4101 research outputs found
Sort by
A triadic analysis of service quality perspective between customer, employee and management : the knowledge gap and cross cultural influence on the service quality perception.
No full textMaldives is a renowned tourist destination in the world, growing rapidly within a competitive national and international environment. With similar service provided across the industry, differentiating through service quality is identified as the most imperative way to succeed and sustain in the business. Although design and process of service quality measurement is not fully conceptualized given the complexity of service characteristics, majority of academics have agreed that it should be assessed through the lens of customer expectations and their perceptions. SERVQUAL instrument is the most prominent tool used in this regard and hence, their dimensions will be used to assess the alignment between customer, employee and management’s perception of service quality for the five star resort island under study.The objectives of this study will identify the key determinants of perception of service quality between the stakeholders and find out how this gap is formed between customer expectations and employee/management perception of this expectation. It will also investigate how these dimensions vary according to the guest nationality to understand the cultural context. Europe and Asia is used for the cultural cluster analysis, following the similar segmentation in the government and resort publications. It is found that there is no congruence of service quality perception between the stakeholders. However, there is significant correlation between Europe and Asian guest, having high priority for tangibility, assurance and reliability. The three areas investigated-communication, structure and marker research, of how the gap form underlines, the importance of soliciting the feedback, harnessing accommodating culture and being proactive to sustain service quality. The generalizing of the findings should be treated cautiously due to the small sample size of customers accessible
Top-down or bottom-up? Overhauling electronic resource management at the University of Bolton
No full textDoes further education mean business? : An investigation into the impact leaders of colleges of further education in England believe their organisations contribute towards business competitiveness
No full textOver £40 billion is invested annually in the United Kingdom by employers on business training and skills development in order to enhance the skills of the workforce and add competitive value to organisations. 216 general further education colleges in England, along with other public and private training providers contribute significantly towards this skills and training development. However, there is relatively little research that has been undertaken into investigating the impact leaders of further education colleges in England believe their organisations contribute towards business competitiveness.Within this thesis, a literature review prepares the way for new research on this topic through exploring theory on themes such as the nature of organisations, human capital, leadership and management and staff development. An analysis of research methodology on topics such as knowledge, ethics and mixed methods leads to a research design suitable for this investigation.Learning takes place throughout the research process. A pilot study provides the opportunity to revise questioning, understand and uncover topics of importance to leaders of further education colleges prior to the main research phase. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of respondents’ feedback along with face to face discussions provides first-hand information to develop a theoretical model for the flow of further education skills delivery leading to business competitiveness.It is proposed that contributions to knowledge and practice are made through the refinement of a theoretical research model which has the ability to be practically utilised across the sector, as well as the potential for adaptation at a further education college level. Additional contributions to knowledge and practice are also proposed.Incremental learning is uncovered through a staged and reflective approach to research which leads to discovery of poor stakeholder communications and a lack of impact measurement issues across the sector.Recommendations for practical improvements include more effective dialogue and stronger partnerships between stakeholders; potential for long-term cross-party planning and direction for the sector; and consideration of a consistent, national impact measure for the provision of further education college training to businesses.Limitations of the research are discussed and recommendations for further work considered, including widening the population feedback, sharing the research with the sector to further clarify or challenge the findings, as well as using elements within this research for others to build upon and further widen the field of knowledge on this and related topics
Assessing the effectiveness of the National Integrity System institutions in the fight against corruption: the case of Malawi Parliament
No full textThe introduction of the National Integrity System (NIS) in 1998 was seen as a bold step in the fight against corruption in Malawi. But against the backdrop of numerous cases of corruption in recent times, the question to ask is; how effective are the National Integrity System institutions in fighting corruption? This motivated the research which sought to assess the effectiveness of the NIS institutions in the fight against corruption in Malawi. Using Malawi Parliament as a case study, the objectives of the research were:a) To establish effectiveness of Parliament as a National Integrity System institution in Malawi, b) To determine the level of influence of Parliament in the fight against corruption c) To recommend how Parliament as an Integrity System institution can better support the fight against corruption.Based on the case study findings, the study concludes that parliament as an integrity institution is not effective to fight against corruption ostensibly due to weak capacity which includes lack of budgets and technical skills for staff and MPs, an executive arm of government which is arrogant and uncooperative, highly divisive political and personal interests in the National Assembly making debate on corruption issues highly difficult and untenable, dismal transparency and accountability by parliament itself due to removal of legislation that would have fostered horizontal accountability of Members of Parliament and house decisions and lack of linkages and coherency with other integrity and governance institutions
An assessment of service quality of internet service providers : a case of Skyband Corporation Ltd
No full textThis study assesses the service quality of internet provided by Skyband Corporation Limited, an Internet service provider that has been in this business for about eleven years, competing with over five other internet service providers in this business sector.The reason to study this was prompted by the levels of dissatisfaction that were registered from some existing customers. The aim of the study was to ascertain the levels of satisfaction/dissatisfaction from customers. In doing this, a service quality measurement model of SERVQUAL by Parasuraman (1994) was used. This is the model mostly used by those that have studied similar topics, it measures the perception of the customer before a service encounter and after the service delivery. Other objectives included:- To analyse the processes that are in place to enhance quality of service and best practices, to identify bottlenecks to the provision of quality services, to identify strategies on improving quality of service, to provide a recommended framework on management of service quality. Both primary and secondary research were used in coming up with the results herein.After the research was conducted, it transpired that Skyband Corporation Limited provides satisfactory services to its customers though with a number of problems that requires management attention in order to perfect the service. Paying attention to the problems identified and providing long term solutions would mean heading for a business success through provision of highly satisfactory internet services to customers
Comprehensive theoretical analysis and experimental exploration of ultrafast microchip-based high-field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) technique
No full textHigh-field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) has become an efficient technique for separation and characterization of gas-phase ions at ambient pressure, which utilizes the mobility differences of ions at high and low fields. Micro FAIMS devices made by micro-electromechanical system technology have small gaps of the channels, high electric field and good installation precision, as thus they have received great attentions. However, the disadvantage of relatively low resolution limits their applications in some areas. In this study, theoretical analysis and experimental exploration were carried out to overcome the disadvantage. Multiple scans, characteristic decline curves of ion transmission and pattern recognitions were proposed to improve the performance of the microchip-based FAIMS. The results showed that although micro FAIMS instruments as a standalone chemical analyzer suffer from low resolution, by using one or more of the methods proposed, they can identify chemicals precisely and provide quantitative analysis with low detection limit in some applications. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
A dielectrophoresis-assisted adsorption approach significantly facilitates the removal of cadmium species from wastewater
No full textA newly designed apparatus and process, including dielectrophoresis and adsorption to efficiently remove cadmium species from wastewater, is reported in this study. With this technique, cadmium ions are firstly adsorbed by shell powder particles, which are subsequently trapped and concentrated by a dielectrophoresis process. The factors affecting the metal removal efficiency are systematically investigated, which allows us to determine the optimal operation conditions. Our experimental data indicate that via the adsorption and dielectrophoresis steps, cadmium can be almost completely removed from wastewater as evidenced by the very high removal efficiency of 99.4%. This suggests that our dielectrophoresis-assisted adsorption approach is highly effective for the removal of cadmium, and the technique could be extended to the removal of other heavy metal ions from wastewater as well
EVALUATION OF SERIOUS GAMES: A HOLISTIC APPROACH
No full textDigital games constitute a major emerging technology that is expected to enter mainstream educational use within a few years. The highly engaging and motivating character of such games bears great potential to support immersive, meaningful, and situated learning experiences. To seize this potential, meaningful quality and impact measurements are indispensible. Although there is a growing body of evidence on the efficacy of games for learning, evaluation is often poorly designed, incomplete, biased, if not entirely absent. Well-designed evaluations demonstrating the educational effect as well as the return on investment of serious games may foster broader adoption by educational institutions and training providers, and support the development of the serious game industry. The European project RAGE introduces a comprehensive and multi-perspective framework for serious game evaluation, which is presented in this paper
The impact of the educational system alongside the media in creating awareness on HIV/AIDS among the youths : A case study of Lilongwe city central youths.
No full textThis study looked at the impact of the educational system alongside the media in creating awareness about HIV/AIDS among the youths. It was a case study of Lilongwe City Central. The Research was prompted by the continuous increase in the spread of HIV and AIDS pandemic among the youths.This was a qualitative study that was rooted in the interpretivist paradigm and was conducted around the Traditional Authority Chimutu and Traditional Authority Mazengera in Lilongwe. The study comprised of 87 respondents, who were teachers, youths, and other personnel that are in the fore front of creating awareness.The government of Malawi introduced the subject Life Skills Education as a way to help create awareness among the youth while the radio stations have a variety of programs to help create awareness.The major finding was that indeed the youths are quite aware of HIV/AIDS but they choose not to comply to the awareness messages. The study also found out that teachers lacked adequate training, as well as the necessary materials for teaching. It also came out that the schools were demoralized as the subject was not taken as a core subject during Malawi School Certificate of Education. From the media it was found out that most broadcasters did not fully expound on the information and also that they seemed to not involve their target audience who are the youth.From the findings it showed that there is more to be done in terms of behavioral change among the youth and the recommendations were to find ways of involving the youth more as well as advocate behavior change among them. If there is a quality behavioral system things are guaranteed to change for the better