December 11, 2005
Learning Plan Frustrations
As I put the final touches on my learning plan and read over Meredith’s comments, I become frustrated. I noticed that on one page there was a comment directing me to answer a question that I had answered in an earlier paragraph. I feel like these learning plans force you to be redundant. Honestly, I feel like I’m saying the same thing over and over again only in different words. Another thing that really frustrates me about the learning plan is that I just can’t make a basic statement. If I don’t explain that basic statement with four subsequent sentences, points will be taken off.
Tom Mendola Case
I do not think that the company had a responsibility to employ Tom Mendola. He did not hold up his half of the bargain by being a productive employee, so the company does not need to continue to employ him. However if the company was committed to helping Tom work through his problems and become a more productive worker, there are a few things they could try. Tom seems to have a problem holding interest in his positions. Clearly he is immature and needs more stimulation than is offered by the jobs he is working. To keep Tom productive, the company could put him in a position where activities are varied. Perhaps a rotation system would also work where Tom could work on one job for a couple weeks and then switch to another department.
December 04, 2005
HR in Desperate Housewives
Back at the beginning of the semester when I actually had time to watch frivolous television programs, I was watching Desperate Housewives with my sisters. The particular episode I watched involved one of the characters (it is evident how frequently I watch, I do not even remember the character’s name) was applying for a job. The company she was interested in was quite professional and was concerned that the women applying would have trouble balancing the job and her family (she had several children). For the second part of the interview, a complication forced the character to bring along her youngest child. Both this example and the example in one of the HR simulation incidents bring up the presence of family and whether outside influences should be considered when hiring or promoting. We have learned that it is illegal to consider issues such as family when promoting and hiring. Personally, I do not see the issue. When promoting one would want to make sure that the person is able to perform the job needed. If someone has outside commitments, and you have reason to believe that they would not be able to handle an increase in responsibility that should weigh in. I do not mean to say that everyone with a family should be automatically discounted from promotions, but if someone is consistently late to work because she has to drop off her children at school, should she really receive a promotion?
Teacher Evaluations part II
In addition to what I have mentioned in my earlier post I think that because course evaluations are so important at this University, students should be rewarded for completing them. In the way the system currently exists, students do not need to take the evaluation process seriously. I propose that the University adopt incentives to make students participate. More professors should be encouraged to adopt the policy that students receive some amount of extra credit for filling out evaluations. For the majority of the classes that I have taken at this school, professors leave the class 20 minutes early and have the class fill out the evaluations then. What usually happens is that the students rush through the evaluation and fill it out in 2 minutes so that they can leave class as soon as possible. Instead, evaluations should either be done online, or at the beginning of class so that students take a good amount of time completing them. Extra credit should be awarded to students who are in class on the day of evaluation or who reach the final screen of the online survey.
Teacher Evaluations
Teacher evaluations carry a lot of weight on campus. Not only are the evaluations considered in tenure, but the evaluation results are available to students choosing their next semester schedules. However the process with which we evaluate teachers does not reflect the importance of the process. For example, evaluations are usually given out on the last day of classes. Students are more concerned with leaving the class 15 minutes early than spending the time to fill-out an in-depth and informative evaluation. Students probably don’t care about filling out the evaluation because the results do not affect them. If evaluations were given at mid-term and the results were immediately integrated into the course, students may be more willing to spend time filling them out. In one of my classes, my professor had the class have a discussion about how the class had been working so far. While the professor was outside of the room, we were to evaluate both her and ourselves in an effort to make the class better for the second half of the semester. We were able to come up with several suggestions and presented them to our professor when she returned. So far, this method has really worked and I think class has improved as a result of this process.
November 06, 2005
Jonah Creighton Case
In the Jonah Creighton case, what stuck out most to me was the fact that the company could be held legally responsible for their questionable actions regarding racism. While this seemed like the number one concern to me, Part B of neither the case nor our class discussion brought this up. If Jonah approached the upper level management of the company with the position that he had uncovered some material with potential legal ramifications how could them have not have listened! I would think that the management of the company would be happy that he was looking out for them and had their best interests in mind. I was really surprised when Part B of the case revealed that Jonah had been given an ultimatum and virtually fired.
Is it OK for everyone to be your first choice?
My senior year of high school, one of my best friends Joey applied to 30+ colleges. As she began to receive her acceptances and notices of waitlists, she replied to each school that she had been waitlisted at to confirm that she was very much interested in attending XYZ school. In addition she created a CD not only showcasing her singing talents but her love for XYZ school, customizing the song “New York, New York” for each institution she had been waitlisted at. Accompanying these CDs were Joey’s enthusiastic statements that each school was her first choice and favorite and how she would love to attend. Her situation became a little trickier when a few of her waitlisted options accepted her. Suddenly she found herself in the position of explaining to one “first choice” that she couldn’t attend because she had accepted another “first choice”. Was this ethically wrong of Joey? To lead schools on by telling them they were her first choice even when they weren’t? Or was she simply being smart and working the system?