Dissociative Identity Disorder in Women

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in Women An Annotated Bibliography Dissociative Identity Disorder is also known as â€Å"Multiple Personality Disorder†. This can be defined as an effect of severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual or emotional abuse. I chose this topic because I had to do a research paper about it in my Psychology class, so I just used the research I did to do this paper.This was my first choice of a topic because it’s a psychological disorder that I have been fascinated with, since coming to America. Although there were times that I had to look for a topic that was much broader, such as, â€Å"disorders and women† in general in order to find anything reliable about my topic. By broadening my research to include the â€Å"disorders that relate to men and women†, I was able to write a paper with a much more effective argument. I initially started to do research using the Internet and looking for scholastic journals.While this provided plenty of sources it was often difficult to determine if the information was reliable and half of the results were not relevant to my topic, like there were many times that I found myself looking through thousands of search results. Many of which were so irrelevant to my topic, like bulimia and anorexia, which are disorders but these are eating disorders, not psychological disorders. The most effective research method I found was going into EBSCOHOST and using the Academic Search Premier and Psychology databases, while trying a variety of search phrases.This method helped me find many useful journals with information that I could use directly, or, by going to the reference section of the journal, would lead me to other sources. I used IUCAT to find the reference books and the encyclopedias for my paper, the reference books were much more useful than I expected, proving that women suffer from DID more than men. I assumed that all encyclopedias were filled with broad, general definitions, but I found several that had very specific information on my topic and also listed sources that I could use for further research.I found several of the new research methods introduced during this course to be extremely helpful. I was surprised by how much of a difference changing a phrase or using Boolean Operators made at the beginning of a search. I hated the nesting search method, because it complicated everything and gave me millions of results, most of which were very irrelevant. I started out on the internet using the search phrase, â€Å"Dissociative Identity Disorder and women† which gave me plenty of results, but when I put limiters like Peer Reviewed Journals and Scholarly articles, I got fewer, more relevant articles.When I replaced â€Å"and† with â€Å"or† I got much different articles. By isolating or deleting certain words in a search phrase I would get a completely new set of sources, and I was comple tely surprised at how little I knew about doing research in the library. The library turned out to be much more useful to me than the Internet since I did not have to spend nearly as much time verifying the reliability of a source or checking to see if the source was relevant.I learnt that to judge the relevance of anything- a journal article, website, a book, we do so with the following criteria: The purpose of the article, Type of Journal, Coverage, Date of Article, Authority, Usefulness, Bias (of the publisher) and Organization and Content, and this was indeed the most important thing I learnt in this class. MLA Format Movies The Three Faces of Eve. Dir. Nunnally Johnson. Perf. Joanne Woodward, David Wayne and Lee J. Cobb. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1957. DVD.I watched this movie in high school; it was about Eve White, who had 2 other personalities living in her. Whenever she is faced with different situations like fear, anger, happiness, sadness, a different person ality would take over her actions. She was Eve White, a quiet, mousy, unassuming wife and mother who keeps suffering from headaches and occasional black outs. Eventually she is sent to see psychiatrist Dr. Luther, and, while under hypnosis, a whole new personality emerges: the racy, wild, fun-loving Eve Black. Under continued therapy, yet a third personality appears, the relatively stable Jane.This film, based on the true-life case of a multiple personality, chronicles Dr. Luther's attempts to reconcile the three faces of Eve. The movie really captures the frustration of a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder, because after each personality takes over, Eve White does not remember anything the other personalities said or did, so in the movie the therapist is trying to combine all 3 personalities back into 1 personality, so it was a very good visual representation of a woman with DID. Books Schreiber, Flora Rheta. Sybil. Chicago: Regnery, 1973. Print. I actually read this book a nd own it.This book is a fictional story about Sybil Dorsett, a pseudonym for a real woman named Shirley Ardell Mason, who was originally in treatment for social anxiety and memory loss, but whom during the course of treatment, manifests 16 other personalities. Throughout the book, her psychoanalyst, Cornelia Wilbur, encourages Sybil’s various selves to communicate and reveal information about her life. It describes Sybil's selves gradually becoming co-conscious, able to communicate and share responsibilities, and having musical compositions and art published under their various names.Wilbur attempts to integrate Sybil's various selves, first convincing them via hypnosis that they are all the same age, then encouraging them to merge. I included this in my research because at the book's end, a new, optimistic self-called â€Å"The Blonde† emerges, facilitating Sybil's final integration into a single, whole individual with full knowledge of her past and present life, whi ch is the goal of every person with DID. Comer, Ronald J. Abnormal Psychology. 7th ed. New York: Worth, 2010. Print. I found this book through the IUCAT online library catalog using the search terms â€Å"Dissociative Identity Disorder and women†.This is a book about different types of abnormal disorders. It offers a fresh, comprehensive, and exciting presentation of the field, with objective, balanced coverage of a wide range of theories, studies, disorders, and treatments and all major models. According to student reviews, â€Å"There has never been a text for the course so well-attuned to both the field of abnormal psychology and the wide range of students exploring it†. I liked this text because it presented the information in an unbiased manner.It used a lot of case studies and current events to support the various psychological theories. Hyman, Jane Wegscheider. I Am More than One: How Women with Dissociative Identity Disorder Have Found Success in Life and Work. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print. I read this book in high school and also own it. In the book, I Am More Than One, Jane Hyman takes on and succeeds at a difficult task, one which few authors manage to accomplish: communicating to her readers the deep respect with which she holds the women she interviews, even though their experiences are so foreign to her.It is clear from the beginning that Jane wants us to understand these women's experiences from their own perspectives, without denying the clinical descriptions of their illness. The stories in this book are riveting; the women are sharply and almost affectionately drawn, but as much as possible Jane â€Å"gets out of the way† of her subjects. Most chapters focus on a theme such as work, family, or relationships, but all in all, my favorite part of the book is that the author treats all her subjects with the same respect and a sincere desire to understand a life lived with DID and pass that understanding on to the reader .Reference book First, Michael, M. D. , ed. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Vol. 4 Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000. Print. I found this source by using the IUCAT online library catalog and it was available in the reference section of the IUSB library. This book covers all mental health disorders for both children and adults. It also lists known causes of these disorders, statistics in terms of gender, age of onset, and prognosis as well as some research concerning the optimal treatment approaches.In here, I discovered that, â€Å"Dissociative Identity Disorder is diagnosed 3 to 9 times more frequently in adult females than in adult males. Also, that females tend to have more identities than do males averaging 15 or more, whereas males average approximately 8 identities†, which did my topic a lot of justice. I liked this source a lot because some of the websites I had visited; had redirected me to this book as additional reference, and it was of great help. Government Publication United States. United States Courts. Court of Appeals. 6-3545 – United States v. Carol L. Gillmore. N. p. : n. p. , n. d. GPOaccess. Web. 8 Aug. 2012. . I found this publication by doing a search on GPOAccess. It is a court case about a woman who had DID, Carol Gillmore, who alleged at trial that her actions toward George Stately were a result of her DID causing her to experience a â€Å"red-out,† meaning that she entered into a dissociative state in which she suffered â€Å"a disruption . . . of consciousness, memory, identity and perception of [her] environment. She killed someone while in a state of amnesia with DID, so she is appealing her sentence because she claims she doesn’t remember killing George. I included this article because it is a life example of how the government handles people with DID. Journal articles Eric Eich, Dawn Macaulay, Richard J. Loewenstein and Patrice H. Dihle. â€Å"Me mory, Amnesia, and Dissociative Identity Disorder†. Psychological Science 8. 6 (1997): 417-422. EBSCOhost. Web. 23 July 2012. I found this article during a search in EBSCOhost.I found this article particularly interesting, because it explained a very common symptom of DID. It explained that virtually all patients with dissociative identity (or multiple personality) disorder manifest interpersonality amnesia, a situation where events experienced by a particular personality state or identity are retrievable or can be remembered by that same identity but not by a different one. That though it is considered as a hallmark of dissociative identity disorder (DID), inter-personality amnesia has to date being payed little to no attention.I found this article interesting because I remember how Eve from the movie got frustrated with herself when she could not remember things that she herself had just done or said. Ennis, Mark William, and Pamela Pater-Ennis. â€Å"Sanctuary Healing: One Congregation's Experience with Dissociative Identity Disorder. † Journal of Religion & Abuse 7. 4 (2006): 19-39. EBSCOhost. Web. 23 July 2012. I found this article in EBSCOhost. This article looked at different religions and how they view people with DID. Specifically the Christian and how they did a sanctuary healing to try to heal a woman with DID.The other personalities are seen as demons that have to be cast out of a person’s body. I found it as an interesting article, it was a very different view about DID, it’s good to be included in a research paper. Baker, Karen. â€Å"From â€Å"It's Not Me† to â€Å"It Was Me, After All†: A Case Presentation of a Patient Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. † Psychoanalytic Social Work 17. 2 (2010): 79-98. EBSCOhost. Web. 27 July 2012. I found this article in EBSCOhost. It sheds light on the fact that, in cases of extreme childhood trauma associated with abuse and neglect, one's sense of self is seriously compromised.Attachment patterns, symptoms, defensive operations, and character formation will differ depending upon the level of interference and impingement. That when repeated trauma occurs in early childhood, the dissociative response may become the first line of defense for the person to rely upon. This paper addresses the case of a woman diagnosed with DID. It describes the restoration of a unified sense of self from the eight parts of a dissociated and fragmented self in the course of therapy. The clinical case material presented is that of the child part of her, known as Lucy. Her treatment resulted in the integration of the ‘it's not me! self to the patient's knowledge that ‘it was me, after all. I like this article because it focuses on the child identity of an adult woman and what the child identity in the midst of adults has to go through, it was very interesting. Laddis A, Dell P. Dissociation and Psychosis in Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia. Journal Of Trauma ; Dissociation July 2012; 13(4):397-413. Academic Search Premier. Web. July 17, 2012. I found this article using the Academic Search Premier in EBSCOhost. This is a case survey of people with DID versus those with schizophrenia.Dissociative symptoms, first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia, and delusions were assessed in 40 schizophrenia patients and 40 dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients with the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). DID patients obtained significantly (a) higher dissociation scores; (b) higher passive-influence scores (first-rank symptoms); and (c) higher scores on scales that measure child voices, angry voices, persecutory voices, voices arguing, and voices commenting. Schizophrenia patients obtained significantly higher delusion scores than DID patients. It was an interesting article of how other disorders relate to DID.Websites Johnson, Kimball. â€Å"Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality D isorder): Signs, Symptoms, Treatment. † WebMD. WebMD, 26 May 2012. Web. 10 Aug. 2012. ;http://www. webmd. com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder;. I found this website while doing a search on Google. I choose to include this article in my bibliography because WebMD has always had a very reliable name. The information they provide is unbiased and is simply there to inform and help the reader. The article includes everything you need to know about DID – from the symptoms, causes, and possible treatments. Grohol, John. Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms. † PsychCentral, 9 July 2012. Web. 9 Aug. 2012. . I found this website while searching using Google. I included this website because the article goes into depth about the several different treatments of DID. These include Psychotherapy, Medications and Self Help. How effective each treatment type is, and it was determined that psychotherapy is the most effective way of trea tment that gives way to â€Å"integration† of the personalities. There are some things included in this website that were not included on the WebMD website and vice versa.

Erasmus, Praise of Folly Essay

1.) In Joe Sachs translation of, Aristotle’s on the soul and on Memory and Recollection, we are presented with the idea that our soul is broken up in to the contemplative and the practical forms of intellect. We use our contemplative and practical intellect to identify what is good for us, so that our desires reflect our needs. Although, they both work towards the same goal, both are separate and depend on ineffable forces for success. The contemplative intellect is fueled by our curiosity for knowledge. Aristotle was a major believer in contemplation because he believed that living a contemplative life is how humans should live. A contemplative life allows humans to lead a morally sound life. The more humans engage in contemplation, the closer they are to their gods and the happier they will be. The contemplative intellect is our capacity to determine the potentiality of the practical intellect. The practical intellect is our response to our contemplation. Contemplation can prolong political disasters and prevent us from using practicality. But, we have no choice but to contemplate because to understand we must contemplate and to act morally we must be able to understand. Being able to understand is being able to grasp the potentiality of something. Misunderstanding something’s potentiality is the reason leading a practical life is more difficult. It is human nature to contemplate. Distinguishing the two intellects is tricky because Aristotle stresses that we are one soul part of a larger one. However, if it is the same soul producing practical and contemplative intellect, how can life be divided into these two things? Our individuality controls our actions. So, our contemplative is what makes us what we are and our existence is the reason we act (practical). Practicality and contemplation are distinctions within our intellect. Contemplation is to be looked at as human nature, it helps us understand. Understanding gives way to the practical intellect. These two separate intellects not only involve different unknown forces, but they also utilize different types of motion. Practical is a physical motion, while contemplation is a motion in the sense that whenever we are thinking and contemplating, we/our minds are in motion. The soul seeks truth. Contemplation leads us towards the truth, while practicality is a truth. These intellects are virtues in different parts of the soul. To acquire happiness one must have moral virtue to choose correctly and practicality to choose ‘how.’ For example, one might attain the knowledge, facts, and actuality of how to ride a bike. But, knowing those facts does not determine your potential to ride the bike. Aristotle provides an affective example, â€Å"There is something that has knowledge in the way that we say any human being is a knower, because humanity is part of the class of what knows and has knowledge, but there is also a sense in which we mean by a knower the one who already has, say, grammatical skill; and each of these is in potency but not in the same way, but the former is because his kind and his material are of a certain sort, while the latter is because he is capable of contemplating when he wants to, if nothing outside him prevents it† (417a 23-30 Aristotle). Aristotle tells us the there are different types of potentiality and actuality here. This example demonstrates a ‘knower.’ A knower would be human, know grammar, and talking (exercising knowledge). This example is important in the distinction because it describes the process and the different roles of contemplation and practicality. The contemplative intellect, in this case, would be that the knower is human and has potential without actual knowledge. The knower, with grammatical knowledge, has this knowledge but is not thinking about it. The knower would be exercising knowledge through recognizing grammatical errors in conversation, readings, etc. In the two most previous instances the knower uses their practicality intellect because their actual knowledge of the grammar is their potentiality to think and perform actions. Contemplation allows us to do, think, and imagine anything we want within out minds/soul. â€Å"†¦The soul is a being-at-work-staying-itself in the way that knowledge is, for both sleep and waking are in what belongs to the soul, and waking is analogous to the act of contemplating but sleep to holding the capacity for contemplating while not putting it to work (practical).† (412b 26-30 Aristotle). Practicality can only utilize what is physical and in front of us. Aristotle The connection between these intellects demonstrates Aristotle’s belief that every body contains a soul and the soul is not separate matter. It is a capacity, it doesn’t have a capacity and is inseparable from the body. The soul has no identity. Aristotle believes we are all individual human beings, made up of different forms and matter. But, there is one soul that is in all of us, equally. No one persons soul is ‘better’ than another’s. This is important in the distinction because contemplation takes place in the soul and practicality is what we do with the connection between our soul and body. 2. ) In Erasmus’, Praise of Folly, the character Folly is used to express Erasmus’ philosophy. Folly states that the actions of different people are foolish and she is congratulating them, she calls wisdom foolish and the fools, wise. Throughout the book Folly, with sarcasm and satire, demonstrates the main forms of folly in order to show the importance of folly. Erasmus wanted to share three main forms of folly in his writing. The first form being, the fundamental form of folly, which is the force in our life that is indescribable. This form mainly refers to religion and faith, but also the folly in any belief of a higher/greater good. The second form is the human folly. In this form, Folly mocked those who deem or consider themselves wise or philosophers. She picked on mainly prominent people, anyone who thought they were better because they knew more about something. The third form is best described by egotistical, hypocritical, and greedy folly. This form depicts the folly of the self-centeredness of humans. Erasmus as Folly illustrates how the Christians appear foolish at first, yet actually possesses true wisdom. Folly quotes the Bible repeatedly to prove her point. She uses the passages to show how folly is good. Within these passages, Folly says that the bible, values fools more than the wise. For example, Adam and Everwere forbidden to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but they disobeyed. Thus, knowledge destroyed their happiness. Folly describes the Christian fools as those who, â€Å"squander their possessions, ignore insults, submit to being cheated, make no distinction between friends and enemies, shun pleasure, sustain themselves on fasting, vigils, tears, toil, the humiliations, scorn life, and desire only death – in short, they seem to be dead to any normal feelings, as if their spirit dwelt elsewhere than in their body† (p. 128 Erasmus). Folly deems Christians slightly mad because of their view on life, and how they are so focused on the spiritual and eternal that they barely live. Erasmus contradicts Biblical truths when he is speaking as folly and expresses that life would be meaningless without folly. Our world, especially in the United States, relies on instant gratification, but the Bible clearly teaches that those kinds of things will pass away and are not important. Erasmus challenges Biblical truths when he praises ignorance, self-loveand flattery. This goes directly against the Bible, which speaks out against these kinds of things. He explains that the piousness of Christians is madness. In the second form, Folly takes the prominent professions of her time and shows their folly. She begins with merchants, who she describes as liars and thief’s yet they are still respectable citizens. Next she attacks a grammarian, â€Å"He supposes he’d be perfectly happy if he were allowed to live long enough to define precisely how the eight parts of speech should be distinguished, something in which no one writing in Greek or Latin has ever managed to be entirely successful. And then if anyone treats a conjunction as a word with the force of an adverb, it’s a thing to go to war about† (p. 80 Erasmus). Folly describes the schools as dirty and a waste of time. He believes the teachers teach useless information, but still feel important. He goes on to poets and rhetoricians and deems their professions purposeless. The narrator’s particular target is the church, â€Å"as they roll their rock of Sisyphus and string together six hundred laws in the same breath, no matter whether relevant or not†¦.However, their self-love keeps them happy, and three syllogisms arm them enough to go straight to battle on any subject and with any man† (p. 84 Erasmus). These foolish men explain the ‘mysteries’ of life and the Bible according to themselves. Even the monks exude folly. They take vows of poverty and claim to hate money, but still take part in other vices. This form of folly reminds us to not mask ourselves to make us look better. Just because a merchant is respectable profession, doesn’t make that specific merchant respectable. If a monk gives up his money, does that mean he has no other vices? â€Å"†¦why shouldn’t I rightly be recognized and named the ‘Alpha’ of all gods, when I dispense every benefit to all alike?† (p. 19 Erasmus). Folly allows life to continue because men must become silly fools to do it. Without her, she exclaims, couples would be married, and women would not repeat childbirth. Without the pleasure Folly gives to life, it would not be worth living. Folly accuses the stoics of attempting to keep all the pleasure for themselves while commanding others to avoid it. As an example, Folly uses childhood and old age. Everyone loves children because they are foolish and innocent. Age and life experiences only fade their beauty and charm. Thus, in old age Folly recognizes a second childhood, freeing us from the worries of life. With old age comes foolishness and senility, which allows them to be happy. These silly old people are much more fun to be around, then a wise old person. â€Å"’Folly is the one thing which can halt fleeting youth and ward off the relentless advance of old age’† (p. 25. Erasmus). Folly discovers that we use passion over reason, â€Å"he (Jupiter) confined reason to a cramped corner of the head and left all the rest of the body to the passions. Then he set up two raging tyrants in opposition to reason’s solitary power: anger, which holds sway in the breast and so controls the heart†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p. 30 Erasmus). Folly is logical, when our human nature puts passion over reason. Folly concludes her praise of folly with a comparison to Plato’s, Allegory of the Cave. A man who lived in a cave by firelight his whole life, one day saw sunlight. But, the two men that remained in the cave, who would seem foolish, are equally as happy with what they believe is real. 3.) Aristotle makes a better case for his outlook on human life. It is important for humans to feel important and feel like they belong and have a purpose. Aristotle’s idea of the one soul, not only offers a sense of unity to the human race but also deepens the mystery of our existence. It is in contemplation that we find happiness, whether we contemplate our future, our past, or the present. Human happiness is rooted in human interaction and contemplation allows us to create commonality and it develops culture. Although the truth of folly is important in understanding human incentives, it is in our intellect that we can find harmony. Folly in itself is a folly. It pokes fun at the ignorance of human lives. Being foolish is innate in our nature. When do people have the best times? When they laugh and feel enjoyment from company. Our folly makes us human, it is necessary for our happiness. Erasmus presents folly as a much more bleak and pessimistic attribute. When Aristotle describes the soul it is much more pleasing. He stresses that sources/forces like God, are ineffable. These higher powers cannot be identified or described, but to believe in it reassures us that we are meant to be here. Without this mysterious force, who are we? Why are we here? It is our nature to feel wanted and have a purpose. We attempt to find this purpose through contemplation. This is a major aspect of human life. It forces us to look deeper and attempt to act morally. Humans are at their highest potential when they contemplate. Contemplation is a completely isolated process and helps us understand and perceive the world. This ability drives us and helps us advance. In personal experience, I find it is important to really think, ponder, and contemplate the things that make me happy. I can then decide if that is a practical thing to do or if I need to change what makes me happy. For example, drugs may make someone happy in their contemplation, but is that really what they want? Erasmus and Aristotle have contrasting outlooks on life. Erasmus is very realistic, sarcastic, and satirical. While Aristotle reaffirms that it is all right to contemplate the unknown. Aristotle brings us to higher level of thinking and helps us strive for a happier and morally active life.

Administration and Politics Dichotomy

Woodrow Wilson’s essay, â€Å"The Study of Administration† (1887), is about the separation of politics and administration in public administration. There is still a lot of debating among politicians and scholars alike whether this dichotomy is practical or not. There are some advantages and disadvantages about this theory. Wilson believed that it was needed to discover what the government could successfully do and how it could be done more efficiently; that the government needed to be reformed. He developed this theory because of increased corruption, urbanization and immigration.Due to these issues, he believed that less qualified people were getting public service jobs, therefore contributing to the increasing inefficiency of public administration. Wilson felt that politics should determine what the government should actually do and be decided by elected representatives. He believed administration should be the ones to put these policies into effect by appointed civil servants. In a euphoric world a political administration dichotomy would provide a solid foundation to a nation. It could even be beneficial in a society that is evolving; such as Administration and Politics Dichotomy 2 ne coming out of a third world status, the fall of a dictatorship, or even the overthrow of communism or socialism. This form of government can work well at a small town environment where there is a town manager to run the day to day operations of the community and a board of alderman (possibly also known as town council) that creates the laws the community operates under. That being said, it is my opinion that in today’s United States of America, separating politics and administration is not something that can be done successfully.Throughout the years politics has become more complicated, which means the line etween them has become very blurry. All levels of the government have come to rely on each other more and more. For example, every day new policies and laws are made or amended, and that means more people on more levels need to be consulted. Life is ever- changing, and so are all of the policies. The major advantage of implementing political administration dichotomy is politicians and administrators would be operating of the same philosophy of doing the right thing and not off of doing what each political party says. It could provide rationale Administration and Politics Dichotomy 3 or insulating the practice of public administration from political interference. A disadvantage of implementing a political administration dichotomy at the national level in a modern industrial nation that was previously run by a democratic government, such as the United States of America, would require having an exclusive relationship between the politicians who create political policies and the public administrators who oversee the administrative processes. This would remove the check and balance system established in the United States Constitution. These checks and balances have become the foundation of law in this country.Wilson’s public administration dichotomy theory would make the governmental life so much simpler. Unfortunately, the world and the people in it are anything but simple. To believe that we could have one group of people make up the policies, and another to put those in to action without those people relying on each other’s opinions and knowledge is absurd. The idea is so simple, but implementing it would be so complicated. The debate about the practicality of this dichotomy had been going on since it was written in 1887, and will probably still Administration and Politics Dichotomy

Procurement and contract management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Procurement and contract management - Coursework Example The present paper looks into the supplier relationship of BCAM which is being managed by Irwin family dealing in agricultural components. The paper will further study the outsourcing options available to the company, suggest a methodology and outline certain difficulties that the company may experience in global outsourcing. a) BCAM – Supplier Relation and Its Consequences Supplier development is a process where on partner in a relationship modifies or otherwise influences the behavior of the other partner with a view to mutual benefit (Crocker, 2009). British Consolidated Agricultural Machinery (BCAM) was established by Harry Irwin’s father hundred years ago during the period of mass industrialization manufacturing tractors and other agricultural machinery such as harvesters, balers, movers, seed drills, and sprayers. While reviewing the purchasing procedure at BCAM, it is revealed that orders are placed in bulk even though if the materials are not required for the pur pose of production so as to avoid logistical time and costs. BCAM supplier development strategy was weak considering the fact they placed their orders with the suppliers who were associated with the company for many years. According to Crocker (2009) supplier development is necessary to develop the supply base in areas of recognized weakness, develop a long term relationship with few reliable suppliers, reduce the risk by sharing information, enhance the benefits of mutual goals and synchronize the overall process of supply chain process. This shows that the company’s transactions were limited to few suppliers and the relationship between both is adversarial as BCAM doesn’t pay them as agreed during the contract. Saunders et al (Swamidass 2000) mentioned that adversarial relationship is promoted when they operate at arm’s length with communication without personal contact and gains by one partner are seen as being at the expense of other contributing to apparent lack of trust and not ready to share information. According to Handfield and Bechtel (2002, reliance on trust at the interpersonal level may be conditioned by legal systems or organizational role responsibilities, mitigating the ability of parties to rely on trust as a matter of first preference. The relationship between BCAM and its suppliers exceeds their contract and operates beyond it resulting in breakage of supply chain management. The company had to face the consequences of such relationship as their orders placed by BCAM would not be taken as top priority leading to purchase departments failure to provide required material for production resulting in delayed customer delivery. The fact that both maintained cordial relationships and confidence on the suppliers side that they would definitely receive their payment made it possible to continue the transaction. Moreover, in such type of relationships, complaints are not addressed due to the negligence from buyers’ side a s evidence in BCAM Company wherein complaints by purchasing department were snubbed by suppliers owing to late payments. b) Buyer Supplier Relationship Approach Organizations are more actively involving suppliers in their integrated development process and identify suppliers as a source of competitive advantage which means that there is an opportunity to develop and identify the factors that could help sustain or improve the relationship between the buyer and the supplier (Nellore, 2001). Developing partnerships with suppliers is

Team work is better than Individual heroism Essay

Team work is better than Individual heroism - Essay Example Teamwork guarantees collaboration, support and cooperation. Individual heroism, on the other hand, denotes the self-centered technique of approaching things from a personal perspective. Team work is better than individual heroism because through teamwork people of different abilities and skills unite for the accomplishment of a common purpose. For instance, if a group of people runs a business, it becomes easy to distribute the tasks amongst themselves thus making the venture successful. As a result, it is easier for teamwork to succeed in any endeavor due to the synergy of pooled resources and potentialities. On the other hand, individual heroism depicts selfishness and may not achieve much due to the solitary approach involved. Whereas teamwork could be convenient through the distribution of tasks, individual heroism is self-exhaustive and cumbersome. Teamwork provides an avenue for interaction, cooperation and sharing that result into better society and healthy living. For instance, when people meet to accomplish a joint task, they interact and share their experiences through which they strengthen each other. Teamwork achieves far much more than the task at hand because it offers opportunities for social and individual advancement through the involvement of different people in a single task. The experience of teamwork is so satisfying that the task need not be accomplished in totality; because the joy and success of teamwork lies in cooperation, which is a huge source of actualization. Through teamwork, it is possible for individuals to learn and correct their areas of weakness for better performance. A case in point is a situation when a group of people perform a common duty through which they observe and learn from one another. This is contrary to individual heroism, which seals all opportunities for growth and development by glorifying personal achievement at the expense of nurturing potential. Accordingly, individual heroism fosters personal

Technology Strategy & Innovation Management Assignment

Technology Strategy & Innovation Management - Assignment Example There are several external factors that are affecting Motorola. I will use the PESTEL framework to analyze them. The focus, therefore, will be Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environment and Legal.. Let us now take a look at them in details. Political: In spite of technological advancements we have not yet reached a stage where we exist in the virtual dimension. Businesses are done through remote collaboration tools and solutions but those who collaborate operate from and within certain jurisdictions. Those jurisdictions have laws and they affect how any company operating within them can operate. Multinationals like Motorola must adapt to the political climates of their host nations. Socio-cultural: Motorola shows social responsibility and maintains good relationships with their host communities. An example of their social responsibility is the supplier diversity programme which endeavours to give certain disadvantaged groups an opportunity. Technological advancements: New solutions, new platforms and the pace of these innovations. From MRP we now have ERP and are quickly heading towards the Virtual Enterprise. Software breakthroughs have brought an expanded horizon. There are many business solutions and platforms that are constantly affecting the way we do business. Motorola is also taking advantage of these solutions and platforms. Environmental: Motorola has long term environmental policies that include designing all their products to be environment friendly, recycling or reusing all waste materials and conserving natural resources. Legal: Motorola has a well established legal department. This is demonstrated by the fact that they have an audit committee line which main aim is to allow access to the Audit and Legal Committee of the Motorola's Board of Directors. THE INTERNAL FACTORS THAT ARE AFFECTING MOTOROLA Now I want to discuss the internal factors that are affecting Motorola. I will concentrate on the threat of entry, threat of substitutes, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers and competitive rivalry. The threat of entry: Nokia, previously a minor in telecommunications overthrew Motorola the former undisputed king of telecommunications. Another smaller company could repeat what Nokia did. The challenge is predicting correctly the next technological trend. A new or smaller company can literarily become the world leader if it makes the right forecast and positions itself well to capitalize on it. There are other threats posed by certain platforms: As described by Hardwick and Bolton (1997), "Virtual enterprise companies share costs, skills, and core competencies that collectively enable them to access global markets with world-class solutions their members could not deliver individually." (Eom & Lee, 1999) This has afforded Motorola a better way of increasing efficiency while reducing costs. However, it has also opened up the door for less funded competition to increase their productivity. Threat of substitutes: The internet is growing and with this growth also comes a lot of opportunities and threats. The cost of doing business online is relatively low. This means that a less financed

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Human Resource Management - Essay Example The objective behind doing this is to keep the organization flexible so that it can adapt to the changes if the future takes any different route than the expected one. Strategic human resource planning analyses the current human resource trends of the organization, future environment of human resource in which the company will be operating and the external labour market and then forecasts the future human resource management that the organization needs (Scholes and Johnson, 2001). The main factor that differentiates between the operational and strategic planning are that strategic planning deals with analysis of the external human resource issue of the organization and then goes for developing the future scenario. The strategic Human resource planning looks for finding the answer to the question like where the organization wants to be in future, under any given circumstances how the organization can reach its pre determined goal and lastly what set of skills are required to do this ( Hernandez and  O'Connor, 2009). Assessment of the current human resource capacity of the future is the first step in strategic human resource development based on the strategic plan of the organization. The skill, knowledge and ability of the present employees and staff of the organization must be identified properly. This identification can be done by developing the skill inventory of each of the employees working in the organization. The skills inventory should be such that it is much more than the skill required for a particular position. The skills demonstrated by the employees should be listed; for instance ‘special skills’ may include volunteer and recreational activities demonstrated by the employees that are relevant to the organization. Apart from these the certificates, educational level and any additional training should also be included in the skill inventory. Assessment of the employee’s performance can be reviewed to find whether the employee is r eady and enthusiastic to take additional responsibilities and the current developmental plans of the employee (Dhar, 2008). Apart from looking at the current human resource capacity of the organization it is also important to look at the forecasted needs in human resource that are based on the strategic goals of the organization. Estimation of both supply and demand is an important part of the realistic human resource forecasting. The questions that need to be answered while doing the forecasting are about the number of staff required in the organization, required skill sets in the employees and jobs that need to be full. While predicting the demand of human resource the challenges that might erupt while meeting the staffing needs based on the external environment must be assessed (Scholes and Johnson, 2001). Moreover in order to measure the external impact the factors that needs to be measured includes the current economic trends that may affect the work and the ability to attract new employees, the cultural and technological shifts that may affect the way the employees work and requirement of skilled labour, the changes that are occurring in the community or can change in future (London and Mone, 1988). Identifying the current human resource capacity of the organization and forecasting the future, helps to recognise the gap that may be existing in the organization. This gap analysis helps in determining the future objective and goals of the organization and where the organization is placed. This analysis includes