Australian Consumer Law Essay

It also provides safety and information standarts, establishes liabilities of manufactures and products. The law is continuously developing in order to protect customers against unfair practices of manufactures. In the past the remedies for dissatisfied customers were stated only in the common law, which was unable to provide sufficient protection. However, on 1 January, 2011 The Australian Consumer Law commenced , which was a big movement towards the provision of adequate protection of customers. It is elaborate law and it is applicable nationally, in all states and territories and also to Australian businesses. The Australia Consumer Law now includes: * a new, national unfair contract terms law covering standard form contracts; * a new, national law guaranteeing consumer rights when buying goods and services, which replaces existing laws on conditions and warranties; * a new, national product safety law and enforcement system; * a new, national law for unsolicited consumer agreements, which replaces existing State and Territory laws on door-to-door sales and other direct marketing; * simple national rules for lay-by agreements; and new penalties, enforcement powers and consumer redress options, which currently apply nationally. www. consumerlaw. gov. au) A contract is an agreement which is made between two or more parties and it must be enforced legally. A contruct is concluded when an offer is made by one party to another one and the other party accepts it. There is no particular definition for a ‘standard form contract’, however, standard form contract is usually made by one party and is not the subject of discussion between two parties. They are normally used for supply of goods and services to consumers in various industries. The contract is considered to be unfair if its terms are treated as if they have never existed. Under the Competition and Consumer Act(2010), a ‘consumer contract’ is a contract for: >the supply of goods or services or > the sale or grant of an interest in land to an individual who acquires it wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household use or consumption. Under Sch 2, s. 24(1) of the Act and s. 12BG of the ASIC Act, states that a term of a consumer contract is unfair if it: >would cause a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations arising under the contract and gt; is not reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party who would be advantaged by the term and >would cause detriment (whether financial or otherwise) to a party if it were to be applied or relied on. All three limbs of the unfairness test must be proven, on the balance of probabilities, to exist for a court to decide that a term is unfair. The unfair contract terms laws for consumer goods and services are enforced by both Common wealth and state and territory consumer protection agencies. The courts determine whether the term of a contract is unfair and make decisions about the redress of loss or damage suffered by consumers. Sometimes tribunals can perform the same functions. In division 1 of Part 3-2 of the Australian Consumer Law can be found the rights of the consumer to guarantees, which are provided by manufactures and supplies about their goods and services. All goods must be of an acceptable quality which means that they are fit for a particular purpose for which they are supposed to be used, their appearance is good, they are without any defects and also safe and durable. The suppliers must fix the problems in goods if they do not meet a consumer guarantee even in case when there is no extended warranty or if the warranty has expired. Suppliers are also responsible for all promises made to consumers. â€Å"Express warranties† are often given by suppliers or manufactures, which means that they make additional promises about quality, characteristics, state and condition of their goods. For example, a supplier may tell the customer that the chair will last for 5 years, and that will mean that he/she guarantees that this good will satisfy this warranty. If this chair fails to meet consumers guarantee, then the consumer will have the right for a remedy. There exists another warranty which is called â€Å"warranty against defects†, which means that suppliers and manufactures guarantee that any defects in the product they provide will not appear during a particular period of time, otherwise they will be responsible for either its repair or replacement. A warranty against defects must be done in a written form. Also consumers can get any compensation, which will cover their loss. The explanation and codification of a more exact guarantee of â€Å"acceptable quality† as well as the provision of remedies for consumers are two of the most important changes that were introduced into the Australian Consumer Law and they make consumers guarantees more clear. As it was mentioned before, the Australian Law is moving to over protect consumers but until 1974 it was very difficult for a consumer to have remedy against anyone but the immediate supplier of defective goods. There was no remedy available to the consumer against third parties under contract law because no contractual relationship existed between them and the consumer (Gibson, Fraser, 2011). However, nowadays if consumer suffered any damage because of defective goods, the manufactures are strictly liable. If the manufacturer or the supplier fails to fulfill the guarantees as laid in the law then there can be civil penalties to the tune of $50,000 for the company and $10,000 in case of individual (Clark, 2011). The consumer may elect to sue either their immediate supplier or the manufacturer directly (Gibson, Fraser, 2011). The remedies which consumers can be provided by law can be found in Part 4-5 of the Australian Consumer Law where the remedy is dependent on the gravity of a breach. The manufacturer of defective goods that cause personal injury or damage may be liable to compensate an individual who is injured (section 138), an injured third party, such as bystander (section 139), a person for damage to personal, domestic or household goods( section 140) and a person for damage to land, buildings or fixtures( section 141) (Gibson, Fraser, 2011). There is a section 18 in the Australian Consumer Law, which prohibits conduct by a corporation that is misleading or deceptive. The law can be broken if the company affects consumers thoughts and prevents him/her from making reasonable decisions by providing untruthful information about the price, quality or value of goods and services in advertisement, statement, quotation, representation or promotion of the company. In this case the conduct of the business will be considered misleading and deceptive even if it was unintentional. For example, if a real estate agent wants to sell the property and tells the potential customer that his/her flat will be overlooking the park with a school nearby but in reality there is neither park, nor school. Consumer who suffered loss because of breach of section 18 can bring a civil action. Section 18 is a catch-all provision and does not require the conduct be deliberate, so there are no criminal penalties (Gibson, Fraser, 2011). There is also a number of other ‘unfair practices’ that are prohibited by the Australian Consumer Law such as offering gifts or prizes (section 32), misleading conduct as to the nature or manufacturing process of goods (section 33), misleading conduct regarding services (section 34), bait advertising (section 35), referral selling (section 49), accepting payment without intending to supply (section 36), coercion or harassment at place of residence (section 50), pyramid selling (sections 44-46), unsolicited credit cards (section 39), unsolicited goods and services (sections 40-41). These sections carry criminal penalties and civil remedies, therefore it must be established that the conduct was deliberate. The Australian Consumer Law introduces a national law on product safety. All goods have prescribed standard and it is prohibited to supply goods if they do not comply with this standard. The standards of product safety are related to such things as products performance, design, contents, its testing during and after manufacture process and also to the presence of necessary warnings and instructions, which help consumers to avoid risk of being injured. In the sections 195-204 offences related to supply of products that do not comply with a prescribed standard. Fines may be up to $1,1 million for a corporation and $220,000 for an individual, or civil pecuniary penalties up to similiar maximums. The Australian Consumer Law is improving and a number of changes were made related to the rights and remedies of consumers in order to provide them better protection. One of the reasons for the extension of consumer protection provisions is probably the aim to motivate companies to act fairly in their business. !!? But for this law to work it is also necessary that consumers are aware of their rights and that will prevent them from being misleaded by suppliers. References Australian Consumer Law, Commonwealth of Australia, 2010, viewed on 23d August, 2012. http://www. consumerlaw. gov. au/content/Content. aspx? doc=the_acl. htm Clarke J. 2011, Australian contract and Consumer Law, viewed on 23d August, 2012. http://www. australiancontractlaw. com Gibson A. , Fraser D. , Business Law, Pearson Australia, 2011, pp. 549-633.

My Favorite Class

All semester my students have been writing paragraphs for me. They have learned how to write topic sentences and supporting sentences and also concluding sentences. They have worked very hard. Now it is my turn to write a paragraph. Hopefully I’ll be able to write an interesting topic sentence that will catch the attention of my students. So, what should my paragraph be about? MRS. D’S FAVORITE CLASS. My reading/writing class for the fall semester at the community college in 2008 was an excellent class. How were they excellent? Well, first they always did their homework. Most of them had jobs to do during the day but they still found time to do their homework. They wrote in their journals and wrote a lot of paragraphs and then they rewrote the paragraphs. They were also excellent in another way. They really got along well with one another as a class. Some of them were very outgoing and some of them were quite shy but they respected each other and learned a lot about each other’s countries as a result. Finally, they were an excellent class because they always made the teacher laugh. Even though they had worked hard all day, they came to class in a happy mood. If they were tired, they never acted grumpy about it or if they didn’t feel well, they just kept right on working. So, you can see that this really was an excellent class and I hope that they will all do well in the future. So, did Mrs. D. write a good paragraph? What was the topic sentence? Did all the sentences support the topic or were there some irrelevant sentences? And how about the concluding sentence? Did she repeat some words from the topic sentence? Was it a good conclusion? Notice that she didn’t indent the first word in the paragraph. The reason is that this is a typed paragraph and the paragraphs are separated by a space instead of making an indentation. Well, I don’t think that it’s the greatest paragraph in the world but it expresses how I feel about this class. I hope you all have a nice vacation and best wishes for your continued success in the coming year – 2009!! Sincerely, Mrs D.

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 8

Assignment Example The Ss eliminate waste that emanates from a disorganized workplace (Rubin and Hirano 16). The Ss intend to accomplish the objective of establishing an organized workplace that makes it easy for employees or production operators to locate what they need in a short period, thus eliminating time wasting. When the workplace is extremely disorganized and production items are not kept in an orderly manner, it is possible that employees will waste a lot of time trying to locate what they need in order to execute their daily tasks. The Ss have direct link with Lean in that they ensure that the organization is organized so as to minimize waste such as time wasting and material wasting among others (Rubin and Hirano 19). Lean focuses on reducing considerable the time taken to produce a product and distribute it to consumers by encouraging high level of efficiency in the production plant. The Ss ensure that the workplace is highly organized so that materials and tools can be located with ease and within the shortest time possible, thus reducing wastage of time. Consequently, both Ss and Lean focus on a mutual goal of eliminating time waste and speeding up the rate at which products are delivered to customers. They both reduce product cycle time. One of the most important Ss that the employer should be concerned about is the fourth stage, Standardize. The phase of the 5s entails the establishment of consistent strategies and guidelines for executing tasks within the organization. Standardization demands high level of orderliness supported with visual controls. This S will enable the employer to create clear and comprehensive guidelines that direct employees on how they are expected to execute their tasks. It will allow the organization to adopt the best production methods, which reduces cycle time in the production process while observing quality issues. Without Standardization, there is high Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 212 Assignment Example use its fails to incorporate a scientific category and most essential because the application of this law is likely to result in the conclusion of several communities that didn’t not have any law for this era. One major agreement among majority of the theorists is that the concept of law is comprised of two essential classes namely; law in terms of real patterns of behaviors and secondly; law is viewed in terms of the national law model (Brian, 1995). The author states that no despite any definition of law, it is evident that researchers and theorists are repeatedly taken back to the state law of institutions and standards. All societies ought to have laws, but they have the right of objecting any law that is on the grounds of the state law model. This is because state law is a contingent development that is not likely to be present in all societies in a fully functional manner. The author seems to have analyzed the connection between law, oppression, and ethics and has also tried to explain the question of whether all laws may be correctly theorized as coercive guidelines or as moral guidelines. There exists no rationally indispensable connection between law and coercion or in the middle of law and ethics. Categorizing all laws as coercive guidelines or as moral guidelines is overgeneralizing the connection between law, coercion, and ethics. Today’s researchers disapprove the concept of law which was expressed by John Aus tin (Brian, 1995). This article maintains that a social fact idea of law is emphasizing foundations and recognition principles, it also extends that this positivism to integrate requirements of publicness in law, The components of law in the efflorescent sector of international administrative law ‘is inherent in public law, state self-governing jurisprudence, and progressively in international governance, whereby the law is applicable to public persons rather than to distinguishable universal publics. Principles that are relevant to

Genderbias Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Genderbias - Essay Example 2234). According to the 2011 US census, women accounted for 91.6 percent of registered nurses (Landivar, 2013). The lessened interest of female nurses in working in critical care has thus had a major impact on the availability of nurses for work in critical care. The conceptual definition of the proposed research is that specific characteristics of critical care work can be identified and then show that they contribute significantly to the lower interest of female nurses. With better understanding of the key job characteristics that correlate to female nurses’ interest in critical care, it should be possible to develop programs designed to overturn this perception and lead to more graduating female nurses being willing to consider work in critical care. This could have a major impact on addressing the acute shortage of nurses willing to work in critical care. For the purposes of this research proposal it is assumed that the â€Å"total rewards† model used by HR professionals to modify employee attraction can be applied to modifying a graduating female nurse’s perception of critical care nursing as a future career path. This HR model believes that job attributes can be strategically altered to change a nurse’s level of interest. (â€Å"WorldatWork,† 2007). Accordingly, the research question is the following: What are the key characteristics of work in critical care with a strong correlation on the perceptions of graduating female nurses of this field as a viable career alternative? A quantitative survey of graduating nurses from West Coast University will be used to measure the total reward factors that correlate to the relatively low perception of critical care as a desired career path. The study conducted by Halcomb et al. (2007) examined the relationship between student experience, socio-demographics, and overall interest in seeking work in critical care. The proposed research

Customer Service Interview Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Customer Service Interview - Coursework Example Once the customers are given excellent service, they will be happy to do another transaction with the company and even recommend it to their friends and colleagues (Zemke & Woods, 1998). Still it is already assumed that every once in a while customers will ask or complain about something that is obviously the reason why companies have customer care services. To have an idea on how customer complaints are handled, an interview with Ms. V. Siva, a customer service representative of Dish Network was conducted. According to her, customer service representatives play a vital role in an organization. As a part of the customer service team, it is their responsibility to provide outstanding customer service and help the management obtains ideas for product innovation from the given customers feedback and recommendation. Ms. Siva often receives calls from customers who wish to cancel their subscription. Other customers complain about their bills, while some are just asking for information reg arding their services and packages (personal communication, July 8, 2011). Those are the common day-to-day dilemma of the Dish Network subscribers. It shows that there are really no exemptions when it comes to customer service complaints, no matter how big a company is, because customer complaints cannot be avoided although it can be lessened. ... Its major competitor is DirecTV Group, Inc. (â€Å"Profile: Dish Network Corp,† 2011). Last April 2011, the company was able to purchase Blockbuster a home video and video game rental services company (Henry, 2011) and just recently, the company acquired ownership of Terrestar Network, a mobile communications company (Avery, 2011). Dish Network’s consecutive acquisition of bankrupt companies allows them to venture into other forms of home video and television services, attracting more and more subscribers in the country. As the people of this modern era seek for convenience and entertainment in the comforts of their home, Dish Network is able to give them the many available options for home entertainment. Even though the company has undergone major developments, it does not mean that they are exempted from receiving customer complaints. Customer complaints are part of the business cycle. The interview proves that like any other company Dish Network also has issues with their customer services. It is the common perception of most companies that when they are able to earn a profit that is more than enough to sustain the overall operation of their organization, their marketing strategy is effective. Actually it is true, their marketing strategy is effective but what is overlooked in this situation is in the area of customer service. Well it is good to focus on how to increase profit but it would not be good to set aside the concerns of the customers. If the company is serious with its intention to fully satisfy the customers, it must be able to provide outstanding customer services. On a positive note, one can say that the complaints encountered by the company are not

Epithelial Tissue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Epithelial Tissue - Essay Example Epithelial tissue, which is only one layer thick, is called simple epithelium while stratified epithelium is two or more cells thick. Based on shape, simple epithelial cells can be classified as (1) Simple squamous: the cells are flat, thin, fish-scale shaped and have elliptical nuclei. They form the outer layers of the skin and the lining of cavities, such as the mouth, blood vessels, heart, and lungs. (2) Simple cuboidal: the cells are square or cuboidal, with spherical nuclei. They are found in the ducts of glands, lining of the kidney tubules and also form the germinal epithelium, which produces the eggs and sperms. (3) Simple columnar: the cells are columnar, with elongated nuclei and form the lining of the digestive tract. Simple columnar ciliated epithelium has fine, hair-like outgrowths on its’ free surface. Cilia are capable of rapid, rhythmic movement of mucus in the nose and the movement of ovum towards the uterus. (4) Simple pseudo-stratified columnar: the columns are all of the varying heights, giving a false impression of multiple layers. They are found in the nasal cavity, larynx, and trachea. Stratified, or compound, epithelium consists of external layers which are flat and scaly and may contain a tough, resistant protein called keratin, as in the skin.  

John Stuart Mills Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

John Stuart Mills Theories - Essay Example The essay concludes that Mill's proposed limitations on legitimate interference with the individual has limited sustainability, and can only be applied in a system which has already liberated its citizens through education and cultural revolution. John Stuart Mill, the nineteenth century philosopher, is an icon for liberal ideals. Noted as "An extraordinarily nice, warm-hearted and intellectually generous man, as well as an extraordinarily gifted one" (Marquand, 2007), whom it is impossible to dislike, Mill set the standard for ideas on the nature of individual Liberty in a functioning society. Unlike many philosophers of his age, Mill put the need for Individual freedom above the need of the state for social order and control. Mill was not alone in theorizing about liberty, and the constraints on government. A century before his writing, two nations had risen up and overthrown what had been legitimate government. The American Revolution argued that there can be no taxation without representation, and the French Revolution succeeded in toppling a monarchy; within Mill's lifetime, the latter revolution had still been battling to come to terms with these events, the monarchy having been recreated and overthrown for a second time. During the first French Revolution, intellectuals had rushed to view the action, and intellectual society was still shaken by what it had seen. Questions and worries about what these events meant for society were therefore not far from the minds of philosophers and creative thinkers in JS Mill's social circle. This paper attempts to examine Mill's proposal on limitations on state interference in light of his intellectual influences and events of the time. By examining some of the ideas which Mill discussed in On Liberty, both about government interference with individual will, and how his own constraints on Liberty serve to protect individuals from harm by others, this paper will attempt to analyze the limitations which Mill proposed be placed upon legitimate government. Interpretations and discussion of Mill's most famous work center on the connection between Mill's theories of freedom, and the school of Utilitarianism in which he was brought up. According to Isaiah Berlin, his intellectual achievement, after a "Terrifying education at the hands of a rigid and dogmatic father" (Marquand, 2007), remains that he managed to develop his own need for freedom and happiness into a set of principles which remain at the centre of debates into the freedom of the individual (Berlin, 1991). Berlin also suggests that Mill hung on to his Utilitarian upbringing, which has been criticized more recently by, amongst others, John Gray. In the introduction to On Liberty in Focus, Gray and his co-editor G Smith consider the idea that Mill had given up Utilitarianism, and instead "It is rather the celebrated 'one very simple principle' of the first chapter of On Liberty" (Gray and Smith, 1991) which was Mill's motivation, and suggest other alternatives to Berlin's interp retation.

International Trade and International Finance Essay

International Trade and International Finance - Essay Example From this essay ir is clear that  when a nation is mounting on capital resources abruptly and very rapidly, then the additional progress of such satisfied nation’s state of affairs is accountable to be intermittent. In present international trade conditions, the phenomenon of laissez-faire may be noticed that leads to lack of the incentive to attract new investments.  On the basis of political and social environment, the general characteristic of a nation which determines its propensity to consume (in regards to the betterment of a progressive state) fundamentally depends on the adequacy of such incentives.  As the paper highlights  in conditions where the magnitude of aggregate investment is ascertained by the underlying principle of profit maximisation alone, the prospective for domestic investment will mainly be governed by factors like the domestic rate of interest in the in the long run as well as short run. In contrast, the volume of overseas investment is essent ially ascertained primarily with the size of balance of trade in favour of investing nation. Hence, in a culture where there is limited enquiry of direct foreign investment under the guidance of government or public authority, the economic substances with which it is rational for the government are to be thoughtful about the fluctuations in the balance of foreign trade in contemporary environment and prevailing domestic rate of interest.

Economics coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economics coursework - Essay Example Interpretive method is used to understand the meaning of the given information that was assigned to the researchers. Critical research as the name implies concentrates more on the critical view of the subject. It highlights the critical viewpoint of the situation that has to be analysed. Feasibility study is an important phase in the development process. It enables the developer to have an assessment of the product being developed. It refers to the feasibility study of the product in terms of outcomes of the product, operational use and technical support required for implementing it. Economic Feasibility: It refers to the benefits or outcomes. We are deriving from the product as compared to the total cost we are spending for developing the product. If the benefits are more or less the same as the older system, then it is not feasible to develop the product. The development of the new product should greatly enhance the accuracy of the system and cuts short the delay in the processing of the product. The errors can be greatly reduced and at the same time providing great level of security. Hence, we do not need any additional equipment except memory of required capacity. Operational Feasibility: It refers to the feasibility of the product to be operational.

What the Vietnam Vets Can Teach Us Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What the Vietnam Vets Can Teach Us - Essay Example The clearest part despite all that took place during that horrific moment is that nothing sunk in the minds of Americans as virtues such as negligence or even corruption is practiced, meaning it did not paint any picture in the minds of the citizens. The veteran’s memorial should be a constant reminder to whoever comes across it and should recall and things done back then should not be repeated.   Certain myths are unique to specific cultures, and with them as Barthes Roland tell it,4 they serve different functions. They can either honor or disguise the culture eroding both facts and truths that were behind it. They are meant to bring citizens like a community shunning evil practices and embracing harmony. Not all this is accomplished as you’ll still find people in America suffering with their children and you’d conclude that time has elapsed them or isn’t the society giving back? The setting of the memorial I’m meant to understand is supposed to bury the hatchet and give birth to an entirely different society with different perspectives. (Warren 2004) With the veterans, you’ll find moral seriousness in particular unlike a different kind of America on the basis of what one learnt, observed and got from the experience according to the senses based on; violence and brutality underwent. This brought about a different kind of behavior in the manner the vets treat and address each other based on  mutual respect and love. A conversation with Beikirch Gary similarly proves as the medal5 reward awarded to him intensifies him about the war times, how far he has come to attain the presidency of the Genesse valley V.V.A chapter and above all he knows he’s appreciated by his country. Unlike the other Americans, the vets were different in that they stood for one another shared together helped each other and showed generosity to their selves. They stand for justice and are optimistic it’s going to be practiced by th e citizens and those in power. This prompts them to lead by example as majority of Americans lack a sense of personality in the creation of moral values. If allowed, the vets would be willing to go and finish what they started for the sake of America. (Sung 1998)   As different as we are, so were they in their time and childhood years. There are some whom were lucky and their fathers happened to be involved in the Second World War. This was a merit as traits, tactics and morals would be passed to them with ease and out of experience to make them belief in the glory brought about the war. Catholics who were not lucky got a chance   as well as challenges through Kennedy George as he publicly asked, what they would do for their country individually, in the quest to kick out communism, not only to please their religious leader nor those in power or elders, but mostly God. There are those who embraced the war, and in my opinion I would say it was the lack of knowledge, love and ignor ance in order to satisfy what their elders were unable to accomplish. Loss of a loved would have prompted so many to join with the motive of revenging. (Terry 1984) I support them as having been cut off from all sustaining world activities as it was not only some way to reunite, but also a common practice with the entire nation. They were facing extinction and this made them feel left out. But it was different for some as they could not bear what they did during that particular time, and their conscience judged them of their doings prompting to rhetoric questions to a point of wanting to commit suicide. This is evident that depression is downing on them now as in the beginning they lacked knowledge and dashed into war without even thinking about the aftermath.

Behaviour Self Management Essay Example for Free

Behaviour Self Management Essay Behaviour Self-Management Project to Increase Studying Behaviour Behaviour Modification is a technique or approach used by behavioural psychologists to modify a particular behaviour and is largely used in a clinical or educational setting, particularly with those with learning disabilities (Atherton, 2011). Moreover, it also considered to be a treatment approach, as it substitutes undesirable behaviours with desired ones through the process of positive or negative reinforcement (Gary, 1988). Furthermore, behaviour modification has been used to treat numerous mental problems such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), phobias, enuresis, generalised anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder and many more. Subsequently, this technique has also been used to correct maladaptive behaviours by changing undesirable behaviours such as smoking, overeating, nail biting and others, as it aims to encourage the substitution of good behaviours such as studying, weight loss and etc (O’Donohue and Ferguson, 2006). The principles of behaviour modification were first developed by B. F Skinner, who had formulated the concept of operant conditioning. Skinner, had developed the concept of positive reinforcement or punishment, whereby behaviours are changed or encouraged through a reward system. Furthermore, the operant conditioning theory also states that for learning to occur, it is important that the subject is an active participant (Sheldon, 1982). In addition, behaviour modification was also formulated by Ivan Pavlov and is famously known as classical conditioning, as it is merely based on a stimuli-response formula. Besides that, Albert Bandura also contributed to behaviour modification principles, through his theory of social modelling (Baldwin Baldwin, 1981). The theory states that learning occurs as a result of copying or imitating other people, and is termed as vicarious learning. Additionally, the theory also states that external reinforcers are important because it enables learning to occur independently of the reinforcements. Consequently, behaviour modification underlies a number of theoretical positions such that human behaviour can easily be influenced by the presentation of consequences and could be strengthened if the behaviour is followed by rewards, as well as substandard if followed by negative consequences (Guez Allen, 2000). Moreover, human behaviour is not only controlled by internal factors, but is also driven by external factors such as social rewards like praises or gifts. Thus, the principles of behaviour modification is different compared to other techniques in changing behaviours, because it addresses the surrounding factors as well as individual factors that can promote or derail behaviour change. Additionally, behaviour modification has also proved its effectiveness in increasing student’s appropriate classroom behaviours. A study had employed behaviour modification in two second grade Negro girls in a demonstration school for the culturally deprived (Wasik, Senn, Welch, Cooper, 1969). Data collected in the study was based on type, duration, and frequency of teacher’s verbal interactions with the student. The study also had implemented an ABAB design, whereas treatment included positive social reinforcement when appropriate behaviours occurred. Punishment had included the use of timeout from social reinforcements, as these behaviours were contingent on inappropriate attention getting behaviours. It was observed that after 25 days, desirable behaviour in the classroom had increased remarkably from 80. % in baseline to 99. 20% in treatment and continued to remain high even after three months. Therefore, this shows that behaviour modification is an effective method to increase desirable behaviours. Target Behaviour It is essential and important that the target behaviour an individual wants to change is operationally defined. The particular behaviour would also require assessment, through collection of the baseline data. Furthermore, the behaviour that I want to change is to increase my studying behaviour, which is a behavioural deficit. Ever since I was in school, I was always known to study towards the end of the semester and could generally be considered as last minute studying. Subsequently, I would tend to be easily distracted by external stimuli such as watching movies or series on the computer, calling up friends and talking for hours as well as easily persuaded to go out. I have been known since young to be very outgoing, thus whenever friends call and ask me to meet up with them, I am bound to go. Therefore, it usually delays my ability to follow my studying schedule that I have created before the semester starts. Moreover, my main antecedent that unable me to complete my suggested two hours studying per night every weekday is also because I have a tendency to download movies or series on the computer and wasting 4 hours or more watching it. There are also consequences that I face because of my procrastination to study, because after watching these series, I would only tend to study less than an hour or not at all if I am tired. Consequently, I would cram all the materials during study week and end up being exhausted. This also is a reason as to why I tend to get ill during exam week, because it causes me to have high level of stress and in turn would affect my health. Hence, these are valid reasons as to why I feel like I need to change my behaviour and start studying more hours as I should so that I would not be stressed out during exams. Besides that, stress could also cause ulcers and the common cold, which in turn could be a setback to me during exam week as I am prone to get ulcers. Additionally, it would also allow me to focus more to improve my grade ratings to my expectations as I will soon complete my undergraduate program. Other than that, increasing my studying behaviour would also allow me to get sufficient sleep and rest for the upcoming exam and it would also benefit me in terms of managing my time efficiently. Method Design The design that I have chosen for this particular self management project is the ABAB reversal design. This design represents the attempt to first measure the baseline, the treatment that follows the initial baseline, the introduction of the second baseline as well as the reintroduction of the treatment again. Additionally, this method of application helps identify the effects of treatment and measure what happens when treatment is removed. Hence, this research design would help establish whether functional relationship exists between the target behaviour and intervention. Materials The materials used in this project include a structured diary that is recorded in the computer, behaviour contract, handphone, post-it notes, playing cards and reminders. Procedure Additionally, for this particular behaviour modification project, the operational definition is first defined as reading pages from the textbook and underlining as well as understanding sentences in the text and reading notes from the lectures for two hours. Furthermore, the behaviour would be recorded through self monitoring during baseline and treatment period as the behaviour does not occur frequently throughout the day and it only occurs during the period when no one else is around to observe. The observational period is recorded in the natural setting, which is in the study room at my home, and it is where studying behaviour typically occurs. The type of behavioural recording used is the duration recording, whereby studying behaviour is observed for two hours, between 8. 30p. m to 10. 0p. m on weekdays only. Next, in order to increase studying behaviour during weekdays, a generalised conditioned reinforcer, which is the token economy system is used because it reinforces the behaviour and minimises the need to use reactive strategies to deal with setbacks as well as it enables the ability to pair up with a variety of other reinforcers. In addition, the token economy is a playing card with my housemate’s signature on it, and one card would be given each day, whenever the desired behaviour occurred at least 2 hours a day. Furthermore, the acquired tokens would be eligible to trade with certain privileges and would be forfeited if the behaviour does not meet the expected requirements. Hence, a variety of backup reinforces are used in exchange with the accumulated playing cards on every Friday to determine the type of privileges that would be given and further information is provided in the behavioural contract (Appendix A). Besides that, punishment would be provided if I fail to meet the expected requirement. Additionally, the schedule of reinforcement chosen for this particular project is fixed interval, whereby studying behaviour is reinforced only if it occurs for at least two hours. The behaviour occurrence would also be recorded in the computer, as the behaviour occurs at home in the study room. Besides that, during the treatment period, my friends and housemate have also promised to give me social support and reinforcements. In addition, various types of response and stimulus prompts are also used in this project. Verbal prompts such as reminders to study are used by friends and housemates to evoke the desired behaviour in myself. They will do this by not persuading me to go out with them and reminding me to study instead. Furthermore, environmental prompts are also used in this project such as post its on the mirror, computer in the study room and class file that I carry to class every day, as well as using the hand phone to set alarm to study. In addition, within prompt fading was used in the second treatment period, for response prompts, whereby friends and boyfriend provided fewer verbal prompts as the week progressed during treatment period. Next, stimulus fading was also used in the second treatment period for environmental prompts, whereby on the first day, removal of alarm clock would be used and for subsequent days, one post its would be removed from either the mirror, computer or class file until the last day of treatment. Results The baseline and treatment data was collected for a period of four weeks and intervention was applied during treatment 1 and treatment 2. Figure 1: Studying behaviour in baseline and treatment weeks. Figure 1 shows that during the first baseline, studying behaviour did not occur at all for the first two days, one hour for the third, again none on the fourth and two hours on the fifth day. Hence, the average studying hours for the first baseline week is 0. 4 hours or 24 minutes. Furthermore, this could be clearly seen in the structured diary attached for the first baseline (Appendix B). Next, intervention took place in the second week, whereby various strategies were used to increase studying behaviour. Results showed that studying behaviour had occurred for two hours for the first and second day, one hour for the third day, two hours for the fourth day, and none on the fifth day. This shows that studying behaviour had increased to an average of 1. 4 hours a day and that there was an increase of 50% from the initial baseline to the treatment period. Moreover, the self management project had returned to baseline on the third week and results showed that studying behaviour had occurred for 2. hours on the first day, one hour on the second, none on the third and fourth and two hours on the fifth day. Thus, the average studying behaviour was 1. 1 hours a day for the second baseline period. Although the average hours were less compared to the treatment period, however, there was definitely an increase compared to the first baseline period, whereby average hours were only 0. 4 hours. Next, intervention was again applied and the second treatment results showed that studying behaviour occurred for one hour on the first day, 2. hours on the second, two hours on the third, one hour on the fourth, and two hours on the fifth day. Hence, the average studying hours is approximately 1. 7 hours a day. Thus, this also shows that there is an increase of studying behaviour between the second baseline and second treatment period. Besides that, there is also a staggering increase from the initial baseline and second treatment period, that precedes to fluctuate in the second baseline, when intervention was removed. Discussion  The behaviour modification project to increase studying behaviour was definitely a success because the graphs showed an increase in hours of studying as compared to the baseline data, thus indicating that there us a functional relationship between the target behaviour and the procedure. Furthermore, it is clear that the token economy system was a contributor to the success of increasing studying behaviour because once token economy was removed in the second baseline; the target behaviour had decreased tremendously. In addition, the target behaviour had increased when the second intervention was applied in the fourth week. Moreover, the use of reinforcements and punishment also helped me to keep myself motivated and determined to achieve the weekly goal that was set. Besides that, the use of within stimulus fading helped me generalise my behaviour to the subsequent weeks ahead, hence I had gradually adjusted myself with getting used to having less and less prompts throughout the week. However, there were also some limitations in this project, whereby, the duration of treatment intervention is too short to allow the behaviour to fully adjust and be generalised without the use of prompts. In addition, self monitoring was used during observation of behaviour for the baseline data. Observer may not be trained enough to record her own behaviour, hence data may not be as reliable as compared to having an inter rater observation. Moreover, the implementation of reinforcement contingency was my housemate, and sometimes the reinforcements were given a day later because she is not around. This has affected the effectiveness of the token as a reinforcing consequence as some deliveries of the token did not occur immediately after the response occurred according to the expected schedule. Furthermore, due to the delay between the response and token, it could have also affected the connection strength of the behaviour. In conclusion, behaviour modification is definitely an effective treatment method to help increase, decrease or develop new behaviours and it is applicable to use in a variety of problematic behaviours.

The integration of global economies Essay Example for Free

The integration of global economies Essay Globalisation is a controversial issue. It has generated large protests around the world, by people who feel that it benefits only the rich. Yet there are others who claim that it offers real solutions to global poverty. There are arguments for both sides. In practice, globalisation has the potential to do both good and harm. The World Bank defines it as „the growing integration of economies and societis around the worldâ€Å". It sounds simple but processes of globalisation involve changes to many different aspects of society: from communications, to travel, to economics, to government. Globalisation represents a particular economic theory based on the belief that a liberalised, free market is desirable. Supporters of a free market economy believe that this approach promotes healthy competition. Countries can specialise in producing the goods they make most efficiently and export therese goods to other countries without restrictions. Only those who produce goods efficiently and at a competitive price will survive. Globalisation impacts virtually very aspect of life including religion, culture, diet and family life. One of the most striking impacts of globalisation is the increasing connection of economies and cultures, making the world seem smaller. A decision made in Japan can employ thousands in another country, or render them jobless. A flu virus in Asia can affect tourism and business worldwide. Economic and technological change are the major forces driving globalisation. Worldwide, trade is increasing as global markets become more closely linked through improved communication technologies like the internet. These same technologies are bringing distant communities together, and making it easier for corporations to move their operations to areas where costs are low. Cheaper air travel because of technological improvements means more people are travelling for business or pleasure, making workers more mobile. The integration of global economies provides enormous potential for all economies to expand into different parts of the world to both sell and buy new products and services. While it can be difficult to enter new global markets, globalisation is giving poor countries some chance of gaining the benefits of world trade. If poor countries could get access to just one percent more of the value of world trade, it would lift well over 100 Million people out of the poverty through the economic growth and jobs created. As multi-national corporations move production to benefit from cheaper labour costs in poorer countries, they are creating jobs for people who previously had few oppurtunities. Technological advancements mean quick and affordable worldwide travel is now available, particularly to people from wealthier nations. This is helping to boost tourism in many developing countries. The internet and other improved telecommunication facilities enable information to be sent from one corner of the planet to antoher seconds. This has brought together people from vastly different backgrounds and cultures. Ideas are shared, business is conducted internationally and those affected by a disaster can call for, and get, help faster than ever before. One concern is the effects of constant pressure from large corporations to lower prices and shorten production times for goods. Although jobs are created, poor labour standards and cost cutting processes in developing countries mean wages can be low, conditions are often dangerous and workers rights are violated. Critics of free-market economics note that industries in developed countries did not develop in these open conditions. Instead, they were protected locally (often with subsidies) and their markets were closed to outside competition until new industries became established. Yet poor countries are now expected to perform and survive in new global markets without first starting from an established base and without adequate support or concern for local interests. This makes it difficult for developing nations to benefit from the increased trade oppurtunities offered by globalisation. Rich countries primarily produce manufactured goods for the world market, which hold their value and command good prices. Developing countries generally produce commodities raw materials like cotton, coffee, cocoa, metals and minerals cheaply and efficiently, but do not have the current capacity to produce manufactured products. Unlike manufactured products. Unlike manufactured goods, commodities are extremely vulnerable to wide price swings whenever there is a shortage or oversupply. Countries which depend on only a few vital commodities for income may struggle if the global price suddenly plummets.

Effects Of Thermal Pollution On Aquatic Species

Effects Of Thermal Pollution On Aquatic Species The pollution is the biological, chemical or physical alteration of the water, land, or air that is harmful to living organisms, ocean waters and surface waters. The surface waters, such as lakes, rivers, streams, and underground aquifers can get affected in different way. They can get polluted in common way including human and animal wastes, pathogenic microorganisms, pesticides, and sediment. The water pollution can happen in industrial nations by wasting toxic metals, organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and acids. The human activities that can contribute to pollution are constructions, drilling, dam construction, salting of roads and driveways to melt the ice, waste disposal and agriculture. Sometimes even hot water can consider as a pollutant. The effects of water pollution follow the path of the waters as they trickle through soil, filter through rock beds, and flow down streams and river system, and into oceans. The excess amount of inorganic nutrients such as nitrates and phos phates or raw sewage pollutes lakes or ponds, algae and aquatic plants overgrow. As of the aquatic plants die, they fall in the bottom of the water and the bacteria and other microorganisms decompose the remaining of them and that uses up all the dissolved oxygen in the water and suffocating the other aquatic life in the lake or pond. Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature, which is associated with increase in water temperature in streams, lakes or the ocean due to the discharge of heated water from industrial processes. How does the water quality change? It changes when water is used in industrial and power plants as a coolant. Whenever it is used and returned to the natural environment, the temperature changes, because warmer water effluent creates a reduced oxygen supply in the environment and therefore it affects aquatic ecosystems. Whenever the power plants are opened or shut off for repair, the fish and other aquatic species, cannot adapt to sudden changes in temperature and they are killed by thermal shock. In addition to harming aquatic life that cannot tolerate the warmer water, the warmer temperatures lower the amount of dissolved oxygen. The elevated temperature decreases the dissolved oxygen in water and this harms aquatic animals by increasing the metabolic rate of aquatic animal due to increased enzyme activity, which results in increase in food consumption within organism shorter period of time. Sometimes this results in disruptions of the food chain and decrease in biodiversity. The higher water temperature can also result in increases in aquatic plant growth rates, shorter lifespan and over population of the species. Algae blooms also reduce oxygen levels. The higher temperature denatures the life supporting enzymes by breaking disulphide and hydrogen bond in enzymes structure, which results in the inability to break down lipids which leads to malnutrition. The heated water has multiple effects on the nearby ecosystem. The warmer temperatures increase the ability of plants to photosynthesize, which may spur an algal bloom. It also increases the stress on plants and animals in the water. The temperature changing harms the fish and other aquatic organisms in many ways. The fish and invertebrates are ectotherm s; where they are cold blooded animals, which are slow moving, slow growing and adapted to specific water temperature. This warmer temperature speeds up their metabolism, which harms their ability to survive and reproduce. The native fish like trout may lose their ground while nonnative take place instead of them. All these power plants have different types of cooling systems, which is easiest and cheapest cooling method, where cool water is withdrawn from a nearby water body and hot water is returned to the same water body. Soon as the system is by far the most environmentally destructive, the closed cycle cooling reuses the cooling water so that the waste heat does not leave the plant, but still excess heat is released into the atmosphere from the plant towers. The nuclear energy is the No 1 source of the free electricity which provides 20% of the United States electricity. There are 437 nuclear power plants are in operation and 55 are under construction worldwide. Those 437 plants have a net capacity of about 371 GW and the 55 will have capacity of 51 GW to generate the energy. The 20% of the electricity is provided by 104 reactors in whole United State, where 35 of the reactors are boiling water reactors and 69 of them are pressurized water reactors. In the boiling water reactors, 14 of them are one reactor; 9 of them are two reactors and 1 has three reactors. For the pressurized water reactors, 15 of them are one reactor, 24 of them are two reactors and 2 of them have three reactors. There are 32 companies which are licensed to operate the nuclear reactors in United States. As of the 2009 records, 8 of the states have 31 reactors and those states generate largest percentage of the electricity. The Vermont state has generated largest perc entage of the electricity in 2009, which was 72%, then 2nd largest comes to New Jersey 55.1%, following Connecticut 53.4%, South Caroline 52.0%, Illinois 48.7%, New Hamphshire 44.1%, Virginia 39.6% and at last in 8 state Pennsylvania with 35.1%. The United States largest nuclear plant is located at Palo Verde in Arizona. That plant has 3 reactors which generates 1,311 MW, 1,314 MW, and 1,317 MW for a total of 3,942 megawatts. On the other side Uniteds smallest nuclear power plant is at the Ft. Calhoun in Nebraska with 1 reactor and capacity of the 482 MW of generation electricity. In the time line the newest nuclear power plant that was built was in June 1996, in Tennessee. This plant is called Watts Bar 1, which is located in the spring city, and the capacity for generation if 1,123 MW. From 1990s to 2000s there have been 4 other plants have been built, which are in August 1993, the Comanche Peak 2 with capacity of 1,158 MW and in 1990, the Comanche Peak 1, with capacity of 1,209 M W. The other 2 were in August 1990, the Seabrook 1 in New Hampshire with 1,244 MW capacity and in January 1990, Limerick 2 in Pennsylvania with 1,134 MW by Exelon Corporation. The oldest operating nuclear plant is Oyster Creek in New Jersey, operating license since April 1969. The nuclear reactor is a device to initiate, control and sustain a nuclear chain reaction. The most common use of it is in generation of electrical power and to transport the power. The nuclear reactor is usually involves heat from the reactor chamber to power steam turbines. These reactors are made by 4 major manufacturers. The reactor manufacturers are GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Westinghouse, AREVA NP and Asea Brown Boveri/Combustion Engineering (ABB-CE), where ABB-CE is the worldwide nuclear business company. As of the generation capacity by all the nuclear power plants in United Nations 20.2% or 798.7 billion kilowatt-hours (bkWh) of the total U.S. electricity and 14% or 2,560 billion kilowatt-hours of the worlds electricity in 2009. In comparison to other sources, 1,000 MWe reactors has 90% of amount of electricity has generated in 1 year. The generated electricity is 7.9 billion KWh, which is good for 740,000 households. To generate that much amount of energy by other fuel sour ces, it would require 13.7 million barrels of the oil or 3.4 million tons of coal or 65.8 billion cubic feet of the natural gas. As of the plant performance the South Texas Project 2 in Texas has generated of 11.8 billion KWh in 2007 with most electricity generation record and the longest operating period between refueling goes to LaSalle 1 from Illinois in February 2006 for 739 days. Oyster Creek, Hope Creek, Salem Nuclear Power Plant Figure : Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station.The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generation Station (OCNGS) is oldest operating nuclear power plant in United States, which is located in Forked River in the Lacey Township, in New Jersey. This plant is spread out in 700 acres of the land and build by Burns Roe, Inc. and owned by the Exelon Corporation. It is one of the four nuclear power plant unit in New Jersey. The other 2 units are at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, and the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The OCNGS plant was built in 1965 and started power generating in December, 1969 with a license to work for 40 years, but in 2009 the license was extended for another 20 years by The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant draws its cooling water from Barnegat Bay, and dumps the water into the Atlantic Ocean through Barnegat Inlet. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued the license for first 40 years on the basis of the economic and antitrust considerations, but not techni cal limitations (Peter N. Tabbot M.P.H. and Mark G. Robson, M.P.H. September 2006). The OCNGS has a capacity of producing 619 MWe, the total power generated in 2007 was 5077 GW-h and from last 5 year average generation capacity is 5042 GW-h by using a boiling water reactor (BWR). This power plant has generated 4.9 million MWh with capacity factor of 91% and served 600,000 homes as of 2009 record. Each day the OCNGS uses 1.3 billion gallons of Barnegat Bay Water for its antiquated cooling system, which is 2.2% of the total volume of the bay per day and over 790% of the bay per year (CITATION). When the plant automatically shuts downs for safety reasons, fish gets killed due to lack of warm water that input into the bay. In 2002, 5,876 fish were killed, and plant was fined $1 million, where as in 2006, only 80 fish died; 2007 another 5,304 were killed, and the plant was fined $67,859 and in 2008, 38 fish died in following a shutdown. These cooling towers should prevent these fish kil ls that is causing by higher temperature and somehow reduce the higher temperatures near the plants current discharge area back to normal. This plant has approximately 700 employees, which their payroll is around $53 million in 2003 and $63 million in 2009 also where the property tax for 2009 was $2.4 million. This plant has increased output associated with 1034 jobs in New Jersey and 915 jobs in Ocean County. This plant has sponsorship the united way of Ocean County by contributing more than $277,000 in 2009 and counted as largest employee run campaign in Ocean County. The plant intakes and discharges 1.4 billion gallons of the water on daily basis, and it taken in at a speed of 1-2,000 cubic feet per second, which is the force of medium sized river. The giant sucking action brings the assortment of the smaller aquatic life that flows through the grate and gets killed in the process of the cooling the reactor, which is called as entrainment. Where the larger aquatic life such as st riped bass, white perch and endangered sea turtles, gets pinned on the grate and often die, or seriously gets injured by the rush of oncoming water, which is impingement. This plant has developed a record of killing sea turtles in last ten years from 1992 to 2000, 17 sea turtles and 6 sea turtle mortalities. In September 2002, the plant has largest fish kill since 1985, they has over half a million fish dead, due to plant operators fault. They had failed to turn off the dilution pumps during emergency shut-downs and allowing millions of gallons of the hot water to enter the creek and bay. The modern pollution controls require them to install a closed cycle cooling system, which draws water into the plant for cooling, re-circulates and expels the heat through cooling towers. This system reduces the water intake and discharge by 95%, saving 13 million fish and shellfish and a loss of tens of millions additional larvae annually. It also eliminates the fish kills caused by thermal shock from the discharge, stop the dumping over 365 tons of toxic ware into the bay annually. The NJ DEPs current draft permit for oyster creek does not require the plant to install a closed cycle cooling system. But they have gotten 3500 acres of wetlands for restoration for fall back option as the alternative way. Figure : Salem Nuclear Power Plant. Figure : Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The other three nuclear power stations are located in Lower Alloways Creek Township, New Jersey in United States. Those all three plants owned by PSEG Nuclear LLC and Exelon Generation LLC. Two of the power stations are called Salem Nuclear Power Plants, which are pressurized water reactor nuclear power station and the other one is called a Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station, which is a thermal nuclear power plant. These three plants share an artificial island in the Delaware Bay. As of the 2004 record, the plants have paid $1.23 million in property taxed to Lower Alloways Creek, accounting for 55% of the townships $2.25 million property tax. The plants have expenditures in the four counties surrounding the plants totaled more than $170 million in 2004. The labor has represented $145.5 million, the goods and services represented as $24.7 million. These spending within region represents, around 27% of the plants total spending of $617 .8 million and 66% of the $256.3 million spent in New Jersey and Delaware (Nuclear Energy Institute September 2006). The Salem Nuclear Power Plant has two units, which were started in 1977 and 1981 and those two plants have a combined capacity of 2275 MWe. The unit 1 is licensed to operate until August, 2016 and unit 2 is licensed to operate until April, 2020. The PSEG have applied for a 20 year extension of license for both of these units. The technical problem made the Salem Reactors to shut down for two years in 1990s. They had found several difficulties, including leaky a generators, and unreliable controls on the reactor. In 2004, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revised the oversight of this plant and ordered authorities to increase the monitoring overnight. Those plant uses more than 3 billion gallons of the Delaware Bays water every single day for cooling, replacing the closed cooling system. The Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station which is thermal nuclear power plant wa s established in 1986, and it has license to operate the plant until April, 2026. It also has applied for a 20 years extension for license renewal. This plant has producing capacity of 1059 MWe, and in 2007 it has produced 8104 GW-h, where it has average of 7528 GW-h in last 5 years of energy production. This is the plant has the cooling towers, which is designed to remove the heat by pumping water up into the tower and allowing it to fall down inside the tower. Soon as the heat passes the water, it exchanges the some of the heat and evaporates some of the water. The evaporated flows out the top of the tower and form of a fine cloud like mist, where the cooled water is collected at the bottom of the tower and pumped back into the plant for reuse. This kinds of cooling towers are used where the land and water is expensive and where the state of federal regulations make alternatives impractical. The New Jersey has been ranked 10th in nuclear capacity and 9th place in nuclear generatio n in 2008. Effects of the Nuclear Power Plants The discarded radioactive materials from nuclear submarines and military waste have been a major source of radioactivity in the oceans. Those discarding materials have caused fatal harm to marine life, and it has also entered the food chain as some organisms like shell fish concentrate radioactivity in their bodies which are later consumed by humans. The pesticides like DDT and PCBS can enter the oceans through city waste water and industrial discharges from farms and forests. The Thermal pollution is when high or low temperature water is discharged from an industrial source. The difference in temperatures can kill corals and other sensitive marine organisms that are not developed to handle the different temperatures. The Thermal discharges of unused heat from fossil fuel or from fission in the nuclear fuel constitute another kind of environmental impact. Thermal effects in biota include problems with reproduction, growth, survival of larval forms, juveniles and adults. Regulatory ag encies establish water temperature standards to govern heated discharges from the power plants to prevent catastrophic kills to occur, or thermally induced demise of aquatic populations. Fish, plankton and benthos are all affected at various degrees by thermal discharges from power plants. Other environmental impact common to all nuclear power plants are the highly visible transmission lines associated with the generation and distribution of electricity. Underground cables are not yet an economically feasible solution for most cases of transmission of electricity. Radioactive effluents released from nuclear power plants are, however, the main object of monitoring and control to minimize exposure of the public to ionizing radiation. Another effect of the nuclear power plant would be acid rain. The acid rain is the slightly acidic, with the pH of 5.6 of lower, which is due to small amount of carbon dioxide in water droplets to form mild carbonic acid. The other steps which lead to acid rain is the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere primarily by nuclear power plants and metal ore refineries. All these oxide gases then react with water vapor to produce sulfuric acid, nitric and nitrous acid, which dissolve in the water droplets, and then combine with normal droplets and form into raindrops, in this case count as acid raindrops. In the Northeastern United States, have very low buffering capacity, therefore if the rainfall is acidic the most rocks and soils have increased their acid levels by 5 to 10 fold in the past few decades. The acidic soil lover the pH of the streams those flow over them, and the Environmental Protection Agency has reported in 2000, that approximately 580 of the str eams in the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain were found to be acidic including 90% of the streams in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and that was highest percentage in the nation. This combined acidity has lowered the pH of some lakes around 5.0 and even Little Echo Pond in Franklin, New York got lowered until pH of 4.2 in the Northeastern United States. Effect on the Ocean mammals Figure : The Green Turtle.The Green sea turtle is the larger sea turtle with binomial name Chelonia mydas from Cheloniidae family with only species in the genus Chelonia. It is the endangered species listed by IUCN and CITES. It is with low, broadly oval carapace and small head with one pair of pre frontal scales that are unique to them. Their shell length ranges from 36-43 inches and weights average between 200-300 pounds. They evolved more than 150 million years ago, and they spend entire lives in the sea, even more then come to the surface to breathe, and remain underwater for several hours for resting. They inhabit warm, tropical and subtropical waters, they migrate northward as temperature increase in the late spring, and stays there until late fall. Their nesting occurs in warm temperate and subtropical regions on open sandy beaches above high tide mark in front of well developed sand dunes. As of the Harold Haines and William Kleese, the scientist from the Miami, Florida, prov ed that the role of water temperature in the induction and maintenance of a dermal herpes virus infection (gray-patch disease) of young, green sea turtles, which influence of other recognized stress factors were negligible. In their research the animals that were subjected to a gradual increase in water temperature from 25 to 30C and a subsequent decrease to 25C, where they were maintained, had a period before onset of clinical signs and severity closer to that of control animals. In their findings they indicated that both the induction of clinical gray-patch disease and the severity of the lesions are affected by water temperature and suggest that one possible means of control of this herpes virus infection under intensive aquaculture conditions might be water temperature manipulation. The endangered Kemps Ridley, Atlantic Green and Loggerhead turtles are killed each year as they are attracted to the warm water and then sucked toward death on the fooling system intake. The manatees, the large, fully aquatics, and mostly herbivorous marine mammals, which sometimes known as sea cows. They eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. The adult manatee eats around 10% of their body weight per day and especially small amounts of fish from nets. They have very few natural predators, like sharks, crocodiles and alligators over time to time. The main causes of their death for sea cows are human related issues, human objects, habitat destruction and natural causes such as disease and temperatures. Another main natural event and unpreventable cause for the manatees death would be red tide which is proliferation of tiny marine organisms knows as dinoflagellates. Figure : phytoplankton.The phytoplankton is the autotrophic component of the plankton community. They are too small to see it with naked eye, but if they are in higher numbers, than it can appear as green discoloration of the water due to presence of chlorophyll in their cells. The Phytoplankton obtains energy from the process of photosynthesis, also it accounts for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth. The effects of the elevated water temperatures and residual chlorine at a coastal nuclear power plant on the biomass and productivity or periphyton and phytoplankton, but not productivity was significantly lower in the outlet region than in the intake region. The phytoplankton is the key food item in both aquaculture and mariculture, where both utilize phytoplankton for the feeding of the animals being farmed. In mariculture, the phytoplankton is naturally occurring and is introduced into enclosures with the normal circulation of seawater, where in aquaculture; the phytoplankt on must be obtained and introduced directly. The phytoplankton is used as a food stock for the production for rotifers, which are in turn used to feed other organisms, and also used to feed aquaculture molluscs. The species made of only one or few cells, the phytoplankton is the responsible for 50% of the primary productivity on the earth. Waste Product of the Nuclear Power Plant Figure : Decay in radioactivity of HLW.The waste product of the nuclear power plant is the radioactive waste. The radioactive wastes are very small relative to the waste produced by the fossil fuels and other sources. This waste product is containing radioactive material, which is the product of the nuclear fission, which comes from not directly connected to the nuclear power industry. The waste that has been produce diminishes over time, so in principle to that that material needs to be isolated for long time to no longer pose a hazard. The waste can be generally classified either low level or high level. The low level radioactive waste considers as highly radioactive part of nuclear reactors and waste from medical procedures, which comparatively easy to dispose and relatively small half life. The high level radioactive waste is material from the core of the nuclear reactor or from nuclear weapon. Most of the high level waste emit large amounts of radiation and have really long half lives. The radiation coming of the radioactive waste exposes the human and that can cause about 1% of all cancers, which increase cancer risk by 0.002% of reducing the life expectancy. Each year the nuclear power plants produces the 200,000 m3 of low level waste and about 10,000 m3 of the high level waste products including fuel as waste. 1000 MWe of the light water reactor generates about 200-350 m3 low level waste per year, it also discharges about 20 m3 of used fuel, which corresponds to 75 m3 disposal volume. Where the used fuel is reprocessed only 3 m3 of glass is produced, which is similar to 28 m3 of disposal canister. All this compares with an average of 400,000 tons of ash produced from coal, plant and other power sources of the same power capacity.

Humorous Wedding Speech Delivered by the Best Man -- Wedding Toasts Ro

Humorous Wedding Speech Delivered by the Best Man Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. First of all, I’d like congratulate the groom (bridegroom) on a very enjoyable speech - which has raised the expectation of my speech to a level that I cannot possibly hope to fulfill now. Thanks for that! Now I know I’m expected to say this but it really is an honor being John’s best man. He’s a very popular person with many close friends, so when he asked me to do this job I was extremely pleased and very proud – and I hope he remembers that sentimental moment just as well as I do. We’d been having a few drinks in Bournemouth one Saturday night, when John stumbled over towards me, belched a couple of times, put his arm around my shoulder and said, ‘Jason, I’m getting married in May as you know, and I suppose I’ve got to ruin someone’s day, so I’d like it to be yours.’ My mind immediately turned to the speech. So in preparation, and yes this was prepared, I asked John and Sabrina for a complete list of everyone present, broken down by age and sex. But, looking round, I can’t see anyone who isn’t. (Laughter) What an excellent venue this is though, and seeing these two families together is an interesting experience. I can certainly see where Sabrina got her brains and good looks from, and John his limitless capacity to eat and drink. John is able to mix beers, wines and spirits with considerable ease and c... ...too Sabrina.’ For it’s no lie to suggest that John recollections are often triggered by memories of food. If you ask him a question, like ‘remember that day we played golf in the thunder?’ he’ll come back with ‘oh, that day we got ham, egg and chips in the club house.’ To bring things to a conclusion, I'd like to thank you all for your attention. And if anyone hasn’t yet bought John and Sabrina a wedding present, I hear that they need a new shower rail for the bathroom. The last one, according to John, 'just fell off' – like they do. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a toast to the happy couple, John and Sabrina. I know you're going to be great together - God bless you and good luck to you both.

My Dream of Becoming a Web Designer :: Admissions Essays

My Dream of Becoming a Web Designer As a young child, my dream occupation was to dig up dinosaurs. As I grew older and my interests changed, my dream profession changed also. Although most of these dreams were not very long lived, one occupational dream has outlasted all others, and has finally emerged as the dream I passionately pursue. It all started when my grandparents purchased their first computer. Being as this was the first computer I had ever used, I did not know how to use it very well. I mostly used it for games, which my grandma would set up for me to play. I also drew pictures with the computer's paint program, the functionality of which, unfortunately, was very limited. The relatively new computer industry's technology could not produce enough colors to portray very realistic pictures. Despite this fact, I spent many contented hours creating images on my grandparent's computer. A few years later, my family moved. As we were no longer close enough to use my grandparent's computer, we purchased a new one for ourselves. I again used the computer for games and did some text editing, but started to utilize the paint program even more than I had before. The up-to-date colors available meant that I could create fairly high-quality pictures. However, my limited paint program again handicapped my skills, its inadequate tools requiring me to draw every pixel manually, which proved very time consuming. After using the new computer for a few years, I sent a picture I had created to my uncles who work with 3D imaging. They were impressed, and asked me if I would like a professional imaging program. For my next birthday I received the digital imaging software Photoshop LE, renowned for its professional capabilities. This tool took my imaging skills to all new heights. I was able to quickly and easily create high-quality images, and could edit and enhance existing photos for professional-like results. Photoshop became by far my favorite program, and I spent much time expanding my imaging skills and knowledge. Now, years later, I am working towards a B.S. in Professional and Technical Communication. I plan to use my imaging skills for the Web, a media that relies heavily on images for communication.

The Job of Police Officers :: Police Law Enforcement Essays

The Job of Police Officers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A police officer’s duty is to maintain public order, preventing, and detecting crime. The concept of police officers, also known as cops, and law enforcement has been around ever since the ancient Romans had a theory that an organization of â€Å"peacekeepers† would reduce the crime and violence being committed. This theory stuck with society and is still around today. People of law enforcement have a mission when they step into their police car, that mission is to enforce the rules of conduct or law. Of course, accomplishing this mission can be dangerous. Often when a cop leaves his or her house to go to work worries start to set it, such as â€Å"will I be coming back home when my day is over† or â€Å"will a simple traffic stop go sour and someone ends up dead?† These thoughts are apart of the stress that comes with the job and most people are trained to deal with this stress.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Speaking of training, there are classes that a high school student can take to prepare for a career in law enforcement. Psychology, sociology, foreign languages, and computer courses are recommended for those students who plan to take criminal justice as their higher education major. Participating in sports can improve your chances on becoming an officer of law because it improves strength and endurance. Other student activities can be helpful in this career because they help to improve leadership skills and other publications. Every law enforcement agency has different requirements for qualification; however, almost all of them require a college degree. You can either have a degree in police science, administration of justice, public administration, or criminal justice to qualify for employment. English, Sociology, Psychology, Personal Computer Operations, Survey of Criminal Justice, and Principles of Criminology are classes that need to be taken to complete a cr iminal justice major. Almost every college nationwide offers these classes. (â€Å"Police and Detectives†). There are many colleges that offer either an Associate’s degree or a Bachelor’s in criminal justice or any other type of law enforcement class. However, the decision is whether to attend a two-year community college and receive an Associate’s degree or whether to attend a four-year community or state college to receive a Bachelor’s degree. Some colleges that offer an Associate’s degree in criminal justice are Delaware Technical and Community College, Gibbs College, and Hagerstown Business College. Some colleges that offer a Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice are Wilmington College, Brown College, and Parks College.

Prime Bank

1. 1 Introduction of the Report In the modern competitive environment, the pursuit of service quality is now considered to be an essential strategy. Offering a superior product is no longer sufficient, as firms in the 21st century economy compete on a much broader platform. In terms of the banking sector, service quality has become an increasingly important factor for success and survival (Cui, Lewis, & Park, 2003).Provision of high quality service aids in meeting several requirements such as customer satisfaction and its consequent loyalty and market share, soliciting new customers, improved productivity, financial performance and profitability (Collet, Lancier, & Olliver, 1990; Julian & Ramaseshan, 1994; Lewis, 1989, 1993; Llosa, Chandon, & Orsingher, 1998). It has also become an important research topic because of its important relationship to corporate marketing and financial performance.In the current study the researcher intends to find out the customer service performance of P rime Bank Limited and also compare the performance with other private sector banks. The Prime Bank Limited is a national banking group that is incorporated on the 12th February, 1995 as a consequence of relentless and decided efforts of a group of entrepreneurs having excellence of experience exposure in the different fields of industry, trade and commerce of Bangladesh.To prepare a specific and precise analysis on service quality performance, the researcher will consider the SURVQUAL model proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) which consists of five key dimensions like reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. 1. 2 Origin of the Study This report has been prepared as a requirement of the internship program of School of Business, North South University (NSU). The organization attachment started on 24 January 2010 and ended on 24th April 2010.This project on â€Å"Comparative Analysis of Customer Service Quality of Prime Bank Limited with other Pr ivate Commercial Banks† is assigned by Kazi Tozammel Huq, Assistant Vice President, Motijheel Branch, Prime Bank Limited (PBL) and it was approved by institution supervisor Mr. Muntasir Alam, Lecturer, School of Business, North South University (NSU). 1. 3 Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is to make a comparative analysis of customer service quality of Prime Bank Limited with other private commercial banks.This study attempted to understand the customer perceptions on different service quality dimensions while dealing with these banks. The purpose is also to make recommendations for improving the quality and soundness of different services provided to the customers by Prime bank Limited. 1. 4 Statement of the problem In the current study, the researcher will use five important dimensions like reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles to find out the customer service quality of Prime bank Limited and thus compare the service quality with other private commercial banks in Bangladesh.The problem statement, then, is stated as follows: The current study will identify the customer service quality of Prime bank Limited considering key dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles and compare the performance with other private commercial banks in Bangladesh. 1. 5 Research Methodology 1. 5. 1 Research design As the purpose of this study is to make a comparative analysis of customer service quality of different private commercial banks, therefore descriptive research was undertaken to fulfill the main purpose of the study.The current study will compare the customer perceptions of service quality of Prime Bank Limited with the private commercial banks such as Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd under five key dimensions like tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. This research will use a descriptive study to discover the ideas and insights of these different service quality dimensions. Therefore, the current study will be characterized as a descriptive study. 1. 5. 2 Sampling method For the current study, the researcher will use the customers of four ifferent private commercial banks such as Prime Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd as the sample for the study. For this proposed study, the population will be the customers of different private commercial banks in Bangladesh. The researcher will use stratified random sampling to collect the sample for this study. In a recent study Sureshchandar, Rajendran, and Anantharaman (2003) have also utilized this sampling method to make a comparative analysis of customer perceptions of service quality in the banking sector.The stratification will be done based on the four different banks. From each of the banks, about 20 customers will be randomly selected and thus the sample size will be 80. Data have been collected using the â€Å"personal-contactâ €  approach, i. e. the respondents have been approached personally and given a detailed explanation about the survey. 1. 5. 3 Survey Instrument In the current study, the researcher will use a questionnaire to collect the data from the sample. Structured questionnaire will be used in this research. The questionnaire used in this study is comprised of two parts.The first part contains questions about personal profiles of the respondents including age, occupation and types of accounts currently holding. Then the next and final part includes expectations of respondents according to five dimensions. These dimensions are reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. A seven-point Likert scale ranging from â€Å"strongly disagree = 1† to â€Å"strongly agree = 7† was used to measure the 21 items. This 21-item SURVQUAL scale is developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988). Since Parasuraman et al. 1988) introduced the SERVQUAL instrument, many rese archers have also used, extended and developed this scale to study service quality in different sectors of the services industry (Fick & Ritchie, 1991; Babakus & Mangold, 1992; Coyle & Dale, 1993; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Lewis & Pescetto, 1996; Smith, 1995; Buttle, 1996; Lam, Wong, & Yeung, 1997; Lim & Tang, 2000; Oldfield & Baron, 2000; Gounaris, Stathakopoulos, & Athanassopoulos, 2003). 1. 5. 4 Data Collection The study was conducted on the basis of both the primary and secondary ources of information. Primary data Primary data were collected through questionnaire from the customers of Prime Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd. Secondary data Annual reports of PBL, Instruction circular of Head Office, Brochures of different Banks, online articles. 1. 5. 5 Data analysis procedure In the current situation, the proposed study is a comparative study which intends to analyze the customer service quality of Prime Bank Limited with other Private Commer cial Banks.As a result, after collecting the data the researcher will use Mean value to make the comparison among the banks considering the five dimensions of service quality measurement. Several studies have utilized the mean value to analyze the service quality dimensions (Joseph & Stone, 2003; Dotchin & Oakland, 1994; Cuthbert, 1996; Allred & Addams 2000). In this study, the researcher will also use factor analysis to analyze the data for the proposed study.The researcher intends to check if the scale items included in the questionnaire constituted a single dimension in the specific context of the different private commercial banks and then make a comparison between the banks. Some previous studies have also utilized factor analysis to study service quality of different service organizations (Cui, Lewis, & Park, 2003; Cuthbert, 1996; Arasli, Mehtap-Smadi, & Katircioglu, 2005). To analyze the data gathered from the survey Microsoft Excel 2003 and SPSS 12. 0 is utilized. 1. 5. 6 Su rvey Time The survey time for the current study is April, 2010. 1. 6 Limitations of the StudyThe major limitations of this study are given as follows a. There were some restrictions to have access to the information confidential by concern authority. b. For the comparative analysis only the branches of the four private commercial banks which are located in Gulshan, Banani and Mohakhali areas are selected to collect data for the research. c. In the current study only the perceptions of the customers regarding the service quality is measured. The expectations of the customers regarding the five dimensions of service quality could be measured in such study to evaluate the gap score between perceptions and expectations. . Sufficient records, publications regarding customer service were not available as per requirement. e. Non-cooperative behavior of some officials from few branches. 2. 1 Introduction of the Organization The Prime Bank Limited (PBL) is a national banking group that is in corporated on the 12th February, 1995 as a consequence of relentless and decided efforts of a group of entrepreneurs having excellence of experience exposure in the different fields of industry, trade and commerce of the country. It started operation as a commercial bank on the 17th April 1995 with a branch at Motijheel.At present the bank has 36 branches spread all over the country. It renders all types of commercial banking services to the customers of all strata in the society within the stipulations laid down the bank company act 1991 and rules and regulations formed by Bangladesh from time to time. Diversification of products and services and innovation of products suited to the needs of the customers in keeping with relevant rules and laws have made it different from other commercial banks of the country. PBL’s national business in personal banking, corporate banking and its markets are its special strengths.It maintains correspondent relationship with all over the bank s in countries. Prime Bank Limited is a forward looking and modern local bank with a record of sound performance. It is discarding its erstwhile conservative mould and in response to the current dynamic trends in locally financial activities, adopting an aggressive customer focused system. The effort that Prime Bank makes in order to portray the bank as a brand image is very strong and successful. The general image is that it is â€Å"trustworthy, efficient, helpful and committed†. The logo of the bank depicts the merger of confidence.Prime Bank Ltd. has already made significant progress within a very short period of its existences. The bank has been graded as a top class bank in the country through internationally accepted CAMEL rating. The Bank made satisfactory progress in all areas of business operation in 2004. Prime Bank offers all kinds of commercial corporate and personal banking services covering all segments of society within the framework of banking company Act and rules and regulations laid down by our central bank. Diversification of products and services include Corporate Banking, Retail Banking and Consumer Banking.Prime Bank Ltd. was designed to provide commercial and investment banking services to all types of customer ranging from small entrepreneur to big business firms. Besides investment in trade and commerce, the Bank participates in the socioeconomic development through the participation in priority sectors like agriculture, Industry, housing and self-employment. Prime Bank Ltd. want to establish, maintain, carry on transact Undertake and conduct all types of banking, financial all investment and trust business in Bangladesh and abroad. 2. 2 Mission of PBLTo build Prime Bank Limited into an efficient, market driven, customer focused institution with good corporate governance structure. Continuous improvement in our business policies, procedures and efficiency through integration of technology at all levels. 2. 3 Goals and Objectiv es of PBL Maximization of Profit through customer satisfaction is the main objective of the Bank. In addition, the others relevant objectives are: ? To be market leaders in high quality banking products and services. ? Active excellence in customer service through providing the most modern and advance technology in the different spheres of banking. To participate in the industrial development of the country to encourage the new and educated young entrepreneurs to under take productive venture and demonstrate their creativity and there by participate in the national development ? To provide credit facilities to the small and medium size entrepreneur located in urban & sub-Urban area and easily accessible by our branches. ? To develop saving attitude and making acquaintance with modern banking facilities. ? To inspire for undertaking small projects for creation employment through income generating activities. To play a significant role in the economic development of the country. 2. 4 Organogram of Prime Bank Limited 2. 5 Hierarchy of Prime Bank Limited 2. 6 Business Activities of PBL Prime Bank Limited provides a full range of products and services to its customers, some of which are mentioned below with a brief overview of the major business activities. Consumer Finance There are branches and finance centers under this division with a qualitative workforce of employees. Some of the services provided by this division are unsecured personal loans, credit cards, and vehicle related lease etc.Personal Banking There are branches with highly qualified workforce provide various kinds of loans, various types of accounts, cheques, card money etc. Corporate Banking & institutional Banking There are some branches under this division. The services provided by this division are International Trade Management, Institutional Banking, Custody and Cash Management. Custodial Service PBL equator fulfills its strategic commitment to provide custody and clearing services. Equatorâ €™s main focus is on the following: ? Commitment to quality ? Dedication to customer needs Sustained investment in people and systems International Trade Management This division is operational throughout the group and PBL’s core strength is trade finance and services. With an experience Prime Bank has developed knowledge of trade finance, which is world class. Principle services to importers include imports letter of credit, import bills for collection and back to back letters of credit facilities. Services provide to exporters include export letters of credit, direct export bills for collection, bulk letter of credit collection, bonds, and guarantees.Cash Management Prime Bank recognizes the importance of cash management to corporate and financial institutional customers, and offers a comprehensive range of services and liquidity management. Institutional Banking Through Prime Bank it is very well positioned to provide a wide range of services to institutional clients, commercial, merchant and central banks; brokers and dealers; insurance companies; funds and managers, and others. It provides relationship managers who are close to their customers and speak local language.This wide network of institutional banking facilities includes transaction, introduction, problem solving and renders advice and guidelines on local trading condition. Treasury Treasury operations had been consideration as an important avenue for income generation purpose within Head Office. In fact, in the past, income from treasury operation was quite sizable and significant to the total income generated by the bank. The treasury division publishes daily and weekly currency news letters, which provide analyses of currency trends and related issues.Seminars and workshops are conducted for customers from time to time on foreign exchange related topics. Customers can also have access to bank’s information database round the clock through phone banking. Prime Bank is one of t he first local banks in Bangladesh to integrate treasury dealings of local money market and foreign currency under one Treasury umbrella. The bank has handled significant volumes of treasury over the last several years. Prime Bank's Dealing Room is connected with automated Reuters Terminal facility thus enabling the bank to provide forward/future facilities to its corporate clients at a very competitive rate.In 2004 the treasury operation recorded an income of TK 180. 12 million excluding money market income of TK 72. 25 million. Electronic Banking Electronic Banking provides various types of support through a wide range of operating systems, sweeping transactions accessions with the provisions of reporting features or other special functions. Foreign Exchange Business Over the years, foreign trade operations of the bank played a pivotal role in the overall business development of the bank. The bank has established relationship with as many as 110 new foreign correspondents abroad t hereby raising the total number of correspondents to 350.The total import business handled by the bank during the year 2004 was tk 19564 million against taka 13428 million of the year 2003. The growth rate was 46%. The bank has also entered into remittance arrangements with several banks and exchange houses and expects to handle increased volume of remittance business over the near future. Online Branch Banking The bank has set up a Wide Area Network (WAN) across the country to provide online branch banking facility to its valued clients. Under the scheme clients of any branch shall be able to do banking transaction at other branches of the bank.Under this system a client will be able to do following type of transactions: ? Cash withdrawal from his/her account at any branch of the bank irrespective of the location. ? Cash deposit in his/her account at any branch of the bank irrespective of the location. ? Cash deposit in other’s account at any branch of the bank irrespective of the location. ? Transfer of money from his/her account with any branch of the bank. SWIFT Prime Bank limited is one of the first few Bangladeshi banks, which have become member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) in 1999.SWIFT is a member-owned co-operative, which provides a fast and accurate communication network for financial transactions such as Letters of Credit, Fund Transfer etc. By becoming a member of SWIFT, the bank has opened up possibilities for uninterrupted connectivity with over 5,700 user institutions in 150 countries around the world. Information Technology in Banking Operation Prime Bank limited adopted automation in banking operation from the first day of its operation. The main objective of this automation is to provide efficient and prompt services to the bank's clients. At present all the branches of the bank are computerized.At branch level, the bank is using server-based multi-user software under UNIX operating system to p rovide best security of automation. Profitability and Shareholder Satisfaction The bank had been one of the most profitable in the banking sector. The bank's return on assets (ROA) crossed 3. 75 percent in the year 2004. Even though the capital market of the country has been suffering over the last few years, the good performance of Prime Bank made sure that the banks share price remained in a respectable position. 2. 7 Products and Services of Prime Bank Limited Prime bank Limited offers various kinds of deposit products and loan schemes.The bank also has highly qualified professional staff members who have the capability to manage and meet all the requirements of the bank. Every account is assigned to an account manager who personally takes care of it and is available for discussion and inquiries, whether one writes, telephones or calls. Deposit Products ? Monthly Contributory Savings Schemes(CSS) ? Monthly Benefit Deposit Receipt(MBDR) ? Special Deposit Receipt Scheme(SDR) ? Educ ation Savings Scheme(ESS) ? Fixed Deposit Receipt Scheme(FDR) ? Current Account ? Savings account ? Short Term Deposit ? Multi Currency Account Loan Schemes: ? General Loan Scheme Consumer Credit Scheme ? Lease Finance ? House Building Loan & Apartment Loan Scheme ? Advance against Shares ? Custodial Services for investors (both individual & institutional) investing in through Stock exchange ? One stop services for payment of utility bills. ? Credit card 2. 8 Financial Position of Prime Bank Limited The financial position for the last three years of Prime Bank Limited is given below: (Taka in million) |Particulars |2007 |2008 |2009 | |Total Deposits |16481. 0 |20483. 23 |28069. 24 | |Loans and Advances |12686. 85 |16492. 22 |23219. 67 | |Investment |1996. 23 |2749. 71 |3083. 81 | |Foreign Exchange Business |31753. 70 |41930. 80 |56248. 80 | |Operating Income |1196. 20 |1593. 9 |1970. 37 | |Operating Expenditure |448. 36 |592. 28 |824. 23 | |Operating Profit |747. 84 |1001. 41 |1146. 14 | |Total Assets |19358. 93 |24249. 13 |32361. 62 | |Market value per share |307. 51 |374. 25 |879. 0 | |No of Branches |27 |30 |36 | |No of Employees |730 |777 |894 | |No of Shareholders |1727 |1993 |2620 | |No of Foreign Correspondences |422 |441 |501 | 3. 1 Literature Review . 1. 1 Service Quality Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) defined service quality in terms of physical quality, interactive quality and corporate (image) quality. Physical quality relates to the tangible aspects of the service. Interactive quality involves the interactive nature of services and refers to the two-way flow that occurs between the customer and the service provider, or his/her representative, including both automated and animated interactions. Corporate quality refers to the image attributed to a service provider by its current and potential customers, as well as other publics.Lewis and Booms' (1983) definition clearly states that service is a measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer expectations and delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectation on a consistent basis. In some earlier studies, researchers define service quality as the extent to which a service meets customers' needs or expectations (Lewis & Mitchell, 1990; Dotchin & Oakland, 1994; Asubonteng, McCleary, & Swan, 1996; Wisniewski and Donnelly, 1996).Zeithaml (1987) defined that service quality is the consumer's judgment about an entity's overall excellence or superiority. It is a form of attitude, and results from a comparison of expectations to perceptions of performance received. Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1990) on the other hand, have chosen to define service quality â€Å"as the extent of the discrepancy between customers' expectations or desires and their perceptions†. Service quality has been also defined as the consumers overall impression of the relative inferiority or superiority of the organization and services (Zeithaml et al. 1990; Taylor & Ba ker, 1994). Christopher, Payne, and Ballantyne (1993) have defined service quality as the ability of the organization to meet or exceed customer expectations. Service quality is believed to depend on the gap between expected and perceived performance (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994). Gitlow, Oppenheim, and Oppenheim (1989) also stated that service quality is the extent to which the customer or users believe the service surpasses their needs and expectations.Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985) proposed that service quality is a function of the differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions. Service quality has been also defined as a consumer attitude reflecting the perceived overall superiority and excellence in the process and outcome of a service provider (Parasuraman et al. , 1988). Gronroos (2001) recently defined service quality as a mixture of three elements: quality of the consumption process itself, the quality of the outcome of the proce ss; and image of the provider of the service.Service quality has become an increasingly important factor for success and survival in the banking sector. Provision of high quality service aids in meeting several requirements such as customer satisfaction and its consequent loyalty and market share, soliciting new customers, improved productivity, financial performance and profitability (Collet et al. , 1990; Julian and Ramaseshan, 1994; Lewis, 1989, 1993; Llosa et al. , 1998). Bank Service quality has become an important factor in determining market shares and profitability (Andereson et al. , 1994; Spathis, Kosmidou, & Doumpous, 2002). . 1. 2 Service Quality Dimensions Since a conceptual model concerning perceived service quality was proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985), service quality dimensions have become an area of interest in marketing research (Bolton & Drew, 1991b; Brown & Swartz, 1989; Carman, 1990; Cronin & Taylor, 1992, 1994; Parasuraman et al. , 1988, 1994 ; Teas, 1993, 1994; Zeithaml et al. , 1996). One of the important issues related to service quality is the dimensions of service quality, and the measurement tool, SERVQUAL developed by Parasuraman et al. 1988) has been the starting point of the controversy in this area. Parasuraman et al. (1988) identify five quality dimensions which link specific service characteristics to consumer expectations of quality. These five basic dimensions are: (1) Reliability: Reliability is defined as the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (Parasuraman et al. , 1988). Reliability involves consistency of performance and dependability. It means that the firm performs the service right first time. It also means that the firm honors its promises.Specifically it involves: accuracy in billing; keeping records correctly; performing the service at the designated time. (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985) Reliability basically refers to the extent to which the retail service pr ovides what was promised when it was promised (Dabholkar, Thorpe, & Rentz, 1996). Zeithaml et al. (1990) defined reliability as the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. (2) Responsiveness: It is defined as the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (Parasuraman et al. , 1988).It Concerns the willingness or readiness of employees to provide services. Responsiveness involves timeliness of service like: posting a transaction slip immediately; returning a phone call quickly; giving prompt service; setting up appointments quickly. According to Zeithaml et al. (1990) responsiveness refers to the motivation to help (internal) customers and provide prompt service to them. (3) Assurance: Parasuraman et al. , (1988) defined assurance as the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.Assurance involves trustworthiness, believability, honesty. It involves having the customer’s best interests at hear t. Contributing to credibility includes company name; company reputation; personal characteristics of the contact personnel; how much a hard sell is employed in interactions with the customer (Parasuraman et al. , 1985). Zeithaml et al. (1990) defined assurance as the awareness and good manners of the employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence to the customers. 4) Empathy: According to Parasuraman et al. , (1988) empathy is defined as caring and individualized attention provided to customers. Empathy refers to graciousness, respect, consideration and friendliness of contact personnel including receptionists, telephone operators, etc. It includes: consideration for the consumers’ property; clean and neat appearance of the contact personnel. (5) Tangibles: Tangibles are the physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel in services (Parasuraman et al. , 1988).It includes all the physical evidence of the service: facilities; appearance of personnel; tools or equipment used to provide the service; physical representations of the services (e. g. statements); other customers. Zeithaml et al. (1990) stated that tangibles are the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials. Tangibles of service are the tangible facets of the service facility (equipment, machinery, signage, employee appearance, etc. ) or the man-made physical environment, popularly known as the â€Å"servicescapes† (Sureshchandar, Rajendran, & Anantharaman, 2003). . 1 Comparative Analysis on Service Quality For comparative analysis, the data retrieved from the perception score given by the customers of Prime Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd are analyzed in the current study. By analyzing the mean value of the results the researcher intends to find which Bank's customer service quality is more appreciable to the customers. The comparative analysis is based on the mean score of the actual score given by the customers on the items of each of the service quality dimensions. 4. 1. Comparative Analysis on Reliability dimension: In reliability dimension the customers were asked to give score about their perception on the basis of five scale items. The following Table 1 shows the comparative results in the reliability dimension for Prime Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd. The result shows that Prime Bank receives maximum scores in four scale items except the one which asks whether the bank provides its services at the time it promises to do so. For that particular scale item Prime Bank receives a mean score of 4. 95 whereas the mean score for Dhaka Bank is 5. . Table 1: Mean Quality Scores of Prime bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd for Reliability dimension |Perception Statements in Reliability Dimension |Prime |Dhaka |Southeast Bank |Mercantile Bank | | |Bank |Bank | | | |1. When your ban k promises to do something by a |5. 7 |5. 3 |4. 75 |5. 3 | |certain time, it does so. | | | | |2. When you have a problem, your bank shows a |5. 2 |4. 95 |4. 3 |4. 45 | |sincere interest in solving it. | | | | | |3. Your bank performs the right service at first |5. 2 |4. 45 |4. 7 |4. 80 | |time. | | | | | |4. Your bank provides its services at the time it |4. 95 |5. |4. 55 |4. 6 | |promises to do so. | | | | | |5. Your bank keeps you informed about when services |5. 2 |4. 4 |4. 45 |4. 6 | |will be performed. | | | | | In terms of scale item 1 the customers of Prime Bank have relatively high perception than the customers of other banks as the bank does the work within the promised time. Prime Bank receives a mean score of 5. in this aspect while Dhaka Bank, Southeast Bank, and Mercantile Bank receive 5. 3, 4. 75, and 5. 3 respectively. Prime Bank also receives a mean score of 5. 2 as the bank shows sincere interest to solve the problems of the customers than the other banks do. Prime Bank also receives a comparatively high mean score in the aspect of that the bank keeps customers informed about when services will be performed. 4. 1. 2 Comparative Analysis on Responsiveness dimension: The responsiveness dimension consists of three items. The following Table 2 shows the comparative results in the responsiveness dimensions for the banks.The result shows that Prime Bank receives comparatively low scores in all three items of the dimension. The mean score of Prime Bank for scale item 6 is 4. 65 which is lower than Dhaka Bank and Southeast Bank. Table 2: Mean Quality Scores of Prime bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd for Responsiveness dimension |Perception Statements in Responsiveness Dimension |Prime |Dhaka |Southeast Bank |Mercantile Bank | | |Bank |Bank | | | |6.The employees in your bank give you prompt service. |4. 65 |5. 1 |4. 95 |4. 45 | |7. The employees in your bank always willing to help |4. 8 |5. 15 |4. 05 |4. 55 | | you. | | | | | |8. The employees in your bank are never too busy to |4. 5 |4. 9 |5. 05 |4. 3 | |respond to your request. | | | | The customers of Dhaka Bank perceive more about the willingness of the employees to help them than the customers of Prime Bank do. For the item 8 Prime Bank again receives a mean score of 4. 5 whereas the mean score for Southeast Bank is 5. 05 and Dhaka Bank is 4. 9. 4. 1. 3 Comparative Analysis on Assurance dimension: According to the SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) the assurance dimension of service quality consists of three items.The following Table 3 shows the comparative results in the assurance dimensions for the preferred banks. The result shows that the customers of Prime Bank have given low score in aspect of employees’ behavior and employees’ courteousness than the score given by the customers of other banks. The customers of Prime Bank perceive that the behavior of the employees does not inspire enough confide nce in them. Thus the mean score of Prime Bank for item 9 is 4. 6 which is lower than all other banks. In terms of employees courteousness Prime bank again receives a mean score of 4. which lower than Dhaka Bank and Southeast bank. Table 3: Mean Quality Scores of Prime bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd for Assurance dimension |Perception Statements in Assurance Dimension |Prime |Dhaka |Southeast Bank |Mercantile Bank | | |Bank |Bank | | | |9. The behavior of the employees of the bank inspires|4. 6 |5. 35 |5. 25 |4. 8 | |confidence in you. | | | | |10. You feel safe in your transactions with your |5. 35 |5. 25 |4. 25 |4. 25 | |bank. | | | | | |11. The employees in your bank consistently courteous|4. 7 |5. 25 |4. 9 |4. 65 | |with you. | | | | | |12. The employees in your bank have the knowledge to |4. |4. 8 |4. 3 |4. 4 | |answer your questions. | | | | | The customers also perceive that the employees of Dhaka Bank are more knowledgeable (Mean sc ore 4. 7) than that of Prime Bank (Mean score 4. 8). However, in this dimension Prime Bank receives a high score than other banks in terms of safe transactions with the bank. The customers of Prime Bank perceived that they feel safer while transacting with the bank than that of other banks. 4. 1. Comparative Analysis on Empathy dimension: The following table 3 shows the customers’ perception on empathy dimension of service quality which consists of four items. This comparative analysis evaluates that the customers of Prime Bank perceives high individual attention from their bank. In this aspect Prime Bank receives a mean score of 5. 0 whereas Dhaka Bank, Southeast bank, and Mercantile Bank receive 4. 7, 4. 2, and 4. 2 respectively. Table 4: Mean Quality Scores of Prime bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd for Empathy dimension |PerceptionStatements in Empathy Dimension |Prime |Dhaka |Southeast Bank |Mercantile Bank | | |Bank |Bank | | | |13 . Your bank gives you individual attention. |5. 0 |4. 7 |4. 2 |4. 2 | |14. Your bank has employees who give you individual |4. 75 |4. 9 |4. 35 |3. 65 | |attention. | | | | |15. Your bank has your best interests at heart. |4. 9 |4. 35 |4. 15 |4. 55 | |16. The employees in your bank understand your |4. 65 |4. 8 |4. 75 |4. 45 | |specific needs. | | | | | However when it comes to the aspect of employees’ individual attention towards the customers, Prime Bank receives a relatively low mean score of 4. 5 whereas Dhaka Bank receives 4. 9. The customers of Prime bank also perceive more in the aspect that the bank has their best interests at heart than the customers of other banks do. Prime Bank receives a mean score of 4. 9 in this item. On the other hand, Prime Bank receives a relatively low mean score in case of employees’ understanding of customer’s specific needs. Prime Bank receives a mean score of 4. 65 whereas Dhaka Bank and Southeast Bank receive mean scores of 4. 8 and 4. 75. 4. 1. 5 Comparative Analysis on Tangible dimension: The tangible dimension of service quality consists of five items.The subsequent Table 5 shows the comparative results in the tangible dimension for the private commercial banks that is based on the perceptions of the customers. The result explains that the physical facilities of Prime Bank are more visually appealing than other banks. In this aspect Prime Bank receives a mean score of 5. 35, which is higher than the scores of other banks. The customers of Prime Bank also perceive more that materials associated with the service are visually appealing at the bank than the customers of other banks do.Table 5: Mean Quality Scores of Prime bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd for Tangibles dimension |Perception Statements in Tangible Dimension |Prime |Dhaka |Southeast Bank |Mercantile Bank | | |Bank |Bank | | | |17. The bank has modern-looking and hi-tech |5. 2 |5. 4 |5. 0 |4. 4 | |equ ipments. | | | | |18. The bank’s physical facilities are visually |5. 35 |4. 6 |4. 25 |3. 85 | |appealing. | | | | | |19. The employees of the bank appear neat. |4. 8 |5. 1 |4. 65 |4. 5 | |20. Materials associated with the service are |5. 45 |5. 35 |4. 8 |4. 5 | |visually appealing at the bank. | | | | | |21. Your bank has convenient business hours. |5. 5 |5. 6 |5. 1 |5. 3 | However Dhaka Bank receives a mean score of 5. 4 in the scale item which refers that the bank has modern-looking and hi-tech equipments whereas Prime bank receives a mean score of 5. 2 in this scale item. The customers of Prime Bank also perceive less about the employees’ appearance than the customers of Dhaka Bank do.In this aspect Prime bank receives a mean score of 4. 8 while Dhaka Bank receives a mean score of 5. 1. 4. 2 The five SERVQUAL dimensions: An overall comparison of bank customers’ perception and grand mean scores The following table (Table 6) represents the Grand Mean scores of Prime bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Ltd, Southeast Bank Ltd, and Mercantile Bank Ltd for the five service quality dimensions. In the reliability dimension Prime Bank obtained the highest grand mean score of 5. 25 as the customers of Prime bank think the bank is highly reliable than the customers of other banks do.However, in responsiveness dimension which refers to the willingness of the employees to help customers and provide prompt service, Prime Bank obtained a relatively low grand mean score of 4. 65. In this dimension Dhaka Bank and Southeast Bank receive 5. 05 and 4. 83 respectively. This result evaluates that the customers of Prime Bank are not getting adequate and prompt response from the employees of the bank. Again in terms of assurance Prime Bank obtained a grand mean score of 4. 82 whereas Dhaka Bank receives a grand mean score of 5. 16.This dimension is defined as the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. The customers of Prim e Bank perceive less about the employees’ courteousness than the customers of Dhaka Bank do. The next service quality dimension is empathy which is defined as caring and individualized attention provided to customers (Parasuraman et al. , 1988). Prime Bank obtained a grand mean score of 4. 91 which is relatively higher than the other banks. The customers of Prime Bank also think that the bank has adequate modern looking and hi-tech equipments and the physical facilities are visually appealing.So the bank obtained a grand mean score of 5. 26 in tangibles dimension while in the same service quality dimension Dhaka Bank, Southeast Bank, and Mercantile Bank receive 5. 21, 4. 76, and 4. 54 respectively. Table 6: Grand Mean Quality Scores for five SERVQUAL dimensions |Five Dimensions of Service Quality |Prime |Dhaka |Southeast Bank |Mercantile Bank | | |Bank |Bank | | | |Reliability |5. 5 |4. 82 |4. 55 |4. 75 | |Responsiveness |4. 65 |5. 05 |4. 83 |4. 43 | |Assurance |4. 83 |5. 16 |4. 67 |4. 52 | |Empathy |4. 82 |4. 68 |4. 36 |4. 21 | |Tangibles |5. 26 |5. 1 |4. 76 |4. 54 | According to results of the Grand Mean scores, Table 7 represents the rankings of the banks in five different dimensions and which is prepared on the basis of customers’ evaluation. The result shows that Prime Bank is ranked first in reliability, empathy and tangibles dimensions. However in terms of responsiveness Prime Bank is ranked as third while Dhaka Bank is ranked first. Again in case of assurance Prime Bank is ranked second whereas Southeast Bank is ranked first.Table 7: Ranking of the Private Commercial Banks on the basis of the perception of the customers on five SERVQUAL dimensions |Name of the Private Commercial Banks |Reliability |Responsiveness |Assurance |Empathy |Tangibles | | Prime Bank Limited |1 |3 |2 |1 |1 | | Dhaka Bank Ltd |2 |1 |1 |2 |2 | | Southeast Bank Ltd |4 |2 |3 |3 |3 | | Mercantile Bank Ltd |3 |4 |4 |4 |4 | 4. Factor Analysis on SERVQUAL dimensions The study also includes a factor analysis of the five SERVQUAL dimensions for four different banks using varimax rotation. The factor analysis of five service quality dimensions will help the researcher to check whether the scale items included in the questionnaire constituted a single dimension in the specific context of the different private commercial banks or not. Factor 1: Reliability The data gathered on the scale items for the service quality questionnaire developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) are factor analyzed to check the component structure of the reliability dimension for four different commercial banks.Appendix 1 summarises the scale items used for the dependent and independent variables used for the study. Appendix 2 represents the total variance for the five service quality dimensions. In case of Prime Bank, two scale items out of five of the reliability dimension appeared to be too generalized in terms of explaining reliability and could be remove from the factor. Scal e Items 1, 2, and 3 could be retained for the final factor structure (Table 8), which resulted in a single factor and explained 30. 36% of the cumulative variation. On the other hand, all the items are grouped into one single factor in terms of Dhaka Bank (Table 9). Table 8: Factor Analysis: Prime Bank Table 9: Factor Analysis: Dhaka BankRotated Component Matrix (a, b) Component Matrix (a, b) | |Dhaka Bank | | |Component | | |1 | |ITEM 3 |. 834 | |ITEM 2 |. 810 | |ITEM 5 |. 758 | |ITEM 4 |. 742 | |ITEM 1 |. 729 | | |Prime Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 3 |. 860 |. 186 | |ITEM 1 |. 769 |-. 050 | ITEM 2 |. 428 |-. 153 | |ITEM 4 |-. 024 |. 852 | |ITEM 5 |-. 047 |. 817 | Table 10: Factor Analysis: Southeast Bank Table 11: Factor Analysis: Mercantile Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) | |Southeast Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 1 |. 893 |-. 005 | |ITEM 3 |. 827 |-. 237 | |ITEM 5 |. 753 |. 138 | |ITEM 2 |-. 58 |. 881 | |ITEM 4 |. 017 |. 784 | | |Mercantile Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 2 |. 850 |. 119 | |ITEM 4 |. 568 |-. 129 | |ITEM 5 |-. 084 |. 857 | |ITEM 3 |. 537 |. 607 | |ITEM 1 |. 533 |-. 534 | However, in case of Southeast Bank two out of three items again seemed too general and thus they could be eliminated from the reliability factor.Table 10 shows that Scale Items 1, 3, and 5 could be retained in a single factor for Southeast Bank and explained 41. 04% of the cumulative variation. For Mercantile Bank, Item 1, 2, 3, and 4 could be retained to construct a single factor, which explained 32. 51% of the variation. Factor 2: Responsiveness The scale items of responsiveness dimension are factor analyzed, which confirmed that the items were grouped into one factor. For Prime Bank the result in Table 12 shows that all the scale items on responsiveness dimension constitute a single factor and explained 45. 21% of cumulative variance. Also for Dhaka Bank all three of the items constituted a single factor however it explained 48. 65% of the variance.Table 12: Factor Analysis: Prime Bank Table 13: Factor Analysis: Dhaka Bank Component Matrix (a, b) Component Matrix (a, b) | |Prime Bank | | |Component | | |1 | |ITEM 6 |. 722 | |ITEM 7 |. 706 | |ITEM 8 |. 580 | | |Dhaka Bank | | |Component | | |1 | |ITEM 7 |. 853 | |ITEM 6 |. 839 | |ITEM 8 |. 170 |Table 14: Factor Analysis: Southeast Bank Table 15: Factor Analysis: Mercantile Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Component Matrix (a, b) | |Mercantile Bank | | |Component | | |1 | |ITEM 8 |. 903 | |ITEM 6 |. 810 | |ITEM 7 |. 493 | | |Southeast Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 6 |. 779 |. 287 | |ITEM 8 |. 772 |-. 296 | ITEM 7 |. 000 |. 937 | In terms of Southeast Bank, two out of three scale items constituted a single factor and thus Item 7 could be removed. The single factor explained 40. 10% of the cumulative variation. However, all the three initial items constituted again a single factor and resulted in 57. 14% of the variance for Mercant ile Bank. Factor 3: Assurance Four scale items are initialized to constitute a single factor for assurance dimension. Table 16 shows that two scale items such as Item 10 and Item 12 have shown the possibility to represent a single factor with a variance of 41. 10% for Prime Bank Limited.Item 9 and Item 11 which represent the behavior of the employees and the courteousness of the employees, seemed weak to fit in the single factor for Prime Bank as they represent only 29. 12% of the cumulative variance. Table 16: Factor Analysis: Prime Bank Table 17: Factor Analysis: Dhaka Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b)Component Matrix (a, b) | |Prime Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 12 |. 892 |. 171 | |ITEM 10 |. 889 |-. 154 | |ITEM 9 |. 77 |. 750 | |ITEM 11 |-. 159 |. 741 | | |Dhaka Bank | | |Component | | |1 | |ITEM 12 |. 854 | |ITEM 10 |. 711 | |ITEM 9 |. 618 | |ITEM 11 |. 539 | Table 14: Factor Analysis: Southeast Bank Table 15: Factor Analysis: Mercantile Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) | |Southeast Bank | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 9 |. 811 |. 129 | |ITEM 12 |. 781 |-. 054 | |ITEM 10 |. 163 |-. 830 | |ITEM 11 |. 270 |. 783 | | |Mercantile Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 11 |. 910 |. 178 | |ITEM 9 |. 841 |-. 094 | |ITEM 12 |-. 152 |. 871 | |ITEM 10 |. 477 |. 01 | In assurance dimension, three out of four scale items constituted a single factor for Southeast Bank Ltd. Item 9, 10, and 12 represents that single factor and explained 34. 15% of the cumulative variance. Item 11 that represents employees’ consistent courteousness could be removed from the scale of assurance dimension for Southeast Bank Ltd. In terms of Mercantile Bank Ltd, three items could be retained to constitute a single factor and explained 44. 66% of the cumulative variance. Factor 4: Empathy The factor analysis on empathy dimension shows that Item 17 and Item 18 are more likely to constitute a single factor for Prime Bank (Table 16).This single factor represents 37. 52% of the variance. On the other hand, three out of four scale items appeared to constitute a single factor for Dhaka Bank with 42. 08% of the variance. Table 16: Factor Analysis: Prime Bank Table 17: Factor Analysis: Dhaka Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) | |Dhaka Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 13 |. 836 |-. 226 | |ITEM 16 |. 828 |. 285 | |ITEM 14 |. 163 |. 875 | ITEM 15 |. 522 |-. 660 | | |Prime Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 17 |. 857 |. 312 | |ITEM 18 |. 820 |-. 323 | |ITEM 16 |. 252 |. 830 | |ITEM 15 |. 177 |-. 558 | Table 14: Factor Analysis: Southeast Bank Table 15: Factor Analysis: Mercantile Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) | |Mercantile Bank | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 16 |. 894 |. 083 | |ITEM 14 |. 878 |. 004 | |ITEM 15 |-. 133 |. 830 | |ITEM 13 |. 237 |. 773 | | |Southeast Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 15 |. 883 |-. 135 | |ITEM 13 |. 776 |. 415 | |ITEM 14 |-. 108 |. 891 | |ITEM 16 |. 473 |. 725 |In terms of Southeast Bank, three out of four scale items constituted a single factor and thus Item 14 could be removed. The single factor explained 40. 43 % of the cumulative variance. Again, for Mercantile Bank Item 16 and Item 14 appeared to constitute a single factor and explained 41. 08% of the variance. Factor 5: Tangibles The tangible initially contains five scale items. After factor analysis for Prime Bank Limited, the result shows that two items are too generalized and thus could be removed. Thus Item 17, 18 and 21 constituted a single factor which explained 33. 94% of the variance. Three items also constituted a single factor structure for Dhaka Bank although here the items are 18, 19, and 20 with 32. 3% of the variance. Table 16: Factor Analysis: Prime Bank Table 17: Factor Analysis: Dhaka Bank Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) | |Prime Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 17 |. 778 |. 137 | |ITEM 21 |. 772 |-. 499 | |ITEM 18 |. 691 |. 291 | |ITEM 20 |. 048 |. 774 | |ITEM 19 |. 124 |. 736 | | |Dhaka Bank | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 18 |. 859 |. 048 | |ITEM 19 |. 853 |. 258 | |ITEM 21 |-. 082 |. 776 | |ITEM 20 |. 300 |. 657 | |ITEM 17 |. 224 |. 612 | Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) Rotated Component Matrix (a, b) | |Mercantile Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 | |ITEM 21 |-. 768 |. 029 | |ITEM 19 |. 687 |. 142 | |ITEM 20 |. 25 |-. 409 | |ITEM 17 |. 269 |. 881 | |ITEM 18 |. 345 |-. 490 | | |Southeast Bank | | |Component | | |1 |2 |3 | |ITEM 18 |. 902 |-. 223 |-. 074 | |ITEM 20 |. 689 |. 427 |. 177 | |ITEM 17 |-. 059 |. 936 |. 067 | |ITEM 19 |. 458 |. 491 |-. 488 | |ITEM 21 |. 069 |. 092 |. 917 |The factor analysis for Southeast Bank in tangible dimension shows that three out of five scale items constituted a single factor which represented 30. 13% of the variance. In terms of Mercantile Bank four items constituted a single factor with 32. 88% of variance. 5. 1 Findings of the R esearch On the base of survey, theoretical analysis and practical experience of 3 months internship program the following findings are identified during the research period: ? The customer service quality of Prime Bank Limited is not satisfactory enough in terms of responsiveness and assurance of the employees in comparison with the studied private commercial banks. Customers perceived a relatively low quality in these dimensions than the customers of other private commercial Banks. The courteousness, promptness, and attitude of the employees towards their work are the critical issues and need to improve significantly to provide better quality service to the customers. ? The Bank has no segmentation to handle different type of customers. They are equally treating of all the customers to provide service. Nevertheless high status clients seek on extra honor from Bank or institution. ? It is found that the recruitment policy of the bank is not always fair. Intelligence and capability a re not always the criteria for selection. People who have good relation with influential persons have the chance to enter through backdoor. Most of the times these people do not have the ability to compete with other banks’ workforce in terms of performance.As a result the service quality and innovativeness of the bank is deteriorating day by day whereas the other private commercial banks that have a good recruitment policy are doing well and are also enhancing their reputation among talented job seekers. ? PBL has a very long hierarchy than other Bank. In some of the bank there are only 9-10 posts before Managing Director but in PBL this number is 15, which might be a cause of demotivation to the employees. ? Most of the customers of the bank ask for more quality service especially quick, accurate service and good behavior from bankers as they think a private bank should provide such quality sufficiently. Lack of Good Cooperation is identified among the work procedures and a lso among the employees of the bank which results in lengthiness and ineffective service. Recommendations As per earnest observation some suggestions for the improvements of the situation are given below: ? Bank is a service-oriented financial organization. Its business profit depends on its service quality. That’s why the authority always should be aware about their service quality and thus should take initiative to measure the service quality of the bank periodically on different dimensions. ? Management should carefully handle the different departments of general banking in regard to provide better quality service. ? The quality of customer service should be considered as absolutely indispensable. In general banking department it is necessary to implement modern banking process instead of traditional system. It should be more computerized to. ? As Prime Bank Limited is the financial institution and one depends to another to complete a process fully. So lack of cooperation should be minimized to provide prompt service