Category: Legal Issues

Introduction

Managing change is always a challenging task, and it can be even more difficult in such areas as fire service due to its adherence to traditional norms of performance. It is observed that professional customs have deep roots in the fire service operation, and they are manifested in each duty a firefighter aims to accomplish on an everyday basis (Mills, 2006).

The traditional perceptions substantially influence the professional identity but, at the same time, the strict adherence to obsolete traditions, beliefs, and techniques may interfere with effective organizational transition to change, development of the ability to cope with the modern professional, ethical, and legal risks and problems, and adaptation to dynamically changing environment. Therefore, it is essential for fire service organizations to find an appropriate balance between professional traditions and the implementation of changes.

Need for Continued Research

Leadership can be defined as a strategic approach towards coping with current and future challenges and an essential element of organizational efficiency and leadership strategies; thus should focus on the detailed analysis of the contextual circumstances and interpretation of information about the changes emerging in the environment. The constant research of risks and trends the attainment of knowledge needed to bridge the gap between the present situation and the desired organizational goals.

The political and legal environment is constantly changing; technological advances emerge and require fire service organizations to adjust to changes. Moreover, Chief Fire Officers (CFOs) need to take into account ethical aspects of professional behavior, civil liability, and safety concerns as the consideration of stakeholder interests and responses of the public to the recent legal issues involving fire service personnel may prompt the right directions for the organizational improvement. Based on this, the continuous investigation of different environmental changes, social attitudes, and perceptions supports the efficient transition to change and the adoption of new relevant policies and norms.

Communication in Electronic Environment

In the context of the rapid computerization of professional and social performance, management, and supervision activities can be mediated through the use of information technologies. Different web-based communication tools, such as information bulletin boards, email services, and social media networks, significantly facilitate the dissemination of important information among employees and, in this way, support teamwork enhancement (International Association of Fire Chiefs & National Fire Protection Association, 2012). To achieve greater results in learning the etiquette and norms of professional communication, CFOs need to acquire knowledge about communication in both digital and real-world contexts.

The consideration of etiquette, internet policies, and regulation of access to web content and information sharing while on duty is vital to communication safety and quality. CFOs should be aware of the ethical principle of web-based communication and should enforce compliance with ethical and legal aspects of confidentiality, protection of individual and community interests, and avoidance of discrimination.

To illustrate the importance of ethical professional behavior in the use of web-resources as the means of communication with the public, it is possible to draw an example of the case that took place in Howard County, Maryland in 2013 when the Battalion Chief posted the politically and racially intolerant message on his personal Facebook page while being on duty (Metcalf, 2013). The post came to the attention of the fire department’s officials and ultimately resulted in the employee’s dismissal.

Although the initial intent behind the message might have been of a jesting character, the case demonstrates that a CFO should always recognize his/her social responsibility and understand that he/she is regarded as an agent of organizational communication with the public. Therefore, the compliance with ethical and legal principles of professional conduct and especially communication is an important element of professional competence.

CFO’s Role in Code Enforcement and Public Education

“Code enforcement is the process of ensuring compliance with all codes, ordinances, laws, and other regulations” (Coffman, 2013, par. 2). A CFO’s activities aimed to ensure individuals’ compliance with fire codes are essential aspects of public education. Code enforcement activities imply inspections or public meetings and lectures on fire-safety measures.

Such activities require CFOs to be engaged in the process of social networking and collaboration with different non-profit and for-profit organizations that may help to sponsor and arrange fire prevention and public education programs. To employ code enforcement initiatives, CFOs should be aware of their responsibilities and should have a sufficient level of knowledge and competence to perform a particular education or enforcement practice. CFOs’ duties in code enforcement indicate that personnel training is essential to the success of public education and citizens’ compliances with multiple safety principles.

Training and its Role in Maintenance of Proficiency

Efficient education programs help to accomplish simple routine and complex tasks and support the development of planning skills, critical thinking, and psychological sensitivity that allow CFOs to balance between staff members’ safety and efficiency. Education in fire service is an ongoing process, and it implies theoretical knowledge building and refinement of practical skills in dealing with emergency situations. CFO’s need to be engaged in the constant process of investigation and development of leadership qualities to achieve professional efficiency, ensure the integration of safety initiatives into organizational culture, demonstrate the compliance with high-standards of professional conduct in the fulfillment of diverse tasks and motivate personnel.

Human Resource Plans: Objectives and Goals

Efficient human resources (HR) management implies administration of work performance, encouragement of productivity, and evaluation of working outcomes. Based on this, the major short-term objectives in HR management should include the internal and external analysis, as well as the development of education programs aimed to increase and maintain personnel competence. The long-term goals are the improvement of the overall department’s performance, reduction of adverse incidents, and development of a sound organizational culture that fosters employees’ compliance with safety initiatives, codes of professional and ethical conduct, as well as stimulates fire codes enforcement in the public.

Summary

In the modern circumstances, fire service departments face multiple issues of technology integration, efficient personnel management, civil liability, staff training and education, legal and ethical aspects of professional behavior. The current problems provoked by both organizational initiatives or external environmental changes largely affect employees and the overall fire service performance.

Based on this, it is important to embrace change and enforce the compliance with change management activities, such as continuous research of potential risks and future trends, knowledge management practices, personnel and public education, at the organizational level. And it is possible to say that CFOs play a key role in the implementation of change management strategies and achievement of short-term and long-term objectives in the different aspects of organizational performance.

Life Safety Initiatives

The applicable life safety initiatives are 1. Cultural Change, 5. Training & Certification, 8. Technology, and 14. Public Education. The article covers the issues of firefighters’ education and training and technology use which are important for departments’ following the safety initiatives. At the same time, it is possible to say that the embrace of change and the improvement of individual performance depends on values and beliefs integrated into the organizational culture.

Moreover, the overall success of personnel training and efficient technology use depends on the leaders’ ability to create the culture that would support the enforcement of legal and ethical codes and would encourage sound professional behavior in employees. Finally, competent and well-trained CFOs and firefighters can achieve better outcomes in public education, safety codes’ enforcement among people, and promotion of the recognition of personal responsibility in fire prevention.

References

Coffman, B. (2013). Code enforcement: Critical for a successful fire prevention program. Fire Engineering. Web.

International Association of Fire Chiefs, & National Fire Protection Association. (2012). Chief Officer: Principles and practice. Ontario, Canada: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Metcalf, A. (2013). County Fire Battalion Chief fights dismissal over Facebook posts. Ellicott City Patch. Web.

Mills, S. (2006). Managing change. Fire Engineering. Web.

Legal issues

Supply chain and logistics considerations are guided by various legal issues. Introduction of a new law implies that companies will have to review their supply chain and logistics operations. California Transparency in Supply Chains Act is a law which has positive and negative impacts on supply chain participants. The law adds a new twist to accountability of large scale retailers and manufacturers operating under California jurisdiction.

The law makes it mandatory for large scale retailers and California manufacturers to make transparent the efforts they make in eradication of slavery and trafficking of humans within their supply chains (Just-style,2011). The law primarily targets retailers and manufacturers in footwear and apparel industry and comes with mixed fortunes for the affected stakeholders.

Arising legal obligations

Firstly, there are a number of additional obligations that affected companies have to address. These include verification of third-party supply chains, running unplanned audit of suppliers, as well as staff training on human traffic and forced labor issues. Additionally, the company has to certify compliance to its suppliers and improve in-house standards of accountability. The law imposes a legal regulation on what is considered to be an ethical obligation or corporate social responsibility. However, in this case, the retailers and manufacturers are compelled to implement the aforementioned. This obligation translates into a consumer right to question, authenticate and be certain that products they buy are not beneficiaries of forced labor or slavery (Just-style,2011).

The law comes with further legal obligations as it directly infringes on existing as well as future contracts design. Its effects extend beyond supply chain within California State. This not only strains company supply relationships but increases the costs incurred by the company in order to meet legal obligations it imposes. Additionally, it should be emphasized that implementation of the latter will call for a holistic review of corporation’s supply and logistics policies.

Risk management

It is also worth mentioning that the law promotes enhanced risk management. Given the corporations have an obligation to ensure the entire supply chain is clean, they gain a better understanding of their clients and as such minimize their risks (Trunick, 2011). The retailers and manufacturers have to involve suppliers from all tiers, either directly or indirectly, and hence minimize their risk exposure.

The retailers and manufacturers will have to invest in investigation of compliance with the legal threshold by all involved in the supply chain. This would mean a shift from the policy where first tier suppliers are responsible for second and third tier suppliers. The manufacturers and large scale retailers will have to engage all levels of suppliers directly or compel the first level suppliers to certify that all products supplied comply with the non-slavery or lack of forced labor requirement. Additionally, training means additional expense and this would be required to extend withing the supply chain. This cost will have to be shouldered by the consumer.

Conclusion

The law introduces increased accountability within the supply chain. It makes the retailers and manufacturers directly responsible for any arising cases where supplied products are made from slavery or forced labor. The law, however, has far reaching effects on the supply chain. Its effects extend beyond the supply chain in California. In order to comply, the retailers and manufacturers have to spend more on operations, in addition to involving the entire supply chain. Redrafting of contracts as well as restricting of contracts already in existence is inevitable.

References

Just-style. (2011). Companies prepare for California supply chain law. Web.

Trunick, P. A. (2011). Mitigating Supply Chain Risk. Inbound Logistics. Web.

Introduction

Small businesses have experienced rough conditions in 2020, and this situation is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the existing companies and those on the plan to be established, the current economic crisis has been unexpected. Additionally, the American political environment has also been chaotic, which bares adverse problems for many entrepreneurs. The following is the analysis of major legal issues that relate to business concepts and affect organizations’ operations.

Content Creators and Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The online broadcasting platform Twitch has advanced publicity after Amazon possessed it. The viewership and involvement with this medium have improved to compete with YouTube and exceeded cable television (Jassal, 2017). The growth of these two video publishing mediums, including many others, has supported introducing a Gen-Z business recess called content creation (Jassal, 2017). Although there have been some advancing pains in the method, one sample of legislation seems to be the compelling reason for future interests.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a law that aims at curbing the capability for people and companies from applying the internet to bypass copyright rules. It foredates the introduction of YouTube and Twitch, but their occurrence has expressed many opposing opinions on these two mediums (Jassal, 2017). On Twitch, an increase of digital millennium copyright act puts downs request on video led buy adverse monetary problems for many streamers running content on the software (Jassal, 2017). This issue resulted in a protest that facilitated an official statement from the organization. YouTube’s group of creators have been adversely affected by the digital millennium copyright act. Large corporations have applied this law as a way to sabotage members’ income with a minor due procedure to protect them (Jones, 2018). Therefore, this tendency might start to reverse after an effective DMCA claim from GitHub for running a famous YouTube downloader.

Bitcoin and the Patriot Act

Bitcoin has made headlines this year, and this situation has led to various clarifications, including phobias of the world reserve currency depreciating resulting from the activities of the national reserve. One of the essential explanations is the improved adoption from millionaires and large companies (Burks, 2017). After the news, before PayPal and Venmo would commence actualizing cryptocurrency into their software, competitor fintech company announced a $ 50 million capital into Bitcoin (Burks, 2017). With such influential participants joining the industry, excitement around crypto and blockchain technology is continuing to establish.

There have been several legal issues in the past relating to bitcoin. It was mainly connected with black markets like Silk Road and the massive adverse case of fraud, like when the medium was hacked and lost $ 400 million of their customer’s finance (Burks, 2017). After the meteoric growth in value of $20,000 per coin, including other famous cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Chainlink, it has become the target of criticism for entrepreneurs with dollar signs (Burks, 2017). Unfortunately, there is still a dangerous legal situation required to fully incorporate this technology, consisting Title III of the Patriot Act.

Social Media and Section 230

An emphatic entrepreneurial success story of the 21^st century is Silicon Valley. Commencing with telephones and computers, and later the programs hosted on these machines, organizations like Apple and Facebook have advanced cutting-edge technology that explains the way people live and how they converse (Pahnke & Welter, 2019). Part of the Communications Decency Act section 230 explicitly covers interactive computer services that use social media networks like Facebook and Twitter (Pahnke & Welter, 2019). This concept confirms that these organizations are not legally recognized as publishers of the content offered on their platform. While it may sound negligible, this minor part of more comprehensive legislation is vital to prominent participants in Silicon Valley and other technology organizations.

The Business Guidance Based on Analysis of the Cases

Based on the legal issue of content creators and the digital millennium copyright act. Many discussions from the case surrounding the unauthorized application of material, but the problem is to maintain and protect the reputation of the authors. The reason is that many cases show that the brand of the writer, originator, or artist is being dishonored when the material gets shared in a low-quality form on the internet (Wallace et al., 2017). There are many incidences where digital millennium copyright acts are influenced to protect intellectual possession in social networks. Therefore, it can be a contentious practice, realizing a slight difference between proper application and entirely theft. Every legal issue is supposed to be independently verified based on directives set out in the Act.

Bitcoin and patriotic Act issues are vital for a business to invest in Bitcoin for successful entrepreneurship. The currency’s digital structure enables cheaper, easier, and faster cash exchange, whereby business benefits. In addition, blockchain, a technology that bitcoin is established on, creates an avenue for entrepreneurs not to depend on banks to process their monetary operations (Wallace et al., 2017). The main reason to recognize bitcoin is that there are no fees because it costs one percent and no cost for the transaction. Like other currencies, Bitcoin fluctuates in value, but it is less stable than the business in cash, gold, or other items applied in trade (Wallace et al., 2017). This currency is, therefore, the best investment opportunity to consider in business.

The insinuation of section 230 on current technology organizations and their future is still under discussion. However, this information outshines the effect of changing this law on upcoming, smaller businesses. Therefore, new entrepreneurs have minimal chances to make a successful social media company because even the current influential organizations face issues that affect their progress. Consequently, it is not economically viable to create new social media companies due to the current legislation.

Recommendation on the Course of Action Based on the Legal Issues

Based on the case concerning content creators and the digital millennium copyright act, the recommended action is to file a DMCA takedown to protect business reputation. This process includes guarding the different copyrights and trademarks connected with the respective brand (Grygiel & Brown, 2019). If copyright violation has been noticed, the company that owns it can file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown to maintain business reputation and protect their assets (Grygiel & Brown, 2019). In the bitcoin and the patriot act, the best action is to put the patriot act into law to prevent local terrorism and convict cryptocurrency criminals (Grygiel & Brown, 2019). Implementing the Communications Decency Act covering social computer services is essential in sorting the issue related to interactive media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Conclusion

From the analysis of these legal issues, it is essential to determine which one individually affects a person’s business, study more about the concept, and resolve it. The best way to make a difference in business for this year and beyond is to determine a clear image of legal battles because they are most likely to predict the future. For people living in the United States, this plan can also be efficiently fulfilled by getting involved in politics.

References

Burks, C. (2017). Bitcoin: Breaking bad or breaking barriers? North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology, 18(5), 244.

Grygiel, J., & Brown, N. (2019). Are social media companies motivated to be good corporate citizens? Examination of the connection between corporate social responsibility and social media safety. Telecommunications Policy, 43(5), 445-460.

Jassal, K. K. (2017). ” Let’s Go Crazy” with fair use: Amending the digital millennium copyright Act. Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts, 12(4), 481.

Jones, M. L. (2018). Silencing bad bots: Global, legal and political questions for mean machine communication. Communication Law and Policy, 23(2), 159-195.

Pahnke, A., & Welter, F. (2019). The German Mittelstand: Antithesis to Silicon Valley entrepreneurship? Small Business Economics, 52(2), 345-358.

Wallace, L., James, T. L., & Warkentin, M. (2017). How do you feel about your friends? Understanding situational envy in online social networks. Information & Management, 54(5), 669-682.

Channel Devepment

Marketing strategy distribution channels are essential before actualizing projections of a blueprint. As a matter of fact, this plan functions on the margins of informed decision making after comprehensive research on the viability and sustainability of a new product or a modified product (Lamb, 2012).

In order to achieve desired margins in sales and total revenues generated, a proper marketing plan should integrate entry strategy, comparative advantage, and market segmentation since in most cases, there is always a strong competitor or competitors that passing might prove challenging due to existence of consumer perceptions and household names (Koufaris, 2002, p. 230).

Over the last half of a decade, the marketing industry has experienced a series of development especially those based on internet marketing channels. As a development strategy, marketing experts have proposed different expansionary channles in managing online marketing channels that companies use in the distribution of their products through internet tools.

Properly designed online marketing and product distribution management facilitated the success and sustainability in online marketing since it operated within stipulated business laws. To increase credibility and maintain professionalism, the current channels often encompass processes and features that flawlessly facilitate a healthy and lifetime relationships between a business and its clients as seen in the platform of Amazon online marketing giant.

Among the new development elements that have incoperated trust, there are liability, distribution, fair retribution process, and passing accurate information to target audience to restore confidence within these networks

Legal issues

As opined by Lamb (2012), the desired awareness created in the online platform, different distribution packages that are simple to understand presentation are key in sustainable legal online trade. For instance, the safety and security of the customer over the cyberspace trading platform have become such an important issue in determining consumer behavior.

Thus, the introduction of a Secure Online Shopping System (SOSS) is vital towards survival of an online business. Secure online shopping system is a platform where consumers of the product are able to make orders on particular product and make payments using their credit cards. The SOSS platform will ensure the safety and security of those cards.

Essentially, the success of e-marketing plan depends on proper alignment of a functional team that is responsible for the creation of flexible but quantifiable measurement tracking tools for reviewing results periodically. Reflectively, this team should have the essential knowledge in social media and tools used in marketing via the Internet.

Besides quality in service, delivery and customer satisfaction depend on the support team as indicated in the distribution channel of Tesco Company’s online marketing segment. Therefore, customer retention is achievable through the creation of reliable, informed, and passionate support team.

In addition, the plan should include a monitoring matrix that maps out potential competitors and identifies online weaknesses and strength of the clients. Moreover, the reporting criteria should reflect the success of marketing calendar and set target periodically generated. In addition, the commercial law in the UK has provision of trademark rights and patents, which protect such a company from fraudsters and copyright infringers (Bert, 2011).

This is an assurance of protection against illegal trade through the process of online fraud mentoring unification. Essentially, success of brand and product management depends on a proper alignment of a functional idea into the creation of flexible, involuntary, and quantifiable measurement of perception among the target audience.

Reflectively, this idea should have essential elements that can easily sway the mind, either positively or negatively (Koufaris, 2002). Therefore, online advertisement is pronounced successful when it creates a reliable, informed, and passionate appeal to perception of the target.

References

Bert, R. (2011). Marketing Channels: A Management View.Sydney: Thompson South- Western.

Koufaris, M. (2002). Applying the technology acceptance model and flow theory to online consumer behavior, Information System Research, 13 (2): 205-223.

Lamb, R. (2012), Channel conflict is the biggest challenge for watch, jewelry brands. Web.