Entries in the Category "MGMT250"
Performace Appraisals
Appraising someone else's performance is not a fun nor easy task. In our HR Simulation Performance Appraisals we were told to appraise the other members of our team. I found this very difficult do the the fact I strive to not hurt other people's feelings. Telling someone that you think they are not a good worker isn't exactly being the kindest person in the world. I think if it would be possible to do the appraisals on an anonymous level people would get much better feedback. I know I held back on some of the things I would have liked to tell my teammates simply because I didn't want them hating me. Also, because I know that some of the things they were doing wrong I did myself. This makes me feel very hypocritical. On an anonymous basis I believe the members could get much better feedback without feeling attack by any specific individual.
Career Center
Probably my favorite part of Management 250 was getting in touch with the Career Center. Last Monday, the 2nd, I had to go to the Career Center to receive and be taught about th results of my MBTI test. Their workers seem to actually care about getting us students out there in the "real world" and getting us a good job. Many times I have considered transferring to an easier college and not working half as hard as I am here, but one of the main things that have kept me here is the Career Center. I feel very confident that their workers will assist me to the best of their ability in finding a job that I love to do. I feel that Case needs to show off their Career Center more in recruiting new students.
HR Simulation Finale
So the annual report for year two is handed in and our Human Resources Simulation is finally complete. This is something I am very thankful for. While I did enjoy the simulation, the computer system seemed to have flaws. On a few occasions our productivity dropped down from a 220 to 170 with no major change of what we were doing. This of course killed our overtime and most likely affected turnover. If it was something we were doing to affect it I would have no problem accepting failure, but I don't like feeling like we made the correct decisions and the computer hampered our companies progression. Other than that I enjoyed the simulation and feel that it should be continued to other classes. It is a good chance to get a feel of what running a company may look like and the various decisions you could have to make.
Disciplinary Actions
Disciplinary actions are a necessary evil in any workplace. I feel that on no level of any field can a worker work to their maximum potential without a fear of repercussions for total ineptitude. How to punish and what punishment to enforce should be at the discretion of the manager or supervisor of the employee in question. Granted you're not going to punish a doctor the same as a janitor for slight tardiness, but in either case the worker should know they are in the wrong and a lack of effort to fix the problem could result in a loss of your job. Does the boss have to be a tyrant who punishes his workers for every wrong step? No. But that doesn't mean he can't attempt to correct problems without at least the fear of punishment.
The Tom Mendola Case
First off I firmly believe in this case that Tom Mendola should be fired. Luckily, I was also put on the side of the room that was supposed to debate why he should be fired. First off the majority of workers in a factory like Tom was in are on a check to check basis with their own family, so a boss will not be able to single out one worker and bend to his needs. After being reprimanded multiple times and being allowed to change positions Tom had plenty of chances to straighten up. When I was 18 I began working in a factory, and the first thing I learned was that just because I am younger the older workers aren't going to take it easy on me. The older workers are working to support their families. If you slow them down they won't be happy with you.
Training Methods
The training of new employees is a very important part of an efficient, productive company. In class we spent a lot of time in small groups talking about a new and innovative way to train new employees. While this project was fun I feel that it was time that could have been spent in a more productive way. Some of the ideas in class were fairly impossible and we're voted for simply because they sounded like fun. This wouldn't bother me if it wasn't for the fact that it was for bonus points that I could really use. I like the idea of awarding participation bonus points in class, but maybe have it done in a voting system that isn't so flawed.
Learning Plan
The Learning Plan is a huge headache. As much is I feel capable of answering all of the questions asked in the paper, it feels near possible to answer the questions in a smooth, flowing paper with our own creativity thrown in here and there. Hopefully I will be able to pull it together better in the final draft for my grades sake, but I also don't like how the initial draft is worth more points that the other two. In the original draft I didn't know really what the grader was looking for on this paper that I barely knew how to write in the first place. This is the first paper I have ever written in which I have the edit it in order to cut pages, as compared to usually have to stretch every last word to make it long enough.
Harrah's Case
Incentives in a workplace is a very touchy, complicated subject. The more I learn about it, the more i realize that employees are very fickle, and very hard to determine what they are going to do. In the Harrah's case they implented a very effective incentive plan, but nothing good lasts forever. I thought that they could keep a group incentive plan with smaller teams and biased evaluations. This is due to the fact that I feel that competition is one of mankinds best natural incentives. The discussion in class didn't really seem to go anywhere though. It seemed that it was more about thinking about new, fun incentive plans instead of worrying about plans that would actually work effectively.
Ethics Discussion
I was very interested in the ethics decision in class on November 1st. Before I thought of ethics as just not lying and being an overall good person, but the discussion added even more to that. The part that intrigued me most was how after accepting one position with a company, it very bad to quit that job for a position you wanted more. It especially hit me when they mentioned that it will make that company think again before hiring more people from my school if I would do that. I guess this fact does make sense to me, but I felt it was a good conversation to have to remind everyone that our actions affect a lot of people
HR Simulation Part 2
As our Human Resources simulation continues on I really feel that I am getting a better understanding of how our team's decisions affect the computer that the decisions are put in to. I also feel that the computer is very close to what would happen in real life. The only problem I could see is that now it feels like our budget is so high for the second year that we can do anything that we want. It almost seems unrealistic that a human resources department would be alloteed $16 million dollars. But I guess it is our job to make sure our money is put to the best use possible.
5 Dysfunctions of a Team
Trust is an element of a team that can never be overlooked. This is the reason that it is the bottom layer of the triangle of dysfunctions of a team. Without trust a team is broken up into a group of individuals. If an indivudual in a team trusts the other members of that team he is much more likely to only worry about what he needs to get done. When his mind is only on what he needs to do it helps him do the best job he possibly can. Multiply that over the entire team and your very likely to get any job done and get it done right.
My HR Team
My Human Resources Simulation team really gives me a positive attitude towards this project. In many of my previous group/team assignments I am the person that ends up having to do all of the work. So far on this project everyone seems ready and willing to do their own fair share of work. This is especially promising in the type of project we are doing. I feel that in this type of project our best resource is our minds. If we get more opinions out in the open it gives us the best chance to choose the correct options. I believe that our team has a very relaxed and open atmosphere when we meet, which helps us greatly in discussing different choices.
Group vs. Team
Before our class discussion of what the differences are of a group and a team I guess that I always just assumed they are the same. After class when I started thinking about it I guess that it really did start to make sense to me. I have a couple "groups" of friends. We occasionally do things together, but we aren't working toward the same goal all of the time with individual roles. Out of each "team" that I am on I know what my job is exactly and what I have to get done to help my team reach our goal. With this in mind it does make much more sense to have companies working towards creating a team environment. A team is much more efficient, and usually a closer bunch of individuals.
HR Simulation
The human resources simulation seems like a fairly enjoyable project. Running a company has always sounded pretty interesting to me, which is probably the reason I chose it as my major. Now I actually get at least somewhat of an idea on what this may be like. I think one problem that could come up is the conflicting schedules within our group. This is not a "real world" type of problem since in a workplace we would be toghether to work on projects together every day. This isn't too much of a problem though, and I believe we should be able to overcome it without much difficulty. I'm still a little curious to see how what type of results our decisions will make, I guess we'll have to see.
First Entry
This is my first blog entry for my Management 250 blogging assignment. In class we were discussing how in a workplace respect for your boss can cause much higher productivity. I have personally seen this first hand at my job last summer in a partition factory. The old boss was my friend's dad who chose to move on from the company and start his own thing. The company decided that instead of promoting someone inside the company to be the new manager, it was be a better to bring in an outsider who could only be there two or three days per week. This made everyone more lackadaisical and productivity went on a steep downward slope. To me this shows that no person wants to be led by a stranger.