What I’ve learned about Management

Management is an art, a science, a philosophy and a doctrine. If it were really that easy to describe it we really wouldn’t need so many books about the subject. I realize that in the most pure sense of the word, management is a discipline that involves a multitude of principles from other disciplines to make it a holistic concept. The greatest lesson learned about management is that it needs to be complex in order to be complete. Not because all these principles are necessary to run a business, but because these principles are necessary to interact with the people who make a business what it is. Human beings are the most complicated species to deal with on Earth and mastering the fundamental elements of management is what is needed if any one person is going to succeed within the realm of everyday life.
Take for example the decision-making exercise that took place after the first exam. It essentially was a free for all battle royale between every individual in the room. But there are important principles of management that could clearly be seen. First and most obvious was communication. Some people failed to communicate effectively with one another in the class which led to unnecessary conflicts. For example, towards the end of the session, a unanimous decision had to be made about whether or not an essay was to be included in the second exam. One individual refused to vote for the proposal because he thought it was something he didn’t like. After further investigation, it turned out that there was a misunderstanding or more importantly a miscommunication in what the actual proposal was about and he later rescinded his original position and agreed to vote in favor of it. Another important element that was clearly seen was conflict resolution, which in itself can only be resolved through effective communication. Some people were so eager to get their own way that they refused to compromise on their position which led to conflict with other members of the class. However, even through these incidents of stubbornness, compromises were usually agreed upon because some members were able to effectively persuade the other parties to see things their way.
This now leads to the type of person who does the persuading. Every single person has a different type of personality. However, some of them are so similar to each other that they could be grouped together. These groups tend to handle different situations in a similar manner. For example, with regard to the DiSC Personality Profile System, the D’s would behave in a similar manner which regards to decision making and handling conflict. When it came time for a ‘leader’ to emerge, the D’s and I’s seemed to take over the floor in order to influence the outcome in a most directive manner. However, the S’s and C’s seemed to interact with those in their immediate surroundings which suggested that they took a more nondirective approach to handling the issues they were faced with.
So what exactly did I learn from this class? Very little I would have to say. Not because it was not taught, but because management is like an elephant and right now I have learned all that I can learn about its left ear lobe. This is because the central focus of this subject is people: the most complex and often misunderstood organism that exists today. You can try to learn all you want about them, but at the end of the day the greatest thing that needs to be taken away is that you don’t know anything at all about how they behave, but it always helps to try to gain as much insight as you can about them. All that can be done for me is to continue to study as much principles of management as I can, and hope that life experience will complement the rest of what I am supposed to know about this behemoth we call management.

Communication via Blog

Truth be told, I felt as if the blog didn't do anything in terms of meeting other people in the class. However, I do believe that the blog has enhanced my relations with other members of the class whom I have interacted with in the classroom itself. The blog provided me with and opportunity to express how I felt about their ideas and allowed me to get feedback on how others felt about me and my ideas.
The blog did force me to think back and share my perceptions about the group activities which usually were fun in themselves. It allowed me to compare the lessons that were taught in class with the activities that corresponded with them.
The management topics were interesting to look at and compare with other real world scenarios that were have seen on the news or through word-of-mouth. I felt that there was an adequate amount of outside reading to do via the blogs themselves.
Us being in control of the 20% of our grade is double edged sword because it deviates outside the normal test taking behaviors that we are accustomed to. I think that the blogs themselves can create a different kind of anxiety other than the test taking kind. However, planning ahead can counteract this anxeity because the blog entries are as simple as a student wants it to be. But I do see how the blogs can offset the test anxiety bacause it allows us to take as much time (before the blog entry is due of course) to think, prepare and write our blog entries.
I think the blogs were a great oppurtunity to express myself and I hope to continue posting on my blog after the semester is over. I feel that the blog entries should remain a part of this course because more and more, employers are looking at the online persona of you as well as the in person persona so it helps to have an online presence that will be a positive outlook on oneself.

You & Me

You think I am a robot,
I think I am not.
I am a human being...
and my potential will be seen.
I refuse to let you fail,
because when you fail, I fail with you.
I see your mission and goals within me,
But you only see me as a tool.

Alas! You finally realize,
that I am more than just a machine.
You asked me to do a task,
that is outside my normal routine.
That is when you realize
the talent that lives within me.
Now you know the truth.....
that I am you, and you are me.
And to treat me as you want to be treated
is when we both succeed.

At one point you lead me
and taught me how to be.
Now it's my turn to lead you
so now we must succeed.
You changed me into a leader,
And now I'll change you into a winner!

The DiSC

I think that the test accurately did gauge my manangement orientation. In the test, I turned out to be an S, back-up C. I have long been an overly patient person with a desire to help others. The tendencies described and the desired environment are so inline with what I do on a daily basis that it seems a little to accurate for comfort. However, one thing I can say is that I don't think I can be anything else other than a S.
This is a good test to better understand people's manangement style because an individual can better respond to a management style of a different profile better if he knows what it is and how he should behave when around that person. People need to be treated as if you understand them. Finally I also do think that this test can be generalized to different areas as one life. One reason is that my style at work is also the same as how I interact with people outside of work. Another reason is that I have seen and realized that people generally behave in a very consistent manner.

My Visions, My Raisons D'être

One of my greatest dreams is to move up the corporate ladder as quickly as possible. I do not see myself remaining in the same entry-level job the I will probably get out of college. I realize to some people that this may seem has an insurmountable challenge, but my main focus on how I can accomplish this is to in effect be able to do the job of my immediate supervisor. I will first try the gather information on the requirements and skills necessary to do the job of the position that is immediately above mine. Once I am able to prove myself capable of doing this higher-level job and gain the job I will immediate repeat the process over again for the position that is directly above the new job position that I will have gained. It has been done before by others and I would very well like to do it as well.
I also would like to own land and become actively involved in real estate development. In essence I would like to exercise my right to purchase and own my own set of houses that I will rent. I would very well like to be the landlord rather than the tenant. They way that this can be accomplished is to use the information available about my surroundings to my advantage. For instance. In the long run, coastal area may not be attractive real estate markets due to the effects of global warming. Being the one in control of my own property is a vision I intend to accomplish no matter what.
Finally, I would like to be able to have money work for me as opposed to me working for money for the rest of my life. When I graduate, I will be part of an extremely small percentage of the worlds population who have a college education. Therefore, I will have an advantage over those who may not be as fortunate as me to get an education, especially and affordable one at that. By investing my money and using existing interest rates to my advantage I would like to be able to extend the opportunities given to me to those who need it in the form of scholarships and grants. I am a firm believer that an education is the key to helping relieve some of the effects of poverty. In essence I would like to become a philanthropist and be in control of who I help instead of giving it to a charity whose work I usually don't see. Even though this goal my not become fully realized within the next 5 years, I have already made my plans for making this undertaking a reality and the only thing to do now is to get it started.

Decision Making & Conflict Resolution

One of the major issues with decision-making process that occurred in class was that they were many different views from almost every student in this class. It was almost as if we were in a parliament with many different factions operation at the same time.
The method of conflict resolution that I used the most was accomodation. I really did not have anything to lose or gain through the debates that were taking place at the time. I however did not want to see everyone in the class lose out on an oppurtunity to improve their grades. I did believe that the exam was difficult because of the way it was set-up, mainly because it was in a way that Baruch students were not used to. However, even though I supported the class getting a higher grade, my friend however did not. This friend argued that if you earned the grade, you should keep it, and that if the class were to recieve a higher grade then it would make this person's grade meaningless. Even though her aregument had merits, I realize that it was just who I am to see that other succeed and the it was just who my friend was. It was a diffeence off opinion that was probably ingrained in out respective personalities that made our veiw points radically different.
Given what I know now, I would have probably used a mediator - a thrid party whom every would respect and listen to well enough to have ease the conflict and ultimately avoid it altogether, that would most likely lead to a beneficial outcome for all parties involved. I would say someone who is in a position of authority, whether implicit or explict, who could command enought respect to guide the situation in the desired direction. This would have been better becuase this may have avoided unnecessary confrontation that resulted because of lack of direction. In essense it was a free-for-all battle royale between people with different view on what we should expect to get form the process, and i believe a mediator could have been used to act as a referee so that the 'fighting' remained fair to all of the students.

Group Planning Dynamics

The first thing that my group did was to let those members who had previous related experience to offer any insight into how we may successfully accomplish the goal that was set for us. Each member offered and example of how to design a contraption that would allow the egg to fall without breaking using out extremely limited resources. In essense we defined what our objective we in an abstract way but basically drawing essentially the same design for the egg cage. We were constantly aware of aour time constraints and worked as efficiently as possible to built a final product while at the same time making the necessary adjustments to the product we were constructing. In terms of trying to figure out future premises that would be included in the development of our egg cage, I would honestly say we completely over-looked that possibility. We had initally a vague idea for "Plan A" and as we progess furthur, our only goal was to make "Plan A". We were so focused on the here and now we completely disregarded "plan B." However, in a situation such as this working an a "plan B" would have been a distraction due to the obvious time constraints. We allowed ourselves to be flexible in our construction instead of delegating specific jobs to individual group members. This allow us to save time that would have been used in the delegation of task and allowed those who had the specific skills needed to design and/or implement to project to come foward and actively be involved in the project.
In conclusion, I would that the reason we were successful in design the egg cage was our group dynamic that was brought out in the planning process. We did not follow and exact guideline for planning a project; we allow ourselves to become flexible in our planning to allow us to accomplish the task presented to us.