MGT Poem

Management
You taught me to be creative
with one egg dropping activity,
to communicate effectively
with one drawing activity,
to have a vision
with one informative video,
to be a leader
with the power to lead,
to be a manager
with my strength and weakness.
To be or not to be
this is no longer a question.

Communicating via Blog

I believe doing blog assignment has been an interesting, unique, and effective way to get value from this class. It definitely provides a way for us to communicate and express our ideas and thoughts in an easy and effective way. Since the class time is limited, not everyone gets to express their thoughts or comments on the subject matter. For those students that do not participate in class because they are shy or for any other reason also got a chance to share with the class. Constantly writing on the blog also improves my communication and writing skill.
Most of the time the blog assignment ask us to summarize what we did during activities and discuss about them. I think this is great in which we can read about how other classmates think about the same activity differently in different group or in the same group. This is very helpful to realize my own perception of what happened compare to what other perceived.
I really like reading the articles on the professor's website, mainly because they share many interesting ideas and arguments that I never think about. Replying and commenting on the blog gave me opportunities to express my arguments.
Earning 20% of our grade just by responding on a timely basis feels like it's a giveaway. Because we don't have to study or memorize anything or get stress out like we would for the test.
I would definitely plan to post more management related thoughts on my blog because I had made many friends on blog. Also, I will be taking another management class next semester. This would be perfect opportunity to continue my blog.
In addition, I think we should have more blog assignments (increase to 30%) with only one test during the semester. The only problem I had with blog is that sometimes the comments I reply to classmate's blog didn't get posted. So I have to type up the comments again. This might be my own internet problem or the blog.

Extra Credit Assignment (McDonald's)

In order to get myself a little more comfortable into placing an unusual order at McDonald’s, I decided to go to the McDonald’s just around my house in Little Neck. That was where I grew up and came to love McDonald’s as a little girl; I approached for the door and found many unfamiliar faces. I got on the shortest line with a friendly cashier that looks like he doesn’t hate every minute of his job. It wasn’t long until, it was my turn to order. I took a deep breath to prepare myself for any embarrassment and overcome my discomfort. I started to spoke in a very polite tone for a small hamburger with exactly four pickles on it. I noticed the cashier wasn’t paying much attention to the first part of my sentence until I stress exactly four pickles. He looked up from his computer and raised his eyebrow at me. Then I continued by asking for a well-done small fries with no salt. He apologized and told me he might need a long time to get my hamburger order right. I told him to take his time. When he looked up at me again, I repeated the fact that the fries have to be well done with no salt. So far he had not show any sign of annoyances or comment on my unusual order. When I told him, I want everything that I just said to be print on the receipt, he looked very confused and ask me why. Of course, I did not answer him instead I gave him a smile and ask him to fulfill my order.
The cashier asked me to wait and approached a lady standing by the fries. He whispered into her ear for about 30 seconds. He came back and told me he can not indicate no salt on the receipt. Before I can say anything, the lady that he was talking to came over with a bag of French Fries in her hand. She also had a pin on her that print manager and her name on it. She told me they never did this before (put no salt on the receipt) and asked me why. Instead of answering her question, I asked her if there is anyone else that can help me. She said no and told me that there is no key on the computer that would add no salt on the receipt. Meanwhile, the cashier went over to the burger makers, told them four prickles and I noticed he hold up four fingers. We both paused for a moment. She handed me the receipt and I noticed that it only said add prickle on it. I asked her to print a receipt with add FOUR prickles on it. She paused a little while and told me the computer doesn’t allow her to do that. Finally, she took out a pen from her pocket and wrote “(4 Pcs)” on the receipt. I asked her to sign her name on the receipt to prove that I tried but failed to have the manager print a receipt that I wanted. At that point, I didn’t know anything else that I could do because the manager was the only person with the most knowledge about her restaurant. I thank her for her service and took my order.
There were three people that got involved in the process, the cashier, the manager, and the hamburger crew. The order took about 6 minutes to be completed. The cashier was confused about why I wanted a receipt that had to be so specific, but he did not show any sign of annoyance instead he apologize he need to make me wait. Yet the manager was annoyed when I told her several times about what I wanted on the receipt. However, she never raised her voice or treat me with disrespect. When I got the order it was correct.
I would rate the staff’s manufacturing process as normal and well trained because the cashier knew to seek help immediately when he realized he could not fulfill my order. The communications and coordination should be rate above average when the cashier went over to the manager, they didn’t give me any eyes or point finger at me and the whole process moved smoothly to give me the right order. As for the customer service processes, I would rate that as poor because the manager didn’t even tried to play around with the computer to get what I want. It is either she didn’t have the proper knowledge with the computer or she didn’t care to get me what I want.
If I were brought in as a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve their efficiency, I would recommend the computer have an input system where the cashier would be able to type up the special order and the price, instead of reject the customer’s request.

The ABCs of DISC

For the most part the test accurately gauges my management orientation. I am a major C minor D. This means that I am diplomatic, tactful, cautious, careful and systematic person that needs accurate information before I make a decision. I don’t think I would want to be another type of manager. That would be like change of identity if I change from a C to I, S, or even D type of manager. It is definitely helpful to determine people’s management “type” to better understand where they are coming from. This way we will have less conflict due to personality differences. We will be better able to understand others like they would understand us. This also relate to culture diversity and the same reasons why I am minor in psychology is to understand people better and not make a judgment on what they do.

I would want a D type of leader that would listen to a very knowledge and intelligent C type of person with me in the winter survival scenario we discussed in class. The reason for that is, we need someone that is so powerful that would force everyone to do what he/she think would make everyone survive. We also need a very intelligent C type of person on the team to make decision with accurate information. I think it’s the combination of two that would make the whole group survive.

The Power of Vision

1. Graduated from Baruch’s 5 year CPA Master Program and passed the CPA exam.
2. Buy a house with a huge living room and a beautiful closet for my clothes and shoes.
3. Own a successful accounting firm
4. Buy a small motel/hotel in the beautiful countryside
5. Take at least one vacation every year to a different country.

As a college sophomore, my first and most important vision is to graduate from Baruch with a Bachelor and Master degree in 5 years. Then pass the CPA exam during the first time. I had taking many actions to make my vision possible. I went to the Academic Advising Center to make sure that I am taking the correct courses and plan to apply for overload to take extra classes. I’m also taking summer and winter classes to graduate on time. My second vision would be to start working and save money to buy a nice house with a huge living room and a beautiful closet for my clothes and shoes. I want a pretty closet just like Carrie’s closet in the movie, Sex and the City. My third vision would be to own a successful accounting firm. In order to do so I would be moving from job to job every few years to gain experience, observe and learn management and other skills of different accounting firms. If I make a good profit from my accounting firm, I would buy a small motel or hotel in the countryside. I would also put a certain amount of money away every month to save up for the vacation I would take every year to a different country to enjoy the rich culture, food, and the beautiful places.

Decision Making

During the class decision making exercise, I use compromise to handle the chaos. Most of the time, I was quiet and listening to others' opinions and thoughts. When I disagree with some ideas, I make sure that others hear my concerns and point of view. When one of our classmate wanted to leave the classroom, it was pretty obvious to me at that point that we need to negotiate with each other to get everyone's vote. That would be the only way we get the most of what we want. The mood and atmosphere of decision making process gave me a feeling of how the Declaration of Independence might had been written in the same situation, where every representative/classmate expressing their needs and wants. At the same time, we weren't sure what we ask for is the best for us and might never be the best we can get.
Given that now I know the pattern of communications, the reactions of classmates, and the results of the decision making process, I think it might be a better idea to form subgroup to discuss possible plan. Then, present them to the whole class so we can adopt the best plan and make change from it. Overall, I think we did a great job handling conflict. Many thanks to our facilitators that lead us through our difficult time during the debate.

The Unbreakable Egg

We pretty much went through most of the planning process. Our goal was very clear defined like the name of our egg, the unbreakable egg, to create a protection for the egg that would not break when it hits the floor in the amount of time given by Professor Kurpis. Our objectives were to design a protector that would prevent the egg having the direct contact with the floor while still have 50% visible egg surface . Our second object was to limit the distance between where the egg will be dropped and the floor. That was when we came up with the idea of using the straws like a long string that would be attached to the egg. We bypassed step 3 which is to develop several alternative strategies, because we were pretty confidence that our egg would survive. Then we started assigning task to each member of the group. When it was time for the members to implement our plan, everyone did what they were suppose to do. Our plan were very successful that our egg didn't break.
I would evaluate my team's ultimate performance nine out ten. We were very corporative, we trust each other with the task we assign to each other, and we respect each others idea during the planning process. We would be more effective if we know each other better. Some of our members wasn't comfortable about sharing their ideas. Also, if we know each other's ability better, we would be more like to assign task to the right person.

Current MGT Problem

In today’s economy, I think the biggest management problem faced by many companies is how to fire the lazy worker to save budget. That might sound simple, yet it might be a very difficult job for many managers. A tricky task is how to determine the hard working employees from the non productive workers in an office when jobs are not specifically divided. Many of us that have a job might already had deal with these social loafing partners that simply let you do their job then take all the credits when the boss/manager is around. Those people are usually very sociable, suck up to their supervisors, take extra lunch time and spend all their working time for personal pressure.

When time comes for project deadline, they find plenty of excuses and complain that others are not working as hard as they are. What happens is that the manager will believe them and give their unfinished work to other workers. When comes to laying off workers in difficult situation, these lazy workers stay and the quiet hard working one might be the first to leave. As much as I hate this, I still hadn’t come up with a good plan to deal with my lazy co-worker. May be it’s simply because I do not like to turn myself into what my enemies are like, too reluctant to play their dirty tricks and to reveal their open secrets to my supervisor. Or I might be waiting for others like me to take action first.

Hello everyone,

I'm Jenny Cheng. It's very nice meeting everyone on this blog and this is my first experience meeting classmates on a blog. I'm a sophomore at Baruch College. Something interesting about me is that i don't have a talent and i don't have a favorite class. I usually do well in classes that involve mathematic only because i used to study a lot of math in afterschool program. I don't have a favorite sport, but i play tennis, badminton, volleyball and table tennis with my friends all of time. I currently work in the International Student Service Center at Baruch College. Drop by and say hi to me. ^_* Also, feel free to add me as a friend on facebook.