ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction In this unit, I have learned several issues relating to human resource management (HRM). When addressing matters concerning the workforce, business companies should follow the laid-down rules and guidelines governing the employer-employee relationship. It is also clear to me that employees, just like employers, have their rights and the abuse of these rights would result in lawsuits. The presence of trade unions today has helped employees in fighting for their rights. I feel that the trade unions play a great role in uniting workers, thus increasing their bargaining power. A union can also negotiate with the employer on behalf of the workers. I am convinced that the likelihood of an employee getting fair treatment from the employer will depend on the knowledge they have concerning their rights. Today, economic crises have equally affected employees and employers. I have learned that such moves as making employees redundant, as well as dismissing them, are necessitated by economic crises, which force businesses to cut down on their expenses in an attempt to remain profitable. The remuneration of workers is often seen as one of the major expenses incurred by businesses. It is one of the major reasons why businesses resort to such practices as making workers redundant. As I had stated earlier, employees can challenge the legality of such practices by employers through labor tribunals, as well as in a court of law. In this paper, I seek to analyze the Zoo Park case study. First, I will advise the management on how to handle redundancies. Here, I have categorically highlighted issues relating to the recognition of a trade union as a bargaining party. Secondly, I have identified problems likely to arise as a result of changing working hours and made recommendations on how to best address the issue. Lastly, I have advised the management of the best ways to address the situation leading to the accident in the zoo park’s restaurant. Managing Redundancies Zoo Park’s management team is faced with the challenge of making some of the employees redundant after deciding to concentrate on the monkey section of the zoo. As a result, the park wishes to close the reptile and the aviary section to expand the monkey section. The decision will, however, see the workers in the reptile and the bird sections rendered redundant. The move is opposed by representatives of the ZZZ trade union, who argue that the selection process should be carried out among all zookeepers. The development led to bitter disagreements between the employees working in the monkey section and those in the aviary and the reptile section. The situation saw employees working in the monkey section pull out of the ZZZ trade union to deal with the Zoo park management individually. The zookeepers are claiming that they are better experienced in dealing with monkeys and that their counterparts are incapable of handling the primates, hence they (the zoo keepers) should retain their jobs. In a ruling made in the DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd v Doolan (2011) case , the court cited incapability to work as
Executive Summary This business plan shows the available trajectories that Ken and Mary Hatch, referred to as principal co-founders, could use to establish a coffee outlet in the Markham area under the Second Cup franchise. The purpose of this plan is to demonstrate the market, competitive and industry forces that will undoubtedly influence the start-up business, and also to detail available alternatives, recommendation and action plan implementation. A SWOT analysis demonstrates that the start-up business is likely to benefit from market share leadership and strong brand equity enjoyed by Second Cup in the Canadian Market; however, the co-owners must come up with ways to guard against stiff competition from other Second Cup outlets, Starbucks coffee houses, and low-priced independent coffee shops operating in the area. This view is reinforced by the Porters Five Forces analysis, which demonstrates strong competition for customers and intense rivalry among the mentioned businesses. Among the alternatives given, it is recommended that the two principal co-owners come up with a market entry approach that will bring together three partners – the co-owners as the benefactor custodians of the business, Second Cup as the owners of the franchise and principal guarantors of the loan facility, and three other investors/shareholders to contribute to the much needed capital as well share in the absorption of perceived and real risks The business plan concludes by demonstrating how the action plan will be implemented. Owing to the fact that the principal co-owners only have $20,000 as startup capital (franchise fee), it is strongly suggested that Second Cup guarantees a loan of $140,000 to be repaid in equal monthly installments for a period of up to six years, and the three investors to contribute the remaining $40, 000 capital for a stake of 20% percent ownership of the company (6.6% ownership each). Background The case study demonstrates how a couple, Ken and Mary Hatch, go about preparing to own a coffee business under the Canadian successful and nationally known franchise Second Cup. Established in 1975 in Toronto, Second Cup has grown to more than 400 retail outlets that offer a unique coffee experience to customers across the country and beyond. The coffee company is currently looking for franchisees in the Markham area, and Ken and Mary see this as their opportune time to make it big in the business world. The case then proceeds by showing the total investments needed for the project and how the couple could be funded by a bank to raise the money required to commence the project. It is important to note that Second Cup takes up the responsibility of building the facility and then renting it back to franchiser, implying that it places much emphasis on the ambience of their shops and also pays a great attention to detail. Problem Statement The case study elicits a scenario where a couple is about to make life-changing decisi
Introduction Sole proprietorship forms by far the most common form of business ownership for start ups. Numerous ways of starting businesses are available to entrepreneurs but still this is most preferred. Several reasons can be attributed to this situation. These reasons could include the autonomy one requires. As opposed to partnership and companies that may limit the freedom with which one operates, sole proprietorship allows the business man independence. Advantages of Sole Proprietorship Another advantage accruing to this type of business is that it is easier and faster for the business man to make decisions in the business. This is because interruptions in making decisions are few. These decisions may not end up being the best as it were. Some people would want to be their own bosses and this point of not being accountable to any other person like the case is in partnership and sole proprietorship will drive the person to form a sole proprietorship business. The legal requirements to the formation of a sole proprietorship are not as many as those found in other forms of business organizations like the companies. Sole proprietorship has very few requirements. Only registration and the acquisition of trading licenses are necessary. It takes a short time to as compared to other forms of business organizations. Formation of this type of business is very easy and one can start it with very little capital. This would then inspire one simply to get into this form of business. Since most business start ups do not have a lot of capital to themselves, this offers to be the best business organization form for them to get into. Just as easy as it is to start a business so is the winding up of the same. Unlike the companies that have numerous winding up procedures that involve many legal regulations, sole proprietorship is very limited in these regulations and procedures. It will only take the decision of the proprietor as pertains to when it wind up the business. This forms a basis as to why most start ups focus on sole proprietorships. Shortcomings of Sole Proprietorship Even though sole proprietorship appears to be most convenient to the business star ups, it has several shortcomings to it. Care and proper research should therefore be carried out before determining whether to take this up as a form of business ownership. The biggest question about entrepreneurs is the determination as to whether they are born or made. Many studies have concluded that up to seventy five percent of entrepreneurs are born with these characters while only twenty five percent acquire these characters from learning. The main qualities include: having the inner drive to succeed. It is the greatest desire to gain prominence that will drive people into entrepreneurship. Why Sole Proprietorship Is the Best Form of Business Entrepreneurs also have a strong belief in their potentials. They set out towards a goal in life and have the a
Introduction Since polygamy redefines marital relationships, it has created many public debates regarding gender equality in America. More specifically, many people link polygamy with serious gender inequalities, particularly concerning the status of women. Analysts have not only discussed gender inequality in polygamy as a social issue but also a legal one (Zeitzen, 2008, p. 125). Therefore, American laws governing polygamy also cover gender inequality issues. For example, the United States (U.S) Supreme Court (and other lower courts) often discussed gender inequality issues during the hearing of polygamy cases. Nonetheless, over the last few decades, there has been little willingness by the American judicial system to re-examine the illegality of polygamy in America, despite the changing public views regarding social unions. Since the legal debate surrounding polygamy includes gender inequality issues, the unwillingness of the judicial system to re-examine the legal status of polygamy means that gender issues in polygamous relationships remain unaddressed. Therefore, since the judiciary hesitates to readdress the state of polygamy in America, the contentious gender equality issues in polygamy exist. Since polygamy raises serious gender equality issues, this chapter discusses the issue of gender inside the American society and inside polygamous systems, framing the analysis through the relationships between gender and culture. Through these analyses, this chapter explores America’s social attitudes regarding gender inequality (in polygamous unions) by showing that the 19 th century American government criminalized polygamy not as a tool to empower women, but rather, to protect the majority societal view of morality and weaken the political power of the Mormon Church. This paper also shows that since the Mormon Church had a growing political influence in some parts of America, the government used the polygamy debate to limit this influence. This chapter also shows that the need to preserve hegemonic Christian morals informed America’s position towards polygamy. This way, the government was able to support the view of a majority of Americans who supported the illegalization of polygamy. To this extent, the influence of the dominant culture prevailed on the minority view regarding polygamy in America. This chapter comprehensively shows that even though polygamy introduced significant gender inequality issues, other political and social issues, like preserving hegemonic Christian morals and limiting the political power of the Mormon Church, informed its illegalization. To affirm these facts, this chapter explores the influence of culture on gender roles
Introduction The graphic novel Allergic , written by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter, is a heartwarming story with wonderful characters. As one of the comic book formats, this allows it to be of particular interest to the book’s target audience, parents and children. Allergic tells the story of a pet-obsessed girl named Maggie who is about to get her first puppy, and then she finds out that she is allergic to all animals. Maggie is still determined to do her best to find the perfect pet, but she still has a lot to cope with her family, friends, and herself along the way. Presented by illustrations, the story makes you feel the emotions of the heroes, experience the complex challenges of life with them, and immerse yourself in the plot. The graphic novel wins readers’ hearts by raising important topics, the situation in which the main characters find themselves close to reality, and therefore teach children how to cope with difficulties. The plot and its analysis Turning to the teaser of the novel, presented by a short video, a fascinating plot becomes obvious (Scholastic Reading Guide: Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter| Official Book). Maggie feels lonely; her parents are waiting for replenishment in the family, and her younger twin brothers are constantly in their world. However, the girl has a great solution; she wants to have a puppy. On her birthday, Maggie’s parents bring her to an animal shelter. Maggie immediately finds a suitable puppy, but things get complicated when the main character has a severe allergic reaction. It turns out that Maggie is allergic to everything with fur or feathers, but despite her allergy, Maggie is determined to do everything possible to find an animal that makes her the perfect pet. Notable is the way the illustrator conveys the emotions of Maggie and the characters throughout the story. Maggie is completely devastated when the girl realizes that the allergy has deprived her of all chances of ever having her pet. Remaining optimistic, she tries to find a new pet for herself, which is perfectly conveyed due to the graphic visuals (Thomson). In addition, when Maggie’s best friend gets a puppy, Maggie suffers when she sees Claire interacting with what Maggie has long wanted. The significant point of the novel is how allergies are diagnosed. The author transmits help for young readers who undergo allergy shots and various skin tests like Maggie. Particular attention and respect are caused by the character of Sebastian, a schoolboy who also faces allergies. He covers his experience, talks about acute allergic reactions and using medicines. From his story, it is clear that he is wise beyond his years and learned to cope and agree that some things are not available to him due to allergy, and this is normal. However, Maggie disagrees with this and attempts to drag the mouse into the bedroom and secretly make a furry friend. This plan is not ideal as it backfires as she tries to hide the fact that
Synopsis Agrigreen incorporation which is located in the western United States deals with the manufacture of various farm fertilizers. The Agrigreen’s appointed Tad Pierson as a project engineer in one of its plants. The incorporation has charged him with the responsibility of overseeing the operations of the plant’s surveying team. Having worked with the team before, he is awake to some of the conflicts and performance problems that may appear within the team. The increased frequency and degree of the problems in the team have left Tad concerned with the performance standards of the team, the production calendar, and employee dissatisfaction. Tad Pierson hopes to get a long-lasting solution to the problems that the group is facing. The company employs surveyors to oversee the quality of performance by the employees and ensure that the safety standards of all the projects are properly met. Before the creation of the surveying department, Agrigreen used part-time project engineers also known as drafting recruits. The importance of the surveying team led to the official creation of the department with Howard Line Berry as the leading surveyor. He was appointed to the position after receiving the necessary education which was proved by the certification from a local college. It is important that the position of the leading surveyor was occupied by a professional with the necessary skills and good experience, this is important for the surveyor to get a good reputation and respect among the workers. The post of lead surveyor was created to aid Silverton who was the project engineer at that time. Based on his educational qualification and high salary it became apparent that he was overqualified to offer surveying services. Howard’s tenure was filled with various mishaps and friction with fellow employees and supervisors. In his employment term, he had five managers and three survey assistants, all of whom had experienced some form of friction with him with the exemption of Adams who had taken up most of Howard’s ill friction behaviors. Howard’s performance had been questioned as it had various production and safety issues. For instance, his error on location fixing led to the complete demolition of a mill’s foundation. This situation destroyed his reputation within the organization. Howard also had endless confrontations and conflicts with members of the engineering team and company managers. One of his assistants Mel Cutler, who had been appointed into the organization several years before, noticed Howard’s shortcoming in regards to taking notes. This was five years following his appointment to the post of surveyor assistant. Since then, the work experiences of the employees have turned into a nightmare. He also noticed that it took so much longer for Howard to snack during the break that it would violate the company’s reporting and departure time. Mel took every opportunity th
According to Karnik and Kanekar (2012), the prevalence of obesity among children aged between 8 and 16 years has been on the increase, leading to increased health concerns. This paper examines the implications of a three week intervention plan to reduce children weight. It also aims at identifying whether innovative and fun interventions can encourage children to live healthy lives. The first step in identifying strategies to control obesity in children involves acknowledging the causes, which include genetic factors, environmental factors, and behavioral factors (Karnik & Kanekar, 2012). The interventions used in the three weeks involve the influence of behavioral factors and environmental factors. Behavioral factors involve the consumption of high energy foods with minimal physical activity, which leads to a buildup of sugars in the body. Environmental factors, on the other hand, involve the effect of the setting, such as home, school and community, on food intake and physical activity (Rahman, Cushing, & Jackson, 2011). The idea of a camp, away from the usual environment, is aimed at minimizing the psychological and social health issues such as negative social progress due to their environment. The interventions will be administered in a three week camp for only obese children. This is necessary for the self-esteem of the children since there will be no stigmatization from their peers or adults (Theodore, Bray, & Kehle, 2009). The interventions used in the camp are play-based, in order to influence the children into engaging in physical activity and appreciating nutrition-based education. The interventions include board games to help them understand nutrition and learn various physical exercises, and interactive multimedia and virtual educational games to enhance decision making build self-esteem for healthy eating conduct (Rahman, Cushing, & Jackson, 2011). One of the interventions involves a teaching tool that is based on a game that emphasizes “four fitness components namely cardio-respiratory endurance, muscle strength, muscle endurance, and flexibility” (MCHA, 2011). The game requires a player to roll the dice and move on a board. Depending on the square where the child lands, he is required to do the fitness activity indicated such as “seal walking, sit-ups, jumping kicks, or monkey dance” (MCHA, 2011). The second intervention involves the children taking up a journalism role and forming a story by piecing various health and nutrition newspaper and magazine articles and pictures on a board (MCHA, 2011). The third intervention involves the provision of nutrition and physical activity education
Fernando Ortiz The life and work of Fernando Ortiz form an area of intense interest for researchers from across the globe. The intellectual was a famous sociologist and anthropologist of his time, promoting progressive ideas, which have retained their relevance throughout decades. In the age of globalization, as the planet figuratively becomes smaller, the work of Fernando Ortiz appears particularly valuable. Moore (2017) writes that Ortiz is “recognized today as one of the most influential Latin American authors of the 20th century” (para. 1). His works dedicated to intercultural particularities and relations were ahead of their time and have inspired generations of researchers. While the range of themes covered by Fernando Ortiz is rather broad, his most significant contribution to sociology lies in the field of Afro-Cuban studies. Overall, he managed to provide insight into the nature of the Latin American cultural code while putting it in the general context of intercultural relations. In spite of the fact that Ortiz is now known as one of the pioneers of transculturality, his early life was mainly related to other activities. He used to work as a criminologist and a lawyer, becoming one of the first experts who advocated fingerprinting as one of the tools of police work at the time (Echevarria, 2020). During his career in Havana, Ortiz had much experience with criminals of African origin. These encounters allowed him to acquire a deeper understanding of the African people’s mindset, including their values, beliefs, and aspirations. This area became a major source of inspiration for Ortiz, prompting him to conduct more in-depth research in this direction. In fact, his criminological work with black people changed the course of his life and became the turning point for Ortiz. The experience resulted in Ortiz’s further involvement with social sciences and inspired him to become of the most progressive thinkers of the 20 th century. Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar In the course of his life, Fernando Ortiz published multiple writings covering the important themes of the time. His earlier works were closely connected to the issues surrounding the population of African origin in Cuba (Echevarria, 2020). Ortiz studied a wide range of topics, from African neologism in the Cuban dialect to the history of slavery in the region. As a result, his earlier writings published between the 1900s and 1930s became a major inspiration for African-Cuban movements. However, the most influential work by Fernando Ortiz was published a decade later. Having conducted profound research on the African influence on the Cuban communities, Ortiz expanded on his previous findings. This process resulted in his seminal writing titled Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar. The work provides insight into the very nature of Latin American culture through the prism of these two essential Cuban products (Ortiz, 1947). The author artfully utilizes the ethnological contrast, comparing “the generality of sugar and the particularity of tobacco” (Holbraad, 2019, p. 5). This way, he is able to grasp the Cuban soul and transmit his