BUS576-5

Individual Assignment 5

            The concept that change does not need to take a long time or difficulty was interesting to me.  I thought, before this week, that change in an organization would take a good amount of time.  After reading the chapter Change or Die, I realized that the points made are valid and make logical sense.  If people are given deadlines they usually wait until that deadline.  If you use a sense of urgency then people will tend to make the change faster.  This allows an organization to implement changes in a faster manner.   Kotter also discusses the sense of urgency when making changes in a business as well.  He also states that people who are resistant to change, no matter who they are in the organization, keep them out of the process.  The importance of this is because, as Kotter states, those people will do damage to the change process.  They will eventually hurt you more rather than help you at all.  The only problem that I see with this is that some processes may take time to develop and implement.  Therefore it may not be as easy to get them done in a short period of time. 

 

                                         

The concept of being you at work I found to be another helpful point.  The two examples from the book that stood out to me were about Libby Sartain and Southwest.  Some companies did not like Sartain to display her real personality because they thought that it was not professional or did not suit their organization.  In essences, she became someone else when she went to work.  Coincidently, Sartain worked at Southwest for some time and is currently at Yahoo.  Southwest has an environment where it embraces their employees personal lives.  Perhaps this is why Sartain fit in at this company.  Southwest has no problem with intercompany relationships and tries to make the organization feel like a family atmosphere.  Although I enjoy the concept of feeling more comfortable at work, I do believe there still needs to be a level of professionalism.  Organizations still need to conduct business and cannot always be a relaxed setting similar to a person’s personal life. 

Beth Miller wrote, “The Successful Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon-Employee Engagement,” which discusses a way for entrepreneurs to be successful in their business ventures.  Miller discusses that entrepreneurs get wrap up in their business ideas that they forget to engage their employees.  Keeping their employees happy can increase their productivity and help their business to grow.  Miller references studies that have been conducted to measure the relationship between workers’ engagement and an organization’s profitability.  The author also refers to some statistics that she acquired for Gallup.  A global research that analyzed forty companies over three years to show their profitability relevant to their employees’ engagement is mentioned as well in Miller’s article.  With this data that Miller collected, she provides steps that entrepreneurs can take to focus on employee engagement.  Miller did her research on the subject matter and the data in the article, in my opinion, would be evidence-based. 

This week’s session was a learning experience.  I am someone who resists change, this week’s discussions made me realize that I should try to embrace change more than I do.  Hofstede’s dimensions of organizational culture made me analyze my company that I work for and perhaps I should try to be more motivated at work then I currently am.  Overall the week was helpful and I enjoyed the readings and videos. 

BUS576-4

Individual Assignment 4

            A concept that surprised me this week that was related to our group projects is the different types of diversity.  I just assumed the obvious diversities, such as sex, age, and race, as the article that I read describes as surface-level diversity.  These are the only diversities that I though existed.  I never opened my mind enough to realize that there is more to the word diversity than just the physical attributes.  The article we choose for our group project this week describes deep-level diversities as well.  The diversities that are describes in this type are personalities, knowledge, and values.  People can have diversities in their educations and the cultures that they are surrounded by as well.  I found this to be an interesting article because it took into consideration deep-level diversities as well.  I enjoyed becoming more aware of the range of diversities that can and do exist in our world today. 

 

            The other concept that I found very helpful to have learned this week was the interview by Linda Babcock and her colleague, “Women Don’t Ask.”  Not only was it a learning experience this week, but I think that I can use the knowledge I received to help me in my future as well.  many of the traits that they describes that women have, such as thinking of others and not their selves, was something that I possess myself.  I have not always negotiated what I want in my current position and could be part of the problem with some of the issues that I have at work.  Having watched this I know now to research a position and what the average salary is for that type of position.  This will help me to be able to negotiate a more appropriate salary.  Another point is starting with a higher value that what you want, this way leaving room to negotiate.  I found the interview to be influential and helpful in my own personal future career endeavors. 

            In the article, “Nissan CEO: Don’t Fear Making Waves,” Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn explains the challenges he faced when taking over the company when it had twenty billion dollars in debt.  Many of the points made in the article are similar to ones that I read in Hard Facts.  Ghosn did not rely on any consulting firms, instead in went and learned the business for himself from the employees.  He exuded confidence in his expectations which helped him as well.  The article does not go in depth to explain why Ghosn lead Nissan in the direction that he did, therefore, it is hard to say if he did this based on facts.  However, the results show that his tactics worked, making four billion dollars in profit this year.  I think that some of the article can be related to evidence based practices because they are related to the ones discussed in the book. 

            After realizing the depth that diversity can entail, I’m looking forward to exploring and researching our group’s topic more in the coming weeks.  I enjoyed the videos this week and besides Linda Babcock’s video, I appreciated William Ury’s presentation as well.  I thought he had good examples of how to resolve conflict.  Overall it was a week of helpful learning experiences. 

BUS576-3

Individual Assignment 3

            One concept that I learned from Chapter 8 is that leaders do not really have as much control as people would imagine.  One point made is that leaders need to exhibit and demonstrate a great deal of confidence to have the people around them look at them as leaders.  They should project confidence on their employees to motivate them and get them to believe in a common goal of the company.  It is no that leaders have the control that people believe, but it’s how they carry themselves that allow them to become leaders of their organizations.  The book says that leaders should take some credit, but also the blame as well.  Taking the blame in a situation shows that a leader is modest and humble.  A good leader should also know when to get out of the way as the book states.  I think this is a powerful statement because if a leader tries to have too much control it could hurt the company.  This also shows that the leader is willing to listen to others which can motivate their workers. 

            Another topic I found to be interesting this week was the badges developed at Alex Pentland’s lab.  It just amazes me how far technology has come that something like this exists.  The badge collects an array of data in order to measure the communication and interaction within a group.  Pentland thinks that the badge will be able to be integrated into organizations in the future and will look simply like an id badge.  The data collected can measure the tone of a conversation, who is talking, listening and interrupting, and if they face one another when they talk.  The data can report if the team was productive or creative on a certain day.  I think this could be helpful to measure the dynamics of a team setting for a given assignment.  Therefore the badge would only be worn when working in that group.  However, it seems like a tracking device in a way.  It may be a little too inappropriate for a work environment in my opinion. 

            The article “What I’ve Learned From Three Decades in Retail” is about JC Penney’s ex-CEO Ron Johnson’s experience in the field of retail and leadership.  Johnson explains where he started in the retail industry and the lessons that he has learned along the way.  Many of the points he talks about in the article can be related to concepts discussed in the textbook.  Some are learning by doing it yourself and owning your own mistakes.  Another point that is discussed is to know where you fit in when choosing an organization.  This concept was discussed in our article for our team project this week.  In a way this article is an evidence-based article because Johnson is talking about his own personal experiences.  It’s concepts that he has learned and had come to think of as true for him.  The article also states that Johnson had read hundreds of case studies that expand the knowledge he discusses.  This is evidence that Johnson has found to be true through his own life experiences. 

            This week has taught me more about leadership and working in a team environment.  I think that it has helped me to be more open and listen more when dealing with other people.  I appreciated how the book explained that leaders are not always in control as much as people more think.  This is a good thing because leaders who do have that much power tend to become unethical leaders.  It is important to show confidence in situations and could help lead to a leadership position. 

BUS576-2

Individual Assignment 2

            The first concept that I learned this week was from chapter 5 and how money is not always the best incentive to motivate employees.  In the example about the garbage workers whose work quality actually decreased when offered the financial incentive.  They started to find any way to get done with their routes faster so they did not have to work their full eight hours that they actually broke some of the rules.  Their quality of work declined as a result of the financial incentives.  Employers who offer stock options as incentives have to be aware that they might increase unethical behavior.  If an employee is rewarded with stock they may revert to unethical ways of keeping the stock price up.  Financial incentives are much more complex than I would have thought for management to consider implementing.  They really have to know what they what to achieve through the incentives and identify any negative effects that may occur from the incentives.  The only concern I had was how the book mentioned that employees can become jealous of one another if one employee receives financial incentives over others.  My concern here is how would employees know what the other employees make to know they are receiving these incentives? 

                                             

Another concept that I found interesting and thoughtful was Dan Gilbert’s “Why we make bad decisions” video.  I thought it was very informational about how people can go about making a bad decision.  When he explains what influences our decisions and then compared them to evidence, for instances odds of winning the lottery, it shows just how foolish some of our decisions can be.  I thought it really opened my eyes to perhaps seek evidence and focus on that before making a decision.  Not only is this a smart concept for everyday life, but it can also be translated into the business world.  If management would put the time and effort into research and gathering enough data to support their decisions than they may be less likely to make bad ones.  I enjoyed this video and I thought it was very powerful and informational concept.

            I read the article, Takethe Boss and the Egos Out of the Salary Equation, by Jurgen Appelo from the Entrepreneur website.  The article was about how to compensate employees based on their performance and their expected performance.  The author states that fairness is an important factor in deciding individuals’ compensation.  He also discusses four elements that he finds important to staying fair in compensations.  One point that he made that was also discussed in Chapter 5 of our textbook was that people often believe their own performances are above average.  For the most part, there was no discussion as any evidence-based facts in his article.  I interpreted this article to be based mostly on the author’s opinion rather than on research and evidence.

            This week’s readings and videos were informational and helpful for not only management decisions, but also with personal decisions.  It made me more aware of the impact that the decisions we make can have on our lives are careers.  I was surprised to find how difficult it can be to implement financial incentives and the ramifications that can result from them.