ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction This is one of the most “cultured” societies in the world, with strong protestant-religious beliefs, which defines every aspect of their lives. Regardless of age, occupation, civilization levels, daily occurrences, all individuals of this culture must follow provisions in the Ordnung; a form of written or spoken Amish rules, strictly. One unique thing with this community is that, as compared to other world communities, which alter their life orientations or patterns; for conformity with technological or scientific changes, this community pays little attention to such changes. It is important to note that, although this community’s practices adhere strictly to the provisions in the Ordnung, there is a great variation in its application as one moves from communities bounded with this culture. For example, sections of communities within this culture embrace the powered battery concept, something that other communities oppose on religious grounds. It is also crucial to note that, all the practices of communities that embrace this culture have some symbolic importance, as far as this community is concerned. This is because; almost every concept and practice within this community must conform to specific religious beliefs, which nobody can alter or change to suit personal needs or any changes occurring in other global communities (Kraybill, 2001, pp. 1- 14). The Amish People This community has existed since time memorial as one of the groups, which make the Mennonite group of denominations; primarily the Anabaptist. One primary feature, which differentiates this group from other world cultural groups, is that, to this group technological advancement and scientific innovations are passing concepts hence, of little significance to this group’s daily living. In addition to looking down on technological innovations, this group embraces the concept of simplicity and respect for God in any undertaking, which members of this community may involve themselves in. Historically, this religious group originated from Europe; Switzerland, although with migrations due to many conflicts, this group spread to the United States, where they first settled in the state of Pennsylvania. With increased popularity of the group and growing populations, the group expanded to other sections of the American continent and Canada. Presently, this group is in more than twenty-one states, which include Illinois, New York, Mississippi, Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan (Lancaster Country Information Center, 2010, p.1 and Coblentz &Williams, 2002, pp. 9-15). To be a member of this group one has to undergo a series of initiation ceremonies, which start with baptism; mostly occurring between age sixteen and twenty-five. It is important to note that this stage is very important to this group in that, it defines individuals’ commitment to the Amish faith. Another significance of this stage
The Middle Passage is a significant concept in the history of American slavery, which plays an essential role in its development. Over more than three centuries, millions of enslaved Africans were deported from their homeland, primarily by British, European, and American traders, who later employed the individuals in various types of labor. The voyage through the Atlantic ocean was extremely strenuous for the exploited slaves, who were forced to survive harsh conditions of enclosed spaces, mistreatment, and dysentery. Although approximately 10 to 20% of the deported Africans died during the transfer due to severe constraints or even suicide, the remaining percentage greatly impacted the affluence of the American slave trade. Given the demand for labor and the absence of substantial expenses for maintaining an African workforce, numerous corporations and plantation owners were especially invested in deporting the individuals or purchasing them from the ships’ captains. In the long term, the Middle Passage accounted for a significant number of Africans transported to North America, increasing the productivity of various businesses and further elevating the interest in the slave trade. The cheapness of the labor and the considerable business efficiency advantages connected to slave ownership enhanced the prosperity of the African human trade for centuries. In my opinion, the most astonishing aspect of the Middle Passage is the disregard for human life, which resulted in the severity of the transatlantic transition. Although up to 20% of the enslaved individuals died during the voyage, the insufferable circumstances of the travel were never altered. Millions of Africans were forced to undergo the oppressive attitudes of the ship crew, excruciating discomfort, and numerous diseases. Furthermore, little to no attempt was made to improve the traveling environment, denying the deported individuals even a fraction of humanity or respect.
Hotel’s background Ramada Plaza Hotel is a hospitality facility located in Newark, New Jersey. The hotel was established in the early 1980s, and is historically acknowledged for its role in housing plane crashes victims between the 1990s and 2000s (“Ramada Worldwide: Ramada Plaza Newark Liberty International Airport” par. 2). Ramada Plaza Hotel is strategically situated due to its proximity to the Newark International Airport. The business is currently rated as a 2-star hotel with an accommodation capacity of 178 rooms. It is believed that the lodge registers a stand out financial performance throughout any given year. Business Strategy Porter’s four competitive strategies According to Porter, there are four competitive strategies that an organization can adopt. These include cost leadership, low-cost differentiation, differentiation, and low-cost focus (Grant 54). The Ramada Plaza Hotel combines two strategies; differentiation and low-cost focus strategies. Using the differentiation strategy, the hotel provides unique products and services. For instance, the hotel provides airport shuttle services to its guests at no cost (“Ramada Worldwide: Ramada Plaza Newark Liberty International Airport” par. 2). In line with a low-cost focus strategy, the company targets a niche audience. Rather than marketing its products and services to the entire New Jersey population, Ramada Plaza Hotel mostly focuses on airport service users. As a result of this strategy, Ramada has been branded as the cheapest provider when compared to other facilities within the same category. Porter’s five forces analysis Coined by Porter, the Five Forces Analysis is centered on the idea that five critical forces, which often determine an organization’s competitive power, exist (Porter 27). Foremost is supplier power. The vast range of products and services provided by the hotel implies that Ramada is served by a set of suppliers. A good example of such suppliers is the internet provider for wireless connections. The hotel does not have the ability or the capacity to provide for its internet needs. Therefore, it must rely on internet providers, who have the power to determine the level of price to charge for their services. The second force is buyer power. As it has been determined previously, the company targets a niche market implying that it only serves a small number of customers. As Porter stated, each customer presents a paramount value to a company. Therefore, the loss of any one of them may lead to significant losses (102). Inferring from this, the hotel’s customers have the ability to drive prices down meaning that they have high buyer power. The third point of analysis is the competitive rivalry. As Porter revealed, what is essential in this case is the number, along with the capability of the competitors (33). There are several competing hospitality facilities in Newark. Among these includes the Renaissance Ne
The Progressive Era refers to the period in American history, which lasted from the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century. The Progressive Era was an enlightened age, which transformed various sectors in society. These transformations affected American citizens either positively or negatively based on the particular field (Hatfield and Hatfield, 2010). Moreover, the period marked the shift from the agrarian to the urban society, and many critics referred to it as the age of reforms in American history. Such notable figures as John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and President Theodore Roosevelt pioneered this great age. Different aspects that range from politics, the birth of democracy, innovations, women’s suffrage, liberalism, and policies underwent radical changes in the stipulated period. Basing on the analytical analysis of the period, the paper discusses the technological advancement in American history (Cocks et al., 2009). America as a nation experienced new inventions in the early twentieth century. These new inventions and ideas revolutionized the way American industries operate up to now. By the year 1920, the country had transformed into the most industrialized nation on the earth surpassing the likes of Germany, Britain, and France. New inventions ranged from the automobile, the assembly line, the radio, television, and efficiency engineering. The Progressive Era had extraordinary technological pioneers such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison (Hatfield and Hatfield, 2010). Henry Ford’s invention of the automobile transformed the lives of the American citizens, for most of them earlier depended on horseless carriages. He transformed the automobile sector from a rich man’s asset to a common person’s method of transportation from one point to the other. Moreover, the automobile pioneered the growth of another sector in the rubber industry for manufacturing tires and the petroleum refinery industry. Consequently, the discovery of the assembly lines accelerated the productivity of different factories, which ranged from the food industry to the automobile industries. Since the idea became successful, Ford’s industries sought to mass-produce due to the growing number of middle-class citizens (Cocks et al., 2009). On the other hand, Frederick Taylor pioneered the idea of competence engineering (Cocks et al., 2009). This noble concept helped industrialists to improve the productivity of their factories. His machine attempted to increase factory productivity levels and obtain results in the least possible time. He further developed different theories that helped industries reduce production time, which influenced positively their output levels. Furthermore, other famous figures such as the Wright brothers discovered that humans could actually fly in the year 1903 (Jaycox, 2005). They invented the first airplane, which made the flight across America easier. They were the first ones to engineer, pilot control, powerful airplane engines, and design efficient propellers during this great era. Conclusively, all these
Introduction Staffing is a very important function in any organizations, regardless of its size. In business, employees are often referred to as human capital. As with any form of capital, the right mix and quantity is very crucial in how the organization will perform and ultimately achieve its targets and goals. (Lesson 24: Staffing principles). This is especially true in a very competitive environment. Retailing is a field where a high level of competition exists and so the function of staffing, especially for the outlets, has to be given serious consideration. Tanglewood being a successful player in the retail sector should have an effective staffing plan to so that it may survive and grow in such an environment. This report is placed before the management of the Company so that it can improve its staffing policy and reduce or even eliminate the current problems faced with regard to finding and retaining good employees. The management is reminded of the fact that the company has several major challenges with regard to this issue. The first is to find the right employee. The second is to find ways to retain the good ones among them. The employee turnover in the retail sector as well as for Tanglewood is quite high (above 50%) and the third challenge is to find ways to bring this rate down. Finally, the company has to comply with the provisions of the Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. This report is aimed at finding solutions for all the challenges mentioned above. Staffing Plan The staffing plan for Tanglewood will take the following route.  1. The first step will be the forecast of labor requirements for the coming year. The company has already done this and the decision is that it will be the same as the previous year.  2. The next step is to calculate the exact number of incumbents in all the five categories of employees covered in this report. This will be done by filling up the columns in the ‘forecast of availabilities’ column in the Markov Analysis Table.  3. To assess availability of qualified hands, an environmental scan will form the third step.  4. The fourth step would be to do a gap analysis based on the Markov Analysis table.  5. The final step is to develop an action plan with reference to the Washington area. If found successful, Tanglewood can take steps to implement it in the rest of its territories. During this process, the issue of EEO requirements with regard to hiring female and minority incumbents will also be considered. One more important area will be covered namely the review of the company’s staffing policy. It is to be noted that the main focus will be on the store manager group even though other categories may be included in the report. Staffing requirements Tanglewood has already completed an assessment and has decided that the requirements for the coming year will be the same as that of the previous year. Hence t
Juveniles are increasingly getting involved in criminal activities across the United States. Crimes that are mostly reported include assault, homicide, rape, robbery, vandalism and arson. This paper seeks to explain why I am against the state laws that facilitate prosecution of juveniles in adult courts. I will also give my reasons as to why juveniles who commit violent crimes should not be tried as adults unless they are older enough to understand the consequences of their actions. There have been a lot of arguments concerning the basis on which juvenile courts were established. There is some belief going around that juvenile courts should be abolished because they were put in place to shield juveniles from consequences of their criminal activities. Indeed there has been a marked rise in incidences of juvenile criminal activities. I don’t think this problem can be solved by punishing juveniles as adults. Some states have gone as far as creating laws that facilitate the prosecution of juveniles in adult courts. In my opinion, such states are just trying to treat the symptoms and not the disease. These people should try to understand the real cause of the problem. According to me, juveniles involve themselves in criminal activities due to poor upbringing which can be blamed on the family and violent neighborhoods. For example, I had a friend whose parents were both alcoholics and t his weighed so much on him. He has been tried for stabbing his father. He was only 14 but I don’t think this could have happened if he had responsible parents. Such a person will not be helped if he is held fully responsible and prosecuted in adult courts. Questions have also risen as to whether it’s appropriate to try juveniles (regardless of the age) who commit violent crimes in the same manner as adults. It’s imperative to note that people should be made to pay for their mistakes so long as they understand what they are doing. However, it’s also important to point out that some juveniles, especially younger ones may not be aware of the magnitude of their criminal activities or even understand why they involve themselves in crime. In most cases there are many underlying social problems that can be addressed to deter juvenile criminal activities. We all know that juveniles who are prosecuted as adults are often held in adult jails where they might be abused. This can also make them to lose education opportunities in life. Juveniles who undergo this are more likely to be involved in crime again because they will have no other means of fending for themselves when they get out. In my opinion juveniles who commit violent crime shoul
Participation in Olympics is the dream of every sportsman because it marks the highest level in games. When preparing for Olympics, sports people will go to any level in ensuring they emerge winners in their respective categories. In this regard, it is common to hear of people who want certain sports to be included in the Olympics. On the contrary, very few people will support an option to eliminate any sport from the Olympics. Softball was once included in the Olympics but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has scraped it citing various reasons. Consequently, many people have questioned the legality of the reasons given by the IOC and demanded that the sport be included once again in the Olympics. To begin with, players who used softball not only as a source of income, but also as a way of life are in trouble if softball is eliminated from the Olympics. It should be noted that being the highest achievement of any game, inclusion of a sport in the Olympics encourage sports people to train and governments to invest in the sport (Dwyre par.1). On the contrary, elimination will achieve directly the opposite. Sponsors will stop their support and there will be no money to even pay the players. On the same note, a lot of investment has been made in the game of softball by both the government and private sectors (Gitlin and Karen 50). However, elimination of the sport from Olympics will demoralize people hence reduce the number of players. This will reduce the number of people who use the facilities thus leading to underutilization of the facilities. Furthermore, young girls who always look at professional players as their role models and motivators will have their dreams shattered. It should be noted that though other softball competitions exist, the inability to be part of Olympics will limit how far one can go. Therefore, professional players will be disillusioned and unwilling to encourage the young players to continue training (Taylor 62). As a result, young players will get an impression that their dreams can never be realized which will highly disappoint them. Additionally, softball is not only found in the United States of America, but also in South Africa and several other developing countries (Gitlin and Karen 51). As a result, softball also helps in unifying the world just like any other sport. With the elimination of this sport from the Olympics, ties between some countries will be weakened especially if they had resulted from softball (Taylor 64). Moreover, it has been argued that there is some politics at play regarding the elimination of softball from the Olympics. United States of America boasts of majority wins since the inclusion of softball into the Olympics. Unfortunately, a lot of members of the IOC are Europeans (Gitlin and Karen 51). In this regard, politics or even stereotypin
Introduction Gillette began its global operations in 1905 when it opened a manufacturing plant in Germany. This global strategy and success saw the firm extending its operation to Latin America. Argentina was a potential market after tariffs and business policies were revised. Having operated under unfavorable regime, the firm perceived future competition and decided to create competitive advantages. Key figures in the firm such as Carlos Rotundo and Jorge Micozzi suggested better quality as the solution to the market issues. The management had to change the organizational culture which was not strategic for the future market circumstances. Rotundo had already began creating a new organizational culture when Micozzin came up with the idea of total quality management (TQM) that made Gillette Argentina the most successful affiliate in Latin America. Due to the great success of Gillette’s TQM system, this research was commenced to do a case study on “quality at Gillette Argentina”. The paper begins by evaluating the ways in which the firm got its employees to take on the new TQM system. It proceeds to discuss the importance of getting the teams involved in TQM process as well as identifying the ways in which the teams improved the process. The paper also explains the meaning of the phrase “Beyond the hanging fruits, the most important outcome of this effort was a different way of working with sales” and highlights how Gillette changed the way it looks at its customers. Finally, there is a description of the working culture before and after the implementation of TQM as well as the economic benefits of the system. Gillette gets employees to take on the new system In a firm where decision making is solely the responsibility of leaders such that the employees have to act as the subjects to them, it is likely that the employees would not readily accept the adoption of total quality management (TQM). This is because TQM requires them to take elevated roles, become self-dependent and consider themselves as the owners of the firm. It is apparent that Gillette had earlier managed its activities in a manner that left the managerial roles such as decision making and steering initiatives exclusively to the leaders. Therefore, the effort to adopt TQM compelled leaders to take measures that would prepare the employees better for the change. These measures involved several initiatives especially triggered by several key figures in the firm. The very first initiative Gillette took was to hire the Organizational Dynamics Inc (ODI) as a consulting and training firm. The firm became the key source of information and motivation for the Gillette Latin America management. It can be argued that the source of a successful organizational change begins with leaders who in turn transfer it to employees. This means that the employees would rarely have accepted an initiative t