December 12, 2006
HR Reflections
I have learned a lot from being a team leader for the HR simulation. However I feel that it was the members that made this an amazing experience. If I can make one recommendation is that at the first meeting have the group set what their expectations for both themselves and other team members. I feel that it is only through having a strong foundation allows for the establishment of a common team goal. In the end our high expectations caused us to be #1 in Quality & Safety. Although the thing that makes the biggest difference is the knowledge that your group worked well together and you reached your results because of a team effort and not one person alone. I feel that we could have done better, but we will never know. Personally I am happy with the outcome and the overall quality of our group.
The simulation on the other hand I feel should be overhauled. It needs to be more challenging and in depth. I feel that the current simulator is to simple and not challenging. Also I would like to see more of the class work involved with our weekly outputs. However the general idea for the HR simulator gives us a decent simulated environment to learn in.
Mgmt 250 reflections
MGMT 250 has been a very interesting class. I feel that is does a great job of uniting the undergraduate business school and giving students an advantage in the work environment. However at the same time I feel that the class could have more student interaction within a real world environment. Why do we have to wait until we get internships to use what we learn? Yes it can be argued that the HR simulation fulfills this role, but I feel that the HR simulation is too simple. However I have learned a lot of new and useful managerial skills that I hope to use in the near future. I feel that MGMT 250 has given me a new incite on what a business needs from its managers and how I will eventually fit in with it.
MGMT 250 reflections
MGMT 250 has been a very interesting class. I feel that is does a great job of uniting the undergraduate business school and giving students an advantage in the work environment. However at the same time I feel that the class could have more student interaction within a real world environment. Why do we have to wait until we get internships to use what we learn? Yes it can be argued that the HR simulation fulfills this role, but I feel that the HR simulation is too simple. However I have learned a lot of new and useful managerial skills that I hope to use in the near future. I feel that MGMT 250 has given me a new incite on what a business needs from its managers and how I will eventually fit in with it.
Learning Plan
The last two weeks were the hardest weeks I have ever had here at Case. It seemed like a never-ending flow of papers, research, group meetings and presentations. Yet, of all of the papers the learning plan was my favorite one to work on. I really put my best effort in to it yet, I still feel it could be a lot better then it currently is. Although when I turned it in I could confidently say that this is one of my best papers I have ever written. I think that the learning plan is a great assignment to do sophomore year of college. It has given me a chance to reflect upon who I am and where I want to be. This is not something a lot of college students do and for that I am thankful.
HR Simulation and Layoffs
When our team was presented with the problem of having potential layoffs we did wonder if the there would be negative comes and debated having layoffs at all. However we did decide to fire about 10 level one employees this was about 2% of the total employees in this categories. We figured that such a small layoff would not be seen as a big deal and that we were simply adjusting for shifts in the job market. Furthermore we have an appraisal system in place and there by the employees who were the lowest performers would be fired. This is what sold it for us.
However evidently firing such a small percentage of your employees, even if they are the lowest performers in the company was not a good idea. We had a drastic decrease in morale and additional employees left too. Maybe this is a flaw in the program, but I feel that the programs should account for this and if anything by firing our low performers our moral, safety and quality would improve. While I like this current simulation I feel that it should take this in to account.
Interning
My parents are expecting me not to come home this summer, but rather that I will be interning in another city. Thereby I was really pleased when Amy came into our class to discuss internship opportunities for this coming summer. Right now I am still worried about getting one, because of my current GPA. And with some companies requiring a minimum of a 3.7 GPA just to apply why shouldn’t I be worried. While I do plan on increasing it to an acceptable level by the end of this school year, this will not help me in time for this summer. I have tried to find an internship through networking, but have had little luck with this. As a result I will be going to the Career Center to see if there are any routes I have not tried. I want to have the real world experience, but I am worried that my current academics will prevent this.
November 10, 2006
Goals and Dreams
The exercise we did in MGMT250 the other day where we discussed our dreams and goals, was very insightful. This is not the first time that I have done this activity, but the idea of creating a list is still new to me. I made my first list in August and at the time it seemed silly to me. However, as this semester has gone by I have realized that this is something not to put aside. There are times where we feel like we are only working towards one goal. While in life we do have the big goals: get a job, get a house, have a family. Yet we get to focus on these things and we forget what are dreams were. We end up losing touch with who we really wanted to be. Life is more then just a bunch of papers, memos and meetings. Life should be about making you happy and doing what you want to do. There will be things that are unavoidable, bad bosses, horrible jobs, and family issues. Yet as long as you try to accomplish other little goals the good will help balance out the bad.