Our presentation

My group's presentation went over very well.  It was not very creative or interesting, but the content was good.  The groups ahead of us were extremely creative, and had nifty presentations.  I thought that may bite our group in the butt, but it didn't.  In hind sight, i wish our group would have brought food, but I'm probably only thinking that because I'm hungry right now.  Then again, it may have made our presentation more interesting to the class.  I also think our group should have chosen a more interesting topic.  No one really cares about accounting fraud, however, everyone cares about the NFL lockout.

Presentations

On Wednesday I thought the presentations went very well.   All the topics were very interesting and it was neat how each one used different class material to analyze their organizational problem.  I was especially interested in the Pixar Disney problem.  Prior to that class I had no idea that Disney had bought Pixar.  I thought it was nice the way Disney did not overly enforce their company culture on Pixar.  This was most prevalent in the fact that Disney did not make Pixar say have a  magical day at the end of phone conversations to customers.

The haves

We talked about the haves, the have a little but want more, and the have nots.  These groups were compared to students.  We were considered the have some but want more because we had enough money to make it to college but not enough to go to more prestigious colleges.  Those kids at the prestigious schools would be the haves then,  However, I think in reality no one is just a have, everyone always wants more.  No matter who you are, I don't think anyone can truly be satisfied with their position, there is always a new frontier to conquer in a sense.  I think when people start thinking they are haves, they stop striving for more, and in a sense stop trying.  I think it is good to be a have some but want more because there will be a constant effort put for in order to gain more.

Exercise Discussion

On Monday we discussed the exercise we did about two weeks ago.  I thought a lot of good points were brought up.  The way the exercise was run, a lot of good faith was needed on the part of each group, and in the end the bottom group had the most power.  They actually didn't really need the middle or bottom group at all.  They could have just negotiated without the top group.  I think it's a descent representation of a company.  The top group negotiates with other companies.  The middle group gets the specs from the top group and delegates to the bottom group.  This way all the bottom group has to worry about is working.  The middle group makes sure the bottom group is taken care of and the top group deals with the customers.  My only problem with the exercise is that there wasn't enough time to do everything.

Book Report #5

                In the last section of my book Barbara Ehrenreich evaluates her experiences in working in poverty.  She looks back at how she managed her budget with respect to her income.  In some cities she did reasonably well.  In Minneapolis she had $22 at the end of every month after all the expenses.  In Portland, Barbara would not have been able to keep her head above water.  For the time she was there, prices were relatively low, but during tourist season, prices would have sky rocketed and her income would not have been able to sustain her lifestyle.  In the end, she gave herself a B or B+. 

                After having reviewed her experience, she thought it should be simple for those employees barely getting by to find better paying jobs.  However, these employees face many challenges.  For starters many of these poverty stricken employees they don’t have cars.  Because of their lack of mobility they have trouble seeking employment elsewhere.  Because of the lack of media presented to these employees, they also have trouble finding better paying jobs.  These impoverished people don’t have laptops, blackberries, or ipads.  They can not look at help wanted ads on the internet for better wages.  All they have is the help wanted ads in the paper, which rarely show wages. 

                Ehrenreich tries to figure out why the impoverished not only get poor wages, but have to pay such high rents.  The reason for this is that the rich can always buy the poor areas, where as the poor can never buy out the rich.  Barbara gives the example of a rich person buying out a trailer park to put up condos.  All the people living in the trailer park can’t possibly afford the condos, so they have to find housing farther away from work. 

Ehrenreich also, points out that a reason for the low wages in these low skilled jobs are the result of the culture in the company.  The company tries to make the employees feel like they are such a small part of the company, that if they want a higher pay, then the company will find someone else to do the job for less.  This culture makes the employees feel like they need the company, not the company needs them.  Another bad characteristic of companies with low wage workers is that employees feel like they are getting used and abused.  Employees don’t want to show their full potential because there is little reward for doing more, and they don’t want the company to use and abuse them.

Exercise

In the exercise we did on Monday, I was thoroughly confused most of the time.  I was part of the middle group. In the beginning, we were went to our meeting area and had no idea what we were doing.  Finally, the top group came down and told us our objective.  We went down to the bottom group and relayed the message and then had to go meet back up with the top group.  They wanted samples of the slogans when we really didn't have enough time.  In the end, I got one Goat buck and have no idea why or how.  I think the exercise would have gone smoother had we had about another hour.  There would have been much better communication on all levels, and more Goat bucks to go around.  I think this exercise was a representation of what it is like to work at a corporation.  You get orders from the top, but you don't know where they are located, they come to you.  You then as managers have to relay the orders to those who work below you.  However, in the work place there would be better communication.

looking at power

I think that the points made by Machiavelli were really interesting.  The best decisions you can make while in power, are the ones that keep you in power.  I never thought about decisiopn making in that way before.  I always looked at decision making as right and wrong or good or bad.  But when i looked at decisionmaking that way it was by looking at the effect on the greater good.  I think there have been a lot of rulers that have taken Machiavelli's point of view and havce stayed in power.  Most of them are viewed as evil though.  For example look at Stalin, he shot down all opposition which kept him in power.  He suppressed his people. 
I don't think the head of a company can go to the same lengths as Stalin.  However, the head of a company can cut down the competition for his job quite easily.  I think Machyiavelli's view at making decisions while in power is interesting but I don't think it's right.

Magic Cable

After reading this article I think Gary Roberts traded down as opposed to trading up when he took the new job.  In his mind he thought that because there was a clean working enviroment and a small chance of promotion that he was getting a better job.  However, I think he assumed he'd get all of his past perks.  At Magic Cable, the enviroment may have been cleaner, and there was a large diversity of people working.  However, he didn't get the overtime opportunities and his boss wasn't a quality guy.  Back at Tile-Elite he had over time and his boss was an okay guy.  He was a valued part of the company as a mechanic.  Just because he wasn't happy with not getting a promotion doesn't mean he should have left.  If he was valued that much at Tile-Elite he should have gotten a raise.

Motivation video

The video we watched in class Wednesday was interesting.  I liked the way it was put together with the drawings and the lecture.  I didn't expect the results of the one test though.  The one where they payed people to complete tasks that required some amount of skill.  the fact that participants performed worse in these tests surprised me, but I also thought it made sense.  Personally, I'd perform worse at many of these tasks because of the increased pressure that comes along with the reward.  The reward makes the task seem more important than what it really is.  I think this ruins people's focus on the task at hand which is why I think the participants perform worse.  I think if people were made unaware of the rewards they'd perform a lot better.

motivation

I found the motivation lecture on Monday very interesting.  Maslow's Hierarchy of needs helped to explain what people need in their environments.  The deficiency needs are needs i would look for in my work place as a must.  I probably wouldn't work up to my potential without them.  The growth needs would just enhance my work experience.  They would motivate me to try to exceed my potential and find better ways to get my job done.  I feel that a good employer would try to fill all the needs in Maslow's Hierarchy of needs to create the best work place possible.

Book Report #3

Barbara Ehrenreich continues her work at the Alzheimer’s ward and finds that she must run the dining time.  She can’t seem to find many of the staff around.  She thinks that they are all trying to stab her in the back and make her look bad, but her suspicions have no grounds.  It turns out the staff were all busy and one even brought her a breakfast sandwich the next day. 
The next weekend, Ehrenreich is back working for the maid service.  One of her fellow employees had been let go because they had been caught stealing.  While at the first house Ehrenreich finds that another fellow employee is injured.  She has a bad ankle.  This is when Barbara loses and calls the boss to complain.  She then has an argument with her coworkers over the qualifications needed to work this job and whether or not she will get fired.  Ehrenreich finds that she is not fired and in fact gets her way when the coworker with the bad ankle is sent home to heal. On her last afternoon working she tries to tell everyone that she is an investigative author and everyone thinks it is a joke.  She then departs and leaves behind a bunch of brand new friends. 

I think the maid service relates back to the Wal-Mart uniform discussion we had in class.  All the maids had to wear these ugly uniforms and cleaning supplies while upper management got to wear what they wanted back in the office.  Multiple times, Ehrenreich comments on how the uniform made the employees feel subjugated.  Just walking into a gas station the author got stares that said “what could you possibly need here, you’re just a maid.”  I think that the ugliness of the uniforms reflected the pride the employees felt in the job, which was little to none. 

Ehrenreich starts her next assignment in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  She finds a job at housing wears store and begins making $8.50.  She then decides to look into the employment options for drug users.  She surfs the web looking for ways for potential employees to pass drug tests.  She also gets a job at a Wal-Mart. 

A few days go by and Barbara still doesn’t have an apartment to live in.  She keeps looking but can’t find quite what she needs for her limited amount of income.  She goes to both job orientations for Wal-Mart and the housing wears store.  She learns that her pay will be $7 and 10$, which makes her question whether or not she will even need the Wal-Mart job.  

Group Project

My group chose to look at the Enron scandal.  We feel that there were multiple organizational breakdowns that occurred that helped lead to this problem.  We believe  there was a lack of communication, a problem with leadership, and poor ethics.  These three organization problems helped lead to the misrepresentation of funds that ruined the company.  I would like to look at the way my team chose the topic.

We all came to the decision of Enron after our first idea for a topic failed.  Our first idea was to do our project on Fannie Mae and how their organization failed.  We decided on this topic by having each group member bring a topic idea to a group meeting and then everyone vote on which we should choose.  After we chose Fannie Mae, we decided the Enron scandal should be our back up topic in the event our original idea did not pass.  It was a very democratic process, and we all have already chosen our roles.  We have a group leader, motivator, and a mediator for the group.

quiz

On Wednesday the class took a quiz to look at what happens behind our deciding process.  We looked at how previous stereotypes affect the process, as well as, how past experiences can also affect this process.  I found that I actually did pretty well on the quiz.  As soon as i read the first question I thought it might be a quiz on which the obvious answer is usually the wrong one.  I thought that the quiz was designed to say, "hey, you jump to conclusions."  However, I never really looked that deeply into why I choose answers to questions I couldn't begin to understand.  After we finished the quiz, the class looked at why we may have gotten some of the questions wrong.  I thought it was a very helpful exercise in general.

Book Report #2

Barbara Ehrenreich makes her second attempt at living on minimum wage in Portland, Maine.  When she first arrives she sets up her base for operations at the local motel 6.  After her first experience in Florida, Ehrenreich has figured out that she needs apply to as many jobs as possible.  Just because companies are putting up help wanted ads doesn’t mean help is actually wanted.   She gets jobs at two places, an Alzheimer’s home and a maid service.   

The Alzheimer’s home is a lot like a waitressing job because Ehrenreich is in charge of feeding the elderly.  However, it’s a lot easier.  The elderly have simple orders and there are no where near the amount.  She doesn’t even have to bring lunch to work because the employees get to eat the leftovers from the shift.  Ehrenreich briefly has a conversation with one of the looks from the home, and finds out that the dining services there run a lot like a restaurant.  The cook can make or break the waitress.  

After her first shift at the Alzheimer’s home, she goes looking for cheap housing.  There is none in the immediate area, but some efficiency housing is located about 30 minutes away.  All of the places she finds are either too expensive, or almost unlivable.  Eventually she finds apartments on the cheap at a motel.  However, she can’t move in for a few days.

In the mean time, Ehrenreich begins working for a maid service.  She finds out quickly that being a maid is a lot harder than she imagined.  There are multiple training videos instructing new employees on the “right” to clean (left to right, top to bottom, what room to start in, etc.).  The houses are filled with a variety of owners.  Many of whom keep an extremely watchful eye on the staff.  Some will leave extra dirt in hard to reach places to ensure that the maid service is cleaning everywhere.  Other owners will tape the cleaning staff to ensure no theft occurs. 

In one particular case, an owner stood in the kitchen and watched Ehrenreich scrub a floor on her hands and knees with no knee pads.  The author commented that this gave the owner of the house a superior look on his/her face as she watched Ehrenreich dripping with sweat.  After Ehrenreich was done, the owner’s only remark was to ask if she could scrub the breezeway. 

I think that in this section of the book, Ehrenreich displays the lack of status maids have.  She remarked that every where she went after work she was looked down upon, even when she was the customer.  At the diners she ate at, the waitresses would not even pay attention to her when she asked for refills.  At the convenience store she would get stares saying, “What could you possibly need here.”  At her job, Ehrenreich comments that the owners of the houses would act as if the maids were simply there because they had nothing better to do with their time, when in all actuality they were barely getting by.  

Orange

On Wednesday i had no idea what to expect when Jeff and I volunteered because we didn't do the readings.  Once I was sat down in the front of the class and had read the slip of paper i recognized the scenario immediately.  In my communications class last year we had the same scenario with the orange, where one person needed the pulp and the other the rind.  I think of the object of the exercise was to demonstrate some of the qualities a negotiation can have.  I started off the negotiation by trying to be cooperative and asking what Jeff needed the orange for.  His response was extremely aggressive which I didn't expect to happen.  In a motion of good faith, I told him what I needed the orange for and pretty much showed him my hand.  He realized I was trying to work out a deal and cooperate with him, so he tried to cooperate with.  I believe that is why Jeff and I reached an agreement so quickly.  It made more sense to me after Dr. Goates did the diagram of creating util.  Now that is kind of the way I look at the prisoner's dilemma.  When both parties try to cooperate, they create value.

The Negotiator

During Wednesday's class period we practiced the skill of negotiation.  I was deemed a Seller and was aiming for a price above $16.  The higher i was above $16 the better i would look to my employer.  When I began the activity I had no insights into what the Buyer's scenario was.  I did assume however that the Buyer would know that the market price for the product was around $30.  I believed that as long as I could make a profit, it really did not matter how close I was to the market price.  As a result, I started my negotiation price at $30.  In hindsight, I think I should have started my negotiation prices much higher in order to maximize profits.  In the end, I was able to make a sale at the price of $25.  I did not think it was a bad price at the end of the negotiation time because it was $5 less than the market value, and $9 profit.  After going over the negotiation process and analyzing it in class, I believe I could have gotten a much better price on the product.  If I would have started the negotiations by anchoring the discussion at a higher number, I may have gotten more.  I think that with the new knowledge from class, i could do much better the next time.

Convenience Stores

I really liked the activity we did concerning the convenience stores in Pemberton.  My group, Isabella and I, wanted to maximize profits through each round.  We knew that the other team would not want to surrender possible profits on their side.  We decided to have our store stay closed the first set of weeks in order to minimize losses.  We did this because of the unpredictability of the other convenience store.  After staying open the first set of weeks we generated a loss of $100,000.  During the first negotiating stage our group agreed to stay closed if the other group stayed closed.  We continued this cooperation through the rest of the simulating and each convenience store ended up with a profit of $160,000.  I think that this exercise was a great representation of the Nash equilibrium.  This means that if all parties involved move directly towards their greatest profits all parties will end up missing out on even greater profits.  By having the convenience stores cooperate with each other both attained a greater profit than if each worked alone.  In a way, the two independent convenience stores represented two persons in a group that begin to depend on each other.  When this interdependence occurs better things happen.

Book Report #1

Barbara Ehrenreich begins by setting up the parameters of her experiment in living in a minimum wage lifestyle.  The first rule was that she could not rely on her skills from her education or career.  Second, she had to take the highest paying job she could get.  Lastly, she had to use the cheapest accommodations she could find.  She starts her first minimum wage job in the Key West.  She can only find affordable housing 45 minutes away from the job market.  She applies to over 20 jobs with no call backs.  Ehrenreich eventually lands a waitressing job at a hotel restaurant called Hearthside. 

                She begins by following an experienced waitress around to learn the ropes of the job.  In the beginning she makes mistakes but gets the hang of it in no time.  Hearthside is filled with an assortment of employees, cooks, busboys, and servers.  Ehrenreich starts investigating how the rest of these working class folk make it by day to day.  She finds that many share rent with a boyfriend or husband and the one even lives out of her car.  Had it not been for Ehrenreich’s original starting funds she would not have been able to procure her current residence.   As the first couple weeks roll by, she begins to slowly lose money and determines it impossible to continue without a second job.  Ehrenreich gathers all her saved funds and purchases a trailer in a nearby trailer park so that she may pick up the second employment opportunity.

                Ehrenreich puts in job applications all over and once again receives no reply in the beginning.  Later, she receives a second waitressing job at another hotel restraint called Jerry’s.   Jerry’s has a much heavier customer load and requires a lot more energy.  Soon after starting at Jerry’s Ehrenreich quits at Hearthside and searches for another second job.   This time none of her job interviews receive any attention.  This causes her to ask the hotel that the restraint is attached to for a second job if she is to continue to pay her rent.  They give her a housekeeping job.  For the next few days she bounces between housekeeping and waitressing.

                One night shift at Jerry’s a customer complains that they did not receive what they had ordered and brings the problem to the manager.  The manager flips out on Ehrenreich for not noticing the difference.  With her lack of energy to deal with the problem, Ehrenreich breaks down and walks out of the restraunt.  She was defeated by minimum wage.

                Throughout the reading there were many examples of behavior throughout the book.  At the first establishment that Ehrenreich works at there is obviously a high performing team element.  There is a heavy interdependence within the group of servers.  If one of them is not feeling well or is having a bad day, the others will help with tables to the best of their abilities to hide it all from management.  I believe the reason for the interdependence in the common goal element.  The servers are all working for tips and know that each person needs every cent to survive.

                There was also a moment when I recognized something resembling Tuckman’s Stages of Development.   I remembered back to the last stage of adjourning and how the team would lose a little of its cohesiveness due to the leaving of old teammates and the arrival of new ones.  At the second establishment, Jerry’s, the first day of work no one really acknowledged Ehrenreich.  She had felt a cold shoulder from everyone.  Her second day on the job she found out why.  The reason for the cold shoulder was because most did not make it past the first day.  I believe this is a reaction to the arrival of new teammates so often.  There was no need for the serving crew to create interdependence with a server that would not show up the next day.  However, once Ehrenreich did show up the next day at Jerry’s she was accepted into the group.

Case Analysis 1

The Case Analysis was not as bad as i thought it would be.  I know the saying that "two minds are better than one" but i didn't think it was the case for writing papers.  I found that having the extra person made it easier to bounce ideas off of each other.  It actually made me think about the team performance curve because me and my partner began developing an interdependence.  I think it made some of the material we've covered in class more evident.  We established roles, determined goals, and began using each other to accomplish more.  Maybe two minds are better than one for writing a paper.

Carter Racing

I thought the carter racing activity was very beneficial. By using the scatter plots of the gasket data it kind of displayed the 'gut feeling' you get when deciding if an action is beneficial.  By using the mathematics on the board  you could decipher the marginal benefit of an action.  I think people do that everyday innately but usually don't think about the process.  It's much simpler to use the metaphor of a gambling game than a more realistic scenario.  But i wonder if unconsciously, we do this kind of math in our heads to estimate the benefit.

Spaghetti and Gumdrops

I found that after analyzing the spaghetti and gumdrop team activity, that it was actually very beneficial.  In the beginning I found the exercise a bit irrelevant.  When the class went over the initial interactions of the groups, everything that was said explained my group’s interactions.  When my group met in the beginning to start constructing our spaghetti structure, we didn’t start by throwing out ideas.  We started by introducing ourselves.  Also, because our group didn’t know each other when we began working on the project, we all didn’t want to put our hands in there and work together because it would have been awkward.  This exercise really helped to analyze a group’s first interactions, and why they happen.

Team Performance Curve

I agree with the team performance curve mostly.  I also agree that when all members are working towards a common goal, the group’s performance is increase.  But I feel as though at times this team dependency can also sometimes hinder the group.  With one bad link the entire team would be hindered.  It kind of all goes back to the saying of, “a team is only as strong as its weakest link.”  In the event that a team member is not at the same level as the rest of a team, the inter dependence of the group could cause each individual to focus on the on slack of the less qualified team member.  In respect to this scenario I believe both a working group and a high performing team could come close to each other depending on the scenario.  However, I will admit that a high performing team will always be better than a working group.

After reading the Personality Plus article, I think that it is really neat that so much money is being put into finding personality types.  This way we can create a top quality workforce or military.  However, i feel like certain careers will only pursue certain personality types.  For example, the military would want more people like Alexander Nininger.  The only problem with this quest for a top notch workforce, is that once all the preferred personality types are taken, what will happen to the less desirable personalities?  I hope that they won't be forced to work in less desirable professions as a result.
My only hope is that a new personality test is designed that is shown to to diagnose preferred personalities.  I don't have much faith in the Myers-Briggs test because is was designed almost a century ago.

While reading the Personality Plus article, I found it very unnecessary that the faculty of the McKinsey consulting firm knew their coworkers' M.B.T.I. types by heart.  In the workplace I wouldn't focus so much on someone's personality type based off of a test.  Instead, I'd focus on how that person reacts in certain situations.  I mean, it isn't hard to gauge how someone will react after you've interacted with them enough. We do it in college with our social groups all the time.