December 10, 2006
MGMT 250 Entry #15
I strongly dislike judging/ evaluating my peers because I don’t believe that I’m in the right position to do so. When bosses evaluate their employees, they use their trained skills and superior knowledge to deliver constructive criticism and fair judgment. How can I evaluate a person on the same level as me? Our skills are obviously comparable because we’re on the same level, but who’s to say who is better? I try not to be partial when I evaluate my peers, but sometimes I give very generous scores because I don’t know enough to judge them more seriously. Other times, I grade too harshly because I’m afraid of being too lenient. Either way, evaluating my peers is something that I need to work on and become more comfortable with.
MGMT 250 Entry #14
Recently, in class, we’ve been talking a lot about the best way to fire someone. When firing an employee, I think that it’s best done in a one-on-one manner. It’s best for the closest superior, perhaps a direct supervisor, to fire the person in a short but polite manner. I think that this is the best situation because if there are too many people in the room, the person being fired can feel threatened or attacked. The one-on-one set up is intimate and as comfortable as the situation can be. A direct supervisor should be the one to do the deed because only the closest superior can offer proper constructive criticism and can pinpoint reasons why the employment is being terminated. The firing should be done quickly and without emotion because emotions can make the situation go out of control. It’s very important to be polite, but maintain professionalism.
MGMT 250 Entry #13
Through the HR Simulation I’ve learned that it takes more than money to motivate employees. Every company offers money, so you have to bring more to the table than a slightly larger paycheck. To keep morale high, you must instate different benefits (health plans, cafeteria service, daycare, etc.), and you should offer more safety training. These things will help increase and maintain motivation, but I believe that, in the end, motivation is internal. An employee can be motivated only so much. The rest is up to them.
MGMT 250 Entry #12
In class we talked about a young man who worked in a factory in order to support his family. He was constantly tardy and when he actually came into work, he would mess around and disrupt other workers. Management gave him several warnings that his behavior was inappropriate and they transferred him to other departments, which he requested. In the end, his behavior didn’t change and he was fired. Prof. Johnson posed the question whether we would fire him or keep him.
He should, of course, be fired because his actions were simply inexcusable. The young man was seventeen-years-old. I’ve had a job since I was fourteen-years-old and I never experienced the difficulties in the work place that this boy had. Seventeen-years-old is old enough to be responsible for one’s actions.
I think that management was very accommodating because they placed him in the department that he desired. Still, nothing improved. Management can’t offer this young man too many chances because they must be fair to all the employees. If they are overly lenient with him then they must be equally lenient with any and every worker who chooses to be difficult. I feel bad for the boy because his father is sick and his family is needy, but if this job was really important to him, he’d find a way to focus on his work.
November 08, 2006
MGMT 250 Entry #11
On Monday we wrote 17 life goals on post-it notes. I had a couple of post-it notes with the obvious: “have a family,” “have financial stability,” “die happy,” etc., but most of my papers had insignificant achievements like: “learn to knit.” I don’t believe that I am necessarily unmotivated or unfocused. I just believe that the future is too far out there for me to think about it in here. Perhaps that is the wrong way to look at the situation. My mother often tells me that time passes us by before we realize it. However, today I’m still 19 and I don’t know whether I would be more happy making films, running a Fortune 500 company, or writing children’s books. I know that I want children but I don’t know when. I know that I want to make some money but I don’t know how. Is this really a problem or can I take my time?
MGMT 250 Entry #10
We have gotten some very strange results from our HR simulation, but I’ve noticed some logical patterns. For example, morale and quality are connected. When morale increases, so does the quality index. When morale decreases, so does the quality index. When morale remains the same, the quality index will remain the same or vary slightly. At times, the morale data, grievance data, and absentee data all show different trends. Some results suggest that the employees are happy and some suggest the opposite, but the morale data and the quality index data walk hand-in-hand. I guess a happy worker is an efficient worker.
MGMT 250 Entry #9
In the beginning of the simulation, I didn’t know what to expect from my teammates because I began my long hospital stays right then. I missed the first meeting or two because I was either in bed or not on campus, so I was expecting to see three very angry students because they had to pick up my slack. Other than that, I expected the usual. The usual is that we would get together, toss around ideas and opinions, and get the assignment done quickly and well.
My group lived up to my second expectation. We get together weekly and are very comfortable expressing our opinions. Every member brings something to the table and isn’t afraid to voice disapproval. Everything is done democratically and we just work well together.
The only trouble we ran into was my health problems, but the team members worked through it by taking on a little heavier workload. Thankfully, they are also very understanding and cut me some serious slack when I finally returned to classes.