Archives for the Month of October 2006 on Brendan Walsh's Blog
MBTI
The MBTI results indicated that my personality was ENFP. This means that I focus my attention towards extraversion, record information through intuition, make decisions by means of feeling, and deal with the outer world through perceiving. Many students did not like this activity because they felt it was inaccurate, and I partially agree. There were definitely too many questions that were repetitive, but I think my results agreed very well with my LSI. The fact that both of these tests had similar results, I feel that they were somewhat accurate.
Nonetheless, the test results helped me realize my personality strengths and weaknesses, and helped me form a basis on how I could improve them. The quality of this test is not fully appreciated by most young undergrads, but it will be very useful in the years to come.
Interviews
Due to the fact that my dad is in the field that I am currently interested in, I already knew a lot of information about the field, and thought that the interview for the individual learning plan would be uninformative. However, I had a different experience than what I expected. I was able to find answers to questions I had in the field, which I thought my dad answered with an opinion. I was also able to ask them questions that I would not feel right asking my dad such as; how do you manage conflicts between home and work life? I was able to find out more about the field internally and more personably through the interviews. I was actually lucky enough to interview someone who has been in the business for a long time, and also someone who is new to the field. It was interesting to find out what each liked and disliked in the field, and how the results compared to each other. I felt that I could relate better with the younger interviewee, although I was also happy to interview the older one as well because I learned more wisdom through this interviewee.
Overall, I was glad that we were pushed to interview other people than our family and relatives. If this wouldn’t have been in effect, I probably would have ended up interviewing my dad and another relative, which would not have been such a great experience for me. Nonetheless, the interviews turned out to be a great experience, and I was able to learn much more about the field than I expected.
Motivation in the workplace
The other day in class we discussed Herzberg’s motivating approach and the different outcomes. This topic was very interesting and informative to me because Herzberg presents many valid points. For example, he calls attention to hygiene factors such as pay raises. I never thought of a pay raise as a hygiene factor before, but after further thought on the issue I can relate to this personally. Many people who do not like their job are usually not dissatisfied due to pay but other aspects of the workplace. Most likely, people will not take a job if they feel that the pay is not adequate for the work they will be performing. When an employee receives a pay increase they will be happy at first, yet sooner or later they will become distressed again because the problem has not been eliminated; just masked for the time being. As Tucker mentions, “Offering them more money does not replace the satisfaction gained from doing fulfilling work.” If an employee hates their job, a pay increase will most likely not make them like it more. Another drawback from rewarding pay raises is the fact that employees will begin to expect it, and will feel that they deserve a pay raise rather than try to earn it.
Herzberg points out that self-actualization is what results with a happy employee rather than hygiene factors. I did not realize this aspect of management before, but I definitely see how it ties in with the rest of HR. It is not an easy task to satisfy an employee; managers are required to think long and hard on such a topic that appears to be simple, yet very crucial to success.
Groupthink
The other day our HR Simulation team met to discuss the project more in depth. Througout our meeting it was obvious that our team possesses a good amount of cohesiveness. This can definitely be seen by evaluating our goals and outcomes, which we all readily agreed upon. Today I was reflected on that last meeting, and some thoughts began to fill my head. I remembered about the one class discussion in which we spoke about groupthink. As Tucker states, “This idea of a member not expressing his/her ideas because they do not want to go against the rest of the group has me concerned. I never really thought of this idea before because I have always spoke what is on my mind, and at times have been known as a nonconformist. I am not saying that I think someone in our group had something to say because it seems that we are all speaking our own opinions, but I will definitely need to keep this thought of “groupthink” in the back of my head. I think being aware of this aspect during my career in the real business world will be very advantageous to not only myself but the company as a whole.
Career Fair
Today I attended the Career Fair and it was quite an experience. I have never participated in one of these activities; therefore, I was looking forward to learn a lot from this experience. The main reason that I wanted to attend the fair was because I had a hard time finding an internship last summer. I intend to find one this year, and vowed to take advantage of my resources.
It was interesting to see how many students actually attended the fair; this reminded me that there is a lot of competition throughout the business world. I felt that the networking activity in class was pointless at the time; however, I am beginning to see how this activity ties back into my life. Although we only networked with classmates, it allowed some experience in a more comfortable situation. At the fair I did not know any of the representatives, but since I already perfected my networking skills it was much easier for me to interact with them.
Overall, I think the fair was definitely worth my time, and I look forward to attending similar events in the future.