Recent orders
The Cold War.
Name
Professor’s name
Course
Date
The Cold War.
Cold war refers to the period of open yet restricted rivalry that took place after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. The rivalry was established along economic, political, and propaganda fronts with limited use of weapons. The war lasted through the span of the Truman Doctrine of 1947 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term “cold” comes into play because these two superpowers did not record large-scale fighting. This conflict was a construct of geopolitical and ideological struggle for global supremacy following their victory from a temporary alliance formed against Nazi Germany in 1945.Further, these two superpowers employed indirect means such as espionage, psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, far-reaching embargoes, and rivalry at technological competitions or sports events to express their dominance. George Orwell first used the phrase “cold war” in 1945 in an article he had published (McCauley, 45). He foresaw a nuclear standoff involving two superpowers, whereby each possessed disastrous weapons capable of killing millions of people in a matter of seconds.
The alliance between Great Britain and the United States on one hand and the Soviet Union on the other unraveled as a result of Nazi Germany’s surrender in May 1945. By 1948, the Soviets had set up left-wing governments in Eastern Europe countries freed by the Red Army. The Americans and the British feared the permanent domination of eastern European countries by the Soviets. This posed the threat of having communist parties dominating western Europe democracies (Peng 67). In addition to the global spread of communism, the Soviets wanted to maintain eastern Europe’s control to secure it from renewed threats from Germany. By 1948, the cold war solidified when aid provided by the United States’ Marshall plan in western Europe brought together countries that had been influenced by Americans. By this time, the Soviets had already established a communist system of government in eastern Europe.
The United States and its European allies created the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 in response to Soviet attacks and declared their global policy in containing Soviet influence. In response to formation of NATO, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Major crisis including the Berlin blockade, the Korean war, the Chinese civil war, the Suez, the Cuban Missile of 1962, and the Berlin crisis of 1961 took place. At this point, the United States and the Soviet Union were competing to decolonize Asian and African states and influence the Middle East and Latin American countries. The Cuban Missile crisis led to the split between the Soviet Union and China, which further complicated political relations in the communist sphere. Consequently, France, an ally of the United States, increased its demand for autonomy of action. In 1968, The Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress the Prague Spring, while the United States went through internal unrest from opposers of the Vietnam War and civil rights movements (Westad, 12). An international peace movement began to sprout globally in the 1960s. Campaigns against nuclear disbarment and arms testing were on the rise and by 1970s, both parties were receptive to addressing peace and security, resulting in eased relations that eased strategic arms limitation talks and opened US relations with China. Eventually, détente collapsed, leading to the increased military, economic and diplomatic pressures on the Soviet Union by the United States.
The close of the cold war happened after President Richard Nixon took office and adopted a new approach towards international relations. As opposed to viewing the world as bipolar, he suggested the use of diplomacy as opposed to military action. President Nixon encouraged recognition of the communist Chinese government by the United Nations following his trip there which led to establishment of diplomatic relations with Beijing. Worth noting, at this point, President Nixon had adopted the détente policy of relaxation towards the Soviet Union. In 1962, President Nixon, signed the Strategic Arms Limitation with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhev, which banned the production of nuclear missiles by each side. This step was turning point because it eliminated the threats of nuclear war that had lasted decades. Noteworthy, despite all the efforts made by President Nixon to end the war, it spouted again under the rule of Ronald Regean who was president between 1911 and 2004. Just like many leaders of his time, he was of the idea that the spread of communism anywhere would threaten freedom everywhere in the world. As s result, President Reagan worked to provide military and financial aid to insurgencies and anticommunist governments across the world.
Works Cited
McCauley, Martin. Origins of the Cold War 1941-1949. Routledge, 2015.
Peng, Juanjuan, and Hongjie Wang. “World History II (GA Southern).” (2018).
Westad, Odd Arne. The Cold War: a world history. Basic Books, 2017.
Technologies
Name
Professor’s name
Course
Date
Informative Speech about Uber Technologies
Topic: Uber Technologies
General purpose: To inform
Specific purpose: To inform my audience about one of the most successful and globally renowned black-car service company, Uber technologies.
Thesis statement: This speech highlights the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies. It further proposes innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges as well as strategies that can be employed in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.
Introduction
Attention Getter: Although Uber came into existence in 2009 and started as a black-car hire, it has expanded widely across many continents and countries. What makes the Uber industry stand out is the fact as opposed to traditional car hire services, it employs a digital approach to ensure a win-win situation for the client, the driver, and the company. In short, Uber Technologies runs all its services on an application that connects riders to clients. The most intriguing part of the business is the simplicity of the business. The Uber services took the ridesharing services to the next level because it capitalized on convenience. Think of it this way, people are always on the move, traveling to a different destination, the store, to work, and even tending to emergencies. Uber Technologies stands out as it was the first company to develop an application that uses GPS to link a client to a driver. The fact that one can log in into an application request for a ride and have the rider pick them from their location is very attractive to my clients.
Reason to listen: Over the years, Uber has faced many disruptive challenges and fought many rivals transforming the company from a black-car service to an empire for self-driving cars and food delivery.
Thesis statement: This speech highlights the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies. It further proposes innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges as well as strategies that can be employed in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.
Credibility statement:
I have always been interested in matters pertaining to how technology has revolutionized the transportation industry over the years.
At every opportunity I get, I try to learn as much as possible about the million dollar black-car services in the world.
Preview of main points:
First, I will discuss the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies.
Second I will discuss innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges.
Finally, I will discuss strategies that Uber can employ in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.
Although both the Uber drivers and clients face challenges, there are hardly any downsides for customers.
One of the greatest challenges facing the industry is safety concerns
In many states and cities that have lax transport industry regulations, average citizens can easily infiltrate the system as service providers.
Although it has a positive impact on the number of drivers, there is no way to guarantee that the drivers will maintain professionalism and safety.
Another issue is surge pricing, which controls free markets by lowering and increasing pricing based on demand
This hurts customers as sometimes the fare could triple or double during peak hours.
Low fares also impact negatively on drivers due to low earnings.
According to Kovoor-Misaram in cities like New York, drivers are encouraged to get luxury cars and the latest models to keep with their customers’ needs.
Price competition has had a negative impact on the transport industry. This has to do with the fact that Uber and other e-hail taxi services are always competing to provide the cheapest service. Further, they are also in competition with traditional taxi- services.
Another challenge facing the Uber business is the lack of accessibility features for people with disabilities
In some countries, car hire companies are mandated by the law to have a given number of wheelchair accessible vans for use.
This is not always the case as most drivers don’t have access to the resources making it difficult to comply with the law.
Maheshwari notes that over the past few years, Uber has found itself at the center of unethical scandals ranging from sexual assault, sabotage, the issue of multi-tasking, and privacy.
There have been cases of customers raising sexual assault accusations against Uber drivers. This is because the process of bringing drivers on has been negligent. Word is, Uber does not meet with drivers before approving their applications. It is expected that such a multi-billion company can afford to run background checks on their drivers as it is the only way to ensure clients’ safety.
Furthermore, Uber has been found to employ techniques of sabotage against their competitors to ensure they remain in business.
Several Uber drivers were found to request rides from Lyft, their main competitor, only to cancel them.
This causes the Lyft drivers to waste gas and have low availability leading customers to request Uber rides instead.
The fact that Uber bases its operations on using GPS to reach potential clients presents a drawback from a safety perspective.
This is because drivers have to keep checking their mobile drivers while driving, increasing the chances of causing accidents.
Uber has also been accused of disregarding its clients’ privacy as it has an application used in tracking their customers’ location.
Transition: Now that I have discussed the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies, I will now address the innovative policies and strategies that can be used to resolve them.
B. One of the strategies Uber can employ to avoid scandals is putting safeguards in place.
Putting sufficient safeguards provides a way of nullifying the negative publicity that faces them.
Uber has been accused of sexual violations and drivers cheating their clients. According to Garud, while some of the allegations were true they lead to negative implications on the company’s brand.
Another strategy would be to offer its employees more flexible schedules to attract more people in need of additional income streams
Another strategy is adjusting its income claims by reducing commission.
Currently, Uber collects commissions ranging from 20%-28% of earnings.
According to Wong, Uber should develop a grievance handling and sexual harassment policy in its company to help address cases of sexual harassment against its customers.
Implementation of such a policy can help address the issue and improve their brand image.
To maximize profits, Uber must recognize the changing nature of its business by diversifying its services. Recently, Uber has started leveraging technology for optimal driver allocation and cab bookings.
Moreover, with the current situation, Uber should continue to scale up alternative businesses, including Uber Eats and Uber Freight.
Transition: Now that I have discussed about the innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges, I will touch on the strategies that Uber can employ in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.
C. A multi-cultural environment must consider not only race and gender but also sexual orientation
1. Uber Technologies recognizes that having inclusive and diverse teams is their greatest asset.
a. It drives innovation which provides them with a competitive advantage.
b. Uber technologies have doubled its commitment to create a work environment where people from all backgrounds can thrive and function.
c. increasing the representation of underrepresented groups, including women by increasing women workforce to 50%, increasing women’s representation in technology and leadership positions.
d. This means including people who identify as LGBTI in the workforce to ensure a diverse and equitable workforce.
Conclusion:
Review of main points:
First, I discussed the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies.
Second I discussed innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges.
Finally, I discussed strategies that Uber can employ in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment
Restate Thesis: This speech highlights the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies. It further proposes innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges as well as strategies that can be employed in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.
Closure: To address these problems, Uber Technologies must realize the need to keep their employees happy, reduce commissions, run background checks on drivers, and have safeguards.
Works Cited
Garud, Raghu, et al. “Liminal movement by digital platform‐based sharing economy ventures: The case of Uber Technologies.” Strategic Management Journal (2020).
Kovoor-Misra, Sarah. Crisis management: Resilience and change. Sage Publications, 2019.
Maheshwari, Nidhi. “Uber taxi cab-handling crisis communication.” Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies (2017).
Wong, Julia Carrie. “Uber concealed massive hack that exposed data of 57m users and drivers.” The Guardian 22 (2017).
The Accounting Profession
Name
Professor’s name
Course
Date
The Accounting Profession in a Digital Age
Introduction
Undoubtedly, the accounting profession is one of the professions that were worst hit by the global pandemic of 2020. We are living in a digital age and experiencing the fourth industrial revolution. If there is one thing that the unprecedented covid-19 pandemic showed us is that accounting professionals are as much essential workers as healthcare professionals. When the pandemic struck, businesses changed their way of doing things with the majority being forced to either shut down or take up telecommuting. Most people began working from home and the accounting professionals had their work cut out as they could not just shift their operations online overnight as majority of their work requires a in-person and physical presence to complete.
Challenges of the Accounting Profession from Various Points of View
The pandemic had a different effect on the lives and experiences of various professions in the accounting field. For a student that was undergoing accounting-related studies, the pandemic disrupted their lives by limiting their ability to go through internships and attachment programs. It is a mandatory requirement that accounting students go through at least three months of internship at company’s of their choice to gain practical field practice (Qasim and Faten, 110). The pandemic limited the ability of students to find organizations that could offer them internship opportunities. This is because most organizations were not hiring as most either laded off employees to cut administration costs or worked from home because business was not doing well. To avoid similar situations for accounting students in the future, students should begin embracing technology early and learning all there is to know about telecommuting so that it is easy for them to cope with an unpredictable situation such as those brought about by the covid-19 pandemic. For the global citizen, the biggest impact of the pandemic was the loss of income brought about by job cuts and slow business due to lockdowns and isolation. To mitigate the challenge people should take up more saving habits and find alternative sources of income to get them through the rainy days.
External auditors were at a disadvantage as they had to deal with heightened challenges posed by covid-19 which they had not encountered before. Majority of external auditors that had to travel across cities, states, countries, and continents were not able to travel as much because of the travel restrictions to prevent community spread. They had to either cancel or either reschedule their auditing days. To avoid a similar situation in the future, auditors should invest in technology and application that can enable them to carry out auditing remotely. SBA administrators were also affected because the pandemic limited their capacity to carry on with their accounting role of strengthening the country’s economy. This is because a majority of their work cannot be done remotely and also because they deal with lots of paperwork which makes it impossible to work from home. To mitigate this challenge, it is imperative that they begin considering digital migration as it will empower them to work remotely. The pandemic affected the politicians and particularly lawmakers by limiting their capacity to pass legislation because of social distancing measures that were put in place to reduce community transitions across the world. To address this there is need to incorporate technology in policy making.
Inequity in Distribution of Relief Funds for Small Business Administration
In regards to organizations that were awarded Federal Paycheck Protection Program loans to help cushion them from the adverse economic effects of the pandemic, a lot of backlash was encountered because of unfairness. Unfortunately, the reality of the matter is that the loans ended up being awarded to the undeserving business at the expense of small businesses. The lack of control and checks made it easy for businesses that were not eligible to be awarded loans of up to $107 000 (Zara, 6). For example, businesses like Ruth’s Chris Steak House, which is not a small business but rather a publicly-traded restaurant made it on the list. Noteworthy, the majority of the companies ended up returning the funds they received for fear of fraud charges and backlash.
Reflection and Personal Opinion
In my viewpoint, accounting is one of the most lucrative careers of all time. When covid-19 emerged, it proved to people that accountants are as much essential workers as healthcare professions. My point of view is that it is high time accountants invest in digital databases that are unique to their organizations to help them carry out their mandate in times like this. As a student, I think it is an ideal time for students to keep an open mind on the possibility of finding mobile jobs as times keep changing in the digital age that we live in. As a future accounting professional, I would like to broaden my knowledge on the impact of public policies on organizational finances. This area is of interest to me as it will teach me important lessons on governance and administration in general.
Works Cited
Qasim, Amer, and Faten F. Kharbat. “Blockchain technology, business data analytics, and artificial intelligence: Use in the accounting profession and ideas for inclusion into the accounting curriculum.” Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting 17.1 (2020): 107-117.
Zara, Christopher. “Here’S The Full List Of Companies That Received Paycheck Protection Program Loans Over $150,000”. Fast Company, 2020, https://www.fastcompany.com/90524719/heres-the-full-list-of-companies-that-received-paycheck-protection-program-loans-over-150000.