Organizational Behavior Analysis Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Authoritative Behavior Analysis - Term Paper Example On the off chance that that is valid, it is consistent to state that no two associations are the equivalent either in conduct, culture or demeanor. Authoritative conduct assumes an indispensable job in deciding the achievement and disappointments of present day associations. Globalization and progression have gotten enormous changes associations world. Current associations are working in a multicultural situation. Assorted workforce is normal in the greater part of the present associations. Multicultural workforce would have various correspondence implies. Same way, techniques important to spur an assorted workforce could be very unique. Rather than IQ, passionate remainder of the representatives has all the earmarks of being progressively significant in present day associations. So, new standards of OB are entering hierarchical world over the long haul. Apple Inc. is one of the unmistakable associations on the planet at present. They are the second biggest as far as market capitaliz ation and furthermore the most important innovation organization on the planet at present. This paper examinations the significance of culture, correspondence, inspirational procedures, enthusiastic remainder and new ideal models in controlling the conduct of current associations, by taking Apple Inc. as the model. Culture As referenced before, multiculturalism isn't a legend, however a reality in present day associations. ... At the point when individuals from various societies are working in a similar association, human asset chiefs may confront part of issues. The accomplishment of the association lies in how well the HR chiefs take care of such issues. For instance, Muslims consistently prefer to have week by week off on Fridays while Christians like to have that on Sundays. These sort of differentiating interests or convictions frequently cause issues to the HR chiefs. Indeed, even in a similar culture, various subcultures regularly exist. For instance, Roman Catholics and Protestants are two of the conspicuous networks in the Christian culture. Same way, Shia, Sunnis Kurds and Arabs are the subcultures in Islamic culture. The conduct, ceremonies, and customs of these subcultures are regularly unique. â€Å"Some societies put more accentuation on general responsibilities (like trustworthiness) while others put more weight on steadfastness to specific individuals and relationships† (Ghemawat and Reiche, 2011, p.2). For instance, individuals from certain societies are prepared to lie to spare the interests of their partner. Such individuals puts the estimation of connections much above than everything else in this world. Simultaneously there are a lot of individuals who are not prepared to lie in any event, when their companions need their help gravely. To put it plainly, present day associations are working dependent on the standards of pluralism and dualism and henceforth the plate of mixed greens bowl hypothesis is amazingly pertinent to the cutting edge associations. As everyone knows, serving of mixed greens in a bowl comprises of various vegetables and organic products. As it were, servings of mixed greens incorporate the flavors of various vegetables and products of the soil eaters a one of a kind taste. The flavor of a serving of mixed greens is the aggregate of the flavors of the individual segments in it. It ought to be noticed that the

East-West Analysis free essay sample

The film East-West is set in Soviet Russia and follows the narrative of Alexei, Marie and their child Sergei who are welcomed back to â€Å"the motherland† by Joseph Stalin after WWII. Upon their appearance in Kiev, Marie’s French visa is wrecked and the entirety of the emigres are either murdered or sent to Concentration camps as discipline for abandonment during the war. Alexei, Marie and their child Sergei were saved, given Alexei’s incentive to the administration as a specialist. Alexei, with the assistance of a French entertainer, Gabrielle, figures out how to free Marie by sending her to the French Embassy in Bulgaria with her reestablished identification, where she scarcely escapes subsequent to being sought after by watches at the checkpoint. Pressure is the power that drives show, yet is the most troublesome component to understand as it on occasion can't be seen or contacted. Emotional strain can be made with pressure instruments, for example, quietness, music, signals and moderate movement. The concentrate from ‘East-West’, ‘Alexei’s Sacrifice’ utilizes an assortment of strain apparatuses as Alexei’s multi year plan for the break of his significant other and child from the socialist Russian fortress at long last happens as intended. Strain fabricates when the Golovin family accumulate in anticipation of their looming escape. The quiet farewells utilized in this scene make a vitality of criticalness corresponding to the unsafe situations going to develop. The scene is executed consummately and inconspicuous looks and outward appearances make a quality of vulnerability with respect to the result. With the circumstance getting progressively tense, the utilization of quiet and cinematography impacts (Graph point 12-21, for example, short sharp screen shots from Marie to Alexei and Alexei to Gabrielle further elevates and builds strain. Other unobtrusive parts of sensational strain are investigated in the scene when Sergei starts their takeoff by taking Marie’s hand. The camera focuses in on their hands. This represents their solidarity in the break and features how Alexei won't be a piece of the arranged departure. As they continue up the steps, the violins start to delicately play a confounded and disagreeable tune which before long increments in volume as they run (Graph point 23) representing the power of their getaway. The fluctuating degree of volume goes about as a sound portrayal of the degree of strain in the scene and stops as they enter the vehicle with Gabrielle. When Gabrielle presents the visa to Marie, this represents opportunity and a token of a real existence obviously better than that accomplished over the most recent ten years. This imagery and the utilization of an assortment of sensational pressure devices, strikingly affects the ension of the scene. The devices and their capacity to drastically build the degree of pressure are maybe most successfully exhibited in the peak of the scene where Marie, Gabrielle and Sergei cross the checkpoint to the French Embassy. This area starts with a camera shot of them leaving the vehicle against the background of the Alexander Nevsky Cat hedral (Graph point 32). This Western European house of prayer goes about as an image of their definitive objective; to escape from the socialist east, toward the west. This shows an incredible utilization of imagery and camera points to inconspicuously build the degrees of strain. This starting strain is then based upon as they cross the checkpoint where the watchman nearly finds Marie’s genuine character as her visa. Slow movement and absolute quiet is utilized to additionally build the feeling of pressure. The guard’s outward appearance of doubt and disarray builds the pressure as he follows their development. As Marie thinks back, she shows that she is uncertain of her new personality and this activity at that point prompts the watchman to shout to her which brings about a top in the degree of strain (Graph point 39). The quietness is then broken and the staccato playing of the violins follows (Graph point 40) as they are pursued until the music changes into a tune as they enter the French international safe haven †an image of opportunity. This utilization of sound, quiet, slow movement, solid images and camera edges make the strain of the peak genuinely exciting and catches the quintessence of the pressure in their break. By and large, the scene utilized a wide scope of pressure devices to make a persuading and predictable feeling of sensational strain all through the concentrate. Be that as it may, in specific areas of the scene, gadgets did pretty much nothing or nothing to add to the general pressure, for example, the utilization of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral as an image. Most of watchers may not perceive the centrality of this image, along these lines doing next to no to raise the strain. On the other hand, there are a choice of pressure devices that are put well overall so they coordinate with the movement of the scene. This is appeared by the violins that start playing when Sergei and Marie start running. The violins start delicately so the watcher doesn't deliberately enlist their playing and afterward is gradually intensified as the pressure heightens. The song demonstrates the serious idea of break until it blurs away without the viewer’s acknowledgment when they enter the vehicle. Like this, numerous other pressure instruments are utilized secretly so they increment the strain without the watcher in any event, figuring it out. It is this quality that characterizes the distinction between poor emotional pressure and sensational strain applied skilfully. This shows how the astute and ground-breaking use of different types of sensational pressure, for example, imagery can change a customary scene to one that will enrapture a group of people.

The Virtues of Apathy Essay -- Essays Papers

The Virtues of Apathy â€Å"I simply don't figure I can keep on living in a spot that holds onto and supports indifference as though it was virtue.† Morgan Freeman expresses these words in the film Se7en subsequent to announcing that he will leave his place of employment as an analyst. His character sees violations of detest, animosity and murder each day, and he likewise watches the public’s response to them. Individuals choose to disregard; they do not mind anymore. What has befallen society? Why has what used to be considered inconceivably stunning broken down into what is viewed as a regular and common movement? Aloofness has become the regular reaction of American culture towards what ought to be viewed as stunning in light of the fact that these exercises have become unshocking and â€Å"everyday†. In scanning for the reason and degree of the issue of social de-shockification, one must start with the gathering of authors who gave themselves to intermixing the stunning and unusual with the ordinary: the surrealists. The first expectation of the Surrealists was not to standardize stunning exercises, yet rather to make bizarre the â€Å"normal† and the â€Å"everyday†. These authors took the stunning and no-no things and subjects and brought them into regular conditions with the goal that perusers would investigate the conditions, not the things presented. Social expert Ben Highmore portrays it as a â€Å"juxtaposing of divergent elements† (Highmore 46). Surrealists took the abhorrent, they took the insidiousness and the depravity, and they put it in with the â€Å"clean† and the â€Å"good†. Contrary energies have the ideal impact of drawing out the various characteristics of two articles. So as to defamiliarize what was acceptable and ordinary, Surrealists needed to put it in juxtaposition with what was insidious and surprising. One Surre... ...ly get notice. The main issues that are unraveled are the ones the influence people. That in itself is a difficult that plagues society, and it won't be fixed until lack of concern stops to control the regular daily existences of the American individuals. Works Cited - Bataille, Georges. Blue of Noon. 1957. New York: Marion Boyars Publishers, 2002. - Camus, Albert. The Fall. 1956. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. - Highmore, Ben. Regular day to day existence and Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2002. - Isidore, Chris. â€Å"NCAA Rating Sag.† 25 Mar. 2003. CNNMoney. <http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/25/news/organizations/war_ncaa/>. - Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1929. - Se7en. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin Spacey. New Ling Home Entertainment. The Virtues of Apathy Essay - Essays Papers The Virtues of Apathy â€Å"I simply don't figure I can keep on living in a spot that holds onto and sustains unresponsiveness as though it was virtue.† Morgan Freeman expresses these words in the film Se7en in the wake of pronouncing that he will leave his place of employment as an analyst. His character sees wrongdoings of detest, animosity and murder each day, and he likewise watches the public’s response to them. Individuals choose to disregard; they do not mind anymore. What has befallen society? Why has what used to be considered staggeringly stunning broken up into what is viewed as a regular and common action? Detachment has become the regular reaction of American culture towards what ought to be viewed as stunning on the grounds that these exercises have become unshocking and â€Å"everyday†. In looking for the reason and degree of the issue of social de-shockification, one must start with the gathering of journalists who committed themselves to intermixing the stunning and peculiar with the ordinary: the surrealists. The first goal of the Surrealists was not to standardize stunning exercises, however rather to make abnormal the â€Å"normal† and the â€Å"everyday†. These authors took the stunning and untouchable things and subjects and brought them into basic conditions with the goal that perusers would investigate the conditions, not the things presented. Social expert Ben Highmore depicts it as a â€Å"juxtaposing of divergent elements† (Highmore 46). Surrealists took the underhanded, they took the evil and the lewdness, and they put it in with the â€Å"clean† and the â€Å"good†. Alternate extremes have the ideal impact of drawing out the various characteristics of two articles. So as to defamiliarize what was acceptable and ordina ry, Surrealists needed to put it in juxtaposition with what was detestable and surprising. One Surre... ...ly get notice. The main issues that are understood are the ones the influence people. That in itself is a difficult that plagues society, and it won't be fixed until indifference stops to control the regular day to day existences of the American individuals. Works Cited - Bataille, Georges. Blue of Noon. 1957. New York: Marion Boyars Publishers, 2002. - Camus, Albert. The Fall. 1956. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. - Highmore, Ben. Regular day to day existence and Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2002. - Isidore, Chris. â€Å"NCAA Rating Sag.† 25 Mar. 2003. CNNMoney. <http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/25/news/organizations/war_ncaa/>. - Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1929. - Se7en. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin Spacey. New Ling Home Entertainment.

Influence of Technology on Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Impact of Technology on Society - Essay Example As per the paper discoveries the effects of innovation are both negative and positive. On the constructive side, innovation has make things simpler in the manner in which individuals do exercises, keeps time, helps creation, and compresses correspondence, upgraded instructive settings and improved human services. On the pessimistic side, headway in innovation has made individuals sluggish as most clients of innovation are so reliant on new propelled devices. The suggestion is that the apathy has prompted decreased advancement, affected the earth because of expanded contamination that impactsly affects the Ozone layer bringing about a dangerous atmospheric devation. Innovation has likewise prompted expanding dangers to wellbeing as innovation clients invest less energy in work out. With respect to, students are presently increasingly subject to PCs and number crunchers to explain straightforward assignments, which mains that they can't show their cerebrum to determine simple errands t hat makes them idle in homerooms. In any case, coming up next are beneficial outcomes of innovation that have changed lives.This conversation features thatâ advancements in innovation have helped organizations and organizations spare time and creation costs that have been an advantage to all ventures as organizations oversee such upgrades to increase serious advantage. Advancement in innovation in human services and medication has helped with sparing incalculable blameless lives. Human wellbeing sciences and medication have improved essentially.

Managing Leading People - Free Essay Example

Introduction In modern society, in which the workplace has been characterized as challenging, fast-paced, changing constantly and often influenced by the external environment (john); workplace stress has become more common and been the topic that generated a lot of attention and debates. This type of stress has been commonly found in many countries. According to (Huffi), Work Stress Survey has found that over 80% of American felt stressful at work, which was a surprisingly high number. Workplace stress can cause significant detrimental effects to the employees, which potentially leads to high financial costs for organizations. It is the role of the managers and the leaders to understand the reasons to workplace stress of employees, and ways to resolve the problems. Thus, this essay is served as a guidance and consultation for leaders and managers of modern organization on reducing workplace stress of employees; comprising of three main parts: Workplace stress definition and symptoms, causes of workplace stress, and finally the managers and leaderà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s roles in reducing workplace stress. Definition and Symptoms 1. What is Workplace Stress? In order to find solutions to reduce workplace stress, it is important to explore the meaning of workplace stress. Workplace stress is also called as work-related stress, occupational stress or job stress. According to (hse), workplace stress is the negative physical and emotional reactions that people have due to certain demands placed on them at work. Because the employees are unable to deal with these demands, workplace stress occurs. Rather than being an illness, stress is physical and mental state. Nonetheless, when employees feel excessively stressful for a long time, they might suffer from serious physical and mental illness. The concept of workplace stress, challenge and pressure at work are often misunderstood. First of all, challenges at work are positive as it energizes employees both physically and mentally, which motivates them to try, learn and master their jobs (cdc). When employees overcome challenges, they feel satisfaction and relaxation. Thus, challenge can be se en as an important factor for productive work. Similarly, pressure can be a motivating factor since it has the effects of pushing employees to work effectively. Nonetheless, when there is too much pressure, it becomes stress for employees to perform well. In other words, workplace stress is a natural reaction from employees due to excessive pressure at work. 2. Workplace Stress Symptoms There are numerous symptoms of workplace stress, which can be categorized into four groups: Psychological symptoms, emotional symptoms, physical symptoms and behavioral symptoms (bupa). Firstly, in terms of psychological symptoms, the employees facing workplace stress when they have certain difficulties at work and they feel that they are unable to deal with them. They can also feel disappointed with themselves, or feel that they are lacking confidence. They find it difficult to be focused at work, or even lost their commitment and motivation for the work. Secondly, with regards to emotional symptoms, employees might experience depression and other negative feelings. They might have excessive emotional reactions, such as becoming too sensitive towards a normal issue or being tearful. They might also be easy to get annoyed and irritable. They might also feel overwhelmed at work and experience swings in mood. Thirdly, regarding physical symptoms, employees who get too stress ful are likely to suffer from pain such as joint pain, back pain, chest pain, shoulder pain, neck pain and headache. Some illness might be occurred like indigestion, constipation and diarrhea. Fourthly, when it comes to behavioral symptoms, the employees who suffer from stress might eat significantly less or more, sleeping too little or too much, isolating themselves from other people, including their co-workers, which denotes signs of social isolation. Worse, they might even try to relax in some harmful ways such as smoking too much, drinking alcohol or even taking some illegal drugs. Thus, some of the symptoms of the suffering employees can be seen by other employees and their bosses; however, a lot of them can only be experienced by the suffering employees, without the notice of others, especially when they try to hide them. Causes of Workplace Stress There are six main reasons that lead to the state where employees suffer from stress at work; they can be shortly called as demand, control, support, relationships, role, change and physical environment (hse). These reasons are also referred to as stressors. Firstly, demands imply the demands that are placed on employees to perform the job while satisfying certain requirements or achieving certain standards, which makes them feel unable to meet these demand or cope with them. For example, the stress can be caused by the demand that employees need to meet unreasonable deadlines, demanding them to overwork or achieve unreasonable performance standards; or it might due to the fact that employees is doing the unsuitable jobs where they have insufficient skills, knowledge and experience to satisfy the job demands, thus, making them stressed. Secondly, control means when employees do not have a chance to raise their opinions and speak about their concerns, and their opinions are likel y to be neglected at work. This potentially makes employees feel disregard and experience irritation or depression, which are the symptoms of stress. Thirdly, support implies the situation where employees receive insufficient support at work, due to the companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s lack of procedures set to resolve problems, or the lack of support from their co-workers and bosses; making employees exert excessive effort to think of ways to handle and deal with the problems themselves. Fourthly, relationships denote negative relationships that employees have at work, such as the appearance of too much competition between employees at the same level, harassment, bullying at work à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" trying to cause problems to a particular employeeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performance and other types of conflicts between employees. Fifthly, role is about the level of understanding and certainties employees have towards the roles and responsibilities of the job. When the roles and responsi bilities are unclearly indicated, employees potentially feel lack of direction, uncertain and do not know how to perform. Sixthly, change is when employees are subject to excessive changes within a short amount of time. This change might come from the whole organizational change, or the change placed on employees by their co-workers or superior employees such as insecurity in jobs. Lastly, stress may occur due to the physical environment at the workplace. The workplace might be too overcrowding, noisy; there may appear the risks towards employeesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ health and safety, and ergonomic problems (Medi). Dangers of Workplace Stress Financial costs Workplace stress has been a huge concern for employers and employees in many countries, such as Australia, America, Britain and Canada, due to its detrimental effects as well as the financial costs it has on the employees and the organizations. Specifically, stress at the workplace significantly reduces employeesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ productivity through rising absenteeism and presenteeism à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the situation where employees still go to work; however, due to their illness or diseases suffered by stress, they are unable to perform the job as effectively and efficiently as demands (Medibank). This creates direct financial costs on the organization or the employer. According by Medibank-commissioned research, in Australia, unhealthy employees are three times less productive than healthy employees. Moreover, the unhealthy employees also take nine times more sick leaves compared to the healthy employees. Furthermore, almost USD 26 billion dollars are costs each year in Aust ralia due to presenteeism. Also due to presenteeism, an average of six working days in terms of of productivity is lost every year. Medibank-commissioned research also found that in total, presenteeism and absenteeism due to workplace stress cost the economy of Australia almost USD 15 billion every year, and cost employers in Australia over USD 10 billion every year. In America, the situation is even worse as stress at the workplace cost American organizations over USD 300 billion annually regarding absenteeism, health costs and low performance. It was reported that about 30% of workers in America suffered from occasional stress, creating rising health care costs, absenteeism, disability periods, poor productivity and even job turnover. (UML) has provided some surprising statistics as workplace stress led to 40% of turnover, unhealthy employeesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ health expenditure appear 50% larger than that of healthy employees. Absenteeism in large organizations costs averagely over USD 3.5 billion annually. https://www.johncoxon.com.au/documents/workplace_stress.pdf https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/work-stress-jobs-americans_n_3053428.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/#c https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/furtheradvice/signsandsymptoms.htm https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/furtheradvice/causesofstress.htm https://www.uml.edu/Research/Centers/CPH-NEW/stress-at-work/financial-costs.aspx https://www.medibank.com.au/client/documents/pdfs/the-cost-of-workplace-stress.pdf

E-Marketing Strategy Pennine Hotel - Free Essay Example

E-Marketing Strategy Pennine Hotel 1.0 Introduction Internet marketing is the practice of marketing goods and services electronically over the internet (Chaffey, 2003:45-46).   As the capabilities of both technology and the internet have expanded it has become easier to market directly and indirectly to a wide market demographic in a cost effective and efficient manner.   According to Kasper et al â€Å"internet marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales,† (2006:209).   Internet marketing also differs from more traditional marketing approaches in that it relies far more heavily on the placement of media throughout the process of engagement with the potential customer, utilising techniques such as banner-ads and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to raise the prominence of the organisation in question. This report will focus on the development of an e-marketing strategy for the Pennine Manor Hotel in Outlane, an established country ho use hotel which would benefit from enhanced e-marketing to attract a wider range and greater number of visitors for both leisure and business purposes.   Currently the hotel has no website of its won and relies on meta-crawlers to publicise it such as the AA hotel guide.   Therefore this report will analyse the current activities at the hotel in terms of e-marketing and suggest a range of improvements to increase visitor numbers and revenue. . 2.0 Background and Scope The Pennine Manor Hotel in Outlane is an established country house hotel listed in the AA Good Hotel Guide with a modest 3-star rating.   Described by the AA as â€Å"an attractive stone built hotel which enjoys magnificent views over the valley†, the hotel is popular with tourists and business users alike for its conference facilities in a panoramic location.   However, despite advertising that it has the latest conference facilities available the hotel itself does not have its own website or direct e-commerce facilities and instead relies on meta-crawlers and other 3rd party websites with free advertising to market the hotel in a media context. This presents three significant challenges.   Firstly it now makes the hotel appear unprofessional if they cannot market themselves appropriately (Brassington and Pettitt, 2006:78-79) secondly, by relying on third parties to marketing them the hotel has no control of the image which is portrayed (Avlonitis and Indounas, 200 5:47-57) and thirdly, it also give the hotel very limited ability to monitor and measure the success of their e-marketing channel (Gummesson, 2008:116-119).   In short it makes the e-marketing element of their overall marketing strategy appear as an afterthought and not as an integrated marketing channel or a tactical approach to marketing and improving the perception of the hotel.   Thus, the following section of this report will comprise of a situational analysis using suitable marketing frameworks to establish an operating platform for improvement. 3.0 Situation analysis 3.1 PESTLE POLITICAL From a political perspective, there are no direct issues which the hotel must respond to, however in the wider context they must be aware that as the UK economy looks set to fall into a double-dip recession they must consider how they can market their way through such challenging times when businesses and leisure visitors alike cut either their marketing budget or their discretionary spend ECONOMIC Economically as the real value of money in the UK is falling and it would appear as if the economy is at genuine risk of stagflation, then the hotel must consider how to spend their own marketing budget wisely to attract a range of guests to the hotel.   This will be necessary if they are to survive the predicted period of austerity in the UK economy. SOCIAL Socially as UK disposable income falls for most families, the hotel will have to consider how they can market the hotel effectively to a far wider range of potential guests from overseas.   It is clear that the UK domestic or â€Å"staycation† market is unlikely to be lively in 2011. TECHNOLGICAL With technology becoming increasingly powerful and cost effective there is virtually no excuse for not operating a website, nor even operating a skeleton Customer Relationship Management system to keep track of past customers and to consider how to segment the market to attract new guests to the hotel. LEGAL Legally the hotel must apprise themselves of legislation relating to e-commerce and security such as data protection and encryption of sensitive customer details.   Any e-commerce facilities they operate must be able to handle credit card transactions in a secure manner. ENVIRONMENTAL One of the many benefits of e-marketing is the fact that it is extremely environmentally friendly as it does not require costly or environmentally damaging printing and distribution requirements of more traditional marketing methods. 3.2 SWOT STRENGTHS The hotel has several strengths, such as its excellent location which is both rural yet easily accessible.   It also has an excellent reputation which it should use as part of its marketing campaign.   It is clear that the hotel has repeat custom and therefore this offers an excellent opportunity for direct and customised e-marketing to encourage regular customers to return. OPPORTUNITIES There are several opportunities available to the hotel, not least of which is that in a challenging market those businesses which market themselves strongly are far more likely to attract custom in difficult times.   By operating ahead of their competition in the immediate locality and contacting other businesses who may require their facilities directly this could be an ideal way to attract more commercial guests. WEAKNESSES The hotel has left itself exposed in marketing terms by failing to act proactively with regard to its own website or e-commerce facilities.   This makes the hotel seem â€Å"behind the times† and less attractive to commercial customers, thus they are missing an ideal opportunity to market effectively and directly to many potential customers. THREATS The hotel faces direct competition from other similar hotels within a 30 mile radius, although none have the AA recognition or star rating of the Pennine Hotel.   Moreover, with the UK economy in its current challenge conditions they must look to market more creatively both domestically and in foreign markets if they are to widen their potential market. 4.0 Objectives Having established that the Pennine Hotel is well positioned within the market, but failing to market itself effectively against its competitors it is necessary to set out a series of e-marketing objectives using the SMART principle (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based).   These objectives are set out below and encompass strategic, tactical and operational objectives. Conduct an in-depth competitor analysis to establish the strengths and weaknesses of competitors within a 30 mile radius.   Use this information to develop and implement an immediate to medium term strategic direction for the Pennine Hotel which targets the gaps in the market.   The plan is to be designed within 3 months and the objectives to be implemented in full within 6 months.   The plan should be designed to increase guest occupancy by 20% within 6 months. In line with the strategic objectives conduct a full market analysis which focuses on market segmentation and customer n eeds.   Create a targeted marketing plan which utilises e-marketing channels to directly address the needs of commercial, domestic and foreign visitors, further segmented by repeat and new custom.   Establish a range of packages or options which meet the needs of the customers and establish advertising within 2 months to be implemented in full within 4 months.   Use metrics to track the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns (Zeithaml et al, 2009:136-141). Design and launch a website which meets the generic needs of all current and potential guests.   This should be themed to showcase the best attributes of the hotel and also designed so as to appeal to both domestic and commercial visitors (eg highlighting contemporary bedrooms and exceptional conference facilities).   Website prototype to be created within one month and launched within two months, and the website is to support full e-commerce facilities and have tracking capability to monitor hits to the website a nd length of browse time on each page (McDonald and Payne, 2006:321-333). 5.0 Strategy According to Grunroos brand awareness â€Å"is a marketing concept that measures consumers knowledge of a brands existence. At the aggregate (brand) level, it refers to the proportion of consumers who know of the brand,† (2007:118).   For the Pennine Hotel it is clear that there is limited brand awareness outside of their immediate geography due to their limited marketing tactics.   Thus, the following strategy is proposed to raise immediate market and brand awareness via e-marketing channels. Given that the Pennine Hotel is not part of an existing hotel chain which can leverage core brand equity, it is recommended that the hotel seek to dramatically increase awareness through their own website which pushes them to the top of search engine rankings in their own right, and simultaneously seek reciprocal partnership arrangements with links from mutually beneficial sites which will also raise brand awareness and appeal to a wider market. Although it is acknowledged th at this may create some initial resource challenges in terms of building the links to partner businesses and also building the website, research by academics such as Chaffey (2006) has demonstrated that effective websites generate their own return on investment extremely quickly.   As it is also clear that currently the hotel has no means to generate a website without expert assistance (otherwise it would already be in existence), then they should look to obtain the services of web-design expert who has previously built sites for other hotels.   This knowledge will enable the Pennine hotel to benefit from the designers previous experience whilst adding their own touches to the website (Chaffey, 2006). 6.0 Tactics With regard to the actual design of the website which is estimated to take one moth under the plans outlined above, a paper prototyping approach has been adopted with sample images as guidelines from other competitor websites included in appendix 1 (Snyder, 2003).   Given that resources in terms of marketing budget are likely to be constrained for the Pennine Hotel, then paper prototyping is a quick and easy method of sketching out what would be appropriate as a website.   Moreover, once the site has been built and is fully operational the use of metrics to track customer browsing experiences will offer guides as to how to shape the website to appeal to a wide range of potential guests.   As observed by Snyder, (2003) website design is not an exact science and it will require tweaks and adjustment until it fully reflects the needs of the hotel.   Moreover, the website design must reflect the hotel brand and must also be easy to navigate and browse.   The wireframe sketch is demonstrated below. 7.0 Action Having established that a website marketing strategy is required will full e-commerce capability the next phase of the process is to design the website in conjunction with market analysis.   This will ensure that the website meets not only the needs of the Pennine Hotel in terms of showcasing its capabilities, but also that any gaps in the market are fulfilled in terms of facilities that guests may require.   Examples of this include exceptional bedroom facilities, conference locations, spa treatments or convenience to local amenities such as walks or historic attractions.   By highlighting the available facilities on the website and also carefully wording the website so that it scores highly on search engine optimisation this will ensure that the website will serve its desired purpose (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2010:214-216). Within the overall strategic objectives of the Pennine Hotel e-marketing plan it has been determined that the website design and implementation are of imm ediate priority as the hotel seeks to market through difficult financial times, and also to position itself within the market place as the leading hotel in the area in terms of facilities.   Therefore the first action is to seek out a suitably qualified and experienced website designer with experience in the specific area of hotel website design so that the Pennine hotel can benefit from his or her knowledge and experience in this area (Strauss et al, 2008). 8.0 Control The final issue to consider is one of monitoring and control.   This has been touched upon previously in section 5 above, however it is of critical importance to establish and implement a tracking plan which will permit the management team at the Pennine Hotel to establish which elements of the website are the most popular or successful in terms of hits and browsing times.   If the website has been carefully designed and is easy to navigate it is then a simple matter to add or remove content to ensure that the website remains fresh and at the top of SEO listings.   This should also be checked with reference to very short customer service questionnaires which can be raised as pop-ups on the website.   This information will be particularly valuable to the Pennine Hotel in establishing the effectiveness of the website. With regard to metrics these must adopt a two-phase approach; One strand to concentrate on tracking the effectiveness of the website, and the other to match this against any changes to the website and corresponding uplift or downturn in occupancy or revenue.   It is important to recognise that there will be seasonality in demand and thus the longer the tracker can run for, the more effective and useful it will be.   An outline 6 month tracker plan is laid out below. Design and apply index tools which will track and monitor up to 50,000 hits per month. Establish visitor tracking and block IP addresses of Pennine Hotel employees, Send automatic reports of usage to nominated emails, Track SSL, Track user-defined actions, Perform ration conversion analysis 9.0 References Avlonitis, G. Indounas K. (2005) Pricing objectives and pricing methods in the service sector Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 19, No.1, pp.47-57. Brassington. 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