Walmart Facing Discrimination Lawsuit

American retail giant Walmart was going to face the largest class-action employment lawsuit in U.S history when a federal appeals court was ultimately allowed the combined multiparty litigation to move ahead to trial. After that, Walmart decided to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling of the federal appeals court. And the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The lawsuit was first filed by Betty Dukes, a store greeter in Pittsburg, California, along with five of her co-workers in 2001. In that case, Walmart is accused of paying women on salary and those hourly wages less than men for the same jobs and giving them fewer opportunities for promotion. The workers also said that women workers made up more than 70 percent of Walmart’s hourly work force, but made up less than one-third of its store management in the past decade. The plaintiffs wanted back pay and punitive damage. Now the question for the U.S Supreme Court is not if there was discrimination but if the claims by the individual employees can be combined as a class action. If the previous ruling stood, the case would cover about 1.5 million-plus women including all current and former women workers, and their claims could amount to billions of dollars. And this case will become the biggest private gender-bias case in U.S. history. This case is a very important business issue for Walmart, and any senior manager of the organization should care about this. Not only because of the billions of dollars Walmart might have to pay out, but also the impact and damage it would cost on the company’s image. The plaintiffs in this case was seeking back pay and punitive damage, and due to the fact that over 1.5 million walmart female workers could be involved, the claim could be up to billions of dollars. This would be a big loss to the company. Also, Walmart tried to project an improved image for the organization, and this case could be a big blow to the company’s image. Moreover, the case might also lead to drop in company’s stock price. And most importantly, if this case ultimately proceed to trial, it might lead to a lot more similar cases against the company. In this issue, there are many stakeholders involved. First of all, Walmart’s shareholders are one of the key stakeholders. Because if the case get proceed, there is a very big chance in dropping in the company stock price. And if Walmart utimately lost the case, the company would need to pay billion of dollars. In both situations, the company’s shareholders would have direct financial loss. Although the shareholders might have no interest on company’s image, they would still hope the company can solve the issue as soon as possible and in an efficient way. Though they are the shareholders of the company, they had not much power regarding to this issue. There are not much they can do to help the company. They might sell their shares if they thought the future of the company is uncertain. Another key stakeholder is the management of Walmart. They are one of the main reasons why Walmart is facing the discrimination issue. The female workers filed a lawsuit since they thought Walmart management treated them unfairly. If the case get proceed and Walmart ultimately lost the case, the Board of Directors might want to review and lay off part of the managment to prevent similar issues from happening again. Since the issue is now already in stage 4, there is not much the management could do. Walmart’s Board of Directors are surely one of the key stakeholders. The issue directly affects the company’s revenue and earning, therefore it had direct impact on the Board of Directors. Also, since the company’s managment was responsible for this issue, and the managment was chosen by the Board of Directors, therefore, they were responsible for the issue too. The Board of Directors would try to solve the issue as soon as possible but in an efficient way. They would want to solve the issue soon in order to protect the company’s image and substain the customers’ confidence. However, they would not settle the issue easily since they need to act in the best interest of the company. The last key stakeholders are the workers of the company, especially the female workers. Because this case had a big influence on the benefit of the company’s workers. No matter how the case go, Walmart’s managment would adjust the way they treat their workers. And if the ruling is favor of the workers, they would get back pay and claim for the punitive damage. And if that is the case, the company’s workers will have more power to them. This case could be seen as an example for any similar cases. To solve this action, the company would want to protect and improve the company’s image as a good corporate. Also, Walmart would not mind pay some claim to settle the lawsuit, since they would like to settle the issue quickly in order to gain back customers’ confidence. However, they would only settle for some reasonable amount. In my opinion, Walmart should face the lawsuit and wait for the result from the U.S Supreme Court. It is because this case could affect far more than this case. If the company settle for the issue, there is a big chance that more similar cases would come up in the future. And that is not good for the company future development. The key decision maker of Walmart should not settle easily in this particular case. Other than this strategy, Walmart could try to settle with the workers with compromises. In order to aviod the lawsuit, the company could negotiate with the workers and try to settle by paying a significate amount of dollars. The amount could be a very huge number considering the case involved over 1.5 million female workers. However, this strategy might lead to more of the similar cases and more lawsuits against the company. Therefore, I would recommend Walmart’s ket decision maker to take the first strategy. Walmart should wait for the result from the U.S. Supreme Court and let the court to determine the result, it is the best interest for the company’s future and development.

Study Plan

All world’s population is 7 billion, 1. 3 billion people spoken Chinese in worldwide, approximately worldwide 1 in every 6-7 person can speak chinese. If you believe Chinese to be one language, rather than a grouping, it is the single most commonly spoken language on the planet. It is spoken in countries like China, Taiwan Singapore. For people interested in becoming fluent in Chinese, it can be intimidating and challenging. As Mongolia and China have been neighbors, many Mongolians are interested in China and its language and culture as well as Mongolians are more familiar about China than any other nation in the world.First reason of choosing China is it I’m familiar with country, secondly Chinese is getting more and more influential learning it gives me more advantage in the future. The international communication and trade program interests me because it gives me good intellectual. In today’s globalizing society, studying in foreign high developed country to be very significant to bring development to own business and individual’s development. I have information about Chinese education system which is excellent at trying theoretical knowledge to the practice work thus it affected me to choose it.Studying with people from various countries ;learning selected experience of such countries thus sharing information to be very important to the human development. Due to my studies, I am aware that my Chinese Language skills are still to increase. I have studied Chinese a little, but it’s not perfect yet. But I constantly try to improve myself by doing personal work. Besides it is one of the reasons I want to live and study in China. For my point of view, it’s the best way to acquire good accent and talk â€Å"true† Chinese, not only based on readings.As for a citizen, I would like to give my contribution to the development of my country as possible as I can on studying well in the China. I have many advantages to st udy successfully and keep studying with majoring on my profession without any difficulties further. I have shown some of my study plan as follows. – Study successfully majoring on my own qualification at the University; Attentively learn all subjects in accordance with appropriate term and planned hours; Get acquainted with the students who have the same purposes as well learn from Chinese history, culture, and life.I hope that you will look favorably on my application. Therefore accepting this scholarship is a big opportunity of good life and chance to become intelligent knowledge person that I dreamed of and it will be opening door to the my future. As for me, I have full confidence in myself that I am able to study Chinese as faster as I can. I have many advantages to study successfully and keep studying with majoring on my profession without any difficulties further.

Fences †Tragic Hero Essay

In August Wilson’s play â€Å"Fences†, he presents a misguided yet accomplished character. The play’s protagonist Troy, creates conflict with every character because of his judgmental nature and contrived haughty perception of himself. Through numerous stories that he re-cants Troy embellishes his experiences to cast himself in a righteous light. Contrary, to the stories he tells, his behavior expose Troy as a foolish man that does irrational things. One moment he is lecturing his family members on how they ought to live their lives and the next he’s off frolicking like a child with no cares or responsibilities. Aside, from his hypocrisies Troy managed to become a talented professional baseball player. As a member of the Negro Baseball League (NBL), Troy was a pioneer and hero of his time. The men associated with the NBL endured the ignorance and hostility of many to advance the footprint of black Americans in professional avenues. Sadly, Troy’s tim e in a groundbreaking career and stable, loving household are overshadowed by the demons he tries to ignore. He struggles to accept the harsh realities of his life and the decisions that he’s made, leaving him to live within the confines of bitterness and denial. It is evident that life has made Troy a bitter man. He was once a talented young baseball player at the height of his career. However, when Major League Baseball began to integrate Troy was too old to become a member. That reality weighed resentfully with him, and influenced many of his relationships, in particular with his son, Cory. His son plays football and aspires to professionally some day. He has the opportunity to go to college on a football scholarship, but Troy won’t allow it and refuses to sign the papers to permit Cory to do so. Troy scoffs that â€Å"ain’t no need for nobody coming around here to talk to me about signing nothing†¦ The white man ain’t gonna let you get nowhere with that football no way† (Wilson 35). Troy’s comments are a direct reflection of his own shattered dreams. Holding Cory back from living to the full potential of his dream illustrates Troy’s pessimism and envy. He stands in an ideal position to encourage and mentor his son, but sadly, he doesn’t have the fortitude to do so. Troy’s wife Rose is another character who comes into conflict with Troy because of his bitterness and irrational decisions. Rose  is a faithful, compassionate and realistic wife. While she loves her family, she recognizes that there is a disconnect. So she asks Troy, with the help of his sons, one of whom she did not bear to build a fence in their back yard. She hopes that the time will be well spent together and the fence will stand as a symbol of the their unity. However, Troy seeks sanctuary through external means, being alcohol and another woman. Against the cautioning of his friend Bono, â€Å"she loves you Troy, Rose loves you† (Wilson 36), Troy maintains a relationship with a woman named Alberta. Alberta goes on to become pregnant by Troy, and sadly, dies in childbirth. With such discord within her marriage, somehow Rose manages to find the compassion to raise Troy’s illigetimate child. Although Troy had the opportunity to emotionally support his caring wife, and build a fence with his sons, he could not escape his own need for external validation correlating back to his time as a professional athlete. Troy is a tragic-hero who is unable to enjoy the fruit that his life bore him. He failed to provide the love and support that would mean the most to his loved ones. He was unable to relish in his time spent playing for the NBL, and encourage his son to follow his dream because Troy’s dream ended prematurely. Troy is also unable to appreciate the love of his wife because of the external adoration heâ€⠄¢d grown to know and desire from others. When his professional career ended he became bitter and began a cycle of irrational decisions because of his depressed outlook. Work Cited Wilson, August Fences Literature : an introduction to fiction , poetry, drama and writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Diana Gioia, 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013 1153-63

Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power

Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power Do the advantages of using nuclear power outweigh the disadvantages and thus making it a safe and economical method of generating electricity? At this time it is believed that there are far more disadvantages than advantages when it comes to the use of nuclear power. This report will list the advantages and disadvantages and prove that nuclear power is the next stepping stone in technological advancements and a cleaner future. HYPOTHESIS The advantages of utilizing nuclear power will by far demean the disadvantages and therefore prove that it will be beneficial to make use of nuclear power as an energy source. DISCUSSION ADVANTAGES One of the main advantages of nuclear power is that it does not emit a large quantity of green house gases such as CO2 [1] [2] and thus does not contribute to global warming. In turn this allows for a cleaner global environment. As seen in the below diagram, Coal-fired power stations release 5912000 tons of CO2 per year. Nuclear power stations use less th an a twenty-fifth of that because they only release 230000 tons of CO2 per year. Therefore in the environmental aspect, nuclear power is safe and beneficial for the world s future. Figure 1: A graph of the CO2 Emission by Each Power Source Another advantage of nuclear power is that it has relatively low costs involved in its production [5]. It yields much more electrical energy for each unit of nuclear fuel (uranium rods) used than the conventional fossil fuel power stations (coal) [1] [2]. Due to this it will also cost less to ascertain the resources needed to produce the same amount of energy as fossil fuels as is made evident in the below graph. This results in nuclear fuel costing much less per kilowatt hour for a consumer than any other method of producing electricity [fig. 2]. Therefore nuclear power will be economically beneficial for the world s electricity consuming population. Figure 2: A graph showing the US Electricity Production Costs for 1995 – 2008 An organizat ion known as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in place to ensure that all nuclear power stations and nuclear activity which occur anywhere in the world is done without error which ultimately makes the use of nuclear power a safer option [7]. They implement standards and regulations which must be adhered to by all nuclear facilities [7]. One of their main tasks is to oversee the installation of the nuclear systems and transportation of nuclear materials to insure safety and security [7]. These monitoring protocols allow the usage of nuclear energy to be safe and secure. Over time improved designs have come about for nuclear reactors such as the advanced reactor in Japan which has been operating since 1996 [6]. The major safety feature in this reactor is its passive safety system. In the event of a malfunction, no intervention from an operator is required thus eliminating the chance of a human error [6]. If this type safety feature was to be implemented in all the curr ent and future nuclear reactors, it would significantly enhance the safety of the nuclear plants. There is a variety of safety features for nuclear reactors one of which is the three barriers between the fuel rods and the environment [6]. The fuel rods are in a solid ceramic pellet which forms the first barrier [6]. These pellets are inside a closed zirconium tube, which forms the second barrier [6]. The final barrier is the containment of the fuel rods. They are stored in a steel pressure vessel and this vessel has walls up to 30cm thick therefore preventing all radioactive radiation from escaping. Other than those safety barriers the whole containment structure has one meter thick reinforced concrete walls [6]. Thus in the event of a human error there are provisions in place to minimize the severity of the error. These measures will increase the safety of using nuclear power plants even more.

The Human Resource Function of a Retail Store Research Paper

The Human Resource Function of a Retail Store - Research Paper Example Human sources managers should consider training sales staff. Training is a career and development process which would improve the skills of staff with great but untapped potential (Krafft & Mantrala, 2010). They would contribute to the increase of the sales of the retail stores and counter the standards set by the new retail players in the industry. Training would also increase the overall performance of the stores and match the quality and convenience demands from the retail customers. Career and development process in the form of regular training ensures that sales staffs in the retail stores acquire the necessary skills to improve the overall quality of the retail products and services from the stores. Human resource managers should introduce flexible working arrangements in order to manage the cost of labor. Flexible working arrangements is the best way to minimize hiring extra retail staff especially for busy holidays and periods such as Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter holidays. The new role ensures that employees do not work for long-hours without getting paid notes Krafft & Mantrala (2010). An eight-hour shift would work for a retail store to utilize the entire workforce by the end of the rotation. It is difficult to meet the labor costs during seasonal fluctuations with many staff members, but a temporary working arrangement would ensure that the store keeps selling. Customers are demanding quality and convenience from service and products. Human resource managers have a duty to employ highly visible employees who can keep track of the consumers..Employees should not only have relevant skills for the job, but also ability to keep a sane appearance and code of conduct. Customer need for convenience and quality from retail stores must be met. Again, human resources would benefit from a well-designed strategy that adapts to fair hiring practices for all retail staffs. Meeting high variation in customer demand is a challenge for human

The Myth of Americanism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Myth of Americanism - Essay Example American values are a direct product of its body of creation stories encompassed by the culture. Americans believe in individuality, self-sufficiency (the idea of "rags to riches" or being a "self-made man") and the inherently optimistic (and perhaps unrealistic) "American Dream". Americans believe that anything is possible. Children grow up being told that they can have or achieve anything if they work hard enough. They are told that anyone can grow up to be president, and that that is part of what makes America great. This is perhaps the biggest mythological trope in American society-that in the "land of opportunity" anyone can get ahead if they are willing to work for it, and that all members of society begin on an even playing field. These three ideas, individuality, self-sufficiency, and the "American dream" or "Land of Opportunity" where anything is possible are closely linked, and stem from beliefs about the creation of America itself that directly mirror other creation storie s from around the world. Furthermore, these deeply held beliefs permeate the American psyche, coloring our perceptions of success and failure. The theme of individuality is especially present in the Gospel of John. This myth is very pertinent to modern American society as it is a version of creation with which most citizens will be familiar; many Americans actively believe in this creation myth, and thus it shapes American society closely. The Fourth Gospel of John is seen in Christian mythology to enhance the creation story of Genesis, inserting an explanation for the presence of Jesus Christ. The Creator has gone from a relatively impersonal, genderless, plural God (elohim is the Hebrew plural for "God") to a personified Jesus Christ. Jesus is a God, but he is also a man. This version of creation places him present at the very moment the world was made: "3. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (qtd in Leeming 35) Furthermore, the gospel states "6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a wit ness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe." (qtd in Leeming 35) The inclusion of a mortal, John, in this revised version of creation further humanizes the myth. The impact this has had on modern Americans is most clear among Christians, for obvious reasons: the popular phrase "Jesus is my personal savior" emphasizes this individual, personal connection to divinity which is a hallmark not just of American Christians, but of the American tendency to personalize religion which is seen among everyone from modern Pagans who choose which deities to worship, to acculturated members of other faiths such as Judaism or Hinduism who participate in religious practice on a selective basis. Religion, like the rest of American life, is seen as a matter of individualized, personal choice. Self-sufficiency is central in the Hopi myth of the Sun and the Spider Woman. In this myth, the two collaborate to create the world, dividing themselves into various aspects of the divine to perform specific tasks. Upon creating people, Spider Woman says: "The woman of the clan shall build the house, and the family name shall descend through her. She shall be house builder and homemaker. She shall mold

Leading educational change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Leading educational change - Essay Example When dealing with school leadership in the Australian context, it is important for the articles by Gurr et al, (2005) and Dinham (2007) to be considered so that a better perspective of the issue under discussion can be achieved. While one would state that there are some areas of agreement between these two articles, especially touching on the various aspects of leadership, how these leadership styles are applied has been found to have some divergence. It is a fact that in Australia, there has developed a vast body of research that has confirmed that the teacher in a classroom has a profound influence on the performance of his or her students. In the abovementioned two articles, there is general agreement that it is important to find out how the quality of teaching and learning can be influenced and improved through the development of good leadership skills among the teachers in the classroom. In both articles, it is stated that educational leadership is of principle importance when d etermining the quality of teaching and learning and as a result has a pertinent influence on the achievement of the students involved. ... It is often essential for the teacher to ensure that they have undergone some kind of leadership training so that they can be better able to handle diverse and unique situations in their classrooms. He further states that it is often necessary for the teacher or school leader to realise that each and every one of their students is unique in many ways and that the behaviour of students should not be categorised in general terms. What one student may be able to understand over a short period of time does not apply to another student who might not be capable of understand over the same time. This means that in order for the teacher to be effective in their classroom, it is often necessary for him to ensure that he treats each of his students in the most flexible way he can in order to cultivate their unique capabilities. Gurr et al (2005) are also of this opinion although they go even further by stating that teachers have to do a self-examination to determine whether they have the neces sary qualities that will enable them to become effective leaders so that they can be able to not only strengthen these qualities, but also work towards ensuring that they have acquired those qualities which are most essential in helping in the academic performance of their students. The two articles adopted different methodologies and these have been manifested in the divergent outcomes that resulted from the studies they conducted. Dinham, for instance, chose to pursue two types of research sites with the aim of studying how leadership had an effect in determining the exceptional student outcomes. The first of these was the conducting of studying on departments, which were responsible for the teaching of subjects in secondary schools for