 It's been fun, fellow Principle of Management students. We've learned many management techniques and ideas, how to create and use a blog, how to create a Prezi, and hopefully made a few new friends. I hope to read in the business section of the local newspaper about fantastic accounts of everyone's success! Good luck!
0 Comments
 This week we are talking about communicating. It's a subject that many people think they know about, but sadly don't. A previous employer of mine spent a large amount of time working on training its employees about communicating. It seemed silly to some of my coworkers at the time, but as the years go by I see that the idea was spot on. The training I received was almost exactly what we are learning in this chapter. I thought it was good then, and I haven't changed my mind. Communication is a subject that will always be relative and always be important. We will always need to communicate.
The part that has helped me over the years is the idea of being a good listener. The idea that listening and hearing were two separate things was a 'wow' to me. If there is only one thing to be taken from this chapter, I think that developing listening skills, instead of just hearing the other person, would be it.  I've decided that I am more of a manager than a leader after reading this chapter.
One of the parts that resonated with me was the position power idea. If I can't reward my people for doing a good job, or give them a reward that is acceptable, you can lead all you want and not get anywhere. After a while, it's a case of 'Meh, who cares. I'm not getting anything for my hard work'. Hard to overcome that. And I don't blame them. I feel the same way. I agree with the contingency theory. I don't think that most people can change their management style, and it's important to get the manager into a position that best suits his/her style. And that would be a job for the next level manager to do. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This week we are covering motivation. I actually liked this chapter. I feel that proper employee motivation is something that is talked about a great deal, but rarely done it a competent manner. And it is under appreciated as the important tool that it is in the workplace. I will take a lower skilled, but highly motivated worker over the opposite any day. At a former place of employment, this was covered in almost the same detail as our text, and they actually followed through with the ideas and strategies to implement the plans for motivated employees. It made for a great place to work.
I think this whole chapter could be written as such: Hire the best available person regardless of color, sex, etc. There, wasn't that easy!
Did anyone else notice the job descriptions on page 260, talking about Emotional Stability. "...high-stress jobs such as...emergency medical treatment, piloting planes, or commanding rockets." Commanding rockets!?! What the heck kind of a job is that? I don't like discrimination, but I don't like the way that everything has become a numbers game. The focus hasn't been on hiring the best available worker, but getting the right mix to avoid a lawsuit.  Anyone who has worked more than five minutes has been associated with human resources. Those of us who have worked for larger companies have had training and/or classes in discrimination and sexual harassment. Necessary stuff. The more I work, the more I realize that no one should have to put up with a hostile work environment.
Unfortunately, the rules and laws have become so numerous that it seems as though a manager has to have a law degree to safely hire, employ, and fire employees. That seems sad. I understand it, I'm not complaining about requiring adequate work environments. I just wish it didn't have to be so. 
I can't say that I'm wild about the whole 'work group' idea. Any time I've been a part of a team, I seem to get sleepy boy above as part of my group. Of course, none of my employers ever gave much thought to the composition of any group.
"We need to form a group to fix this highly technical and challenging problem." "Put Bob in the group. He's worked here a long time." "Good idea. Plus it gets him out of our hair for a while." That seems to be the thought process for any group I've been involved in. I sincerely hope I was never considered Bob. So, although our text book is pretty high on the team idea, unless it's going to be supported in a competent fashion by the company, I say OK, so my site was getting old looking. Actually, I probably could have dusted it, it's been so long since I've done anything.
It is sort of fun to play with this stuff. And it gives me an excuse to write something. Anyone who is in my Principles of Management class, have fun changing the design of your site, and I am off now to work on Personal Taxation. Also, here's a link that is topical to Business Law I http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/30/a-few-cases-to-watch-in-this-scotus-term/ Hello fellow members of Principles of Management (and anyone else who happens to read this. Don't want to discriminate). This should be fun! I've never had a blog, but I have thought about starting one. Thank you Mr. Jacobs for pushing me into doing something different.
| AuthorWorking on scratching the writing itch, and a blog may be a good way to blow off steam. Heck, no one reads this anyway, I can say whatever I want! ArchivesDecember 2012 Categories |
RSS Feed