question 3: to see what importance they give to correction Question 4: to see their attitudes when committing errors Question 5: to see whether or not they learn out of correction Question69: to find out what correction technique they prefer Question 7: to see what correction techniques have a greater utility Data Analysis I have administered the questionnaires to 10 students (beginners, studying English as a foreign language), 10 teachers of English and 10 native speakers of Romanian. When selecting the teachers I thought of getting answers from different ones, that is from middle school teachers, high school teachers and even university teachers. I also chose teachers being in their first years of teaching and experienced ones. The native speakers of Romanian were selected on the following criteria: they had nothing in common with the context of teaching / learning and they did not learn any foreign language except for the period when they were students, but they do not use it anymore. Quantitative Data Analysis The questionnaire for learners of English Q1. Nine students consider English as being easy to be learnt and one student considers it difficult to learn. Q2.All the students say that it is very important ‘being corrected’ Q3. Seven students feel encouraged when their attention is drawn to errors committed, while three students feel discouraged about this. Q4. All the students argue that they learn from their errors. Q5.Seven students say that they prefer to be corrected only by the teacher, while three prefer to correct themselves after the teacher has indicated the errors. Q6.All the students consider that they learn more from the correction provided by the teacher. Q7.All the students say that when they get back their papers with correction provided by the teacher, they look at them in order to avoid the errors committed. Q8.All the students say that they prefer their teacher to use a red pencil when correcting their work. The questionnaire for teachers of English Q1.Five respondents have been teaching English between 0-3 years, four between 4-6 years and one for more than 10 years. Q2.Seven teachers find teaching English to be difficult, while three find it easy. Q3. Eight teachers say that they use red colour when correcting students’ work and one teacher says that he / she uses a pencil when doing this. Teacher 4 says that he / she uses both red and blue. Q4.Five teachers write in the correct form when correcting errors, four give hint what it should be and two simply indicate something was wrong. Q5.Four teachers write in the correct form when correcting errors, four give hint what it should be and two simply indicate something was wrong. Q6.Three teachers say that they use only teacher correction in classroom, while two say they use peer correction. Five teachers use more than a correction technique. Here are their answers: Teacher 1 uses both self-correction and peer correction. Teacher 4 uses peer correction and teacher correction. Teacher 5 uses self-correction and teacher correction. Teachers 6 and 7 use all the techniques. Q7.Six teachers consider that self-correction helps students improve their knowledge, one teacher considers that it is peer correction that helps students and one teacher considers that teacher correction helps students more than the other two correction techniques. Teacher 6 considers that all types of correction techniques help students, while Teacher 7 considers that only self-correction and teacher correction is useful. Q8.Four teachers say that the students feel discouraged when given back a paper full of corrected errors, four say that students feel embarrassed, while two say that students feel encouraged. Q9.Eight teachers think that students learn from the corrections they provide for a written paper, while two teachers think that students don’t learn from this. The questionnaire for native speakers of Romanian Q1.The respondents are between 22 and 57 years old. Q2.Six of them find easy to learn a foreign language, while four find it difficult. Q3.Nine respondents consider correction as being very important, while one respondent ranks it as important. Q4. Nine respondents say that they feel embarrassed when their attention is drawn to errors committed while one respondent feels encouraged about that. Q5.All the respondents say that they learn from the errors they usually commit. Q6.Five respondents express their preference for self-correction, while five prefer to be corrected by other people. Q7.Five respondents argue that they learn more from self-correction and five say they learn more from the correction provided to them by other people. Qualitative Data Analysis The learners of English and the native speakers of Romanian consider learning a foreign language, English in this case, to be easy. Conversely, the teachers consider teaching English to be a difficult task. All the respondents consider being very important to be corrected when committing an error. That is why they argue that they usually learn from the errors committed in order to avoid them. Both learners and teachers of English showed their preference for teacher correction in the classroom. However, few students prefer self-correction, but only after the errors have been indicated to them by the teacher. I consider that to be a different way of teacher correction, a more blurred one. What I mean is that teachers should give learners a free hand in correcting errors, but also in getting them used to the identification of errors. I think this is one of the reasons why students, although some of them prefer self-correction to be used, argue that they learn more from the corrections provided by the teachers. They are not accustomed yet to freely express their opinions and I would argue that this might be owing to the tradition of learning in Romania. However, teachers argue that students learn more from self-correction. Taking into account the ideas provided by Julian Edge (1993:10) regarding self-correction: ‘People usually prefer to put their errors right than be corrected by someone else. Also, self-correction is easier to remember, because someone has put something right in his or her own head’, one may say that teachers are absolutely right when maintaining this point of view. But how can students learn more from self-correction if the majority of teachers argue that they usually prefer teacher correction as a technique? However, there are some teachers who use self-correction in classroom, while some use peer correction. Of course, when using peer correction one must keep in mind the disadvantages of this technique. Regarding the way in which teachers correct learners’ written work it was surprising to find out that some, not too many anyway, do not correct any of the errors committed, but simply indicate, probably by means of symbols or underlining, that something was wrong. They use red for correcting errors and this is in agreement with learners’ expectations about this matter. The utilization of a different colour, when correcting errors, that is red, may be explained as a way of making students be more aware of the errors they commit. As a conclusion of the matter of correction techniques, I consider that all of them (i.e. self-correction, peer correction and teacher correction) should be used in classrooms, either when correcting written work or speaking. That is why some of the teachers who were administered the questionnaire chose more than one answer to the question dealing with this issue, being aware of certain advantages, and even disadvantages which, of course when noticed, should be avoided while using one or another correction technique. The following table summarises the respondents’ attitudes towards the correction techniques and their usefulness.

Customer Satisfaction Tesco Essay Example

Customer Satisfaction Tesco Essay Example Customer Satisfaction Tesco Essay Customer Satisfaction Tesco Essay Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 1. Introduction â€Å"Satisfying the customer is a race without finish. † (Vadim Kotelnikov). Many researches and academicians have defined customer’s satisfaction in their own way. Satisfying customers is always a challenging job for anyone. Customer satisfaction means providing goods and services to the customer which meets their level of expectation. So, neglecting customer and their demand can be dangerous for the existence of the organisation. That is the significant reason why companies are paying attention to the customer satisfaction today (Harkiranpal Singh, 2006). Similarly, researcher here tries to measure customer satisfaction and efforts to put to recognise its importance in development of the organisation. Introduction Introduction Background of the research Background of the research Background of the organization to be studied Background of the organization to be studied Research purpose Research purpose Scope of the research project Scope of the research project Brief overview of the research methodology Brief overview of the research methodology Structure of the report Structure of the report Figure 1. 1 Structure of Chapter 1: Introduction 1. 1 Background of the Research Customer satisfaction is the buzzword of the 1990s. Unfortunately, till the date numerous amount of managers consider satisfying their customer is a good practice to do rather than crucial element of success (Dianne S. Ward, 1993). Current economic conditions have encouraged many firms to review their approach regarding customer satisfaction management (Jonathan Parkes). Satisfaction is a crucial measure of an organisation’s achievement and it is considered as a great influencer of attitude, word of mouth communication, profit, and repurchase; in long run, lead to customer loyalty; to be appropriate predictor of buying behaviour in the future. Customer satisfaction gained by any organisation results in loyalty of customers, repeated visits and use of wide range of services and goods offered. Therefore, it is found that greater customer retention can be achieved when customer satisfaction is taken care of, while it is also found that customer with high satisfaction received, were ready to pay higher prices (Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick and So Jung Lee, 2009). Customer’s satisfaction on their buying is important factor that take business towards success. In current period, customer satisfaction has received new attention within the environment of the paradigm shift to relationship marketing from transactional marketing. (Aurimas Dapkevicius and Borisas Melnikas, 2009). . 2 Background of the organization to be studied This research is based on the customer satisfaction at Tesco PLC. Tesco is the leading retailer in Britain, and one of the top three in the world. It has over 3700 stores globally and employs approximately 440,000 people. It operates in 13 other countries except UK, which are Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slova kia, Turkey and Poland in Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and India in Asia and U. S. A. â€Å"Everyday life keeps changing and the Tesco team excels at responding to those changes. Tesco has grown from a market stall, set up by Jack Cohen in 1919. The name Tesco first appeared above a shop in Edgware in 1929 and since then the company has grown and developed, responding to new opportunities and pioneering in many innovations. † â€Å"By the early 1990s it faced strong competition and needed a new strategy. Tesco were good at buying and selling goods but had begun to forget the customers. Sir Terry Leahy, who became Chief Executive in 1997, asked customers the simple question â€Å"what are we doing wrong? . Tesco then invested in the things that matter to customers. For example, it launched its loyalty scheme Clubcard and Tesco. com, its internet home shopping service. † â€Å"Going the extra mile for customers has been key to its growth. It wants to make customers lives easier and better in any way it can. It wants to appeal to every customer and give them a reason to come back to Tesco. † (www. cn. tesco. com/en/aboutus/aboutus_history. htm) Tesco UK Tesco in UK is operating more than 2700 stores. The supermarket giant of Britain has registered the pre-tax profit of ? 3. 4bn for the year 2010 (Graeme Wearden, 2010). Headquarter of Tesco is in Hertfordshire, UK. In UK, Tesco is the leading supermarket with small sized grocery stores named as Tesco Metro; outside cities they developed big supermarkets (Tesco Extra), and 24-hour stores. In Britain, Tesco is the king of supermarkets, apart from being national leader in food sector, it is proud of retailing every goods that satisfies the needs of the customers which includes household appliances and hi-fi, books, household equipment, CD/DVD/mini-discs, flowers, apparel, wine, liquors and so on. Keeping in mind the future, Tesco has improved rapidly with the changes in the technologies. Introduction of online sales through its website named www. esco. com has benefited the company with an attractive profit. Tesco; a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland facilitates it to sell general insurance (car, home, travel, pet), and life insurance, saving schemes and credit cards. Besides, it has also started owning gas (petrol) stations in many places for continuing support to its customers (Tesco PLC Company, 2010). Tesco has a largest geographic market in UK. It stocks around 40,000 food products. Apart from selling other brands, it has its own labels categorized in three levels: value, normal and finest (Company Spotlight: Tesco PLC, 2006). Non-food sales of Tesco’s in UK operations are small in margin compared with the food products, but still it holds substantial potential growth. In order to improve customer service Tesco has heavily invested in self-service checkouts which carry out quarter of all its transactions. Such steps help ensure the cost accuracy and reduced waiting time in queue for customers, which makes their in-store experience pleasant. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is getting introduced in every companies and Tesco has also implied it in its company to get closer with the customers and understand their needs. For the convenience of the customers and continued improved quality of the service, Tesco has introduced a free downloadable application on iphone like Tesco loyalty card and the Clubcard, where any customer with the application stored in their iphone can use their phone instead of the card while making payment at the till (Tesco PLC, 2010). According to the recent survey; Tesco, the Britain’s largest retailer is ranked 7th in terms of customer satisfaction with the rating of 49%. 1. 3 Research Purpose It is said that most companies lose 45% to 50% customers every five years if the companies do not meet the expectations of the customer and if such happens then it would be at least 20 times expensive to make new customers than to retain the existing customers. Moreover, a 5% reduction in the customer defection rate can increase the customers by 25% to 85%. (B2B International, Market research with intelligence, white paper: using market research for product development by Julia Cupman) ‘Customer satisfaction nowadays is considered a main concern by the business and is the critical element of its profitability’. Vadim Kotelnikov) Now business firms are investing more than ever in customer satisfaction. The purpose of the research is to measure and to detect the importance of customer satisfaction. Many factors influence the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the customers and play an important role in satisfying the customers. In this research we will try and include all those factors that affect customer satisfaction, where customers would be the key asset for this research as they are the one who has experienced the service and goods of Tesco. A proper survey would be conducted in a real market to best know the real vision of the customers towards goods and services of Tesco and also would outline their opinions in this research and eventually a conclusion would be drawn based on the undertaken survey. 1. 4 Scope of the research project Tesco Plc. is quite large to conduct a survey on customer satisfaction, hence Tesco at some places are only taken into consideration assuming the same level of customer service and goods are provided in all the other stores within UK and other countries. In other words, the research is limited to the customers of some places in London, UK only. The respondents of the survey are the people who are currently residing in London and only few physical stores in London are included to conduct this research. 1. 5 Brief overview of the research methodology Methodology as the term; refers to the way in which individual approach problems and search for answers. In short, how research is conducted (Steven J. Taylor and Robert Bogdan, 1998). The purpose of the research is to inform action. It is essential for the researcher to design a methodology or an approach on how to solve the problem. It helps any individual to stay on track and follow the steps of the methods in solving a particular problem. (S. Rajasekar, P. Philominathan, V. Chinnathambi, 2006). As per the research questions, researcher has utilized the deduction approach, for satisfying the purpose of data collection and medium of questionnaire in survey adopted by researcher. Both primary and secondary data are used and when it comes to type of research used in this case, it is known as applied research. All the further information on research methodology is mentioned in chapter 3. 1. 6 Structure of the report The structure follows this way: Chapter 2 talks about literature review which lets reader know the relevant work that is already published on researched field. Chapter 3 is about the methods used during the research. Chapter 4 is about the data analysis and discussion, means broadly explains the how data were analysed and the techniques used to do it. Chapter 5 is the conclusion and recommendation drawn by the researcher. Chapter 2. Literature Review Chapter 2. Literature Review 2. 1 Introduction In the current era, customer is considered as king, not only king sometimes referred to as a god. It means to be successful in any business, customers are given the most priority and their needs to be fulfilled at any cost, which make those customers to repeat again for more products, recommend the goods and services of that particular business to others. What we have heard is that in any kind of business, customer is always right and we always have to meet their expectation, indeed by hook or by crook. If not done so, would be a loss in business. In a successful business strategy, customer satisfaction plays a key role that is recognised by retailers. It is very important for any retail company to satisfy its customer at the best because customers bring revenue for the company. Satisfied customer always comes back to you so customer satisfaction is very crucial part for retail companies. Customer satisfaction definitions have been discussed widely from the viewpoint of various researchers and organisations who wish gradually to measure it (Chapter 2- Literature Review- Customer satisfaction in call centre, 2009). Research on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction has predominantly concentrated upon evaluation of customer regarding particular goods and services consumed. Various investigation has took place related to incidence of satisfaction and dissatisfaction through product and service categories, efforts to identify the psychographic and demographic correlates of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with products, and theoretical models test to describe the satisfaction level that customers recognize from products (Robert A. Westbrook, 1981). Introduction Introduction Customer Satisfaction Conceptual and Operational Definitions Why Customer Satisfaction is Important? Models of Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction Measurement Process Consequences of Customer Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction in Retail Customer Satisfaction Conceptual and Operational Definitions Why Customer Satisfaction is Important? Models of Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction Measurement Process Consequences of Customer Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction in Retail Summary Summary Figure 2. Structure of Chapter 2: Literature Review 2. 2 Customer Satisfaction The first question that arises in mind is, â€Å"What is customer satisfaction? † In simple words, the goods and services that satisfies the customer needs. Customer satisfaction is monitored by business for the sake of determining how to maximise their profits, customer base, revenue, market share, customer loyalty, and survival. Although the primary driver is greater profit, exemplary business concentrate on the customer and her/his experience with the company. Company does work to make their consumers happy and consider customer satisfaction as the crucial part to achieve profit and survival. Customer satisfaction in turn hinges on the quality and effects of their experiences and the goods or services they receive. The definition of customer satisfaction has been widely debated as organizations increasingly attempt to measure it. Customer satisfaction can be experienced in different types of situation and connected to both services and goods. It is a highly personal assessment that is greatly affected by expectations of customer. Satisfaction; also depends on the experience of customer on both; contact with the firm and personal outcomes. Customer satisfaction differs depending on the situation and the product or service. There is a possibility that customer may be satisfied with a product or service, an experience, a sales person, a purchase decision, service provider, store, or an attribute or any of these. Customer satisfaction is a highly personal assessment that is reatly influenced by expectations of the individual (Customer Satisfaction, 2007). Despite the abundance of customer satisfaction literature acknowledge that customer satisfaction definition which is generally accepted has not been established (Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick and So Jung Lee, 2009). 2. 2. 1 Conceptual and Operational Definitions in Consumer Satisfaction Literature Conceptual Definition | Source | Focus| Response | T ime| The consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that the product or service itself or product or service feature, delivered (or is delivering) a delightful level of purchase –related fulfillment, comprising levels of under-or over fulfillment | Oliver 1997| Product or service | Fulfillment response/judgment | During consumption | Causing from the consumer’s product performance comparison to particular pre-purchase standard | Hartman, and Schmidt 1994 | Product performance compared to some pre-consumption standard | Affective response | During or after consumption | (Product satisfaction) is an attitude like post-purchase evaluative judgment varying along the hedonic continuum | Mano and Oliver 1993 | Product | Attitude evaluative judgment Varying along the hedonic continuum | Post consumption| An overall post-consumption evaluation | Fornell 1992 | Post-consumption perceived product performance compared with pre-consumption expectations | Overall evaluation | Post purchase | Examined whether satisf action was an emotion. Concluded that satisfaction is a summary attribute phenomenon co-existing with other consumption emotions | Oliver 1992 | Product attributes | Summary attribute phenomenon coexisting with other consumption emotions | During consumption | A post-choice evaluative judgment concerning a specific purchase selection | Westbrook and Oliver 1991 | Specific purchase selection | Evaluative judgment | Post choice | No conceptual definition. (with the salesperson) a function of fairness, preference, and disconfirmation | Oliver and Swan 1989 | Salesperson | | During purchase | The consumer’s response to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy between prior expectations (or some norm of performance) and the actual performance of the product as perceived after its consumption | Tse and Wilton 1988 | Perceived discrepancy between prior expectations (or some norm of performance) and the actual erformance of the product | Response to the evaluation | Post consumption | Conceptualized as a feeling developed from an evaluation of the use experience | Cadotte, Woodruff and Jenkins 1987 | Use experience | Feeling developed from an evaluation | During consumption | Global evaluative judgment about product usage/consumption | Westbrook 1987 | Product usage/consumption | Global evaluative judgment | During consumption | the evaluative response to the current consumption event the consumer’s response in a particular consumption experience to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy between prior expectations (or some other norm of performance) and the actual performance of the product perceived after its acquisition | Day 1984 | Perceived discrepancy between prior expectations (or some other norm of performance) and the actual performance of the product | Evaluative response | Current consumption event †¦ particular consumption experience †¦ after its acquisition | No conceptual definition. A function of consumer expectations operationalized as product attribute beliefs and disconfirmation. | Bearden and Teel 1983 | | | During consumption | Postpurchase evaluation. Cited Oliver’s (1981) definition: An evaluation of the surprise inherent in a product acquisition and/or consumption experience| LaBarbera and Mazursky 1983 | Surprise | Evaluation | Postpurchase Product acquisition and/or consumption experience | An emotional response to the experiences provided by and associated with particular products or services purchased, retail outlets, or even molar patterns of behavior such as shopping and buyer behavior, as well as the overall marketplace. An emotional response triggered by a cognitive evaluative process in which the perceptions of (or beliefs about) an object, action, or condition are compared to one’s values (or needs, wants, desires). | Westbrook and Reilly 1983 | Experiences provided by and associated with particular products or services purchased, retail outlets, or even molar patterns of behavior such as shopping and buyer behavior Perceptions of (or beliefs about) an object, action, or condition are compared to one’s values | Emotional response | Postpurchase | Conceptually, an outcome of purchase and use resulting from the buyer’s comparison of the rewards and costs of the purchase relative to anticipated consequences. Operationally, similar to attitude in that it can be assessed as a summation of satisfactions with various attributes. | Churchill and Surprenant 1982 | Comparison of the rewards and costs of the purchase relative to anticipated consequences | Outcome | Implies after purchase and use | An evaluation of the surprise inherent in a product acquisition and/or consumption experience. In essence, the summary psychological state resulting when the emotion surrounding disconfirmed expectations is coupled with the consumer’s prior feelings about the consumption experience. | Oliver 1981 | Surprise Disconfirmed expectations coupled with the consumer’s prior feelings | Evaluation Summary psychological state Emotion | Product acquisition and/or consumption experience | A conscious evaluation or cognitive judgment that the product has performed relatively well or poorly or that the product was suitable or unsuitable for its use/purpose. Another dimension of satisfaction involves affect of feelings toward the product . Swan, Trawick and Carroll 1980 | Product has performed relatively well or poorly or that the produ ct was suitable or unsuitable for its use/purpose Toward the product | Conscious evaluation or cognitive judgment Another dimension involves affect of feelings | During or after consumption | Refers to the favorability of the individual’s subjective evaluation of the various outcomes and experiences associated with using or consuming it (product). | Westbrook 1980 | Outcomes and experiences | Favorability of the individual’s subjective evaluation | During consumption | A kind of stepping away from an experience and evaluating it. . . the evaluation rendered that the experience was at least as good as it was supposed to be. | Hunt 1977 | Experience was at least as good as it was supposed to be | A kind of stepping away from an experience and evaluating it | During consumption experience | The buyer’s cognitive state of being adequately or inadequately rewarded for the sacrifices he has undergone. Howard and Sheth 1969 | Being adequately or inadequately rewarded f or sacrifices | Cognitive state of being | | Table 1. Conceptual and Operational Definitions in Consumer Satisfaction Literature Source: Joan L. Giese and Joseph A. Cote (2002) Customer satisfaction can mean virtually anything. It can include such variables as price, conformance, lead time, reliability, responsiveness, convenience and professionalism and it’s sometimes a complicated mix of all of these and more. Industry by industry, and even across product lines, the importance of each variable can differ drastically (Craig Cochran, 2003). The formal definition of customer satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfilment response. It is a judgement that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfilment, including levels of under or over fulfilment (Richard L. Oliver, 1997). Understanding of the concept of customer satisfaction is easy. Satisfaction is simple. If one gets what he/she wanted, if ones requirement met, then he/she is satisfied. If they’re not met, then he/she will not be satisfied. â€Å"Customer satisfaction is a measure of how your organization’s ‘total product’ performs in relation to a set of customer requirements. † This definition tells us something fundamental about customer satisfaction-it’s not absolute concept; it’s relative one. It’s relative to what the customer expected in the first place (Nigel, John and Rob, 2003). Customer care’s nature is mostly oriented by service as most of the goods are consumed at the similar time as services are experienced. In order to satisfy customers, the supplier requires the services which customer wants. If the consumer in a certain way perceives a service, but expected less, then it ends up with satisfied customer, as the formula shows in Figure 1. Anticipation made by customer regarding products and services like how it will be performed and that is added to his/her expectation. Customers have earlier experiences and based on those experiences, they look forward to receive a service in a particular way, which can be considered as company controlled expectation creators. Uncontrollable creators are action word of mouth and the competition. Over the time, customer’s standards form by such company uncontrollable and controllable expectations creators. Services compared by customers according to particular standards with which they are familiar and those don’t necessarily relate to the service that is performed (Heikki Koskela, 2002). CUSTOMER CUSTOMER CUSTOMER = SATISFACTION PERCEPTION EXPECTATION CUSTOMER CUSTOMER CUSTOMER = SATISFACTION PERCEPTION EXPECTATION Figure 2. 2 Formula of Customer Satisfaction The customer satisfaction theories developed to date, mostly subjected to notice with the Expectancy-Disconfirmation mode. This model originally presented by Oliver where the satisfaction antecedents are expectations and disconfirmation, at that stage, the expectance disconfirmation model was generally adopted. The most immediate influence on satisfaction in this model is disconfirmation. Later on, Churchill and Suprenant clearly comprised performance in the model as an antecedent of satisfaction and included expectations and performance effects on disconfirmation and expectations effects on performance. Accordingly, Oliver and DeSarbo mentioned that there are three factors, expectations, performance and disconfirmation, which have influence on customer satisfaction (Chih-Chung Chen and Dr. Su-Chao Chang, 2006). 2. 2. 2 Why is Customer Satisfaction Important? In any business you always look for a repeat customer, if a customer walks unhappy then they look for goods and service somewhere else. Therefore customer satisfaction is very important which would end up for repeated customers and that’s what business need today. So repeat business base is very much crucial because of that gaining and losing of short-term and new customers does not have greater impact. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, significant differentiator among gaining customers or losing customers to firm’s competitors could be customer satisfaction (What is Customer Satisfaction? ). Repeat business is very huge part of organization’s business. Words of mouth are considered as one of the biggest assets to grow or destroy any organizations. If customers are happy with the organization, they will have a word with other people who will listen to them and on contrary if customers are unhappy, still they will tell other people and such things will lead to gaining or losing new customers all because of words of another (Melissa B. Evans, 2009). All the types of organizations should strive for customer satisfaction, in good times and bad times (Manto, 2010). Because satisfied customers buy more. If customer receives full satisfaction from the goods and service of the company in terms of quality, price and the other services, then they will spend more with same company. If they don’t receive such kind of satisfaction, then they will go away with the purchase that they already made and never return to same company for next purchase (Melissa B. Evans, 2009). The advantages of creating and maintaining customer loyalty within existing consumers have been studied in various fields. Researchers agree that by enhancing customer loyalty companies diminish marketing costs and increase profits. In case of engagement of word-of-mouth, loyal customers are more likely to be part in positive one than non-loyal. First and foremost, customer loyalty largely depends on customer satisfaction (Heepup Han and Kisang Ryu, 2009). 2. 2. 3 Models of Satisfaction For understanding and evaluating consumer acceptance and satisfaction, a great variety of methods and frameworks are utilized in various disciplines. 2. 2. 3. 1 Confirmation / Disconfirmation Model An individual can have various degrees of satisfaction and dissatisfaction at one particular time; for instance, an individual may be happy with the service he receives from the staff of a retail outlet but at the same time he might be unhappy with the business hours of the same retail outlet. To best describe customer satisfaction, â€Å"confirmation /disconfirmation† paradigm is the widely used model. According to this model, the difference between the expectations (E) of customers regarding particular product or service and their perception regarding actual performance (P) supplied by this product or service determine satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Fulfilment of customers’ expectations will lead to their satisfaction; if such thing doesn’t happen then it will result in dissatisfaction. The customers’ satisfaction (S) can be expressed in the terms of mathematical equation as below, where S is Satisfaction, E is Expectation and P is Performace. S = E – P In addition to the above mentioned three variables (S, E, and P), Locke’s general satisfaction model comprises of a third variable which is not included in the confirmation/disconfirmation model. Importance (I) of the service or product attribute under consideration is the fourth variable. This variable is related because not all attributes are equally significant to consumers; for example, a customer of the bank is likely to rate financial success as being one of the greater importance to satisfaction than, say, staff members friendliness. If the Locke model’s importance variable is included in the mathematical expression mentioned above, then following formula expresses satisfaction in mathematical terms: S = (E – P) ? I There are some problems with both of these satisfaction models. Both the models mentioned above are plausible, but both of them show conceptual problems. One of the problems is that it is unclear what should be understood by the term â€Å"expectation†. An â€Å"expectation† might correspond to a customer’s pressing need, or an ideal, or a desire, or even a norm. Such various forms of â€Å"expectation† apparently represent various qualities, but â€Å"confirmation/ disconfirmation† model doesn’t take into consideration such distinctions. In the Locke’s model, such distinctions are at best considered only indirectly in the form of the variable of â€Å"importance†; for example, it could be assumed that the fulfilment of an ideal is of lesser importance than the fulfilment of a norm. Not paraphrased). The second problem is that each models indicate that dissatisfaction occurs when performance is less than expectation (P ; E). Although this appears to be plausible, there is possibility that sa tisfaction might occur if performance matches expectation (P = E). Where, it is not clear whether the â€Å"over-fulfilment† of expectation (P ; E) will produce satisfaction or dissatisfaction. For example, a consumer might be annoyed by over-friendly service at the counter of a cashier in the retail outlet, while at the same time pleased by receiving good savings on the purchase of a particular goods or service from the same retail outlet. There is also possibility that a plateau is reached in terms fulfilment of expectations, beyond which a ‘better’ performance does not result to any further growth in satisfaction. The confirmation/disconfirmation or Locke’s model doesn’t consider any of those cases. Third problem with the satisfaction model, basing satisfaction on the difference among expectation and performance neglects the absolute expectation and performance level. If both expectations and performance are quite high, the difference among the two can be identical as when both expectations and performance are quite low. Basing satisfaction only on the relative difference means that information about absolute performance is lost, even though this might have an influence on the overall satisfaction of the customer. Indeed, it has been plausibly argued that the same difference might be associated with a greater level of satisfaction if performance is at a higher absolute level. Finally, it is assumed that both model consider equally significant both performance and expectation in producing satisfaction. However, numerous studies have displayed that the ‘performance’ variable is more crucial than ‘expectation’ variable in predicting customer satisfaction (Uwe Peter Kanning and Nina Bergmann, 2009). 2. 2. 3. 2 SERVQUAL Model In any business, high level managers are in increasing pressure to demonstrate their services are highly customer focused and the continuous performance improvement is being delivered. Given the financial and resource constraints under which organizations must manage it is essential that customer expectations are properly understood and measured and that, from the customers’ perspective, any gaps in service quality are identified. To study this gap, SERVQUAL model assists any managers the best in fulfilling those gaps in a cost effective ways. Hence the SERVQUAL model shows the difference between management perceptions of what customers expect and what customers really do expect, the difference between management perception and service quality specifications, the difference between service quality specifications and actual service delivery and the difference between service delivery and what is communicated externally. SERVQUAL model is one of the popular models regarding service quality. Perception gap between the obtained quality of service and the expected quality of service is the main base of SERVQUAL, and adopted widely for explaining customer perception of quality of service. Originally proposed dimensions of service quality were 10 (reliability, competence, responsiveness, courtesy, access, credibility, communication, understanding the customer, security, and tangibles). Later on the number dimensions reduced to five (tangibles, assurances, empathy, responsiveness and reliability) (K. Ravichandran, B. Tamil Mani. S. Arun Kumar, and S. Prabhakaran, 2010). The key five dimensions are: * Tangibles the appearance of the physical facilities, equipment, personal and information materials. Reliability – the ability to perform the service accurately and dependably * Responsiveness – the willingness to help customers and provide a prompt service * Assurance a combination of competence, courtesy, credibility and security * Empathy – a combination of access, communication and understanding the customer However, there has been an extensive debate whether the perception-minus-expectations specification would be appropriate or assessing perception alone would be sufficient. Many authors showed concerns about SERVQUAL instrument. The argument of authors was that there are severe conceptual and operational disadvantages connected with the SERVQUAL model. Conceptual model of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) In the above model, we could see five gaps where there are problems in delivering the service quality to the customers. Gap 1 illustrates not knowing what customers expect. Gap 2 shows the wrong service quality standards. Gap 3 is the service performance gap. Gap 4 is when promises do not match actual delivery and Gap 5 is the difference between customer perception and expectation. Tangibility Tangibility Reliability Reliability Customer Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction Service Quality Service Quality Responsiveness Responsiveness Assurance Assurance Empathy Empathy Price/CHS Price/CHS Figure 2. 3 SERVQUAL Model Source: K. Ravichandran, B. Tamil Mani. S. Arun Kumar, and S. Prabhakaran (2010) 2. 2. . 3 Kano model Customer satisfaction model of Kano classifies attributes of product based on how customer perceived it and its effect on customer satisfaction. For guiding design decisions, these classification are useful which direct when good is good enough and when more is better. Prod uct attributes divided into three categories by customer satisfaction model of Kano divides and that is threshold, performance and excitement. High Excitement Customer Satisfaction Absent Fully Implemented Performance Threshold Low Product Function Figure 2. 4 Kano Model Source: Kano Model Analysis Threshold attributes are the attributes which is expected by consumers or â€Å"musts† of the product, and do not supply any chance for differentiation between products. Rising the performance of above mention attributes deliver decreasing returns concerning customer satisfaction. Whereas these attributes nonexistence or weak performance lead to high level of customer dissatisfaction. Performance attributes are those for which more is generally better, and will be enhance customer satisfaction. An absent or poor performance attribute decreases customer satisfaction. Performance attributes closely tied by the price for which consumer is ready to pay for the product. Excitement attributes are unexpected and unexpressed by consumers but can lead to high degree of customer satisfaction, nevertheless their nonattendance does not result into dissatisfaction. In the era of stiff competition, where producer of product and service provide product with similar performance, providing excitement attributes can be competitive advantage (Kano Model Analysis) 2. 2. 4 The Customer Satisfaction Measurement Process Producing reliable measures of customer satisfaction is very important, as well as the requirement regarding things needs to be done if those measures are to be successfully utilized as the basis for effective action. Dramatic growth has been registered in customer satisfaction measurement in last few years. Many of the firms devote as much as 50% of their budget of research on measuring customer satisfaction (Alan Wilson, 2002). Let’s first have an overview of the customer satisfaction measurement process (see figure) Objectives Objectives Project planning Project planning Update Update Exploratory research Exploratory research Mid-term reveiw Mid-term reveiw Questionnaire Questionnaire CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT ACTION ACTION Sampling Sampling Feedback to customers Feedback to customers Feedback workshops Feedback workshops Main survey Main survey Mirror survey Mirror survey Presentation to management Presentation to management Analysis and reporting Analysis and reporting Figure 2. 5. An overview of the Customer Satisfaction Measurement Process Source: Nigel, John and Rob, 2003 The beginning point of any project work is to set objectives and for the exercise, plan a detailed critical path. Research’s first stage is to clarify with the customers what they exactly require and supplier selection criteria are so that suitable questionnaire can be designed, which ask the appropriate questions. This is done by utilizing focus groups (typically in the consumer market) or one-to-one depth interview (the norm in business market). It is consumers’ most significant requirements, as it was indicated by the consumers themselves, which must create the basis for a customer satisfaction measurement questionnaire and should not be assumed by one about what one think might be important to customers. There are two major determinant factor of the accuracy in the customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) study. The first one is asking the right questions; second one is asking the right people. Right people are the sample of customers that reflect ones customer base. To determine the accuracy of the samples three things requires and that is; it must be large enough, it must be representative and it must be randomly selected. One can start designing the final questionnaire and start the main survey as one gets the confidence that he or she will be asking the appropriate questions to appropriate people. How the survey will be carried out is the main question here. Survey can be done by doing self-completion questionnaires or interviews, and latter can come in various forms, containing postal, electronic and point of sale. After selecting the type of survey, researcher will carry out the next big thing which is to design questionnaire. Finally, at this point survey can be carried out quickly followed by the results analysis. Mirror survey is a worthwhile addition to the CSM study where similar questions set administered within the firms employees to discover whether they realize what’s significant to consumers and how closely they are fulfilling the requirements of customers. Feedback should be provided quickly to employees and customers after analysing the data and producing a report. Common reason behind unsuccessfulness of various organizations to reap the full rewards of their CSM process is inadequate feedback. Only if workforces completely understand the results of survey and their implications; will effective action be taken (Nigel, John and Rob, 2003). There may be chances of occurrence of weakness in the measurement of satisfaction. Score regarding satisfaction may differ according to particular situation, because of temporary and unstable conditions customer get influenced that they happen to be in at the moment they finish the assessment. One thing should always be kept in mind regarding satisfaction measurement and that it is not a standardized process; there may be variance in terms of the scales used to gather data, questions format may vary and the methods of data collection (personal interview, telephone, self-completion); therefore generalizing about the customer satisfaction measurement value is often very tough (Alan Wilson, 2002). 2. 2. 5 Consequences of Customer Satisfaction Many benefits can be fetched from the customer satisfaction. Customers, who are satisfied become less sensitive regarding price, buy additional products, whereas also get less influenced by the competitors and stay longer as loyal customer. Business firms must have knowledge about how well or badly its consumers are treated. Complains are rarely done by customers, but when someone does, it might be possible that it is too late for retention of that customer. In the concept of satisfaction, there is one crucial component and that is compl aint management. It is found in the study that customer satisfaction increased when they are encouraged to make complaints, and this was especially the case for the most customers’ dissatisfaction. Management of complaint not only led to customer satisfaction, but also resulted into improved financial performance and operational improvement. Customer retention increases by customer satisfaction, and the substance of the relationship between parties is the backing of customer retention. Properly served and satisfied customers are more likely to come back to your firm than are dissatisfied customers who could simply choose to go to another firms. Sometimes customer who is satisfied may unexpectedly take a decision to switch company. A satisfied consumer may or may not aim to come back to a firm, which is the reason that it is not necessary that satisfaction always results into retention. While retention levels remain unchanged customer satisfaction still can rise. Not all of the retained customers are satisfied, there may be one reason behind staying with that firm is lack of alternatives. They might not get the products that they require somewhere else or may have to travel a long distance for that particular product, so despite of worse customer service, the consumer would come to that place for that particular product (Ove. C. Hansemark and Marie Albinsson, 2004). There may be severe consequences in case of dissatisfaction of customers. For example, dissatisfied customers can select to stop buying goods or services, get into negative word of mouth communication, and make complain to the firm or third party and may return the purchased item (Harkiranpal Singh, 2006). Consequences of customer satisfaction in the case of satisfied customer may turn out good for company and in case of dissatisfaction may not good. So it is very important for companies to take care of customer satisfaction for the betterment of their future. 2. 2. 6 Customer Satisfaction in Retail In any retail, consumers are the target upon which all the activities are targeted. There are lots of factors which have to be taken into consideration in meeting those targets. Creating a brand image and enjoying the benefits of being the leader does not come so easy. An organization can succeed in its mission only by taking care of its targeted consumers and maximizing their satisfaction level. Some of the factors that influence the consumers’ satisfaction in retail business are: * Accessibility – Providing the product and services at the nearest and most convenient location. * Need satisfying product – providing the product that meets the need of the consumer. * Value – The price and cost of the products and services should be reasonable and satisfactory. * Assistance – ensuring the advice and assistance when needed. * Ambience – the store should maintain an ambience which is likely to affect for the repeat of the consumer. After sales service – Proper follow up services at the end of the day to all the consumers. In past few decades, significant changes have been experienced by retail industry which is very highly competitive and challenging (Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattic k and So Jung Lee, 2009). The sector of supermarket is characterized by improved competition, a better chance for analysis of markets, and greater expectations of shopper. All these aspects advice that management of customer satisfaction is specifically critical. Variety of goods and services are simultaneously offered by supermarkets; so that, for the consumer, there is more to visit a store than just purchase of products. Dissimilarities in the experience during shopping among retail outlets (e. g. store services, and store ambience) are often as significant to the consumer as differences in the offered goods physical features (e. g. , quality, price) (Miguel I. Gomez, Edward W. McLaughlin, and Dick R. Wittink (2004). Different consumers have different shopping motivations such as getting information about new products or trends, diversion from daily routine, or enjoyment of bargaining. There are some customers who are more of an activity oriented and other are more of a task oriented. Meaning of such differences is that the customers will get value in and also from diverse pieces of the shopping experience receive satisfaction. These differences must have kept in mind by retailers in order to form the formats of store and offer related features that fulfil the requirement of their target segment. Expectations of customer regarding retail experience may differ across stores and products of retail which means that satisfaction will also differ by the sort of retailer and/or sort of product retail offer (Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick and So Jung Lee, 2009). Frequency and intensity of customer traffic is another critical characteristic of the supermarket sector. According to the Food Marketing Institute, in supermarkets, customer traffic is approximately around two times per person per week. The presumed low costs of switching because of proliferation of supermarkets and competing retailers with same merchandise offerings, motivates customers who are unsatisfied to switch. Even customers may immediately shift to another store after receiving single unsatisfactory experience, so customer satisfaction can affect the sales performance of store in a short period (Patricia Huddleston, Judith Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick and So Jung Lee, 2009). 2. 2. 7 Determinants of Customer Satisfaction Research suggests that physical surroundings and price perception has strong influence on customer satisfaction (Heepup Han and Kisang Ryu, 2009). Physical Environment According to the environmental psychology research, there is strong association between human behaviour and physical environment. There are two opposite ways in which individuals generally react to the environment and that is approach and avoidance. Whereas approach behaviour can be considered as positive responses towards the physical environment of a particular place (e. g. , wish to stay, buy, and affiliate), avoidance behaviour which can be termed as negative response (e. g. , wish not to stay, buy, and affiliate). Companies always ask for diminish avoidance behaviours and increase in individual approach behaviours (Heepup Han and Kisang Ryu, 2009). Physical environment contains various elements like layout of the store, arrangement of goods and services, the location, store design (like ambience and lighting), visual merchandising, visual communication (like graphics and signage), and so on. The appropriate store layout facilitates efficiency and flexibility to the customer. Technical Aspects Functional Aspects Decor and artefacts Spatial Layout Ambient conditions Price Perception 2. 3 Summary Customer satisfaction is the key to customer retention (Aurimas Dapkevicius and Borisas Melnikas, 2009). Companies have to make efforts to satisfy customers but for dissatisfaction no efforts required. To satisfy a customer is an on-going and never ending process, where the efforts has to be put on in every steps in achieving the goals and objectives set by the companies. Unfortunately, satisfaction is phenomenon which lives for short time. Surveys have produced the results that even customers who are satisfied leaved the company on a regular interval (Aurimas Dapkevicius and Borisas Melnikas, 2009). The customer might be satisfied about some product for some time frame and once they are dissatisfied with something or the other in the same place, then there would be an excuse for the customer to look for other options and alternatives. Right service at the right time is very essential to have a customer forever. In some cases, one particular factor becomes source of satisfaction for one individual and dissatisfaction for another individual for example opening and closing time. With the development of customer satisfaction measurement models, Customer satisfaction studies with retailers have also been prosperous, such as theories of service quality considered as the base of customer satisfaction measurement. Chapter 3. Methodology Chapter 3. Methodology 3. 1 Introduction In common parlance, research refers to a search for knowledge and the term method refers to techniques and procedures used to obtain and analyse data. Methodology is the system of methods followed by particular discipline. Research methodology is the way how we conduct our research. Research can be defined by one as a scientific and systematic search for information which is relevant for a particular topic. Research is considered as an academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense. According to Clifford Woody, research consist of defining and redefining problems, framing hypothesis or suggested solutions, collecting and analysing data, summarising data and making conclusions; and at the end cautiously testing the conclusions in order to decide whether they fit in the formulating hypothesis (C. R. Kothari, 2008). Business research is a systematic inquiry that supplies information in order to guide decisions of management. More specifically, it is a process that contains the various stages of activities like planning, acquiring, analysing, disseminating relevant information, data and insights to the person who has the authority to make decision which provide mobility to firm to make a right decision regarding actions which lead to help organisation to maximize its performance (D. R. Cooper, P. S. Schindler, 2006). METHODOLOGY METHODOLOGY Introduction Introduction Research Approach Research Approach Validity, Reliability and Credibility Validity, Reliability and Credibility Research Methods Research Methods Questionnaire Designing Questionnaire Designing Sampling Sampling Data Analysis Data Analysis Ethical Issue Ethical Issue Summary Summary Figure 3. 1 Structure of Chapter 3: Methodology Most of the research textbooks supply information about research as a multi-stage process which one has to follow for undertake and complete research project. The precise number of stages varies, but it normally contains formulating and clarifying a topic, reviewing the literature, designing research, collecting data, analysing data and writing up (M. Saunders, P. Lewis and A. Thornhill, 2007). As one can see in the Figure 1. 1 normally researchers target to produce knowledge which is necessary and improve human understanding. There are various nine stages in these process and each and every stages has its own importance to carry out trustworthy outcomes from this study. Write your project report Write your project report Analyse your data using one or both of: Analyse your data using one or both of: Quantitative methods Quantitative methods Qualitative methods Qualitative methods Questionnaires Questionnaires Secondary data Secondary data Semi-structured and in-depth interviews Semi-structured and in-depth interviews Sampling Sampling Plan your data collection and collect the data using one or more of: Plan your data collection and collect the data using one or more of: Negotiate access and address ethical issues Negotiate access and address ethical issues Formulate the research design Formulate the research design Understand your approach Understand your approach Critically review the literature Critically review the literature Formulate and clarify your research topic Formulate and clarify your research topic Wish to do research Wish to do research Figure 3. 2 The research process Source: Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2007 3. 2 Research Approach Without any prejudice in mind a researcher observes and faithfully records what is seen. Few of these observation statements are form as true and assist as the basis for laws and theories. Two approaches for establishing what is true or false and to reach conclusions are there, and that are induction and deduction. Empirical evidence is the base of induction, while ogic is the base of deduction (Pervez Ghauri and Kjell GrOnhaug, 2010). Deduction owns various significant characteristics and that is, there is the search to describe causal relationships among variables (M. Saunders, P. Lewis and A. Thornhill, 2007). One can understand by deduction that individual draw conclusions thro ugh logical reasoning. Often this kind of research is associated with the quantitative type of the research. In the induction, we draw conclusions from our empirical observations. Often this kind of research associated with the qualitative kind of research. This process move to conclusions from assumption (Pervez Ghauri and Kjell GrOnhaug, 2010). This research has deductive approach as it is specified since the theories which are related will be utilized and data will be collected accordingly. Basically starting point of research is what type of research employed and that is applied research. To answer the practical problems of the modern world applied research is designed, rather than getting knowledge for the sake of knowledge (Basic vs. Applied Research). Every company involves in applied research. Exploratory research is conducted to clarify and define the problem’s nature. General problems may have find out by management, but there is a necessary of research in order to receive proper understanding of the dimensions of the problems. Exploratory studies supply information which can be used in analysing circumstances, but uncovering conclusive evidence to decide kind of action is not the motive of exploratory research. The main motive of descriptive research, as term indicates, is to describe characteristics of a phenomenon or population. Descriptive research strive for determine the answers to who, what, when, where, and how questions. Unlike exploratory research, descriptive studies are based on few previous understanding of the nature of the research problem (William G. Zikmund, 2003). In this case researcher has selected descriptive research. Here, researcher has a certain strategy on how researcher will go about answering the research questions that has been set by the researcher. It will contain clear objectives, derived from research questions, specify the sources from which researcher intends to collect data and consider the constraints that researcher will enviably have such as access to data, time, location and money, ethical issues (Thornhill et. al. , 2003). Most important condition for selecting research strategy is to identify the type of research question being asked. â€Å"Who†, â€Å"What†, â€Å"Where†, â€Å"How† and â€Å"Why† are the categorization schemes for the types of research questions. Two Possibilities needs to investigate by asking the â€Å"What† question. First, some types of what question are justifiable for conducting an explanatory study and the goal is to develop pertinent hypotheses and propositions for further inquiry. The second type of what question actually forms a â€Å"how many† or â€Å"how much† line of inquiry and the outcomes from a particular situation. Hence the survey is more favourable than any other research strategies. It is popular and common strategy in business research. Survey allows the collection of large amount of data from a sizeable population in a highly economic way. Questionnaires, structured observation and structured interviews often fall into this strategy. In this research, survey has been used. A dummy test was conducted to detect weakness in design and instrumentation and to provide proxy data for selection of a probability sample. It should, therefore, draw subjects from the target population and stimulate the procedures and protocols that have been designed for data collection (Cooper and Schindler, 2003). The basic idea of sampling is that by selecting some of the elements in a population, researcher may draw conclusions about the entire population. There are several compelling reasons for sampling, including: lower cost, greater accuracy of result, greater speed of data collection and availability of population selection (Cooper and Schindler, 2003). 3. 3 Validity, Reliability and Credibility Whatever the method selected for gathering data, it should be critically examined in order to assess to what extend it is likely to be reliable and valid. Reliability refers to the extent to which a test or process yield same results under constant conditions at all the incident. Validity tells us whether an item describes or measures what it is supposed to describe or measure. If an item seems unreliable, then it must also lack in terms of validity, but it is not necessary that reliable item is also valid (Judith Bell, 1993). Construct validity is essential for interpretable and meaningful findings and in various ways it can be assessed (Pervez Ghauri and Kjell GrOnhaug, 2010). The study is both valid and reliable as there is real cause to belief that gathered data is representative and also can be proven. 3. 4 Research Methods Research methods are rules and procedures, and can be seen as ‘tools or ways of proceeding to solve problems’ (Pervez Ghauri and Kjell GrOnhaug, 2010). 3. 4. 1 Types of research Three types of research design are available and that is qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Both kinds of approaches, qualitative and quantitative should not be seen as dichotomies or opposites; instead, they signify different ends on a continuum (John W. Creswell, 2009). Qualitative research is a tool for exploring and understanding the meaning groups or individuals ascribe to a human or social problem. There is an involvement of various elements in this process of the research and that is emerging questions and procedures, data gathered typically in the setting of participants, analysis of data inductively building from particulars to general themes, and the interpretation of the meaning of the data by the researcher. Those researchers involve in this type of inquiry support a style of looking at research that honours an inductive style (John W. Creswell, 2009). One of the main concerns of the qualitative researchers is the meaning individuals attach to stuffs in their lives and another concern is how people think and act in their normal lives. In qualitative studies, a flexible research design is followed by researchers (Steven J. Taylor and Robert Bogdan, 1998). Quantitative research is a tool for testing objective theories by examining variables relationship. In turn, these variables, typically on instruments, can be measured, so it will lead to analysis of that data by utilizing statistical procedures. As the qualitative researchers, those researchers involve in such kind of inquiry have assumptions regarding testing theories deductively, against bias building in protections, controlling regarding alternative explanations, and being able to replicate and generalize findings (John W. Creswell, 2009). One of the tough decisions which are faced by researcher during conducting this research is selection of research design. Where it was difficult to make up his mind regarding making selection of quantitative or qualitative design of research. Researcher consider both quantitative and qualitative approach are most suitable for conducting this research, as there is structured questions in the research and the research practising more of a survey form. Research methodology contains list regarding data collection methods which are as shown below. 3. 4. 2 Data Collection Methods Various approaches for collecting data are available to the researcher and selection of approach will be based on the strategy of research and tactics being followed whereas research questions itself (Dan Remenyi, Brian Williams, Arthur Money and Ethne Swartz (1998). In order to fulfil requirement of research, researcher need to collect primary data and secondary data or both. Primary data is the data observed or collected directly from first-hand experience and secondary data is the data which is in the past collected and published (Primary data, 2010). Secondary data is like existing primary data that someone else collected or collected for a different purpose than current one (Secondary data, 2010). Most of the research questions are answered by the combination of primary data and secondary data (Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill, 2007). A numerous amount databases are available which comprises of beneficial evidence and information for research in business and management studies, and the Internet and World Wide Web are speedily growing as a crucial source of secondary data (Dan Remenyi, Brian Williams, Arthur Money and Ethne Swartz, 1998). Secondary data comprise of both data which is raw and published summaries. Both qualitative and quantitative data are part of secondary data (Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill, 2007). Primary data gathering techniques are the means of generating secondary data. One person’s primary data become another’s secondary data. Secondary data are not only beneficial to discover information to solve one’s research problem, but also helpful in terms of source of better understanding and explaining one’s research problem. The major advantage of using secondary data is the huge saving in terms of money and time. One of the leading difficulties is that such data are gathered for another study with different objectives and they may not fit properly in one’s problem. The several kinds of secondary data are available and they are books and articles, industry statistics, general statistics, and research report, etc. Pervez Ghauri and Kjell GrOnhaug, 2010). In this research, researcher will use books, journals, and internet as a source of collecting secondary data. When secondary data are not available or cannot answer research questions, one have to gather the data which is relevant to one’s research. These kinds of data are known as primary data. There are numerous of options available for collecting primary data, like surveys (questionnaires), observations, experiments, and interviews. The key benefit of primary data is that they are collected for the specific research. That means data are more consistent with that particular research questions and objectives. The leading disadvantage of primary data is that it takes lots of time and cost to collect primary data. One other major disadvantage is that the quality and scope of information collected from primary sources is big question for researcher because he or she is completely dependent on ability and willingness of respondents (Pervez Ghauri and Kjell GrOnhaug, 2010). Survey (questionnaire) method has been selected as the most suitable tool for gathering primary data in a research project of this nature. Since, survey strategy has been chosen for this research, we would be using the primary data as it delivers more specific results than secondary data and moreover, surveys are the most popular way of collecting primary data. Survey strategy, the tool questionnaire which we are using for the research provides us with the current, present and factual data, hence we are using primary data to conduct this research and know the position and stand of Tesco’s customer satisfaction in the real world. Whereas secondary is the past data or someone else’s primary data which doesn’t give us the actual status of Tesco on customer satisfaction. 3. 4. 3 Types of Questions Various types of question classification in questionnaires available and it is as under. The