Final Blog

I was intrigued by this one part in the book on pg. 209. It says:

"Indeed, the real question is not, 'why greatness?' but 'What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?' If you have to ask the question, 'Why should we try to make it great? Isn't success enough?' then you're probably in the wrong line of work."

That quote from the book really stuck with me. As we are about to graduate and find what we want to do with our lives you can't help but think about this quote. I'm sure we all want to make the big bucks when we get out of here, but reality is we won't. You have to find a career that makes you happy and you want to do great things for that company. It's not enough to just go through your day-to-day life being good at your job. You must strive to be better and innovative if you want to achieve greatness as an individual and as a company. Personally I want to do great things for the company I'm going to work for. Of course I want to be noticed for the work I'm doing as an individual but maybe help fellow co-workers to have the same mindset I have as well and help achieve greatness.

Unit 3

In Chapter 16, Organizational Culture they speak about rituals. Rituals as defined by our textbook are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization. When I was 18, coming back from college for the summer I found a summer job at Thomson Book Company now known as Cengage. I had to be at work at 6 in the morning (not really my idea of a summer vacation). However, every morning after we would clock in, our department would get together and talk about what we needed to get done for the day ahead, then we would engage in a ritual of our own. We sang a song and did kind of a dance/stretch. This definitely woke me and my coworkers up. We weren't afraid to be silly and embarrass ourselves. This ritual as ridiculous as it was was a great idea. It boosted our morale as workers and were excited to get started. Not only did it wake us up but being silly opened us up to each other and we were able to form great work relationships. These kind of rituals are a great way to start off the work day.

Unit 2

In class we discussed the idea of groupthink. Groupthink is where potentially bad or wrong decisions are made primarily because members of the group are afraid to stray away from the group. It is easier to be in agreement and just go with the flow than rock the boat.

How many times have we witnessed this idea of groupthink being in college? There have been instances in my life personally when I feel as though I have a better solution but I am afraid me and my idea will be rejected by the group so it is almost better to keep my mouth shut. There have also been instances when I know something is wrong but I will go ahead with the group just so not to rock the boat.

Along with belonging to a group comes certain pressures. I hope in my professional life outside of college I can bring many different ideas to the table that possibly no one was thinking about. In my mind, the point of having groups and teams is to bring about many different ideas, solutions, or thoughts. Bringing different people with different ideas can be highly beneficial whereas groupthink potentially gets a group nowhere special.

Unit 1

There are three different management skills when looking at effective leaders and how they can achieve their goals. The first skill is technical. Technical skills involve using your expertise or knowledge and applying it to your job. Human skills are knowing how to communicate, relate, and understand people and motivating others to complete their jobs successfully. The third and final management skill is conceptual. Conceptual skills are using your mental abilities to figure out complex situations or problems and how to handle them.

All three of these skills are very important in managing but if I had to choose one specific skill as most important I would choose human skills. Figuring out the best way to communicate to different employees and how to motivate them is very important. As we discussed employee retention is very imporant. It is very important to realize management positions are not generally handed out for no reason. I am assuming that in attaining a management position they have some sort of expertise and knowledge (technical skills) and conceptual skills. Human skills are the icing on the cake so to speak. With human skills you will gain respect and good relationships with your employees improving moral and work performance.