ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Globalization has necessitated the need for expatriate assignments with businesses operating internationally. However, for an organization to succeed in its international ventures, there is an overarching need for the development of robust human resources (HR) strategies, as the workforce is one of the most important assets for any company. A manager with the capacity to operate across various cultures and achieve the set objectives confers a competitive advantage to the organization. Additionally, managers should be in a position to negotiate the many challenges posed by cross-cultural leadership and overcome barriers to working with a diverse workforce. Therefore, companies should be prepared to offer extensive training to their expatriate managers before starting their assignments abroad. Such training and support should continue throughout the period of the managers’ work in the foreign country. Without proper training and support, expatriates are likely to underperform or leave their assignments prematurely due to the challenges associated with cross-cultural adaptation. This paper discusses how the human resources management (HRM) department could prepare and support an expatriate worker for an overseas work assignment in Qatar. The discussion relies on a hypothetical case of Melissa Lamont, a 40-year-old senior female manager from the USA, who has been given a three-year international assignment to work in a corporation in Qatar as the deputy manager of the business and economics team with 50 journalists of different nationalities. Melissa does not have prior international work experience, but she has worked with the organization for 10 years, based in New York. The paper starts by discussing the work environment that Melissa will encounter in Qatar to highlight the challenges that should be addressed and examine the nature of training that she should be given before undertaking her assignment and during her stay in the country based on HRM practices. Working in Qatar Qatar is a peninsular Arab country and part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and thus it differs significantly from western countries across most cultural values (Rodriguez & Scurry 2014). It is important to understand the underlying cultural values in the Qatari work environment to identify the various challenges that Mellissa is likely to face and how to address them comprehensively through HR best practices. One of the ways to look at this issue is through Hofstede’s theory on five national culture dimensions – power distance, individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-femininity, and long-term orientation (Hofstede 2001). These dimensions would give a clear picture of what Mellissa is likely to encounter in Qatar in terms of culture. Power distance is the extent to which members in organizations and institutions within a country, especially the less powerful, accept the unequal distribution of power. According to Al Dulaimi and Sailan (2011), Qatar scores highly on this dimension implying that people in this country accept a
The Carnival Corporation Merged with Carnival PLC in the year 2002 in order to expand its operations. This merger led to a complete reconstruction with an aim of improving passenger satisfaction. Carnival Corporation is actually a market leader in the cruise operations industry (Woodside 275). The expansion has been well managed because the corporation has seen an increase in the number of cruise lines from the initial two brands to almost ten. This new brands have enabled the company to diversify its cruising operations to meet the different needs of its passengers. The corporation’s fixed costs include the cost of spare parts and other ship facilities. The value of currency exchange and fuel prices fall in the variable costs category. The business model of Carnival Corporation is very simple and efficient. The company’s main objective is to provide the best cruising services to its passengers worldwide. The company has been improving its recreational and leisure facilities to suit customer needs. Its primary activities in the value chain for their services include providing the most enjoyable cruise vacations to its clients together with quality recreation and accommodation services. The decision making authority of Carnival Corporation is decentralized with the two units based in America and England making their independent decisions which are in line with the common strategies and policies of the company. The Company is only decentralized on the basis of geography but not in terms of projects and functions. This decentralized structure enables each unit to independently control and manage its brands (Conrady 177). The new structure was put in place in the year 2002 after the two companies merged. Despite the two companies being based in different countries, their corporate strategies and objectives are similar. The main objective of the two units is to provide the best cruising services in the world. The structure of Carnival Corporation is simple and is easily understood by all the stakeholders because of its consistency with the corporate strategies and objectives. Carnival Corporation is an international cruise company that has a variety of leisure and recreational services compared to other cruise operators. It offers professional customer service to its visitors a thing that has made it to remain a market leader for a very almost a decade. Carnival Corporation has got a unique corporate culture where the welfare of visitors and passenger is given the first priority. This caring culture has made it to remain a market leader in the cruising industry for almost a decade. In order to showcase its services, the company has employed the use of on-line marketing to reach as many people as possible. Th
The name of the seminar that I have recently visited was Making Your Message Count . The theme of the seminar was related to healthcare reforms with the main focus on the “importance of sending a collective message to legislators when advocating for the profession”. The seminar was held at Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence. The main speakers were Darlene Curley, MS, RN Executive Director at Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence. The second speaker was Suzanne Miyamoto, Ph.D., RN Director of Government Affairs American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The main areas in the focus of this seminar were innovation, scholarship, and leadership, these areas were also included in the 2012 AACN Student Policy Summit (Goldstein, 2006). The speakers’ main topic was related to the advocacy of the profession of nursing and the improvement of health care reforms. The speakers presented and estimated the importance of the advocacy theories. They made use of the advocacy theories to persuade Congress members presented at the seminar to favor their request (Kollman, 2008). They were to hire professional lobbyists who had access to legislators and offer important data on legislation. The group had to choose a member of Congress who was likely to listen and respond. Another topic discussed during the seminar was the advocating of the health care reforms. The speakers were prepared to do individual advocacy and coalitions in advocating major reforms in health care. They were to use Nursing Community which was an organized group consisting of nursing leaders (Shaw, 2010). The Nursing Community was to send a letter to congressional representatives urging them to respond to reforms of health care. Their main goals were to advocate for increased access to health care, reduce costs and improve the quality of health care. A strategy that was worth attention was to use interest groups in advocating the profession of nursing. The effectualness of this strategy was supported by the fact that the speakers accessed information from their constituents and that has provided a good basis for persuading legislators. Furthermore, Congress members could pay attention to the group members because they were registered voters in his/her constitution (Tversky, 2008). It is worth mentioning that small groups are better to use because they have lower operational costs. In addition, nursing coalitions represent the voice of the coming changes and reforms that have been not made since the introduction of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. Finally, the webinar presented the realities of nursing. This strategy was implemented in order to attract interest to the healthcare reforms and outline the main benefits that strong leaders and unity of collective action can contribute to this area, which can bring positive changes that are urgently needed. Some leaders in Washington suggested that nurses were supposed to be educated and mentored to become “the nurse policy activists of the future” (Milstead, 2009). In conclusion, Nursing Organizations Alliance was formed in 2002. However, the workshop conti
Introduction All living creatures usually experience certain rhythmic changes which in most cases coincide with the changes in the environment on daily or seasonal basis. Such rhythmic changes are referred to as biological rhythms and entail the circadian, infradian and the ultradian rhythms (Rodrigo et al, 2007, p. 234). Circadian rhythms are best described as the regular flow in which activities undergo in a day. It is approximately the 24-hour physiological processes that occur in living things. These processes are normally controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) normally referred to as the ‘biological clock’ which is located in the hypothalamus of the brain just above the cross section of optic nerves (Quraishi, 2007, p. 1). It functions in such a way that when light enters the eye into the retina, the optic nerves send signals to the SCN and then to the brain and the person is active. On the contrast, at night when there is darkness and only minimal light reaches the retina, the pineal grand is activated by electrical stimulants to manufacture excess melatonin which in turn makes people drowsy thus sleeping at night. Therefore, a perfect example of the circadian rhythm is the sleep and wake up cycle (Quraishi, 2007, p.1). This cycle comes with many changes occurring in the active and dormant periods for example urine production is normally dormant in the night while being active during the day. As a matter of fact, circadian rhythms is the answer as to why people will automatically fall asleep in the fall of darkness and wake in the ,morning when light falls (Quraishi, 2007, p.1). This paper is therefore an in-depth analysis of the Circadian Rhythms to find out their importance in psychology and how they affect human beings. Circadian Rhythm disorders will also be discussed. Factors affecting Circadian Rhythms Circadian Rhythms are expected to be persisting in the living organism such that they become endogenous to the living organism. Nevertheless, external factors play a big role in affecting circadian rhythms. Some of these factors include; light, travelling, drugs, noise and alcohol intake just to mention but a few. Depending on the time it comes, light is known to reset the biological clock such that it either causes a delay or advance in the circadian rhythm. This is most common in areas that have longer days than nights and vice versa. Secondly, people travelling long distances in different regions for instance pilots may be forced to stay awake for longer periods than stipulated thus affecting the Circadian rhythm. On the other hand, drugs such as caffeine, Khat and marijuana affect the circadian rhythm to keep the individual wake for long hours. In new-born babies, the baby colic cause turn trams which disrupt the circadian rhythms making them baby stay awake the better part of the night and end up sleeping during the day. The impact and Importance of Circadian Rhythms The Circadian rhythms are
Introduction Biotechnology can be defined as a technology that utilizes “biological phenomena for copying and manufacturing various useful substances” (Smith 3). Biotechnology was initially an artisan ability and not a science. This technology involved producing beer, cheese and bread among other related products, where processes were carried out in an accurate manner. These processes were also reproducible. However, the role played by the microorganisms in these processes was not known up to the time the experiments were carried out by people like Pasteur and Anton van and established this. Towards the mid-twentieth century, there were swift developments in the processes of “aseptic fermentation” and these led to the production of useful substances such as penicillin, steroids and amino acids among others. This move created a fresh variety of biotechnology industries (Smith 2). Moreover, the technology linked to applied genetics as well as “recombinant DNA” came up and brought improvement in the industrial micro-organisms and facilitated creation of fresh aspects in animal as well as crop production. It is found out that at the present, the “recombinant drug production” is a greatly significant biotechnology aspect (Smith 2). All through its history, biotechnology has clearly been offering great opportunities to the improvement of human life in terms of medicine, industry as well as nutrition and it can be projected that this trend will go on even in the future. History of Biotechnology Biotechnology has its roots in the ancient times. In the past
eCommerce is a fast-growing and one of the most promising economic sectors of both developed and developing countries. Online grocery stores were among the first market participants to understand the benefits and convenient features of online commerce. The author of this study reviewed major online food retailers and their target markets. They are adults, mostly millennials, young families, and single parents. Male and female genders are equally active in online grocery shopping. The chosen online grocery retailer is Instacart. You can see the link on the screen. It is worth to mention that the Instacart website was visited about 4 p. m. This online retailer sells not only food products to customers but also other home essentials. As the market analysis shows, Instacart has major competitors, which are such market players as AmazonFresh, Shipt, and FreshDirect. It can be said that programmers and designers made several correct decisions during the website’s development. The website design adheres to minimalism. The interface is friendly to newcomers. The color palette is a simple but eye-catching combination of white and green. Images are focusing on the promotion of organic and fresh food and discount products. The front page also contains many partners’ brand logos. However, the Instacart website has one significant drawback. It is that in order for customers to start choosing and buying products, they need to scroll down the front page. For example, AmazonFresh is free from this drawback. All important links are located at the top of the front page. Functional design plays a significant role in online marketing. Instacart has been found to be a popular online grocery store based on Google and Bing search results. Only in a few cases did Instacart appear on the second search page. It is also worth noting that Instacart is often mentioned in sources and articles related to the topic of online grocery commerce. Time does not affect the trending of Instacart in search engines. Instacart positions itself as a service that sells organic and fresh food and delivers it faster than any other market player. Instacart market policy ensures that the given value proposition is carried out. The company develops software technologies, makes contacts with all social groups, and improves the overall quality of services. Instacart’s current competitors can be divided into two categories, namely major and minor. Major competitors are AmazonFresh and Shipt, while minor ones are FreshDirect, Cornershop, and Postmates. It is essential to mention that Instacart and Shipt have gradually replaced AmazonFresh in the online grocery shopping market over the past two years. Instacart analysis shows that the service wants to create the most comfortable atmosphere for existing and potential customers. They also support modern trends such as healthy eating and staying at home. A more functional interface and an active PR campaign can improve their customers’ shoppin
Wal-Marts establishment in a new town Pro’s and Con’s from Traders and Residents Owners of small businesses located nearby Owners of small business will be against the move of Wal-Mart establishing a branch in the new city; they are likely to give the following reasons to support their stand:   * Unfair competition, small traders will feel that the company has a large capacity that it can sell its products cheaply than the price that small traders can sell their commodities; this is because wal-mart has the capacity and can easily take advantage of economies of scale.   * Small traders are likely to discourage the move quoting that it will have an unlikely loss of business to them and also lack of employment, the company is likely to drive small scale out of business, this will create unemployment in the area. The employees whom the company is likely to employ will not be paid appropriately.   * When the company is established, then it is likely to cause traffic in the city, this leads to increased social costs to the town.   * Small-scale traders are likely to challenge the move since it can lead to brain drain in the city, people will have limited opportunities since the company sells a variety of goods which could otherwise be developed through community innovation (Stevenson, 2009). Town residents and residents of nearby towns Residents and neighbors are likely to see them move from a positive side, they are likely to give the following advantages:   * The company will offer a wide range of shopping well as it has a variety of commodities to sell, both the residents and neighbors will enjoy a wide range of choice and increase consumer solemnity.   * the company is likely to sell its commodities cheaply thus residents and neighbors will get a chance to get higher value for money.   * competition in a market leads to better service thus when the company increases competition, then consumers are likely to get better services from the town.   * an increasing population and shoppers in the city will lead to demand for more social investments in the city which is positive for the city.   * both residents and neighbors may be quick to point chance of improved employment of their population in the store.   * the neighbors and residents will enjoy a larger market for their locally produced good into the store thus increases economic growth in the city. Wal-Mart representative In response to the challenges brought about, the company is likely to give out the following benefits to the company:   * The company will be equal employment and will give priority to the residents and neighbors so it will lead to employment growth, it will respect domestic labor rights so that it will neither underpay nor overwork its staffs.   * The company will sell its products at the right price and will not use unfair c
Introduction The psychology of child development is of major importance to psychologists, and as a result numerous theoretical concepts have been developed. One of the most important concepts concerned with child development is the psychosocial theory developed by a renowned German social psychologist, Erick Erickson. Erickson’s psychosocial theory is one of the most popular modern theories of human development. It highlights eight progressive stages through which an individual develops. Erickson proposes that an individual ought to successfully go through all the stages while mastering critical skills at each stage. While these skills enable one to acquire essential virtues, mastery of these virtues is inhibited by inherent challenges at each developmental stage. As such, Erickson’s theory has become very popular due to the fact that not only does it highlight progressive stages through which personality develops but also highlights key challenges that inhibit such development. Erickson’s theory goes further and proposes alternative counteractive measures through which individuals navigate crisis inherent in each of the developmental stages. It is imperative to note that the dominant crisis within the entire theory seems to be trust vs. mistrust, which forms the basis of discussion herein. This paper aims at evaluating major issues pertinent to child development in one of the developmental phases from birth up to 12 years. During this period, an individual develops key skills that not only shape outcomes in later life but almost irreversibly shapes ones personality. Of the eight stages identified by Erickson, four of them account for personality development for the first 12 years of existence, highlighting the significance of the psychology of child development. The eight stages are categorized as follows: Basic Trust vs. Mistrust (0 – 2 years), Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (2 – 4 years), Initiative vs. Guilt (4 – 5 years) and lastly Industry vs. Inferiority (5 – 12 years). Each of these stages is crucial towards the development of a healthy personality. Erickson has identified certain skills acquired at each. Since this paper aims at evaluating one of the critical stages from birth to 12 years, Erickson’s fourth stage, Industry vs. Inferiority, is the focus for this assignment. Major assumptions are tested against the life experiences of a 7 year old boy, whose real identity cannot be revealed for security and confidentiality. Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development While Erickson provides eight stages of human development, half of them encompass human development during childhood. Erickson’s first four stages are identif
Introduction Several historical and social factors have contributed to the growth of Hollywood, California. The filmmaking industry has gone through numerous changes. The region comprised of a small population during the late 19th century. It was integrated as a municipality in the early 20th century when it fused with the City of Los Angeles. Thereafter, the film industry began to materialize in the region. Currently, a number of renowned film producers and actors from different global locations have settled in Hollywood. Among the historical sites in the region are Walk of Fame Historic Buildings and the Fonda Theater. History of Hollywood, California Hollywood came into existence in the year 1853. It began with a lone adobe hut in Los Angeles, California. The early settlers in the region were successful farmers. By the year 1870, Hollywood was inhabited by the farming community. The most renowned person in the history of Hollywood is Harvey Henderson Wilcox. He moved to the region during the 1880s and bought a ranch. His wife later named the ranch Hollywood. During the year 1887, Wilcox presented a map of his new settlement to the Los Angeles County recorder’s bureau. The map was the first certified document depicting the name Hollywood. The town’s first street was called Prospect Avenue. The street was later renamed Hollywood Boulevard. By the early 20th century, the town had attracted a population of 500 individuals. At the time, the town had a single post office, one hotel, and a market. In the bordering Los Angeles City, the population had increased tremendously. The city had a population of over 100, 000. A single-track streetcar line separated the two towns. In the year 1902, the well-known Hollywood Hotel was constructe