ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction E-learning approach is gaining popularity as more and more companies prefer to shift to this model replacing the traditional learning method. In 2015, 77% of the US companies offered e-learning programs in the framework of the employees’ training (Patten par.1). This learning model is said to have numerous advantages including its cost-effectiveness, convenience, and flexibility, to name but a few. In the meantime, it is proposed that apart from considering the positive aspects, Paper Products should also examine the potential drawbacks of this model in order to design an effective implementation strategy. Project Summary It is proposed that Paper Products reshapes its training strategy making a shift to the e-learning model. The implementation of the new training approach is expected to reduce the training costs, increase general productivity, and ensure employees’ involvement in the working process. Report of Progress The e-learning concept has been examined in a detailed manner to evaluate its advantages and analyze the related experience of other companies. Thus, a detailed study has shown that the majority of global companies have already implemented the e-learning method – 60% of the companies participating in the research reported integrating the e-learning elements into their training strategies (Strother 1). Numerous companies report significant savings due to replacing traditional learning with e-learning. Hence, IMB managed to save 200 million dollars, Ernst and Young reported 40% expenditures reduction while Rockwell Collins claimed they reduced their expenditures by 40% (Strother 1). Moreover, the study aimed at evaluating the benefits of e-learning revealed numerous advantages. First and foremost, both learners and trainers feel more satisfied with the e-learning model due to its flexibility and convenience. Secondly, e-learners show higher performance results as they feel less anxious and stressed in the framework of this learning model. Moreover, the e-learning model is more performance-related – it helps employees to apply their knowledge to the work (Strother 8). In addition, some experts point out that the e-learning option improves the company’s image and helps to engage new employees (Patten par. 4). Finally, it should be noted that e-learners have access to global educational content. In the meantime, the system is said to have a series of weaknesses as well. Most importantly, the e-learning model requires designing a new evaluation system as the approach used in traditional learning is inapplicable in this case (Tzeng, Chiang, and Li 1029). Some experts also point out that it is more problematic to control learners within the e-learning model than in the framework of the traditional system (Derouin, Fritzsche, and Salas 147). Hence, it is essential that the employees are motivated enough to perform consistent self-control. Finally, the e-learning system is s
Introduction Lechmere, Inc had a retail store in Newington, Connecticut. It partly owned the shopping plaza’s parking lot where its employees parked their vehicles. There was a grassy place of land which was a public property that kept the lot away from the highway. It was directly a place where the local union organizers placed promotional handbills on the windshields of Lechmere employees’ cars. Lechmere Inc didn’t allow the organizers to use the lot, and they opted to use the public strip of land to distribute the handbills to employees entering in the morning and leaving in the evening. The Ruling on the Case The local 919 of the United Food and Commercial Workers reported on unfair labor cases to the NLRB. They claimed that Lechmere had violated section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act by barring them access to the parking lot. The NLRB accepted the union’s plea, and the Court of Appeals enforced that decision (Cihon and Castagnera 68). The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals ruling on three counts. One was that the rights in the NLRA can only affect the employees and not the unions or non-employee organizations. It is not a must that the employer allows non-employee union representatives to access the private property (Cihon and Castagnera 189). The second argument was that section seven of the NLRA does not apply to non-employee union organizers except when the non-employee union representatives cannot communicate to the employees through the conventional channels. The union must prove that reasonable access to employees is infeasible. Lastly, the union could not substantiate that there were obstacles hindering them from communicating with the employees. The workers did not live in the plaza. The size of the Metropolitan could not block them from accessing the employees. If the union had managed to contact at least 20 employees regarding the organization, then there were no obstacles reaching the workers (Cihon and Castagnera 270). Dissenting Views about the Case The Supreme Court erred in its ruling above. The union had tried to place a big advert in the newspaper about their intention to organize the Lechmere employees. There had not been a response to the advert. The option to walk to the parking lot and place handbills on the windshields had come up because it seemed like the only best alternative to get their attention (Cihon and Castagnera 270). The Supreme Court’s decision to block the union from using the strip of grassy public land is tantamount to disallowing the public and unions from accessing any public land to organize. The public land is
In business, the question of moral philosophy is one of the complex ones as it reflects the unique values and rules of an individual. Ethical content may be determined by individual needs rather than by organizational issues: a manager who has difficulty giving candid feedback may be assigned a project to develop and give detailed behavioral feedback to a problem subordinate; a manager having trouble managing upward might be assigned to develop a presentation for a senior executive. Such programs are usually conducted online, over time, and under the guidance of a coach, perhaps with a group of peers. Returning for a second training session, participants share their results with the training group. The strengths of the moral approach include that the problems are relevant to the individual and that one-on-one coaching and feedback are provided. Its limitations spring from the same source: individuals may not choose the most important areas to work on, there may be little accountability for results, and even if individuals change, the unchanged context to which they return may not support that change over time. The use of job experience for development has a long history. Such phrases as “earning one’s stripes” and “doing time” have long been used to describe organizational career progress. In their heyday, when long-term employment and steady progression were the norms, systematic rotation programs and career paths mapped the experiential path to the top. Today’s organizations, emerging from the downsizing era and finding themselves short of needed leadership talent, have neither the time nor the stability to wait for such processes to produce results. In a trend unlikely to fade, organizations are attempting to accelerate development, with both good and ill effects. Although acceleration efforts have caused companies to look more closely at the assignments they provide to their high-potential managers and to become more efficient and effective in their use, the emphasis on speed has led to shortcuts that may cause talented people to derail, or even worse, may encourage moving poorly prepared people into senior roles (Ferrell et al 2009). The main theories and approaches used by managers and leaders in business are egoism, deontology
The case of Bell ExpressVu and the two former employees shows the importance of an effective team building in developing a successful business organization. In team building, the participants learn the spirit of teamwork and collaboration to accomplish effectively a given task. To establish an effective team, an organization should maintain a clear communication among team members regularly regarding their tasks in a team-building event. In Bell ExpressVu case, the two women Fran Boutilier and Alison Green, were uninformed of the details of the retreat and even showed up in business attire. Members of a team must possess a shared purpose with specific goals to achieve in a team-building event. The retreat organized by Bell ExpressVu was meant to make the team members interdependent and thus create an effective team. However, in team building, members have to agree on how to work together. A common agreement to collaborate in solving problems and share information helps them to work effectively together as a team. The two women executives were not involved in team decision-making and this led to the differences with the other male members. Team building aims at promoting teamwork, promotes the performance of the team, and thus must involve all employees and other stakeholders. The team members should be committed to the team building activities to ensure the team’s success. However, “…the female executives were apparently not committed to the team-building activities as Green refused to ‘pair off with a man to practice kicks, punches, and chokeholds” (Heathfield, 2000). The management of the executive retreat in the Bell ExpressVu case failed to achieve the expected results because of the poor management decisions. Firstly, the management failed to define limits to employee empowerment activities and this led to the improper treatment of the female executives including ‘sexist, vulgar language and being frozen out of drinking sessions with the “boys’ club’. The management also failed to provide directions regarding the theme of the retreat. The theme of the event was uninspiring particularly to the female participants. The managers failed to provide information to the two female employees and as a result were not well prepared for the team-building event. The female executives were unaware of what was expected of them in the retreat and that explains why they wore office attire. It is the responsibility of the organization to provide information regarding its organizational practices to new employees. The blocked communication led to misinformation that particularly contributed to the failure of the team building in Bell ExpressVu case. To organize an effective team-building event, the theme of the event should be exciting and inspiring to the employees. Such a theme helps to motivate and communicate effectively with the participants of team building (Diamond, 2007, p. 159). In addition, clear communication through memos or posters of the team-bui
Introduction Multinational Corporations (MNCs) play a fundamental role in the economic improvement of the unindustrialized nations. MNCs complement the host nation’s resources and escalate value addition on diverse products. MNCs engagement in the emerging states has created both undesirable and helpful impacts. Developing nations place a considerable expectation on their interactions with MNCs. They believe this can move them closer to the industrialized states. MNCs continue to accelerate their investments in developing nations in order to unlock the markets. Remarkably, such increments have generated numerous implications. First, they have positively influenced expansion of the economy, increased labor, accelerated production, and improvement of infrastructure. On the contrary, the undesirable impacts have taken the form of environmental degradation, widening developmental gaps, and adverse competition that hurt local businesses. Much as MNCs support the economic expansion of the unindustrialized states, their operations also create undesirable impacts, which hurt the host countries and their residents in a number of ways. Positive Impacts of MNCs MNCs contribute to the improvement of economies of the emerging states in different ways. MNCs normally generate job opportunities in the developing nations. This escalates income and spending within the economy, thus stimulating growth (Rugraff & Hansen, 2011). The technological growth stimulated by MNCs also benefits the countries. Large MNCs also contribute to the host nation’s revenue base. The taxation revenue submitted by MNCs is normally higher than payments made by some local businesses (Kristensen and Morgan, 2007). Furthermore, MNCs improve the developing nation’s balance of payment. This takes place through direct investments and export of manufactured products. MNCs also improve the level of productivity and expertise within the emerging economies. The introduction of new technology in the local markets enhances production efficiency. This helps MNCs obtain an edge over local manufacturers (Kristensen and Morgan, 2007). Local industries normally attempt to enhance their competitive advantage through hiring experts and introducing technology. This further escalates production (Adeyeye, 2012). In addition, the developing nations realize benefits through the introduction of best practices and expertise. The locally generated resources may find ready market in the MNCs (Rugraff & Hansen, 2011). MNCs also contribute to the improvement of social and development needs of the developing nations. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs implemented by MNCs contribute to the expansion of social services that benefit residents (Mujih, 2012). MNCs implement diverse programs such as supporting the creation of an infrastructure in hospitals and schools to improve accessibility to health care and education services. Furthermore, MNCs sometimes support the training of residents thro
Federal Bureau of investigation The Federal Bureau of investigation, FBI, is a national security agency that is threat-based and intelligence-driven and the United States justice department’s primary investigative arm (Theoharis 206). It is also a member of the intelligence community in the United States with mandate to investigate particular crimes. In addition, it supports other law enforcement groups through provision of services such as fingerprinting identification, lab processes and training. The FBI collects information, disseminates and carries out analysis of intelligence in order to accurately predict and prevent any security threats that United States could be facing (Theoharis 171). Functions The Federal Bureau of Investigation has its investigations divided into several programs with the major national security precedence on terrorism, counterintelligence and cyber crime. Terrorism refers to domestic and global terrorism as well as weapons of mass destruction (Theoharis 172). Cyber crime refers to computer intrusions, online predators, piracy or property theft, internet fraud and identity theft (Theoharis 172). Criminal priorities cover public corruption, civil rights, organized crime, white collar crime and violent crime plus major thefts (U.S.FederalGovernment.org). Public corruption refers to government and election fraud as well as foreign corrupt practices. Civil right violations covers hate crime, human trafficking, racial discrimination and freedom to access health facilities. Organized crime covers Italian mafia, Eurasian, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Asian, African and sports bribery. Violent along with major thefts include art theft, bank robbery, cargo and vehicle theft, violation of child rights, gangs, retail theft, theft of jewelry or gem, and crimes on cruise ships or Indian country (U.S.FederalGovernment.org). White-collar crime covers bankruptcy, corporate, healthcare, mortgage, mass marketing and insurance frauds and money laundering (U.S.FederalGovernment.org). FBI has a philosophy of having close relations and sharing of information with other security agencies and intelligence at federal level, state level, local level as well as international level. Most of the investigations by FBI is in collaboration with other agencies of law enforcement or involve comparing investigations with other agencies for comparison. Inadequacies The FBI does not have a shared database for use with other security agencies because its database is only accessible to its agents and any information is provided upon request. The FBI has its activities concentrated mostly in United States and it only cooperates with other security agencies during investigations or provides som
Borders Finance and Decision Making Borders Group Inc. was incorporated in 1994 by two brothers, Tom Borders and Louis following its separation from the parent company, Kmart Corporation. However, before incorporation, the company had been in operation since 1971, having started as a small bookstore and eventually growing tremendously over the years with various superstores’ branches being opened. The company’s core business is selling books, music, conducting special events like live music and story times featuring artists and authors. In addition, Borders Group Inc. operates coffee bars within its superstores, which have been very profitable despite the stiff competition in the market. currently, the company has superstores in the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Puerto Rico among others making it the second-largest bookseller after Barnes and Noble (Answers.com,2007). Although the company’s growth has been impressive, the company’s performance has been lousy since the early 2000s due to the unfavorable book industry environment that saw the company discontinue online bookselling. Despite this challenge, the company soldiered on improving profitability by concentrating on the development of superstores (Answers.com, 2007). Due to the effects of the economic downturn and the loss-making in the last two years, the company decided to sell Paperchase gifts and stationery business to Pershing Square Capital effective 15th April 2009 at a consideration of $65 million and the process reduce the wage costs. Assume the workforce directly operating at Paperchase represent 5% of the total labor costs of the company, other operating costs exclusively dedicated to Paperchase account for 2% of total company’s costs, and the revenues generated thereof account to 1% of total revenues, the total expected revenues for the year are $3,275 million and totally expected labor costs are $490 million and total costs are expected to be $2450 million. Further, additional costs associated with the settlement of the deal are $750000. From the above information, labor costs associated with Paperchase, other operating costs, and the additional costs are relevant bec
Introduction Of all the illegal drugs in existence, Cannabis Sativa (most popularly known as marijuana) is the most commonly used substance (Pedersen 395). The World Health Organization documents that2.5% of the world’s population indulge in the usage of this drug therefore making it the most popular psychoactive substance. Despite this apparent popularity of the drug, it remains illegal in many countries including the USA. Recent scientific researches have revealed that the effect of marijuana on a person’s health may not be as potent as previously thought. With this revelations and the increased use of the drug among the population, there have been calls for the government to consider legalizing this popular recreational drug. Calls for legalizing marijuana have been countered by vocal opposition from people advocating for the drug to be kept illegal since it has many negative effects. This paper will set out to argue that the government should legalize marijuana since the negative effects of this substance are not as dire and legalization would result in many benefits for the society. The paper will rely on research to reinforce this claim. Why Marijuana should be Legalized Marijuana is a favored recreational drug which means that its commercial significance is high due to the high demand for the product. Under the current situation where the drug is deemed illicit, the government cannot benefit monetarily from commerce in this drug. This is an important consideration since data on the prevalence of Marijuana indicates that the US is still the world’s largest single market for the drug (Yacoubian 25). The government could gain a lot of revenue if the drug was made legal and taxes imposed on it. As it currently stands, the sale of the drug only benefits players in the black market who produce and sell the product. These playe
According to an orthodox definition, it is known and assumed that monetary policy is about the manipulation of interest rates. However, there is more to it than just controlling the interest rates of an economy. As a matter of fact, the monetary policy of any country could be deemed responsible for a wider category of three forms. This would include, controlling the money supply, maintaining the amount of credit allowed by banks and controlling the country’s interest rates (Sloman 556). Monetary Policy is set keeping in mind the targeted inflation rate and achieving the target set for the exchange rate and growth of money supply. For these reasons, it is to be decided as to which organization is to set the policy; the government or the central bank or the latter with respect to rules put forward by the government itself. Thus, it would rather seem impossible to keep a correlation between political behavior and outcomes without acknowledging both the institutions’ roles (Morris 31). Governments aim at controlling the money supply from growing extensively in the long term so that inflation could well be kept under control. While for the short term, the purpose of setting up the monetary policy is to ease out business cycle fluctuations. Let’s take an example of the Federal Reserve being in favor of operating a tight monetary policy in order to reduce the aggregate demand (Sloman 558). According to the diagram below, there exists an equilibrium interest rate for the supply of money, ‘Ms’, here ‘L’ denotes the demand for money where it equals the supply. In order to practice a tighter monetary policy FED can reduce the supply of money, ‘Ms’ and let any equilibrium interest rate pave way. Therefore, if a left shift is witnessed and money gets reduced to ‘Q2’, this would account for a comparatively higher interest rate as denoted by ‘r2’. On the contrary, rather than reducing money supply, interest rates could be increased first to have a shift and eventually reduction in the present money supply. (Sloman 559) Similarly, the government would want to keep the cost of investment low especially in the present scenario of aggressive recession. For this, it would aim to have low rates of interest 1 and reduced money supply. However, such a situation would result in what is known as ‘disequilibrium’ 2 as it is almost impossible to have low interest rates while having the money supply down. The Federal Reserve was established in the year 1913 as a result of The Act of Congress 1913 and at it’s inception there were only seven members from the Board of Governors (Rabin and Stevens 308). Likewise, Fed was structured in a way that the people taking responsibility of the money supply would be kept independent from those governing the country, which is why it is deemed to be one of the most credible in the world. Furthermore, there are three known feature