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.