ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
In any business deal it is highly important that the final agreement between the business partners preserves employees’ civil rights as in the case of failure in this area the company may eventually suffer great material and reputation looses. To find practical guidelines on how to do it in the best way it is useful to study other companies’ collective bargaining outcomes and to make adequate conclusions out of it. Collective bargaining in itself can be described as a process of palaver between the representatives of the employer and an authorized union of workers. The purpose of such negotiations is to determine conditions of employment including the payment issues, working hours, working conditions, and any other issues connected to the process of work. These notions are the most important during the negotiation process between the management of the company and the representatives of the workers. I have studied the case of the “Big Three” Union of American giant motor-car construction companies which includes General Motors, Ford and Chrysler (Stebenne 1996). The case occurred as a result of the conflict between the union of labor power and the companies’ management. During the long period of conflict and negations the union of workers succeeded to achieve its goals and secure the workers better working conditions and fees. However, this result was achieved after a long session of negotiations and the interference of the state which laid to the companies’ great material and reputation looses. The conflict arose in 1950s at its first stage. The employees’ demands were to secure better working conditions namely less working hours, regular breaks and a higher level of fees. The representatives of the workers informed the company’s management of the difficulties the workers had had at their places of work namely the lack of proper hygiene conditions, the absence of breaks relevant for power regeneration and having meals, too long hours of work which were absolutely unacceptable on the manufacture with such level of danger for human health (Moody 1997). The representatives of workers supported their statement with significant facts of medical researches and addressed the guarantees of rights and freedoms provided in the Constitution. During the first stage of negotiation, the agreement was not developed. Later, the union of “Big Tree” was punished for that and fined by the government. This provided the basis for the future success of employees’ unions at the second stage of the collective bargaining negations (Bronfenbrenner 1998). However, the companies have already suffered significant material and reputation losses.
Background to the Study The context of this proposal is based on the delivery of HRM within the Toyota Motors Corporation (TMC). The proposal provides an examination of the roles of line managers in delivery of human resource practices. The choice of the giant multinational is based on its exemplification of diverse HR functions. The effectiveness of line managers in implementation of HRM responsibilities is emphasised. In addition, it analyses the structure of the company’s HRM and its role in management of a large number of employees in many different regions of the world. The Toyota Motor Corp. is a global company with fifty manufacturing companies and over one-seventy distribution centres. It was founded in 1937 in Toyota, Japan. According to the company’s Annual Report (2014), the multinational offers a variety of products and services such as speciality steel, automobile parts, marine vessel engines, biotechnology, real estate, financial services, electrical components, and house appliances (Liker & Hoseus 2008). Problem of the Study Currently, many organisations are restructuring their HR functions for better management of their employees to ease crises in the workplace, improve financial outcomes, and maintain organisational efficacy (Friedman 2007). TMC is known for its ‘just-in-time’ production model and
Introduction Initially, violin entered the music industry as an instrument for entertainment used by the lower classes. It accompanied dances for ordinary people and was not played at special places. However, with time, violin play became a profession. It entered the orchestral world and started to lead other instruments (Hann 2). Two Main Types of Venues in the 18 th and 19th Centuries Since the 18th century already, those venues that were created for music-related purposes divided into two types. Those spaces that were connected with the political life of the country were rather large and had good acoustic, which could not be said about small spaces focused on artistic considerations. Some related issues are observed even today, as large music halls also often have a bad influence on the sound of the performance. This problem becomes more critical when intimate repertory is played, for instance, unaccompanied violin pieces (Donington 211). In the 19th century, music-making was divided into home and philharmonic one. The large-scale music-making took place in the concert halls. In its framework professionals often refer to Wagner’s innovation considering placement of forces. He was the first to put the orchestra underneath the stage. Programs Nowadays, professionals pay much attention to concert programs that were popular previously. Still, focusing on them, they do not consider the possibility of recreation, as a rule. For a piece to be played in the concert hall, it is to be innovative and extraordinary. A mixture of different types of music was developed in the 19th century and became popular in its second half. Professionals would gather orchestral and vocal music, for example. The mixture of instruments and vocals appeals to the audience most of all due to its entertaining characteristics. Examples of Music Mixture in the Programs of the 18th And 19th Centuries A range of examples can be used to describe this approach of music mixture. Starting with the end of the 18th century, long concert programs were developed. In the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a symphony, a hymn, violin concerto, and an aria, etc. were combined. Together, they composed an inaugural concert (Jackson 367). Similar to it, the first concert of London’s Royal Philharmonic Society that took place at the beginning of the 19th century consisted of “Cherubini’s overture Anacréon, a string quartet by Mozart, a vocal quartet and chorus by Sacchini, a wind serenade by Mozart, symphonies by Beethoven and Haydn, a chorus from Mozart’s Idomeneo, a Boccherini quintet, Jommelli’s celebrated chaconne and a march by Haydn” (Lawson and Stowell 93). The concert of a violinist Franz Kneisel, who was the representative of the 19th century, also was rather extended. It and was performed in 1892, which proves that tendency. It consisted of three main parts: Haydn’s Symphony, Paganini’s Concerto for Violin, and Brahms’ Symphony (Nikisch 1). Curren
Introduction Anthropology is the study of people and different aspects of their life throughout their evolutionary history. Cultural anthropology is one of the branches that concerns human cultures, social structures, practices, and beliefs. It studies how people’s life is shaped in accordance with their ideas and behaviors, which helps to understand the differences and similarities between the cultures of separate nations and periods. Cultural diversity can be tracked in various areas, among them language, traditions, art, religion, family, politics, medicine, sports, and many others. The versatility of human existence often makes these subjects intertwine, allowing the researchers to draw parallels between them. In that way, Serazio, in his article “Just How Much Is Sports Fandom Like Religion?” points out the resemblance of sports communities and religion. The purpose of this paper is to study the article and the matters that it addresses from an anthropological perspective. Main body The article presents the idea that sports teams are a sort of totems for fans that, just like in religion, identify and unite communities. The author states that, even though all the rituals popular among sports fans have “little effect on the outcome” of the game, they have an almost sacred meaning for people involved in sports (Serazio). The reasons for that go beyond motivational purposes and back to the earliest societies. The article refers to the statement made by Emile Durkheim, who emphasizes that worshipping “a divine form” inherent to society means worshipping the society itself at the same time (qtd. in Serazio). This observation compares a sports team to a godlike being for the fans and sports rituals to religious rituals. Indeed, both serve identification purposes, helping the fandom (a society in a way) to distinguish itself through artifacts and ceremonies and find like-minded people. Serazio calls sports a “civic religion,” and the idea does not seem absurd if one turns to anthropology to draw connections between these two contexts. They appear different on the surface, but sports and religion seem to have common roots. Given the content of the article, its relation to anthropology becomes clear. Such structures as sports fandoms and subcultures are the result of the social nature of people, who tend to associate and form communities. The primary formations used to be religious, but the signs of spiritual behavior can be detected even in other aspects of human life, such as sports. Cultural anthropology studies how people organize social structures based on their ideas and how such structures form their existence in turn. As can be seen from the sports fandom existence, people want to show their affiliation, even if it is not confirmed on an official level in some way. Serazio states that “there is something universal” in the way people united by the appreciation of a particular artifact or phenomenon gather. For communities, some specific objects can have sacred meaning, whether it is a religious item such as a cross or a Star of
Looking for Imaginary Homelands summary? This paper contains a synopsis, critical review, and analysis of Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie. Introduction The essay Imaginary Homelands describes the plight of the writers in the Diaspora as they attempt to reconnect with their homelands. However, the reconnection fails miserably due to incomplete memory. They are completely out of touch with their homelands and hence grossly alienated. This essay will focus on the features of semantic and lexical structures employed in order to highlight the question of memory fragmentation. These are metaphors, semantic fields, intertextuality and text types, and register. Imaginary Homelands Summary Imaginary Homelands is a collection of essays by Salman Rushdie. The book written between 1981 and 1992 focuses on the author’s experiences in the time when Indira Gandhi was ruling India. The book is divided into six parts: Midnight’s children, The politics of India and Pakistan, Literature, Arts & media, Experience of migrants, and The question of Palestine. Imaginary Homelands Analysis Metaphor in Imaginary Homelands There is extensive use of metaphor in the essay Imaginary Homelands by Rushdie. This is driven by the need to convey the theme of alienation that people in the Diaspora are invariably plagued with. Mostly, the exiles have to do with faint memories, which have gaping hiatuses and therefore, they have to fill in using their imaginations (Seyhan 2000). The use of metaphor, it can be argued, deliberately reflects on Rushdie’s personal history. The metaphors have
A lifelong physical activity is any type of activity maintained throughout the major part of the individual’s lifespan. Studies show multiple benefits of appropriately organized lifelong physical activities, including not only physiological but also psychological, social and cognitive. Observing the examples of adherence to lifelong activities will help us not only to better illustrate the benefits of such lifestyle, but also to outline the main difficulties and their solutions, and inform our future involvement in the activity. I’ve selected aerobics as an activity in question for my paper. Aerobics is among the best fitting choices for life-long activity, being both flexible enough to adjust the intensity and effective enough to provide the needed health benefits along the lifespan. The first exemplar is the seven-year-old named Jane. She regularly attends the aerobics section and enjoys it greatly. At this age, it is a common trend, as children easily maintain their physical activities. So it is natural for Jane to effortlessly meet or even exceed her daily schedule. Of course, because of the early age, the value of maintaining such lifestyle can not yet be properly evaluated. Instead, the reason she qualifies as an exemplar at this stage is because her effort is appropriately directed. At the early age the physical exercise is crucial for physiological development, but even more important is the formation of the behavioral pattern. Studies show that early habit formation increases the chances of adherence to physical activities throughout the rest of the life. This, of course, is a result of a collective effort, and much of Jane’s habits depend on her surroundings. So in this case, her parents and teachers are equally exemplar for their contribution to promoting of a healthy lifestyle. The second individual in question is Calvin, age 39. Calvin goes through 60-minutes aerobics program four days a week. He
The US healthcare reform was signed into law on March, 2010 after extensive debate within congress, at regional governments and at the national government. A great part of the healthcare reform was aimed at eliminating malpractices and inequalities propagated by insurance companies (BBC 2010, 2). The Obama healthcare reforms were however achieved after a number of previous healthcare reforms were undertaken by previous governments. For example, in 1965, the then president, Lyndon Johnson introduced healthcare reforms that were to cater for hospitalization and general insurance for senior American citizens only (in the course of their retirement) (New Tech Media 2010). Afterwards, the same regime also introduced a Medicaid scheme to take care of poor American citizens. In 1985, new healthcare reforms were also introduced through the employee retirement security act to provide health insurance to Americans who had left employment (New Tech Media 2010, p. 3). These reforms were later followed by new healthcare reforms introduced in 1997 by the State insurance healthcare program to cater for children below the poverty line (New Tech Media 2010). After these healthcare reforms, the Obama healthcare reforms were birthed. The kind of healthcare reforms undertaken by the Obama administration is to make healthcare more affordable to all Americans, as opposed to previous programs where discriminatory health insurance was practiced. The above mentioned healthcare reform changes (that occurred in previous years) defined the only two large-scale healthcare insurance programs that existed before the Obama healthcare reforms (Medicaid and Medicare). This means that before the healthcare reform process; it was up to individuals to look for their personal healthcare arrangements. In fact, most of working Americans got health insurance from their employers while others had to make their own private arrangements to pay for their health bills. It was also a requirement in existing health insurance schemes that people pay regular premiums throughout the course of their coverage but when it came to payment of health costs by the companies, some required the insured individuals to shoulder part of the costs before they paid their part. This sort of practice contributed to the ills that were plaguing the American healthcare sector. The Obama healthcare reforms were brought about by a number of challenges which existed in the US healthcare system. For instance, it was estimated that the cost of healthcare in the US was exorbitantly high when compared to other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (BBC 2010, 3). Past estimates gathered in 2007, reported that the US spent close to 2.2 trillion dollars in healthcare alone (BBC 2010, 3). This was an equivalent of 16.3% of the total country’s gross domestic product (GDP) (a figure which was estimated to be roughly twice as much as countries in the OECD regional block spent) (BBC 2010, 3). The Obama healthcare reforms wer
In any organization, organizational leaders continuously tackle a myriad of questions and several analyses as they make efforts towards improving their operational methods. Questions that seek reasons for a down ward turn in productivity, how reduction of wastage at the workplace could be implemented, who needs to be involved in decision making and how to increase revenues, to mention but a few, are a few of the questions that often arise in many organizations. An efficient way of dealing with such questions is to utilize Appreciative inquiry when tackling these questions because it posits that organizations move in the direction of what they consistently as questions about, and that the more affirmative the questions are, the more hopeful and positive the organizational responses will be. It is with this in mind that this paper will tackle the issue of Appreciative Inquiry as explored by Cooperrider and Whitney. Why the article is engaging from a change perspective After reading the three articles, the article that I find most engaging is the one titled “Appreciative inquiry” which is an article published in Holman, Devane and Cady’s book titled “the change handbook.” Given the details contained in this article, it can be said that every executive who is interested in implementing change within his or her organization needs to read this article. The article covers the topic of Appreciative inquiry from different angles starting with its definition and moving on to illustrate how it can be applied to an organization undergoing the process of change. The article is striking because it approaches the process of problem solving by organizations from a different angle. When it comes to tackling problems within organizations, most organizations usually focus much of their attention on the problem or on the things that are not running as they are supposed to and in doing so, they tend to ignore the things that are working well and are not in need of a fix. It is with this in mind that the authors of this article developed the Appreciative Inquiry theory as a way of helping organizational leaders refocus their attention to more optimistic habits and hence become less pessimistic of the processes within their organizations. As noted in the article, the advantages of the Appreciative inquiry theory are numerous the most notable being that it helps in harnessing previously ignored creative energies which are likely to be unleashed once the organizational leaders focus on Appreciative Inquiry particularly, on the success stories of the organization’s workforce. By refocusing on the positive elements within the organization through the process of Appreciative Inquiry, the organization would be path of creating positive changes and setting the best environment for positive forces such as creativi
Introduction Exporting is a market entry strategy in which a company sells its products to the target country after manufacturing them in another location. SMEs and MNEs must weigh the advantages and disadvantage of this strategy prior to adopting it. Analysis Small and medium enterprises can enjoy a number of advantages if they choose exporting as an entry mode. First, the strategy has minimal risk; most SMEs do not have the luxury of taking a lot of risk because they will feel the effect of market shocks almost immediately. Furthermore, the strategy does not require a lot of resource input. This is highly favourable to SMEs because many of them have limited capital to begin with. Therefore, they can only invest in strategies that do not require too much financial commitment. Exporting also minimises the distribution chain within a certain organisation and thus increases the amount of returns gained by the SME. If such companies select market strategies that involve collaboration with various parties, then they may have to share profits with many players, yet amounts may not even be high. Since small businesses are good at giving personal services, the exporting strategy would be ideal for such organisations because it will provide the SME with direct market contact. Companies can get to know their clientele and give them support wherever they are. Additionally, since small and medium enterprises are still at the initial stages of growth, it makes sense to pursue a low commitment entry mode. The firm can gradually increase its commitment to the chosen market after it becomes larger (Lis et. al. 2012). On the flipside, SMEs must contend with the loss of control over marketing mix elements such as price since tariffs may come in the way. Additionally, the strategy will still require investment in sales. Cultural differences between the exporter and the target market could minimise the SMEs chances of success. It is also possible to find trade restrictions in the target country. Small businesses may have difficulties in accessing information about the trade regulations or financing opportunities available in that country. Even finding potential customers may be difficult for SMEs who have little experience in the field. Exporting for SMEs Advantages                        Disadvantages                      minimal risk                      loss of control over marketing mix negligible resource input         investment in sales                minimises the distribution chain  cultural differences               direct market contact             accessing information              low commitment                    finding potential customers         Multinational enterprises can protect themselves from excess risk if they choose exporting as a market entry strategy. However, most MNEs are already at a mature phase of growth, so they can handle risk. Exporting also provides MNEs with the opportunity of studying a certain market before setting up production facilities. Additionally, this strategy allows the organisation to learn its customers and thus meet their needs effectively. Furthermore, organization may also get an opportuni