Evolution or Revolution

Dr. Weyant's conversation on this topic really stuck with me after class today, and I wanted to put a few thoughts on here about that. The Khe Sahn mentality, as he put is, is definitely something that I can relate to. My bosses are constantly coming up with ways to revolutionize the way we work at my job. The first time they wanted to do this, I was on board with the ideas they had, so I voiced my support, but it never came to fruition. The second time, I disagreed with their ideas, so I made my opinion known about how I felt these plans were not going to help us do out jobs better, my ideas were heard and taken into account, and then it was announced that the changes would go ahead anyway. Then, nothing happened. 

From then on, I learned to keep my mouth shut, especially if two of my bosses were in disagreement. My favorite comment became "You write the playbook, I run my routes."

Later on, as more employees came, the first time the wave of change swept through the management, the new people were concerned, but I and the two people who were there previously just told them to just wait it out, and we'd return to business as usual in a few days. As part of a university department, we experience a high amount of turnover, with only GA's for continuity, and every time a new wave of students comes, we go through these revolutionary ideas that often amount to nothing. 

That being said, there is glacially slow evolutionary change that happens as well. Some of our processes have occurred recently that were in the pipeline for a long time and have improved the focus and direction of the business as a whole, but change does seem to happen at a glacial pace. 

I'm going to ask my co-workers to refrain from making this post public, for obvious reasons, but I just wanted to share that story with the group because I thought it fit in well with our discussion tonight. 

Social Media & You

I'm aware that this blog post is one that you've seen before, and for that I apologize, but I need a break from reading and writing about a tire company in Ohio that can't train anyone and seems poised for a work floor riot, and I don't think me posting my thoughts on movies I've watched lately (Trainspotting & The Bourne Trilogy) counts as relevant.

OK, now that I've wasted about 50 words (73 actually), let's get to something relevant to class. (82). When Dr. Weyant talked about blogs and facebook and twitter and the rest of the social media craze, there were understandable objections from members of the class as to the relevancy of these things in their businesses. Just to name a few jobs I know people in this class have, pretzel factory and Small Business Development Center, I fail to see how these types of social strategies would help. At the SBDC, all work we do is confidential, so we couldn't get on twitter and say "OMG, just helped Karen Smith start a business! #werock". That being said, I do agree that there are ways to use social media to help your business, and that doing so can be a cost-effective way to market your company if done correctly.

Now for the part where I sound like your mother. "Be careful what you put on that Internet". More and more, businesses are using people's personal social media pages as a form of background check on employees and applicants. Once it's up there, it's there forever in some capacity. I've got a facebook, I'm on it all the time, but my friends know not to even try to put photos of me up because I untag them faster than anyone's ever seen. Now, part of this is because I hate photos of myself, but it's also because I know that if there's something in that photo that's questionable, even if it's something I'm not involved in, that reflects poorly on me out of context, which would be how a potential employer would be viewing it. In fact, companies have even sprung up that will look through your social media and web 2.0 sites and deliver a report to any company that wants to research you. Here's a story about them: http://www.ere.net/2010/09/28/background-checking-using-social-media/

There, that's gotta be 250 words, right? (390). Ok, that's enough from me for tonight. Have a good evening everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow! (408) (It's actually 409 if you count 408 as a word, but that would lead to a never ending numerical sequence, wouldn't it?) (431)
(432)
(433) See what I mean? I'll shut up now...

Thoughts on tonight's class

A few thoughts on class tonight and our discussions that took place.
1. Central City
A lively debate, and one that I thought is what professors talk about when they say they want their class to be a seminar of discussion. My group had a set of ideas that were not exactly in line with what was discussed, and we made a few more assumptions. We thought that it had to be assumed that the two African American officers would be promoted because of the court order and the fact that the promotion ceremony was that day. To me, "court order" doesn't allow for a great deal of wiggle room. Personally, I wrote the case from the female officer's perspective (oops), and I thought that her best option was to sue, or at least threaten to sue, because that seems to get Central City to buckle and give in to whatever group is applying the legal pressure.
Once we heard the real story and the abuse that the officer took, it reminded me a great deal of the story of the first female to attend the Citadel military college in South Carolina. Here is a link to a case study from Harvard Law that discusses her situation: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw00/Case%20Study%201%20Optional.html

2. Toxic Managers
Everyone has had the employee/co-worker/boss that has the attitude that threatens to destroy a company. I liked what was said tonight about "Who knows what we could do if this problem was resolved and we all worked together?" I'm most definitely an introvert, but I try not to bring that into the workplace, because my job is one that often requires collaboration and group work. My co-workers can comment on how successful I may or may not be at this. I don't see a problem with being introverted, although I did notice that several of the categories of poor managers are extreme introverts, so it's all about finding a balance between who you are and realizing that how you act in the business setting affects those around you.

Tom

Motivation: A Diagnostic Approach

While I was reading these articles, the one that I thought I would have the most to say on was the one with the same title as this post. Even the title intrigues me, for a few reasons. First, a diagnostic approach to me is a meticulous carefully measured way with a check list of things that can be done, in this case, to motivate employees. Personally, I don't see how a checklist can work in this particular area, and a one size fits all approach would work to motivate. Some people are motivated by the idea of a potential of rewards, some are motivated by the prospect of losing their jobs, and some people are motivated by intangible ideas that don't normally appear on the usual lists by traditional motivational standards. OK, diatribe over.
The article does make a number of good points and observations about ways to change motivational tactics, which, arguably, have become stale and tired. Their new approaches they offer have some merit, as well. I like that their assumptions go against the impression that their title gives, particularly #3: "Different people have different types of needs, desires, and goals."
That being said, I do wonder about feasibility of some of their implications. "Figure out what outcomes each employee values." I realize that a manager has to deal with employees and to handle their issues, but to use their time to find out each person's individual motivators for each problem? When will they get work done? "Determine what kinds of behavior you desire". What if the manager's goals do not gel with the ideas of some of the employees that you just spent all that time finding out what each employee values? This article was interesting, to say the least, and I look forward to the discussions this week in class.

Laying off the Layoffs

One of the articles we read for class last week talked about how Southwest Airlines was the only airline that did not lay employees off in the aftermath of September 11th, and perhaps not coincidentally, they were also the only airline that did not post losses in the next few years. There are a number of factors that contribute to this, some of which we can directly relate to the Organizational Theory of the company. First, they were able to lock in their fuel prices as very low rates in 2002, so when fuel prices shot up in 2003 and 2004, Southwest was spending much less than every other competitor. Second, as the article mentioned, layoffs foster an unhealthy work environment as employees become introverted and work only to keep their jobs, not to make it better. If you've ever flown on Southwest, you can see that the employees really seem to love their jobs. While Southwest's policies on seating and such are controversial to some (I have friends that refuse to fly it because of the "no assigned seats" policy), they don't charge for bags or in-flight beverages, which I believe makes them unique in the current airline market. Personally, I love to fly Southwest because of the attitude on their flights, and the no nonsense approach they have.
If you've seen a commercial for Southwest that features their employees, you can see that there appears to be genuine enjoyment in the work their employees do. Naturally, some people may think "It's a commercial, they're acting", but from the many times I've flown Southwest, I've never come across anyone who acts in any other way that what you see on television. To contrast that, I flew home from Chicago last year on United after flying out on Southwest, and my experience was decidedly less enjoyable.
This is a link to an outside source (not grade hunting, what? nooo) that has a survey from Wednesday's USA Today where frequent flyers ranked Southwest and JetBlue above the "major" airlines in terms of service and quality, hopefully lending a bit of support to the argument I've been making here for the last 350 words.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-09-15-1Aairlinecomplaints15_ST_N.htm

Tom

The Importance of Management

Reading these articles for class on Wednesday serves to highlight the importance of good management when running a successful business. As a Graduate Assistant at the Small Business Development Center, I am constantly exposed to managers, potential managers, and people who hate their managers. Unfortunately, I can not give any specific examples of clients I deal with at the SBDC due to the fact that we sign a confidentiality agreement every semester to protect the people who work with us to start their dream of becoming their own bosses. However, I can talk about things I see without getting into specific instances and names. 

Many times, the people that work with us have a desire to do the exact same job they are doing now, but they have a belief that they can do that job better on their own. If they had managers who were open to communication and discussion, perhaps they would be able to change the way things are done at their current places of work, or at least to ensure that they are heard, which is really what many of these people want. Even if their ideas are not taken and used, if their bosses sit down and hear what they have to say, many times they can come to an agreement about how to remedy the problem and placate these employees. There are times where people leave to go out on their own even if they like the management culture in their current workplace, but many times at the SBDC we hear people say "If they just did it this way...". 

To wrap up this post, I wanted to include the quote from the end of the Senge article because I really liked it and thought it was applicable to my musings:

The wicked leader is he who the people despise

The good leader is he who the people revere

The great leader is he who the people say, "We did it ourselves." -- Lao Tsu

Tom

Getting to know you

Hello Org. Theory Brethren & Sistern,

This is supposed to be an expanded "about you" post to kick off the semester, so here it goes. I'm a townie, raised here in Kutztown after my parents took my from my birthplace, the frozen potato fields of Presque Isle, Maine. Yes, my father is Professor Grant, who some of you may have had for Accounting here at KU, but when I graduated from high school, I had no interest in following him into the business side of the world. I went to the University of Pittsburgh (Go Panthers!) and double-majored in History and Political Science. During my senior year at Pitt, I realized that time was running out and I wasn't going to find a job, so I enrolled in the MBA Program here at Kutztown. I should probably be in law school, but there's a long drawn out story that explains the reasons I'm not, but that's probably a little bit personal and a lot of bits boring.

That being said, I've really enjoyed my time here at Kutztown in the MBA Program. I'm learning about a lot of things I never considered before as I make the transition from liberal arts to...actual knowledge. I'm a Graduate Assistant with the College of Business, working at the Small Business Development Center in the Professional Building here on campus. I'm in my second year, planning to graduate in May, so we've crossed the halfway point!

Hmm, short of 250 words. What else? I've got Pitt Football season tickets, so I'll be out there this weekend to see them bounce back against the not-so-mighty New Hampshire Wildcats following that tough loss at Utah. Oh, and before Dr. Weyant starts considering me an ally in his Steelers club, I should clarify. Lived in Pittsburgh for 4 years, never hated the Steelers until I moved out there, now I'm an Eagles fan who would (and has) rooted for the Dallas stinkin' Cowboys against the Steelers. I hate the Penguins too. The Pirates? Who hates the Pirates? They're too small and pathetic. But the Steelers? Hate 'em.

That seems like to good place to end things. I look forward to this post having a truly horrendous impact on my grade, and I'll see you all on Wednesday.

Tom