Organisation and management coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organisation and management coursework - Essay Example The term hierarchical control defines the control which moves down from the top management’s control over to the bottom line workers of the company. There are several management levels which are decided and organized in order to create a more comprehensible organizational structure. Managers at each management level have control over the employees who are working directly under their surveillance. Organizations normally design organizational charts to show the structure of the organization, levels of management and easy structure of the employees working under the control of each manager (Reyazuddin 2010; Stokes 2002; Sisk 1973). Hierarchal Control Businesses are aimed to maximize the wealth of the shareholders. To pursue this goal the business activities are divided and the control is also spitted up to ensure that the work performance at each level of management is up to the standards. The hierarchical control enable the organization to improve the efficiency of the business ’s overall performance as the manager at each level of management is responsible and answerable for the performance of his division or workers working under his control. In order to improve his/her performance, managers put their best efforts to improve the work efficiency and quality at their level. Their efforts may be biased and may be aimed at the achievement of their personal interests but the result of those efforts, normally, helps in improving the business’s efficiency. Hence, we may say that hierarchical control helps organizations in achieving their major aim of maximizing profits i.e. by improving efficiency and quality of work. Hierarchical control provides the basis of coordination between employees. A number of people are involved in the running of the business. There is a need to control the operations of the business and control the operating activities that are performed by different individuals. The hierarchical control helps in identifying the place, position and responsibilities of each individual. The hierarchical chart provides the basic understanding of who is responsible for a particular work and to whom is that individual accountable. Hierarchical control plays a vital role in keeping the organization knitted and its operations controlled. The hierarchical management is provided fixed tasks and targets at each level. The work of one department, normally, does not interrupt the work of the other. The organizations operations are, hence, carried out more effectively. However, lack of communication in such organizational structures may end up creating difficulties at each level. The over/under production by one department may end up creating confusing and problematic situations for the other and so on (Stokes 2002). Hierarchical Control requires the managers to analyze and influence the performance of the employees working under their control. In order to improve the performance of their division or sector, managers tend to rely extensively on reward systems, motivational techniques, delegation of authority, exhaustive rules and policies and other attractive offers for the employees to improve their work quality. These offers and schemes are sometimes beneficial for the organizations in the short run. However, such schemes bring more benefit for the manager who is responsible for a particular task or division. His immediate attention and offers motivate the workers to perform their task efficiently and as accurately as the manager requires.

Phil 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Phil 3 - Essay Example This idea was suggested by the representatives of positivism, namely Ludwig Wittgenstein, who stated that things and events in a certain life can have meaning but life itself is meaningless. Simply stated, such context implies that the life of a person has certain meaning for itself and for others in the shape of events happening within it and the results of this very life embodied by achievements, heritage and ancestors. This theory, to my mind, has reason, as it is rather fare to define meaningfulness of a person’s life based on the actions and achievements. I think that the meaning of life based on such theory could be estimated both in positive and negative way: for instance, a person who devotes his or her life to crimes and destruction also therefore grants the meaning to it – evil proves to be the meaning of life, but it actually exists, even such life is meaningful. On the other hand, there are people whose lives acquire meaning through positive actions and even ts (at least, the positive dominates). For the second type we could provide two movies as an example. They are Amelie and Ikiru. The first one is Amelie, the French movie telling the life story of a girl working as a waitress and living in modern Paris. Amelie felt that something important was about to happen in her life, that’s why, being encouraged and inspired by this premonition, she gladly helped people to add joy and color to their lives. Once she found toys in the cache of her bathroom, they belonged to a â€Å"boy† who used to live in that apartment in 1950s – she found him and brought the toys back to him (he was already an elderly man). There were many things she did for others like writing a love letter to a neighbor on behalf of her husband, readjusting the alarm clock of a wicked greengrocer, substitution of shoes and toothpaste etc. Amelie lives with an open heart ready to lend a helping hand, to give

Image Quality Assessment Techniques Using Gabor Filters

Image Quality Assessment Techniques Using Gabor Filters A SURVEY ON IMAGE QUALITY ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES USING GABOR FILTERS Deepa Maria Thomas, S. John Livingson (DEEPA MARIA THOMAS, ROOM NO 303, DMR RESIDENCE, KARUNYA LADIES HOSTEL, KARUNYA UNIVERSITY, COIMBATORE-641114) Abstract-Image quality assessment has a very important role, especially because the impact that the quality of images have on a viewer is significant. This makes it important that visual information is assessed for quality every now and then. Images can be distorted with different types of irregularities like noise, blur etc. No- reference image quality assessment methods does not need a reference image for assessment, this is particularly helpful when there is no reference image available. Gabor filters are efficient is assessing image quality because their frequency and orientation representations is very similar to the human visual system. This is why Gabor filters are used in feature extraction , target detection as well as texture segmentation. This paper is a survey of some of the no- reference image quality assessment methods that make use of Gabor filters in their quality assessment methodology wither for feature extraction or texture analysis. Key wordsimage quality assessment, Gabor filter, no reference quality assessment. INTRODUCTION Images of good quality have come to be of great importance in our day to day life. Statistics suggest that an average person comes across 400 to 600 advertisements in a day. Pictures form a major portion of advertisements. Advertisement is just one area that makes use of images. There are a lot of image quality assessment techniques available today. No-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA) is one of the types in which the quality is estimated without the use of any reference image, whereas full reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) make use of a reference image for quality assessment. Gabor filter is generally used for edge detection and it has the advantage that the frequency and orientation representations are very similar to the human visual system. Or in other words, the image analysis by Gabor functions is similar to the human perception. A set of Gabor filters with different frequencies and orientations are also useful for extracting useful features from an image. GABOR FILTERS IN FEATURE EXTRACTION Use of Gabor filter is motivated by the fact that they are optimal in time and frequency. In addition these filters can approximate the visual cortex of some mammals as described in [1]. This is why Gabor filters are used in many applications like target detection, image segmentation etc.. Figure 1: Two dimensional Gabor filter Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabor_filter NR-IQA USING GABOR FILTERS No-reference image quality assessment is one of the types in which the quality is estimated without the use of any reference image, whereas full- reference techniques make use of a reference image for quality assessment. Described below are two no- reference image quality assessment techniques using Gabor filters. NR-IQA USING VISUAL CODEBOOK (CBIQ) The first step of this method [2] is codebook construction. It is built by dividing an image into BxB patches. All the constant patches are removed, for the rest of the patches Gabor feature vectors are computed. This is repeated for all the training images. Using this set, with a clustering algorithm the codebook is created. The input image is represented by the distribution of codewords from the codebook. The number of times the codeword is found and each time a nearest neighbor is found, the count is increased by one. If the distance between the vector of the feature and the nearest neighbor is larger than a predefined threshold, then it is considered as an outlier. In a case where a large number of outliers are encountered, then there might be some type of distortion which was not encountered in the training set. This image quality assessment technique is represented as CBIQ (Codebook Image Quality).The quality metric is Qm(I) and is given by, Qm(I)= where, H1(i) is the probability of the occurrence of the code words DMOS(C(i)) is the Differential Mean Opinion Scores of the codewords. NR-IQA BASED ON VISUAL SALIENCY GUIDED SAMPLING (IQVG) This method [3] is a no-reference image quality assessment method based on visual saliency. Visual saliency is what grabs our attention and it makes some parts of the image stand out from the rest. In this method firstly, a sufficient number of patches are sampled for which the mean saliency is greater than the threshold. Next, feature extraction is done by convolving each patch with Gabor filters. Using histograms the features are encoded, this gives an image representation. Using regression methods such as SVR the model can be trained. Finally, the quality of the test image is predicted automatically with a trained model. FR-IQA USING GABOR FILTERS The full reference method of image quality assessment is different from the no reference methods in that it does not make use of a reference image for quality assessment. Described below are two full reference image quality assessment techniques using Gabor filters. FR-IQA USING FEATURE SIMILARITY INDEX (FSIM) In this method [4] firstly, two image extractions are made namely, phase congruence (PC) and gradient magnitude (GM). PC is contrast invariant, this implies that the variations in quality due to contrast differences are not identified by PC. As a result of this, the GM needs to be extracted using gradient operators like Prewitt operator, Sobel operator and Scharr operator. Once the PC and GM are extracted for the reference image and the distorted image, FSIM can be computed to measure the similarity between the two images. The FSM can be calculated by combining similarity measure between images for both PC and GM given by where, is the similarity measurement of PC is the similarity measurement of GM and are positive real numbers The combined similarity is given by = . where, ÃŽ ± and ÃŽ ² are parameters to adjust their relative weightage or importance. Finally, the FSIM measure is given as below FSIM= where, FR-IQA USING PERCEPTUAL METHOD (MIGF) One of the features necessary for good IQA is that it should be consistent with the subjective judgment of humans on the image. In this method [5] first, the features are extracted using a two dimensional Gabor filter which acts as a local band-pass filter with optimal localization properties. Next, divisive normalization transform (DNTF) is performed where the linear transform coefficient is normalized by the energy of a cluster of neighboring coefficients. This reduces the higher order dependencies in the extracted Gabor features. Next, the visual energy information (VEI) for each scale and orientation is given by where, ÃŽ » is the scale, ÃŽ ¸ is the orientation is real part of DNTF is the imaginary part of DNTF Once the VEI is calculated, the mutual information (MI) can be calculated as the difference between the VEI obtained from the reference image and distorted image. MI can be calculated using marginal probability distribution and joint probability distribution. The quality score is as described below Score= where, and denote the VEI of the reference image and distorted image respectively at scale i and orientation ÃŽ ¸. COMPARISON OF IQA TECHNIQUES: The table below shows a comparison between the four techniques described above. It describes the merits and demerits of the four IQA methods. TABLE – 1 COMPARISON TABLE CONCLUSIONS This work provides the comparative study of some of the IQA methods in image processing. The algorithms that were considered were both no – reference and full reference algorithms. All the IQA methods discussed here make use of Gabor filters in one way or another. This paper highlights importance of Gabor Filters in image quality assessment. REFERENCES: [1] Anjali G. (2012), â€Å"For image enhancement and segmentation by using evaluation of Gabor filter parameters.† IJATER, 2, 46-56. [2] Peng Y. and David D. (2014), â€Å"No- reference image quality assessment based on visual codebook.† Feature Similarity Index for Image Quality Assessment.† IEEE Trans. IP, 21, 3129-3138. [3] Zhongyi G., Lin Z. and Hongyu L., (2013),â€Å"Learning a bling image quality index based on visual saliency guided sampling and Gabor filtering.† ICIP, 186-190. [4] Lin Z. and Xuanqin M., (2011), â€Å"FSIM: Feature Similarity Index for Image Quality Assessment .† IEEE Trans. IP, 20, 2378-2386 [5] Ding Y., Zhang Y., Wang X., Yan X. and Krylov A.S. (2014), â€Å"Perceptual image quality metric using mutual information of Gabor features.† Science China Information Sciences, 57,032111:1-032111:9.

Jim Henson: The Mind Behind the Muppets :: Puppetry The Muppets Jim Henson Essays

Jim Henson: The Mind Behind the Muppets "Sure, Jim the creator was a genius. Yet I see Jim foremost as an appreciator. He appreciated the Muppet family and his own family. He appreciated flying kites with his children. He appreciated beauty and he appreciated fun." -Frank Oz (Readers Digest, 126) There is no doubt in Frank Oz's mind that Jim Henson was a creative genius. According to the model of creativity proposed by Howard Gardner, Henson can be considered creative in five of the seven intelligences: interpersonal, spatial, music, verbal, kinesthetic. He became a master at combining these intelligences to create Muppet productions full of wit, music, sight gags, bright colors, and meaningful messages. He also had the ability to coordinate all of the people who worked with him. Before, discussing how Henson's life fits into Gardner's model, I will present some influential events in Henson's life and his major creative works. James Maury Henson was born September 2, 1936 in Leland, Mississippi as the second son in the Henson family. During his childhood, Jim's maternal grandmother, a prolific painter and master of needlework, encouraged Henson to appreciate imagination, visual imagery, and creativity. She was a steady emotional support for him, constantly listening to his adventures and dreams. When Jim was fourteen, his parents finally acquiesced and bought a television set, after years of badgering from Jim. He always knew that he wanted to work in television; watching Burr Tillstrom, Bil Baird, Ernie Kovac, Spike Jones, and Walt Kelly influenced him greatly during his adolescence. In 1954, while Jim was still in high school, he began working for WTOP television station doing puppet performances on the "Junior Good Morning Show". "It was interesting and kind of fun to do -- but I wasn't really interested in puppetry then. It was just a means to an end," Henson later recalled about his first job (Finch, 9). At the University of Maryland, he studied art and continued doing puppetry for TV with a fellow student, Jane Nebel, whom he later married. Their show, "Sam and Friends", debuted as a five minute piece aired twice a day, right before the Huntley-Brinkley Report and the Tonight Show. Jane recollected, "We were just college students amusing ourselves, and we did all these wild things with puppets...I guess it had a quality of abandon and nonsense and of being somewhat experimental." (Finch, 15) Their show became very popular, partly because of its widely-viewed time slots, and it won a local Emmy in 1958.

Persuasion Theory Essay

One of the most deeply-debated, and researched, models of persuasion is the ELM (Elaboration Likelihood Model). Developed by Petty and Cacioppo (1981 to 1986). Based on cognitive processes, it â€Å"portrays receivers as active participants in the persuasion process. Receivers produce cognitions (thoughts, elaborations) in response to the stimulus of persuasive discourse† (Stephenson; Benoit; Tschida; 2001). Petty and Cacioppo argue there are two â€Å"routes† to persuasion: central and peripheral. The central route to persuasion consists of thoughtful consideration of the arguments (ideas, content) in the message, and occurs only when a receiver possesses both the motivation and ability to think about the message and topic. The peripheral route occurs when the receiver lacks ability and/or motivation to engage in much thought on the issue. Using the peripheral route, the listener decides whether to agree with the message based on other cues besides the strength of the arguments in the message, such as whether the source is credible or attractive, the number (but not the quality) of arguments in the message, or length of the message. † Petty and Cacioppo argue that subjects produce more favorable cognitive responses to messages with strong than weak arguments. Mitigating factors include source credibility, the state of the recipient’s thinking when the message is received, and method and medium used to deliver the message (i. e. , verbal or written; print or electronic), There is a considerable body of work, both pro and against the ELM. However, from the literature it seems we are once again left with the thought that the processes involved have yet to be rigorously tested as they relate to communication theory, let alone their effect on the Domino Model. â€Å"There have been relatively few rigorous tests of this assumption via path analysis or structural equation modeling† (Stephenson, Benoit, Tschida). American graphic designer Katherine McCoy suggests that persuasion might be considered more than just trying to convince an audience of the sender’s intention â€Å"The receiver’s motivation might also be an important factor. We know persuasion is necessary for distracted, unmotivated users. But it can also increase productivity for motivated users, for instance, through the use of prompts and cues for accurate use of spreadsheet software. In product design, persuasion/seduction can clarify operation sequences for smart products and enrich the user’s product experience. Persuasion provides motivation for those unmotivated through disinterest, unfamiliarity with the content, or lack of competence for a software tool or a product’s operation. There is a complex interaction between the sender’s intentions, message content, the audience/receiver’s motivations and the communications context. Here, the receiver’s motivation is paramount† (McCoy, 2000). But how accurately can we predict motivation? An airport monitor would seem to be purely informational. A traveler hurrying to catch a plane is highly motivated and will make full use of the flight monitor – no need to persuade this audience member. But when a driver in a hurry encounters a stop sign, that driver has a low motivation level. Although the content is informational, the driver may ignore it, making only a rolling stop. Thirdly, what happens when a junk food enthusiast encounters a food package with nutritional information? This audience member has low motivation and probably ignores message content completely. † In order to achieve persuasion, an audience has to be motivated; to want to absorb knowledge, change attitude and, in turn, have their behaviour affected. The American Marketing Association found that after a study of the major persuasion theories â€Å"to date, no single theory or framework that has been developed has been able to account for all the varied and sometimes conflicting persuasion findings. â€Å"Presumably, this is because the complex process of persuasion is intricately dependent on a myriad of contextual, situational, and individual difference factors, whereas the theories remain relatively simplistic and narrowly developed. The inability of existing theories to accommodate all persuasion findings need not suggest, however, that these theories are inaccurate. Rather, these theories simply may represent pieces of persuasion processes that operate in certain conditions that are not always clearly specified†. (Meyers-Levy, 2001). For good measure, highlighting the difficult nature of this area of study, the Association added an additional strategy that people are likely to employ in processing information. a third fundamental processing strategy in response to an advertisement, referred to as an â€Å"experiential processing strategy. where â€Å"judgments are not based on thoughts prompted by message content per se but rather on sensations or feelings prompted by the very act of processing† (cited in Strack, 1992). The Domino model is certainly simplistic, as it assumes that attitudes, and then behaviour, will be altered after information is provided. However, it doesn’t recognise that attitudes are formed early in our development and are inherently difficult to change (why is it that drink-driving, anti-smoking and domestic violence programs don’t seem to work? ). So it can’t be assumed that all people will change their attitudes just because they receive information. In fact, many people may not even receive knowledge from the initial message, particularly if they already have heard the message. Given the number of persuasion theories (and they are just that: theories) it is difficult to judge with any certainty their effect on the Domino model. The simplicity of the Domino Model is probably a result of the fact that public relations is, for the most part, an inexact science – a practice that relies on the foibles of human nature. It also flawed in that what applies to a target group, does not necessarily apply to all individuals in that group. Clearly, more quantifiable research is required before either the Domino Model, or any persuasion theory can be considered exact. In fact â€Å"to date, no single theory or framework that has been developed has been able to account for all the varied and sometimes conflicting persuasion findings. Presumably, this is because the complex process of persuasion is intricately dependent on a myriad of contextual, situational, and individual difference factors, whereas the theories remain relatively simplistic and narrowly developed† (Meyers-Levy, 1999). As Carl Hovland stated: â€Å"to change attitude you have to change opinion. That requires communication†. Whether any of the above theories affect the Domino model remain to be truly tested.

Ateneo Entrance Exam Essay Essay

â€Å"I am pretty unextraordinary.† – Hazel Grace Lancaster (The Fault in Our Stars by John Green) This little line from one of my favorite books helped me start my journey of self-discovery. Before, I really did consider myself as someone very unextraordinary. To the world, I’m just an average girl that nobody will ever notice. Maybe I never will be noticed in an extraordinary way, but I’m determined to make my mark. But first things first, I had to discover myself and define who I really am. My first moment of self-discovery began, actually, when I first developed my love for books. And that moment happened way, way back when I was still a young child. Nothing made me happier than going to National, Power Books or Fully Booked to go see what new storybook, magazine or novel was available. To this day going book shopping, an activity most people my age would find as agonizingly boring, is an opportunity to expand my knowledge and vocabulary. The only thin g I need to improve on right now is, admittedly, my book choices. My Dad constantly reminds me to move onto more young adult publications and cut back on the children’s novels. Books are my first great love. Through them, I can go on fantastic adventures that become almost real in my imagination. I also relate to the characters in terms of their personalities and the things they do in the story. From the protagonist, antagonist and all the other characters in between, I can find someone or even something I can relate to in a book. My current favorite books are The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, where I have learned a great many deal of new words such as hamartia, toroidal, prototypical, narcissistic, bacchanalia and so many other terms that were once too sophisticated for me to understand until I looked them up in the dictionary. The Fault in Our Stars is a heartwarming and yet also heartbreaking love story of two young cancer-stricken teenagers who find their own little infinity together within their limited number of days. I’d tell you more but I wouldn’t want to spoil the entire novel. Second in my favorites list would have to be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Here, I saw World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust through a young girl like myself, who was unable to read and write until she was given to a foster family in Germany. Liesel Meminger then later befriends Max Vandenburg, a Jewish man who hides in her family’s  basement to escape the Nazis. Again, I will not spoil this great work and you will have to read it yourself. This book really strikes me as something that can really make us all question our humanity. As almost all of us know, the Holocaust in World War II was the most horrifying genocide in the entire world. Millions of men, women and children all executed just because of their religion. If you ask me, Adolf Hitler must have been both insane and blind. Did he not know that in World War I, approximately 96,000 Jewish soldiers fought for Germany? It pains me to think that Hitler did not remember that. The Book Thief is most definitely one of those war novels that will have you questioning mankind’s humanity. As for a favorite book series, I would have to say that the How to Train Your Dragon series by British author Cressida Cowell. I admit, it’s a children’s book s series but I really enjoy reading the books. The series is funny, compelling and the books have helped me fine tune my imagination. In fact, this beloved series has been turned into two films and a TV show. But I’ll tell you all about it later. Indeed, through reading books of all kinds I have discovered things about myself I didn’t even know were there. I discovered that I have a talent for writing and storytelling. And I have grown to love these two hobbies, which I hope that I can turn into a job by becoming a writer or a journalist when I grow up. Aside from reading, I have also experienced being in academic contests in my school where I have begun to define myself as an intellectual. One of those contests is the Essay Writing Contest the school has every year. I never really win any prizes for my compositions but it’s always so much fun to compete. Through essay writing contests, my writing ability is steadily honed and constantly improved with every essay I write. So part of my journey of self-discovery has been accomplished through the means of books and writing. The other part is, hon estly, what I’ve been recently obsessing about. â€Å"Everything we know about you guys†¦is wrong!† – Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon Movie) That line from an animated movie by DreamWorks Animation has always been embedded in my memory. The first part of this essay focused on my love for books and how reading and writing have helped me discover who I am in terms of what I can do in this world. This part will now focus on who I truly am as a person. How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 animated film directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders under DreamWorks Animation. Its story revolves around a  young Viking teenager named Hiccup (Yeah, I know. The name is pretty unusual.) who lives in the fictional dragon fighting island of Berk. In Berk, fighting dragons is as necessary as breathing air to live. However, Hiccup is the runt of the village and is physically unable to fight dragons and cannot live up to his father’s expectations. Incidentally, his father, Stoick the Vast, is the tribe chief. But when Hiccup creates an invention that shoots down an ultra rare dragon species known as the Night Fury and attempts to sl ay it, the young Viking then finds himself unable to do so. This then leads to him freeing it and establishing a forbidden friendship with the dragon, whom he names Toothless. In Hiccup’s world, befriending a dragon is the highest act of treason. And yet in the end, Hiccup and Toothless’ amazingly strong bond enables them to change the relationship between the dragons and Vikings of Berk. Yes, it is an animated movie. But it is not strictly for kids only. I had a real moment of self-discovery and self-definition when I watched this at my best friend’s recommendation. And I was immediately awestruck by the movie on so many levels. The detail on the animation was superb, the lighting was perfect, the music score was just phenomenally beautiful. But what really touched my heart was the story. I really relate to Hiccup. He is left-handed, physically not in the best of shape, intelligent and extremely different from the rest of his peers. I, myself, am also left-handed, physically weak, mentally strong and†¦different. I often look at my friends and other people and I can’t help but sometimes feel that I’m just too different. I don’t like all the things everyone else likes and sometimes I don’t even understand current trends and stick to the things I know. Like Hiccup, I am different. And also like Hiccup, I have embraced my difference. Thanks to this film (and its TV series and sequel) I have figured out who I am as a person. Everyone discovers a new trend and they all go along with it. Sometimes I do that but I’m more comfortable staying in my comfort zone. And when someone tries to change me, I steadfastly refuse to do so. I am an individual. And I am proud of it. I’m different from everyone else and that’s okay. Truth be told, we’re all different. We’re just scared to show the world our individualities. That’s  why I try hard to stay true to myself and make sure nobody and nothing turns me into something I am not. But I also remind myself to keep an open mind and broaden my horizons. When I experience new things, it helps me discover more interesting characteristics that help define myself as a person. And that’s exactly what Hiccup does. He accepts his individuality and tries to do things nobody has ever tried before. Throughout the film, TV series and sequel, Hiccup stayed true to himself and didn’t allow anyone to change him. If you must know, I have recently watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 and had another great moment of realization. In the second film, Hiccup is now a young adult and is currently trying to find himself. This is exactly what I’m doing right now, even as I write this. I apologize if this essay may seem haphazardly constructed. I must admit, my writing style does tend to confuse some people. But that’s essentially how I have defined myself as a person, through books, writing and dragons. And to tell you the truth, self-discovery and defining yourself as a person never stops. As the years go by, you will have more experiences, more moments that help you realize that there’s more to you than meets the eye. For me, I’m still pretty young so I still have a long way to go until I can complete my personal definition. In case some of you may not fully know me yet, allow me to tell you once again who I am. I am an individual with a love for writing, making stories, reading books, obsessed with dragons. And basically, I am different. And I am proud to be different.

Airline Consumer Engagement Marketing Essay The WritePass Journal

Airline Consumer Engagement Marketing Essay Airline Consumer Engagement Marketing Essay Airline Consumer Engagement Marketing Essay ). Other steps involve customer development and retention (Bijmolt et al. 2010). The processes aim at attracting loyalty to the services of airline companies by engaging in vigorous campaigns of the same. In general, airline companies engage consumers through a process that begins from a careful selection of the same and ends at retention. They also engage consumers through carefully planned advertisement techniques (Bijmolt et al. 2010). Consumer Decision-Making Process Making a decision involves engaging in a process that would help decide the right course of action in a situation with more than one alternative. Young (2010) people develop risk-benefit frameworks in most situations to analyze the options that are present. An individual would want to make decisions that impact positively on his or her life. The outcomes of situations depend on the nature of decisions that individuals make. Decision-making processes also apply in situations where consumers need to choose between products and services. The airline industry has several companies that offer same or similar services. The theories that explain decision-making processes include cognitive dissonance, consistency theory, commitment, certainty effect, choice-supportive bias, confirmation bias, the scarcity principle, and reasoned action theory (Young 2010). Cognitive dissonance theory maintains that individuals always seek to minimize the extent of discomfort in contradicting situations (Young 2010). According to the theory, individuals experience discomfort due to the conflicting ideas in their minds (Cooper 2007). It explains that an individual in such a situation is likely to take the easy option of eliminating the source of discomfort (Young 2010). Cognitive dissonance affects how consumers process information in relation to various products and services. Individuals will always have ideas that conflict with their pre-conceived perceptions about certain companies. The diversity in ideas results from the emerging trends, the shifting needs and social circles (Young 2010). In social circles, everyone tends to defend what they believe to avoid the uncomfortable situations. For instance, an individual may experience cognitive dissonance when he receives a message that contradicts the value that he attaches to an airline company (Cooper 2007). A friend may try to convince him that there is another company that offers better services than the company he has been using. Marketers may use the concepts of this theory to present consistent information when engaging consumers. Consistency theory asserts that lack of constancy in the relationship between beliefs and actions evoke uncomfortable feelings in individuals (Little-John Foss 2008). It affirms that people wish to engage in acts that are consistent with their belief and cultural system. The discordance in the relationship between the belief system and actions evoke uncomfortable feelings. An individual in such a circumstance is likely to change the belief and value system to accommodate the emerging trends. Human beings have predetermined belief and value systems that they use to evaluate decisions before making them. In other words, the choice that people make should always be consistent with what they perceive as right or wrong (Little-John Foss 2008). Any slight variation between the belief system and the course of action evokes the feelings of discomfort in individuals. The consistency theory explains why some people are particular about the flight attendants who serve them in an airplane. The theory may not find much application in customer engagement compared to cognitive dissonance theory. Most processes engaged in the provision of airline services do not contradict the belief systems of individuals. The theory of certainty result discusses how probabilities of outcomes influence the behavior of individuals (Secchi 2011). The theory maintains that people tend to develop less interest in situations which present low probability outcome of the desired results (Loughran et al. 2012). Similarly, an individual will develop more interest in a situation if the probability of achieving the desired results is high (Secchi 2011). Individuals make choices on the basis of the probability of the outcome of the situation. They perceive outcomes based on their past experiences or the experiences of other people. For instance, engaging consumers through social media provides a platform that consumers may use to present their feedbacks. Some of the feedbacks can be critical of a company’s operations. If so many people acknowledge the efficiency in operation of an airline company, then people are more to likely seek the same services. In other words, people want to get a hint of what would happen if they were to make a particular decision. The behaviour pattern is driven by the need to eliminate the negative feelings that come from disappointments. People have various expectations regarding how they want the outcomes of various situations to become (Loughran et al. 2012). Most airline companies use influential personalities in advertisements to create an impression of better past experiences. The personalities convince potential consumers that the services of the company were better. The aim of the advertisements is to influence consumers to develop positive opinions regarding the services of the company. Maximization utility theory predicts that human beings behave as if they were economists and were business-minded. It asserts that an individual is likely to make a choice of a product that offers the greatest value for the least amount of money possible (Kahneman Thaler 2006). In extreme circumstances, the costs of products and services are more likely to influence the purchasing behaviour of individuals even if the quality is compromised. Inadequate resources influence this type of a decision-making process (Kahneman Thaler 2006). In normal circumstances, people will want high-quality result for fewer inputs. It explains why people like to bargain when purchasing products and services. In the airline industry, people tend to go for companies that offer quality services at affordable rates. It can be argued that the understanding of this theory also affects the pricing strategies of various airline companies (Kahneman Thaler 2006). For instance, most airline companies have differ ent classes of passengers; first class, second class and third class. The first-class passengers can afford high charges for the highest quality of service. The low-class passengers are the people who wish to use airline services, but are discouraged by the high charges. Choice-supportive bias theory explains that most people twist their memories to convince the present result that the decisions they made were the best (Ross 2009). The theory asserts that most people manipulate their memories to prevent the feelings of disappointment that the result presents. The case happens in situations where an individual has to take an early stand in the matter that involves multiple options. Individuals will always want to remember less negative things about situations that happened (Ross, 2009). In a business environment, the choice –supportive bias theory occurs for consumers who have used a particular product or service for a long time. Such consumers will always talk negatively about other products or services. It is an advanced level of brand loyalty that results from effective consumer engagement strategies. Various companies understand that subjecting prospective customers through effective and consistent consumer engagement sessions influences th e way they perceive the services. Consumers would continue to stick even if their services were relatively poor compared other companies (Ross, 2009). The principle of scarcity affirms that individuals are more likely to go for services and products that are scarce in the market, especially if the demand is high. Individuals tend to associate scarcity of products and services with quality. The notion is that the services or products could be scarce because several people went for them (Siebert 2008). If many people went for them then, they must have been impressive. The abundant supply of a particular service or product may create the impression that it is less desired by people (Siebert 2008). Most people analyze situations to ascertain the behaviours of others towards various products or services (Siebert 2008). The aim is to avoid first-hand experience of disappointing results. Airline companies understand this principle and use it to increase the consumption of their services. They create a demand crisis then offer limited opportunities for utilization of their services. The strategy encourages people to book flights in advance to avoid a last minute rush. The reasoned action theory explains that individuals engage in certain actions because they planned to do so (Tanachart Islam 2010). It also explains that the intention originates from his or her attitude towards that behavior (Tanachart Islam 2010). In this context, the intention serves as the basis for prediction of a behavior pattern. Beliefs and values influence the formation of attitudes regarding certain patterns of behavior (Smith Biddle 2008). Understanding people’s beliefs system is important in understanding their attitudes. Understanding attitudes helps in predicting what an individual plans to do in a circumstance. An individual is more likely to engage in a particular action if he or she believes that it is the right thing to do in the circumstance. What other people think of the choice plays a central role in influencing the actions of the individual. The theory recognizes that there are factors that limit the influence of people’s intentions towards en gaging in a particular behavior (Smith Biddle 2008). For instance, the airline companies are aware that many people wish to use their services but are incapacitated by the lack of financial resources. The understanding has compelled the airline companies to develop different classes of service; high class, middle class and the low class. Cognitive dissonance theory, maximization utility, the reasoned action and the theory of certainty provide realistic concepts for predicting the behavior of consumers. Companies are more likely to use them in designing and implementing consumer engagement strategies. Conclusion Companies in the airline industry engage consumers through an integrated marketing approach. The approach is influenced by the diversified nature of the market. The engagement process begins from the selection stage and ends at retention of customers. There are various theories that explain how consumers make decisions regarding products or services. Such theories include cognitive dissonance, consistency theory, commitment, certainty effect, choice-supportive bias, confirmation bias, the scarcity principle, and reasoned action theory. References Ashworth, G. J., Kavaratzis, M., (2010). Towards effective place brand management: branding European cities and regions. Internet Resource. 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