ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Lean operation refers to a logical way of handling processes to minimize or eliminate waste. According to Arlbjorn and Freytag (2013), lean operations consider that waste comes as a result of overburden and inequality in workloads. In essence, lean operations concentrate on “making apparent what adds value by reducing everything else” (Arlbjorn & Freytag, 2013, p. 179). Arlbjorn and Freytag (2013) define lean operation as a management stance drawn mostly from the production system that the Toyota Company employs. The Toyota Company used a lean production system to eliminate seven processes that did not add value to the clients and organization. Most people understand lean as a collection of instruments that facilitate the recognition and robust eradication of waste. Waste elimination results in quality improvement and cost and time reduction. Most call center organizations have not streamlined their operations (Arlbjorn and Freytag, 2013). Consequently, it is hard for individuals working at the call centers to receive customer complaints and resolve them in time. In most cases, the call centers’ management blames the workers for not meeting customers’ needs. Hence, they end up laying off some workers as a measure to enhance productivity. Companies even opt to hire more workers to enhance productivity. Such moves cannot help to resolve the underlying problem. The ultimate solution is to use a lean approach to improving operations. This paper will discuss how one can enhance performance in a call center through the lean-approach. Process in a Call Center Call centers are established to help people address different problems. In most cases, people seek a call center’s assistance when faced with challenges that require immediate attention. For instance, one may contact a call center when they require to be linked with a medical officer. At times, operators require time to research questions that are hard to give immediate answers (Arlbjorn and Freytag, 2013). However, it is hard for the operators to leave the desk as performance is evaluated based on their availability to respond to customers’ questions. Many times, the open issues that clients raise go unattended for days, if not weeks. Arlbjorn and Freytag (2013) claim that cases of calls going unanswered are common at the call centers. Lack of adequate time to research on open issues leads to the call center representatives ignoring the questions. In most cases, customers call again to confirm if the operator got an answer to their question. Hasle, Bojesen, Jensen, and Bramming (2012) claim that failure to respond to a customer’s question in the first
Defensible strategy for the client The defensible strategy for the client is based on the six steps in the tax research process namely establishment of facts, identification of issues, location of the authority, evaluation of the authority, development of conclusions and recommendations, as well as communication of the recommendations (Sawyers, Raabe, Whittenburg & Gill, 2014). The strategy intends to help the client solve the tax problem. Just as the case is with the conventional research process, the tax research would comply with the steps stated above to make the process methodical and cover all aspects of the tax problem to have an effective defense against the internal revenue service (IRS) (Sebastian, 2002). Two points are critical in the strategy. First, I will use various mechanisms in identifying and finding tax authorities associated with the current tax issues. The second point is the application of creativity and reasoning based on professional qualification to solve the problem and defend the client (Rupert, Pope & Anderson, 2014). Using the six steps, the first one will help in identifying the major issu
Climate Change Effects of Coal Seam Gas Mining Australia has already ratified the Kyoto agreement on emission reduction in 2007. Before the voluntary ratification, Australia featured among the top twenty countries that were emitting much of the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. According to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, the commercial exploitation of reserves of coal seam gas (CSG) is on the rise with new plans of exporting liquefied natural gas produced in progress. Though the exploitation of reserves began in 1996, coal seam gas currently accounts for 10 percent of the national gas production. The coal seam gas accounts for 90 percent of the domestic supply of gas in the East Coast region (Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, 2012). Coal seam gas production in the period between 2010 and 2011 rose by 372 percent compared to five years ago (Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, 2012). In 1976, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) alerted the world governments of the impending devastation that could be attributable to an increase of greenhouse gasses, the related climate change and variability, and global warming. An increase in natural disaster occurrences due to extremely unpredictable weather and climate events will lead to devastation (White et al., 1999; World Meteorological Organization, 2012; NSW Treasury, 2012). In Australia, extreme weather events accelerated by La Nina are leading to heavy precipitation above normal averages (132 percent) that result in flash flooding problems with water borne diseases manifesting themselves (Met Office, 2011). The floods in 2010 were the most severe in terms of the extent and impact since the floods of the 1970s (Met Office, 2011). The economic valuation of the economic damages of the floods focussed on the wider East Coast region of Australia that had received the devastating rains (World Bank, 2011a; World Bank, 2011b). Extreme precipitation in 2010 and 2011 leading to floods demonstrated the impact of climate change on coal mining in Australia and particularly the Eastern countryside. During the flood events, a quarter of the mining basins bec
Executive Summary Mother Teresa spent countless days and a better part of her life taking care of the lives of the less fortunate regardless of where they came from, gender, religion, and or race. She sought to see their faces full of joy, just as it is for the few wealthy and privileged people around the world. She did this passion-driven service until she met her death. Despite the fact that she stood out as a figure that showed the need to take care of the less privileged, it is surprising that very few have taken over from her. Millions and millions of people are dying every minute because of lack of food, medical services, and or attention. In fact, extreme poverty, increased preventable deaths, and lack of accessibility to education by children are becoming out-of-hand challenges in some cities in the US. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the US. A good number of the poor is women, majority of who have children. The poor conditions have hiked the level of illiteracy among the children in Mississippi, as they cannot afford quality education because of their poor parents. Again, such women have been exposed to risky sexual behaviors as they toil hard to make ends meet. They also have low self-esteem because of their status. Therefore, there is a need for a program that empowers these women psychologically and economically, an effort that will also boost literacy in the city and the entire US. Fight Poverty, Fight Illiteracy in Mississippi Initiative is an organization that is concerned about this category of population. The organization is a non-governmental organization that was established to create awareness through advocacy campaigns to educate Mississippi people living in abject poverty and any other pathetic conditions. Children in Mississippi live with no hopes of seeing tomorrow. They live as if they are in their own world though this is not the case. The US government is aware of these people. However, it has no plans to improve their status. There is lack of planning and policies with the formulated ones not caring about the welfare of these people. After a survey carried out in the regions hardly hit by poverty in the US, Mississippi was selected for the advocacy campaign. The advocacy campaign is dubbed, “Fight Poverty, Fight Illiteracy.” It is aimed at compelling the US government to adopt policies and plans that are intended to save the extremely poor Mississippi people. The states in which these people live are not appealing. The region was selected because of its high rate of poverty despite having good natural resources to enable it improve the livelihood of its people. Because Fight Poverty, Fight Illiteracy in Mississippi Initiative is not profit-oriented, it does not have funds to carry out the program. Funds to facilitate the campaign are i
The lectures given by Dr. Scott and Dr. Patterson are about media and its influence on the political scope. These men speak about media roles in the political system and explain how people are engaged in this influence. Moreover, these lectures denote some involving concepts related to media. It is essential to look at both lectures to understand the differences and similarities in ideas concerning media and politics. The lecture given by Dr. Patterson starts with Nixon and Kennedy’s debates video excerpt and explains multiple concepts of media’s impact on people. Dr. Patterson starts his speech by investigating previous times, slightly from the formation of the newspaper. He speaks that the newspaper was the most prominent source of information. Later, when cable television appeared, it became easier to inform people about political events. Then, the rise of cable TV in 1980 created a more informed public; people were ready to watch the news almost constantly. CNN became the first channel that provided the 24 hours translation of reports (Patterson 00:05:04-00:05:32). Overall, Dr. Patterson introduced the beginning of the formation of media in the previous century. Dr. Patterson claims that people are becoming less aware of current political world events. He uses statistics to show how people’s political awareness has decreased in the last several years. It is happening because young adults might be more likely to use their smartphones to chat, watch entertaining videos, and play. As a result, people do not know about severe issues in the world. I agree with Dr. Patterson because it is true that people now use smartphones to entertain themselves rather than learn what is happening in the political
“Baptist” is a term that referring to an individual who trusts in the established and adult “baptism of believers” in Jesus Christ (Walter, 1993). Baptists are also those believers who declare that they have a personal faith in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation and redemption. They are against the baptism of infants since they believe only mature people are mature enough to believe in Christ. Their belief demands that anyone who has to be baptized has to be old enough to understand what it means to trust in Jesus Christ. They don’t believe that one can obtain salvation and cleansing of sins by baptism alone. “Catholic” on the other hand refers to “Universal”. Generally (Alan, 1984), it stands for the “Roman Catholic Church” which has been the biggest and well organized Christian and religious group for the last two millenniums. The Episcopal Church is also referred to as the Episcopal Protestant Church in the USA. It evolved immediately after the American Revolution after a forced break from the Church of England due to the penalty of disloyalty as the clergy of the Church of England were obliged to swear their loyalty to the Monarchy in Britain (Webber, 1999). It became the first Anglican Province outside the British Isles. In the medieval era, some bible scholars were persuaded that the baptism of infants by sprinkling water on them was not a biblical doctrine. Consequently, they started re-baptizing each other. “Ana-Baptist” or “Anabaptist” are words referring to a “re-baptizer” (Walter, 1993). They were sprinkled with water when they were infants, hence the Roman Catholic Church referred to them as re-baptizers. The number of Anabaptists grew tremendously between the Middles Ages and the Reformation Era. Roman Catholic was rebelled by the Anabaptists on the baptism of infants based on the following points:   * Small children/infants are not referred to anywhere in the Bible, regarding baptism (The Bible does not record any incidences where infants have been baptized).   * “Baptize”, originally a Greek phrase, refers to “be completely immersed in water” and therefore the sprinkling was not unacceptable and not biblical.   * According to the bible, someone to be baptized should be someone who is a believer. However, babies are not able to believe or understand anything let alone make a decision to be baptized. Therefore, baptism must only be for mature people, adults (Walter, 1993). Infant baptism was a practice that was always taking place throughout Europe at that particular time in history. In some cases, it was even considered as a rite to citizenship hence those rebelling against it were taken to be disloyal to the government. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church hated and persecuted the Baptists because of their rebellion against infant baptism which was considered an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. The fact that the Baptists insisted on the baptism of believers only gave the Roman Catholic Church anot
Introduction As suggested by Teeple, 2000 globalization is thought of as various mechanisms or processes that aim at creating and consolidating a unified world in terms of economy and culture characterized by a complex link of information sharing that is world wide. With this concept, the world has experienced free movement of people, goods and services and capital between and among countries made possible by the advent in technology information. As a result the world has no doubt turned into a global village fashioned by interconnectedness and interdependence. It is evident that through globalization cultures are being exported throughout the world as various societies are compelled to evolve and co-exist with the changes brought about by globalization. It is worth remembering that globalization has impact not only in terms of economy but culture, politics as well as environmentally. All these have brought about contemporary issues when doing business in the international arena. Having in mind that businesses need to stay competitive, there is thus need to adequately and timely address the emerging contemporary issues (Swanson, 1993). For the sake of this assignment, Qantas airlines will be used in providing insights on issues facing airline industries when doing business beyond borders. The airline was founded back in 1920 and is the flag carrier of Australia. The airline is Sydney where it has its main hub. The airline has been deemed to be a four star airline according to Skytrax. Globally, it has been voted to be the 7 th best airline although this is a drop from previous years. It also trades in the Australian stock exchange markets. Being the second oldest airline in the world, it started going international back in 1935. Currently, the airline operates both domestic as well as international flights. Among the international destination include; Africa (South Africa), East Asia (China and Japan), south Asia (India), southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), Europe (Germany and UK), North America (U.S), South America (Argentina). Domestic destinations include Queensland, northern territory, and New South Wales among others. This thus shows clearly that the airline operates internally since its flights are destined to all continents. The essay will thus elucidate on the major contemporary issues facing the airlines, the available alternatives and finally one best alternative is selected for recommendation (Chesterton & Markson, 2008). Key contemporary issues facing Qantas airlines One major issue facing the airline is with regards to safety and security. Considering the happenings of September 2001 in United States of Americas and in the recent past where individuals have been intercepted carrying detonators and bombs, there customers have raised concern and are scared on who to trust when travelling to other countries. With such a
Introduction Corporations all over the world have characteristics of human beings. They operate in such a way that they can borrow money and pay debts just like people can do. But they cannot walk as a man or woman does. The paper would discuss the corporation as a person. The First Response The company is an organization that has a name just as a person. The government registers every person born in the country as a citizen. It also records every person who enters the country as either a visitor or a citizen. A visitor can be a tourist, an immigrant, or a guest of the state. Corporations, once registered, can open branches in other nations or even advertise their products in those countries. But they have to pay some levies to have permission to operate there. The laws define and describe how a corporation should act. Within the legal system, it may have structures that adhere to the legislation of the land. It can also involve two people who come together with a view of strengthening a relationship that operates in a business manner. In means that it has personal power, duties, responsibilities, and liabilities. A group of people can also come together and legally align together to work towards a common purpose. After registering the firm, it acts like a person to conduct legal business. The corporation then raises funds as a person to increase its capital and conduct its activities. Another characteristic that makes an organization behave like a person is that it holds meetings. The conference of the shareholders, the top management, and staff are meant to propagate the firm’s progress. It also hires the board of directors, the senior managers, and the workers. After doing their work, it pays them. As a person, it obeys the law by holding Annual General Meetings and observing its conduct. When it fails to honor its responsibility to the suppliers, staff, customers, and other stakeholders, they can sue it for damages. It accepts court summons by hiring a legal representative. Just like some people do not make a profit from their work, so some organizations do not make the profit. Religious organizations, charity groups, and public schools only exist to serve the interests of society. Legally, they are not supposed to make the profit from their charitable work. When an organization goes under, it is said to have died. When it increases its profit, it is said to be growing. When it does not observe its Corporate Social Responsibility, people see it as a failure for not honoring the
What happened to Islam? When did it happen? Why did it happen? Negotiation in an Arab Shuk is a culturally ingrained way of life. It extends into all facets of Arab thinking and living. A good negotiator knows the rules and plays the game deftly. It matters not the end prize; the negotiations still work in much the same manner. The major rule in this type of negotiation is the tenet that if you know your adversary wants something very badly, raise the price. The basic rules of Bazaar Diplomacy Are based upon the 3000 years old rules of negotiation in the Arab Shuk. (Sharon, Moshe 2007) Sharon is a professor of Islamic History at Hebrew University, and he has carefully studied the rules of bazaar negotiations. It is not, as he says, a gentlemanly meeting of the minds and a genuine seeking for accord. It is, rather, a brutally simple imposition of the will of the strongest. Katz (2001) points out that there are no Palestinians, no language named Palestinian nor any territory that was ever really named Palestine. The word itself is from the ancient Philistines who were expelled long ago from the land of Israel. The object of their negotiations with Israel are just as ethereal. The Israelis and the Palestinians are not actually even talking about the same thing in their negotiations. Israel wants peace, and will pay any price for it. This leaves Israel behind before they start, because the Arabs, which is what the Palestinians are in reality, know all of this and will keep raising the price. By contrast, the Palestinians want to be rid of Israel. Sadly, the agreements come to and signed are just as lacking in reality. In the Arab Shuk, if you can sell air for a good price, you do not have to deliver it, or even make it portable. What the Arabs are selling is even less. They are selling agreements, and getting a nice hefty price. However, those agreements are only as good as the other side is strong enough to impose the agreement. There is no honor involved. Worse than not actually selling Israel the peace for which they are willing to pay any price, is that the Arabs are merely selling a signed agreement, not their guarantee to abide by it. Since Israel always puts it cards on the table in negotiations, the Arabs wind up using these to make further demands, in exchange for further signed agreements. While many have called Lewis the polite equivalent of a war-monger, he is possibly right that no agreement will ever be kept. The two sides want two different things. Israel wants peace, which the Arabs do not actually have, but they will sell it. Israel has peace, and they don’t want to sell. Let us take, for example, the War of Attrition started by Egypt in 1970. After 18 months, Egypt decided to lick its wounds and go home. Israel subsequently signed an agreement to return some territory to Egypt which was captured in the Six Day War in exchange for official recognition of Israel as a state. In other