Customer service Tesco’s customer expectations Essay

An accurate description of the basic characteristics of the different customers and their needs and an explanation of what is meant by customer service in the context of my chosen organisation Customer service is the degree of assistance and courtesy granted those who patronize an organisation. Customer service describes the extent to which Tesco satisfy their customers. All Tesco customers have their own individual needs. Each individual customer likes to be provided with different services to make them self feel more comfortable. Tesco core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. Tesco believe its success depends on people, the people that shop with them and people that work with them. If Tesco customers like what Tesco offer, they are more likely to go back and shop with Tesco again and if the team find what Tesco do rewarding, they are more likely to go extra mile to help Tesco’s customers. Tesco regularly ask its customers and staff what they can do to make shopping and working with Tesco a little bit better. Tesco customers have told them they want clear aisles in order to get what they want at a good price, no queues and great staff. Tesco use its every little helps shopping trip for customers every day in order to ensure they are always working hard to make Tesco a better place to shop, at home and abroad. Tesco staff have told Tesco that it is important to them to be treated with respect, having managers that helps them, having interesting job and an opportunity to get on. Tesco helping to achieve what is important to its staff will help Tesco to deliver every little helps shopping trip for its customers. Tesco aim is to attract as many customers as possible and keep exisiting customers. If Tesco manage to achieve these aim, it will maintain or increase its turnover and make the profits it requires. A good customer service is one of the main ways for Tesco to succeed. The first step Tesco must take is to provide good quality product because if the products on sale are not of sufficiently high quality, customers will stop buying after some time. Before Tesco decide on what service to provide, Tesco must understand clearly its customers’ expectations. Tesco recognised the need to provide staff training and set up systems to ensure customers’ expectactions are met. Tesco’s customer expectations 1. Good value products: if Tesco do not offer good value products, it will lose customers. Tesco like to keep a close watch on prices charged by rivals in order to make sure that their own prices are competitive. 2. Clear and honest information: Tesco’s customers like to know the prices that they are expected to pay. They also want to know about any extra costs. Having hidden charges is not a good customer service for Tesco. 3. Efficient ordering systems: good quality customer service means that Tesco customers want to receive products soon after ordering them. Example of this is Tesco using order tracking systems on their websites. This will tell customers when the products they have ordered will be despatched. 4. After-sales-services: this include products such refrigerators, televisions breaking down. After sales services include repairs and replacement of faulty products. Tesco’s customers expect such repairs to be carried out quickly and efficiently and faulty products to be replaced without delay. 5. Dealing quickly with inquiries: Tesco should always reply promptly to complaints about poor service or low quality products. Tesco’s customers expect to be given telephone numbers and addresses where they can contact customer service when necessary or direct them to the customer service desk. Good customer service means keeping customers happy. Tesco may offer competitive prices, have helpful and friendly staff and respond quickly to customer complaints. Offering good customer service also helps Tesco to be competitive. Terry Leahy the chief executive of Tesco said that good customer service helps Tesco to compete successfully with other supermarkets. An explanation using appropriate examples, of how the organisation uses customer service to meet customer needs. Including the strategic objectives of the organisation Tesco customer service involves identifying and meeting customers needs in the most effective way. Effective customer service is very important to Tesco and it will help Tesco to meet its aims and objectives. Tesco will use effective customer service to attract new customers and retain existing customers. Tesco aim to achieve continuous improvements in its customer service so that they can gain competitive advantage. Tesco’s customer service offers a wide range of services to its customers, this include providing information, giving advice, providing assistance, after sales services and service for disabled customers. Tesco provides different information to its customers. For example Tesco’s website contains information about Tesco’s history, Tesco careers, Tesco financial information, how to shop online and so on. Tesco offer a wide range of advices to new and existing customers for example Tesco staff can help customers to choose a product. Tesco can help its customers in different ways; example of this is helping disabled people with their shopping. Tesco’s after sales services include handling and dealing with customer’s complaint. Tesco aim to provide high level of service to its customers. Tesco is always willing to hear from customers that are not satisfy, this matters can be shared with staff members face to face, by letter or by telephone. This year Tesco is sponsoring the 2006 Tommy’s Angel Award. This award will be presented to individual that deserves special rocongition for helping someone through a difficult pregnancy or a parenting promblem of any kind. The winner will be presented with a prize at the star studded Tommy’s parent frendly awards ceremony held at an exclusive London venue. Tesco has been voted Tommy’s most parent friendly supermarket for the third year running. Tesco knows how important it is to make shopping with a child as easy as possible, that’s why Tesco work really hard to offer its customers with the following parent friendly services. 1. Toiletries: Tesco offer a range of toddler wipes and toiletries which enable toddlers to start learning to do every day tasks themselves. 2. Parent and child parking: which is dedicated parent and child parking spaces, where possible located near the store for easier and safer access. 3. Trolleys: Tesco provides trolleys that carry car seats so that baby can stay in its carrier whilst the parent shop. Tesco also supply trolley wips to ensure the trolley is clean and hygienic. 4. Instore cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½: many of Tesco larger stores have cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s with healthier options available for children, these include sandwiches, fruit, jacket potatoes. Tesco also offer toddler cutlery, high chairs, bottle and food warming services. 5. Bag packing: Tesco provides customer assistants to help pack the parent’s shopping bags. 6. Queues: Tesco aim to open another till until all the checkouts are open is there’s more than one person in front of parents. 7. Umbrellas: Tesco provides umbrellas for customers to take out to their car if it’s raining. 8. Help: Tesco helps to take shoppings to the customer’s car if the customer can’t take it themselves. 9. Assisted shopping: Tesco helps customers with their shopping if they need a hand. 10. Baby clothing: Tesco offer an extensive range of exceptional quality, 100% cotton clothing which is machine washable and tumble dryable. 11. Baby changing rooms: many of Tesco’s larger stores have baby changing rooms and also provides free nappies. 12. Pharmacy: Tesco provides expert advise from its pharmacists, dispensing service, time saving repeat prescription service, full range of over the counter medicines, consulting rooms if customers need privacy. 13. Petrol at customer’s convenience: provides new pay at pump option, so customers don’t have to leave their baby alone in the car when they go to the till, offer competitive fuel prices in customer’s area, earn clubcard points on all petrol and automotive products. 14. Kids club: provide kids club for free for children between 5-8 years old, keep them entertained with fun and games in the clubzone magazine, plus exclusive offers, coupons and advice for busy parents. 15. Baby and Toddler club: Tesco baby and toddler club is a series of 10 segmented magazines which track baby’s lifestage, from pregnancy through to five years old. Tesco provide expert advice, top tips and money off coupons. If a customer was using a trolley and it broke down and would cause risk to the customer, depending on the physical status of the customer, he or she would want to be treated differently. If a customer had an illness or some sort of medical problem they would want to be treated in a way that they would be most comfortable. All Tesco customers would want their information to be kept private and safe so that when they buy products with debit or credit cards, their information will not be given out so Tesco have a database protection act where any customers information cannot be viewed by anyone that hasn’t got authority. Tesco have to provide staff who can meet targets of different customer service. If a customer is looking for Tesco manager they would expect to be referred to the person correctly including where and when the person can be found. Some of Tesco customers may not understand English and will find it hard to understand what the staff says so it is the responsibility of Tesco to provide different staff with different languages. Tesco can also provide signs and maps in different languages so that it will be easy for the customers to understand. If a staff does not speak the language that a customer understand, the customer should be refer to another staff that can speak the same language as the customer. Tesco have different customers with different needs. For example disabled people should be helped with their shopping, a blind person alone should be escorted around with a member of staff or Tesco can have sign that are brailed so that this will make it easy for blind customers. Customer service includes a variety of tasks but the crucial importance is for Tesco to keep its existing customers and gain new ones. All forms of customer service require communication between the provider of goods or services and the customer or potential customer. All Tesco member of staff dealing with customers must have specific skills and understand the importance of a number of aspects of the front line activity which includes: customer behaviour, modes of communication, interpersonal skills, telephone manner, technological skills and product knowledge. Customer behaviour: when dealing with customers, it is important to realise that different people react differently and that a customer’s response is frequently a direct result of the attitude and behaviour of the person they are dealing with. This includes not only appreciating the reasons for an individual customer’s behaviour on a particular occasion, but understanding the reactions of people in situations which are often quite stressful, as when seeking information that is difficult to obtain, asking for assistance or making a complaint. Modes of communication: many different modes of communication may be used in customer service which includes; written, verbal, non-verbal, face-to-face that is body language. Written communication: can be by letter, fax or e-mail. It should always be remembered that letters written to customers on behalf of Tesco are formal and all the rules of formal letter writing must apply. The customer’s name and address must be correct and the contents of the letter should be clearly laid out, brief and concise. If the letter is in response to a communication by the customer, care should be taken that it deals with matters raised by the customer. While faxes and e-mail need not be quite so formal in format, they must still be well written, give all the correct information and be properly laid out. Verbal communication: can be face to face or on the telephone. While politeness and courtesy are always important when talking to a customer, when the conversation actually takes place face to face, appearance and dress also become important. Non-verbal face-to-face communication: can convey more than is intended. Actions communicate our attitude to others and are certain to bring about certain responses. Communication via the internet: is used more and more frequently and the same rules of attention, patience and helpfulness should apply. Interpersonal skills: is the verbal and body language skills needed for good communication between people. Appearance: is important in all face-to-face situations, so Tesco lay down ground rules on how its employees should dress by giving them uniforms. One of the basic aims when talking to customers is to put them at ease. This will only happen if the number of staff willing to listen to them, does not interrupt and shows polite interest in what they are saying. The right attitude to the customer has the added advantage of making it more likely that he or she will not feel slighted or threatened, thus making it easier to deal with the matter in hand. Telephone manner: people use the telephone so often that many assume that anyone can talk effectively on the telephone. However in telephone conversations, it is important to learn the principles of pitch, projection, energy, volume, articulation. Pitch: nobody wants to listen to a screeching voice on the other end of the line. Projection: the voice should carry sufficiently to be easily heard. Energy: the speaker should ensure that he or she comes over as confident and fully in control. Volume: should not be so loud that it deafens the listener or so low that the listener has to strain to hear what is being said. Articulation: each word should be clearly pronounced, to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. These telephone skills have to be learned and wise employers provide training for employees, either inhouse or from their supervisors. Technological skills: staff working in customer services need to be trained in IT to be able to retrieve information, refer to records, handle customer accounts and personal files, set up and use customer databases and obtain feedback from internet/intranet websites. Product knowledge: staff in the front line of customer services must have a good knowledge of the goods or services provided by the business. Failure to do so will result in customers losing confidence in the produts offered. The above skills are equally important for all organisations, whatever their size, it is of course, easier for a large company to train its employees than it is for a small business. Customer charters: tesco have its own codes of practice which set out in detail the customer services that they aim to provide. On the basis of such codes of practice, Tesco create customer charters. These contain information about customer rights and the services offered. While customer rights are statutory, in other words laid down in various acts of parliament, it is the additional extras that are likely to interest customers and persuade people to buy from the company. Customer charters are only worth having if the promises they contain are kept. For example; Tesco promises to open another checkout if there is more than one person waiting at those that are open, this promise was adhered to all Tesco stores visited. Tesco promises to provide quality customer service at all times but fails to open enough checkouts at peak times thus increasing waiting time at the tills. A concise and accurate account of how the organisation had incorporated consumer protection into its customer service policy. Tesco is aware of the importance of good customer care. In order to ensure that Tesco know precisely what its responsibilities are towards its customers, legislation is necessary. All transactions between Tesco and the buyer are contracts with both sides having clearly defined responsibilities. The responsibility of the buyer is to pay for the goods purchased while the responsibility of Tesco is much more complex. Consumer protection looks after consumers in a number of ways. It prevents: > Tesco from charging very high prices or very high rates of interest > Dishonest practices, such as selling measures other than those stated on the label > The sale of unsafe products, such as children’s toys with sharp edges > Information about consumers being passed to other businesses without the consumers’ permission. Consumer protection legislation These are the main Acts of Parliament dealing with consumer protection: 1. Sale of Goods Act 1979: under this act products sold must be undamaged and in good working order. They should do what is expected of them and perform as described and be of satisfactory quality. If consumers discover that products do not meet these requirements they can reject them and ask for their money back providing they do so quickly, alternatively they can request for repair or replacement or claim compensation. The act covers fundamental requirements of purchasers which means that goods must be as described – this means that goods must conform to their description, be of satisfactory quality – in relation to the price paid, the description and the age of the item, must fit for the purpose for which they are intended – goods must carry out the purpose they are made for. Goods must be fit for any specific purpose, which the buyer has made clear to the seller at the time of the sale. If the goods are not of satisfactory quality the courts would take into consideration various factors such as whether goods were free from minor defects, satisfactory in appearance and finish, safe, durable and as described. Tesco customers are entitled to refund of unsatisfactory goods within a reasonable time after purchase. Tesco customers do not have to accept a credit note. 2. Supply of Goods Acts 1973: this acts deals with the responsibilities of the seller in relation to hire-purchase contracts. Anyone buying goods on hire purchase has the same protection under the law as a person who buys the goods outright. The supplier must ensure that he or she has legal title to the goods, the description of the goods is accurate and not misleading, the quality of the goods is of reasonable standard, if selling by sample, the sample is representative of the rest of the consignment. The buyer who enters into a hire purchase agreement is in a stronger position than one who pays for the goods outright. When buying on hire purchase, it is still possible to reject the goods after accepting them, whereas in transactions in which the full price has been paid, once the goods are accepted they cannot be rejected. 3. Data Protection Act 1984: this act protects the confidentiality of information stored in computers. As more and more organisations now hold personal information in their databases, it has become necessary for the government to regulate the ways in which such information should be stored and used. The act requires anyone an individual or an organisation holding personal data on computer to register with the Data Protection Registrar. It also requires that data must be acquired legally, data must only be used for the purpose for which it is held, data must not be disclosed to others unless this is necessary for the purpose for which it is held, data must be accurate and up to date, people whose data is held must be allowed access to any information about them, any incorrect information must be corrected, every data holder must make proper security arrangements to ensure that no unauthorised person gains access to the data. This means that computer users must not give unauthorised pr intouts of data to anyone and must ensure print outs are not left lying about. Passwords and Ids should be kept confidential and not disclosed to anyone. 4. Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982: this act requires traders to provide services to a proper standard of workmanship. If a definite completion date or price has not been fixed then the work must be completed within a reasonable time and for a reasonable price and any material used or goods supplied in providing the service must be of satisfactory quality. The law treats failure to meet these obligations, as breach of contract and consumers would be entitled to seek redress if necessary through civil courts. The act protects buyers against shoddy workmanship, delays and exorbitant charges. The act states that all services should be carried out for a reasonable charge, within a reasonable time, with reasonable care and skill and using satisfactory materials. 5. Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994: this act is important for its substitution of the term satisfactory quality for the previously used phrases merchantable quality and fit for purpose. Goods purchased from trader whether new or second hand must be of satisfactory quality. This means that it should be safe, durable and have acceptable appearance taking into account its price, nature any description that apply to it and any other relevant circumstances. A thorough explanation of the techniques used by Tesco to monitor and improve customer service. Customer service is important to Tesco. I have already looked in details at the laws that must be obeyed by Tesco and at the legal rights of customers. All the rules and regulations are the theory but what Tesco actually do to look after their customers is the practice. Am going to examine the ways in which Tesco establish, monitor and constantly try to improve customer service. A huge organisation like Tesco can provide a wide range of customer services and has at its disposal the financial and technological means to try and establish its edge over others. Tesco now recognise the importance of customer service. Tesco is so large that it could not operate without communication systems in place. There must be means of contact between separate departments and between the employees in each department. It is vital that customers are able to reach the correct department and then the person with whom they need to deal. There is always danger that decisions have to be referred through several channels, making for delays and failure of one part of the system can easily lead to customer dissatisfaction in Tesco. The personal touch approach is difficult if not impossible to achieve. Tesco like many other organisations now ensures that its telephone operators, the first link with customers identify themselves by name when answering the phone. This has the two-fold aim of creating a more informal atmosphere during any conversation and giving the caller a name, which he or she can then refer to or ask for again. Tesco have its own codes of practice to provide a benchmark against which the efficiency of their customer care can be monitored, measured and make any necessary improvements. Code of practice is not legally binding but Tesco usually guarantees that the contents of the code will always be adhered to. If a customer can show that the theory of the code of practice is not being translated into practice, he or she has very strong grounds for complaint. Tesco also have specific customer service policy, which includes detailed information on how staff must treat customers in a variety of situations. The nature of Tesco’s business dictates how the general principles of customer care should be implemented. The customer policy is a follow up of Tesco’s mission statement. Suggestions of how Tesco might improve its customer service. In order for Tesco to assess its existing standard of customer service and be able to introduce improvements, Tesco needs to know what its customers need and want and how these needs and wants can be satisfied. Tesco can use different techniques these are: customer questionnaires, interviews, user panel discussions, management information analysis, internet websites, telephone surveys, suggestion schemes and mystery shoppers. Customer questionnaires can be very useful in providing information on customer expectations, reasons for choice of provider, and negative as well as positive views about Tesco. Tesco can organise such surveys itself or use a market research firm to carry out the research. Interviews especially personal interviews with customers can often provide an insight that may be lacking in a questionnaire response. Tesco can ask its frontline staff for their views on services provided and their experience of customer reactions. User panel discussions also provide valuable information but are quite difficult to set up and are also expensive. If a user panel is successfully selected to include a representative cross-section of customers, the results can give the business organisation a good indication of what the customers want and need. Management information analysis is now much easier to carry out, as the information from every area of Tesco’s activities is usually stored on computer. Computerised information is only as good as the input, however to be effective, management information analysis must be based on correct input and reliable methods of analysis must be applied. Internet website are now in general use and valuable feedback can be obtained from websites. Tesco can use Internet to monitor its customer’s service and receive feedback from customers through Tesco’s website. Telephone surveys can be carried out in one of two ways. 1. calls can be made using an existing customer database, to tell customers about new additional services and or invite their opinions on services already provided. 2. the second method invites customers to phone in themselves and provides a free phone number on which to call. Tesco, inviting customers to suggest ways in which services could be improved, runs suggestion schemes. This might be a question of opening hours, store layout or information provided or specific facilities such as access for the disabled or mother and baby rooms. This sort of customer feedback can be very useful for Tesco. Tesco employs mystery shoppers. These shoppers visit the stores to ascertain the standard of customer care. Their activities might include playing the part of a difficult customer or lodging a complicated complaint. All these are only valuable if the findings obtained are analysed and practical conclusions drawn which can then be incorporated in Tesco’s customer policy. Tesco holds regular meetings with customer panels to discover what its shoppers do and don’t like. To improve customer service training is vital. The type, duration and frequency of training must be decided once the needs are identified. In customer service as in other areas of Tesco, it is relatively easy to pinpoint shortcomings and to resolve and overcome them. It is much more difficult to implement the changes. It should be remembered that the process of improving customer services is an ongoing one and therefore constant monitoring is necessary. If found that a particular technique does not bring the expected result, it often becomes necessary to revise and perhaps change the methods used. An independent approach to assembling and analysing information about Tesco. The most recent approach to customer service is to stress the role played by all employees in enusring that customers are satisfied. Every member of staff is expected to provide customer service to an equally high standard. Staff are all trained in customer service and given the opportunity to gain qualifications in this aspect of the job. In Tesco, a high standard of customer service is a way of gaining a competitive advantage. Tesco has acknowledged that one way that it competes with other supermarkets is by offering higher standards of customer service. High quality customer service offers Tesco a number of advantages which includes; immediate benefits and longer term benefits. The immediate benefits are: Tesco will win new customers, gives customers information about Tesco’s products, helps Tesco to keep market share while the longer term benefits are: improves corporate image of Tesco, may win a business increased market share, Tesco keeps existing customers and Tesco enj oys rising sales and profits. Below is a sample of role play that Tesco can use to approach customer service. Customer service assistant: hello, how can I help you? Customer: hello, sorry for disturbing you. I bought this play station 2 game five weeks ago, when I got home I then realise that the disc it’s not working but because I travelled I’ve not been able to return it on time so I’ll like to change it for a new one or a refund please. Customer service assistant: am sorry to hear that but unfortunately our policy is that customers only have 28 days to return purchase and you have missed the 28 days policy. Customer: the only reason I didn’t return it on time is because I travelled and I still have my receipt with me so it’ll not be fair if you don’t change it for me. Customer service assistant: am very sorry sir but I’ve to follow the company’s policy. Customer: so what do you expect me to do with a disc that’s empty, it doesn’t even show anything on it and you are telling me that because of your policy I should have missed my holiday. Customer service assistant: I didn’t say you should have missed your holiday but you should have return the disc on time in order for you to get it exchange or refund. Customer: so what’s going to happen because you can’t expect me to pay for nothing. Customer service assistant: there’s only one thing I can do to help you and that is to talk to my manager. Customer: oh please do that as long as I get the disc exchange or a refund. Customer service assistant: ok my manager just told me that I can exchange it for you this time but I can’t refund your money. Customer: that’s alright, no problem. Customer service assistant: this is your new play station 2 game and I hope this one will work. Customer: I hope so too. Thank you very much. Bye Customer service assistant: bye From this role play, Tesco will be able to know how employees deal with difficult situations with customers, type of train they need, if they need improvement and how the improvement will be done. A logical analysis of the effectiveness of customer service in the organisation using examples of good pratice. The main objective of customer service is customer satisfaction. Tesco can measure customer satisfaction by using questionnaires completed by customers. A satisfied customer does not mean someone who has no complaint but someone who is genuinely happy with the service, product and the whole experience of dealing with Tesco. There is then a feel good relationship established with the customer. It is then up to Tesco to develop the relationship into profit by using the techniques of customer relationship management. The overall effectiveness of Tesco customer services are; the staff contribution, the premises, the quality of products. > Staff contribution: the contribution made to customer service by staff can make or break Tesco. Some of these aspects may seem obvious, but it is when they are not present that the problems start, this can include: * General appearance: staffs’ tidiness and personal cleanliness and hygiene are important, a staff wearing uniform can help to give a good impression but a strong dose of garlic or unwashed socks can do a lot of harm to customer relations. * Mood and expression: a smile can make such a difference * Attitude: helpfulness can give a customer confidence. * Product knowledge: staff ignorance and uncertainty put the customer off, if a staff member does not know the answer to a question, he/she should be able to find someone who does. Teamwork is an essential element of the effective functioning of any workforce. It relates to all funtions of Tesco not just customer service. Teamwork is currently a popular method of management. It encourages a democratic approach. Through this, individual team members learn to take responsibility for what is going on and are motivated by success. Tesco encourage this approach to customer service by grouping its sales staff into customer service teams and holding team meetings to discuss customer problems, complaints procedures, shoplifting and new product campaigns. Customers can soon sense when teamwork is breaking down for example when staff members do not take responsibility for errors or problems and blame others. Effective staff training is another essential element in providing a high level of customer service. > The premises: the layout and organisation of premises of Tesco are important factors in welcoming customers and putting them at ease. Issues to consider when assessing the premises of Tesco include: * Is the layout and the product areas well signed * Is it tidy or are there boxes lying around, blocking customer access * Are the aisles wide enough * Are special offers prominently placed at the end of the display stands * Are the display stands well stocked * If the customer needs a trolley, are they readily available and is the car park easily accessible. > The quality of product: the quality of product is of prime importance. An easily overlooked feature of customer service is the product itself. Returning to shop again in Tesco or providing value for money is the product of high quality. It all depends on what the customer expects. Tesco pride itself on high levels of quality. The objective of Tesco is to provide value for money. An appraisal of the techniques used in Tesco for monitoring and improving customer service with built in quality measures An Appraisal of the techniques used in Tesco for monitoring and improving Customer Service with in-built quality measures. Tesco is a huge organisation and they know that the secret to being successful and reliable is to provide good Customer Service. Tesco monitor the customer service progression through Benchmarking, training and development, ISO 9000, quality circle, total quality management and quality assurance. Benchmarking is a used by many organisations and is helped to show the performance of Customer service with other supermarket outlets. If Tesco is to improve it must be able to set standards and monitor its progress. The motivation for continuous improvement by Tesco and its workforce must often be the recognition that they are not the best. If Tesco’s competitors are doing better so can Tesco. Benchmarking involves number of stages: 1. To decide what in Tesco needs benchmarking e.g. production time, delivery time or after sales 2. To choose another business for standards of excellence to benchmark against 3. Gathering information about the standards of excellence 4. Setting standards and making sure everyone in Tesco knows about them Benchmarking is a very simple concept and gives Tesco a target to aim at. Almost anything can be benchmarked such as: * Personnel, which are the number of, staff Tesco used to sell product, their qualifications, the amount and type of training, number of supervisors. * Use of IT which include type and quality of the sales database and type of equipment Products Tesco offered which include added value, features it have as standard, options available, and competitors’ products. Training and development is a crucial part of the implementation of any quality programme. The type and requirements of the training will depend on: 1. Current performance/success of Tesco 2. Current and planned quality system 3. Level of management 4. Tesco organisation structure All techniques designed to improve quality standards depend entirely on Tesco workers. If Tesco is to be truly quality focused it depends on everybody being involved. When the whole workforce is to be involved and effective then everybody needs to be properly trained. ISO 9000 (International Organisation for Standardisation) covers supply of goods, quality control, training, internal documentation, after sales service, procedures for dealing with faults and management of the system. All these ensure that finished product will be of a standard that will meet customer requirement. The certification process is very demanding. The benefits of IS0 9000 for Tesco include marketing necessity, saving in costs, fewer complaints, fewer problems and reduction of waste in internal processes. For Tesco to get the certificate they must document all its procedures and carry them out precisely as they are specified. There are three sections covering every aspect of Tesco operations, including product design and development, purchasing, manufacture, installation, inspection and testing, maintenance, storage, marketing, sales and distribution, packaging and waste disposal. Tesco needs to write: 1. Quality policy 2. Quality manual 3. Procedures and work instructions 4. Set up system to record and deal with all quality failures and customer complaints, including putting in place measures to stop them occurring again. 5. Name a quality manager who will have responsibility for managing the quality system and carrying out internal quality audits. Tesco would benefit from ISO 9000 accreditation particularly if they have ambitions to become suppliers to national or international companies. Quality circle is a way Tesco workers meet to examine workplace issues as quality, productivity and wastage. For Tesco team working to be successful, it relies on competent responsible workforces who want to improve quality. Their ideas for improvement can be discussed at regular meetings. The workers meet voluntarily at frequent and regular intervals to discuss problems encountered in their work with a view to discovering solutions. Problems they studied may relate to safety, productivity, cost reduction, improving the working environment as well as quality. For quality circles to be effective Tesco needs a well-educated and trained workforce capable of receiving, analysing and solving problems. The most effective quality circles have these features: * The group consists of between 5 and 10 people and all members have special training in quality control techniques, decision-making and problem solving. * Membership is voluntary and people can choose their own issues/problems to examine * The members are all involved in the same kind of work, which increases the range of experience and knowledge * The group has access to management and can make suggestions and recommendations. Quality circles are most appropriate in Tesco because there is participative, consultative management style, workers views are recognised as a valuable asset. Quality circles require trust from both Tesco management and workers. Tesco staffs need to be empowered or given responsibility to make decisions and create solutions, this comes with adequate training. Total quality management is a way Tesco manage to improve effectiveness, flexibility and competitiveness of business as a whole. Tesco effectiveness of total quality management depends on total team working. Tesco essentials of total quality management approach is that workers on production processes have personal responsibility for passing on to following operations only products of perfect quality. Total quality management and team working can result in high levels of motivation and involvement, leading to better quality standards, lower levels of waste and generally higher productivity. The basic principles of Total Quality Management Tesco have to put in mind are: 1. Put the customer first by * Making sure all customers, both internal and external are properly looked after and have their problems solved * Having systems in place to provide effective customer care and service * Anticipating and fulfilling their needs * Exceeding their expectations, by using market research to find out what they want * Being responsive and listening to their views so that complaints are welcomed and seen as an opportunity for positive change and improvement * Making sure all service standards are met. 2. Make continuous improvements by * Reducing costs * Reducing waste * Better ordering procedures * Better delivery systems. Quality assurance make sure that quality standard is maintained throughout all areas of Tesco. It is concern with preventing faults from happening in the first place by aiming at producing at producing zero defects. Quality assurance is by contrast, an organisation wide approach that places responsibilities for quality on the whole workforce particularly the front line operators who actually make the product. Tesco quality assurance for foods is seen as a priority for their customers. An evaluation of the provision of customer service in my chosen organisation and how the customer service is monitored Good customer service is vital for any business to success. Customer service is a set of behaviour which Tesco undertake during its interaction with customers. A good customer service is improtant for Tesco because it will allow Tesco to increase sales and market share. Providing good customer service will enable customers to shop again at Tesco because the customers will feel respected and value. Tesco’s policy is to offer value for money, good customer service, pleasant shopping experience and good qualities. Customer service includes different tasks but it is important for Tesco to keep its existing customers and gain new customers. Good customer service within Tesco require communication between provider of goods and customers. Tesco aim to provide all its customers with the best quality and good value for money when shopping. Having a store at every corner, Tesco provides all its shoppers with the benefit of very high quality products all at low prices. Tesco have a market share of 30.5% which is currently the highest supermarket market share in the UK so I’ll say Tesco has meet its aims and objectives by improving customer service and providing cheap products at good quality. Tesco customers believe that Tesco have a wide range of products. Realistic and thorough recommendations on how my chosen organisation could improve its quality systems to help meet customer quality expectations, with an explanation of the changes the recommendation would bring about. The story of Tesco began in 1919 when Jack Cohen sold groceries from a stall in the East End of London. Tesco name came into use in 1920’s when Jack and his partner took TES from TE Stockwell and CO from Cohen to coin what is now a household name. Having close to 600 stores, Tesco is now the largest food retailer in the UnitedKingdom holding an estimated 15% share of the total market. Tesco’s success is based on the principles of innovation, high standards of customer service and a firm policy of listening to its customers and acting on what customers say. I have designed a questionnaire to evaluate if Tesco has improved its products and customer services. Please tick the relevant box. 1. What gender are you? Male Female 2. Where do you normally do your shopping? Tesco Sainsbury Asda Other 3. How would you range the customer services of other supermarket? Good Bad 4. Do they offer wider range of products? Yes No Don’t know 5. Do you like shopping at Tesco? Yes No 6. How would you range the attitude of staff at Tesco? Poor Good Excellent 7. Do you think the staff have enough knowledge of products? Yes No Don’t know 8. Do you think the staff are friendly enough? Yes No 9. Do you think Tesco offer good products quality? Yes No 10. Is Tesco layout good enough? Yes No 11. Would you recommend Tesco to any one? Yes No Below are the results of the questionnaires I handed out to customers. This is the result of where different people shop.The chart shows that 12 out of 30 people shop at Tesco, 5 out 30 shop at Sainsbury, 7 out of 30 shop at Asda and 6 out of 30 shop at other supermarket. The chart below shows that 3 out of 30 people think that Tesco’s staff attitude are poor, 27 think the staff attitude is good while 10 think that staff attitude are excellent. Which means that Tesco staff have a good attitude to customers. In order for Tesco to keep to this, Tesco need to continuely motivates its staff to work efficiently. The chart below indicates that Tesco’s customers have good product knowledge. The chart below shows that customers are happy with Tesco’s product quality. Majority of Tesco’s customers believe that Tesco’s layout is good enough Majority of Tesco’s customer will recommend customer to other people. After conducting my research about Tesco I’ve now decided to write a report to the board of directors outlining the research I have done into customer service strategies employed by Tesco and making suggestions for improving the customer service. To the Board of Directors of Tesco. I have been conducting research about your company’s customer service and I found out that you are currently the top leading growth supermarket in the UK which indicate that your customer service is properly the best in the UK supermarket. Above the page are the results of questionnaires that I handed out to get your customers opinion about your company and I was impressed to know that most of your customers like the way your staffs treat them and also have enough knowledge of products. If you continue to keep to this, then I believe you will continue to meet your aims and objectives and also continue to increase your market share. I’ll recommend that you keep to providing goods and services at high standard always, ensure accurate procedures for dealing with enquiries and always give information that is accurate and precise, ensure your company only promise what can be delivered. I believe that if you keep to this, you will not loose customers. From my own point of view if you continue to provide good quality of products to your customers, you will make more profit because customers are always willing to buy good quality at a value price. I also believe that your managers should continue to encourage staff to provide good customer service. Having bad relationship with managers can cause poor customer service. Managers should always make sure they have very good relationship with all employees in order to improve customer services. Good customer service is essential in order to meet customers’ needs and make profit.

To What Extent Does Democracy in the Uk Suffer?

Politics Essay To what extent does democracy in the UK suffer from a participation crisis? (25 marks) There are a lot of ways in which citizens can participate in politics in the UK without necessarily having to vote for example: joining a political party, boycotting, and even signing petitions and fund raising. However, there is an argument that there has been a participation crisis over the past years in the UK. A participation crisis is when less and less citizens take part in political activities; this can be shown in the decrease of voter turnout and the level of participation.On the other hand, there is an argument that there is in fact not a participation crisis because the turnout of voting is increasing and specific forms of participation are also on the rise. In this essay, I will be arguing whether or not the UK is suffering from a participation crisis and if we are suffering to what extent. The main concern about democracy in the UK comes from evidence of rising political apathy. Some people have seen this as nothing more than a ‘participation crisis’.Can democracy be classed as healthy when more and more voters every year seem to be unconcerned or reluctant to engage in political life? Deteriorating rates of voter turnout and falling levels of party membership despite there being opportunities for participation show evidence. There are three main reasons to show why there is a participation crisis in the UK. The first reason is the public. Due to people’s interest in materialism, individualism and lack of community, citizens fail to pull together and look out for each other, which decreases the interest and connection they have in politics.Decreasing rates in party membership and electoral turnouts is part of a process that’s seen less interest in political affairs as citizens seem to care more about themselves and family rather than their neighbours and society as a whole. The voting turnout over the past years has been inconsistent. During 1945 to 1992, the average turnout rate in the UK general elections was above 75 per cent. However in the 2001 general election, the turnout rate was 59 per cent, the lowest the turnout rate has ever been since 1918. This shows the interest citizens had in political affairs decreased drastically.The turnout rate did increase however, by the 2010 UK general election the turnout rate was at 65 per cent due to the first ever UK TV debate with the three party leaders: David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg even though it was still below the average turnout rate during 1945 to 1992. Similarly, party membership in the UK has also decreased over the years. For example the number of people that were registered to Labour party has fallen from over one million members in the mid 1950’s to around 166,000 members in 2009. Conservatives party membership has also fallen.The number of people that were registered to Conservative party has fallen from approx. 2. 8 mill ion members in the 1950’s to around 250,000 members in 2009. By 2007, less than 1 per cent of people across the UK belonged to political parties, from 7 per cent 50 years ago. This shows a decline in party membership which is caused by a decline in the voters’ loyalty towards political parties. Another reason why there is a participation crisis in the UK is the media. The media has a big impact and influence on citizens and the way they vote and support political parties.The media focuses on the political scandals, allegations, incompetence and policy failure of the parties which means that the good things about the leading politicians are forgotten about and the negative tend to be more popular. For example, the Sun newspaper has seemed to influence citizens about which party should be in power as each party the Sun has supported over the years has won in the general elections. This shows that the media has had an impact on citizens and their preferred party which cou ld be another reason why there is a participation crisis.The final explanation why there is a participation crisis in the UK is the politicians themselves. Politicians have been known to lack vision, and only really care about being elected in modern politicians and political parties as it is seen as just another professional career. Politicians have also been known to be over -concerned with the media and how they are portrayed rather than being concerned on how things are at the moment and what they can do to make things better.This creates an impression to citizens that politicians are less trustworthy and are all about presentation which causes turnout rates and party membership to decline. The growing idea for politicians to target key voters and citizens they feel might change parties is also a contribution to declining voter turnout rates as other citizens may feel like they aren’t as important or cared about and so decide to not vote or vote for a different party beca use the political parties are ignoring the voters in the majority of seats.The decline in participation rates may also be because of politicians and political parties being too similar to each other, which doesn’t give citizens much choice if both parties are appealing to the same targets and have the same policies. In previous years there were clear divides in the different parties and policies, which made it easier for citizens to choose which party they wanted in power. However for example, the Labour and Conservative parties have distanced themselves away from their traditional policies and targets and are now both focusing on Middle English citizens.In my opinion, there is much evidence for a participation crisis, although single issue politics is growing and pressure groups add to the democratic process as they give a voice to those who are ignored by the majority system. Party memberships have declined however pressure group memberships are growing. Voter turnout is de clining, fewer people feel naturally inclined to a particular party and even less take an active interest in politics due to rising income levels blurring class lines. Because pressure group membership, e petitions and direct action have increased I think this contradicts the idea of a participation crisis.To conclude, the British people have always been reluctant to get involved in democracy. Although forms of participation are constantly evolving; with the small minority who take a strong interest in politics turning more to action groups at the cost of parties, nothing has occurred since 1918 to change the fact that the majority give more priority to work, home, recreation and their private lives instead of public concerns. Many changes can be made to improve democracy however it may not work because Britons do not have an active involvement in politics.There are three main factors that could explain declining turnouts at election time, the electorate- society has become more mat erialistic, the media- they have caused enormous problems for the public to trust and put their faith in politics, and lastly politicians- they have done nothing to restore faith back into politics. The cause of participation crisis lies within the physical act of voting being out of touch with the public. Many of us are tied with jobs social life family life to find time to vote. Therefore voting becomes a burden.

Fords Profitability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fords Profitability - Essay Example The research work will help in giving an explanation on why the company is making 24 billion in losses. A competitive advantage may be created in producing similar products to Toyotas’ models with lower costs. The output produced should be according to what the consumers need, and not according to what it is used to producing (Close, 2012). They can completely change the company strategies and structure on how it carries out its operational activities. This can be achieved by changing the objectives, target and mission statements of the company. Introduction of process engineering skills, tight cost control and reports that are more frequent. The management should be able to give the company a new purpose and direction, by motivating the workers, and improving the culture of the organization (Canary, 2012). In extreme circumstances, the firm may also consider taking action on the management structure by considering the option of reducing on the number of employees both in the management level and in the operational levels. This will act as a direct way of reducing on the production and operational

Privacy and Internet Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Privacy and Internet Policy - Essay Example This paper addresses how identity theft can be dealt with both on the internet and prohibiting of unauthorized access from outsiders. Protection from identity theft (especially from Internet activities and unauthorized access) Identity deft on the internet occurs in situations where individuals who are not authorized get access to a person’s online account, gets access and carry out activities that are lawful or unlawful. Majority of people who join the internet faces the challenge of identity theft so one has to take all the necessary measure of ensuring that their information is protected (Krishnamurthy and Wills 2009). However, a lot of people do not know how protect their personal information and they end suffering the consequences of not protecting their personal information. Protection of identity theft over the internet In instances where the composer of the email is not known to you, do not bother to have a look at such an email that seem doubtful to you. It is advisab le to only check authentic emails which come from banks, financial firms or your creditors. You should never base on fake emails to update your security information. Doing so, would compromise your security. Currently, there are so many people who are out to con other or sent virus and therefore the best way of avoiding them is to delete the messages they send. Effective firewall is required in order to protect your personal computer from attackers. This ensures that the threats on your personal computers from spywares, hackers and Trojans are minimized. It is further stated by Krishnamurthy and Wills (2009) that the use a Verification Engine assists you in identifying safe websites that you browse at any given time. The information that concern your personal recognition and account numbers should never be stored on a hard disk that can be accessed on the internet. This is because a hard disk that is connected to the internet has a great risk of being reached by interested thieves. It is strongly recommended not to save private information on hard disk even in circumstances of having very strong firewall software being installed. Also there should be credit check run on yourself or your family for at least once in every year to insure that the all records are always in their right format (Moore, 2005). Personal information or PIN numbers should never be given out when an email is received from internet service Providers (ISP) or credit companies requesting for the release of such confidential information. In many instances, identity thieves who pretend to be credit card companies or ISPs normally send emails requesting for personal information that has been updated. As Gina (2011) points out, void posting of information that is private about yourself or that which relates to your family members on the personal web site that can easily be used by a thief. They use this information to come up with fraudulent identity. This implies that one has to be conscious wh en posting personal information. Security Socket Layer (SSL) it is a technology that enables users to set up sessions with internet sites that are secure. This implies that they are exposed to minimal violation of external attackers.

Fashion Marketing of the Brand Sovereign in the UK Essay

Fashion Marketing of the Brand Sovereign in the UK - Essay Example The dip in revenue can be directly associated with the fall in consumer spending as the prolonged recessionary phase of the UK economy triggered a shortage of jobs, non-availability of consumer credit and decline in disposable income of the consumers (ibisworld.co.uk, 2013). A trend that was noticed in the UK apparel market in the year 2012 is that a large majority of the consumers are opting for either economy apparel or premium apparel. The focus of the consumers was mostly on buying apparels that can be worn on multiple occasions. However, during this period of slow domestic growth, the UK apparel market witnessed an increase in product demand from foreign buyers, who were looking forward to capitalizing on a weak currency. Also, as many retailers set up their online presence, the sales through online stores and platforms helped in boosting of sales on a temporary basis. As of the year 2013, the total valuation of the UK apparel market stood at around 3.2 billion pounds. Now, curr ently, with positive developments happening in most of the global economies, the levels of disposable income of the consumers are expected to rise again. This will again trigger a period of strong growth for the UK apparel market, thereby putting it back on the growing revenue trajectory. It is being currently forecasted by market experts that by the year 2018, the UK apparel market will have a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 0.7%.

Modern Misogyny Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern Misogyny - Essay Example Our status, politics, educational systems, and advertising are littered with the not so subtle remnants of misogyny. Though the new feminism has fought to correct these notions of prejudice and scorn, we must wonder if any progress has been made. A daily newspaper, a television show, or a pop recording will reveal the undercurrent of misogyny that flows beneath the sea of women's rights. Religion and mythology have been the most ardent perpetrators of misogyny throughout history. In the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, Eve is blamed for Adams's downfall. According to Dr. Gary Macy, professor of theology at the University of San Diego, during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church used its power, ancient texts, and the rewriting of canon law to "make misogyny an official part of church doctrine" (Rigby). Women were not only barred from the priesthood, but Macy adds that canon law "expressly forbid any woman from serving as a ruler, politician, or judge because of the fact that women were too stupid to understand the law" (qtd. in Rigby). This attitude of misogyny has lasted through the centuries as we see the under-representation of women in positions of corporate, political, and public leadership. The Catholic Church did not have a monopoly on misogyny in history. One of the most brutally misogynist religions has been Islam. Aristotle viewed women as defective, void of shame, false of speech, and inferior to the male. His writings influenced later Muslim theologians and Arab philosophers. According to Hashmi, the difference between pre-modern misogyny and modern Islam is difficult to discern and notes that, "There is hardly any difference between the misogynic expositions by Aristotle and a village mullah1 in Bangladesh". The Taliban in the Afghanistan region have exemplified this doctrine and the status of Islamic women in Saudi Arabia has also suffered under these beliefs. The misogyny that infiltrates the world's religions has been a "Pandora's Box" for politics. The US democratic form of government has offered little protection. When first formed in the 18th century, women had no more rights outside the churches than within them. The witch trials had confirmed men's suspicions of a woman's power and were reluctant to share their God given domain of rule. Women could not vote, own property, or participate in the economy. They could not hold public office. To date there has not been a woman President or Vice-President. Nancy Pelosi became the first female to become Speaker of the House in spite of her gender. Women make up 50% of the voting public, yet they hold less than 10% of the Congressional seats and only 1% of the Senate ("Minorities and Women"). Once misogyny was released from the box, it became a difficult task to put it back in its place. Centuries of legitimized misogyny have also infected the economic system. We hear of the 'glass ceiling' and the wage disparity between male and female workers performing the same duties. What is often overlooked are the subtler ways that the misogynist attitudes affect women. In our education system we have recently heard a Harvard University President propose that, "because Harvard draws only from the very top, it would be understandable that very few women would be found there" (Nelson). The misogyny in the Universities works its way into the boardrooms and decision-making processes of our economy. The public's lack of concern

When Texting While Driving is to be Seriously Considered Essay

When Texting While Driving is to be Seriously Considered - Essay Example As a technological device that is considered a necessity these days, the cell phone is so indispensable it is already causing deaths because of its use even when a person is busy driving. Driving on the other hand, is an activity that requires the full attention of individuals even if one is considered an expert on it so that using the phone or doing other things than driving lessens the required attentiveness the driver should have. Christopher Cooper investigates the possibility of texting while driving being considered as a crime as suggested by the McDonald’s legislation (msn.com), authored by Joyce McDonald, a Republican member of the Washington House of Representatives. The bill has a strong argument eyeing receiving and sending messages as possible distractions to the driver especially that the practice is prevalent among teenage drivers who may be breaking up with their lovers over the phone, a possible circumstance that could affect a person’s attention on the road. Despite the aforementioned plausible argument, the bill still has many flaws that make it questionable, unable to be passed as a law that will punish drivers who use their cell phones while on the road. For instance, texting as a reason for the banning of the use of cell phones while driving is very specific while the use of the device is quite wide, making it difficult for officers to determine what the driver could have been using the mobile phone for in case one is apprehended. On another note, while it is true that cell phones distract the attention of drivers, there are also other possible causes of car accidents that also need to be considered like eating, drinking (texting-while-driving.org) and the like. Texting-while-driving.org considers texting while driving as a dangerous activity comparable to Russian roulette. Although the site points on other activities of drivers that may cause car accidents, it sets the use of the cell phone on a high level because when textin g, one has to use the other hand to compose messages or to manipulate the cell phone in order to read the messages. In addition, the driver has to look away from the road to his phone when he needs to read or compose a message, causing his attention to be divided which consequently places him in a dangerous situation. A phone call is also counted as a great cause for the distraction of a driver’s attention from the road even if one claims the phone is a hands-free device because the conversations that take place require the driver to think and concentrate about what is being discussed thus, having a divided attention. Michael Austin (caranddriver.com) tries to explain the situation through an experiment where drivers where the speed of reaction of their reactions to lights were taken into consideration when they were concentrating on the road, when they were reading a message aloud and when they were encoding the text message. This has shown that texting distracts a driver to react to light in a longer time while reading a message takes even longer. Compared to being intoxicated which was also performed in the said experiment, by the same drivers, the difference was not significant, meaning texting while driving is as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. A similar experiment was performed by a group from the University of Utah where they measured the response of participants to traffic rules and other road conditions as they use their cell phones to plan an evening activity together. The participants were given the instructions and were made sure that they knew how to use their short messaging services which was the primary means to the communication that was to take place while they were

Nursing Care Plan of Skin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nursing Care Plan of Skin - Essay Example Benito was asked how long he has had the growth on his back. He responded by indicating that the swelling had been there for a period of about six months. The next assessment involved asking Mr. Benito some few questions to help in carrying out the characteristic assessment. The patient was asked if the growth had been bothering him in any way to which he responded that it did not. However it as noticed that the growth was releasing some kind of fluid. The patient further stated that the mole was dark in colour and oddly shaped. There was also an assessment of aggravating factors but none was found. The next course of action in the procedure was to carry out background check on the patient. This is normally done to find out the patients lifestyle or any other complication that he might have had so that this could be taken in to consideration when deciding on the treatment to be given to the patient. It was found out that the patient was a competitive athlete who spends a lot of hours of the day training. He also indicated that he does not wear any kind of skin protection because he believed that his dark skin cannot be hugely affected by the rays of the sun. In addition, he said that he usually goes to Hawaii for windsurfing and to relax in the each. After the above discussed assessments that were done, the next one was now the skin assessment test which involved physical examination of the growth that was on the patients back. The A B C D E method was used to check and examine the growth on Benito’s back. The A in the above method stands for asymmetry. This is used to check if half of a mole does not match the other half. It was found that the mole was irregular in shape. The B stands for Borders and it involves examining the borders of the mole with the finding being that it did not have any regular edge, but rather it had several notch areas. The C stands for Changes in colour. For the case of Melanoma, which Benito

Shanghai from Colonial to Postcolonial Research Paper

Shanghai from Colonial to Postcolonial - Research Paper Example Further, the Americans, French, Germans, British and Russia came in to set their distinctive Western Style banks, mansions and trading houses leaving behind the long-lasting architectural legacy. The Japanese conquered China with an intension of capturing Shanghai in 1937. Further, the Jews again came in Shanghai to flee persecution that later made them to be forced to ghettoes by the Japanese in 1941 (Pott Web). Later in 1943, the Chinese and the Japanese surrounded all the foreigners in Shanghai and matched them off to various prison campgrounds. In connection to this, the Britain and the U.S.A were forced to sign the treaty to return the various settlements to Shanghai but under the Chinese rule. In 1949, the Communists came to Shanghai to rule. During these periods, the city remained a major industrial Centre boosting the population. Industrialization increased and several high buildings were constructed that further raised the population of Shanghai making the city to grow rich (Pott Web). In 1983, the Shanghai Museum was found and Oriental Pearl Tower was put up then followed by the Mao Tower in 1999. The People Liberation Army under the new People Republic of China to ok control of Shanghai that led to most foreigners to move their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong due to the Communist victory. The lower stretches of River Yangtze that’s runs through the city of Shanghai deposits lots of mud to its bay creating beautiful alluvial plain features. The River flow of the Yangtze, tides and wind has equally contributed to the formation of the alluvial plain including the present Yangtze River Delta (Pott Web). Shanghai delta on the East tip covers an approximate area of 6, 340.5 square kilometers that contributes to 2, 448.1 square miles. The Shanghai city lies on the altitude of three to five meters that is relatively made up of soft and loose soil. The city is made up of

What Are the Differences in Organizational Structures Essay Example for Free

What Are the Differences in Organizational Structures Essay Organizational structure development is driven by an organizations type. According to Lamar University, organizational structure is, â€Å"the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate to achieve an organizations goals. † Depending on the type of business or organization, the organizational structure will be developed differently. For example, if you were running a local police department, the organizational structure would be very different from the structure used to run a department store. The type of structure used in a organization has the potential to increase or prohibit productivity. Differentiation The differentiation organizational structure is a team-based, functional approach. The structure separates the company into different teams that are specialized to accomplish a specific task. This is commonly seen in departments within a company. The company separates employees into an information technology department, customer service department and marketing department that confines each to specific tasks. The teams to do not interconnect or cross departmental lines to maintain order and control. Divisional Divisional organizational structure overlaps teams and skills in order to accomplish a task. This structure allows different departments to interconnect to utilize the different skills in team members on different teams. For example, if a customer is talking with a representative from the information technology (IT) department about a technical issue, a customer service representative may be needed to first listen and gather the information to relay to the IT specialist. The teams work together to increase productivity. Tall organizations have many levels from the executives down to the entry-level positions. Tall organizations commonly use an authoritative leadership approach where leadership makes executive decisions that are communicated through management with the expectation of employees following directions without questions. This structure limits feedback from employees and does not encourage free-thinking or critical thinking. This type of structure is seen in the military. An office gives a command and the soldiers are expected to respond immediately, without question. Flat organizations have fewer levels of management and leadership and incorporate employees into the decision-making process and daily affairs of the business. A democratic or delegative leadership structure places the emphasis more on the members of the organization than the leadership. Democratic leadership pulls team members into the decision-making process for help on brainstorming, feedback and improving company policy and procedures. Delegative structures assign tasks to different teams and allow the teams to make decision on their own without consulting leadership. What Is Hotel Organizational Structure?  A hotel organizational structure is a comprehensive plan by a hotel owner to define departmental activities and responsibilities. This structure brings order to every aspect of hotel operation from the front desk and room service to the human resources department. Hotel organizational structures are necessary to ensure maximum profitability from each room, restaurant and bar on a daily basis. Your hotel can run efficiently if it creates an organizational structure that is easy to understand. Objectives A hotels organizational structure is useless without an initial listing of organizational objectives. These objectives address internal and external affairs for the hotel so that the goals it sets forth can be achieved by appropriate personnel. An internal objective for a hotel may be weekly meetings between department heads to communicate operational problems. External objectives within a hotel organizational structure may include recruitment goals for seasonal staff and variable pricing for weekdays and weekends. You can work with a hotel consulting firm such as HVS Hotel Management to establish short- and long-term objectives from the start. Span of Control  The term span of control is used to describe the chain of authority in a hotel organizational structure. A hotel using a wide span of control requires every department to report to the general manager directly. Hotels using narrow spans of control delegate management authority to assistant managers, department heads and supervisors for day-to-day problems. A small hotel is likely to use a wide span of control because the general manager may be on site every day. National and international chains use narrow spans of control to address hotel issues immediately as owners or general managers are not able to cover each hotel. Defining Department Responsibilities The five departments that are listed in a hotel organizational structure are Rooms; Food and Beverage; Human Resources; Marketing; and Accounting. The Rooms department handles customer service including laundry, housekeeping and reservations. FB is responsible for running room service, bar and restaurant operations. The Human Resources department is asked to handle employee recruitment, training and benefits, and Accounting oversees the hotel ledger. The Marketing department is given the responsibility of selling ad space in hotels and running promotions. Organizational Flow Chart The size of your hotel will determine the size and nature of your organizational flow chart. A small hotel with a handful of employees may feature a two-level chart with the owner at the top and lines connecting to maintenance, reservations and housekeeping. A chain hotel must insert additional layers of management including an executive board and regional managers, which expands the flow chart to at least four layers. An organizational flow chart can be as general as a simple departmental overview or focused on position-by-position relationships throughout the hotel. Job Definition and Responsibilities Your hotel should define each job title carefully after completing its organizational flow chart. Each job should be listed alphabetically within each department and include a brief summary of job responsibilities. A comprehensive list of job responsibilities for each position title should be included in an organization structure. This list is used by human resource managers for recruitment ads and employee evaluations within your hotel. Your hotels employees understand what they need to get done each day if they have access to narrowly defined job responsibilities. Types of Hotel Organizational Structure By Mollye Miller, eHow Contributor updated: May 11, 2010 Large luxury hotels require a complex organizational structure to meet guest needs. Because hotels vary in size and type, hotel organizational structure depends on the range of services and amenities offered to visiting guests. Some organizational structures include multiple departments, managers and branches to extend full-service luxury accommodations and amenities. However, small, low-budget, family run hotels may have only one manager and a few employees to handle all guest needs and services. Basic  Smaller or economy hotels need a small organizational structure and hierarchy to meet guest needs All hotels divide their operations into two basic categories: administrative and guest operations. Administrative personnel handle the hotels paperwork, accounting, human resources and office work responsibilities. Operations employees handle the general functions of the hotel. This includes checking in guests, coordinating events, cleaning rooms and maintenance duties. Both administrative and operations employees generally report to the hotel manager (general manager) and other managerial staff employees. The general manager oversees, and sometimes coordinates all hotel major functions and makes sure the organization runs smoothly at all times. Departments Administrative departments include human resources employees who hire and lay off staff; accountants, who handle invoices and paychecks; and front office employees who maintain the hotels database of guests and service calls. The administrative side also includes sales, marketing and promotional managers who advertise the hotel and its services. The operations department includes employees who operate, coordinate and handle all guest needs inperson or behind the scenes. Operations employees include the front office workers who check in guests, maintenance crews, engineers, food and beverage staff, event coordinators and the managerial staff. Full-Service, Resort or Luxury A hotel general manager oversees all hotel operations to ensure the hotel runs smoothly. A large, full-service hotel maintains an extensive organizational structure in order to quickly meet its guests needs and desires. The hotel utilizes a large management staff, including a general manager, a hiring manager, and managers of its catering, restaurant, housekeeping, sales and marketing departments. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010-2011 report on hotel organization, large hotel chainsrecognizing the importance of expanded lodging optionsare starting to offer limitedservice, economy, and luxury inns under one corporate name. Limited Service or Economy Limited service hotelsincluding boutique hotels, some bed and breakfasts, and budget (or economy) hotelsdo not require the expansive organizational structure that a large-scale hotel requires. These smaller hotels operate with a smaller, more diversified staff. According to the U.  S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report on hotel accommodations, patrons usually find smaller hotels in urban locations. Depending on an individual hotels rating, patrons often find highquality service and distinctive decor and food selections due to tight staff and quality control measures. Employee Hierarchy A hotels organizational structure depends largely on the quality, competence and hierarchy of its staff. At the top of the hotel pyramid is the hotels Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Underneath the CEO is the management staff, headed by the hotel general manager. The general manager, who oversees all hotel operations on a daily basis, may hire an assistant manager to help with his myriad duties and supervision. Underneath the general manager, a hotel may have a catering director, restaurant manager, wine manager, human resources director, administrative director, front office manager, etc. Underneath the managerial staff are the employees who work in food and beverage services, marketing and sales, room service, housekeeping and maintenance. The size of the hotel and the type of services it offers determines the complexity of its organizational employee structure.

Evidence from International Stock Markets

Evidence from International Stock Markets Portfolio Selection with Four Moments: Evidence from International Stock Markets Despite the international diversification suggested by several researchers (e.g. Grulbel, 1968; Levy and Sarnat, 1970; Solnik, 1974) and the increased integration of capital markets, the home bias has not decreased (Thomas et. al., 2004 and Coeurdacier and Rey, 2013) and there is no complete explanation of this puzzle. Furthermore, there are the fastgrowing concerns of investor for extreme risks[1] and the investors preference toward odd moments (e.g. mean and skewness) and an aversion toward even moments (e.g. variance and kurtosis) considered by numerous studies (e.g. Levy, 1969; Arditti, 1967 and 1971; Jurczenko and Maillet, 2006). According to these reasons, this paper propose to investigate whether the incorporation of investor preferences in the higher moments into the international asset allocation problem can help explain the home bias puzzle. The study will allow investor preferences to depend not only the first two moments (i.e. mean and variance) but also on the higher moments, such as skewness and kurtosis, by using the polynomial goal programming (PGP) approach and then generate the three-dimensional efficient frontier. The main objective of the proposed study is to investigate whether the incorporation of skewness and kurtosis into the international stock portfolio selection causes these issues: The changes in the construction of optimal portfolios, the patterns of relationships between moments, and the less diversification compared to the mean-variance model. Since several researchers (e.g. Grulbel, 1968; Levy and Sarnat, 1970; Solnik, 1974) suggest that investment in a portfolio of equities across foreign markets provide great diversification opportunities, then investors should rebalance there portfolio away from domestic toward foreign equities. However, US investors continue to hold equity portfolios that are largely dominated by domestic assets. Thomas et. al. (2004) reported that by the end of 2003 US investors held only 14 percent of their equity portfolios in foreign stocks. Furthermore, Coeurdacier and Rey (2013) also reported that in 2007, US investors hold more than 80 percent of domestic equities. Many explanations have been recommended in the literature to explain this home bias puzzle include direct barriers such as capital controls and transaction costs (e.g. Stulz, 1981; Black, 1990; Chaieb and Errunza, 2007), and indirect barriers such as information costs and higher estimation uncertainty for foreign than domestic equities (e.g. Brennan and Cao, 1997; Guidolin, 2005; Ahearne et. al., 2004). Nevertheless, several studies (e.g. Karolyi and Stulz, 1996; Lewis, 1999) suggests that these explanations are weakened since the direct costs to international investment have come down significantly overtime and the financial globalization by electronic trading increases exchanges of information and decreases uncertainty across markets. Since the modern portfolio theory of Markowitz (1952) indicates how risk-averse investors can construct optimal portfolios based upon mean-variance trade-off, there are numerous studies on portfolio selection in the framework of the first two moments of the return distributions. However, as many researchers (e.g., Kendall and Hill, 1953; Mandelbrot, 1963a and 1963b; Fama, 1965) discovered that the presence of significant skewness and excess kurtosis in asset return distributions, there is a great concern that highermoments than the variance should be accounted in portfolio selection. The motivation for the generalization to higher moments arises from the theoretical work of Levy (1969) provided the cubic utility function depending on the first three moments. Later, the empirical works of Arditti (1967 and 1971) documented the investors preference for positive skewness and aversion negative skewness in return distributions of individual stocks and mutual funds, respectively. Even Markowitz (1959) himself also supports this aspect by suggesting that a mean-semi-variance trade-off [2], which gives priority to avoiding downside risk, would be superior to the original mean-variance approach. While the importance of the first three moments was recognized, there were some arguments on the incorporation of higher moments than the third into the analysis. First, Arditti (1967) suggested that most of the information about any probability distribution is contained in its first three moments. Later, Levy (1969) argued that even the higher moments are approximately functions of the first moments, but not that they are small in magnitude. Several authors (Levy, 1969; Samuelson, 1970; Rubinstein, 1973) also recommend that in general the higher moments than the variance cannot be neglected, except when at least one of the following conditions must be true: All the higher moments beyond the first are zero. The derivatives of utility function are zero for the higher moments beyond the second. The distributions of asset returns are normal or the utility functions are quadratic. However, ample evidence (e.g., Kendall and Hill, 1953; Mandelbrot, 1963a and 1963b; Fama, 1965) presented not only the higher moments beyond the first and their derivatives of the utility function are not zero, but also the asset returns are not normally distributed. Furthermore, several researchers (Tobin, 1958; Pratt, 1964; Samuelson, 1970; Levy and Sarnat, 1972) indicate that the assumption of quadratic utility function is appropriate only when return distributions are compact. Therefore, the higher moments of return distributions, such as skewness, are relevant to the investors decision on portfolio selection and cannot be ignored. In the field of portfolio theory with higher moments, Samuelson (1970) was the first author who recommends the importance of higher moments than the second for portfolio analysis. He shows that when the investment decision restrict to the finite time horizon, the use of mean-variance analysis becomes insufficient and the higher moments than the variance become more relevant in portfolio selection. Therefore, he developed three-moment model based on the cubic utility function which expressed by Levy (1969)3. Following Samuelson (1970), number of studies (e.g. Jean, 1971, 1972 and 1973; Ingersoll, 1975; and Schweser, 1978) explained the importance of skewness in security returns, derived the risk premium as functions of the first three moments, and generated the three-dimensional efficient frontier with a risk-free asset. Later, Diacogiannis (1994) proposed the multi-moment portfolio optimization programme by minimizing variance at any given level of expected return and skewness. Consequently, Athayde and Flores (1997) developed portfolio theory taking the higher moments than the variance into consideration in a utility maximizing context. The expressions in this paper greatly simplified the numerical solutions of the multi-moment portfolio optimal asset allocation problems4. 23 Levy (1969) defines the cubic utility function as U(x) which has the form: U(x) = ax + bx + cx , where x is a random variable and a,b,c are coefficients. This function is concave in a certain range but convex in another. Jurczenko, E. and Maillet, B. (2006) Multi-Moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models, Wiley Finance, p. xxii. Different approaches have been developed to incorporate the individual preferences for higher-order moments into portfolio optimization. These approaches can be divided into two main groups, the primal and dual approaches. The dual approach starts from a specification of the higher-moment utility function by using the Taylors series expansion to link between the utility function and the moments of the return distribution. Then, the dual approaches will determine the optimal portfolio via its parameters reflecting preferences for the moments of asset return distribution. Harvey et. al. (2004) uses this approach to construct the set of the three-moment efficient frontier by using two sets of returns[3]. The results show that as the investors preference in skewness increases, there are sudden change points in the expected utility that lead to dramatically modifications in the allocation of the optimal portfolio. Jondeau and Rockinger (2003 and 2006) and Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) extend the dual approach in portfolio selection from three- to four-moment framework. A shortcoming of this dual approach is that the Taylor series expansion may converge to the expected utility under restrictive conditions. That is for some utility functions (e.g. the exponential function), the expansion converges for all possible levels of return, whereas for some types of utility function (e.g. the logarithm-power function), the convergence of Taylor series expansion to the expected utility is ensured only over a restricted range6. Furthermore, since Taylor series expansion have an infinite number of terms, then using a finite number of terms creates the truncation error. To circumvent these problems, the primal approach parameters that used to weight the moment deviations are not relate precisely to the utility function. Tayi and Leonard (1988) introduced the Polynomial Goal Programming (PGP), which is a primal approach to solve the goal in portfolio optimization by trade-off between competing and conflicting objectives. Later, Lai (1991) is the first researcher who proposed this method to solve the multiple objectives determining the set of the mean-variance-skewness efficient portfolios. He illustrated the three-moment portfolio selection with three objectives, which are maximizing both the expected return and the skewness, and minimizing the variance of asset returns. Follows Lai (1991) who uses a sample of five stocks and a risk-free asset, Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash et. al. (2003) examines three-moment portfolio selection by using international stock indices. Regarding the under-diversification, many studies (e.g. Simkowitz and Beedles, 1978; Mitton and Vorkink, 2004; and Briec et. al., 2007) suggested that incorporation of the higher moments in the investors objective functions can explain portfolio under-diversification. Home bias puzzle is one of the under-diversification. It is a tendency to invest in a large proportion in domestic securities, even there are potential gains from diversification of investment portfolios across national markets. Guidolin and Timmermann (2008)[4] indicate that home bias in US can be explained by incorporate the higher moments (i.e. skewness and kurtosis) with distinct bull and bear regimes in the investors objective functions. Several researchers use the primal and the dual approaches to examine the  international portfolio selection. Jondeau and Rockinger (2003 and 2006) and Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) applied the dual approaches using a higher-order Taylor expansion of the utility function. They provide the empirical evidence that under large departure from normality of the return distribution, the higher-moment optimization is more efficient than the mean-variance framework. Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash (2003) applied the Polynomial Goal Programming (PGP), which is a primal approach, to determine the optimal portfolios of international stock indices. Their results indicated that the incorporation of skewness into the portfolio selection problem causes a major change in the allocation of the optimal portfolio and the trade-off between expected return and skewness of the efficient portfolio. Appendix 1 presents methodology and data of the previous papers that study international portfolio selection with higher moments. In the proposed study, I will extend PGP approach to the mean-variance-skewnesskurtosis framework and investigate the international asset allocation problem that whether the incorporation of investor preferences in the higher moments of stock return distributions returns can help explain the home bias puzzle. Since previous research (e.g. Levy, 1972; Singleton and Wingerder, 1986) points out that the estimated values of the moments of the asset return distribution sensitive to the choices of an investment horizon, I will examine daily, weekly, and monthly data sets in the study[5]. The sample data will consist of daily, weekly, and monthly rates of return of five international indices for all available data from January 1975 to December 2016. These five indices cover the stock markets in the main geographical areas, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Pacific region (excluding Japan), and Europe (excluding United Kingdom)[6]. Moreover, the study also use three-month US Treasury bill rates as the existence of the risk-free asset in order that the investor is not restricted to invest only in risky assets. The data source of these indices is the Morgan Stanley Capital International Index (MSCI) who reports these international price indices as converted into US dollar at the spot foreign exchange rate. The MSCI stock price indices and T-bill rates are available in Datastream. The methodology proposed in the study consists of two parts. First, the rate of return distribution of each international index will be tested for normality by using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Then, the PGP approach will be utilized to determine the optimal portfolio in the fourmoment framework. 4.1 Testing for normality of return distribution At the beginning of the empirical work, I will test the normality of return distributions of international stock indices and the US T-bill rates. This test provides the foundation for examine the portfolio selection problem in the mean-variance-skewness-kurtosis framework. Although several methods are developed, there is an ample evidence that the ShapiroWilk is the best choice for evaluating normality of data under various specifications of the probability distribution. Shapiro et. al. (1968) provide an empirical sampling study of the sensitivities of nine normality-testing procedures and concluded that among those procedures, the Shapiro-Wilk statistic is a generally superior measure of non-normality. More recently, Razali and Wah (2011) compared the power of four statistical tests of normality via Monte Carlo simulation of sample data generated from various alternation distributions. Their results support that Shapiro-Wilk test is the most powerful normality test for all types of the distributions and sample sizes. The Shapiro-Wilk statistic is defined as where is the i th order statistic (rate of returns), à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ ¯ . à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ ¯ / is the sample mean, are the expected values of the order statistics of independent and identically distributed random variables sampled from the standard normal, and V is the covariance matrix of those order statistics. Note that the values of are provided in Shapiro-Wilk (1965) table based on the order i. The Shapiro-Wilk tests the null hypothesis of normality: H0: The population is normally distributed. H1: The population is not normally distributed.    If the p-value is less than the significant level (i.e. 1%, 5%, or 10%), then the null hypothesis of normal distribution is rejected. Thus, there is statistical evidence that the sample return distribution does not came from a normally distributed population. On the other hand, if the p-value is greater than the chosen alpha level, then the null hypothesis that the return distribution came from a normally distributed population cannot be rejected. 4.2 Solving for the multi-objective portfolio problem Following Lai (1991) and Chunhachinda et. al. (1997), the multi-objective portfolio selection with higher momentscan be examined based on the following assumptions: Investors are risk-averse individuals who maximize the expected utility of their end-ofperiod wealth. There are n + 1 assets and the (n + 1)th asset is the risk-free asset. All assets are marketable, perfectly divisible, and have limited liability. The borrowing and lending rates are equal to the rate of return r on the risk-free asset. The capital market is perfect, there are no taxes and transaction costs. Unlimited short sales of all assets with full use of the proceeds are allowed. The mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of the rate of return on asset are assumed to exist for all risky assets for 1,2, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ . Then, I define the variables in the analysis as = ,, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ , be the transpose of portfolio component , where is the percentage of wealth invested in the th risky asset, = ,, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ , be the transpose of whose mean denoted by , = the rate of return on the th risky asset, = the rate of return on the risk-free asset, = a (n x 1) vector of expected excess rates of return, = the expectation operator, = the (n x 1) vector of ones, = the variance-covariance (n x n) matrix of , = the skewness-coskewness (n x n2) matrix of ,= the kurtosis-cokurtosis (n x n3) matrix of . Then, the mean, the variance, the skewness, and the kurtosis of the portfolio returns can be defined as:[7] , , à ¢Ã…  -,[8] Kurtosis = = à ¢Ã…  - à ¢Ã…  - . Note that because of certain symmetries, only ((n+1)*n)/2 elements of the skewnesscoskewness matrix and ((n+2)*(n+1)*n)/6 elements of the kurtosis-cokurtosis matrix must be computed. The components of the variance-covariance matrix, the skewness-coskewness matrix, and the kurtosis-cokurtosis matrix can be computed as follows: à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. Therefore, the optimal solution is to select a portfolio component . The portfolio selection can be determined by solving the following multiple objectives, which are maximizing the expected return and the skewness while minimizing the variance and the kurtosis: , , à ¢Ã…  -, = à ¢Ã…  - à ¢Ã…  - . subject to 1. Since the percentage invested in each asset is the main concern of the portfolio decision, Lai (1991) suggests that the portfolio choice can be rescaled and restricted on the unit variance space (i.e. | 1 ). Under the condition of unit variance, the portfolio selection problem with skewness and kurtosis (P1) can be formulated as follows: , à ¢Ã…  -, (P1) = à ¢Ã…  - à ¢Ã…  - , subject to 1 , 1 . Usually, the solution of the problem (P1) does not satisfy three objectives (, , ) simultaneously. As a result, the above multi-objective problem (P1) involves a two-step procedure. First, a set of non-dominated solutions independent of investors preferences is developed. Then, the next step can be accomplished by incorporating investors preferences for objectives into the construction of a polynomial goal programming (PGP). Consequently, portfolio selection by satisfying the multiple objectives that is the solution of PGP can be achieved. In PGP the objective function ( ) does not contain a portfolio component , it contains deviational variables ( , , ) which represent deviations between goals and what can be achieved, given a set of constrains. Therefore, the objective function ( ) is minimization of the deviation variables ( , , ) to determine the portfolio component . Moreover, if the goals are at the same priority level, the deviations from the goals ( , , ) are non-negative variables. Given an investors preferences among mean, skewness, and kurtosis ( , , ), a PGP model can be expressed as: . subject to à ¢Ã‹â€ - , à ¢Ã…  -à ¢Ã‹â€ - , (P2) à ¢Ã…  - à ¢Ã…  - = à ¢Ã‹â€ - , 1 , 1 , ,, 0 . where à ¢Ã‹â€ - = the extreme value of objective when they are optimized individually, then à ¢Ã‹â€ - |1 , à ¢Ã‹â€ - |1 , and à ¢Ã‹â€ - |1 , = the non-negative variables which represent the deviation of and à ¢Ã‹â€ -, = the non-negative parameters representing the investors subjective degree of preferences between objectives, The combinations of represent different preferences of the mean, the skewness, and the kurtosis of a portfolio return. For example, the higher , the more important the mean (skewness or kurtosis) of the portfolio return is to the investor. Thus, the efficient portfolios are the solutions of problem (P2) for various combinations of preferences . The expected results provided in this section refer to two parts of methodology, the normality test and the international portfolio optimization in four-moment framework. 5.1 The expected results of the normality test Many researches examine the international stock indices and found that most of the stock return distributions exhibit skewness and their excess kurtosis are far from zero. For instance, in the work of Chunhachinda et. al. (1997), the Shapiro-Wilk statistics indicate 5 markets and 11 markets reject the null hypothesis of normal distribution at ten percent significant level, for weekly and monthly data, respectively. Prakash et. al. (2003) use the Jarque-Bera test to trial the normality of each international stock index, their results indicate that for 17 markets for weekly returns and 10 markets for monthly returns reject the null hypothesis of normal distribution five percent significant level. Therefore, I expected that the Shapiro-Wilk tests in the proposed study will be significant and reject the null hypothesis of normality. In other words, the return distributions of international stock markets during the period under study are expected to be non-normal. 5.2 The expected results of the multi-objective portfolio selection 5.2.1 The changes in the allocation of optimal portfolios Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash et. al. (2003) both indicated that the incorporation of skewness into the portfolio selection problem causes a major change in the allocation of the optimal portfolio. However, their definitions of a major change are different. Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) found that there is a modification in the allocation when they compare between the mean-variance and the mean-variance-skewness efficient portfolios. However, both types of portfolios are dominated by the investment components of only four markets[9]. On the other hand, Prakash (2003) results show that the structural weights of the mean-variance and the mean-variance-skewness optimal portfolios are dominated by different markets. Therefore, I expected that when I compare between of the mean-variance efficient portfolios, the three-moment efficient portfolios, and the mean-variance efficient portfolios, the percentage invested in each asset will be different in magnitude and ranking. 5.2.2 The trade-off between expected return and skewness Most of the studies of international portfolio selection with higher moments (e.g. Chunhachinda et. al., 1997; Prakash et. al., 2003; Jondeau and Rockinger, 2003 and 2006) reported that the mean-variance efficient portfolios have the higher expected return while the three-moment efficient portfolios have greater skewness. Thus, they indicated that after incorporation of skewness into portfolio selection problem, the investor will trade the expected return of the portfolio for the skewness. More recently, Davies et. al. (2005) applied PGP to determine the set of the four-moment efficient funds of hedge funds and found not only the trade-off between the mean and the skewness, but also the trade-off between the variance and the kurtosis. Thus, I expected to discover the trade-off between the expected return and the skewness and the trade-off between the variance and the kurtosis. In addition, I will also investigate other relationships between the moments of return distribution and report them in both numerical and graphical ways. 5.2.3 The less diversification compared to the mean-variance model. To investigate whether the incorporation of higher moments than the second (i.e. skewness and kurtosis) can help explain the home bias puzzle, I will examine the hypothesis: H0: ZMV à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ ZMVSK. H1: ZMV > ZMVSK. where ZMV and ZMVSK are the number of nonzero weights of the mean-variance efficient portfolios and the four-moment efficient portfolios, respectively. If the number of nonzero weights of the mean-variance efficient portfolios (ZMV) is greater than the number of nonzero weights of the four-moment efficient portfolios (ZMVSK), then I will rejected the null hypothesis. This implies that the incorporation of the higher moments into the portfolio decision can help explain the home bias puzzle. However, the results from the literature are mixed. On one hand, several researchers (e.g. Prakash et. al., 2003; Briec et. al., 2007; Guidolin and Timmermann, 2008) provided the evidence that the incorporation of skewness into the portfolio selection causes the less diversification in the efficient portfolio. On the other hand, the results of some studies (e.g. Chunhachinda et. al., 1997; Jondeau and Rockinger, 2003 and 2006) found that when compare with the mean-variance efficient portfolios, the diversification of the higher-moment efficient portfolios seem to be same or even became more diversify. I expected the results to show that the four-moment efficient portfolio is less diversified than the mean-variance one. In other words, the incorporation of the skewness and the kurtosis into the international portfolio selection can help explain the home bias. [1] Jurczenko, E. and Maillet, B. (2006) Multi-Moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models, Wiley Finance, p. xxii. [2] Semi-variance is a measure of the dispersion of all observations that fall below the average or target value of a data set. [3] The first set consists of four stocks and the second set consists of four equity indices, two commodities, and a risk-free asset. 6 Jurczenko, E. Maillet, B., and Merlin, P. (2006) Multi-Moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models, Wiley Finance, p. 52. [4] Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) analyze the portfolio selection problem by using the dual approach. [5] Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash et. al. (2003) studied the portfolio selection across national stock markets by using two data sets, weekly and monthly data. [6] Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) reported that these markets represent roughly 97% of the world equity market capitalization. [7] I use the derivations of skewness and kurtosis as provided in the textbook Multi-Moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models of Jurczenko and Maillet (2006) to transform the expectation operators into the matrix terms. [8] Let A be an (nÃÆ'-p) matrix and B an (mÃÆ'-q) matrix. The (mnÃÆ'-pq) matrix Aà ¢Ã…  -B is called the of matrix A and matrix B: [9] The four markets are Hong Kong, Netherlands, Singapore, and Switzerland. These markets have high rankings of the coefficient of variation under the sample period.