Archives for the Month of October 2006 on Blogging MGMT 250
Employee Bonuses and Rewards
Bonuses for employees are seen in many fields of work. Salesman get commission based on their sales, waiters get tips based on their service, lawyers get more money if they win, etc. Workers would not have incentive to do exceptional work if they would receive the same monetary reward for doing ordinary work. Although the chance of a promotion is not guaranteed, it can still be considered a bonus incentive.
In one of my jobs I had in high school I washed dishes at a small diner. Sometimes the waitresses would give me a tip for washing the dishes and I eventually figured out which ones gave me tips. When the waitresses that gave me tips worked a shift, I put extra effort into doing my job including coming early or staying late to help them out. While I still did my job fully for all the waitresses, I put the most effort for the ones that offered a form of bonus.
Learning Plan
Recently I turned in my learning plan. Although I've written personal reflections before, this is my most in-depth self-evaluation ever. I was surprised to see that I had my assets and values very well defined despite the fact that I've never directly thought about them.
My strongest asset was my ability to adapt to situations and problems that may arise. Hopefully I can utilize this asset in my HR simulation group if any problems do arise. I also hope to establish and enhance other assets I may have through the team project. Meeting on a weekly (or semi-weekly) basis and making the HR simulation decisions may improve my leadership skills, and my work-ethic. My entire group will be relying on me to do my fair share of exceptional work. So not only will I be letting myself down my doing sub-par work, but also my entire team.
Beginning the HR Simulation
We had our first HR simulation decision meeting. We've met informally before just to get to know each other and ask each other interview questions. Surprisingly, when it came to making the decisions, there was almost complete consensus on every decision made. We all seemed to have similar priorities. We decided to experiment on a few decisions to see the affects it had on our stats.
When we received our results back, some of our gambles paid off but some put us dangerously below average. For our next decision meeting, we decided to move towards industry average and to appease our workers. In our decision making, we jokingly considered giving our employees extremely high raises so that they will not want to leave to another team's company, and therefore hurting other teams. Since our company's performance is based against the industry, the worse other teams do, the better we do. Ultimately we decided that we should not try to sabotage other teams as this is poor business ethics.
Building a Successful Team
In class we discussed how to form a successful team. We listed ways that will help team cohesion, things that could hurt it, and good ways to settle a conflict. I think one of the keys to a successful team is to establish a level of comfortableness with the teammates. Methods of doing this include meeting at a restaurant for team meetings, discussing your personal life, and joking around before, during, and after meetings.
Some members will not be comfortable contributing, criticizing, or trusting their teammates unless they know more about them. Establishing healthy relationships on both a professional and personal level with your teammates will make all team projects run more smoothly and be more successful.
Discrimination in the Workplace
In one of my MGMT 250 classes we looked over a scenario about hiring. The basic facts of the scenario were that there was a handicap applicant with MS that was qualified for all the job descriptions except for her lack of mobility. A less qualified woman was hired instead. The handicap woman is considering suing the bank for discrimination. The class was asked whether the woman had a case.
Legally, she does have a case because she was more qualified than the person that got hired in every way except for her mobility. Although the bank may have been wrong legally, I do not blame them for passing on the handicap woman. Part of the job was to be constantly moving from teller to teller (with stairs involved). It should not be the responsibility of the bank to accommodate for her needs. In most discrimination cases, the race/sex/age/nationality usually has no bearing on the person's ability to do the job. However, in this scenario, the applicant's lack of mobility is a distinct disadvantage and would prevent her from fully doing the job.