ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Executive Summary The exploitation of non-regular employees in South Korea has led to trade unions calling for companies to improve working conditions for dispatch workers and other part-time laborers. Hyundai Company is among the organizations that have been affected by employee strikes. Until 2014, the company had not experienced a full employee strike. The staff organized partial strikes to demand enhanced working conditions and better pay. The trade union representatives and Hyundai’s management engaged in many talks that failed to succeed. Lack of goodwill and dishonesty by the leadership left the union with no option but to call for a strike across all Hyundai’s subsidiaries. The Supreme Court ruled that Hyundai contravened the Act of Protection for Dispatch Workers. The company failed to absorb dispatch workers who had worked for over two years. Moreover, the leadership planned to establish more branches at the expense of employees. The plan angered employees resulting in a massive walkout. Introduction South Korea is one of the countries with the highest number of casual laborers. Most organizations prefer to recruit temporary employees as they offer cheap labor and are easy to terminate (Kim & Bae, 2017). Shin (2012) argues that Korean companies do not favor permanent workers as they enjoy extensive social protection. Additionally, it is difficult for the companies to lay off permanent employees in the event of economic challenges. The exploitation of temporary employees in the country has resulted in occasional standoffs among workers and employers (Hyung-Geun, 2012). One of the companies that have experienced sporadic employee strikes is Hyundai. In 2014, employees staged a full strike after a series of negotiations between their representatives and the management failed to yield results. Workers demanded permanent employment of dispatch employees and improved working conditions. This article will analyze the ethical dilemma that Hyundai faced in its bid to maintain dispatch workers. Hyundai Case Study Korean labor laws recognize two groups of employees: permanent and temporary. Permanent workers are full-time employees and enjoy an extensive social safety net. Conversely, temporary or non-regular employees work under fixed terms or on a part-time basis. The labor laws recognize dispatch employees as non-regular (Wol-san, 2013). The non-regular employees are at the mercy of their employers due to a lack of adequate labor laws that protect their rights. However, recent changes in labor laws have come as a relief to the employees. The laws prohibit employers from discriminating against non-regular employees. Jin (2016) claims, “The increased protections have resulted in more disputes between workers and companies, and the trend is expected to accelerate” (par. 5). The impacts of the amendment of the labor laws began to manifest themselves in major Korean companies. In 2014, Hyundai suffered from employee strike after a ser
The current essay is an attempt to reflect on the ‘Treasure Island’ theatrical performance. Numerous film and theatre adaptations have been made based on the novel written by Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, that was published in 1883. Before providing my opinion on the performance in the second part of the essay, it is logical to start with a brief summary of one of the most popular books about pirates of all time. The story occurs in the mid-1700s near Bristol, in England. The main character of the book is a young man named Jim Hawkins. He lives with his mother and father, who is ill, in their seaside inn called Admiral Benbow. One day a “captain”, Billy Bones, arrives at the inn and rents a room there for a few months hiding from a seafaring man with one leg. While drinking rum, he reveals to Jim that he is a pirate and has a sea chest with a treasure map inside. Sometime later the ‘captain’ Billy is visited at the inn by a man named Black Dog. His appearance frightens Billy and he has a stroke. He explains to Jim that Black Dog has arrived to steal his sea chest. Later on, Billy is visited by a man named Pew, gets a stroke and dies. After Billy’s death, Jim and his mother take his sea chest in order to pay his debt to the inn. Jim finds a treasure map that Billy talked about and shares it with a local doctor Livesey and Trelawney, a district squire. They decide to get a ship and go to the island. They hire a crew with the help of the one-legged man named Long John Silver, who travels with them as a ship’s cook. On the way to the treasure island Jim overhears one-legged man’s conversation with other seamen planning to appropriate the treasure and kill others, including Jim, Dr. Livesey, Trelawney and the ship’s captain. They understand that it is impossible to fight nineteen pirates, so having arrived to the island, Jim sneaks off and meets Ben Gunn, a former pirate who stuck on the island. The rest of the story is devoted to the long fight and the victory over the pirates. Jim and others return home with the treasure and share it. However, more treasure is abandoned on the island, but Jim is not eager to go back there. In the second part of the essay I reflect on Treasure Island’s performance, analyzing the main themes, their purpose and the main characters. First of all, I should note that the theatrical performance evokes extraordinarily strong emotions, compared to the book. In my personal opinion, the performance conveys adventurous part of the story and depicts main characters in a more precise way through theatrical scenery, costumes and the actor’s play. Secondly, to my way of thinking, the most significant aspects of the ‘Treasure Island’ story are the key topics that were addressed. One of them is the growing up process of the protagonist, Jim Hawkins. At the beginning of the story Jim is an immature, unexperienced boy, who lives with his family. Having gone through numerous difficult events, such as death (including his own father’s), fears, betrayal, the travel across the sea, h
Attributable to the immense size of the automobile industry, its revenue and development are influenced by numerous factors. Aside from the manufacturing of automobiles internationally, this industry is also engaged in the sales and marketing of vehicles. Nowadays, innovation and technology act as the major sources of differentiation for automotive manufacturers (Hashmi & Biesebroeck, 2016). Other major factors of importance in the automobile industry include fuel efficiency and environmental concerns. Porter’s five forces and PESTEL analyses examine the attractiveness and profitability of the global automobile industry, in addition to explaining the sector’s strategic opportunities and threats. Porter’s Five Forces The threat of New Entrants: Weak It is hard for new companies to venture into the automobile sector attributable to the huge investment needed to set up manufacturing plants, distribution systems, and employ skilled personnel. Another hindrance is the rate of competition from the already existing companies (Hashmi & Biesebroeck, 2016). Except in cases where new companies bring a novel and unique product, the likelihood of acquiring a significant market share is low. Furthermore, penetrating other markets is difficult because some governments have enforced elevated import taxes as a way of discouraging foreign brands. Attributable to the concerns of safety, dependability, and resilience being fundamental, in addition to buyers basing their impression of a model on the brand’s earlier performance on such issues, new entrants find it exceedingly hard to compete. It might take very many years for new entrants to create a strong reputation to make them achieve a competitive benefit. All such aspects result in the threat of new entrants being very weak. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Weak In the automobile sector, the bargaining power of suppliers is weak because the majority of them are small players. Suppliers have to stick to the regulations set in the industry. The automobile manufacturers hold significant influence since raw materials are always at their disposal (Hashmi & Biesebroeck, 2016). This makes it easy for the brands to switch from a given supplier to another hence making the bargaining power of suppliers significantly low. Bargaining Power of Buyers: Reasonably Strong Middle-class customers who purchase a single-vehicle form the biggest proportion of buyers. Nevertheless, some government agencies and corporations purchase fleets of automobiles and are in a better situation of bargaining for lower costs. It is easy for both small and major buyers to switch to a different brand. Private individuals, government agencies, and companies are the major vehicle buyers (Hashmi & Biesebroeck, 2016). Devoid of a few exceptions, buyers can choose to walk out on a purchase they do not like and proceed to a seller of the same brand or a completely different one. Anchored in the overall picture, the bargaining power of buyers is moderately strong. This compels brands to center on enhanci
In his article “A Living Death”: Gothic Signification and the Nadir in The Marrow of Tradition “, Gerald Ianovici provides us with the psychological insight onto conceptual essence of Charles Chestnutt’s novel, by suggesting that in it, Chesnutt strived for nothing less of exposing White racism as a metaphysically evil worldview, strongly opposed to the notion of rationality. In its turn, this provides intellectual soundness to the article’s main thesis – given the fact that, during the course Reconstruction period in American South, Blacks continued to suffer from institutionalized social inequality, even despite that by this time, Blacks had proven themselves capable of leading a productive mode of existence (Dr. Miller), it is namely the gothic evilness of White racism, which used to prevent many White Southerners from adopting a rational approach towards the issue of race relations: “My intent is not to argue that The Marrow of Traditio n is a gothic text, but rather to examine the role that gothic figuration plays in this novel” (Ianovici 36). Even though 19 th -century ideologues of White racism claimed that the White race’s existential superiority was deriving out of Whites’ ability to operate with highly abstract categories and out of their tendency to remain rational while facing life’s challenges, Chestnutt’s novel points out to the “gothic” subtleties of White racism – racists that consider Blacks being inferior can try justifying such their attitude by the “voice of reason”, but it is namely their irrational hatred towards the people of color that lays at the core of such their worldview: “ The Marrow of Tradition powerfully reconstructs the naked aggression behind the White supremacist campaign to disfranchise Blacks” (Ianovici 36). This is the reason why Blacks, during the years of Reconstruction, never felt safe. They did not have to indulge in acts of violence against Whites to be lynched. They were upstanding and educated Black people who used to inspire hatred among Whites the most. Ianovici points out at grotesque and “darkly gothic” properties of such a situation: “Personal success provided no help in enabling Blacks to transcend their degradation highlights the Jim Crow South’s brutal absolutism. The irrelevancy of personal success to the construction of Southern Black mentality demonstrates how to color line maintains strict racial hierarchy” (Ianovici 41). This explains why the Reconstruction era in the South, is now being often considered as the nadir (lowest point) of America’s Black history, even though this period followed the abolition of slavery. Whereas, before the Civil War, South’s
Medical malpractice is a huge problem for any healthcare system in the world. To fix it, specialists in healthcare ethics and management must understand the nature of the reason standing behind negligent actions. Another field of valuable knowledge is the scholarship of ethics and its implication in healthcare. This essay argues on the example of death-resulted medical case that deontological ethics and shared decision-making can highly mitigate the number of malpractice instances. The Iturralde vs Hilo Medical Center case provides a vivid example of violating core medical ethics principles. In general, the medical staff did not ensure the minimum standards of healthcare. The well-known surgeons’ mantra “do not harm” was highly violated during treatment (Runciman et al., 2017). In the text of the case, Dr. Ricketson, who operated on Arthur Iturralde, decided not to wait for missing surgery materials (Iturralde v. Hilo med. ctr., n.d.). Instead, the surgery was conducted by doctor’s improvisation without the necessary tools for that, which led to the patient’s death. It is immoral and incorrect to make such a decision, so one needs to create the logical ethical guideline for such situations. It seems that the deontological understanding of ethics may be the quite effective model of constraints for surgeons. Österberg (2019) characterizes deontology by the fact that “it considers morally relevant certain properties of action the relevance of which cannot be explained by reference to the value of the outcomes of actions” (pp. 40-41). Thus, Dr. Ricketson did not have moral permission to operate Iturralde before the delivery of necessary elements. Even if Dr. Ricketson had been sure that the outcome of immediate surgery would be better than of delayed, the moral theory would have restricted any actions of possible harm. Modern healthcare is becoming a more patient-centered and evidence-based field. The reason is that modern research shows that the involvement of patients in decision-making is associated with better outcomes (Alden et al., 2013). The most suitable model for physician-patient decision-making is described by Alden et al. (2013). The main idea is a constant attention to the patient decision aids. Alden et al. (2013) argue that “[patient decision aid] helped patients choose the treatment most consistent with their own values” (p. 396). It can be explained by a more active participation of patients that will introduce more accountability and transparency in relations with physicians. Dr. Ricketson was not allowed to decide without the mutual physician-patient understanding. In reality, Iturralde’s opinion was not heard at all, which is highly unfair and immoral. To avoid cases similar to Iturralde’s death, medical organisations should implement policies of shared decision-making and accountability. Physicians should
The basic concepts of cognition and critical thinking take the significant place in the formation of the psychological picture of human activities process. Thought provoking ideas and mental activities involve the critical thinking process and cognition formation. The concept of critical thinking is considered to be the thinking mode covering any problem or issue and improving the quality of the mental process through analysis, reconstruction and assessment of these items. The process of critical thinking is self-monitored, self-corrective and self-directed. The basic function of the critical thinking concept is to clarify and deeply understand the depth and relevance of the given problem. It is usually aimed at the standards evaluation and errors minimization of the issue. The concept of critical thinking can be identified as the art of one’s own mind charging. The process of critical thinking covers practical goals; it presupposes the complete control over one’s behavior and flow of mental operations. Speaking about the concept of cognition it should be noted that it covers a complex and sophisticated area of thinking rather than a single entity. Cognition concept means the thinking process beyond the information production and basic processing of it. It is considered to be the way to the complex thinking activities. The concept of cognition in the groups’ activities enables them to integrate their facts and ideas, to develop creative thoughts, to find solutions to sophisticated problems and tackle complicated challenges. This concept is far important for the collective thinking and effective solutions to problems. The formation of the concept can be observed in the process of collective logical thinking and mental representation.
Balanced Scorecard for Southwest Airlines            Objectives                            Measures                           Targets  Initiatives                   Financial    * Profitable growth                   * Revenue growth                 15%                                                                                                                        100%                                   Customer     * Increase the number of customers    * The ratio of seats occupied               * Decreased fare costs                   * Increase customer’s satisfaction    * Customer satisfaction rating   90%        * Customer loyalty programs                                                                                                                            Process      * Increase the number of roots        * Revenue from the new services  15%        * Acquisition of AirTran                                                                                                   * Development of new roots  Learning     * Management skills                   * Skills coverage ratio          85%        * Training programs                      * Leadership skills                                                               * Performance compensation   Strengths, weaknesses, and strategic issues Southwest Airlines is the leader in the US domestic flights market. Some of the reasons for that success are the company’s culture and the attitude towards customers and employees. One of the most significant strengths of the company is its culture. Employees are truly the company’s major asset and the company values its staff. Top managers of the company are proud of the fact that there have been no layoffs in the history of Southwest Airlines. There are numerous incentives that create a very friendly atmosphere in the working place. Thus, employees have corporate celebrations of major holidays. Each employee gets a present or financial aid when there is a meaningful event in his or her life. Employees feel that care and they are willing to give back. Hence, employees have continuously saved the company’s money by suggesting numerous ways to decrease costs (buying parts of PCs instead of buying already assembled ones). Training (as well as promotion) also plays an important role in this process. Employees are eager to invest their time and go the extra mile to make sure that they contribute enough to the development of the company. Of course, particular attention to customers’ needs is also a reason of the company’s success. Southwest Airlines tries to make fares lower, flight time shorter, destinations more convenient. Of course, the company has always come up with new ideas concerning passengers’ comfort and satisfaction. At the same time, there are certain weaknesses. Kelleher’s principle concerning planning seems to be still accepted in the company. The company seems to have no particular strategic plan where all goals and strategies could be provided. Southwest Airlines seems to react to the
Vanessa’s hazel eyes stared out of the third floor window of her history class but they did not see the red brick wall of the building next door or the dark concrete of the fenced in courtyard below. Instead, they were focused on the small patch of blue sky she could glimpse between the buildings and the darkening clouds. This patch of sky had opened up to drop a moment of escape into the middle of her lesson about the Middle Ages. This was nothing she hadn’t heard before, at least a thousand times, it seemed. Nobody had an education (we should be grateful that in our country education is compulsory), everyone was poor (we should remember to be thankful for what we have) and girls had to do what they were told (so what else was new?). Except for the nobility. They got to live in grand castles and wear wonderful silken dresses that trailed the ground in all kinds of different colors with beautiful ribbons and lace. They never had to attend school but could choose to sit around all day reading whatever books they wanted or work on whatever craft projects they were interested in. Vanessa had seen some examples of the beautifully detailed tapestries they had made during a special museum exhibit she had gone to last year. Princesses had it best of all, with elegantly decorated apartment suites that were all their own, even when they were little, and maids who would do anything they asked them to do, including helping them get dressed and doing their hair for them. They had horses to ride into deep forests and never had to do any work. When they were bored or in love, they could walk for miles on top of the parapets, looking out over some romantic landscape that would stretch for miles in every direction with a city at its base. Vanessa sighed. Her life was so much different from all this. Even now, she had to peek at the sky through the heavy iron bars that guarded the school from vandals and kept the students securely locked within. The musty old classroom had once been a storeroom and the walls closed in around her as if she were to be kept locked up forever as well. Her teacher droned on and on about whatever he felt was important for the next test, but he seemed even less interested than the students, if that was possible. The classroom was cold and it was only a few minutes until the bell, so everyone was poised to go. Loud and clanging, the school bell rang just outside the classroom door and everyone bolted. Maybe it was because she’d b
The majority of people in the modern world live according to the long-established rules which dictate the generally accepted ways of behavior, attitudes, world perception, and self-knowledge depending on cultural background. However, the overall development in human thought enhances the advancement in the framework of people’s understanding of the world around them. The issue of gender is one of the significant elements that define a person’s beliefs and worldview imposing some limitations to his or her boundless development. While listening to the podcast, I thought that the way individuals treat each other in daily life is unconsciously marked by gender. However, not many people recognize it as a significant problem. According to the podcast, people with uncommon views of life are capable of making the change. The family interviewed in the program included an activist and a feminist, people who have strictly defined and specific attitude to life that enables them to be brave enough to confront common rules. The scientific approach that the parents applied to their daughter’s upbringing in an environment free of gender stereotypes empowered the child to grow in a necessary direction without any extra influences. As for my personal childhood experience, I have been influenced by my family in the choice of toys, playground activities, and friends with whom I could spend time. I do not think the fact that my parents encouraged me to behave in a gender-appropriate manner imposed any limitations to my development. Nevertheless, now that I understand the dominant mechanism of gender-related influences in all spheres of life, people’s views on the issue seem bounded. The information I got from the podcast has made a significant impact on my perception of possible ways of children’s upbringing. In my opinion, widening the boundaries and eliminating the limitations raised due to stereotypes will provide a lot of opportunities for my children. When interacting with them, I will do my best not to impose any gender-related expectations allowing them to develop in their unique ways. In conclusion, it is difficult to eliminate stereotypical views of people on fundamental elements in life, such as family relationships or child upbringing. The modern developing world driven by change underlines the importance of uniqueness in all its manifestations. Being honest with oneself and trying to develop without any society-imposed boundaries are the features of a full personality capable of changing the world starting with themselves.