Harlem Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Harlem Renaissance - Essay Example The Harlem Renaissance brought about by the changes that African-American community had endured since the slavery was abolished. Those changes grew greater as a result of the First World War. People from rural areas attracted by industrialization opportunities were coming to cities giving rise to the new mass culture. Furthermore, Harlem Renaissance was contributed by such factors as the Great Migration of black Americans to the Northern cities which were concentrating ambitious people, and World War I that had created new jobs in industry for thousands of people. During the Harlem Renaissance, a new way of playing the piano was introduced. This was called Harlem Style and helped much to blur the lines between black social elite and poor Negroes. While the classic jazz band was made up of brass instruments and was viewed as the symbol of the South, the piano was viewed as an instrument pertaining to the culture of the wealthy. Such a modification once brought to already existing genre offered well-to-do blacks access to jazz. The popularity of that genre soon spread throughout the United States and became eventually at an â€Å"all time high.† Its liveliness and innovation were significant characteristics of performers in jazz’s early years. Such outstanding musicians as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Willie â€Å"The Lion† Smith and Jelly Roll Morton are considered to have laid the foundation for jazz music. It was the time when jazz as the blacks’ musical style gained it s popularity among whites. White dramatists, novelists and composers began to exploit the musical themes and tendencies of African-American in their pieces of art. Composers began to imply African American motifs in their works, such melodies and harmonies of black music as spirituals jazz and blues into their own concert pieces. African-Americans began to merge with white musicians into classical world of composition. Soon Roland Hayes became the first black male to enjoy wide recognition as a concert performer in both his native country and worldwide. He attended the Fisk University in Nashville with Arthur Calhoun. Later he

Knowledge, Attitude and Breast Cancer Screening Practices in Ghana Essay Example for Free

Knowledge, Attitude and Breast Cancer Screening Practices in Ghana Essay INTRODUCTION   Ã‚   Breast cancer in its simplest definition is the cancer of breast tissue. It is the most common nonskin cancer that affects women in the United States and the highest fatality rates of cancer deaths among women in low-resource countries (Anderson et al 2006). Severity of breast cancer differs based on its level of tissue invasion. Ductal carcinoma in situ is the most common noninvasive breast cancer while infiltrating or invasive ductal carcinoma is the most common breast cancer that accounts for about 80% of invasive breast cancer. Breast lumps presentation is the commonest form of presentation regardless of the breast cancer type (ACS 2005). Epidemiologic factors are attributed to dietary and environmental risk factors, although association of diet and breast cancer had varied results. Environmental risk factors involve the exposure to several toxic elements which accounts for the increased incidence of breast cancer in Western countries. Alcohol intake is also considered to effect in the increase of the number of cases in the US population. Age is also considered as cancer risk factor and can be attributed to hormonal change. Genetic variation and ethnicity are not out of scope for the investigation of breast cancer risk factors (Barton 2005). Diagnosis and Pathology of Breast Cancer: In 2002, Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) together with panel of breast cancer experts and patient advocates develop a consensus of recommendations for the diagnosis of breast cancer in limited-resource countries (Shyyan 2006). Histopathologic diagnosis included fine-needle aspiration biopsy which was recognized as the least expensive, core needle biopsy and surgical biopsy and had a consensus of choosing the method based on the availability of tools and expertise. They gave emphasis on the correlation of histopathology, clinical and imaging findings. They agreed on the need of histopathologic diagnosis before breast cancer treatment. In 2005, BHGI panel recommended an additional strategy of breast cancer management. They stratify diagnostic procedure and histopathology methods into – â€Å"basic, limited, enhanced, and maximal—from lowest to highest resources†. Basic level includes medical history of the patient, clinical breast examination, tissue diagnosis and medical record keeping. Limited level includes the increasing resources that enable diagnostic imaging utilization such as ultrasound with or without mammography, tests that can evaluate metastasis, use of image-guided sampling and hormone receptor sampling. Enhanced level includes diagnostic mammography, bone scanning and an onsite cytologist. Maximal level includes mass screening mammography (Shyyan 2006). Treatment of Breast Cancer: Treatment includes surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy or combinations of these three treatment modalities. According to American Cancer Society (2005), treatment can be local or systemic. Local treatment of the tumor is done without affecting the rest of the body. Surgery and radiation are examples of this treatment. On the other hand, systemic treatment which includes chemotherapy, hormone therapy and immunotherapy, is given into the bloodstream or by mouth to reach the cancer cells that may have spread the beyond the breast.    Radiotherapy is a treatment of breast cancer with high-energy rays to help shrink the cancer cells. It can be given outside of the body (external radiation) or can be placed directly into the tumor as radioactive materials (ACS 2005). It may be given external to the body.   Radiotherapy requires safe and effective application requiring appropriate facilities, staff and equipment. Radiotherapy should be applied without delay, should be accessible to all but without prolongation of the overall treatment time exposure. It is part of an integral part of breast-conserving treatment. It is required in almost all women with the breast cancer, and therefore should be available (Bese 2006).   Ã‚  Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs that are administered through injection in the vein or taken orally as a pill. It may be given before breast cancer surgery to reduce the size of the tumor or may be given after the surgery to reduce the chance of   recurrence (ACS 2005). This treatment is done in cycle the most common of which is 3-6 months. Most common side effects of these drugs usually stop   once the treatment is over such as in hair falling. Some of   drugs used as chemotherapy     are tamoxifen, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil doxorubicin, epirubicin, taxane and aromatase . These are usually prescribed in combination, and treatment is done with adjuvant therapy such as radiotherapy and pre- and post operation ( Eniu 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Surgical management in breast cancer is very common. This is done to remove as much as the cancer as possible and to find out whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm. Surgery can also restore the appearance of the breast and relieve the symptoms of advanced cancer. ACS (2005) released some of the common surgical procedures in breast cancer. These are lumpectomy, partial or segmental mastectomy, simple or total mastectomy, modified radical mastectomy and radical mastectomy. RESULTS    Breast cancer patients in Ghana. The present study which included women with mean age population of 48 years   revealed an almost consistent perception with regards to breast cancer.  Ã‚   They were aware that breast cancer is highly increasing in their place but not informed of the cause of disease. All of the responders were not aware of family breast cancer history except one. Information about breast cancer was acquired through television and radio programs. Only after   consultation with doctors due to lumps or   pains in their breast and some due to liquid coming out of their breast, that they were informed that they have breast cancer. Most of them underwent breast tissue exam for confirmation of the disease. Afterwards, they were advised to undergo surgery with medical treatment. The responders were ignorant of the breast cancer screening and prevention. In fact, out of 10 responders, only 2 (20%) of them were aware of breast self examination and clinical breast examination and admitted that they occasionally practice BSE. None of the responders knew about mammogram except for one (10%) of them who has heard of it but never had tried one. The feeling towards the knowledge of acquiring the disease was also the same; the feeling of being a burden in the family was common. They were afraid to face the reality but have realized that they have to fight the disease through the encouragement and support of family members and   help of medical professionals. The sample population was aware of the herbalist and faith healers but they did not submit themselves into that kind of treatment because herbalist have not   proven cure for breast cancer.   The most common complaint of the responders was the high cost of therapies, hospitalization and doctor fees. The treatment cost ranged to    ¢250,000- ¢24 million except to one of them who received a free treatment for being enrolled to a clinical trial. Sentiments of the participants were the same. Delay of treatment was attributed to their distant place from the health clinics; some facilities like x-ray were not available in the clinics and   high cost of treatment. These people asked for the betterment of breast cancer management through education dissemination to the community by health care providers and a help from the government to provide financial support to those who cannot afford to submit themselves for treatment. Patients in breast cancer clinic. In this part of the study, women with mean age of 42 years who were in breast cancer clinic were included. Most common medical complaint was lump and pain in the breast while others submit themselves for screening because they have just heard it from the radio/TV.   The study revealed that women who were attending the clinic were not actually informed of the cause breast cancer but aware of its increasing rate of mortality. Misconception about the cause of breast cancer such as exposure to coins was not common but did not exclude the form of trauma due to manipulation of the breast. Others correlate breast cancer with smoking and taking alcoholic beverages. They were not aware of their family history of breast cancer.   Information regarding breast cancer was acquired through television and radio programs and others were through their friends and family members. Most of the respondents believed that early detection and prompt treatment of the disease can prevent the unfavorable outcome of breast cancer such as removal of their breast or the worst would be cancer death. Only one out of   10 participants (10%) actually practice breast self examination (BSE). Most of them were informed of BSE but not actually practicing it. They were also aware of healers and herbalist but they did not believe that they can cure breast cancer but did not disagree of the possibility that herbalist and healers could treat other diseases or illnesses like hypertension. The participants suggested that it would be better if the government would provide or establish more health care clinics for breast cancer screening and provide free screening programs especially to those who cannot afford to   pay for high cost of treatment of the disease and for an open-easy access to all especially to those in rural areas. One of the participants suggested   that doctors should study further about the treatment of breast cancer instead of resorting to breast surgery. Healers involved in breast cancer management. Many of the population of Ghana are still patronizing healers and herbalist as a resort   of treatment. Two healers from Ghana were interviewed regarding their management of breast cancer. The healers have been into this practice for about 20-50 years. According to them, breast cancer is very common in Ghana and they are aware of the increasing incidence of   the disease. They described breast cancer as an â€Å"obosam† disease and the other was a supernatural disease. Healers believed that their ability to cure   the disease inherited from their forefathers who taught them how to prepare herbs and provide them with dwarfs. They believed that doctors have no right treatment towards breast cancer because according to them they just remove the breasts of women   and subsequently die. According to the healers they do not promote breast   examinations to their patients because these are useless and cannot stop women from getting the disease. Despite the big machines available in the hospitals, women with breast cancer still die, according to them. Healers charge their patients with as much as  ¢200,000- ¢1( £15-60) million depending on the patients’ condition. The healers admitted that there were cases of recurrence of the disease due to lost to follow up and missed spiritual sessions. Healers do not refer patients to hospitals rather, they encourage hospital doctors to refer their patients to healers because they are more capable of treating breast cancer. Breast cancer consultants.   Medical health professionals play a significant role in the awareness of breast cancer. They have the power to influence their patients toward right management of the disease. In the present study, surgeon/breast cancer consultants were interviewed. Consultants as expected were aware of the increasing incidence of breast cancer but they cannot give an exact figure due to absence of cancer registry in the place however they were able to attend to 200-300 new cases of breast cancer annually with age range starting from 20 years and above. They revealed that women in Ghana associate breast cancer to death because after undergoing breast caner surgery they usually die. People in Ghana link medical intervention and death which made the women in this place afraid of   the disease and lead them to negative attitude towards the disease. Consultants believed that there were several misconceptions about the disease. They were also aware that healers and herbalist delay the   presentation of patients to   hospital which accounted for the late stage of diagnosis. National Screening Program would benefit the people in Ghana for early detection of breast cancer and prompt treatment, however, they did not deny the fact it would be difficult to establish such program due to lack of funds by the government at present time. Consultants were aware of the limited resources of the needed for the implementation of the program. They believe that it is much easier and feasible to educate the women on simple screening methods such as regular breast self examination and encourage practitioners to take advantage of examining the breasts of their patients. There are also NGOs who are engaged in some activities like providing health care assistance. Consultants revealed that they receive referrals from district regions and from private practitioners. All patients with breast cancer are candidates for surgery. There are just some procedures that lead to untoward incident which cause the people to blame the doctors. According to consultants, one big problem that they encounter is the delay of the result of tissue exam from the pathologists which sometimes lead them to acquire the high cost of private laboratory. According to consultants the 5-year survival rate in Ghan is 25% which is disappointing. According to radiology consultant, patients present themselves to treatment once they are already in advanced stage, most at stage 3 and 4. They revealed the common factors that influence the delay of treatment among Ghana women. Most of the patients were scared of the procedure of   breast cancer treatment like in breast surgery which have many social and marriage implications. The high cost of the procedure hinders the patient to go to the doctors. Consultants revealed that surgical procedure may cost    ¢2-3million   ( £ 150-200), radiotherapy is about    ¢3-4 million (  £ 200-300) and chemotherapy is around  ¢6 million ( £400). Although surgical treatment cost is covered in National Health Insurance, the cost of radiotherapy and chemotherapy are excluded. Mammography which is an effective tool in breast cancer screening costs  ¢400,000 ( £30) in private health institution and around  ¢250,000 ( £20). DISCUSSION WITH REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The present study aimed to increase the awareness of the women in Ghana to breast cancer and the benefits that can be gained from breast cancer screening. The knowledge, attitude, behavior and practices of the women regarding early detection of breast cancer were analyzed. The ultimate aim of the study was to reduce the mortality rate of   breast cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The study revealed that there were still misconceptions about breast cancer despite the information gathered from televisions and radio programs. Attendance of Ghanaian women in breast clinic did not mean that they were informed of the nature of their disease. Only few of them were also aware of preventive procedure in detecting breast cancer. Local healers and spiritualists also delayed the presentation of the patients to the hospital which contributed to the late diagnosis of the disease. Difference in the disease management of health professionals can be attributed to the location of practice and availability of resources. Several factors   thought to affect the breast cancer screening program were the poor education of the Ghanaian towards prevention awareness against breast cancer; lack of initiative of the people to spread the knowledge of   breast cancer screening such as simple breast self examination and clinical breast examination; the inaccessibility of the of primary health care and the organizers; the unavailability of the appropriate screening tools like x-ray and mammography in the community and its high cost   and the lack of support from the government.   The following   review of related literatures will help in the understanding of breast cancer and breast cancer screening. Because of the continuous increasing prevalence of breast cancer and high cost of treatment, breast cancer screening remains the most cost effective way of cancer management (Parkin and Fernandez 2006).   Most of the world faces resource constraints that hinder the capacity to improve early detection, prompt diagnosis and sufficient treatment of the breast cancer. Every country finds its way to develop evidenced based, economically feasible and culturally appropriate guidelines that can be utilized by countries of limited health care resources to improve breast cancer outcomes (Anderson 2006). Adaptive strategies should be applied to ease the growing burden of breast cancer. In 2005, according to Smith and his colleagues (2006), the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) held its second summit in Bethesda, MD with the intention of reaffirming the principle of requiring all women of all resource levels to support in seeking health care and assuring the access to affordable and appropriate diagnostic tests and treatment intervention against breast cancer. They recommended breast health awareness to all women including the basic resources. They enhanced the basic facilities for effective training of relevant staff in clinical breast examination (CBE) or breast self examination and even the feasibility of mammography. MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging is one of the breast cancer screening procedures. It has been increasingly used as tool for early diagnosis of breast cancer. This screening tool has shown to detect cancers even they are small and potentially proven to be more curable than mammography alone. However, MRI is more costly than mammography and can lead to unnecessary breast biopsies, thus causing anxiety and discomfort to patient. On the other hand, a research study about the cost-effectiveness of breast MRI screening by cancer risk where they included the cancer detection ability of MRI, characteristics of women with dense breast tissue and women with high inherited breast cancer risk, revealed mortality reduction and cost effectiveness of breast MRI screening added to mammography in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers (Kurian 2006).    The hallmark of morality and morbidity of breast cancer can be attributed to the late presentation of the patients at an advanced stage of breast cancer. It is when there is no or little benefit that can be derived from any treatment modality. In a study conducted by Okobia and colleagues (2006), the knowledge, attitude and practice of community dwellers of Nigeria towards breast cancer were analyzed. They recruited urban-dwelling women with conducted an interviewer-administered questionnaires to elicit sociodemographic information regarding knowledge, attitude and practice towards breast cancer. It was found out that the participants had poor knowledge of breast cancer. Only 214 out of 1000 participants knew that breast cancer is presented initially with breast lumps. Breast cancer examination practices were low. Only 432 participants were able carry out breast self examination while only 91 participants had clinical breast examination. This study revealed that participants with higher level of education were significantly more knowledgeable about breast cancer. Ethnicity or race-related culture and beliefs are factors that affect the increase in prevalence of breast cancer mortality. Paterniti (2006) investigated how ethnically diverse women who are eligible for tamoxifen prophylaxis because of their breast cancer risk decide about tamoxifen use for risk reduction. Prior to the study, there was discussion of the benefits and risks of tamoxifen as prophylaxis. The study which included African-American, White, and Latina women, of 61–78 years, revealed that fear of breast cancer was not prominent and they were not inclined to take tamoxifen as preventive therapy after receiving the information. Participants showed limited unwillingness to take the medication with potential adverse effects. This study revealed that women felt that they had other options other than taking the risk of tamoxifen to reduce their risk of breast cancer, including early detection, diet, faith and other alternative therapies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Graham (2002) conducted a research about   the relationship between beliefs and practice of breast self examination (BSE in a black women population of 20-49 years of age. It was found out that health beliefs were much stronger in determining BSE performance for a given individual than were demographic characteristics. Breast self examination was related to increased perceived seriousness of breast cancer, benefit of the procedure and health motivation and was noted to have inverse relationship with perceived barriers. A related study was reported by Mitchell and colleagues (2002), about the effects of religious beliefs with other variables on breast cancer screening and the intended presentation of self-discovered breast lump. This study included women aging 40 years and above and were interviewed in their homes. Most of the interviewees believed that doctors cure breast cancer with God’s intervention which was labeled as â€Å"religious intervention with treatment†. This dimension was found out to be correlated with self-reported mammography but no clinical breast examination or intention to delay presentation of self-discovered breast lump. Minority of them believed treatment of breast cancer was unnecessary because only God could cure the disease which was labeled as â€Å"religious intervention in place of treatment†, and was significantly more common among African-American women who   are less educated and older. This was correlated with the strong intention of delaying the presentation of self-discovered breast lump. It was concluded that   religious intervention in place of treatment contributes significantly the delay presentation of breast cancer among African-American that contribute largely to the advanced-stage cancer diagnosis. The cause of breast cancer is still unclear. Adjei (2006) who grew up in Ghan and had some work about breast cancer. In his letter, he revealed his sentiments about the genetic differences in breast cancer. He had been aware of the incidence of breast cancer in Ghana since 1974 to 1999. He noted that the peak incidence of breast cancer in Ghana is in younger women with age range of 40-45 years while in United States and Caucasians, the peak incidence is in older age groups. Adjei (2006) pointed out that women of different places and environments, with different diets have similar epidemiology of breast cancer. In an argument which revealed number of breast cancer in African-Americans but rare in native African has been used to suggest that ethnicity is one factor of acquiring the disease, however, according to Adjei (2006), this information is leading because cancer has not been well-studied in Africa. Researchers are still finding their ways to fully disclose the correlation of genetic signature in breast tumors that are presently noted   to be a powerful predictor of cancer spread and cancer death. In a limited study conducted by Kolata (2002), she included few patients who are relatively. As she stated in her report, scientists said that the activity of a collection of 70 genes appear to predict cancer mortality   better than traditional measures like tumor size, cancer stage or lymph node spread to the axilla of women. She revealed in her study that 5.5% of women with good genetic signature died within the next decade while 45% of women are those of with bad genetic signatures. Adherence to the treatment regimen of breast cancer plays a big role in the improvement of disease outcome. There are no much literature about the factors associated to the behavior that influence the patient to delay or cause an incomplete adherence to the recommended follow up in patients with breast cancer. In a study conducted by Kaplan (2006), race/ethnicity, country of birth, financial issues fear of pain and difficulty of communicating with the healthcare providers are the barriers to seek follow up consultation Breast Cancer Screening: There was decline in breast cancer mortality rate of 0.9% in African American women while 2.1% was the decline in breast cancer mortality rate in non-Hispanic White women (Stewart et al 2004 as stated by Settersten , Dopp, and Tjoe, (2005).    On the contrary, De Koning (2000), questioned in his study the cost effectiveness of breast cancer screening. His idea came out when he analyzed his expectations of the reduction of breast cancer mortality after breast cancer screening. He stated in his study that the Dutch program of 2-yearly screening for women aged 50-70 would produce a 16% reduction in the total population. As stated in his research paper, the actual benefit that can be achieved from breast cancer screening programs is overstated. According to him breast cancer screening need to be carefully balanced against the burden to women and health care system. De Koning (2000) stated that â€Å"effects of breast cancer screening program depend on many factors such as epidemiology of the disease, the health care system, costs of health care, quality of the screening program and the attendance rate†. Groot, M. T. et al (2006) estimated the costs and health effects of breast cancer interventions in epidemiologically different regions of Africa, North America and Asia. They developed a mathematical simulation model of breast cancer using the different stages of cancer, its distribution and case fatality rates in the absence and presence of treatment as predictors of survival. The study resulted to a conclusion that untreated patients were the most sensitive to case fatality rates. This study suggest that treating breast cancer at stage 1 and introduction of an extensive breast cancer program are the most cost effective breast cancer interventions.   Ã‚   This study is supported by the research done by Aylin and colleagues (2005). They recruited women at the mammography clinic to evaluate the knowledge about breast cancer and mammography as breast cancer screening procedure. The striking result of this study is that most of the participants (95.3% of the total participants) were aware that women should have mammography screening periodically. They were informed of the fact that breast cancer screening such as mammography could help in the early detection of breast cancer. However, less than 50% of them admitted that they had never had mammography screening. Majority of the respondents (71.1%) were practicing breast self-examination. Another related study was conducted by Dundar and colleagues (2006), since breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Turkey , they determined the t the knowledge and attitudes of women in a rural area in western Turkey about breast self examination and mammography. They recruited women with age ranging from 20-64 years. Although majority of the participants have heard or read about breast cancer only 56.1% of them had sufficient knowledge about breast cancer and some admitted that they acquired the information from their health care professionals. Those with information of beast cancer were also those who practice breast self examination. This study revealed that health care professionals play a big role in information dissemination about breast cancer. Table 1. Recommendations for routine mammographic screening in North American women aged 40 years or older who are at average risk for breast cancer* Group (date of recommendations) Frequency of screening (yr) Included ages (yr) 40-49 50-69 70 Government-sponsored and private groups US Preventive Services Task Force (2002)** 1-2 Yes Yes Yes*** Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (1998, 1999, 2001) 1-2 No Yes No National Institutes of Health consensus conference (1997) No+ American Cancer Society (1997) 1 Yes Yes Yes National Cancer Institute (2002) 1-2 Yes Yes Yes Medical societies American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2000) 1-2 if aged 40-49 yr 1 if aged 50 yr Yes Yes Yes American Medical Association (1999) 1 Yes Yes Yes American College of Radiology (1998) 1 Yes Yes Yes American College of Preventive Medicine (1996) 1-2 No|| Yes Yes American Academy of Family Physicians (2001) 1-2 No+|| Yes No American Geriatrics Society (1999) 1-2 Yes*** Advocacy groups National Breast Cancer Coalition (2000) No + No National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (2002) 1 Yes Yes Yes Susan B. Komen Foundation (2002) 1 Yes Yes Yes The above table   was taken from the study conducted by Barton (2005) There are several ways presented and studied for breast cancer screening. Its concern is to reduce the prevalence of cancer mortality and to improve the quality of life as a result of early detection, however, there are still people that are not aware of breast cancer screening In response to increase the worldwide awareness of breast cancer, breast cancer advocacy movement has been analyzing the common experiences of women with breast cancer around the world especially those with limited resources. They found out that although there are language barriers, sentiments were consistent across cultures; cancer survivors have the same experiences and fears. The beliefs and taboos about breast cancer hinder the awareness programs and treatment. There are also limited resources for public education and awareness. Difficulty in understanding and translating the concept of the disease into English also hinders them in the public awareness of breast cancer (Errico and Rowden 2006). In accordance with this, sociological review of the barriers experienced by the women from different traditional cultures is essential not just to understand patterns of late breast cancer diagnosis but also the importance of interventions and programs. This is necessary for them to understand the preventive health care, specifically in breast cancer. This is because many are still ignorant of the breast cancer. According to Remennick (2006), health care providers and policymakers should try to understand and influence women especially those who are cancer risk to be aware of the disease to detect and treat breast cancer early. There are many structural barriers that hinder women especially those living in rural areas. Socioeconomic factors include poor health insurance, distance to medical facilities and inability to take time off work. Organizational barriers include difficulty in navigating complex health care systems and interacting with medical staff. Psychological and sociocultural barriers are poor health motivation, denial of personal risk, fatalism mistrust of cancer treatments and fear of becoming a burden on the family members. Still in other cultural behavior, especially in Muslims, women are strongly controlled by men and therefore may prohibit women in breast cancer screening. Remennick (2006) includes in his study the different approaches that lower the mentioned barriers, including implementation of uplifting the educational programs that would enlighten people regarding cancer myths and fallacies. He suggests that health care professional must outreach to their co ethnics. Primary health care providers play a critical role in   determining the compliance with treatment and preventive practices through direct recommendations to their patients. Family physicians and general internists showed that 70% of women who received a provider referral completed a screening mammography within one year versus only 18% of self-referred women (Grady   et al 1997 as stated by Santora 2003). However, Over 90% of rural women report that a doctors recommendation to have breast cancer screening is important† (Sparks et al 1996 as stated by Santora 2003). It should be noted that clinician compliance is contributed by several factors such as relation with provider, guideline of the treatment, patient’s behavior and environmental factors. Several studies have been conducted to report the   differences of health services in rural, urban and suburban areas with regards to their   health care services in the family practice clinics. It has been pointed out that lower utilization has been a significant factor. Those rural health practitioners have less access to health care services.   In a study done by   Pol and his colleagues (2001), suggested that rural health services do not lag for patients with access after revealing that 9 out of 16 services examined were as high or higher in rural areas. Another   study to examine the variations in breast cancer screening among primary care clinicians by geographic location of   clinical practice was done by Santora (2003). Physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants were included in the study and were classified into urban, rural and suburban categories based upon practice location. The study revealed that although there was no significant difference in the practice location, there was evident variation in the practice of   breast screening. It was reported that urban and suburban health practitioners were less compliant with the use of breast cancer guidelines as compared to clinicians in rural areas.   Primary care clinicians, including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants lack a consistent. This study revealed   that geographical location is not the main factor of inconsistent medical approach to breast cancer screening. Although the difference in the approaches to the procedure is uncertain in this study. A related study about General Practitioners’ (GP’s) knowledge, beliefs and attitudes toward breast screening, and their association with practice based-organizations of breast cancer screening, was conducted by Bekker, Morrisona and Marteau (1999). This study revealed that women’s attendance for breast cancer screening may be increased due to raising GP’s perceptions of the   threat of breast cancer. General practitioners addressed their concerns about the procedure and enhanced their views on the importance of primary health care in breast cancer screening programs. REFERENCE Adjei, A. A., 2006, â€Å"A final word about genetic differences†, American Association for Cancer Research, Available at http://www.aacr.org/page4444.aspx. American Cancer Society 2005, Available at: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_2_1X_What_is_breast_cancer_5.asp Anderson, B. O. et al, 2006, â€Å"BREAST HEALTH GLOBAL INITIATIVE Breast Cancer in Limited-Resource Countries: An Overview of the Breast Health Global Initiative 2005 Guidelines†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. 1, pp. S3–S15. Aylin et al, 2004, â€Å"Knowledge about breast cancer and mammography in breast cancer screening among women awaiting mammography†, Turkey Medical Journal Science, vol 35, pp 35-42, Available at http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/medical/issues/sag-05-35-1/sag-35-1-6-0409-8.pdf Bakken, S. 2002, Acculturation, knowledge, beliefs, and preventive health care practices regarding breast care in female Chinese immigrants in New York metropolitan area. Barton, M. B. 2005, â€Å"Breast cancer screening: benefits, risks and current controversies, Symposium on Women’s Health, vol 118 no 2, pp. 27-36, Available at http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/2005/08_05/barton.htm Bekker, H., Morrisona, L. and Marteau, T. 1999, â€Å"Breast screening: GPs beliefs, attitudes and practices†, Family Practice, vol 16 no. 1, pp.60-65, Available at   http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/16/1/60 Bese, N.S. 2006, â€Å"ORIGINAL ARTICLE: LIMITED-RESOURCE INTERVENTIONS Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer in Countries with Limited Resources: Program Implementation and Evidence-Based Recommendations†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. 1, pp. S96–S102. De Koning, H. J., 2000, â€Å"Breast cancer screening; cost-effective in practice?†, European Journal of Radiology, vol 33 no. 1, pp. 32-37, Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrievedb=PubMedlist_uids=10674787dopt=Abstract Dà ¼ndar et al, 2006, â€Å"The knowledge and attitudes of breast self-examination and mammography in a group of women in a rural area in western Turkey†, BMC Cancer vol 6 no 43, Available at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/6/43 Eniu, A. 2006, â€Å"BREAST HEALTH GLOBAL INITIATIVE Breast Cancer in Limited-Resource Countries: Treatment and Allocation of Resources†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. 1, pp. S38–S53 Errico, K. M. and Rowden, D. 2006. â€Å"Sociocultural barriers to care, Experiences of breast cancer survivor- Advocates and advocates in the countries with limited resources: a shared journey in breast cancer advocacy†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. 1, pp. S111–S116 Graham, M. E. 2002, â€Å"Health beliefs and self breast examination in black women†, Journal of Cultural Diversity, Available at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MJU/is_2_9/ai_93610993 Groot, M. T. et al, 2006, â€Å"ORIGINAL ARTICLE: GLOBAL EPIDEMIOLOGIC METHODS Costs and Health Effects of Breast Cancer Interventions in Epidemiologically Different Regions of Africa, North America, and Asia†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. l. pp. S81–S90. Kaplan, C. P. 2006, â€Å"Barriers to Breast Abnormality Follow-up: Minority, Low-Income Patients and Their Providers View†, Ethnicity Disease , vol. 15 no. 4, pp. 720–726, Available at http://apt.allenpress.com/aptonline/?request=get-abstractissn=1049-510Xvolume=015issue=04page=0720. Kolata, G. 2002, â€Å"Breast Cancer: Genes Are Tied to Death Rates†, SusanLoveMD.org, Available at http://www.susanlovemd.com/community/flashes/in-the-news/news021219.htm Kurian, A., 2006, â€Å"Cost-effectiveness of Breast MRI Screening by Cancer Risk†, Available at http://www.cbcrp.org/research/PageGrant.asp?grant_id=4018 Mitchell, J. et al. 2002, â€Å"Religious Beliefs and Breast Cancer Screening†, Journal of Womens Health, vol 11 no 10, pp.   907-915 Okobia et al, 2006, â€Å"Knowledge, attitude and practice of Nigerian women towards breast cancer: A cross- Sectional study†, World Journal of Surgical Oncology, vol 4 no 11, Available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1397833 Parkin, M. D. and Fernandez, L. M., 2006, â€Å"ORIGINAL ARTICLE: GLOBAL EPIDEMIOLOGIC METHODS Use of Statistics to Assess the Global Burden of Breast Cancer†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. 1, pp. S70–S80. Paterniti, A. D. 2006, â€Å"â€Å"I’m Going To Die of Something Anyway†: Women’s Perceptions of Tamoxifen for Breast Cancer Risk Reduction†, Ethnicity Disease, vol. 15 no. 3, pp. 365–372, Available at http://apt.allenpress.com/aptonline/?request=get-abstractissn=1049-510Xvolume=015issue=03page=0365. Pol, L. G. et al, 2001, â€Å"Rural, urban and suburban comparisons of preventive services in family practice clinics†, Journal of Rural Health, vol 17 no 2, pp 114-121. Reichenbach, L., 2002, â€Å"The Politics of Priority Setting for Reproductive Health: Breast and Cervical Cancer in Ghana†, Reproductive Health Matters, vol 10 no 20, pp. 47-58. Remennick, L. 2006, â€Å"ORIGINAL ARTICLE: SOCIOCULTURAL BARRIERS TO CARE The Challenge of Early Breast Cancer Detection among Immigrant and Minority Women in Multicultural Societies†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no 1, pp. S103–S110. Rimer, B. R. 1995, Adherence to Cancer Screening, Available at https://www.moffitt.usf.edu/pubs/ccj/v2n6/article4.html Santora, L M. 2003, â€Å"Breast cancer screening beliefs by practice location†, BMC Public Health, vol 3 no 9, Available at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/3/9. Settersten, L., Dopp, A. and Tjoe, J., 2005, â€Å"Breast cancer epidemiology: Myths and science†, Available at http://www.son.wisc.edu/ce/programs/asynch/bccd/1-introduction.htm. Shyyan, R. et al, 2006, â€Å"BREAST HEALTH GLOBAL INITIATIVE: Breast Cancer in Limited-Resource Countries: Diagnosis and Pathology†. The Breast Journal, vol 12 no.1, pp. S27–S37. Smith, R. A. et al, 2006, â€Å"BREAST HEALTH GLOBAL INITIATIVE: Breast Cancer in Limited-Resource Countries: Early Detection and Access to Care†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no.1, pp. S16–S26. Wallace, L. S. and Gupta, R. 2003, â€Å"Predictors of Screening for Breast and Colorectal Cancer among Middle-aged Women†, Family Medicine Journal, vol 35 no 5, pp. 349-354 †Weight Gain a Big Factor in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer†, 2006, Journal of the American Medical Association, Available at http://www.aphroditewomenshealth.com/news/20060612001144_health_news.shtml Yip, C. H. et al, 2006, â€Å"BREAST HEALTH GLOBAL INITIATIVE: Breast Cancer in Limited-Resource Countries: Health Care Systems and Public Policy†, The Breast Journal, vol 12 no. 1, pp. S54–S69.

Outsourcing in the Hotel Industry

Outsourcing in the Hotel Industry 1.1 Introduction Outsourcing is one of the growth industries of our time (Winterton 2000).   Today, the outsourcing of selected organisational activities is an integral part of corporate strategy (Lankford and Parsa 1999).   Outsourcing has become a significant facet of modern hotel management (Sieburg 1992).   Unfortunately there is shortage of prior research in the hospitality management literature concerning outsourcing or maintaining internally business processes in hotel sector. This paper seeks to present critical analysis of factors, varieties, aims and results of outsourcing within hotel industry. The first chapter will begin with stating the problem which is vital in hospitality industry.   It will then continue with the presentation of background literature and the purpose of study.   Thirdly, rationale will be explained. Subsequently research questions will be raised.   Furthermore a definition of terms will identify the key words within the study and how the writer defines them within it.   A number of limitations will indicate specific areas in which the research will not be definitive.   Finally a summary of the chapter will be provided indicating the main points discussed. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Historically as the kind of contractual relations and commercial activity outsourcing has appeared in 1962 when the successful businessman Ross Perro, whose firm EDS carried out calculations for banks, renting night time on mainframes, has brought  «General Motors » annual economy in 44 % more than 4 billion dollars (Nureev 2002).   Over the last few years, the idea of outsourcing noncore business functions has gained huge popularity (Winterton 2000).   Nowadays different types and forms of outsourcing are putting into practice and developing in various businesses. Tourism in its turn is a rapidly growing phenomenon and has become one of the largest industries in the world.   But also hospitality industry is very unique, and very sensitive to every internal and external changes.   And such innovation as outsourcing should have affect the industry in general and the development of hotel sector in particular. As it has been mentioned above, outsourcing within hotel industry has been the subject of minimal literature research.   And a question: whether outsourcing will work in hotels and make notable profit still opened for reasoning and conclusions.   And if yes or no, how it will be affected by financial crisis which came less than year ago.   Just that very case of crisis can cardinally change the relation of business to outsourcing.   After all in a crisis situation it is more important not tactical, but the strategic part of the business. In general, up to now the quantity of questions more than answers.   And it is very important to understand, why hotels outsource.   And what form for them is most attractive and far-sighted. 1.3 Background Literature According to Lankford and Parsa (1999), outsourcing is defined as the procurement of products or services from sources that are external to the organisation.   This leads to allowing outsiders to take responsibilities for some aspects of financial management (Winterton 2000).   After definition and explanation of previous authors, it is possible to say that outsourcing is something similar to service and support services though it is differs essentially from them.   It is not short-term service, on once, given by one company to another.   Outsourcing gives longer support, not single.   Outsourcing is transfer of certain processes or functions from one company to another.   The Company recipient should specialise in this branch.   From here it is possible to create one of outsourcings principles:  «I leave to myself only that I can do better than others, I give to the external executor that it does better than others ».   Other principles and the most practical ty pes and forms of outsourcing will be considered in second chapter. Outsourcing has become an important strategic tool in todays competitive business environment (Zhu, Hsu and Lillie 2001).   As any tool of business it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Outsourcing offers several advantages, such as enabling existing staff to concentrate on core activities on organisational specialisations, focusing on achieving key strategic objectives, lowering or stabilising overhead costs, and thereby gaining cost advantage over the competition, providing flexibility in response to changing market conditions, and reducing investment in high technology (Kliem, 1999; Quinn 1999 cited Kakabadse, N. and Kakabadse, A. 2000).   Thus it is possible to ear-mark three big advantages of outsourcing in general, not only for hotels and hospitality industry.   The first advantage outsourcing allows to pay almost all attention and resources to the core direction of the business and to charge to foreign company noncore functions.   Thereby, company will have competitive advantage.   Also redistribution and optimisation of human resources of the company will be possible.   The second advantage is decreasing of material input.   Very often attractio ns of the foreign executor essentially cheaper than the maintenance of own department for execution of certain job.   It is caused by lower price cost of outsourcers job since the chosen direction is its specific specialisation.   And the third advantage using outsourcing, companies can get technologies and the decisions of higher quality level which might be absent at the organisation.   Besides this there is a possibility of using specialised functions which only experts can perform.   Also it is important to remember about transfer of all responsibilities of the assigned functions to outsourcer. But besides these pluses there are also some disadvantages of outsourcing.   Schniederjans and Zuckweiler (2004) introduce very helpful summary of those.   They suggested that it is possible to divide this lacks in four groups: Managerial implications. Such as loss of control over critical functions and suppliers. Financial implications. Such as failure to realise cost savings. Operational implications. Such as dependence on suppliers and responsibility for quality of their work. Human resource implications.   Such as lower morale of permanent employees. Thus after confrontation these disadvantages and meaning of the process it is possible to ear-mark one of the most important shortcoming of outsourcing.   It is possible to criticise it for loss of workplaces.   As the result of such process, the company can release many workplaces, replacing the in-house workers with more professional (or cheaper) from other company.   As the result of this, first of all, workers are getting in the worst position because very often there is no labour contract or any guarantees about their future job between them and the employer. Remembering all the minuses, lacks and disadvantages but aspiring to benefits, pluses and advantages of outsourcing hotels should understand the reasons, right time and business situation when to outsource.   According to William and Faramanz (1999), firms should consider outsourcing when it is believed that certain support functions can be completed faster, cheaper, or better by an outside organisation.   Tasks that are not core competencies of the hotel human resources, payroll and benefits, information systems, even food service are ripe for being contracted out.   Moreover, Blake (1997) gave three main reasons for organisations for turning to outsourcing: Where others do it better To focus on their core business To reduce their cost base. Therefore the hotels should use outsourcing to concentrate on the primary activity, instead of to be engaged in management of dining rooms, cleaners or catching of computer viruses.   Another factor to exploit the outsourcing within hotel industry is the situation when the external provider of services is capable to provide economy and/or higher level of services because of specialisation or cheaper labour.   Outsourcing can help to save resources of the hotel. One more not very visible objective to use outsourcing within hotels is to study from the service provider. Consequently, Milgrom and Roberts (1992 cited Lamminmaki 2005) said that understanding hotels motivation for outsourcing is important, as organisation is as important as technology, cost, and demand in determining success. To conclude this part of the chapter, it is useful to remember statement of Kotler (1988): â€Å"Entrust others that what they will make easier and more cheaply†. 1.4 Purpose of Study The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence on hotel sector for outsourcing or maintaining internally business processes.   By analysing existing studies related to outsourcing in general, it can be valuable in applying to the outsourcing within hotel sector where there is little research.   In additional, there are few management accounting studies concerned with the hotel sector (Collier and Gregory 1995).   Furthermore, the research will evaluate advantages and disadvantages of using outsourcing for hotels.   This study will critically assess the innovative part of outsourcing for hotels and what type and form of internal business processes is going to be more successful for them. Specifically, literature will be within the hospitality sector.   Moreover, how will outsourcing affect costumers and their needs will be analysed. Finally, based on the findings of the study, solutions for the hotel sector will be provided. 1.5 Rationale This research is about outsourcing or internal business processes within hotel industry.   And it is significant for several reasons: Hospitality industry is one of the fastest developing industries.   And In many countries, tourism industry is the leading industry, which stimulates development of other sectors. Outsourcing relatively new business idea but it has been used already in numerous sectors of economy including hospitality. Using outsourcing or internal business processes hotels can cut their production cost. There is a high potential to improve quality of hotels services. Most of the hotels have to find some new ideas for their development and reduction of risks during the financial crisis period.   And outsourcing could be one of them. 1.6 Research Questions This study aim is to answer following Research Questions: What is considered ‘outsourcing process within the hotel sector? To begin with, it is vital for the research to explain and to make it clearer, what is outsourcing in todays economy.   Also it is important to elucidate if this term is innovative method for the business or it is just a new expression of existing already processes within hotel sector. What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing for hotel sector? As any type of business relationship, outsourcing should have not only advantages and positive moments but also disadvantages and obstacles.   To be more objective, it is vital to compare both to be able to make a conclusion whether outsourcing is a big opportunity for the hotels or it will bring more difficulties rather than profitability. In addition, it is significant to understand the specific type of action of outsourcing within hotels and its the most widespread forms What are the factors for outsourcing or maintaining internally business processes within hotel sector? Internal and external factors of using outsourcing for the hotels will be examined.   And the research will emphasise specific reasons of starting using outsourcing within hotel industry.   Moreover, ‘financial crisis as one of the factors will be discussed. What are the main aims of outsourcing within hotel sector? And last but not least, it will be achievable to acquire the main aims and results of outsourcing within hotel sector.   Additionally, after analysing the interview and questionnaires, preferred types and the specific benefits from outsourcing for the hotels will be seen. 1.7 Definition of Terms Core business: Core business means the commercial activity from which the company derives most of its profits (www.resourceconservation.mb.ca).   According to Alexander and Yong (1996), there are four main points to define ‘core activities: Activities which traditionally performed in-house; Activities which critical to business performance; Activities which create current or potential competitive advantage; Activities which will drive further growth, innovation, or rejuvenation. Financial Crisis: There is no precise definition of financial crisis, but a common view is that disruptions in financial markets rise to the level of a crisis when the flow of credit to households and businesses is constrained and the real economy of goods and services is adversely affected (opencrs.com). Hotel Sector: Outsourcer:The service provider (outsourcer) is responsible for delivering the contracted services, resolving day-to-day operational problems and managing the request and implementation of routine changes in accordance with the framework of contracts, standards (Kent 1998). Outsourcing: Greaver (1999) defined outsourcing as the act of transferring some of an organizations recurring internal activities and decision rights to outside providers, as set forth in a contract.   Later Beaumont and Sohal (2004) explained outsourcing as having work that was formerly done inside the organisation performed by an external organisation.   The vendor (hereafter the outsourcer and outsource are, respectively, referred to as vendor and client) may be an independent entity or a wholly owned subsidiary. 1.7 Limitations This study will limit itself to surveying and interviewing hotels only from two countries Greece and Russia and most probably will not represent the complete situation of European hotel industry as well as worldwide hotel industry.   Moreover it will not represent the whole situation even in both chosen countries for the reason that researcher sampled only those who have agreed to be sampled. The convenience sampling procedure decreases the generalisation of findings.   This study cannot be generalised to populations but may relate to other defined contexts with caution. For the purpose of this study the mixed approach was used, which include utilisation of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis which are always connected with sensibility, reliability and validity.   But on the other hand it has also its advantages such as expansion and collaboration. Furthermore, this study will concentrate on outsourcing within hotel sector, but at the same time there may be other factors that influence and affect business processes in the hotels. 1.9 Summary This chapter has introduced the thesis by outlining the topic of this study, the statement of the problem, background literature, purpose of this study, its rationale, presented research questions, definition of the terms and limitations of the study. In this first chapter the studys main focus was identified as examining and understanding the importance of outsourcing within hotel sector.   A critical examination of meaning of outsourcing, its advantages and disadvantages should be able to assist in determining how the hotel industry can be affected or altered by using outsourcing process.   Finally, this study would determine reasons and forms of outsourcing which are the most recent, available and useful within hotel sector. Afterward, Chapter Two will discuss the theoretical framework and conceptual models of factors for outsourcing or maintaining internally business processes within hotel sector.   The analysis will be connected with four Research Questions.   Finally, next chapter will classify particular insufficiencies in the literature leading to the need of the present study. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to critically analyse the existing literature on outsourcing or maintaining internally business processes within hotel sector.   Based on the research questions discussed in the first chapter of the given study, four general areas have been established.   More specifically this chapter will begin with a general description of related texts and then gradually concentrate on the precise areas in which the study has a focus on. The studies in the four major areas provided the theoretical foundation for the research conducted in this study.   The areas are: Consideration and explanation of outsourcing processes within the hotel industry.   This area relates to Research Question #1 What is considered ‘outsourcing process within the hotel sector? Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing for the hotel industry.   This area relates to Research Question #2 What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing for hotel sector? Factors and motives of using outsourcing processes within hotel industry.   This area relates to Research Question #3 What are the factors for outsourcing or maintaining internally business processes within hotel sector? Aims and results of outsourcing for hotel sector. This area relates to Research Question #4 What are the main aims of outsourcing within hotel sector? The general areas were supported by the literature are all directly related to this study.   The purpose of the literature review for the author was to obtain a greater understanding and depth of knowledge by having critically analysed all areas pertaining to the Research Questions.These Research Questions are achievable as the researcher has a close and continual contact with the industry and has sufficient access to the information in numerous hotels in Greece and Russia. 2.2 Review of General Area I: Consideration and explanation of outsourcing processes within the hotel industryThis section provides the theoretical framework for Research Question # 1. The hotel industry is one of the formidable business in the world but it does not mean that they are strict in incorporating business strategies in their business (http://www.outsourcing-weblog.com).   Also, according to Burgess (2007), financial controllers in their turn consider that departmental and general managers do not have enough business skills and finance skills in particular to optimise costs and revenues and hence maintain profits.   Thus outsourcing practice might be a very useful and successful way in order to help owners of the hotels nowadays as well as in future. According to Kakabadse, N. and Kakabadse, A. (2000), outsourcing practice dates back to eighteenth-century England and has been in continuous use in numerous industry sectors.   However, the term ‘outsourcing English neologism has appeared in the American explanatory dictionaries only in the beginning of 80th (Ostrovsy 2009).   Since then this expression is strongly located in a business lexicon of the majority of the world languages.   Traditionally, outsourcing has concentrated on activities which are remote from the heart or nerve centre of the company (Brown 1997). Greaver (1999) defined outsourcing as the act of transferring some of an organisations recurring internal activities and decision rights to outside providers, as set forth in a contract.   Consequently, outsourcing it is one of interaction form between two organisations which is determined by the contract.   And following this contracts experts of one company accomplish duties of other company. ‘Out-sourcing — can be understood as ‘use of anothers resources.   Moreover, according to Lankford and Parsa (1999) outsourcing is defined as the procurement of products or services from sources that are external to the organisation.   In other words outsourcing is a transfer of some functions of the organisation to external highly skilled executors — outsourcers.   Also it is refusal of own business process, and acquisition of services in realisation of this business process at specialised organisation. For the hotels outsourcing is a transfer to the external contractor of some business functions or parts of business processes of the company.   The contractor (outsourcer) adapts his universal means and knowledge, considering this specific business of the customer, and uses them in interests of the customer for payment, more often defined in the cost of services, instead of shares of profit. According to Beaumont and Sohal (2004), wide variety of business process is now outsourced.   The use of outsourcing is becoming more sophisticated; more organisations are outsourcing responsibility for business processes.   Glickman et al. (2007) in his turn noted that outsourcing is becoming more widely accepted and the argument for outsourcing versus in-house operations is gaining more support.   As a result Beaumont and Sohal (2004) confirmed that today outsourcing is a fashionable management technique. Hence, it is possible to mention that the outsourcing market endures rapid growth.   The growing demand and supply mutually accelerate each other.   Specialised outsourcing companies of cleaning and service of hotels are developing.   Outsourcing leads to growth of some professions for hotel sector.   More often, it is either low paid and not enough prestigious jobs (such as tidying and cleaning), or very specialised trades where maintenance of necessary professional level of employees or their work-load for the organisation is problematic (an example can be service of computer systems and IT). Consequently, as Glickman et al. (2007) stated, outsourcing has become a widely accepted practice that provides substantial cost-saving benefits for different organisations in general and hotels particular.   And hotels will always outsource some activities (the supply of water and electricity) but insource others (Beaumont and Sohal 2004). Therefore, there is a question: what kind of activities should hotels outsource key business processes or non-core functions? As outsourcing is a means of improving the performance of the company (Brown 1997).   And the overlay supplier is providing financial expertise which is difficult and expensive to create within a corporate treasury. The overlay provider, by offering the expertise to a broad range of clients, is able to provide it to each client at a lower cost than it would be for them to create their own capability (Winterton 2000).   Today outsourcing is considered as the business technology which is transferring to outsourcing companies processes and functions from the in-house business and hence, it is possible to make a conclusion, responsibility for result of performance of these processes as well.   So, for how big can be this shifting off responsibility for the hotel sector? The majority of authors consider that core activities should stay in-house, whilst non-core activities can be outsourced, in order to preserve core competencies (Prahalad and Hamel 1990, Bettis et al. 1992, Lacity et al. 1995, Quinn and Hilmer 1994, Rothery and Robertson 1995, Kelley 1995, Peisch 1995, Mullin 1996 cited Kakabadse, N. and Kakabadse, A. 2000).   From here it is possible to draw a conclusion that the sense of outsourcing comes to the simple formula: to concentrate all resources to that kind of activity which is the core for the company, and to transfer the other (supporting, accompanying) functions to the reliable and professional partner. But Struebing, (1996) argued that especially relevant is the outsourcing of key business processes and financial functions.   Nevertheless, Lankford and Parsa (1999) in their turn stated that focus on core business activities, companies can no longer assume that all organisational services must be provided and managed internally.   Competitive advantage may be gained when products or services are produced more effectively and efficiently by outside suppliers.   Thus, outsourcing is a direct transfer of non-core business processes of the company to the external organisation outsourcer, for their further performance within the limits of the signed contract.   And there may be big benefit for the company if transferred business processes are the exact specialisation of outsourcer. Consequently, outsourcing is management strategy because of which hotels can optimise in-house processes and, without distracting on minor functions, completely concentrate on core activities.   As a matter of fact outsourcing is attraction of external sources with the purpose of the decision of internal problems of the hotel.   Outsourcing can also be characterised, as the sale to hotels services for maintenance of their activity, i.e. outsourcer can take on the balance almost all non-core activities of the hotel.   As a result of that the client can give all his time only to the core business, thus occurs minimisation of risks concerning to not profile kinds of activities (a corporate meal, IT-service, transportation service, installation works, cleaning etc.). In hotels, outsourcing has been used for many years for some operational tasks such as cleaning, but only recently (Cline and Warner 2001, Lamminmaki 2006 cited Burgess 2007), has been considered for accounting, following the example of other industries (Burgess 2007). Holiday Inn for instance created its hotel reservations business as a separate entity based on its relationship with IBMs ISSC to serve the entire hotel and hospitality market (Venkatraman, 1997). Other examples of outsourcing within hotel sector could be: cleaning, laundry service, human resource management, employees meal, IT-service and support, marketing, statistics, security service, creating web-sites, organisation of celebrating and conferences via an event company and many others which are not core competences of business, and could very easily and more economically be contracted out to service companies (Winterton 2000). Nevertheless, according to Lamminmaki (2006), an activity will tend not to be outsourced if it results in a subcontractor being placed in a position enabling it to (wittingly or otherwise) inflict damage on the reputation of the hotels business. Now it is an appropriate and good point to understand how innovative the outsourcing model is.   In general, outsourcing is just the variety of cooperation. Outsourcing of the hotel activities is definitely not a new phenomenon.   In 1963, for example, Storey (2001 cited Glickman et al. 2007) examined outsourcing in the military (Glickman et al. 2007). From the previous part of the chapter it is possible to mention that benefit of outsourcing consists in more quality and less spend of accomplishment of the transferred function.   Higher quality explained by availability of highly paid professionals who have a wide experience in the given problematic.   As outsourcer has big amount of works in the specific sphere, he has a possibility to receive solid experience and on its basis to create various workings out for completing the transferred function.   When the work is outsourced, the overlay traders are immersed in the market (Winterton 2000).   Outsourcer is engaged in this sphere, and not for only one company.   Hence, professional specialisation is taking place.   And as a result expenses decrease and accordingly, the effect of accumulation begins: the bigger and better specialisation the easier management, easier management cheaper the whole process.   Moreover, Glickman (et al. 2007) noted that outsourcers who p rovide the same functions to a number of different hotels are able to purchase larger quantities at lower prices.   Thus, expenses become lower using outsourcing, than at independent accomplishing of matching function. On the other hand one of the biggest problems of this statement is that using by the hotel highly paid professionals will not allow to achieve this with small money.   And it is really not so easy to operate this process.   So actually, what kind of innovation is here?   There were always contract and subcontract works, there was a specialisation of both workers and enterprises, there was a strict selection of suppliers.   And can it be differently with modern development of techniques and business?   The settled word ‘outsourcing goes today as a new method of work.   And this word has become extremely useful. Also, it is relevant to know what place outsourcing takes in the quality management.   In standards ISO series 9000:2001 (http://ds1.twirpx.com) this word (not even this but only the verb) ‘outsource has been found by researcher just once in point 4.1.   That is why it is especially appropriate to remember the statement of Lonsdale and Cox (2000) with the note that it is some kind of substitute for the once fashionable enthusiasms for conglomeration, horizontal integration, vertical integration, and internal integration. Consequently, considering outsourcing as the business phenomenon of the modern world, it is possible to allocate its pluses and minuses.   Also it is possible to separate core services and to understand, by what principles they work and what bring as a result to the hotels: benefit or losses.   In addition, it is possible to analyse a situation of loosing work places because of outsourcing processes within the hotel sector, increasing percent of unemployment or, on the contrary, allows hotels to develop and grow faster, increasing their weight in the market. 2.3 Review of General Area II: Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing for the hotel industry This section provides the theoretical framework for Research Question # 2. According to Beaumont and Sohal (2004), outsourcing is used because it supposedly advantages the organisation.   The advantages and disadvantages can be categorized as strategic or tactical, long-term or short-term, and tangible or intangible. The advantages in outsourcing can be operational, strategic, or both.   Operational advantages usually provide for short-term trouble avoidance, while strategic advantages offer long-term contributions in maximizing opportunities (Lankford and Parsa 1999).   When services are outsourced, it may become easier to handle problem situations because it is possible to go straight to the provider and have them work out the problem instead of having to figure out what went wrong internally (Glickman et al. 2007). For hotels, benefits are substantial: reduced costs, expanded services and expertise, improved employee productivity and morale, and a more positive corporate image (Lankford and Parsa 1999).   Moreover, the hotel does not enlarge staff, removes from itself cares on personnel recruiting, and saves on social taxes.   At the same time if hotel organise his processes in correct way, quality of work of the personnel remains high.   Also hotels can leave taxes, administrative costs, worries about replacing equipment, warehousing, maintenance,

The Great American Depression of the 1930s :: American History Essays

The Great American Depression of the 1930's The economic depression that beset the United States and other countries in the 1930s was unique in its magnitude and its consequences. At the depth of the depression, in 1933, one American worker in every four was out of a job. In other countries unemployment ranged between 15 percent and 25 percent of the labor force. The great industrial slump continued throughout the 1930s, shaking the foundations of Western capitalism and the society based upon it. Economic Aspects President Calvin COOLIDGE had said during the long prosperity of the 1920s that "The business of America is business." Despite the seeming business prosperity of the 1920s, however, there were serious economic weak spots, a chief one being a depression in the agricultural sector. also depressed were such industries as coal mining, railroads, and textiles. Throughout the 1920s, U. S. banks had failed--an average of 600 per year--as had thousands of other business firms. By 1928 the construction boom was over. The spectacular rise in prices on the STOCK MARKET from 1924 to 1929 bore little relation to actual economic conditions. In fact, the boom in the stock market and in real estate, along with the expansion in credit (created, in part, by low-paid workers buying on credit) and high profits for a few industries, concealed basic problems. Thus the U. S. stock market crash that occurred in October 1929, with huge losses, was not the fundamental cause of the Great Depression, although the crash sparked, and certainly marked the beginning of, the most traumatic economic period of modern times. By 1930, the slump was apparent, but few people expected it to continue; previous financial PANICS and depressions had reversed in a year or two. The usual forces of economic expansion had vanished, however. Technology had eliminated more industrial jobs than it had created; the supply of goods continued to exceed demand; the world market system was basically unsound. The high tariffs of the Smoot-Hawley Act (1930) exacerbated the downturn. As business failures increased and unemployment soared--and as people with dwindling incomes nonetheless had to pay their creditors--it was apparent that the United States was in the grip of economic breakdown. Most European countries were hit even harder, because they had not yet fully recovered from the ravages of World War I.) The deepening depression essentially coincided with the term in office (1929-33) of President Herbert HOOVER. The stark statistics scarcely convey the distress of the millions of people who lost jobs, savings, and homes. From 1930 to 1933 industrial stocks lost 80% of their value. In the four

The Avant-garde Architecture O :: essays research papers

The Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei (I.M) is known as one of the greatest architects of the Twentieth Century. His long, brilliant career was highlighted by several internationally famous structures. While many of Pei’s buildings were generally accepted by the public, some of them precipitated fair amounts of controversy. The most notable of these controversial structures is his Glass Pyramid at the entrance of the Louvre in Paris. For these reasons, I.M. Pei seems to be an architect who exhibits interest in the avant-garde through both the creative design and aestheticism of his architecture. Pei was born in China in 1917 and immigrated to the United States in 1935. He originally attended the University of Pennsylvania but grew unconfident in his drawing skills so he dropped out and pursued engineering at MIT. After Pei decided to return to architecture, he earned degrees from both MIT and Harvard. In 1956, after he had taught at Harvard for three years, he established I.M. Pei & Partners, an architectural firm that has been known as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners since 1989. This firm is famous for its successful and rational solutions to a variety of design problems. They are responsible for many of the largest pubic and private construction projects in the second half of this century. Some of these projects include the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library in Boston, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. When French President Francois Mitterand â€Å"personally selected Mr. Pei in 1983 to design the Grand Louvre to give air, space, and light to one of the world’s most congested museums,† (Markham, 1989) there were many critics. The press â€Å"lambasted the idea of shattering the harmony of the Louvre’s courtyard with a glass iceberg† (Markham, 1989). But Pei proceeded as planned, taking a major risk in creating a glass pyramid structure at the entrance. He did not focus on what the critics would say about his plans, but hoped that the world would see, upon completion, that his vision of a contemporary, functional entrance would not clash with the Baroque style of the Louvre itself. When the pyramid was completed in 1989, Pei’s expression of avant-garde art was not entirely accepted. Many critics praised the aspiration with which the architect designed it, but ridiculed many aspects of its functionality: â€Å"The practical problem is that the Pyramid, once you get inside, is noisy, hot, and disorienting† (Campbell, 1989).

The McDonaldization

â€Å"McDonaldization† — as used by George Ritzer, author of The McDonaldization of Society — refers to the creation of â€Å"rationalized systems† to perform everyday functions such as food preparation, retail sales, banking, home construction, entertainment, news delivery and so on. He calls it McDonaldization because such methods were used to famous effect by Ray Kroc, who built McDonald's into a fast-food empire — and because in many people's minds McDonald's represents the results, both good and bad, that occur when rationalized systems take over. But has this transition affected other businesses either positively or negatively? Why sure, thanks for asking! I think the best way to examine McDonaldization is to compare the analysis of McDonalds to its effects in the same industry. The way I plan to do this is to see if the effects of McDonaldization have effect the Wendy†s franchise. The information that I know about this business comes from my brother working for this company for many years and partaking in a triple-cheeseburger or two in my short college career. The way that Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers does business and markets it's product to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization, where the ideology of McDonald's has come to dominate the world, has caused Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers to emulate McDonald's style of running a franchised restaurant chain in terms of efficiency, calculability, and control. However, since McDonald's has become the embodiment of â€Å"fast-food† in our society, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers has had to change their focus to giving the consumer a higher quality product in a relatively fast amount of time. So, Wendy's still caters to a McDonaldized society in terms of giving them a meal as fast as possible but making quality their number one priority to give people a viable option from McDonald's. In addition, as mentioned before, I have used my brother who managed to keep a job at Wendy's for a short period and observations I gathered while at McDonald's as further information for this paper. First, before I discuss the impact of McDonaldization on Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, I will define what McDonaldization is. McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society, as well as, of the rest of the world. George Ritzer created this concept of McDonaldization as a continuation of Max Weber's theories on bureaucracies (I hope). Max Weber defines a bureaucracy as a large hierarchical organization that is governed by formal rules and regulations and has a clear specification of work tasks. Its three main characteristics are that it has a division of labor, hierarchy of authority, and an impartial and impersonal application of rules and policies (see what I got from Sociological Theory). Thus, from that definition of a bureaucracy, one would conclude that both McDonald's and Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers are bureaucracies. The fact that both restaurants are bureaucracies is supported by the fact that each assigns workers to a specific job where each worker individually contributes to the overall success of the restaurant by doing his or her job. For example, workers at each restaurant could be assigned to working the grill, making fries, working the front register, or taking orders at the drive-thru window. Both restaurants have a hierarchy of authority from worker, crew chief, shift manager, salary manager to owner of the store. Also, each restaurant enforces an impartial and impersonal application of rules and policies. Both McDonald's and Wendy's have standard, impersonal greetings at the register and at the drive-thru window. The exception when this impersonal attitude towards the customer is changed is when a worker knows the customer outside the restaurant. In this case, the worker will probably ask their acquaintance how they are doing or what they are up to. The worker might even throw in an extra cheeseburger that a regular customer might not get. Despite this exception where standardization is broken, both these restaurants have become bureaucracies because they are the most efficient means of managing large groups of people. That leaves one to wonder why the process of McDonaldization has been so successful for both companies. The first reason is that it offers efficiency where consumers know that it means the quickest way to get from one point to another. In the case of McDonald's, it offers the best available way to get from being hungry to being full. This is so important in today's society because so many people are in a rush to get from one place to another. Therefore, the quick, efficient setup of McDonald's allows consumers to eat a fast-food meal without having to leave their car. On the other hand, Wendy's strives for as efficient service as possible without affecting the quality of their product. This is because McDonald's already has imprinted on people's minds throughout the many years of its existence that they will get the same burger each visit in the quickest amount of time. They reinforce this idea on the minds of consumers through advertising and other clever tools. For example, on every McDonald's sign is a tally of how many people in the world have eaten there, which is currently at 99 billion served. The use of this sign reinforces to people that McDonald's is an icon in our society and many people will equate that large number with McDonald's being the best restaurant. As a result, Wendy's has tried to make quality their number one priority but with no serious deficiencies in the speed of their product. This can be attributed to the fact that they do not pre-make their burgers and leave them under heat lamps to sit like McDonald's does. Instead, they have their staff assembled to make the burger as the customer orders it. This is an especially important benefit because many people like to â€Å"customize† their burger and the process that Wendy's uses allow them to do that. This allows them to target another group of society, which McDonald's product doesn't appeal to. For example, older people who would rather sit down and have a quality meal would most likely rather go to Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Even, the name of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers suggests that their style is more like how things used to be done many decades ago in terms of making quality the number one priority for a restaurant. Therefore, they would provide an alternative for people who were not interested in getting a burger that has been slopped together and sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. This would be reflected in which demographic of people each restaurant targeted. McDonald's traditionally has targeted families as their key demographic but recently they have shifted to make their product more appealing to teenagers as well. This can best be demonstrated in their new style commercials that use many young adults and refers to McDonald's as â€Å"Mickey D's† as a hip place to hang out. So, for young people who are in a rush to get from place to place, McDonald's provides a fast, cheap meal that they can eat on the run. On the other hand, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers targets people who aren't in such a rush and would rather sit down and eat a slow, relaxing meal (is this ageism). They still cater to those who are in a rush by offering a drive-thru. However, they know that most of their business will come from people looking for a quality alternative to McDonald's. Another aspect of McDonaldization that has made both companies successful is calculability. This is where each restaurant puts an emphasis on quantitative aspects of products sold like portion size and cost. For example, McDonald's has burgers like the â€Å"Quarter Pounder† and â€Å"Big Mac† while Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburger has burgers like the â€Å"Double Bacon Cheeseburger†. This use of descriptive adjectives suggests to the consumer that they are getting the most amount of food for their money. Both McDonald's and Wendy's have the option to â€Å"Supersize† or â€Å"Biggiesize† an order. This makes the companies successful in our society because of our belief that bigger is better. Finally, both companies use control, especially through the substitution of non-human for human technology. For both companies that means using soft drink machines that automatically shuts off when the glass is full, french-fry machines that rings and lifts itself out of the oil when the fries are done, and the preprogrammed cash registers that eliminate the need for the cashier to calculate any prices. The main reason that this is done is because,† [people are] The great source of uncertainty, unpredictability and inefficiency in any rationalizing system. Thus, by increasing control, through increased mechanization, both companies maintain a better control over the entire organization. Also, this leads to employees not having to think about their job because the tasks they are asked to do are very repetitive. In conclusion, it is obvious that both restaurants have adopted a style of running their restaurants that makes them successful. McDonald's style is to give the public the same burger that they have always had so that they can come to depend that they will get the same meal as they did last time. They have been a pioneer in the fast-food industry and the model that other restaurants try to imitate. On the other hand, Wendy's style is to make a quality product that reminds people of the â€Å"good old days†. They have been directly influenced by McDonald's in terms of how to run their fast-food restaurant to maximize speed and efficiency. However, since Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers would not have a chance of competing with McDonald's at their own game, they have developed their own niche in the market of making a quality product efficiently. What concerns me is the way these companies are phasing out the roles of their employees to the point where they are doing nothing but mindless, repetitive tasks. To me, the consequence of this will be that someday all human workers will be replaced because it is more efficient for machines to do the work. So, although McDonaldization has made both these companies very successful, there is a very serious potential downside that could have an effect on everyone. Now there is no doubt that this text can be read on a number of different levels, some of which are far more satisfactory than others. Ritzer is clearly an accessible and engaging writer. For an undergraduate audience, which is unfamiliar with the language, and indeed, critical project of radical social theory, this text provides a worthy, and indeed somewhat enjoyable introduction. Keep in mind, though, that those four principles are not necessarily pursued from the point of view of the consumer. Efficiency, for example, may entail the placing of great inconveniences upon a consumer for the sake of efficient management. Calculability may involve hiding certain information from the consumer. Predictability and control may involve a company's ability to predict and control consumer behavior, not the consumer's ability to predict what kind of product or control what kind of service he gets. Ritzer calls such breakdowns â€Å"the irrationality of rationalization. † Even so, there is a great perception among American consumers in particular that McDonaldized systems succeed from their own point of view based on those criteria: the systems are perceived to be more efficient, the benefits calculable, the goods and services predictable. But it's rare that the consumer will ever feel himself to be more in control. McDonaldized systems take away a great deal of consumer autonomy (which I love), making decisions and implementing processes on a mass-market scale with little room for individual involvement on the part of a single customer or even a single store or plant manager. The benefit of control is one that accrues exclusively to the company. Regardless of who benefits or to what extent, the universal result is homogenization. Rationalized systems have a pronounced tendency to squash-individual tastes, niche markets, small-scale enterprise and personalized customer service. Differences are leveled, wrinkles smoothed, knots cut off — convenience at the expense of character. An overwhelming normlessness develops, along with a decrease in responsiveness among the people of our society that are involved. The system that seeks to mimic a machine becomes a machine, incapable of making exceptions or taking risks. McDonaldization is taking over our society. In the future, our wishes of fast, more efficient services will be fulfilled; but whom in the world will we ever talk too?

Hamlet Revenge Essay

Many of the characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet have an unfortunate death from the results of their entire attempt to seek revenge. First Laertes ends up killing himself and Hamlet because the death of his father Polonius has maddened him, and convinced him he need to avenge Hamlet for his father.Secondly, Fortinbras is convinced he needs to take action to gain back the land that his father lost in the battle he was killed in with King Hamlet. Last, Hamlet is the one to blame for all who were woefully killed in the process of animus acts because of his procrastination to kill the murderer of his father; Claudius.Because all of these men are angered from the death of their father and feel the need to get repayment from their murderers, Hamlet is primarily a tragedy of revenge. To begin with, Hamlet is essentially a catastrophe of revenge due to Laertes acts of anger after his father’s death.After Laertes hears of his father’s death, he travels back to Denmark immed iately. At first Laertes assumes that the new king Claudius partook in the killing of his father, but later finds out the true person to blame is young Hamlet.As the king and Laertes sit down to talk, he explains to the king â€Å"Let come what comes, only I’ll be reveng’d / most thoroughly for my father† (IV. vii. 26). This is only the beginning to his talk about how he is going to avenge the man that killed his father.Laertes goes on to explain to the king just how far he would go to get repayment for the loss of his father â€Å"to cut his throat i’th church† (IV. vii. 26). For Laertes to say that he would kill a man in a church is very serious because God plays a very large role in all of their lives, and murder is already a sin, but to kill a man in a church just makes it even worse.Laertes and Claudius end up planning a very cruel way to kill Hamlet, they are going to trick Hamlet into having a duel with Laertes since he has always been jealo us of Laertes skills in duelling. To ensure the death of Hamlet, Laertes is going to poison the tip of his sword so that even if he scratches Hamlet, he will die. Thus, proving Hamlet is overall a tragedy of revenge. Secondly, Fortinbras determined mind to get back the land his father lost in battle with King Hamlet contributes to the predominant theme of tragic revenge.Fortinbras father was killed in battle fighting with King Hamlet, and lost the land that Denmark had gained. Old Fortinbras brother then took the throne, and told Young Fortinbras the he mustn’t try to get back the land that was lost. Then out of anger of the loss of his father.Fortinbras decides to take action to get the land back, so he and his soldiers peacefully travels into Denmark to discuss the land he wishes to regain. Fortinbras informs his captain soldier what to say to Hamlet when they encounter him â€Å"Tell him that by his license Fortinbras / craves the conveyance of a promis’d march / o ver his kingdom.You know the rendezvous† (IV. iv. 2-4). Fortinbras believes that it is his duty to take back the land, and the only way to do that is take it from Hamlet because Hamlets father is the one who killed his father.Fortinbras captain approaches Hamlet and informs him the reason for their visit â€Å"We go to gain a little patch of ground / that hath in it no profit but the name† (IV. iv. 18-19). This quote tells us that Fortinbras does not want to take the land to benefit him and his people, but to gain back the land that was once his fathers to uphold his name.The only way to keep his fathers name around in Fortinbras mind is to avenge Hamlet by taking the land from him. In conclusion, Fortinbras persistent mind to avenge for the land makes Hamlet mainly a calamity of revenge. Last, but certainly not least Hamlets procrastination to get revenge for his fathers murder by killing Claudius plays the biggest part in making Hamlet primarily a tragedy of revenge. Hamlets big misadventure on his way to seek vengeance starts when he meets with the ghost of his father King Hamlet.The ghost explains how his father was killed then orders Hamlet to â€Å"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder† (I. v. 25). After Hamlet gets these orders from the ghost he then sets his plans of revenge into gear. But Hamlet keeps stalling at every chance he gets to avenge Claudius, in the end just causing more of a catastrophe.After Hamlets encounter with Young Fortinbras he realizes that he must take action just at Fortinbras is doing, Hamlet then speaks to himself â€Å"My thoughts be bloody or nothing worth† (IV. iv. 66).From here on the only thing on Hamlets mind is how he is going to kill Claudius, but other things such as his battle with Laertes gets in the way. Before Hamlet is finally able to put an end to this crazy plan to avenge his uncle, he is poisoned by Laertes sword during their duel.But luckily for Hamlet he was able to avenge Clau dius before his own death, thus completing the task of avengement his father’s ghost has assigned to him. In conclusion Hamlets delay to kill Claudius makes Hamlet essentially a tragedy of revenge.In the end, Hamlet is predominantly a tragic misadventure of revenge. Laertes clouded mind full of anger causing him to be blind to see the outcome of his acts, Fortinbras determination to get back his lost land and uphold his father’s name, and Hamlet stalling at every opening to kill Claudius all contribute to the theme of tragic revenge. All of these men have something in common; they were all blinded by the need to avenge the murderer of their father, thus causing more and more trouble for each of them to achieve that goal.