Frames, knowledge, and inference

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43833/1/11229_2004_Article_BF00485316.pd

Employee health and well-being programmes in small businesses of Johannesburg, South Africa

Thesis (M.Com.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016.Annually R3.9 billion is lost due to illness and absenteeism in South Africa. Fewer than half of the top 100 companies in South Africa offer employee wellness programmes. The objective of this study was to research and test two theories namely Porter’s shared value and Friedman’s profits maximisation argument. These two opposing academic theories postulate that small business managers should and should not respectively spend profits on employee well-being programmes. The research problem addressed by this research study was the lack of knowledge of the impact of well-being programmes on well-being cost to company in SMME in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality area. The aim of the study was to shed light on small businesses and employee well-being in terms of well-being cost to company and if it is considered a priority in today’s competitive economy. This study made use of a mixed-methods approach, and the population consisted of small businesses in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality area. The sampling technique made use of a non-random sampling method called quota sampling to obtain 30 interviews for the qualitative portion of Part One and 507 completed questionnaires for Part Two. The research instruments therefore included interviews for Part One and questionnaires for Part Two. This study’s findings supported literature that argues that most small business do not implement, or offer employee well-being programmes. The findings showed that a mere 13% of small business in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipalities offered any form of employee well-being program at work. Although formal employee well-being programmes were not a priority, management style and intervention was shown to decrease wellness cost to company. Factors such as assisting female staff with their multi-role commitments, increasing educational opportunities for unskilled staff and reducing the amount of overtime for employees was found to significantly reduce the hidden expense of well-being cost to company. This study finds in favour of literature that argues that the negative impact to the business that does not address concerns such as absenteeism, high staff turnover, lowered productivity and lowered staff satisfaction is very high. SMME are vital to South Africa because of their economic contributions which range from their ability to create jobs and contribute to GDP. Increasing awareness of hidden costs to the small business, such as wellness cost to company will go a long way to assist SMME in surviving tough economic conditions in the global economy.MT201

The practice of relationship marketing in hotels

In relationship marketing most research has focused on the desired outcome without paying much attention to its essential constituents. In acknowledgment, this research explored the key dimensions necessary for the implementation of a relationship marketing strategy. A number of key dimensions of relationship marketing were identified in this research, amongst which are market segmentation, organisational memory, organisational culture, role model, relationship management, service customisation, trust and commitment. This research employed a qualitative case study approach in order to explore the activities involved in the implementation of relationship marketing in hotel groups and to gain a better understanding of the approaches taken by hotels to build, develop and maintain long term customer relationships. The issues underpinning this research were investigated in a mid-market hotel company located in the United Kingdom with softer and harder brand hotel groups. Multiple research methods included participant and non-participant observations, in-depth qualitative interviews with hotel managers and the company's marketing director and qualitative interviews with a number of the company's customers to ensure reliability of the data collected. The data gathered from the research methods was analysed using ethnographic techniques. Key findings from this research indicated that a relationship marketing strategy depends on an organisational culture that is relationship orientated, an organisational memory that involves a database system and staff memory, service customisation, managers as role models, trust and commitment. However, customer loyalty and relationship marketing are not necessarily linked as a transactional approach to marketing can also achieve high brand loyalty, if products are differentiated. Customers can have an emotional tie with a hotel brand without the implementation of an interactive approach. Furthermore, in the case of a softer brand hotel group, customers tend to develop a stronger relationship with the individual hotels than with the brand as opposed to in a harder brand hotel group where customers develop a stronger relationship with the brand than with the individual hotel units. To conclude, this research suggests that a transactional approach to marketing can be equally effective in achieving high brand loyalty and that relationship marketing should only be directed to current and potential profitable customers

Perspective relativity: A conceptual examination of the applicability of an articulated notion of "perspective" to such matters as the problem of meanings

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The aim of this thesis is to articulate and defend a general notion of 'perspectives' and some of the ways that they relate to one another, in order to help to clarify one of the preliminary conceptual problems in cybernetics, namely, the relation between energy propagation (signal) and information propagation (message). The literature on this topic is meagre, although the literature relevant to it is too great to cover comprehensively. The approach closely follows the ideas of Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend in the philosophy of science. It is found that the perspective notion has possible uses other than that of signal and message, since the same arguments apply to a wide variety of conceptual and human situations. The concepts considered include: point of view, field space, overall view, three broad categories of perspective difference, compatible and incompatible perspectives, the effect of values and goals, and mutual sensitivity and relevance of perspective spaces. There are five chapters: the first introduces the perspective approach to the 'problem of meanings' and provides a brief introduction to the other four chapters; the second examines two fragments of the philosophical background; the third offers a relatively informal discussion of perspectives and perspective relativity; the fourth suggests an example of a terminology of perspectives (true to perspective relativity, not the only possible one); and the final chapter summarises some immediate results as well as suggesting some possible specialised applications, including political models, information retrieval and machine intelligence.SER

View-based textual modelling

This work introduces the FURCAS approach, a framework for view-based textual modelling. FURCAS includes means that allow software language engineers to define partial and overlapping textual modelling languages. Furthermore, FURCAS provides an incremental update approach that enables modellers to work with multiple views on the same underlying model. The approach is validated against a set of formal requirements, as well as several industrial case studies showing its practical applicability

The impact of marketing communications on customer relationships: an investigation into the UK banking sector

This exploratory research provides a valuable insight into the communication aspect of relationships. In particular, this research investigates the impact of marketing communications on customer relationships from customers' view. Two main types of communication settings are focused on: service encounters and planned marketing communications. Taking a broader approach, service encounters are examined from the perspective of: (1) interactions with service providers (as human and remote interactions), (2) service environment, and (3) interactions with other customers (i. e. word-of-mouth communication). In terms of planned marketing communications, three key communication channels are focused on: advertising, corporate sponsorship and direct marketing. The context of the research is the UK banking sector. Adopting a primarily qualitative approach, data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with bank customers. Research participants were recruited through advertising and snowballing methods. The analysis was guided by the principles of content analysis. This research offers three main contributions. Firstly, the current research has extended the work on service provider and customer relationships by presenting an insight into the nature of customer relationships and their underlying dimensions. In particular, four relationship types were identified which can represent various types of relationships customers may establish with financial institutions: (1) faltering, (2) functional, (3) interactive and (4) affective. Secondly, the research presented empirical evidence on the potential of advertising, corporate sponsorship and direct marketing to promote various types of relationships. Thirdly, this research provides an enhanced understanding about the aspects of service encounters, that are likely to promote (or threaten) the development of certain relationship types

User satisfaction in PFI and non- PFI hospitals in the UK: in particular the outpatients’ department reception/waiting areas

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of BedfordshireFew studies have been undertaken which examine the correlation between design of the receptionl/waiting areas of the outpatients' departments and the implications for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and non-PFI hospitals, in particular the interior environment with reference to user satisfaction. This study investigates to what degree user satisfaction has been achieved in the design of the receptionlwaiting areas in PFI and non-PFI hospitals. The aim of the investigation is to determine whether user satisfaction can be achieved in PFI or non-PFI hospital environments, particular in the outpatients' department. To ascertain whether hospital environments facilitate user friendly and therapeutic characteristics/attributes conducive to user satisfaction, two strands of investigation were undertaken; a) investigation and analysis of PFI and non-PFI hospital design; b) the study of users (PFI and non-PFI) via questionnaire surveys and analysis of their perceptions. The research methods utilised combinations of qualitative information from interviews, discussions with hospital end users, architects/designers and Consortium executives. The surveys undertaken with patients, hospital staff and NHS Trust Managers provided quantitative data to measure the degree to which user satisfaction had been achieved. The main findings of the design analysis identify the strengths and weaknesses in the design of the 'main' and 'sub' reception/waiting areas respectively. The results of the patient surveys, discussions and interviews revealed more positive perceptions of the hospital facilities for PFI hospitals and a general acceptance of the hospital facilities in the non-PFI hospitals. However, the other comments section of the questionnaires reveals some psychological needs of the user were not being met. The hospital staff surveys, discussions and interviews revealed the spatial planning was not ideal for their functional needs. The survey of NHS Trust Managers, Architects/Designers and Building Contractors revealed the difficulties associated with the collaborative process and the implications for the design development process, when reflecting upon 'cost effectiveness' and 'value for money' issues. The conclusions drawn from the study suggest that there is a case for the standardisation of therapeutic environments in the development of 'new build' hospital projects via the design development and collaborative process. The recommendation (see p. 313) provides a design protoeo/that enhance and aids the design development process via selective expertise, which addresses the functional and psychological needs of the hospital end user