MAT201 - Basic Statistics Speech or Presentation

MAT201 - Basic Statistics - Speech or Presentation Example I purposely chose the number of phone calls received and not phone calls made in order to avoid any possible bias, which might arise out of conscious and purposeful dialing of the phone. The observation collected was based on randomly taken data for 10 chosen days and the nature of this dataset is time series. The data was collected such that a single day’s call would not stimulate any received call for the following days. This was consciously done in order to avoid bias. Median value corresponds to observation=(n+1)/2, again if the number of observation is odd then we choose the middle value after arranging the observations in increasing order. Whereas if we have even number of observations as we have here, we take the mean of the two middle observations and it yields the median. The mean value of 13.7 calls (14 approx) is much more than what I expected. The busy schedule usually cuts down the number of phone calls to 10 per day. The average should have been somewhere around 10 or 11. The standard deviation is usually used to find the spread of the distribution of the available data set; here the number of phone calls in 10 days. It can also be said that it is a measure of variability. Square root of variance gives standard deviation. To find out whether the given data set follows normal distribution or not we plot the frequency as we may see that we do not get a symmetrical curve, so our inference is that the data do not follow Normal distribution. As it can be observed that the obtained frequency curve is not symmetrical, and hence we infer that the distribution is not Normal because the Normal distribution is a continuous distribution whereas the number of phone calls in 10 days is off course a discrete variable. Hence the most likely distribution that might be used is the Poisson distribution. Now we continue collecting the data on the number of phone calls for five more days. Our basic question in this context would be whether this changes the

Library System Essay Example for Free

Library System Essay This chapter deals with the review of Literatures and Studies. It also presents the synthesis of the review and its relevance to the present study. Related Literature AMA student Kariz Reinalyn B. Galano (et. al. Don Ricardo C. Lazaro, Rozmaigne Ann L. Sebastian, Kevin Patrick E. Viesca) (2012) cited in their approved thesis proposal at present ACLC has three hundred sixty five students enrolled. The institution is currently using a manual system in their Library and has weak security. Students can borrow books but need to return it within 5 school days. There is no proper monitoring on books being returned. There are no penalties imposed to the students as well. The only way the librarian will find out if there are still pending books not returned is during the end of semester at the inventory period. The librarian then will not sign the clearance of the students who failed to return the books. Another problem is the list of inventory of books. The students need to go and ask for the librarian’s assistance in order for them to search for the books. Karen Foss (2010), Library Director of the Catawba County Library System in Newton, North Carolina has expressed that it is difficult to find materials to help new public library managers cultivate their professional development. Most of the research and writings on library management have focused on academic libraries and only recently has there been more interest in the administration of public libraries. The skill and style of public library managers – the directors, branch managers, and department and service managers who are leading these institutions – strongly affects the culture of a public library. Library staff looks to these managers to help them navigate through the rapid changes that are occurring in public libraries as these changes in technology, roles, and user expectations strongly alter their daily routines of public service. Contemporary library managers need a wider array of skills and attributes than their earlier and more traditional counterparts and will need to seek continual professional development to remain effective as public libraries transition into the twenty-first century. These managers will also need to distinguish between management and leadership skills and learn to identify and mentor leaders within their staff who can assist in the transition. According to Alvin javelosa (2011) library is a collection of books, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. The term library has itself acquired a secondary meaning: a collection of useful material for common use, and in this sense is used in fields such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, electronics and biology. this study will help the library personnel or the librarian in monitoring the books accurately. Further, the use of cataloguing will be made easier through an advance system provided by this study. The librarian is encountering problems in doing transactions like borrowing books, checking the availability of books, returning and accessioning of books because all the transactions are being done manually. The process is time consuming. This proposed system will provide their library a computerized system making it more organized and easy to access. The advantage of this study is to make their current system more effective and efficient. This computerized library system is a transaction processing system (TPS) that will provide a convenient cataloguing, inventory, monitoring, accessioning, borrowing, returning, security and retrieving of records. html) According to Mohd Fairuz Anwar Bin Mahadi (2005), The Library management system will store all the books and members information that consist book number, book title, author name and racks to the system database. The system also provides search function to help students find the book by number of book. Search functions will search through the books database to look for the book and view where the book is situated. For the administrator user, only librarians have access to view or edit data from the system databases. Administrator user will handle administrative functions such create new LMS user account and decide the number of days allowed for the borrowed books. User needs to enter correct password and user id before user can access this function. From here, user can add, delete or update the book and borrower database. (http://library. utem. edu. my/index2. php? option=com_docmantask=doc_viewgid=3761Itemid=208) According to Donna M. Salinas (2010) Library is the best place in the school where the students review and study. It is the place where students study so our group aims to improve the manual operation of the library system. We thought of something that makes the time of students and library personnel decreases for searching and borrowing of books. (http://www. scribd. com/doc/56632694/library-system) Related Studies: According to Shelagh (2001) Fisher library management system is becoming marginalized in the context of ICT developments currently taking place within the library sector because suppliers have failed to keep up with such developments, or have been more concerned with keeping up with the changes in the core functions. The aim of this research, therefore, was to determine the feasibility of developing and disseminating a model system specification which could be used to assist and guide libraries in the procurement of library management systems. The premise was that if a core set of requirements for library management systems, as articulated by purchasing libraries, could be identified, it followed that it would be feasible to develop a model specification or ‘toolkit’ on which procuring libraries could draw. Identification of a potential core set of requirements could be identified primarily by undertaking analyses of  specifications produced by libraries for the tendering process in acquiring a library management system. Thus forty-one specifications were collected from libraries which had recently acquired a library management system, and these were subjected to various levels of analysis. The results are reported in Section 4. Secondly, it was decided that as library system suppliers were in receipt of large numbers of specifications produced by procuring library authorities they were in a strong position to comment on the feasibility, and desirability, of developing a model specification. Thus, a survey of UK system suppliers was undertaken to determine the collective view of suppliers on the role, content, quality and usefulness of the specification as a procurement tool. The results of the survey are reported in Section 5. A detailed account of the methods used in this Study is provided in Section 3. The next section (Section 2) provides a review of the literature on the role and content of specifications, and identifies weaknesses in approaches to producing specifications for the purchase of library systems. (et. al. Rachel Delbridge, Sian Lambert) (http://www. cerlim. ac. uk/projects/harmonise/harmonise. pdf) According to Veronica Adamson (2008) Changes in society and technology are impacting significantly on UK HE libraries and consequently on their management systems. Demographic changes, political and economic drivers are affecting university services and funding structures, and a ‘new realism’ of pragmatic economic and business considerations presides. (JISC SCONUL LMS Study Report, March 2008) Library management systems have developed in response to technical advances and user requirements, mainly in developing electronic interfaces, refining standards and access protocols, purchasing and acquisition processes and cataloguing systems. Increasing globalization of goods, services and communities means that technical platforms are now developed on an international basis and implemented for a worldwide network of users and contributors. A new market for library services and information provision has emerged, with Google and Amazon as a de facto paradigm and metaphor for discovery and delivery. Perceptions of the role and function of the university library are changing, developing and often conflicting, particularly in relation to the provision for collection and circulation, resource discovery, ownership and control, personalization  and seamless access to resources. Enhancing usability and accessibility for an increasingly diverse user community is of increasing importance for libraries. Today’s library users expect speed and immediacy of information discovery, one-stop access to aggregated services, user-generated open content, and personalized, workflow-related delivery to the desktop. (et. al. Paul Bacsich, Ken Chad, David Kay, Jane Plenderleith) (http://www. jisc. ac. uk/media/documents/programmes/resourcediscovery/lmsstudy. pdf) According to Herrera C Rocio (1987) the work habits of users in any activity requiring information, the importance they attach to obtaining it and the facilities at their disposal, their knowledge of these facilities, their assessment of their value and the possibility of their obtaining what they are looking for are the factors that affect user behaviour in the quest for information. The behaviour of the users of university libraries specifically is affected, in addition to the above factors, by others directly related to the university environment, such as teaching methods and the type of education provided. The countrys education system is a teaching-learning process largly consisting in an essentially repetitive pattern in which the student consumes and reproduces the concepts transmitted by the teacher. This model is mainly based on the university lecture system, in which the teacher simply gives a course of study and provides the pupil with a brief bibliography consisting basically of texts. The result has been that education has not become a critical and creative process and library resources have accordingly been under-utilized. As regards the response to the information services provided by university libraries, it can be said that research workers do not use the services properly since the role of the library as an agent for the transfer of information has been disregarded in the research process, this type of user tending to acquire information through informal channels of communication, such as personal contacts with other colleagues. In its turn, the library has neglected its task as a constituent part of the research enterprise, forgetting that one of the priorities of the university, in addition to its teaching role, is that of research, which is the source of much knowledge of benefit not only to the university but also to the community in general. The university library should pay special attention to ascertaining not only the specific information needs of each type of user but also user behaviour patterns in the information retrieval process, in order that these needs may be met and the factors responsible for the non-use of the library restricted to a minimum. This will be achieved through an appropriate methodology for conducting user studies, which will then provide guidelines for the organization of user training or instruction courses aimed at the various groups. These courses will influence the future response of users to information services. Since user behaviour in the information retrieval process determines the level of library-user interaction, continual monitoring by the librarian of changes in that behaviour is necessary. These changes are dependent not only on information needs but also on the possible impact of the introduction of new services. This shows that, over and above the matter of training in the use of library resources, user behaviour presents a number of special features, largely reflecting the fact that the information needs of those concerned are not well defined and that their request for information are consequently vague and very general. It follows that library staff should bear in mind their active role in promoting and publicizing their services and resources since, despite the continual emphasis placed on the role of information in development, it has been shown that users tend to dispense with non-essential information, the usual practice being to rely on memory, to evade the problem or to solve it with vague or incomplete information. However, it should not be overlooked that there is another group of users who consult libraries actively and effectively in order to satisfy their information needs; although accessibility influences the use that they make of resources, the most important thing for this group is their confidence and faith in the information system. (c Loreto M. Libia and Rua R. Ivan) (http://www. unesco. org/webworld/ramp/html/r8722e/r8722e0l. htm) According Neelakdan,B (2010) a sincere attempt has been made towards finding out ways and means for automating activities in the School of Chemistry Library. The objective of this study is to use the Koha Open Source software system for the automation of the major day ­ to ­day activities of the various section of the School of Chemistry Library, which is tiresome and cumbersome. After the investigation, the researcher has found that Koha Software is more suitable for the library Automation. This project had the basic objective of designing a bibliographic database for the School of Chemistry library, with which the automation of circulation routines is carried out. From this point of view it may be concluded that Koha is a useful package for the creation of a database and for information retrieval. This set of Manuals for the automation of circulation section is tested with the database created from the collection of chemistry department library. A sample database for a few thousand works and a database of the users/borrowers are created. With that test sample the Manuals for each function of the circulation section is tested with the available computer system. Koha is an integrated software system with all the required models for small to very large libraries. It is found that this automation projects will serve as a model for any library. (http://www. ipublishing. co. in/jarvol1no12010/EIJAER1014. pdf) According to Dio P. Doble (2011) A college strengthens its educational level through the advancement of its library. The Botolan Community College Computerized Library System aimed to enhance the procedures of the library, from manually operated to a computerized system. This proposal’s purpose was to ease the transactions in the library, i,e. , leading of books, storing of books, search engine for books, manage members of the library and secure the library system. The librarian and the library users still use the manual way of transacting of borrowing and returning of books. The librarian use log books in listing the books. They use library cards and card catalogues in searching for reading and reference materials. (http://www. scribd. com/doc/99431218/Computerized-Library-System)

Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance

Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study In todays competitive world, employee is an important asset to every organisation. An organisation cannot progress without employees. However, the success of an organisation depends on how the management utilise their workers capabilities in achieving organisation goals and objectives. Employees need to be inspired as well as motivated to perform well and perform efficiently. According to Smith (n.d.), employees who like where they work will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line. When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfactionjumped 1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point. Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to the job and to the customer. This shows that happy employees performed well which increases the quality and quantity of their work. Long time ago, employees were considered as merely an input to the production of good and services. However as time goes by, this way of thinking has changed as many studies has been done on the employees behaviour and job performance. An employees performance may affect the production of the company, from the quality to the quantity of the products and services. This is why the management must identify the factors affecting their workers performance. A high performance workforce is the most important foundation for organisations success no matter how big or how small the organisation is. Job performance is the ability and skill that an employee possesses in performing the job required by the employer. The level of performance by the employee is going to affect the organisations goal and productivity. Besides, employees performance may also be affected by the management of the company, the job itself or even the employees own behaviour. Good job performance provides great achievement to the organisation, harmony in the workplace and also employees self-accomplishment. Thus, to have a good workforce and good employee performance, organisation must firstly identify and understand the factors which affect the employees job performance in achieving companys goal. 1.2 Research Problem For centuries, individuals have questioned and performed research on the factors affecting employees job performance and yet the answers may vary from one another. Some researcher said that employees performance is influenced by their pay and some said they are not. Employees are an organisations important asset which is why good performance by the employees is essential in producing good job quality and productivity. Employees are the ones who are running the organisation on behalf of the company. They have the responsibilities to perform well for the company in order to achieve organisation goal and compete with other organisations in the same industry. Employees are the one who plan, manage, organise and run the business activities of an organisation. This means that poor employees job performance may reduce the quality of services and productivity which will eventually slow down the operation of the organisation and lead to wastage of resources such as money and time. Organisations may find ways to solve the problem by terminating poorly performed employees or even choose to ignore it which may lead to unsuccessful business or bankruptcy. By choosing to terminate underperformed employee could not solve the problem as time is needed to hire new employee and extra cost will be incurred for training new employee. Management should find ways that inspires their workers to perform well in order to achieve organisations goal and in order to fully utilise their resources. Management believes that by paying employees more (increase of wages), employees will tend to perform better. Perhaps it might be true according to some researcher. However, there are also recent studies that have shown that employees motivations are not solely affected by pay. Thus, this research is carried out to investigate the factors that affect employees performance. This research will attempt to evaluate the effect of four variables which are motivation, job commitment, job design and work environment. 1.3 Research Objectives The reason for this research is: To investigate if motivation has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job commitment has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job design has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if work environment has the significant affect on employees job performance. Job design is techniques that are use in the job design exercise are such as job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation and job simplification. The work environment or working place which an employee performs in, can affect his or her performance. Work environment can be divided into two categories which are physical environment and social environment. The physical environment includes safe working place with ample resources and equipment such as comfortable chair, lighting and etc whereas the social environment includes people that the employees are working with in the organisation such as working colleagues or subordinates, supervisors and etc. 1.4 Scope of the Study This empirical study consists of dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is employees job performance whereas the independent variables consist of factors that affect employees job performance such as motivation (pay, benefits, rewards, etc), job commitment, job design and work environment. The population for this study take into account the employees working in the manufacturing companies in Penang and is randomly selected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires will be distributed to 150 employees. Questionnaires will then be collected back and data will be analysed using the regression testing that is use to test the effects of the independent variables onto the dependent variables. 1.5 Significance of Study It is definite that every organisation no matter how big or small in size the company is in the whole wide world needs people or employees to operate and manage their company. The significance of this study is to investigate the four factors relationship with employees job performance, as employees job performance is important in producing good job quality and maximum productivity. This study is also essential to find out the influences of the four factors to the organisations. An organisation is considered dead and cannot operate without workers. Well performed employees may lead the organisation to success and earn competitive advantage over competitors while poor performed employees may lead company to failure and even bankruptcy. Besides poorly performed workers causes insufficiency in productivity which indirectly waste company resources. It might also cause company to be defeated by its rival. Therefore this study will help managers and employees to understand better the problem affecting their performance and reduce the negative effects to the company. Chapter 2 LITERATURE RREVIEW 2.1 Introduction These days, the business world is becoming more challenging than ever. This increases the managements awareness that good job performance is the key success to the organisation. To have well-performed employees, various ways or techniques should be conducted to manipulate humans nature and needs to produce desired behaviours and well performance. For that reason, the first thing the management should do is to understand human (employees) needs and wants. Employee job performance is the ability of employees to perform effectively in their job required and they need to have understanding of complete and up-to-date job description for their position. Besides that, they also need to be aware of the job performance requirements and standard that they are expected to meet. Supervisors or the management of the organisation should then review their employees job description and performance requirements. Job performance can be reviewed in terms of overall efficiency in the job or in terms of specific components that the job compromises. The purpose of performance standards is to communicate expectations. Some supervisors prefer to make them as specific as possible, and some prefer to use them as talking points with the specificity defined in the discussion (University Human Resource Services, 2005). In general employees and supervisors use the performance assessment annually to sum up an overall review of how the job has been done over the previous 12 months, to identify whether organisational goals have been met, to identify areas which require additional efforts, and lastly to identify the achievement and development goals for the forthcoming year. Performance reviews typically take place annually, but can be scheduled more frequently. Performance review processes vary depending on whether your appointment is as classified or professional staff. For classified staff covered by a labour contract, the contract establishes the performance review process requirements (University of Washington, 2007). People who are joining the workplace today are not only looking for jobs that earn money, but are also looking for more opportunities such as self-development. They are willing to put more effort on their job when their own needs, goals, expectation and desires are met. For that reason, the management of the organisation have to find out the factors affecting the employees performance and come up with techniques to improve employees job performance. Management must also make sure that employees goals are in line with organisations objectives. As the world become more competitive, organisations around the world are also alerted by the need to compete effectively against each other. In order to do so, organisations need to prepare themselves by making sure the people in their organisation are able to perform well and compete competently. Job performance will be the key success for organisation as it enables employees to work at their best and maximize their contribution to the organisa tion. 2.2 History of Research on Job Performance According to Hersen (2004), â€Å"job performance is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be defined and assessed in varying ways. Job performance can be defined (and assessed) in terms of quantifiable outcomes of work behaviours (e.g., amount of sales measured in dollars, productivity level, number of academic journal publications, number of lines of computer code written) and in terms of behavioural dimensions (work-related communication, decision making, attention to detail) that are less quantifiable†. Employees job performance also stands for the level ability of every employee to work efficiently (in terms of quantity and quality) in their job as required or expected by their employers. The employees job performance is then evaluated by the employer, supervisors or the people in charge. The job performance can be evaluated in terms of effectiveness all together in the job and in terms of particular components that the job compromises. The employees performances will show the personalities, knowledge and experiences of themselves. Each employees performance level is different as each individual has different capability and behaviour. Employees poor level of performance may be affected by many factors which include motivation, job commitment, job design and the work environment of the organisation. Historically, many researchers have attempted to study the factors affecting job performance but it is not as simple as one may think and the answer may vary from one another. Buchanan (n.d.), who has done a study on the relation of job satisfaction and performance, pointed out in her study that â€Å"the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relations approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction†. She also mentioned that many researchers tend to relate job satisfaction and job performance in a specific fashion, which is a happy worker, is a good worker. Job satisfaction is defined as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs (Spector, 1997). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job (Williams, 2004). Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. Several numbers of studies has found that there is only a limited amount of relationship between employees satisfaction and their job performance. For example, it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2001). The increased of job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased of employees job performance. If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees are not effectively working towards the mission of the organisation. Therefore, Buchanan concluded in her study that each employees performance is normally determined by motivation, ability, and the work environment. The motivation factor is the desire of the employee to do the job; ability is the capability of the employee to do the job and lastly the work environment which is the tools, materials and information that is needed by the employee to do the job required. 2.3 Past Research on Motivation Affecting Job Performance In the past, employees job performance are traditionally been looked at in terms of ‘motivation. Many researchers have come out with a conclusion that employees levels of performance are influenced by the motivation factor. Examples of researchers are like Maslow (1954), who developed ‘the hierarchy of needs or Hezberg (1966), who developed the idea of ‘hygiene factors, such as pay and conditions which, if not ‘right in the eyes of the employee, act as de-motivators. There is also the work of McClelland who argued that people struggled to fulfil needs of power or influence and social interaction, amongst others. All these ideas have uses in the management of the poor performer. Sometimes, however; they seem to be too complex to use on a day-to-day basis and are more suited to giving the manager a theoretical understanding rather than a useful tool (Proud, n.d.). From the theory of motivation such as Maslows hierarchy of needs,modern leaders, executive managers or supervisors findmeans of motivation for the purposesof employees performance and workforce management. Motivation is always view as an important issue in the business world. This is because motivation is vital in every organisation as it will affect the productivity of the organisation. When the employees in an organisation are unmotivated, the productivity of that organisation will be decreased whereas compared to an organisation which have motivated employees the labour turnover will be lower and production will be higher. According to Dev (n.d.), â€Å"A Gallup organisation study indicated that companies with positive employee attitudes are 50 percent more likely to achieve customer loyalty, and 44 percent more likely to achieve above-average profits. Additionally, the study finds firms that measure in the top quartile with regard to employee engagement averaged 24 percent higher profitability, 29 percent greater revenue and 10 percent less employee turnover than businesses in the bottom quartile. The evidence is clear. Better people management practices produce better business results.† According to Bartol Martin (1998), â€Å"motivation is defined as the force that energises behaviour, gives direction to behaviour, and underlies the tendency to persist. This definition recognises that in order to achieve goals, individual must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic , must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long enough period of time to realise their aim†. Thus, motivated behaviours are performed and controlled voluntarily by the employees themselves whereas supervisors or managers only act as the motivator to encourage employees to increase their level of job performance. Many people who are not motivated keep their performance to an acceptable level by expending only 20% to 30% of their ability whereas managers who know how to motivate their employees can achieve 80% to 90% ability levels and consequently higher levels of performance (Geoff, n.d.). Motivation comes in many different forms. It can be in a simple form like praise by the supervisors or managers, in the form of monetary (increase in pay), rewards, promotion, job security and etc. These factors are important because it will affect the employees level of job performance. Hence it is truly essential that managers and supervisors of an organisation knows how to motivate its employees in performing well and achieving organisation goals. According to Wagner (n.d.), â€Å"Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other needs†. Maslows hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. The basis of Maslows theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. A satisfied need is not a motivator as the most influential employee need is the one that has not been satisfied. From the Maslows hierarchy of needs, management should understand and identify what their employees need and then satisfy them from the lowest to the highest level. Physiological needs are needs which are at the bottom of the pyramid, are the most essential needs to human living. In the workforce, organisation helps employees to satisfy their needs by giving them basic salary. Safety needs are security needs that include the needs for shelter from the environment and health insurance. In the organization context, employees express their security needs as a desire for job security with fringe benefits. The management should provide employees with safe working environment with ample tools and resources. These will be the factor that helps employees to perform well. Social needs are needs related to the need for friendship, love and sense of belonging. At the workplace, these needs include having good relationship with colleagues, superiors or etc. When employees enjoy working closely with each other, it may result in positive behaviour at work which will also result in better employee performances. The management can also help to satisfy employees social needs by showing direct concern for them. Esteem needs are the needs of self-respect, respect or recognition from others and a sense of personal achievement. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world (Simons et al., 1987). In the organisation, the management can fulfil employees esteem needs by showing their appreciation through promotion, rewards, recognition and etc. Self-actualisation needs are place at the highest level of the pyramid. These needs are associated to personal growth, self-fulfilment and the realisation of ones full potential. In this stage, the management can help the employees by giving them tasks that challenges their own intelligence. All the elements in the Maslows hierarchy of needs are the motivator for employees to perform well in their job. A motivated employee is usually someone with clearly defined goals who takes action which he or she expects to achieve. Besides that, motivated employees will be likely to put in more effort towards the organisation objectives and goals. A leader that recognises employee efforts and helps employees achieve and grow can help improve motivation which therefore increases job performance. According to Hong et al. (1995), Vroom maintained in his expectation theory that everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. So it is important for management to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and performance. Image. Relationship between the type of employee benefit and impact on job performance However, there are some researchers that found out that motivation has limited relationship with employees job performance. They do not believe that money (salary and bonuses) is a good motivator. McNamara (n.d.), who did a research on employee motivation, said that â€Å"certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually dont help people to become more motivated. A key goal for the company is to understand the motivations of each of their employees†. Another researcher, Urichuck (n.d.), stated that â€Å"organisations could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. For sure they will be glad and grateful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period will be more money. External employee motivation is temporary and it is never lasting. Money is an external employee motivator. Its an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. Nevertheless the employees will not even realise that the company is facing a crisis. They will want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less†. According to him, there is a survey on thousands of workers around the world that uses compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order; high wages, job security, promotion in the organisation, good working conditions, interesting work, personal loyalty of supervisor, tactful discipline, full appreciation of work done, help on personal problems, and feeling of being in on things. However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern; full appreciation of work done, feeling of being in on things, help on personal problems, job security, high wages, interesting work, promotion in the organization, personal loyalty of supervisor, good working conditions, and tactful discipline. Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors (Urichuck, n.d.). As a result, this research shows that motivation through the form of money, has limited amount of relationship with employees job performance while recognition is the most influential motivator that affects employees job performance. 2.4 Past Research on Job Commitment Affecting Job Performance Job commitment is the willingness of the employees to be devoted in completing the job assigned to them at minimum level of commitment or exceeding the amount that is required. The level of employee commitment to their job is often the key determinant of whether the employee performs as expected or exceeding the expectations. The level of employee commitment may affect employees job performance. Committed employees often performed well and results in companys success and increase of productivity level. Besides job commitment includes the level of employee involvement and employee loyalty to the organisation. Simpson (n.d.), who did a research on building employee commitment for business success, stated that â€Å"the indication of lack of employee commitment could be an indication of a company on the way to becoming another business failure. The workplace is changing dramatically and demands for the highest quality of product and service is increasing. To remain competitive in the face of these pressures, employee commitment is crucial. The two keys to success in todays environment of increasing competition and rapid change are an absolute passion for, and dedication to, excellence in customer service and the effective and enlightened management of our workforce. The employees commitment will lead to achieving desired standards in customer service and high job performance. Without employee commitment, there can be no improvement in any area of business activity. In the absence of good management, employees will simply treat their work as a job; a 9am to 5pm routine without any desire to accomplish any more than is necessary to remain employed. It does not take many uncommitted employees to prevent a business from prospering and thereby ceding a big advantage to its competitors†. Another researcher, Fink (1992), asserted that although there are many factors that affect employees performance, the key factor of employees performance is affected by employees job commitment. He defines commitment as an attitude that develops from a process called identification, which occurs when one experiences something, someone, or some idea as an extension of oneself. While all research on commitment treats it only in terms of identification with organisation, that is, its goals, values, and mission, on the other hand, he focuses on three-dimensional concept including identification with the work itself and with co-workers. He is sure that these are equally important because they can have powerful effects upon employee performance. As basis of his research he makes an interactive model that proposes: good management practices result in an effective reward system and employee commitment, an effective reward system results in enhanced employee commitment and employee performanc e, and employee commitment results in enhanced employee performance. As a result of his research in two companies, who has 418 and 430 employees, respectively, he found that there was significant correlation between employee performance ratings and commitment score in all categories, and also the correlation between performance and commitment for managers and operational employees grouped separately were significant in all categories. The higher the level of employee commitment to work; co-worker, and organisation, the higher the level of the performance will be. Based on Sutanto‘s (1999) findings, instead of concluding that job commitment only has significant affect on job performance, he has found that â€Å"there is also a positive and significant relationship between commitment to supervisors and performance. He also stated that employees commitment to supervisors have become a good predictor to performance rather than commitment to organisations†. After conducting a larger project to all 1,803 members of May 1993 graduating class of large north-western university, Becker (1992), has found that commitment to supervisors was positively related to performance. â€Å"Further, internalization of supervisors and organizations values was associated with performance but identification with these foci (targets) was not. A number of theorists and researchers have begun to view employee commitment as having multiple foci and bases. Foci commitments are the individuals and group to whom an employee is attached†. Thus, in order to increase employees performance, the study suggest that managers should focus on creating employees commitment to supervisors rather than creating employees commitment to the organisation. On the other hand, Cohens (1999) research supported the important status of job involvement as an antecedent to organisational commitment. Specifically, Cohen argued that those individuals with high levels of job involvement, which stem from positive experiences on-the-job (Witt, 1993), make attributions for these experiences to the organisation. Thus, having previously received benefits from the organisation and being obligated by the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) to repay them, high job involvement employees feel compelled to reciprocate in some form. This increased affective commitment (i.e. where employees adopt the companys goals as their own and, therefore, desire to remain with the organisation to help it achieve its goals; Meyer and Allen, 1984; Mowday et al., 1979) and later was found to reduce turnover intentions, absence behaviour, and/or turnover, as well as increased job performance. Tough many researchers have confirmed that employees commitment result in high job performance, nevertheless some past researchers have also found that job commitment or involvement has limited affect on employees job performance. According to Rotenberry and Moberg (2007), â€Å"research finding a significant impact of job involvement on employee performance has met limited success (e.g. Brown, 1996; Brown and Leigh, 1996; Diefendorff et al., 2006 and Vroom, 1962)†. Diefendorff et al. (2002) stated that â€Å"research has been limited for two reasons. Specifically, they asserted that past studies had predominantly used inferior measures of job involvement, which led to their insignificant findings. In addition, Diefendorff et al. (2002) argued that the performance domain assessed in those previous studies needed to be expanded in order to ascertain job involvements true impact on performance at work. The researchers tested the validity of these propositions, but called for additional research in the area paying particular attention to theory development regarding the job involvement-performance relationship†. 2.5 Past Research on Job Design Affecting Job Performance Job design is the method of arranging various work elements in forming a job that suit the employees. Job design identifies what work must be performed to be precise, the content of the job, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and the competencies required by the person who will perform it. Job design also facilitates the achievement of organizational goals and performance of the work the job was established to accomplish (Sharon, 1998). Job design is also important to avoid employees dissatisfaction. The design of the job must follow the organisations and employees requirement including the health and safety requirement. Besides, job design implementation includes methods such as job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job simplification. The first, job enlargement, can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks. Tasks that reduce the amount of specialization required by the employee, as well as, extending the length of time he or she has to complete them. The second, job rotation, allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better insight into operations. This, in itself, does not modify or redesigns the employees job, but allows the opportunity to increase his/her skills and knowledge about other jobs. Job enrichment, the third method, allows the employee to take on some responsibilities normally delegated to management. The risk here is that the employee would be transferred too much responsibility and autonomy in the planning and control aspects of the job. Done right, however, the newfound control would invigorate the employee to work more effectively and thus increased it Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study In todays competitive world, employee is an important asset to every organisation. An organisation cannot progress without employees. However, the success of an organisation depends on how the management utilise their workers capabilities in achieving organisation goals and objectives. Employees need to be inspired as well as motivated to perform well and perform efficiently. According to Smith (n.d.), employees who like where they work will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line. When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfactionjumped 1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point. Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to the job and to the customer. This shows that happy employees performed well which increases the quality and quantity of their work. Long time ago, employees were considered as merely an input to the production of good and services. However as time goes by, this way of thinking has changed as many studies has been done on the employees behaviour and job performance. An employees performance may affect the production of the company, from the quality to the quantity of the products and services. This is why the management must identify the factors affecting their workers performance. A high performance workforce is the most important foundation for organisations success no matter how big or how small the organisation is. Job performance is the ability and skill that an employee possesses in performing the job required by the employer. The level of performance by the employee is going to affect the organisations goal and productivity. Besides, employees performance may also be affected by the management of the company, the job itself or even the employees own behaviour. Good job performance provides great achievement to the organisation, harmony in the workplace and also employees self-accomplishment. Thus, to have a good workforce and good employee performance, organisation must firstly identify and understand the factors which affect the employees job performance in achieving companys goal. 1.2 Research Problem For centuries, individuals have questioned and performed research on the factors affecting employees job performance and yet the answers may vary from one another. Some researcher said that employees performance is influenced by their pay and some said they are not. Employees are an organisations important asset which is why good performance by the employees is essential in producing good job quality and productivity. Employees are the ones who are running the organisation on behalf of the company. They have the responsibilities to perform well for the company in order to achieve organisation goal and compete with other organisations in the same industry. Employees are the one who plan, manage, organise and run the business activities of an organisation. This means that poor employees job performance may reduce the quality of services and productivity which will eventually slow down the operation of the organisation and lead to wastage of resources such as money and time. Organisations may find ways to solve the problem by terminating poorly performed employees or even choose to ignore it which may lead to unsuccessful business or bankruptcy. By choosing to terminate underperformed employee could not solve the problem as time is needed to hire new employee and extra cost will be incurred for training new employee. Management should find ways that inspires their workers to perform well in order to achieve organisations goal and in order to fully utilise their resources. Management believes that by paying employees more (increase of wages), employees will tend to perform better. Perhaps it might be true according to some researcher. However, there are also recent studies that have shown that employees motivations are not solely affected by pay. Thus, this research is carried out to investigate the factors that affect employees performance. This research will attempt to evaluate the effect of four variables which are motivation, job commitment, job design and work environment. 1.3 Research Objectives The reason for this research is: To investigate if motivation has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job commitment has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job design has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if work environment has the significant affect on employees job performance. Job design is techniques that are use in the job design exercise are such as job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation and job simplification. The work environment or working place which an employee performs in, can affect his or her performance. Work environment can be divided into two categories which are physical environment and social environment. The physical environment includes safe working place with ample resources and equipment such as comfortable chair, lighting and etc whereas the social environment includes people that the employees are working with in the organisation such as working colleagues or subordinates, supervisors and etc. 1.4 Scope of the Study This empirical study consists of dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is employees job performance whereas the independent variables consist of factors that affect employees job performance such as motivation (pay, benefits, rewards, etc), job commitment, job design and work environment. The population for this study take into account the employees working in the manufacturing companies in Penang and is randomly selected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires will be distributed to 150 employees. Questionnaires will then be collected back and data will be analysed using the regression testing that is use to test the effects of the independent variables onto the dependent variables. 1.5 Significance of Study It is definite that every organisation no matter how big or small in size the company is in the whole wide world needs people or employees to operate and manage their company. The significance of this study is to investigate the four factors relationship with employees job performance, as employees job performance is important in producing good job quality and maximum productivity. This study is also essential to find out the influences of the four factors to the organisations. An organisation is considered dead and cannot operate without workers. Well performed employees may lead the organisation to success and earn competitive advantage over competitors while poor performed employees may lead company to failure and even bankruptcy. Besides poorly performed workers causes insufficiency in productivity which indirectly waste company resources. It might also cause company to be defeated by its rival. Therefore this study will help managers and employees to understand better the problem affecting their performance and reduce the negative effects to the company. Chapter 2 LITERATURE RREVIEW 2.1 Introduction These days, the business world is becoming more challenging than ever. This increases the managements awareness that good job performance is the key success to the organisation. To have well-performed employees, various ways or techniques should be conducted to manipulate humans nature and needs to produce desired behaviours and well performance. For that reason, the first thing the management should do is to understand human (employees) needs and wants. Employee job performance is the ability of employees to perform effectively in their job required and they need to have understanding of complete and up-to-date job description for their position. Besides that, they also need to be aware of the job performance requirements and standard that they are expected to meet. Supervisors or the management of the organisation should then review their employees job description and performance requirements. Job performance can be reviewed in terms of overall efficiency in the job or in terms of specific components that the job compromises. The purpose of performance standards is to communicate expectations. Some supervisors prefer to make them as specific as possible, and some prefer to use them as talking points with the specificity defined in the discussion (University Human Resource Services, 2005). In general employees and supervisors use the performance assessment annually to sum up an overall review of how the job has been done over the previous 12 months, to identify whether organisational goals have been met, to identify areas which require additional efforts, and lastly to identify the achievement and development goals for the forthcoming year. Performance reviews typically take place annually, but can be scheduled more frequently. Performance review processes vary depending on whether your appointment is as classified or professional staff. For classified staff covered by a labour contract, the contract establishes the performance review process requirements (University of Washington, 2007). People who are joining the workplace today are not only looking for jobs that earn money, but are also looking for more opportunities such as self-development. They are willing to put more effort on their job when their own needs, goals, expectation and desires are met. For that reason, the management of the organisation have to find out the factors affecting the employees performance and come up with techniques to improve employees job performance. Management must also make sure that employees goals are in line with organisations objectives. As the world become more competitive, organisations around the world are also alerted by the need to compete effectively against each other. In order to do so, organisations need to prepare themselves by making sure the people in their organisation are able to perform well and compete competently. Job performance will be the key success for organisation as it enables employees to work at their best and maximize their contribution to the organisa tion. 2.2 History of Research on Job Performance According to Hersen (2004), â€Å"job performance is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be defined and assessed in varying ways. Job performance can be defined (and assessed) in terms of quantifiable outcomes of work behaviours (e.g., amount of sales measured in dollars, productivity level, number of academic journal publications, number of lines of computer code written) and in terms of behavioural dimensions (work-related communication, decision making, attention to detail) that are less quantifiable†. Employees job performance also stands for the level ability of every employee to work efficiently (in terms of quantity and quality) in their job as required or expected by their employers. The employees job performance is then evaluated by the employer, supervisors or the people in charge. The job performance can be evaluated in terms of effectiveness all together in the job and in terms of particular components that the job compromises. The employees performances will show the personalities, knowledge and experiences of themselves. Each employees performance level is different as each individual has different capability and behaviour. Employees poor level of performance may be affected by many factors which include motivation, job commitment, job design and the work environment of the organisation. Historically, many researchers have attempted to study the factors affecting job performance but it is not as simple as one may think and the answer may vary from one another. Buchanan (n.d.), who has done a study on the relation of job satisfaction and performance, pointed out in her study that â€Å"the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relations approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction†. She also mentioned that many researchers tend to relate job satisfaction and job performance in a specific fashion, which is a happy worker, is a good worker. Job satisfaction is defined as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs (Spector, 1997). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job (Williams, 2004). Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. Several numbers of studies has found that there is only a limited amount of relationship between employees satisfaction and their job performance. For example, it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2001). The increased of job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased of employees job performance. If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees are not effectively working towards the mission of the organisation. Therefore, Buchanan concluded in her study that each employees performance is normally determined by motivation, ability, and the work environment. The motivation factor is the desire of the employee to do the job; ability is the capability of the employee to do the job and lastly the work environment which is the tools, materials and information that is needed by the employee to do the job required. 2.3 Past Research on Motivation Affecting Job Performance In the past, employees job performance are traditionally been looked at in terms of ‘motivation. Many researchers have come out with a conclusion that employees levels of performance are influenced by the motivation factor. Examples of researchers are like Maslow (1954), who developed ‘the hierarchy of needs or Hezberg (1966), who developed the idea of ‘hygiene factors, such as pay and conditions which, if not ‘right in the eyes of the employee, act as de-motivators. There is also the work of McClelland who argued that people struggled to fulfil needs of power or influence and social interaction, amongst others. All these ideas have uses in the management of the poor performer. Sometimes, however; they seem to be too complex to use on a day-to-day basis and are more suited to giving the manager a theoretical understanding rather than a useful tool (Proud, n.d.). From the theory of motivation such as Maslows hierarchy of needs,modern leaders, executive managers or supervisors findmeans of motivation for the purposesof employees performance and workforce management. Motivation is always view as an important issue in the business world. This is because motivation is vital in every organisation as it will affect the productivity of the organisation. When the employees in an organisation are unmotivated, the productivity of that organisation will be decreased whereas compared to an organisation which have motivated employees the labour turnover will be lower and production will be higher. According to Dev (n.d.), â€Å"A Gallup organisation study indicated that companies with positive employee attitudes are 50 percent more likely to achieve customer loyalty, and 44 percent more likely to achieve above-average profits. Additionally, the study finds firms that measure in the top quartile with regard to employee engagement averaged 24 percent higher profitability, 29 percent greater revenue and 10 percent less employee turnover than businesses in the bottom quartile. The evidence is clear. Better people management practices produce better business results.† According to Bartol Martin (1998), â€Å"motivation is defined as the force that energises behaviour, gives direction to behaviour, and underlies the tendency to persist. This definition recognises that in order to achieve goals, individual must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic , must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long enough period of time to realise their aim†. Thus, motivated behaviours are performed and controlled voluntarily by the employees themselves whereas supervisors or managers only act as the motivator to encourage employees to increase their level of job performance. Many people who are not motivated keep their performance to an acceptable level by expending only 20% to 30% of their ability whereas managers who know how to motivate their employees can achieve 80% to 90% ability levels and consequently higher levels of performance (Geoff, n.d.). Motivation comes in many different forms. It can be in a simple form like praise by the supervisors or managers, in the form of monetary (increase in pay), rewards, promotion, job security and etc. These factors are important because it will affect the employees level of job performance. Hence it is truly essential that managers and supervisors of an organisation knows how to motivate its employees in performing well and achieving organisation goals. According to Wagner (n.d.), â€Å"Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other needs†. Maslows hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. The basis of Maslows theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. A satisfied need is not a motivator as the most influential employee need is the one that has not been satisfied. From the Maslows hierarchy of needs, management should understand and identify what their employees need and then satisfy them from the lowest to the highest level. Physiological needs are needs which are at the bottom of the pyramid, are the most essential needs to human living. In the workforce, organisation helps employees to satisfy their needs by giving them basic salary. Safety needs are security needs that include the needs for shelter from the environment and health insurance. In the organization context, employees express their security needs as a desire for job security with fringe benefits. The management should provide employees with safe working environment with ample tools and resources. These will be the factor that helps employees to perform well. Social needs are needs related to the need for friendship, love and sense of belonging. At the workplace, these needs include having good relationship with colleagues, superiors or etc. When employees enjoy working closely with each other, it may result in positive behaviour at work which will also result in better employee performances. The management can also help to satisfy employees social needs by showing direct concern for them. Esteem needs are the needs of self-respect, respect or recognition from others and a sense of personal achievement. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world (Simons et al., 1987). In the organisation, the management can fulfil employees esteem needs by showing their appreciation through promotion, rewards, recognition and etc. Self-actualisation needs are place at the highest level of the pyramid. These needs are associated to personal growth, self-fulfilment and the realisation of ones full potential. In this stage, the management can help the employees by giving them tasks that challenges their own intelligence. All the elements in the Maslows hierarchy of needs are the motivator for employees to perform well in their job. A motivated employee is usually someone with clearly defined goals who takes action which he or she expects to achieve. Besides that, motivated employees will be likely to put in more effort towards the organisation objectives and goals. A leader that recognises employee efforts and helps employees achieve and grow can help improve motivation which therefore increases job performance. According to Hong et al. (1995), Vroom maintained in his expectation theory that everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. So it is important for management to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and performance. Image. Relationship between the type of employee benefit and impact on job performance However, there are some researchers that found out that motivation has limited relationship with employees job performance. They do not believe that money (salary and bonuses) is a good motivator. McNamara (n.d.), who did a research on employee motivation, said that â€Å"certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually dont help people to become more motivated. A key goal for the company is to understand the motivations of each of their employees†. Another researcher, Urichuck (n.d.), stated that â€Å"organisations could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. For sure they will be glad and grateful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period will be more money. External employee motivation is temporary and it is never lasting. Money is an external employee motivator. Its an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. Nevertheless the employees will not even realise that the company is facing a crisis. They will want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less†. According to him, there is a survey on thousands of workers around the world that uses compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order; high wages, job security, promotion in the organisation, good working conditions, interesting work, personal loyalty of supervisor, tactful discipline, full appreciation of work done, help on personal problems, and feeling of being in on things. However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern; full appreciation of work done, feeling of being in on things, help on personal problems, job security, high wages, interesting work, promotion in the organization, personal loyalty of supervisor, good working conditions, and tactful discipline. Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors (Urichuck, n.d.). As a result, this research shows that motivation through the form of money, has limited amount of relationship with employees job performance while recognition is the most influential motivator that affects employees job performance. 2.4 Past Research on Job Commitment Affecting Job Performance Job commitment is the willingness of the employees to be devoted in completing the job assigned to them at minimum level of commitment or exceeding the amount that is required. The level of employee commitment to their job is often the key determinant of whether the employee performs as expected or exceeding the expectations. The level of employee commitment may affect employees job performance. Committed employees often performed well and results in companys success and increase of productivity level. Besides job commitment includes the level of employee involvement and employee loyalty to the organisation. Simpson (n.d.), who did a research on building employee commitment for business success, stated that â€Å"the indication of lack of employee commitment could be an indication of a company on the way to becoming another business failure. The workplace is changing dramatically and demands for the highest quality of product and service is increasing. To remain competitive in the face of these pressures, employee commitment is crucial. The two keys to success in todays environment of increasing competition and rapid change are an absolute passion for, and dedication to, excellence in customer service and the effective and enlightened management of our workforce. The employees commitment will lead to achieving desired standards in customer service and high job performance. Without employee commitment, there can be no improvement in any area of business activity. In the absence of good management, employees will simply treat their work as a job; a 9am to 5pm routine without any desire to accomplish any more than is necessary to remain employed. It does not take many uncommitted employees to prevent a business from prospering and thereby ceding a big advantage to its competitors†. Another researcher, Fink (1992), asserted that although there are many factors that affect employees performance, the key factor of employees performance is affected by employees job commitment. He defines commitment as an attitude that develops from a process called identification, which occurs when one experiences something, someone, or some idea as an extension of oneself. While all research on commitment treats it only in terms of identification with organisation, that is, its goals, values, and mission, on the other hand, he focuses on three-dimensional concept including identification with the work itself and with co-workers. He is sure that these are equally important because they can have powerful effects upon employee performance. As basis of his research he makes an interactive model that proposes: good management practices result in an effective reward system and employee commitment, an effective reward system results in enhanced employee commitment and employee performanc e, and employee commitment results in enhanced employee performance. As a result of his research in two companies, who has 418 and 430 employees, respectively, he found that there was significant correlation between employee performance ratings and commitment score in all categories, and also the correlation between performance and commitment for managers and operational employees grouped separately were significant in all categories. The higher the level of employee commitment to work; co-worker, and organisation, the higher the level of the performance will be. Based on Sutanto‘s (1999) findings, instead of concluding that job commitment only has significant affect on job performance, he has found that â€Å"there is also a positive and significant relationship between commitment to supervisors and performance. He also stated that employees commitment to supervisors have become a good predictor to performance rather than commitment to organisations†. After conducting a larger project to all 1,803 members of May 1993 graduating class of large north-western university, Becker (1992), has found that commitment to supervisors was positively related to performance. â€Å"Further, internalization of supervisors and organizations values was associated with performance but identification with these foci (targets) was not. A number of theorists and researchers have begun to view employee commitment as having multiple foci and bases. Foci commitments are the individuals and group to whom an employee is attached†. Thus, in order to increase employees performance, the study suggest that managers should focus on creating employees commitment to supervisors rather than creating employees commitment to the organisation. On the other hand, Cohens (1999) research supported the important status of job involvement as an antecedent to organisational commitment. Specifically, Cohen argued that those individuals with high levels of job involvement, which stem from positive experiences on-the-job (Witt, 1993), make attributions for these experiences to the organisation. Thus, having previously received benefits from the organisation and being obligated by the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) to repay them, high job involvement employees feel compelled to reciprocate in some form. This increased affective commitment (i.e. where employees adopt the companys goals as their own and, therefore, desire to remain with the organisation to help it achieve its goals; Meyer and Allen, 1984; Mowday et al., 1979) and later was found to reduce turnover intentions, absence behaviour, and/or turnover, as well as increased job performance. Tough many researchers have confirmed that employees commitment result in high job performance, nevertheless some past researchers have also found that job commitment or involvement has limited affect on employees job performance. According to Rotenberry and Moberg (2007), â€Å"research finding a significant impact of job involvement on employee performance has met limited success (e.g. Brown, 1996; Brown and Leigh, 1996; Diefendorff et al., 2006 and Vroom, 1962)†. Diefendorff et al. (2002) stated that â€Å"research has been limited for two reasons. Specifically, they asserted that past studies had predominantly used inferior measures of job involvement, which led to their insignificant findings. In addition, Diefendorff et al. (2002) argued that the performance domain assessed in those previous studies needed to be expanded in order to ascertain job involvements true impact on performance at work. The researchers tested the validity of these propositions, but called for additional research in the area paying particular attention to theory development regarding the job involvement-performance relationship†. 2.5 Past Research on Job Design Affecting Job Performance Job design is the method of arranging various work elements in forming a job that suit the employees. Job design identifies what work must be performed to be precise, the content of the job, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and the competencies required by the person who will perform it. Job design also facilitates the achievement of organizational goals and performance of the work the job was established to accomplish (Sharon, 1998). Job design is also important to avoid employees dissatisfaction. The design of the job must follow the organisations and employees requirement including the health and safety requirement. Besides, job design implementation includes methods such as job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job simplification. The first, job enlargement, can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks. Tasks that reduce the amount of specialization required by the employee, as well as, extending the length of time he or she has to complete them. The second, job rotation, allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better insight into operations. This, in itself, does not modify or redesigns the employees job, but allows the opportunity to increase his/her skills and knowledge about other jobs. Job enrichment, the third method, allows the employee to take on some responsibilities normally delegated to management. The risk here is that the employee would be transferred too much responsibility and autonomy in the planning and control aspects of the job. Done right, however, the newfound control would invigorate the employee to work more effectively and thus increased it

The Minamata Disease as an Example of Government Weakness Essay

The Minamata Disease as an Example of Government Weakness The effects of Minamata disease, which originated in Minamata, Japan, first came to the attention of local fishermen. They referred to cats afflicted with the disease as â€Å"the suicide-prone group of dancing cats† due to their tendency to ‘dance’ around, and then jump into the nearby bay (Ui, 1992). From 1940 through the late 20th century, thousands of inhabitants of Minamata developed that same neurological disease that resulted from heavy industrial pollution of Minamata Bay. They did not receive adequate government protection against such a disaster because of the city’s poor economic structure and the relentless national drive to industrialize Japan. One company, Nippon Chisso Ltd. or Chisso for short, which worked extensively with chemicals in the production of energy and of industrial materials, comprised the local economy. Before it became a center for the Japanese chemical industry, Minamata generated revenue almost entirely from salt production enterprises. In 1908, the Japanese government had recently decided to take over the salt industry and the village needed new sources of income. At the same time Jun Noguchi, a recently graduated electrical engineer and founder of the Chisso Company, needed a location to build a new carbide production plant. Minamata won the bid for the factory’s location through a favorable deal to Noguchi, in which the local government offered the old salt industry’s land at very low prices. The city also provided a route for electricity to reach the factory at no charge (Ui, 1992). These offers established the policy of the government, and indeed of Minamata as a whole, to defer to the Chisso Company’s wishes to ... .... Measures to avoid a situation of that nature must focus on the enactment of effective policy by both local and national governments to regulate their industries, and focus on having an adequate number of revenue-generating industries so as not to jeopardize public interests. References Ui, J. (1992). Industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo: United Nation University Press Harada, M. (n.d.). Minamata disease and the Mercury Pollution of the Globe. Retrieved February 19, 2003, from http://www.einap.org/envdis/Minamata.html#name. Littlefield, A. (1996). Minamata Bay Pollution in Japan and Health Impacts. Retrieved February 19, 2003, from http://www.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM. Ziegler, J. (1995). Rays of Hope in the Land of the Rising Sun [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives, 103(5), (n.p.).

Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory is highly important in understanding the processes and elements that influence human learning. One perspective of Bandura’s theory is the innate capacity of human beings to be agents of change and human processes. With this in mind, Bandura presented some human internal and external factors that influence the process of being an agent of change. Social Cognitive theory, under the agentic perspective, relies on human intentions as a means to establish one’s connection to social structures based on three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency, and collective agency. These three modes of agency acknowledge the role of interdependence on how human beings will be able to manage human learning and processes that constitute life. Human agency necessitates the willingness and intentions of human beings to accomplish things through highly motivated thinking and actions. The results of an individuals’ thinking and actions under the perspective of human agency will assist individuals to undergo self-development and reconstruction in order for them to adapt to various life concerns. According to Bandura, human agency constitutes various core features: intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness. Intentionality requires the willingness of human beings to do something in order to achieve desired results. Social functions give birth to desirable, mutual, and advantageous relationships if individuals are willing enough to become part of it. Collaborative activities, for instance, work out well if individuals take into account the desirable outcomes that might come out of it. Forethought complements intentionality, as it is concerned with looking and planning ahead. Bandura suggested that if forethoughts are motivating and desirable enough for individuals, then it will wield the intention of doing things that will eventually lead to its realization. For instance, an individual works with another for a cause but perceives that the relationship will be hostile and unproductive. His non-motivating view will not contribute to intentionality to invest time and effort to nurture the relationship. To continue, self-reactiveness talks about being able to motivate, but at the same time regulate oneself in terms of thinking and taking action. On the other hand, self-reflectiveness is established on the concept of introspection where one is able to evaluate actions and behaviors and determine how to fortify or change them. Aside from the core features of human agency, the three modes of agency influence the process of social cognition. Direct personal agency looks into the unswerving involvement of the individual to arrive at desired results. Intentionality, forethought, and self-reactiveness come into play to motivate individuals to influence the social structure. However, when individuals are unable to control it, they rely on proxy agency. The proxy agency constitutes other individuals or means to achieve the desired result, as the individual’s inability to influence the birth of the outcome is unperceived. Moreover, when direct personal agency and proxy agency do not seem to accomplish desired results within social structures, the collective agency gives off its value. The collective agency looks into the combined efforts to achieve goals and objectives. The collective agency relies on group functioning to harbor desired results. The nature of social structures is highly dependent on how individuals are able to perceive and establish it. At some points, social structures are reliant on the intentions, perceptions, and motivations of individuals to commit to actions and behaviors that will influence how these social structures will be shaped. Aside from the internal influences that might bear weight on the nature of social structures, modes of agencies will also affect how the process will be accomplished. Establishing social structures, under the three modes of agency, will depend on the direct influence of an individual, the dominance of other individuals and means to accomplish results, and the efficiency of group functioning to realize social structural goals and objectives.

Owning a Pet

You go to the mall, and there in center court is a bunch of cute, soft, wiggly puppies and kittens; some of them are in cages and some are being walked around by handlers. There is a crowd of adults and children surrounding them. You just have to hold one of them for just a minute, and then you are hooked. Everyone knows that pets are loveable, soft and cuddly; what we forget about is the responsibility that comes with pet ownership. Outside of the time commitment to caring for a pet, there is also the financial aspect.When you own a pet, they have to be fed, groomed, exercised and loved; most of the time, with puppies, there is the training aspect of getting them to let you know when they need to go outside to eliminate waste and not to chew on furniture or other house fixtures. Try to avoid the use of second person â€Å"you† in your writing. Pets also add to the normal housekeeping routine due to pet hair and shedding which may require additional vacuuming. And, with cat ow nership, there is the need to keep the litter box clean.All of this takes time from an already busy schedule. Add to that the expense of owning a pet: food, grooming, veterinarian and training expenses, to name a few. Consequently, what seemed like a good idea can have a drastic impact on your life. Most of us work; what do you do with the pet during the day when you are away from home? Or, what if you plan a trip and are unable to take the pet with you? Do you have a family member willing to take on the responsibility of caring for your pet while you are gone?Or, do you pay to have the pet boarded while you are gone? Cats are fairly self-sufficient and can be left alone for long periods of time; dogs, not so much. If you own a dog and are away at work, what do you do about the dog using when it needs to go outside? These are all important considerations prior to walking out the door with that cute, fluffy pet. We all know that pets are loving and loyal companions. Above all, one sh ould consider the consequences of pet ownership, in terms of time and expenses.