• Title/Summary/Keyword: care-giving

Search Result 278, Processing Time 0.023 seconds

PROPERTIES OF FLUORIDE-RELEASING RESIN COMPOSITE RESTORATIVE MATERIALS (불소방출성 콤포짓트 레진계 수복재의 특성)

  • Kim, Sang-Hoon;Baik, Byeong-Ju;Kim, Jae-Gon;Yang, Yeon-Mi;Park, Jeong-Yeol
    • Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
    • /
    • v.35 no.3
    • /
    • pp.418-426
    • /
    • 2008
  • The objectives of this study were to examine the properties of fluoride-releasing resin composite restorative materials. Four commercially available compomer materials (Compoglass F: CF, $Dyract^{(R)}$ AP: DA, $Dyract^{(R)}$ flow: DF, F2000: FT) and one fluoride-releasing composite resin ($Tetric^{(R)}$ Ceram: TC) were selected as experimental materials. Rectangular-shaped tensile test specimens were fabricated in a teflon mold giving 5mm in gauge length and 2mm in thickness. Disk-shaped specimens were fabricated in the split teflon mold with diameter of 15mm and thickness of 1mm. After curing for an hour, specimens were immersed in deionized water at $37^{\circ}C{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ for 30 days. All specimens were thermocycled for 10,000 cycles with 15 seconds of dwelling time in each $5^{\circ}C$ and $55^{\circ}C$ water baths. Toothbrush abrasion test was conducted under a load of 1.5 N and the abraded surfaces were examined with surface roughness tester (SV-3000, Mitutoyo Co, Japan) and SEM (JSM-5800, JEOL, Japan). Fluoride recharging was done by toothbrushing for 3 min. using a fluoride toothpaste (Perio Alpine Herb, LG Household & Health Care, Korea). The results obtained were summarized as follows; 1. The highest tensile strength value of 32.3 MPa was observed in TC group and the lowest value of 16.8 MPa was observed in CF group. The tensile strength of TC group was significantly higher than those of CF and DF groups (P<0.05). 2. The lowest Ra value of 0.287 was observed in TC group and the highest value of 1.516 was observed in FT group. The Ra value of FT group was significantly higher than other groups (P<0.05). 3. The abraded surfaces revealed the increase of surface roughness due to the protrusion and missing of filler particles. 4. The release of fluoride of compomers after tooth brushing by Perio Alpine Herb was initially large and then followed by small and continuously. But it remains small and constant in fluoride-releasing composite resin of TC. 5. The highest value of fluoride release after toothbrushing by Perio Alpine Herb was $2.064{\mu}g/cm^2$ in CF group and the lowest value was $0.1119{\mu}g/cm^2$ in TC group. The amount of fluoride release of CF group was significantly higher than other groups (P<0.05).

  • PDF

"Healthy Japan 21" - A new Perspective on Health Promotion Policy for Japan in the 21st century - (건강한 일본 21 - 21세기 일본의 건강 증진 정책에 대한 새로운 전망 -)

  • Hasegawa, Toshihiko
    • Proceedings of The Korean Society of Health Promotion Conference
    • /
    • 2004.10a
    • /
    • pp.59-88
    • /
    • 2004
  • ' Healthy Japan 21 ' is a new health policy that has been proposed for the 21st century: it embodies a totally new concept for its viewpoints and methods. To start with, for its goal, the focus is placed on the ' quality of life ' or a life that is tree of diseases, rather than mere prolongation of life. For its doctrine, the emphasis has shifted dramatically from improving the health of the entire population (the traditional approach for health improvement) to ' achieving an ideal health status for each individual. The ultimate aged society that arrives first in Japan is a society in its ultimate form for human being. Why did Japan become westernized, giving up her traditional culture? Why did she go through industrialization, sacrificing her nature? And why does she try so hard to industrialize the developing countries? These efforts are all preparation for the arrival of a ultimate aged society. During the 20th century, we believed in unlimited possibilities and expanded our social frontier. 1n the 21st century, on the other hand, a super-aged society (the ultimate society), a glimpse of which we have witnessed from time to time, will descend on us sooner or later. It is expected to arrive first in Japan. ' Healthy Japan 21 ' is intended to prepare for the arrival of the hitherto unheard of super-aged society by building the physiological basis of people. This policy is social experimentation on an immense social scale, in which questions are posed on the understanding of health, the relationship between individuals and society, the relationship between administration and citizens, the manner by which central and local governments operate, and the new relationship between prevention and therapy. ' Healthy Japan 21 ' may be summarized as an experiment on a huge scale directed to the ultimate form of human society, in which Japan and each of her citizens playa role and set an example for the rest of the world. Even just by considering various approaches newly suggested for this venture, one may be convinced that it is a policy with features suitable for a country that has already achieved the world's highest longevity.

  • PDF

Study the impact on job satisfaction in the care facility of the empowerment of the members of the organization (요양시설의 조직구성원의 임파워먼트가 직무만족에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Chang-Tae;Gwak, Gyeong-Ja
    • Management & Information Systems Review
    • /
    • v.31 no.4
    • /
    • pp.57-82
    • /
    • 2012
  • The purpose of the study is to suggest the measure for the improvement of job satisfaction and level of empowerment of sanatoriums' social workers by analyzing factors of empowerments' effect on the job satisfaction, and investigating level of empowerment and job satisfaction of social workers of sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped. The result of investigation and analysis on subjects of 420 social workers of sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped in Youngnam area for this is as follows: First, job characteristic that is empowerments' influence factor of sanatoriums' social workers is appeared in order of feedback, and function variety, and in organization characteristic is appeared in order of leadership, reward, and employee development. Second, level of empowerment that is recognized by sanatoriums' social workers is appeared a little higher than normal level and significance is appeared highest, and next are capability, self-determination ability, and influence. Third, features that showed significant difference with significance in general characteristic of sanatoriums' social workers were 'sex', 'marital status', and 'religion', and features that showed significant difference with capability were sex, age, marital status, academic background, and employment history. And features that showed significant difference with self-determination ability were sex, age, marital status, and employment history, and features that showed significant difference with influence were sex, age, employment history and types of facilities. Fourth, the whole average of job satisfaction of sanatoriums' social workers was 3.82 out of 5, which is generally high, features that showed significant difference statistically were age, marital status, academic background, employment history, and types of facilities. Thus, job satisfaction was appeared as high as 'more than age of thirty' in age, 'married' in marital status, 'under graduates of colleges' in academic background, and 'less than three years' in employment history. Fifth, as for factors that had influence on job satisfaction, the indirect effect with empowerment was appeared that had significant effect in organization characteristic, and had few effect in organization features. On these results, practical measures to increase job satisfaction of sanatoriums' social workers are as follows: First, political approach is required to standardize duty system(by various types of facilities and clients' characteristic) of social workers of sanatoriums for elderly and the handicapped, and help to do the role as professionals with giving better treatment and building self-respect by enough reward. Second, to suggest chances to perform the responsibility for the duty of the scenes by the regular supervision, establish regular supervision system of social workers of sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped, and the extension of duty to increase the functional varieties. Third, it is required to motivate to have self confidence for the work and to use potential ability with transforming leadership, and to have more chances of education for the self-development. To increase job satisfaction of sanatoriums' social workers who give direct services in sanatoriums for the elderly and the handicapped, more active and positive empowerment's level improvement is in need by improvement of empowerment for them.

  • PDF

A Inquiry of the Perception of Death in School Age (학령기 아동의 죽음인식에 관한 탐색적 연구)

  • Joun, Young-Ran
    • Korean Journal of Hospice Care
    • /
    • v.8 no.1
    • /
    • pp.13-28
    • /
    • 2008
  • Purpose: This paper aims to examine the subjective structures and types of school age children's perception of death through an investigative study on their perception of death in order to provide a basic material for them to understand death, and develop and carry out an effective death education program. Methods: The study method used the Q Methodology which can investigate the subjective structures and types of school age children's perception of death. For Q-population, 20 school age children were used as subjects for neutral interviews and open surveys, and through documentary research, a total of 132 statements were collected, For Q-samples, 23 statements (Q-samples) were derived through a non-structural method. P-samples were 31 school age children (8-13 year olds), Q-sorting was carried out using Q-cards, and the collected data was analyzed using the PC QUANL program. Results: As a result of the study, children's perception of death was divided into five types. The first type was functional type, characterized by prominent subjective perception regarding the elements of death, such as non-reversibility, universality, non-functionality, and causality. The second was after-life type, characterized by a strong, focus on life after death in one's perception of death, and it included children with Christian background and those who had experienced death in their immediate family. The third was religious type, characterized by a strong belief in being able to still watch over one's family and friends after one's death, resulting in a positive faith in the after-life. The fourth was fearful type, characterized by a deeper fear of death in comparison to other types. The fifth was realistic type, characterized by a strong and positive assent to the perception of good death. Conclusion: The significance of the results of this paper's study to Nursing is as follows. In terms of understanding the subjectivity of school age children's perception of death in nursing practice, and understanding the compositional elements of death presented with strong emphasis in existing literature and studies, the results will expand these understandings and allow us to understand the level of perception in school age children regarding the definition of death, after-life, and good death, be utilized as useful material in developing an effective death education program for them according to their type characteristics, and become the fertilizer for enabling the children to live a proper life and preventing the tendency to make light of death that occur in adolescence and the spread of suicides. In terms of nursing theory, the description and examination of the subjective structures and the characteristics of the different, types of school age children's perception of death can be utilized as useful material for building a model of school age children's perception of death, and be further used for teaching respect for life. In terms of nursing research, the results can contribute to research describing the effects of nursing intervention strategies and developing tools for providing psychosocial nursing in terms of giving school age children a positive perception of death according to their types as well respect for life.

  • PDF

An Exercise Rehabilitation Field Revitalization Plan for Promoting Elderly Sport for All (노인생활체육 진흥을 위한 운동재활분야 활성화 방안)

  • Cho, Kyoung-Hwan
    • Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
    • /
    • v.14 no.4
    • /
    • pp.305-319
    • /
    • 2020
  • A The purpose of this study was to determine the present state of the exercise rehabilitation field, promote elderly sport for all, and present a revitalization program for higher quality of life for the elderly in the coming era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and aged society. Literature review was performed to analyze the actual conditions of the activities for elderly sport for all and the relevant field of exercise rehabilitation, analyze the elderly health and welfare and elderly sport for all programs, and present a plan for revitalizing the field of exercise rehabilitation to promote elderly sport for all. First, it is necessary to reinforce the awareness and promotion of the need and importance of exercise rehabilitation in inducing seniors to participate in sport for all. Second, it is necessary to make it compulsory to place sport leaders for seniors at such places as elderly leisure and welfare centers and promote expertise in managing elderly health guidance efficiently through cooperation with welfare workers. Third, it is necessary to make it compulsory to take exercise rehabilitation and similar subjects in the curriculums of sport for all, elderly sport welfare, and silver welfare sport as well as the subject of volunteering activities at such places as elderly leisure and welfare centers with the aim of giving opportunities for career choice. Fourth, it is necessary to develop characterized exercise rehabilitation programs at senior welfare centers, community centers for the elderly, and elderly classes and employ experts equipped with exercise event and exercise rehabilitation capabilities as itinerant lecturers to contribute to the government's job creation policies through cooperation between the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MOCST) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW). Fifth, it is necessary to make a greater investment in research and development required for elderly sport for all. Sixth, it is necessary to develop and distribute various exercise rehabilitation treatment videos and guidelines that seniors can use for themselves. This is associated with the fifth one; in particular, it is urgent to devise measures against Coronavirus 19. Seventh, it is necessary to reduce inefficiency and budget waste caused by overlapped tasks by establishing a new elderly sports promotion organization through adjustment by MOCST and MOHW; it is also necessary to increase the functions of organization establishment with the aim of reinforcing the education area, which involves post-retirement health care, exercise rehabilitation, safety accident prevention, and virus.

A Study on Hoslital Nurses' Preferred Duty Shift and Duty Hours (병원 간호사의 선호근무시간대에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Gyeong-Sik;Jeong, Geum-Hui
    • The Korean Nurse
    • /
    • v.36 no.1
    • /
    • pp.77-96
    • /
    • 1997
  • The duty shifts of hospital nurses not only affect nurses' physical and mental health but also present various personnel management problems which often result in high turnover rates. In this context a study was carried out from October to November 1995 for a period of two months to find out the status of hospital nurses' duty shift patterns, and preferred duty hours and fixed duty shifts. The study population was 867 RNs working in five general hospitals located in Seoul and its vicinity. The questionnaire developed by the writer was used for data collection. The response rate was 85.9 percent or 745 returns. The SAS program was used for data analysis with the computation of frequencies, percentages and Chi square test. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. General characteristics of the study population: 56 percent of respondents was (25 years group and 76.5 percent were "single": the predominant proportion of respondents was junior nursing college graduates(92.2%) and have less than 5 years nursing experience in hospitals(65.5%). For their future working plan in nursing profession, nearly 50% responded as uncertain The reasons given for their career plan was predominantly 'personal growth and development' rather than financial reasons. 2. The interval for rotations of duty stations was found to be mostly irregular(56.4%) while others reported as weekly(16.1%), monthly(12.9%), and fixed terms(4.6%). 3. The main problems related to duty shifts particularly the evening and night duty nurses reported were "not enough time for the family, " "afraid of security problems after the work when returning home late at night." and "lack of leisure time". "problems in physical and physiological adjustment." "problems in family life." "lack of time for interactions with fellow nurses" etc. 4. The forty percent of respondents reported to have '1-2 times' of duty shift rotations while all others reported that '0 time'. '2-3 times'. 'more than 3 times' etc. which suggest the irregularity in duty shift rotations. 5. The majority(62.8%) of study population found to favor the rotating system of duty stations. The reasons for favoring the rotation system were: the opportunity for "learning new things and personal development." "better human relations are possible. "better understanding in various duty stations." "changes in monotonous routine job" etc. The proportion of those disfavor the rotating 'system was 34.7 percent. giving the reasons of"it impedes development of specialization." "poor job performances." "stress factors" etc. Furthermore. respondents made the following comments in relation to the rotation of duty stations: the nurses should be given the opportunity to participate in the. decision making process: personal interest and aptitudes should be considered: regular intervals for the rotations or it should be planned in advance. etc. 6. For the future career plan. the older. married group with longer nursing experiences appeared to think the nursing as their lifetime career more likely than the younger. single group with shorter nursing experiences ($x^2=61.19.{\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=41.55.{\;}p=.000$). The reason given for their future career plan regardless of length of future service, was predominantly "personal growth and development" rather than financial reasons. For further analysis, the group those with the shorter career plan appeared to claim "financial reasons" for their future career more readily than the group who consider the nursing job as their lifetime career$(x^2$= 11.73, p=.003) did. This finding suggests the need for careful .considerations in personnel management of nursing administration particularly when dealing with the nurses' career development. The majority of respondents preferred the fixed day shift. However, further analysis of those preferred evening shift by age and civil status, "< 25 years group"(15.1%) and "single group"(13.2) were more likely to favor the fixed evening shift than > 25 years(6.4%) and married(4.8%)groups. This differences were statistically significant ($x^2=14.54, {\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=8.75, {\;}p=.003$). 7. A great majority of respondents(86.9% or n=647) found to prefer the day shifts. When the four different types of duty shifts(Types A. B. C, D) were presented, 55.0 percent of total respondents preferred the A type or the existing one followed by D type(22.7%). B type(12.4%) and C type(8.2%). 8. When the condition of monetary incentives for the evening(20% of salary) and night shifts(40% of. salary) of the existing duty type was presented. again the day shift appeared to be the most preferred one although the rate was slightly lower(66.4% against 86.9%). In the case of evening shift, with the same incentive, the preference rates for evening and night shifts increased from 11.0 to 22.4 percent and from 0.5 to 3.0 percent respectively. When the age variable was controlled. < 25 yrs group showed higher rates(31.6%. 4.8%) than those of > 25 yrs group(15.5%. 1.3%) respectively preferring the evening and night shifts(p=.000). The civil status also seemed to operate on the preferences of the duty shifts as the single group showed lower rate(69.0%) for day duty against 83. 6% of the married group. and higher rates for evening and night duties(27.2%. 15.1%) respectively against those of the married group(3.8%. 1.8%) while a higher proportion of the married group(83. 6%) preferred the day duties than the single group(69.0%). These differences were found to be statistically all significant(p=.001). 9. The findings on preferences of three different types of fixed duty hours namely, B, C. and D(with additional monetary incentives) are as follows in order of preference: B type(12hrs a day, 3days a wk): day shift(64.1%), evening shift(26.1%). night shift(6.5%) C type(12hrs a day. 4days a wk) : evening shift(49.2%). day shift(32.8%), night shift(11.5%) D type(10hrs a day. 4days a wk): showed the similar trend as B type. The findings of higher preferences on the evening and night duties when the incentives are given. as shown above, suggest the need for the introductions of different patterns of duty hours and incentive measures in order to overcome the difficulties in rostering the nursing duties. However, the interpretation of the above data, particularly the C type, needs cautions as the total number of respondents is very small(n=61). It requires further in-depth study. In conclusion. it seemed to suggest that the patterns of nurses duty hours and shifts in the most hospitals in the country have neither been tried for different duty types nor been flexible. The stereotype rostering system of three shifts and insensitiveness for personal life aspect of nurses seemed to be prevailing. This study seems to support that irregular and frequent rotations of duty shifts may be contributing factors for most nurses' maladjustment problems in physical and mental health. personal and family life which eventually may result in high turnover rates. In order to overcome the increasing problems in personnel management of hospital nurses particularly in rostering of evening and night duty shifts, which may related to eventual high turnover rates, the findings of this study strongly suggest the need for an introduction of new rostering systems including fixed duties and appropriate incentive measures for evenings and nights which the most nurses want to avoid, In considering the nursing care of inpatients is the round-the clock business. the practice of the nursing duty shift system is inevitable. In this context, based on the findings of this study. the following are recommended: 1. The further in-depth studies on duty shifts and hours need to be undertaken for the development of appropriate and effective rostering systems for hospital nurses. 2. An introduction of appropriate incentive measures for evening and night duty shifts along with organizational considerations such as the trials for preferred duty time bands, duty hours, and fixed duty shifts should be considered if good quality of care for the patients be maintained for the round the clock. This may require an initiation of systematic research and development activities in the field of hospital nursing administration as a part of permanent system in the hospital. 3. Planned and regular intervals, orientation and training, and professional and personal growth should be considered for the rotation of different duty stations or units. 4. In considering the higher degree of preferences in the duty type of "10hours a day, 4days a week" shown in this study, it would be worthwhile to undertake the R&D type studies in large hospital settings.

  • PDF

Derivation of the Synthetic Unit Hydrograph Based on the Watershed Characteristics (유역특성에 의한 합성단위도의 유도에 관한 연구)

  • 서승덕
    • Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
    • /
    • v.17 no.1
    • /
    • pp.3642-3654
    • /
    • 1975
  • The purpose of this thesis is to derive a unit hydrograph which may be applied to the ungaged watershed area from the relations between directly measurable unitgraph properties such as peak discharge(qp), time to peak discharge (Tp), and lag time (Lg) and watershed characteristics such as river length(L) from the given station to the upstream limits of the watershed area in km, river length from station to centroid of gravity of the watershed area in km (Lca), and main stream slope in meter per km (S). Other procedure based on routing a time-area diagram through catchment storage named Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph(IUH). Dimensionless unitgraph also analysed in brief. The basic data (1969 to 1973) used in these studies are 9 recording level gages and rating curves, 41 rain gages and pluviographs, and 40 observed unitgraphs through the 9 sub watersheds in Nak Oong River basin. The results summarized in these studies are as follows; 1. Time in hour from start of rise to peak rate (Tp) generally occured at the position of 0.3Tb (time base of hydrograph) with some indication of higher values for larger watershed. The base flow is comparelatively higher than the other small watershed area. 2. Te losses from rainfall were divided into initial loss and continuing loss. Initial loss may be defined as that portion of storm rainfall which is intercepted by vegetation, held in deppression storage or infiltrated at a high rate early in the storm and continuing loss is defined as the loss which continues at a constant rate throughout the duration of the storm after the initial loss has been satisfied. Tis continuing loss approximates the nearly constant rate of infiltration (${\Phi}$-index method). The loss rate from this analysis was estimated 50 Per cent to the rainfall excess approximately during the surface runoff occured. 3. Stream slope seems approximate, as is usual, to consider the mainstreamonly, not giving any specific consideration to tributary. It is desirable to develop a single measure of slope that is representative of the who1e stream. The mean slope of channel increment in 1 meter per 200 meters and 1 meter per 1400 meters were defined at Gazang and Jindong respectively. It is considered that the slopes are low slightly in the light of other river studies. Flood concentration rate might slightly be low in the Nak Dong river basin. 4. It found that the watershed lag (Lg, hrs) could be expressed by Lg=0.253 (L.Lca)0.4171 The product L.Lca is a measure of the size and shape of the watershed. For the logarithms, the correlation coefficient for Lg was 0.97 which defined that Lg is closely related with the watershed characteristics, L and Lca. 5. Expression for basin might be expected to take form containing theslope as {{{{ { L}_{g }=0.545 {( { L. { L}_{ca } } over { SQRT {s} } ) }^{0.346 } }}}} For the logarithms, the correlation coefficient for Lg was 0.97 which defined that Lg is closely related with the basin characteristics too. It should be needed to take care of analysis which relating to the mean slopes 6. Peak discharge per unit area of unitgraph for standard duration tr, ㎥/sec/$\textrm{km}^2$, was given by qp=10-0.52-0.0184Lg with a indication of lower values for watershed contrary to the higher lag time. For the logarithms, the correlation coefficient qp was 0.998 which defined high sign ificance. The peak discharge of the unitgraph for an area could therefore be expected to take the from Qp=qp. A(㎥/sec). 7. Using the unitgraph parameter Lg, the base length of the unitgraph, in days, was adopted as {{{{ {T}_{b } =0.73+2.073( { { L}_{g } } over {24 } )}}}} with high significant correlation coefficient, 0.92. The constant of the above equation are fixed by the procedure used to separate base flow from direct runoff. 8. The width W75 of the unitgraph at discharge equal to 75 per cent of the peak discharge, in hours and the width W50 at discharge equal to 50 Per cent of the peak discharge in hours, can be estimated from {{{{ { W}_{75 }= { 1.61} over { { q}_{b } ^{1.05 } } }}}} and {{{{ { W}_{50 }= { 2.5} over { { q}_{b } ^{1.05 } } }}}} respectively. This provides supplementary guide for sketching the unitgraph. 9. Above equations define the three factors necessary to construct the unitgraph for duration tr. For the duration tR, the lag is LgR=Lg+0.2(tR-tr) and this modified lag, LgRis used in qp and Tb It the tr happens to be equal to or close to tR, further assume qpR=qp. 10. Triangular hydrograph is a dimensionless unitgraph prepared from the 40 unitgraphs. The equation is shown as {{{{ { q}_{p } = { K.A.Q} over { { T}_{p } } }}}} or {{{{ { q}_{p } = { 0.21A.Q} over { { T}_{p } } }}}} The constant 0.21 is defined to Nak Dong River basin. 11. The base length of the time-area diagram for the IUH routing is {{{{C=0.9 {( { L. { L}_{ca } } over { SQRT { s} } ) }^{1/3 } }}}}. Correlation coefficient for C was 0.983 which defined a high significance. The base length of the T-AD was set to equal the time from the midpoint of rain fall excess to the point of contraflexure. The constant K, derived in this studies is K=8.32+0.0213 {{{{ { L} over { SQRT { s} } }}}} with correlation coefficient, 0.964. 12. In the light of the results analysed in these studies, average errors in the peak discharge of the Synthetic unitgraph, Triangular unitgraph, and IUH were estimated as 2.2, 7.7 and 6.4 per cent respectively to the peak of observed average unitgraph. Each ordinate of the Synthetic unitgraph was approached closely to the observed one.

  • PDF

Differential Effects of Recovery Efforts on Products Attitudes (제품태도에 대한 회복노력의 차별적 효과)

  • Kim, Cheon-GIl;Choi, Jung-Mi
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.18 no.1
    • /
    • pp.33-58
    • /
    • 2008
  • Previous research has presupposed that the evaluation of consumer who received any recovery after experiencing product failure should be better than the evaluation of consumer who did not receive any recovery. The major purposes of this article are to examine impacts of product defect failures rather than service failures, and to explore effects of recovery on postrecovery product attitudes. First, this article deals with the occurrence of severe and unsevere failure and corresponding service recovery toward tangible products rather than intangible services. Contrary to intangible services, purchase and usage are separable for tangible products. This difference makes it clear that executing an recovery strategy toward tangible products is not plausible right after consumers find out product failures. The consumers may think about backgrounds and causes for the unpleasant events during the time gap between product failure and recovery. The deliberation may dilutes positive effects of recovery efforts. The recovery strategies which are provided to consumers experiencing product failures can be classified into three types. A recovery strategy can be implemented to provide consumers with a new product replacing the old defective product, a complimentary product for free, a discount at the time of the failure incident, or a coupon that can be used on the next visit. This strategy is defined as "a rewarding effort." Meanwhile a product failure may arise in exchange for its benefit. Then the product provider can suggest a detail explanation that the defect is hard to escape since it relates highly to the specific advantage to the product. The strategy may be called as "a strengthening effort." Another possible strategy is to recover negative attitude toward own brand by giving prominence to the disadvantages of a competing brand rather than the advantages of its own brand. The strategy is reflected as "a weakening effort." This paper emphasizes that, in order to confirm its effectiveness, a recovery strategy should be compared to being nothing done in response to the product failure. So the three types of recovery efforts is discussed in comparison to the situation involving no recovery effort. The strengthening strategy is to claim high relatedness of the product failure with another advantage, and expects the two-sidedness to ease consumers' complaints. The weakening strategy is to emphasize non-aversiveness of product failure, even if consumers choose another competitive brand. The two strategies can be effective in restoring to the original state, by providing plausible motives to accept the condition of product failure or by informing consumers of non-responsibility in the failure case. However the two may be less effective strategies than the rewarding strategy, since it tries to take care of the rehabilitation needs of consumers. Especially, the relative effect between the strengthening effort and the weakening effort may differ in terms of the severity of the product failure. A consumer who realizes a highly severe failure is likely to attach importance to the property which caused the failure. This implies that the strengthening effort would be less effective under the condition of high product severity. Meanwhile, the failing property is not diagnostic information in the condition of low failure severity. Consumers would not pay attention to non-diagnostic information, and with which they are not likely to change their attitudes. This implies that the strengthening effort would be more effective under the condition of low product severity. A 2 (product failure severity: high or low) X 4 (recovery strategies: rewarding, strengthening, weakening, or doing nothing) between-subjects design was employed. The particular levels of product failure severity and the types of recovery strategies were determined after a series of expert interviews. The dependent variable was product attitude after the recovery effort was provided. Subjects were 284 consumers who had an experience of cosmetics. Subjects were first given a product failure scenario and were asked to rate the comprehensibility of the failure scenario, the probability of raising complaints against the failure, and the subjective severity of the failure. After a recovery scenario was presented, its comprehensibility and overall evaluation were measured. The subjects assigned to the condition of no recovery effort were exposed to a short news article on the cosmetic industry. Next, subjects answered filler questions: 42 items of the need for cognitive closure and 16 items of need-to-evaluate. In the succeeding page a subject's product attitude was measured on an five-item, six-point scale, and a subject's repurchase intention on an three-item, six-point scale. After demographic variables of age and sex were asked, ten items of the subject's objective knowledge was checked. The results showed that the subjects formed more favorable evaluations after receiving rewarding efforts than after receiving either strengthening or weakening efforts. This is consistent with Hoffman, Kelley, and Rotalsky (1995) in that a tangible service recovery could be more effective that intangible efforts. Strengthening and weakening efforts also were effective compared to no recovery effort. So we found that generally any recovery increased products attitudes. The results hint us that a recovery strategy such as strengthening or weakening efforts, although it does not contain a specific reward, may have an effect on consumers experiencing severe unsatisfaction and strong complaint. Meanwhile, strengthening and weakening efforts were not expected to increase product attitudes under the condition of low severity of product failure. We can conclude that only a physical recovery effort may be recognized favorably as a firm's willingness to recover its fault by consumers experiencing low involvements. Results of the present experiment are explained in terms of the attribution theory. This article has a limitation that it utilized fictitious scenarios. Future research deserves to test a realistic effect of recovery for actual consumers. Recovery involves a direct, firsthand experience of ex-users. Recovery does not apply to non-users. The experience of receiving recovery efforts can be relatively more salient and accessible for the ex-users than for non-users. A recovery effort might be more likely to improve product attitude for the ex-users than for non-users. Also the present experiment did not include consumers who did not have an experience of the products and who did not perceive the occurrence of product failure. For the non-users and the ignorant consumers, the recovery efforts might lead to decreased product attitude and purchase intention. This is because the recovery trials may give an opportunity for them to notice the product failure.

  • PDF