NIST 800-64 rev2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NIST 800-64 rev2 - Essay Example The problem I choose to discuss is poor communication between the employers and employees. In managing IT systems and their progress, an Information system security process is put in place to help identify risks, plan and mitigate problems that may arise at the workplace. Implementing a risk management – based approach serves to integrate security systems throughout the agency. However, throughout the system and its working, communication plays a major role in how well everything is understood and implemented in order to ensure high productivity with lesser number of problems. Communication is an indispensable part of any organization because its success or failure depends a lot on it. One of the critical assets of any organization is proper communication between employers and employees as well as among the management and workers. Proper communication helps to instill integrity and solidarity among the workers and helps them to focus better on the goal ahead. System managers c an make use of good communication as a tool to build strong relationships not only among the workers but also the clients that deal with them. Proper communication is a fundamental asset for decision – making, negotiation, implementation and assessment of the whole developmental process. One of the dilemmas that could arise in the workplace is miscommunication that leads to anger, fear, mistrust and lack of understanding among the parties involved. This problem is quite evident especially within a multicultural organization. The five phases such as Initiation, Development, Implementation, Operation and Disposal that contributes towards the smooth working and productivity of the organization could be hampered if there is no proper communication among its staff and workers. In implementing and executing a risk management based approach, it is both crucial and vital to help employees understand the integrated security component of the organization because each of them plays a si gnificant role in its successful achievement. Miscommunication in any one of the areas could bring about heavy losses to the agency or organization. In the Security Considerations in the System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) different individuals play different roles with different responsibilities and in order to ensure the systematic progress and success of the organization, they have to interact with each other during each stage of activity. In such a scenario, effective communication involving security requirements and expectations is inevitable. Every member is accountable in the position they hold responsibility within the organization. Employing an appropriate Information security personnel at the initiation juncture would be the right thing to do, so as to avoid communication mishaps during the process of any project. The individual carrying out this job has a big responsibility since it is a high risk job involving the organizations operations as well as its assets. However, all the other officials and managers each have their own role to play and their own responsibility which is clearly defined and they are accountable for things that go wrong. In such a set up effective communication plays a very important role because it helps to keep the security system in tact and in an effective working order. Since every person is highly responsible and accountable for their actions, it is inevitable that the first thing that should be put into place is a proper

Theory without practice is fantasy but practice without theory is Research Paper

Theory without practice is fantasy but practice without theory is blind. Internships in organizations - Research Paper Example This could be the reason that students in universities and colleges are usually encouraged to apply for internships in organizations dealing with their various courses of study during school breaks over the vacation periods. Indeed, many students find it difficult to relate what they study in school and what they have to do in the real world of corporates. On the one hand, there are academicians who study trends and historical data to come up with solutions to problems in the real world, which can be adopted and used in practice. On the other hand are business executives and their workers who usually criticize academicians for coming up with solutions that are either too ideal, complex or which have too many assumptions to be applied in real businesses (March, 1994). This group approaches problem-solving through past experiences or by applying what is appropriate with the prevailing economic, political an social conditions. However, the reality of the matter is that none can exist wi thout the other, as summarized by Professor Vincent Ostrom in the above phrase. One important aspect that organizations’ managers usually deal with is decision-making. Many companies usually operate with the sole reason of making profits. This can only be possible by maximizing revenue while keeping costs down. The management of companies is usually tasked with the duty of making decisions that will lead to the above. However, decision-making is a very complex activity that requires more than just the basic knowledge of how the economic conditions prevail (Scott and Davis, 2007). In addition, wrong decision-making could deal a severe blow to a company which would take years to undo, failure of which the said company would go under. In this sense, decision-making requires the use of theories set out by people who have studied the process in order to be effective. Decision-making is further complicated by the fact that human beings are not always rational; hence they are prone to make decisions that are subjective rather than objective. One theory put forward to try to explain the decision making process is one called ‘Bounded Rationality’ put forward by Nobel Price winner, Herbert A. Simon in his paper Administrative Behavior which he wrote in 1947. In this theory, Simon points out that there are several reasons as to why it may not be easy for executives to make the most rational decision. One reason is due to the uncertainty of the future. Every decision made has a consequence which might be beneficial or harmful to an organization. Some of these consequences can be anticipated, but many more cannot be known at the time of the decision-making. Therefore, managers make what they perceive to be the best decision with the information they have at hand at the period, taking into consideration known risks (Herbert, 1947). Relating to this is the fact that decision makers cannot fully evaluate the worth of their decisions in the future, but only in the present. The third impediment to rational decision making is that decision makers need to be aware of all alternatives to the decision they are about to make (March and Herbert, 1958). This is not always available, making it difficult to choose the most optimal decision. With such theoretical knowledge, decision makers are in a better position to understand the decision-making process, hence be in a better position to defend their actions. Another illustration of Professor Vincent Ostrom’s phrase is applicable in the normal operations of a company. Companies usually spend large sums of money to train their employees and managers to

Study Analysis: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Study Analysis: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Kwong Ho Kuen Everyday Social Psychology: Report on Media Article #2 A news article from The Independent reported that modern gentleman preferred â€Å"brains† rather than â€Å"blondes† (Lusher, 2014). Why do men value educational levels or intelligence over physical attractiveness? Is this argument just objective opinion or is it scientifically proved? If the phenomenon is true, can it be explained by social psychology? In this paper, we will take a closer look at the issue with the help of concepts and theories of social psychology. We will first review the news article and capture the main ideas of it. Then, we will further investigate the scientific evidence referred by the news article. Afterwards, we will define the main issue going to be discussed. Finally, we will examine related empirical journal articles and apply the findings to the explanation of the issue. Introduction of the Issue Review of the news article At the very beginning, let’s review the news article and summarize its main points. The news article is titled â€Å"Gentlemen prefer brains: similarly educated couples last†. It was published in The Independent on July 27, 2014. It reports some findings from a recent study of marriage about associations between educational levels and divorce rates. It says that marriages between a better educated wife and less educated husband from 1950 to 1979 were 34 percentage more likely to divorce than the opposite one. Furthermore, it is reported that couples having similar levels of education have a lower rate of divorce than marriages between a better educated husband and a less educated wife. Therefore, the article suggests that â€Å"similarly educated couples last†. The article quotes the title of a classic film called Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It suggests that there was a common belief in the past that men preferred a less educated and maybe physically attractive wife. However, the research result suggests the opposite of it. Closer look at the study being referred to Does this article reflect the study finding subjectively? Is there are any personal opinions added to the article? With a view to examine the accuracy of report and gather further details about the study, the research being referred to in the news article is found. It is an empirical journal article titled â€Å"The reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Trends in Marital Dissolution† (Schwartz Han, 2014). It was published in the American Sociological Review, an academic journal, in 2014. In this study, the researchers try to examine the risk of marital dissolution among marriages of couples with different combinations of educational level. These combinations include hypogamous marriages which a higher educated wife is married to a lower educated husband; hypergamous marriages which a lower educated wife is married to a higher educated husband; and a homogamous marriage which a couple with similar educational level get married. The study makes use of demographic data in American from the National Survey of Family Growth, Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Current Population Survey from 1950 to 2009. It examines the divorce rate of hypogamous, hypergamous and homogamous marriages. In addition to comparing the divorce rate, the study also tries to examine the changes in relative risk of divorce among three types of marriages over decades. Two major results are found. First, as reported in the news article, it is found that hypogamous marriages had a higher divorce rate than the hypergamous marriages before 1980. However, the association of higher divorce rate and hypogamous marriages no longer exists since 1990. In another word, the marriages between higher educated wives and lower educated husband are no longer more likely to break up in recent times. The study further asked if these hypogamous couples are less likely to divorce than hypergamous couples, but no conclusive evidence is found. In addition to what the news article reports, the study also attempts to find out factors behind this change. It suggested that an increase in education level may affect. Although the relative educational attainment of wives in hypogamous marriages is still higher, the data showed that the individual educational attainment of both wife and husband in hypogamous marriages increase over the decades. However, no evidence can be found by using Cox proportional hazard model, a statistical analysis method. On the other hand, the study also discovers that homogamous couples are less likely to divorce compared to hypergamous couples, as reported. What the news article does not include is the change of stability in these homogamous marriages. In 1950s, homogamous couples are no more likely to divorce than hypergamous couples. However, they are even less likely to divorce than the hypergamous couples after 1990. Going back to the news article, it is partly true to say that â€Å"similarly educated couples last†. It is true that homogamous couples are less likely to divorce compared to hypergamous couples. However, it is not completely accurate to say homogamous couples are least likely to divorce among all. It is because the study did not run any three group comparison like Analysis of Variance to find supporting evidence. Also, it is accurate for the news to say that â€Å"gentlemen prefer brains to blonde†. In the study, physical attractiveness was not measured and analyzed in any stages. Defining the issue to be discussed There are three ideas described in the news article. First, it is the mating preference of men to choose â€Å"brains† which is believed to be education level or intelligence over â€Å"blondes† which is believed to be physical attractiveness. As mentioned above, it is the reporter own comment rather what the research study finds. So, we are not going to focus on this idea. The second idea is the relative divorce rate among hypogamous couples comparing to hypergamous couples. There is a change from positive correlation before 1980 to no association afterward. However, it is still inconclusive whether a reversed situation has occurred. At the same time, researchers have attempted, but fail to discover the contributing factors behind. The phenomenon is still being studied by researchers. We cannot illustrate much about this idea at the moment. Finally, it is worth noticing about the stability of homogamous marriages. It is found that couples with similar educational background has less chance of marital dissolution comparing to hypergamous marriages. In this paper, we are going to illustrate this issue by social psychology concepts. We will see why people with similar educational background are attracted to each other. And we will see why couples of similar education background stay with each other. Empirical Journal Article and Application to the Issue (1) Attraction between People with Similar Educational Level To become a stable marital relationship, the couples should be attracted to each other at the very first place. The news article said that similarly educated couples are less likely to divorce. In another word, people with similar educational background are attracted to each other. Can social psychology concepts illustrate that similar people attract each other? To be more specific, do people of similar educational level attract each other? In Search of Empirical Journal Article In order to find supporting evidence, a search of empirical journal articles is conducted. The search is carried out in a database of peer reviewed psychology scholarly journals called PsycINFO. To find the linkage between education and mating selection with similar others, the keywords of â€Å"education† and â€Å"assortative mating† are used. With a view to include results of words with similar meaning, the search further includes â€Å"educational attainment† and â€Å"educational level† as alternative keywords to education. This is done with the help of the advanced search function. The preliminary searches gave 61 results in total including 55 scholarly journals, 5 dissertations or thesis and 1 book. To further refine the search, the results are limited to scholarly journals. Results are also limited to, publication after 2000 in order to obtain most updated evidence. Afterwards, 33 results are left. Related Empirical Journal Article Found Among the 33 journal articles, one titled â€Å"Match Makers and Deal Breakers: Analyses of Assortative Mating in Newlywed Couples† published in the Journal of Personality is selected (Watson et al., 2004). It tries to answer what qualities people look for in their spouses. It proposes that there are two ways in answering the question. One is to examine which traits or characteristics like social status or physical attractiveness people found desirable. The other method, which is used in this study, is to examine whether couples look for similarity or complementary in various aspects in their partners. To see whether similarity or complementary people found desirable, the study looks into newly married couples. It is supposed that newly married couples are attracted to each other well enough so that they decide to get married. If similarity rather than complementary in most aspects is found among them, it may be inferred that people look for similarity in their romantic partners. To take one step further, it also examines the similarities in which aspects are more important. The study uses a sample of 291 couples married in less than one year in Iowa. They were invited to attend a small group session lasted for around two hours. During the session, participants were asked to complete questionnaires and took different tests. Information was collected regarding their demographic background, personality, emotional expression style, adult attachment style, religious attitudes, political attitudes, values, and intelligence. After data collection, the researchers calculated the simple two-tail correlations between the husbands’ and wives’ scores on each aspect. If a strong correlation is found, similar in that aspect is significant for newlywed couples. In fact, strong similarity is found in age, religious and political views. Moderate similarity is found in educational attainment and verbal intelligence. Modest similarity is found in values. Little similarity is found in other aspects like personality and attachment styles. In summary, this study finds significant similarities on various aspects among newly married couples in American. Newly married couples usually love each other to a certain extend that they decided to get married. Therefore, similarities in newlywed may suggest that people are attracted to similarities rather than complementary to others, especially in age, religion, political views, education and intelligence. Application to the issue Is similarity related to attraction as the news article writers? This is an issue in social psychology termed as assortative mating which is defined to be the â€Å"nonrandom coupling of individuals based on their resemblance to each other on one or more characteristics (Buss, 1984). It is called positive assortment when significant similarity is found between husbands and wives. Conversely, it is called negative assortment when significant complementary is found among couples. To date, there is much more evidence on positive assortment rather than the negative assortment (Bouchard Loehlin, 2001; Mathews Reus, 2001). It suggests that people do prefer similarity in their romantic partners rather than differences. In fact, the empirical journal article above also confirms that many similarities are found among newly married couples (Watson et al., 2004). To be more specific, moderate similarity in educational attainment is also found among newlywed in the study (Watson et al., 2004). This may illustrate why similarly educated couples get together as said in the news article. Empirical Journal Article and Application to the Issue (2) Relationship with Similar Education Background Last Similarly educated couples getting together is only half of the story. The news article suggests that these couples also last longer. To be more accurate, the study being referred to finds that these couples have a lower risk of divorce comparing to couples with higher educated husbands. Why do similar couples divorce less? Do similar couples enjoy higher marital satisfaction? To be more specific, does similar education background associate with marital satisfaction? In Search of Empirical Journal Article Again, in search of supporting evidences, we make use of the scholarly journal database PsycINFO. To find the linkage between similarity in couples and satisfaction in their relationships, the keywords of â€Å"similarity† and â€Å"marital satisfaction† are used. There are 240 results in this preliminary searches, including 152 scholarly journals, 77 dissertations or thesis and 11 book. To further refine the search, one more keyword â€Å"socioeconomic† is added to explore specific if the similarity in socioeconomic status predicts marital satisfaction. Afterwards, 6 results are left. Related Empirical Journal Article Found Among the 6 results, an article titled â€Å"Does Similarity Breed Marital and Sexual Satisfaction† published in the Journal of Sex Research is selected (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). In this study, the researchers want to know if the similarity in couples is associated with marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. To take one step further, they also try to find out similarity in which aspects correlated stronger with marital satisfaction and sexual satisfaction than other aspects. This study makes use of the data from Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice survey in 2002. It is the longest running survey of family planning in Hong Kong. 1,083 couples are chosen randomly from groups stratified by their living districts. They were invited to an individual interview answering a number of questions. Information is collected on their marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, socioeconomic background, religion, age, educational attainment, employment, and birthplace. For each aspect, the researchers group the respondents according their similarity. For example, they divide the respondents into three education homogamy groups, namely husbands with higher education level, wives with higher education level and couples with the same education level. Then, for each group, the researchers further divide the respondents into martially satisfied or dissatisfied groups according to their scores of marital satisfaction. Finally, the researchers calculate the correlation between different groups and their marital satisfaction using chi-square tests. If significant correlation is found, it may suggest that similarity in certain aspect is associated with the marital and sexual satisfaction. In fact, this study finds out that education homogamy is a significant factor related to marital satisfaction especially the wives’ marital satisfaction. There are other influencing factors like employment homogamy, while some of them are not influencing like religious homogamy and birthplace homogamy. Application to the issue The news article says that â€Å"similarly educated couples last†. First of all, let’s look at what makes a marriage last before discussing why similarly educated couples last. In social psychology, there are sufficient evidences that marital satisfaction predicts divorce (Hirschberger et al., 2009). Marital satisfaction is defined as the global evaluation of the marital relationship, which depicts a general picture of the relationship (Glenn, 1990). Generally speaking, the more the couples are satisfied with their relationships, the less likely they will divorce. In layman terms, happy marriages last. If happy marriages last, is similarity related to marital satisfaction? There are evidences that couples with different age, religion, education or cultural have more conflicts than the counterpart (Cao, Fragmiere, Gauthier, Sapin Widmer, 2010). To be more specific, does similarity in educational attainment associate with marital satisfaction? In fact, the empirical journal article we found do suggest that education homogamy is correlated with marital satisfaction (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). This may illustrate why marriages of similarly educated couples last. To look at the reason behind, social psychologists suggest that similarity in attraction is enhanced by the positive feeling resulted from consensual validation (Byrne, 1971). Similar people usually share the same values and attitudes and they socially validated each other. We may guest that similarity in education predict similarity in other aspects, because education is correlated with socioeconomic status like occupation, lifestyles, and abilities (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). Therefore, more consensual validation may be found in education homogamy couples. As a result, the satisfaction resulted from social validation may influence the stability of their marriage. Conclusion In a nutshell, we read a news article from The Independent says â€Å"similarly educated couples last†. We first ask why similarly educated couples get together. Social psychology concepts show that people are attracted by similarity of others. We also find the first empirical journal article supporting that similarity in educational background is desirable in marriages (Watson et al., 2004). Then, we ask why similarly educated marriages last. A second empirical journal article shows that similarity in educational background is related to higher marital satisfaction (Zhang, Ho Yip, 2012). And marital satisfaction is associated with divorce (Hirschberger et al., 2009). These all together illustrated the issue that marriage between a similarly educated couple is less likely to divorce. References Bouchard, T. J. Jr., Loehlin, J. C. (2001). Genes, evolution, and personality. Behavior Genetics, 31, 243–273. Buss, D. M. (1984). Marital assortment for personality dispositions: Assessment with three different data sources. Behavior Genetics, 14, 111–123. Byrne, D. E. 1971. The Attraction Paradigm. New York: Academic Press. Cao, N. V., Fragmiere, E., Gauthier, J. A., Sapin, M., Widmer, E. D. (2010). Optimizing the marriage market: An application of the linear assignment model. European Journal of Operational Research, 202, 547–553. Glenn, N. D. (1990). Quantitative research on marital quality in the 1980s: A critical review. Journal of Marriage the Family, 52, 818–831. Hirschberger G., Srivastava S., Marsh P., Cowan C. P., Cowan P. A. (2009). Attachment, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce During the First Fifteen Years of Parenthood. Personal Relationships, 16, 3, 401–420. Lusher, A. (2014, July 27). Gentlemen prefer brains: similarly educated couples last. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ science/gentlemen-prefer-brains-similarly-educated-couples-last-9631871.html Mathews, C. A., Reus, V. I. (2001). Assortative mating in the affective disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 42, 257–262. Schwartz, R. Han, H. (2014). The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Trends in Marital Dissolution. American Sociological Review, 79(4), 605-629. Watson D., Klohnen E. C., Casillas A., Simms E.N., Haig J., Berry D.S. (2004). Match makers and deal breakers: analyses of assortative mating in newlywed couples. Journal of Personality, 72, 5, 1029-1068. Zhang H., Ho S. Y., Yip S. F. (2012). Does Similarity Breed Marital and Sexual Satisfaction? Journal of Sex Research, 49, 6, 583-593.

The Internets Effects on Reading Essay example -- National Endowment

The Internet's Effects on Reading NEAdites join me in rejoicing at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) report Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. This report brings into view the dangers of the Internet and foreshadows the impact it and the associated electronic media forms it delivers will have on culture and society. Our only chance is one huge electromagnetic burst that will take it all out from the inside. The act of reading as we traditionally know it is under assault. We must not get caught up in the electronic media and forget that which is important, â€Å"A book must be an ice ax to break the seas frozen inside our souls† is Kafka’s battle cry for reading (Solomon 1994). This quote is echoed by Nomi Schwartz who, like Solomon, draws up sides in her argument in favor of reading. For her, there are those who know the joys of reading, and those who do not but should. There must be two sides to every battle. Don’t rush out to join the NEAdites just yet though, traditional reading of literature may be in decline as statistically shown by the NEA report, the narrow focus of the report however fails to consider that change is continuous and inevitable and that these new forms of media actually have the potential to expand reading and enhance participation in activities associated with culture and the arts. We all have our comfort zones, not surprisingly we are most comfortable with what we known. A stake in the present can rattle change around as a threat to the future. Reports such as this are intriguing because they challenge our safety zone, they bring our fear of change to the surface, prompting us to take action so we don’t loose our sacred now. The NEA report is one of many â€Å"crise du jour... ...st 8). Reading at Risk: Lack of interese in literature is a crisis [Commentary]. Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved August 19, 2004, from ShowMeNews: http://www.showmenews.com/2004/Aug/20040808Comm007.asp United States National Endowment for the Arts. (2004, June). Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literaty Reading in America [Research Division Report #46]. Retrieved September 22, 2004, from National Endowment for the Arts: http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.html Vegh, S. (2003). Classifying Forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests agains the World Bank. In M. McCaughey & M. D. Ayers (Eds.), Cyperactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice (pp. 73-77). New York, NY: Routledge. Wood, P. (2004, July 19). Literature at Risk. National Review Online. Retrieved September 20, 2004, from http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/wood200407190842.asp

History of chocolate Essay

-Chocolate is one of the oldest treats enjoyed by many people. I have loved chocolate ever since I was a little girl. I have enjoyed the different tastes, textures, and styles of it. I want to share with you the history of chocolate, types of chocolate, and some benefits from eating chocolate. Chocolate’s history started over 2,000 years ago. It began in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America from the seed of the cacao tree. This small tree grows best in the tropical atmosphere because it receives the best amount of rain, shade, humidity, wind, and nutrients. A. According to Susan J. Terrio, the author of Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate, the first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink. This was the very first way that chocolate was consumed Chocolate played a special role in both Mayan and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cocoa beans as offerings to the gods and served cocoa drinks during sacred ceremonies. All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cocoa beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a â€Å"tribute†. [2] The Europeans sweetened and lightened the drink by adding refined sugar and milk, ingredients the people in Mesoamerica did not use. By contrast, Europeans never integrated it into their general diet, but compartmentalized its use for sweets and desserts. In the 19th century, Briton John Cadbury developed an emulsification process to make solid chocolate, creating the modern chocolate bar. For hundreds of years, the chocolate making process remained unchanged. When the Industrial Revolution arrived, many changes occurred that brought the hard, sweet candy to life. In the 18th century, mechanical mills were created that squeezed out cocoa butter, which in turn helped to create hard, durable chocolate. [3] But it was not until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution that these mills were put to bigger use. Not long after the revolution cooled down, companies began advertising this new invention to sell many of the chocolate treats seen today. [4] When new machines were produced, people began experiencing and consuming chocolate worldwide.

Information system capability and firm performance: contradictory findings and their possible causes Essay

Athal 1.0 Executive summary In broad spectrum, Athal is a service offering company that was established in 1980. Essentially, it offers inspection, testing, consulting as well quality control services. The company offers services to different companies in different industries through its 15 branches in Australia. The company used to offer these services in the past using manual quality assurance system but due to competition and emergence of new technologies in the industry, the company found it necessary to implement a new automated quality assurance system by integrating it with information systems. This would enable it to offer quality services that meet national and international standards in addition to ensuring that its clients operates within local and international standards (Ahuja &Khamba,2008, p. 720). The implementation of the new quality assurance system was faced with challenges from financial constraints to employees’ resistance. The company’s 110 employees were issued with questionnaires and five management staffs from the five departments were interviewed revealing the following: The employees were resistant on the new implementation was because of fear of losing their jobs and their relevance when the new quality assurance system would be adapted in the company. Hence, the implementation process heavily relied on the employees in the company. The company sensitization and trainings employees on the new quality assurance system saw the implementation process become smooth (Berry & Parasuraman, 2004, p.102) The company also faced challenge on the cost of the new quality assurance system in terms of infrastructures such as software, computers, and training employees and technical staff on running and marinating the process. However, the implementation of the new quality assurance system improved the services offered and increased its competitive advantage in the market. Through analysis, it was realise d that, the company use of new quality assurance system has limited clients’ bargaining power thus retraining and attracting more companies and businesses from unique quality services offered. The new quality assurance system cause increase in initial capital and profits margins for new companies that would like to venture to the industry and as a result few companies would invest in the industry. According to Ford & D’Amelio (2008), high initial cost of capital serves as a barrier for new entrants in the industry making the market less competitive. The new automated quality assurance system was found to be fast and giving effective services that attracted various client companies, which helped Athal Company to retain and attract new employees in the company thus helping it to regain its competitive position in the market (Chen, 2008, p. 53). Moreover, the ability of quality assurance that is integrated to information system to be monitored by different people results in services that are accurate and free from errors thus giving consumers’ confidence. The process is also cost effective in long term due to reduced time and human capital that can be utilized i n other constructive duties that would improve the productivity of the company. The system was recommended for both internal quality control for the company and external quality control for Athal company clients and other services offered. 2.0 Introduction Athal is a company was established in 1980 in Australia. Its main work is provision of services that vary from inspection, testing, consulting and quality control. They offer these services to different organizations (clients) to ensure that they offer quality services and that they are able to operate within local and international standards. The company offers these services in more than 15 branches in Australia. For the company to be efficient, it has linked all the 15 offices through information systems integrated quality assurance system. The company also manages to offer these services by employing 110 workers that are of various professional backgrounds.The workers are delegated duties based on five different departments that include public relations, finance department, technical, marketing and quality control. The finance department ensures that all the financial services are met for the company and that of the clients looking for consultancy services in the organization. 2.1 Research aim and objectives The overall aim of the study was to investigate the new quality assurance system that was implemented by Athal Company could be upgraded unlike the manual quality assurance system through update of information system software. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of transformation from using quality assurance on manual system to automated system; to find out the difficulty of implementing quality assurance (QA) manually; the effects of transformation from using quality assurance on manual system to automated system; the company need to implement the quality assurance system internally as well externally for their daily business work; the effect of automated system compared to the manual system; important of implementing quality system for both the external and internal environment. 2.2 Research questions ïÆ'Ëœ What is the difficulty of implementing quality assurance (QA) manually? ïÆ'Ëœ What is the difficulty of implementing quality assurance (QA) manually? ïÆ'Ëœ What are the effects of transformation from using quality assurance on manual system to automated system? ïÆ'Ëœ Why the company need to implement the quality assurance system internally as well externally for their daily business work? ïÆ'Ëœ What are the effects of automated system compared to the manual system? ïÆ'Ëœ What is important of implementing quality system for both the external and internal environment? 3.0 Literature review With the development and the industrialization of the world, quality assurance system has become inevitable to business industries (Lanz, 2013, p. 6). Many businesses industries adapt technologies to increase efficiency and quality of services they offer. The quality services and efficiency serves as a strategy to compete in the market. Information system is one of the technologies that have been adapted by many companies and bushiness to improve on their performance (Ho-Chang, Chang, & Prybutok, 2014, p. 316). The information systems have been used in various areas of specialization for company such as records department, financial, marketing and quality control. The technologies are linked to the business strategies such that they fit the competitive strategies making the company to fit in a dynamic market and environment (Wang et al, 2012, p. 346). The information systems help to integrate business entities making it more manageable and efficient in delivery of its services ( Drne vich, & Croson, 2013, p. 488-489). Hence, the quality system that would incorporate information system will enhance the integration of the five departments and the external environment making the company more manageable and improve service delivery. Consequently, the business would be able to compete and improve its performance. The implementation of the new quality assurance system in Athal Company involved an organization change. Hence the company needed to prepare the employees for a new change because people tend to resist to changes and particularly to those that tend to affect their freedom (Ford, Ford, & D’Amelio, 2008, p. 370). The managers have the responsibility to initiate new changes and influence employees to develop positive attitude on the technologies for smooth adoption of new quality assurance system (Lilly, & Durr, 2012, p. 199). To avoid resistance managers and executive must provide employees with trainings and other support skills that will help them to adapt to new technologies (KumpikaitÄâ€" ,& ÄÅ'iarnienÄâ€", 2008, p. 93-94.). The case study involved the transformation of Athal Company from the manual quality systems to new automated quality systems that would be implemented using information systems. To implement the new quality assurance system using information system, the company needed to purchase new computers, information systems software to link various departments and branches (Porter, 2008, p.359). For testing, inspecting, and quality control consultant companies, it takes a lot of time o collect data manually for various tests and inspections. This results in decreased performance from reduced numbers of clients that can be served in a given day. In order to increase speed, efficiency, accuracy, and simplify data collection, analysis and collation, information system is important as part of quality assurance. Information system helps to automate the quality assurance system. In automation process, a microprocessor can be adapted for data collection, analysis, and collation for small companies like Athal. The process is cost effective and is able to handle varied number of data sets. However, a real-time microcomputer is more relevant and reliable for the company since it handle a varied number of companies and collects a wide range of tests and inspection data. In addition, statistical quality assurance would ensure that a continuous improvement is carried out on the whole process. Larger companies with large numbers of employees may require a complex information system for quality assurance such as agile system that would be able to handle complex testing and inspection processes and delivering high quality results. However, the system is expensive, require highly trained manpower and thus unsuitable for small companies such as Athal. The microprocessor and real-time microcomputer are suitable for Athal Company due to its small size that is evidenced by few employees and services turnover. The program required skilled labour that was costly and extra training for the employees so that they could be able to adapt to the new quality assurance system freely. In addition, the new quality assurance system needed change of organization behaviour from a manual system to an automated system, which many of the employees were not conversant. Therefore, the company had to change the behaviour of employees from manual to automated systems, which risked objection and resistant. Hence, the management had to use their leadership skills and organization development to implement the new change successfully (Mullins, 2013 p. 8). The new quality assurance system meant that the employees freedom, poor performance and missing of duties would end. Consequently, their level of services would be monitored and thus giving quality services. The implementation process involved installation of inspection, testing, and quality control infrastructures that were linked using information system software and hardware that would be used to disseminate information. Quality assurance can be automated through integration with information systems such as microcomputer and microprocessors with simple software or complex software such as agile systems. Some of the examples of automated quality assurance that was a possible choice for Athal Company include lint, find bugs, check-styles, fx-Cop, and coverity (Sroufe & Curkovic, 2008, p. 357). These systems can be used for multiple projects and can even detect defects that technical team may not be skilled in the language of detection either through testing or inspection. These syst ems are programmed software and coded in reference to various local and international standards. These programs are installed in microprocessor, microcomputers or computers in order to enhance the quality assurance process. The processes become fast, accurate and less laborious (Sroufe, & Curkovic, 2008, p.519). . Programs such as lint are installed in order to help in detecting errors that may occur in the course of analysis test and inspection data that is collected from various client companies. The check style helps in writing the java code that is required during automation process. Due to a wide range of configurations of the tools, it can be configured to various standards thus becoming an important program in quality assurance companies as they deal with varied tests with different standards. This is done through coding different standards using various classes of checks such as JavaDoc, Coding, and whitespace (Wang et al, 2012, p. 330). The change to new quality assurance system for Athal Company meant that it would increase its market share due to improved quality of services that it would offer. Its clients would receive quality inspection and testing that would guarantee the quality control. The new information system would be able to monitor external companies that serve as its client at constant rates thus enhancing efficiency of Athal Company. Moreover, the automated system has low errors as compared to the manual system thus, the right services will be offered. This will guarantee the company efficient services that meet the national and international levels. The new changes to the automated quality assurance system will enable the management in the Athal Company to be able to define their objectives and delegate to specific employees, which could not be possible with the manual system. Defined objectives and delegation of duties in the company will mean that the tasks would be accomplished in time. Moreover, less time is wasted using the automated quality systems thus the employees become more productive in spite of quality services that they offer. The result is the overall productivity of the company and better services to their clients compared to when they were using the manual system. The company decision to implement the new quality assurance system was because of increased competition and the deteriorating performance on its inspection, testing, and quality control services. The few companies in the industry had improved their performance, they had started to command the market, and therefore, the company had to look for means by which it could be able to compete with the other companies. The adoption of the new automated quality assurance system was seen as the only way that the company would be able to compete successfully in the market and thus a decision was finally reached to implement the new system. However, the decision was subject to employees support as they would be the one s that would use the quality assurance system for the benefit of the company. The decision process involved all the employees in the company where opinions were included in the new projects. Due to fear of most of the employees on their relevance when the new quality assurance syst em would be implemented, training of existing and recruiting of new employees was included as part of the implementation of the new system. When all the employees were comfortable with the new quality assurance system and sensitized on the need to shift to the new quality assurance system, the management went ahead to implement the new automated quality system in the company. Since the employees are growth oriented, they were able to adapt to the new system. The finance department must ensure that financial services given to consulting clients are accurate and up-to-date. This will ensure that no overcharging or errors that may affect clients’ access to services from Athal Company. Therefore, internal quality assurance system will be important in the finance department vis-à  -vis other departments to ensure harmony and quality services. The public relation department ensures that interpersonal relationship for all the clients and workers is maintained at high level thereby improving the performance of the employees, retain, and attract more clients. This will result in productivity of the company due good customer relation and high quality services that the company offers. Technical department ensures all the other department and technical services management meet the goal and mission of the company to offer quality services (Chen, 2008, p. 242). The quality control department ensures that all the services that are offered by the company and its internal managements are in line with the international and local standards (Hoyle, 2009, p. 244). Athal company manual quality control system was tedious since employees had to carry out inspection and testing services physically resulting to delayed and poor services. In addition, physical method is prone to error from workers due to fatigue and this may affect the services delivered to the clients negatively. The qualities of services that companies give help them to retain and attract more customers, making it more competitive by commanding a wider share of the market (Berry, & Parasuraman, 2004 p. 134).Therefore, for the company to improve its services and improves its market share, a competitive and efficient quality control systems had to be put in place. Despite the high cost of implementation, the service would ensure that quality services are dispensed through efficient moni toring services and this. The company adopted and automated a quality control system developed through information system to link all the five departments and the employees. Consequently, the company linked all the 15 branches such that all the services offered meet the customers need. The interlinked company departments and branches would ensure that inspection and testing process were efficient. The information systems ensure that quality assurance system updated on regular intervals thus allowing continuous improvement of the process. The technical department monitored and maintained all the systems. The marketing department created awareness of the services offered by Athal Company and disseminated information about the quality and the quality assurance system that they employ to give the clients confidence and increase clients influx in the company. Consequently, public relation department would ensure that a good relationship among all the stakeholders of the company by disseminating relevant informatio n and keeping the customers updated throughout. The questions categorized for questionnaires and interviews. The employees’ questions related to the effectiveness of the new process, their attitude on the change, and the transformation to the new system. Moreover, it also focused on employees’ involvement in the new process, and how monitoring changed comparing the manual quality assurance system. Concerning this question, some employees said that the new quality assurance system was more effective while few of them did not distinguish between the performance of the manual quality assurance system and the new quality assurance system that is integrated with the information system, saying that they viewed both systems as the same. On the issue of cost and monitoring, most of them said that the new quality assurance system on quality assurance was more costly and offered close monitoring of employees and projects on the course thus maintain a high performance rate in the company. On the issue of the attitude of the emp loyees, some employees had a negative attitude on the new quality assurance system as they said that the new quality assurance system would limit their freedom and might result to losing their jobs. Those with positive attitude argued that the new automated system would make work easier and improve the performance of the company. Few were confused on the though seemed interested with the implementation of the new quality assurance system. The implementation process was expensive from the response of the majority of the participants while few did not care about the cost and they said that it was cheap for the company since it had enough resources to implement the new system. According to the participant in this case study that were working for Athal company for the time of the research, the transformation process was faced with resistant as some employees feared losing jobs due to inadequate skills. According to GE Inspection Technologies, new quality assurance system would result to working overtime because some machines would require monitoring and thus resisted the change and made the transformation process difficult for the management. A number of the employees said that transformation was smooth as they cited that the management was able to deal with employees and assured them that nothing would change on the management of employees and their jobs were safe (Ho-Chang et al., 2014, p. 35). They also indicated that the management assured them that the transformation to automate quality assurance system would include training of employees in order to adapt to the new quality assurance system. The employees argue that method would be applicable to both internal and external monitoring, as the company required the monitoring of the quality of other companies that it offered services. To them, this was the best means by which the company would improve its services to its clients (KumpikaitÄâ€" & ÄÅ'iarnienÄâ€", 2008, p.93). On the part of the management interview, it emphasized on the performance of the new quality assurance system, employees and clients response, and the cost of the implementation. The interview involved five management employees under the five departments. The management unanimously answered that the performance of the new quality assurance system showed improvement. They cited that the system could process large information fast, accurately, and effective as compared to the old system. The management argued that the employees had a mixed reaction on the implementation while the clients were happy and welcomed the new system, as they believed that it could improve their services ((Ho-Chang et al., 2014, p. 306). The implementation process was costly according to the management but they did it as a way of improving their qualities. The organization experienced problems and poor performance in the marketing department thus caused reduced customers in the company. Similarly, poor performance of public relations department resulted to conflicts and poor employees’ performance that affected the efficiency and productivity of the company in delivering its services. In every company or business, good employees’ relationship is important since it minimizes conflicts and improves their working conditions and as a result, employees become very productive, which is the aim of every business. Consequently, employees are able to offer quality services to their clients thus retaining more clients for Athal Company despite high prices that may be attributed by increased cost of automated quality assurance system. Similarly, the slow monitoring and poor services in the finance department caused company poor performances and financial mismanagements. All the problems happened to Athal Company despite it having a manual quality assurance system that was mandated monitoring and ensuring that the company was able to operate within the local and international business environment (KumpikaitÄâ€" & ÄÅ'iarnienÄâ€", 2008, p.93). The manual system required employees to record and enter data manually in addition to physical monitoring and auditing thus spending a lot time and resulting in slowed processes thus caused Athal Company to perform poorly. The problems reflected that the manual system was ineffective. Therefore, the company needed to change its method of quality assurance so that it could ensure that customers received quality services. Finance department also needed good management as it ensured that the company operated with the international and national standards. The approach would not only improve the company’s quality systems but also improve its productivity and its competitiveness due to high quality services and standards that it would uphold. The target market for Athal Company is organizations and businesses that are in need of consultancy, inspection and testing services. The companies or businesses may be diverse and offering various services in the market but for them to provide quality services to their customers, they strengthen their managements through Athal consultation services (Wigand, 2003, p. 33). Therefore, Athal Company needs to provide high quality services and set international standards to its clients. Hence, it was important for it to adapt new quality assurance system in quality assurance services that would allow it give quality inspection, testing, and quality control services. Thus, adapting an automated information system would ensure that it would be able to carry out internal and external quality control. Athal Company offered effective services in the industry, which has maintained its productivity in the market in spite of its manual system. The company has also high skilled employees although the achievement of the company’s goals has been achieved through extra management and monitoring. In addition, the company operates in an industry where competition is not very much stiff. However, the emergence of the new quality assurance system that few companies are adapting, competition is becoming a business issue that management has to deal with. Moreover, the companies marketing strategies and new quality assurance system adaptation has been poor until the recent past when the company adapted the new quality assurance system on quality assurance. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the implementation process of the new quality assurance system and how best is suited in the company’s strategies to improve its productivity and growth in the industry. 3.1 Advantage of Athal Company on implementation of the new quality assurance system The implementation of the new quality assurance system by Athal Company will accrue various advantages over the old manual system. The advantages will be in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, cost, involvement, and result oriented. The automated system will be advantageous in that inspection and tests will be run fast and effectively thus saving time that can be used to do other constructive duties in the company. Automated system will mean that the same type of the information will be fed to the system for various clients at a very short time and giving results instantly (Mak, &Peng, 2008, p. 366). One can only repeat similar information for the automated system. However, on the manual system one would be forced to record similar information for various entry and different clients thus taking a lot of time for a given task and giving out delayed results. This can be distractive to clients making them to shift their services to other companies that can offer fast and effective servi ces. Hence, the automated quality assurance system will not only give effective services at a very short time, but also retain the customer making the company more competitive in the market as opposed to the manual system (GE inspections, n.d p. 1). Although the automated system installation and training of employees on the new quality assurance system is costly in the short term, in long term, the system will be cheap as there will be saving of time and decreased human involvement thus saving the cost of labour for the company. The time saved could be used to do other constructive and productive services for the company, which would in turn give returns that subsidise the cost incurred by the company. Since the new quality assurance system utilises decreased human labour, the company can opt reducing its labour, which may as well reduce its cost of operation and thus increase its profits margin (GE inspections, n.d, p.18). However, the manual quality assurance system required a lot of time to fill out the forms and extra human labour to attend different labour thus the process becoming expensive in the long term and but cheap in the short term since there are is no cost of installation. Hence, the automated system is less expen sive in the long term and thus more advantageous to the company compared to the manual system. Another advantage is that the choice of quality assurance system depends on the financial and services offered by a company. Information system would allow integration of inspection and testing services making the process less involving and saving time for employees. The automated system is results oriented and the results can be assessed by different employees since they will be available from the system thus minimizing errors being transferred to clients. Moreover, different employees can monitor the results in their various destinations so that a perfect final product is achieved. Hence, the system forms the best collaborative monitoring system (Wang, 2012, p.325). This is in contrast to the manual where results are only processed by an individual subjecting them to errors that may be transferred to clients and may affect the customer relation with the company and affect its performance and provision of services. Therefore, Athal implementation of the new quality system through information system presents it with advantage on accurate and quality services for the customer thus maintain customer relations and maintaining its market performance at improved level. However, the new automated system will be a challenge to the company as the informa tion system tool is expensive on purchase and replacement in cases of breakdown. Moreover, the process of maintenance and training of employees can be very expensive for the company thus accruing unplanned cost, which may make its services more expensive thus making it less competitive in the market. Customers are attracted by low prices in the market. Although the automated system performs various tests for the information fed for the machine, the system has limitations and some of the tests such as images, and colour are only tested using manual system. Hence, the system cannot operate fully independently. Thus the cost of operation is increased by additional services for manual system. 3.2 Conceptual framework 4.0 Methodology 4.1 Research (Case study) philosophy The case study used questionnaires to obtain information from the employees about the manual quality system and the newly implemented quality systems in the company (Appendix 4). All the 110 employees were administered questionnaires to feel that contained both the questions about the old and the new information systems. In addition, interviews were conducted with five members from the top management team to understand the monitoring of the two systems (Wigand, 2003, p. 45) The questionnaires were preferred for the employees because they were a large group in the company and other methods would take a lot of time. Moreover, it was possible to administer all the questionnaires at the same time thus saving time and getting the required information. However, the tool is not appropriate for getting details if a good guidance is not accorded to participants. Respondents may answer questions shallowly and avoid some questions that may be sensitive to company operating policies. Interviews were preferred for the management team because they were few and it could be managed with a short time. Interview also helps in getting details about the implementation process. However, it is time consuming. The interview involved the seven questions attached in the appendix for the management. Athal Company was chosen in this case study since it was one of the companies that had implemented a new automated quality system using information system in the recent past. This meant that employees could be able to provide the required information as opposed to those that implemented it long time ago. In addition, there was high likely hood that most of the employees working in the company were present during the implementation process thus accurate information. Moreover, the implementation of the new quality assurance system was faced with many challenges from employees’ resistance to financial support. In addition, the company size was manageable for this study since it had few employees, few departments and only five departments. Hence, finding information from the company would be easier compared to large complicated company, as well this company at the time of the research study of this thesis it was the only company that allowed the researcher to do this case study on their company. The region of study was chosen to be Australia because the location has been advanced in automated quality assurance system and so there was high likelihood of finding a company that had implemented a quality system using information system as the study had targeted. The studies show that the Australia has a number of companies operating in quality assurance industry, which made the study more appropriate within the country (Sroufe, & Curkovic, 2008, p. 517). 4.2.1 Data Analysis Presentation and Interpretation of Findings The data was coded and analysed using the software package for social sciences {SPSS} and MS Excel package as well. The data was then scored by calculating the percentages and means. The information collected from the respondents was interpreted. Information was compiled once the questionnaires were completed and collected. The information was analysed and presented using statistical methods that is, pie charts and bar graphs.The data on the case study was obtained through questionnaires and interviews and 110 questionnaires were distributed to the different employees. The findings were as follows. From the 100 questionnaires that were complete, 90% discredited the manual system saying it was faulty as it offered minimum monitoring. As a matter of fact, 70% of the employees had a positive attitude about the manual system, as it was not effective when monitoring employees. 30% had negative attitude on the system as they felt the system caused personal conflicts between them and the people in charge of quality control. 100% of the participants agreed that the automated system was more effective compared to the manual system since all the employees had to log in to automated biometric system. In addition, 43% of the employees were resistant to the process and felt that the manual system would continue while 57% of the employees felt that transformation to the automated quality system was necessary. 95% of the employees felt that it was important to implement the quality system for both the external and internal environment of the business to ensure that the overall performance of the company was monitored. Inherently, 5% of the participants were not sure if the quality system was supposed to be installed both inter nally and externally. 4.2.2 The Distribution of position in company of Respondents According to table 4.4 and figure 4.4 Majority of the respondents were managers as shown by 25% of the respondents, 20% of them were line managers, 5% of them worked in the human resource department, 20% of the respondents indicated that they worked in the engineering department, another 10% of them came from the marketing department, 10% of them were finance managers while 10% of the respondents were managers from customer care department. Table 4.4 Position in company of Respondents Frequency Percentage IT Manager 5 25.0 Line manager 4 20.0 Human resource manager 1 5.0 Engineer 4 20.0 Marketing 2 10.0 Customer care dept. 2 10.0 Finance manager 2 10.0 Total 20 100.0 Figure 4.4 Positions in company of Respondents 4.2.3 To determine the application of quality assurance systems using Information Systems within the Athal In order for the study to achieve its main objective the first specific objective of the study was to determine the implementation application of quality assurance systems using Information Systems. In this regard the respondents were required to indicate the extent to which implement the application of quality assurance systems using Information Systems within the Athal). The respondents were also supposed to strongly negative, negative, positive or strongly positive on variables of quality assurance systems using Information Systems and their effect on manual system. 4.2.4 Extent effect of manual system From the study, 70% of the employees had a positive attitude about the manual system, as it was not effective when monitoring employees while 30% had negative attitude on the system as they felt the system caused personal conflicts between them and the people in charge of quality control largely as indicated by table 4.6 and figure 4.6 below. The findings indicate that manual system has a very great influence on monitoring employees. Table 4.6 positive attitude about the manual system Distribution Frequency Percentage Agree 90 70.0 Disagree 20 30.0 Total 110 100.0 Figure 4.6 positive attitude about the manual system 4.2.5 Effect of effect of manual system on employees monitoring According to table 4.7 and figure 4.7 below 90% discredited the manual system saying it was faulty as it offered minimum monitoring while 20% strongly agreed. From the study therefore it is clear that manual system offered minimum monitoring. Table 4.7 Effect of effect of manual system on employees monitoring Distribution Frequency Percentage Disagree 100 90.0 Agree 10 10.0 Total 110 100.0 Figure 4.7 effect of manual system on employees monitoring The effect of automated system compared to the manual system The findings on the effect of automated system compared to the manual system in table 4.8 and figure 4.8 below reveal that 70% of the employees had a positive attitude about the manual system, as it was not effective when monitoring employees while 30% had negative attitude on the system as they felt the system caused personal conflicts between them and the people in charge of quality control. Table 4.8 effect of automated system compared to the manual system Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Disagree 20 30.0 30.0 30.0 Agree 90 70.0 70.0 80.0 Total 110 110.0 100.0 Figure 4.8 effect of automated system compared to the manual system Effect of automated system compared to the manual system According to table 4.9 and figure 4.9 below 100% of the participants agreed that the automated system was more effective compared to the manual system since all the employees had to log in to automated biometric system.. From the study therefore it is clear that effective compared to the manual system. Table 4.9 effect of automated system compared to the manual system Frequency Percentage Agree 110 100.0 Total 110 100.0 Figure 4.9 effect of automated system compared to the manual system 4.2.6 The difficulty of implementing quality assurance (QA) manually According to table 4.10 and figure 4.10 below 43% of the employees were resistant to the process and felt that the manual system would continue while 57% of the employees felt that transformation to the automated quality system was necessary. From the study therefore it is clear that employees felt that transformation to the automated quality system was necessary. Table 4.10 difficulty of implementing quality assurance (QA) manually Total no Percentage Disagree 40 36.0 Agree 70 64.0 Total 110 100.0 Figure 4.10 difficulty of implementing quality assurance (QA) manually 4.2.7 Important of implementing quality system for both the external and internal environment The findings according to table 4.11 and figure 4.11 below indicate that 95% of the employees felt that it was important to implement the quality system for both the external and internal environment of the business to ensure that the overall performance of the company was monitored. 5% of the participants were not sure if the quality system was supposed to be installed both internally and externally. From the study therefore it is clear that quality system was supposed to be installed both internally and externally. Table 4.11 important of implementing quality system for both the external and internal environment Frequency Percentage Disagree 10 5.0 Agree 100 95.0 Total 110 100.0 Figure 4.11 Important of implementing quality system for both the external and internal environment 5.0 Research (Case study) findings and conclusion From the data obtained and the results from the questionnaire, the company wanted to implement new quality assurance system as a sign of its improvement from the manual to the automated system. The automated system would allow the company to improve its services and the ability to upgrade and update the systems software will give the company ability to adapt to continued improvement of its services. Therefore, the new quality assurance system will be advantageous to the manual quality system that limited continued improvement throughout the operations. The case study can be analyzed using various porters’ five forces to determine its applicability of the new quality assurance system in Athal Company and the external business environment. The porters’ five forces help to analyze the business in terms of competition, threat of new entry, power of clients seeking inspection, suppliers of quality assurance software and other employees qualified to work on the new quality assurance system, and substitute’s services offered by other companies using manual system. Consulting industry in Australia is very competitive and thus companies in the industry must devise strategies that will make them more competitive and make them the leading companies in the market. Therefore, for Athal Company to remain relevant in the market, it must adopt the best technologies that will enable it to provide the best quality assurance services in the industry. In the industry, company adapt to manual systems due to their low operation cost (Ahuja, & Khamba, 2008, p. 745). Hence, Athal company shift to new quality assurance system gives it competitive advantages over the other companies in the industry. According to the research carried out on the company, 90% of the employees credited the automated system saying that it was effective compared to the manual system. Thus, the system would be able to deliver quality effective services to its target market. Quality services help a company to retain its customers and place it in a more competitive position in the market as customer or buyers tend to be attracted by quality and not the prices (Porter, 2008 p. 33). Therefore, the company’s choice on the automated system would be advantageous in the market despite the cost that is associated with it. The implementation of the new automated quality assurance system led to the improvement of the company’s performance and increase in customers seeking services from the company and thus improved incomes as shown in figure 1 below (Appendix 1). According to the interview carried out on the company’s income performance, the income is expected to rise to $ 900 million with the new automated system. The industry suffers from the presence of companies that are still using manual systems as a means of quality assurance system. The manual system forms the substitute services offered in the industry. These companies charge their inspection services at lower prices that threaten Athal automated services. Hence, Athal Company must offer good services beyond their clients’ expectations so that they will be able to shift from the manual to the automated. The company also needs to put in place marketing strategies that will advertise the new quality assurance system emphasizing on the quality of services that it will offer as opposed to their previous method of quality assurance. Moreover, the company needs to offer quality services that will meet the needs of the clients. Hence, the company needs to improve its management and staff training so that it will be able to cope up with the substitute services from the company. Quality assurance ensures that quality services that meet t he need of the consumers and international standards are offered (Wigand, 2003, p. 115). For this reason, employees are required to be trained in accordance with the quality assurance system in order to deliver the required services. For smooth learning of quality assurance in the Athal Company, the management should be conversant with the complete quality assurance system. Therefore, individuals, organizations, and groups are part of quality assurance system. In every market, companies maintain the large share of the market through limiting the bargaining power of the consumers. Initially, the company was offering manual services that were offered by other companies in the market. This gave consumers more bargaining power as they had a wide choice of obtaining services from various companies. However, the shift of Athal company from manual system to the new system that was adapted by few companies make consumers to have limited choices of seeking services from the automated companies. The presence of few companies with the automated quality control system makes it possible for Athal Company to limit the bargaining power of consumers. When the bargaining power of consumers in the market is limited, they will tend to buy or obtain services from a single business (Chen, 2008, p. 241). Therefore, Athal Company will limit the customers and thus they will tend to seek the new services from the company thus improving its productivity and making it more competitive in the market. Athal Company shifting to the new system meant that it would also shift its suppliers from those that provided the manual facilities to those that would suppliers it with facilities and infrastructures for the new system . Since many companies in the industry have not adapted the new quality assurance system, it means that the suppliers are few in the industry. Few suppliers mean that the suppliers provide their services with strict conditions and high prices due to lack of competition. Moreover, the suppliers have high bargaining power in the market. This led to high installation cost for the automated quality system and the maintenance cost. The high prices offered by suppliers in the market reduce the profits margins for the companies operating in the industry (Chen, 2008, p. 241). Therefore, the new quality assurance system was costly to the company and the consecutive maintenance costs remain high thus reducing the profits margin for the company. Hence, limited suppliers in the industry threaten Athal Company adaptation to the new quality assurance system for quality system. The decreased number of suppliers and the reduced profits margin in the industry discourage new entrants in the industry. The decreased new entrants in the industry result in decreased competition in the market and threats for the existing companies. Therefore, Athal Company is free from threats of new entry due to high cost of adapting new quality assurance system. The reduced competition creates favourable environment for the existing company to operate and improve their services in order to achieve their desired profit margin and growth in the market. According to the management, the initial cost of the new automated quality assurance system 40% more than the previous manual system. Hence, few companies in the industry can adapt it and especially those that are profit oriented making the industry less competitive. However, it requires low maintenance cost that can be compensated by the anticipated increase in clients’ influx due to high quality services and additional benef its of continuous quality assurance that will be offered by the quality assurance system implemented externally. According to Berry & Parasuraman, (2004), customers are attracted by quality services than low prices of the offered services. Thus, market share for Athal Company will tend to increase despite the increase in price of their services. The purpose of this research was to investigate the implementing application of quality assurance systems using Information Systems with a special focus on Athal Limited. Having identified the problem of study reviewed existing literature and shown gaps of knowledge in and explained the methods that the study used to collect data. This section presents analysis and findings of the study as set out in the research methodology. The results are presented on the implementing application of quality assurance systems using Information Systems and Athal Limited in particular. The data was gathered exclusively from questionnaire as the research instrument. The questionnaire was designed in line with the objectives of the study. 6.0 SUMMARY This study was descriptive in nature meaning it employed a descriptive survey design and was carried out at Athal Company. Stratified random sampling was used to ensure equitable distribution of managers and employees in the departments within the organization, from which 110 were selected for the study and all of them filled the questionnaires The data that was obtained from the management was as follows. According to the management, the automated quality system was more effective and efficient in monitoring and delivery of information across the company departments and branches. Moreover, the system was fast as compared to the manual systems. The management agreed that the automated quality system improved the performance of the employees and that of the company thus increasing attracting more customers. According to the company, quality assurance has ensured that all the testing and inspection services meet the requirements of the clients and international standards. In addition, the quality assurance has been ensuring that there is continuous collection of data that can be used in assessing the quality of services. The data collected compared to international standards allow the Athal Company to carry out improvements of the system in order to improve the services they offer. To facilitate this, an action plan that is d eveloped through policies monitoring and evaluation process allow the management and the technical team to carry out continuous improvement of the quality assurance. According to the management of Athal Company, customers had increased from 300 to 550 per month when the new quality assurance system was implemented as shown in figure 3 below (appendix 3). Similarly, it is expected that the income would increase from $ 450 to $ 900 million by the end of the first year the figure 2 below in appendix 3 analysis the change. The management said that the employees had mixed reactions on the new quality systems, with almost half number of the employees arguing against it. However, concerted trainings and sensitizations led to smooth implementation of the new systems. From the questionnaires, it was found that managers appreciated the new systems and saw it a good system for medium companies. The implementation process was expensive and the maintenance cost is high. The installation and maintenance cost is 60% more for the new quality assurance system than the manual system as shown in the figure below. 7.0 Conclusion The objectives of this case study were achieved in that the new quality assurance system that was implemented by Athal Company could be upgraded unlike the manual quality assurance system through update of information system software. The process of full implementation, handling, monitoring, operating the system for the Athal Company involved the employees and organization management. Therefore, the process of quality assurance is effective when coupled to individuals, groups and organisations. According to the management, the type of the information system adapted to be used by quality assurance system depend on the size of the organization, services offered, financial ability and availability of resources. Athal Company being a medium company chose the relevant information system that meets their size of the company, financial ability and ability for continuous improvement. The process of quality assurance automation involves installation of testing, inspection and quality control equipment’s that are interlinked with information system software and hand wares such as computers to record information and deliver results. Athal Company followed the protocol and successfully implemented a new quality assurance system using information system. 8.0 Recommendations The following recommendations would be most appropriate for the company and other that would take the initiative to implement the automated quality assurance system in their premises. The company should prepare its employees in advance through hiring the right employees who have the skills to prevent unnecessary cost from extra trainings. If there has to be a training, only few employees should be trained and not the entire workforce. This would prevent resistant to new quality assurance system and save the company unplanned costs. The company should asses the availability of suppliers of automated quality assurance system that is planning to adopt to prevent exploitation by suppliers as evidenced in this case study. Few suppliers in the market resulted to increased cost, which in turn led to reduced profits from high cost of initial installations. 9.0 Suggestion for Further Research The study was carried out on Athal organization only; therefore a similar study could be carried out in other firms to ascertain whether similar results are obtainable. References Ahuja, I. P. S., &Khamba, J. S. (2008). Total productive maintenance: literature review and directions. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 25(7), 709-756. Berry, L. L., &Parasuraman, A. (2004). 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