ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Sopher & Co is a tax consulting company located in the United Kingdom. It offers a range of services in business services, audit and accounting, corporate finance, tax investigations, and tax planning (“Tax Consultants London” par 1). After studying the company and the related industry, this paper will report on the commercial assessment of the firm. This report will incorporate a critical appraisal of the company’s professional and business setting and the points of strength in the industry. The paper will also present a critical analysis of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and a comprehensive set of recommendations to the management. Business and professional setting It should be mentioned that the business setting of Sopher & Co is the field of financial planning and accounts consulting. From the management accounts perspective, the professional setting that the company operates in demands its commitment and diligence in service delivery. Moreover, the accounting and auditing professional standards require that the company should be well-coordinated in terms of interior communication, operations, and customer service. From the accounting profession’s point of view, it is established that the company offers client-based services in tax consulting and financial planning. The company’s services also encompass comprehensive business advisory and consulting services in business growth and strategic planning. In addition to the services mentioned above, tax advisory and tax investigations are included in the firm’s competence allowing it to encompass a wide range of solutions such as tax disclosure reports and business tax cases. Throughout the appraisal, it is established that the services of the company are well implemented as per the business and professional setting. Also, it is found out that the company’s personnel are widely observant of the professional requirements and standards that their jobs are attached to. This is the reason why the company provides quality financial planning, accounting, and consulting services. Functional and departmental relationships The company’s organizational structure is based on the services that the consulting firm offers. With the consulting services ranging differently in terms of departments and customer needs, communication and organizational relationships are constant factors in the operations of the company. Functional and departmental lines are the main lines of relationships. It can be viewed that the relationships within the company’s organizational structure are dominated by the functional lines. However, it is considered that the two lines are highly interdependent when it relates to communication, sharing of resources, and responding to clients’ concerns. Despite having well-defined organizational relationships along with departmental and functional lines, it is estimated that there are serious communication inefficiencies within the firm which lacks enough communication between the departments that should be operating in unison by sharing information among them. In addition, It is found out that different departments which should work in conjunctio
Basic Steps of the Control Function Controlling is a systematic process of checking attained performance against predetermined plans or standards with an object of ensuring organizational success (Morden, 2004, p. 141). It involves the verification of existence of conformities between actual output and established plans and principles. Controlling ensures effectiveness and efficiency in the use of an organization’s resources. The basic steps of the controlling function include the setting of standards, measurement of output, comparison of the achieved and standard performance and taking corrective action (Morden, 2004, p. 141). Setting up of standards of performance is the first step in exercising the controlling function. Standards are targets or plans which are to be attained within a specified period in the life of an organization (Morden, 2004, p. 142). They are criteria for measuring and making an assessment of performance. Performance standards are of two kinds, tangible and non-tangible standards. Tangible standards refer to targets which can be determined and expressed in quantitative terms. Management scholars also refer to intangible standards as non-measurable standards. Measurable standards take the form of output, expenditure, cost, time, and profit among others. Intangible standards cannot be measured or expressed in quantitative terms since they are qualitative in nature. Examples of intangible standards include performance of a supervisor, attitude towards a matter, employee satisfaction and consumer satisfaction among others. Establishment of standards makes the controlling easy and objective (Morden, 2004, p. 142). The second fundamental stage in the control process is the measurement of output. Management measures the actual performance to ease establishment of deviations (Morden, 2004, p. 142). Managers measure and express tangible standards in units, expenditure and profit among other quantitative terms. Management practitioners also measure performance using qualitative standards such as the workers’ morale and attitude, development of attitudes and the workers communication with their seniors (Morden, 2004, p. 145). Once the management has measured performance, it should compare the achieved performance with the predetermined targets. This step aims at establishing deviations. Deviations are performance variances between the set targets and the real output (Morden, 2004, p. 145). At this stage, the management should establish the extent of variability and its causes. The management has a duty to establish whether the variance is positive or adverse or whether the attained performance tallies with the set targets. In addition, the management has to practice control by exception in dealing with the variances (Morden, 2004, p. 147). Management has to establish those variances that are critical and significant to the organization. Minor deviations can be ignores while the major ones should be addressed in time. Once the manager has identified and classified deviations, he or she should proceed to determine their causes. Deviations may be
Intelligence failure basically describes a situation in which mistakes and misunderstandings results to enforcement of inappropriate measures by the government. The operation Barbarossa was a mission planned by Hitler to attack Russia in 1941. However, the operation Barbarossa failed to realize its objectives which defeat of Germany in the 1941 war (Spencer, 2010, p. 1). The major factors that resulted to the failure were political, ethnic and military based. Hitler’s much blame for the failure lay on the German staff that was responsible for the escape of Lenin and his colleagues. The powerful leaders and the German society as a whole had no trust on Hitler. They viewed him as an uneducated street man who lacked cultivation. One of the most possible causes for the intelligent failure is overestimation where the state over evaluated the missile gap between America and the Soviet Union. However, underestimation of warnings by political leaders may have contributed to the failure as well. Stain never paid much attention to warning made by the Americans and British (Murphy, 2007, p. 1). The failure to trust foreign intelligence might have led to unpreparedness by Stalin’s government which resulted to its failure and defeat. Stalin has therefore been blamed for his believes and blind correspondence which led to inability to resolve the problem. Hitler had expected that the war would last for not more than three months but to his surprise, the war became a long one and since his army troops were not prepared for a long war, he found himself in trouble as the Soviet Union did not collapse as he had expected. The operation simply had many goals and high expectations of securing Moscow, Ukraine and Leningrad within only twelve weeks (Ruzza, 2006, p. 1). The plan for the operation was difficult to realize as it was planned for a short war as Germans expected that the war would be finished before Russia could organize its advanced troops and other resources. However, Russia did get ready for the war immediately and due to the inadequate resources by the Germans, they had to lose the war to Russians. Hitler’s plan to invade Greece and Yugoslavia at the same time that he had planned on infesting Moscow did not seem to be a wise decision because it made him lack enough time to hit Moscow (Vale, 2009, p. 1). The winter weather conditions in Russia were not favorable for war which was a big mistake by Hitler just as Napoleon had attacked Russia towards the end of year. The German troops were given twenty days after the first period of the war to relax and gather other supplies before going for the final episode. This gave the Russians the chance to come together and strategize their tactics as well as increasing their very advanced resources which made them stronger to attack and defend their country (Kirchubel, 2008, p. 1). Basically, Hitler’s miscalculation led to the defeat of the Germans by the Russi
The insightful article by Weinrach (2002), titled The Counseling Profession’s Relationship to Jews and the Issues that Concern Them: More than a Case of Selective Awareness , sets out to not only illuminate the anti-Semitic issue among the Jews living in the United States and abroad, but also to demonstrate how the counseling profession continues to fuel and reinforce anti-Semitism and the mistreatment of Jews through largely unnoticed and sometimes unintended errors of omission and commission. The author uses published articles, non-published material, case studies as well as incidences reported in organizations and agencies concerned with the counseling profession to demonstrate how Jews continue to be oppressed under the dynamic of anti-Semitism, inaccurate labeling and stereotyping, and also how many mainstream members of the counseling profession fail to admit that anti-Semitism indeed exists and instead choose to accuse Jews of paranoia. The article brings into the fore several essential issues that need to be highlighted. First, it demonstrated how Jews in the counseling profession and beyond have resulted to acts of denial and internalized self-hatred due to the progression of anti-Semitism, which although appearing more secretive, covert and insidious than was the case several decades ago, bears the capacity to influence their self-esteem and positive self-image adversely. Second, it demonstrates how the anti-Semitism issue continues to show Jews in a negative light as they try to fit into the multicultural counseling movement as members of a unique cultural group. Third, and perhaps most important, the article shows how the counseling profession has over the years contributed to the problem of anti-Semitism through errors of omission and commission in the professional counseling literature, hence not only posing a serious peril to the delivery of bias-free counseling but also contributing immensely to the continued discrimination and prejudice against the Jews based on the religious beliefs, their group membership, and sometimes on erroneous convictions and beliefs (Weinrach, 2002). Some of the issues that contribute to the reinforcement of anti-Semitism, according to the author, include non-acknowledgement of Jewish religious holidays in the counseling profession, constant reference and devotion to Jesus by members of the counseling profession in conference proceedings as well as in scholarly literature, constant questioning of the loyalty of Jews to the United States, as well as systematic exclusion of the Jews from multicultural counseling dialogue (Weinrach, 2002). Additionally, not only do some passages in the Bible describe Jews in highly demeaning and derogatory terms, but some scholarly works tend to portray Jewish counselors as generating a high level of suspicion among clients even without noticing that such irrational statements lead to an increase in anti-Semitism. Such predispositions lead the author to argue that “although we tend to view prejudice, discrimination, racism, sexism as overt and intentional acts
Executive Summary North Korea is a sovereign country which should be respected by all nations in the world. North Korea’s good relationship with the United States has long been withstanding until the early1990s when the country expanded its nuclear program and the U.S considered bombing the facilities jeopardizing any good relationship that existed between them. The relationship between the two countries seemed to have found a common ground when Jimmy Carter negotiated peace between the two sides resulting to an Agreed Framework that required North Korea to trade off its nuclear program in exchange of fuel shipments from the U.S. The agreed framework did not bring the peace that was intended for but instead averted war and since then, the U.S has continued to criticize the country’s sale of advanced nuclear technology to other countries remains a subject for discussions. It was later discovered that North Korea was harboring an underground nuclear facility contrary to the Agreed Framework Agreement. Both the United States and North Korea are to be blamed for the torn relationships between, and if they both play the supremacy cards, the relationship between the two powers will be antagonistic. Research reveals that the U.S never delivered the promised heavy fuel oil in exchange for freezing the nuclear power house and also failed to lift its economic sanctions. There are two United states government policies that supports the relationship between the two countries. One is the Clinton administration and CIA and pentagon policies. The Clinton policies limited the U.S engagement in North Korea affairs and sought to analyze the relationship between the two countries while the CIA opposed the arrangements. Since the U.S policies towards North Korea proved impractical, the policy makers in the U.S should address a wide range of bilateral agreements that will strengthen North Korea’s siege mentality. Context and Importance of the problem By understanding the extend to which North Korean leaders regard changes in relation to relationship with the outside world will help us understand why restoring peace between the country and the United States proves challenging. North Korea over the past decades has endured dilemma on how it interacts with the outside world in relation to resistance to principles of monitoring, con
The three steps to confirm that the outsourcer understands the requirements The steps taken to ensure thorough understanding of the requirements by the outsourcer are.   * Provision of a detailed breakdown of project requirements and guidelines. This may include the provision of training (Gray & Larson, 2008).   * Incorporation of outsourcers into partnering schemes. Mutual trust is the outcome coupled with long-term commitments to the project. This also provides room for improvements to the project (Gray & Larson, 2008).   * Involve the outsourcer through principled negotiation. It helps to deal with unreasonable outsourcers (Gray & Larson, 2008). The key to exercising influence within an organization Collaborating and partnering Collaborating and partnering involve the identification of important stakeholders. Stakeholders in an organization could be staff, leaders of various departments, even subordinate staff (Gray & Larson, 2008). This relates to the internal environment of an organization. An external environment includes suppliers and other organizations. The keyword in this discussion is interesting. If the stakeholders have a common interest in the success of an organization, organizational leaders must target such individuals and organizations. Role-model leaders in an organization bring about influence. Consequently, a good leader must be capable of figuring out the fact that stakeholders affect the results of an organization in a duality: direct and indirect. Principled negotiation and its four key points When principled negation is mentioned, the team setting of an organization takes an upper hand. The negotiation takes into account participants’ capability to arrive at results with an open-minded efficiency (Gray & Larson, 2008). The second aspect considers members of a team as potential and first-time solution-givers to a problem. It is based on the following key points: the existence of boundaries between participants and the problem, objective and fair guidelines of negotiation, provision of alternatives to negotiations, and evasion of early position-taking. “Managing and leading a project is essentially the same thing” I agree. Management cannot be separated from leading. Leadership and management are attributes that shape and design the success of a given project. In support of the agreement, and from the perspective of a project manager, the best manager has both attributes. During the entire lifecycle of a project, a manager meets a dual role of management and leading. Management and leadership are applied simultaneously. Supporting attributes borrowed from the two results in a balanced blend, which is neither management nor lea
Over the years, the concept of terrorism has remained a relatively controversial one. Different quarters have viewed terrorism from a different point of view. It is this difference in the point of views that have made the definition of the concept not only hard, but also contested. The views of the entire concept of terrorism are equally contested with one wing viewing terrorism as an act of cowardice while the other arm views terrorism as an act of coercion directed to the government without necessarily engaging in a high profile war. The two standpoints indicate that the people who are labeled as terrorist direct their aggression towards the government or towards high profile entities that are meant to capture the attention of the government. The development of a universally acceptable definition of terrorism can be an effective way for ensuring that the crime is addressed from a common front by the necessary stakeholders. Nevertheless, there are several definitions that have been brought fourth. First, terrorist are viewed as cowards who attack the most vulnerable persons to advance their political or social cause by getting the attentions of the government. Terrorism has also been defined as acts committed with the sole purpose of provoking a state of terror. On the other hand, terrorists view themselves as crusaders of the rights of the oppressed and they seek to target their attacks to the citizens of their oppressors to coerce them (the oppressors) to end the oppression, whether perceived or real. Despite several high profile cases that have been labeled as terrorist attacks, the international community remains reluctant concerning coming up with a definition that would be universally acceptable to define the term terrorism. As noted by Kegley, (2003) the reason the international community is yet to come up with a functional and universally accepted definition of the concept of terrorism is that terrorism represents a highly politically and emotionally charged concept. Due to the lack of a legally binding internationally acceptable definition of what is terrorism, various definitions that have been adopted have remained to be sectorial in nature. Another reason why the definition of the term terrorism remains a hard concept is the changing nature of targets by the terrorists. Crimes that have been qualified as terrorists have kept on changing their nature especially due to the beefing up of security in the areas that had previously been attacked. Most of the sectorial definitions that have been adopted cannot define the terrorism acts that may target some aspects such as air traffic control among other facets. The wide nature of possible soft targets to be adopted by terrorist groups have continued to be a major hindrance to the quest of coming up with an official definition of the term terrorism. According to Kegley, (2003), terrorism is viewed as an act of cowardice that is perpetrated by a group of radical persons that lack the willpower to address their nemesis he
Employment opportunities in the modern world are often limited, and one of the factors that affect this problem is social division. It is the question of foreign citizens who quite often face the problem of unemployment and are compelled to be arranged on unprofitable posts in order to earn for living. According to Caliendo, the issue of immigration is particularly acute in developed countries where people come to find good conditions for life and try to stay in permanent residence (117). This situation is quite typical for the modern labor market, where many emigrants are involved in low-paid and often labor-intensive work. Nevertheless, the author did not indicate the reasons why both young and adult people were forced to leave their home countries and go abroad in pursuit of a better life. Certainly, the search for a promising new job is a rather natural desire for an ambitious and purposeful person. However, employment outside the home country, as a rule, is not because of a desire to succeed abroad but to find at least anyways of earning money. Accordingly, the following question is quite logical: why do people leave their native countries and are purposefully looking for new ways of earning money, quite often even not in prestigious positions? Such a problem should definitely be investigated more deeply as today, this question is very relevant, and many governments still cannot solve the issue of diversion of people from one country and too much filling the labor market in others. Moreover, even in highly developed countries, the number of vacancies is, as a rule, limited, and not everyone can receive a good job. Therefore, it may be important to solve the problem not from the point of view of prohibiting entry but concerning the possibility of correcting the current situation in those countries from which people leave. This problem is quite urgent and is considered by different authors. For example, Wacquant also describes such a question and claims that discrimination and competition among immigrants is a typical phenomenon in modern society, and the reasons for this problem lie in the overcrowding of the labor market (208). Wacquant partially repeats the ideas of Caliend