A historical and critical analysis of an entrepreneurial venture Essay - 1

A historical and critical analysis of an entrepreneurial venture - Essay Example Starting a business is an exciting venture; however, it involves certain steps and stages in development. Therefore, in my paper, I would like to make a historical and critical analysis of an entrepreneurial venture; I will further construct my case study based on Amazon.com and analyze how the company has started and how it has developed, including the stages of venturing that I have identified, as well as problems it has struggled with and the business model that it has used according to a specific time frame and economic context. The founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, had the vision of building a place where people can find and discover anything they want to buy online at the lowest price possible. Now, before going any further into analyzing the way Jeff Bezos materialized this idea, I would like to look at one of Professor William Sahlman2’s lectures at Stanford and single out the fact that he stated that entrepreneurship is â€Å"about a way of managing that is focused on opportunity pursuit, future orientation and relentless execution regardless of the resources one actually possesses† (Academic Earth). ... Even though he did not have very extensive knowledge about the Internet, he decided to take the risk, because, as a true entrepreneur, he managed to grasp profit opportunities. This way, Jeff Bezos entered the universe of e-commerce and started his entrepreneurial venture with no previous trading experience. However, he did understand that the Internet was the one place that had the necessary means to help him accomplish his vision, since on the Internet one is able to develop a business that would be able to compete with other bigger businesses, by reaching customers which prefer the convenience of buying online. Jeff Bezos decided to start the company in Seattle because he believed that here he would find most of the technical professionals he needed. This way, Amazon.com was founded in Seattle, in 1994 and the company went online in 1995. The beginnings of the business were very humble: operating from a garage, Amazon.com benefited from a total investment of 1 million dollars, mon ey which came from Jeff Bezos’s personal funds, as well as loans from family and former co-workers. At that time, Amazon.com was selling only books online and the main strategy was to save money while honoring first orders from the customers: in order to cut operational costs, Bezos â€Å"built desks, bookcases, and other office furniture out of old doors and pieces of used lumber. To help supply electricity, he used power cables to bring electricity from the house to the garage. Once a customer placed an order, the staff would immediately request the title from one of their book suppliers. Everyone took turns packing books for shipment.† ( Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed.). The company struggled indeed with costs and expenses and

Effects of Technology on the Hr Function Essay Example for Free

Effects of Technology on the Hr Function Essay Critically analyse the ways in which the increasing application of technology at work have an effect upon the HR function. The use of technology within HRM has grown considerably within recent years with the majority of large organisations now using technology of some form within their HR function (CIPD, 2005). As HR becomes increasingly reliant on technology it is important to assess its effect upon the HR function. Firstly, consideration will be given to definition of terms along with a description of the uses of technology within the HR function. Next the change in the structure of the HR profession that has developed alongside the emerging and growing use of technology will be addressed. The goals of the use of technology which have been afforded a significant amount of attention within the literature will then be outlined along with consideration of the realisation of these goals. In addition, the effect of shared service centres, which make significant use of technology, upon the role of HR practitioners will be addressed in conjunction with the views of HR practitioners themselves. Whilst little attention has been given to the situating of the use of technology in HR within a wider sociological perspective in the academic literature, an attempt will be made to consider the effect of technology upon HR within such a debate. Finally, conclusions will be drawn as to the impact of the use of technology upon the HR function. It is firstly important to consider what is meant by the use of technology within the HR function. The term e-HRM is frequently used to refer to the use of technology within the HR function. The use of e-HRM varies enormously within organisations and may be used for different purposes (Parry et al. 2007). The term Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is also used to refer to any system that helps an organisation to â€Å"acquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve and distribute information about an organisation’s human resources† (Tannenbaum, 1990, p.28). However, the use of technology within HR is broader than the use of HRIS and may encompass manager and employee self-service, the use of staff intranets and e-enabled processes such and recruitment and performance management amongst others (Reilly, 2012). It is acknowledged that some current research focuses on the more recent developments in web-based technology, collectively referred to as social media technologies or Web 2.0 (see Reddington, 2012). However, the use of Web 2.0 is outwith the focus of this discussion. HRIS was originally used for standardising the gathering of information about and for employees (Kovach et al. 2002). However, the use of HRIS has subsequently developed and is now used more broadly for purposes such as recruitment and selection, learning and development, administration of flexible benefits and performance appraisal (Grensing-Pophal, 2001) or to manage HR and employee information across the whole employment cycle (Parry et al. 2007). Technology has also been increasingly associated with supporting integrated call centres, shared service centres and the use of manager and employee self-service (CIPD, 2007). There is a great emphasis in the literature about the potential goals of e-HRM (Marler, 2009; Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004). However, there has been less emphasis on whether these goals have been realised in reality (Parry and Tyson, 2011; Strohmeier, 2007). Alongside the development and increasing use of technology is the development and changing role of the HR function itself. Traditionally the HR function has been seen as being a largely administrative function, focussed on administrative processes such as the maintenance of employee and payroll records (CIPD, 2007). It would appear that in its search for identity and the resulting proposed need for transformation of the function (Ulrich, 1997), HR has made use of technology to attempt to facilitate this transformation (Shirvastava and Shaw, 2003). Ulrich (1997) has argued that HRM should become a strategic business partner, in addition to performing roles as administrative expert, change agent and employee champion. It has been suggested that the use of technology within the HR function may create the opportunity for HR to become more strategic by freeing up time through the automation of many administrative tasks (Parry et al. 2007). The provision of accurate and detailed information available through the use of HRIS could also enable HR practitioners to engage in a more strategic role as such data could be used to inform managerial decisions. The move to new service delivery models of HR and the development of technology can be seen as interdependent as without increasingly sophisticated technology the various elements of HR service delivery may not be as effective (Reddington, 2012). Drivers for introduction of technology can be described as being operational, relational or transformational (Kettley and O’ Reilly, 2003; Snell, Stueber and Lepak, 2002) Operational goals can be described as having a focus on reducing the administrative burden of HR and cost effectiveness, whilst enhancing the accuracy of data; relational goals relate to improving services for internal customers due to reported low levels of satisfaction with the HR function (Kyprianou, 2008) and transformational goals address the strategic aims of the business (Lepak and Snell, 1998; Martin et al. 2008). These drivers of e-HRM can be seen as addressing either transactional or transformational goals (Martin et al. 2008). Transactional goals relate to operational efficiencies or improved service delivery. There is talk of liberating HR through technology (Shirvastava and Shaw 2003) although this strong statement is qualified by the requirement that it informates as opposed to automates HR proc esses. The distinction between automating and informating is made by Zuboff (1988) whereby automating relates to increasing efficiency through computerising work processes and procedures with decreasing dependence on human skills. In contrast, informating refers to increasing effectiveness through acquiring information by using information technology and using that information to create new knowledge. Automating could be seen as relating to addressing operational goals whereas informating could potentially address the relational and transformational goals through provision of information to inform decisions and strategy. Despite the attention to the promise of technology in transforming the HR function, much less attention has been given to the impact of technology on the HR function and whether or not the highly prized strategic orientation of HR has been achieved (Lepak and Snell, 1998, Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003). Studies that relate to whether e-HRM is achieving its operational goals provide some mixed results (Strohmeier, 2007). In practice it would appear that HRIS is having a slightly better (but not statistically significant) impact in areas of information processing, for example improving the speed that information is available and the quality of the information available than in economic terms, such as reducing headcount, lowering operational costs and improving productivity and profitability (CIPD, 2005). However, within this survey, in a third of cases the reduction in administrative burden was less than was to be expected. Stronger support for the operational impact of e-HRM comes from analysis of 10 case studies by Parry et al. (2007) which showed that technology can lead to faster and more efficient processes, greater accuracy and consistency as well as a reduction in costs. A number of other studies also provide some evidence of the impact of technology on operational efficiency ( Marler, 2009; Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004; Ruta, 2005). However, it may be that some caution needs to be exercised in drawing conclusions on the impact of e-HRM in this area as it may be that the efficiencies achieved within the HR function are simply moved elsewhere within the organisation as the responsibility for some tasks is moved from HR to line managers or employees (Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004). There is some positive evidence for the relational impact of e-HRM, notably improvements in HR service delivery achieved through the increased accuracy of data or by simplification of processes (Gardener, Lepak and Bartol, 2003). However, the relational impact of e-HRM appears to have been granted little attention in the literature (Strohmeir, 2007). Whether technology has led to a transformational impact on the HR function appears even less clear than the impact it has had on transactional processes. Despite the identification by many organisations of transformational drivers being important in the adoption of e-HR (Watson Wyatt, 2002; Yeung and Brockbank, 1995) it would seem that the issue of whether e-HRM supports a transformation of the HR function into a strategic business partner is only â€Å"parenthetically addressed† (Strohmeir, 2007, p.28). Indeed, Bondarouk and Ruel (2009, p.508) state â€Å"organisations are definitely silent about whether their HR departments become more strategic with e-HRM†. Where evidence is presented it is contradictory in nature. It would seem that in some cases technology has not led to a more strategic orientation of the HR function and has been used mainly for automating operational processes (Burbach and Dundon, 2005; Dery, Grant and Wiblen, 2009; Kinnie and Arthurs, 1993; Tansley et al. 2001). Indeed, Broderick and Boudreau (1992) found that most organisations have only used technology to support a narrow range of administrativ e decisions, resulting in efficiencies in managing information but that the potential competitive advantage of technology has not been exploited. In contrast, other studies have offered some evidence that e-HRM has supported the strategic integration of HR with business strategy (Olivas-Lujan, Ramirez and Zapata-Cantu, 2007; Ruel, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004; Teo, Soon and Fedric, 2001) More recent research has provided some anecdotal evidence for a move towards a more strategic role (Parry and Tyson, 2011) although the evidence supporting the transformational impact compared with the operational and relational appeared to be the weakest. It would appear that there is far greater attention in the literature to the potential for e-HRM to have an impact in the three areas outlined above than there is accorded to the actual outcomes (Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003; Strohmeir, 2007). The reorganisation of the HR function and the introduction of shared service centres appears to have had an impact on numbers of on-site HR staff and a reduction in the number of HR staff to employees (Francis and Keegan, 2006). The operation of such shared service centres relies on technology that is characterised by formalisation, routinisation and centralisation resulting in an impact on staffing of such centres, which require specialised but generally low level HR administrators (Martin and Reddington, 2009). Research that addresses the issue of how HR practitioners have viewed the increasing use of technology appears to be limited to date. There is evidence that some practitioners may view the use of technology and an associated increase in the use of shared service centres cautiously because it has resulted in a reduction of face-to-face relationships, which is often the reason individuals cite for choosing a career in HR (Francis and Keegan, 2006). Martin and Reddington (2009) suggest that the significant role of technology within shared service centres will lead to a lowering of the status of those employed in such environments especially when compared to the status of HR business partners. It is arg ued that there is a risk of deskilling within the administrative function of HR and that staff may be confined to more routine tasks where they had previously had a wider role (Reilly, 2000). It is also suggested that within shared service centres different skills may be required and staff may be employed who have customer service skills but who do not necessarily have a background in HR as technical knowledge can be learned whereas the right attitudes may be harder to learn (Parry et al. 2007; Reilly, 2000). In addition to this, there is evidence that suggests that there a perception amongst HR practitioners of an increasing distance between those at the top and bottom of the career ladder and that people from outwith the HR function are â€Å"parachuting† into the top jobs (Francis and Keegan, 2006). This effect could possibly be explained by the requirement of new areas of expertise, such as technical, consultancy and project management skills (Parry and Tyson, 2011), which may require developing within HR practitioners and could possibly result in recruiting from outside the profession. Indeed a number of reports emphasise the skills of HR staff as a significant barrier to transformation of the HR function (see Reilly, 2012). The debate on the use of technology within HRM can also be situated within a wider sociological perspective. Whilst the sociological literature appears to focus mainly on the use of technology within manufacturing environments or of computerisation in general as opposed to within the HR function an attempt to situate the effect of technology upon HR could be made in terms of attempting to assess the effect upon the organisation of the function and the impact on the level of skills required. The attempts to understand the impact of technology upon the organisation of work have resulted in divergent views. The debate focuses mainly on two opposing views. The managerialist and essentially optimistic perspective associated with writers such as Blauner (1964) argues that the application of technology will render obsolete routine and more manual jobs and create more skilled and complex opportunities resulting in an overall effect of â€Å"upskilling†, along with organisations characterised by decentralised structures, reduction in hierarchy, increased worker autonomy and a prevalence of knowledge workers (for example, Attewell, 1992; Piore and Sabel, 1984) Such analysis suggests that in the earlier phases of industrialisation advances in technology tended to reduce skills and devalue work but that more recent technological developments have had the opposite effect. Examination of the increasing use of technology and its impact on skills levels has provided some evidence for a raising of skills levels (Daniel, 1987, Gaillie, 1991) In contrast, labour process theorists have argued that technological changes have a degrading effect on work and result in â€Å"deskilling† of the labour process and reduced worker autonomy, with a centralised, neo-Taylorist form of organisation, with separation of conception from execution (for example, Braverman, 1974; Zimbalist, 1979). The issues of the expansion of non-manual work and the apparent rising skills levels as suggested by formal skills gradings are not inconsistent with the labour process perspective (Gaillie, 1991) who argues that non-manual work has undergone a major transformation, r esulting in work that is increasingly routinized and mechanised (supported by the increase in office automation). From such a perspective non-manual workers are no longer accorded their relatively privileged position and are now accorded a similar level of skills as manual workers. Support for the process of deskilling can be found in many analyses of the effects of computerised technology (Meiksins, 1994) Analysis of the experience of employees within the call centre environment emphasises the process of deskilling (Desai, 2010) which is described by Taylor and Bain (1999, p.109) as a situation of â€Å"an assembly-line in the head†. The impacts of such call centre roles are often high turnover rates and high levels of absence (Ackroyd, Gordon-Dseagu and Fairhurst, 2006) and the effect on employees is outlined by Rose and Wright (2005, pp.156-157): â€Å"low skilled call centre jobs allied with high levels of technological and management controls do not contribute towards employee well-being and satisfaction† This account of the impact of technology resonates with the description above of shared service centres whose result has been the deskilling of the administrative function of HR and the recruitment of those who do not have a background in HR (Martin and Reddington, 2009; Reilly, 2000). However, whilst it could be argued that a labour process perspective accounts for the effects of technology on some aspects of the HR function, it does not address the effect on the function as a whole as it does not appear to account for the strategic end of the spectrum, where it seems that business partner roles are accorded status and prestige along with substantially increased salaries (Francis and Reddington, 2006). The role of business partners cannot easily be reconciled with the notion of deskilling. There has been a tendency to view the classification of either upskilling or deskilling as too simplistic and some writers have moved away from this conceptualisation of work by postulating that instead there is an increasing polarisation of the workforce in terms of skill level with at one end, highly skilled workers with high levels of autonomy and at the other end a lower skilled sector characterised by an intensification of work through deskilling and management control (Edw ards, 1979), who can be dispensed if surplus to requirements (Berger and Piore, 1981). This polarisation of the workplace appears to be a better reflection of the changing HR function with the autonomous business partner role, with the accompanying perception of a high level of skill and status at one end of the spectrum and at the opposite end, the shared service centre roles characterised by routine and deskilling. In relation to professional work, there is some argument that professionals have not been adversely affected by computerisation and continue to be accorded high status and prestige (Friedson, 1984, 1986). In contrast, it is argued that technology may have differing effects on professionals, depending on the relative status of the profession and on the status of individuals within the profession (Burris, 1998). It is argued that alongside polarisation of the workplace, there tends to be poorer career prospects for non-expert workers (Baran, 1987; Hodson, 1988) with higher level posts being filled from outwith the organisation (Hodson, 1988; Burris 1983,a,b) This issue within HR is highlighted by Reilly (2000) who suggests that there may be less opportunity for career development if lower level staff do not build the experience that they would gain in more generalist roles in traditional HR functions. As stated earlier, there also appears to be a perception that the higher status business partner roles are at least sometimes being filled not just from outwith the organisation but from outwith the HR profession (Francis and Reddington, 2006). Whilst the issue of the impact of technology upon the HR function appears to have been given little attention within research (Lepak and Snell, 1998; Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003) it would seem that what discussion there has been relates mainly to the promise of technology in transforming the HR function and facilitating a more strategic orientation. The reality of the impact of technology in achieving an impact in operational, relational and transformational areas is much less clear although evidence would suggest that the greatest impact is in achieving operational efficiencies. Alongside the development of the use of technology has been the reorganisation of the HR function. Although there has been little attempt to consider the impact of technology from a sociological perspective, it can be argued that the increasing use of technology, which has been used to support the shared service centre model may be resulting in a deskilling of an element of the HR profession and reducing career development paths for some practitioners. In addition, there appears to be a change in skills viewed as necessary within this function, with a focus on customer service skills as opposed to specialist HR knowledge. In contrast, although the evidence for a transformational impact of technology upon HR is weaker and more contradictory, there would appear to be a perception of a higher status role in the business partner, with accordingly higher remuneration, thus demonstrating a polarisation of the HR function in terms of both skills and status. However, this reorganisation of the HR function and the development of a more strategic orientation, which it is argued can be facilitated by the increasing use of technology, although being seen as having an upskilling effect on those in a more strategic role could be argued as achieving the opposite effect if the result is recruiting from outwith the profession. This could leave HR professionals in a precarious position in terms of career and skill development, which could at least in part be attributed to the effect of technology as without increasingly sophisticated technology the new models of service delivery may not be possible or at least may not be as effective. Whilst, a lack of academic attention to the actual impact of technology on the HR function requires that caution is exercised in drawing conclusions, the tendency to focus on the potential impact of technology could be followed in suggesting that the potential of technology in facilitating the move to a transformation of the HR function may be to tend towards a degradation of the HR profession, with low skilled staff employed in shared service centres and more highly skilled and valued business partners being recruited from outwith the HR profession. However, without significant further research in the area, in particular on the impact of technology and the accompanying change in service delivery models upon the career paths and development opportunities for HR practitioners, this conclusion remains just a potential. References Ackroyd, K., Gordon-Dseagu, V. and Fairhurst, P. (2006) â€Å"Well-being and call centres†, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton [online]. Available at: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pdflibrary/mp69.pdf (Accessed 21st November 2012) Attewell, P. (1992) â€Å"Skill and occupational changes in U.S. manufacturing† in Technology and the future of work, P.S. Adler, New York, Oxford University Press. Baran, B. (1987) â€Å"The technological transformation of white collar work†, in Computer chips and paper clips, vol 2, H. Hartmaan, ed., Washington DC, National Academy Press. Berger, S. and Piore, M. (1981) Dualism and discontinuity in industrial societies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Blauner, R. (1964) Alienation and freedom, Chicago, IL, University Chicago Press Bondarouk, T.V. and Ruel, H.J.M. (2009) â€Å"Electronic human resource management: challenges in the digital era†, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20 (3), pp. 505-514. [online]. Available at: http://ezproxy.napier.ac.uk:2343/doi/pdf/10.1080/09585190802707235 (Accessed 10th November 2012) Braverman, H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital, New York, Monthly Review Press Broderick, R. and Boudreau, J.W. (1992) â€Å"Human resource management, information technology and the competitive edge†, Academy of Management Perspectives, 6 (2), pp. 7-17. [online]. Available at: http://ezproxy.napier.ac.uk:2334/docview/210521060/fulltext PDF/13A99A5CA0029773271/6?accountid=16607 (Accessed 21st November 2012) Burbach, R. and Dundon, T. (2005) â€Å"The strategic potential of human resource information systems: Evidence from the Republic of Ireland†, International Employment Relations Review, 11 (1/2), pp. 97-117. [online]. Available at: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=164472644509297;res=IELBUS (Accessed 21st November 2012) Burris, B.H. (1983a) No room at the top, New York, Praeger Burris, B.H. (1998) â€Å"Computerisation of the workplace†, Annual Review of Sociology, 24, pp. 141-157. [online]. Available at: http://ezproxy.napier.ac.uk:2334/docview/199730349/fulltextPDF/13A94B0278177DBCD7E/8?accountid=16607 (Accessed 10th November 2012) CIPD (2005) People management and technology: progress and potential, London, CIPD. CIPD (2007) HR and Technology: beyond delivery, London, CIPD Daniel, W.W. (1987) Workplace industrial relations and technological change, London, Frances Pinter. Dery, K., Grant, D. and Wiblen, S. (2009) Human resource information systems (HRIS): replacing or enhancing HRM, Paper presented at the 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association. [online] Available at:http://sydney.edu.au/business/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/72273/IIRA_Dery_et_al_HRIS_Replacing_or_enhancing_HRM_final.pdf (accessed 10th November 2012)

Online Sales Tax Policy

Online Sales Tax Policy Intro As the past several years majority of the retail item purchase are transitioning to the internet, which cause more fiscal distress for the states because they weren’t able to collect taxes for sales generated online from outer states that are not physically presence in the state. The Amazon laws often reference by the attempt by the states to capture taxes on internet sales are being wildly adapted to capture the uncollected revenue for the states. The Market Place Fairness Act (Amazon Tax) arise recently to authorize states to impose internet sales tax if the states are member of the SSUTA. However major states like California and Illinois s are still resisting these Amazon laws to be implemented. So far only 20 states collect sales tax from internet retailers. This is a problem because these Amazon laws has been proven to decrease employment in the online retail market, decrease business investment and create future monopolistic problem. Last year Amazon spends 1.8 million d ollars hiring seven law firms to lobby Washington, hiring 9 lobbyist from each firm to fight this issue in the congress. In addition to these lobbyist also recruited two senate majority leader Trend Lott R-Miss and former Sen John Breaux, D –LA. Amazon is among at least 135 companies and group that have lobbied for sales tax bill this year. Their interest is to abolish these sales tax law so these online retail companies can gain competitive advantage against local retail stores and increase their company’s revenue. The key opposition actors are the Department of Revenue from each opposing state and certain congressman who wanted to collected these sales tax which estimated to be more than 10 billion each year and will continue to grow in the next 5 years. The major disagreement is about the definition companies’ physical presence in the state and if tax is necessary from conducting sales from outside state. The major agreement is that there needs to be quick an d firm action to set up these policies because the numbers of online retail stores are growing and the policy needs to be in place to prevent confusion in the future. Well established corporation giant like Amazon and other Big online retail stores are most likely to influence the decision in the policy making process because due to their size, employment effort and political lobbying effort, their interest is most likely going to be recognized. Journals The first journal that we are going to examine is the evidence of how online sales taxes influences buyers’ behavior using the data source of 25000 people, the results shows that taxation plays an important role in online commerce. Especially for people living in places with higher taxes, those shoppers are much more likely to buy things over the internet. The results shows that there is a reason why there is such a different level of technological sophistication and shopping behavior with different locations. With this study, existing sales tax to internet will reduce the number of online buyers by as much as 24 percent. In total the results of this study shoes that taxes and prices difference is the main factor of purchase decision, and important role for individual floating money to other systems and people migrating to other states or even other countries, thus creating a world without borders. The second research journal is from Stanford also examine the sensitivity report of Internet retail market. The first results in this paper shows a â€Å"tax surprises†. The study found that interested buyer falls roughly two percent for every one percent point increase in sales tax. The sensitivity changes depend on the type of item there is . The second report uses sales tax at the state level. Where one percent point increase in states sales tax will lead to 3-6 percent decrease in line purchase form home state sellers. Analysis The Market Place Fairness Act is the currently status quo. Where it grants states authority of collect online and catalog retailers, no matter which state they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of the transaction. It is the exact same process that local retailers are required to do. However there is a catch that the States must simplify their sales tax laws to make those tax collection. The State has an option to join the twenty four states that have adopted the Stream Sales and Use Tax Agreement. Or another option would be that the state establish a uniform sales tax base throughout the state and determine sales tax rate of out of state. The reason why this Act was implemented because retail has drastically changed from forty six years ago. Majority of the online sales are shipped from tax exempt state and therefore allowed to be tax free. In order to fix this issue of a tax â€Å"loophole† and also, increase tax revenue, the act was set up in place. The majority stakeholder of this policy is the Department of Revenue from each state. Where due to increase cost and increase in unemployment the states are unable to find new revenue source to collect from. By implementing this policy the State is able to collect 300 plus million dollars each year. On a national level, the total tax revenue from this bill will come out to 23 billion. Another major stakeholder of this policy is the National Retail Federation. Which is made up by large retail businesses such as Walmart, Target and BestBuy, Where the company operates with physical presence in the State. The National Retail Association argued that without an online sales tax it will create and unfair competitive advantage for the online retail business and causing lost revenue from its store. Traditional brick and mortar businesses view this as a tax loophole The second policy is no online sales tax for companies who do not have a physical presence in the states. There are several reason why people favor this policy. First online sales tax is deem unconstitutional and serves as an discrimination against online businesses. According to Illinois Supreme court â€Å"Justice Anne Burke, writing for the courts majority, questioned whether there was any substantial difference between out-of-state businesses reaching Illinois consumers through a click-through-nexus approach or through other approaches that arent taxed.† The click-through link makes it easier for the customer to reach the out-of-state retailer, Burke wrote. But the link is not different in kind from advertising using promotional codes that appear, for example, in Illinois newspapers or Illinois radio broadcasts. The second reason why people oppose having online sales tax is because, the Market Fairness Act forces business to collect taxes on their own expense. Small business are already suffering low profit margin in online market, if the States requires online business to collect taxes it will drastically make the tax collection process difficult. The main stakeholder for this policy is the Internet Association Group. The group is made up by internet companies like Amazon, Facebook and Ebay, where they are conduct business online rather than having a physical retail store. The third Policy is a modify policy for the Market Place Fairness Act. Where the States only collect online sales taxes with company that is generating more than 1 million revenue per year. The design of this policy is specifically made for small business. Because collecting sales tax clearly hurts sales. The government wants to exempt small businesses from having to collect any online taxes, therefore making the crowded online retail market place more competitive friendly. The major stake holder for this policy is the small online business, where they are generating small margins of profit from their online sales. This tax exempt will help small business to take off in a competitive business world and exempt from the tedious work of tax collection for the state. From this chart we can clearly point out the motivation behind Amazon Tax, the Department of Revenue is clearly losing 23 billion dollars every year for online sales tax that are not collected. The policy that I’m prescribing is policy number 2. Where this policy only require companies to pay taxes with physical presence in the state. Because I deem policy 1 and policy 3 unconstitutional and it’s a devastation to our economic well-being. Political Reason On October 19th 2013 the Illinois Supreme Court found the Market Place Fairness Act unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional because the court â€Å"find that there aren’t any substantial difference between out of state businesses reaching Illinois consumers through click through nexus approach or through other approaches that aren’t taxed. The coupon, discount and other advertisement link is no different from for example, Illinois newspaper or radio broadcasts.†. Under the Internet Freedom Tax Act States are prohibit to impose discriminatory internet only taxes on E commerce. So this policy should not even be raised up because it is unconstitutional in the first place. Furthermore, Amazon and other online retail companies do sales taxes on states that they have physical presence, therefore making the argument of â€Å"Amazon pays no sales tax† Invalid. The Trillion Dollar Reason Let’s examine the economic impact of this policy. Every year Amazon and other online retail companies invest billions of dollars into its supply chain management systems and information management systems. This costly investment is what makes online shopping more efficient, less costly than any other method in the retail world. If local government propose a sales tax on online sales, not only it decreases online sales, it also provides no incentives for small businesses to compete with physical retail stores because small businesses have no price/ logistical advantages compare to the physical retail store. Decrease in sales and fewer small businesses will lead to less investment into building warehouses, data centers, and transportation system and website development. Which will be the next trillion dollar industry. As a side note, because Amazon pays no sales tax. Traditional brick and mortar stores are force to increase its presence online, decrease cost of its product, decrease inefficient warehouses, hire more website/data/cloud developers and improve its delivery system. The benefit not only transition to the customers (reduce purchase cost) it also provides more job opportunities for people by introducing business competition. Employment When the State of Illinois tries to pass the Illinois Affiliates Law which required out of state online company to collect taxes on its affiliates. 1000 online retailers threatened to terminate their business relationship with the state. 9000 small business were lost. This example shows us that when a state tries to impose an internet sales tax, companies will terminate their relationship with the local affiliates. Not only this will cause less income for the people, it will stagnate employment in the future. The similar approach to terminating its affiliates will be found more if states continue to impose sales taxes on internet retail companies. Long term vs Short term Short term Step 1. To fix this issue first we need to repeal every Amazon Tax that is being implemented in states that collect Amazon Tax. Using Illinois Supreme Court’s findings and conclusion, I suspect that other states court will soon find this tax is unconstitutional and discriminating towards the online retail companies. By rejecting this tax, customers can enjoy no sales tax from online companies that do not have a physical presence in their state. Step 2. To further fix this issue in the short term, we need to fix issues mainly in the Department of Revenue. Right now due to the rising cost of welfare, Medicare and other cost, Department of Revenue is running out of budget on hand. To tackle this problem in the short term, there are several other polices that decrease spending in some area that are not efficient in the federal system. By convincing legislators that businesses are the future source of revenue for the government, our legislator can look elsewhere to decrease spending or transfer spending to other department. Long term To see the implication of my policy to work and to solve the root cause of the problem in the long term, we need to tackle the traditional brick and mortar businesses. By introducing competition from online retail stores, the brick and mortar businesses will have to increase its presence online and invest in online retail business. Walmart actually sees an increase in profit online since it starts to increase its presence online. Walmart is also adopting its inventory, transportation, online retail strategy from Amazon. In the long term, Walmart and other brick and mortar businesses will be able to price match with Amazon and also offer low cost goods and great online services to its customers. When we see traditional brick and mortar business adopt an online retail model, the issues of sales tax will not be surface. Sales Tax The root cause of the problem is actually the existence of sales tax. To fully see this problem go away, we need to examine the real purpose of sales tax in the long term. Should sales tax be implemented? Do states perform better without sales tax? Do sales tax hurt traditional brick and mortar business as well? Is Department of Revenue the sole winner of implementing sales tax? These are the issues that needs to be address in front of the legislator in order to abolish sales tax. By abolishing sales tax, the question of online tax will not be an issue anymore. Journals Alm, James, and Mikhail I. Melnik. 2005. â€Å"Sales Taxes and the Decision to Purchase Online.† Public Finance Review 33 (2): 184–212. Alm, James, and Mikhail I. Melnik. 2005. â€Å"Sales Taxes and the Decision to Purchase Online.† Public Finance Review 33 (2): 184–212. Mikesell, John, 1970. â€Å"Central Cities and Sales Tax Rate Differentials: The Border City Problem.† National Tax Journal 23 (2), 206–214. Mikesell, John, 1971. â€Å"Sales Taxation and the Border County Problem.† Quarterly Review of Economics and Business 11 (1), 23–29. Rohlin, Shawn, Stuart Rosenthal, and Amanda Ross, 2012. â€Å"Tax Avoidance and Business Location in a State Border Model.† Unpublished manuscript. Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. Articles Studies Agree: A Sales Tax Increase Kills Jobs Watchdog.org.Watchdogorg RSS. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. http://watchdog.org/36650/ks-studies-agree-a-sales-tax-increase-kills-jobs/>.

Tourism Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Currently, ecotourism is rapidly becoming one of the world’s largest industries. According to the World Trade Organization, 600 million people traveled to see â€Å"environmental areas† in 2000, spending more than 500 billion U.S. dollars. This makes ecotourism one of the world’s number one earners, ahead of automotive products, chemicals, petroleum, even food .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  But, what exactly is ecotourism? Ecotourism happens to be a special branch of tourism. The Conservation International defines it best saying it is â€Å"responsible travel that promotes the conservation of nature and sustains the well being of local people .†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There has been dramatic growth of participation in outdoor recreation and ecotourism activities. The bad impacts of ecotourism have led to high demands and this has attracted tourist developers looking to access the environment, â€Å"answering the tourist’s demands†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Unfortunately, there are very few rules or regulations regarding ecotourism and its development. And because of the lack of rules tourism developers are destroying the environment. This problem can not go unnoticed. We are running out of places to ruin, and we will soon not have any where to call home.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to Erlet Cater and Gwen Lowman,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The much needed rules and regulations must include good and environmentally   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  sensitive, infrastructure-including airports, transport and communications   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  networks, and sanitation and electricity supplies. But above all else,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  sustainable ecotourism requires careful planning †. Without this planning, ecotourism is doing more harm that good.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I will show how these tourist developers are putting huge strains on the environment and how the effects of this behavior will eventually leave the land with the inability to cope with the drastic changes. I believe with carefully planned ecotourism development and rules and regulations, we can make ecotourism and the environment blend simultaneously.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, the tourist developers are adding increased pressure to the limited natural resources, especially in places... ...ions to stop all this destructive behavior.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Letting this growing problem go unnoticed will lead to the environment’s crumbling. We have no other options when it comes to living on another planet, at least at the moment. We need to establish harsher rules and take better care of where we call home.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, now that I have explained what tourist developers are doing wrong and what they are doing to destroy our environment we can see that the effects of their behavior have been devastating. We are running out of places to ruin and resources to use up. Someone must step up and create rules so we can protect our environment instead of destroying the earth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bibliography Cater, Erlet, and Lowman, Gwen. Ecotourism-a sustainable option?. New York, 1994. Croall, J. (1995) Preserve or Destroy: Tourism and the Environment. London:Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. â€Å"Ecotourism.† Online Posting. 2 February 2002. 27 January 2004. Theobald, William. Global Tourism: the next decade. Oxford, 1994. Worpole, K. (1999) Driving Forces. The Guardian, 8 June.

Compare and contrast the approaches of Hamlet and Laertes to revenge Essay

â€Å"†¦ By the image of my cause, I see / The portraiture of his. † Compare and contrast the approaches of Hamlet and Laertes to revenge. Hamlet is the son of the late king Hamlet and is grieving over his father’s unexpected death. Both Laertes and Hamlet are avengers, avenging their fathers’ murders. He also has to contend with the fact that his mother, the queen, Gertrude, re-marries rather quickly to the new king Claudius (the late king Hamlet’s brother). Hamlet also wishes to return to university perhaps to deal with the incidents of late and to return to some sort of normality. This is somewhat ignored by the Claudius’s need to keep a fixed eye of him. As the play continues you learn that the late king Hamlet was actually murdered and it is Hamlet’s duty to seek revenge and resolve the situation. This he deals with badly, by continuously battling with his conscience as to whether or not he can do it and if it is acceptable to seek such revenge. Laertes is the Lord Chamberlain’s son and also the brother of Hamlet’s true love. His request to return to France is granted and he is away until he hears of the tragedies that occur within his family, namely the death of his father Polonius and the insanity of his sister, Ophelia. Initially characters, Hamlet and Laertes appear to be completely different from one another. It is not until you make a comparison between Hamlet and Laertes that it becomes apparent that there are a number of similarities as well as differences. Hamlet and Laertes are both honourable and noble men and come from very good families; Hamlet is royalty and Laertes is the Lord Chamberlain’s son. The part in the play, which shows true repentance from Laertes, is when he speaks out to Hamlet at the end. He tells him of his foul play, that his mother has been poisoned, that the blade is poisoned too and that it is the king to blame. Laertes also seeks forgiveness from Hamlet for his part of the evil that has spread. This proves that he is deeply an honest man and not one of evil. Hamlet, also of the same nature, exchanges forgiveness. This is a major indication, on Hamlet’s behalf that he is to an honourable man. â€Å"Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. † (Laertes Act v Scene ii) â€Å"Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. † (Hamlet Act v Scene ii) Both Hamlet and Laertes love Ophelia and are devastated by her death. Also their reactions to certain events are also alike. Initially when Hamlet learns that his father was murdered he shouts out in temper and portrays an angry man ready to seek revenge. However, this gets waylaid by Hamlet dwelling on the truth as opposed to acting on it, whereas Laertes has the same initial reaction but with the intent to seek revenge instantly, with prompting by Claudius. Hamlet’s only prompting is by the ghost, and in one instant acts on impulse. This act of impulse occurs in the Queen’s closet when she and Hamlet are arguing and Hamlet kill’s who ever it is hiding behind the arras. This is most certainly not a natural reaction by Hamlet. â€Å"A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice, /Requite him for your father. † (Claudius speaking with Laertes privately Act v Scene ii) Another similarity is when the two characters commit themselves to whatever lies ahead, namely a destiny as a result or consequence of their actions. However, a main difference is the fact that this is an almost instant reaction for Laertes but one which Hamlet commits to in Act I scene v but there is a delay and he does not seem to be ‘ready’ until Act IV scene ii. â€Å"Let come what comes† (Laertes Act iv Scene v) â€Å"mine is ready, now or whensoever† (Hamlet Act v Scene ii) However as many similarities as there are, the contrasts are more noticeable and at first glance are clearer and easier to perceive. Some would think Hamlet to be the cowardly avenger, this I feel portrays Laertes to be a more courageous character. Hamlet deliberately attempts to delay the revenge he seeks for his father’s death. He accuses himself of â€Å"bestial oblivion† and â€Å"over-speculation†. He seems to be less focused than Laertes and on occasion battles with his conscience. â€Å"To be, or not to be – that is the question† (Hamlet Act iii Scene I). Laertes on the other hand is very direct, consistent, and almost the single-minded avenger. He doesn’t seem to struggle with his conscience and is more than willing to accept the consequences of his actions. Laertes even states in act iv scene v â€Å"I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence†. He really does not care what will happen to him providing his revenge for his father’s death is sort. This play was set in Elizabethan times, an era where attitudes were mixed and ambivalent towards revenge. This helps to truly appreciate this bold behaviour from Laertes. Revenge in these times was known to be against the church and condemned by God. Which in others words meant you would not meet with God after death and would have to deal with the devil damnation. However these attitudes were far more complex and did actually depend more on the circumstances as opposed to a ‘black and white’ theory. In Hamlet’s fifth soliloquy, he reflects on the repercussions of revenge, which is perhaps one reason for his constant dwelling and hesitation on the task of killing Claudius. Laertes does not in the slightest entertain these views. â€Å"When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, /must give us pause. There’s the respect/ That makes calamity of so long life. † (Hamlet Act iii Scene I).

Forensic Psychology: Fitness for Duty Evaluation

The nature of fitness-for-duty evaluations is different from other psychological services in that they involve a mandatory referral to the psychologist and fitness Information Is communicated to the department Thus, specific issues of psychologist training and knowledge are crucial. Fitness for duty evaluation Police Psychologists play substantial roles In the employment and maintenance of law enforcement. A main role the psychologist plays is in the area of psychological assessment.The Fitness for duty evaluation (FED) assesses and evaluates a police officer's personality, psychology, intelligence, and overall fit for the line of work. This type of assessment Is also frequently conducted through pre-employment psychological screenings. This paper briefly addresses the pre;employment psychological screening. However, the primary focus is on the forensic psychologist's role as it applies to the FED. Pre-employment psychological screenings are designed to Identify unsuitable police can didates.Testing has become more complex over the years in order to detect Issues not easily identified In earlier standard testing. (Derrick & Chaplain, 2006). Several tests, such as the Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory (IMP) and the Inlaid Personality Inventory (PUPIL have become more utilized for this purpose over the years . Research has established that these tests, particularly the PIP, tend to be successful In predicting negative indicators for aspects such as officer performance after training (Singing, Schumacher, Gardner, &Chaplin, 1995).It has also been found that The Pl and IMP have also proven effective in detecting dishonest test answers. Importantly, it has been suggested the test detects Is best at Identifying unsophisticated deceivers while superior ones are more successful In cheating the tests (Forum &: stock, Tests such as the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) is 993). Frequently used as a predict recruits that will perform well once on the job (Derrick & Callahan, 2006).Other research (Derrick & Callahan, 2006) suggests that the NEO PI-R Is able to foresee which recruits will perform well as officers. Some experts also believe that the NEO PI-R may be utilized in recognizing weaknesses in cleared emcee candidates Ana teen strengthening tense areas. Thanes-Tort-AU evaluations (Fades) are often in response to an officer's display of some form of questionable behavior. These behaviors may include aspects such as stress, excessive force, substance abuse, psychological disorders, depression, or family problems.The evaluation is conducted in order to determine several key factors. These include the decision as to if the officer should continue at present duty level, if treatment or intervention is needed, or if Job task modifications are necessary. The assessment typically comprises a review of the officer's records. Aspects of the record such as awards, commendations, and reprimands are measured. Additionally, individual sessions with the officer are often conducted. Interviews with family are often conducted as well.Lastly, a medical examination is frequently recommended to establish or rule out other issues affecting the officer (Bartok & Bartok, 2008) In addition to use for recruitment, Psychological tests such as The Operational Police Stress Questionnaire (Soup) and the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire (SQ-Org) are frequently utilized to in both recruitment and to measure stress levels in active duty officers. (Macrame & Thompson, 2006). Duty-related stress is measured by the SQ-Pop and the SQ. Org measures stress that is caused from the actual law enforcement organization.The tests were designed in this way due to data that has established that these two groups are the main stress generating areas for officers. The role of the forensic psychologist as it pertains to FED is of interest to this student for several reasons. First of all, research has established that psychological servi ces play a vital role throughout law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement officials have begun to recognize and acknowledge the need for psychological services designed to deal with the unique culture among police officers. Another reason of interest is the value in psychological testing.Psychological tests can be used to assist in recruit selection as well as stress testing for current officers. Furthermore, the creation of additional and improved tools as a result of developing research and development for the purpose of improving law enforcement organizations is exciting. â€Å"Psychologists provide services, teach, and conduct research with populations and in areas only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, consultation, study, or professional experience† (PAP, 2002, p. 1063; Standard 2. AAA Boundaries of Competence).