ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
There is hardly a person who never wished to see historical figures with his/her own eyes, to discuss their works and achievements with them personally, and to spend time sharing impressions about their studies. Sometimes it seems that it would be great for some of those figures to visit the countries they have never been to. It would be honorable and extremely interesting to take Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Robert Owen to such countries as America, Albania, and Cuba; they can further discuss the impressions about their trips as well as other issues with one of the modern politicians, Paul Volcker. Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher, would benefit greatly from the trip to America. Smith was a philosopher but he was also interested in other subjects apart from philosophy. He used to pay special attention to history. He was deeply conscious of the history he was living in; it is probable that he saw the human species as immersed in history at all moments of its existence; and it is certain that he contributed to the development of historical thought in new directions and the acquisition of new meanings by the term “history”. (Haakonssen 270) America is a highly developed country which, like no other country, is able to demonstrate all of the modern achievements of humanity. Adam Smith would be glad to observe how much the world has changed since the 18 th century. The best place for Smith to visit would be New York, the city which experienced a great number of changes over the past decades. Smith, a pioneer of political economy, would be interested in analyzing the current economic situation in the country and, perhaps, even suggest ways for the country to overcome the economic crisis. I believe that Smith should be taken to America because throughout his life he traveled mostly around Europe, and it would be interesting for him to compare Europe and America from the point of view of moral philosopher. Karl Marx, social scientist and philosopher of the 19 th century, will find it interesting to visit Albania, one of the smallest countries in Europe. As a historian, he would be interested in visiting numerous historical museums, as well as museums of natural history and national culture which belong to the greatest sites of Albania. Karl Marx spent most of his life in Germany and France; this is why Albania, which differs from those countries in culture, politics, and other aspects, is likely to appeal to Marx. As an independent thinker, Marx could forecast further development of the country and give some advices on how the country could use tourism for its development; this advice of his would be quite valuable because Marx was a person who could unite history and philosophy; he could work out a proper solution basing on the analysis of Albania’s history and using both its strengths and weaknesses for ensuring proper development of the country. His advice could be relied
Business leaders have the task of developing effective business strategies and policies to enhance competitiveness in their businesses. In modernized business world, strategic management has been adopted to seek solutions to business threats/risks; the method also offers businesses chance to take advantage of prevailing business opportunities (Fred, 2008). This paper supports the augment that strategic management is a science. Introduction In contemporary business worlds, managers or business leaders have to develop new methods and approaches to handle business processes. Strategic management was developed by researchers and management gurus to offer an effective approach through which processes could be handled in an organization. There have been arguments over the concept “Strategic management is a science,” some management gurus are for the support of the phrase as they observe that the approach and manner of the management approach follow that of science (Porter, 1980). Strategic management is a science literature review Fred, 2008, is of the opinion that current changes in the world economic situations require business to develop management methods and approaches that address issues facing them; according to the writer strategic management, approach handles or approaches business needs in totality where it looks at all aspects of an organization. Businesses are faced the challenge of adopting measures to keep then in business currently and ensure continuity; policies that look into present situation and consider how the future is likely to be are the policies of strategic management. The method of management varies with traditional methods of conducting affairs; traditional method was focused on yielding high returns for the business and cared less about the process through which the profits have been attained through. To remain competitive, it is important to have policies that are not out-dated; leaders have the role of pioneering change (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008). Science involves looking at past, current and future situation, then using research coming up with the right method or approach to handle the issues or challenges; in science, solutions are sort after getting an in-depth understanding of the situation and ensuring that all corners have been addressed. When suing science to seek solution, the end justifies the means, this means that it is through the processes that a solution passes that determines the outcome. In strategic management, there is much emphasis on research, management should only come up with decisions after they have researched for the solution, considered what other companies have done , and undertaking well calculated tests on the solution they are to implement. The approach taken by strategic management is similar to science, thus stra
Introduction Immigration has been topic of important studies and analyses in the modern society and there is a strong view that the focus of such studies needs to be modified so as to incorporate more significant aspects of the question. One of the most essential areas of such studies is immigration in relation to gender and specifically mothering. Main body “Immigration and Mothering; Case Studies from Two Generations of Korean Immigrant Women” by Seungsook Moon is an attempt to make a review of the literature on gender, immigration, and mothering. Based on this literature he “examines how immigration and gender ideology, meditated by a family’s economic situation and the employment prospects for educated women of color, shape the organization of mothering and how each pattern of mothering affects the power dynamics underlying the gender division of labor in immigrant families.” (Moon). The result of the study has an enduring validity for the future analyses in the area and the article plays a key role in opening up discussions on immigration in relation to gender and more specifically mothering. As the essayist makes it clear, three important arrangements of mothering exist as revealed through the case studies. These distinct arrangements of mothering are:  1. shared mothering based on transnational, trans-generational, and nuclear family networks;  2. isolated and privatized mothering; and  3. mothering after retreat from full-time employment. (Moon). Therefore, the most essential factors that are dealt with in the article are immigration, middle class, mothering, gender division of labor, and women’s paid employment. The ultimate conclusion of the paper has an immense value as it offers an overall understanding of the issues of immigration in relation to gender and mothering as well as it opens up an important area of future studies in relation to immigration. That is to say, the validity and significance of the article needs to be related not to the immediately available outcomes alone, but to the overall contribution of the article to the researches in the area. The article which incorporates a comparative analysis of two generations of immigrant women, indubitably, has an everlasting significance in an understanding of the relationship among immigration, mothering, and paid employment. Seungsook Moon undertakes a very objective and all-inclusive investigation of the issue of mothering in relation to immigration, and the case study provides a clear illustration of the findings made by the author. The case study of the suburban middle class Korean immigrant women in the form of a comparative study brings out some pertinent conclusions regarding the issue of mothering as experienced by immigrants. The arguments made by the writer have strong backing of the case study as well as the background of the immigrant experience. Therefore, the article is successful in moving toward some of the most essential findings regarding the issues of immigration, gender, and
What is Mentoring? A personal development that involves a mentor and mentee is called mentoring. Mentoring is the process of correlating an individual’s personal skills with empowerment tools. Mentoring principles include synergy, relationship, and uniqueness. Synergy describes the combination of two variables to produce a greater effect. Mentoring synergy creates a learning environment. Thus, the mentee will develop learning skills. Relationship principle creates partnership between the mentor and mentee. The relationship principle describes the coaching process and pattern. The uniqueness principle creates a channel for productive learning. The mentoring process is guided by synergy, uniqueness, and relationship. Thus, mentoring can be summarized as a powerful partnership process that creates a learning environment for the mentee. What is a mentor? A mentor is a guide who builds an individual’s personal learning skills. The responsibilities of a mentor include training, inspiring, and teaching. Other responsibilities of a mentor include availability, support, guide, patient, and respect. A mentor acts as a guide, teacher, counsellor, motivator, coach, advisor, referral agent, and a role model. The roles of a mentor create a positive learning process for the mentee. A successful mentor makes the mentee independent after the mentoring process. A mentor must have appreciative inquiry, listening skills, empathy, respect, warmth, focus, self-disclosure, observation skills and a good storyteller. Appreciative inquiry describes the personal character of the mentor. An effective mentor must listen as a child and act with precision. Thus, a mentor creates learning strategies that develop the mentee. What is a mentee? A mentor provides assistance using suitable experience. An experienced mentor shortens the learning process of the mentee. The ability to guide a mentee depends on the learning strategy (Johnson & Huwe 2003). Thus, a mentor determines the strategies of the mentoring process. A mentor creates a mutual bond with the mentee. The mentor builds the communication chain with the mentee. A successful mentoring process can be achieved with a positive relationship. A mentor identifies the mentee’s weakness using corrective strategies. Thus, the responsibility of a mentor describes the objective of the mentoring program. A mentee is the person who receives training, coaching, and experience from a mentor. The relationship between mentor and mentee A mentee’s desire to learn is backed up with the willingness and ability to absorb the mentorin
The problem of homophobia has existed in the human population through its whole history. Homophobia could be defined as “an attitude of hostility toward male or female homosexuals” (Fraïssé and Barrientos 65). During the XX century, the public attitude toward homosexuality was evolving, and this process has found its reflection in the legislation procedure, in particular, in same-sex marriage legalization in various countries. It is important to study the social consequences of this process. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the same-sex marriage legalization affected the public attitude and decreased the level of homophobia. Same-sex Marriage Legalization The process of same-sex marriage legalization started at the end of the XX century in the Western world. The process of legal recognition of, at first, homosexual domestic partnership and then same-sex marriages started in countries of the European Union (Hooghe and Meeusen 258). Nowadays, there are twenty-two countries around the globe where same-sex marriage is recognized by law and thirteen countries where a civil union is legal. At the same time, there are seventy-five countries where homosexuality is illegal, including ten countries where it could be punished by the death penalty (Cameron and Berkowitz). The general tendency is the following: same-sex marriage and partnership are legal in Western Europe, North and South America (except for Guyana where gay acts could be punished), Australia, and New Zealand. Homosexual relations are considered to be illegal in the majority of African and Asian countries. Therefore, despite all the positive changes, it could be stated that the problem of homophobia is still urgent. It is also important to discover how homosexual relationship legalization affected the attitude of society toward homosexuality. The Impact of Legalization on the Public Attitude The process of legislation was not the same in different countries. In some of them, it was easy, and without long-term debates, while in others, this process took a long time and faced social and political resistance (Hooghe and Meeusen 258). It was stated that the level of tolerance, in general, corresponds to the level of democratic stability and economic development. It could be su
Alignment of HRM and business strategies Ford Motors is a well-established automobile manufacturer across the globe. It has a long history of successful operations. In order to remain profitable amidst tough competition in the automobile industry, the company undertook a number of restructuring efforts as part of its business strategy (Bayou & de Korvin, 2008). From 2006 to 2012, the company executed the ‘One Ford’ business strategy. The Human Resource (HR) department job positions at Ford Motors include personnel relations, workforce planning and recruiting, business operations and labor relations. The main roles of the HR department entail recruiting/hiring, training, capacity building, promotions, demotions and firing of employees. I would prefer to work as a labor relations officer because I am diplomatic and can adequately bridge the gap between employees, employer and trade unions. After Alan Mulally assumed the CEO’s position of the company in 2006, he initiated the growth stimulation plan under the banner of ‘One Ford’ strategy (Hiraide & Chakraborty, 2012). First, this business strategy outlined the importance of a competent and well-motivated workforce in the growth objectives of the automobile company. There was urgent need to create a winning team that would boost the profitability of the company. Mutual participation in key decision-making processes was seen by the management of the company as a major motivating factor. Delivery of results was the mandate of individual employees even though tasks were assigned to teams. Teamwork experience is the noblest approach through which the company markets its human capital. Second, the whole global enterprise of the Ford Motors adopted a single plan as part of the ‘One Ford’ strategy. The set performance objectives were also aligned with the global plan of the company. The ‘one plan’ concept was meant to avoid any form of ambiguity in the course of operations. As much as some level of success was attained through the autonomous business units, the management thought that the system was quite inefficient in delivering desired results. The ‘one plan’ agenda would be sustainable for a long period. Hence, a single, unified entity replaced the disparate units when the ‘one plan’ was embraced and adopted by the company. In order to implement the ‘One Ford’ business strategy, the company began by securing adequate finances. A total of $23.5 billion was secured by the company towards the end of December 2006. This was indeed a major strategic financing that remarkably boosted the liquidity of the firm. Besides, another 4.95 billion dollars was secured by Ford as part of its convertible debt since it was necessary for the company to cushion itself against unforeseen risks. The automotive business was also restructured alongside the ‘One Ford’ strategy. The latter was necessary because the company needed to be in line with the chan
Introduction It can be said that social norms define the way people live in the same way that people determine social norms. They are very paradoxical as they are both stable and flexible phenomena at the same time. They are considered stable within a certain period but eventually change under social, environmental, and temporal factors. The need arises to clarify what social norms are from the sociological point of view. Social norms are the well-established and unspoken rules and standards by which the vast majority of a specific community live. It is important to note they also change when a certain number of community members begin to neglect, break or violate them. In this work, I will describe my experience of breaking the social norm as well as reflect on it. Problem Statement The option I chose is breaking the social norm of dress or attire. In terms of social control, clothes serve to signify people’s religious affiliation and their belonging to a subculture. Through clothes, people also show that some significant events are taking place right now. Moreover, their other social role is to emphasize the gender of a person. I decided to dress up as emo, including make-up. Emo emerged in the late 80s as a rock genre but peaked and developed as a subculture in the 00s. Its characteristic features are over-emotionality, fatalism, self-harm, and an unusual appearance. The reason is dressing as emo
Introduction 360-degree feedback is an assessment evaluation tool that is focused on employee job performance from a multisource perspective. It is also referred as a multisource assessment or a multi-rater feedback since it relies on information from various actors. Ideally a 360 degree feedback assessment is done by evaluating an employee job performance through a comprehensive investigation of their working relationship, from both an internal and external perspective. The idea is to generate an accurate assessment of an employee job skills, quality of work output and team work abilities that can be relied for employee assessment and job evaluation (Hazucha, Hezlett and Schneider, 1993). In this paper we are going to analyze the 360-degree feedback by discussing it process, pros and cons as well as investigate the effect of culture and ethnicity on it outcome. 360-degree Feedback Concept The 360-degree framework of evaluation revolves around the employee on whom the assessment is being conducted plus four other key actors that complete the evaluation cycle; peers, customers, superiors and subordinates (Linman, 2006). In some other instances, the 360-degree feedback evaluation is more comprehensive and incorporates a variety of other external factors besides the customer as is the case in the model shown below. A well implemented 360-degree feedback is very valuable both to the organization and to the employee since it is a valuable tool of determining an employee potential value which needs to be tapped. While at the same time informs the employee on the areas that they need to improve on in order to advance their career (Linman, 2006). Perhaps, the most important actor in the process of 360-degree evaluation is the feedback information obtained from peers who can accurately rate the employee work quality and habits since they are at the same work level (Vinson, 2010). Superiors and subordinates are also important actors of 360-degree feedback evaluation since they determine the effectiveness of an employee from two other opposite perspectives. Finally, external actor’s such as customers are valuable as source of information only when they are reliable (Vinson, 2010). Indicated below is a theoretical and simplified 360 degree evaluation model. 360-degree feedback model The importance of 360 degree feedback in organizations is one of valuable importance; the main objective is to generate reliable information that would enable employee to achieve self-development that would advance their career and in the process benefit the organization as well (Sullivan, 1998). As such 360 degree feedback tool is primarily used as a personal development tool ra
To answer the question of whether there is a conflict between benchmarking and creativity or not, it is appropriate to identify both terms in brief. Benchmarking is a process of continuous comparison and evaluation of an organization with other companies resulting in performance improvement. It is the systematic process of looking for the best strategies, creative ideas, and effective approaches to enhance the operation of the organization. In turn, creativity is a quality of being able to come up with innovative ideas as well as the ability to implement them in the performance of the company. Creativity is not an inherent feature as every person can learn how to become creative. Through observing the same issue from different perspectives, it is possible to find out the most innovative decision. From the above observations, it becomes clear that benchmarking and creativity go inline aiming at the provision of superior performance. Although benchmarking applied in the combination with innovation presents rather attractive benefits, it can also cause conflicts in some cases. For example, the organization with vague goals might suffer from creativity resulting in various goal conflicts. Miscarrying to establish the corporate mission and vision, the organization inevitably fails to achieve effective performance. At that, creativity complicates the situation due to the excess of appropriate yet untimely ideas. Therefore, before initiating the benchmarking process, it is crucial to establish common purposes both for the whole organization and its units. In particular, it might be an especially difficult task for governmental organizations as they have to operate with a range of factors including economical, political, social, and others. Creativity requires a generation of multiple options as well as thinking and in-depth analysis of collected data. In case the organization represses the clear establishment of organizational objectives preferring to mimic those of others, creativity resists to benchmarking. It can occur as a result of the fact that measurement and accurate evaluation of the comparison with others require certain efforts, time, and costs. Indeed, the repressed organization cannot consider any innovative solutions as they always need some extent of change and adaptation to a new environment. Furthermore, benchmarking suggests the search for the best practices to meet stakeholders’ and customers’ expectations. A high level of awareness is another peculiarity that is essential to provide innovative ideas in the context of creativity. Nevertheless, the repressed environment is a weak basis for the creation of such decisions. It is also significant to point out that the organization should choose the correct type of the benchmarking process that would be relevant to its current needs. In some cases, it is appropriate to utilize a combination of types to avoid potential conflicts that might occur due to some disparities. For instance, it is of great importune to prevent conflicts between internal and functional benchmarking by stating apparent goals. Finally, at the stage of implementation, potential conflicts,