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United Nations ability to prevent genocide
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Introduction
The world has known its fair share of wars and atrocities. In fact, the history of almost every other country in the globe is carved by wars, and in some cases genocide. However, never has the world experienced worse horrors as it did in the 20th century. The magnitude of violence has undergone evolution and even escalated, thanks to the advancement in technology. In the new war, civilians are on the receiving end, which is unlike in the past where wars pitted soldiers of different countries against one another. This new war was collectively given the term genocide by Raphael Lemkin in 1947 to underline the systematic and deliberate destruction, in part or whole, of a racial, national, religious or ethnic group. However, scholars have been having a hard time debating on what could sufficiently constitute a “part” so as to qualify the destruction as genocide (Andreopoulos, 13). Nevertheless, they note that it encompasses varied coordinated actions that aim at destroying the essential foundations of national groups’ life with the sole intention of annihilating these groups. Such a plan has the objective of disintegrating the social and political institutions of language, religion, culture, national feelings, as well as economic existence of these national groups, as well as the destruction of the personal liberty, dignity, lives, health and security of the people who belong to the groups. Raphael Lemkin stated that the genocide is not a new or contemporary phenomenon, rather it has been a fundamental component if civilization. However, he notes that the capacity of the international community more so the United Nations to prevent or intervene in it is relatively new. Scholars note that the prevention or even intervention in genocide was a fundamental component during the formation of the United Nations. Resolution 96 (1) of the United Nations established that the United Nations would prevent, as well as punish genocide. In addition, this clause was a resolution of the member nations to draft the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is well understood that, during the cold war years, the United Nations could do nothing as it was entangled in the cold war politics. However, it is worth noting that the Security Council of the UN incorporates the capacity to implement the necessary measures so as to maintain security and peace in the international community. Questions emerge on whether international bodies in general and especially the United Nations (UN) are capable of preventing or even stoping the occurence of genocide. As varied scholars and observers note, the United Nations has been incredibly unable to intervene and stop the occurrence of genocide (Andreopoulos, 34). Volumes of literature have been written to this effect reviewing what went wrong in past genocides, as well as the capacity or the ability of the United Nations to intervene and prevent genocides. While many scholars acknowledge that the United Nations stands out as the best hope for intervention and prevention of genocide, there is widespread agreement that the international body is unable to prevent or intervene in genocides.
Thesis statement: The United Nations is incapable of intervening or preventing genocides.
Since the formation of the United Nations in 1945 after the World War II, there have occurred a total of 55 genocides and political wars, which have claimed the lives of more than 75 people. This is undoubtedly more than has been claimed by wars. The United Nations took steps to prevent and punish perpetrators of genocide during the Genocide Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Organizers of Genocide. The Genocide Convention was arguably the most fundamental step that the United Nations took in an effort to prevent the occurrence of genocide or guide its intervention during genocide. It defined the term genocide and categorized it as a crime in international law, with the parties pledging to prevent, as well as punish it. Punishment would be meted on perpetrators, conspirers, as well as individuals who incite, attempt to or even exhibit complicity in genocide, irrespective of their position in the society. Suspects of such crimes, according to the Genocide Convention, were to undergo trial by a competent tribunal set up in the country where they carried out the acts or even by an international penal tribunal that has jurisdiction (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/UN-GENO.asp). These crimes were not to be categorized as political crimes, according to the Genocide Convention. On the same note, it is worth noting that the United Nations, via the Security Council can kick up varied measures in an effort to maintain international peace and stability.
While the United Nations may have these powers, it is worth noting that it does not incorporate a standing army. This international body does not constitute a military organization. The willingness and legitimacy of deploying missions or troops that would prevent the occurrence of conflict has its roots in the universal membership, the Security Council, as well as the UN Charter. While this may be the case, it is noteworthy that the deficiency of a standing army means that the UN’s capacity to intervene in conflicts is incredibly hampered. This is because nations take time before they can agree on risking the lives of their people, the financiers of such efforts, or even who would be leading the charge. This was seen in the case of Rwandan genocide in April 1994. As General Dallaire in the Carnegie Report, as few as 5000 troops could have been enough to prevent the occurrence of genocide in Rwanda (Dorn and Matloff, 23). It is noted that General Dallaire had prior information about the arming and training of Hutu militia in weaponry so that they can engage in the extermination and annihilation of their Tutsi tribesmen, as well as Hutu moderates. Unfortunately, the UN peacekeepers were poorly equipped and had, in fact, had some of them withdrawn from the country. As the Carnegie Report notes, countries were reluctant to commit their peacekeepers to the provision of support for the offensive force that General Dallaire was vouching for, for varied reasons. The United States was unwilling to commit its soldier to this cause after the Somalia incident, especially considering the likely casualty levels, as well as the political impact of such actions on the involved countries (Dorn and Matloff, 24). Belgium, on the other hand, had resolved to withdraw its soldiers from Rwanda after losing 10 of them. Other key countries such as Canada and France were also unwilling to send their soldiers as it was understood that irrespective of their edge in firepower, they would still be likely to lose a number of their troops, losses that few countries were willing to tolerate. In essence, despite the fact that the United Nations could call for such intervention, its lack of standing military means that it still has to rely on countries especially major powers, which immensely undermines its capacity to intervene or prevent genocide.
On the same note, as much as the UN is quite operational, its peace operations do not have proper equipment for the prevention of or even intervention in large-scale violence propagated against civilians. This equipment is in terms of personnel, finance, as well as arms. As noted earlier, the UN is unable to organize, deploy, as well as manage military operations in a comprehensive and rapid manner. Even in instances where the United Nations manages to convince countries to deploy some of their troops, scholars note that the troops are quite different as far as their training is concerned, or even the equipment that they are using in such missions (Dorn and Matloff, 25). These factors limit the capacity of the missions to function in the hostile environments. Moreover, Ludlow (17) notes that the United Nations troops called in to Rwanda had been advised to use force only in self defense and not to take any enforcement action. This stipulation that emphasizes on self defense during, according to Ludlow (23), is a direct avoidance at stipulating outright intervention in the genocide that was taking place.
In addition, as much as the United Nations may be an international entity and even incorporate some avenues of preventing or at least intervening in genocides, it is not a truly independent entity. Gold (35) notes that the United Nations’ Security Council addresses the political motives, as well as strategic interests of the permanent members especially in humanitarian intervention. He cites the case of Kuwaiti, which the Security Council was quick to protect thanks to their oil, unlike the case of Rwandan genocide where the Security Council took time before declaring it “genocide” or even calling for military intervention as Rwanda does not have as many resources (Gold, 36). These sentiments are also echoed by Farrell (13) who christens the United Nations as an agency or a large bureaucracy that is made up of numerous, jealously-guarded fiefdoms, with special interest groups and an extended hierarchy of stakeholders dominating each of the fiefdoms. According to Farrell, the interest groups have a claim to the UN’s resources, which is determined by a sophisticated set of agency and power relationships rather that the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (17). In essence, as much as the United Nations may have varied strategies that it can use to intervene or prevent genocide, it still suffers from lack of independence as its resources or even its intervention efforts are controlled by the special interest groups, as well as the five permanent members. This lack of autonomy and total control was also shown in Rwanda. As Kentish (16) notes, General Romeo Dallaire had recommended that he be allowed to jam the broadcasting stations as they were being used to incite the Hutu against the Tutsi, as well as call for their extermination. However, the United States declined this request stating that such an option or action would be a breach of constitutional commitment to free speech (Kentish 16). As (Krain, 6) notes, the Security Council’s authority is mostly vetoed against by the powerful nations especially when their interests are not met, thereby crippling the institution’s capacity. This raises questions about the independence or autonomous nature of the institution, which evidently shows that as much as it has the power to take varied measures, it does not have the capacity to undertake them without the authority or at least the assistance of certain countries.
Moreover, the very nature of the United Nations cripples its ability to intervene in or prevent the occurrence of genocides. This is especially considering that the member states are considered autonomous and sovereign. Genocide is not a war that pits nations against each other, rather it comes in the form of civil war or an internal affair. As Merkel (16) notes, the United Nations was established in an effort to continue cooperation and communication between nations rather than solve world problems more so within nations. In essence, the creation of the United Nations has, therefore, seen a decrease in wars between nations with civil wars increasing tremendously. Its activities are usually limited to those actions that are not seen as a violation of the sovereignty of the countries involved (Totten and Bartrop, 23). This explains why its intervention in the Rwandan genocide was limited to humanitarian intervention, services that aimed at assisting civilian populations that may not be taking part in the conflict. In most cases, however, humanitarian assistance comes short of preventing the occurrence of genocide as seen in the case of Rwanda. The killing of the ten soldiers from Belgium may have resulted from the fact that the soldiers were not allowed to use force unless they were defending themselves. The use of force, however, comes as a necessity in the case of genocide as shown by the French soldiers who intervened in the genocide and helped in halting and even eliminating it (Totten and Bartrop, 26). Unfortunately, the United Nations is recognized as a neutral institution, a feature that would be considerably watered down if it involved itself in a country’s local politics as would be the case in case of a forceful, military intervention.
However, Totten and Bartrop (26) opine that the United Nations should not be entirely blamed for the mistakes that have been done in the past in relation to Kosovo, Kuwaiti and Rwanda. Instead, they lay the blame on other countries and especially the key powers noting that they veto the Security Council’s authority in instances where they feel that their interests are not threatened. They note that, in the case of Rwanda, the only successful intervention was by the French soldiers, an operation that was known as Operation Turquoise (Totten and Bartrop, 27). This was an indication that the genocide could have been prevented if only the powerful countries had the political will to do it. It is noteworthy that the French was only intervening due to their vested interests in the country. While this assertion abdicates the UN from blame, it also raises questions on its ability to act on its own and serves as a confirmation as to its inability to prevent or intervene in such atrocities.
In conclusion, there have been quite a large number of genocides in the contemporary human society. This has been worsened by technological innovation, which has taken warfare to an entirely new level. However, since the formation of the United Nations, there has been a decrease in wars between nations but an increase in wars within nations. This has taken the form of genocide, defined as the deliberate annihilation and extermination of a certain group of people distinguished by tribe, religion, color, language and culture among other features. Questions have arisen on whether the U.N has the capacity to prevent and intervene in genocides. It is evident that the United Nations has been ineffective in doing this. As much as this international body has various tools that it could use to prevent or intervene in genocides, it faces some structural and institutional obstacles. It does not have a standing army, in which case even its humanitarian efforts are deeply hindered. In addition, it seems to be captive of varied major countries in which case its involved in the power play of these countries. The resources that it has at its disposal are determined by the powerful nations, which almost always act only if their interests are met. In addition, the formation of the United Nations was based on the need for international peace, with its legitimacy being derived from its ability to remain neutral. This image is likely to be eliminated in case it involves itself in the local politics of a country as envisioned by genocide. There are also issues of a country’s sovereignty which cannot be violated especially for independent countries. In addition, it does not have a standard approach to genocide in which case even in instances where it chooses to intervene, it takes too long due to logistics on who would provide the troops, financing or leadership during a military intervention. In essence, despite its capacity to instigate diplomatic, economic, military and political sanctions, the United Nations is incapable of preventing or intervening sufficiently in genocides.
Annotated Bibliography
Modern History Sourcebook: UN Resolution 260, 1948 – On Genocide: CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE. United Nations Treaties Series. No. 1021, vol. 78 (1951), p. 277. Retrieved 23rd January 2013 from HYPERLINK “http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/UN-GENO.asp” http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/UN-GENO.asp
This internet source provides outlines of the provisions of the United Nations in Geneva Conventions. It also outlines the resolutions that the countries that were members of the United Nations made pertaining to genocide and defines the actions that would be termed as genocide.
Totten, Samuel and Bartrop, Paul R. The United Nations and genocide: Prevention, intervention, and prosecution. Human Rights Review July–September 2004, Volume 5, Issue 4, pp 8-31
The writers note that the United Nations, until recently, has not come close to fulfilling its mandate, which is articulated or spelt out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In fact, it has rarely implemented Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter so as to physically intervene in order to stop conflicts or counter the threats to peace. Totten and Bartrop opine that the United Nations has mainly focused on balancing the interests of the great powers that control it.
Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005. Print
Gold, in this book criticizes the United Nations for its moral relativism. He examines why the United Nations has not been intervening and blames the major powers who he says hold the organization captive. He accuses the council of addressing only the political motives and strategic interests of its five permanent members more so during humanitarian interventions. He notes, for instance, that the council protected the Kuwaitis due to their oil, while giving poor protection to the resource-poor Rwandans during the 1994 genocide.
Ludlow, D.R.L Humanitarian Intervention and the Rwandan Genocide. Journal of conflict Studies. Volume XIX, No. 1 Spring 1999. Print
Ludlow also examines the capacity of the United Nations to intervene or prevent genocide with his main focus being the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He states that the intervention of the United Nations was inadequate and restricted to humanitarian intervention. This resource also chronicles the events of the genocide, outlining the efforts that the UN made before, during and after the genocide and bringing to the fore the failing of the institution.
Kentish, Lucy. ‘Genocide Prevention in the Modern Setting: Theory versus Practice’. Internet Journal of Criminology, 2011. Print
Kentish examines the various genocides that have occurred in the contemporary world, not to mention the role that the United Nations has played in preventing their occurrence or even halting them. The journal outlines the reasons and the occurrence of genocides in Serbia and Rwanda among other countries. It outlines the failings of the United Nations during the Rwandan genocide examining their basis or reason.
Merkel, Bernard-Alexandre. The Rwandan Genocide: The Guilty Bystanders. E-international relations, 2010. Retrieved 23rd January 2013 from HYPERLINK “http://www.e-ir.info/2010/01/14/the-rwandan-genocide-the-guilty-bystanders/” http://www.e-ir.info/2010/01/14/the-rwandan-genocide-the-guilty-bystanders/
This resource examines the inability of the United Nations to intervene in case of genocides through the lens of Rwandan genocide. He examines why the nature of the United Nations hinders it from fulfilling its mandate. While the institution may be credited with reducing wars between nations, it is unable to reduce civil wars or even genocides mainly because these are internal wars.
Farrell, Michael L. The Genocide in Rwanda and the Structural Limitations of the Secular Human Rights Movement. Social Justice Review VOL. 100, No. 11-12 November-December, 2009. Print
The author does acknowledge that the United Nations and the entire international community are incapable of intervening or preventing genocides. The author christens the United Nations as an agency or the powerful nations, in which case it is entangled in doing their bidding. The author brings to the fore the power relations that affect the ability of the institution to execute its duties, as well as its manpower limitations.
Krain, Mathew. Atrocity Interrupted: How Intervention Mandate, Magnitude and Mission Sponsor Affect the Severity of Genocide or Politicide. International Studies Association, San Diego, California, 2006. Print
Krain acknowledges that the United Nations occupies an advantaged position that states do not have as far as intervention in genocides is concerned. He examines why the United Nations is better placed to intervene than states, as well as the limitations that it faces in executing such duties. He cites administrative limitations, lack of financial assistance, bureaucratic politics and the different interests of countries among others as the key reasons. He notes that the United Nations is still a captive of its member states especially powerful countries whose bidding it tries to balance (6).
Dorn, A. Walter and Matloff, Jonathan. Preventing the Bloodbath: Could the UN have Predicted and Prevented the Rwandan Genocide? The Journal of Conflict Studies. Volume XX, No. 1 Spring 2000
This resource examines the capability of the United Nations to stop genocide with specific focus on the Rwandan case. It chronicles the occurrence of the Rwandan genocide, as well as how the UN peacekeepers handled it. It also examines incorporates some information on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide especially the Carnegie Report.
Works cited
Andreopoulos, George J. Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions. Philadelphia, Pa: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. Print.
Totten, Samuel and Bartrop, Paul R. The United Nations and genocide: Prevention, intervention, and prosecution. Human Rights Review July–September 2004, Volume 5, Issue 4, pp 8-31
Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005. Print
Ludlow, D.R.L Humanitarian Intervention and the Rwandan Genocide. Journal of conflict Studies. Volume XIX, No. 1 Spring 1999. Print
Kentish, Lucy. ‘Genocide Prevention in the Modern Setting: Theory versus Practice’. Internet Journal of Criminology, 2011. Print
Merkel, Bernard-Alexandre. The Rwandan Genocide: The Guilty Bystanders. E-international relations, 2010. Retrieved 23rd January 2013 from HYPERLINK “http://www.e-ir.info/2010/01/14/the-rwandan-genocide-the-guilty-bystanders/” http://www.e-ir.info/2010/01/14/the-rwandan-genocide-the-guilty-bystanders/
Farrell, Michael L. The Genocide in Rwanda and the Structural Limitations of the Secular Human Rights Movement. Social Justice Review VOL. 100, No. 11-12 November-December, 2009. Print
Dorn, A. Walter and Matloff, Jonathan. Preventing the Bloodbath: Could the UN have Predicted and Prevented the Rwandan Genocide? The Journal of Conflict Studies. Volume XX, No. 1 Spring 2000
Krain, Mathew. Atrocity Interrupted: How Intervention Mandate, Magnitude and Mission Sponsor Affect the Severity of Genocide or Politicide. International Studies Association, San Diego, California, 2006. Print
Customer satisfaction Literature review
LETRETURE REVIEW
Customer satisfaction is an important aspect for the success and continued existence when it comes to building any business. Customers are regarded as the end users of every product that a company generates; therefore, their satisfaction is very important in order to increase the profit margin as well as the customer loyalty. If this is considered, a number of customers will be more likely to return and they will in turn bring more friends. Satisfaction as a process is the most broadly implemented description of customer satisfaction and several of research efforts have been directed at understanding the process approach of satisfaction evaluations, which is according to Parker and Matthews (2001).
Customer satisfaction is a general measurement reliant on the total consumption experience of the expected product or service performance compared with repurchases expectations sooner or later (Fornell 1992). Oliver (1997, 1999) reviewed satisfaction as pleasurable fulfillment which is perceived by the customers in the consumption He further explains that the costumers’ perceptions that the consumption meets some needs, desires, goals or any, this is considered pleasurable.
Eric Jacques (2010) suggests customer satisfaction is to do something enough to be up to the standard of the customers and it is basically fulfilling their basic expectations. Customer satisfaction is described as the amount of satisfaction to the products and services rendered by the company and which is typically measured by the number of customers making repeat purchases. Customer satisfaction is a key for the company to keep details on high sales profits. Moreover, customer satisfaction is an evaluation of how customers are pleased with the particular products or services and to make repeat purchases and usually refer others. Customer satisfaction is, simply set a measure of the satisfaction of the consumers, and how the purchased items fulfilled their expectations. Additionally, customer satisfaction as a process is defined as an evaluation between what was received and what was expected, emphasizing the perceptual, evaluative and psychological processes that contribute to customer satisfaction (Oliver, 1977, 1981; Olson and Dover, 1979; Tse and Wilton, 1988 and Vavra, 1997, p. 4).
-447675205105Figure 1.Customer Satisfaction 1
According to the figure above, customer expectations, perceived value and overall perceived quality will indicate the rate of customer satisfaction and the way that an organization handles customers` complaint and the satisfaction of customers can also result to their loyalty to the company. Swan and Combs of (1976) also provided their definition about customers’ satisfaction as a post-purchase attitude. This pertains to the feeling of the customers whether this is happiness or displeasure after they have received the products or services. A satisfied customer will continue to purchase products, rarely purchase to others, they also refer other customers and generally be a superstar promoter for the business. Rust and Oliver (1994) suggested that the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customers appears to be a response to only one or extended services they encountered.
Westbrook (1980) adds that customer satisfaction includes cognitive and affective aspects in pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase of purchasing products or receiving services. Customer satisfaction includes three primary components which are the type of response, the center of interest and the subject on which the response if focused at the moment in time at which the evaluation is made (Giese and Cote, 2000).
Also, customer satisfaction refers to the costumer’s judgment regarding a firm’s success or failure in meeting expectations, with met expectations resulting in satisfaction and unmet expectations resulting in dissatisfaction (Oliver, 1999). This definition suggests that satisfaction is post consumption experience which compares perceived quality expected quality (Anderson and Fornell, 1994; Parasuman et.al., 1985). On top, satisfaction is a judgment wherein the customers make following service encounters and that this evaluation has variations. It varies from every customer, every encounter and in every organization to support the need for new ideas in customer satisfaction among different organizations. After all, the customer satisfaction is called the process of spanning the consumption period and that research of the post-purchase stage is critical to the development of new insights. On the other hand, financial status of the organizations relies on the ability of the companies to retain existing customers at a quicker pace than acquiring new ones. Thus, based on the statement of Keiningham et.al (2008) good managers must realize that the path to growth lies heavily on their customers and is not only attracting new customers, but also holding on existing customers, motivating them to spend more and getting them to recommend products and services to the other people.
Customer satisfaction is a feeling with a product or service obtained from a business and the consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that product or service features, or the goods or services themselves, presented or is presenting a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment including under or over fulfillment levels (Oliver, 1997, p.13). Customer satisfaction is important as this can have an impact on the business and paying no attention to it is equivalent to losing a significant opportunity to make the customers happy.
The statement of Oliver (1997) entails that fulfillment provides pleasure or removes pain, in the same way as when problems in life are relieved. Therefore, you can satisfy the customers simply to return to normalcy, it is like the act of taking away of an aversive situation like pain relief. Furthermore, fulfillment is not automatically put some limits to the case of fulfilled needs. Over-fulfillment can be satisfying if it gives extra unexpected pleasure and under-fulfillment can be satisfying if it provides greater pleasure than the customers anticipate in a certain situation.
Customer satisfaction is the significant objective in selling process wherein it is several studies have shown that it is calculated that it is like five times to attract new customers as compared to retain an existing one and this results into more interest in customer relationships (Nauman, 1995). Therefore, many companies are adopting customer satisfaction as their operational goal with a carefully designed structure wherein they put big investment in database marketing, relationship management and customer planning to move close to their customers (Hill and Alexader, 2000). That’s also why as Jones and Sasser (1995) has said the “achieving customer satisfaction is the primary goal for majority of service firms nowadays”.
Customer satisfaction relates to customer loyalty which is considered a generally significant goal of executing relationship marketing activities. Oliver (1997, p.392) described customer loyalty as a “deeply held commitment to rebury or to support again desired products or services continuously in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior”. Hayes (2008) mentioned that customers are the motivation for valuable growth while customer loyalty can result to profitability. For the customers, loyalty is a positive attitude and behavior relating to the level of the commitment of the repeat customers to a particular product or service in the future (Chu, 2009). Loyal customers are a bit expected to go to a competitor only because of price, and they even purchase more than non-loyal customers (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). Blackton (1995) added that loyal customers are also considered to be the most important assets of a company.
Customer satisfaction has become the center of attention in most of theoretical literatures and practical researches. It is an expected outcome of implementing marketing activities, catering satisfaction of products or services to customers relates to success achieved on today’s tensely competitive world of business. Customer satisfaction is specified as pleasurable fulfillment, for itself, the costumers perceives consumption as satisfying some needs, desires, goals and other by which that fulfillment is pleasurable (Oliver, 1997).
Customer satisfaction is seen as an important tool to supervise the business outcomes, make sound decision on limited resource allocation and give rewards to management (Anderson, 1994). Most of the organizations, the interest of customer satisfaction is demonstrated in their communications involving advertisement, public relation release and mission statement (Peterson and Wilson, 1992). Parker and Mathew (2001) stated that there are two primary styles of the concept of customer satisfaction. The first one defines satisfaction as a process while the second defines satisfaction as a result of a consumption experience. These two approaches are paired, as usually each depends to each other.
The interest in customer satisfaction had made a very big increase over 500 studies were published, which was according to the 1970’s report of Hunt (1982). This trend had continued and by year 1992, Peterson and Wilson estimated the amount of academic and trade articles on customer satisfaction to be over 15,000. Increasing customer satisfaction has been shown to directly affect companies’ market share, which is leading to improved profits, positive recommendation lower marketing expenditures (Reichheld, 1996) and impact to the extent the corporate image and survival (Pizam & Ellis, 1999).
In order to achieve long-term sustainability companies should try to search to establish ties of loyalty with costumers that are strong enough to protect against the advances of competitors. Creating loyalty among customers helps the companies to make increase purchases of their existing products, charge of premium prices for appreciation of your added-value services, and create positive word-of-mouth promotion for your company, which is the basis of the marketing objective for many companies (Ryan Nelson, 2012).
Nelson (2012) further explained that customer loyalty is much harder to achieve than satisfaction, although customers are satisfied with the company there are several factors that could cause the customer to defect to the competition, such as finding a better value or the competitor is more convenient. Based on that statement, having high levels of customer satisfaction does not mean will head to customer loyalty, but a company cannot achieve customer loyalty without having customer satisfaction (Ryan Nelson, 2012).
Therefore, business owners, managers, or sales representatives are important to keep loyal customers who will contribute long-term profit to the business organizations (Tseng, 2007). The goal to make existing customers increase their purchases is another approach to boost the financial growth of the companies (Hayes, 2008). This means that customer satisfaction cannot ensure the repurchase from a company but it does not play a very important role in achieving customer loyalty. Conducting customer satisfaction research will provide your company with the necessary insight it needs to make informed decisions in order to retain and increase your customer base and improve customer relationships (Ryan Nelson, 2012).
Customer service is important because it caters purchasers with assistance and friendly advice. Customer service provides product support and happier customers and can develop what customers feel as they have a connection with a company. When the companies have commitment to customer service, its corporate culture changes to adopt its new dimension and become the motivation making amazing results to take place. Gronroos (1984) and Parasuman et.al (1998) had emphasized an important factor that contributes to customer satisfaction which is service quality. They defined service quality as the difference between customer expectations and perceptions of service rendered by the company or satisfaction or dissatisfaction formed by customers’ experience of purchase and use of the service.
The measurement of customer satisfaction is exceptionally significant for both product developments as improving your company’s support. Customer satisfaction rates are compiled by surveys or interviews. Companies strive for good customer satisfaction status wherein they will look at the status of their customer surveys and strategize on how they can either improve the quality of their product or the quality of their customer relationships. Good customer service stats will increase the likelihood the customer will return to make repeat purchases or recommend the company to others.
In managing the customer relationship, customer satisfaction is a gauge of the level to which the products or services fulfill the expectation of the customers (Margarette Rouse, 2008). Furthermore, customer satisfaction has been measured as well depending on the phases of customer relationship life cycle, which illustrates different stages of a customer relationship and requires focus on particular target and customer expectations of various stages (Spath and Fähnrich, 2007). Generally, customer satisfaction augments the quality of relationship between a customer and a service provider, and boosts the repeat purchase behavior.
To build a stronger customer satisfaction is very much related to the understanding customers’ needs and expectations (William and Bersch, 1992). The Kano Model (2001) states that needs of every customer are categorized into different needs such as basic, expected and excitement. Basic needs are the obvious needs of customers and if not met, he is dissatisfied, however meeting these needs may not be sufficient for customer satisfaction and this satisfaction results “must be quality”. Expected needs are significant that a customer is completely aware and satisfied in every purchase made and this satisfaction will create expected quality while the excitement needs refer to the unconscious and unspoken needs of customers. By determining these needs, company will have increased great value to their customers and can gain their loyalty and this satisfaction creates “attractive quality”.
Previous research studies recommended that there are four features which are the key drivers of satisfaction of the customers of cellular services namely network quality, price, customer care and personal benefits (Booz, Allen and Hamilton, 1995). The network quality refers to the excellent indoor and outdoor coverage, voice clarity, and without connection failure. Price refers to what is paid to obtain access to use the network. Customer care refers to the quality of the information exchanged between customers and suppliers or network providers in response to the questions, request and concerns with regards to the other activities initiated by the network provider, such as the presentation of invoices. Personal benefits refer to the level of perception of the benefits of mobile communications services by individual customers.
Furthermore, the report of Bryan et.al (1996) demonstrated that there is significant relationship and consistent differences in the levels of satisfaction among demographic groups: sex, age, occupation, income, location. Sex positively relates to satisfaction and based on the observation female customers are more satisfied than male customers. Female of all ages are more satisfied than male because women are more involved with the process of purchase and possibly use the mobile more for relational purposes like social network device while men use it for functional purposes such as businesses, sales, etc. Age positively relates to satisfaction however the relationship is not in a consistent manner. Satisfaction increases when it comes to age and the major increase in satisfaction is seen within the age 55 and above. Income relates to satisfaction as well which shows the higher the income, the lower the satisfaction level. Location positively relates to satisfaction that customers living in central cities and uptown areas are less satisfied than the customers living in rural areas.
Conclusion
In this review, it suggested that costumers vary in attitudes and one of the factors responsible for this difference is demographics. It is thus necessary to investigate the influence of demographic factors such as age, gender, occupation and location on customer satisfaction. Demographic factors are important in the society and significantly influence the attitudes, lifestyle, standard of living and others. Understanding such factors help the organization to investigate the different market segments so as to better understand the needs of different customers. Those factors are related to each other and all have an impact to the customer satisfaction.
Gale and Fornell (1992) illustrated that higher customer satisfaction converts into higher than normal market share growth, the ability to charge a higher price, lower transaction costs and strong connection to improve profitability. Nelson et.al (1992) added that customer satisfaction related to higher profitability and proved his findings statistically. There is significant relationship between customer satisfaction and accounting return on assets (Anderson et.al 1994). It is discovered that stockholder value is highly flexible with respect to customer satisfaction (Ittner and Larkner, 1996) and also customer satisfaction greatly relates to organization financial growth (Fornell et.al, 1996). The amount of business conducted within the organization relates to customer satisfaction which leads to profitability (Ittner and Larkner, 1996). Moreover, several researched showed that customer satisfaction has significant impact on repurchase intentions and profits for service companies (Edvardddon et.al, 2000), affects share of wallet (SOW) positively (Braun and Scope, 2003 and Keiningham et.al, 2003), leads to increased profit margins (Fecikoca, 2004) and associates with improved share of spending (Keiningham, 2005).
Discussion 3.1 Even though the International Court of Justice held that Israel violates
Discussion 3.1
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Date
Question 1
Even though the International Court of Justice held that Israel violates the International law for constructing a wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories, it still exists. Israel nation gives a reason that the wall functions as a form of security against terrorists. The court perceived that the building of the wall ought to be put in a more general context, noticing the obligation on Palestine and Israel to obey the international humanitarian law, in addition to the necessity for implementation in good faith of all relevant Security Council resolutions. At a certain point, during an emergency special session on the occupied Palestinian territories, the General Assembly implemented a resolution asking the ICJ to promptly render a view on the legal consequences of the building of the barrier.
Question 2
I think that the U.S. trade ban designed to protect endangered sea turtles violates global trade rules. I agree with World Trade Organization (WTO). The United States ban was put on importing wild shrimp from countries not adequately protecting sea turtles. The ruling against the U.S. needs that the U.S. lift their ban by changing the provision in the endangered sea turtles or paying reimbursement to the countries for lost trade. Despite the fact the WTO claims that the ban violates global trade, they should, on the other side, incorporate rules to fight climate change since most species of sea turtles have been endangered by the many human-made causes. There is a current treaty that governs international efforts on climate change. The Paris Agreement is one of the current legally binding international treaties on climate change.
Question 3
It is good that the U.S. did not join the International Criminal Court. Since the Rome Statute endorsement in 1998, U.S. dogma toward the ICC has been consistent and clear. This nation has rejected joining the ICC since it possesses sweeping authority without accountability to the U.N, and it lacks prudent protection against political manipulation. ICC was established to prosecute crimes against humanity, war crimes, a crime of aggression, and genocide. However, there are several reasons to be cautious and concerned about how ICC would impact politically precarious conditions around the world and ratification of the Rome Statute would affect U.S sovereignty.