December 10, 2005
Feedback
People should not be afraid of getting feedbacks unless they really know that they messed up. Feedbacks are meant to help a person perform better or let them know what position or level they are in. IF a person needs to improve in certain skills, then he could be informed through feedback. People should take feedbacks as a positive thing as it will help maintain the company/firm run smoothly wihtout any complications. If one was not informed about his/her poor performance, then how would he/she ever find out? Hence,I beileve that feedbacks are necessary and required to maintain or improve the quality of both the employees and the firm overall. It would minimize any complications and is probably one of the best methods to communicate with the employees.
Goal Setting
As I jotted down my goals on the post it note, I came to realize that most of my goals were wealth and power oriented. There were occasional signs of ambition and adventure among my goals but I generally wanted to establish a "status". I thought that the idea of SMART goal was efficient as it gives you a sense of how to achieve your goals. Just writing down the goals down would not help you achive it. You need to take steps and processes. That is what I have not really thought about in the past until Professor Powel brought it up. I have always had life time goals but I have never really thought about the steps to take to achieve it. Hence, I belive that the second part of the Learning Plan would help me get to know myself better and help me realize what steps I need to take to achieve my goals or my ambitious dreams.
HR Simulation
At first, I did not understand the point of the HR Simulation and thought that it would not be as fun. However, I was wrong. When I understood how the HR Simulation Project worked, I got excited. The decision making was fun and exciting as I looked forward to the outcome/results of our firm. It seems that our decision making was good as we had outstanding outcomes as the values were higher than the company average. I think that this project was effective as it gave me a sense of what decision making would be like in the real life and what sort of consequences you would need to face based on the decision you made. For example, for one incidient, we decided not to promote both the women who had their priorities on their health and family. We did not expect that they would sue us for sexual discrimination. This result helped me become aware of the consequences that would arise from the decisions I made. It also showed me that we should not make decisions without any second thoughts or thinking thoroughly. Thus, overall, I felt that this group project was effective.
December 08, 2005
Last Day of Class
It is quite sad that today is the last day of the MGMT 250 class. It was probably one of the courses that I enjoyed taking overall at Case. I enjoyed and liked the fact that this course offered a lot of activities which made the class interesting and exciting. I feel that I have learned a lot about decision making (especially through the HR Simulation Project). Since this class went well, I am looking forward for MGMT 251 and hopefully it would be as fun as this course. A lot of people may complain about how simple and dull this class is because they feel that they are being "babysat", but I came to realize that this class actually helps you think and realize who you really want to be and how to get there (which is what we are sort of doing through the Learning Plan). Hence, this was a great course. I would recommend it to anyone with a business ambition or interest to take it.
December 06, 2005
Tom Mendola Case
Tom Mendola should be fired because he is not helping the company at all. He was given another chance but he showed lack of enthusiasm and productivity after a month. Continuing to keep him because he is pleading that he is the only one to support his family would not be a smart move as the company overall would be affected by his poor performance. In additon, company should not be tied up with the employee's personal matters. Hence, the company should fire him.
November 06, 2005
Harrah's Case
I found this case interesting since Harrah's Casino managed to accomplish its goal to acquire a larger share of customer's gaming budgets than their competitors, and increase same-store revenue compared with previous years. Unlike their competitors, they maintained its business efficiently without acquiring new "capital (land, building, technology etc)". Instead, they used gain sharing program. I felt very skeptical with this idea even though Harrah's Casino was successful with it. I felt that in the long run, employees would lose interest and be demotivated to work if the team that they were in did not obtain the rewards they have been working hard for. Hence, I believe that Harrah's should come up with an alternative before employees start to not care.
Training Methods/Activity
I enjoyed the activity we did in class on October 20. Training employees are important in order to obtain efficiency and productivity. I agree that training methods should not be trite as it would bore and demotivate the employees to learn efficiently. However, training methods should also be specific and straightforward inorder to let the employees know what the company is looking for. For example, employees should be trained to recieve the call in a friendly manner no matter what. Also, there should be alot of activities and simulations because "people learn best by doing".