BUS 576-6

The EIAs for week 6 were focused on human resources management. Human resources management is an extensive part of the business world. My understanding of human resources is a department of an organization that deals with the hiring and firing of employees, but human resources is so much more than that. Human resources train employees and help foster the organization as a whole. Human resources have a hand in every part of the organization. The area of human resources I am most interested in is the amount of personal growth for employees that human resources can foster.

Image Source: http://www.brainleadersandlearners.com/ellen-weber/are-you-aware/

I would like to critique the presentation on LeanIn.com about feedback. This inspired me to think about my own performance during my internships. I really enjoyed what Kyn Ward Gaffney had to say about  giving feedback and seeking feedback. I think her advice specifically about being AWARE.

AWARE includes:

- Ask for feedback
- Watch your emotions
- Ask to clarify questions
- Reach out for perspective
- Engage your potential

I actually used the AWARE method when I sought feedback during the end of my internships. I felt that by following AWARE I was met with satisfactory feedback and will apply my constructive comments to my future work.

I wanted to find an article for this week that spoke more about what to do when you receive negative feedback. I found this article on Forbes.com that shares 8 ways to turn negative feedback into something positive. My favorite piece of advice from the article is to own the action that is causing negative feedback. I think it is important to practice ownership of everything you do. I dislike when people make excuses. Another great piece of advice is to show your employers that you are open to change and capable of growth. Receiving negative feedback can be disheartening but it should be viewed as an opportunity to grow and become a better employee.

My main concern about this week's EIAs is small, but after watching a few of the human resources videos offered by Indiana University I realized how expansive the responsiblity human resources departments possess. I am curious to know how many people HR departments in large corporations keep on staff. I searched companies like Google and Koch but I was unable to find a specific number. This is the one section of this class that I found a little overwhelming because Human Resources is such a large department.

BUS 576-5

Image Source: http://in.myinfoline.com/forum/reply/1711

Week five was an examination of culture and change management within organizations. This week's EIAs were very interesting, detailed, and made me think about management and culture in new ways. Culture can be defined in two ways. There is culture that identifies nationalities and countries, and ethnic groups and there is culture that defines a workplace. The Hofstede's Centre offers an extensive look as culture, both national and organizational, that outlines multiple categories qualifying different cultures. This was my favorite part of the EIA's this week because I love to travel and I have experienced living in different cultures other than the culture I was born into.

I believe that studying culture and applying this knowledge to organizations is increasingly important considering we live in a globalized world. Everyone who plans on working in business should have an understanding of how to approach cultures they may work with. Before I taught English in Indonesia I was required to attend a workshop type conference where I was taught Indonesian and was presented with knowledge of Indonesian culture and how I should act as an American female in Indonesia. I am confident that the education I receive about Indonesian culture made my time in Indonesia more enjoyed as I was able to avoid some social faux pas such as not offending anyone and staying safe in a foreign place. I think that management should offer training and workshops from employees and mangers that are from countries that most organizations do business with. There should also be a significant amount of emphasis placed on cultural understating within the workplace. The United States is one of the most culturally diverse counties in the world. Cultural awareness should be seen as an asset.

However, I do believe that it is near impossible to become completely acclimated to a new culture solely through workshops and individuals can live years in a new country and not fully understand the culture. I lived in Indonesia for a year but I do not pretend like I am an expert on Indonesian culture. There were many things about Indonesia that still surprise and confuse me. Something else that occurred to me during this week's EIAs is that culture is not just different from one country to the next. There can be cultural differences within a single country. For example differences in socioeconomic status can result in cultural differences. The article I am including this week is from Thought Catalogue. This article is easy and fun to read. I wanted to post something about the perspective of America from people who are not originally American in culture. It is easy for Americans, and people belonging to other nationalities, to become very nationalistic and believe that the American way is the only right way of doing things. I think the article from Thought Catalogue is a run read that proves there are numerous ways of living.

I would like to critique this article by Aimee Groth at Business Insider. This article is about the importance of workplace culture and how businesses "sink or swim" based on how hires fit into the workplace. The main argument in this article is that leaders should hire candidates whose personal goals are aligned with goals of the company and should pass on applicants who are possibly capable but do not fit into the culture. I agree with this article! I have worked for organizations that hired a new employee and that employee did not fit with the goals of the team and the organization suffered. I would like to work for an organization that possesses a culture that I feel comfortable in. That is perhaps my first goal when searching for a new position.

BUS576-4

Power Hungry? 

This weeks readings were about power, conflict, and negotiation within organizations. The reading by Jeffrey Pfeffer examined the changes in the workplace due to a younger workforce and the effects the younger workforce has on workplace culture and hierarchy. I found this piece interesting because I am a millennial and my exposure to the corporate world is limited. I often forget how different and perhaps rigid the corporate world of my grandparents would have been because now when I think corporate I partially think of Google offices where you can bring your dog to work and play pingpong whenever you would like. Pfeffer's research shows that although businesses are starting to boast a hipper, more laid-back workplace employees still choose a more traditional hierarchy. Pfeffer's research was also about cognitive dissonance. According to Pfeffer people are motivated to reduce cognitive dissonance by removing "discrepant cognitions".

The second reading was also by Pfeffer and it was about power. My outstanding question about Pfeffer's article "Power Play" is what if everyone in the world has all the right tools and motivations to be powerful. Then what would happen to the workplace dynamic. Don't we need some individuals who are better at following than leading and some individuals who are not so powerful? I think that "Power Play" gave some very excellent tips on how to approach business confidently and achieve your goals but I wonder if everyone became power hungry if there would be too many egos to balance. I would like to see an article about respecting individuals even if they do not seem powerful.

Image Source: http://leftycartoons.com/category/feminist/

A large part of our discussion and EIAs this week dealt with gender issues in the workplace. I wanted to tie in the chapter on leadership with this weeks discussion on gender. With the 2016 presidential election gearing up I would like to talk about our female leaders and how they are presented and critiqued. This is an interesting article over at Huffington Post about how we talk about female leaders. The article has a great graphic that shows you the most used adjectives used in the media to describe female leaders. As part of my personal thoughts I just don't understand how certain individuals do not think gender roles and heteronormativity play a role in business and the success of women. I found this info graphic from Entrepreneur.com that shows the success that women have experiences in the workplace. However, even though there have been improvements we cannot stop until women receive equal pay and receive equal career opportunities worldwide!

BUS576-3

Teamwork Shouldn't Mean More Work! 

This weeks readings and EIAs have been about teamwork, leadership, and communication. These are topics I find very interesting because they are a part of everyday life. Teamwork is a part of almost everything I do, leadership is a necessary part of teamwork, and without communication neither teamwork nor leadership would function. Teamwork is best defined as a group of people working towards a common goal. Pfeffer and Sutton summarize how important leadership is by sharing how many books about leadership there are on Amazon.com and that since 1975 there have been over 15,000 peer-reviewed articles about leadership published. Clearly leadership is a topic that many want to know more about and many are willing to pay to become better leaders.

Pfeffer and Sutton discussed what bad and good leaders do but they did not discuss at length different leadership types. I found this article by Robyn Benincasa about the six leadership types and when to use them. This article poses that management and leadership are two different things. According to Benincasa managers are there to make sure the team has everything they need to be successful and get the job done smoothly. A leader can prove useful to the manager and a leader is based on talent and is inspiring to the team. Benincasa cites a 2000 Harvard Business Review study by Daniel Goleman on kinetic leadership (Goleman, 200). Kinetic leadership basically means knowing when to use different leadership styles; assessing the situation and applying the best leadership method with a degree of fluidity. The image below is a matrix of Goleman's six different leadership styles.

Image Source: http://www.comindwork.com/weekly/2013-08-12/productivity/the-six-leadership-styles-goleman

I wish that Pfeffer and Sutton would have written a little more about different leadership styles so I am glad I found this article by Goleman. It is safe to assume after looking at the research that a good leader is flexible and can apply these different types of leadership styles during moments when they are needed.

My reflection this week is more about the followers rather than the leaders. In every group I have worked in there is usually one or two people who are shy and do not find sharing their thoughts easy or enjoyable. I wanted to find an article that spoke specifically on how to best lead these team members without making them feel uncomfortable. I found this article on how to best encourage quiet employees to speak up. Also I really enjoyed the piece about Pentland's research because I am always making an argument for how important communication is and one of my personal goals is to become a better communicator in all areas of life. This week's readings are helping me to achieve that goal.



Benincasa, R. (2012, March 29). 6 Leadership Styles, And When You Should Use Them. Fast Company. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://www.fastcompany.com/1838481/6-leadership-styles-and-when-you-should-use-them

Goleman, D. (2000, March 1). Leadership That Gets Results. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://hbr.org/product/leadership-that-gets-results/an/R00204-PDF-ENG

BUS576-2

Financial Incentives and Decision Making 

Image Source: http://www.maclife.com/article/news/microsoft_offers_financial_incentives_app_developers

I believe most of our ears perked up when reading chapter 5 because this week's reading and EIAs were about money. More specifically this week was about how financial incentives are used to increase employee motivation and how those incentives succeed and sometimes fail. According to Pfeffer and Sutton a financial incentive is a tool used for aligning employee behavior with an organization's goals. This can be done by essentially offering employees better or more pay to work harder. This is an interesting concept to examine because superficially it sounds like a great idea but financial incentives can carry a number of faults. For example, Pfeffer and Sutton use an example of trash collectors who received an 8-hour work day's pay for completing their work as fast as they can. This resulted in trash collectors carrying illegal amounts of trash and drying unsafe trucks. Before installing financial incentives companies should be very careful what they wish for. To assist with the understanding of individual motives there were some great Ted Talks this week in the EIAs dealing with motivation and psychology. It is important for companies to first understand how to best motivate employees before putting into practice a financial incentive system. 

Some of my outstanding questions and thoughts this week have to do with what money can buy us. Pfeffer and Sutton say that people are motivated by money but I would like to dig a little deeper and examine what people buy with that money. Of course there are the basic human needs, such as housing, food, etc, but what else motivates humans besides money and words of positive affirmation? Also, I would like to point out that financial incentives are likely most successful in capitalist economies where social capital is valued less than monetary capital.

I found this interesting infographic that easily and attractively displays what really motivates employees based on Gallup research. This Gallup research supports the research presented by Pfeffer and Sutton; financial incentives are not the only incentives that lead to productive and happy employees. The best method of motivating employees is a mix of positive affirmations, acts of service, quality time, physical touch, and tangible gifts.

Image Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225560

My personal thoughts for the week are similar to the comments I made on the Week 2 Discussion VoiceThread. This summer I have three jobs. I have two unpaid internships and I waitress. For the internships there is no chance of financial incentive. The only reward or incentive I receive is words of affirmation and hopefully I will have two strong letters of recommendation from my bosses when I graduate from Chatham and start job searching. On the other hand, I waitress and the only money I make is tips. Waitressing relies heavily on finical incentive. I do a lot as a waitress to ensure that I receive a good tip from a table. For example, studies have shown that female servers who wear makeup usually receive higher tips and I am nice to tables even if they are rude to me in hopes that I will still receive a high tip. Here is an interesting article from Psychology Today about what waiters can do to receive higher tips. Also, note how the article is gender biased. There are tips on here for women such as touch customers or wear accessories, that are not suggested for men. Just something to think about!

BUS576-1

Evidence-Based What? 

Source: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/product/mug/keep-calm-and-love-business-psychology/

I chose to read the readings not in the order listed on the class website. I was excited to read the Fiske and Borgida piece first because I do have a psychology background. In this reading Fiske and Borgida are leading the reader down a path that shows them science and psychology can come together to create best business practices. For years common sense has been the foundation of doing business. But the truth about common sense is that it is not so common! Business decisions should be made on the foundation of high-quality and empirical evidence. This is a very useful business management method known as evidence-based management. A simple example would be to say you inherit a restaurant that has been in your family for three generations. However, the family restaurant is starting to see slow business and less profit. As the owner you could keep doing things the old way as your parents and grandparents have done them or you could research the best business practice of how to run a restaurant. This research would include reliable, proven studies that have been tested and have supplied real results. This summer I am working as a waitress at a four-star Italian restaurant. Also, I have just finished the BUS 577 Information Technology course. I guarantee that once you work at a restaurant you will never look at dining out the same way again. I read an interesting article at Entrepreneur.com that talks about IT, restaurants, and management. I think it's a nice article that blends my summer work experience and my two summer classes together.

Perhaps most people think that managing a business should be done in a way that follows tradition or just follows the leader but I believe that businesses cannot grow and become exceptional without challenging tradition. I was surprised to hear in the Pfeffer and Sutton text that evidence-based management is a new way of thinking. This actually shocked me. This is probably because I have spent the last 6 years in college and have only been exposed to the business world through internships. I kind of thought that everyone did their best to research the best possible options before making a decision. But apparently this is not the case. Evidence-based management is how I go about my personal, everyday life. Before I buy a new internet modem I research which one will be most cost-effective and which one modem has the best reviews. So, I am completely sold as to why and how evidence-based management should be used and I know this class will help be to better understand this. At this time I am more interested as to why individuals choose to not use evidence-based management methods.

Let's examine why some business leaders do not prefer the evidence-based management approach. The first problem is that good business leaders are generally too hard to find. There was a great piece on the HBR Blog Network published in March that examines this very problem. Before a company uses evidence-based management practices they must first hire a good manager that sees fit to use evidence-based management. This article in itself is a part of evident-based management. Gallup conducted research to discover what makes a good manager and how managers can affect employee productivity and work quality. Gallup found that great managers possess the following qualities:

• motivate all employees to take action towards the goal or team mission 
• exhibit assertive behavior to drive employees toward the desired outcome
• hold employees accountable 
• build relationships of trust, transparency, and communication 
• make decisions not based on politics 

According to Gallup's poll only 1 in 10 people possess the right combination of skills required to make good managers. But we are in luck. On average there is one manger for every 10 employees. That means that there should be one person in this group of people who possesses the skills to become a strong leader (Randall and Harter, 2014). And a good leader is a leader who is open to learning more about evidence-based management.

For this last section, I would like to reiterate something I have expressed during my comments on Weekly Discussion 1 and during my Self-Intro on VoiceThread. During graduate school and my time at Chatham I have been taught to think critically about everything I am presented. This has been a useful skill and I feel that critically thinking is something that should definitely be applied to organizational behavior. I am looking forward to a reading on an area where perhaps evidence-based management has failed or an area that evidence-based management needs to improve. For there is always room for improvement.

Beck, R., & Harter, J. (2014, March 13). Why Good Managers Are So Rare.Harvard Business Review. Retrieved July 1, 2014, from http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare/