Risk and uncertainty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Risk and uncertainty - Essay Example In contrast, there is an uncertainty when individuals are not informed of the outcome or of its distribution. Some authors suggest that risk is about the outcome of events whereas the uncertainty is specifically related to its probability. An effective inventory management is essential to ensure the better use of inventory. If the prevailing economic and market conditions are favourable, the organisation may use the inventory at its best level to generate more profits. Likewise, the firm should not choose to use inventory on a large scale when the existing business conditions are not promising. Businesses should use their excess capacity once they identify an emerging opportunity to expand their market territory or to increase sales volume. For instance, firms may use their excess capacity in peak seasons to take advantages of the favourable market situation. A cake manufacturing company must use its excess capacity in festival seasons like Christmas, New Year, and Easter because there will be an increase in the market demand of cake during these seasons. By using the excess capacity, the company can improve its production capacity to meet the increased supply needs. In addition, a company can use its excess capacity when demand conditions are favourable. To illustrate, a company would experience increased demand for its products/services following a positive review by reputed agencies and therefore the company must increase its capacity to benefit from this particular business situation. A number of strategies can be used to minimise risk/uncertainty exposure during the product launch (Harley Davidson low-to-the-ground hover bikes). It is clear that the organisation would not be informed of many risks and uncertainties when it launches the product into the market. A prior market survey can really assist the organisation to minimise its risk/uncertainty exposure to a great extent. The business can make use of the wide popularity of the social

Credit card Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 15000 words

Credit card - Essay Example The various types of credit card fraud and the manner by which they are carried out are related, including the surrounding circumstances that enable or disable the commission of the crime. The various methods and techniques by which credit crime fraud is countermanded or mitigated are also presented, pursuant to the theory of situational crime prevention from the viewpoint of the individual, business firms, and the crime enforcement authorities. Other than the common typologies presented, seven case studies in particular are detailed with the intention of highlighting the special circumstances that set the case situations apart from the common types of card fraud. The unique situations may or may not easily lend themselves to situational crime prevention – the latter pertaining to terrorist activities in particular – but all of which crime enforcers are mandated to address and seek a solution to. The proposed research will examine one of a number of growing crimes that is perpetrated over the Internet via the World Wide Web (WWW). Specifically, it will look at credit card fraud. Although credit card fraud is not new, some form of fraud involving credit cards has existed for decades; the growth of commercial transactions over the WWW has made these crimes a major consideration for law enforcement agencies. This is because criminals are using new ways to steal technologies, merchandise from retail outlets, and cash from automated teller machines (ATMs). Credit Card Fraud is aspecies of payment card fraud, defined thus: "Payment card fraud is a generic term used to describe a range of offences involving theft and fraudulent use of payment card account data. Frequent types of payment card fraud include: lost or stolen card, account takeover, counterfeit card, application fraud and card not present." (Interpol, 2009) Incidents of payment card fraud became increasingly widespread following the technology boom in the

Effective Study Skills Are the Sole Foundation of a Sound Essay Example for Free

Effective Study Skills Are the Sole Foundation of a Sound Essay Effective study skills are definitely an important factor of a sound education. They dont happen overnight. They evolve and mature through practice, trial and error, feedback from others and reflection through different stages of the course (Cottrell,S.2008. pg1) Working on effective study skills means the individual will find out what works best. Basically learning how to learn (Cottrell,S. 2008. pg 48). There are many different ways in which individuals learn, for e.g. conscious learning when the individual is aware they are learning (Cottrell,S. 2008. pg 48). Unconscious learning when the individual is unaware that it is happening but it may become conscious learning when they just know something and then wonder, how did I know that (Cottrell,S. 2008. pg 48). Each person has 3 different learning styles which affect their lives. Some people learn better using visual learning such as looking at pictures or diagrams. Other people are auditory learners i.e. listening to recordings. Then there are people who are kinaesthetic or tactile learners, they like to touch and play with things. (Wyman,P. 2011). By testing all these types of learning people will see what they find easiest to use and then be able to adapt it to their studies. Effective study skills could definitely be described as the sole foundation of a sound education when doing independent learning. A learner would acquire knowledge by his or her own efforts, therefore good study skills are vital (Meena. 2012). This comes into effect on a distance learning course i.e. foot health diploma. Having the choice of when and where studying takes place, means being disciplined enough to dedicate the time to it. In essence the individual is teaching themselves. To really succeed in a chosen subject doing something with genuine enthusiasm is most important otherwise individuals could just lose interest.

The Hong Kong tourism industry

The Hong Kong tourism industry Part B Abstract It is revealed that high labor turnover is a major global problem in hotel industry. The human resource management in the hotel industry is facing challenge about retaining employees and minimizes the turnover. Therefore, it is worth to investigate about the human resource management in the hotel industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the labor turnover in hotel industry, and its associated the factors affecting the labor turnover and how to manage the labor turnover. The labor turnover in hotel industry is influenced by the work related factors, external factors and external factors. According to some statistics, the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry is very high. Moreover, some retention strategy are propose to overcome the labor turnover are discussed including training, employee motivation and employee recognition. Section 1 :Introduction 1.1 Reason for choice of topic The tourism industry is the leading industry in many countries. Hong Kong tourism industry contributing $162.8 billion or 10.8% of gross domestic product in 2009(http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/, http://www.tourism.gov.hk/textonly/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html ) and Thailand tourism industry generate 6.5% of gross domestic product in 2008 (http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism.asp). Accommodation is an essential element of tourism service and it is vital to the quality of the tourist experience, as it constitutes a major part of consumption. This study is to investigate the labor turnover in the hotel organization. It is general known that the hospitality industry has a major challenge about the labor turnover and staff stability rates. These problems are usually occur in the front-line staff as it is related to a lot of unfavorable working conditions in hotel, such as the long working hours, unstable working schedule and lack of promotion opportunities. Therefore, many people are not willing to enter to the hotel industry or some people have work for many years in hotel industry but shift to another industry because of those unfavorable working conditions. Besides, the human resource management in the hotel industry are facing some serious problems about retaining the employees and recruits the right people to fill in the right job. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the factors that cause the front-line employees to quit the job. In addition, to discuss what the human resource management can do to retain the st aff and manage the labor turnover in the hotel organization. Another reason for choosing this topic to study is the authors want to become the human resource manager in a hotel. Therefore, it is vital that the author have a clear understanding of what challenges that the human resource management are facing and to use the specific approach to overcome those problems. 1.2Academic objectives of dissertation This paper aims to achieve the followings objectives: To find out what is the meaning of labor turnover and have an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry To discuss the factors that influence labor turnover in hotel industry. To explain the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry. To find out what the human resource management can do to managing the labor turnover. 1.3 Outline of sections In section 1, the author talked about her reason for choice this topic and the major objectives through this project. In section 2, the authors explained the concepts of labor turnover briefly and provide an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry. In section 3, the author would explain the factors influence the turnover in the hotel industry and have an understanding of the cost of labor turnover. It could help to show the labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry. Moreover, in section 4, the author wants to make others understand how to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry. Finally in section 5, would be the summary and conclusion about this project. Section 2:Literature review 2.1 What is labor turnover? According to Price (1977, p.15) the term ‘turnover is defined as the ratio of the number of organization members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period and also each time a position is vacated, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995, p. 345). Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover affects both workers and firms: workers may need to learn new job-specific skills, whilst firms incur the costs of hiring and training new workers (Brown et. al., 2009). The new workers may be more highly motivated and more highly skilled. Hence, turnover may enhance firm performance. However, high labor turnover causes problems for the firm as it is costly, lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary, where the employees leave of their own free will, and involuntary, where the employer decides that employment should terminate. Retirement can fall into either category (Boella, 2000). Most often the voluntary turnover arises where some employees leave to escape negative work environment factors and other are pulled away from the organization by more attractive opportunities and Cheng and Brown (1998) stated that people quit their job for many reasons, but most reasons are not related to management. In recent study, the involuntary turnover can applied to those employees have a poor performance or have did some serious mistakes then the organization would encourage them to quit than fire them. 2.2 The turnover culture in the hotel industry Everyone knows that the hotel industry is a highly labor-intensive industry but the high labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. Some theorists such as Mobley (1977), Price (1977), Price and Mueller (1986) identified a range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover. According to the research Griffith University, the primary reason for managerial and operational turnover was voluntary resignation, followed by an internal transfer. Performance related terminations were very low. The main motivating factors for executives, managerial and supervisory staff to change jobs, within the hotel industry, were better career opportunities and better working hours. Changing jobs outside the industry was primarily motivated by higher salaries, working hours and better career opportunities. The data suggests that higher wages and better working hours are the major drivers for managerial employees to leave. Similarly, operational staff seek better wages, better working hours and improved career opportunities. In the pervious years, a small among of staff in hotel industry will stay for longer than five years but the voluntary turnover is gradually increase compared with the last decades. According to Kennedy and Berger (1994, p. 58) they stated that, in the hospitality industry, ‘the highest turnover occurred during the first 4 weeks (in employment). The cause of turnover is often poor human resource decisions and the unmet expectations of newcomers. 2.3 Factors affecting employee intent to leave in the hotel industry There are many factors affecting employee turnover. According to a widely accepted though, employees usually quit their jobs because of lack of wages. However, many studies show that there are also many complex factors affecting employee turnover other than wage, such as the management of the company, economics, and psychology. In the following section, some factors affecting employee turnover are discussed. 2.3.1 Work Related Factors The work related factors are other factors that will influence the labor turnover in the hotel industry. The following section will mainly focus on the job satisfaction, pay, working environment, work performance, promotion opportunities and the organization commitment how to influence the labor turnover. 2.3.1.1 Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities (Khatri et. al., 2003). According to Davis (1981), job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. In addition, Oshagbemi (2000) has defined job satisfaction as ‘‘individuals positive emotional reaction to particular job. The term job satisfaction is considered an attribute that exists as the equity of a variety of desired and non-desired job-related experiences. It is also defines as the degree of fit between the features of a job and employees expectations. In addition, there are researchers who view that job satisfaction is a result of both employees expectations and aspirations and their existing status (Clark Oswald, 1996). When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job, and the basic reason is that they expect to ha ve a more satisfying job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers. Price and Mueller (1981) stated that job satisfaction has an indirect influence on turnover through its direct influence on formation of intent to leave. Another study stated that employees with higher degree of trust would have higher levels of job satisfaction in the hospitality industry (Gill, 2008). 2.3.1.1.1 Pay According to the past study, the average annual wages of hotel are very low compare with the other industries such as the IT technology and education industry. A low starting salary is found in the frontline department in the hotel industry such as the housekeeping, Food and Beverage and front office. It was shown that dissatisfaction with pay is among the significant factors responsible for turnover (Pavesic and Brymer, 1990; Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Pay is received by the staff and money is equivalent to staffs effort to provide service. The salary, compensation and fringe benefit received by the staff are also the pay. Therefore, if the pay is increase, it can reduce the labor turnover. The relationship between pay and job satisfaction has received considerable attention (Churchill, FordWalker, 1974; Lawler, 1995). The pay was the most important job attribute contributing to job satisfaction in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Therefore, higher pay is significantly related to greater job satisfaction. The staff will be more satisfied with their job when the actual pay is more than the expected pay. The other situation that causes the staff to be more likely to leave their organization is that when they perceive that they are receiving lower salary but they know the other people elsewhere are offered better pay. Therefore, offering higher wages than competing organization will enable the organization to retain some talented worker. 2.3.1.1.2 The work itself The work itself is a critical dimension in employee job satisfaction (Luthans, 1992; Lawler, 1995; Qu, Ryan Chu, 2001; Groot Van Den Brink, 1999) and Glisson and Durick (1988) considered the worker and the nature of the work itself as two important factors affecting job satisfaction. The internal satisfactory factors are related to the work itself, such as: feeling of achievement, feeling of independence, self-esteem, feeling of control and other similar feelings obtained from work. And the external satisfactory factors such as: receiving praise from the boss, good relationships with colleagues, good working environment, high salary, good welfare and utilities. There is a relationship between job satisfaction and stress. Barsky, Thoresen, Warren and Kaplan(2004) argued that high level of work stress will be decrease the job satisfaction and finally leaving the organization because workers feel their job duties are difficult to fulfill. Price (1977) divided job stress into four types: lack of resources to perform, the amount of workload, the clarity of the role obligations and the role conflict. Those job stresses will also make the employees intent to quit the organization. 2.3.1.1.3 The supervision Supervision, being one of the dimensions of job satisfaction (Rust et al., 1996), is defined from the employee-centeredness perspective, it is manifested in ways such as checking to see how well the subordinate is doing, providing advice and assistance to the individual, and communicating with the worker on a personal as well as an official level (Luthans, 1992, pp. 121-122). Some information show that, satisfaction with supervisor will influence job satisfaction positively and finally decrease the labor turnover. If the supervisor provide more concern and social support to the employees, they will be more satisfy and the turnover will be decrease. 2.3.1.1.4 The promotion opportunities Price (2001) stated that promotion opportunities are the potential degree of movement to a higher level status within an organization. The promotion opportunities are also the important category to define the employees are satisfy or dissatisfy, because promotion opportunities are usually associated with increase the salary. However, the result show that hotel sector are lack of promotion opportunities rather than not having enough fair promotion policy (Iverson and Derry. 1997). Due to the hotel industry are lack of promotion opportunities, it will reduce the chance to retain the talented employees in the organization. When employees suffering from unfair treatment, they will change their job attitude immediately and may quit in long run (Vigoda, 2000). 2.3.1.2 The Organization Commitment According to Pennstate (2006), organizational commitment is the relative strength of an employees attachment or involvement with the organization where he or she is employed. Organizational commitment is important because committed employees are less likely to leave for another job and are more likely to perform at higher levels. There are three dimensions of organizational commitment, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Turnover literature has consistently found a strong relationship between turnover and organizational commitment, indicating that employees with low commitment are likely to withdraw from the organization. Alternatively, a positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and career progress or internal promotions indicating that promoted employees are more likely to exhibit higher organizational commitment. 2.3.1.3 Work Performance Employees work performance is another factor affecting labor turnover. According to a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (2003), it was found that the employees having high performance were not willing to leave their jobs. At this point of view, if the employees having low performance leave their jobs for any reasons, labor turnover is not an important matter for the company. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job performance. Low wages, exclusion from prizes, unsuitable jobs are also among the reasons causing low performance and high employee turnover. 2.3.1.4 Personal Reason Some employees also leave their jobs because of personal reasons. A principal reason that employees leave their jobs is lack of incentives (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Employees may simply want recognition or an opportunity in advance. For example, The Ritz Carlton Company has reduced employee turnover by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and orientation, establishing realistic career opportunities and creating long-term incentive and reward systems. 2.3.2 Demographic Factor Most voluntary turnover models include demographic variables such as age, gender, race, tenure, marital status, number of dependents, and educational experience. However, this paper only focuses on the level of education, gender, marital status and age. 2.3.2.1 Level of Education One of the major challenges of the hospitality industry is the retention of highly educated employees. We define highly educated staff as employees who have followed a higher education program at a bachelors or masters level successfully ( Deery and Shaw, 1999). Carbery et al. (2003) noted that those more highly educated managers or non-managers are more likely to intent to make a turnover decision. One research study by (Blomme et. al., 2010), it shows that among alumni of the Hotel School The Hague who are working worldwide has shown that within 6 years after graduation about 70% of all graduates from the hotel school The Hague leave the organization in which they are working. The more highly educated staff will be less easily satisfied with their jobs than those staff with lower education level because the highly educated staff have higher expectations in job status and salary and they may not be willing to join or stay in the hotel industry. In addition, the external labor market s will provide many opportunities for those highly educated people to satisfy their high expectation on financial benefit. (Wong, Siu Tseng, 1999) 2.3.2.2 Gender Some study noted that, the female and male have their particular behavior that would influence the labor turnover. According to a study conducted by(Doherty and Manfredi,2001:62), it was found that women workers leave their jobs more than men workers, because the roles of women have to taking care of children, having baby in a society and doing house work. In addition, Hersch and Stratton (1997) stated that women, especially married women, spend more time engaged in household activities and are substantially more prepared to quit their job for a family-related reason than men . Some women workers also do not want to return to their jobs after having baby. On the other hand, the study conducted by Tang and Talpade (1999), it stated that males tended to have higher satisfaction with pay than females, whereas females tended to have higher satisfaction with co-workers than males. Its means that women tend to rate social needs as more important than men such as working with people and being helpful to other. Men tend to consider pay more important than do women. Women often begin their careers with much lower expectations than men do and they are willing to take career risks and change employers to do so. Finally, women workers usually work at the entry level jobs in hotel and accordingly get less pay than their men co-workers. According to a study conducted by Iverson (2000) in the USA, it was found that women managers in hotel got very less wages than men managers whether in the beginning or top of their careers. In a similar study, it was found that men workers got more wages than women workers got (Burgess, 2000). It was also found that in order to balance the wage differences among men and women workers, basic and routine job were given to women workers than men workers. 2.3.2.3 Marital Status According to Pizam and Ellis (1999), it stated that marital status could influence labor turnover. Those married employees are most concerned with the balance between their work and family life. Hom and Griffeth (1995),stated that married employees will not want to have a voluntary turnover. Because they have many concerns about the financial needs for their family. If they cannot afford the long and unstable working hours, they will tend to give up the job. However, this issue mostly occurs on women. Therefore, they will have more time for family life and take care of their child. On the other side, the unmarried employees will consider factors related to their jobs such as promotion opportunities and organization commitment more than those married employees (Wong, Siu Tsang, 1999). Therefore, they are less satisfied with their job than married employees. 2.3.2.4 Age In recent study, Hartman and Yrle (1996) points out that the Generation Y employee mostly creates the labor turnover in hospitality industry. In addition, the study conducted by Iverson and Deery (1997), it stated that younger employees have a higher propensity to leave than older employees. The problem was arisen in this decade; as the employees born in the baby boomer are retire gradually. The baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964. They have been through periods of war; therefore have less opportunity in education institutions. They tend to demand more stability in their workplace, and they are very loyalty to their employees. On the other hand, the Generation Y employee who was born between the years 1979 and 1994, they can adapt the changes easily and seek a higher standard of life therefore, they consider more about their interest in the work. Furthermore, they usually change their job, as they want to gain more experience and make their life more diversity. 2.3.3External Factors The external factors are the factors that we cannot control and very difficult to predict. Some of these factors include political shifts, legislation, new or modified regulations, global economic conditions, technology changes and major mining disasters. In some study, the hotel industry is quite easily influenced by the global economic conditions. The economic situation could predict most of the labor turnover within the industry. Therefore, the unemployment rate affects the employees perception on job satisfaction. If the economic is down turn, the employees who perceive a high level of job dissatisfaction, they may still stay in organization because they dont want to lose their current job and also the job market is a lack of opportunities for them to get a better job. On the other hand, if the economic condition have improve, the employees will leave the organization immediately to find a better job. Therefore, it may create the high level of labor turnover when the economic have improved. In the later part of the literature will focus on how to manage the labor turnover in order to minimize the labor turnover within the hotel industry. 2.4 The cost of labor turnover In the previous section, some of the critical factors that affect the labor turnover are discussed. The following section will focus on the cost of labor turnover and its impact. Labor turnover is a significant cost to hotel and it may be the most significant factor affecting hotel profitability, service quality and skills training. (Davidson et. al., 2009). The cause of labor turnover is multidimensional, such as low morale, low productivity, low standard of performance and absenteeism. According to the statistics from TTF Australia(2006), the annual cost of replacing managerial employees was $109,909 per hotel and the annual cost of replacing operational employees was $9,591 per employee. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). Another study stated that the Marriott Corporation alone estimated that each 1% increase in its employee turnover rate, costs the company between $5 and $15 million in lost revenues (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991).Therefore, the cost of labor turnover is very high. Labour turnover is not only a significant tangible dollar cost but also an intangible or ‘hidden cost associated with loss of skills, inefficiency and replacement costs (Lashley Chaplain, 1999). The direct impact of labor turnover will cause financial suffering such as administrative cost and Lashley (1999) refers to lost investment in training and lost staff expertise as particular examples of turnover costs and opportunity costs. For the indirect impacts caused by high labor turnover are lack of manpower, poor quality of service and low morale of employees and also if turnover increases, service quality may decline as it takes time and resources to ‘back fill departing employees, especially at busy hotels (Lynn, 2002). Labour is a significant cost and the leakage of human capital through unnecessary turnover is an element of critical importance to bottom line performance. A number of HRM practices have been suggested as potential solutions for turnover, such as investment in training, offering organisational support, adopting innovative recruitment and selection processes, offering better career opportunities (Cheng Brown, 1998; Forrier Sels, 2003; Hinkin Tracey, 2000; Walsh Taylor, 2007; Walters Raybould, 2007) and adopting measures to increase job satisfaction and commitment. 2.5 How to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry? High staff turnover is the common problem in hotel industry, it is also a major factor affecting workplace efficiency, productivity, and hotel cost structure. Labor turnover represents a challenge for contemporary HRM strategies and practices. Therefore, in this section, it will turn to focus on how to manage the labor turnover from the human resources perspective. In the previous section, the cost of labor turnover in the hotel is discussed. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). The turnover cost are very high, thus the awareness of the importance of employees staying with an organization is evident. Hinkin and Tracey (2000) advocate that hospitality executives who understand the value of human capital and adopt organizational policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will outperform the competition. Effectively designed and well implemented employee retention programs that increase employee tenure more than pay for themselves through reduced turnover costs and increased productivity (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000). According to 2500 supervisors, managers and executives within this sector, the top five most important aspects a company can provide to retain their people are as follows: communication, Leadership, Career path, development and understanding aspirations and helping the individual towards achieving them.(Baum ,2006) This shows that, the employee are highly concern for this five elements to determine their job satisfaction. Therefore, when HRM design for a retention scheme, they can consider those five elements before their decision. 2.5.1Training In organizations where employees receive the proper training needed to assume greater responsibilities, turnover rates are generally lower. Several studies show that training activities are correlated with productivity and retention (Delery and Doty, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Kallenberg and Moody, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Shaw et al., 1998; Terpstra and Rozell, 1993; US Department of Labor, 1993, Walsh and Taylor, 2007; Youndt et al., 1996). Staff is a unique asset in the company. Therefore, many hotel have invest a huge number of money per year for staff development. Because they realize that provide training to their employees would enhance the organization produtivity and improve their job performance. For the long-term purpose, training can solve the problem of high labor turnover in a hotel. Moreover, the hotel industry are now have a general shortage of the middle management staff. Therefore, the training should be around to develop and train new management personnel. For example, in 2004 Shangri-La Hotel Resorts Shangri-La Academy was born, this is a full-time facility that handles internal training for progression up the ranks. In addition, the Intercontinental Hotel Group also launched an in-house training center in order to groom their high potential employees to take on managerial positions within their company. Those measures of the Shangri-La Hotel and the Intercontinental Hotel Group is to do the retention of their employees and confront the trend of shortage of experienced staff and try to minimize the labor turnover. 2.5.2 Motivate the employee Staff motivation is as vital to success as any skill or personal attribute and its also plays a key role in staff retention. Motivation is the process by which a persons efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal.(Stephen Coulter, 2006:482) . Staff motivation is a key element in retaining staff and help them increase the job satisfaction thus the labor turnover rate may be decrease. It is essential for the management of hotels to develop efficient HRM polices and practices that enable them to motivate competent employees who can contribute to the achievement of

Alfred Stieglitz and Gallery 291 :: Armory show Art essays

Alfred Stieglitz and Gallery 291 A Modern Art Revolution Before the Armory Show â€Å"Quite a few years ago†¦there got to be—a place†¦. The place grew—the place shifted†¦the place was where this man was†¦. —Shift—is something that cannot be tied—cannot be pigeonholed. It jumps—it bounds—it glides —it SHIFTS— it must have freedom†¦. It seems those who do that worth the doing are possessed of good eyes—alive eyes—warm eyes— it seems they radiate a fire within outward. The places they inhabit have a light burning— a light seen from near and far by those who need this light— and this light sometimes dim—sometimes brilliant—never out—†¦. To realize such a place— a very tangible place was and is this man’s dream.† John Marin about Alfred Stieglitz[1] On February 17, 1913 the International Exhibition of Modern Art, or the Armory Show, opened to the public. It is unlikely that the some 4,000 guests milling around the eighteen rooms of the 69th Regiment Armory in New York that night could have realized the extent to which the artwork displayed would set off a revolution that would sweep the nation. Response to the Armory Show, however, was sensational. During the month long exhibition the, Armory Show became the talk of the town. The galleries were constantly full of people who came to gape at the spectacle, artists who came to study or deride, and celebrities and socialites who came to see and be seen. Former President Teddy Roosevelt even made a visit to the show praising the spirit of modernity present in the venture, but distrustful of the so called ‘radical’ art of the European avant-garde. In his response to the show published in Outlook, Roosevelt commented: â€Å"It is vitally necessary to mov e forward and to shake off the dead hand of the reactionaries; and yet we have to face the fact that there is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.†[2] In this statement Roosevelt summarized the public reactions to the show.

Background of the Study Essay

Introduction What is Portal? A portal is known as links page which presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. It may contain services that provide standard search engine feature, e-mail, news, information, database and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether. Campus portal is defined as a entry point for a college or university that provide a centralized source of information services for students, prospective students, faculty, suppliers, administrators, alumni and friends. The term campus portal implies from a relatively simple set of Web-based calendar and e-mail services, to a broad online interface offering highly personalized and customizable access to nearly all the features and benefits of campus life and work. Campus portal can provide entry points to anything from Web access, student activity information, class resources, syllabi and assignment listing, homework submission, to online forums for topic discussions since the campus portal is accessible to any Web-enabled computer, it’s a powerful tool for pulling together a far-flung university community. The portal allows alumni and friends to participate in campus life. At least to the extent it is enabled via the Web. Statement of the Problem The purpose of this study is to develop a Campus Course Portal that will give solution to the problems of the student and faculty members on every each department in terms of getting updated with the announcements, online examination, viewing of grades, student ledger accounts, class schedule, student profile, library catalogue, and available materials for the course. The purpose of this study is to solve the following problems: 1.Not all the students are informed and aware about the events, sudden changes of class schedule and other activities that are announced by the faculty members or by the institution. 2.The dissemination of the information in such social medium sites like Yahoo groups, Google groups, Facebook groups and the like is not controlled as to the recipient of the data that is being shared. All registered members of a specific group (e.g. Yahoo Groups) have complete access to all of its content which compromises security and privacy due to absence of an option to choose a specific or group of recipients. 3.The manual pre-assessment system such as checking of balance is to slow. This usually consumes a lot of time. Causing the delay in completing the entire enrolment process. Objective of the Study General Objective To be able to develop and implement a Online Course Portal on a Campus that will benefit the faculty members, students and the administration of an institution. Specific Objective 1.To have an effective way of providing information or notification anywhere and anytime to the students about rapid changes of schedule, activities or other announcement by via Web. 2.To improve the privacy, user-friendliness and to enable convenient access to the different kinds of information and services mounted on the web by users, it would be desirable to set up a portal for channelling the vast information resources to the different users in an efficient and effective manner (e.g posting announcement or messages to selected group people). 3.To create an Online Course Portal on a Campus which provide a lot of information regarding to their academic standing. In addition the Online Course Portal can also automatically evaluate and show the report of grades of the students being distributed by their respective professors. Significance of the Study To the Researchers, The researchers will not only provide information and develop a Online Campus Portal, but will also gain knowledge and help them develop their skills when it comes to web-based applications and for their professional career in the future. To the Students, Through this system, the students will increase their knowledge by having sufficient resource materials, and receive important information from the faculty members and the administration by login in on the said link page. To the Faculty Members, Through this system, the faculty members can provide all the necessary information and resource material to their students, in addition to that, faculty members can simply post announcements to their students in case of sudden change of schedule or additional activities that should be accomplished on a given date and time. To the Future Researchers, The future researchers could gain knowledge from the study and benefits, advantages and disadvantages, impact of developing web portals which they may apply to their research in the future. Hypothesis Online Portal on a Campus will hell the students, faculty and college department to have a reliable and more secured way of file sharing, circulation of information and privacy that will be beneficial and useful in the future. The faculty members used to announce changes of  classes/activities or events vocally in front of the students or through sending text to the class president and disseminating the information to the whole class. There can be inconsistency in spreading the message there are still students who are not informed and mislead that may affect its school performance. In terms of sharing of files or discussions over the internet, students and faculty rely on social networks such as Facebook, Multiply and Friendster wherein conversations or information can be accessed or viewed by the public. Instead of using social networks, the Online Campus Portal can be more secured because only the members for that group is allowed to view discussions and it can also provide an op tion on who can only read and reply to the discussion board. This Online Campus Portal allows the College of Computer Studies Department to have an effective way of providing secured information within the school. Faculty members and administrator will able to notify students anywhere and anytime about sudden changes of class schedules, activities and events. Review of Related Literature Foreign Literature According to Robert Moskowitz of Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, when you hear the word â€Å"portal† you might immediately think of one of the many commercial Web sites, such as Yahoo or Excite, that populate the Internet today. As the term implies, these services are the gateway to the Internet for many people, offering news, search functions, sports scores, shopping and movie reviews. A campus portal, on the other hand, is the entry point for a college or university. It provides a centralized source of information and services for students, prospective students, faculty, suppliers, administrators, alumni and friends. The term campus portal can mean anything from a relatively simple set of Web-based calendar and e-mail services, to a comprehensive online interface offering highly personalized and customizable access to nearly all the features and benefits of campus life and work. Campus portals can provide entry points to anything from e-shopping for books and campus regalia, to Web access, student activity information, class resources, syllabi and assignment listings, and homework submission, as well as online class registration and tuition  payment. Because the campus portal is accessible to any Web-enabled computer, it’s a powerful tool for pulling together a far-flung university community. Students studying abroad can remain in touch with friends, professors, activities and services at the main campus as though they’d never left. The portal allows alumni and friends to participate in campus life–at least to the extent it is enabled via the Web. Local Literature FEU-EAC Online Student Portal For the past few years, FEU-EAC has been continuously trying to find ways on how to improve its services for the students in terms of providing information, registration and other school transactions. It is eyeing the step-by-step growth and enhancement from manual, partial automation and full-automation of its systems. Considering the ideal goal of providing fast and convenient services and also the advantage of reaching out to its students from distant areas, online enrolment is definitely the most recommended innovation. Bearing in mind this ultimate goal, the College took its first step by having some of it services online. From thereon, My FEU – East Asia College Student Portal was conceptualized. My FEU – East Asia College Student Portal was made to assist FEU-EAC students in providing basic information related to their academic records, registration and assessments. Likewise, this will also give privilege to the students to submit their requests and transactions via Internet. Enrolled students will be given accounts, usernames and passwords, to access and login to My FEU – East Asia College Student Portal. Students can then access this portal via Internet wherein they can now conveniently inquire information or do basic student transactions anywhere and anytime they want. This system basically includes the following: †¢My Profile – this is where students could view their personal and contact information. A special feature was provided for the students for possible requests to update their personal information or records. †¢Student Academic Information – this is where students could view their academic  records such as grades, class schedules and current assessments. †¢On-line Self–Enrolment – this allows the regular students with no previous balances and accountabilities to do self-enrolment via Internet. †¢Other Services – this is where students could access the Student Coordinating Council Voting System, upload files through My Portfolio or mark the important events or activities on their calendars through My Planner. Certainly, FEU – East Asia College Student Portal will be enhanced and additional services will be incorporated in the future. Nevertheless, the Student Portal definitely raised the bar of the College in rendering qua lity services for its students. Review of Related Study Foreign Study Study made by AlirezaHejazi, an MS Student of IC Management University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Effectively developing and deploying campus portals can dramatically increase productivity and profitability of research and education. The cutting edge of this initiative lies in aligning portals with students’ current needs. Our study aims at identifying these needs and provides a preliminary theoretical framework for portal developers to benchmark their objectives according to educational requirements. The study is mostly done based on local observations and experience of its conductors within higher education communities in Iran. The result of this primary study paves the way of implementing campus portals in the Iranian higher education communities which will be paced by the authors of the article in the near future. E-Learning usually refers to â€Å"learning that is delivered or enabled via electronic technology† (Sun Microsystems). It encompasses learning delivered via a range of technologies such as the internet, television, videotape, intelligent tutoring systems, and computer-based training. E-Learning is a subset of the larger worlds of both â€Å"information technology† and â€Å"education and training†. It can be valuable when used as a part of a well-planned and properly supported education and training environment, but e-learning is not a magic bullet that replaces or renders obsolete existing pedagogical theories and approaches. Many learning and technology professionals believe that e-learning will have â€Å"arrived† when we  stop referring to it by a separate name and begin considering it as an integral part of a complete learning environment. Recent advances in the availability and speed of Internet access and in the power and availability of personal computing platforms have dramatically increased the opportunities for the use of collaborative environments and other distribu ted learning technologies. As a result, a wide range of new products are being developed and many new companies have entered the learning technology market. New categories of products continue to emerge, some providing new capabilities and others combining existing functionality into new product configurations. It can be a challenge to determine how these systems relate to each other and how they fit into a complete e-learning environment. The emergence of e-learning does not mean that existing software applications are obsolete. Systems such as Student Administration, Human Resources, and Library Management provide critical components of e-learning environments. The challenge is to integrate these systems effectively with e-learning application services. This has been done today in what is being called as â€Å"Campus Portal†. Campus portals merge a wide range of educational applications into an integrated web-based system. These portals are designed and developed at many modern colleges and universities within recent years and are becoming more popular as useful tools in offering academic services. They are being used by both the current and distant students. Some colleges even offer their portals to their staff as official media for internal communication. These capabilities have proved portals as effective systems of e-learning. The remaining question is: â€Å"How can we align portals with students’ current needs?† Sometimes, adding new contents or services to a portal may answer this question; but, changing needs of students makes the job harder and requires enough flexibility of portals both in nature and usage. We have made an effort in this study to identify those needs of Iranian students which may be satisfied through implementing portals and to provide a theoretical framework for portal developers to allign their objectives according to educational requirements. Study made by TharitpongFuangvutofUniversity of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia A Campus Portal is an exciting recent phenomenon forming part of the new generation of online services for all stakeholders in institutions  of higher education. Conceptually the general notion of a Portal should be to be distinguished from that of other Web-based applications and the traditional Intranet of the institution. The literature review in Phase One of this research indicates that the major distinguishing characteristics of a Campus Portal are: (i) personalization, by which end-users are only able to access information and online services pertinent to their activities, and (ii) customization, by which end-users are able to select their preferred information channels and optional online services. The major objective of this research is to propose a development methodology specifically suitable for Campus Portal projects. While there are many accepted development methodologies for traditional and Web-based Information Systems, no clear body of knowledge on the development of Campus Portals has yet been recognized. Additionally, as this is a new area, the definitions, terms, concepts and important issues agreed to by academic researchers and practitioners, are still evolving. This research, therefore, needs to clarify and identify some important issues regarding Campus Portals and their development, prior to composing the development methodology. In the second and third phases of the research, two studies were carried out, a preliminary study and a case study. These generated more understanding of the issues and extended the body of knowledge on Campus Portals, especially concerning their development. The preliminary study explored and investigated the online services and Campus Portals of 40 higher education institutions sites in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK and Canada. The findings of the preliminary study show that there are no standard patterns in the function of personalization and customization in Campus Portals. A set of research questions were then put forward to drive further investigation into design and implementation issues regarding the personalization and customization functions of Campus Portals. The case study was conducted in an Australian university among the major stakeholder groups, namely, the development team and the end-users (students and academic staff). For the study of the development team, interviews were used to gather information on their current practices and their vision for the future direction of the Campus Portal. Students were the primary focus of the end-user study, from which data was collected using a survey to build  up usage patterns of their online activities. In addition, a group of academic staff were interviewed to obtain data from their perspective to identify and clarify some important issues. The results and findings in this phase of the research is contributed to the body of knowledge on Campus Portals and their development. In the final phase of the research, the review of existing development methodologies was continued filtering them through a set of identified criteria based on the findings of the two studies. Finally, the most appropriate development methodology was selected and modified in order to support the requirements identified in this research as critical for the development of a Campus Portal. The result was proposed as a Campus Portal Development Methodology (CPDM) fulfilling the main objective of the research. Study made by Ayman H. AbuhamdiehofIndiana State University, USA Portals are gateways to information resources and different kinds of services. They are enjoying expansive use in all sorts of organizations. From corporations to educational institutions, organizations are striving to provide their constituents with prompt and reliable services through their Web portals. There is a general agreement in the literature on the concept of a portal. It means a web site that integrates and concentrates information resources. The audience could be limited to a particular group, such as auto mechanics, physicians, chemists, students and educators (vertical portals), or it could be open to everyone, such as the popular search engines and categorization web sites such as Google, Yahoo!, and Excite. The uniqueness and recent use of portal systems, and the wide array of constituents they serve, along with the different kinds of challenges they bring invites a closer examination of their acceptance and use. Few studies have provided a detailed examination of these kinds of portals in terms of their user acceptance, and their most used features. The uniqueness and recent use of portal systems, and the wide array of constituents they serve, along with the different kinds of challenges they bring invites a closer examination of their acceptance and use. Study made by Suhong Li and Wallace A. Wood ofBryant University,Smithfield, Rhode Island This study investigates the status of portal implementation in  the academic world. A two stage cluster analysis was used to divide the sample colleges and universities into three groups (Internal Focus Implementers, External Focus Implementers and Starters) based on the portal features implemented by each school. The differences among the three groups were assessed based on the type of school and their status of portal adoption, implementation and evaluation. The results show that in terms of status of portal adoption and implementation, Internal Focus Implementers are the most advanced group, the External Focus group is in the middle and the Starters are the least advanced one. Most schools in the Internal Focus group are private schools, have the longest use of campus portals, favor Blackboard as the portal software, have widely shared responsibilities for the content of the portals, consider integration and implementation of a single logon as the biggest implementation challenges and are the most satisfied with their portal. In contrast, the Starters lag behind in terms of the adoption and implementation of the portal. For example, they have the shortest history of portal implementation, do not have dominant portal software, and have only one or two departments in charge of the content of the portal. In addition, they are the least satisfied with their portals. Portals, originally thought of as search engines whose purpose was to facilitate access to information spread through the Internet, eventually developed to be gateways to the Web that allow vast amounts of information available on Internet and intranet Web sites to be organized and customized through a single entry point. Portals can thus be used to consolidate information from a vast array of sources, provide a centralized means of collaboration and offer a personalized workspace for both individuals and teams. Moreover, portals have the potential of providing organizations with a rich and complex shared information workspace for the generation, exchange, and use of knowledge. Local Study Study made by Tina Arceo-Dumlao of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila, Phillippines FILIPINOS are undisputedly the best in the world when it comes to text messaging. So if Filipinos use their mobile phone’s short messaging  service to send greetings, stay in touch with their loved ones or share jokes, why not harness its power to improve the quality of public education? A consortium of Philippine companies composed of Ayala Foundation, Globe Telecom, Nokia, Seameo Innotech and the Department of Education did just that with the launch in May 2003 of the Text2Teach program. Education divide Text2Teach is the Philippine project under the BridgeIt program, a global initiative that aims to narrow the educational divide between nations by improving the teaching of basic education in developing countries using high speed, wireless digital connection. The text message-based program was deemed ideal for the Philippines not only because everybody knows how to use it, but also because the technology is cheap and can reach the farthest islands of the archipelago. Text2Teach aims to help improve the quality of teaching in grades 5 and 6 classes in elementary school by providing multimedia packages designed to make science, math and English learning more exciting and meaningful among young learners. The first phase of Text2Teach used the mobile phone, satellite technology, and media master to deliver content to the classrooms. The teachers use the mobile phone to order video clips which are delivered via satellite, stored in the media master, and viewed on TV. For the second phase launched this year, the mobile phone is the storage device and is preloaded with the educational videos. All a teacher has to do is plug the phone to a TV and play the video lesson. New videos will be accessed by downloading them through the mobile phone using Globe’s 3G technology. The videos are integrated with specially developed lesson plans that comply with the Basic Education Curriculum and designed for grades 5 and 6 students in public elementary schools. The teachers then show these materials on television to public elementary school students who would not have had access to these multimedia presentations if not for Text2Teach. The teachers were trained by experts from the Seameo Innotech on how to integrate multimedia learning experience into their lesson plans. There are 387 video modules in the electronic library and 480 lesson guides for teachers on topics that are generally discussed in the science, math, and English classes of Grade 5 and 6 students. More interesting Teachers show topics in line with the curriculum defined by the Department of Education. Jeff Tarayao, head of community relations and corporate social responsibility of Globe Telecom, says that with Text2Teach, learning about volcanoes, for instance, has never been more interesting. The students agree. Just six years since it was launched, absenteeism among students attending Text2Teach classes has been reduced; student performance has risen as shown by higher average scores in science; teacher-pupil, pupil-pupil interaction got a boost, and, the classroom atmosphere has become more upbeat. Tarayao says the teachers have been clamoring for even more content to show their enthusiastic students. Since 2003, more than a million public elementary school students and more than 1,700 teachers and school officials in about 250 schools all over the Philippines have benefited from the program. And Text2Teach is reaching more schools in the country, targeting an additional 350 schools nationwide by 2010. Text2Teach went to 118 public elementary schools in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao through a grant from the United States Agency for  International Development. Tarayao says some schools are even sharing their content with the out of school youth who come to the Text2Teach classrooms after regular classes. He says the challenge is to further expand the program to cover even more schools that want to experience the same benefits of Text2Teach. It is possible given the commitment of the many organizations behind Text2Teach. Ayala Foundation is the overall project leader, handles resource and partners mobilization and technical support for the project; Globe Telecom is the cellular capacity provider and powers the SMS network; Nokia Philippines provides the private sector funding, which includes the provision of a 3G-enabled device such as the Nokia N95 8GB, equipped with the Nokia Education Delivery (NED) software that allows the teacher to select from the 387 education videos specifically created for the project; Seameo Innotech crafts the lesson plans and handles the teacher training; while the Department of Education provided coordination with the public schools system. Text2Teach’s accomplishments did not go unnoticed.Text2Teach was a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge in Sweden—the world’s leading ICT Prize for entrepreneurs and projects who use information and communications technology to improve living conditions and increase economic growth. Text2Teach was also awarded the best in Support and Improvement of Education Category during the 2006 Asian CSR Awards But for Globe, the reward is knowing that Text2Teach has helped make mobile phone communication and SMS technology relevant to the upliftment of education in the Philippines.

Keats’ attitude towards women Essay

Q- Keats wrote that he struggled to settle his mind on women, by turns adoring them as angels and reviling them as whores. Discuss Keats’s attitude to women in at least three poems in light of this opinion. Keats once wrote in a letter to Fanny Brawne â€Å"You have ravish’d me away by a Power I cannot resist: and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavoured often ‘to reason against the reasons of my Love’- I can do that no more†. The quote, from John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, ostensibly encapsulates Keats’ attitude towards women. Through the variation of female characters presented in his work, from the evil seductress in La Belle Dame Sans Merci to chaste pure Madeline from The Eve of St. Agnes, Keats cultivates the impression of being simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the opposite sex, enthralled by their sensuality yet wary of their seemingly alien nature. This repulsion is depicted quite clearly in La Belle Dame Sans Merci or ‘The Beautiful Woman Without Pity’. Keats’ allusion to the medieval romance by French poet Alain Chartier immediately transports the reader into a fairy tale setting. The poem adopts the form of a folk ballad, yet merely mimics traditional love ballads as Keats’ female protagonist is depicted as having a far darker purpose. The contrast between the traditional ballad form and the cruel titular woman creates an ominous tone that continues into the first stanza of the poem. The poem consists of two speakers, the first of which hails the ‘palely loitering’ knight and asks ‘O what can ail thee’. The eeriness of the poem is reinforced when the unknown speaker asks a second time, ‘O what can ail thee, knight at arms’, the repetition of the question creating a ghostly refrain. The alliteration of the ‘L’ sound in ‘palely loitering’ creates a sense of listlessness that is furthered through the bleak landscape where ‘the sedge has wither’d from the lake, and no birds sing’. From this the reader can infer that the knight is a desolate emotional state, which is echoed, by his surroundings. Keats’s use of pathetic fallacy is furthered when the first speaker remarks that the ‘harvest’s done’ thus leaving the knight in a literal winter as well as a figurative one. As knights are often held as paragons of courage and power, Keats makes the reader aware that something preternaturally powerful must be at work. This preternatural being is ‘full beautiful-a faery’s child’, a tempestuous seductress who enthrals the hapless knight. So besotted is he, that he thinks nothing of following her to her ‘elfin grot’ where she ‘lulled’ him asleep. On the one hand, the verb ‘lulled’ can be seen as a treacherous attempt to secure the knight’s affections and allay his suspicions about La Belle’s otherworldly nature, on the other it can be viewed as a calming gesture, that has been misconstrued by the knight like every other aspect of the ethereal woman. Alluding to medieval mythology, Keats paints La Belle as a succubus, a femme fatale able to suck the life from the chivalrous knight through dreams. We, as the reader are only offered the descriptions and opinions of the knight-at-arms, and know nothing of this lady save for his presentation of her. As such, feminist critics could argue that unkind depiction of her character stems from the inversion of patriarchal values depicted in the poem. The knight is not a helpless victim of fancy, for it was he who first approached La Belle, and it was he who made her ‘a garland for her head, and bracelets too, and fragrant zone’. These objects, seemingly tokens of their courtship can be seen not only to decorate but to bind, enslave and enclose. La Belle Dame Sans Merci deviates from popular literacy tropes by depicting a lovelorn male in a state of decline and anguish after being rejected by the cruel female who is the object of his desires. However, instead of creating a female character to be applauded, Keats turns La Belle’s rejection of the knight into a rejection of morality itself. La Belle is never fully described, a longhaired faceless beauty who enslaves the knight with her feminine wiles. As such, La Belle can be seen to represent all women, an idea that is furthered when Keats speaks of ‘pale kings and princess too, pale warriors, death-pale they were all’. The repetition of the sickly adjective ‘pale’ in conjunction with the paradigms of masculinity found in kings, princes, and warriors furthers the idea of female sexuality corrupting the values of men, thus assuring their downfall. Keats creates a direct parallel to the malevolent succubus in La Belle Dame Sans Merci through male protagonist Porphyro from his poem The Eve of Saint Agnes. ‘St. Agnes Eve- Ah, bitter chill it was! The owl for all his feathers was a-cold; the hare limped trembling through the frozen grass, and silent were the flock in woolly fold’. Just like La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Keats through use of natural imagery depicts a desolate surrounding. However, in this case the frozen countryside is the result of a natural winter and not the spells of a cruel enchantress. This idea is further through the listing of animals; the ‘owl’, ‘hare’ and ‘flock’ are vastly different from the birdless wasteland. Keats conjures in the reader the vision of a harsh winter through use of adjectives ‘cold’, ‘frozen’ and ‘chill’. The depressed nature of this bleak landscape is broken by ‘Music’s golden tongue’ and ‘silver snarling trumpets’. The verb ‘snarling’ conjures in the reader images of savage dogs or wolves and is a startling contrast to the muffled snow covered outside world. The harsh ‘Ar’ sound in ‘snarling’ creates a growling effect and effectively conveys the ferocity and fervour of the music being played. Keats’ use of precious metals gold and silver simultaneously emphasise the value of the music, and livens the frozen world female protagonist Madeline lives in. Discussing the presentation of Madeline, critic Bateman states that ‘she’s no Fanny Brawne, she’s timid and subdued’. Paraded in front on numerous gentry who hold no appeal to her, Madeline longs to escape from the public eye and anxiously awaits the ‘hallowed hour’ of St. Agnes Eve. The adjective ‘hallowed’ holds within it highly religious connotations that encapsulates the sacred nature of St. Agnes Night. The use of religious imagery is prevalent throughout the poem, and is expressed quite exquisitely through Madeline. Madeline is a paragon of virtue, a virgin so pious that she ‘seemed a splendid angel†¦save wings for heaven’. Surrounded by the light of the ‘wintry moon’ Madeline is transformed into an ethereal being, one with no  match on earth. Far from evoking Diana, goddess of the moon and chastity, the scintillating moonlight throws â€Å"warm gules† on Madeline’s breast thus drawing attention to her body as ‘she knelt, so pure a thing, free from mortal taint’. The noun ‘taint’ suggests contamination, a polluting stain that cannot be removed. After the touch of a man, Madeline will no longer be pure, and as such loose that which makes her heavenly. Through use of ‘aged creature’ Angela, Keats creates a counterpart to female protagonist Angela. The noun ‘creature’ brings to mind something other, an alien entity that lacks humanity. Far past the age where she can enjoy the innocent and puerile rituals of St. Agnes eve, Angela is depicted as everything that Madeline is not. Old, frail and feeble, she is constantly shaking due to her ‘palsied’ state and seems prone to fits of forgetfulness, reminding Porphyro that he she cannot trust her ‘dizzy head’. She lacks any strength of character and is easily manipulated by Porphyro, thus enabling him to carry out his seduction on Madeline. One the one hand, the constant listing of physical and mental deficiencies allows Keats to create a strong contrast to thriving Madeline, on the other hand, Keats can be seen as conforming to overused stereotypes- the pious young virgin and the feeble elderly crone. As such, his female characters become a flat â€Å"2D† portrayal, lacking any real depth of personality. Jack Stillinger states â€Å"regardless of the extent to which Keats identified with his hero, he introduced enough overtones of evil to make Porphyro’s actions wrong within the structure of the poem†. On the one hand this statement can be held true, with Porphyro’s actions revealing him to be a ‘cruel man’ and ‘impious’ and on the other, Porphyro’s actions take on a romantic light, and any indiscretions made can be seen to be the actions of a lovesick fool. Mirroring La Belle’s presentation as a succubus, Keats once again draws on medieval mythology. This time however, the male not the female entertains supernatural elements. As such, Porphyro becomes an incubus. Like succubae, an incubus holds power over the opposite sex, and often carries out their seductions through dreams. Unlike La Belle however, Keats does not demonise Porphyro for his sexual  nature and portrays his fantasies of possessing Madeline in a romantic light. Despite their similar situations, the difference in the presentation of La Belle and Porphyro truly illustrates Keats’ attitudes towards women. Keats wrote about empathetic identification, claiming â€Å"if a sparrow come before my window, I take part in its existence and pick about the Gravel†. Keats is able to identify with the sparrow, yet seems unable to create female characters who are not enticing femme fettle’s like Lamia and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, or vapid feeble characters like Madeline and Angela. Keats’ treatment and depiction of his written characters is highly similar to his treatment of Fanny Brawne, finding in her aspects of that which disgusted him in La Belle Dame Sans Merci and enchanted him in The Eve of St. Agnes. In a letter to her he wrote â€Å"I cannot live without you, and not just you but chaste you; virtuous you.† As such, that which drew Porphyro to Madeline also drew Keats to Miss Brawne. Keats however, also echoes the obsessive yearning of the knight from La Belle Dame Sans Merci, writing to Fanny â€Å"you are to me an object intensely desirable.† This desire is shown most strongly in Ode To Fanny, one of the last poems Keats wrote after suffering his first lung haemorrhage. As Keats drifted closer towards death, his infatuation with Fanny became something of an obsession with critic Richardson claiming that Keats â€Å"had transfigured Fanny in his imagination, his passion creating in her the beauty which for him became the truth†. Keats ascribes Fanny with miraculous healing abilities, imploringly asking her to ‘let my spirit blood! O ease my heart.’ Bloodletting was an ancient practice said to relive the body of ill humours and cure maladies. Is this case however, it is not Keats’ blood that is causing his ailments but his damaged soul. Only Fanny can cure his heartache, making him entirely dependant on her. Throughout the ode, Keats is intensely focused on Fanny’s virginity, painfully aware that he will never be able to claim her sexually. Keats calls her his ‘silver moon’ and asks that she stay ‘unravished’ by another’s ‘amorous burn’. Through mentioning moonlight, Keats invokes Artemis, Greek Goddess of chastity entreating Fanny to remain pure. The long vowel sounds  in ‘amorous burn’ speak of consuming passion while the verb ‘burn’ contains connotations of fiery lust, thus furthering the idea of Keats’ fixation with Fanny’s sexuality. Whilst the colour silver is typically linked to purity and the moon, it will also tarnishes over time thus loosing its lustre. Keats knows that Fanny, like the silver, will one day no longer be pure, yet he still asks that no other ‘with a rude hand break the sacramental cake’. The use of the religious metaphor ‘sacramental cake’ to r ather crudely refer to the hymen, reduces Fanny to nothing more than a body for a man to sate himself in. Keats discounts her worth as a person in favour of highlighting her worth as a sexual object meant only for the pleasure of men. Keats employs the use of simplistic rhyme when stating ‘must not a woman be, a feather on the sea’. The juvenile rhyme scheme brings to mind that of a nursery rhyme, an idea that is corroborated by the equally infantile rhythm. Seemingly scornful of her emotions, and rather unable to comprehend that women are able to know their own minds, Keats wrote to Fanny â€Å"you do not feel as I do- you do not know what it is to love†. It is perhaps this view that nurtures Keats’ distrust and envy which prompts his rather hyperbolic proclamation ‘may my eyes close, Love! On their last repose’. The use of the rather clichà ©d â€Å"I would die without your love† conjures in the reader images of powerful emotional manipulation. The reader has to question if Keats is really in love with Fanny like he claims, or if his obsessive infatuation has created an idealised image of what love is, and projected it on the object of his affections. Despite what other characteristic or personality aspects they may possess, Keats paints women as seductresses, entrapping the hearts of unsuspecting men. In regards to the women he writes about, even pure chaste Madeline is presented as having ensnared poor Porphyro. Whilst some of this can be excused due to oppressive patriarchal paradigms that presented women as objects to be obtained, the vast majority of the unfair presentation stems from Keats’ own feelings and opinions. Keats is seemingly unable to view women as fully autonomous human beings, and treats even Fanny as a succubus that has enthralled him, yet even so he elevates her into an ideal. The paradoxical nature of their relationship- characterised by both love and  loathing can be seen to be reflected in his attitudes towards women, leaving him simultaneously enchanted and repelled. Bibliography http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/labelle.html http://www.keatsian.co.uk/keats-poetry-belle.php http://www.mibba.com/Reviews/Book/4500/John-Keats-La-Belle-Dame-sans-Merci/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetry_ccea/loveanddeath/labelledamesanmerci/revision/1/ http://www.englweb.umd.edu/englfac/JRudy/Keats-letters.pdf http://www1.umassd.edu/corridors/bestessay259.html http://literarism.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/eve-of-st-agnes-keats.html http://research.library.mun.ca/353/3/sensuous_embodiment.pdf Richardson, Joanna. Fanny Brawne: A Biography. Norwich: Jarrold and Sons, 1952. Print.