Entries in the Category "MGMT250"
Is this my last one, already, but they're all so much fun to write
The title is inappropriate, but I'm bored of writing blogs. I know we get graded on relating back to class but, I find that boring too. Most of what we learn in class isn't ground breaking enough, or so previously unknown that I feel enlightened after hearing about it, for me to write an actual response.
If I tried, it'd be a cheesy, we-all-know-this-is-B.S. post. I could write a boring but honest okay-so-what-do-you-want-me-to-say-about-this post, but that isn't fun.
I end up torn among writing what "I should" write to get the grade, writing my honest opinion which probably wouldn't score me any points, babbling, or writing a mixture of the three along with the creative, personal flare that blogs are supposed to incorporate.
Yes, this is prep work for the "real world", but if the real world can't handle words like "nope", I don't want to write for it.
(Here comes my relating to class. Nothing concrete, but it talks about class.)
The grading for this class has been harsh, but not for the sake of harshness. We're graded this way because the people with experience, that are teaching and preparing us, feel we need to understand how proper and strict the profession is.
For me, it's been deflating. I don't want to be a machine. Yes, the assignment says relate to class, but what if I don't want to? The grade isn't enough to motivate me. If it was "write blog entries and try to relate them to class, but the more important thing is to be writing professionally in terms of grammar and word choice, so if you don't talk about class, it's no big deal, just remember your audience and what we're looking for" I wouldn't have a problem. Even if only one entry had to relate to class, I'd accept that. I just hate the rigidness, the constraint, of it.
I hope the business world isn't as terminator-esque as it's been made to seem at times.
Bloggin'
I think it'd be nice if the blogging assignment didn't have to deal just with what we learn in class or talk about in class. If I could write a faux-letter to a company about a business proposal, or a memo to a boss about an idea, or anything else that is a fake business thing but business related, that'd be amazing. Only writing about class or in response to something we went over in class, I feel, is limiting and, after a while, boring. Yes, I can write a nice, fake letter to Jonah Creighton as a change of pace, but why? As it is, I wrote about Jonah enough.
Maybe I'm unaware and I could write a letter to the editor of Maxim asking him to publish an article I write, and Meredith would grade it and give me feedback on structure and diction.
I guess after writing this, I'll find out.
Directory Assistant
When we broke up into teams to discuss proper training for newly hired directory assistants, I never imagined what we'd discover.
See, our group planned out a training regiment based on what we'd learned in class about the learning styles. Each employee would be lectured on all aspects of his or her job, then allowed to ask questions, would pick up a step-by-step sheet for future reference, and would go through a simulation call before taking a live call. We felt that covered everything (assimilator, converger, diverger and accommodator).
I decided that it'd be good to call in an outside source to see how accurate we were and to make any necessary revisions, so I took out my cell phone and called 411. The lady that answered had an amiable, clear voice. I told her that I was in my management class and that we were planning out a training program for a directory assistance positions and wondered if she could highlight some of the things she did in her training.
Little did I know that, "that information is secret." I didn't know Cingular's Directory Assistance Training Program was so high-profile that it had to be guarded like the recipe for KFC.
But, we did learn something else our program had to include: A confidentiality contract.
Feedback
The feedback lecture was well-timed and, I'm assuming, runs parallel to the current situation with the HR simulation. Team leaders are to be formulating ways to give feedback to their team members.
The lecture was good, and the points were all viable and effective, but I can't help but feel a majority of the "tools" we're learning are common sense. I don't even remember what SAFE means because after hearing about it I thought, "Ya don't say," and promptly forgot.
There was also the method where you say something positive to butter them up for the uppercut punch, then, after you've dropped them and the ref's counted to 10, you tell them that they fought well and to keep working hard. That's cheesy and amateur. Bad movies use that technique to be funny.
It's the little things Professor Piderit tells us, what she's gleaned from her own experience, that are the things to really take home. For instance, by making sure everything is clear and understood, the feedback process can be much less painful and stressful for both parties. The right questions (Is there anything I can do to help? Do you have any questions? Are we clear?), if offered at the proper time and answered honestly, can be relaxing.
I'm sure the skills we listned about were helpful and will be put to good use by many people, but I still think they're basis is in tact and being understanding, and that if you have those skills already, you should be fine.
Off to a good start
When I first looked at my grading contract, I knew I didn't want to turn in a memo within the first couple weeks of class--that would have been too much too soon. Plus, I thought, keeping a blog shouldn't be too bad; I like writing.
My first thought when Meredith passed back the memo assignments during Tuesday's class, "I need to find out when my blog entries are due." Little did I know I was already late.
How about a little more about why I'm doing this:
I picked the blog partly because writing is a hobby but also because it wasn't something that had to be completed immediately. Since anyone reading this is familiar with Case (after Brian Gray's comment I need to reiterate this statement: Since the chances that whoever reads this is familiar with Case), I don't need to go into details about how it feels like there's never enough time accomplish everything that needs to be finished; how every worry-free, stress-free, second I have is bliss. When I had the option to either complete a long-winded summary and assessment paper (a short-run problem) or do a blog entry later on(a long-run problem), I saw short-run freedom and lunged for it.
Which doesn't make a lot of sense since, now, I have to do all these blog entries.
Back to realizing I needed to get started:
I didn't check the blog due date on Tuesday. I didn't check Wednesday. Nope, I waited until before class on Thursday (9/21). I found the blogging rules file on blackboard, read, nodding as I went along as most of the information is common sense, and then I frowned. It turns out I needed to make an entry by 9/15. I believe that means -1 point for me.
The nice thing about the blog is that it does work around my schedule; I can make time and not be forced to complete it. But the bad thing is that I need to manage my time to work it in (already starting with -1 point off is a good example of this). Keeping a blog seems like such a small thing--get online, write a few sentences and be done--but it needs to be thought out, coherent and have a point to it. While convenient, I can't slack on my time management or writing skills if I want to get a good grade.
As logical as it seemed to work hard to get the memo done, I do think the blog is the better long-term decision. It's a free form assignment that involves observations, critical thinking, relativity, assessment, grammar and--what I feel is most important--I have to get it done myself. No one is going to be asking me if I have my blogs done or if they make sense or anything about them. I can either do my entries as I can and make them good, or I can wait till the last minute and reach for concepts and examples from class that I don't remember.
If I haven't matured at all, this will be horrendous.
I'm ready to see how things go. And even if at the start it's not very good, I hope I learn.