Saturday, August 31, 2019

Mob Mentality in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

The critic Kenny Williams states that the Colonel Sherburn scene inThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark twain, â€Å"allow[s] a brief platform for Twain to express his own contempt for mobs in an era known for such activities and lawlessness. † This draws the attention to other scenes Twain uses to show his contempt for activities in society. In his novel Mark Twain uses characters and scenes to show his disdain for zealot faith, corrupt human nature, and blind adherence to law. In the beginning of the novel, Mark Twain shows his disdain for the blind faith of religion through Huck’s confusion. For example, when Huck states; â€Å"I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can’t the widow get back her silver snuffbox that was stole? Why can’t Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain’t nothing in it,† (14) he cannot comprehend how the answers to prayers can be selective. Twain uses Huck to show his own opposition towards the blind faith people put in prayer, when they rarely receive what it is they are praying for. Twain also shows his distaste for the gullibility of religious people. In chapter twenty, when the King and Huck visit a church, the King pretends that he is a pirate, who after hearing this sermon is now reformed, and will try to convince his fellow pirates to follow in his footsteps. The people of the church believe his story with no hesitation and even go as far as to take up a collection for his quest to reform the other pirates. â€Å"And then he busted in to tears, and so did everybody else. Then somebody sings out ‘Take up a collection for him, take up a collection! ’ †¦ So the King went all through the crowd with his hat, swabbing his eyes, and blessing the people and praising them and thanking them for being so good to the poor pirates away off there;†¦ and he was invited to stay a week; and everybody wanted him to live in their houses, and said they’d think it was an honor† (Twain 155-156). In this situation, Twain is satirizing the gullibility of religion and its haphazard impact on a mob. The people in this church are easily able to give money to pirates, who are known for being crooks and liars, inviting them to stay in their homes as an honor. Thus, Twain shows his disdain for religious beliefs by satirizing their blind faith and gullibility. Throughout the novel, Twain shows his contempt for corrupt human nature. Although these instances are often satirized and exaggerated, the message is still the same. For instance, when the King and the Duke first start to lie about being the dead Peter Wilks’ brothers to obtain his money, Huck says, â€Å"It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race,† (191). In this instance Twain is utilizing Huck to show his aversion to the way people lie and cheat, and how a couple of people can make a bad name for all of us. Another example is when Jim sells the King and Duke out to the townspeople and they are carried on a pole, tarred and feathered. Although Huck, has tried to escape the King and Dukes several occasions and has witnessed the cruelties put on others and lies they tell, he does not think that they deserve similar treatment. In fact, he says, â€Å"Human beings can be awful cruel to one another,† (269). Through Huck, Twain is voicing his opposition to how people treat one another, whether they deserve it or not. Thus Twain is using his novel to voice his enmity for the cruelty in human nature. Twain also shows his aversion to the lack of free thought in humans. The highly satirical character, Tom, is the best example of people actions being the result of other peoples thoughts. Tom often comes up with crazy plans that that follow a uniform procedure because the books he has read say so. â€Å"Why blame it all, we’ve got to do it. Don’t I tell you it’s in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what’s in the books, and get things all muddled up? †(12). Even though Tom has no idea what some rules of the books are, he does them anyway, because that is what he believes he is supposed to do; and if he does not go by the book he believes things will go wrong. Through Tom, Twain shows peoples adherence to rules, because they follow the doctrine with which they were taught. In Twain’s novel Huck steals chickens from people, because his father told him it was a good deed. Even though he knows it is wrong, Huck steals because â€Å"Pap always said, take a chicken when you get a chance, because if you don’t want him yourself you can easy find someone that does, and a good deed ain’t ever forgot,† (77). Thus Twain shows his objection of the lack of originality of thought in society in his book. Mark Twain disagreed with many things in the world, and he used The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to voice his frustration. Although often exaggerated and satirical, through the main and secondary characters, Twain pokes fun at the gullibility of people towards religion, cruelty, and followers. In conclusion, these instances show how the mindlessness of the mob mentality is a result of the credulousness of the religious, malice of humans, and the habitues of the world.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Overseas Education: Opportunities, Experience and Quality

Vol. 6, No. 2. ISSN: 1473-8376 www. heacademy. ac. uk/hlst/resources/johlste ACADEMIC PAPER Service Quality in Higher Education: The Experience of Overseas Students Maria Pereda (deceased) David Airey (d. [email  protected] ac. uk) and Marion Bennett (m. [email  protected] ac. uk) Faculty of Management and Law, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH  ©Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education Abstract The higher education of students has become increasingly internationalised, with an evergrowing proportion of students originating from overseas.However, research to date suggests that overseas students are often less satisfied with their courses than other students. Consequently, there is a burgeoning need for universities to understand what students value in their university experience. This paper reports on a study that establishes and tests dimensions for measuring service quality in higher education, focusing on full-feepaying postgraduate students from no n-EU countries at one institution in the UK. The institution concerned has a particular reputation in tourism and hospitality and a significant proportion of the respondents were studying these subjects.Adopting Lehtinen and Lehtinen’s 1991 framework, a Q-sort was undertaken followed by factor analysis. The results of the research highlighted four factors of service quality: recognition; quality of instruction and interaction with faculty; sufficiency of resources; and aspects of physical quality. Arguably, the most significant finding here is the importance that these students attach to their institution’s reputation. Keywords: Service quality; Higher education; International students Maria Pereda died in May 2006 shortly after completing her PhD thesis. The degree was awarded posthumously.A native of Venezuela, Maria graduated from Venezuela Central University and held an appointment at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas. She completed her MSc at the University of S urrey in 2000, focusing on tourism and hospitality education. This paper is based on her PhD research. David Airey is Professor of Tourism Management and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Surrey. He has spent 30 years involved in tourism education in various capacities: with government, with the European Commission and with universities. He is co-editor, with John Tribe, of the recently published International Handbook of Tourism Education.Marion Bennett is Associate Lecturer in Tourism and Marketing at the University of Surrey. She has held lecturer positions since 1991 with the Universities of Strathclyde and Surrey, where her interests have focused on information technology and marketing in relation to tourism distribution, heritage and air transport. Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students Introduction The education of full-fee-paying international students has become of major importance for universities in Western nations, particularly in major English speaking destination countries.Barron (2005: 353) has suggested that â€Å"international education is one of Australia’s largest industries† and that the fees generated by international students are important to the budgetary health of institutions. In the UK, according to HESA (2006) and UKCOSA (2004), about 320,000 or 13 per cent of students in 2004-2005 came from overseas, with about 10 per cent from outside the European Union (EU). This figure more than doubled from about 160,000 in 1994-1995. For some institutions, international students currently represent more than 25 per cent of their student population (UKCOSA, 2006).The main countries of domicile of international students in the UK are China (32,000 or 12 per cent) and Greece (9 per cent), with at least a further 20 countries each providing more than 2,500 students. As far as tourism is concerned, equivalent total figures (UCAS, 2006) suggest that overseas stu dents represent about 16 per cent of acceptances onto programmes, rising from 11 per cent in 1996. Clearly this level of enrolment has represented a major opportunity for institutions, particularly at a time when public funding for higher education has been constrained; but it has also presented challenges.Barron (2005: 355) has pointed to the extent to which most universities have designated international departments responsible for marketing and recruitment, but goes on to highlight the need to ensure that such students are properly supported after arrival, providing evidence to suggest that this does not always happen, leading to frustration and disappointment. A recent report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Bekhradnia et al. , 2006) confirms this, suggesting that non-EU overseas respondents were considerably less satisfied than others with the value for money received on their course.Against this background, it is clearly important for universities to understand what s tudents value in their university experience, including those from overseas. It has been common practice for many years for higher education institutions to provide opportunities for students to evaluate their learning and teaching experience, typically in the form of end-of-semester or end-of-course evaluations. Many institutions also gain feedback from students about services such as the library or computing.A recent addition to these information sources in the UK has been the National Student Survey (NSS), which focuses on learning and teaching experiences. However, surveys of the overall experience or overall quality have been more rare (Aldridge and Rowley, 1998). This paper reports on a study (Pereda, 2006) that was designed to establish and test dimensions for measuring service quality in higher education, with specific reference to students following postgraduate taught programmes for master degrees, over one year, from countries outside the EU.Many of these were following p rogrammes in tourism and hospitality. Specifically, the study aimed to identify from the literature three dimensions of service quality (physical, interactive and corporative), which were then validated with a Qsort. This provided the basis for a survey of 330 students at one institution in the UK, designed to measure their views of the quality of service received. This provides insights into the items that students value in their educational experience at this institution.It also provides a basis for redefining the dimensions of service quality. Service quality for international students The migration of international students is by no means a new phenomenon. Schachner (1962: 25), for example, refers to the students in medieval times who â€Å"poured in an increasing flood to the centres where they could literally sit at the feet of the great teachers and absorb wisdom†. To some extent, the search for knowledge remains an important driver for international ovement in educati on today, but, in other ways, motives, influences and indeed origin and destination countries have changed radically. During the most recent and biggest expansion of international education, the USA, UK and Australia have become the main destination countries and the countries of South East Asia have joined those of Europe as large providers of students. The search for knowledge has been joined by a range of other Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 56Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students factors in driving this growth. These include: the marketing campaigns of receiver universities; the perceived value of a foreign degree in terms of employment enhancement or ‘snob value’; the absence of sufficient university places at home; government policy in relation to student fees; and more extraneous factors such as opportunities for emigration (Pereda, 2006).As fa r as individual institutions are concerned, Allen and Higgins (1994), from a study of 82 institutions in the UK, report that the most important factors for international students when selecting a university were academic reputation, course content and entry requirements. But perhaps the biggest change, driven in part by the need for Western universities to maintain numbers of international students, particularly where these pay full tuition fees, has been the recognition of such students as an important ‘market’ that needs to be satisfied in an increasingly competitive world.Wright and O’Neill (2002), for example, point to the extent to which an assessment of students’ perspectives has become a crucial requirement if universities are to remain competitive. More than 20 years ago, Glisan (1984) highlighted the special interest in overseas students, while Mortimer (1997) emphasised the need to examine and understand the decision-making process undertaken by these students and for institutions to respond to their needs.To this extent, universities have become increasingly involved in defining service quality and measuring customer satisfaction in ways that are familiar to service marketing specialists (Gronroos, 1984; Kotler, 1985), who themselves were developing measures of service quality from the 1980s. As noted by Patterson et al. (1998) and Conant et al. (1985), the most important customers, namely students and their parents, and the university providers have progressively changed towards a customer service orientation.Against this background, there has been a rapid expansion in the literature about this aspect of service quality. However, the way in which it has typically developed – by identifying the attributes from consultation with the students and then evaluating these (Bourke, 1997; Gatfield et al. , 1999; Joseph, 1998; Thompson and Thompson, 1996) – has meant that there has been a great diversity and lack of c onsistency in methodological strategies and in the variables employed to assess the service quality (Leonard et al. , 2003).Some researchers in education have used SERVQUAL, which is the most popular model to measure service quality, sometimes specifically adapted for the education sector (Wright and O'Neill, 2002; Gatfield, 2000). Orr (2000) identified five groups of organisational determinants of success in the provision of fee-paying graduate courses. Pate (1993) split the literature on student satisfaction into three perspectives: psychological-wellness-type satisfaction (related to personal characteristics); job-type satisfaction (related to future aspirations); and consumertype satisfaction (related to daily experience).However, the general picture is of a profusion and indeed a confusion of measured variables, some replicated across different studies, others unique to a particular study. In an initial attempt to understand the underlying patterns of service quality variables from these previous studies in higher education, a framework proposed by Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1991) was used. The framework was considered to offer a useful preliminary way to structure information relating to education as a service.Lehtinen and Lehtinen separately identified three dimensions of service quality: the physical quality (both products and support); the interactive quality (interaction between consumer and service provider); and the corporative quality (the image). Using these three dimensions, some 24 studies specifically related to quality in higher education were reviewed to establish whether these dimensions could be identified from the variables considered in earlier studies of higher education. For a dimension to exist it had to be included in more than three studies (Ekinci and Riley, 2001).The results and the studies are given in Table 1. From this it is clear that the physical quality dimension (general services, teaching and learning facilities, accommodation ) and the interactive quality dimension (academic instruction, guidance, interaction with staff and students) are well included in the existing studies. The corporative quality dimension (recognition, reputation, value for money) is also present, but is less fully covered and mainly appears in papers concerned with marketing orientation (Bourke, 1995; Wilkinson, 1993). Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 7 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students Study (author year) Mavondo et al. , 2004 Wiers-Jenssen, 2003 Wright and O'Neill, 2002 Elliot and Shin, 2002 Wiers-Jenssen et al. , 2002 Clemes et al. , 2001 Gatfield, 2000 Oldfield and Baron, 2000 Gatfield et al. , 1999 Ford et al. , 1999 Patterson et al. , 1998 Joseph, 1998 Aldridge and Rowley, 1998 Athiyaman, 1997 Bourke, 1997 Tomkovick et al. , 1996 Soutar and McNeil, 1996 Rogers and Smith, 1993 Hampton, 1993 Lapidus and Brow n, 1993 Stewart, 1991 Ortinau et al. 1989 Polcyn, 1986 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Physical quality X Interactive quality X X X X X X X X X X X X X Corporative quality 22 22 8 Table 1: Higher Education Evaluation Matrix Physical quality – general services, teaching and learning facilities, accommodation Interactive quality – academic instruction, guidance, interaction with staff and students Corporative quality – recognition, reputation, value for money This study focused specifically on students from non-EU countries following postgraduate taught programmes.The fact that they are both international and postgraduate identifies them as a particular segment of the student market, and, as noted, it is one that has been showing significant growth and fee-earning potential. In many ways, their needs and responses are similar to those of other students but in significant ways they are also different. For example, as inte rnational students, the 2004 study by UKCOSA (2004) indicated that both postgraduates and undergraduates showed high levels of satisfaction with their academic experience (87 per cent), lthough, at 91 per cent, the undergraduates were rather more positive than their postgraduate counterparts at 85 per cent. This broad similarity is reflected in the other items included in the UKCOSA survey, with a notable exception that, at 85 per cent, undergraduates were more likely than postgraduates (65 per cent) to be offered university housing at the beginning of their stay. Other differences identified in the literature (Pereda, 2006) are that postgraduates are likely already to have been exposed to academic life, are older, with more work experience and experience of living independently.International students have similar issues to their domestic counterparts but additionally they face some specific issues, the most commonly cited being knowledge of English, inadequate financial resources, social adjustment, problems of daily living, loneliness and homesickness (Kennedy, 1995; Wilkinson, 1993; Burns, 1991; Samuelowicz, 1987). These, combined with the fact that they, or their families, are normally paying full fees, may partly explain the extent to which they are more critical of their experience and more demanding (Pereda, 2006). The study by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Bekhradnia et al. 2006) relating to English Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 58 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students universities showed that nearly 30 per cent of such students found their courses represented poor value for money compared with 15 per cent of home and EU students. The fact that this study relates to this particular segment provides information about an important group, but the extent to which the results can be related to all international students or to st udents in general needs to be tempered by these differences.Methodology Having reached a point of identifying from the literature the ingredients of and preliminary structure for service quality in higher education, the research strategy was developed to identify statements and dimensions that would capture the students’ experiences of service quality and to measure these at a particular institution with a large cohort of international students. The students included in the survey were all from non-EU countries taking taught master degree courses, typically over one year, in different aspects of management.Admittedly, this approach contains limitations, being confined to particular students studying a particular group of courses at one institution. The advantage of this approach was partly one of convenience and logistics, but also that it permitted the identification of a sufficiently large and coherent group of students with roughly similar experiences, hence avoiding diffe rences between institutions, subjects, ages and experience. The institution concerned is based in the South of England and achieved university status in the 1960s. It has a strong research reputation as well as strong links with the world of work.Specifically for this study it has a long-standing and strong international reputation for hospitality and tourism education. It regularly ranks as one of the leading centres both for teaching and research in these areas, and is one of only two institutions in the UK accredited by the UN World Tourism Organisation. It has a developing reputation for other management programmes, with recent accreditations by the American body, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Association of MBAs (AMBA), placing it among leading business schools.For more than 20 years it has attracted a large number of international students, and currently more than 90 per cent of its postgraduate students in management are from outsid e the UK. A dedicated international office provides specific support for these international students. The fieldwork was organised into two main parts. First, a Q-sort was used to establish the validity of the three dimensions and to establish statements related to the dimensions.A selection of these statements was then used both to explore the response of international students to their experience and to conduct an exploratory factor analysis, which ultimately identified four factors of service quality. Q-technique has its origins in the work of Stephenson (1935; 1953) and provides researchers with a systematic and orderly means for identifying the dimensions of subjective phenomena from the viewpoints and experiences of individuals. In brief, it attempts to convert subjective responses into measurable dimensions, which can then be formally evaluated by statistical applications.To this extent it is a preliminary method. It makes the study of human subjectivity amenable to ‘ob jective analysis’, hence combining the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative research (Sexton et al. , 1998). This versatile procedure is well suited to cases where the existence of concepts has not been established (Ekinci and Riley, 2001). The evaluation of students’ experiences comes into this category and was used here as a first step. Stergiou (2004) had earlier, and for similar reasons, followed this approach in relation to students’ views about teaching.The Q-sort was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, a bank of statements was created to represent the dimensions suggested by Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1991). The initial set of statements was generated from previous questionnaires in the area of higher education, including unpublished dissertations (Leonard et al. , 2003), as well as from discussions with researchers in related areas. An initial pilot test was conducted with five subjects in order to check the instructions and any wording problems with the statements that Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 9 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students were generated. For the first Q-sort, a total of 104 statements were used, related to physical quality (34 statements), interactive quality (38 statements) and corporative quality (32 statements). Respondents for the study were confined to students enrolled in a postgraduate programme at the researchers’ university for at least one semester. The experience in the university is a basic requirement to evaluate the service.The Q-sort was completed by a total of 30 students from 28 different countries, including two from the UK, six from other EU countries and 22 from other parts of the world. These students were asked to sort the statements, which had been printed onto separate cards, into the three dimensions and then, for each group of statements, to clas sify them into: ‘most important’ (the kind of service you would expect to have); ‘least important’; and ‘not relevant’. In order to qualify, a statement needed to be allocated to the same heading by at least 60 per cent of the sample (Ekinci and Riley, 2001; Hinkin and Schriesheim, 1989) and a minimum f four qualified statements was required to validate the existence of a dimension. The result of this Q-sort was a set of 85 validated statements distributed as follows: physical quality 38; interactive quality 29; corporative quality 18. For the second Q-sort, in order to have a better balanced representation among the three dimensions, the best 20 statements that obtained a degree of consensus of 70 per cent or more were used for the first two dimensions, physical quality and interactive quality.However, further adjustments were also made both to avoid omitting likely determinants of student satisfaction – for example, library services â €“ and to remove statements that essentially had the same meaning. For corporative quality, which only achieved 18 validated statements, three of which did not reach the cut-off of 70 per cent, five new statements were added. Hence, the second Q-sort took place with 60 statements, 20 related to each dimension.The respondents for this second round were 30 non-British full-fee-paying students enrolled on PhD (12) and master (18) degree programmes in different departments of the university. They were asked to sort the cards in the same way as in the first Q-sort. The output from this round was a set of 59 validated statements. One item was rejected from corporative quality. The second stage of the study involved further exploration of the statements to establish how they impacted on student views of the quality of service provided and how well they confirmed the existence of the three dimensions.For this, a research instrument was implemented with students taking taught postgraduat e master level programmes at the institution. The final response was from 330 students taking a range of programmes in management and related areas. Eighty-four of these were on programmes related to hospitality and tourism, although it should be noted that this underestimates such students because a number of them identified themselves as studying ‘management’, omitting to mention their particular specialism. All were overseas students paying full fees.The research instrument was distributed personally in spring 2005, in most cases at the end of classes, and self-completed in the researcher’s presence. Forty statements in total were used from the second Q-sort to measure student views of the quality of service. Fifteen of these related to physical quality, 11 to interactive quality and 14 to corporative quality. The statements are given in Table 2. Physical quality The gardens and open areas on the campus are kept clean Students’ rooms are provided ith ad equate internet connections The classrooms have up-to-date teaching support equipment The university has modern computers with the latest programmes Student accommodation is safe The university has sufficient residential accommodation The library has a wide range of book and periodicals in my area of studies The rooms in the student residential accommodation are comfortable Mean 5. 22 5. 14 5. 10 5. 06 4. 66 4. 66 4. 57 4. 55 SD 1. 17 1. 90 1. 05 1. 30 1. 31 1. 41 1. 51 1. 28 Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 60Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students Adequate printer facilities are available The campus computers are sufficient for the student population The communal areas in each student residence are adequate for the number of students The university has plenty of sports facilities The sport centre offers modern equipment The university offers modern accommodation at affordable prices The university provides adequate parking areas for students Interactive quality My course is intellectually challenging Staff react politely to students’ queries It is easy to make friends on campus The administrative staff are helpful Lecturers stimulate critical analysis There are clear and reasonable requirements for each module Lecturers can be easily contacted individually It is easy to get involved in campus social organisations Lecturers have adequate time for consultation Feedback from coursework is adequate It is easy to interact with local students Corporative quality The university takes the lead in research A degree from this university improves my employment prospects The university maintains links with international education networks A degree from this university is well recognised internationally The university is well recognised for the academic programmes The university offers a high quality of teaching performance The ranking of my school is high Graduates from this university achieve considerable success in finding excellent employment A degree from this university has an excellent reputation in my home country The university maintains excellent links with local industry The university has contacts ith international employers The university has been extensively recommended by my friends in my home country Lecturers in my home country recommended this university to me There are excellent links between my home country and this university Table 2: Students’ views of the quality of service provided 7= strongly agree; 1= strongly disagree 4. 85 4. 85 4. 70 4. 69 4. 66 4. 57 4. 57 4. 45 4. 32 4. 23 4. 18 3. 92 3. 84 3. 45 1. 04 1. 02 1. 16 1. 14 1. 20 1. 17 1. 32 1. 20 1. 38 1. 33 1. 29 1. 37 1. 48 1. 30 5. 02 4. 71 4. 70 4. 60 4. 56 4. 55 4. 48 4. 35 4. 28 4. 23 3. 62 1. 04 1. 19 1. 23 1. 32 1. 19 1. 10 1. 19 1. 28 1. 22 1. 12 1. 50 4. 43 4. 31 4. 29 4. 20 4. 17 3. 94 3. 70 1. 38 1. 41 1. 45 1. 36 1. 32 1. 33 1. 4 8A seven-point Likert scale was used for this purpose, and respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements relating to their experience. The instrument also collected data on satisfaction, value for money and demographics. These are not reported here. The analysis included the preparation of descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations against various independent variables, and exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation. An Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 61 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students overall Cronbach alpha coefficient of . 875, results from more than 300 respondents, a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy of more than . 0 and the Bartlett’s test results all gave support that the set of data was adequate for factor analysis, with a factor loading of . 35. Results and discussion The students’ views on the quality of service provided under the three dimensions are given in Table 2. These, together with the reasons for enrolling in the particular programme presented in Table 3, provide an indication of the elements of service quality that are of importance to these international students. The reputation and content, including the English language provision, of the programme are clearly important to the students in making their decisions about where to study. Reason Degree accepted internationally English language spoken Content of the courseReputation of this university back home Facilities Entry requirement Getting an offer of a place Influence of friends/family Know someone studying there Degree not available at home Scholarship award Sponsor’s decision Level of fees Difficulty of getting into university at home Table 3: Reasons for enrolling No (n=308) 184 152 142 103 91 63 62 54 52 52 42 19 13 11 The most important finding of the research to be reported here was that the factor analysis did not entirely support the structure proposed by Lehtinen and Lehtinen. Indeed, as set out in Table 4, four dimensions are identified, and of these, Factor 1 is by far the most important, accounting for the largest proportion of the variance (34 per cent), with eigenvalues greater than 3. 00 (6. 156).This factor includes a group of statements related to research, rigour and reputation, and is labelled here ‘recognition’. Factors 1 Factor 1: recognition The ranking of my school is high (corporative quality) A degree from this university is well recognised internationally (corporative quality) The university takes the lead in research (corporative quality) A degree from this university has an excellent reputation in my home country (corporative quality) My course is intellectually challenging (interactive quality) Factor 2: quality of instruction and interaction with faculty Lecturers have adequate time for consultation (inter active quality) . 765 . 772 . 702 . 659 . 652 . 609 2 3 4 Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 62Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students Lecturers can be easily contacted individually (interactive quality) There are clear and reasonable requirements for each module (interactive quality) Lecturers stimulate critical analysis (interactive quality) Feedback from coursework is adequate (interactive quality) Factor 3: sufficiency of resources The campus computers are sufficient for the student population (physical quality) Adequate printer facilities are available (physical quality) The communal areas in each student residence are adequate for the number of students (physical quality) The university has sufficient residential accommodation (physical quality) Factor 4: quality of facilities The university has plenty of sport facilities (physical quality) The sports centre has m odern equipment (physical quality) The classrooms have up-to-date teaching support equipment (physical quality) The gardens and open areas on campus are kept clean (physical quality) . 863 . 802 . 526 . 483 . 724 . 689 . 657 . 642 . 758 . 663 . 611 . 454 Eigenvalue 6. 156 1. 527 1. 375 1. 72 Explained variance by factor (%) 34. 199 8. 481 7. 640 7. 069 Table 4: Service quality scale: factor loading structure Extraction method: principle component analysis. Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation. Rotation converged in five iterations To some extent this reflects how the university positions itself as a demanding and competitive body. The other three factors did not reach eigenvalues of 3. 00, and the percentage variance together only accounts for 23 per cent of the total. The second factor roughly relates to Lehtinen and Lehtinen’s ‘interactive quality’ and here is labelled ‘quality of instruction and interaction with faculty’.The items he re emphasise the importance of the lecturer in his or her intrinsic role as a teacher, willing to guide, teach and motivate students. The variables included in this factor also provide evidence of the responsibilities of the lecturer towards the students in terms of providing clear instructions, accurate and punctual feedback and private consultation. Factor 3 includes four items from ‘physical quality’, and although they only explain 7. 64 per cent of the common variance, all the items have high loadings, ranging from . 642 to . 724. Interestingly, they all relate to the adequate provision of services by the university and hence are labelled here ‘sufficiency of resources’.The last factor, although composed of four items from ‘physical quality’, does not show a clear pattern – two of the items refer to sport facilities (both of which have high loadings), the modernity of classroom facilities and cleanliness of the campus. This recasting of the dimensions provides an interesting step in translating service quality thinking into the arena of higher education. In particular, it emphasises the point that the provision of services is not only about the actual facilities (classrooms, computers, etc) and the ways in which they are delivered (by the teachers), both of which find correspondence in any service; it also highlights the fact that there is another, in this case overriding, dimension for students in the ways in which they judge their institution.This is the standing or recognition of the university, which in itself is a combination of achievements often over many years in the wide range of activities covered by universities – teaching, research, invention and knowledge creation. In the case of this particular study, this may be partly explained by the fact that the institution concerned has an outstanding and long-established reputation for Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2) , 55 – 67 63 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students tourism and hospitality studies, and a significant proportion of the respondents were taking these programmes. In the same way, ancient universities, some with histories over many centuries, offer ‘reputation’ as a key element in attracting students.This ‘recognition’ dimension, of course, also finds expression in other services and goods, but arguably its explanatory strength for universities in distinguishing between institutions, particularly for overseas students, is more powerful than in other areas. It is difficult to generalise from this to all universities. Given the rapid expansion of the sector in recent years, there has been little time for many institutions to have developed their reputations. This may explain why in earlier studies (Gatfield et al. , 1999; Tomkovick et al. , 1996) which have included ‘reputationà ¢â‚¬â„¢ it has not consistently appeared as the most important factor. Indeed, ‘academic instruction’ has more typically explained most of the variance (Gatfield, 2000; Elliot and Shin, 2002; Patterson et al. , 1998).However, what it does point to potentially is the sheer importance of reputation once it has been achieved and, as a corollary, the imperative to maintain reputation. Against this background, league tables and world rankings take on a crucial role and hence become a vital part of the development and survival strategy for institutions in an increasingly competitive world. As international recruitment and international competition in higher education increases, this is likely to figure increasingly prominently in the strategies of universities. Conclusion Three important issues come out of this work in relation to the things that students value in their university experience.First, in line with previous studies, the evaluation of higher education includes a c omplex and diverse range of variables, from classroom experience to library and computing provision, from social and sporting activities to international recognition. Second, the work in measuring service quality provides a good starting point for understanding the basic structure of the variables that students take into account in evaluating their experience. And third, there is, at least for some universities, including the one where the study took place, a fourth dimension related to reputation; in this case, a reputation in hospitality and tourism may have influenced the results. This then points to a key feature of higher education provision, which is that universities are not a uniform range of institutions.They vary enormously by, for example, age, size, structure, specialism and orientation, and any form of evaluation will be likely to reflect these differences. In this case, it is reputation and recognition that has come through. In other universities and with other student groups there may well be other dimensions in the variables. This study was based on one institution and sought the views of the international, postgraduate, full-fee-paying students who had already taken a decision about where to study, and the configuration of the variables reflects this. Primarily, it has brought the reputation of the institution into prominence; but it has also provided a further basis for understanding the issues that international students value.Given the likely continued growth in international student movements, there are key lessons here for institutions, not least in the importance of developing and maintaining reputation. As already noted, in an environment of globalisation, international competition and league tables, reputation is likely to increase in importance. Of course, given the sample of a particular group of students studying particular subjects at one institution, there are some important limitations in the extent to which it is possible to gen eralise the results. However, notwithstanding this weakness, both the approach and the findings in terms of the key variables and dimensions provide pointers o approaches to understanding the views of students and the ways in which this important group of students view their experience. There are clearly many further avenues for research in this area. A wider range of institutions with different priorities, a wider range of subject areas and coverage of undergraduate and domestic students would all provide further insights to the views of students about their Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 64 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students experiences and about the dimensions that they value. But perhaps most important for tourism and hospitality specialists would be a specific focus on students studying these subjects.While they are a significant cohort among the students included in the survey, and this study can provide pointers, their number was not sufficient to draw final conclusions about their particular characteristics, if any. This work remains to be done. References Aldridge, S. and Rowley, J. (1998) Measuring Customers' Satisfaction in Higher Education. Quality Assurance in Education, 6, 197-204. Allen, A. and Higgins, T. (1994) Higher Education: The International Student Experience. Leeds: HEIST. Athiyaman, A. (1997) Linking Student Satisfaction and Service Quality Perceptions: the case of university education. European Journal of Marketing, 31, 528-540. Barron, P. (2005) Cultural Issues in Learning. In: D. Airey and J. Tribe (eds. ) An International Handbook of Tourism Education. Oxford: Elsevier, 353-366. Bekhradnia, B. , Whitnall, C. and Sastry, T. 2006) The Academic Experience of Students in English Universities. London: Higher Education Policy Institute. Bourke, A. (1995) A Model of the Determinants of International Trade in Higher E ducation. Service Industries Journal, 20. Bourke, A. (1997) The Internationalisation of Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 51, 325-346. Burns, R. (1991) Study and Stress among First Year Overseas Students in an Australian University. Higher Education Research and Development, 10, 61-77. Clemes, M. , Ozanne, L. and Tram, L. (2001) An Examination of Students' Perceptions of Service Quality in Higher Education. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 10, 1-19. Conant, J. , Brown, J. and Mokwa, M. 1985) Students are Important Consumers: assessing satisfaction in a higher education context. Journal of Marketing Education, 7(2) 13-20. Ekinci, Y. and Riley, M. (2001) Validating Quality Dimensions. Annals of Tourism Research, 28, 201-223. Elliot, K. and Shin, D. (2002) Student Satisfaction: an alternative approach to assessing this important concept. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 24, 197-209. Ford, J. , Joseph, M. and Joseph, B. (1999) Importance-Performan ce Analysis as a Strategic Tool for Service Marketers: the case of service quality perceptions of business students in New Zealand. The Journal of Services Marketing, 13, 171-186. Gatfield, T. 2000) A Scale for Measuring Student Perception of Quality: an Australian Asian perspective. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 10, 27-41. Gatfield, T. , Bakker, M. and Graham, P. (1999) Measuring Student Quality Variables and the Implications for Management Practices in Higher Education Institutions: an Australian and international perspective. Journal of Higher Education and Management, 21, 239-252. Glisan, G. (1984) A Marketing Approach to Student Evaluation of a Department of Marketing. Journal of Higher Education, 54, 159-163. Gronroos, C. (1984) A Service Quality Model and its Marketing Implications. European Journal of Marketing, 18, 139-150. Hampton, G. 1993) College Students' Satisfaction: marketing's approach for evaluating higher education. Journal of Professional Services Ma rketing, 9, 115-128. HESA (2006) Higher Education Statistics for the United Kingdom 2004-05. Cheltenham: Higher Education Statistics Agency. Hinkin, T. and Schriesheim, C. (1989) Development and Application of New Scales to Measure the French and Raven Bases of Social Power. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 561-567. Joseph, M. (1998) Determinants of Service Quality in Education: a New Zealand perspective. Journal of Professional Services Marketing, 16, 43-71. Kennedy, K. (1995) Developing a Curriculum Guarantee for Overseas Students.Higher Education Research and Development, 14, 35-46. Kotler, P. (1985) Strategic Marketing for Educational Institutions. London: Prentice-Hall. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 65 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students Lapidus, R. and Brown, J. (1993) Assessing Satisfaction with the University Experience: an international perspective. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behaviour, 6, 187-192. Lehtinen, U. and Lehtinen, J. (1991) Two Approaches to Service Quality Dimensions. The Service Industries Journal, 11, 287-303. Leonard, D. , Pelletier, C. nd Morley, L. (2003) The Experiences of International Students in UK Higher Education: A Review of Unpublished Research. London: UKCOSA. Mavondo, F. , Tsarenki, Y. and Gale, T. (2004) International and Local Student Satisfaction: resources and capabilities perspective. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 14, 4160. Mortimer, K. (1997) Recruiting Overseas Undergraduate Students: are their information requirements being satisfied? Higher Education Quarterly, 51, 225-238. Oldfield, B. and Baron, S. (2000) Student Perceptions of Service Quality in a UK University Business and Management Faculty. Quality Assurance in Education, 8, 85-95. Orr, S. 2000) The Organisational Determinants of Success for Delivering Fee-Paying Graduate Courses. The International Journal of Educational Management, 14, 54-61. Ortinau, D. , Bush, A. J. , Bush, R. P. and Twible, J. (1989) The Use of Importance Performance Analysis for Improving the Quality of Marketing Education: interpreting faculty-course evaluation. Journal of Marketing Education, 11(2), 78-86. Pate, W. (1993) Consumer Satisfaction, Determinants and Post-Purchase Actions in Higher Education. College and University Journal, 68, 100-107. Patterson, P. , Romm, T. and Hill, C. (1998) Consumer Satisfaction as a Process: a qualitative, retrospective longitudinal study of overseas students in Australia.Journal of Professional Services Marketing, 16, 135-157. Pereda, M. (2006) An Examination of the Impact of Service Quality Dimensions on Students' Satisfaction in Higher Education in the UK. Thesis, (PhD). University of Surrey. Polcyn, L. (1986) A Two-Instrument Approach to Student Satisfaction. College and University Journal, 62, 18-24. Rogers, A. and Smith, P. (1993) Identifying the N eeds of Overseas Students: a monitoring exercise at the University of Southampton. Journal of International Education, 3, 7-24. Samuelowicz, K. (1987) Learning Problems of Overseas Students: the two sides of a story. Higher Education Research and Development, 6, 121-133. Schachner, N. 1962) The Medieval Universities. New York: A. S. Barness and Co. Sexton, D. , Snyder, P. , Wadsworth, D. , Jardine, A. and Ernest, J. (1998) Applying Q Methodology to Investigations of Subjective Judgements of Early Intervention Effectiveness. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 18, 95-107. Soutar, G. and McNeil, M. (1996) Measuring Service Quality in a Tertiary Institution. Journal of Educational Administration, 34, 72-82. Stephenson, W. (1935) Correlating Persons instead of Tests. Character and Personality, 4, 17-24. Stephenson, W. (1953) The Study of Behaviour: Q-technique and its Methodology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Stergiou, D. (2004) Knowledge and Teaching: an investigation on what makes good teaching in tourism higher education. Thesis, (PhD). University of Surrey. Stewart, K. (1991) Applying and Marketing Orientation to a Higher Education Setting. Journal of Professional Services Marketing, 7, 117-124. Thompson, H. and Thompson, G. (1996). Confronting Diversity Issues in the Classroom with Strategies to Improve Satisfaction and Retention of International Students. Journal of Education for Business, 72, 52-58. Tomkovick, C. , Al-khatib, J. , Badawaj, B. and Jones, S. (1996) An Assessment of the Service Quality Provided to Foreign Students at US Business Schools.Journal of Education for Business, 71, 130-135. UCAS (2006) Universities and Colleges Admissions Service Statistics. Available from: http://www. ucas. com/figures/index. html UKCOSA (2004) Broadening our Horizons: International Students in UK Universities and Colleges. Report of the UKCOSA Survey. London: UKCOSA, The Council for International Education. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport an d Tourism Education 6(2), 55 – 67 66 Pereda, Airey and Bennett (2007) Service Quality in Overseas Education: The Experience of Overseas Students UKCOSA (2006) Higher Education Statistics. Available from: http://ww. ukcosa. org. uk/pages/hestats. htm Wiers-Jenssen, J. 2003) Norwegian Students Abroad: experiences of students from a linguistically and geographically peripheral European Country. Studies in Higher Education, 28, 391-411. Wiers-Jenssen, J. , Stensaker, B. and Grogaard, J. (2002) Student Satisfaction: towards an empirical deconstruction of the concept. Quality in Higher Education, 8, 183-195. Wilkinson, J. (1993) Marketing Australian Universities to Overseas Students. Australian Marketing Journal, 1, 71-79. Wright, C. and O'Neill, M. (2002) Service Quality Evaluation in the Higher Education Sector: an empirical investigation of students' perceptions. Higher Education Research and Development, 21, 23-39. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6( 2), 55 – 67 67

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Realism In International Affairs Essay

Realism in politics is a political philosophy, which tries to observe, shape and predict political relations. It is based upon assumption that power should be the primary goal of any political act, both in international or domestic sphere. As far as domestic affairs are concerned, this theory states that political figures are supposed to direct all efforts to maximizing their power. Accordingly, in the international sphere nation should aim at maximizing its power among other states. This theory can be regarded as a prescription to be followed by politicians and states or as a description of current affairs of the state or politician pursuing self-interest. Realism in politics is often defined as a principle of power supremacy, and it has a long history since the ancient times. It was reflected in Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. This theory was also touched by Machiavelli in his writing The Prince, as well as by other outstanding philosophers like Spinoza, Hobbes and Rousseau. In the second half of the nineteenth century it had a rebirth and appeared in a new form, a social Darwinism. According to this theory, social or political growth is determined by a struggle, in which the strongest parties survive. According to the theory of political realism, interests should be satisfied by means of power exercise, and the world is defined by competing powers. In this context, the adherents of Marxist theory refer to classes, while other political theorists to states. (Ahrensdorf) Political realism is explained in the following way: â€Å"Prior to the French Revolution in which nationalism as a political doctrine truly entered the world’s stage, political realism involved the political jurisdictions of ruling dynasties, whilst in the nineteenth century, nationalist sentiments focused realists’ attentions on the development of the nation-state, a policy that was later extended to include imperialist ambitions on the part of the major Western powers-Britain and France, and even Belgium, Germany and the United States were influenced by imperialism. † (Viotti, Kauppi). Important difference between social darwinism and other branches political realism is as follows: adherents of the former state that some nations are destined to rule over other nations, while other part of realists pays most attention to the need of ensuring that nation, culture or politician sets or secures own needs before needs or interests of others. Political realism in international affairs Political realism of an expressive kind stands for the suggestion that international commonwealth is distinguished by anarchy, since there is no absolute world government, that could rule with an all-purpose policy code. Since the anarchy does not need a chaotic nature, thus allowing member nations be involved into trading schemes or treaties, the theorists mostly agree that morality or law are not the dominating factors outside one particular state. In this particular characteristic this hypothesis agrees with the Hobb’s theory: â€Å"Where there is no common Power, there is no Law: where no Law, no Injustice ? if there be no Power erected, or not great enough for our security; every man will and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art, for caution against all other men. † (Hobbes, Leviathan , Part I, Ch. 13 ‘Of Man’, and Part II, Ch. 17, ‘Of Commonwealth, cited in Griffiths, O’Callaghan). Respectively, without any supreme international force, nations treat each other with hostility or fear, and it damages the system. Another aspect of the theory is an assumption that a state can promote its interest against the needs and interests of other states, it proves that international surrounding is not stable. Any order is affected if states compete for the same need, and under such circumstances, as the realists state, the nation may rely on itself only. There are definite contradictions that can be found in the concept of political realism: descriptive realism may be regarded as a true theory or false concept. Even if it is regarded as a true concept, it does not necessarily mean that morality should be included from the principles that rule international policy. One of the strong forms if descriptive type of political realism states that states should be self-seeking, that they should build their policy basing upon desired gains of the nation and should not ignore their interests and demands. Simultaneously, â€Å"if descriptive realism is held, it is as a closed theory, which means that it can refute all counter-factual evidence on its own terms (for example, evidence of a nation offering support to a neighbor as an ostensible act of altruism, is refuted by pointing to some self-serving motive the giving nation presumably has–it would increase trade, it would gain an important ally, it would feel guilty if it didn’t, and so on), then any attempt to introduce morality into international affairs would prove futile. † (Stern) The assessment of expressive kind of political realism power depends upon the chance of understanding political reasons, which requests understanding the causes of state diplomats and representatives. The pattern of officers’ relations, their motives and actions is complex. Waltz says that the closed nature of expressive realism includes a oppose scheme that nations does not serve any needs at all, or can serve the needs of others only. The logical value of the three theories resulting from this concept offers that preferring one condition to another is an optional decision, if an assumption is accepted, or not. (Waltz) The present international sphere of nations’ interaction is defined by the lack of supreme power. In the past, wars were a strong argument in support of political realism – there have been more than 200 wars since the middle of the 17th century. This condition seems to have a chaotic nature, and some thinkers are likely to compare it to domestic anarchy, when state government is not able to rule the state: ‘Without a world power, war, conflict, tension, and insecurity have been the regular state of affairs; just as a domestic government removes internal strife and punishes local crime, so too ought a world government control the activities of individual states-overseeing the legality of their affairs and punishing those nations that break the laws, and thereby calming the insecure atmosphere nations find themselves in†. (Kegley, Wittkopf) At the same time, such comparison leads to a conclusion that the relations between the state and the individuals are alike. Such argument includes the personification of the states and collectivization of individuals. Some theorists state that the relations between states and the citizens cannot be compared to the relations between the states and the relations of the individuals, and therefore should be differently judged. In addition to the propositions of descriptive realism, there are notions offered by prescriptive political realism, for instance, the statement that a certain nation should follow its own interests and needs independently of the relevant state of international relations. This theory can be divided into various aspects, depending upon proclaimed interest of the nation and the allowability of the tools that would be used to reach desired goals. As far as the national interest is concerned, there are distinct opinions of what it should be, but all of them agree that the state should be self-efficient in economical and political sphere, cutting dependency on other nations. (The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations) The statement supporting the supremacy of self-sufficiency of the state has appeared long time ago. Plato and Aristotle referred to this aspect as a ground necessary to provide security of the national power, they insisted that nation should import only insignificant commodities. This economic theory has been used for supporting political realism, especially in the 18th century the theorists of political sphere stated that the political power of the nation is reached and supported in the terms of reduced import and increased export only. Difference between neorealism and classical realism Conflict is regarded as a key element in politics, including international affairs, by all realists, however, there are two different sources of conflict, pointed out by different realist authors. For instance, classical realism theory starts with a pessimistic viewpoint on the human nature. As the adherents of this theory believe, selfish, competitive and striving for power behavior in inherent for the humans. Hans Morgenthau states that each individual is enforced to act uncaringly to protect himself, and this situation leads to the disagreement: â€Å"What the one wants for himself, the other already possesses or wants, too. Struggle and competition ensue†¦. Man cannot [therefore] hope to be good, but must be content with not being too evil†. (Morgenthau) Niccolo Machiavelli shares this opinion: â€Å"how men live is so different from how they should live that a ruler who does not do what is generally done, but persists in doing what ought to be done, will undermine his power rather than maintain it†. (cited in The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations). These ideas performed specific approach to a strategy applied in international affairs: a careful statesman must avoid optimistic view on others’ aims and intentions and limits their initiatives to those that may help if the situation goes better. For instance, Henry Kissinger warned the leaders of the USA and Israeli against the intentions of Syria and Palestine, during the negotiations on Middle East conflict: â€Å"It is likely that agreements will be reached †¦ because the alternatives will, in the end, seem more dangerous. But when this happens, we must avoid euphoria†¦. An agreement will represent a strategic interlude for the Syrians and most of the Palestinians, not a commitment to a new world order. † (Legro, Moravcsik) In other words, classical type of realism regards conflict and competition as essential element of international affairs, referring the origin of conflict to the human nature. Humans struggle with each other for resources they need and strive for power to rule over other people. This is a set pattern, which cannot be changed. Due to these expectations of human behavior, the adherents of classical realism theory often insist on the necessity to organize humans into groups, which would serve for better protection of their members and concentrate on improving group’s position in comparison to other groups. Another theory, neorealism or structural realism, refers the origin of conflict to interstate condition, the lack of legally restricting rules in particular, rather than to human nature. The adherents of neorealism state, that â€Å"the absence of a neutral authority that can enforce rules and agreements creates an insecure, self-help situation in which all policy makers are pressured to act competitively, regardless of their individual natures or personal preferences. † (Kegley, Wittkopf) This statement is not new, it appeared in the 17th century in the work of Thomas Hobbes. In his writing Leviathan he states that the in the world, which lacks supreme power that could provide security, people has a right to use any tools to protect themselves. Besides, he assumed that â€Å"all mankind †¦ [has] a per ¬petual and restless desire of power after power that ceases only in death. † (cited in The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations) Modern tradition in neorealist theory declines the assumption that individuals strive for power due to a natural inclination, and concentrates on the motives produced by a lack of a neutral power that can set rules for interstate relations. For instance, Kenneth Waltz says that â€Å"the main cause of war must lie in some regularity at the level of the interstate system, rather than within particular leaders or states, since war has been waged for all sorts of specific reasons and by â€Å"good† as well as â€Å"bad† leaders. † (Waltz) According to Waltz, this regularity is the pressure, produced by anarchy: â€Å"Without enforceable interstate rules, states must either resist possible domination by others through a policy of balancing against others’ power capabilities, or by bandwagoning-joining a coalition that supports an aggres ¬sive state, in hopes of turning its aggression elsewhere†. (Waltz) Waltz states that large states possess the capacity and desire to withstand the strength of other states. This results, as he sees it, in a tendency of competitiveness among states independently of the views of their leaders concerning domestic policy. Actually, the prediction of this statement is not much different from the assumption made by the adherents of classical realism. As soon as it is based on the assumptions concerning human nature, classic realists expect that the makers of policy also act competitively. The difference lies in the way this conclusion is reached. As Waltz sees it, this is the pressure of competitiveness, produced by anarchy, which significantly influences the human behavior. Those strategies that are oriented on power, appear because the leaders are forced to struggle for security, rather than because they desire just to obtain power. Realistic approach in modern international affairs Realism was a concept for analyzing world politics since remote times, because much of humankind history was characterized by wars. As soon as the states’ interests come across in conflict, it is expected that leaders pay much attention to their positions in power. â€Å"The classical realist worldview appealed to many statesmen during the period that states were evolving in Western Europe-an era rife with conflict, as medieval forms of rule broke down and rulers asserted new claims to authority against feudal lords or the Pope. It jumped to the United States when the experiences of World War II were followed by the onset of the Cold War. Neorealism later emerged when the bipolarity of the Cold War drew analysts’ attention to the effects of the structure of the interstate system†. (Lieven, Hulsman). At present, ethical realism is offered to the USA as a leading principle that should define the foreign policy of this state. As it is described by the supporters of this type of realism, it bases upon â€Å"prudence; a concentration on possible results rather than good intentions; a close study of the nature, views and interests of other states, and a willingness to accommodate them when these do not contradict America’s own truly vital interests; and a mixture of profound American patriotism with an equally profound awareness of the limits on both American power and on American goodness† (Lieven, Hulsman). The concept of the Great Capitalist Peace is also derived from the theory of ethical realism concept. It is based upon the ideas of Kennan and Morgenthau, including the concepts of diplomacy purposes and international order. It proclaims that a global order is needed to be agreed by the largest states, to provide the promotion of their interests and reduce the threat of terrorists. Accordingly, the USA power is treated as an element, vital for keeping the Great Capitalist Peace. At the same time, it is added that the limits should be put on the US power, in order to legitimate interests and needs of other states should be satisfied. Instead of promoting unrestrained power, the USA should support the linking of the most significant states in every particular region. For instance, in the Middle East region the USA should use its power and resources to support creation of a regional patter for the states, including Syria and Iran, and to make this pattern functional enough to regulate Iraq conflict after withdrawal of the US troops from this country. (Lieven, Hulsman) As far as the Far East is concerned, the USA should paid attention to the primary role, which should be played by China in this region, but not by the United States. China is treated as a state, ready to act in cooperation with other states and act responsibly, that’s why USA should allow China to occupy a leading position in finding resolutions to the actions of the regime in the North Korea, and other possible challenges in this region. (Lieven, Hulsman) Sources Waltz, K. N. Structural Realism after the Cold War. International Security. Summer. 2000 Morgenthau, H. J. Politics Among Nations: the Struggle for Power and Peace. McGraw Hill: NY, 1993. Stern, G. The Structure of International Society. London: Pinter Publishers, 2000. The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations. edited by Baylis, J. and S. Smith. Oxford University Press, 2004 Griffiths, M. , O’Callaghan, T. International Relations: The Key Concepts. London, Routledge, 2002 Kegley, C. Wittkopf, E. World Politics. Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005. Viotti, P. R. Kauppi, M. V. International Relations Theory: Realism, Pluralism, Globalism. Macmillan Pub Co, 1993. Legro, J. W. Moravcsik, A. Is Anybody Still a Realist? International Security. Fall 1999 Jervis, R. Realism, Neoliberalism, and Cooperation.. International Security. Summer 1999 Ahrensdorf, P. J. Thucydides’ realistic critique of realism. Polity Winter 1997 Lieven, A. Hulsman, J. America’s World Role Has to be Realistic and Moral. October 17, 2006, retrieved at http://www. realisticforeignpolicy. org/archives/2006/10/americas_world. php.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Book review Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Book review - Assignment Example Despite being an anarchist, he strongly opposed the use of violence to solve the problems facing society. Rather, he believed that the society could be reformed through active non-violence. The story in the novel The Adventures of Caleb Williams revolves around Caleb, who despite being a poor orphan, manages to get better education. He later earns a lot of respect from community members owing to his enlightenment. The novel, basically, gives an account of the position taken by Caleb with respect to the wealthiest man in the neighborhood, Mr. Falkland (Godwin 2004, p.5). The fact that Mr. Falkland has a lot of wealth in the village makes his respectable to the extent that villagers, including Caleb, worship him. Nevertheless, Caleb appears to be very suspicious of Mr. Falkland. He believes that Mr. Falkland engages in unethical activities. As a result, Caleb decides to investigate Mr. Falkland’s past only to unearth some damning information. In the novel The Adventures of Caleb William, Godwin as the author tries to expose the rot in the political and social spheres of England during the 18th century (Godwin 2004, p.6). Godwin exposes vices by giving an overview of the injustices that were the orders of the day in the prison system. He also exposes the oppression of peasants by landlords, the oppression of the poor by the elite, as well the oppression of common citizens by government. The author reveals the injustice of the political and social system through various scenes. For example, he exposes an incident in which Mr. Falkland, knowingly and willingly, witnesses the execution of two innocent men for a crime that he committed himself. This is brought out when Caleb exposes the secret murder of Tyrrel, one of the landlords, by Falkland. Immediately after the murder, Caleb informs the public that Falkland used his power and wealth to blame two innocent men for the murder that led to the execution of the two innocent men (Godwin 2004, p.9). Nevertheless, when Falkland discovers that Caleb knows the truth about the incident, he threatens Caleb with grave consequences, warning him against exposing him further to the public. Despite the threats that he receives from Falkland, Caleb goes ahead to expose murder to the public, a move that puts him at loggerheads with Falkland. Caleb ends up paying the price of revealing the truth when Falkland implants jewelry in his bag later accusing him of being a thief (Godwin 2004, p.16). Without the authorities carrying proper and impartial investigations, Caleb ends up in prison. After staying in prison for a while, Caleb makes a daring escape but he is later recaptured in the streets of London. However, his release from prison comes quick with the intervention of Falkland. Falkland actually uses his power and wealth to manipulate Caleb’s release from prison (Godwin 2004, p.20) after he senses that he is in jeopardy of revelation of his deeds to a greater extent if he keeps Caleb in prison. As a result, Caleb is released from prison without a trial. This shows how injustice, impunity, and corruption were rife in the society during the time that the novel was written. Godwin’s fictional story gives a clear depiction of painful and intolerable oppression and the kind of bullying that the good people of 18th century were subjected to in their pursuit for justice and equality. Despite being set

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Ethical Perspectives Cross Cultural Perspectives Essay

Ethical Perspectives Cross Cultural Perspectives - Essay Example This includes handling the customers and the services offered by the workers. Culture, however small and ineffective the fact may look like, determines a lot the success of the company (Alice, 2012). This essay focuses the idea of the culture of Wal-Mart store and how its culture has affected the company. Ethics are the upright wellbeing and undertakings of the company. Ethics and social responsibility, also plays a major role in shaping the general business. The essay also addresses the issue of ethics and social responsibility and what is to be done so as to improve the services of Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart operates in several countries outside United States. The road in establishing their stores in other countries have not been that smooth. The main reason behind this is due to the cultural conflict with other countries. Wal-Mart is a company based in the United States and the manner in which they conduct their services and the kind of products sold is mainly determined by homeland cultures. When the company ventures in external markets or other countries, it is faced with cultural conflict where the cultures are conflicting. Customers from other countries view the operations from Wal-Mart as inferior to theirs and hence the company loses market from the customers thus reducing the company’s profits and product management (Alice, 2012). It is as well correct to say that Wal-Mart is aggressive in searching for markets for its products and services. When they tried to venture into the Argentina market, the company did not succeed because of its culture. The people of Arg entina did not embrace their products due to conflicting cultures. Wal-Mart also has a culture of exploiting the middle class and enhances gender inequality. In Germany for example, international employees are paid more than the local employees, a situation that lead to the loss of a lot of workers. The cultural issues within the organization also determine the success

Monday, August 26, 2019

Entomology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Entomology - Essay Example It is because of this collective effort that they are able to organize and build structures. In cases, altruism has been observed in the biological world. Altruism is where an organism or person puts its own safety in jeopardy in benefit of its kin or social organization (Okasha, 2009).. In the animal kingdom, prairie dogs will often watch and sound an alarm when a predator approaches. This gives away it’s position, but allows all the others to get to safety (McGinley, & Caley, 2007). In terms of insects, bees will fight to defend their comb from predators, which usually results in the death of the bee. Humans display these altruistic traits daily (Okasha, 2009). I believe that there are certain lines that can be drawn for me personally when considering the traits associated with altruism. In terms of my family, I would do anything. The social support and relationships have been in place since birth. One could argue that on some unconscious biological level that I would be fig hting to preserve the integrity of my personal gene pool. As we move up from family to community and then the state, the level of necessary altruism lessens due to the fact that the responsibility becomes less personal and this responsibility of altruism spreads equally among all members, not only being my responsibility. The reason that the line is drawn is that â€Å"blood is thicker than water†. The ties of family are almost impossible to break, therefore the altruistic behavior, which would be displayed would be for familial relationships versus societal relationships. Like what was said before, the aspect of self-sacrifice is a rare event that occurs on a daily basis in human culture. The same can be said for the animal world. Often, the concept of sacrificing oneself for the collective comes as a result of a protection toward the others. The example, being cited above, is bees that protect their kin, food, and future offspring from predators. Predators that attack the c omb threaten not only personal kin, but also the entire society. Knowing that they will die, they still fight off predators to protect everything for the good of the community. In humans, for me in particular, I would consider self-sacrifice to be a last time alternative. I feel like this would apply to situations that would literally be a life and death issue regarding my family. If it meant that I would have to sacrifice my life so that a family member could continue on, I would. In the case of the community, it would have to be such a threat that I would know that the destruction of our community would be imminent. Altruism can serve as a beneficial trait in regards to a society both in the animal world as well as in the insect communities. Depending on the respective behaviors of both communities, each would act in a way that was typical of the community. In the case of the natural world, organisms are more altruistic than humans are; yet they lack all the cognitions and social structures that as humans we have in place. References McGinley, M, & Caley, K. (2007). Altruistic Behaviors. The encyclopedia of earth. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Altruistic_behaviors?topic=58074 Okasha, Samir, (2009) "Biological Altruism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved April 6

The Risks Associated with Outsourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Risks Associated with Outsourcing - Essay Example Offshoring refers to the location of the work while outsourcing refers to who does the work. A company may offshore without outsourcing if the jobs are relocated to its captive unit or its own office in another country (Scott, Ticoll & Murti, 2005). Thus, in general terms outsourcing refers to a buyer contracting with an outside supplier for services. Various factors are responsible for this but both the buyer and the supplier are subject to risks in different fields. Outsourcing as a cost-effective strategy has shown positive results but significant risks have to be recognized and managed. Since the company relies on some other company for its functions, they have to be managed properly otherwise it could adversely affect the customers and their operations (O’Keeffe & Vanlandingham, n.d.). As far as the buyer is concerned, delays by the supplier can affect customer satisfaction and performance level. In production units, this would mean maintaining higher levels of stocks to mitigate risks but then this involves higher working capital to be blocked. Secondly, the product or service quality may suffer in outsourcing. Hence it is important that the partners or the suppliers have to be assessed carefully before finalizing the deal. If the supplier does not have the capacity to carry out the work or have the financial stability to service the contract, it poses a risk for the buyer (McKenna & Price, 2007) Suppliers may not be financially viabl e thus exposing the buyer to supply interruption risk. Loh and Venkatraman (1995) emphasize that the control issue is the major inhibitor. Firms are reluctant in shifting the locus of competencies towards the external suppliers. This would mean that the decisions rights over the assets are vested in the vendors that might not share the same goals and objectives as the client organization. Thus, even though the benefits of outsourcing offer temptations to the client organization, the risks to have to be considered before signing the contract. Both parties face risk although the client organization is more at risk than the vendor. The skills and competencies of the vendor are critical to the success of the alliance. The client has to transfer not just the technical know-how to the supplier but also communicate the larger goals and objectives so that the vendor’s approach is in alignment with the company objectives. In fact, unless both the parties work in unison, risks would be on both sides. Â  

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Describe the butterfly effect and evaluate its implications for Essay

Describe the butterfly effect and evaluate its implications for theology - Essay Example Poincare, in early twentieth century found that even the slightest error in the measurement resulted in enormous unpredictability in the behavior of astronomical system (Poincare, internet). Repeated experiments by him reaffirmed his earlier results that changes in the measurement did not follow Newtonian laws of producing identical behavior but produced outcomes which were vastly different and unpredictable. In 1963, Edwards Lorenz, a meteorologist, discovered that while predicting weather forecast, slight changes in the values in the equations for the theoretical model of prediction of the weather, produced hugely different outcome. When he used .506 instead of .506127, a slightly lesser precise measurement, the results were radically different as opposed to very little variation that should have happened as per the Newton’s laws. The continued erratic outcomes of the computerized model of prediction, with slight variation in the values, emphatically disproved the earlier Newtonian theory. Lorenz became the first scientist to prove it wrong. In 1972, while talking in a seminar on "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterflys Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?" (AAAS, 1972), he successfully illustrated that the behavior of complex system is impossible to predict even when the conditions or factors influencing its outcomes are known mainly because of the fact that those precise conditions cannot be foretold or predicted and therefore the unpredictability of the outcome. Therefore it is impossible to predict the weather accurately. The unpredictable behavior of a physical system came to be known as ‘butterfly effect’ because of the slight difference in the starting point of the curves which can be compared to the flapping of a butterfly’s wings. As Stewart says ‘The flapping of a single butterflys

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Reading + Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reading + Summary - Essay Example McAlister wrote that the Western curators and art collectors were arrogant enough to hold the belief that the Tut pieces should belong in a Western museum. McAlister also writes that Nixon convinced Sadat to allow the Tut pieces to come to American in the first place; implying that Nixon made the Tut visit possible, while portraying Sadat as a pushover. McAlister also proposes that the media’s advertising of the Tut exhibit by mentioning all of the gold, that the media was comparing the Tut exhibit to the current oil crisis. This was done by pointing out how rich the Middle East was. The author also shows that the Yom Kippur war with Israel, the cause of the oil crisis, was not as one sided, since Egypt made a show of force. The Yom Kippur war was also shown to have ended through US and the Soviet Union negotiated UN ceasefire. McAlister shows that the US is only interested in Egypt and the Middle East for their own interests. This author is offensive in several aspects of her points. First poor and middle class Americans in the seventies were not all art illiterate. Just because a person does not have money does not mean that the gold shown in the Tut exhibit was what drew the American masses. The media campaign is what drew the masses. Secondly the whole Middle East was and is not run by the US and the Soviet Union. Both Egypt and Israel were armed by the US and the Soviet Union, but by no means was the fight between anyone, but Egypt and Israel. It is arrogant to believe that the US interest is what the world revolves around. Thirdly McAlister obviously has not studied the Yom Kippur war in depth. Israel’s losses at the beginning were due as much to the lack of judgement of an Israeli general, General Bar On, and his creation of the Bar On line. The Bar On line was the line on the Suez Canal that other Israeli generals, General Ariel Sharon and others, warned

Friday, August 23, 2019

Disney Cohesion Case write up Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Disney Cohesion Case write up - Assignment Example is a large multinational corporation with about one hundred and seventy thousand employees spread all over the world with yearly revenue pegged at about $45 billion. The company has faced problems both internally and externally thus the need to strategically change its management and structure its organizational development (David, 29). The mission of Walt Disney Company is to become the foremost producer and provider of entertainment and information through the use of their variety of brands to have distinct content, services and products for the consumers which must also be pioneering and imaginative. This company operates through organizational structure that has strategic business units, each dealing with its core purposes, which includes the media networks, the parks and resorts, the Walt Disney Studios, Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive. The goals of the company are to reach children as well as adult audience through the Disney products, which may include television programs, magazines, books, movies and musical recordings. It also aims at providing the Radio Disney channel through satellite radio, mobile applications and the web while its Disney Consumer Products provides the licenses for those who may wish to provide products based on the products of Walt Disney. Financially, Walt Disney has assets amounting to about US $ 80.5 billion of assets while its revenue has been on an upward trend since the year 2008 running to 2013 with most of the revenue coming from advertising and affiliate fees amongst other sources. It generates the affiliate fees due to its popular ESPN channel, film syndication, merchandising and its ability to produce movies that are a hit in the film market. Walt Disney manages its affairs through the domestic and global integration of its corporate management strategies, which has helped it acquire other film corporations through its massive financial power. Due to its diversified nature of business, it is managed

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Perception in thought processes Essay Example for Free

Perception in thought processes Essay This paper seeks to explore the role played by perception in thought processes in an individual’s life. It also focuses on intelligence and the relationship between intelligence and cognition. Perception which is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information influence thinking styles, thinking skills as well as the types of thoughts in an individual’s mind. The world of an individual begins by what is visible, imagined or told in a story about various issues and things in his or her immediate surrounding. When these things are assimilated by an individual, a response is ignited in the mind in the form of thought processes. (Bohm, D. 1994, p. 130). I perceive the current modern world as a place of creativity and competition and an arena where everybody is always pushing his or her way even if it is to the disadvantage of others. For instance, the industrialized nations continue to release greenhouse gases despite the world wide outcry on global warming. Due to these, I am always thinking of discovering something new that can push me a head of the rest in both competition and creativity. Most importantly, what is always in my mind is how to accumulate enough money in this capitalistic world where everyone is keeps to themselves. The egocentricity I encounter in my interaction with people has made me to think of ways on how to keep whatever I have to myself and a way from the selfish world. The characteristics of what I perceive as well as personal characteristics like my attitude, personality, motives, interests, past experiences and expectations affect the thought processes. Several definitions for intelligence have been developed by various researchers and scientists but there seems to be no consensus on the universally acceptable definition. According to Sternberg, J. R, Jean E. P. (2005), the definitions revolve around specific abilities which are pooled together to form general abilities as the parameters around which intelligence can be defined. Consequently intelligence can be defined as the ability to learn about, learn from, understand, and interact with one’s environment. These specific abilities are the reason for cognition which is the process of recognizing, interpreting, making judgments as well as reasoning; these involves perceptions, learning, memory, and decision making. The capacity for knowledge and ability to acquire it is a specific component of intelligence that can lead a person into judging a situation or an object. The capacity to reason and higher thinking coupled with ability to carry out an evaluation gives judgment as a product of intelligence. The ability to adapt to a new environment or to changes in the current environment dictates how an animal or human being will act on the information from its environment. Interpretation which is encompassed in cognition is as a result of the ability to comprehend the issue at hand and contrast and compare relationships that we face. Cognition can therefore be said to result from original and productive thought. Conclusion. What an individual perceives define the thought processes he or she is undergoing. Perception of the surrounding environment is what triggers the development of thinking skills and styles needed in response. Cognition is a consequence of specific abilities which are found in intelligence and they mostly occur together.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Education and Safe Educational Environment Essay Example for Free

Education and Safe Educational Environment Essay Rights talk seeps into spheres of American society where a sense of personal responsibility and of civic obligation traditionally have been nourished. An intemperate rhetoric of personal liberty in this way corrodes the social foundations on which individual freedom and security ultimately rest. Because I agree with this quote, I firmly resolve the resolution that establishing a safe educational environment for grades K-12 justifies the infringement of civil liberties. I would like to offer the following definitions: Establish: to make firm or secure Safe Educational Environment: an environment conducive to learning where students are free from hurt, injury or loss Justifies: to demonstrate to be right, just, or valid Infringement: an encroachment, as of a right or privilege Civil Liberties: fundamental individual rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, protected by law against unwarranted governmental or other interference The value that the affirmative upholds is education. The value criterion I will use to uphold my value is safety. Safety is extremely important on any educational institute because it allows the students and faculty to learn and operate without any threat hanging over them. To explain my position, I offer the following contentions: Contention 1: Without the establishment of a safe learning environment, the ability to learn and to teach is severely hampered. Without a safe educational environment, the attainment of knowledge is difficult to achieve. As Michael Ferraraccio said, If schools cannot operate in a violence-free atmosphere, then education will suffer, a result which ultimately threatens the well being of everyone. An infringement of a students civil liberties is required to be able to maintain a safe and enjoyable learning atmosphere for both the students and the faculty. When a student does not feel secure in their learning area, they are often distracted and unable to focus. For example, a student cannot possibly concentrate if another classmate is spewing insults and cuss words at the teacher. However, if we allowed students the freedom of speech, this could be common place. Contention 2: Moral obligation to provide safe schools Donald Beci stated Because a state requires compulsory school attendance, it has a moral duty to maintain student discipline and to protect children from violence that occurs while they are attending the very schools to which the state has bound them to attend. A school is required to protect the children that it harbors, and thus some civil liberties must not be granted. Examples of these are the right to bear arms and the right to privacy, which could be construed to mean very dangerous things by students not mature enough to understand them. Also, privacy rights must not be granted in school, as it might endanger the safety of others. In fact, Donald Beci also says that, In situations where the school administration and students share joint control of lockers, desks, or other school property, the students would not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in such property; thus, in the abscence of privacy, Fourth Amendment requirements would be inapplicable. Thus schools must disregard some civil rights to uphold the value of safety which most of them abide by. The affirmative has proven that schools must disregard students civil rights in order to ensure a good and safe learning environment.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Downfall Of Roaring Dragon Hotel Management Essay

Downfall Of Roaring Dragon Hotel Management Essay This proposal will give us a clear description for the downfall of Roaring Dragon Hotel after the change in their management to Hotel International which has failed to improve their profits and quality standards of their hotel. Big issue in the organization was the conflicts between management and their employees which need to be solved in order to get better performance and profits. These conflicts occur between management and employees are due to many reasons like cultural conflicts, inadequate training, and lack of understanding and strict management policies. Applying a single management approach across all work settings around the world may not be effective for motivating the workers and may not yield desired productivity (Najera, 2008). In order to overcome these conflicts the company management should develop strong relationship with employees, understand cultural differences, provide adequate training, and improve employee benefits. This will help improve employee performance , employee relationship, increases organizations profits, margin, and revenue and helps in reducing turnover rate. Introduction: RDH organizations downfall HistoryThe Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH) was one of the three star hotels in the south-west China, which is famous state owned enterprise (SOE), has 40 years of history. RDH had a very good reputation but the popularity of the hotel started to fade by changing the management to Hotel International (HI). The Hotel International organization had good reputation and recognized as suitable organization to takeover the managment of RDH. Hotel International management took some steps to change the policies of RDH both internally and externally in order to reach international standards which were failed to improve quality standards and resulted great loss.The root cause for this problem is the organizational conflict between management and employees.The HI management failed to understand the culture and failed to develop employee trust and relationship. According to Drucker et al. (1997) the intelligence and spirit of people at all levels of an organization to contin ually build and share knowledge should be the first priority to face global competition and to succeed in their domain. This knowledge sharing is lacking from HI management which created lot of new problems to organization. Background: From early 1960s Roaring Hotel Dragon had good reputation and went through series of changes for surviving from highly competitive world. Being a SOE with 40 years long history, it was one of the regions best premium guest offices for the government officials. The employees of RDH felt proud working for a SOE organization. Cultural difference is the the root cause for increased turn over rate and reduced RDHs glory.In 2001, the government decided to hand over the management control of RDH to HI organization for improving the hotels quality, reputation and brand name. This corporation hired a new manager and replaced the existing manager Mr. Wen to second in command, lost his power and privileges Mr. Wen raised the differences between management and employers. This is one of the root cause for loosing RDHs reputation and its glory. So government decided to end the contract with HI Corporation, taking over the management back by provisional government. Due to management change and cultural differences between employees and management the hotels reputation decreased and continued to fail even though the contract was terminated. The problems will be rectified with good planning, trusting, training and motivating employees and taking decision more effectively. Problem: HI management failed to build trust and employee relationshipThe Major problem in the RDH organization is caused because of the conflicts and cultural differences between the management and employees. This problem is clearly ignored by the HI management after it takeover RDH. One source of conflict may arise out of the division between those who give orders and those who receive them: this, we would suggest, is a problem not only between workers and management, but also within management itself (Stephenson, 1960). Some of the major problems with HI management are listed below: The RDH employees did not will to work under HIs management. Cancellation of their agreements with the Nu Fu travel agency and Loss of critical industry contacts and guanxi connections. Short term contract, Decreased occupancies and motivation, lay off of young employees, Uncertainty of Job security and Increasing the employee workload without paying their wages Older employees were uncomfortable working under non-mandarin speaking HIs managers. Employee dissatisfaction, loss of guanxi cotacts, and lack of motivation caused problems to HI management The first occurred problem for RDH organization is conflict between the KYZ Corporation and the former manager Mr. Wen felt guilty about his privileges when he was a manager were lost and made him second in command. Chinese people had a strong responsibility and relationship with the people who they trust when compared to western culture. Commitment to the supervisor may be particular relevance for understanding the work behavior of Chinese employees (Wang and Kung, 1999). The above reason made Mr. Wen to bring differences in between employees and Hotel international management. Even though Hotel International (HI) management tried to get rid of Mr. Wen, they could not get any support from older employees who were working with the RDH past a long time. HI failed to understand the Chinese culture so they made lot changes to improve the standards to international goals without considering the reactions from its employees. Opportunities: The HI management should have focused on history of the RDH and should have respected the Chinese culture. They should have done more research to analyze the root cause made by KYZ Corporation. They had very good opportunity to understand the culture and involve their employees in decision making process. By respecting their employees interests and thoughts would have improved HIs performance rather than making the decisions on their own. Management should analyze the mistakes and develop employee relationshipBy disrespecting the elderly employees and losing the guanxi connections they failed to build employee relationship. They could have motivate the employees and develop the ethics in the employees. They failed to utilize the best use of their customer relationship. Hotels should also consider including indirect contributors such as word of mouth communication, customer referrals and endorsements (Noone, B. N., Kimes, S. E., Renaghan, L. M, 2003). Recommendations: Management should understand cultural differences and employee opinionsHI management should try to understand the culture and interests of the employees, consider their personal opinion, build the relationship with the employees, provide adequate training, and often conduct employee feedback. The Chinese Employees who are dedicated to their supervisors with who they have a very good relationship. Management should resolve conflicts with their business partners and motivate others to work together in the process of developing their motel to keep-up the global competition. Management should provide training to motivate employeesThe employees should try to ware of the international standards which should be motivated in order to understand their responsible of their work, which should be achieved effectively by providing a proper training. Management should identify the ways to improve the business like build good relationship with their customers who can help in increasing publicity. The longer relationship we have with the customers is important for success of any business. Finally the management and employees should put their efforts as a team instead of going in their individual direction. Their language might be the fundamental barrier between people from many different traditions and cultures of the organization, they should provide translators of different languages in order to maintain the synchronization between employees and management. The employees should be given training by the management regarding their new policies of the organization. The feedback from their employees should be taken frequently to ensure their employee satisfaction. Employees should be given rewards based on their performance, hard work, experience, and annual basis. Conclusion: One of the best example would be Roaring Dragon hotel which had a successful history but then later it had a great downfall, due to which the change of management with lack of communicational skills with its employees. Assigning new management for the hotel caused to the downfall, because of their negligence. The organizational success depends on correcting their mistakes and taking actions towards resolving them. So that we can avoid repeating those mistakes in future. The conflicts between the management and its employees are a well-known issue in any organization and needs to be rectified as soon as possible. Then any organization will be succeeded.