Entries in the Category "MGMT250"
Overall I think this class was good. I think there needs to be more communication between the instructors though. Each professor seemed to be looking for something different so when questions were asked there was never a clear cut answer. I also think that one person needs to be grading things. Everyone needs to be filled in on the exact requirements of things so that the students are not confused as to what they need to be doing. If Tracey Messer is grading the papers then Professor Powley needs to know exactly what she is looking for so when she is not there questions can be answered correctly and students don't lose points thinking they are doing the right thing.
Throughout the semester a man, whose name I forget, would come talk to us from the career center. I thought this man brought good information and seems to really be interested in helping us with our futures. He brought up some good points that I hadn't really considered before. Had he not come into our class I probably would have never considered visiting the career center. I think it is definitely a good thing to have him come speak to classes becuase he really does provide the sense that there are people at this university that are more than willing to help the students and actually care what happens to them.
Someone commented in the last class how awful the learning plans were to write. I am glad someone said that because I am not sure everyone who said they liked writing it really did enjoy it. I thought it was a little too long and was graded way too subjectively. How can you really give a grade on creativity without being subjective? I also think that when questions were asked in class about what was expected of us on the learning plan more should have been said than "use your best judgement" because I used my best judgement on the first part and apparently it was not what you were looking for. I think there needs to be a more concrete set of criteria and things that are very subjective, such as creativity, should not be included.
I am looking forward to taking the second half of management next semester. Though I think some of the things we cover in class are pointless I am looking forward to the next group project. Since the HR simulation was a good experience I am hoping this next project is just as enjoyable. I am also hoping next semester we will spend less time on things we should all already know, such as conflict. I am also hoping there are no ridiculously long papers due next semester.
During the HR simulation our group worked really well. We were able to communicate really well and most were able to make the meetings on time. Our group leader, Dan, was very efficient and always very prepared. He was able to keep us all on task, which was difficult at times. The results were a little strange in week 7 but we managed to come out with the highest productivity, so that was good. Overall it was an enjoyable project.
Learning Plan
I think the grades on the learning plans were a little too subjective. My paper, I thought, was decently creative given the topic, though I still got a zero because apparently it wasn't as creative as they would like. I am not a creative person, so I really don't think we should be graded on such subjective things. Also, I think the page limit should be increased, because in order to write enough to satisfy each question the papers would be much longer than 10 pages. I don't think points should be taken off because things were under-developed if we have such a constraining page limit. Things were not developed because people were trying to write in accordance with the page limit.
Motivation
I think what motivates a lot of people to take jobs is just money. I think this is sad, because there are a lot of jobs out there that will pay a lot of money that you just will not enjoy. Why would you want to spend the rest of your life in a career that you don't enjoy soley because it makes you money? I think everyone should look for jobs based on their interests and strengths. You take more pride in your work and are more inclined to do a better job if you actually enjoy what you are doing. I think the work place as a whole would benefit from people choosing jobs based on interests and strengths rather than the wage they will receive.
Jonah Creighton
In the Jonah Creighton case there was an issue with racism. He went to a few superiors to try to remedy the problem, that he was said to have strong beliefs about. I feel that he should have been more persistent. He was described as having very strong beliefs about equality, but if he wanted to make a change in the company I do not think he was persistant enough. If you believe in something that strongly you should make every effort to bring about change, even if change doesn't happen atleast you stood up for your beliefs.
Team Conflict
Today we spent and ENTIRE class session talking about team conflict. I can speak for myself and a few others when I say that was a complete waste of time. The majority of the class is atleast 19 or 20 years old, chances are we've worked on many different teams, whether they be atheletic or academic related. We are aware of what it takes to make a team run smoothly and what problems we will be facing. I signed up for this class under the impression I would learn something, not go over things I was taught in elementary school and junior high. I really feel our time could be spent on more important things that we will need to know for the future, rather than things we should have already learned.
On another note, our group projects I think are going very smoothly. My group works really well together, our team leader is awesome, and we generally stay on task and have a good time working together.
Learning Style
I think the learning style inventory we took was pretty interesting. I thought the results were surprisingly accurate. I had a vague idea of how I learn best but I had no idea that I was dominantly one learning style. All the surveys type things we have done so far have been surprisingly accurate. I really thought this would all be very inaccurate.
Group Assignments
Thursday we got our group assignments and got to pick our industry for the hr simulation. Our class chose beer companies as our industry, which considering some of the people in our class its fitting and I expected something like this. My group members seem to be really cool and motivated so I don't think we will have any major issues during this simulation and I am very confident we we do well. Our group leader seems really nice and very intelligent, I think our group definitely got one of the most capable people for that role.
MBTI
Yesterday we went over the MBTI little test thing we took, and I found it to be surprisingly accurate. The description of what I am according to this test, was dead on. The questions were really repetitive. I would be interested to see how I answered questions that were practically the same. I don't know how this is going to help me ever because I already knew all this stuff about myself but it was interesting to see that it was so accurate.
Are Older Workers Good "Buys"
The case we had to read for todays class, Are Older Workers Good "Buys" - A Case Study of Days Inn of America, said that older workers are better than younger workers. They gave a few examples why, however, because this was just about the Days Inn reservation center. Older people would be a better asset than younger workers for companies who focus a lot on customer service. It's true that older people tend to have more patience and are more willing to listen than younger people. The younger workforce is generally in a hurry and too rushed to spend any lengthy amount of time with any one customer. However, younger people can be a better asset than older people at jobs that require a lot of movement or quick transactions. Younger people can generally work at a faster pace and are more capable of dealing with a stressful high paced work environment without becoming frustrated or flustered. So, in determining whether an older person or a younger person would be a better asset to a company, that company must consider exactly what they will require of the worker. Deciding whether or not to hire an older person is completely situational.