Human resources practices influence customer satisfaction

Human resources practices influence customer satisfaction The focus of this research is on examining the process through which human resource practices influences customer satisfaction in banking sector of Pakistan. Drawing on literature from strategic human resource management, organizational behavior, and marketing, a model of HRP-CS is proposed with employee commitment as its central plank. It is argued that such commitment is influenced by organizational human resource practices and in turn it influences employee behavior towards organizational customers which is then translated into customer satisfaction. Despite heavily documented performance link between human resource practices and organizational, the term HR practices has rarely been adequately defined in the literature. In fact researchers have tested for link between HR practices and firm performance with different HR practices as input and different performance outcomes as output. Boselie and his colleagues have very rightly noted that, Still no consensus has emerged on what employee management activities should be in a comprehensive HRM checklist, since no widely accepted theoretical rationale exists for selecting practices as definitively essential to HRM. Selection of HR practices for this dissertation is based on the review of relevant studies. Liao and Chuang noted that involvement, training and performance incentives are among the most relevant for employee performance in service settings. Similarly, Boselie and his colleagues have identified training, performance based rewards and performance appraisal as the top three researched human resource practices. They argue that this might be because these practices reflect the main objectives of most conceptualisations of a strategic HRM programme. Result oriented appraisals, employment security, and profit sharing have also been reported to be strongly related to organizational performance . In the light of the above discussion, I selected human resource practices that adequately cover the areas identified by the strategic HR researchers as being important in improving organizational performance. The practices include internal career opportunities, training, result oriented appraisals, employment security, participation, and compensation. All these practices are supposed to enhance organizational human capital which will then serve as a competitive advantage for the firm. Nevertheless, a group of researchers including Jackson and Schuler , Ferris and his colleagues and Uhl- Bien et al called for more focus on social context of the relationships within the organization. These researchers argue that employee interaction within organization comprises social capital, and no firm can effectively achieve its goals until it actively utilizes its social capital along with its human capital. The central proposition of social capital theory is that network of relationships constitute valuable resource for the conduct of social affairs. As supervisor-employee interaction is among the most frequent experiences in organizational life, the importance of this relationship in social capital formation is very much understandable. Additionally, as supervisors are viewed as agents of organization, who are responsible for directing and facilitating employees job responsibilities, their attitude and behavior is viewed as indicative of organizational orientation towards their employees . Although, supervisor support or supervisor behavior may not qualify itself as firms HR practice, I have added it to the list of HR practices in my dissertation due to its importance in eliciting employee responses towards organization and its customers. Thus the list of HR practices which will be the subject of study in this dissertation are as following: Supervisor support (SS) Internal career opportunities (ICO) Training (Trg) Result-oriented appraisal (ROA) Employment security (ES) Participation in Decision Making (Part) Compensation (Comp) 3.2 Human Resource Management Practices and Customer Satisfaction: In one of the early studies on relationship between employees perception of organizational practices and customers perception of service quality, Schneider, Parkington, and Buxton noted that both are significantly correlated. They conducted a study of twenty three bank branches of a full service bank and observed a strong correlation (r = 0.67) between employees perception of branch service and customers perception of quality of service at the branch. Although, this study did not measure the role of organizational human resource practices on customers perception of service quality or customer satisfaction, it laid down the foundation for studying the role of employee attitudes and behavior in connection with customer satisfaction. In order to yield better perceptions of service quality from customers, the study emphasized to focus attention on the role of boundary personnel in retail service organizations like the branch banks . Rogg, Schmidt, Shull, and Schmitt conducted a study of 351 franchise dealerships of an automobile company to examine the impact of human resource practices on customer satisfaction. They found that HR practices effects customer satisfaction through its influence on organizational climate. This is to say that they tested for a mediating role of climate in HR-CS relationship. Their data analysis supported the hypothesis that human resource practices are significantly related to customer satisfaction, though most of the correlations were less than 0.20. While this study adds to our belief that firms human resource practices are related to its customers satisfaction, it is not without its problems. First, the data on HR practices and climate variables were collected using single instrument, thus increasing the chance of same source bias. Secondly, the data on, human resource practices and climate, variables were collected from single respondent in the organization. While the data of huma n resource practices were factual, the data on climate were attitudinal and is highly prone to single rater error. Both these problems (same source bias and single rater error) have been taken care of in this study. In another study of 137 BDG (Branch Director Group) of a full service bank, Gelade and Ivery documented that BDGs HRM practices are positively associated with customer satisfaction. They analyzed the relationship between HRM indicators (staffing level, overtime, and professional development) and organizational performance indicators (sales against targets, customer satisfaction, staff retention, and clerical accuracy) and found that almost all the three HRM indicators are positively associated with organizational performance indicators including customer satisfaction and that such association is moderated by organizational climate. Whereas most of the studies which examined the relationship between human resource practices and customer satisfaction were conducted on organizational or DMU level of analysis , Liao and Chaung investigated the factors influencing customer satisfaction using a multi-level conceptual framework. There data comprised responses of 257 employees, 44 managers, and 1993 customers from 25 franchised restaurants. The human resource practices data were collected from restaurant manager while employee performance and customer satisfaction data were based on self-reports of employees and customers respectively. The data gathered thus gathered from employees and customers were aggregated to restaurant level to analyze the HR practices customer outcome relationship at unit level. The results of the study showed that of the human resource practices only employee involvement was significantly related to the service performance, while other two HR practices (service training, and performance incent ives) did not have any significant relationship with employee performance. The study did not examine the direct effect of human resource practices on customer satisfaction; however the relationship between restaurant-level service performance and customer satisfaction was found significant. Although, this study provided a better understanding of how employees actions and perceptions influences organizational context, still it did not explicitly examines the role of employees perception of human resource practices in eliciting customer perception of service quality and customer satisfaction. While most of studies conducted on human resource management customer satisfaction relationship have focused on organizational climate as mediating variable between the two, Nishii, et al is the first one to examines the role of employees perceptions, attitudes and behaviors as the central plank of such relationship. There sample included 95 stores each with approximately 18 departments. Data was collected from 4208 employees from 362 departments across these 95 stores. Nishii and her colleagues in a multilevel analysis investigated the role of employee perceptions of why organization adopted certain human resource policies (HR attribution) in shaping their work attitudes and behaviors and the relationship between such attitudes/behaviors and customer satisfaction. The data regarding employee HR attributions, commitment and satisfaction were collected from employees at individual level, while data regarding employee behavior and customer satisfaction were collected from store manage rs and customers respectively at store-level. The individual level data were than aggregated to store level in order to analyze the relationship at store level unit of analysis. The results of this study revealed that employees attributions of human resource practices (HR attributions) are positively related to employee attitudes. They further found that unit-level attitudes were positively related to two aspects of employee behavior, measured in terms of OCB (organizational citizenship behavior). One dimension of OCB (OCB-helping) was found significantly associated with customer satisfaction. The most important finding of the study was, that the same set of HR practices may not even exhibit similar effects within a single organization. The implication is that it is not just the HR practices themselves but rather also employees perceptions of those HR practices that are important for achieving desired organizational outcomes. [italics added] . In fact focus on employee (or member) perception is not a new phenomenon in organizational studies. Almost thirty years ago Schneider, et al based on Heider , Miller, Galanter, and Pribram and Bowers noted that, Member perceptions of organizational practices and procedures are the critical data in understanding organizational behavior. No behavior in, or of, organizations occurs in the absence of perceptions. To conceptualize an organization requires a consideration of human behavior, and human behavior does not exist without perception. Similarly, drawing on Endler and Magnusson and Drazin, Glynn, and Kazanjian Bowen and Ostroff argued that individual behavior potential are not based on . . . actual situation per se, rather, the situation individuals see based on their perceptions, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Finally, Nishii and her colleagues emphasized the need for focusing more future SHRM research on the way that HR practices are enacted in organizations, as revealed in human perception à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Though the study undertaken by Nishi and her colleagues is among the first to empirically test the role of employees perception of HR practices in influencing customer satisfaction, it did not actually measured the employees perception of HR practices per se, rather, it took a different approach and examined the employees perception of why particular HR practices exists and the effect of this why on customer satisfaction. Thus, the important and frequently sought after question regarding the role of employees perception of human resource practices in influencing their attitude, behavior and customer satisfaction is still unanswered in the existing literature. Based on past literature, which demonstrates a positive link between organizational HR practices and customer satisfaction, and to answer a very important, but still unanswered, question in strategic human resource management literature, I hypothesized the relationship between employees perception of HR practices and customer satisfaction as follows: H1: There will be a positive relationship between perceptions of Supervisor Support (SS) Internal Career Opportunities (ICO) Organizational Training (Trg) Human Result Oriented Appraisal (ROA) Resource Employment Security (ES) Practices (HRP) Participation in Decision Making (Part), and Compensation and customer satisfaction such that the customers interacting with employees who more positively perceive HR practices will be more satisfied and vice-versa. 3.3 Research Model: The Process through which HR Practices Influences Customer Satisfaction: As earlier noted in the introduction, the primary aim of this research is to investigate the process/path through which human resource practices influence customer satisfaction, as this is the dynamics of such process which is of immense importance to the owners and managers of the organizations. It is only through the clear and proper understanding of mediating mechanisms between HR practices and customer satisfaction that managers can avoid engaging in conflicting, and at time counter-productive, HR policies. The proposed model indicating the mediating process between perceptions of human resource practices and customer satisfaction is shown in figure 3-1. HR Practices Employee Perceptions Employee Outcome Organizational Outcome Internal Career Opportunities Result Oriented Appraisal Participation in Decision Making Employment Security Supervisor Support Training Compensation Perceived Organizational Support Customer Satisfaction Affective Commitment Customer Oriented Behavior Theoretical Framework Research Model Figure 3-1: Research Model The Influence of HR Practices on Employee Commitment and Customer Satisfaction An examination of the figure 3-1 depicts the relationship of various variables in the model. It is proposed that for human resource practices to influence customer satisfaction they are to be first perceived by the organizational employees in favorable or unfavorable manner. The cumulative employee perception about HR practices is then translated into perceived organizational support (POS), a concept which indicates the organizational commitment towards employee wellbeing. It is further proposed that this POS is reciprocated by the employees in the form of their commitment to organization, which then forms the basis for customer-oriented behavior on their part. The final part of the model deals with the boundary spanning role of the employees and hypothesizes that employee behavior influences the customers perception of service quality in organizations which ultimately leads to customer satisfaction with the organization. In what follows each of the relationships proposed in the model is examined in greater detail in the light of relevant literature. Research hypotheses based on such relationships are formulated within each section. 3.4 Human Resource Practices and Perceived Organizational Support: Perceived organizational support is defined as employees perceptions about the degree to which the organization cares about their well-being and values their contribution . Studies have shown that human resource practices signaling investments in employees are positively related to perceived organizational support . Organization support theory argues that employees assign humanlike characteristics to organizations. This tendency to personify organizations is encouraged by the organizational norms, practices and policies that prescribe employee role behaviors . This personification leads employees to believe that treatment met to them by their organizations is its indication of favor or disfavor to them . The treatment met to employees signal organizations readiness to reward increased work performance and to meet its employees needs for approval and recognition. As the organization treat its employees through the implementation of various human resource practices, I argue that the de velopment of employees global belief regarding the extent to which organizations value its members contribution and care about their wellbeing (perceived organizational support) is the reciprocation of such HR practices. Further, Eisenberger and his colleagues noted that perceived organizational support depends on attribution processes and is based on employees judgments, among other things, of organizational sincerity. Similarly, Whitener , while identifying the possible causes of different employee outcomes towards same HR practice, stressed upon the future researchers to . . . measure employees perceptions of the characteristics of human resource practices as an intervening variable between managers descriptions of human resource practices and employees perceptions of support. . In fact more and more researchers today are realizing the important role of employees perceptions in HR practices employee outcomes relationship. In a very recent publication Nishii et al have argued tha t, . . . in order for HR practices to exert their desired effect on employee attitudes and behaviors, they first have to be perceived and interpreted subjectively by employees . . . . Thus I refine my earlier argument regarding the relationship between HR practices and POS by accommodating the role of employees perception in HR-POS relationship; I hypothesize that it is employees perceptions of organizational human resource practices, instead of practices themselves, which leads to development of employees POS. The following sub-sections will review the literature about the relationship between the hypothesized HR practices and POS in detail. 3.4.1 Supervisor Support: Levinson observed that supervisory actions are often viewed as more indicative of organizations intent than solely based on supervisors personal motive. This is in part due to the fact that employees consider organizations to be responsible for legal, moral, and financial actions of its agents actions. Because supervisors act as organizational agents, the employees receipt of favorable treatment from a supervisor should contribute to POS. Additionally employees believe that managers forward their evaluation of subordinates to upper management which considerably influences managements treatment of their employees, thus perceptions of supervisor support should contribute to development of POS . Reciprocity norm dictates that perceived supervisor support should increase employees felt obligation towards supervisor and organization . H2a: There will be a positive relationship between employees perception of supervisor support (SS) and his/her perceived organizational support (POS). 3.4.2 Internal Career Opportunities: The opportunities to grow internally within the organization signals a strong positive message to employees that they are being cared and their work being valued . Such a policy also inculcates a sense of justice and fairness in the employees who feel that their stay and attachment with the organization for longer tenures is valued and rewarded . Thus the perception of availability of internal career opportunities will be linked to employees perception of organizational support. H2b: There will be positive relationship between employees perception of internal career opportunities (ICO) and his/her level of POS. 3.4.3 Training Training may be viewed as a form of capital investment in humans whether such an investment is made by firm or individual . A number of authors including Huselid and MacDuffie have counted organizational training as one of the important high-performance human resource (HR) practices. Employees, just like other human beings, have a desire to enhance their capabilities and learn new skills to improve their survivability in the environment. Training provides opportunities for both, enhancement of existing capabilities and learning of new skills. Thus provision of adequate training facilities by the organization to its employees signals its commitment to them. By providing career development opportunities, the organization conveys its willingness and dedication to the personal growth of its employees. The provision of training opportunities is indicative of the importance which the organization attaches to the contributions of its employees and is a token of its recognition for such contributions . In Pakistan most of the times such trainings and other career development opportunities go beyond any formal union contract and is thus viewed by the employees as out-of-will treatment by the organization. Such discretionary treatment on part of the organization is viewed by its employees as indicative of organizational support for them . Previous studies have found evidence that career development opportunities are positively related to perceptions of organizational support and that training predicts POS . Similarly, a significant relationship between career development opportunities and POS is also been reported by Meyer and Smith . Based on the review of past research, I hypothesize that an employees level of POS will be positively related to his/her belief of the training and career development opportunities provided by the organization. H2c: Employees perceptions about training opportunities (Trg) will be positively related to the level of his/her POS. 3.4.4 Result-Oriented Appraisal: Previous researches has documented a positive relationship between result-oriented appraisal and firm performance . These authors reported a correlation of r = .13 at p H2d: Employees perception of result oriented appraisal (ROA) will be positively related to their perceptions of organizational support (POS). 3.4.5 Employment Security: Delery and Doty in their research on banking sector of US have found a positive relationship between employment security and firm performance. The positive relationship was attributed to increased employee commitment and motivation due to secure jobs in banks. Similarly Fey, Bjorkman, and Pavlovskaya argued that provision of long term job security to employees signal organizational commitment to them. Pfeffer asserts that norm of reciprocity bounds employees to reciprocate such commitment in the form to their support to the organization and its goals. On the other hand organizational commitment of employees working for an employer who treats its employees as unimportant or dispensable tends to be low. Further, in times of economic turbulence when people are finding it increasingly difficult to find jobs, long term job security by the organization to the employees enhance their perceptions of organizational support. In light of the existing theoretical and empirical rationale I predic t about the relationship between employment security and perceived organizational support (POS) as following: H2e: There will be a positive relationship between employees perception of employment security (ES) and his/her perceived organizational support (POS). 3.4.6 Participation in Decision Making: Studies have concluded that organizations will yield better results if they gave their employees participation or voice in decision making activities . Providing opportunities to the employees to participate in decision making should indicate that their contribution is being valued by the organization . Researchers, have previously suggested that having say in decision making and voice in formulating organizational policy should be tested as a precursor of perceived organizational support . Whitener argued the fact that it is not only the existence of participation practice which is enough to elicit positive response from the the employees rather it is the perception regarding the existence and usefulness of such participatory mechanism which enhances employees perception of organizational support. Thus, the following relationship between participation and perceived organizational support is predicted: H2f: Employees perception of participation in organizational decision making (Part) will be positively related to his/her perceptions of organizational support (POS). 3.4.7 Compensation Organizational Support Theory argues that organizational rewards signals the nature of employee concern by the organization. Thus, favorable rewards signal that employee contributions are being valued by organization . More specifically this theory holds that favorable organizational rewards are conceived as organizations recognition and appreciation of employees work, and therefore, a major source of POS development . Organizational rewards may take the form of different variables when it comes to measuring its relationship with POS. In literature variables such as pay itself , distributive justice , procedural justice and general organizational rewards are researched for their relationship with POS. A common theme which emerges out of these studies is that POS is positively influenced by organizational rewards. Perceived organizational support is found to be positively related to employee pay satisfaction in a study conducted by Shore and Tetrick . Another study, which tested the relationship between employees perception about procedural justice and their perception of organizational support, found that both are positively related . Similarly, Wayne et al. noted a positive association between perceptions of procedural justice and POS. One can easily note from the above studies that though different indicators have been used to capture the concept of organizational rewards and then test their relationship with perceived organizational support, these researches converge in their conclusion about positive link between reward and development of POS. As the focus of this dissertation on measuring the influence of organizational human resource practices on employee commitment and customer satisfaction, the issues of relationship between rewards like distributive and procedural justice is somewhat out of scope for this study. Of particular importance to this study is the role of compensation as organizational reward, and the role it plays in development of POS. Willis noted that compensation is the most critical issue when it comes to attracting and keeping talent. Compensation is the cornerstone of the majority employment contracts. As Parker and Wright noted that basic reason for such centrality to the issue of compensation is the assumption that money influences behavior. In 1999 a study conducted by Bassi and Van Buren revealed that firms using high-performance work practices provide compensation based on group-performance and company profit sharing to enhance the employees feeling of organizational support. Especially, profit-sharing mechanism is a clear sign that organization does not only recognize and value its employees efforts in its profit but is ready to share it with them. This line of thinking clearly indicates a positive possibility of relationship between employees compensation and their perceptions of organizational support. Thus based on review of existing literature and logic which dictates a relationship between compensation and POS, I hypothesize as under: H2g: Employees perceptions of compensation (Comp) will be positively related to the level of his/her POS. 3.5 Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Organizational Commitment (OC) During the last two decades the concept of organizational commitment (OC) remained a major focus of research in organizational studies. One of the reasons for such focus is the assumed relationship between organizational commitment and performance . In the following lines I will first explain the concept of commitment and will then explain the logic of proposing relationship between POS and OC. The term commitment has been widely used in research and is being variedly used to explain the antecedents, consequences and process of being committed to organization . This variety of definitions of commitment led Meyer and Allen to note that OC may be a multidimensional concept that has the potential to be interpreted in variety of ways. Nevertheless, the major definitions of OC appear to be affective or attitudinal , normative , behavioral and calculative . However, as Allen and Grisaffe noted, most researchers would agree that organizational commitment refers to a psychological state that characterizes an employees relationship with the organization for which he or she works and that has implications for whether or not the employee will choose to remain with the organization. Researchers differ in their opinion about why or how commitment occurs. Meyer and Allen conceptualizes that commitment develops as a result of experiences of satisfying employees needs motivational and/or compatible with their values . They further argued that desired commitment profile of employees may be developed by managing the employee work experience. Some researchers have described commitment as a strong belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization, and a definite desire to maintain organizational membership . This definition highlights the role which commitment plays in enhancing individual performance such that more committed employees are supposed to be exerting more effort in achievement of organizational goals. Another important way of conceptualizing commitment is through individuals attitude towards employer organization. Researchers have noted that virtually all the research conducted on organizational commitment, per se, has used the attitudinal conceptualization. The following description of attitudinal commitment is forwarded by Mowday et al. : Attitudinal commitment focuses on the process by which people come to think about their relationship with the organization. In many ways it can be thought of as a mind set in which individuals consider the extent to which their own values and goals are congruent with those of the organization. Such a description suggests that strongly committed individuals will put in more work required for attainment of desired organizational outcomes as such outcomes are consistent with their personal values and goals. Meyer and Allen noted that organizational commitment is a mind set or psychological state (i.e., feelings and/or beliefs concerning the employees relationship with an organization) They conceptualized commitment through a three component framework. The three components are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment and has been described by Allen and Meyer as under: . . . employees with strong affective commitment remain with the organization because they

Difference of Marketing Product and Service Essay

A product is normally a thing that sold to people and mostly is tangible. Basically, the marketing of product is particularly focused on 4P’s in marketing mix namely product, price, place, and promotion (Ehmke & Fulton & Lusk, n. d. ). The marketer needs to analyze the major demand of customers in a specific market in order to find out a product that can respond the market demand. Firstly, it is necessary for marketers to focus on the strength as well as eliminate the vulnerabilities of marketed products in order to improve products to meet customer’s demand as much as possible. Secondly, the price is an important factor in product marketing because of the price must be set to match with the purchasing power of a target group. The marketer should understand the nature price of selling products. For example, the perfume price might be high because it is considered as luxury good and the instant-noodle price might be low because of it is considered as convenience good. Thirdly, the place of product marketing refers to distribution channels to deliver and sell the product to customers. Lastly, the marketer also needs to create the promotion on the product in order to persuade customers and motivate the sale in a short term. On the other hand, a service is the action that provide for customers and also has a different characteristics from the product (Milliman, 1997). Therefore, the service marketing is somewhat different from product marketing. The service marketing is generally used service marketing mix or 7P’s which is extended from 4P’s by adding people, process and physical evidence (Rafiq & Ahmed, 1995). It is essential for any service industry to employ appropriate staffs or people. Hiring and training a good staff will impact positively on the organization because most of customers will judge the quality of service from staffs. Therefore, a company should hire a staff that has interpersonal skills, communication skills and good service know ledges in order to provide high quality of service to customers. In addition, process is a system used to support a company in delivering the service. Process also demonstrates the overall performance of the organization. For example, Macdonald consumers will get the order within 2 minutes. The marketer needs to focus on the process due to meet the customer’s satisfactory getting the service on time. Lastly, physical evidence is external factors that related to the environment around a service area impacting the customer’s impression. Fir Example, a Thai massage and spa uses eye-catching advertising billboard locating in front of the shop and traditional decoration and atmosphere to attract foreign customers. To sum up, the marketer generally uses 4P’s in product marketing including product, price, place and promotion. On the other hand, the service marketing involves 7P’s which people, price and physical evidence were added. Because of the difference in characteristics, there are more factors in service marketing and the marketer must more concern about the customer’s satisfactory during service time. Hence, the service marketing is somewhat different and also more complicated than product marketing. I think product and services marketing are significantly different because of characteristic of itself. The first characteristic of services marketing is intangibility; it cannot be seen, touched or felt prior consumption. On the other hands, product marketing is tangible, the customer is able to touch, feel, taste or smell the product either before or after purchasing. For example, when customers walk through a restaurant, they might get the food smell from the restaurant but they cannot know how well of service if they do not buy the menu. Secondly, products can be stored in order to sell to the customer in the next time whereas services marketing mostly are unable to be inventoried, they are perishable. Hence, the value of service always exists at the point when it is required. Therefore, it seems to be very difficult to match supply with demand in service marketing. Thirdly, the other difference of product and services marketing is the level of relationship between the client and provider. Undoubtedly, there is much more personal contact required in services marketing than product marketing. In case of product marketing, customers and sellers may face each other just once time when they are dealing products and they might have no chance to see each other again. However, in services marketing, consumers and service providers may have to see each other frequently throughout until the contract is ended or until the last thing that consumers expect to gain from a service provider. There is a difference in price setting between both marketing. With product marketing, the price is easy to set by calculating from value, the strength of a brand, the quality of material and the demand in market. Furthermore, the customer can ask for discount from vendors so there is high flexibility and a standard in the price setting of product marketing. On the other hand, service marketing is quiet difficult to set fairly price. Mainly, service companies have to calculate from the cost of hiring employees and servicing time. Some companies also charge initial fee and service taxes to customers. Additionally, the service price is considered less flexible because mostly consumers cannot ask for discount from service providers. Reference http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/EC/EC-730.pdf

My first date

I can vividly recall my first date but not for the reasons one would usually suppose. Actually, in my opinion this ‘momentous’ event hardly meant anything to me at the time and this was reflected in the triviality with which I treated the occasion. My focus at age thirteen wasn’t primarily at chasing girls though it should have been. My focus was on impressing my older brother and getting his attention. I admired him in so many ways. He isn’t the kind of brother many other boys my age would dote over. He was a ‘study-aholic’ and dedicated himself primarily to his school work and the work he did after school. He hardly had time for anyone else, and that included me. I longed so much for those days when he would mess around with me or punch me or beat me and deny it to my parents when I complained. We had both grown up from those days and somehow I feel as I grew older I began to lose my older brother. My first date was, in actuality, to be a movie and dinner with an extraordinarily intelligent and mildly beautiful young girl with whom I went to school. This date, however, also represented a chance for me to spend some needed time with my brother, even if it was to be only a few hours. I feigned annoyance when my parents insisted he had to accompany. Being the kind of son that he is he, of course, did not complain. He was all too willing to do as my parents requested and I was all to happy that he didn’t have better things to do that evening than spend some time chaperoning his younger brother. I hadn’t spent more than an hour with my brother since he started on his new part-time job with the same company my dad worked. He also did odd jobs around the neighborhood. I hadn’t heard the full conversation but I caught on that he and my parents had discussed his college education and they had stressed how difficult it would be to finance his studies immediately after he completes high school. He, however, was insistent that he needs to get into pre-med right away and thus took on the challenge to earn as much as he could to allay the cost burden on my parents. I’ve always admired his diligence and this in addition to the fact that he was MY big brother and no one else’s, set him apart from all other older brothers. Francis left early that morning to go to work. My dad always joked that he would soon take over his position because he was always so eager and on the ball. I had wanted his opinion on what to wear but it was too late when I got up and I felt a bit disappointed. Nevertheless this didn’t throw me off at all because I knew that at five o’clock he would be home with enough time to change and get dressed and then we would be on our way to meet the two sisters a short walking distance from our own home. That walk, with my brother, at six-thirty that evening, on that cloudless Saturday evening, was the highlight of my evening and is the memory I most treasure in my reflections of that evening. While we were walking towards the house he ruffled my hair with his fingers, the way he usually did and almost threw me off the sidewalk with a slap on my back. We romped, just like in the old days, for the full fifteen minutes it took us to arrive at their front door and at that time I found the brother I hadn’t seen in a long while. We didn’t have a particularly spectacular time with the girls. It was just like a normal date I guess. Susan was alright and so was her sister. They both seemed quite enthused to be out of the dreariness of their home for a change. We chatted about any and everything. Of course some times I brought up some silly ideas and my brother would hunch me in the side with his elbows, or rub my forehead till it burned. It was in those moments that my mind would flash back to our younger days, when he, in his mischief, would do just the same. It felt like magic finally having my brother back and knowing that I was not in danger of losing him to the rest of the world. My first date, the date with my brother with whom I now share a peculiarly close friendship was indeed, a marvelous experience.

Trump administration - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1350 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/03/27 Category Politics Essay Level High school Topics: Donald Trump Essay Did you like this example? On January 20, 2017, president-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into the highest office in the land regardless of the amount of preparation the country or even he himself has. There has been a variety of feelings Republicans have felt towards the president elect, but for Democrats, they are disappointed and angry. One of the things that both sides have in common, is they fear Trump is not adequate or mentally stable to be President of the United States. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Trump administration" essay for you Create order His behavior is erratic and unpredictable compared to any other Republican candidate that might have been elected president. His inconsistencies of his statements lead to confusion and even more confusion when they are confirmed by his staff. His statements about illegal immigration and Obamacare leaves many wondering what his stance on these issues really are. This only shows how his attitude and mannerisms can lead to destruction and chaos. The uncertainties and not knowing can cause fear of established treaties being done away with, in turn, leading to stagnation of investments in the private sector. Threats of a trade war are scaring American exporters. (Reese 2). One example of the effect a trade war can have on American exporters, is the tariffs that can be imposed on Chinese exports. China could retaliate with their own tariffs, and thus affect Iowa and Ohio imports into their own country. These are agricultural states that are highly dependent on development in other countries. Since this is an economic issue, it will certainly get the attention of the Republican establishment. (Reese 2). Another thing is, our allies in Europe will be uncertain on how to proceed and may misunderstand Trumps stances through his statements or tweets. His behavior could cause discrepancies and communication gaps in how he leads and what his goals are. Our allies would most likely leave us alone and America would become isolated and g arner no support for a military endeavor. This is a prediction of what can happen with a Trump White House, while the Democrats just watch it come apart and be doomed. However, Donald Trump still has rules and responsibilities to follow. There are still powers to be submitted to and a government to run. His rhetoric can be one thing, but he would need to translate that into legislation. Then time will tell how the Trump administration will deliver. Republicans on one side are putting their faith in some establishment White House officials to bring order to the chaos, even though there are varying in the mix from Trumps family to establishment Republicans. So, it will be difficult to tell who Trump will give an ear to, who will bring order to his chaos, and who hell ultimately get his advice from? Now if Trump is incompetent in the role of President of the United States, his chosen White House Officials will have to step in and be the ones who bring the change and work with Congress. If the Trump Administration cannot get things done, the next hope for the Republican establishment is the Republican Congress. Congress would need to be the ones to create and establish new policies. While Trump is doing all the media coverage for the policies that are passed, the White House officials or Congress are the ones who will be doing the real work behind the scenes. This probability is based on the presumption that Trump would be willing to be monitored while the establishment does its own thing. This is highly unlikely due to terrible record of Republicans trying to reign Trump in. So, disorder and chaos is to be expected. Especially because it is a norm in a Republican administration, since they are against government interference, deregulation, instead of working on applicable govern ment programs like a Democrat administration would do. But Trump could be underestimated and bring surprise, just like Reagan and Nixon did. If Trump comes through by draining the establishment in Washington and big banks, that would be shocking. Critics and experts may be in for another surprise, as they have been mistaken in other areas regarding Trump and his administration. Will he complete his promises, or will he ultimately fail? Will there be chaos or success? That all remains to be seen. But whatever happens, hes coming whether were ready or not. The article, Trump: Here He Comes, Ready or Not, is more of an editorial piece to me. This opinion piece seems to be to be biased on a democrats point of view and what someone assumes can happen in the Trump Presidency. The theme of the article is how chaotic and unorderly the Trump administration will be. Even though his outbursts, occasional vulgarity, and not always saying the right thing is an issue, it does not disqualify his potential of being a good president. I believe the American people, those on the Republican side wanted someone who wasnt part of the establishment, wasnt a smooth talker, but a fighter, someone who made them hope again. The argument or prediction that moved me the most was regarding the trade war with China. Trump has kept his promise and is imposing tariffs on China, while they are reacting with tariffs on us as well. These are causing problems for Iowa and Ohio now, and even though it is hurting them now, it can either have the possibility of being short term or long term for them while Trump is trying to resolve fair trade deals with China. So, this article has given me something to think about and research how this trade war is affecting these agricultural states. An alternative to this issue is somehow, numbers and stats would need to be shown to see if this trade war would actually benefit in the long run. Would the future net income make up for the net loss? I would have liked to have read specifically how this would have affected them. Since I do not know much about this issue, I like to see both sides before I can make a conclusion. Since this article has been written, many people can say that not much has been done by this administration. With illegal immigration, there has been uproars to his enforcement of the law, and regard to our European allies, they know we are not to be pushed or underhanded in trade. His trade wars that are going on, many people disagree with, but he just formed a new treaty to rid of NAFTA and ins tead going with USMCA. So far, what I have seen is his success and not chaos. I believe he is getting things done. Political power- the ability to get things done by controlling or influencing the institutions of government, (Losco 5). Political power comes into play when the influential and powerful leaders in America have the ability to get things done. In the article, it was expressed Trump was going to have the position to implement his policies, but not be the driving force of it. His administration was to be chaotic and messy. Yes, he was getting the political power, but that was not exactly the question this article posed but what will be done with that influence? Political culture- the dominant values and beliefs of a political community, (Losco 138). The political culture of viewing a Republican administration to be chaotic varies from person to person. Just how viewing a Democratic administration is productive. These political cultures seep into our lives and guide us to viewpoints that can dominate our speech and even writing, as I have an the writer of the article. Political informati on- a measure of the amount of political knowledge an individual possesses concerning political issues, political figures, and the workings of the political system, (Losco 169). Political information is very important and is helpful to others making decisions and leaning towards a certain political issue. This can apply in section 2, where I felt there was not enough political information to make a solid decision on trade. I could feel intimidated and forget about participating in politics, but as a American citizen, I am now seeking to do my civic duty and be informed.