ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction The appearance of challenges in the course of firms’ development is inevitable. Crises are part of evolution as their successful resolution contributes to the creation of a new working environment and the achievement of the next level of effectiveness. However, problem-solving might be a complex issue because of the existence of multiple factors that should be considered to ensure that an offered approach creates the basis for further growth and eliminates all aspects that have a negative impact on the organization (Proctor, 2013). That is why the paper revolves around the creative techniques that can be used to reconsider the work of a selected company and attain success by overcoming the existing difficulties. The organization chosen for the analysis is a fast-growing tourist agency. Due to the correctly selected approach to working with clients and interesting tours, the company managed to acquire its loyal audience and create conditions beneficial for its further development and empowerment. At the moment, the firm enjoys a high number of customers who want to use its services. Its target population includes representatives of various social classes and communities, which presupposes the need for flexibility to adapt and create the best possible offerings. It also means that the agency has to cope with the increased diversity of multiple demands and requirements. It becomes one of the significant problems that impact the work of the company and might deteriorate results if left without attention and intervention. Analyzing the current situation, the problem with customer service should be admitted. The number of clients increased too fast, and the company was not ready to work with it effectively. The answer time at least doubted as managers have to process multiple requests and devote attention to every customer. It also means that other ones have to wait or reschedule their consultations with specialists. The emergence of the given issue resulted in a decreased level of clients’ satisfaction and loyalty (Kotler, Kartajaya, & Setiawan, 2016). Moreover, sales were reduced because of the inability to process all existing cases. The given situation became a critical challenge for the organization as the problematic customer service, and the existence of unsolved problems related to it might undermine the work of the whole company and precondition its collapse. The need for emergent actions and interventions to reconsider the existing approach becomes apparent. The pivotal aim of the paper is the creation and suggestion of three creative scenarios that can be employed to solve the problem and achieve positive outcomes. It also presupposes the comprehensive analysis of the company and its current needs to ensure that offered methods are appropriate for it and can be inte
Problem 1: Negative Media Coverage Implementation Plan The company has gained quite a negative image due to negative media coverage. One of the possible steps to address the issue is to increase employee pay rates. One of the causes of the negative image of Walmart is the dissatisfaction of employees who have to work long hours but get quite a little money compared to other retailers. Employees are not motivated to work hard or invest more money as they are not satisfied with the amount of money they get. It is necessary to raise the salaries of employees at all levels. Admittedly, this is associated with a certain loss in profit but it will also lead to significant improvement in the long run. Girotra and Netessine (2014) stress the effectiveness of this strategy as it has twofold implications. First, it will motivate employees to work harder and be more loyal. Secondly, it will attract more skilled professionals and skilled managers are what the company needs. The raise in salaries will be implemented within 3 months. The beginning All employees will get a 10% increase in salaries. It should be announced that the second wave of salaries’ increase will be held in a month and will depend on employees’ performance. Month 2 Performance of employees (especially managers of all levels) is evaluated by supervisors assigned. Those who perform well (make no or a few mistakes, do everything on time and so on) get an additional 15% salary increase. The salary after the second month becomes permanent. Month 3 After the third month a program of additional financial rewarding commences. Most efficient employees get a 10% increase at the end of the succeeding month. Each employee will be evaluated by assigned supervisors and each department will get the corresponding amount of money which will be distributed among the most efficient employees. This strategy will motivate workers and will help solve the problem with shifts and customer service. Notably, increasing employees’ health benefits or acceptable work hours are associated with significant costs and will have little effect on employees’ satisfaction. Employees will be committed to perform better to be able to get extra payment. Problem 2: International Expansion Implementation Plan It is crucial for a big company to expand and, hence, Walmart cannot confine its operations to North America only. However, the expansion has turned out to be very difficult for the company which faces numerous issues. To avoid further difficulties, the company has to examine competition to help with entry. Van Rijmenam (2014) notes that Walmart is operating big data well enough using numerous resources including social networks. Thus, in different areas, stores respond to customers’ needs mentioned in social networks. However, international expansion needs detailed research of the existing competition. Understanding potential customers’ needs are not enough as it is essential to know what competit
Introduction One way to understand the view of ancient men is to rely on the insights provided by a gifted writer. Shakespeare is still relevant in the 21 st century as he was during his time because of his ability to penetrate human nature. He does not only understand human nature but he is also a master when it comes to explaining it in terms and images readily understood by common men. Shakespeare has another talent and it is his ability to look into ancient history and draw inspiration from there. One of his important works that relates to this topic is the play entitled The Rape of Lucrece . In this play Shakespeare sheds light on the mentality of the rapist and victim in ancient times. The most poignant part of the play is when Lucrece, after securing an oath from husband and father to avenge the wrong done to her, committed suicide. [1] This is an important scene because it shows the way society view the victim of the rape. Even if the rapist was the evildoer, the act itself has somehow transferred his wickedness into the victim, forcing her to kill herself. It has to be pointed out that rape is a crime that is difficult to prove. In a time when there were no scientific means to prove sexual assault it is difficult for a woman to build a clear case against a rapist especially if there were no witnesses. Going back to the story of Lucrece, her suicide was necessary to prove to everyone that she did nothing wrong. In the words of one commentary, “her death is to function as the ultimate sign of her innocence.” [2] Her family believed her story. It was Tarquin who forced her to sin against her body and therefore there was no need to commit suicide. However, her reputation suffers because at the time of the sexual act, although it must be considered rape, she allowed it to happen. Shakespeare wrote this play based on what he knows about ancient societies such as Greece and Rome. Before going any further it is important to have a clear understanding of the nature of rape. Jane Gallop, in The Daughter’s of Seduction has this to say: The notions of integrity and closure in the text are like that of virginity in a body. They assume that if one does not respect the boundaries between inside and outside, one is ‘breaking and entering,’ violating a property. As long as the fallacies of integrity and closure are upheld, a desire to penetrate becomes a desire to rape. [3] The above statement also reveals an important feature of the act of rape that it begins in the mind. It begins with desire and the rapist is guilty ev
Introduction The rising cost of building materials has brought about the need for innovation and the generation of new building techniques and methods. A building’s foundation is a major consumer of cement and other building materials. To reduce the cost both in terms of materials and labor the waffle pod footing system was developed. This system was developed in the 1980s and has proved to be a very economical way of producing concrete slabs to serve as building’s base. The polystyrene waffles serve as moulds in which concrete is poured into to form a slab over the entire building area. This method makes construction easier as it avoids the need for labor intensive activities such as those encountered when digging trenches for the laying of underground foundations. Instead this method implements the use of over the ground slab preparation (Mahl, 2007). This method is said to be environmentally friendly as it uses ‘environmentally friendly polystyrene’ and minimizes on the amount of expended wastes (Iano, 2007). Stiffened raft slabs are another common construction technique used in the Australian construction industry. This technique involves the digging of trenches on the planned site. Voids are later formed on the building’s site by the use of steel meshes, sand and stone dust. A stiffened raft slab is made up of a concrete slab of an average of 10mm in diameter, steel meshes, internal beams and edge beams. This type of footing is required to be above the ground level to prevent degradation and damage from flood water and other natural elements. According to the AS2870, a stiffened rib slab is meant to be 150mm above the normal ground level. Structural comparison There are pronounced structural differences between the waffle and the stiffened rib slabs. For comparison purposes these two techniques will be assessed based on a class H site case study. The depth of the stiffened rib slab is always more than that of the waffle slab. For the same structure, if the depth of the waffle is 300 mm the stiffened rib footing’s is usually 500 mm. This translates to more excavation and site preparation work making the stiffened footing more labor and time intensive. This eventually translates to a differentiable difference between the two methods (MacGinley, 1978). The stiffened rib slab also requires bottom
Introduction This chapter focuses on the criminal justice system. The field of the criminal justice system borrows knowledge from other disciplines to understand factors driving persons to commit a crime and how to handle crime problems. The system consists of government agencies responsible for enforcing the law, adjudicating crime, and correcting criminal conduct (Siegel 382). The criminal justice system serves and acts as a tool for social control. Society controls other forms of informal social order, such as parental and school discipline. However, these can only handle moral misbehavior, not legal cases. In this regard, the criminal justice system possesses the power to control crime and punish those who violate the law. The role of the police Siegel presents the role of the police in law enforcement. The police officials are in charge of peacekeeping, thwarting potential criminals and arresting lawbreakers. The modern police role consists of preventing delinquencies and controlling juvenile offenders from the criminal justice system to resolving family conflicts. Police may use force to accomplish their tasks. However, studies show that nine out of ten people who came into contact with the police felt that the police acted properly. The concepts of community policing (COP) and problem-oriented policing are the new ways of law enforcement methods the police use in improving police-community relations. The approaches are proactive rather than reactive and try to prevent crime before they occur. Though, there is no clear-cut evidence of their success both parties praise them as effective models (Siegel 386). The court system The chapter attempts to familiarize the readers with the structure and function of the criminal court system. Siegel presents the court system as a complex social agency with independent but interrelated subsystems. This is where the vital part of criminal decision-making occurs. The process relies upon a precise rule of law in delivering justice. The prosecutor has the discretion to ensure that the case must have convertibility i.e. must stand a better chance of resulting in conviction. The court system creates the adversary system whereby the prosecutor and defense attorney are opponen
In order to maintain a decent standard of living, humankind inevitably needs a sufficient supply of food to nurture the body. With the unprecedented boost of human population in recent times, a lack in nutritious supply is observed, as the results of natural agriculture cannot possibly satisfy the growing needs of people, in particular, of those dwelling in the lower-developed regions of Asia and Africa. Another issue of especial importance to people is the preservation of endangered species of animals and breeding perfect samples of a kind since the achievement of the desired objective in purely biological ways is more a matter of luck and long-term careful selection the result of which may not always meet the naturalists’ expectations. Both issues mentioned have been attracting the attention of biological science for years on end, and nowadays the achievements of genetics have made it possible to solve those problems by means of animal cloning and engineering. A whole era in cloning has passed since the famous sheep Dolly experiment, and animal clones are now an almost normative biological phenomenon. But however optimistic the picture may look, there still exist a number of ethical and practical issues that call into question the necessity and reasonableness of animal cloning. The excitement caused among the agriculturists by the prospects of animal cloning cannot be overestimated; which farmer would object to owning a herd of superior performing animals, and which breeding company would not like to gain revenue by selling cloned embryos. But there emerged a number of problems connected with cloned animals. For one thing, abnormalities have been reported to develop in cloned animals, who also suffered health problems throughout their life: “Dolly was diagnosed arthritis at a seemingly young age and cloned mice had a shorter than normal life span” (Niekerk 134). For another thing, the practice of cloning leads to loss of genetic diversity in the herds which in its turn results in biological defects of the animals. Those factors question the humanity of the cloning process. The sufferings of animals taking part in the cloning procedure occur in two stages: the first is marked by embryonic and fetal loss, with the overall efficiency being less than five percent — which makes animal cloning a so far high-cost and low-efficiency enterprise that does not cover the expenses it involves; the second concerns health problems in the surviving embryos that experience such almost obviously attributable to cloning procedure diseases as obesity, hypertension, osteoporosis, and anemia (Levine 80, 83). In addition to a certain degree of suffering experienced by cloned animals, there exists a danger both for transgenic animals and for people consuming genetically modified products. Biological products can leak into the blood of transgenic animals that are producing them, and some of such products constitute a danger to the normal bodily functions of the animal. Dangerous implications of cloned animals for human beings
Case Summary The targeted case study examines the achievements and leadership strategies used by Jack Welch of General Electric. Jack’s leadership style resulted in new business models, organizational cultures, leadership practices, and initiatives. Such practices eventually made GE successful. The case study indicates that Jack Welch had implemented the best strategic initiatives to make the firm profitable. He also introduced new models such as the Six Sigma Quality Initiative (SSQI) to deliver quality products to every stakeholder. Jack Welch’s successor will have to work hard to retain GE’s performance. The decision to introduce Jack’s fourth strategic initiative is a major challenge affecting the company. The e-business initiative requires a complete change that can support or destroy the company. However, the company has real business capabilities that can make it successful. The implementation of an e-business model will not be something easy for Jack’s successor. Welch’s successor might be unable to support GE’s business performance. Many stakeholders are worried, “if Welch’s successor could generate the 23 percent per annum total shareholder return” (Bartlett & Wozny, 2005, p. 1). Major Issues Affecting General Electric Several issues are notable in this case. To begin with, Jack introduced his famous “Work-Out and Best Practices” strategy to make the company successful. Welch’s transformational leadership style encouraged more employees to interact with one another. He restructured the company by doing away with bureaucracy. He introduced “a new cultural change, thus giving every employee a voice” (Bartlett & Wozny, 2005, p. 4). The company was able to address the issues affecting its employees. He also introduced a new training program to empower every employee. The above approach eventually made GE successful. However, Jack retired without achieving most of his goals. Jack Welch wanted GE to implement a new e-business model. This business model required a new organizational change. New workplace culture is also required to support the use of modern technologies (Sosik & Jung, 2010). Welch’s successor should be aware of the issues facing the company’s future. The managers at the company are also unaware of the best strategies that can support General Electric’s business model. Alternative Courses of Action The managers at General Electric can use different strategies to support the company’s trajectory. The company’s managers should borrow a lot from Jack Welch’s leadership model. This model has the potential to support the best organizational culture. The newly-created culture will also ensure every employee uses modern technologies. The company will be able to deliver quality products to its customer
Disease Surveillance Program Inadequate environmental protection efforts encourage disease transmission and require active surveillance programs to promote disease treatment and prevention. Such neighborhoods report numerous infectious diseases due to the virus and bacteria infestation through body fluids, contaminated surfaces, and disease vectors. Hepatitis A is among the most prevalent vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States (Edemekong & Huang, 2021). It is transmitted from one person to another through poor hand hygiene, oral sexual contact, and contaminated water, diapers, or food. The disease’s ease of spread requires health organizations to formulate a disease surveillance program and communication plan to educate and empower the affected population to understand their role in upholding community wellness. Disease Description Hepatitis A is a highly transmissible disease that spreads through fecal-oral transmission from direct person-to-person contact or through contaminated surfaces and disease vectors. After the virus attack, the body attempts to fight it for two weeks, then the patients report significant symptoms, particularly stool concentration. The symptomatic stage commences with fever, jaundice, hepatomegaly, malaise, and abdominal pains commonly reported (Edemekong & Huang, 2021). Since the disease spreads through contaminated surfaces, people should improve their immediate and external surroundings’ hygiene to limit its prevalence. Hepatitis A is prevented through immunization, which requires parents to ensure children get vaccinations against it. The vaccination against Hepatitis A in the United States was licensed in 1995, which resulted in a tremendous reduction in the spread (Hofmeister et al., 2020). Despite the available vaccination programs, its quick spread and some parents’ reluctance to vaccinate their children promote transmission and circulation in some neighborhoods. The Affected Population Although Hepatitis A can spread in any geographical area, depending on the neighborhoods’ hygiene and vaccination programs, some regions report disease outbreaks that cause hospital congestion and re
Introduction In any organization regardless of the size and/or complexity, responsibilities of employees are usually defined by their work, immediate supervisors and for managers, their subjects. These definitions are often assigned to positions in the organization but not to specific individual(s). The best organization structure, therefore, depends on a number of factors including the job, size in terms of the required workforce, revenue, geographic expansiveness and the range of its businesses. In fact, this form of organizational structure is suited for firms that are project-driven such as construction, engineering, and technological companies. The U.S. based Ford Motors Company is one such organization whose organizational structure takes the form of a matrix structure (Moynihan & Titley 2000, p. 66). The paper attempts to discuss how the matrix structure helps Ford Motors to achieve it strategic objectives. Ford Motor Company: Organizational Structure Matrix organizational structure is a combination of two or more different structures. In this structure, functional departmentalization is usually combined with products groups on a project basis. If a product group, for instance intends to develop a new product, it will get workforce from functional departments such as research, engineering, production, and marketing. However, these personnel only work under the manager of the product group as long the project lasts. The project manager usually reports directly to the vice president and the general manager. Given that each project is potentially beneficial to the organization, the project manager draws his authority from the general manager. The structure of the Ford Motors Company has the Chairman at the apex (Bill Ford) followed by the President-cum-CEO-cum-Director (Alan Mulally), then followed by the Exe