Management class was not just about books and tests
Our group activities were practical, memorable, and fun
And you still learn the concepts best
When all is said and done,
Specific terms and models you may not remember
But the decision making process you will render
Many management styles there are
From D to I to S to C
Communication is key
Remember this and you’ll go far
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Communicating via Blog
When we started doing the blog, I thought it would be an annoying assignment. This is because I don’t particularly like writing and especially not when I’m forced to for a class. However, the assignments were not bad. I like that everything just related back to the projects we did in class. Not only does this make it easier to write about but it also gives us a chance to really think about and reflect on what we learn in class. So I think the blog definitely accomplishes that goal of Prof K intent with adding the blog component. And of course, it is also a plus that it is an easy way to get a good portion of your grade. Although this never really occurred to me while I was writing the blog, the blog does serve as a buffer for your grades. It can help compensate for poorer test scores that are not necessarily a surefire indication of whether you know the subject matter or not (some people are just not good test-takers). So I definitely think it should remain a component of the course.
I don’t know about others, but for me, communicating here did not really extend to communication in the classroom. I think most people stick to the seats/area that they have been sitting at from the beginning. I don’t think it is entirely bad that communicating online did not translate into the classroom. In fact, I think the blog was good for this reason. It allowed people who could not/did not communicate with each other in class to be able to do so in online form. Communication is communication, no matter what form it takes. I am not sure if I will continue on this blog after this class but for the duration of the semester, it was not as bad as I thought it might have been. I enjoyed reading everyone’s blog especially the McDonald extra credit entries.
I don’t know about others, but for me, communicating here did not really extend to communication in the classroom. I think most people stick to the seats/area that they have been sitting at from the beginning. I don’t think it is entirely bad that communicating online did not translate into the classroom. In fact, I think the blog was good for this reason. It allowed people who could not/did not communicate with each other in class to be able to do so in online form. Communication is communication, no matter what form it takes. I am not sure if I will continue on this blog after this class but for the duration of the semester, it was not as bad as I thought it might have been. I enjoyed reading everyone’s blog especially the McDonald extra credit entries.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The ABCs of DISC
For the DISC diagnostic I got a S-c. This result is a pretty accurate in determining my management type. S is for Steadiness, this type of people are more predictable. They work best in situations that are stable, consistent, and controlled. It’s good for teamwork as S types are very patient and cooperative. The C for conscientiousness shows that I like structure and rules. I am cautious about following regulations. I don’t like to be impulsive, it takes me a while to make certain decisions because I’m usually thinking and analyzing (sometimes maybe more than is necessary). The S and C are pretty closely correlated so it makes sense that I would have bit of both.
I do wish that I could be more of a D at times. In certain situations, you do have to be more aggressive in order to get things done the way you feel would be best. I think it would be pretty difficult to become another type if you have been a certain type for most of your life. But I do think certain skills from each type can be develop as one matures and gets more experience within a management opportunity. Going from a S or C to a D or I comes with building your confidence which comes from just being in more situations where you have to step up and take charge. Going from a D or I to more of a S or C also comes with time. As you mature and gain experience in different types of situation, you will see that rules or cooperation and such are necessary to accomplish certain tasks.
Knowing people’s management type could be helpful to an extent because if you know how or what type of environment they work better in, it can help in your interactions. It can help knowing what approach might work better and how to get people to do their best.
I do wish that I could be more of a D at times. In certain situations, you do have to be more aggressive in order to get things done the way you feel would be best. I think it would be pretty difficult to become another type if you have been a certain type for most of your life. But I do think certain skills from each type can be develop as one matures and gets more experience within a management opportunity. Going from a S or C to a D or I comes with building your confidence which comes from just being in more situations where you have to step up and take charge. Going from a D or I to more of a S or C also comes with time. As you mature and gain experience in different types of situation, you will see that rules or cooperation and such are necessary to accomplish certain tasks.
Knowing people’s management type could be helpful to an extent because if you know how or what type of environment they work better in, it can help in your interactions. It can help knowing what approach might work better and how to get people to do their best.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
First off, I want to thank Bailey for stepping up to the plate as a leader. Our leader/group interaction was one where leader and group both had same amount of power. I think Bailey did a great job as a facilitator/moderator in gathering and organizing ideas from the group. She was orderly about it going from one side of the room to the next. She was respectful of everyone’s ideas and concerns. However, I do think that when some people objected to some things, she should’ve ask why they object instead of instantly dropping the idea/issue. And then let the person who came up with the idea explain themselves better and try to convince the objectors to change their mind. This might have been hard to execute though with the time constraints.
There wasn’t too much conflict which was surprising to me. It is such a large group of people with many different personalities and feelings in regard to this test. Personally, I don’t like conflicts in general. But that’s not why I was accommodating here. In this situation, a lot of the choices for this first test wouldn’t have affected my grade as much as the others so I didn’t feel the need to object to anything. There were a few ideas for the second test that I wasn’t 100% in agreement with but nothing that I felt so strongly about that I would object to it if the majority of the class wanted it.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised that such a huge class can come to a decision. It was frustrating for some people at times but there weren’t any huge conflicts. The frustration came more in part because of time-constraints and because we were making the decision in a risk environment. We were not sure how far we could go with this and which decision would give us the best outcome. In the end, even though I don’t think 100% of the class all agree that the decision we made was the BEST one, it is still an accomplishment to come to a unanimous satisficing decision. Hopefully we can all take advantage of the decision we made to do better next time.
There wasn’t too much conflict which was surprising to me. It is such a large group of people with many different personalities and feelings in regard to this test. Personally, I don’t like conflicts in general. But that’s not why I was accommodating here. In this situation, a lot of the choices for this first test wouldn’t have affected my grade as much as the others so I didn’t feel the need to object to anything. There were a few ideas for the second test that I wasn’t 100% in agreement with but nothing that I felt so strongly about that I would object to it if the majority of the class wanted it.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised that such a huge class can come to a decision. It was frustrating for some people at times but there weren’t any huge conflicts. The frustration came more in part because of time-constraints and because we were making the decision in a risk environment. We were not sure how far we could go with this and which decision would give us the best outcome. In the end, even though I don’t think 100% of the class all agree that the decision we made was the BEST one, it is still an accomplishment to come to a unanimous satisficing decision. Hopefully we can all take advantage of the decision we made to do better next time.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Eggscellent Project
In this egg planning project, the first step was pretty much done by Professor Kurpis. He told us what he wanted us to accomplish: building a contraption that will protect an egg from a fall. He gave us a deadline (20 mins). He also explained certain conditions we had to meet such as at least half of the egg had to be visible and how one group member had to be on line with the egg and piece of paper with the group members’ names before the clock hit 0. So as a group, we didn’t specifically say “ok, our goal here is to…”
Step 2 was again partially done when Professor Kurpis informed us of what our resources were (8 straws, masking tape, egg, one pair of scissor to be shared by all of the groups, egg). In our group, we did not really go over our strengths or weaknesses. No one asked each other about any skills and no one offered anything about any strength they might have for this particular project. The only thing I can think of as assessing a potential advantage was to see who was the shortest so that the person could be the one to drop the egg at the lowest height. Other than that, we just went straight ahead to coming up with alternative strategies.
Step 3 involves developing the different solutions. There was a lot of stalling here. We came up with a lot of different minor tweaks on essentially one same idea. We came up with only 2 solutions that we were seriously considering to implement when the time came to actually make the contraption. It was either going to be a cage-like device that surrounded the egg and try to buffer it on the fall. Weakness with that is that the straws were quite thin and would not provide much of a buffer. The other alternative which ended up being successful was to connect the straws and tape and have the egg hanging off the end of it so that it had a much shorter fall to the ground. The issue with this was if we had enough straws to be able to provide some cover for the egg and to use for the chain.
In Step 4 we had to choose which alternative we would actually go with. We ended up choosing the 2nd one with the chain of straws because we felt that having the egg fall at a lower height would really help out more. In this step, we did not allocate roles though.
When it came to implementing our plan in step 5, everyone helped out and work with the egg and straws. It was kind of weird I guess because no one actually vocalized and said “I’m going to do this part and you’re going to do that”. But it still work because we were working together and even though we did not officially assign roles, we were still aware of what the others were doing and who needed more tape and things like that. The guys ended up making the chain and the girls worked on putting trying to make an outer cage-like buffer for the egg.
I think we were successful because our idea in having the egg fall from a lower height was a good functional plan; a lot of the other teams had cage-like contraptions that we had also thought about making. The straws just weren’t strong enough to act as effective buffers from a great height. So we gave ourselves the competitive advantage by having it fall from a lower height. But we were also lucky as Professor Kurpis had said other groups who had done similar thing in the past still were not successful in saving the egg.
Even though we were successful, as a group, we could’ve been more effective at planning. We would have been more efficient if we had chosen a leader and maybe apply step 2 more in looking for our strengths and weaknesses. Having assigned roles might have also help time-wise. But overall, I think we got the gist of planning and did well.
Step 2 was again partially done when Professor Kurpis informed us of what our resources were (8 straws, masking tape, egg, one pair of scissor to be shared by all of the groups, egg). In our group, we did not really go over our strengths or weaknesses. No one asked each other about any skills and no one offered anything about any strength they might have for this particular project. The only thing I can think of as assessing a potential advantage was to see who was the shortest so that the person could be the one to drop the egg at the lowest height. Other than that, we just went straight ahead to coming up with alternative strategies.
Step 3 involves developing the different solutions. There was a lot of stalling here. We came up with a lot of different minor tweaks on essentially one same idea. We came up with only 2 solutions that we were seriously considering to implement when the time came to actually make the contraption. It was either going to be a cage-like device that surrounded the egg and try to buffer it on the fall. Weakness with that is that the straws were quite thin and would not provide much of a buffer. The other alternative which ended up being successful was to connect the straws and tape and have the egg hanging off the end of it so that it had a much shorter fall to the ground. The issue with this was if we had enough straws to be able to provide some cover for the egg and to use for the chain.
In Step 4 we had to choose which alternative we would actually go with. We ended up choosing the 2nd one with the chain of straws because we felt that having the egg fall at a lower height would really help out more. In this step, we did not allocate roles though.
When it came to implementing our plan in step 5, everyone helped out and work with the egg and straws. It was kind of weird I guess because no one actually vocalized and said “I’m going to do this part and you’re going to do that”. But it still work because we were working together and even though we did not officially assign roles, we were still aware of what the others were doing and who needed more tape and things like that. The guys ended up making the chain and the girls worked on putting trying to make an outer cage-like buffer for the egg.
I think we were successful because our idea in having the egg fall from a lower height was a good functional plan; a lot of the other teams had cage-like contraptions that we had also thought about making. The straws just weren’t strong enough to act as effective buffers from a great height. So we gave ourselves the competitive advantage by having it fall from a lower height. But we were also lucky as Professor Kurpis had said other groups who had done similar thing in the past still were not successful in saving the egg.
Even though we were successful, as a group, we could’ve been more effective at planning. We would have been more efficient if we had chosen a leader and maybe apply step 2 more in looking for our strengths and weaknesses. Having assigned roles might have also help time-wise. But overall, I think we got the gist of planning and did well.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Blog Topic #1 – Culture Shock
As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, last summer I spent a month in China. I am Chinese-American, so I do already have some experience with this different culture. Going to China just reinforced some of these experiences. I would say that in the bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai, a lot of things are more modernized and westernized but there are still things that can be a cultural shock to people who have never been expose to it before.
One thing that people can find perturbing is spitting. I’ve seen people in Chinatown and 8th Ave (the predominant Asian neighborhood in Brooklyn) spit onto sidewalks numerous times and I’m still amazed every time someone does it. In American culture, you would not expect to see people just spitting in the streets because it’s unhygienic and rude. It’s just weird to be going around spitting in public while people are right next to you. But it happens a lot in China. Some people attribute it to the bad pollution in the cities which causes phlegm buildup and such. There is also a belief that evil spirits reside in the throat. I do not know if that is a factor in the spitting or not. My parents do spit in public sometimes. I think they are so use to people doing it back in China that they don’t find it abnormal so they don’t think twice about it when they do it here.
Another thing tourists have to get use to is the squatting toilet. Essentially, it is really just a hole in the ground. Even with normal toilets, some people still end up squatting on them. Whereas we may find squatting toilets inconvenient and unsanitary, they actually find sitting down on a normal toilet unhygienic as other people have been on it.
Another cultural shock could be communal dining. Sometimes in smaller restaurants, when it gets crowded, they seat strangers together to make maximum use of space. This also brings us to the matter of personal space. Most of us probably don’t mind being a bit close to each other at restaurants with our friends but not so much with strangers. Since this type of thing is more common there, they do not have the same reservations in this situation.
Speaking of restaurants, food is a huge part of any culture. It’s what brings a lot of families together. In America, food is usually just for sustenance and enjoyment. In China, however, there are symbolic meanings behind certain food. For example, strands of noodles symbolizes a long life which is why on New Years, noodles are always part of the meal. Eggs symbolize fertility; oranges for wealth; seeds for many children, etc. There are also some specific eating etiquettes. When you eat with your family, you wait until the elders take their first bite. You have to try to not leave anything behind in the bowl especially rice. You should not play around with the chopsticks and you should never hold it vertically in the bowl because it resembles incense sticks stuck into rice as offerings to the decease at funerals.
These are just some of the things I have observed in China and in my own family. Any of you have the same or different takes on any of these?
As a sidenote, I found this story endearing. I can’t really imagine any American athlete finding this behavior as one they should apologize for. Jon Montgomery, the Canadian Olympic gold medalist in Skeleton, apologized for celebrating his gold medal win. He said: “I had said at the beginning of the race that if I was in that position and I did get gold coming from behind that I was going to remain stoic and respectful because you never want to cheer when somebody else loses. But I have to apologise to Martins, that didn’t happen, I lost my mind when I saw the 0.07 come up and I was like I had stuck my finger in a light socket.” The conception that Canadians are really polite and apologize a lot might just be true afterall. ;)
One thing that people can find perturbing is spitting. I’ve seen people in Chinatown and 8th Ave (the predominant Asian neighborhood in Brooklyn) spit onto sidewalks numerous times and I’m still amazed every time someone does it. In American culture, you would not expect to see people just spitting in the streets because it’s unhygienic and rude. It’s just weird to be going around spitting in public while people are right next to you. But it happens a lot in China. Some people attribute it to the bad pollution in the cities which causes phlegm buildup and such. There is also a belief that evil spirits reside in the throat. I do not know if that is a factor in the spitting or not. My parents do spit in public sometimes. I think they are so use to people doing it back in China that they don’t find it abnormal so they don’t think twice about it when they do it here.
Another thing tourists have to get use to is the squatting toilet. Essentially, it is really just a hole in the ground. Even with normal toilets, some people still end up squatting on them. Whereas we may find squatting toilets inconvenient and unsanitary, they actually find sitting down on a normal toilet unhygienic as other people have been on it.
Another cultural shock could be communal dining. Sometimes in smaller restaurants, when it gets crowded, they seat strangers together to make maximum use of space. This also brings us to the matter of personal space. Most of us probably don’t mind being a bit close to each other at restaurants with our friends but not so much with strangers. Since this type of thing is more common there, they do not have the same reservations in this situation.
Speaking of restaurants, food is a huge part of any culture. It’s what brings a lot of families together. In America, food is usually just for sustenance and enjoyment. In China, however, there are symbolic meanings behind certain food. For example, strands of noodles symbolizes a long life which is why on New Years, noodles are always part of the meal. Eggs symbolize fertility; oranges for wealth; seeds for many children, etc. There are also some specific eating etiquettes. When you eat with your family, you wait until the elders take their first bite. You have to try to not leave anything behind in the bowl especially rice. You should not play around with the chopsticks and you should never hold it vertically in the bowl because it resembles incense sticks stuck into rice as offerings to the decease at funerals.
These are just some of the things I have observed in China and in my own family. Any of you have the same or different takes on any of these?
As a sidenote, I found this story endearing. I can’t really imagine any American athlete finding this behavior as one they should apologize for. Jon Montgomery, the Canadian Olympic gold medalist in Skeleton, apologized for celebrating his gold medal win. He said: “I had said at the beginning of the race that if I was in that position and I did get gold coming from behind that I was going to remain stoic and respectful because you never want to cheer when somebody else loses. But I have to apologise to Martins, that didn’t happen, I lost my mind when I saw the 0.07 come up and I was like I had stuck my finger in a light socket.” The conception that Canadians are really polite and apologize a lot might just be true afterall. ;)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Wendy Deng
Hi guys, Wendy here from your mgt 3120 class. As you can probably see from the first two posts of this blog, I actually had this blog set up in the summer before my study abroad in China. I was going to use it to blog while I was there. I have to admit, I can’t remember if blogspot was banned in China or if I just totally forgot about blogging here. lol because I did blog on my livejournal a few times while I was there. I don’t have the greatest track record with these things. Anyhow, this will be put to use again, at least for the duration of this semester. So to get started.. my name is Wendy Deng. I’m a junior here, an accounting major. I spend my days going to classes, work (currently at a Physicians Billing Service company), and doing VITA. Come on down to the Baruch Library building lobby if you need to get your tax done! Other than that, I lead a pretty uneventful life… just a lot of tv watching which will be consumed by the Winter Olympics 2010 next week (Go Apolo!).
Oh, in case anyone was wondering, I’m using pizzabell because of this http://tashed.com/MP3/04.09/das%20racist_pizza%20hut%20taco%20bell_wallpaper_remix.mp3 combination pizza hut/taco bell. it amuses me for reasons I don’t even know myself. :D
Hope this blogging exercise thing will motivate me to write more. I usually have a hard time putting my thoughts down on paper but I will try my best here. I hope I don’t bore you guys too much and I look forward to reading your blogs.
Have a great weekend everyone
contact email: wendy.deng@macaulay.cuny.edu
Oh, in case anyone was wondering, I’m using pizzabell because of this http://tashed.com/MP3/04.09/das%20racist_pizza%20hut%20taco%20bell_wallpaper_remix.mp3 combination pizza hut/taco bell. it amuses me for reasons I don’t even know myself. :D
Hope this blogging exercise thing will motivate me to write more. I usually have a hard time putting my thoughts down on paper but I will try my best here. I hope I don’t bore you guys too much and I look forward to reading your blogs.
Have a great weekend everyone
contact email: wendy.deng@macaulay.cuny.edu
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