UNIT 5

After reading the book "Good to Great", i realized just how important it was to have a good leader running an organization.  Not only that, but having the RIGHT people for the RIGHT jobs is just as important. 
The book made me think of my old job where I was a server for a well known, Columbias steakhouse, in Lexington.  It had been in business for close to 60 years and had a long list of regulars that would come in every week.  The reputation of the restaurant might have been good, but the manager (leader) of the restaurant was the worst boss I had ever had.  Working there was like working for a 15 year old girl who complained constantly, only she was 65.  The book hits on the idea that when great companies realize there is a problem, they implement change to fix it.  Good companies do not recognize these changes and most likely end up in financial trouble or even out of business.  In the case of Columbias, it was very obvious to the employees and some customers that the restaurant was not what it used to be.  People were always complaining that their steaks were undercooked or overcooked or that they flat out didnt care for the food.
Under these circumstances, a great company would probably re-vamp the restaurant by figuring out what the problem was and then making the necessary changes.  But this was not the case for Columbias.  The manager and owner were living on the reputation the restaurant had 30 years ago.  If somebody did not like there food, they could care less and not offer them a discount or pay for their food.  The kitchen was run by a bunch of ex-felons (no joke) that had the sorriest work ethic I had ever seen.  The restaurant only ran as fast as the kitchen and when it got really busy, people would wait 45 minutes to an hour for their food.  I had countless tables complain about the wait and my manager would never go over to apologize or to make sure that everything was ok.
I finally left in March and will never go back EVER again.  While the restaurant (i'm guessing) still does fine, it could easily be one of the better places to eat in town if our manager and owner would wake up and realize the problems.  They are far from a great company and show no signs of doing something about the problems they have.  I'm guessing that over the span of the next couple of years, things will get really bad to where they have no choice but to do something.  All I know is that if they want to be in business for another 60 years, they better wake up and figure out the issues they have.

UNIT 4

For this unit I am going to discuss the importance of "substantive selection" from chapter 17.

The biggest part of finding new employees is making sure you find an employee that fits well with what the company is trying to accomplish, but also the company is a good fit for the potential new employee.  To find this out, companys will use a wide variety of methods.  The most common of them is an interview.  Here the person being interviewed gets to "sell themself" to the company on why they would be a great fit.  On the other hand, an interview allows the company to get a sense of the persons personality and how they present themselves in public.  Having this face-to-face interview is the most common because there is no uncertainty left between the company and new employee compared to phone interviews that do not allow for nonverbal q's.  Other things used by companys include written tests, which can be anything like a personality test, intergrity test and an intelligence or congitive ability test.  Finally, stimulation tests allows companys to actually put the potential employee in a working atmosphere and assign them tasks to see how they perform.

I personally have had to go through several of these methods of hiring.  I applied to work at Carrabba's restaurant a couple summers ago and first had to pass a personality test just to get an interview.  After I was hired i went through a series of menu, spirits, and company ethics tests before I was allowed to start serving.  From the time I got hired to the time I got to serve my first table, it was almost a two weeks.  You tend to see this becoming more popular with corporate restaurants these days.  They dont want to hire people who can't talk to people and have bad work ethics.  To pass all these tests, it took a lot of time and commitment to study the menu and company policy books.  People who are not willing to do that are weeded out. 

The importance of substantive selection can not be underestimated.  Using these methods of hiring can lead to the right people to be hired for the job.  It is important to give tests like a personality test in some areas of business because people can put up a front that makes them look like the right fit when they really are not.  While interviews are still very useful, it should not be the only method used to base a decision on because the tests do not lie. 

UNIT 3

For this unit i am going to discuss organizational structure from chapter 15.

The way an oraganization is structrued can literally make or break a company.  Many companies today have moved toward a network organization, which has many different units doing different things.  This organizational structure is so popular today because it is very complex but very efficent at the same time.  The traditional organizations were set up as a chain of command, where communication flowed from top to bottom.  In most cases, this has shown to be very inefficient and leaves the bottom level employees unhappy becuase they feel that they have no control over any of the decision making process.

This summer I had an internship with a TV station back home.  I was in the sales and marketing department and I mostly just assisted any of the sales reps and went out on calls.  The company was set up as a network organization with many different units all having different responsibilites.  You had the traffic department whos job was to organize commercials that would run at certain times, the sales department (where I was), the news room where people were getting stories ready for the evening news and you also had your news anchors.  There was plenty of other untis, but these were the main ones.  Within the company, there was little to no hierarchy.  The sales reps that i worked with were, for the most part, on their own schedules.  They spent mostly all their time out of the office visiting with clients and things.  The way the company was set up was to have trust in the people that were working there.  It would be pretty obvious if you werent producing new clients and bringing in money for the company so everybody was self-motivated to do their best.  After all, the more money they bring in, the more money in their pocket.

Companies like the one I worked for over the summer were the kind of companies I hope i can work for in the future.  Having the freedom to work without having somebody breathing down your neck was great.  I couldnt help but notice how happy everybody was everyday.  Most of the people working there had been there for years which told me that the money was good and they were treated right.  Companies with a chain of command these days do not seem to be what people are looking for anymore.  Even though there are plenty of those kind of companies out there, nobody in them seems to be happy.  Look at most blue collar jobs.  Most of these jobs (like warehouse jobs) have really high turn over because of the way the company is structured.  People are most happy in the workplace when they are given the freedoms to get their work done without the day to day pressures of angry, power hungry bosses.

UNIT 2

For this unit I am going to discuss "emotional labor" from chapter 4.

I'm sure most of you are like me and have had to pay your dues serving tables while in college.  It's easy money (most of the time) and the hours are flexible.  Over the last 4 years, i have worked in 3 restaurants.  All have been completely different menus with everything from Italian to seafood and steaks.  I consider myself to be a good people person so being a server has never really been a challenge.  As you know, one of the keys to good service is someone who is upbeat and personable.  Nobody wants to be waited on who has a bad attitude and you can tell there is a million other places they would want to be instead of serving you.  However, everybody has their good and bad days and sometimes that one little complaint or comment by a customer or a co-worker can just ruin your day.

Emotional dissonance in the work place might be one of the hardest things to do (at least for me).  This is when you have to project one emotion while feeling another.  For instance, lets say you have had a rough day of classes, maybe you got a test back and you did not do so well or you have a lot of homework that you need to get done after work.  You are in a pissed off mood because you feel overwhelmed and wish you could have got the night off to finish your school obligations.  I know that this has happened to me plenty of times.  To keep your boss happy and your tips high you have to dig down deep inside and project yourself to be feeling happy and excited to be working.

I could go on for days on times when i felt like just wanting to walk out of the restaurant and say screw it.  When i worked for a restaurant downtown last year, i always seemed to get the shifts that were the worst times for me and could never get anybody to pick them up.  It didn't help that our manager was living on the reputation that the restaurant had 30 years ago.  She was way up there in age and was stuck in her ways.  Things had to be done a certain way because that was how it has always been done.  Needless to say, me and all the other servers hated working there (most of the servers were friends of mine) but the money was really good and you never were stuck there past 10:00 at night.  There were so many days where i had to use emotional dissonance because I knew that if i didn't then i wouldn't make any money.  People are not going to tip a person who has a terrible attitude. 

People in all different types of professions experience emotional dissonance on a weekly basis, not just service industry people.  When it's time for me to start my career i'm sure there will be days when I have to put my happy face on when i'm not really happy.  The point is the one's that suck it up and deal with it are the ones that stick around and the one's who let their emotions get the best of them are the one's being told they are fired.  

Hey everyone! I'm sure that i'm just like most of you and not to familiar with the whole blogging, but i'm going to give it my best shot.

After reading about creating a positive work environment, it took me back to a job I had a couple summers ago.  I decided to move home for the summer becuase i was broke and wanted to enjoy the satisfaction of living for free at home.  I found a job with one of my buddies working for the national distribution center for the car company Volvo. It paid exteremely well and the hours were great so i was pretty excited about starting. 

However, i found out quickly that things werent so great.  First off, all warehouse workers were required to join the UAW or United Auto Workers.  This meant paying monthly dues that came out of my paycheck.  But that was just the tip of the iceberg.  I soon found out that their was major issues between the workers on the floor (me) and management.  The company was not happy with the production of the employees over the last few years and to say the least were fed up with the "union environment".  Our manager, who was up there in age and liked to do things the old fashioned way, was without a doubt the worst boss i have ever had. 

My job title was called a "picker".  Basically, when orders for car parts came in, i would go around the warehose and "pick" whatever parts the customer needed.  Being that it was the national distribution center for all of North America, the orders never stopped.  Management had implemented a set quota that you had to average per week and just like most companies, the quota was almost impossible to reach.  The fact that i was new and just there for the summer did not matter to my boss.  Everyday i thought i might get fired for not making the previous weeks quota.  It became i constant worry for me that I began to hate the job and would have to force myself to show up for work everyday.

There was no such thing as creating a positive work environment for the employees at Volvo.  Management wanted to keep everybody on the edge of their seat to make sure that things were getting done at the pace they saw acceptable.  Most full-time employees i talked to hated their jobs, but didnt want to leave because the pay was so good.  It was the first job that i actually did not care about the pay anymore and just wanted the summer to be over becuase it was so miserable.  For me, they couldnt have paid me enough to work for them full-time.  It was unfortunate to see the divide between management and the floor workers.  The communication lines between both groups was awful and neither side wanted to give the other the upper hand.  What i'm trying to get at is it made me realize how important it is to work for a company that creates a positive work environment for its employees.  I think that giving employees a good enviroment to work in should be at the top of the list.  If companies start there, everything else should fall into place.