Business Strategy BT

Development Strategy for Business Resilience and Sustainability through an Incremental Strategy – A Study of British Telecom

This report discusses the comparative analysis of three strategies namely incremental, renovate and inventive within the context of the internal as well as the external environment of a company such as BT (British Telecommunications Limited) which is a multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in London. It also evaluates a change management programme that can bring about strategic change within this organisation. BT has a global services as well as a retail division. Its operations span 170 countries throughout the world.

Company’s Internal and External Environment and Its Strategy Type

In the current business scenario, intense competition, integration across global markets, changes in technology and the advancement of the telecommunications sector are some of the external factors that influence the change management program of BT. the Company’s managerial talent and the level of the motivation of its workforce are some of the internal factors influencing strategic management. In order to improve the effectiveness of the organisation, strategy is the key because it leverages the capabilities of the individuals and the institution in a cohesive manner. The ideal development strategy for a company like BT that seeks business resilience and sustainability throughout its line of operations is an incremental approach.

Strategic Capabilities

Incremental strategies are effective within the current dynamic environment. Regulatory convergence is a key factor in the selection of incremental strategy for handling change and sustaining profits. The challenges of global competition have to be seen within the broader regulatory framework for effective strategic management. The incremental approach to strategic management is in response to the complex and ever changing corporate environment. Consequently, the strategic process moved in an incremental manner adapting to changes in the internal and external environment of the company. Decisions will then be driven by multiple goals. BT has low levels of business resources with respect to its telecommunications services though it is steadily expanding in the field of broadband communications. BT has reported a fall in sales though it experienced a healthy profit in 2013. Moderate or high business resources imply greater strategic capabilities which enable the company to excel using innovation or denotative strategic management. Annual pre-tax profits of BT were up by more than 40% but sales fell by 4%.

Business Strategy BT Competitive Analysis

The major feature of the incremental strategy is that it is decentralised and it responds to dynamic environmental challenges. BT is facing a changing socioeconomic milieu wherein the incremental approach accounts for this variable. An incremental strategy enables the organisation to fulfil its mission by closing the divide between long as well as short term goals within a changing environment. Organisational design followed a contingency approach since landmark research was conducted by Emery and Trist (1965) as well as Lawrence and Lorsch (1967). When a company faces a challenging environment, incremental strategy is far better than inventive or renovate strategies on account of the challenging environment faced by the company. As a British MNC which has to face global competition, BT should opt for an incremental strategy to boost its prospects and sales. The degree to which the environment of a company is globalised also influences its development strategy. Porter has proposed the five force model for analyses of competition presented below:

Figure 1: Porter’s 5 Force Model from Michael Porter, “Competitive Strategies”

Porter’s model elucidates how competition from different sources can create industry rivalry. Competitive analyses in the context of an incremental strategy is suitable for organisations such as BT which want to cope with competition from different sources, as discussed in Porter’s model.

Business Strategy BT Competitive Advantage

BT needs to consider the complete gamut of competitors through an incremental approach to change management. Porter (1980) has argued that organisations should consider the behaviour of firms that are producing same/similar products as well as the action of suppliers, competitors producing substitute products and the customers themselves. An incremental strategy enables companies such as BT to develop a holistic view of the market to promote business resilience and boost profits. Competitive advantage has been discussed through a model proposed by Porter discussed below:

Figure 2: Porter’s Generic Strategies Model (Porter, 1980)

Ansoff (1985) has discussed how companies should also develop the strategy keeping in mind the flow of critical resources for production. They should also consider how they will impact non-market actors. Nonmarket actors or strategic interest groups also have an important role to play in influencing the development strategy of a firm. BT should follow a cost leadership strategy for low cost rather than aiming for product uniqueness as there are many rivals offering advanced services in this sector.

Culture

The culture of an organisation also plays a key role in influencing the strategy it adopts. The company’s abilities revolve around the resource, skills and procedures as well as its competencies. Attitudes and other cognitive factors reflect an organisation’s culture. The work culture at BT is unique. It focuses on completion of projects and garnering of crucial contracts. The organisational culture of a company influences its success in current times. BT needs to follow an incremental strategy whereby it adapts to changing global and domestic environment so that it can keep up with its competitors. The choice of a strategic management approach is based on several critical considerations such as an organisation’s strategic capabilities, competitive analyses, competitive advantage and culture.

An organisation must have a strategy that can meet the challenges of its internal or external environment (Ashby, 1961). Therefore, an incremental strategy would be ideal for enhancing the sustainability of business practices and the resilience of British Telecom. Consider the personnel, structure, systems and financial resources to be important factors in any strategy for change management. An incremental strategy follows a contingency approach which is ideal for British Telecom.

The organisation’s culture as reflected by collective values, experiences and beliefs of its members also has a critical role to play in its success. An incremental strategy for development and change management incorporates this effectively, making it the viable and effective choice for BT which has skilled employees. An incremental strategy is ideal for bringing about small but important changes in the organisational functioning compared to inventive or renovate strategies which focus on large scale change.

In order to possess business resilience and sustainability in its operations, BT needs to follow an incremental strategy to bolster its current organisational culture. Companies need to be proactive to cope with changes such as economic slowdowns, increased global competition and massive amount of technological advancement. BT would do well to adopt an incremental, contingency oriented approach to strategic management to cope with this.

Critical Evaluation of the Incremental Strategy

Incremental strategy is ideal for British Telecom. An incremental strategy enables the company to have flexibility in coping with uncertainties in the field of policy regulation and governance.

People

There is a need to bargain with stakeholders and integrate human and organisational capabilities to catapult the company to the path of success. Renovate and innovative strategies can only be effective in environments where there are less regulation uncertainties (Lindblom, 1979). Each of the different resources within a company plays a critical role in its success. Through an incremental approach, British Telecom can impact its employees in a positive way. By instilling coping skills and out of the box thinking to manage dynamic and changing situations, BT can boost its profits.

Employees also differ in terms of their personal knowledge, perception, limitations, and it is due to this inherent complexity that incremental strategy can be the perfect tool for change. Diversity is one of the chief features of the workforce at BT. Therefore; development strategies followed here should take advantage of this versatility. Incremental approaches to strategic management can accomplish this. Top managers within the same company can approach the same problem with different solutions (Bower & Doz, 1979).

Operations

Operations system provides guidance regarding how work procedures must be carried on and provides the framework for performing the work People are the key resources of any company. They are the prime assets which spur the growth and development of the organisation. Operations are a key area where rapid changes have to be kept pace with. The internal as well as external stakeholders also play a central role in the company’s success (Lindblom, 1959; Mintzberg, 1919). Balancing the goals and interests of stakeholders is the key to organisational success (Ansoff, 1985). BT should adopt an incremental strategy to improve operations.

Finance

Financial resources are necessary to accomplish goals and provide rewards. Money is one of the primary motivators for obtaining optimal performance from employees in the work setting. Annual pre-tax profits were up 42% to £2.4bn, last year for BT while sales were down 4%. An incremental strategy is ideal for a company such as BT which has ample financial resources.

Technology

Technology sets the stage for the company to maximise its capabilities if it keeps pace with it. Effective utilisation of resources is a must if a company has to progress and make healthy profits. An organisation’s culture is maintained and transmitted by its workers. Leaders of internal stakeholder groups are the key assets to instil positive change within an organisation. For companies such as BT that are facing moderate to heavy environmental turbulence, an incremental strategy for strategic management is needed (Mintzberg, 1973).

Several comprehensive reviews have been conducted by leading researchers in the field of strategic management (Hofer, 1976; Vancil, 1976; Armstrong, 1982). Research has found that degree of formality centralisation, hierarchical structure and comprehensiveness of any company is influenced by its environment, and complexity (Armstong, 1982, Hofer, 1976). In current scenario, an incremental strategy is optimal for BT.

Change Management Programme

A change management programme for British Telecom must incorporate an incremental approach. This is because its external and internal environment is more suited to an approach that makes allowances for sudden and rapid changes. Whether it is people, financial aspects, technological advancements or organisational culture, all aspects of an organisation’s functioning need to be taken into account for effective change management. A conventional approach towards change management will not be successful. In 1995, John Kotter published his landmark paper “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”. This paper cited how only 30% of change programs are successful.

The biggest advantages of a change management programme for British Telecom through an incremental strategy is that it will make allowances for the rapid changes in technology and competition that are taking place in the Indian telecommunications sector. Colin Price and Emily Lawson (2003) suggested that the conditions which must be met for employees within an organisation to embrace change include their agreement to the change, effective role modelling for inculcation of change oriented behaviours, and reinforcement systems that encourage the behaviour and the skills required for change. The structures, systems, processes and incentives within a change management program should be conducive towards a positive transformation of the company into a reliable and sustainable business.

An incremental approach to strategic management can bring about this transformation for British Telecom. But change management processes should have an appeal for employees. Businesses that want to do more than survive have to remodel themselves to match up to competitors. Change management programmes have incorporated various methods such as total quality management, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change and turnarounds in a bid to improve their profit margins. British Telecom needs to follow a change programme that pursues innovation in a way that is flexible and keeps in line with the incremental strategy of adapting to changes. Too many companies fail to progress beyond a certain point when it comes to garnering market share because they do not anticipate change due to factors such as advances in technology and industrial competition. Even a change management programme based on the incremental approach can have a few pitfalls though. Anticipating change is not easy. Many times, market analysts may be predicting a trend which is short-lived. Kotter’s 10 year study of more than 100 companies found unsuccessful change management programmes failed to generate the urgency or formulate a vision that could be communicated well to bring about a complete transition.

Companies need to be practical and realistic in their aspirations. Only then can change management programmes succeed in a complete sense. Obstacles to the change management programme suggested in this paper include rapid changes in the regulatory framework, unforeseen innovations and advancements in the field of technology and lack of market foresight. Genuine transformations require game changing ideas which can bring about creative solutions to problems. A change management programme based on an incremental strategy can only succeed if company personnel have the objectivity to view successes and failures in accurate ways.

References

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Barnard, C. I. (1938). The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press

Baumol, W. (1968). Entrepreneurship in economic theory, American Economic Review, 581 64-72.

Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Boston: Pitman.

Hofer, C. W. (1975). Toward a contingency theory of business strategy, Academy of Management Journal, l8: 784-810.

Hofer, C. W. (1976). Research on strategic planning: A survey of past studies and suggestions for future efforts, Journal of Economics and Business, 28: 261-286.

Isern, Joseph and Pung, Caroline, “Organizing for successful change management: A McKinsey global survey”, 4.The McKinsey Quarterly, June 2006.

Kotter, John, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1995, p 1.

Jensen, M. C., and Meckling, W. H, (1976). Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency, costs and ownership structure, Journal of Financial Economics, 3:305-360.

Lawrence, P. R., and Lorsch, J. W. (1967}. Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston.

Lorsch, J. W. (1986). Managing culture: The invisible barrier to strategic change, California Management Review, 23: 95-109.

Mintzberg, H. (1973). Strategy making in three modes, California Management Review, I6: 44-53.

Mintzberg, H. (1977). Policy as a field of management theory, Academy of Management Review, 2: 88-103.

Mintzberg, H. (1978). Patterns in strategy formation, Management Science, 24: 934-948.

Mintzberg, H. (1979). The Structuring of Organizations, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Mintzberg, H. (1987). Crafting strategy, Harvard Business Review, 65: 66-75.

Mintzberg, H., and Walters, J. A. (1985). Of strategies, deliberate and emergent, Strategic Management Journal, 6: 25?-272.

Pettigrew, A. M. (1977). Strategy formation as a political process, International Studies on Management and Organization, 7: 78-87.

Price, Colin and Lawson, Emily, “The Psychology of Change Management,”7.The McKinsey Quarterly, 2003, Number 2, Special Edition: Organization.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The Theory of Economic Development, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Vancil, R. F. (l 9? 6}. Strategy formulations in complex organizations, Sloan Management Review, I7: 1—13.

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Brand Loyalty Customer Behavior

How does Brand Loyalty Influence Customer Behavior?

The rise in living standards, ease of accessibility to finance coupled with a wide variety to choose from has made consumer durable market to grow with a rapid rate. Many players are getting into the market. With the advances in communication and technology, new lifestyles and the quest to appear young and beautiful, the demand for quality beauty products has increased significantly. Consumer quality sector is characterized by the emergence of exchange offers, discounts and intensive competition. People nowadays want to imitate in regards to dressing, language, and politics among other lifestyle aspects. The increasing population is bombarded with information about maintaining a youthful look, making women seek for cosmetics that suit them. With this knowledge in mind, beauty manufacturing product companies make every effort to brand them to capture the booming market. Companies are competing on the basis of firm grasp of the local and international market, their well acknowledged brands and hold over wide distribution network. The penetration level of consumer products remains high.

This research is scoped down to understand the relationship between consumer behavior and brand loyalty, factors affecting consumer decision making, the role of brand loyalty in consumer durable goods and the position of the individual consumer in the segment. The path forward will be to study the secondary data for industry overview, collect primary data for more insight and derive conclusions based on primary and secondary data. The research findings will be addressed based on the theories of consumer buying behavior and brand loyalty.

Organizations must engage in making strategic decisions that are capable of improving the firms’ image so that they can have an advantage over competitors. To be specific, these image enhancing strategies ensure that the organization increase the loyalty of the current customers. In addition, the image enhancing strategies should help in the attraction of new customers to the organization. Strategic decisions that can bring enhanced image to the organization have included the selection of target markets, and modification of products to suit the demands of the customers. Other strategic decisions on prices, location of products and services, promotional efforts, and operating policies help in improving the organizations’ image.

The implementation of these strategies ensures that there is a solid background for effective image in the organization. An organization’s image ensures that if there is something about it that is not known, the knowledge the customers have on the organization fills the void. The main concern of this research is to determine whether the perception about the brand image affects customer behavior.

Research Objectives

The interest of the research is to determine if brand loyalty influences consumer behavior. This study would be of value to those organizations concerned about the society and those concerned with the attaining off the highest possible profit. Further, the study aims to find if consumers have positive attitudes for those organizations that improve their brand loyalty and social responsibility.

Specific research objectives include:

To find the relationship between consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
To find out whether consumer behavior leads to change in the brand image quality, for instance, product quality or service quality.
The influence of customer satisfaction on the brand’s image
Does consumer behavior affect brand image?
Does consumer behavior lead to change in the brand image quality?
Does customer satisfaction affect brand image?

Literature Review

The main focus of this study is to measure the attitudes of customers in relation to brand loyalty and to ascertain its influence of this attitude on brand loyalty. Study of attitudes enables organization managers to answer questions as to why a consumer purchased one product over another. The understanding of the consumer attitude towards particular products ensures that they come up with strategies and decisions on major products and market decisions.

The image associated with a particular product or service ensures that it has a competitive advantage over other products and services. A company’s brand is valuable strategic asset in achieving goals and objectives. Brand loyalty can be referred to as the consumer decision; whether conscious or unconscious concerning the use of a product or service. It may also refer to the intention to buy or use a particular product for a long duration of time. Brand loyalty is achieved due to the right features, and the quality of the brand. Quality of the product must be at the right price for the consumer to perceive the brand as being loyal to their needs. Organizations can change consumer behavior concerning a particular product or service through advertising. Advertising ensures that consumers acquire new habits, and instill those habits by telling the consumers how the product is of value to their money. Consumers should also be encouraged to continue using the products and services in the future (Hoyer and Maclnnis, 2008, p. 27).

According to Pride and Ferrel (2008, p.123), the main reason why organizations do not have strong brand loyalty is because they are not familiar with various ways of disseminating a strong and clear message that distinguishes their product with that of the competitor. In addition, the message should distinguish the product in a positive and memorable manner. The major challenge of organizations is to avoid the disadvantages of portraying a particular product or service as having negative image. An organization’s image should not be viewed in terms of the product and service attributes; the organization’s philosophies concerning environmental management, philanthropy, and ethical considerations are critical in influencing consumer behavior.

Societal Conscious Marketing

Most organizations have adopted marketing strategies that focus on societal needs. Each of these strategies is philosophical or operational concepts used by organizational leaders to enhance the objectives of their businesses. The following are some of the concepts widely used in organizations (Phillips, 2010, p. 45).

Product concept: products should be produced in large volumes since all of it can be sold to the consumers
Selling concept; products can only be consumed if they are heavily promoted
Product concept; consumers will buy high quality products that are within their price range
Marketing concept: specific customer demands can only be met if organization produces products that are equal or better than those of the competitor. In addition, the products should be priced lower than the competitor.
Societal marketing concept: This term involves marketing in a manner that does not harm the society, people, and the environment. Societal marketing concept is motivated by the need to satisfy direct customers and other constituents in the market.

Brand loyalty can be exercised in several ways. The main activities that organizations can do to improve brand loyalty include environmental friendly activities, philanthropy, ethical activities with local, national, and international communities, customers, and employees. Environmentally friendly activities can include recycling, waste reduction, and other strategies aimed at minimizing the organization’s impact on the environment. Philanthropic activities include engaging donations of money, food, facilities, and time. These activities are classified under the title known as cause related marketing (Kahren, 2009, p.36).

Brand Loyalty

According to Dutton (1997), organizations have been turning philanthropy activities inward towards their employees. This is done through paying them in order to volunteer for their favorite charities. She asserts that words like “ethics’, honesty, truth and trust are good sentiments. She, however, notes that they mean nothing if they are not adopted by organizations. Ethical activities include using different hiring practices and employee relations such as high moral values, fair pay, equal treatment, and equal opportunity for all workers. Organizations that do not treat workers fairly have the risk of lowering their brand image. Brand image should start with internal operations; there is no point of trying to show the external clients that business ethics are good while simultaneously engaging in unethical activities towards the employees. Employees play an important role in advertising the organization to outside clients more than any other marketing strategy.

The question of how brand loyalty affects product evaluation was examined by Brown and Dacin (1997). Their study looked into the differences between the impact of organization brand loyalty which include the organization’s ability to produce and deliver quality products and services and the corporate social responsibility’s impacts on consumers. In their first research, students analyzed their hypothetical scenarios. The outcome was that brand loyalty had a significant effect on the way consumers evaluated the product attributes and the overall image of the organization. Further, the authors found out that social responsibility had no direct impact on the organization’s image. Their second study found out that social responsibility became significant predictor of product loyalty in the consumers and its evaluation.

According to Kim (1996) product demand is determined by non-product factors such as cleanliness, public relations, atmosphere, advertising and the convenience of the brands’ locations. In any organization, quality of products can be determined according to the consumer attitude towards the product with other products available to the consumer in the market.

“Perceived quality is different from objective or actual quality, a higher level abstraction rather than a specific attribute of a product, a global assessment that in some case resembles attitude, and a judgment usually made within a consumer’s evoked set” (Zeithaml, 1988, p.4).

Zeitmal further assert that few consumers are able to analyze and measure the objective properties of a product. This is because the objective assessment depends on the verifiable standards, the objective measurement can be questioned because it depends on who set the standards.

Theoretical framework

The A Priori Approach

According to Lunn (2011), the theory introduces theories and concepts from other disciplines including behavioral sciences. The value of behavioral sciences has been used in consumer knowing what the consumer wants. Well known examples are included in the manifestations of motivational research and such attitude theories as those of Festinger and Fishbein. The A Priori approach involves giving the consumer an all embracing label such as “economic man”, “problem solver”, “learner”, and “existentialist”. The strength of the a priori lies in the organization and the systematic basis of knowledge provided about certain aspects of the consumer.

Brand Loyalty Theory

According to Katz (1960), Brand loyalty theory has three distinct dimensions. The first dimension is referred to as emotive tendency towards products and services. The emotive tendency refers to the consumer likes and dislikes which is manifested on how they purchase a particular brand in the market. The second dimension is known as evaluative tendency towards products and services. Katz refers to this tendency as positively biased evaluation of a product or service. Organizations use positive characteristics to define brand utili6ty to the customers. The evaluative tendency of the product or service can also be determined from past experience in using the brand.

Behavioral tendency towards the brand is the next dimension. Katz (1960) refers to the behavior tendency as the biased responses consumers have towards a particular product or service regarding its procurement, purchase and consumption characteristics. Consumer characteristics such as shopping, paying for the product, as well as its consumption determine the behavior tendency. Behavior tendency is developed after using the product for a long period of time. In addition, behavior tendency can be developed from good or bad tendencies toward other brands.

Black Box Theory of Behaviorism

Sandhusen (2000) assert that the black box model is an interaction of several perspectives concerning a specific brand. The perspectives include the stimuli, consumer characteristics, choice patterns and consumer responses. The focus of the organization is not in the internal processes within the customer: the organization focuses on the relation between stimuli and response of the customer. Stimuli are related to the marketing characteristics developed by an organization in order to lure the customer in purchasing of the brand. The environmental stimuli are determined by social factors such as politics, economy and the culture in which the brand is to be used. The black box symbolizes the buyer characteristics and their choice patterns, which determine their response towards a particular brand.

Hypothesis

This research focuses on the various factors that influence consumers’ brand loyalty towards a given brand. From the various factors that influence brand loyalty, below are the hypothesis derived.

H1: There is a positive correlation between brand loyalty product and brand name

H2: There is a positive correlation between brand loyalty and product quality.

H3: There is a positive significant relationship between brand loyalty and product design

H4: There is a positive significant relationship between brand loyalty and product price.

H5: There is a positive correlation between brand loyalty and promotion.

H6: There is a significant correlation between service quality and brand loyalty.

H7: There is a positive significant relationship between store environment and brand loyalty.

Research Methodology

The main objective of this research was to establish how brand loyalty influences cosmetics buying behavior of UK female consumers. This section also highlights the various processes undertaken in obtaining and analyzing the information gathered for this research. This includes a description of the research design and methods used in collecting the data that were analyzed to arrive at a conclusion in the study.

Research philosophy

Based on the nature and the topic to be studied, this research will be conducted on positivist philosophy. It will be based on this philosophy because the research will involve testing of hypothesis developed from deductive theory, involving measurement of observable social realities.

Approach

This research will be conducted on deductive approach based on hypothesis testing from the data collected. Data will then be analyzed to either confirm or disapprove the hypothesis.

Data Collection Methods

Data collection will consist of surveys, filling in questionnaires and conducting interviews with cosmetic consumers and dealers in London, UK. Qualitative evaluation shall be employed in this research besides using subjective techniques such as interviews and observations to gather relevant and substantive data. Quantitative approach is preferred for this research due to the varying experiences of the consumers of these products. Upon collecting data using interviews and questionnaires, the data will then be carefully analyzed. This shall be carried out using both the One-way ANOVA and the Pearson’s guideline to establish how brand loyalty influences consumer behavior with respect to cosmetic consumption in UK.

Questionnaire Design

In this research, a questionnaire was developed, and pilot tested through personal interviews with seven senior-most managers at Superdrug, which is the second largest health and beauty retail shop in UK. The questionnaire used for collecting data was divided into two segments: the first section concerns the demographics of consumers and the second were about brand loyalty factors. This research involved sampling randomly 400 female cosmetic consumer of between 18 to 42 years of age. In order to obtain a reliable data, the survey was distributed in London City at five major cosmetic shops. The malls included L’Occitane, Jo Malone, Floris London, Boots and Screenface, in addition to Superdrug retail shop. A total of 400 usable questionnaires were then returned and collected 60% response rate.

Table 1 reveals that age composition of those aged between 18-25 years were 25% of the respondents. Yet again, the table reveals that close to half of the respondents ages varied between 27-35 years. About 26% of the respondents were between the ages of 36-42. The sample survey was almost balanced at 51% for the married and 49% for the unmarried. With regard to education level, the surveyed respondent revealed that 72% of the respondent had at least a degree and 18% having completed high school. This implies that only 10% of the respondents had postgraduate degrees.

Data Analysis

This research used the One-way ANOVA to establish whether there is any significant correlation between independent variables (product quality, brand name, design, price, service quality, promotion, and store environment) and age and income the consumers interviewed. The main reason for adopting the One-way ANOVA as the most appropriate tool is that it was found to be the best for testing the hypothesis when at least two groups are measured on an interval scale. The purpose of the One-way ANOVA is to show the degree of variability of the sample values taken by considering to what extent the observation within each group differs and how much the group means differ. Apart from the One –Way ANOVA, the researchers also found it appropriate to use the Pearson Correlation for purposes of analyzing the relationship between the two variables, which are both ratio and interval-scaled. This is based on the fact that the correlation coefficients determined using the Pearson’s guideline is used to establish the degree and direction of the correlation, which is suitable for hypothesis testing. In this regard, the research used Pearson correlation principle to test the independent variables (product quality, brand name, price, promotion, design, store environment and service quality) that influenced consumer brand loyalty and to establish if there is any correlation between the variables.

Results

Table 2 below shows the Cronbach’s Alpha (coefficient alpha) of each of the variables tested. The findings reveal that all the variables have a high degree of reliability. Table 3, on the other hand, shows the seven autonomous variable factors of brand loyalty that were experimented during the research through questionnaires given out to the respondents. The results were also ranked using the Likert scale in the questionnaire: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree. The result is then gotten from the uppermost average score of brand loyalty factors based on the answers provident by the respondents. In overall, the result reveals that product quality is the most vital factor. In UK environment, most respondents choose product quality as the core aspect that influences their brand loyalty.

The One-way ANOVA scrutiny of the factors of income level and brand loyalty was conducted. This was meant to establish if there could be any significant relationship between the two variables. Here, there are four variables that are most significant according to the study, which include brand name (0.000) promotion (0.004), product quality (0.009) and service quality (0.038). In overall, the result shows that, in UK, majority of the consumers prefer brand name, promotion, and product and service quality as factors of brand loyalty. According to table five below, only two variables that are significant. These are price (0.014) and the brand name (0.050). An analysis of this data reveals that, among the age groups surveyed, female consumers aged between 36-42 prefer brand names more compare to other age groups.

Test of Hypothesis

As revealed in Table 4 below, brand name was found to have considerable positive relationship with brand loyalty. The results of this research revealed that consumers preferred brand image only when they foresee positive functions or benefits from the product in question. It is then that they will recommend the brand, react positively to the price premium and accept brand extension to other categories of products within the same brand.

The quality of the products was shown to have a positive correlation with brand loyalty. This kind of correlation is demonstrated based on Cohen’s (1988) principle, in which a correlation of (r=0.0302) is considered moderate. Therefore, based on these statistics, the finding showed that product quality has a lot of significance with regard to consumer decision-making process. The findings of this research revealed that brand loyalty and price had a positive relationship. In this case, price was found to be more important for any average consumer in the market. Nevertheless, those consumers with high brand loyalty were not very much sensitive to prices. The research showed that as long as these consumers were satisfied with a given brand, they would continue buying the product with the same brand irrespective of the price increase. On the other hand, the findings did not show any correlation between product design and brand loyalty. Out of all the seven variables tested, many consumers did not consider product design as an important factor for UK consumers to become loyal to a given cosmetic brand.

According to the findings, promotion and brand loyalty were found to have a positive relationship. Product promotion was considered as one of the most valuable factor in determining a consumer’s brand loyalty. This includes the use of sales promotions, commercial adverts, personal and public selling. In fact, the research revealed that many female consumers spent considerable time reading product labels before purchasing the product. The research also revealed that brand loyalty and service quality had a positive relationship. Findings showed that service quality encouraged many consumers to prioritize a store. The result indicated that salesperson consumer relationship results in long-term orientation of customers towards a given store. Similarly, trust developed in the salesperson seems to relate to the overall discernment of the store’s service quality, which leads to customer’s total satisfaction with the store.

The findings also showed that the environment of the store is also positively related to brand loyalty. The store environment is seen as major factors that influence consumer brand loyalty. This research revealed that many consumers were much sensitive to attributes of the store such as a variety of selection, merchandise displays, packing space, and ease of accessibility to vehicles and the overall goodwill of the store in buying products.

Table 1. Demographic Sample Description

	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Age18-2527-3536-42	100196104	254926
Marital statusMarriedUnmarried	204196	5149
Education:High SchoolUndergraduatePostgraduate	7228840	187210

Table 2. Reliability Analysis of Brand Loyalty factors

Variables

Alpha

Product QualityBrand namePricePromotion

Design

Service Quality

Store Environment

Brand Loyalty

0.65720.70280.66180.6974

0.7482

0.8200

0.7139

0.6646

Table 3. Brand Loyalty factor Ranking

Factor of Brand Loyalty	Ranking	Mean/Average
Product Quality	1	3.68
Q1. The brand is durable than others		3.69
Q2. The materials used by the brand are natural		4.11
Q3. The brand has sufficient color		3.65
Q4. The brand has good functional quality		3.77
		Mean Average 3.80
Design	2
Q1. The brand provides wide variety of designs		3.72
Q2. Designs of the brand are suitable for me		3.79
Q3. Designs of the brand have distinctive features		3.73
Q4. Designs of the brand are trendy and fashionable		3.85
		Mean Average 3.77
Brand Name	3
Q1. The brand is trustworthy		3.70
Q2. Brand image and name attract me to buy		3.82
Q3. Brand Name is selected irrespective of price		3.41
Q4. Brand reveals my individual personality		3.96
		Mean Average 3.72
Promotion	4
Q1 Ads of the brand is attractive		3.64
Q2. Ads of the brand attract me towards purchasing the product		3.44
Q3. Product displays are entrancing		3.62
		Mean Average 3.56
Store Environment	5
Q1. The brand has good store location		3.64
Q2. There are adequate outlets for the brand		3.76
Q3. The interior show is gorgeous		3.50
Q4. Music and color inside the store are beautiful		3.36
		Mean Average 3.57
Price	6
Q1. Increases of price not hinder me to purchase		2.99
Q2. The brand provides goods value for money		3.52
		Average Mean 3.56
Service Quality	7
Q1The salesmen in the store are knowledgeable		3.21
Q2. The salesmen in the store are willing to help		3.39
Q3. Vendor of the store is and courteous and friendly		3.18
Q4Vendors in the store have neat appearance		3.33
		Mean Average 3.28

Table 4. Significance of Brand Loyalty factors with brand loyalty

Variables	Pearson Correlation	Sig. (2-tailed)a
Product Quality

Brand name

Price

Promotion

Design

Service Quality

Store Environment

Brand Loyalty0.304

0.561

0.466

0.411

0.140

0.333

0.369

0.002

0.005

0.006

0.162

0.001

0.010

Conclusions and Findings

Various studies have focused on understanding the concept of brand loyalty and the factors influencing it. Product attributes, after sale service, marketing capabilities, perceived quality or aesthetics, depth of product line as the key differencing factors influencing the behavior of purchasers. Brand commitment is also a necessary condition for true brand loyalty to occur. Packaging, new product trial, price, store location corporate social responsibility and advertisements influence consumer behavior. While several factors influencing brand loyalty have been studied in the extant literature, this research has revealed that brand loyalty influences consumer behavior. Consumers may also compel entrepreneurs to change the brand image in terms of product or service quality. Similarly, the brand image has been proven to satisfy the consumer expectations.

The dimensions of brand loyalty theory clearly depict how consumer’s tastes and preferences influence their buying power. This is followed by an assessment of the product to decide if they will buy it or not. The assessment also referred to as evaluative tendency compels organizations to brand their products to attract customers, an aspect of competition. Product branding can be enhanced by advertising, changing the brand name and promoting it to improve recognition. The behavioral tendency proposed by Katz is creations of a bandwagon effect among consumers to enable them continue buying the product. The initial products are branded in a way of attracting customers though subsequent ones show depreciation, a strategy used by marketers. Branding through advertisement show some favor of the product while despising others, thus discouraging customers from using those other products whether related or not. The black box model looks into the customers willingness created by the company’s emphasis of the product. The characteristics of the buyer determine their choice of product.

From this research, the brand name and image has a significant impact on customer choice with all factors kept constant. As part of consumer behavior, every brand has some features which consumers always associate the brand with. They consume a given brand on the basis of its features. Again, the consumers take into account the quality, and price while making buying decisions. The point of purchase is another factor that comes to a buyer’s mind. Being a highly demanded product by women, they want to buy cosmetics from a good reputed and trustworthy purchase point. Exhibition malls serves as favorite consumer purchase point.

Other factors like age, occupation and education of consumers will influence buying decisions following the way each group has been exposed about the product. Young people will have more taste of cosmetics because they want to look good while old ones are slightly less concerned with beauty. Exposure and knowledge of a product affects its demand. The raw materials making the brand also play a vital role of its choice. If a sample cosmetic is known to contain harmful chemicals, it loses its market. An organization will get to know what factors influence the purchase decision of a consumer before branding the product. Accordingly, it will direct its marketing effort so that it can get potential customers to purchase the products.

Subject Issues Learnt

Brand loyalty is the consumer’s conscious or unconscious choice that is expressed intentionally or a behavioral pattern to repurchase a brand again. This happens following the perception of the consumer that the brand provides the right image, characteristics or quality based on reasonable price. Hence, consumer behavior is habitual. Beginning from product design to creation of a mature brand, good marketing strategies, which depend on a clear understanding of the memory, motivation, learning and decision processes, influence the consumer’s choice. Launching of new products, market segmentation, timing market entry and brand management are all related to the theoretical framework employed in the research. Branding is by far and large the most important factor influencing the product’s success or failure in the market place. It can also greatly impact the company’s perception by the buying public. Brand is not only a company’s product but also a representation of the individual company and that is where the core of brand loyalty falls.

Brand loyalty is simply more than the consumer’s commitment to repurchase a product. It incorporates the high attitude towards the product demonstrated by repeated buying. This loyalty is a business investment because of the high prices being paid by the customers. Depending upon the nature of the product versus basic necessities or luxuries, consumers a single or brand loyalty. This brand loyalty is affected by their brand choice as well as by their store loyalty behavior. The bondage of brand loyalty is strong especially through repeated advertising and promotional schemes. The main factors that influence brand loyalty are the quality of product, habit of use and regular availability of the product. Searching for a product means mental and physical information about products, prices and shops. Consumer information is thus a marketing tool that can be used to understand the interactions between a specific target segment and marketplace so as to meet the consumers’ needs and wants.

Brand image or the good reputation of a particular service ensures that it maintains a competitive advantage over other products and services. An organization’s brand is valuable strategic asset in achieving goals and objectives. Brand loyalty can be referred to as the consumer decision; whether conscious or unconscious concerning the use of a product or service. It may also refer to the intention to buy or use a particular product for a long duration of time. Brand loyalty is achieved due to the right features, and the quality of the brand. Quality of the product must be at the right price for the consumer to perceive the brand as being loyal to their needs. Organizations can change consumer behavior concerning a particular product or service through advertising.

The reasons why people become brand loyal are because the favored brand satisfies the consumer needs and wants than the competitors do. Again, there is a reduction of perceived risk, sticking with a favorite brand improves certainty. Brand loyalty helps maintain self image in reinforcing the customer’s self concept and confidence. It is also the path to least resistance. Marketers use strategies like in-store and o-location impulse triggers, notably point-of purchase displays. Consumer innovativeness is the predisposition to buy new and different products rather than remain with the previous choices and consumption patterns.

Consumer behavior is influenced by social, cultural, Psychological and personal factors. Culture influences buying behavior depending on the country, geographical region, religion, nationality and racial groups. The societal classes such as wealth distribution, education and occupation impact the behavior of consumers towards a product. Social factors like family, reference groups, roles and statuses influence buyer behavior. Personal factors include lifestyle, economic situations, age, occupation, personality and self concept. Perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes are psychological factors affecting consumer behavior. Marketers should, therefore, look into these factors in branding particular products.

References

Brown, T. and Dacin, P., 1997. The Company And The Product: Corporate Associations And Consumer Product Responses. Journal Of Marketing, 61 (1), pp.68-84.

Dutton, G., 1997. Warming The Cold Heart Of Business, Management Review 86 (6), pp.17-20.

Hoyer, W. and Maclnnis, D., 2008. Consumer Behavior. New York: Cengage Learning.

Kahren, F., 2009. Brand Loyalty. Washington D. C: Whimsical Publications.

Katz, D.,1960. The Functional Approach To The Study Of Attitudes. New York; Public Opinion Quarterly.

Kim, H., 1996. Perceptual Mapping of Attributes and Preferences: An Empirical Examination of Hotel FandB Products in Korea. International Journal of Hospitality Management 15 (4), pp.373-391.

Lunn, J., 2011. Models Of Buyer Behavior: Consumer Decision Process Models. New York: Marketing Classics Press.

Phillips, C., 2010. Brand Loyalty. New York: Youwriteon.

Pride, W., and Ferrell, C., 2008. Marketing. New York: Cengage Learning.

Sandhusen, R., 2000. Marketing. London: Routledge.

Zeithmal, V., 1988. Consumer Perceptions Of Price, Quality, And Value: A Means-End Model And Synthesis Of Evidence, Journal Of Marketing, July, pp2-22.

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Barrier Analysis

Barrier Analysis as a Safety Tool

Barrier Analysis is the technique used for identifying the harmful or hazardous effects associated with the harmful sources of energy. Barrier Analysis provides an equipment to study the unwanted flow of energy sources to the potential targets, people or objects, through the assessment of various barriers in order to prevent the dangerous energy flow.

Barrier analysis is an effective and efficient system safety tool used to identifying the risks associated with the defined sources of energy. The successively organized paradigm of this analysis provides reliable, rationally reasoned and independent findings about various hazards and barrier controls as compared to many other methods available for the analysis purpose.

Barrier analysis came into the picture to help experts analyze accidents and risks. Talking in general terms, the main use of a barrier is to prevent an action from happening or in other words provide a shield to the people that are a part of that environment, from the consequences. This report will highlight the relation between accidents and the barrier analysis by providing a technique to thoroughly search or investigate the accidents and safety programs. An accident can be described as the set of barriers that have failed, although the reason of failure will be mostly not included in the list of suspected causes. A barrier, in this respect, can be a hindrance, an obstruction or a hurdle that prevents an action to take place or reduces the impact of the harmful consequences. Barriers are important to be analyzed for understanding and prevention of accidents in two ways –

The fact that accident has occurred implies that one, or more, of the defined barriers failed. This can be either because they were dysfunctional (Polet, 2002) or they did not serve the purpose properly. The search of such barriers is therefore considered an important part in understand the cause of the accident
Once the anatomy of the accident has been analyzed and casual ways have been identified, the defined barriers can be used in order to prevent similar kinds of accidents that take place in the future. For this, the pattern needs to be determined.

Hence, the barrier analysis provides an effective way to consider the events that are related to the failure of a safety system (Livingston et al., 2001). However, it is not a system that is comprehensive enough to act as the sole safety analysis of the system as it may miss a few points due to system failures or human errors (Reason, 1992) while producing the results.

According to the Energy Theory or the Barrier Analysis, whenever there is a chance that the person or an object is approaching the energy flow or trying to come in contact with the environment state that can cause harm to the person or the object, it is required to isolate such environmental state or the energy flow.

As the Barrier Analysis technique is quite different from others, with a limit scope of analysis, it doesn’t fulfill all the requirements completely. But at the same time the technique is most often used to provide support to the system design hazard analysis type, preliminary design hazard analysis type or detailed design hazard analysis type. The technique is also known as the Energy Trace and Barrier Analysis or sometimes the Energy Trace Analysis.

Quite often it is seen that even if the source of energy is harmful, it cannot be removed from the system as it is an essential element of that designed system. Now here comes the role of barrier analysis. The purpose of the barrier analysis here is to identify these sources of energy and evaluate if the potential harms in the designed system can be considerably reduced with the use of relevant energy barriers. The analysis provides a simple tool to separate the energy source from the target to prevent it from the hazards. It acts as a powerful tool in the game of accident analysis and prevention. It should be known at the time of evaluation of the system that the undesirable source of energy coming from a single source is capable of affecting multiple targets. In such cases, there might be a requirement to use multiple barriers to save these multiple potential targets from dangers and provide them optimal safety.

The Barrier Analysis technique is executed by evaluating the source of energy, the energy flow paths that may be harmful for the system, and then identifying and creating the right barriers that must be placed in order to prevent the flow of energy from harming the person or the target equipment (here the target can be objects or people). In general, there are various types and ways of energy barriers that can be used in a designed system. The commonly known barriers are – procedural barrier, physical barrier or a time barrier. These barriers are created with a purpose to counteract the harmful effects of the energy paths in order to reduce the likelihood and severity of system/object damage or a personnel injury.

The type of analysis is generally used for all the types of systems with a goal that it is created to ensure consistent, effective, disciplined and efficient methods for the identification of hazards in the provided system. It is often used during the investigation of accidents in order to help understand the root cause of the incident and to study the damage conditions to ensure they do not occur in the future. The Barrier Analysis has fully devoted itself to overview the types of energy sources in the system, their attributes to understand if they are harmful; it is a tool to guide the discovery for the risks due to the energy sources that need more detailed analysis.

This tool is capable of fabricating detailed analysis report of risks in existing as well as new systems. By correctly and rationally identifying the energy flows into and out of the system, the Barrier analysis enables the growth of each of the sources of energy used in the system. A thorough knowledge and understanding of the sources of energy used in the system is important to get a clear picture of the complete system design and its behavior. The tool is pretty simple and easy to learn.

Barrier Analysis History

Although the concept was introduced more than 20 years ago, they have been only a few instances where the barrier concept was actually used. Haddon introduced the concept that the harmful effects of the flow of energy can be controlled by one of the provided barriers (Haddon, William Jr. 1973). The barriers can be listed as below:

Prevention of energy manufacturing or production
Reduction in the amount of energy like fuel storage, voltage
Preventing the release
Manipulating the rate of release, for example slow down the burning rate
Isolate in time or space, for example make the electric line go out of the reach
Strengthen the defined target, for example create earthquake proof buildings
Reorient persons and objects
Limit the extent of the damage caused, for example use of sprinklers

The barrier analysis is grounded on the concepts introduced by Haddon; these concepts were understood, adopted and improved by various other experts until the time this technique was used to give birth to a useful tool for the purpose of safety analysis.

Barrier Analysis Theory

The Barrier Analysis is based on the concept that when harmful and hazardous sources are present with in the environment, they act as a serious threat to certain targets. According to this theory, by placing effective barriers between these hazardous energy sources and the targets there is a chance to lessen the threat to these targets. In other words, when there is no isolation or a barrier between the source of energy and the target, it leads to disasters whereas placing a barrier between the energy flow and the target leads to a safe exit. In situations where there is no barrier placed, effective safety requirement should be created to launch and implement effective barriers.

To understand the theory of barriers, there was work done on the barriers subject called Management Oversight and Risk Tree (MORT) programme. The MORT approach (Knox & Eicher, 1983) defines a method for a complete investigation of accidents as well as a method to analyze safety programmes. This MORT barrier analysis (Trost & Nertney, 1985) is capable of discriminating between safety barriers and control barriers. The difference between the two types of barriers is that the control barriers are related to the wanted energy flow path and the safety barriers are related to the unwanted energy flow paths.

MORT even offers distinguishing between various types of barriers like: physical barriers, warning devices, design of equipment, procedures, and skills. Hence, it provides a more detailed distinction as compared to that given by Svenson (1991) and Kecklund et al. (1996) into human, organizational and technical barriers.

The process that revolves around this tool called barrier analysis is a thorough analysis of the energy sources that are involved in the system and the possible effect these sources have on the attributes present in the environment; these attributes can be any equipment or any personnel. Experts mainly carry out the barrier analysis using a worksheet or some sort of a form to provide documentation, structure and nature of the analysis and the consistency. There is so specific format that is used by the experts as all that matters is the data contained in the worksheet.

Most of the times, the worksheets, that come with columns, are used to help maintain focus and structure in the analysis. The basic information that should be contained in these analysis worksheets should be as following:

List of all the energy sources, present in the system, that provide a threat to the environment
Targets that are a part of this system and are prone to damage, of any sort, from these energy sources
Barriers, already in place, that are meant to control the energy sources to prevent targets from hazards
Barriers, not there already, that should have been placed to control the energy risks
Overall system risk for the energy sources – barrier risks.

While learning as a beginner to perform an analysis, following points should be considered in order to commit one or more problems:

Do not try to identify all the sources of energy present in the system
Do not evaluate the cascading outcome of the energy sources
Not understanding all the energy source paths
Not consider the entire system in one shot, rather take a narrow view of each of the energy paths.

Methodology

The main ingredients of an accident are: the energy flow that causes the harm, the people who are the victim of this harm caused due to energy flow, lack of the barriers of failure of barrier system that are created to keep the accidents apart and the events that lead to the final accident situation. If all these mentioned ingredients are present in a place, accident has to happen; failure of one leads to prevention of accident.

Hence, the generic constituents of barrier analysis are the energy sources, the barriers and the targets. The forms the basis of the barrier analysis and each of these components must be clearly understood and inferred with reference to the context. The first step in the analysis is the identification of the energy sources. Once these sources have been found out, a problem analysis should be done to nail done the questions which help in understanding the hazardous elements in the design. Some of these questions can be like:

Have the hazardous sources of energy been identified?

What are the energy paths?

What are the potential targets?

What are the safety barriers?

Have the safety barriers been thoroughly identified?

The answers to these questions can be provided after acquiring the knowledge on the system design and its operation, knowledge on the system environmental variables and energy sources. The analysis process studies and verifies the authenticity of the engineered and the administrative barriers. Here the created safety attributes are considered as the hard barriers and the administrative controls like warning signs, safety procedures and the controlling checks are termed as the soft barriers. As it is difficult to deal with the hard barriers as compared to the soft barriers, the hard barriers are preferred over the soft option. But it doesn’t mean that soft barriers are not used at all; these may be used in certain conditions. Barriers can be categorized under various heads based on their location, function or type.

Barrier analysis Process

The technique that was used in the analysis of Barrier concept was to identify various tasks around the energy sources and the steps taken to achieve the goal.

Identifying the energy sources – in order to achieve this, it is required to study the system and identify all the possible harmful sources of energy. In this step, energy quantity and location should also be identified, whenever possible, to create the list of energy sources. To quote some examples, we have electromagnetic radiations, electricity, explosives and so on.
Identification of energy paths – all the potential energy flow path leading to the target should be identified that can act as a harmful source of energy. Target can be any object, environment or people.
Finding the multiple energy paths – there can be multiple energy flows, more than one dedicated energy flow, leading to the target that can cause a mishap. For an instance, electrical and mechanical functions of a fuse.
Defining targets – for each of the existing energy source, study its flow from the starting point till the end to identify all the possible targets that are likely to be harmed by the harmful energy sources.
Finding out the vulnerability of the defined targets – the vulnerability of the target should be identified. For an instance, faulty equipment might have very little impact on human but can damage another device say microprocessor.
Identifying of the safety barriers – this is the most important step in taking safety measures. All the probable barriers in the energy path from an energy source to the target should be identified. Also, study the effectiveness of all such barriers, the impact of the sudden failure of these barriers, reliability of the existing ones.
Evaluation of the system risk factor study the effect and the extent of harm caused to the target due to the energy flow, or multiple energy flows, to evaluate the risk factor. This analysis should be done with the potential barriers and without the barriers.
Determine the corrective measures – analyze if the barriers provided are effective and adequate for safety of target, else recommend the barriers that should be provided to reduce the risk factor and ensure the safety of the target from the energy sources. Also determine if there is a need to analyze the situation using other techniques to understand completely all the hazards and factors leading to accidents
Identify hazards – determine and track the hazards using a tracking tool
Document all the steps involved in the analysis and the findings

Advantages and Disadvantages

Barrier Analysis has provided huge contribution towards analysis of various energy sources and as a tool in preventing hazards.

Advantages of Barrier Analysis

In accident investigation, the tool has proved to be very useful in providing unbiased details on what went wrong which includes not only the physical barrier failures but also the failures of administrative controls. It also provides a visibility on the absence of barriers that should have been in place to avoid the accident.
In the field of safety analysis, it offers a common point for humans reliability experts, designers, safety analysts, so that they can all focus on one common goal towards achieving the effectiveness and failure of predicted accidental steps.

Disadvantage of Barrier Analysis

The only drawback of this tool is that while doing a predictive analysis for future, they might assume more amenability with the barriers than actually tends to happen.

Examples

A useful example of how barrier analysis was used to save the target from the hazards:

At the French Cadarache nuclear power plant, barrier analysis was used to evaluate the events that led to the release of various water contaminants in the environment. Sequence of events can be described as mentioned below:

Somebody forgot to turn off the tap after using the water to rinse his/her eyes
After a certain amount of time, water overflowed from the basin and spilled into the tank used for storage.
Tank slowly got filled up but the overflow alarm of the storage tank failed to function
When the storage tank also overflowed, the low level radiation tank also overflowed but the alarm for this one also failed.
As a consequence, a great quantity of water spilled on the flour and flowed into the sump
The pump of the sump was unfortunately connected to the rainwater tank rather than the industrial waste tank so the contaminants flowed in the wrong place.

Analyzing the system for energy source path flows, the barriers and the target, it can be clearly seen that although there were two barriers provided in the system they both failed to function. The first step was the omission of an action, which led the energy source, water in this case, reaches the target. This seems to be a failure of a symbolic barrier that could have been the instructions for using the tap. Although there were no functional barriers involved in this step, use of one could have saved the target. To suggest one, a timer that automatically turns off the tap after a time could have done the task for us.

Although the next two steps involved functional barriers, both failed. These could have been replaced with alternative barriers like having difference types of fittings in the two tanks and so on.

Likewise, there are many other applications and examples that used the Barrier Analysis to study the sources, the barriers and the targets in the provided system to ensure use of effective barriers.

Summary

The report contains an overview of the Barrier concept as applied by various experts and researchers. The aim of the report is to have an understanding of how the Barrier Analysis can be used to understand the various elements of a system to evaluate the nature of the barrier that is used or should have been use. By identifying the energy sources flow and the target, evaluation of barrier can be studied.

The process can be considered as the comprehensive hazard analysis and its effect on the various element of the environment like the objects and the personnel. The analysis is very simple and can be easily used to find out various threats to the system especially the targets that are at the receiving end. Barrier Analysis provides a pictorial view that helps many analysts and researchers to visualize the risk factor involved in the system. Moreover it is pretty inexperience, which makes it excel over other tools. Barrier analysis has the capability to easily recognize most of the energy sources and their flow path; to quote examples it can recognize sources like electricity, compressed gas and so on.

This combined with the accident analysis can be very helpful in learning the pattern of the accident which happened either because of failure of the existing barrier or because of the missing barrier. The retrospective analysis can be used as an effective tool for the predictive use so that the target can be prevented from the hazards.

References

Livingston A D, Jackson G and Priestley K; “Root causes analysis: Literature review. HSE Health & Safety Executive”, 2001

Polet P “Modélisation des Franchissements de Barrières pour l’Analyse des Risques des Systèmes Homme-Machine. Ph.D. thesis presented at Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut-Cambrésis”, 2002

Reason, J. T. (1992). The identification of latent organisational failures in complex systems. In J. A. Wise, V. D. Hopkin & P. Stager (Eds.), Verification and validation of complex systems: Human factors issues. Berlin: Springer Verlag.

Trost, W. A. & Nertney, R. J. (1985). Barrier analysis (DOE 76-45/29). Idaho Falls, Idaho: EG&G Idaho, Inc.

N. W. Knox and R. W. Eicher, MORT User’s Manual, ODE 76/45-4, SSDC-4 (Revision 2), May 1983

Haddon, William Jr.; “Energy Damage and the Ten Counter-Measure Strategies,” Human 2 Factors Journal, August 1973.

Kecklund, L. J., Edland, A, Wedin, P. & Svenson, O. (1996). Safety barrier function analysis in a process industry: A nuclear power application. Industrial Ergonomics, 17, 275-284

Svenson, O. (1991). The accident evolution and barrier function (AEB) model applied to incident analysis in the processing industries. Risk Analysis, 11(3), 499-507.

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Autonomy and Democracy

Society, Privacy, Autonomy and Democracy: Individual or Social good?

Understanding the correlation between privacy, autonomy and democracy have become a major thought for focus among political theorists. Unlike the debate on privatization influencing the market economy, this is mainly centered upon conceptualizing the inner links between privacy and legality. The concern has come into the picture because of a variety of reasons. It may be technological developments or emergence of aggressive identity politics, one or the other way these have triggered unforeseen social issues. Through this essay, I shall try to detangle the intertwined nature of individual privacy, autonomy and democracy and bring out the relations existing in-between them.

Technology today has inevitably advanced to an extent, where employing all types sophisticated devices without regulation is likely to leave no trace of privacy. Inventions like powerful surveillance cameras and biotechnological techniques have unscreened the impenetrable areas of life. It has now become essential to be vigilant about the individual image in life. But rapid upsurge of identity politics in the issues like feminism, multiculturism, gay movements, racial discretion and national politics has given birth to ambiguities or highlighted the limitations of privacy rights. Constant critics on drawing boundaries between the individual interests and democracy have generated suspicious thoughts of condemnation, segregation and dominance on one part or another. Most important of all, privacy has created a significant impact on the society. It has been a potent reason for the arrival of prevailing forms of racism, ethnocentrism and nationalism. At this point, older regulations to protect the privacy of people are not ideal. Moreover, people are volunteering themselves to relax their private space with an interest to gain goods and services. The interests to acquire a self-determined life and fantasized rewards are affecting the idea of democracy and the autonomous subjects working under it.

Radical critiques from the anti-democrats have also influenced the deprivation of conceptual resources in making a proper judgment. The necessity is to take account of all the possible sources available, reshape and refine it. The main resources in context are privacy rights and democratic rules. On the other facet, feminism has always questioned the loopholes in the democracy. It has played an important role in revealing and justifying the issues faced by women in the civil community based on lack of economic opportunities. However, it has also given rise to situations where democracy is forced to build discriminatory laws and experience legal disabilities. So there are obvious discrepancies and complexities in the modern day society. The issues related to privacy and publicity have mostly been discussed in terms of male interests and norms which thereby have led to prolonged opposition against following the social hierarchies.

Society

Whole societal structure can be seen in two halves, private and public. Firstly, public involves the egalitarian ideals of preserving peace and unity among the people. Secondly, privacy or personal space essential for individual well-being tends to create segregations in the society. Thirdly, autonomy resides somewhere in between the two spheres that influence both the ideas. Democracy certainly requires autonomy for its functioning. Besides solely working on the central command of power it distributes its autonomy among various levels. So democracy and autonomy are related to each other.

In fact, separation of privacy and autonomy is potentially not feasible as they are interrelated in a very dependable way. Similarly, using a public approach by considering the society as a whole by disregarding the various levels in the social structure is also not a viable option. So at the least, rules must exist to provide legal protection and acquire political balance in safeguarding the privacy and publicity. In other words, both the voices of many and individual voices must be protected in a democratic setup. The core intention of democracy should be to avoid leveling, prohibition and homogenization. Again, feminists are continually arguing about having personal priority over privacy. On this context, natural domain that comes into the picture relates intimate relationships, sexuality and family needs. With the attention to this matter, efforts have been made to refine the concept of privacy that oppresses women.

Autonomy greatly influences the policies and principles structured in the interests of society. A few autonomous agents are provided with the power to take actions and judgment. This in one sense is nothing, but overlapping the identity interests over the democracy. The providing autonomy to a group of people to regulate the democracy has both advantages and disadvantages. If deserving subjects who are clean in their conduct are placed as autonomous bodies, it would lead to prosperity. On the contrary, incapable candidates can pose questions over the justice of democracy. Likewise, it is also true that too much autonomy gets bad results. This happens when a person considers his choices as supreme and disregards the balance in privacy and publicity. The personal choices arise as a result of convictions, desires and values. As a result, it directly influences the goal set and actions of a person. There are also other instances where a person doesn’t have his own goals, but gets inspired or carried away by others actions. This is where self-direction comes as a part of illusion. In addition, ongoing social life is another factor that influences the person’s motives. Here an autonomous subject depends on the others judgment to carry out his actions. But in strict terms, autonomous person is one who has his/her choices and actions into play according to own will. Now the question is How to balance these actions following the rules democracy?

As an example, consider the operation of the Web. Democratic ideals must allow the web or internet to operate at maximum potential. Meanwhile, it also needs to protect the privacy of Internet users. Internet today is vastly familiarized, so these statements may seem as a matter of common sense. Nonetheless, for obtaining the objective, one has to perceive things relatively in a complex way. It requires the understanding of the real world situation and devising appropriate rules in a constrained environment. Looking at today’s trend of widespread use of social media, has left us ponder about making a distinction between public and private deeds. Something that was entirely concealed before is not anymore. The times have changed. Furthermore, it becomes more complex as there are distinct groups of people interacting with each other with diverse mindsets from all over the world. I after referring the Book called “The Public and problems” from the author John Dewey came to know an alternative way to perceive the distinction between privacy and publicity. The solution provided focuses on understanding the actions and consequences of the users. In other ways, after observing the adaptability of the users to the new technologies, rule of thumb is to keep aside the old situations and avoiding taking strict unforeseen decision that affects the people. The democratic principles must support the ever changing people to have their way of life. Additionally, imperatively taking decisions on the social privacy can outburst negative consequences and restrict the freedom of movement of the people.

The consequences of one’s actions can be direct and indirect, and as a democratic body it is very important to classify the actions of a user. When it comes to direct consequences, it remains bounded within a definite area and it can be dealt privately. Whereas indirect consequences on the other hand spread to a vast extent immediately after the action takes place. It should be clear by now that indirect consequences must be taken care of to preserve the public interests. Consider an example, where a house owner is burning garden waste in front of his house. In this case, immediate result would be affecting his children and family members. But if toxic pollutants are being burnt then, it becomes a question of the whole neighborhood. Here first part is a direct consequence and other is indirect consequence. The situation can be taken care by installing pollution measuring instruments and warning the owner, so that he hesitates to burn the toxics again. So private acts, triggering public consequences must be taken care by the legislation. In the pollution problem, the process would involve inquiries, warnings and charges against the home owner.

Conclusions

The indirect consequences are not always bad for the society. For instance, if a group of Facebook users come together and discuss their common problems with Facebook groups, it doesn’t pose any problems. It could rather solve the problem unless the issue is anti-democratic and against the government. So in this new generation the conventional philosophies may require refinements with the use of pragmatist approaches. It is very much necessary to safeguard the individual privacy along with curbing the activities that lead to mass tension. Overall, privacy, democracy and autonomy must be considered as parts that whole make up a whole system called society. Also to note, there are unavoidable influences between all the three subjects, and considering them as individual entities can create social enigmas that could remain unsolved. Finally, privacy is not to be neglected but instead must be considered as essential element to democracy and autonomy.

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Anger Management

Anger and Anger Management

The topic being discussed here is regarding anger and anger management, it is important to select this topic since it deals with a key psychological activity which is often difficult to understand for many psychologists. This topic has extreme relevance for human beings since it is important to assess what sorts of changes occur during the expression of anger and how anger management deals with it. This topic has its significance to the social environment of UAE since there exist workers of many fields here and all of them go through phases of anger throughout their professional life. The aim of this paper is to study the overall effects and properties of anger and anger management techniques.

Hypothesis

This paper will provide a significant insight into the topic of anger as well as anger management and would take many case examples from real life which would emphasize upon how this subject matter affects ordinary individuals.

Reviews

CBT to CDT: Toward a developmental paradigm for conceptualizing anger management

The study conducted by Tate in 1998 assesses that destructive responses to anger present a growing problem in the overall society, and programs for managing adult anger are proliferating across the nation. Many of the anger management interventions are grounded in cognitive behavioral paradigms which focus on controlling one’s thoughts as well as behaviors (Burns, 2004). While these programs show some effectiveness, they are not properly addressing the main problem. This study is based on the idea that the main reason for this failure might be the inadequate theoretical frameworks that form the underpinnings of these programs.

Main directional hypotheses for this research suggested that there would be a negative relationship between the developmental levels of ego of adults referred to anger management and batterer intervention programs and their trait anger and destructive response to anger scores, it also suggested that there would be a positive relationship between their ego levels and constructive response to anger scores. In this reference, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) was used to assess trait anger; the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT) was used in order to assess ego developmental levels; and the Anger Response Inventory (ARI) was used in order to assess both constructive as well as destructive responses to anger.

It was observed that a statistically significant positive relationship was emerged between ego developmental level and constructive responses to anger, and that a significant negative relationship was observed between ego developmental level and one dimension of destructive responses to anger (Lench, 2004). All of these results suggest that individuals at higher ego levels might be more capable of responding towards anger in constructive, as compared to destructive ways. The results attained by the researchers also offer promising evidence that Cognitive Developmental Theory may provide a more adequate theoretical foundation upon which to suggest more effective anger interventions through fostering upon psychological and personality growth.

Anger management style moderates effects of emotion suppression during initial stress on pain and cardiovascular responses during subsequent pain-induction

The author John Burns argue in 2007 that suppression of emotion, anger in particular, might be linked to heightened intensity of pain during a painful event. It is not clear at all whether a person’s anger management style moderates effects on pain intensity and cardiovascular responses during the event of pain (Burns, 2005).

The purpose of the study was to determine whether (a) trait anger-in and/or a trait anger-out moderate effects of Emotion-Induction ×Emotion Suppression manipulations during mental arithmetic upon pain intensity and on different cardiovascular responses during and following a pain task, such that any type of so called ‘mismatch’ relationships emerge, and (b) general emotional expressiveness tends to account for these mentioned effects. In the methodology section of the study, healthy non-patients (N=187) were assigned to 1 of 6 of the total conditions for a mental arithmetic task. Here, cells were formed by crossing 2 Emotion-Induction which were anxiety and anger ×3 Emotion Suppression which were non-suppression, expressive and experiential conditions. After mental arithmetic, the participating individuals underwent a cold presser which was followed by recovery. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), heart rate (HR), diastolic BP (DBP), and ratings of pain intensity were thoroughly recorded. A four-way interaction was observed from pain intensity: Only for those individuals with experiential suppression/anger-induction condition, anger-out was related significantly as compared to pain recovery. It was concluded that a mismatch situation may apply for high anger-out individuals who suppress their overall emotion in a certain circumstance and thereby might suffer from greater amount of discomfort as well as physiological responsiveness to pain feelings than high anger-out individuals who do not have to suppress.

Anger and its management

The author Anju in 2013 says that everybody feels anger from one time to another. Individuals have been documented feeling anger since the ancient biblical times when Lord was considered to be angry. It was seen that babies even exhibit signs that are interpreted as anger, this includes screaming or crying (Burns, 2005). Anger is not unique to anyone, animals also have the sense to feel as well as express anger. In our daily lives we get angry over at least a small thing on almost a regular basis, whether it is with a spouse or loved one, or perhaps with an authoritative figure. Anger is often deemed as a healthy emotion when it is appropriately expressed. It can also have devastating effects upon a person. Anger is at the root of many social problems, e.g. domestic violence, verbal and physical abuse and community violence etc (Schieman, 2000). Problematic interpersonal relations might also disrupt employment activities due to the interference of anger upon workplace performance. It is often seen that anger can destroy obstruct problem solving skills, destroy relationships, and increase social withdrawal. Anger impacts our physical health. For example, it can affect immune system; contribute towards headaches, severe gastrointestinal symptoms, hypertension, migraines, and coronary artery disease. Anger is also deemed as a healthy and valid emotion but many of ordinary individuals are taught not to express anger. There’s no doubt about it that we live in an angry society in which signs that anger abounds are everywhere. Anger is deemed as a global phenomenon and referrals to anger management programs have increased.

Anger management as a component of inpatient residential treatment with adolescents: A multiple case study

The author Andrew says in 2007 that the purpose of his study was to assess the value of anger management training as an ingredient of inpatient residential treatment with small children or adolescents. Four assessment procedures alongside interviews and record reviews were employed by the author in order to gather information across a wide spectrum of personality and behavioral variables. The assessment addressed were consisted of the Revised Problem Behavior Checklist (RPBC-PAR Edition),pre and post testing with the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI), the Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2), and completion by participating individuals of two interview questionnaires adapted by the researcher from Fitzsimmons to properly measure behavioral and personal characteristics. A case study of each participating individual was employed in order to identify additionally relevant variables.

Research was completed with ten adolescents at an inpatient residential treatment center. The study consisted of 3 phases: 4 weeks of anger management training intervention occurring twice weekly for four consecutive weeks; pre-anger management training data-gathering in which pretests were administered; and post-training data-gathering in which post tests were administered and case study information was compiled.

The results assessed if the anger management training sessions produced changes in participating individuals, primarily in how they perceive themselves as well as their abilities. The assessment criteria should be evaluated which is relative to effectiveness in measuring change (Burns, 2007).

Help for hotheads; No one’s sure of its benefits, but anger management is increasingly recommended — or ordered — for those who can’t control their rage.

The author Martin says in 2004 that the judicial system has created the demand for anger management training. Judges across the nation use the various training programs as a means to ease overcrowding in jails, and unclog courtroom calendars. It may cost a county $100 a day to lock up a defendant for the crime of road rage, physical assaults or disturbing the peace. The courts can go on to release the defendant and order the person to enroll at any anger management program (Bruehl, 2007).

Most classes are led by teachers with backgrounds in counseling, they go on to help clients decide what is worth getting angry over and when anger is appropriate to be shown, how to behave assertively — not destructively or aggressively — to attain what you want (Bruehl, 2007). Programs, which may go on from ten weeks to a year, cost from $200 to about $1,000. In part because of the rapid rise in popularity of such programs, no state or national standards govern what should be provided as a lesson in anger management or who should be qualified to teach it. Although exact figures are difficult to come by, many estimate that about seven thousand individuals have been trained in U.S to teach such courses.

Effectiveness of a rural anger management program in preventing domestic violence recidivism

In the paper given by James in 2005, domestic violence in a rural area was thoroughly investigated with special attention given to the association of reduced recidivism of an anger management program. In doing so, the author explored a total of 9 hypotheses concerned with subjects who had been convicted on charges from violent behavior and how factors like gender, prior criminal history, and age were relative with completion of anger management training and recurrence of the various types of violent behaviors. Data was gathered from various different court documents for every domestic violence case which have occurred in a rural county during a 5 year period. Cross-tabulation of many different categorical results revealed incidence and rates by age, gender, and anger management program completion status. Individuals with prior criminal history were observed to be more likely to be the offenders of domestic violence and more likely to re-offend. Most of the observed subjects did not complete an anger management program, but many of those who did, completion was found to be relative with modestly reduced recidivism. Neither recidivism rates nor anger management completion were found to be associated with gender or age of individuals. Practical ways to apply findings from various researches related to anger management are proposed for human services, judicial, and law enforcement areas (Thomas, 2001). Future research is suggested by the author to replicate findings through longitudinal studies and to implement better comprehensive evaluations of domestic violence interventions throughout rural human services practices.

Choices: Anger and Anger Management in Rehabilitative Care

The author Linda says in 2013 that violent acts are on rise and rehabilitation providers as caregivers may encounter anger on a daily basis. The purpose of the article is to discuss anger and describe anger management as well as its related strategies based on behavioral interventions grounded in Choice Theory. The application of choice theory to anger is the belief that individuals are not externally but internally motivated, and that outside events do not make people do almost any sort of thing (Gold, 2007). Thus, what drives a person’s anger behaviors are internally developed notions of what is satisfying for them.

Anger becomes a choice for almost all of the individuals along with its management (Shatzman, 2003). Choosing strategies to manage anger is the main step to reducing the potential for angry emotions to escalate up to the point of violent and unwanted acts that threaten clients and caregiver’s safety. Anger-free environments tend to greatly promote mental/physical health and therefore go on to establish elements of safe living especially at the working environments in a variety of rehabilitative type of care settings.

Pitching a fit does anger management training help stem violence in the workplace

The paper argues that anger-management became a buzzword during the previous decade. Judges oftentimes will mandate that an individual get anger-management counseling, only when they seem unable to control their overall behavior and it is partly why they are present at the court system. Anger management is most of the time included in drug treatment as well as in couples counseling.

In most instances, it has been observed that a worker who demonstrates inappropriate anger at his or her colleagues is using the workplace as a venting mechanism for feelings that have little to do with the actual job (Blackburn, 2000). Therefore, it is due to such acts that unwanted acts happen and these acts should be avoided by both employees as well as employers at a given workplace so that the flow of work is carried on with relative ease.

Anger and depression management: Psycho-educational skill training interventions for women caregivers of a relative with dementia

The author David in 2003 examines the short-term impact of two theoretically based psycho-educational small group interventions having distressed caregivers, and also the role of specific mediator and moderator variables on the mentioned caregiver outcomes. After discussing the results, the author conclude that the data are consistent with a growing body of evidence which goes on to support the effectiveness of skills training especially among the small groups, in order to improve both the affective states as well as the type of coping strategies used by caregivers. Care is a very important factor of anger management (Kellner, 1999).

Clinical outcome and client satisfaction of an anger management group program

This retrospective quasi-experimental study presented by author Mary in 2001 evaluated the effectiveness of an anger management group program for various different clients with mental health problems. The program as discussed by the author was offered by outpatient mental health occupational therapy services of a selected community general hospital. 64 clients, about 59 percent were suffering from depressive disorder, enrolled in the program to participate in the study. The post-treatment and pre-treatment scores of the participants on the Anger Control Inventory were compared with the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. The results pointed towards a significant decremented in the overall experience of intense anger alongside better improvement in behavioral and cognitive coping mechanisms, and also better improvement rate in anger control after treatment. Most of the respondents found the program very helpful. The pace of the program alongside the variety of learning activities were seen as areas for improvement. The results of the overall program showed that it had positive impact on anger management. Useful suggestions were thoroughly identified for continuous quality improvements which could help the program. Anger management thrives on suggestions (Coon, 2003).

Anger Management May Not Help at All

The author Benedict argues in 2004 that Ron Artest is not the only male athlete to be sent for anger-management training. Earlier that year, Los Angeles Dodger outfielder Milton Bradley gave a statement that he would seek anger counseling. Some anger-control techniques even seem to make individuals to become more apt to lose their temper (Coon, 2003). The author states that in a reanalysis of the data if St. John’s researchers, it was found that programs that encouraged individuals to feel their rage and to express it in counseling sessions were associated with terrible outcomes. The findings coincide with the message from a wide variety of studies in the 1990’s in which various different psychologists found that venting anger, for example, by hitting an object, in fact goes on to increase anger since it goes on to intensify physical sensations of fury like flushed face or a racing heart.

Conclusion

It was discussed throughout the paper that the phenomena of anger management is gaining rapid acceptance in the general society mainly due to the fact that more and more individuals are found to get themselves into trouble. This is also due to the fact that they tend to fail in controlling their anger which goes on to give them a terrible result.

References

Bruehl, S., al’Absi, M., France, C. R., France, J., Harju, A., Burns, J. W., & Chung, O. Y. (2007). Anger management style and endogenous opioid function: Is gender a moderator? Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 30(3), 209-19.

Burns, J. W., & Bruehl, S. (2005). Anger management style, opioid analgesic use, and chronic pain severity: A test of the opioid-deficit hypothesis. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 28(6), 555-63.

Burns, J. W., PhD., Bruehl, S., PhD., & Caceres, C., PhD. (2004). Anger management style, blood pressure reactivity, and acute pain sensitivity: Evidence for “trait x situation” models. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 27(3), 195-204.

Burns, J. W., PhD., Quartana, P. J., M.S., & Bruehl, S., PhD. (2007). Anger management style moderates effects of emotion suppression during initial stress on pain and cardiovascular responses during subsequent pain-induction. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 34(2), 154-65.

Cara Shatzman, C. p. (2003, Apr 18). ‘Anger Management’ Is Not Worth Your Trip Out The Door. The Santa Fe New Mexican.

Coon, D. W., Thompson, L., Steffen, A., Sorocco, K., & Gallagher-Thompson, D. (2003). Anger and depression management: Psychoeducational skill training interventions for women caregivers of a relative with dementia. The Gerontologist,43(5), 678-89.

DOUG BLACKBURN, S. W. (2000, Jun 26). Pitching a fit does anger management training help stem violence in the workplace? Times Union

Gold, A. L. (2007). Anger management as a component of inpatient residential treatment with adolescents: A multiple case study. (Order No. 3257729, Northern Arizona University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 188-198.

Kellner, M. H., & Bry, B. H. (1999). The effects of anger management groups in a day school for emotionally disturbed adolescents. Adolescence, 34(136), 645-51.

Lench, H. C. (2004). Anger Management: Diagnostic Differences and Treatment Implication S. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(4), 512-531.

Schieman, S. (2000). Education and the activation, course, and management of anger. Journal of Health and Social Behavior,41(1), 20-39.

Thomas, S. P. (2001). Teaching healthy anger management. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 37(2), 41-8.