Family and Medical Leave Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Family and Medical Leave Act - Research Paper Example A1. Addressing the Question of whether it matters that a parent literally had nothing to do with a biological child in order for the child to take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for that parent FMLA provides that every eligible employee is entitled to take up to 12 weeks of work leave to take care of a parent suffering from a medical condition. This leave is usually unpaid and the employee’s job is protected during this period1. A parent is defined by the FMLA as a foster, step, biological or adoptive parent, including any individual who represented loco parentis to the employee while he or she was a child2. Loco parentis, means where an individual takes the responsibility of caring for the child with which he has no legal or biological connection. However, the FMLA does not cover leave for parents- in- law, whereas the military has its own provisions as pertains to the definition of a family3. With reference to the case scenario illustrated, the employe e qualifies to take a FMLA leave to take care of his or her biological parent even if the parent did not take care of him as a child (United States Department of Labor, 2010). However, in the cases of a loco parentis the FMLA outlines other individuals whom an employee is allowed by law to go and see in case of illness or accident. These are individuals who acted as proxy for the child in the absentia of his parents and, thus, qualify to be their parents more than their biological parents. In this case scenario, if the loco parentis and the biological parent to the employee happen to be ill, the law provides for the cover of loco parentis unlike the unavailable parent because this is the person who took care of the employee. However, the employee needs to provide documented evidence that ascertains that the loco parentis actually took care of him or her during childhood (United States Department of Labor, 2010). A2. A Discussion as to Whether the size of the business can have any ef fect on whether employee is eligible for family leave under the FMLA A company that has 50 or more employees is required by the FMLA regulations whether the company is non- profit or profit making; private or public. This is since small businesses have been documented to have employees who are less than 50 during a specific period of time. However, in case the company has had 50 employees in the past 20 weeks prior to the current slope in employee number, FMLA requires that the company complies with the FMLA regulation. In case the company has not had 50 employees, the 20 week factor of having a continuous 50 employee is the consideration factor (United States Department of Labor, 2001). Consequently, whether a company has full time or part time workers determines the application of the FMLA. A company that has part time workers is required by the FMLA to provide 12 weeks unpaid leave for an employee either for medical or family reasons on condition that the employee has worked for at least 1250 hours. This excludes time off and the part time employee needs to have worked for more than 12 months to qualify for this recommendation. Though the leave of part time workers is unpaid, FMLA expects that the company will continue providing health care benefits for the employee on leave, and consequently restore him or her to his original position once their leave is over (United States De

Current resources and support available to SME's in the UK to support Essay

Current resources and support available to SME's in the UK to support them overcome linguistic and cultural barriers - Essay Example SMEs have currently recognised language skills and cultural awareness as critically important for achieving success in the international trade. Furthermore, it has been reported that language prevents SMEs from developing exporting market. It has been widely proclaimed that absence as well as acquisition of language skills has tremendous commercial and financial impacts. It has been further observed the SMEs in the UK have generally low language skills (House of Lords, 2013; Senik & et. al., 2010; Hornby & et. al., 2002). In this backdrop, the essay intends to present a critical report on the current resources and support available to SMEs in the UK to support them overcome linguistic and cultural barriers. In addition, the essay also intends to outline key recommendations pertaining to language management strategy (LMS) towards a one stop shop solution. It has been argued that exporting is similar to conducting business in domestic trade in terms of challenges faced by the business for gaining substantial profit from the operations. In this regard, success of exporting largely relies on identifying the potential barriers to businesses that are likely to be faced by SMEs. Notably, SMEs dealing with exporting are often faced with certain imperative challenges associated with complexity and fear of unknown related to foreign market. These challenges associated with SMEs dealing with exporting are ascertained to be a combination of various complexities which include language and cultural differences, political turmoil, poorly established legal and regulatory institutions and ordinary infrastructure (Parcelforce Worldwide, 2014). However, among this combination of challenges, it has been ascertained that a lack of language skills and cultural awareness has resulted in considerable amount of loss of business across Europe. SMEs were repo rted to lose their

International Management Master Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Management Master - Assignment Example Morgan Chase, Allstate, Prudential, Dell, Cisco, Microsoft and Motorola have all adopted it in some form as they shift their managerial frames of reference toward the requirements of the global-network era. Companies would do well, the Oddou (1999) advises, to think rationally - not emotionally - about off shoring's relevant issues: What are their core competencies What form of governance is optimal How will work will be distributed and integrated to the new staff and how well they can get settles with the new environment Since outsourcing contracts often last for five or more years, corporate officers responsible for selecting the manager with whom they wind up going down the legal path often compare the pact to that of a marriage. The reason is that trust is as important to an outsourcing manager as it is to a spouse. But before an outsourcing relationship reaches that point, many outsourcing managers note that they wind up going through a systematic process of gathering intelligence about their possible partners, and often about themselves. Manager or staff selection first involves self-assessment. Before even undertaking the manager's selection, a corporation should determine whether it needs to outsource in the first place. A company must assess the raw economics of a project, says Howard Rubin, executive vice president with the Meta Group Inc., which advises corporations on outsourcing. It also must weigh the fixed costs of moving production or a task to an outsourcing vendor, as well as the variable ones, he notes. Once that's done, a strategic accounting must be completed. "If your business is building bridges, you don't want to worry about maintaining and painting the ones you've already built," Rubin says. Those are things you outsource if it takes away from your core business focus. It's not unusual for a company to decide not to outsource. One outsourcing officer of a major industrial company based in the Midwest says half the time his company examines an outsourcing request from a business unit, no outsourcing assignment winds up being made. There are numerous reasons for that, including fear about intellectual assets losing their protection once outside the corporate cocoon. "With IP (intellectual property), once you move outside, you're at risk of losing it," says one outsourcing manager in the Midwest. That's why trust becomes so important when selecting a Manager. It must be someone who can respect proprietary information. Trust, of course, must be earned. It's somewhat intangible, and generally doesn't emerge until hard fact-finding is completed. The Midwestern outsourcing manager says when an entire assignment is considered, and staffs needs to be selected, as many as 25 people can be working on a prospective mandate at his company. In hiring managers from another country or culture there are three aspects to be considered, what codifiability, standardizability and modularizability. Codifiability refers to the extent to which the activities in an occupation can be described completely in a set of

HUM RELIGION WK2 DQ 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HUM RELIGION WK2 DQ 1 - Essay Example Aboriginal religion was for instance described one where the religious and profane aspects were the same thing, scholars, such as Durkheim, who was the first to carry out an in-depth study on their religion, often misunderstood it (Charlesworth, n.d). Such include practices involving activities such human sacrifice as well was certain forms of body mutilation practiced by indigenous cultures. Many, however, were just results of colonial influence, for instance, in many parts of east Africa, the British made it conditional for one to be a Christian before they could be given formal education this way many Africans were forced to abandon their original cultures. Trade was another avenue, through which western religion was spread, moreover, the Spanish conquistadors and explorers forced the original inhabitants such as Mayans to abandon their religious practices which included live human sacrifices on their temples. As a result, many of the ingenious religions either disappeared altogether or became morphed and incorporated several aspects of Christianity or Islam in them so they could conform. Early missionaries also made Christianity look more indigenous by translating the bible into different African languages such as Swahili. Africans, for example have incorporated aspects of their religious traditions such as beating of traditional drums as part of the convectional western style Christian services. Indeed, Christianity and Islam has been part of African religion so long they are considered partly ingenious to the

Artifact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Artifact - Essay Example The object has an approximate height of 5 inches; the widest portion of its body has a width of 4 inches, and the three legs have equal height of 3.5 inches. The object’s width is much bigger than its height and one can inscribe it within a form of a rectangle. The primary raw material used to produce the object is wood. The top part is in a circular shape and is firm since it is of a thick wood material. The thickness of this top part is of approximately 2 inches. The surface area of the top part is big enough to allow for anybody sit comfortably on the chair. The legs are firm enough and forms a u-shape to enable them support the weight of the top part firmly and therefore if anyone sits on the stool no matter how heavy he or she is chances of the stool breaking are limited. The wood materials used to construct the object are curved smooth. The object’s top part has two-fit horizontal lines at the part where the top rests and joins the three legs and the other line is at the surface where an individual sits. When one views this object from a side the stool seems to present some V-shapes formed by each two legs. The objects legs are separate from one another at an equal interval and points downwards supporting the top surface. The legs are thick enough to ensure maximum support of the weight of the top part, which seems to be heavy. When one looks at the object from its top, the stool’s top surface seems to present a disc-shape. This means that much of the weight exerted on the stool is supported by the core and the central part of the stool and that why the legs are joined at the outermost part of the top surface for the purpose of maintain balance when an individual sits on the object. This object however consists of four distinctive parts, which include the top body and the three legs. While the legs of the object are in the form of a long rod, its upper portion is in a disc-shape. The top of the object is in

Marketing strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing strategies - Essay Example This paper applies different marketing concepts and strategies to analyze Starbucks Cafà ©. Starbucks Cafà © is a world leading retailer in specialty coffee drinks with over 15,000 stores across 43 countries (Annual Report: Starbucks, 2007). Last year the company total global amounted to $10.31 billion (Yahoo, 2008). The company follows two major marketing philosophies which are the customer concept and the societal marketing concept. The application of the customer concept at Starbucks is achieved through the company vision of providing the best customer service in the industry. At Starbucks customer service is not just a business function it is integrated into the corporate culture. This company whose core business is selling quality coffee beverages has become a global icon of popular culture in the United States and worldwide. At Starbucks coffee is not just a drink, it is a complete experience. People go to Starbucks because it offers an eccentric comfortable atmosphere that is created by the company’s partners (employees). Starbucks offers a variety of the best tasting top quality coffees in the world. The clients are enticed to stay around the stores and hangout to enjoy some of the company’s other products and services such as coffee merchandise, fresh foods, consumer and entertainment products which include high speed wireless internet access (Starbucks). In 2006 Starbucks was ranked number ten in customer service in the world by BusinessWeek for their friendliness, knowledge and availability (Businessweek, 2007). Customer service is a strategy that is integrated in the entire supply chain. At Starbucks the customer service philosophy starts with the coffee farmers & makers and its suppliers of materials. Starbucks builds close relationships of mutual benefit with its suppliers to ensure the company obtains the possible price and on time delivery. The

Personal Response on Sexuality Identity Term Paper

Personal Response on Sexuality Identity - Term Paper Example So, it is very clear that the people from these different geographical areas will have totally different notions about sex. I too, being a product of the western society had a broad outlook about sex from the very beginning, though this course has, I think, made me think more critically in sexual decisions. Social factors that have a bearing on my sexuality According to the western, especially American concept of sexuality that prevails among the youth, sex is more of a recreational activity that does not have any connection with morality. It is a male dominated society where the ability to lure as many women as possible is considered a way to prove ones maleness. For females, the credibility lies in the ability to hook a man to ones armpits. The role of media cannot be denied in this social situation. According to reports, 8 out of 10 prime-time shows in America have sexual content; thus making sex a very common thing among the youth, having no emotional or ethical value (Dykeman, D uncan, Irvin, King, n. d.). The liberal view of the society I live in about sex is evident from the result of a survey. As per the survey, nearly 90% Americans believe that boys and girls will not wait until marriage to have sex; and only about 17% people were against oral sex and even they had serious doubts about the achievability of their expectations (NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll, n.d.). Thus, I found sex as a privilege to be enjoyed since adolescence, though I had little discussion with my parents about sex. Despite the liberal attitude towards sex, I would admit, it seems difficult to have open discussions with parents. In fact, my ideas about sex are all collected from friends and the media. I think it is the social freedom we people enjoy that makes sex very possible everywhere. I know there are countries where people seldom go to clubs, or are strictly under the supervision of the parents. However, being the product of an industrialized society, my parents never put a lot of pressure on me to reveal where I am going and who I am meeting. I think it is common for the youth in my country to have this freedom and as a result I had a well defined sexuality since the very beginning of my adolescence which was highly liberal in nature. Even when I got married, I would admit, I did not think that marriage was in no way going to affect my sexual relations. My perceptions on sex and the role of critical thinking Frankly speaking, I never thought of the role of ethics in sex. Though at times I read here and there about the issues associated with plurality in sex and the advantages of having a single sex partner, it seemed a rather impossible proposition in the society I live in, especially because of the lack of emotional attachment the sexual partners posses to each other. In the society I live in, there has been a gradual deviation from the traditional concept of sex as associated with marriage. Being in a society where sex is in no way connected to wedlock and childbirth, and hence not binding, I, like any other young person in the country, prefer to view sex as a physical need; the result of hormonal changes that needs to be quenched irrespective of marital status. In fact, I had adequate knowledge about STD from media but in my own case, I was not so serious about the diseases. The attitude, like any other youngster of my age, was ‘this won’t happen to me’, but now I think I am about to change. Though I live in a society that allows sex with