Contemporary Issues: Quality of Life Versus Bread in Business (NX0328)

This essay, focusing on contemporary business issues, examines the dichotomy between prioritizing quality of life versus the fundamental need for basic sustenance, often referred to as 'bread.' The paper explores the impact of various factors, including education, healthcare, and living conditions, on the quality of life. It also discusses the effects of tourism, particularly in Hong Kong, and how an overemphasis on tourism revenue can negatively impact the quality of life for residents by increasing overcrowding and resource scarcity. The essay further considers the implications of prioritizing bread over quality of life, including limited opportunities for personal and professional growth, and the application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of finding a balance between economic necessities and the broader aspects of human well-being, highlighting the potential consequences of neglecting either.

Contemporary Issues in Business (NX0328)
The Determination of Best Practice in the Management of Work Place Absence
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Abstract
It is true that bread is essential for the human being for the survival at least. It helps the
person to live the life happily. However, a man cannot live by bread alone, he also want to
live the quality life such as better living standard, a good house, proper facilities and a better
education. Without getting the proper education, a person cannot live the better life. It is
because he or she will have the lack of knowledge or resource to fulfil the dreams. In recent
time, tourism is getting huge attraction in Hong Kong. Due to tourist, residents are also facing
several issues such as overcrowding, and lack of resources. Because of this, their quality of
life is reducing. Therefore, if emphasis will give on the quality of live, several jobs will be
affected such as hotel, entertainment, and retail industry.
Key Words:
1 – Introduction and Justification of Chosen Topic
It is true that bread is an essential thing for the existence of human being. However, in
addition to the brad, it also has many more needs such as knowledge, love, beauty,
entertainment, spiritual activity, and creativity for leading satisfaction in life. Means of
survival can be the first and foremost concern of any man. It goes for arranging the food and
bread in order to live life. If man will not get the food, it will suffer from any types of
diseases and finally it leads to the death of person. Therefore, earning bread is the most
significant activity in the life of any person. Human relations also degenerate in the absence
of good food. Although a person cannot live, luxury or better life but at least he can live
It is not completely true that man lives by the bread only. There is no doubt that bread
is the essential need of every man. It also requires many more things besides bread. As far as
the procurement, eating as well as digesting of food is concern, animal also do all these?
However, the animal are not blessed with the power of thinking. They do not need anything
besides the food. Man also has inner beauty. A man appreciates beauty in every form. Beauty
of world motivates a person to live the quality of life. A man is endowed with the inner
quality of love as well. It also wants to get the love back. Family and friends are also included
in the quality of life (Pan, 2015).

By earning bread, a person can live at least the minimum standard of life. There are
times when a man gets too much busy in earning bread. In such a situation, he is not able to
spend quality time with his family and friends. It is almost seen in all the countries that man
are getting greedy for earning money. It is true that a man can earn bread, but is also essential
to get the live and respect of people for enjoying the quality life. Quality of life is often more
subjective. It is hard to quantify that affects the quality of life as a whole by personal
preferences of people and their lifestyle. Quality of life is affected by various factors that
include the condition in the workplace, education, healthcare as well as living condition.
Earning bread is the criteria of every person but quality of life differs from person to person.
the main disadvantage associated with the quality of life is the discrimination in the society as
well as in the workplace (Cella & Stone, 2015). Some people do not have proper access to
proper healthcare, clean drinking water and education.
Various things are included in the quality of life. Respect and integrity are one of the
elements included in the quality of life. Integrity is must at the time of carrying out the work.
Respect is the position that people earned by working hard. Some person also includes
respect and their integrity in their better quality of life. Several aspects are linked with the
quality life that can also be measured by the psychological characteristic. Motivation, nice,
and active is also associated with a higher quality of life. Social life also represents the
quality in their life in several ways. For example- if there is good relation with the boss and
its co-workers, it will make life better.
Quality of life is said to be evaluation of the degree to which a person fulfils the
needs, wishes, and goals. Several aspects are associated with the quality of life. Some of the
factors are social and personal relationship, physical health, and environmental conditions.
Quality of life is also associated with health and happiness but it is true that it does not
depend on prosperity. If a person will have control over their body and mind, it will help in
avoiding all the sufferings and make the life worth. The quality of life also depends on the
relationship of the person with another people (Sloan, 2019). If the person will have a better
of life, it will lead to a better quality life. It is because person might enjoy the company of
those persons.
Money will equip you well to maintain your health. However, if you are not happy and
there is no time for you to maintain your health, what is the use of all the money. Money will
buy you the best of medical supervision. However, you have already spent the entire life

running after money. In this case, health is already neglected. If you are unhealthy you can’t
enjoy life with the money you’ve earned. Money will equip you well to maintain your health.
But if you are not happy and there is no time for you to maintain your health, what is the use
of all the money. Money will buy you the best of medical supervision. But you have already
spent the entire life running after money, the health is already neglected.
In addition, of earning bread, quality of life is essential for the following reasons:
 It is true that quality of life cannot be improved without sanitation. Cleanliness is also
one such thing that people in recent time requires for the quality of life.
 Good education is also essential as it arises the awareness as well as increases
knowledge. The skill and knowledge that person gets from education can be used in
improving the quality of life. It is obvious that a well-educated man can easily get the job and
bread thereby. In this way, education plays an essential role in contributing to the quality of
life (Daye & Gill, 2017).
In Hong Kong, quality of life has been reduced due to the increasing tourism. Tourism
has brought various issues relating to the environment and which directly put impact on
human beings. Traffic Congestion, pollution, overcrowding, tensions between tourists, and
residents and safety concern are the basis on which residents tends to judge their satisfaction
related to quality of life. It negative put effect on human health and safety and environment in
Hong Kong. However, if the focus will be given on quality of life, many things including
jobs will be affected. It is true that tourism is the significant source of revenue that increases
the income of government, increases employment, and local economy. If the economy
depends too much on the tourism sector, economic growth will get affected, as the overall
contribution of tourism in the economy will reduce by several factors.
In terms of residents of Hong Kong, they feel the impact on services. Services include
the increment in prices of goods, shortage of various goods and services and increasing the
housing and land that impacts the tourism offered. They believe that the entire revenue that is
generated from tourism does not benefit the local community. They also felt that tourism
have a negative influence on the services of city including the availability of police,
recreation facilities, as well as fire protection. People who are living in Hong Kong also felt
that tourism has brought some problems such as overcrowding at the recreational facilities.

Most of the people are earning money due to the increasing tourism in Hong Kong. If
quality of life will be considered more, then it will directly hamper the productivity of these
people. Similarly, hotel industries will also stop growing and lose their revenue. Due to this,
people will start suffering from various diseases due to tension and stress regarding their job.
Therefore, it is seen that giving more attention on the quality of life can also lose the job of
several people. The significant jobs that affected the emphasis on quality of life are hotel
services, restaurant and bar work.
Pros of living life based on bread (three meals a day)
 A person can live a peaceful life by living his or her life based on earning money only
for bread. In recent time, it is seen various problems are increasing for the sake of
living luxury life. Therefore, for reducing these problems, it is better to live based on
living life on bread (three meals a day).
 If a person is eating three meals a day, it will always look to work hard for earning
something better. It is because if a person will see struggle to earn money for three
meals a day, he will work hard.
 It will not able to get the best education that is quite essential in recent time for
getting various opportunities. Although, minimum education can be achieve but there
is no surety that he or she will get the best out of that basic education.
Cons of bread (three meals a day)
 Person will not get the opportunity to explore many things if he will only put
emphasis on three meals a day only. It will not motivate when other persons are
earning more than him or her and living the luxury life.
 In addition to this, it will not be able to adopt the various innovative technologies due
to focus on limited opportunities (Camprubí & Coromina, 2016).
 Maslow needs hierarchy theory is the best example of the bread. It states that if a
person will only earn for fulfilling the lower level needs, it will never move to the
upper-level needs. In addition to this, he or she will also never try to improve for
earning more. It will not able to get the various opportunities that are presenting in the
different parts of the world.

Pros of quality of life
 The positive aspect of better quality of life is that people can easily able to
find every material that they want. They can also find out useful stores such as
banks, supermarkets, clothing stores. The better quality of life also ensures
various health benefits for the public. These people are likely to more
physically active due to their local parks. If they will have a better
understanding of living a better life, they can easily manage to live a happier
life. There are times when uncertainty occurs in life that requires a better
quality of life. For example- if a person does not have enough standards for
living a better life, it will not able to manage all the situations effectively.
 With a better quality of life, people can take advantage how to do
communication with different types of people. In addition, they also come
across several people and can get knowledge regarding various new things. In
today’s time, communication and knowledge are becoming the two major
aspects of life. For a better stand of life, it is required to maintain good
contacts with an effective and better person (Mukherjee, 2019). A better
quality of life also measured by the relationship that a person has with another
people.
Cons of quality of life
 If the entire person will focus on the quality life, it will lead to limitation in the
resources. It is true that environment will be negatively impacted if people start doing
expenditure more. For the sake of luxury life in recent time, resources are becoming
scarce for those people who want to buy that. For example- if people will start
expending unnecessary on those resources that are not required, their demand will
increase (Woo, Kim & Uysal, 2016). As a result, prices will also increase and lower
level person will not be able to afford those resources.
 All the people are moving to urban areas for better standard of living. Due to this,
traditional culture is completely removing and creating more diseases and affecting
adversely on health. In addition to this, living population will also increase the urban
population that will lead to scarcity in the basic need things and resources.

 The better quality of life majorly put impact on the services in rural areas. Many
people will lose the services as people will not able reach to the services. Some of the
problems related to the quality of life are lack of street lighting.
 Due to the better quality of life, people are moving to large cities. Due to this, many
people are taking the car every day. Due to this, many people have to face the issue of
high traffic. A lot of among can also affect the health of public.
 For the sake of living quality life, person forgets all the limits that are essential for
the normal human being. There are some people who are living better quality of life
but do not know how to take with persons in proper manner. Neither they respect the
people who are above age nor do they talk politely with the younger person.
Tourism helps in creating awareness in order to preserve the environment for
capturing the natural beauty for the purpose of tourist. The drawback associated with the
tourist attraction policy is that it might affect the quality of environment. The major areas that
will be affected by this are water pollution and air pollution. The local people who are living
in Hong Kong will also face the issues related to the resources, as tourists will consume
almost all the resources (Agyeiwaah, Adongo, Dimache & Wondirad, 2016).There are
people who also think that it leads to creating tension and stress among them due to
increment in crowd. Tourism industry creates the demand as an activity and tends to fulfil the
demand of various people by providing them job opportunity. This also helps in bringing the
opportunity in various aspects. This process also involves growth drivers. The major two
industries which will be impacted due to decrease in quality of life are fast-food and media
and entertainment industry. The Hong Kong Quality of Life Index is a composite index
consist of 21 indicators that are clubbed into three subgroups i.e. Social, Economic and
Environmental sub-indexes (cpr.edu, 2018). In 2015, Hong Kong ranked 70th in the world for
quality of living – way behind rival Singapore.
Tourism is growing faster than the global economy and destinations and stakeholders
are also responsible for the growth to be well managed. However, with decrease of quality of
life, there will be a major impact on the various jobs and industries resulting in severe effects
such as loss of jobs, economic losses and recessions. Moreover, the tourism sector is one of
the major pillars of the economy of Hong Kong. It also accounts for 5% of GDP of Hong
Kong in 2016 including 7% of total employment (http://hong-kong-economy-
research.hktdc.com, 2019).

For instance, hotel industry will be one of the major sectors which may be impacted
due to decline in tourism as of decrease in quality of life (Kim, Uysal & Sirgy, 2013).
Tourism and hospitality go hand in hand as in tourism, tourists engage in several activities
that make available with the hospitality industry such as recreational activities and leisure
activities, accommodation, food and beverage. Both hospitality and tourism industry has
undergone various changes over the years resulting in various consequences while causing
impact of economic segments on other segments of the respective industry. It can be said
that the hospitality industry is the service supplier for tourism and the Hong Kong hotel
industry has also been seen as a strong occupancy rate in previous year. Tourism sector
spending both jobs and facilities in the hospitality industry and further decline might put
these at risks (Dwyer et al, 2009). Moreover, the industry will also face other challenges such
as unlicensed accommodation, labour shortage, usually in the younger generation.
Other than hospitality industry, the growing entertainment media will also be
impacted due to decline in tourism as of decrease in quality of life (Kim, Uysal & Sirgy,
2013). Entertainment includes various forms of activities necessary in tourism industry and
has some specific places like movie theatres, Water Park, carnivals and so on. In addition,
there are various other things also to do in entertainment sector including natural reserve,
sports, museums, beaches and etc. With decline in tourism, jobs of different individuals will
get affected working and function in these entertainment sectors. It was identified that Hong
Kong is among the world largest film exporter whereas, in 2018, 53 locally produced films
were released (hktdc.com, 2019). This also helps the city to capture a fair share of the
regional market, in particular, the market in mainland China. Mainland tourists accounted for
over 30% of all visitors to Hong Kong during the period. In addition, 873,000 mainland
Chinese go to in Hong Kong over the seven days of Chinese New Year holiday, about a 12%
drop from the year before as per the records from Hong Kong immigration department
(Huang, 2019). However, as per the latest details, Hong Kong relies on tourism for 5% of its
GDP and Hong Kong locals have long criticised tourists of mainland for their alleged bad
manners and also the public protest contributes to the drop in tourism.
The city history is also rich in culture as having various wonderful museums in
relation to cultural heritage. The business and jobs of these markets in the city will highly be
impacted as when tourist visited less in Hong Kong due to decrease in quality of life, this
business of these entertainment firms will get affected and indirectly it will also impact
associated jobs.

Not only the industry, inbound tourism decline will also impact the Hong Kong
economy in negative way. Below it is mentioned Gross domestic product share of inbound
and outbound tourism in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2016.
Source: (statista.com, 2018)
As per this statistic, it illustrates the share of outbound and inbound tourism in the
gross domestic product (GDP) of Hong Kong from 2006 to 2016. Considering latest year, the
inbound tourism sector accounted for around 3.7 per cent of the local GDP in Hong Kong.
This results in Hong Kong retail spending plunges to 17-year-low as visitors decline.
In addition, with continuing sustained decline in consumer spending in the city, there is also a
narrowed decline in total sales reflecting a revival in tourist arrivals at that period.
The impact of tourism decline due to decrease in quality life can also be measured in
Aviation industry. Aviation connectivity has brought various benefits to the economy of
Hong Kong. It also supports Hong Kong tourism – an important sector that contributes over
HK$250 billion annually to the economy. Considering tourism sector, aviation-related
practices in Hong Kong offers employment to about a quarter of a million people and creates
8.2% of Hong Kong GDP (airlines.iata.org, 2014).

According to estimation of staff, a 10 per cent decline in tourist arrivals translates into
a 0.3 to 0.5 per cent fall in GDP. Beyond restaurants, hotels and transportation, industries as
diverse as telecommunications, textiles, and retail trade have felt the shock. Hong Kong is
also facing a critical decision and unfortunately the transportation business also not working
in the right way. It is strong when it connects markets of various sizes and its economy is
benefitted from being a transportation hub.
All these factors will affect majorly service economy in which jobs are created by
tourism, and most are relatively low-levels such as bar work, restaurant serving, hotel service,
and so forth. Moreover, these low skill workers and low-wage have little prospect for
promotion and advancement. With regards to this, tourism jobs are quite commonly insecure
and seasonal with no such major benefits and with decline in tourism in Hong Kong, various
areas will be impacted and its associated people and jobs. Even sometimes tourism becomes
so focal, that other forms of generating income are ignored and economic dependence on
tourism forms. Considering the impact, attracted by prospect, foreign enterprises start
poaching business away from local businesses and this is also considered to be a a
disadvantage for both the country Hong Kong and the employees working in those native or
local organisations.
Although the country ranked 70th in 2015 for quality of living but with the changing
virtue in the environment, it is important for both local community and government to take
out significant steps to increase the inbound of tourism and also to focus on various other
aspects connected with it so as to develop necessary policies and practices for the purpose of
improvement. In addition, to raise quality of life in Hong Kong and promote it as a tourist
attraction in the world, there are various necessary steps needs to be encompassed. The term
quality of life and life satisfaction can be measured in various ways including well health,
challenging jobs, financial security and material comforts.
Compiling all above statistics and information, it is also important to have tourism
market research information in relation with social, economic and environmental impact of
tourism. It will also help in assessing the economic value of tourism in the economy in
relation with cross-nation comparisons with the growing importance of internationalisation.
If Hong Kong will start focusing on the quality of life rather than tourists, it tends to
affect the retail industry on huge basis. There are several tourists who come for the visit and
require several things for their consumption. If tourist will stop coming for the visit, the

growth of retail industry will go down on larger basis. The benefit that local people tend to
get from the tourists will also stop suddenly (Cella & Stone, 2015). It will decrease the access
to those labours in a negative way. The several business relationships will also be ruined due
to the stoppage of tourist. Local market also gets several benefits from the increasing tourist
in Hong Kong as shopping is the most essential thing for any tourist when they visit any new
place. Some tourists do not bring too many materials due to the weight issue in flight.
Therefore, the local market dealers for gaining more market share keep all those necessity
materials. If tourist will stop coming to the country, it is obvious that the market share, as
well as sales, will get affected (Michalos, 2017). In addition to this, their revenue will also
decrease to large extent. Food industry will be affected in the large extent if the number of
tourist goes down. Several food markets are restaurants are earning revenue only from this. It
is the major source of earning for most of the local businesses in Hong Kong. It can also be
seen as the major backbone of the tourist. All the restaurants also spend a huge amount on
marketing their restaurant. Several restaurants are there from past many years. They have also
taken many years to build that reputation. If the tourist will stop coming for the visit, all the
reputation that they have earned will be damaged. In addition to this, they will also face a
decline in revenue and sales (Fang, Ye & Law, 2016).
In addition, the major impact by decline in the tourists will be on the transport or car
rental industry. It is true that a person cannot walk long miles by the foot. It must require a
vehicle or any transport facility for visiting the whole city and famous places. Several people
also take bikes or cars on rent that has increased the demand for transportation in Hong Kong.
It is also founded that transportation has contributed huge amount in the employment and
GDP of Hong Kong. Among all the jobs, local transport, car rental, and hotels are the major
businesses that will get affected if the focus will be given on quality of life.
It is true that tourism as a major service industry plays an essential role in economic
growth. Most of the government revenue is earned from the increasing tourists in Hong
Kong. Several employment opportunities are also presenting for the people who want to get
job there. Moreover, it is also found that Hong Kong tourist visitors are increasing day by
day. It is also expected to rise in coming years. If the emphasis will be given on the quality of
life, all the increasing number of tourist will stop coming and thereby reduce the demand.
Chinese visitors have also seen the increment in Hong Kong tourists, which can be seriously
impacted if tourist number decreases.

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