Entries in the Category "MGMT250"
Goals v. Dreams
There is a great difference between a goal and a dream. I think this added to some confusion when we fist discussed goal setting. When we did the exercise where we wrote down specific goals on post-it notes, I noticed at the end that I had included some things that would be considered dreams, not goals. It can be hard to distinguish between the two. In my opinion, the easiest way to tell whether something is a goal and not a dream is that it should be measurable and attainable. Most dreams people have are things they would do/have if they had certain resources, not things they think they can get based on what is actually possible.
Goal Setting and Action Plan
What we learned about goal setting and forming an actiona plan was helpful, especially in finishing our learning plans, but I think it was a little too broad. There are many different goals one can make, and thus different ways they can be measured. Because of this it can be hard to distinguish which measurements apply to which goals. When Prof Powely placed an example of a goal and its corresponding action plan on projection screen, there was a wide variety of suggestions given.
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HR Simulation Final Report Extension
Unfortunately Case's e-mail server is not the most reliable form of communication. The server went down the night before the HR simulation final report was due. Because of this inconvienence, the due date for the report was extended 24 hours. I understand that a lack of e-mail access can hinder a group's performance, but the extension is a little unfair to those who took either the precation of preparing their report ahead of time or made extra efforts to use other forms of communication.
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Tom Mendola Case
When we discussed the Tom Mendola case in class, Prof. Polinski took a different approach than he did with the other cases. For the other cases we split into small groups and came to our own conclusions about the case and the questions asked. This time he divided the class in two and told us what side we would be taking. This proved to be quite difficult for me. I was in favor of firing Tom, but I was on the side which was against firing him. This forced me to look at the argument from a different stance.
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Benefits of Opposing Views
On the last day of class we were asked to talk about our favorite part of the class. My favorite parts were all the times we had debates in class. Sometimes the debates got a little heated, but that is to be exected sometimes. Debate is a valuable aspect in learning. When a student makes a comment and is confronted by an opposing argument, he/she is forced to defend his/her view. This causes the student to put real thought into his/her arguments and not just simply regurgitate what it said in the book. Classes lacking the opportunity for debate often do not have as great of an impact on the students' learning.
MGMT 250 - a 4 credit hour class?
Many students, myself included, feel that this course should be worth four credit hours instead of three. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense.
Most four credit hour courses occur due to labs or recitations. No, this class does not have either, but it's possible that our HR simulation could be counted as a lab.
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Ethics
Business ethics was one topic brought up in our debate on Jonah Creighton. It was suggested that there are certain laws which are habitally broken due to societal laws. Equal opportunit laws was one examples given in class. If a society as a whole does not follow these laws, are they really laws, and should they be followed by all?
It is true that if you go against the societal norm of a culture you may be committing business suicide. The question is whether or not you put you business above such issues. This is how the whole concept of business ethics came about.
Incomplete Information
Incomplete information is a leading cause of conflict. One of the best examples of this was our class discussion on the Jonah Creighton case this past week. There were many different views seen in class over what Jonah did wrong or whether or not he did anything wrong. Had the case included more information, maybe there would have been a smaller range of views seen by all the students.
Some of the missing information was 1.) how did the recruiters know Martin Blanks is black, 2.) do England and Australia have discrimination laws comparable to the U.S., 3.) was the company based in the U.S., and 4.) if so, do their branches in other countries have to follow U.S. laws.
Had we been privy to this information, perhaps there would have been less confusion in the debate we had in class.
Professionalism
College is supposed to prepare students for a "real world" job. What most don't realize is that this not only includes teaching us the information needed for our chosen careers, but also preparing us to conduct ourselves as professionals.
One thing I've learned through my classes and internships is how to be polite in a meeting, whether it be in class or on the job. In the class setting you should always raise your hand before speaking. In the office it can be a little different. You may not raise your hand in a meeting, but you'll wait your turn and not interupt others. I've noticed in class some students don't follow this rule of proper class etiquette. I think that some students need to realize that they can't just shout out things whenever they want. It interrupts others and causes some to never get called on, let alone the fact that it's rude, and it won't fly in a meeting at a real job.
Why use incentives
In class today we asked the question, Why use incentives? Some felt that incentives should not be needed if the employees we responsible. It was suggested that if these were quality employees they would not need added benefits to get them to produce quality products at a good rate. These benefits are, in this sense, bribes.
I do not believe they are bribes. They are simply a means to express an employer's appreciation. If you consistantly improve your work and do quality work, you should be compensated, and if you're not, you may not feel appreciated which could lead you to think, Why try hard at all?
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Teams
I was a little nervous about being in teams in this class because I don't know many people since I just changed my major this semester, but I actually really like it. I'm not sure what system was used to make the teams, but it seems to be a good one.
We had quite a few differences of opinions which really got us talking and thinking. I thought about my team when I was reading the appendix for class on Thursday. We really seemed to aviod the 5 disfunctions quite well.
Conflict
I noticed there was some confusion in class on Thursday about conflict and how it could affect a team. Conflict simply means a difference of opinions, but it often does take on a negative connotation. I think one problem a few people in class had was that they saw conflict in a negative light. However, according to the article we read, fear of conflict is worse than conflict itself. It's very beneficial for the group to encounter and encourage healthy conflict. That is why the groups were made the way they were. Our professors knew that we'd have differences of opinions on certain things, and that was the whole point.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
I didn't actually have much time last week to look over the results of my MBTI results. I mean, I saw that I was an ESFP and read the description of it, but I didn't really look at the rest of it until earlier today.
I remember in class many people were concerned about the fact that they felt they fit into multiple categories. That's okay. It's actually a good thing, in my opinion. Personally, I can see myself being in just about everything begining with E. This makes sense because Extraversion was my highest scoring result. It was the only one that was in the 'Very Clear' category.
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Student "Groups" on Campus
I've been in groups at many points in my life, especially in the classroom environment, but I never actually compared the structure of one group to another. Actually, I should say teams, not groups. Being assigned a group/team in a class is something all of us have done before or, if not, are doing now; but it's something most of us have done outside of class. Whether it be playing sports, being a part of student government, or even being greek, I'm sure most of us have been on some form of a team.
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Answering Interview Questions
Since the Fall is the start of the interviewing process for most internships, co-ops, and full time entry level jobs, I, like most other students, will begin setting up interviews with companies I am interested in. While preparing my resume I thought back to our class discussion about ethics considering interview questions. The big topic of debate was what should you say when asked by an interviewer, "What is one of your negative qualities?", or something to that effect. I can almost guarantee this question will be asked by everyone you ever interview with.