Critically appraise the contribution of Le Grand's knights, knaves, Essay - 1

Critically appraise the contribution of Le Grand's knights, knaves, pawns and queens framework to our understanding of r - Essay Example Those who were offered these services (and who were beneficiaries of welfare) became known as pawns, primarily because they were seen as passive participants in the whole process. They did not actively influence any happenings, and instead sat and waited for the knights to do everything for them. With time, however, (Le Grand mentions the period after 1979) this scenario changed after pawns realized that there were some knights who were not really knights at all (Le Grand 1995, pg. 151). They were more focused on their self-interests than the benefit of pawns, and, therefore, morphed into knaves. In addition to this, there was little that was knightly about paying taxes and supporting the less fortunate in the society. On the other hand, pawns came to be viewed as â€Å"queens†; they were supposed to be treated better, since in any market consumers are usually kings. In this paper, I will discuss and dissect Le Grand’s concept and weigh it against arguments which have b een against it by the likes of Welshman and others. I will also explore the influence that Le Grand’s framework has had on relationships between public authorities and organizations which provide public services paid for under contract or by vouchers. Key words: Knights, knaves, pawns, queens, Le Grand, Welshman. Analysis Welshman presented an argument that fell a little short of being labeled as an attack on Le Grand’s ideas. He (Welshman) argued that the concept of a cycle of deprivation (or transmitted deprivation) provided sufficient foundation for a demolition job on the knights, knave, pawns and queens notion. In his article, he presented important researches by Joseph, Coffield and others that supported his propositions. In truth, the whole point of Welshman’s argument was a firm grounding in the ability to provide viable alternate arguments against Le Grand’s ideas. For example, using Coffield’s research, a new concept of web deprivation wa s coined as a replacement for cycle of deprivation (Coffield, Robinson & Sarsby 1980, pg. 48). In essence, Welshman used the loopholes he identified in Le Grand’s arguments to develop an entirely new concept. A closer look at his article also reveals that he viewed Le Grand’s definition of people under welfare was too shallow and simplistic (although Le Grand had also suggested this in his proposition) (Welshman 2007, pg. 95) It is important to note that the knights, knaves, pawns and queens framework borrowed heavily from theories about public management (or organization studies, or political science, or indeed social science quite generally). In a traditional sense, public management was seen as more of calling than just a normal activity with the exception of being directly involved in public affairs. In the past, public servants were held in very high regard, and this is because they were considered to be custodians and trustees of public interests. This thought wa s supported by a reliance on the scholarly approaches to organizational studies, social science and political science. Over the years, this traditional perspective has been overtaken by other feasible approaches that have proved to be more than just alternatives (Berthoud 1976, pg. 103). These new approaches have supplanted the

A Blessing in Disguise Essay Example for Free

A Blessing in Disguise Essay One Sunday morning, during a late October, despite the beautiful day, and tasks needing to be done, I decided to attend a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Though the lecture was to last for at least four hours and I was late- Thanks to over sleeping, an invisible energy was propelling me, shouting I needed to go. I grabbed an apple and flew out of my apartment, caught a taxi and arrived as the talk was beginning. I was the last person to arrive. When the lecture was over, I leisurely strolled home, stopping on the way to pick up a couple of things at various stores. And then without warning, about five blocks from my apartment building, I tripped on the sidewalk and fell on my face. My nose was bleeding and I was dizzy, too dizzy to stand, but no bones were broken. â€Å" I am fineâ€Å", I announced to the people on the street that stopped. They thought otherwise, and someone called 911. I was told an ambulance was on its way. I remained sitting on the sidewalk. A fall that would change everything Though I was dizzy, I hadn’t lost consciousness, and because I hate making a scene, I asked to be put in a taxi so I could go home. I said going to the hospital in an ambulance was overkill, no need for all the fuss. Not one of the good Samaritans, who waited with me agreed. The next thing I knew, the ambulance arrived and I was placed on a stretcher, and whisked to the emergency room of a large New York hospital, one where I had no doctors and knew none. On the other hand that didn’t concern me, since I believed I would be given a test or two and then sent home. When the attending emergency room physicians were told what happened I was sent to radiology for a CT scan of my head and spine. The tests showed I wasn’t bleeding from the fall but the test was murky and so the CT scan was followed by an MRI of my head. I assumed all was well and that I would be discharged, and yet it wasn’t happening. Instead I could hear the doctors mumbling something about a mass. It seemed this was what the tests showed and they were waiting for a confirmation from the radiology department. An Unexpected Hospital Stay Since I had tripped as opposed to having a dizzy spell, I was shocked to hear that they were looking for a bed for me. Radiology believed the CT scan and the MRI showed I had a meningioma with a shadow surrounding it, pushing against my brain. I needed brain surgery. Given that this was a teaching hospital, a surgeon would come and speak with me and tell me what was necessary, what this entailed. It entailed a four and half hour operation, one in which I would not need to have my head shaved because the cut was going to be the same, as that done by plastic surgeons when they operate. I would have staples but they would come out ten days later. I was surprised at how calm I was, as everything was described. The best way to describe it is to say I felt watched over. Three days later I had the surgery. The mass was benign (meningioma’s usually are) and my very capable surgeon, who I met but once before the surgery, was able to remove the shadow surrounding it. I was told it is when meningiomas are left unattended that complications occur. (A meningioma is something one has for years and though slow growing, they must be operated on, especially when there are shadows surrounding the mass.) Though I was at a hospital where none of my doctors had visiting privileges, at no time during my week long stay did I worry, and worrying is oft times my middle name. Instead I felt serene and profoundly grateful for the events that had brought me there. My meningioma wasn’t going away, it was growing as were the shadows surrounding it. Down the road I would have had symptoms that carried consequences none too pretty. And would I recognize the symptoms when they occurred? There was no way to know. Acknowledge the Gift Blessing of Every Event in Life There is an energy that is always flowing in this universe, an unseen current that is oft times called instinct or intuition. This energy, this current, is very wise, and when we recognize its presence, when we trust its wisdom, it guides and carries us along as if a beacon of light. I believe everything connects. If I hadn’t gone to the morning lecture, if I hadn’t listened to my instinct and intuition, if I hadn’t stopped to pick up a couple of things at stores, I never would have been walking on that specific sidewalk. I never would have had the tests and found out what was sitting inside me, waiting and needing to be discovered. The fall was my trip wire, the beginning of my very own victory parade and I was profoundly grateful for the strangers that called the ambulance and waited with me until it arrived. The Samaritans knew I wasn’t fine, even when I protested that I was. I experienced firsthand that there are always people willing to help; it is up to us to take the help when it’s offered and not to let pride or embarrassment stand in the way. There is wisdom in the concern of strangers. Both negative and positive energy exists in the universe. We may not immediately understand why things happen the way they do but if we look at the trajectory from beginning to end, it becomes clear that that there is a pattern and it is playing itself out. We are not victims of circumstances but energetic beings who create our own circumstances and we are given the choice to reject or accept the outcome, which in its turn creates a new set of circumstance. Life is a trip wire, we do not always know what’s around the next corner but we do know that the corner exists and to move forward, we must walk on it. That fall was my own trip wire. There is no other way to put it. It was a blessing in disguise for me.

Essay --

The term ‘market failure’ refers to the quantity of products required by consumers not being equal to the quantity supplied by the suppliers; this could mean that the quantity of products demanded are too high and there is a lack of supplies or that quantity of products demanded are too low and there is a surplus in supplies. The Government in this case plays a significant role in order to control the fluctuation of quantity demanded and supplied in many ways in relation to public goods, merit goods, externalities and imperfect competition. Public goods are provided by the Government, for example street lights. They are non-excludability goods because it cannot be provided to only those who pay for it through taxes so those who have no paid for this can still benefit from this good. If public goods like the street light were left for us to pay individually (like a private good that can only be used if paid for) there would be less public goods available. The Governments role in this department is to make sure a suitable level of public goods is provided. The government intervenes in this by taxing workers, organisations and consumers which result in public revenue. Public revenue can then be used on public goods to ensure enough of it is provided. Another example of a public good is public parks and the fire department that the government provide. Merit goods are different compared to Public goods; they are goods that the government need to interfere in as it would be under-consumed if they did not. They are provided both by public and private sectors. Education and the National Health Service (NHS) are Merit goods. If education was left for us to fully pay for it, then there would be less educated people due to the lack of fina... ... in supplies meets the demand. The increase in supplies was encouraged by offering high wages and salaries to farmers so this overall improved their income. This policy still present today works as agricultural workers being financed mainly through the CAP’s single farm payment which is given yearly to aid the farmer’s work. It now also includes care for environmental pollution, animal welfare and biodiversity. Farmers now being paid through the Single Payment Scheme have set rules they must achieve in order to receive the payment. Farmers gaining the payment have the option to produce any goods on their land however they must also keep their land in good condition and maintain this condition. If the farmer fails to do so, the payment they regularly gain will be lower. In relation to their condition of their land, animal welfare and the environment must be valued.

Difficult Conversations Essay

Great concepts on how communication goes and misses our intended mark. I believe most people begin communicating with the best of intentions, then let their emotions get in the way to forget what the intended outcomes were. Understanding our own emotions, most of us are lost are lost but at the end we all want what’s best for ourselves and what’s best for ourselves is to get along with everyone. This is something that I have pondered and wondered for quite some time now. I often struggled with the reasons why people were confrontational. It made no sense to put any one down or say they are in the wrong. I always have been told treat people well with kindness and respect. But communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. A difficult conversation is any conversation that you dread and perhaps seek to avoid, if possible. There are the situations that keep you up at night in anticipation that you put off or face up to like bad medicine. Our typical approach to the complexity of what happened, the reality of feeling and potential threat to our identity tend to make our conversations more difficult, rather than more productive, often escalating conflict, hurting feelings and damaging relationships indeed, it is our intuitive understanding of this danger that leads us to want to avoid such conversations given how we are likely to handle the conversations, our fears are justified. But unfortunately sometimes assumptions make avoiding a conversation just as problematic. We continue to feel upset. We may feel like such a wimp for not standing up for ourselves. The problem gets worse, since we have done nothing to change the other person’s view or give them the benefit of our view. And the relationship deteriorates anyway, as our lead us to distance and disconnect.

Defender of the Faith/ Philip Roth.

â€Å"l refuse, I can't stop being me, that's all there is to it†. Tears came to his eyes. â€Å"It's a hard thing to be a Jew. But now I understand what Mackey says- it's a harder thing to stay one†. He raised a hand sadly toward me. â€Å"Look at you. † Defender of the Faith/ Philip Roth. The quote above is the part in the Defender of Faith which is a conversation between Crossbars and Marx. Crossbars asks Marx to go out of the army to attend thePassover dinner. Throughout the story we come to understand that Crossbars is taking advantage of the fact that both he and Marx are Jewish for his own benefit. Crossbars tries to â€Å"bond† with Marx on the basis of their common religion, but soon we realize that he uses this common fact to try to get benefits and other privileges. At some point Marx understands that Crossbars is being selfish and is using the religion for his own needs, and gets tired from Crossbar's requests.Crossbars insists that he shouldn' t be treated like everyone else; because he claims that he is better. In addition he throws at Marx accusations saying that he is denting his roots and his family. Crossbars says this only because he is unhappy and doesn't get from Marx what he wants, he calls him a go. â€Å"You even talk like a go. † â€Å"It's a hard thing to be a Jew. But now I understand what Mackey says- It's a harder thing to stay one†.

Definition and Examples of Zimbabwean English

Definition and Examples of Zimbabwean English Zimbabwean English is the variety of the English language spoken in the Republic of Zimbabwe, located in southern Africa. English is the primary language used in schools in Zimbabwe, but it is one of the 16 official languages in the country.   Examples and Observations: From Rhodesia to ZimbabweZimbabwe, earlier Southern Rhodesia, became a British colony in 1898. By 1923 it gained a measure of self-government and was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1953 to 1963. Like South Africa, Southern Rhodesia had a settled white population, the leaders of whom opposed the notion of one man, one vote. In 1965, the white minority broke away from Britain but its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was declared illegal. In 1980, general elections were held and Zimbabwe came into existence.(Loreto Todd and Ian F. Hancock, International English Usage. Routledge, 1986)Influences on  Zimbabwean EnglishRhodesian English is regarded as a fossil, non-productive dialect. Independence as a democratic republic under black majority rule in 1980 changed the social, economic and political conditions in which blacks and whites interacted in Zimbabwe; in this environment, it is appropriate to refer to the prevailing English dialect in the country as Zimbabwean English (ZimE) as it is a productive and changing variety. . . .The principal influences on Rhodesian English lexis are Afrikaans and Bantu (mainly chiShona and isiNdebele). The more informal the situation, the more likely it is is to encounter local expressions.(Susan Fitzmaurice, L1 Rhodesian English. The Lesser-Known Varieties of English, ed. by D. Schreier et al. Cambridge University Press, 2010) Characteristics of  Zimbabwean English[W]hite Zimbabweans perceive that their dialect of English is distinct from other southern African accents. They . . . refer to details of pronunciation and lexis in order to illustrate how their speech differs from British English on the one hand and South African English on the other. For example, informants will refer to the fact that lakker . . . is a Zimbabwean word. Actually, it is a loanword from Afrikaans lekker, nice, but it is pronounced in a specifically Zimbabwean way, namely with a more open front vowel: lakker  [là ¦kÉ™]  and without a final flapped [r]. Additionally, Zimbabwean English has unique lexical expressions, many of them dating from early colonial days, some adaptations or innovations, some loan translations. For example, the (now quite old-fashioned) approbatory adjective mush or mushy . . . nice may well have arisen out of the persistent misunderstanding of the Shona word musha  home, while shupa (v. and n.) worry, bother, hassle, is a borrowing from Fanagalo, the colonial pidgin used by whites. The verb chaya strike ( Shona tshaya) also occurs in Fanagalo. Thus white Zimbabweans . . . link their dialect to the matter of the identification with place and differentiate themselves from those from neighboring South Africa for instance.(Susan Fitzmaurice, History, Social Meaning, and Identity in the Spoken English of White Zimbabweans.  Developments in English: Expanding Electronic Evidence, ed. by  Irma Taavitsainen  et al. Cambridge University Press, 2015) English in ZimbabweEnglish is the official language of Zimbabwe, and much teaching in schools is also carried out in English, except in the case of the youngest Shomna- and Ndebele-speaking children. . . . The Zimbabwean English of the native anglophone population resembles very closely that of South Africa, but according to Wells (1982) it has never been systematically studied. Native English speakers make up less than 1 per cent of the total population of 11 million.(Peter Trudgill, Lesser-Known Varieties of English. Alternative Histories of English, ed. by R. J. Watts and P. Trudgill. Routledge, 2002) Also Known As: Rhodesian English

Souht American Celebs essays

Souht American Celebs essays South America. One simple word, and dozens of ideas, thoughts, pictures, people and places swarm into your head. A continent full of exotic and eccentric customs, but so many similarities to our own country, the United States. One things for sure, they certainly dont skimp on their celebrities. Celebrities have a fascinating history that greatly influences South American citizens. The United States plays an integral part in their fame, helping them to become the extraordinary people that they are today. Models, sports players, actors, actresss, and musicians are a critical element of the amazing culture of South America. Nearly all of the celebrities of South America are found in, or originate from, the country of Brazil. Brazil is South Americas leading country when it comes to celebrities. It contains over 350 celebrities that are recognized worldwide for the things that they have achieved during their life. Statistics show that 37% of Brazils working citizens work at jobs in the fine arts. Approximately one third of those people are locally recognized, one seventh are nationally recognized, and more are accumulating each year. In an interview with a school board in Brazil, we were told that more than  ¾ of the high school students are striving to become artists, actors/actresses, models, or professional sports players. Statistics for other South American countries say that less then one third of the students say that they would choose these occupations. Statistics also show that 97% of Brazilians have attended a soccer game, concert, dance performance, or recital at least once in their lifetime. Just like South America, the United States revolves around current, and sometimes former, celebrities. We seem so close to our southern neighbors, we even share a few of our stars, but it seems like we dont really have ...

High Temperature Thermoplastics

High Temperature Thermoplastics When we talk about polymers, the most common distinctions we come across are Thermosets and Thermoplastics. Thermosets have the property of being able to be shaped only once while thermoplastics can be reheated and remolded to several attempts. Thermoplastics further can be divided into commodity thermoplastics, engineering thermoplastics (ETP) and high-performance thermoplastics (HPTP). High-performance thermoplastics, also known as high-temperature thermoplastics, have melting points between 6500 and 7250 F which is up to 100% more than standard engineering thermoplastics. High-temperature thermoplastics are known to retain their physical properties at higher temperatures and exhibit thermal stability even in the longer run. These thermoplastics, therefore, have higher heat deflection temperatures, glass transition temperatures, and continuous use temperature. Because of its extraordinary properties, high-temperature thermoplastics can be used for a diverse set of industries such as electrical, medical devices, automotive, aerospace, telecommunications, environmental monitoring, and many other specialized applications. Advantages of High-Temperature Thermoplastics Enhanced Mechanical PropertiesHigh-temperature thermoplastics show a high level of toughness, strength, stiffness, resistance to fatigue and ductility. Resistance to DamagesHT thermoplastics show increased resistance to chemicals, solvents, radiation and heat, and do not disintegrate or lose its form upon exposure. RecyclableSince high-temperature thermoplastics have the ability to be remolded several times, they can be easily recycled and still display the same dimensional integrity and strength as before. Types of High-Performance Thermoplastics Polyamideimides (PAIs)High-performance polyamides (HPPAs)Polyimides (PIs)PolyketonesPolysulfone derivatives-aPolycyclohexane dimethyl-terephthalates (PCTs)FluoropolymersPolyetherimides (PEIs)Polybenzimidazoles (PBIs)Polybutylene terephthalates (PBTs)Polyphenylene sulfidesSyndiotactic polystyrene Noteworthy High-Temperature Thermoplastics Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)PEEK is a crystalline polymer that has good thermal stability because of its high melting point (300 C). It is inert to common organic and inorganic liquids and thus has high chemical resistance. In order to enhance mechanical and thermal properties, PEEK is created with fiberglass or carbon reinforcements. It has high strength and good fiber adhesion, so does not wear and tear easily. PEEK also enjoys the advantage of being non-flammable, good dielectric properties, and exceptionally resistant to gamma radiation but at a higher cost. Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS)PPS is a crystalline material that is known for its striking physical properties. Apart from being highly temperature resistant, PPS is resistant to chemicals such as organic solvents and inorganic salts and can be used as a corrosion resistant coating. The brittleness of PPS can be overcome by adding fillers and reinforcements which also have a positive impact on PPS’s strength, dimensional stability, and electrical properties. Polyether Imide (PEI)PEI is an amorphous polymer that exhibits high-temperature resistance, creep resistance, impacts strength and rigidity. PEI is extensively used in the medical and electrical industries because of its nonflammability, radiation resistance, hydrolytic stability and ease of processing. Polyetherimide (PEI) is an ideal material for a variety of medical and food contact applications and is even approved by the FDA for food contact. KaptonKapton is a polyimide polymer that is able to withstand a wide range of temperatures. It is known for its exceptional electrical, thermal, chemical and mechanical properties, making it applicable for use in a variety of industries such as automotive, consumer electronics, solar photovoltaic, wind energy and aerospace. Because of its high durability, it can withstand demanding environments. Future of High Temp Thermoplastics There have been advancements with regards to high-performance polymers previously and it would continue to be so because of the range of applications that can be carried out. Since these thermoplastics have high glass transition temperatures, good adhesion, oxidative and thermal stability along with toughness, their use is expected to increase by many industries. Additionally, as these high-performance thermoplastics are more commonly manufactured with continuous fiber reinforcement, their use and  acceptance  will continue.

Literacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Literacy - Essay Example However, he does not apply it, instead he sells the bags to get money for food and clothes and during harvesting, he gets minimal returns. The farmer goes to the company complaining of poor pay while he â€Å"did all the work† on the farm and so needs pay increase. Such a farmer can read and write his name and receipts but he cannot figure out that the reason he is being given the fertilizer is to boost production. Such a person knows how to read and write but he is not literate as a literate person could be able to figure out this. Literacy and literary skills is an important course to undertake because it helps make people realize the act of being responsible and trying to think critically in some situations. This also helps students to uphold their spiritual norms, as they will be able to interpret their respective books of faith and norms of the society hence sanity restoration. Since the start of the course, students already knew how to read and write and was expected that as such they should be able to read the spiritual book and know how to behave and relate while on campus. However, as it happens sometime students do not understand the rules or how to apply them in real life. This means that they can read but they are not able to apply the knowledge in their daily life and therefore literacy goes beyond mere reading or writing. A writer like Freire for example was not educated because he could not learn while hungry. In addition, he now advocates for both adults and young people to be taught how to read and write. He says, â€Å"Because education and literacy empower people to overcome oppression by giving them the ability to understand the manipulations.† On the other hand, Mirabelli was for literacy n the catering department. Waiters should have literacy on how to read but also apply it in how to serve well the customers. Literacy is a very vital thing in the society. It helps to restore

Negotiations - Hypothetical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Negotiations - Hypothetical Analysis - Essay Example Jonathan Brown, and he therefore, is not interested in joining issues with him publicly. He desires that the deliberations be kept absolutely confidential. The hiring policy as envisaged and implemented by Mr. Brown is ideal as per his philosophy but he is out of step with the demands of the time. Mr. Brown’s convictions are right according to him, he has given a sterling medical institution to the public, he is taking care of his staff well, he has no trade union problems, the salaries and perquisites which his staff is paid is significantly higher than what is prevalent in the industry, he treats the staff very well and they adore him as a noble person, and the single point agenda of the Mayor of Boston is proportional representation of the female doctors in the hiring committee. 2. What kind of negotiator is on the other side? The negotiator on the other side is a politician, the Mayor of the city of Boston. Building one’s own power castle is the primary agenda of a politician, there could be rarest of the rare exceptions. By showing his concern for empowering women, he is playing to the gallery. The women employees of the hospital are happy with the administration of Mr. Brown and they are treated very well and get one of the best pay packets in the industry. The negotiator must be having some political compulsions and his desire to discuss the issue with Mr. Brown in confidence indicates that his intentions are not totally insincere. He feels that it is a policy issue and as the Mayor of the city, it is his duty to set right the things. 3. What are your interests? My interests are simple and straightforward. I have been pursuing this policy successfully for the past 35 years. I have no grudge against the womenfolk, absolutely nothing! What I pursue is the principles of the science of ergonomics—finding proper individuals for the proper assignments. I am convinced that women make good nurses, temperamentally they are suitable for that p ost, and I also believe that they make good doctors as well. But there are realistic problems in summoning them to the hospitals in case of emergencies, as women have the primary responsibilities at home. In the overall scheme of administration as envisaged by me, I do not intend to offer them the position of doctors. 4. What are your counterpart’s interests? His concern for the welfare and rights of women seems to be superficial in the present case. He is just counting his votes, and by raising a women-related issue, he is appealing to their emotions with the ultimate aim of converting the sympathy wave into votes. He is visualizing a formidable vote-bank in women and he is planning to turn the tide in his favor. But he is also aware of raking the issues against a reputed hospital, where the presence of the women in the hiring committee is about 16%. (male11, female 2) 5. Who will prepare the agenda and what will the agenda cover? Both the parties to the discussion are seize d about the issue. It seems to be just a one point agenda. A formal agenda has not been circulated either from the side of Mr. Brown or from the side of the Mayor. The discussions will be of a confidential nature, as desired by the Mayor. This shows that the Mayor has some reservations in the back of his mind, and therefore he is insisting for a one to one

Topic Clinical Reflection on competency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Topic Clinical Reflection on competency - Essay Example I was approaching the patient with an intention that I would assess the patient's condition, and if necessary, following assessment I would provide her some analgesic medication. The staff nurse told me not to give any more pain medication, "she had had enough." It was very evident that there was difference of opinion between me and the staff nurse. From my academic learning, I knew that pain assessment is an important parameter of nursing care, and accurate assessment patient's pain status is important. Current evidence suggests that pain assessment and rating of pain would guide adequacy of pain medication. In such cases of differences of opinion, there is a fair chance that nurses' assessment would be guided by personal beliefs. Literature suggests that in many cases clinical decisions are taken by the healthcare professional based on traditional practice which may not have any evidence. This is specially applicable in case of pain management in the clinical setting by the nurses. There is also evidence that nurses are guided by their own beliefs on pain assessment, and in many cases the experienced nurses underestimate the intensity of pain. Pain is regarded as a subjective sensation, and hence there is a high tendency that painful conditions are stigmatised in that high intensity pain is regarded as a ploy to get more pain medication, while nurses feel that the intensity of pain is not worth intervening (Clark et al., 2006). With the background that I will graduate into a registered nurse, it was an opportunity for me to reflect on the situation to examine whether I have enough competencies to deal with such situations. It was an ideal situation where research could be utilised to improve practice so the outcome of care is better leading to better patient satisfaction. I immediately took the opportunity to discuss the scenario with the staff nurse and convinced her that I would look into evidence from studies to decide what we needed to do. There was internet connection available in the unit, and in the available database, I ran a search for relevant literature on the key words "nursing" and "pain management" (Rustoen et al., 2009). Since meta-analyses provide maximal analyses of research, conclusion and discussion of some if these literatures provided the guideline. The basics of the guidelines were that whenever in doubt regarding the adequacy of pain medication, the pain medicine consultation should b e used and adequate dosage of analgesic medications should be decided, while the patient remains under strict monitoring and surveillance for any signs of respiratory depression. I remember, I also told in that discussion that the hospital policy guidelines also indicate this. When I found evidence, I immediately showed the findings from the literature to all staff present there, and highlighted that this would improve the patient outcome (ANMC, 2006), since pain symptoms delays discharge and increases hospital stay. I was a little hesitant in saying this since I was just a student and my experiences were just nominal. However, the strength of the evidence was so compelling that ultimately these findings could be used to change and improve practice. Another concern was that I did not know this patient's history totally, and therefore, there was a fair chance

Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

Love - Essay Example This is because the generation and interpretation of the various chemicals substances signaling our feeling and understanding of love takes place in the brain. I will be analytically illuminating the different kinds of love as defined by the oxford dictionary. The oxford dictionary defines four different kinds of love which expressed by humans i.e. agape, philia, storge/affection and Eros. Affection is used in reference to the strong feeling of affection towards someone or something. This kind of love is usually expressed among members of the same family; it is the love felt and shown by parents towards their own children, the feelings of love expressed among children and towards their parents. This is also the kind of love felt between friends and sometimes it culminates into romantic relationships in which the couples become best friends. This type of love is usually unconditional, sacrificial and drives people at forgiveness hence assuring them of comfort and safety. Eros or romantic love on the other hand is defined as referring to the strong feeling of affection towards someone you are sexually attracted to. it is characterized by intense feelings of passion which arouse romance and makes one use the phrase â€Å"I love You.† in other words it is the love that culminates in sex and love making between the partners and unless moved to a higher notch it may fade with time since it centers mostly on the self. In case the person expressing the love for some reason stops feeling good about the relationship then they may stop showing their emotions to the partners. This is the kind of love that culminates into marriage between the two people if the emotions are taken beyond sexual satisfaction to seek companionship. Agape refers to a kind of unconditional love which looks past the surface and accommodates the other person as they are regardless of their shortcomings and flaws. It is what we all strive to have and show

Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

Love - Essay Example This is because the generation and interpretation of the various chemicals substances signaling our feeling and understanding of love takes place in the brain. I will be analytically illuminating the different kinds of love as defined by the oxford dictionary. The oxford dictionary defines four different kinds of love which expressed by humans i.e. agape, philia, storge/affection and Eros. Affection is used in reference to the strong feeling of affection towards someone or something. This kind of love is usually expressed among members of the same family; it is the love felt and shown by parents towards their own children, the feelings of love expressed among children and towards their parents. This is also the kind of love felt between friends and sometimes it culminates into romantic relationships in which the couples become best friends. This type of love is usually unconditional, sacrificial and drives people at forgiveness hence assuring them of comfort and safety. Eros or romantic love on the other hand is defined as referring to the strong feeling of affection towards someone you are sexually attracted to. it is characterized by intense feelings of passion which arouse romance and makes one use the phrase â€Å"I love You.† in other words it is the love that culminates in sex and love making between the partners and unless moved to a higher notch it may fade with time since it centers mostly on the self. In case the person expressing the love for some reason stops feeling good about the relationship then they may stop showing their emotions to the partners. This is the kind of love that culminates into marriage between the two people if the emotions are taken beyond sexual satisfaction to seek companionship. Agape refers to a kind of unconditional love which looks past the surface and accommodates the other person as they are regardless of their shortcomings and flaws. It is what we all strive to have and show

(Love) ACC 403 SLP 4 Activity Based Costing Essay

(Love) ACC 403 SLP 4 Activity Based Costing - Essay Example The concept of Activity Based costing has its origins in the U.S manufacturing industry, where increases in technology led to a decrease in fixed costs and increase in variable costs and the number of steps in each manufacturing process as the automation process increased. For example, manual labor declined as robotics was introduced in the automotive industry, while the number of mechanistic processes and increased use of machinery meant that depreciation and replacement costs went up. Activity based costing is, as the name implies, based on determining the costs of different activities involved in the manufacturing or production process, and then identifying the costs of each activity (Kaplan & Cooper, 1988). In a company like Apple, there are also a number of activities involved in manufacturing its laptops, PCs and monitors. While traditional accounting takes into account only the cost of activities actually performed, activity based costing also includes the wait time for inventory parts etc. which are also included in overall costs of production. Activity based costing has been used to define re-engineering processes and eliminate unnecessary costs and processes (Kaplan & Cooper, 1988). Activity Based Costing is implemented by first identifying the cost drivers for each activity. Cost drivers are the basis for allocating product costs to the activities performed. Volume and Time are the most commonly used cost drivers (Turney, 2010)- everything else is attributed to a charge that is directly allocated to the activity in question being performed (Kaplan & Anderson, 2007). Volume means units of work or products produced. Time means length of time taken to complete a specific activity. If Activity Based Costing was used at Apple, we could have the following chart for activities performed from Jan 1-Dec 31, 2011: In practice, many difficulties are encountered while

An experiment to see if interference affects recall in short-term memory Essay Example for Free

An experiment to see if interference affects recall in short-term memory Essay Each participant must carry out the experiment under the same conditions. This included keeping the setting the same, making sure no extraneous variables such as external noise, can disrupt it. However, because it is an independent groups design there may have been participant variables confounding the results. These are individual differences between the participants; for example, the emotional state of an individual or whether the memory of an individual is better than another. Psychology students may have an advantage over non-psychology students because they already have an insight into the same or similar types of experiments. It is an independent groups design because two separate groups of participants are being tested. One group receives the experimental treatment, which in this case, is the interference task. The other group receives no treatment, acting as a control group. Both groups are tested once and their results are compared. The controls in the experiment that need to be kept the same for each participant is the setting, making sure there is no extraneous variables such as any external noise. The actual objects and time period for looking at and rehearsing the objects with and without interference must be the same. The books used in the interference task should also be the same for each participant. The participants will be debriefed after the experiment and will be asked for their consent before. They are also told that they have the right to withdraw at any time during the experiment. The confidentiality of the experiment is important. The results of the participants are not revealed to anyone. The results obtained are only kept if informed consent is received. Participants The participants chosen for the experiment are in the age range of 16-18 years. The target population is students who attend sixth form. They include psychology and non-psychology students, and they are chosen by opportunity sampling. This sampling was used because it is the most practical in the circumstances. It is a quick and easy way of choosing participants, and this was important for this study because it was carried out in school hours, when students had lessons to go to and therefore students were chosen if they were available at the time. The number of participants chosen was 20 and the ratio of girls to boys was 9:11. The ratio of psychology to non-psychology students was 7:13. Apparatus The apparatus in the experiment includes: Three tables, one with 12 objects on, which include a skull, football boots, board pen, spectacles, fork, mobile phone, can of coke, car keys, screw driver, school tie, watch and a chocolate bar. Opportunity sampling was used to choose these 12 objects found around the school and at home, finding any type of object of similar sizes to fit on a table, suitable to use in a school environment. This type of sampling enabled the objects to be varied and not just from one particular environment, preventing schemas to make recall easier.

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