Managing a Poem

To manage is to handle, to maintain, to watch over, to execute, to command, to take care of, to operate, to govern

I wish they taught me how to handle chopsticks
I wish they taught me how to maintain my room
I wish they taught me how to watch over my diet
I wish they taught me how to execute an interview
I wish they taught me how to command my enemies
I wish they taught me how to operate a female’s body
I wish they taught me how to take care of my girl
I wish they taught me how to govern my life

Instead they taught me Porter’s and Potters
Planning Organizing
Leading and Controlling
SWOT’s and DISC’s
Fiedler and Drucker
Ethics and morals
Teams and Managers
Innovation and organization
MBO’s and BCG’s
These are the things that we have seen

Management 3-1-2-0
Here I go
Management 3-1-2-1
Give me a new show

What the Blog?!

Blogging. It's a totally new concept to me and one that I never had any interest in. I've heard about but thought it was a waste of my personal time, especially where I could find better things to do. Do I still feel the same way? Absolutely. However, I also think that it's a revolutionary idea that can be applied for college classes. I fully support Professor Kurpis' blogging requirements for his class. One of the main reasons, is that it is a fair component for the curriculum since there are no supplemental requirements for the class other than the midterm and final.

I felt more comfortable talking with others in class through the blogs since I am a quiet type of person. The blog definitely required me to think more in depth of the class material that was discussed. This was one of the reasons why I forced myself to try to attend each class. Since the blogs referred to a specific lecture and activity, I couldn't risk missing out on a class. In addition, I read very interesting blogs that were posted by many other students; ideas and thoughts that didn't even cross my mind at first. I read some outside material posted on other people's blogs and found them sort of helpful. I would rather prefer to do my own research by visiting businessweek.com or just reading the WSJ or Times. I would have personally posted them onto my blog but I had just forgotten to do so. As far as the 20%, that's a whopper. I hadn't realized this until now and regret not posting my blogs on time. I think that it is a fair percentage towards the final grade. Honestly, I am not sure whether or not I will continue to post on this blog but I do intend to when I take MGT 3121.

Mission: Personal Profile

In class we took the a leadership/management diagnostic that assesses your personality and determines what type of person you are in the workplace. I believe that the test accurately gauged my management orientation. The test declared me as a "Cs"- primarily Conscientious coupled with characteristics of Steadiness.

I am pleased with my results but I believe that Conscientiousness and Steadiness are very similar to each other. Conscientious people place an emphasis on working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality an accuracy while people who fall under Steadiness place an emphasis on cooperating with others to carry out the task. I do wish I had a little bit more of Dominance in me because I think I may be too soft sometimes. Dominant people place an emphasis on shaping the environment by overcoming opposition to accomplish results.

I think that it is helpful to determine people's management "type" to better understand where they are coming from because it is difficult to change a person's personality, which has been developed over their life. This way, you are able to adjust to your manager's leadership style as well as know what to expect and thus, perform more effectively and efficiently. As a manager it is also important to understand your employees' management "type" in order to properly assign certain tasks to certain individuals. This test would be helpful in a variety of situations such as a class group project or even choosing your girlfriend/boyfriend.

In the winter survival scenario, I think that it is important to have a Conscientious person because this is the person who will be thinking with the most rationality. The Dominant person may be a hindrance to the right course of action, as well as the Influence person. A Steady person would be good to have in the group but should not be the leader because the right action may not be taken.

De Macht Van Visie

My vision- will it come to be or will it not? That is a question that all of us should sit down and ask ourselves how we can make our vision come true. As a college student, I am always exposed to how students carry themselves in their daily academic and sometimes personal lives. One thing I have noticed is that there are some students who take an initiative to pursue their dreams while there are also many who treat college as they treated high school- taking it a day at a time.

My first dream is to be successful but live a modest life. Unlike others, I don't aspire to be making tons of money. It would definitely be nice but it's not one of my personal goals. I dream of living a decent life, nothing too luxurious. If it happens though, I wouldn't mind. My main goal is not to earn a million dollars but rather it's not to live below middle-income. I'm an accounting major and this is very possible so I personally do not worry too much about my future since I suspect that I'm doing well and better than the average student.

My second dream is to help out the world/community in a significant way, not just by donating money, but helping in such a way that it will have a high impact. I wish to address issues that especially deserve high concern such as the environment. I don't know what the future may hold for us in terms of the human race still existing, but I do believe that it does not look so bright with our climate crisis. One of my goals is to live in a house that is completely eco-efficient. In order to start this, I plan on joining organizations that help promote a green and friendly environment.

A third dream is to travel the entire world. Now many people will probably list this as a something that must be done. It's difficult to carry out because it requires a lot of time and money; but I think that it is possible. I love to travel and I have set a goal to visit every renowned place and city that exists on the face of this earth before I die. This has led me to question whether or not I would want to have kids because having children would take a lot of time and nurturing.

voto per il questo o voto per quello

Professor Kurpis provided us with the opportunity to modify the structure of the next exam. However, the approach that he used was an exceptionally interesting one. He let us, the students, decide on how we want to change it. But there was one condition; it had to be a unanimous decision among the students.

Unaware to the naked eye, this would prove to be a difficult thing to accomplish and would turn into a heated debate. There were many conflicts that we had to overcome such as whether or not there should be a "True or False" section on the exam. Everyone was shouting out their ideas; ideas that they believed would benefit themselves while others thought it would hinder their goal creating an easier test and of getting a higher grade.

There are various ways to handle conflict. People who compete to win demonstrate assertiveness to get their way. Those who avoid withdraw from partaking any action. People who compromise want to ensure equality among the group. Those who apply the accommodation technique see the issue as more important to others than their self. People who like to collaborate require bargaining and negotiation.

I used the the avoidance method during class. There were many reasons why I chose not to participate in the discussions. One reason I withdrew was that I think the primary reason was that I figured that everyone else would take care of it. And in the end, they all did. I couldn't think of a better way to change the exam than the way that we had come up with, or should I say the rest of the class came up with.

A Little Pre-Halloween Egging

The egg drop activity that we performed last week was by far one of the most exciting activities that I have ever partook upon in a classroom setting. I think it clearly demonstrates how groups undergo the planning process. However, my only criticism about the activity is that I believe rarely do teams in organizations have to formulate a plan with such a limited time. On the other hand, we are constrained by the hour-and-fifteen minutes of classtime that we are allotted.

With regards to Step 1 of the planning process, I believe that our group clearly understood the requirements of the activity. The professor specified them in a simple and easy to understand manner. We knew we had limited time and that we were to create a device that would prevent the egg from breaking. It was as simple as that; nothing that would arouse questions.

We knew the resources that were being supplied. I do wish though that we could have been given all the resources, including the egg, at the beginning of the activity. This is because creating the mechanism was difficult for some members to clearly understand what one was actually describing. As far as determining individual strengths and weaknesses, I believe that for the most part we did not do this, other than choosing the shortest person to drop the egg. We did not define everyone's best attributes. We mainly jumped right into formulating ideas for the device. Given the nature of the activity and the time, I did not see the necessity of doing this.

As we began to plan out how we were going to approach this, the members had many creative ideas. We started out with one idea and then other members would modify or add to the prior idea. We had a few ideas and tried to combine them in the best possible way. When we saw something wrong with the idea, such as not letting the egg fall on its side (we incorrectly assumed that it would fall straight down), we would address it and modify the plan. We also visualized the egg dropping with each idea and tried to picture whether or not it would break.

I think that we did not effectively carry out Step 4 of the planning process. For the most part, I think we went from step 3 to step 5. We brainstormed and generated ideas, combined them into what we thought would work, created a picture of it, and then jumped right into making the device once we obtained the materials. The reason that I think this happened was because we spent to much time on idea generation, and before we knew it we had a few minutes to get the egg in its device.

Once we obtained the egg, we jumped straight into trying to get it into the device. We did not allocate roles for who would do what part. I was confused on how the device would look, so I just started bending the straws because I think that was the only part I actually understood as to what needed to be done. We did not have to take any major corrective action because the members that were primarily working on the egg knew what they were doing; or at least thought they did. When the finished product was completed, I truly did not know whether or not it was going to work. Turned out it didn't.

管理困境

A management dilemma that I am facing, one that my mother consistently complains about and one that I am sure many of my peers can reflect on, is how to efficiently and effectively manage my time. It may be hypocritical of myself to say that I believe that I am a very orderly and responsible person. I truly think of myself as so because I usually plan out my week in advance. I have been doing this for many years and it all seemed to work out. I never had any problem with it. Until just recently, especially the last semester did I see myself not carrying out what I planned to do. I think one of the primary reasons is my circle of friends. I have been dedicating too much of my time to them.

I always tell myself that I will do such and such a thing at a certain time. I try to determine how long it would take and find some time to either study or spend some time with family, which are the two biggest complaints that my mother dishes out to me. For some reason, I am always busy. Prior to the beginning of the day, I find myself at ease, thinking that everything will go according to what I had planned. However, it does not seem to work out. The thing that astonishes me is that I can't figure out why it went wrong. I don't really know what to do. I guess it's just forgetting and being lazy, but hopefully I'll be able to fix it soon.