Supporting the Social Embeddedness of LGBT Older Adults : Initiatives, Projects, and Services – A Survey

As LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) individuals age, they face a variety of challenges that their heterosexual peers do not. These challenges have an influence on their social inclusion and thus partly on their successful ageing. The main objective of this thesis was to analyse how different projects and initiatives are supporting the social inclusion of ageing LGBTs, in Europe and Finland. We hoped to gain insights about the various mechanisms and means of enhancing the social inclusion of LGBT older adults. This thesis was written in collaboration with the national human rights non-governmental organisation Seta – LGBTI Rights in Finland. As for the methodology, based on the available data, a narrative literature review was chosen, and the research can be classified as a qualitative approach, building a narrative out of a heterogeneous data to a continuous event, also giving a historical background on the subject. Our research question and the chosen concepts (LGBT, Older Adults, Social Inclusion, Cultural Competence) defined the systematic search and use of our source material. LGBT older adults often have the same concerns and questions about (present or future) care, support, and housing options as their heterosexual peers. Similarly, their expectations for services in old age have also much in common: recognising and supporting LGBT older adults’ own networks endorsing their social embeddedness, the wish for LGBT-specific initiatives in housing and care, and cultural competence in elderly services. Our study showed that interest in ageing LGBTs as well as their increasing need of various services is still quite limited, but nevertheless growing. The invisibility of LGBT older adults is decreasing, partly because the LGBT communities are becoming more vocal on matters related to elderly services, more local practical incentives are being implemented, and emphasis in culturally competent services has gained support. Clearly, there have been positive developments regarding the inclusion of the ageing LGBT minority during the last decade or so, internationally and in Finland. However, LGBT advocacy organisations, groups, or community members should continue actively pursuing co-operation possibilities with mainstream elderly service providers, who have the resources to provide to the whole spectrum of our ageing population. Additionally, research about gender minorities is almost non-existent, and therefore shedding light on the life of ageing gender minorities would be extremely valuable and could possibly even help to create new practical initiatives. Discussions on diversity issues should be actively pursued. Without the knowledge of the realities in LGBT ageing, there can be no real understanding of the needs of this heterogeneous group of older adults

An Exploratory Investigation of Frontline Employees’ Family Interferences on Job Attitudes and Service Outcomes

This study examines the negative spillover effect of hospitality frontline employees’ work-family conflicts on their affective reactions and commitment and on customer satisfaction. As a field survey indicated, frontline employees’ role conflicts between work and family result in less positive affective job-related reactions, decreased emotional attachment to the organization, and lower levels of customer satisfaction. The findings suggest that tourism & hospitality organizations need to be aware of how factors outside the workplace influence service excellence

The Role of Emotions in Service Encounters

This article advances our understanding of the influence of affect in consumers’ responses to brief, non-personal service encounters. This study contributes to the services marketing literature by examining for mundane service transactions the impact of customer-displayed emotion and affect on assessments of the service encounter and the overall experience. Observational and perceptual data from customers were matched with frontline employees in 200 transaction-specific encounters. The results of this study suggest that consumers’ evaluations of the service encounter correlate highly with their displayed emotions during the interaction and post-encounter mood states. Finally, the findings indicate that frontline employees’ perceptions of the encounter are not aligned with those of their customers. The managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed

Do Interesting Things Increase Behavioral Intentions? A Test of the Appraisal Structure of Interest and Relationship between Interest and Behavioral Intention: Applications in the Hospitality Industry

The emotion of interest has significant implications for human behavior. However, prior research in interest is limited to the domain of psychology. This study applies the appraisal theory of interest to test the inducers of interest, and the relationship between interest and behavioral intentions. An experiment with hypothetical scenarios in a restaurant setting is to be completed. Stimuli appraised as new and complex and with information about them are proposed to cause interest, and interest is expected to increase behavioral intention. Implications for hospitality managers are briefly discussed

Koko kansan korttikahvia. Syntaktinen analyysi Kotiliedessä vuosina 1938, 1948 ja 1958 ilmestyneiden elintarvikemainosten sloganeista

Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan Kotiliedessä vuosina 1938, 1948 ja 1958 ilmestyneiden elintarvike-mainosten sloganeita syntaktisen analyysin kautta. Sloganit koostuvat yleensä kiteytyneistä ja vakiintuneista rakenteista, jotka väistävät perinteisiä syntaktisia rakenteita. Tutkielmassa luodaan sloganeiden syntaktinen luokittelujärjestelmä, joka pohjaa Ralf Vahteran (2009) tutkimukseen sanomalehtiotsikoiden syntaktis-semanttisista tyypeistä. Tutkimuksessa sovelletaan myös Katja Västin (2012) tutkimusta finiittiverbittömistä otsikkorakenteista. Sloganeita ei ole tutkittu syntaktisesta näkökulmasta fennistiikassa aiemmin. Aineisto jakautuu kolmeen pääkategoriaan: täydellisiin lauseisiin, fragmentteihin ja ajatus-viiva¬rakenteeseen. Täydellisistä lauseista tunnistetaan syntaktiset ja modaaliset lausetyypit. Frag-mentit jakautuvat lausekkeisiin ja finiittiverbittömiin rakenteisiin. Lausekkeet jakautuvat perus¬tason lausekkeisiin eli yksinkertaisiin lausekkeisiin, jotka eivät sisällä muita osia, keskenään rinnasteisiin lausekkeisiin ja LAUSEKE + RELATIIVILAUSE -rakenteeseen. Finiittiverbittömät rakenteet jakautuvat dynaamisiin ja staattisiin konstruktioihin. Ajatusviivarakenne jakautuu kuuteen tyyppiin: TUOTE¬NIMI – LAUSEKE, LAUSEKE – LAUSEKE, ∅ – LAUSEKE, TUOTENIMI – LAUSE, LAUSE – LAUSE ja MUU. Yleisin täydellinen lausetyyppi on transitiivinen käskylause. Täydellisissä lauseissa esiintyy elliptisiä rakenteita, joista verbin pakollinen argumentti on jätetty pois. Tämä argumentti käy kuitenkin ilmi muusta mainoskontekstista. Yleisin perustason lauseke on NP. Keskenään rinnasteisten lausekkeiden yleisimmät ilmiöt ovat lausekkeiden syntaktinen suhde muuhun mainokseen sekä konjunktioiden puute. LAUSEKE + RELATIIVILAUSE -rakenteessa tuotenimi ja sen toivottu ominaisuus liitetään yhteen suoraan relatiivipronominin avulla. Finiittiverbittömien rakenteiden dynaamiset konstruktiot rakentuvat PARTITIIVI – ILLATIIVI -yhdistelmästä, jossa illatiivi ilmaisee dynaamisen tapahtuman ja partitiivi ilmaisee objektimaisesti tapahtuman kohteen tai e-subjektimaisesti aineksen. Konstruktio vastaa myös idiomikonstruktiota X:ÄÄ Y:HYN, joka on todennäköisesti ohjannut dynaamisen konstruktion muodostumista. Staattiset konstruktiot ilmaisevat pysyviä olotiloja: lausekkeiden edus¬sanat ovat joko kieliopillisissa sijoissa, inessiivissä tai essiivissä, jotka eivät ilmaise dynaamista liikettä. Useat staattiset konstruktiot ovat kvasifragmentti-maisia. Ajatusviivarakenteessa ajatus¬viiva representoi usein kopulaverbin paikkaa erityisesti TUOTENIMI – LAUSEKE -ryhmässä, jossa nomina¬tiivimuotoinen tuotenimi toimii subjektina ja ajatusviivan jälkeinen lauseke predikatiivina. Kaikista ajatusviivarakenteen sloganeista ei löydy luontevaa paikkaa verbille. Tällöin ajatusviiva toimii itsenäisenä tekstuaalisena elementtinä, joka antaa lukuohjeen sloganin lukijalle. Aineistosta on nähtävissä, että slogankieli pyrkii kaikin keinoin tiiviiseen ilmaisuun, joka kertoo olennaisen tuotteesta, mutta jättää tarpeeksi vastaanottajan mielikuvituksen varaan, jotta vastaan¬ottajan on helppo liittää tuotteeseen positiivisia mielikuvia. Sloganeista saadaan tiiviitä elliptisyydellä tai jättämällä verbi tai konjunktio pois. Pois jätetty verbi tai konjunktio korvataan usein ajatusviivalla. Tutkimus paljastaa, että Vahteran syntaktis-semanttinen luokittelu sanomalehti¬otsikoista tarjoaa hyvän pohjan myös sloganeiden tarkasteluun ja että Västin tutkimus antaa lisää teoreettista pohjaa slogantutkimukselle. Lisäksi tutkimus osoittaa, että vaikka sloganeiden ja otsikoiden funktio tekstissä on eri, niitä pystyy tarkastelemaan samoin metodein

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ABOUT DEVELOPING ELECTRONIC SERVICE QUALITY MEASURE FOR VISUAL COMPONENTS

The Internet has become a major channel for selling a myriad of products and services. To make the on-line shopping experience more vivid, retailers frequently portray product images and video clips on their Web-sites. Although the dimensions of e-service quality have been studied in various on-line contexts, research focusing on visual images is scant. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine how consumers evaluate video clips portraying experiential services in the context of commercial Web-sites. Our results indicate that consumers evaluate video clips based on six distinct dimensions: user interaction, aesthetics, customization/personalization, assurance/trust, flexibility and a novel dimension called virtual human interaction

Become a Fan: A Review of Restaurants\u27 Facebook Fan Pages

Social media has attracted increasing research interests in recent years. It can be used as an effective marketing tool. To the authors’ knowledge, no academic research has been conducted to conceptualize the approach for social media marketing, and the potential effect on customer attitude. Therefore, the current study sets out to propose a conceptual model that articulates the technological affordances of social media. In addition, heuristics triggered by corresponding affordances are introduced. Lastly, to identify the gap between an optimal strategy and the existing practice, this study examined 25 restaurant facebook fan pages. The results indicate that restaurant companies have not yet fully utilized the affordance of social media

An Investigation of the Effects of Front-Line Employees\u27 Work-Family Conflict on Customer Satisfaction through Exhaustion and Emotional Displays

The present study investigates the distal effects of front-line employees\u27 work-family conflict on customer satisfaction. Based on data from 200 paired employee-customer interactions at six hotels, a Structural Equation Modeling was conducted to test the hypothesized model and the results supported most of our predictions. Specifically, participants\u27 FIW (family interfering with work) was positively linked to physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion, while WIF (work interfering with family) did not have such associations. Further, individuals with higher levels of physical exhaustion were more likely to manage their emotions by faking positive emotions and suppressing negative emotions, whereas participants with higher levels of emotional exhaustion were more likely to fake positive emotions. Although faking positive emotions enhances the employee\u27s role performance, such actions failed to enhance customer satisfaction. The current research extends our knowledge of work-family conflict on employee-customer interactions and suggests that hospitality organizations need to be aware of the critical effects of employees\u27 family affairs on work behaviors and ultimately on customer satisfaction

Lively3D: building a 3D desktop environment as a single page application

The Web has rapidly evolved from a simple document browsing and distribution environment into a rich software platform, where desktop-style applications are treated as first class citizens. Despite the associated technical complexities and limitations, it is not unusual to find complex applications that build on the web as their only platform, with no traditional installable application for the desktop environment - such systems are simply accessed via a web page that is downloaded inside the browser and once loading is completed, the application will begin its execution immediately. With the recent standardization efforts, including HTML5 and WebGL in particular, compelling, visually rich applications are increasingly supported by the the browsers. In this paper, we demonstrate the new facilities of the browser as a visualization tool, going beyond what is expected of traditional web applications. In particular, we demonstrate that with mashup technologies, which enable combining already existing content from various sites into an integrated experience, the new graphics facilities unleashes unforeseen potential for visualizations

Effects of message appeal and service type in CSR communication strategies

Studies highlight the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for companies' stakeholders. Consumers, however, are often unaware of such initiatives. Understanding how to effectively communicate socially responsible initiatives is an important challenge for both researchers and managers, who invest considerable resources in CSR initiatives. This study examines consumers' responses to two types of CSR initiatives (environment-related and employee-based) using two types of message appeals (emotional and rational) across two service types (hedonic and utilitarian). Responses provide data on consumers' awareness of CSR initiatives, attitudes toward the company, perceived company uniqueness, emotional response, and attributions of company motives to engage in CSR activities. Rational appeals more effectively communicate environment-related CSR initiatives, whereas emotional appeals more effectively communicate employee-based CSR initiatives. Effects on consumers' attributions of company motives to engage in CSR are significant in both service types. Finally, rational message appeals affect consumers' CSR awareness and emotional responses in utilitarian service