The personality disorders | Analysis

The personality disorders | Analysis Personality or personality traits are the basis of what makes a person who they are. When expressed in a healthy way that is beneficial to a person, they are described as an enduring pattern of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They are how we think, feel, make decisions, and take actions (Barker, 1995). They are determined both by a persons genetic makeup and environmental factors and are a determining factor as to how a person lives their life. When a personality trait becomes rigid and dysfunctional, where it significantly hinders healthy thoughts and activities and harms the person who has them, this may be the basis for a personality disorder. According to the DSM-IV a personality disorder must show a lasting pattern of behavior and inner experience that markedly deviates from norms of the persons culture (James Morrison, 2006). This could include personality patterns that are normal in some people, but are exaggerated or accentuated in those with a personality disorder. In order for a person to be diagnosed with a personality disorder, the symptoms must show a lifelong pattern of manifestation. This means that the disorder is typically identified in late adolescence or early adulthood and persists throughout a lifespan. Another requirement for the diagnosis of personality disorders is that the negative behavior patterns must have a pervasive effect on all areas of a persons life; this includes employment, intimate relationships, social functioning, and family. The behavior must routinely causes problems or dysfunction, and cannot be attributed to any other sort of mental or physical illness (James Morrison, 2006). An indi vidual with a personality disorder will show maladjustment in all aspects of their life and the disorder will be reflected in the ingrained, rigid, and dysfunctional patterns that they present throughout their lifetime. According to Frances, personality disorders usually produce ego-syntonic behavior, or consistent with the ego integrity of the individual, and, therefore, are usually considered appropriate by the individual. This may cause the negative behavioral patterns to be inflexible and tough to change. (Frances, 1999) The treatment of personality disorders is usually difficult and often has limited results. In the DSM-IV there are three groups or clusters that each of the 10 personality disorders fall into. People with cluster A disorders are characterized by odd or eccentric behavior, abnormal cognitions or ideas, strange speech or actions, and difficulty relating to others (Frances, 1999). People diagnosed with personality disorders are more frequently diagnosed with an Axis I disorders as well (James Morrison, 2006). Frequent co-morbid diagnosis for cluster A personality disorders are: agoraphobia, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and substance abuse (Frances, 1999). Type A disorders include paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders. Paranoid personality disorder, the first of the cluster A disorders, is characterized by extreme or unnecessary paranoia, suspiciousness, and a general mistrust of organizations, groups, and others, is found in 0.5%-2.5% of the population, as a whole and occurs more commonly in males (Frances, 1999). A person with paranoid personality disorder often thinks, without reason or cause, that others are exploiting, harming, or deceiving them, which inhibits them from developing close relationships. According to Dobbert, The delusional belief that others are disloyal and untrustworthy precludes their ability to confide in others. The afflicted person believes that the information that they provide in confidence will be later utilized to bring them harm (Dobbert, 2007). People with paranoid personality disorder also tend to hold grudges and become angry for seemingly benign perceptions of insults or injuries. These grudges can be long lasting and based out of perceived threats or insults. Even if the intention to harm or defame the person is not present, due to the constant expectation that others are trying to hurt them, an individual with a paranoid personality disorder creates a threat and will then hold malice toward another person for an exaggerated amount of time. This malice will evoke anger and hostility that will eventually lead to the alienation and isolation (Dobbert, 2007). The second of the cluster A disorders is the schizoid personality disorder, it is characterized by a general detachment from social settings, a restricted or muted range of emotions, and need for solidarity. It is found in 3% of the general population and affects women more commonly then men (Frances, 1999). A person with schizoid personality disorder neither desires nor enjoys close or intimate relationships. According to Dobbert, Persons afflicted with schizoid personality disorder find no interest in initiating, developing, and maintaining close relationships. It is not uncommon for these persons to lack the interest or desire to be considered a part of their biological family (Dobbert, 2007). These people do not find inclusion in groups or social settings particularly interesting or desirable and work to avoid such settings. A person with schizoid personality disorder is described as appearing introverted, but not shy, and seems to prefer their own company instead of seeking relationships with others. This often leads the person showing little if any interest in sexual or intimate experiences, preferring acts of self-gratification and sexual fantasy over personal contact. (Dobbert, 2007) Due to the indifference of intimate relationships, the person with schizoid personality disorder develops limited interest in activities they enjoy and does not seek to share these activities with others. They would prefer to focus their attention on a few activities and interests of a solitary nature and to obsess about those interests with little regard to the perceptions of others. They also seem to be unaffected by the acceptance, praise, or criticism of others involving their actions and isolation. It becomes obvious to those around them that a person with schizoid personality disorder does not care what others perceptions are and they often seem cold, detached, and unemotional, presenting a bland or blank expression to the world (Dobbert, 2007). The final disorder in cluster A is the schizotypal personality disorder which is a condition characterized by distorted thoughts, behaviors, and functioning. Magical thinking, relationship difficulties, severe anxiety, and poor social skills are also common. (James Morrison, 2006) This disorder affects 3% of the general population and is diagnosed slightly more in females then males. (Frances, 1999) People with schizotypal personality disorder perceive things in an odd or unusual way. Their interpretation often differs from that of others and is specific to themselves (meaning nobody else shares similar perceptions and thoughts), but is not based out of delusional thought or differing cultural norms. Many of these people believe that that they have extrasensory or magical powers and attribute their odd perceptions to this ability (Dobbert, 2007). The belief in clairvoyance, mind control, the sixth sense and other forms of magical thinking often lead others to view these people as odd which strains social and work relationships. To compound this, many people with schizotypal personality disorder have a reduced ability to understand other peoples actions and respond to them inappropriate and in a socially unacceptable manner. Having few successful experiences with others often leads to social anxiety, suspiciousness, and paranoid ideation. Dobbert states rather than examining ones self to determine the source of others avoidance, people with schizotypal personality disorder believe that the others are conspiring against them. Due to the inability of self-introspections, the afflicted person withdraws deeper and further isolates themselves, leading the person to further fall into their delusional thinking (Dobbert, 2007). People with cluster B disorders are characterized by dramatic, unpredictable, and destructive behaviors as well as difficulty with impulsiveness, the violation of social norms, and being self-abusive and hostile to others. It is common for these disorders to share co-morbidity with eating disorders, social phobias, somatization disorder, pathological gambling, substance abuse, and post traumatic stress disorder (Frances, 1999). Included in cluster B are antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders. According to the DSM-V, the first of the cluster B disorders is the antisocial personality disorder, which is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violations of, the rights of others (James Morrison, 2006). It is characterized by failure to conform to social norms, deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggression, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse. It affects 3% of men and 1% of women, and is distributed evenly throughout all races (Frances, 1999). People with antisocial personality disorder act against social norms and show little respect for lawful behaviors. They are often arrested or commit acts that could lead to confrontations with law enforcement. According to Dobbert, people with this disorder dont just violate social normsbut, perform behaviors that are significant violations of the criminal code (Dobbert, 2007). This indicates that people with antisocial personality disorder are capable of committing the most heinous of crimes including rape, armed robbery, and murder. This diagnosis had been applied to many of the documented serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. (Dobbert, 2007) The level of deceptiveness that is involved in antisocial personality disorder has been directly linked to the intelligence of the individual. While all people diagnosed with this disorder pathologically lie, as intelligence increases the use of aliases and conning operations also shows an increase. Deception contributes to the notable involvement with law enforcement and is often utilized in criminal acts (Dobbert, 2007). As displayed by criminal and deceptive acts, a lack of impulse control is noted for those diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. This impulsivity often leads to the disregard for personal safety and the safety of others. In the ever increasing need for heightened stimulation, those with antisocial personality disorder do whatever gives them the feeling of power over others (Dobbert, 2007), this may include hurtful, violent, and aggressive acts done with little regard for other peoples feelings or of the consequences of their actions. The second disorder in cluster B, borderline personality disorder, is stated by the American Psychiatric Association as pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects and marked impulsivity (James Morrison, 2006). It is characterized by identity disturbances, self-damaging behavior, feelings of emptiness, anger regulation problems, and stress related paranoid ideation or dissociative symptoms. Affecting more females than males at a rate of 3-1, it is found in 2% of the general population (Frances, 1999). Dysfunctional relationships are the key area that defines borderline personality disorder. Dobbert states that persons afflicted with borderline personality disorder are obsessed with the potential for rejection and abandonment. Their perception of the environment and persons response to them influences their feeling of self-worth and image (Dobbert, 2007). They often misconceive common circumstances and situations as rejection. This then manifests itself in anger, resentment, and feelings of abandonment. In order to tailor themselves to a relationship, the person with borderline personality disorder will illustrate a sudden change in self expression and perception. These changes may include sudden changes in the style of clothing, attitude, and social preferences of the individual and may also encompass hobbies, interests, and activities. If an individual is rejected by the object of that relationship, they will change themselves again to distance themselves from their past relationship and attract a new one (Dobbert, 2007). In order to manipulate others and stage off real or perceived abandonment, a person with borderline personality disorder will threaten or attempt suicidal behavior, and self-mutilation. Threatening self-injury or suicide allows the individual to control the other person in the relationship and allows them to postpone the abandonment that they so fear. While attempts are made on the part of a person with this disorder, many of them are half-hearted and not meant to be successful; they are simply utilized as a device evoke a desired reaction from another person. Histrionic personality disorder is the third of the cluster B disorders, and is described as pervasive and excessive emotionality and attention-seeking behavior (James Morrison, 2006). It is characterized by sexual promiscuity, rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotion, self-dramatization, and suggestibility. It is found in 2-3% of the population and is diagnosed more often in women (Frances, 1999). Typically, people with histrionic personality disorder exhibit a compulsatory need to be the center of attention. When they find themselves being ignored or not admired they feel anxiety and identify confusion. These people are very socially motivated and expect to be noticed and envied by others. In order to gain attention many people with histrionic personality disorder focus intensely on appearance or act overdramatically in hopes of creating a scene to gain attention. Seductiveness and overtly sexual and provocative behavior is another way for people with histrionic personality disorder to gain attention. Flirtatious and intimate behavior is often used, even in inappropriate settings such as work, to gain attention. A conflict surrounding this inappropriate behavior, instead of inhibiting the behavior, only works to reinforce it as the center of attention again shifts to the disordered person. Narcissistic personality disorder, the final disorder of the cluster B sub-type is characterized by exaggeration of achievements, preoccupation with success and power, excessive need for admiration, a sense of entitlement, exploitation, envy, and arrogance (Frances, 1999). The DSM-V states that narcissistic personality disorder is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, with a need for admiration, and a marked lack of empathy (James Morrison, 2006). Of the general population less than 1% of the population suffers from narcissistic personality disorder and it is diagnosed 3-1 in males over females and is commonly classed the male ego disorder (Frances, 1999). Those who suffer from this disorder are prone to overinflating or creating achievements in order to brag about or prove their superiority to others. They often daydream about unlimited success and about the admiration that it will bring from others. They may also suffer from delusions that allow them to believe that they are entitled to act in any way they want, despite the effect it has on others. Because they view themselves as superior, the narcissist does not feel that they should be concerned themselves with the feelings of others. They will often defame and exploit others for their own self promotion. This marked lack of empathy is a dominate feature of narcissistic personality disorder and is brought about as a defense mechanism to protect their grandiose ideals about themselves. Cluster C disorders, including avoidant, dependant, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders are characterized by fearful and anxious behaviors, as well as avoidance of social situations and feelings of loss of control (Frances, 1999). Typical Axis I co-morbid diagnosis are: social phobias, anxiety disorder, adjustment disorder, myocardial infraction, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Treatment- (Dingfelder, 2004) Individuals at this end of the continuum commit rape, murder, and genocide. Will a person afflicted with antisocial personality disorder start at the lease serious end of the continuum and move to the far extreme? Recovery Conclusion Works Cited Barker, R. L. (1995). The Social Work Dictionary. In R. L. Barker, The Social Work Dictionary (p. 104). New York, New York: NASW Press. This source is reviewed and published by the NASW press, a division of the National Association of Social Workers, which is a leading scholarly press in social science research field. The information used gives a broad and comprehensive definition of the role that a personality plays in the life of an individual. This definition of personality and personality traits was chosen because due to its association with social work and because of its encompassing definition. This definition is used as a contrast point for the explanation of personality disorders. Dingfelder, S. (2004). Treatment for the Untreatable. Monitor on Psychology , Vol 35, No. 3, p. 46-48. This article, found in a peer reviewed scholarly journal, discusses the effectiveness of treatment for personality disorders. It states that many practitioners have had difficulty in treating personality disorders, which continue to present a pervasive and persistent pattern of dysfunction despite many treatment methods. It also discusses some effective treatment options and the hope for recovery from personality disorders. Frances, A. M. (1999). Your Mental Health: A Laymans Guide to the Psychiatrists Bible . In A. M. Frances, Your Mental Health: A Laymans Guide to the Psychiatrists Bible . New York: Scribner. Written by one of the authors of the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, this book provides general information about diagnosis of personality disorders and other mental health problems. It gives more detailed information on the cluster groupings (A, B, and C) for personality disorders than the DSM-IV Made Easy, as sited below. It also gives descriptive character traits that are associated with each of the personality disorders and discusses Axis I co-morbid diagnosis that are often found with personality disorders. James Morrison, M. (2006). The DSM-IV Made Easy. In M. James Morriosn, The DSM-IV Made Easy (pp. 461-495). New York: Guildford Publications, Inc. This book, containing information released in the DSM-IV, released by the American Psychological Association, is a stripped down, simplified version of the original DSM_IV. It provided detailed information on each personality disorder as well as diagnostic criteria for personality disorders. It also provides classification information and Axis diagnosis. The information in the source is considered to be extremely accurate and is therefore used to give a thorough and comprehensive information in relation to each personality disorder. Mayo Clinic. (2010, April 6). Personality Disorders. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from MayoClinic.com: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/personality-disorders/DS00562 This source, written by the psychological staff at the Mayo Clinic, is retrievable online. The Mayo Clinic, an internationally renowned medical practice and research group, has given a general overview of personality disorders and discussed some treatment options that are available for the disorders. The information for treatment is not found in the above references, and the idea of using psychotherapy and medication to treat personality disorders is discussed. Women Discrimination In Business: Walmarts Case Women Discrimination In Business: Walmarts Case Ethics has consistently been a part of our society. It has continuously played a crucial role whether in the professional world or in our normal daily lives. According to the well known sociologist Raymond Baumhart, ethics consists of the guidelines based on the basis of what is right and wrong and people are expected to follow the right path. A few examples such as honesty, trust and equality fall under ethical behavior and it is required in order for all of us to have a peaceful environment. (Baumhart, 1987) Importance of ethics in the business world Ethics is equally essential in the business world because it highlights the responsibilities, the principles and the standards that business people along with its organization should follow permanently. Any business organization that lacks or ignores the ethical principles is expected to fail and may harm the companys image in several ways. For example unethical behavior such as employees coming to work late frequently will reduce the productivity level for the company and this may also intervene with their profit which for many firms is the sole purpose. It is the top management levels duty to ensure that all the current working employees in their company are aware of the ethical guidelines regarding acceptable behavior in order to prevent acts such cheating at work, socializing at some networking site rather than giving priority to your work, discriminating against an employee etc. Ethics is also considered one of the corporate social responsibilities along with economic, legal and philanthropic and they should be considered majorly important. It should be dealt with seriousness because it covers human resource issues which refer to discrimination at workplace and it is extremely vital for the managers at top level to not differentiate between their employees based on how they appear or any other reason for that matter. Fairness is another part where the managers have to make sure that they are treating their employees with equality without any biased decisions taking place. Besides these reasons there are many more which just proves the point that ethics is really important for management to succeed in achieving their goals. Women Discrimination Gender Discrimination Discrimination in todays world can be defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour of or against, a person or a thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit. (Dictionary.com, 2010). Discriminatory behaviours are of many different kinds but they mainly entail some form of exclusion or rejection. One form of discrimination that has been seen from generations till today is gender discrimination where either of the sex is considered weaker than the other. Women Discrimination in society In most societies and developed countries like the U.S. girls are usually given the freedom and encouraged to create their own lifestyle, since childhood. They are made to believe in themselves and that they can be as successful as boys in every work of life. However, the case is not the same for girls from other societies which are mostly from developing countries. They are brought up to believe the opposite where they are constantly reminded of the things they are not allowed to do. In most of the developing countries sons are regarded as insurance and hence their birth is celebrated with great joy. Whereas, when a girl is born she is considered as another expense and liability for the family. Since childhood, they are trained to do household activities and stay indoors, isolating them from the rest of the world. In some parts of India, a tradition prevails to greet the family of newborn girl by saying The servant of your household has been born. Women from such societies face issu es like emotional and physical abuse, inferiority, having their families and society limit their opportunities and restricting them from living life up to their full potential. Discrimination against women is a very demoralizing reality that still exists resulting in millions of individual tragedies. Studies show that a countrys attitude towards women is directly proportional to its social and economic progress i.e. if one part of the country gets affected then the result of the affect is suffered by the whole country as well. Sadly, women fall weak and are not able to defend themselves in situations where they are being discriminated. For example many women have to face problems like dowry, negligence, infanticide and sex-selective abortion, physical abuse and labour and sex trafficking (Mullins, 2010). Gender lines are drawn early in womens life and they face exclusions from childhood and continue facing it through out their adulthood as well. This perspective of women and false belief that women do not belong in the high corporate world has risen as a result of women discrimination. There has, over time been a stereotype thinking that women are only suitable for restricted professions like teaching or best suited to be housewives. Studies show that during elementary school teachers give more attention and importance to boys in Maths and Science while girls are paid attention by teachers in subjects like Language and Art. This is because Maths and Science subjects are more academically challenging and to be taken in the field of medicine, engineering and architecture which are considered to be male professions. Studies also show that girls in middle and high school are discouraged to participate in extracurricular activities like sports or join debate clubs. Instead, they are encou raged to participate in after school volunteer work, social programs and more inert activities. Also, when making career choices, girls are pestered by parents into pursuing clichà ©d female-oriented professions like teaching, nursing, care giving, retail and office administration. Studies carried by the Department of Labour 2007 statistics show that more women are starting businesses than men, more women are in the employees than men, and the majority of degree-holders are now women and yet they are only still dominating fields and industries that are considered suitable for female (Wolfe, 2009) Women discrimination is not always seen in developing countries alone but can also be noticed in developed countries. For example, one of the largest sex discrimination case seen in the history on the U.S. is the law suit filed against Wal-Mart. This suit was filed in the year 2001 by six female employees and by April 2010 it was reported to include more than a million females costing the retailer billions in damages. The women who filed the case claimed that they faced systematic discrimination at work. The Wal-Mart industry It is an American retailing industry founded by Sam Walton in1962 when he launched its first branch in Arkansas. His main strategy which found him early success in his life was to keep prices relatively low which lead him to earn a ranking as the richest man during the 1980s. According to the Forbes magazine, it became the worlds largest corporation by revenue. Walmarts women discrimination case Wal-Mart is being criticized for paying its female employees less than its male employees and also provide smaller salary raises to women and fewer promotions. It was reported that women at Wal-Mart were being steered away from management positions into lower-level jobs without much possible chances of progress like cashier jobs. Moreover, a woman who came looking for a job opportunity as a manager was reported to be told that she was not qualified for the management position as she was not able to stack 50 pound bags of dog food. It was also reported by The New York Times that around 33% of the women at Wal-Mart are companys managers whereas the rest 65% consist of women working as hourly employees. Wal-Mart was account to be biased towards males (Goudreau, 2010). Wal-Mart has around 700,000 working women that form its back bone and make it one of the largest private sector employers of women in the U.S. However, these employees face discrimination at work on advancement opportunities, job assignments and receive unequal pay. This discrimination towards women has been seen in all levels of the company i.e. from hourly working employees to senior management. Women earn 40cents less than what they should be earning equal to the other hourly male employees even though they have longer seniority and higher merit ratings than their male co-workers. A woman manager earns around $5,000 per year less compared to a male manager who earns $23,175 per year. Women executives also do not find themselves safe from discrimination at Wal-Mart. Women face systematic denial of advancement as men dominate the management ranks. They are stuck in the low paying jobs consisting of 92% cashiers and 76% sales associate. Wal-Marts competitors in the past have had more women managers than men compared to Wal-Mart. (UFCW, 2010). Walmarts case from Kants perspective Wal-Marts case casts light upon the ethical considerations of women discrimination in the work environment. Whether it is illegal is still under trial, however, it is clearly an ethical issue. Businesses often face such ethical issues which occur due to many reasons even if they are unintentional. The market fluctuations, competition and profit-making orientation lead business owners and managers into behaving unethically without conspicuous intentions. The issue of women discrimination can be analysed and evaluated using ethical theory. Ethical theory is generally based upon moral philosophy and may be classified on many different dimensions, however, there are several basic types of moral philosophy which are used in business ethics, such as egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, rights and relativism (Bartlett, 2003: 224). Egoism and Utilitarianism are examples of consequentialist philosophies whereas, deontological approaches such as that of Immanuel Kant are an example of non-consequentialist philosophies. Kants theories are often associated with the duties, moral rights and respect of an individual. His theories say that each person has both the right to expect to be treated according to universal moral laws and the corresponding duty to behave according to that law (Bartlett, 2003: 224). Kants theory proposes a categorical imperative which is the particular moral law according to which people should act. It states that one should act as if the maxim of thy action were to become by thy will a universal law of nature (Kant, cited in Bartlett, 2003: 224). This means that an action can be set as a categorical imperative making it a universal law and applying it to the maximum population to see what the result of that action would be if it became common behavior of the world. The morality of an action can be judged by applying the deontological approach which considers the rights, duties, truth and respect of an individual according to universal moral principles. It focuses on doing the right thing. Sex discrimination or discrimination of women in particular can be evaluated using Kants theory. Applying the theory, the categorical imperative or the universal rule can be set as It is okay to discriminate women in business practices. If this rule is applied universally, the effect of this action on the society or the whole world would be highly negative. Firstly, men would continue to view women as the weaker sex due to which they will not give them opportunities to work at all. If women dont work they will have low motivation and high emotional stress which can affect their family lives. If all families became unhappy and stressed the whole society will be affected and may not prosper. Secondly, the household incomes would decrease drastically as women will not be able to support their husbands. Furthermore, if women will have no career opportunities, they will stop their education and the literacy rate would go down. Labour supply in the market would decrease which would lead to a surplus in labour demand thus, creating a need for high wages and salaries which can become a major issue with employers. The overall employment rate would also decrease; affecting the world economy. The result of discriminating women and discouraging their participation in work practices universally can cause serious harm to the society and the whole world overall. It questions womens rights and respect along with mans duty towards equality and fairness in the world. Thus, the universal rule will be contradicted and negated leading to the conclusion that, as analyzed through this theory and the deontological approach, sex discrimination is unethical. Walmarts perspective On the contrary, when considering the case from Walmarts perspective, it is important to understand that it is the senior managements duty and responsibility to take every measure to ensure they assign jobs to employees who are most suited to do them and hold the capabilities required to accomplish the job. For example, Walmart has been criticised for refusing one woman a management position because she was unable to stack 50-pound bags of dog food hence, unqualified for the job. While many have protested against this act, it must be highlighted that there has been always a stereotype image of women as being the weaker sex and this incident helps illustrate that. Walmart managers understand that the business involves tasks that cannot be easily accomplished by women as compared to men. Also, giving women tedious jobs might be considered unethical by some customers and this could affect Walmarts reputation as being harsh towards women and making them do jobs they are not fit for. More over, Walmart may have been scandalised by its competitors who are looking for ways to show the company in a negative light as it is successful and poses serious threat to smaller businesses who are unable to compete on the basis of price due to the exceptional low prices Walmart provides hence, looking for other methods of causing damage to their competitor. Target Corporation and its ethical practices One of the greatest competitions faced by Walmart is from Target Corporation; after Walmart, Target is the second largest discount retailer in the United States. Walmart and Target do business in quiet similar manner and have both very wide-ranging ethical and environmental policies in place. However in terms of practices, Walmart has solicited much more criticism than Target for breaching its ethical policies, the company has poor employment benefits, exerts pressure on suppliers, eliminates waste into the environment and as discussed earlier, practices gender discrimination to great extent. However, Target refuses to tolerate workplace discrimination and tries to create an environment in which everyone recognizes the value of diversity. According to national statistics the average company across the United States employs a staff that consists of forty-eight percent women; fifty-nine percent of Targets workforce is women. In part with this statistic and the treatment of their female employees, Target has been honored as an organization with multiple national awards recognizing their commitment to gender diversity. In 2005, Target was named one of the Top 30 Companies for Executive Women, by the National Association for Female Executives. As well as in 2004, they were named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers, by the magazine, Working Mother. Therefore similar to Target, Walmart should also adopt policies against gender discrimination to avoid lawsuits which spoils the image of the company.

The High School Gymnasium :: Observation Essays, Descriptive Essays

My alarm clock blares into my silent room. It’s time to spend the early hours of my Saturday morning at the same place I spent the late hours of my Friday night. Groggily I get dressed and leave without breakfast. When I arrive, it is dark, empty and cold. The lonely feeling replaces what was bright, full and warm just hours ago. This place is the gymnasium at my high school. For four years, I have exerted sweat, tears, and even blood in this place. On this stage, four years of my growing up and maturing were played out for anyone willing to pay two dollars. I have been everywhere in this gym, from standing high on the bleachers with a bird’s eye view, to lying on the ground debating whether to rise only to get knocked down again. Those who have left a part of themselves in this place can breathe deeply and inhale experiences. Experiences of glorious victories and experiences of embarrassing defeats; both experiences I have left in that gym. Friendships were made and lost on that court, and other ones strengthened when my friends from outside came with their support and encouragement. It is here I learned perseverance, hard work, determination and loyalty. It is not here that I found who I was, but more who I was not. It is here I had to not settle for mediocrity, but strive for excellence. When I think back to the long hours I spent in this gymnasium, the most prominent memory will be my final game there. It was a night of emotions. I was surrounded by encouraging teammates, supportive family and friends, and finally I received my reward for the energy I had spent there for four years: I made the game winning shot. While my name will soon be taken down from the wall, and another person will wear number thirty-three in that gym, I have left a piece of me there, which is the beauty of the place.

Inter-vendor Storage Management Application Tools Essay

Inter-vendor storage application management tools are huge enterprise software applications that are used for robust, reliable, available and effective data management. The applications are both hardware and software dependent. The choice of their implementation depends on the organizational needs and objectives. Various vendors develop and support these tools both for support of business and mission critical applications. Some of the leading Inter-vendor applications tools that have dominated the industry as well as organizational automations in the last two years include VERITAS, Oracle and NetApp (ESM, 2009). VERITAS Its application tools provides for automated storage management software for enterprise business applications which have increased dependence on data from corporate storage infrastructure. VERITAS application tools are vital for boosting administrator productivity and reduce errors in automated storage administration. Among the tools it provides is the Storage Resource Management (SRM) software tools that help to automate the erroneous, tedious and routine tasks in storage administration. The tools are able to predict when the problem is likely to happen and as a result the IT managers are able to head off these problems. The automated storage provisions help the administrators have a continuous, uninterrupted access to the enterprise storage resources. The storage administration by the automated SRM software can accomplish several tasks in use, management and applications of the storage allocations. The automation tools are able to gather data around the storage infrastructure and also give feedback on the successful storage policies and also provide input and reports on the storage environment. The accurate and timely data help managers make informed and intelligent decisions on the future use of the storage. Further administrators are able to report and monitor on resource utilization and performance. When applications crash, the pagers beep and systems panic, it is the administrator that is on the receiving end of a pager to get the problem notification. Such situations prove to be very critical especially for business users due to degraded performance, equipment failure, resource shortages, and corruption of data or storage problem risks. This interruption of application access may in turn lead to incalculable financial losses to the business or organization. Therefore the automated software provisioning has a framework that manages the growing inventory in the components of enterprise storage. When the SRM software tools are deployed into the automated storage provisioning framework, the administrator has an easier access to the event based interventions and rule based policies which adequately resolve and intercept potential problems before they reach their critical levels (Hussain, 2008). The storage management application tool for a web based directory assistance runs on a web server as a data entry component with a more sophisticated management application that runs on a separate application server. When data is entered for the directory assistance, it is updated on the web server and staged on the repository application server and it is then automatically transferred to a relational database in another server by the directory management application. For fault tolerance as provided by the database server, database tables are duplicated using the snapshots from the primary database. The services however are vulnerable to storage failures especially when space allocation to the web server, database and repository is threatened to be exhausted and as a result bring down the system. Organizations of all sizes and in all industries are dependent on enterprise technological infrastructure which means that there is immense need for automated storage management process to avert any failures in the enterprise storage infrastructure. Therefore the SRM software tools and the automated storage provisioning should be implemented to solve the storage management problems. The rule based storage automations streamlines the administrator’s routine which improves productivity, reduces potential errors and system’s availability which impacts business activities and application availability. Oracle and NetApp The Automatic Storage Management (ASM) application tool provides a way to manage storage with an underlying database on a volume manager for the files on the database and an integrated file system. Its gives an alternative to the volume management solutions and file systems for the storage management tasks in the database (Manning & Bridge, 2009). On the other hand NetApp filers simplify management and deployment of the enterprise data. The ASM and NetApp storage lower ownership costs and save on costs through the configuration of combined technology. There are combined benefits for using the NetApp for database layered applications and Oracle database which includes practices for deployment of ASM with the storage solutions networked by NetApp. Oracle ASM on NetApp iSAN and SAN storage like Oracle on NAS storage by NetApp has alternative capability for volume management for customers on an Oracle server that can alter, drop and create SQL statements which simplifies the storage provisioning on the database. The NetApp and ASM storage application tools has features that complement one another in performance to avoid errors by balancing of workload and help utilize the disk drive resources available. They also provide for support of online removal and addition of storage capacity that help maximize data availability and at the same time making configuration changes in the storage. The applications tools provide data security and availability since enterprises require high levels of data availability and protection whether there are component failures or faults storage subsystems. These tools include NetApp mirroring solutions that offer protection for disaster recovery requirements and business continuance while ASM provides protection against storage failures. In shared storage, Oracle’s Real Application Clusters (RAC) provides scalability and availability for the Oracle database which requires all servers to have direct read and full access to the database files. The ASM implementation provides a simplified cluster file system with optimized functionality of the volume manager in the shared storage. The NetApp networked storage gives shared access as required by RAC while in SAN environments, ASM provides volume management by Oracle RAC and a capable clustered file system. Both application tools have a rich assortment of storage data management that can be used separately or when combined depending on the customer enterprise requirements or the data infrastructure (Animi et al, 2009). The Automatic Storage Management application tool simplifies the management and configuration of storage management for the Oracle data files in its database. It also complements iSCSI SAN products for storage and NetApp Fibre Channel and while combined, they give full value to both technologies. With several combinations for data storage management and protection exists in the market, the Oracle and NetApp partnership offer powerful combinations that offer best practices to meet business performance and high availability requirements. Storage Management Networking Industry Association (SNIA) SNIA has created Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) application tool in order to standardize and develop storage management technologies for networking and storage. The SMI-S is for a standardized interface like SAN based storage management which are a challenge for interrogators and end-users to manage especially for multivendor SANs. The applications developed in most cases are unable to work together or are uncoordinated to perform tasks and deliver functionality, security and reliability for increased business efficiency. SMI-S therefore specifies protocols to manage communications with incorporated mechanisms for standard based management. It unifies the storage networks and also the management tools. The set of interfaces will allow the control of heterogeneous storage by storage management software packages. This way storage administrator will create and delete volumes and zones and also monitor array controllers, switches and host bus adapters. The enterprises too can manage with a single management framework their storage capacity independent of manufacturers. The application features have a common and extensive management transport, which has unified and complete which provides control of Zones and LUNs in a SAN context. It also has an automated discovery system with a newer approach in application of the CIM/WBEM technology. This specification helps to secure a reliable interface that can allow for the storage management interface classify, identify, control and monitor logical and physical resources in a SAN. The Technical Specification defines the management of a heterogeneous SAN and describes information from a SMI-S compliant CIM server available to a WBEM client. This information is object oriented, message based, XML based interface that is designed to support requirements of the managing devices through and in SANs. Using the CIM-XML on HTTP standard which is an independent management protocol, vendors increase the functions and features of their products without having to redesign the management storage therefore reducing cost and extending functionality. The SMI-S functional capabilities include the version requirements as provided and stated in the interface. Among them is that it will be able to receive the asynchronous notifications incase the SAN configuration changes. It will also be able to identify the health of vital resources in a SAN and also receive the asynchronous notification incase the SAN resource’s health has changed. It will also identify interconnects available performance in a SAN and receive the asynchronous notification incase a SAN’s interconnect performance changes. It will also identify zones that SAN enforces and help enable or disable, delete or create zones in a SAN. It will also identify the access rights and connectivity to SAN Storage Volumes and also enable or disable, delete or create access rights and connectivity to SAN Storage Volumes. These standards and specifications can only be used by a WBEM compliant and authenticated client. The language chosen for managing information and other related operations is the XML language which will help traverse the organizational firewalls and installed at low costs (Cover, 2010). In midrange computing environments and enterprise class, the SANs are highly emerging due to various functions and applications such as sharing of huge storage resources between multiple systems and having a LAN free backup. Other applications include disaster tolerant and remote online mirroring of critical data and clustering fault tolerant applications and systems with one data copy. While emergence of SANs accelerate, the informational industry requires a management interface for different classes of software and hardware products for multiple vendors to allow interoperation and reliability in order to monitor and control resources. For this reason SMI-S was created to define this interface and provide a standard for heterogeneous, functionally secure and reliable control and monitoring of resources in the complex distributed Inter-vendor SAN topologies. The SMI-S standard can simplify the huge storage management and reduced costs in storage administration but has not solved all storage problems. Since storage is an integral part in IT infrastructure to be managed with a combination of servers, applications and networks, management solutions offered by SMI-S work for servers, storages and networks. In the storage infrastructure, it provides the end-users with a consistency for device discovery, configuration and status information. SMI-S defines the behavior and structure of devices and their management and configuration in the storage infrastructure and provides management of multiple storage devices from multivendor. However, it does not solve the problem of incompatibility of hardware devices from the different vendors while its domain in storage management does not cover remote replication and backup. Conclusion There is countless demand by customers for open software from the computer industry vendors which is the reason multiple vendors such as Oracle and NetApp have had to work more closely to develop common standards, protocols and languages for storage and network management. The multipurpose standards could help storage administrators take control of the distributed applications with a resulting inter-vendor, manageable and open information systems. Using standard based storage management application tools can help increase value of IT investments. Before the multivendor standards were developed by SNIA, the individual users would need to manage the storage devices with vendor specific tools while disparate information was integrated manually. Today’s management standards and specifications are increasingly interoperable while still maintaining competitive advantage among vendors through differentiation.

Dimensions Of Inequality On Development Issues Essay

Dimensions of Inequality on Development Issues - Jit Bahadur Tamang Abstract Well, the term Development is the process of positive change which brings improvement in the lives of everyone all over the world. It is a dynamic process so its positive impact falls on people, family, community, village and town equally keep on changing without gapping. Inequality is the result of disparity particularly on earning ability as well as lack of opportunity on authorization of property or wealth. Due to the inequality, it refers that a particular situation in socio-economic field as a poverty in which a person lacks even the fulfillment of basic needs, desires of everyday life and it results low level of living standard, low per capita income, social-disorder, measurable-productivity, no security of life and property, lack of balanced diet, excessive dependency propensity on others particularly capital and technological sectors and excessive outgoing propensity of the high cream profile i.e. brain drain. Similarly, inequality brings the situation of economic-crisis and it results measurable condition in socio-economic field and its scenario will be seen as high mortality rate, unfair socio-environment, high level of corruption, loose of discipline as well as moral feeling among the people in every country (Economy). Various socio-economic transforming accelerates her socio-economic conditions through the haves and haves not by improving processes between poor andShow MoreRelatedChild Poverty And Its Effects On Children1123 Words   |  5 Pagesof the biggest issues facing Canadian children today. Child poverty can significantly shorten a child’s life. One of the major reasons child poverty in Canada is so high is because of low wages. These children have a disadvantage to all the other children in Canada. There is major inequality among these children. There are many problems that come out of child poverty and effect the children directly. This paper will talk about the four major effects of child poverty; health issues and nutrition,Read MoreA Critical Appraisal Of Nigeria s Regional Security Challenges1582 Words   |  7 PagesNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ABSTRACT Once considered of lowest concern amongst Nigeria’s social problems, over the previous decade insecurity has since grown at an alarming rate. 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Erik Erikson s Theory Of Psychology - 1365 Words

Introduction Erik Erikson has made a contribution to the field of psychology with his developmental theory. He is a German psychoanalyst. Erikson said that humans develop throughout the life span. Erikson developed eight psychosocial theory stages that humans encounter throughout their life. According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Basic virtues are characteristic strengths which the ego can use to resolve subsequent crises. Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore an unhealthier personality and sense of self. The first stage, Trust vs. Mistrust, occurs from birth to one year. Erikson defined trust as an essential trustfulness of others as well as a fundamental sense of one s own trustworthiness. He thought that an infant who gets fed when he or she is hungry and comforted when he needs comforting will develop trust. 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Essay on Descartes Dream Argument - Philosophy - 1406 Words

How do we know we are not dreaming some particular experience we are having, or we are not dreaming all our experience of this world? When we dream we imagine things happening often with the same sense of reality as we do when we are awake. In Descartes dream argument, he states there are no reliable signs distinguishing sleeping from waking. In his dream argument, he is not saying we are merely dreaming all of what we experience, nor, is he saying we can distinguish dreaming from being awake. I think his point is we cannot be for sure what we experience as being real in this world is actually real. When Descartes remembers occasions when he is dreaming, he falsely believes he is awake. Reflecting on this, Descartes thinks he cannot†¦show more content†¦The last step in Descartes argument says if he cannot tell whether he is dreaming, then how can he trust any of his senses telling him about the environment? 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Modern Lighting Industries free essay sample

Only six months into his current assignment at Modern Lighting Industries, Inc. MLI), he was starting to worry that his string of previous successes had hit a serious snag. Working for Cardullo had become as confusing, unpredictable, and frustrating as anything he’d ever experienced. When Cardullo, president of MLI, had interviewed Turner and invited him to join the company as vice president for marketing and sales, Turner had found the older man smart, friendly, even charismatic. Cardullo had offered him a free hand in reorganizing the marketing area, and had all but guaranteed that Turner would take over as president within two years. Before long, however, things began to go wrong: Cardullo started to seem distant and critical, and he intervened frequently in marketing decisions, sometimes undermining or even reversing Turner’s decisions. The turnaround Cardullo was attempting to engineer at MLI had stalled, sales were again declining, and things in general were rapidly deteriorating. Turner didn’t know whether to be happy or anxious—or both— when Alan Oliver, the CEO of MLI’s parent company, announced that he would fly in the following week to review the situation. Turner thought it was critical to resolve his differences with Cardullo before Oliver arrived. Hoping to talk things out, he had asked Cardullo to join him for drinks after work, and then for lunch each of the next two days—but Cardullo declined all three invitations and shared lunch with other managers instead. Today Turner planned to approach Cardullo as soon as he came in. Cardullo usually arrived at 9:00 a. m. , which gave Turner almost half an hour to organize his thoughts. Jamie Turner A native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Turner had attended Notre Dame and graduated near the top of his class. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration. Copyright  © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business Publishing. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. 254 | Jamie Turner at MLI, Inc. awaiting him at Globalbank, he joined Wolf River Paper in Dayton, Ohio, a world class manufacturer and marketer of consumer paper products such as facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels and napkins, and other specialty products. As a rising star in Wolf River’s marketing division, he became product manager for disposable diapers in two years and senior product manager only a year later. By the end of his fifth year, he had doubled his starting salary. Nevertheless, at 30 and single, he felt himself stagnating in product management and started to think about moving on. Launching new products at Wolf River involved applying the same welldefined procedures over and over again. Moreover, with strong hierarchical controls and endless rounds of executive meetings for required approvals, he worried that he had not really tested himself. In fact, he imagined that it would be hard to fail at Wolf River, although the company had recently made a disastrous acquisition which was forcing all subsidiaries into austerity measures and would probably restrict any further advancement opportunities, at least for the near term. Lambowland. com. Turner learned of a senior marketing position at Lambowland. com, a startup Internet-based sports marketing company headquartered in Milwaukee. He signed on as VP for planning and marketing, for a 15% premium over his previous salary plus stock options in the event of an IPO. At first, he relished the challenge and autonomy of his new job—but trouble soon followed. Lambowland fell into a serious cash flow bind, and Turner found himself undertaking a second job search in less than 18 months. Two things about his time at Lambowland still bothered him. First, although he did not consider himself a job hopper, he worried that others might start to see him that way. Second, while he had often felt critical of the late hours and foul language that his coworkers enjoyed (none of whom had graduate degrees), he now began to wonder if he’d been too harsh in his assessments. Perhaps that explained some of the personal animosities he had developed there, which ultimately might have harmed the company’s performance as well as his own. MLI, Inc. A month after leaving Lambowland, Turner met with an executive search consultant who told him about the position at MLI, based outside of Chicago, with fabrication and systems assembly facilities in Illinois, Missouri, and Mexico, and sales and distribution centers in Kansas City and Chicago. A paternalistic, family-owned organization whose lighting products ranged from incandescent and halogen light bulbs to office and warehouse lighting systems and mobile lighting units, MLI had suffered several financial setbacks following the death of its founder, and had recently been acquired by a much larger conglomerate. The acquirer was a large division of $3. 5 billion San Diego-based Specialty Support Services (Triple S), which had a strong history of governmentsupported contracts for military operations and field medical units, and specialty work servicing the petroleum extraction and film industries as well as facilities such as clean rooms for biotech and hightech operations. With peak annual sales of $75 million, MLI was larger and more established than Lambowland, but far smaller and less rigidly organized than Wolf River. MLI urgently needed to fill the new position of vice president of marketing and sales, and the consultant thought he could arrange a 20% salary increase over what Turner had received at Lambowland, plus a 25% bonus if Turner took the job. There was also significant room for advancement: MLI’s new president, Pat Cardullo, wanted someone who could take more responsibility relatively quickly. Turner agreed to meet with Cardullo the following week. 2 BRIEFCASES | HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING Jamie Turner at MLI, Inc. | 4254 In repeated assignments with Triple S, the search consultant had developed a close relationship with COO Arthur Lipsky, who was Cardullo’s boss and mentor. After Turner signed a confidentiality agreement, the consultant offered a few other observations for him to consider as he prepared for the interview. First, Cardullo had been the only high-level executive at Triple S to champion the acquisition, which was probably why Cardullo himself was MLI’s president. Cardullo had argued that a large regional lighting distributor such as MLI would provide an alternative commercial channel for selling many of Triple S’s lighting-related systems, such as security lighting, field mobile lighting units, and clean room lighting systems. Cardullo’s relations with some of his peers at Triple S seemed strained, but his strong track record and his close rapport with Lipsky had tipped the balance in favor of adding MLI to Triple S’s business portfolio. Lipsky was in line to take over as CEO when Alan Oliver retired in two years, and Cardullo was widely expected to replace Lipsky as COO. The search advisor added that at MLI, Cardullo seemed to have excellent relationships with his executive assistant, Richard Garcia, and the new controller, Julie Chin, both of whom had come over to MLI from Triple S. In fact, the consultant said he’d recently seen Cardullo, Chin, and Garcia together at a basketball game. Finally, he noted, Turner should be aware that at least one long-time MLI employee—the current VP of operations, Ernie Dennis—saw himself as Cardullo’s likely successor. Signing On. Cardullo interviewed Turner over lunch at Harry Caray’s, a famous steak house in the Chicago Loop. Turner placed him in his mid-fifties, slightly overweight at medium height with heavy jowls and a full head of gray hair. Originally an engineer who had spent much of his career in high-tech companies, Cardullo impressed Turner with his ability to integrate and evaluate large amounts of information. He had a quick sense of humor and seemed genuinely interested in Turner’s background. It seemed strangely unnecessary for Turner to â€Å"score points† with Cardullo during the interview. Turner was surprised to learn that Cardullo was also president of Triple S’s $600 million mobile systems and support group (Exhibit 1 shows a partial organization chart for Triple S). Cardullo explained that he was only acting as steward at MLI until he could find an aggressive, intelligent young manager to take his place within the next 12 to 18 months, and intimated that Turner would be a likely candidate. Without making any specific commitments, the two men agreed to speak again soon. Turner left the restaurant feeling excited and optimistic. He headed for O’Hare and flew out to spend a few days with his parents in Scranton. The search consultant phoned the following week to ask if Turner was still interested in the position, and whether he could come back to Chicago for a company visit. Turner agreed to meet Cardullo at his office the following Monday morning. Turner arrived promptly, and after a brief tour of the facilities the two spent several hours discussing company operations. Turner had done as much research as he could, and was able to conduct a knowledgeable, intelligent discussion. In fact, at times he had the impression that he knew more about the specifics than Cardullo did. Cardullo had also expressed strong opinions about how to run a business. He believed firmly in management by objectives, and stressed the importance of good communication among the top executive team. At the same time, he thought each manager should run his or her own area with minimal help from other functions. He emphasized the importance of the controller as guardian of the company’s assets, and the need for efficiency and inventory control in production.