Promotion Plans and Blends Part II Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Promotion Plans and Blends Part II - Assignment Example This is very important to do so as to ensure that it will not be applying the right solution for the wrong position. On technology, I strongly believe that apart from the use of social media which you elaborate, an alternative would be to use the company’s own website in a more interactive manner. Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013).  Daryl Travis: Positioning statements and branding  [Video Baltimore, MD Author]. Video posted to: https:/​/​class.waldenu.edu/​bbcswebdav/​institution/​USW1/​201520_02/​MS_WMBA/​WMBA_6060/​USW1_WMBA_6060_Week06_videoA.html I have a feeling that not only did you look at how different examples of promotions are blended by Hanes Company but you went a step further to look at the impact of blending different forms of promotion. This is because the use of television and promotional advertisement and emotional branding form two important and separate forms of promotion that could be said to be physiological and psychological (Perreault Jr., Cannon & McCarthy, 2014). Most certainly, I find this a very tactful and prudent way of attracting the promotional interest of as many people as possible. Having said this, I am of the opinion that there still remains a lot of potential in the use of social media in promotions that Hanes Company has not taken advantage of. Having social media platforms where the company can share its unique promotional blend with the public could be very

Primary research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Primary research - Essay Example Though de Vaus (2002) distinguishes between a survey and questionnaire, but at the same time it is also emphasized by him that quite often questionnaire happens to be a part of the survey. Direction of the research is set depending upon how the data is analysed. To facilitate the results of this survey and ensure its usefulness to the researchers, the study aims at producing valid and reliable data. To this end, all answers will be listed; this includes those answers that were duplicated by multiple respondents. The tables will be formatted and designed to be read easily--ensuring that the information will be interpreted accurately. Vague answers with multiple possible interpretations will be further clarified to reduce the chances of misinterpretation. Simple frequency tables will be used to help draw out and sort the information gathered from the returned questionnaires. The number of responses reflecting each possible answer and the number of unique responses will be indicated on the accompanying tables. These findings will then be pulled together into a report format with preliminary notes and comments used to explain the presented information in detail. The research questionnaire is prepared to gain knowledge of the current HR scenario, acceptance level of such policies, working attitudes as well as practices that came in close relation with the effective management of companies. To this end, primary data will be collected through the responses of participants during the process. Similarly, an account will also be maintained of the people who do not wish to participate in the survey, when we approach them, for various reasons. This will be done purely for academic reasons, as it will also help in throwing some light on how the workers feel safe and secure enough while talking about the HR policies. To gain the responses of about 100 people we might have to approach more people (say about 125-140 professionals because 25-40 people might decline to participate in the survey. We need to prepare a table to keep the record of respondents. Table can be prepared as follows. Table-1 Number of Respondents Age groups Prompt in responses Declined to respond Upto 30 yrs 31-40 yrs 40+ Total Subsequently we can also enlist the reasons for saying 'no' to the survey. Some of the responses could be as written in the table below (but we will be tabulating different types of other responses as well). Table-2; Reasons for saying 'No' to respond Reason for not Responding Age

Goal Setting Framework Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Goal Setting Framework - Term Paper Example Due to the rising cost of distribution, Los Angeles Tribune will use any of the following strategies to achieve its set goal; distribute jointly with other producers to the consumers, use digital distribution channel, increase the number of middlemen companies to assist in distributing its products or create new subsidiaries in different cities and towns to reduce the distribution cost. Of all these strategies, the organization shall use digital distribution as one of the most appropriate strategies. Therefore, the organization will distribute most of its newspapers through online system. This tactic will ensure that customers subscribe for their newspapers for them to get access to the papers. Various activities need to be carried out in order to reduce the cost of distribution such as; proper education of the customers on how they will get the online papers without any constrain and advertising to the public to create awareness of the new move in the organization so that they are n ot surprised with the new organizations move (Barton, 2001). This is planned to reduce the cost of distribution by 10% in every month. This measure Barton of success will show the progress of the goal set to reduce the cost of distribution so that the profit realized may increase. The other goal is to increase circulation revenue. The Los Angeles Tribune is making strategies such as to increase the newspaper supply, increase the advertisement efforts or to reduce the prices to attract more customers. With the investigation, the organization has realized that the circulation revenue goes down due to an increase in the prices of its newspaper. Therefore, one of the tactics that the organization will use is to reduce the price of its papers so that it regains its market share in the next two months. This will be done through reducing other costs, which will result in a cut, in prices. As a measure of success, 5% price cut in

Nursing Community Project Hypertension impact on the Miami dade County Essay

Nursing Community Project Hypertension impact on the Miami dade County Commiunity - Essay Example 2. Demographic Characteristics of the Selected Miami Dade County Community Miami Dade County has been selected as the setting for analyzing the impact of hypertension upon the community. Miami Dade is located in the state of Florida in the United States. The total population of this county constitutes to approximately 2,253,362. According to a recent survey conducted, it was observed that the number as well as the rate of deaths caused by hypertension is the significant cause of fall in the demographic figure of Miami Dade County. In the year 2006, it was stated that high blood pressure is determined to be the primary cause for death of around 319,000 Americans. Additionally, the rate of death due to hypertension has tremendously increased in the recent years. Furthermore, it has been observed that within the increased rate of around 58.7% suffers of hypertension, there includes a majority of females within Miami Dade (Health Council of South Florida Inc, 2010). On the basis of furth er analysis, it has been detected that ‘Prehypertension’ as well as ‘high blood pressure’ within adolescents have taken an accelerated leap in the recent years within Miami Dade County. ... Miami represents the one of the major cosmopolitan areas within the United States. This particular county nearly constitutes 38 ‘Census-designated’ places and 16 unincorporated regions. The county’s total physical area entails around 6,297 km2. It has been observed that immigrants of Miami Dade County were drastically affected by hypertension in the year 2006 and it continues to accelerate with the passing of years (Health Council of South Florida Inc, 2010). 4. Statistics According to the observation of Miami-Dade County Community Health Report Card, the increased admissions within hospitals caused by hypertension was the worst performance indicator in the year 2007.The pictorial diagram represented below depicts that with proper diagnosis as well as treatment of Hypertension in Miami Dade County, the disease can be prevented to a greater extent which stands to be in total around 34.1 percent (The Healthy Communities Institute, 2013). Source: (The Healthy Communi ties Institute, 2013) Source: (The Healthy Communities Institute, 2013) According to the assessment made, the aforesaid diagram depicts that hypertension can affect both the genders to a considerable level that is around 34.1 percent on an average (The Healthy Communities Institute, 2013). According to the analysis of ‘The Healthy People 2020’ national health target is aimed at reducing the level of high blood pressure among the age group of 18 years and above to at least 26.9 percent (The Healthy Communities Institute, 2013). 5. Nursing Diagnosis NANDA diagnosis has laid down certain diagnosis interpretation of hypertension which has been briefly explained below: Risk for Reduced Cardiac Output There are various risks

Gender Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Gender Discrimination Essay Gender discrimination is an important issue in the workplace in today’s world. Female employees are facing gender discrimination in the form of different dimensions. This discrimination is disturbing their performance. The main aim of this study is to see the effect of these gender discrimination dimensions which include glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the productivity of female employees with the mediating effect of job commitment and job satisfaction. The research is focused on the private education sector. The population frame is the female teachers in the private education institutes. A sample of 130 female teachers is collected for this study. The framework is developed for our study for checking the impact of glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the productivity of female employees. The hypotheses are developed and after the data analysis some of the hypothesis are rejected and some of the hypothesis are not rejected. The hypotheses that the glass ceiling, discrimination in facilities and salary gap has negative impact on employee productivity is accepted which made us to conclude that these discrimination has a big impact on employee productivity and ultimately organizational performance. This study will give some guidelines to the managers and policy makers in any organization that how to reduce these discriminations. Key words: Gender discrimination, Glass ceiling, Employee productivity, salary gap, discrimination in facilities, job satisfaction, job commitment, Paper type: Research Paper 1. Introduction 1.1 Significance/Rationales of study The study came up with the solutions to the problem of gender discrimination at work place. This study will help the people to be aware of this dominating problem of gender discrimination and its reasons. This study can also identify the positive and negative effects of discrimination on the world of business and personal lives of people. Gender discrimination is a wide phenomenon which is affecting every political, social and economic life. In this era where everyone think that there should be equal rights for men and women, there are some occurrences of people who are being discriminated because of their gender. It is not an issue, which one can easily tolerate or ignore. Gender discrimination is understood as the unequal treatment against people of either sex, but statistics shows that women are the one who are more discriminated just being a female (Lila Adhikari, 2008). Gender issues were first pointed out in 1950s, but it’s been highlighted in organization and management studies in between 1980s and 1990s. In this duration many studies on effect of gender discrimination on employees were conducted. One study shows that gender discrimination is inversely proportional to job commitment and satisfaction which means it reduces the employee’s productivity which ultimately affects the organizational productivity (Zahid Ali Channar, 2011). Many factors have been identified which are responsible for gender discrimination in work place, which are education, promotion, marriage and child bearing and environment. If we look in context of promotion, a wide practice used is glass ceiling, a process by which women are not promoted to high level of jobs (Bell, 2002). Last year report issued by a commission of glass ceiling that shows that there are only 7 to 9 percent of managers that are in senior positions are women at fortune 1000 (kom and catalyst, 2012). 81 % employers dislike to hire a female. 49 % not carefully planning their careers to benefit women and above of all a survey tells that only 1 percent CEOs or even less than 1 percent take it as first concern, the development of women (Mauricio, 2012). 1.2 Problem Statement HRM in any organization is related to staffing, motivating and maintaining the organization (Decenzo, 1998). 50 years ago, due to homogeneity of work force the HRM was very simple, but now-a-days the workforce is heterogeneous. Managing this heterogeneity required such a staff that can create an equitable environment so that no group has any kind of advantage or disadvantage on other group (Wayne, 1995). Heterogeneity in workplace gave birth to gender discrimination, which has become an intense situation in Pakistan and affecting the employee’s productivity (Qaiser Abbas, 2011). An employee perform difficult tasks for the survival and improvement of organization but gender discrimination reduces the employee’s satisfaction, commitment and enthusiasm and increases the stress level which ultimately affects the productivity of an employee (Zahid Ali Channar, 2011). These studies did not discuss that how dimensions of gender discrimination effect the productivity of employee. The dimensions of gender discrimination include discrimination in promotions, discrimination in salary and discrimination in facilities provided. So there is a need to explore the effect of different dimensions of gender discrimination on the productivity of employee. 1.3 Aim of the study This study investigates that how different dimensions of gender discrimination effect the employee productivity. It would be helpful for any organization in the process of policy making which will ultimately increase the productivity of an organization. 1.4 Research Objectives 1) To identify that whether gender discrimination has an effect on productivity of employees in private educational institutes. 2) To explore how the productivity of employees is affected by gender discrimination in promotion, salary and facilities provided in private educational institutes. 3) To examine the results of the survey. 4) To recommend some reformed measures to the policy makers for the future. 1.5 Research Questions 1) What is relation between the employee productivity and gender discrimination? 2) What is effect of gender discrimination in promotion, salary and facilities on the performance of an employee? 2. Literature Review This literature view is based on the evaluation of gender discrimination on employee’s productivity. The gender discrimination now exist most of the organization around the world. Gender discrimination may exist in different dimensions like discrimination in promotions, facilities and Salaries. In simple words gender discrimination can be defined as the unfair treatment or behavior based on gender. It is said to occur when an individual’s decision is based on gender. Gender discrimination was attempted to define by no law. If we look in the perspective of employment, it is giving more advantage to a particular group (Wayne, 1995). This thing results in the decreased productivity of employees. 2.1 Gender Discrimination in Global Perspective The first form of discrimination was found by the universal declaration of human rights (1948). Gender discrimination is now a social disease which is destroying the lives of women around the world. Sen (1991) shows us that if equal treatment and opportunities were given then there should be more 100 million females than are presently alive. Many steps were taken to eliminate the gender discrimination but none of them was proved to be effective. The Beijing conference that documented 12 most prominent areas of discrimination was a big step in eliminating the gender discrimination (UNFPA, 2005). It is proved from the studies that gender discrimination has an influence on the employee productivity. A study shows that if there is a proper policy of gender discrimination there will be a change in employee’s productivity (Naqi Abbas, 2010). 2.2 Glass Ceiling Women in workplace face a wide practice called glass ceiling. This is a practice in which women are ignored when making a promotion policy or promoting an employee. We can see that in every organization the executive posts are held by males. According to a study only 3 percent of the most paid executives are female and these posts are disproportionately held by men (Healy and Zukka, 2004). Women are mostly entrusted in small projects not the big one. They are being kept deprived from international assignment which is keeping away from their promotions. Nick (1991) had conducted the study on international careers of women. His study clearly shows that there is a glass ceiling effect. Women are not being encouraged to do new projects on new markets and they are being kept at junior manager positions. Gender discrimination is not directly related to productivity. The relation of employee productivity and gender discrimination is mediated by job satisfaction and job commitment. Employees who faces policies and practices of gender discrimination show less satisfaction with their job (Ensher et al, 2001). When individuals’ face gender discrimination in workplace they show a low level of job commitment so gender discrimination has a negative relation with job commitment and job satisfaction (Sharon Foley, 2005). Gender discrimination creates tension and reduces the satisfaction of people and it is the study of 139 Hispanic male and female (Sanchez, 1996). The productivity of a happy worker is higher than an unhappy worker (Rabins, 1999,). Employee satisfaction plays a vital role in its productivity and there is a significant relation of job satisfaction with employee productivity (Pushpakumari, 2008). Job satisfaction lead to organizational responsibility, mental health and finally employee productivity (Coomber, 2007). Another study shows us that the organizations who perceive greater gender discrimination report less satisfaction and commitment (Ellen A. Ensher, 2001). The hypotheses are given below: 1) Glass ceiling has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Glass ceiling is negatively related with employee productivity. 3) Job Satisfaction is positively related with employee productivity. 4) Job satisfaction mediates the relation between gender discrimination in promotions and employee productivity. 2.3 Discrimination in facilities In a workplace an employee is provided with many facilities which helps them to complete their task which include computers, air conditioners, assistant and transport facilities etc. If on a work place if such kind of facilities are provided to a male employee and not provided to a female employee of a same post. The female employee will start to think that the upper management don’t care about them which will increase their stress level and the satisfaction level of that employee cold be decreased which will affect the employee’s productivity. The hypotheses are given below: 1) Gender discrimination in facilities has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Gender discrimination in facilities is negatively related with job satisfaction. 3) Job Satisfaction mediates the relationship between gender discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. 2.4 Salary Gap Another dimension of discrimination is the Salary gap. Women usually get low pay then men in any job they are appointed. Ashraf and Ashraf (1993) study shows that there is a gap of 63.27 percent in salary in 1979, and in 1986 it decreases to 33.09 percent. This was the decline in every province. Discrimination is not the phenomenon of one or two countries, it exist in most of the developed countries like USA. A study showed that women dietitians in USA earn 45,258 dollars per year while men earn 50,250 dollars per year (Pollard, 2007). Managers at top level in organization mostly prefer their own interest rather than others. They think that superiors who have power on their careers will support them. According to Susan et al (1998) mostly top managers in any organization are the people who are more biased against females and these people save interest of their own. The study shows that job commitment is significant related with productivity, there exist high degree of correlation between commitment and productivity. Individuals that are highly committed proved to be more productive and have higher satisfaction and have no intention to leave the job rather than employee with low job commitment (Varsha, 2012). The hypotheses are given below: 1) Salary gap has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Salary gap is negatively related with job commitment 3) Job Commitment is positively related with employee productivity 4) Job Commitment mediates the relation between salary gap and employee productivity. 2.5 Gender discrimination in Pakistan Pakistan is also one of the countries where gender discrimination is seen in most of the organizations. We all know Pakistan is a male dominating society and women are being treated unfairly in every field of profession. Gender discrimination has spread its root from public organizations to private organizations. Women are being kept at low level jobs and they are not promoted to high posts due to biasness of top level managers and policy makers. A study by Ghizala Kazi (2011) shows us that no women in the public organizations are in the scale of 20 or more. There are very few women above scale 15. Most of the women are under 15th scale, which shows the situation of discrimination in Pakistan. Many factors for this situation were identified like education, promotion, environment, child bearing and discrimination. If such kinds of discrimination is eliminated than the productivity of these women employees could be increased. There are evidences that the promotion of gender equality leads to a better performance and improved economy of concerned society. The societies who have greater female employment opportunities are less corrupt and have better governance (Klasen, 2006). This is not the end of discriminations in Pakistan. A women employee is also discriminated in Salary, which is a basic right of an employee that he should get compensated according to his work and post. In Pakistan you will see men and women working on same job level but different pay. In the report of poverty in Pakistan it is clearly proved that majority of women are concentrated in low paid jobs with very few opportunity for moving upward (Shah et al, 2004). If we look in the export industries of Pakistan which is a backbone in measurement of economy of Pakistan we will see the similar situation of discrimination. The study of Siddique (2006) surveyed the industries of export that are in Karachi, Sialkot and Faisalabad. The results from this study confirms the gender discrimination and shows that men were getting 20 percent more than then women working at the same post. It was also concluded that adjustment policies and change in labor market has a negative impact on females. To have maximum output from women employee the organizational culture of discrimination should be changed. Organizational culture affects the performance of employee. Organizational environment and culture can make the workplace attractive and supportive for a female employee. Attitudes of peers and support from family are also very significant for the female employee (Irfan, 2009). Many studies have discussed the gender discrimination as a general term but there is need to explore the discrimination in different dimensions and how these dimensions affect the productivity of employees. Gender discrimination has three dimensions which include discrimination in promotions, salary and facilities provided. So this study will be based on exploring the effect of dimensions of gender discrimination on productivity of employees. 3. Conceptual framework In the literature review of this topic the framework has been defined which show the relationship between the variables. Correlation is basically run to analyze the relationship between two or more variable. It also measure that how two variables move in relation to each other. It measures the strength and direction of linear relationship between two variables with respect to each other. The sign of the value shows the direction that whether it is negative or positive. Positive sign shows that the variables are moving in same direction means if one variable is increasing the other variable is also increasing and negative sign shows that if one variable is increasing then other variable is decreasing. The magnitude shows the intensity between variable. If the value is between 0.1 and 0.5 then the variables are weakly correlated. If the value is between 0.5 and 0.7 then the variables are moderately correlated. If the value is between 0.7 and 0.99 then the variables are strongly correlated. The value 1 shows the perfect correlation between variables. Table 5 shows the intensity and the direction of any two variables. Highest value of correlation is 0.753 which is between gender discrimination in facilities and glass ceiling. So the correlation between discrimination in facilities and glass ceiling is positive and strongly correlated. The relationship between DF and EP, and DF and JS, and JC and SG is negative. So it means that if you have more salary gap than your commitment to job will be less but its value is less than any else two variables, so we can say that job commitment will be less but with very small value, and if you have more discrimination in facilities then your productivity will be less. The remaining variables have positive relation with each other. The relationship is significant at 1% which means there are 99% chances that the relationship between all two variables will remain the same if the sample is changes and sample size and population remains same as shown in the table given below. 5.7 Regression This research is to check the effect of gender discrimination dimensions which are glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the employee productivity. This research also includes two mediating variables job satisfaction and job commitment. Job satisfaction is mediating between glass ceiling and employee productivity and also discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. Job commitment is mediating between salary gap and employee productivity. For this 9 hypothesis were developed. For the purpose of checking the impact regression has been applied. The model has only one dependent variable so there will be one model of regression equation. There will be separate equation for mediating variable to check the mediating effect of variables between independent and dependent variable. In first model we run the regression equation between EP, GC, DF, SG, JC and Job satisfaction. 5.7.1 Regression Equation EP = 4.66 0.38GC 0.86DF 0.26SG + 0.017JC + 0.167JS The Above equation shows that if all the other variables remain unchanged or have value of zero then the productivity of employee remains at 14.66. It is the fixed value of employee productivity. The coefficient values tell the per unit change in the employee productivity so if we increase the value of GC, SG and DF then the value of employee productivity will decrease by 0.38, 0.86 and 0.26 respectively. If the value of job commitment increases by one then the value of employee productivity will increase by 0.017. The hypotheses of glass ceiling, discrimination in facilities and job satisfaction are accepted. If the value of job satisfaction is increased then the value of employee productivity will increase by 5.10 Kruskal Wallis Test The non-parametric test will be used that is kruskal-Wallis test. Whenever the assumption of levene test is not fulfilled the non-parametric test i.e. kruskal-Wallis test is used. So kruskal-Wallis test is applied to check the level of job commitment in the females who are earning less than 30,000 between 30,000 and 40,000 and more than 40,000. The table given below shows that the asymptotic value is greater than 0.05so test is insignificant. So there is no difference in the average of glass ceiling in all three populations. So we can conclude that there is no significant difference between the mean of all three population p = 0.509, with a mean rank of 73.45 for below 30,000, 65.20 for 30,000 to 40,000 and 73.00 for above 40,000. 6. Discussion This study is conducted to check the impact of gender discrimination on the productivity of employees. The study included three dimensions of gender discrimination that is discrimination in promotions, discrimination in facilities and discrimination in salary. With the help of previous studies it is found that all these discriminations have negative impact on employee productivity which is mention in literature view. The hypotheses were developed for this study. There are 12 hypotheses that are developed. First hypothesis is that glass ceiling has negative impact on employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked after entering the data into SPSS. He results show that glass ceiling does have negative impact on employee productivity. If women are not being promoted to higher job positions and if there is no such policies related to gender discrimination then the productivity of female employee decreases. Second hypothesis was that the glass ceiling is negatively related with job satisfaction. this hypothesis is checked through the correlation. The table 5 of correlation clearly shows that glass ceiling is negatively related with the job satisfaction and result is also significant so this hypothesis is supported. Third hypothesis is that the job satisfaction is positively related with the employee productivity. The table of correlation shows the positive relation between the two variables. So employee productivity increases as the job satisfactions continues to increase and if job satisfaction decreases the employee productivity also decreases. Fourth hypothesis is that the job satisfaction is mediating between glass ceiling and employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked through the mediation test which consists of four steps. This test did not support the hypothesis so this hypothesis is rejected. Fifth hypothesis is that the discrimination in facilities has negative impact on the employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked by regression. Discrimination in facilities has the negative impact on the employee productivity and it is also significant. So this hypothesis is also supported. The sixth hypothesis is that discrimination in facilities is negatively related with the job satisfaction. This hypothesis is supported because the correlation between them is negative in the table 5. So the discrimination in facilities increases then the satisfaction with the job decreases. The next hypothesis is that the job satisfaction plays the mediating role between the discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. This hypothesis is also checked by the mediation test the result is shown in the table 8 which shows that this hypothesis is not supported. It means that job satisfaction is not mediating between discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. The eights hypothesis that was developed is that salary gap has negative impact on the employee productivity. The hypothesis is not supported as it is checked by regression test which is shown in the table 6. It has negative impact but it is not significant means that if gap is more in salary then employee productivity decreases but not significantly. The ninth hypothesis is that salary gap is negatively related with job commitment. The hypothesis is checked with the correlation which is shown in the table 5 of correlation which shows that the relation between these two variables is negative. So salary gap reduces the job commitment of female employees. The next hypothesis that is developed is that the job commitment is positively related with the employee productivity. The relation is checked with the correlation and hypothesis is supported because results show that there is positive relation between salary gap and job commitment and it is significant. It means more job commitment the more employee productivity. The next hypothesis is that job commitment mediated the relation between the salary gap and employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked by the mediation test and it is not supported. The results show that job commitment does not play a mediating role between salary gap and employee productivity. The t test is also applied to check that whether the level of variables is also applicable on the population. The results are shown in the table 9. This table shows that all the values of p are significant so the level is also the same as the population. The level of job commitment is also checked in the three population related to different income groups that is below 30,000, 30,000-40,000 and more than 40,000. For this purpose the ANOVA is applied but for ANOVA the assumption of levene test should be fulfilled that is its value should be insignificant. The table 10 shows that levene test assumption is not fulfilled so the non-parametric test is used. The non-parametric test is the Kruskal-Willis test. This test is applied and the hypothesis is rejected as its asymptotic value is not significant. So it means that the there is no significant difference between the job commitment of females who are earning less than 30000, 30000-40000 and more than 40000. 7. Implication Through this study the impact of gender discrimination is checked on the employee productivity. The productivity of an employee is much important for an organization. So the management should consider the issue of gender discrimination as it is shown that the gender discrimination has negative impact on the employee productivity. As our sector for this research is the private education institutes which are very important sector for a developing countries so the management should consider reforming its policies. The management should make transparent, merit based recruitment and selection, it should also provide the training for better performance of female employee so that they can be promoted, they could be provided similarly facilities and different incentive so that they compete economically with the men as all these discriminations are effecting their productivity. 8. Limitation This study was only focused to the three dimensions of gender discrimination and employee productivity is the only variable that is measured that effect the productivity of organization. This research was only examining the education sector and the data was collected only from private institutions. The data was also 140 and it was collected only from the schools that are in the city area the educations institutes in the village was not collected so therefore the ability of generalizability of our findings were restricted and this can lead us to the biasness of respondents (Paul et al., 2003). 9. Conclusion This study provided an insight that how the dimensions of gender discrimination affect the productivity of employee. The data has been collected from different private education institutes through questionnaire. After the analysis that we have done on SPSS we can conclude that gender discrimination has a negative impact on the employee productivity which ultimately affect the performance of employee. The result of impact of salary gap on the employee productivity is not significant. So if the organizations want to perform well then they should keep the gender discrimination out of their organizations in order to make their female employees perform well which will be beneficial for the organization. 10. References Channar, Z. A. (2011). Gender Discrimination in Workforce and its Impact. Pak. J. Commer. Soc. Sci, Vol. 5, pp. 177-191. Dixit, V. (2012). A Study about Employee Commitment and its impact. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Vol. 1, pp. 34-51. Abbas, S. M. (2010). Gender Based Wage Discrimination and Its Impact on Performance of Blue Collar Workers: Evidence. KASBIT Business Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 45-63. Hiau, Joo. Kee. (2008) Glass ceiling or sticky floor exploring the Australian gender pay gap. The Economic Record, Vol. 82, No.59, pp. 408-427. Foley, S. (2005). Perceptions of Discrimination and Justice: Are there Gender Differences in Outcomes? Group Organization Management, Vol. 30, pp. 421-452. Ashraf, J, and B. Ashraf (1993) Estimating the Gender Wage Gap in Rawalpindi City. Journal of Development Studies 29:2. Ensher, E. A., Grant-Vallone, E. J., Donalson, S. I. (2001). Effects of perceived discrimination on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and grievances. Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 12, pp. 53-72. Prudence Pollard, Maxine Taylor and Noba Daher, Health Care Manager; Jan-Mar2007, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p52-63, 12p, 4 charts Ensher, E. A. (2011). Effects of Perceived discrimination on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour and grievances. Human resource development quarterly, Vol. 1. Coomber B, Barriball KL. 2007†Impact of job satisfactions on intent to leave and turnover for hospital based nurses: a review of the research literature†, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Vol. 44, pp. 297-314. Joanne Healy and Zucca J. Linda Mid-American Journal of Business; Spring2004, Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp. 55-62. Sen, Amartya, 1999, Assessing Human Development Special Contribution Human Development Report 1999 (New York: UNDP). Shah, Parveen. Memon, Rajab. A. (2004). Socio-economic and demographic status of rural women in Sindh. Proceedings of the international conference on social sciences: endangered and engendered, Fatima Jinnah women university, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, pp. 98-113. Nick, Foster. (1999) another ‘glass ceiling’? The experiences of women professionals and managers on international assignments, Gender, Work and Organization, Blackwell publisher’s ltd., Vol. 6, no. 2, pp.79-89. United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), 2004, Programme of Action: Adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo 1994 Wayne, F. Casico, (1995) Managing Human Resource, Productivity, Quality of work life, Profits, McGraw hill Internationals, 4th ed. pp. 61-116. Susan, Trentham. Laurie, Larwood, (1998) Gender discrimination and the workplace: an examination of rational bias theory, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Jan, 1998, pp. 1-22. Sanchez, J. I., Brock, P. (1996). Outcomes of perceived discrimination among Hispanic employees: Is diversity management a luxury or a necessity? Academy of Management Journal, 39 (3), 704–719. 11. Appendices Questionnaire We are students of B.sc (Hons) Accounting Finance, currently doing a research project on gender discrimination and its Impact on employee’s performance for which the questionnaire is being distributed to collect empirical data. Therefore you are kindly requested to fill this questionnaire. The information will be kept confidential and will be used for only academic Purpose it will take 15-20 min to complete the data. Thank you in anticipation (Strongly Disagree = 1, Strongly Agree = 5) Employee Productivity

The Issues Of The Miscommunication Cultural Studies Essay

The Issues Of The Miscommunication Cultural Studies Essay Among the problems faced to modern culture, there is one that is gradually becoming a defining factor in cross-cultural relations. The speech is going about miscommunication that is more and more form the style of the cultural processes of modernity. Miscommunication as the opposite side of understanding is one of the measurements in the process of communication between different cultures. However, the global conflict of cultures, witnesses, accomplices and the judges of which we are was generated by the lack of understanding of an unprecedented scale and intensity. And this lack of understanding beneath our eyes becomes more important in comparison to all other dimensions of communication within different cultures. I would like to discuss the problem of miscommunication in this project and use my own experience as an illustration of a communication breakdown between myself and a person from another culture. The main goals of my project are to explain and discuss how cultural miscommunication influences on our life, and to prove a thesis that miscommunication between different cultures and nations could be overcame through the specific knowledge and respect to a person whom we are communicating with. First of all in the frames of this paper it is necessary to mention that real conflict takes place under special circumstances: in a state of globality. The state of globality is characterized by the activity of an already established and effective global society, where the contours of conventional cultures are broken. Actually, no culture, ethnic group, nation, country or group of countries can no longer pretend that it is separated from the rest of the world and its affairs are internal problems that do not relate to any of the foreigners. It turned out that there are no foreigners at all: theyre gone in the sense that the culture had lost its previous, well-defined boundaries, and therefore alien and own largely mixed up, changed its previous topology and geography. In the modern world ethical issues, and, in particular, issues of ethnic identity and ethnic prejudice achieved its culmination: the linguistic, cultural, status and other differences have become a stumbling block for the peaceful coexistence of many ethnic groups. Defining the term miscommunication we should say that according to Gudykunst (2003), As serious psychological barriers in the process of cross-cultural communication the so-called ethnic stereotypes acts as relatively stable representation of the moral, mental, physical and other qualities of the representatives of different ethnic communities. Every person is a member of a certain ethnic group, and he or she consciously or subconsciously divides all people into ones own (belonging to the same ethnic group) and outsiders (members of other ethnic groups). According to Gumperz ( 1982) we see that on the verbal level culturological sign of somebodys own or someone else is manifested in the semantics of the various nominative units: lexemes, phraseological units, syntactic structures, proverbs, small-format texts (for example, anecdotes and jokes). Thinking about my own communication breakdown with a person from another culture I should say that it was connected with one dialogue misunderstanding. The person whom I communicated with was sure that only old people could be good advice-givers and young people should only listen to them and have no right on own decision of the problem. In that moment I forgot about cultural differences between us (my opponent is a Muslim and they respect old people more than other nations) and tried to prove that every person should has a right on own opinion and it is not a right position always only to listen to somebodys words. Thus, it was the hot debate between us and as a result each of us was disappointed and even upset about result of our conversation. Only now I understood that both of us were wrong, because we used different cultural languages and we made several mistakes in our conversation. I would like to say that this example of miscommunication is rather simple, and it even has an or dinary character, but exactly such simple situations lead in future to hard consequences, when one cultural groups consider other groups bad educated and rude. Thus, I would like to look on this problem of cultural miscommunication through the prism of my new knowledge about this question and demonstrate a solution for this situation. In the beginning of this part of my project I would like to say that all people should work for constructive dialogue between each other. It is a well-known fact that the entire history of humanity is a dialogue. Dialogue permeates our whole lives. It considers a tool for the implementation of communication links, the condition of mutual understanding. Fitzgerald (1996) admitted that the interaction of cultures and their dialogue is the most favorable ground for the development of interethnic and international relations. Conversely, when the society feels inter-ethnic tension and even, ethnic conflict, the dialogue between cultures is difficult, the interaction of cultures may be limited in the field of inter-ethnic tensions of these nations, bearers of these cultures. I understood that processes of cultural interaction are more complicated than we naively once thought; it was a theory that cultural dialogue is nothing more than simple transfer of the achievements of a highly devel oped culture in the less developed, which in its turn logically leads to the conclusion of the interaction of cultures as a source of progress. Now is actively studied the question of boundaries of culture, its core and periphery. I like Ting-Toomey (1999) words who said that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ These words forced us to stop be rude and to respect other people. On my opinion every person should respect the point of view of another person and be patient during their communication. In my case cultural miscommunication was not only a result of different attitude to one problem, but also it was provoked by the lack of patience and respect to each other. We forgot one simple truth stated by Van Dijk (1997) who said that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Muslims are people who are marked by the culture from their birth and their specific traditions are sometimes strange for me, but it is not a reason to say that their culture is good or bad. I know that these people are different and their religion is different, but I even like them, because their historical, geographical and ethnic elements combine in an unique and original way. Thinking about my situation I have read one interesting advice about how to avoid miscommunication in future and according to Lawrence (1999) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ It means that we should use the space of variations around us and think about other possibilities to interpret information in proper way. By keeping our mind free from stereotypes and open to additional possibilities of the information understanding we can prevent future miscommunication conflict from happening. Also it is necessary to add that when a person became an initiator of a miscommunication conflict the simplest thing is to say: I am sorry for the miscommunication which has lead to this situation, but the simplest way is not always the right way. On my opinion it is necessary firstly to take into account opponents cultural specificity and only then to discuss with the person some sharp questions or situations. I want also to listen to words said by Arcidiacono (2010) who thinks à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Taking into account my own problem in communication and information from different readings I want to say that the first thing that should be used for overcoming miscommunication is a dialogue. Of course, at the beginning of the conversation, as it was above mentioned, it is necessary to say sorry for miscommunication and then to speak with a person in respectful and polite manner. Forthcoming manner could save many debates and dialogue is a communication with the culture, the realization and reproduction of its achievements, it is the discovery and understanding of the values of other cultures, the possibility of removing political, religious or other tensions between nations and ethnic groups. It is necessary to remember that dialogue is a necessary condition for scientific search for truth and the creative process in art. Dialogue is a way for understanding of own I-image and possibility to commu nicate with others in proper constructive way. I even think that dialogue between cultures can act as a conciliating factor that prevents the emergence of wars and conflicts. It can reduce social tensions and to create an environment of trust and mutual respect. The notion of dialogue is especially true for modern culture and it will help contemporary society to avoid miscommunication. The very process of interaction is a dialogue, and forms of interaction present different kinds of dialogic relations. The idea of dialogue has developed in the deep past. Ancient texts of Indian culture are filled with the idea of unity of cultures and peoples, macro-and microcosm, musings that human health depends largely on the quality of this relationship with the environment, from the consciousness of the power of beauty, understanding how the universe reflected in our being. Basing on my researches I came to the conclusion that the influence of one culture to another is realized only if the necessary conditions exist for such influence. Dialogue between two cultures is possible only when a certain convergence of cultural codes and the existence or occurrence of a common mentality have a place. Dialogue of cultures is a penetration into the system of values of a culture, respect to them, overcoming stereotypes, the synthesis of original and other nationalities, leading to mutual enrichment and integration into the global cultural context. In the dialogue of cultures is important to see the universal values of cultural interaction. One of the main objective contradictions inherent in all cultures is the contradiction between the development of national cultures and their convergence. Therefore, the need for dialogue between cultures is a prerequisite for self-preservation of mankind. A form of spiritual unity is the result of the dialogue of contemporary culture. To sum up, I would like to say that in this research project I have discussed the problem of miscommunication and demonstrated its solution. There were also discussed cultural differences and their influences on our life. I strongly believe that dialogue between cultures was and remains central point in the development of mankind. Throughout the centuries and millennia occurred mutual enrichment of cultures that make up the unique mosaic of human civilization. I agree that the process of interaction and dialogue between cultures is complex and uneven, but only people who are ready go through all difficulties and hardships could be considered communication genii.

Appropriateness Of Ones Behaviour Psychology Essay

Appropriateness Of Ones Behaviour Psychology Essay In this chapter the research methodology used in the study is described. The location/ geographical area where the study was conducted, the study design and the population and sample are described. The instruments used to collect the data, including methods implemented to maintain validity and reliability of the instrument are described. RESEARCH DESIGN AND APPROACH Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted. According to Burns and Grove (1993), quantitative research is asystematic, formal, and objective process used to test and describe relationships. Quantitative approach is used to determineeffect and cause interactions among different variables. Qualitative research design on the other hand is a subjective and systematic approach useful in describing life experiences and giving them meaning. Qualitative approach is vital in in-depth exploration that helps to gain insight, complexity and richness in the inherent phenomenon. Due to the positivist nature of the research, this study adopted a deductive approach (Saunders et al, 2007). This approach represents the most common view of the relationship between theory and research, and results gotten from this approach are developed through logical reasoning (Bryman and Bell, 2007). The data findings were compared against existing literature to ascertain if they concur with what has already been published in the field of online recruitment. Surveys were also used for exploratory,descriptive and explanatory research.A descriptive survey design was used. According to Mouton (1996), a survey is used to collect original data for describing a populationthat is too large to observe directly. A survey helps to obtain information from a population sample bymeans of self-report. Survey design allows the respondents and the sample population to respond to a series of structured and well-designed questions posed by the researcher (PolitHungler 1993). In this study the information was collected through interviews, and structured questionnairesadministered to the subjects by the researcher. A descriptive survey was selected because it provides an accurate representation or explanation of the various elements and characteristics;these would include such examples asbehaviour, abilities,opinions,knowledge, and beliefs of a particular situation,individual,or group. This design was chosen to meet the objectives of the study. ACCESS AND RESEARCH SETTING The ability to gather primary data during this study was dependent on gaining access to an appropriate source within the organization. The level to which this source is appropriate relies on the research question, related objectives and research designs (Saunders et al, 2007). Therefore, the researcher, as a friend of an employee within the organization, was in a favourable position to get access within the organization. The researcher contacted his friend who as per the research duration was working within graduate recruitment at Lloyds TSB. The researcher together with the friend discussed the prospects of the dissertation. The friend spoke to several of her colleagues on behalf of the researcher and they consented and allowed the researcher to conduct telephone interviews with four (4) members of the graduate recruitment team, some of which had been there for an average of 5 10 years (reasons expatiated further in this chapter). Due to the non-intrusive nature of the research, there were no objections or limitations raised by the participants with regards to the questions asked or the purpose of the study. DATA COLLECTION Sampling Method Based on the research objectives and the issues to be investigated, it would have been most appropriate if all recruitment staffs within the organization were interviewed. However, due to the time constraints and resource limitations inherent in this study, a non-probability sample of the population was selected. Saunders et al (2007) asserts that a non-probability sample is most often used when adopting a case study strategy. According to Oppenheim(2000), a non-probability sample refers to a sample in which the probability of each case being selected from the total population is not known. The samples of graduates that were chosen to partake in the quantitative study are too small to constitute a probability sample of graduates within London or United Kingdom (UK). Also, the number of employees within Lloyds who took part in the qualitative study was not high enough to constitute a significant portion of the recruitment department within Lloyds TSB. Therefore the study focused more on the quantitative facts of the perception of recruitment within the organization, as opposed to theories expressed in the literature review, and what graduates on the outside thought of online recruitment. Primary Data Collection In collecting data that could be analysed using quantitative means, Easterby-Smith et al (2008) claims that researchers could collect either primary or secondary data. He further claims that though each of these means have their merits and demerits, the collection of ones own data gives control over the structure of the sample and the data obtained from each respondent. It also gives greater confidence that the data collected would match the research objectives. The researcher therefore chose to collect primary data from 20 graduates using questionnaires distributed-in-person to each respondent. This was done amongst friends and colleagues within the university who have utilized online recruitment systems. Data from the semi-structured interviews were collected using a tape recorder, and the conversations with all four employees would be transcribed word for word, and expression for expression. The advantages inherent in this approach is that it allows the researcher to document and see patterns in words and emotions that would not be available if other forms of interviews were conducted. Data Collection Instrument Questionnaires and Interviews were chosen as data collection instruments. A questionnaire is a printed self-report form designed to elicit information that can be obtained through the written responses of the subjects. Theinformation obtained through a questionnaire is similar to that obtained by an interview, but the questionstend to have less depth (Burns Grove, 1993). Data would be collected with the aid of questionnaires to evaluate the sample populations knowledgeand views on research objectives. Questionnaires were decided upon because of the following: They ensured a high response rate as the questionnaires were distributed to respondents to completeand were collected personally by the researcher. They required less time and energy to administer. They offered the possibility of anonymity because subjects names were not be required on the completedquestionnaires There was less opportunity for bias as they were presented in a consistent manner. Most of the items in the questionnaires were closed, which made it easier to compare the responses toeach item Apart from the advantages that have been listed above, questionnaires have their weaknesses; forexample, there is the question of validity and accuracy (Burns Grove, 1993). The subjects might notreflect their true opinions but might answer what they think will please the researcher, and valuableinformation may be lost as answers are usually brief. To counter the weaknesses of the questionnaires in data collection, interviews were used to enhance validity and accuracy. The researcher interviewed the selected staff based on the duties and responsibilities of the staff in the organization. The questionnaires consisted mostly of closed-ended questionsand a few open-ended questions, as these provide more diverse detail. In the open-ended questions, thesubjects were required to respond in writing, whereas closed-ended questions had options which weredetermined by the researcher (Burns Grove, 1993). Open-ended questions were included becausethey allow subjects to respond to questions in their own words and provide more detail. Closed-endedquestions were included because they are easier to administer and to analyze. They are also more efficientin the sense that a respondent is able to complete more closed-ended items than open-ended items in agiven period of time (PolitHungler, 1993). The respondentswere given the assurance that the answers would never be able to link theirresponses to them at the stage of data analysis, therefore ensuring anonymity. RESEARCH STRATEGY This study adopted a case study strategy in answering the research question. Robson (2002) asserts that the case study strategy would be useful if the aim of the study is to gain a rich understanding of the research perspective and the process being endorsed. Therefore as this study aims to understand the recruitment process within Lloyds TSB and also any benefits associated with online recruitment, a case study would be most effective. Two separate yet parallel approaches were utilized in this study, and are outlined in the table 1 below. Table 1: Research Strategy STRATEGY AIM SAMPLE TYPE OF QUESTIONS METHOD OF ANALYSIS Quantitative questionnaire Quantify graduates perception of what constitutes an effective recruitment platform 10 graduates who have applied to one or more organizations through their online system. Closed rating scale questions, and nominal data. Descriptive analysis (bar chart, pie chart and line charts). Qualitative semi-structured interviews This was done in order to ascertain the benefits associated with online recruitment. 4 members of the recruitment staff within Lloyds TSB, who have been in the organization for more than 5 years Structured questionnaires. Open questions Content analysis Quantitative Questionnaire Quantitative methods are mainly used in the data collection process of research. It involves data that is either in the form of, or expressed as numbers (Easterby-Smith et al, 2008). The quantitative questionnaires were handed out to 10 graduates and undergraduates. The questionnaire was mainly designed with rating scale questions, where respondents were asked to state their opinion or preference for a particular question on a scale of 1 5. Secondary nominal data was also included in order to ascertain the respondents status, application activity and preference. The quantitative questionnaire distributed to respondents is outlined in appendix. Quantitative questionnaires are useful as the results derived are quantifiable and measurable against other variables in an objective manner (Saunders et al, 2007). Qualitative Semi Structured Interviews Following the access grant to four members of the recruitment team within the organization, 15 20 minute qualitative telephone interviews were carried out. A semi-structured interview is a qualitative interview that is defined by a pre-set question guide. It aims to provide in-depth findings through informal discussions with participants (Collis and Hussey, 2003). This interview method was chosen over unstructured or structured interviews, because this study intends to answer the research questions by asking specific questions, but not so much (unstructured) that it generates useless data, and not so less (structured) so as not to miss out on any unanticipated information. The interview questions in the semi-structured interview are in appendix. The themes utilized in this study were derived mainly from the literature review and were crucial in developing the questions that were raised during the study. The semi-structured approach also provided the researcher with the ability to probe answers. Answer probing was particularly useful in responses whereby more explanation was needed in order to fully understand the answers. Due to the recent adaptation of online recruitment, the semi structured interviews was targeted at members of the team who had witnessed or orchestrated the shift towards online recruitment, that way these respondents would be better able to answer questions that relate to the comparison of both methods. Also, members of the online recruitment team being interviewed had different positions within recruitment and handled separate tasks. The questionnaires were given to them beforehand, when the approval was first sought, and each respondent chose the questions that they were more qualified to respond to. Therefore the research was such that all respondents answered some questions, while some others were answered by a particular individual because of their knowledge of that process. Table 2 outlines the respondent details and their interview theme. Table 2: Interview Respondents and Questions asked Respondent Fictional Name Role Years in Lloyds Subjects Covered R1 Alice Graduate Events Manager 2 Effectiveness, Disadvantages R2 Martha Application Review 7 Background, Adoption, Effectiveness, Disadvantages R3 Nick Finance and Budgeting 9 Adoption, Effectiveness, Efficiency R4 Chloe Media Advertisement 3 Effectiveness, Advertisement Each respondent were asked for their consent to interview, prior to the interview sessions, and also requested not to have their names mentioned so as to prevent any form of organizational backlash if the contents of the study were interpreted in any other non-academic form, and distributed. They have therefore been given fictional names, so as to make the research more readable. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY Reliability Polit and Hungler (1993) refer to reliability as the degree of consistency with which an instrument measures the attribute it is designed to measure. The data collection techniques administered to the sample population was used to revealconsistency in responses. Reliability was ensured by minimizing sources of measurement error like data collector bias. Data collector bias was minimized by the researchers being the only one who administered the data collection techniques, and standardizing conditions such as exhibiting similar personal attributes to all respondents, for example friendliness and support.The physical and psychological environment where data was collected was made comfortable by ensuringprivacy, confidentiality and general physical comfort.The subjects wereat their convenient and comfortable venues including free and fresh air circulations. Theresearcher remained in the neighbourhood with the subjects. Conditions were considered tomaintain privacy and prevent interrupti ons. Subjects were requested not to write their names on the data collection instruments to ensure confidentiality. Validity The validity of an instrument is the degree to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure(PolitHungler, 1993). Content validity refers to the extent to which an instrument represents thefactors under study. To achieve content validity, the instruments used included a variety of questions on theknowledge of correspondents about the research topic, objectives and questions. Questions were based on the information gathered during the literature review to ensure that they wererepresentative of what correspondentscould know about the research topic. Content validity was further ensured by consistency in administering the instruments of data collection. All instruments were administered to the subjects by the researcher personally. The questions were formulated in simple language for clarity andease of understanding. Clear instructions were given to the subjects and the researcher was readily available to answer questions raised by the correspondents in the course of responding to the research questions. The subjects were requested to complete the questionnaires and respond to the questions in the presence of the researcher. This was done to preventsubjects from giving questionnaires to other people to complete on their behalf. For validation, thequestionnaires were submitted to the research supervisor for review. As a result questions were refined to ensure higher representativeness. Rephrasing of some questions were done to clarify thequestions and more appropriate alternative response choices were added to the closed-ended questions toprovide for meaningful data analysis (Burns Grove, 1993). External validity was ensured. Burns and Grove (1993) refer to external validity as the extent to whichstudy findings can be generalized beyond the sample used. All the persons approached to participate in thestudycompleted the questionnaires. No single person who was approached refused to participate.Generalizing the findings to all members of the population was thereforejustified.Seeking subjects who are willing to participate in a study can be difficult, particularly if the study requiresextensive amounts of time or other types of investment by subjects. If the number of the personsapproached to participate in a study declines, generalising the findings to all members of a population is not easy to justify. The study was well planned to limit the investment demands on subjects in order toincrease participation.As the percentage of those who decline to take part in the study increases, external validity decreases (Burns Grove 1993:270). PRE-TESTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE A pre-test refers to a trial administration of an instrument to identify flaws. When a questionnaire or an interview schedule is used asa data gathering instrument, it is necessary to determine whether the questions and directions are clear tosubjects and whether they understand what is required from them. This is referred to as the pretesting of aquestionnaire (PolitHungler 1995:38, 711).The researcher was able to pre-test the questionnaires and the interview schedules to ensure that the instruments meet the set criteria.All of the samples approached to pre-test the instruments were asked to answer the questions and necessary changes made based on the findings of the pre-test. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS Blumberg, et al (2005) describes ethics as referring to the appropriateness of ones behaviour in relation to the rights of those who become the subject of a research project. A number of ethical issues have been identified and raised with respect to this study. The issues and steps taken to alleviate such issues are discussed below: The company may be secretive about some aspects of its online recruitment, such as the quantity of graduates and marketing techniques to attract graduates, which it may not like its competitors to know about. Employees responding to semi structured interviews may not be so willing to discuss their personal opinion of the banks recruitment system, or the quality of graduates received through their channels, in case their response does not really conform to the brand and reputation that the organization is trying to build (for instance, the bank may pose as an equal opportunity organization that employs from diverse backgrounds, whereas they mostly only recruit students from top Oxbridge universities with a certain background). Information such as this could pose difficulties if the bank eventually decides to broaden its pool of candidates and employ people from varying backgrounds. Apart from these ethical considerations, no other ethical dilemmas have been found with relation to this research. Therefore, in order to alleviate these issues, the questionnaire and interviews were designed in such a way that it does not offend, harm, provoke or stress any of the participants in any way. Questions asked would be non-intrusive as no personal information about names; age or post would be requested. Information about specific applicant quality and demographics of applicants recruitment would not be sought.Also, in terms of graduate questionnaires that have been distributed, some candidates may think that answering these questions and including personal details may impede or even benefit them when applying to said organizations. Therefore the questionnaires would fully state that it is an academic research and in no way constitutes a study conducted by the organization. Integrity, honesty, expertise and diligence are key ingredients in conducting of research. This isuseful to protect and recognise the ethics and human rights of the respondents. The key ethical consideration observed in this study included anonymity, informed consent, confidentiality and rights to self-determination. Written permission and respondents consent were obtained prior before the respondents responded to the research instruments. Burns and Grove (1993)define informed consent as the prospective respondents agreement to participate voluntarily in a study, whichis reached after assimilation of essential information about the study. The subjects were informed of theirrights to voluntarily consent or decline to participate, and to withdraw participation at any time withoutpenalty.Subjects were informed about the purpose of the study; the procedures used to collect thedata, and assured that there were no potential risks or costs involved. Anonymity and confidentiality were observed and maintained throughout the study. Burns and Grove (1993) defineanonymity as when subjects cannot be linked, even by the researcher, with his or her individual responses. In this study anonymity was ensured by not disclosing the respondents name on the data collection instruments, research reports and detaching the written consent from the questionnaire.In this study, confidentiality was maintained by keeping the collected data confidential and not revealing the subjects identities whenreporting the study (Burns Grove 1993). No identifying information was entered onto the data collection instruments, and the instrumentswere only numbered after data had been collected (PolitHungler1995:139). The ethical principle of self-determination was also maintained. Subjects were treated as autonomousagents by informing them about the study and allowing them to voluntarily choose to participate or not.Lastly, information was provided about the researcher in the event of further questions or complaints.Scientific honesty is regarded as a very important ethical responsibility when conducting research.Dishonest conduct includes manipulation of design and methods, and retention or manipulation of data(Brink 1996). The researcher tried to avoid any form of dishonesty by recording truthfully the answers given during interviews. The researcher was with integrity of heart and sincerity produced the results with the necessary supervision to avoid subjective collaboration. Theopen-ended questions which were beanalysed by the researcher were also checked by the supervisor forconfirmation of credibility. ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH FINDINGS Quantitative Data The quantitative data collected during the course of this study, whilst still in its raw form, is described by Saunders et al (2007) as being useless and conveying little information to most people. Universites, which are total sample distributions of one variable at a time (Oppenheim, 2005) was utilised in analysing the frequency and percentage occurrence of each variable; including both ordinal and nominal, category and rating scale questions. However, an in-depth correlation or bivariate analysis was not conducted due to the low number of graduate respondents, and also due to the fact that the study was mainly concerned with the viewpoint of the organization, and not necessarily that of the graduates. Results would be analysed using Excel and graphs would be drawn out to analyse all data with the aim of comparing them to the qualitative study. Qualitative Data Yin (2002) suggests that in studies whereby the research question has been formulated based on the literature review; these theories that have been used in the postulation of the research question could also be used in analysing the findings. Thereby, suggesting that a deductive approach to data analysis would be essential for theoretical driven studies. Based on these arguments, this study analysed the qualitative findings using deductive methods. The findings from each respondent and questionnaire theme were analysed according to the literature review topics discussed. In the instance whereby different respondents had something to say about a particular issue, all their opinions were recorded and taking into consideration in the analysis of findings. A fact sheet of all findings according to the theory is illustrated in chapter 4. Full transcripts of the interview are in the appendix. The pattern matching procedure, as postulated by Saunders et al, (2007)were utilized in this deductive analysis. It involves predicting a pattern of outcomes based on theoretical propositions. These propositions are thereby analysed in the data analysis process. This procedure involves the development of an analytical framework, utilizing existing theory, and then testing the adequacies of the framework as a means of explaining the findings (Saunders et al, 2007). In the instance where a pattern is found as initially predicted, it would be evidence that suggests that there is indeed an explanation for findings.