ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio (Ciabattari 1). She was a prominent editor and writer of her time. The Song of Solomon, published in 1977 is Toni Morrison’s third novel. It proved to be hugely popular with both critics and readers alike. The novel revolves around the ultimate quest for self and its realization. It tells the story of the quest for cultural identity by its hero, Macon (Milkman) Dead III. In so doing, the novel reflects Morrison’s desire to preserve African-American folklore, art, music, and literature (Chastain 779). The relationship between love for an individual and love for an ideology is explored well in the novel through the love of Macon for Hagar and the love of finding justice for African Americans. Hagar’s and Guitar’s expressions of love are different. The book itself is a swooping flight of imagination. It won both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1977 (Haskins and Haskins 40). Morrison, as a novelist has always explored the definition of love from a philosophical viewpoint. She is known for creating characters whose love is interwoven with violence, destruction, or death (Bak 279). In the book, “The Song of Solomon” such an obsessive love is found in the passionate desire of Hagar and the friendly love of Guitar. The novel begins with the scene of Robert Smith, an insurance agent leaping off the roof of Mercy Hospital wearing blue silk wings hoping that he will fly to the opposite shore of Lake Superior. He instead falls to his death. The next day, the first black child is born in Mercy Hospital, Milkman Dead to Ruth Foster Dead. Knowing that he cannot fly, Milkman grows up a very disinterested young man though he enjoys the love and care of his mother, aunt Pilate, and his sisters First Corinthians and Magdalene (called Lena). Milkman is not capable of reciprocating the love and kindness of the women around him and grows up bored and lacking compassion. In this emotional desert, Milkman forms two initially sustaining relationships, one with a schoolmate, Guitar, and one with Pilate’s granddaughter, Hagar. In his ruthless pursuit of gold, Milkman, at the age of thirty-two, with the help of his friend Guitar Bains attempts to rob Pilate. But instead of gold he just finds some rocks and a human skeleton. He needed the funds to participate in the mission planned by the Seven Days, a secret society that tries to kill innocent white civilians to take revenge on the atrocities committed against the African-Americans. Searching for material prosperity, Milkman rejects the love of Hagar, who is driven mad by the rejection and tries to kill Milk
Introduction Every human being is a unique universe of genetic data and acquired features (including imitation, learning, and so on). At the same time, people do not usually live in isolation but interact with each other affecting each other’s behavior. People obtain their primary and develop secondary identities in the course of interaction with other individuals (Fulcher & Scott 2011). Philosophers, psychologists as well as researchers specializing in other social sciences have tried to explain people’s behavior. There are various approaches to the problem. It is possible to apply some of the most influential psychological and sociological theories to address a common event in every person’s life. Sociological theories   * Functionalism     As far as sociological theories are concerned, people’s behavior is regarded through the lens of individuals’ interactions as well as their place in the society. For instance, functionalism views the human society as a well-established system (Haralambos & Holborn 2013). People tend to behave in a way that is beneficial for the development of the system. Proponents of functionalism stress that people act in terms of values developed in the society. Every society has certain norms and rules as well as values that define people’s actions. It is believed that people take up particular roles to fit in the system. It is also believed that older generations should pass values to younger generations. When some inappropriate beliefs, values and so on occur, people should make sure they do not spread.     This theoretical paradigm explains people’s choice to obtain the higher education as this enables them to contribute to the development of the society through accumulation and the use of knowledge and skills. Nonetheless, people’s societies are not characterized by values and rules exclusively. There is such concept as discrimination and prejudice that lead to the exclusion of some groups of people based on their features or backgrounds (Miller 1996). For example, females are often discriminated in some spheres (sciences) although the western societies promulgate equity. More so, discrimination also puts hazards to the development of society as an array of skilled or talented individuals is isolated from the pool of tasks. It is possible to note that the theory can be instrumental in considering the issue on a larger scale, but it can be inefficient when looking into details.   * Conflict theory     Another influential theory, which is still often referred to, is the Conflict paradigm. Karl Marx was one of the founders and major proponents of this approach, and he believed that all people’s actions are determined by the conflict and their fight for resources that are scarce (Haralambos & Holborn 2013). The thinker paid a lot of attention to the interactions among classes, groups of people developed on the basis of their control of “the means of production” (Thompson 2012, p. 28). The major stimulus for all actions is the conflict.     Thus, when regarding th
Case Summary The case compiled by Sharen (2013) features Roberto Ubertino as the prime decision-maker put to face a dilemma of succession planning and change management before his retirement. Ubertino is the founder and executive director of St. John the Compassionate Mission (Toronto, Ontario), a social service establishment based on the teachings of St. John the Compassionate. Ubertino’s position is not solely confined to his duties as an executive. On the contrary, he is what might be called a servant leader, performing both the executive and pastoral functions and generally multitasking. The responsibility for vision and mission communication is also Ubertino’s. Implicitly, the result of his multifunctioning is that the organization relies too heavily on his performance, which is one of the key issues the Mission faces. Another challenge occupying the mind of the executive is the transition of the leadership. From what he knows about the similar organizations’ situations just after their leaders retired or left, acquiring stability after his retirement can be complicated. When other similar organizations’ leaders have retired, the establishments were in crisis. Ubertino realizes that the problem of his retirement has a primary structural significance for the organization. His successor or successors should resolve numerous strategic issues and at the same time comply with the goals, mission, and vision of the organization to preserve its unicity and serve its high purpose. He also understands the necessity to develop a thorough plan since the Mission would not be able to achieve its goals without it. Ubertino is currently put to face the problem because he has been serving for almost three decades and considers it an appropriate time to retire. However, the Mission cannot survive if he just leaves because numerous other issues have been gathering up during the lengthy period of his service. For one, the Mission lacks consistent growth policies because the establishment is organized in a “just do it” fashion. The volunteers propose some changes and are
The hospitality industry represents a unique environment marked by high-quality standards and customer satisfaction. A contemporary business environment requires exceptional leadership skills and knowledge, flexibility, and excellent communication skills. The supervisory role in hospitality organizations requires the application of managerial skills and leadership attributes in order to maintain high-quality standards and meet customer expectations and service demands. The aim of the paper is to prove that “the supervisory role requires the application of managerial functional skills as well as the exercise of leadership attributes’. There are different definitions exist to determine the roles and duties of supervisors. Following Higson and Wilson (1995) a supervisor’s post is seen below front-line managers. in this case, their role is to introduce and control directions and strategies goals determined by managers. The supervisory role is to communicate and motivate employees, control task completion, and determine performance problems. In modern hospitality organizations, managerial tasks increase in complexity, and thus in difficulty, as one moves from the operations level to the strategic apex. That is hardly a significant discovery, nor is it particularly significant to observe that most managers develop the capacity to deal with increasing complexity. For the supervisors, task complexity defines requisite conceptual complexity and mandates that conceptual complexity increase systematically as managers move higher in their organizations (“WYPS cuts stress-related illness:” 2008). Those who do not continue to develop will plateau or derail. A manager’s capacity to continue developing thus becomes an extraordinarily important issue for all organizations concerned with executive development and succession. Current capacity is that level of complexity that can be mastered at the given time. Its measure is the maximum level of task complexity that, all other things equal, an incumbent can successfully deal with. Mode is the maximum level of task complexity that, all other things equal, can eventually be mastered (Wong and Pang, 2003). The role of supervisors is to motivate employees and explain to them the goals and strategic directions of the department. In order to fulfill these functions, they have to use the main managerial skills such as effective communication, relationships management, and decision-making. In hospitality management, reflective thinking is a meaning-making activity, in which the elements of experience are placed in relationship with one another to form what might be termed an implicit decision support system (Smith,1982). Supervisors’ functional skills are required for the development of these mental models, and therefore they thought it likely that significant individual differences would be found in the proclivity (intrinsic motivation) to build them. Organizations that compete more effectively get a larger portion of available resources, which means that those that compete less effectively get fewer resources. Organizations act much like other systems that have intelligence. Supervisors
There is no doubt that industrial engineering grew out of the second industrial revolution and originally focused on the study and design of work processes and the people who operated machines (Bernstein, 2006). Yet, today the field and discourse of industrial engineering has to a large extent distanced itself from this early concern, with analysts and mainstream commentators acknowledging that it has come of age through successfully extending its tentacles beyond factory settings (Bailey & Barley, 2005). The present paper purposes to illuminate some careers in the field of industrial engineering. Extant literature demonstrates that advances in technology and shifts in types of industries in the United States and internationally “have created opportunities for industrial engineers to work in industrial sectors that span far beyond the traditional area of manufacturing where the discipline of industrial engineering was originally founded” (Eskandari et al., 2007 p. 45). In factory settings, though, industrial engineers fit well in any role which is charged with the responsibility of making critical decisions concerning the best use of people, material, equipment and energy in the accomplishment of the organization’s strategic aims and objectives Drawing from the above exposition of facts, it is clear that industrial engineers have job openings as plant managers, process engineers as well as scheduling/planning engineers. Plant managers not only assist the organization’s senior management to ensure that manufacturing processes are functional and adequate to keep up with customers’ demand, but also supervise the work of personnel and make sure that production targets are met to satisfy business requirements. Likewise, process engineers within manufacturing or production settings are charged with the responsibility of manufacturing products from raw materials or shaping raw materials into usable product forms using their expertise in industrial and equipment processes. Scheduling/planning engineers, on their part, are charged with the responsibility of establishing an overall level of output and designing or scheduling other activities that are intrinsically required to satisfy and possibly surpass planned levels of production while guaranteeing the organization’s strategic objectives regarding profit, productivity, lead times and customer satisfaction, as constituted in the overall business plan (Bernstein, 2006). It should be recalled that Francis Taylor and Frank Gilbreth were the initial forces behind the industrial age, which provided an enabling environment for the eventual birth of the field of industrial engineering. Taylor left a mark in the management scene for proposing that work methods should be designed to increase worker productivity, whereas Gilbreth not only established time and motion studies as a tool of industrial engineerin
The Fashion Channel is a TV network which features mainly fashion related content in its programs. It has a large subscriber base who are attracted by its content. Most of its viewers are women aged 35 to 54. The firm has operated without any customer segmentation, brand awareness or overall market strategies for a long time. The firm seeks to change its market approach because it has realized that other TV networks are airing fashion programs targeting specific demographics. TFC intends to build a brand that will compete effectively in the market based on its reputation to capture more valuable customers. The vice president of marketing, Dana Wheeler is setting up strategies to help the firm become more competitive in the market. The firm has not been able to increase the revenue it earns from adverts because advertising firms feel programs aired have low ratings.The firm intends to push up sales revenues by focusing more on specific viewers to help it strengthen its position in the market. TFC wants to target specific customer segments in the market to make sure that its content reaches the right viewers. The firm needs to boost its ratings to attract more advertising revenue. The only way the firm can make advertisers interested in it is by airing content which appeals to young viewers who appreciate fashion. The firm also needs to maintain its spot on cable TV affiliates by ensuring viewers are more interested in programs it airs. Cable TV subscriptions offer the second largest revenue stream and it needs to improve the ratings of its programs to help it earn higher revenues. TFC is facing a lot of competition from mainstream TV networks which air a variety of content including fashion. Therefore, TFC needs to come up with content that targets premium viewers who have a strong appreciation for quality fashion. Lifetime and CNN, the two channels which threaten to overtake TFC in cable TV viewer ratings, have higher customer satisfaction scores compared to TFC. Low ratings have made the price cable TV consumers pay to subscribe to the channel to decrease. The firm needs to effect radical marketing strategies to help it increase the value of its service in the market. TFC needs to profile its customers to understand their behaviour and attitudes towards its services. This approach will help the firm to sustain strong relationships with
Introduction Valero Energy Corporation is a marketer and producer of fuels, which include different products of petrochemical origin and power. The corporation is a significant figure in the international oil and power market. Recently, Valero Energy announced that its partners, Valero Energy Partners LP, approved the acquisition of Louisiana and Houston Subsidiaries. General overview of Valero Energy Valero Energy Corporation occupies an important place in the international oil and gas market. The company was founded in 1980 in San Antonio, Texas. Since that time, it has developed and broadened the number of refineries and territories. Currently, sixteen refineries are operating in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean. The average daily throughput capacity is about three million barrels a day. Eleven ethanol plants also belong to Valero Energy. The corporation specializes in producing a wide range of products: diesel fuel, gasoline, conventional gasoline, low-sulfur diesel fuel, premium gasoline, jet fuel, and lubricants. Newspaper article summarizing and defining basic issue The article under consideration entitled “Valero Energy Partners to Buy Houston, Louisiana Subsidiaries for $671 Million” was published in 2015, on February 27 in the online version of the newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The author of the article is Angela Chen. The author provides readers with general information concerning the transaction. A limited partnership of Valero Energy Corporation is to buy terminals of refined petroleum in Louisiana and Houston. The assets of Louisiana have ten million barrels of storage capacity. Three and a half million barrels belong to Houston. Both Houston LLC and Louisiana LLC control crude oil-producing, terminals with refined petroleum products, and intermediates. The financing of the transaction is conducted in different ways, namely: $211 million of cash, a five-year loan agreement for $160 million, $200 million of revolving credit, and $100 million in stock (Chen 1). The economic principle applied to the event The transaction is considered to be a successful one and it is necessary to point out that such economic principle as opportunity cost applies to the issue. Opportunity cost is something one must give or lose to achieve another value or profit. It is one of the basic principles of the economy, which implies that a producer or manufacturer has to make a trade-off between two possible solutions. Opportunity cost is obligatory when the choice takes place. It is also tightly connected with the notion of comparative advantage. Economists use this term when they describe opportunity cost. The comparative advantage of the opportunity cost is a force that drives specialization (Mankiw 54). The transaction of buying Houston and Louisiana subsidiaries by Valero Ene
For an organization to optimize its performance effectively, it is crucial to define the roles of HR within the organizational context, as it may influence the elements of the organization. Considered as a driver to the success of the organization, the HR profession covers both diversity and leadership aspects of success that varies considerably in all the levels of the organization. The future of HR is a factor of creativity and innovation, which traditionally take place specifically and in a given sequential process to produce tangible results. Organizations are shifting from traditional methods of coining creativity to embracing the fact that it can come from anyone or anywhere. From this argument, job roles are no longer the only repository of creativity. In addition, creativity is currently becoming ownership-based – meaning it can occur either in or out of an organization though in a non-sequential manner (Boudreau and Ziskin 2011). Today there is no much engagement between employees and the HR, which the article refers to “almost impossible,” especially for those in the profession of sciences and engineering. The future leaders in the HR profession should take notice however much they wish to safeguard the editorial power within the organizational context Organizations are currently using internet techniques such as crowdsourcing to collect intelligence information to help in solving a wide range of issues. From these sites, the organizations get various solutions to the problems facing them even though the credibility of the answers given are questionable since some are given by those lacking adequate information. These activities risk the future of HR as a profession and its effectiveness in an organization since most of the implementations that organizations perform were collected from social media. Social media is also responsible for various changes of the hierarchy in workplaces, as most organizations prefer fetching information directly from the internet, instead of waiting for those in charge like the HR or any other person in senior management to give them directives (Boudreau and Ziskin 2011). Many organizations are willing to risk a lot in trying to bring change using social networking as a tool for communication and creating flexibility within the company rather than relying on HR’s creativity and leadership techniques. There is the need for future HR leaders to think and act properly past the traditional boundaries of their roles, which encourage them to migrate from programs that focus on traditional ways of suggesting ideas and encouraging new technological platforms. Moreover, they will need to address the factors influencing the definition and extraction of innovative culture through the identification of periods to encourage innovation within the organization. If successful, employment value proposition m