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

Reflective writing - Essay Example It is therefore SOSE is becoming an essential part of almost all educational institutions to rear the new generation within a culturally diverse society. The primary purpose of the Studies of Society and Environment learning area is to help young people develop the ability to make reasoned and informed decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. (discover.tased.edu.au/sose/whatintr.htm, Sep 8, 2004) Tasmania is an important Australian state containing amalgamation of many ethnic groups and cultures. It is estimated that Tasmania was joined to the main land nearly 10,000 years ago. (Wikipedia Encyclopaedia) The arrival of European nations in the state, in 17th Century, introduced acculturation between the Europeans and the local Aborigines leading towards changes in traditions, language, living style, cults and political and economic conditions turning Tasmania into a diversified region. Moreover, clemency in immigration policies and comfortable sources of travelling in modern times of globalization has brought remote areas and cultures nearer to one another. Though, all the ethnic groups, including Aborigines and others, abide by law while interacting with other individuals, yet differences in cultural values existing in environment creates difficulties. Keeping in mind the socio-cultural situation, educationalists laid stress in providing children with such learning during the ir initial school years that may help them in making adjustments according to their diversified cultural and social set up. Many educators have favoured models such as SOSE because they do not believe that all the students are suited to, or interested in secondary studies. (The Australian, 2007:11) Thus, it was decided that a well-planned, comprehensive and rigorous education must have been provided

Gender Stereotypes and Discrimination in the Workplace Essay

Gender Stereotypes and Discrimination in the Workplace - Essay Example 3-6). People of either gender have come under common discrimination factor in areas of not only jobs but also trainings and wages or salaries are also the universal aspects of discrimination, regardless of their capabilities, competence, or skills. This practice is not only limited to underdeveloped countries but urbanized nations also practice the same to great extent (Cleveland, Stockdale and  Murphy, 2000, pp. 3-6). Until the twenty first century, the subject matter of gender discrimination with reference to diversity management has not come under limelight by the researches and very little information came under provision. In fact, the diversity management only came under reference to elucidate how the employees would come under administration and management to the organizational culture on an international and local basis. However, as time passed by, this matter came into numerous discussions and studies (Klarsfeld, 2010, pp. 101-102). Diversity Management" is one of the tacti cs and approaches that can promote and uphold the opinions, acceptance, and execution of diversity or multiplicity within organisations. Diversity is a method that emerge the creativity and innovation amongst people as every individual belongs to different social, national, and ethnic background with different skills. Indeed, diversity management has come under perception as a primary source of development and growth in the today's competitive world (Wrench, 2007, pp. 18-19). The following theses paper would include how diversity management pertaining to gender discrimination help to make the workplace a better environment for all, a wide range of theories defining the gender discrimination at workplace. In addition, the report would also state how men and woman are different in the workplace, the characteristics of gender, and types of sexism in the workplace. Based on the empirical studies, recommendations for HR managers and employees would also take account into the report. Lite rature Review Discrimination is one of leading unfair conduct that demoralizes the person to great extent that might even devastate his or her personality. However, it has come under observation that females are the majority coming under the adverse impacts of discrimination in every facet of life. This might be because the men have always come under reflection as the breadwinners of the families and women only comes under supposition to take care of all the matters related to household like cooking, taking care of children and many other. Gender discrimination at workplace can have several forms, which includes sexual harassment, wages, or salaries inequality, unfairness based on job descriptions, and a plentiful of others (Gregory, 2003, pp. 1-5). On a general perception, employers look for people who can best match with the job descriptions, for instance, a male person comes as a first choice when technical, manual or production work is the primary requirement, however, employers seek for female staff for the job of public relations or

Models of Reflective Practice for Education

Models of Reflective Practice for Education Reflective practice has particularly grown and expanded its field in different professional disciplines and contexts; each with their own differences and nuances (Thompson and Thompson, 2008). It is widely agreed that the intention of reflective practice is performance improvement, manifested through analyzing on strengths and the development of competence. However, Anderson (1996) highlights the fact that reflection in professional practice returns not what it is but what might be an improvement on the original. This essay examines the understanding of the reflective practice by using theories and models of reflective practitioners. The reflective examples and experiences is illustrated as a learning unit and an assessment tool including the approaches taken to integrate the reflective example as part of the work integrated learning experience. 2) MODELS OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE There is a clear understanding of what reflective practice that identifies the attributes of a reflective practitioner (Thorpe, 2004). The three main models are highlighted below: 3.1) Jenny Moon (1999) Model of Reflection: Moon (1999) defines a common sense reflection as a form of mental processing with a purpose and/or anticipated outcome that is applied to relatively complex or unstructured ideas for which there is not an obvious solution. Moon (1995, 1999) explains further by outlining the fact that differing views of reflection arises from outcomes of learning and material for further reflection and action. It is widely agreed that the intention of reflective practice is the surface learning that define characteristics which does not involve reflection but points out the condition for reflection (Moon, 2001). Moon (1999) takes a slightly different approach identifying five stages in learning called map of learning (Figure 2). To see that that learning has occurred, it is important to NOTICE. It can be successful by getting to know the material as coherent MAKING SENSE and the meaningness to develop a holistic view MAKING MEANING which can be done by creating relationships of new material with other ideas WORKING WITH MEANING. To ensure that the new learning has been transformed, it is necessary to TRANSFORM LEARNING. 3.2) Gibbs (1988) Model of Reflection John (2004) mentions that Gibbs (1988) in his model clarifies that reflective pratice deals with practitioners to reflect on their normal way to thinking and responding within the given situation towards gaining insights into self and practice. Reflection alone is not sufficient but taking action is the solution. Therefore, one needs to put their learning, knowledge and new understanding into practice; allowing the reflective process to inform the practice (Jasper, 2003). The work of Gibbs (1988, 1998) allows the reflective practitioner to analyze and evaluate the practice and make necessary improvements into their practice. Gibbs (1988) introduces experimential reflective cycle (Fig 3) comprising of six elements of reflection which shows a clear DESCRIPTION of the situation, analysis of the FEELINGS, EVALUATIONof the experience, ANALYSIS to make sense of the experience, CONCLUSION and reflection upon experience to examine what you would do if the situation occurred again ACTION PLAN (Fig 4). 3.3) Kolb (1984) Model of Reflection Kolb (1984) identified and developed a theory of experiential learning that gives a constructive way to develop our practice. This process is called The Kolb Cycle or The Experiential Learning Cycle. Clark (2008) reports that the cycle consists of four different stages of learning from experience that can be penetrated at any stage. All four stages must be followed in sequence for successful learning to take place. The Learning Cycle recommends that it is not only sufficient to have a concrete experience DO in order to learn but also necessary to reflect on the experience OBSERVE to generalise and formulate concepts THINK that can be implemented to new situations. Hence, it makes it necessary for the learner to link between the theory and action by planning PLAN, representing back to the theory (Fig 5). 3) REFLECTIVE EXAMPLES In this first part of the section is the reflection on the situation by using Gibbs (1988) Reflective Cycle which is a recognized framework for my reflection. 4.1) PART 1 (THE ACCIDENT) During my summer holidays last year , my family and myself were at my brothers apartment enjoying ourselves and having a good time. My brother received a call from Bangalore, India, where his son, Saurav, studied. He disclosed that his son had met with a critical accident. I was shocked and difficult for me to gather my thoughts and comprehend the situation around me. I had never been in a situation where someone close to me was fighting for his life. Never being in a situation like this before I felt the need to follow someone or do something to keep myself occupied. I followed Pratima (sister-in-law) to the kitchen to make a tea for everyone present at the apartment. While in the kitchen I encountered awkward silence between us, feeling pressure of this silence, I intended to break the ice by approaching her to offer my support. Upon approaching her I noticed that she had a worried look on her face. She looked into my eyes and bursted out into tears. This outbreak of her emotions left me feeling even more awkward and I lost all sense of what to do or say. Hearing the sobs of Pratima, my mother came rushing into the kitchen and took control of her. I felt quite sad because of my nephews accident and my own stupidity of not being able to handle my state of mind in an intense pressure situation. Upon analysing this situation I should have known Pratima was feeling tensed and anxious. I should have prepared myself to give Pratima a bit more time alone, as well as I should have had someone with more experience to take control of the situation. But next time my action plan should be to control some of my anxiety and help them reduce their anxiety by showing a bit more empathy to someone who is feeling very emotional. 4.2) PART 2 (PRESENTATION) The second part is the reflection on the situation by using Moon (1999) model of reflection. _______________________________________________________________________ Prior to the beginning of my second academic year at the University I motivated myself to go and travel around England and India. Because of the nature of my travel I reached University ten days late. My inability to reach University on time took away some form of focus away from my action plan of being focused from the beginning. I did not feel like I was in the right frame of mind to undertake my studies seriously. The first assignment was a presentation and a report writing for the first term in Business Strategic Analysis on Stakeholders and Shareholders interrelation. As I was lagging behind I spoke to Mr. Craig, my module leader, about my inability to focus upon the task. Mr. Craig encouraged me and spoke to me about the situation, this pep talk made me feel a lot better. I have difficulty in doing presentations as I cannot seem to organize my ideas and thoughts in words. Most of the tutors have explained and demonstrated to us in the class as to how to present, but for some reason I get butterflies in my stomach , loose confidence and forget what I actually intend to speak when confronted by a large group. I practiced a lot and took help from youtube because the web-site has wonderful examples of tackling with Public Speaking issues. My group helped me to structure my notes and alloted me my part for the presentation. I thought I could speak on the spot by revising a little bit on it. On the final day, my performance was satisfactory but I managed to convey what I intended to. Our group got a B- in it but it was quite worth the experience. The audience understood what I spoke but I do not think I would do anything different next time as now I have the ability and confidence to enable myself to tailor my presentaion and deliver satisfactory results. 4.3) PART 3 (BASKETBALL SKILLS) The third part is the reflection on the situation by using Kolb (1984) model of reflection. _________________________________________________________________________ During my second year, I decided to get myself involved with Sports, so I joined the Universitys Women Basketball Team. Before I got selected, I had to go through a selection session in the Sports Hall, where we were asked to form a team and play and friendly match. Though it was my first time experiencing it, I was not nervous at all because I had been playing basketball since childhood. The game started with a whistle blow. That game was 45 minutes long and it was the worst game I had ever played. According to my observation, I did not perform up to my expectation. There were a lot of violation of rules during the game like fouls, travelling, double dribble, pushing, pulling and out of bounds. There was no team evidence during the match, only individual players playing to prove a point. At the end of the selection, I got selected to my own suprise as I believed I did not play to my maximum potential. One main talent that is required in the game is shooting skills. As basketball can only be won by points, if you cannot shoot, you cannot win. I attempted to shoot 50 times but scored only 12 points. This showed my weakness in shooting skills. I had a word with the coach and the vice coach of the team about improving my shooting skills who provided me insights concerning scoring techniques. The coach demonstrated to me the underlying techniques to shoot properly. It gave me a brief idea as to how to shoot which heped be boost my confidence. I plan to practice and improve my technique using insights from the coach as well as experience from the first match and plan accordingly for the upcoming match. 3) APPROACH TO REFLECTIVE PRACTICE According to my observation and experiences, I noted that reflective practice module has improved my skills of reflection to my practice with the important intention of improving my professional practice. The assessment associated alloted during seminars and workshop has assisted me to prioritize, evaluate and understand the work I already know and have done. Experiencing the critique of a competence based approach while applying for placement jobs, I specifically measured and identified explicit learning outcomes and competencies. Although the company applied in rejected me, my confidence and my advance understanding made more sense when looking back at where I have been, what I did where different patterns begin to emerge. In a session with my module tutors to discuss the feedback from my first term was satisfactory. Reflecting upon my overall performance in my work, I noticed that I require to develop my learning in my next upcoming assignment. Working with more confidence, having a set target and a new direction to work, may help me understand the profound knowledge that underlies. The learning gained enabled me to apply the skills of reflection to the CPD cycle (planning, action, evaluating and reflection) where planning to meet its requirement can improve and enhance other situations like my upcoming work in order to improve practice. In response to the learnings undertaken I sense a need to change or modify my practice like effective time management, recognize my current level of performance, more feedback and support and monitor and review progress. Monitoring the process of working on my academic development plan via reflective practice has brought a vast difference in my study methods. When I look back at my performance during the past few years and assess my learning and development I have gained this year, I reflect situations where I found difficulties in completing my assignments, poor time management, preconception that it is difficult and honesty with self. Furthermore, Personal SWOT Analysis is worth commencing from the scratch in order to know your strengths, weaknesses, opprtunities and threats so that you can act accordingly to improve the outcome of your performance. 4) BECOMING A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER The standards required to meet the effectiveness of the practitioner are to evaluate the current and future requirements of the role, take account of the value and objectives of the organization (Race, 2002; Argyris and Schon, 1974), identify the areas of strength, and monitor the outcome of the work which can be enhanced upon. When I perform tasks,I need to reflect on it and think about WHAT happened, WHY it happened and HOW it happened which would make more sense to the understanding of the subject. It can be said that more explicit understanding and knowledge must be used in the practice. Schon (1987) argues that a practitioners reflection can serve as a remedial to overlearning. Through reflection, I have understood that I could improvise on my the past repetitive experiences, and can add up to the situations which I may confront. Our University provides us a booklet which gives us precise directions about what to include and how to present. As I do not devise my own records and presentation, it seems like an effort to record it would not do any harm and reflect the learning gained from the outcome later on. The development overtime would reflect and can enhance upon it. Many students like myself are expected to take responsibilties for our own perfromance, drawing conclusions on the work on and how can it be improved. To make my reflection more effective, I think developing confidence in my own evaluation and judgement on my work will be more profitable rather than depending on the evaluations provided by tutorswhich results in developing critical and analytical thinking in future. Understanding and using feedback appropriately is a vital achievement to improve practice. For instance, considering the difference between my own evaluation and the tutors feedback assists in better reflection of work which is improvement in performance measurement. 7) CONCLUSION This study shows that reflective practice is a process of analyzing a given scenario and it can be improvised by decision making, based on the strengths and weaknesses that were observed from the evaluation. The introduction of the essay as a tool for reflection, coupled with the development of learning activities and resources should significantly develop skills in reflection in any field unit (Honey, 2000). The recognition that reflective practice has suggested is reinforced than seen as an innate ability (Loughran, 2002). The message trying to be conveyed is that the new found knowledge and learning from the the experiences should be implemented to future situations. It can be criticized that reflective practice does not free us from the need to worry about the mechanisms of professional accountability but also shows concern as how a professional may be transformed within a framework of accountabilty.

The Evil Soul Revealed in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness essays

Heart of Darkness:  Ã‚   Evil Soul Revealed  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, there is a great interpretation of the feelings of the characters and uncertainties of the Congo. This intricate story reveals much symbolism due to Conrad's theme based on the lies and good and evil, which interact together in every man. By probing into the heart of the jungle Conrad was trying to convey an impression about the heart of man through symbolism of the jungle itself and the manager. The story is written as seen through Marlow's eyes. Marlow is a follower of the sea. His voyage up the Congo is his first experience in freshwater navigation. He longs to see Kurtz, in the hope of appreciating all that Kurtz finds endearing in the African jungle. Marlow does not get the opportunity to see Kurtz until he is so disease-stricken he looks more like death than a person. There are no good looks or health. In the story Marlow remarks that Kurtz resembles â€Å"an animated image of death carved out of old ivory† (Conrad page #). Like Marlow, Kurtz is seen as an honorable man to many admirers; but he is also a thief, murderer, raider, persecutor, and above all he allows himself to be worshipped as a god. Both men had good intentions to seek, yet Kurtz seemed a "universally genius" lacking basic integrity or a sense of responsibility (Roberts 43). In the end they form one symbolic unity. Marlow and Kurtz are the light and dark selves of a single person. Meaning each one is what the other might have been.   Kurtz is the violent devil Marlow describes at the story's beginning. It was his ability to control men through fear and adoration that led Marlow to signify this. Throughout the story Conrad builds an unhealthy darkness. At every turn he sees evil lurking within the land. Every image is dreary and dark. The deadly Congo snakes to link itself with the sea and all other rivers of darkness and light. The setting of these adventurous and moral quests is the great jungle, in which most of the story takes place. As a symbol the forest encloses all, and in the heart of the African journey Marlow enters the dark cavern of his own heart. It even becomes an image of a vast catacomb of evil, in which Kurtz dies, but from which Marlow emerges spiritually reborn.

World Cities and Sustainable Development

World Cities and Sustainable Development Subject: Sub-divided units in Hong Kong ( 1487 words ) Hong Kong has been celebrated for its sky-high belongings monetary value which has been a concern to both the policy shapers and the populace in recent old ages. Apart from the unaffordable belongings monetary values, Hong Kong besides faces societal issues like the sub-divided units, accidents such as the 2011 Fa Yuen Street fire [ 1 ] and the prostration edifice at Ma Tau Wei Road [ 2 ] in 2010 have roused public consciousness towards the issue. In this essay, I will foremost explicate the relationship between lodging and sustainable development. Then I will present the jobs of sub-divided units in Hong Kong and its influence on residents’ quality of life. Finally, I will measure the key challenges faced by the Hong Kong Housing Authority in turn toing the lodging jobs. Sustainable lodging dramas an of import function in sustainable development. Harmonizing to theSustainable Housing Policyissued by the United Nations Human Settlements Program ( UN-Habitat ) in 2012, lodging is one of the basic standards to mensurate the quality of life of people, which besides connect to environmental, societal, cultural and economic facets in the community [ 3 ] . The construction of lodging creates a great influence on both the current and future coevalss due to the life-long lastingness of edifices. Housing besides requires a considerable sum of natural resources, such as H2O, electricity, land and edifice stuffs as input, where lodging produces sewerage, municipal solid waste and other sorts of pollution that create negative impact to the natural environment. Hence, sustainable lodging is the key to travel a measure frontward sustainable development. UN-Habitat defined sustainable lodging as ‘genuinely sustainable houses are those that are inclusive and low-cost for all†¦and yet affordability is non plenty, because the alleged low-cost place can non be considered sustainable if they create negative impacts on the environment or societal life.’ [ 4 ] Harmonizing to the US-based consultancy Demographia, Hong Kong ranks the first among 360 metropoliss for the ‘most unaffordable’ lodging for the 4th consecutive twelvemonth. Hong Kong’s one-year average family income is merely one-fifteenth of the average place monetary value, therefore being rated as ‘severely unaffordable’ . [ 5 ] In 2013 Policy Address [ 6 ] , lodging jobs ranked foremost in the government’s precedence, particularly aimed at helping the grassroots into public lodging and in-between category households to home ownership. [ 7 ] However, the job could non be solved nightlong, the increasing figure of sub-divided units suggested that the authorization failed to help the grassroots and in-between category households in run intoing their basic demands to alleviate the poorness job. After the Fa Yuen Street fire and the collapsed edifice incident at Ma Tau Wei Road, safety of sub-divided units has raised the public concern. Among all lodging jobs, the state of affairs of sub-divided units is critical. The life environment of these sub-divided units are by and large little in size, but are poplar because of their affordability. Harmonizing to a research conducted by the University of Hong Kong, about 63 % of sub-divided units occupants lived at units which country are less than 160 sq. pes, where the smallest unit is about 70 sq. pes. Respondents reviewed that they were discontented about their life environment, particularly in fire safety, air circulation and security. Over two-third of the respondents stated that there were jobs such as H2O escape, home base exposure, concrete spalling and mussy electric wires, which imposed psychological force per unit area to them as they were worried about the building’s construction of their units particularly after the incidents. [ 8 ] The study besides stated that occupants were worried about their security in the sub-divided units, approximately 44 % reviewed that stealing occurred in their unit, followed by robbery ( 33 % ) , drugs covering ( 29 % ) , incendiarism ( 25 % ) and sex discourtesies ( 22 % ) . In footings of societal life, merely 5 % of occupants were familiar with their neighbours and maintained a friendly relationship with each other, while 60 % of respondents were non familiar or did non acknowledge their neighbours. At the same clip, approximately 77 % of occupants did non fall in or affect in any community activities. [ 9 ] Over half of the sub-unit occupants reflected that their greatest want is to acquire a public lodging colony, one-third wished to better their life environment. Furthermore, the greatest concern of the occupants is the sanitation job of the life environment, followed by security and the safety of the building’s construction. In footings of psychological well-being, occupants reflected that they were worried about the lifting rent and frequently felt laden due to the narrow and bantam life status. These jobs of sub-divided units have been earnestly impacting the residents’ quality of life as they struggled hard to keep a life. [ 10 ] Furthermore, the bulk of occupants felt detached, unhappy and have low sense of properties to the society as they seldom communicate with each other and rarely involved in their community, which would impact their physiological well-being. In footings of life environment, they were discontent about the sanitation and safety jobs, and the bulk wished to travel into the public lodging every bit shortly as possible. There are three challenges faced by the Hong Kong Housing Authority in turn toing the job of sub-divided units. First, Hong Kong faces the job of limited land supply. Presently 23 % of land has been development, and 7 % is allocated for residential land usage. The deficit in land supply will further take to the lifting monetary value of belongings monetary values. [ 11 ] To turn to this job, renewal is frequently used since the 1970s. [ 12 ] In 2013, development curate Paul Chan Mo Po even suggested constructing estate by uncluttering an country in the state park [ 13 ] or construct places on the golf nine site, [ 14 ] these steps and suggestions faced strong expostulation in the society. Second, the authorities failed to command the belongings monetary values. Under the sky-high belongings monetary values, the authorities eventually attempted to interfere the market by presenting the dual cast responsibilities to relieve the state of affairs. [ 15 ] However, the program failed to command the belongings monetary values and the belongings monetary values in Hong Kong reached new highs in August 2014, entering the highest belongings monetary value in Hong Kong’s history. [ 16 ] Third, the job of ‘sub-divided units’ jobs involved the work of different governments and the division of duties is non clearly defined. Therefore, different sections may decline to take the duties. The job non merely related to edifice and fire safety, but besides other issues such as edifice direction job, urban reclamation job and lodging job. [ 17 ] Sustainable lodging should non be measured merely in footings of affordability, and should means more than a roof over one’s caput. A sustainable lodging system should be able to supply abode with: equal basic substructure, privateness, infinite, handiness, safety, security, dependability, sanitation and waste-management installations, suited environmental quality, accessible location to make basic installations and work topographic point, accessible and equity transit system, while all these standards should be brought with low-cost monetary value. [ 18 ] These factors are what Hong Kong presently lack and should be taking into history in doing lodging policies and determinations. Mention â€Å" 2011-12 Policy Address – Policy Address. †2011-12 Policy Address – Policy Address. 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.policyaddress.gov.hk/11-12/eng/p190.html & gt ; . â€Å" 2013 Policy Address by Chief Executive ( 3 ) . †2013 Policy Address by Chief Executive ( 3 ). Hong Kong Government Press Release. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201301/16/P201301160282.htm & gt ; . â€Å" State Park Carve-up the Worst of All Land Options. †South China Morning Post. 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/1311176/country-park-carve-worst-all-land-options & gt ; . â€Å" Easing of Double Stamp Duty Another Example of Leung ‘s Failed Housing Policy. †South China Morning Post. 16 May 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1512772/easing-double-stamp-duty-another-example-leungs-failed & gt ; . â€Å" Land Utilization in Hong Kong. †Land Utilization in Hong Kong. Planning Department, 16 July 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/statistic/landu.html & gt ; . Li, Yiu-wa. â€Å" Public Rental Housing for Young People. † ( 2012 ) .HKU Scholars Hub. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //hdl.handle.net/10722/174578 & gt ; . Li, Yvonne. â€Å" Hong Kong Ranks World ‘s No 1 for ‘most Unaffordable ‘ Housing. †Property. South China Morning Post, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/1410730/hong-kong-ranks-worlds-no-1-most-unaffordable-housing? page=all & gt ; . Mok, Siu-fan. â€Å" Searching for Improvements: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Public Rental Housing Policy in Hong Kong since 1998. †HKU Scholars Hub. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //hdl.handle.net/10722/131428 & gt ; . Ngai, Edward. â€Å" Defying Gravity: Hong Kong Property Prices Reach New Highs. †The Wall Street Jorunal. China Real Time Report RSS, 8 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/08/08/defying-gravity-hong-kong-property-prices-reach-new-highs/ & gt ; . â€Å" Paul Chan Should Revive His Plan for Homes on Golf Club Site. †South China Morning Post. 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1308854/paul-chan-should-revive-his-plan-homes-golf-club-site & gt ; . â€Å" Reclamation Is One Option. †South China Morning Post. 24 Apr. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1221671/reclamation-one-option & gt ; . South China Morning Post. Police release more images of fire suspects. 5 December 2011. Print Sustainable Housing for Sustainable Cities. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Human Settlements Programme ( UN-Habitat ) , 2012. Print. Wong, Man-kin, James. â€Å" Domestic Sub-divided Unit of measurements in Urban Areas in Hong Kong: A Study of Policy Problems and Solutions. † ( 2012 ) .HKU Scholars Hub. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //hdl.handle.net/10722/184387 & gt ; . Youth Hong Kong Editorial Team. â€Å" Housing Dilemmas – Give the Young a Future. †Education Post. 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.educationpost.com.hk/resources/youth/140117-housing-dilemmas- give-the-young-a-future & gt ; . Yuen, Ming, and Joy Lu. â€Å" HK Building Collapse Kills Three ; Two Missing. †HK Building Collapse Kills Three ; Two Missing. China Daily, 30 Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/30/content_9401882.htm & gt ; . â€Å" ? ·Ã‚ ±? °?aY-a?ˆe?Sâ€Å"a?-a °?ec †c ©Ã‚ ¶ . † a? ¤eˆsa?Sa ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹a?†¹a†¹Ã¢â€ž ¢a §Ã¢â‚¬ aâ€Å" e?„a?†¹c §?aâ€Å"a ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¡a ·?aa °?c µÃ¢â‚¬Å¾ . e ¦Ã¢â€ž ¢ a ¤Ã‚ §a ­?c §Ã‹â€ aeˆ?ac †c ©Ã‚ ¶a? ­aa?S ?†?c ­-aaa?ˆâ€ °eâ„ ¢?a†¦Ã‚ ¬a , 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.cityu.edu.hk/hkhousing/r & A ; c/ssp_last.pdf & gt ; . 1

Consumer Decision-Making Styles of Gen Y Consumers in Malaysia

Consumer Decision-Making Styles of Gen Y Consumers in Malaysia Introduction Market segmentation is a crucial element in marketing because goods can no longer be produced and sold without considering consumer needs and recognizing the characteristic of those needs. Due to the highly competitive environment nowadays, attracting and retaining enough loyal customers plays an important key role when developing business strategies.Therefore, business should understand and target consumer from different background and culture differently in order to effectively adapt their marketing strategies (Yeong & Lovett, 2010). In general, there are many demographic variables can be used to segment consumer market, for instance income, age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and household size. Among these variables, gender has been and continues to be one of the most popular forms of market segmentation for a significant proportion of product and services.According to marketing scholars (Meyers-Levy & Sternthal, 1991; Darley & Smith, 1995) argue that gender-based segmentation, especially if it is based on biological sex per se, meets several of the requirements for successful implementation: the segments were easy to identify, easy to access, and large enough for consumer products and services to be marketed profitably. In addition, there are many studies in the past also provided considerable evidence that gender relates to consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, preferences and purchase decisions(Mitchell & Walsh, 2004; Bakewell & Mitchell, 2006).Because gender has been identified as one of the significant factor in understanding consumer behavior and as a fundamental market segmentation index for companies to satisfy their customer’ demand, therefore marketer should endeavor to understand the gender differences in decision-making styles. In addition, research addressing the issue of gender differences in decision-making styles could help marketers to find better ways of communicating with both sexes and to guide marketing mix decisions (Mitchell & Walsh, 2004).Literature Review According to Williams, Page, Petrosky and Hernandez (2010), Generation Y also is referred to as the Millenials or Echo Boomers. They were born during 1977-1994 and are in the 15-32 age range as of 2009. They are children of the original Baby Boomers and their numbers rival that of the Baby Boomers. They grew up in a time of immense and fast-paced change including virtually full-employment opportunities for women, dual-income households as the standard, and having computers at college and home.Moreover Gen Y consumers are more likely to complete their tasks online in just one click in making their decisions (Sengupta & Titus, 2012). Starting in 2000, when the Millennials began attending college, they began to be studied by researchers and marketers to determine the generation’s overriding characteristics. Consumer decision? making styles can be defined â€Å"as me ntal orientations characterizing a consumer’s approach to making choices† (Sproles & Kendall, 1986, p. 268).The aim of Sproles and Kendall (1986) was to provide a potentially useful instrument to assist marketers to better understand consumers’ decision-making styles in purchasing. As consequence, they developed the original 40? item Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) scale, which identified eight characteristics related to consumer decision? making styles. The CSI provides a quantitative instrument for classifying different consumer decision? making styles into distinct categories of shopping orientation.Through empirical research, Sproles and Kendall (1986) defined the following eight categories of decision -making styles namely: 1) perfectionism and high-quality conscious: Consumers carefully search for the best quality in product; 2) brand conscious and price equals quality: Consumer choose to buy more expensive, well known national brands, and believing that a h igher price means better quality; 3) novelty and fashion-conscious: likes new and innovative products and gains excitement from seeking out new things; 4) recreational and hedonistic: finds shopping a pleasant activity and shop just for the fun of it; 5) price conscious and value for money: consumer which has high consciousness of sale price and likely to be comparison shoppers; 6) impulsive and careless: Consumer who do not plan their shopping and appear unconcerned about how much he or she spends; 7) confused by overchoice: These consumer are experiences information overload in the market due to perceiving too many brands and stores and have difficulties making choices and 8) habitual and brand-loyal: These consumers select favorite brands and stores repeatedly overtime. Hiu, Siu, Wang and Chang (2001) revealed three prominent market segments through their study namely: 1. )Trendy, perfectionistic consumers: who frequent shopping and take it as an enjoyment. They are interested in high quality and fashionable items, read fashion magazines, watch various advertisements to gain trendy fashion information and tend to supportive with foreign brand which is high quality and fashionable styling. 2. ) Tradisional, pragmatic consumer: who do not view shopping as a enjoyment activity to them. They are price conscious, not interested in fashion styling and most probably choosing local brands. 3. Confused by overchoice: these consumers tend not to read magazines or advertisement on fashion, avoid exposure to too much information, and only purchase local brands which they are familiar. According to Bakewell and Mitchell (2003), five meaningful and distinct decision-making groups were found in the study of decision-making styles of adult female Generation Y consumers in the UK: â€Å"recreational quality seekers†, â€Å"recreational discount seekers†, â€Å"trend setting loyals†, â€Å"shopping and fashion uninterested† and â€Å"confused tim e/money conserving†. In their later study on decision making styles of male consumers in the UK (Bakewell & Mitchell, 2004), all of the original eight traits plus four new traits namely; store-loyal/low-price seeking, time-energy conserving, confused time restricted and store-promiscuity were identified.From their study it shows that the potential of the CSI for segmenting market as meaningful and different groups of male consumers with different decision making styles. Despite of previous studies which reported gender differences in decision-making styles of consumer, Mitchell and Walsh (2004) compared the decision-making styles of male and female shoppers in Germany. From the research, they managed to verify the construct validity of all eight CSI factors for female shopper and four of the factors for male shoppers. In consequence, they also concluded that male consumers were slightly less likely to be perfectionists, somewhat less novelty and fashion conscious, and less lik ely to be confused when making purchases compared to female consumers.Years after that, Bakewell and Mitchell (2006) undertook a similar study in the UK by using a sample of 480 male and female undergraduate students, they found that nine decision-making style were common to both genders. Through the study they had discovered three traits for male (store-loyal/low-price seeking, confused time-restricted and store-promiscuity) and three new traits for female traits (bargain seeking, imperfectionism and store loyal). There are few studies recently which had attempted to thoroughly explore the antecedent and consequences of consumer decision-making styles. Ghodeswar (2007) found that that seven out of eight dimensions of consumer decision-making style proposed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) in his study of consumer decision-making styles among Indian students.The only style which was not confirmed in his data is â€Å"price consciousness/ value for money consumer†. Gupta, Brantle y & Jackson (2010) found that consumers Generation Y at Midwestern University tend to be brands store loyal when they are buying high involvement product. Kambiz & Fereshteh (2011) found that husband and wife have divergent decision-making styles and their family structure as a social-structural variable can be influenced by the decision-making styles of family members which is related to their purchasing behavior. Lastly, it is believed that male and female consumer in Malaysia may also have certain distinctive characteristic in decision-making during shopping and purchasing.But those characteristic could be have equal interest to both researchers and marketing practitioners. Hence, this paper will fill the gap by focusing on the differences in decision-making styles on gender in the Malaysia context. Methodology According to the past study, most of the researchers prepared a structured questionnaire based on literature review and objectives of the study. Consumers decision-making were measured using the 40-items of Consumer Style Inventory (CSI), developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986). All scales were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The reliabilities of the CSI scale, according to Sproles and Kendall (1986), ranged from 0. 48 to 0. 76.The scales items were translated into Malay language with minor changes in wording to clarify the meaning. In addition, some demographic questions were included in the questionnaire. And most of the questionnaire was self-administered to non-probability sample of male and female undergraduate students in Malaysia. Finding and Analysis Common Factors for both Male and Female According to the research study of Safiek and Hayatul (2009) in Malaysia, the decision-making of Malaysian young consumer for both gender have similarities namely: 1. ) Quality consciously: meaning that they prefer to buy more durable and quality product. 2. ) Brand consciously: it shows tha t they set high standards and have high expectations for the products they buy.Moreover they choose to buy the product which is heavily advertised and well-know national brands. 3. ) Fashion consciousness: this shows that both genders are seem to gain pleasure from seeking out new things and keep up-to date with fashionable attractive styles. 4. ) Confused by overchoice: This factor shows that they feel over-loaded with the information on various brands products and find it very hard to choose the best product during shopping. 5. ) Satisfying and value seeking: concluded that if both items were identical in both sample, they will carefully find the best value for money product to be purchased which is also satisfied their needs. Male FactorsAgain from the study of Safiek and Hayatul (2009), there are two factors found for males namely brand loyalty and time-energy conserving. For brand loyalty, male consumers score higher than female consumers on this factor because they tend to hav e favorite brands and will use these habitually. Next, time-energy conserving which was not found in females but it characterizes males who often save energy by making their shopping trips as fast as possible in the same stores. Moreover, males have the perception that going shopping is a waste of time and they don’t give their purchases much thought. In overall, both of these results show the similarity with previous researchers, Bakewell and Michell (2006) in the UK. Female factorsFrom the study of Safiek and Hayatul (2009) research, it shows that there are three female factors found namely price consciousness, recreational and shopping avoidance. Female consumers scored higher than male consumers on price consciousness shows that female are more aware of the sale prices and more often choose to purchase lower price products. Next, female shoppers are more particular on recreational or pleasant shopping activity compared to male shoppers. And this factor is consistent with Mitchell and Walsh’s (2004) and Bakewell and Mitchell’s (2006) which characterization of a recreational consumer. The last factor is shopping avoidance which is very exclusive to female consumers and posed an opposite trait of recreational.However the high scored shows that if the shopping is unpleasant, female shoppers will tend to shop as quickly by purchasing the first brands or product that seem to be good enough. Conclusion In conclusion, through the research of consumer decision making styles, it offers a great opportunity to understand the characteristic or style of consumer towards their shopping behavior. And this consumer style inventory provides a fundamental for consumer decision making styles and has practical application advantages for marketers in their marketing strategic. However this study has a limitation because it only covered a specific segment of young adult in an local university in Malaysia.For future recommendation, there is a need to study th ese decision making styles among the larger population across different segment in order to get better converge of Malaysia young consumers. References Sproles, G. & Kendall, E. (1986). A Methodology for Profiling Consumers’ Decision-Making Styles, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 20 (2), pp. 267-279 Mitchell, V. , & Walsh, G. (2004). Gender Differences in German Consumer Decision-Making styles. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 3(4), 331-346 Bakewell, C. & Mitchell, V. W. (2003) Generation Y Female Consumer Decision-Making styles. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 31(2), 95-106. Bakewell, C. & Mitchell, V. 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