Short history of the theories regarding services quality

We could all observe how much has the importance of quality increased in every buyer’s life in the case of a product as well as in the case of a service. The term quality comes from the Latin “qualis”, which means “of the kind that” and it has been used as far back as the antiquity by the philosophers of the period, Cicero and Aristotle (Stanciu, 2005). The first standard related to quality control appeared in 1935 and it was called “Applying the statistical methods to the industrial standardization and to the industrial quality control”. After the Second World War, quality was approached more and more as a managerial function and in 1960 Japan chose the month of November to be the national month of quality, which, in a little while after that, transformed into the month of quality in the world. 1986 is the year in which the first international standard ISO 8402 appeared, standard concerning the terminology in the field of quality. Another important year is 1988 because in the United States of America, the “Malcom Baldrige” National Award for Quality was awarded to Motorola for the first time, due to the performances obtained in the field of quality. Nowadays, when the buyers’ and society’s exigencies are increasingly greater and the competition is much more ruthless, the following can be easily observed: quality has become “the strategic instrument of any company’s global management” because it is what can maintain its loyal customers and, at the same time, attract new buyers for the products or services offered by any company.quality, services, standard, strategy

SKILLS FOR TOURIST SERVICES

Tourism is traditionally seen as a labour intensive industry, which employs large numbers of labour with relatively low levels of human capital. Tourism employment encompasses employment in such diverse sectors as accommodation, catering, attractions, airlines, souvenir shops, tour operation and travel agencies, transportation and so on. The different sectors of tourism are associated with wide range of occupations with diversity in human capital requirements. The success of tourist destinations is strongly influenced by the quality of their human resources. An important part of the tourist experience comes from the human element, the quality of service, the attitude, responsiveness and helpfulness of the staff adds value to the whole tourist product. Only competent and motivated employees can deliver high-quality tourism service and achieve competitive advantage for their firms and tourist destinations. According to these facts, our paper will examine the major characteristics of tourism employment. It will also present a direct marketing research in a travel agency regarding the level of performance for the agency employees. It will study the relationship between the performance of the travel agency and the skills of its employees. Finally, some conclusions and practical solution will be presented with the purpose of raising the level of the human resource abilities and performance.tourism, employment, skills, marketing, research

Clarifications about the vocations and the occupations denomination from the hotels industry

The Occupations classification from Romania (C.O.R.) has been adopted in 1995. Since then it suffered some modifications and completions. For the hotels and the restaurants sector, a special interest is given by the completions brought by the Mandate no. 149/2006. Positions and the base callings were established in 1995. This way there has been established denominations such as "hotel reception chief", "hotel receptionist", "concierge", "executive/supervisor housekeeper" and "chamber maid"; "executive chef", "cook", "head waiter (maître d'hôtel)" and "waiter". Subsequently were added other positions and vocations such as "hotel director", "rooms division manager", "restaurant director", "sommelier" and "hotel animator". Still, in the professional language we register some other positions, such as revenue manager, front office manager, night auditor, porter and host/hostess. Even if the agreement was that in the work book can be registered only the positions and vocations provided from the O.C.R., in practice, for the operational necessities - the badge, the elaboration of the job description, etc. - for each and every occupation there could and can be used the known formula, probably in English or, preferably, in Romanian. Most of the English denominations find an appropriate translation in Romanian language. Furthermore, by various measures taken especially by the professional associations from the domain which were, in accordance with all the categories of constructions, the future modification and completion of C.O.R. can be obtained.occupations classification, position, vocation, hotel industry, hotel director

Globalization: an open door for the knowledge economy

Globalization refers to an emphasized process of global integration and spreading a set of ideas related to the economical activity and goods’ production, the premises being the liberalization of international commerce and the capital flows, the speeding up of the technological progress and informational society. The cognitive society is more and more obvious and unanimously accepted, which actually proves its efficiency. If traditional, conservative communities, which are not open to change and reject from the start anything new on the horizon, still exist today, they are isolated cases that will eventually be "converted" by this wave of information that has become indispensable to any development because in its absence resources could not be used efficiently. Taking into consideration these elements, this paper wishes to give arguments to the fact that globalization can be seen as being an open door for the cognitive society.globalization, knowledge economy, multinational organizations

The Islet Without Name (Danube River) in summer-autumn season (2015 and 2016)

The Islet Without Name is on the Danube River, located near the Romanian bank, between km 493.3 and km 471.4. Representing one of the most recent fluvial islet on the Danube River, the Islet Without Name began to form in the last 30 years. If, initially, in the sector where the islet is currently located, only a sandy bar emerged in the summer-autumn seasons, now is a permanent landform, covered by forest vegetation. In 2015 and 2016, several field campaigns were carried out to geomorphological changes under certain hydrometeorological conditions. The results obtained shows the continuous dynamism of this fluvial landform

Navigating through historic Danube maps: a look at the fluvial islets between Giurgiu and Oltenita towns

This paper presents a cartographical retrospective of the most relevant maps for the Danube River, focusing on the fluvial islets. The study area corresponds to the Giurgiu-Oltenita sector, one of the Danube's sectors displaying a relative stability regarding the number of such geomorphological landforms. If by the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries the Danube River was drawn as a straight, wavy or curly lines, after this period the maps were made more detailed and precise, also depicting its fluvial islets and marshes. At the same time, information about the navigation, vegetation, topography and bathymetry is starting to be collected and mentioned. All these maps and aerial/satellite images provide an excellent record of historical locations and configuration of the Danube course and its islets

A methodological framework for the morphometric analysis of the fluvial islets along the Danube River in the Giurgiu – Oltenita sector

This paper presents a methodology exclusively based on using the Open Source GIS Technology for the morphometric analysis of the fluvial islets along the Danube course. The study area corresponds to the Giurgiu-Oltenita sector, one of the sectors displaying a relative stability regarding the number and distribution of such geomorphological landforms. In order to identify and achieve a morphometric analysis of the Danubian fluvial islets, we suggest a set of eight parameters: the total number of fluvial islets, maximum length, maximum width, elongation ratio, area, perimeter, perimeter/area ratio and shape index. The necessary geospatial data used to compute the morphometric parameters have been obtained from cartographic documents and ortorectificated aerial imagery, while in order to obtain the final results, a graphical geoprocessing model has been created and run

The relationship between mass communication and national security

In capitalist democracies, corporate media faithfully reflects the dominant class ideology in both reporting and commentary. At the same time, the media leave the impression that it is free and independent, capable of balanced coverage and objective comments, but actually forms and maintains public opinion, being a possible ally but also a threat to national security. In this essay I will analyze the way in which communication and mass media influence the national security, taking into account the new media channels

INVENTARIEREA INSULELOR FLUVIALE ÎN SECTORUL DUNĂREAN GIURGIU/RUSE – OLTENIȚA/TUTRAKAN (ROMÂNIA-BULGARIA)

Inventory of fluvial islets in the Danube Reach Giurgiu/Russe – Oltenita/Tutrakan (Romania-Bulgaria). The paper aim is to make an inventory of all the fluvial islets along Danube River between Giurgiu/Ruse – Oltenita/Tutrakan (Romania-Bulgaria) towns. It is necessary to know the number and location of these fluvial landforms because they are important from hydrogeomorphology, ecological, economical and geopolitical point of view