I will like my future boss or any manager I will be working with to understand in its totality the concept of individual behavior. I think that understanding the concept is very important to the success of manager and employee relationship at workplace. But the one aspect that stand out for me during the discussion in class was stereotype which come from perceptual distortion.
Most of us are guilty of this distortion. As we learned in class, it present itself in many forms. But the one most common at workplace is stereotypes. I think we are familiar with that word by now. Because of its presence in the news all the time. However, before talking about stereotype specifically, let see what perception distortion is and how is related to stereotype. Perception is how we view the world around us, how we receive and interprete information from the environment. But how we receive and interprete information is greatly influence by individual backgrounds, values, experiences, etcetera. Consequently, these influences which lead to individual differences on how we view the world around us might lead to distortion. Hence perceptual distortion in the form of stereotype often lead to inaccurate assumption about people. Stereotype which stem from this distortion in my opinion is a way of trying to describe or predict the performance of an individual base on the gender, creed, believes, or race of that individual.
I believe is paramount that my future manager or any manager should understand the danger of stereotype. To have a preconceived notion about an employee, a manager misses the opportunity to know the employee on a personal level. Stereotype always inhibit the avenue to foster a good relationship. It might be that it is the personal rapport that the employee needs for motivation to perform better. Or a situation where a qualified applicant was not hired because of stereotype. These examples are just tip of the iceberg about the dangers of stereotype. I think my future manager we get more out of me and the other employees if we have a better understanding.
We are all unique, and I believe every individual should be treated that way. As we learned, our personality is already set and we can do nothing about that. But the propensity of a group or some notion about a group should not be used to determine the outcome of our performance or competency. Rather, every individual should be judge base on their personal abilities and the ability to produce results.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Leadership
A leader is a person who leads according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Also, it means a Guide or conductor. These above definitions may seem like no-brainer, but the simplicity serves as an uderpining to the widely accepted notion of leadership. To lead is a complex idea that interweave different kinds of skill sets, and require nurturing and time to become a master at it. Also it demands creativity and personal ingenuity to be a successful leader.
However, there are some acceptable traits that are associated with leaders. Amongst are intergrity, humility, credibility, kowledgeble, and visionary. No matter what field or industry, these traits have become a standard be which leaders are measured by. Moreover, these traits are not unique to a particular leadership role, but are transfereble from industry to industry to ensure success. Hence leadership is the process of inspiring others to work hard to accomplish inportant tasks. So to be an outstanding leader, it is important first and foremost to know how to work with people, and secondly to have a clear sense of the task ahead. Tasks and personnels might change from one role to another, but the leadership skills required to be successful is similar across the spectrum. Although, new leadership roles demand individuals to adopt different approaches from those adopted in their previous roles. An example of a high profile industry switch was that of Edward Whitacre. As a former head of AT&T and SBC, critics question his qualifications when he was named to be the Chairman and CEO of General Motors. The critics forgot that one of the qualities of a leader is the ability to get results, and Whitacre is well respected for getting results in the companies he has worked. He skills sets which gets him results from his employees in the previous jobs will be needed in this new role.
Closely examined, one of the contingency leadership theory that support the transferability of leadership qualities is the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model. The model matches leadership styles with the maturity of followers. These model believe that successful leaders adjust their styles base on the readiness of their follower to perform in a given situation. A leader according to these model should be able to assess the followers' readiness so as to be able to determine which type of leadership style to employ. The style range from Delegating, participating, selling and telling. Further, this model believe that leaders should adjust their style as followers mature over time. But it should be known that not all skills set are tranferable. One person that will agree to that is Jim Turner. Jim for 30 years was in the beverage industry, which took him to become the President of Dr Pepper. He was at Dr Pepper when the company was purchased by a private equity firm. Through many changes in the company, he became the head of Dr Pepper Bottling Co. of Texas. Under him, the company grew to a $2 billion annual revenue through acquisition and expansion. But he decided to retire from the company due to constant travelling to open an insurance company. He quickly realized that even while he was successful at the beverage industry, this new industry will require a new set of skills that he did not have. He described his first year as ups and downs, so he finally decided to hand over the management responsibilities to another person.
Jim will advice that not everything is transferable from one type of business to another. According to him, ''Management skills, selling skills, marketing skills- all of these tranfer. But a different customer base requires a different skills set. You have to surround yourself with people who understand the technical aspects and culture of the new industry.''
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_CEO/2010/July_August/Three_Dallas_CEOs_Reinvent_Themselves_With_Second_Careers.aspx
http://www.career-line.com/job-search/new-gm-ceo-comes-from-att/
However, there are some acceptable traits that are associated with leaders. Amongst are intergrity, humility, credibility, kowledgeble, and visionary. No matter what field or industry, these traits have become a standard be which leaders are measured by. Moreover, these traits are not unique to a particular leadership role, but are transfereble from industry to industry to ensure success. Hence leadership is the process of inspiring others to work hard to accomplish inportant tasks. So to be an outstanding leader, it is important first and foremost to know how to work with people, and secondly to have a clear sense of the task ahead. Tasks and personnels might change from one role to another, but the leadership skills required to be successful is similar across the spectrum. Although, new leadership roles demand individuals to adopt different approaches from those adopted in their previous roles. An example of a high profile industry switch was that of Edward Whitacre. As a former head of AT&T and SBC, critics question his qualifications when he was named to be the Chairman and CEO of General Motors. The critics forgot that one of the qualities of a leader is the ability to get results, and Whitacre is well respected for getting results in the companies he has worked. He skills sets which gets him results from his employees in the previous jobs will be needed in this new role.
Closely examined, one of the contingency leadership theory that support the transferability of leadership qualities is the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model. The model matches leadership styles with the maturity of followers. These model believe that successful leaders adjust their styles base on the readiness of their follower to perform in a given situation. A leader according to these model should be able to assess the followers' readiness so as to be able to determine which type of leadership style to employ. The style range from Delegating, participating, selling and telling. Further, this model believe that leaders should adjust their style as followers mature over time. But it should be known that not all skills set are tranferable. One person that will agree to that is Jim Turner. Jim for 30 years was in the beverage industry, which took him to become the President of Dr Pepper. He was at Dr Pepper when the company was purchased by a private equity firm. Through many changes in the company, he became the head of Dr Pepper Bottling Co. of Texas. Under him, the company grew to a $2 billion annual revenue through acquisition and expansion. But he decided to retire from the company due to constant travelling to open an insurance company. He quickly realized that even while he was successful at the beverage industry, this new industry will require a new set of skills that he did not have. He described his first year as ups and downs, so he finally decided to hand over the management responsibilities to another person.
Jim will advice that not everything is transferable from one type of business to another. According to him, ''Management skills, selling skills, marketing skills- all of these tranfer. But a different customer base requires a different skills set. You have to surround yourself with people who understand the technical aspects and culture of the new industry.''
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_CEO/2010/July_August/Three_Dallas_CEOs_Reinvent_Themselves_With_Second_Careers.aspx
http://www.career-line.com/job-search/new-gm-ceo-comes-from-att/
Sunday, November 11, 2012
HRM
Human Resource Management is an important branch or department in an organization. Moreover the investment in human capital has been proven over the years as a smart company investment plan. Investment in hiring, mentoring, training or coaching which require a lot of the organization's resources, will eventually with time translate into assets according to studies. but the reality is that most companies do not invest enough in Human Resource Management.
One of the challenges or problems I observed in my former job was that of staffing. There was a constant process of hiring and firing of employees. Management was struggling with finding employees that fit the job. This was not the case that management was bad in general, but it was obvious that they have a problem with there recruitment and selection process. I am able to say that was the problem because of some of the reasons I will be outlining. Moreover, it was very apparent that most of us was working there because of the paycheck. But we were glad we have the job anyway. Then the question is how do employees get hired for a job even if they a not fit for the job. Then I did not know, but after the class in Human Resource Management, it was clear that the company was not meticulous in there hiring process.
According to an article by C.O. Ajila, Professor at the department of Psychology, Obafami Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and Linus Okafor, Professor at the department of Business Administration, Bells University of Technology, Ota, Nigeria. Human Resource Management (HRM) is fundamentally about matching human resources to the strategic and operational needs of an organization and ensuring full utilization of those resources. Also it is concerned not only with obtaining and keeping the right number and quality of staff required, but also with selecting and promoting people who ''fit'' the culture and strategic requirement of the organization (Bello-Imam, Oshieonebo and Ojeifo, 2007). Its goal is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively (Armstrong,2006).
However, before we can achieve all the other HRM objectives, recruitment and selection will be the starting point. How deep is the company's investment on thier recruitment and selection process, will determine if the company will benefit from the advantages of HRM. In the case of my former employer, it was clear that they did not invest much in the recruiting and selection process. At least, I can attest to that considering how I was hired for the job.
Employees are vital asset in an organization according to Ajila and Okafor. Then if so vital, the process of hiring should be done with seriousness. The recruitment and selection processes should not stop at the process of advertising the job, collecting a pool of applicants and selecting from that pool base only on the evaluation of the biographical information available from Resumes, application forms or the sources. It should also include a comprehensive employee screening program (Testing). This process of comprehensive outlook of an employee in the form of in-depth interviewing and some form of testing, or real-time assessment and background checking was what my former employer was lacking. In my case, I think the interview took less than twenty minutes.
Although, testing without a clear objective is meaningless. Any employment testing should meet the criteria of validity and reliability. Validity means that the test measure exactly what it intend to measure and it is a good predictor of future job performance. Reliability means that the test is consistent in yielding the same result time after time. In all, the investment in Human Resource Management in the area of employment testing should not bring apprehension to the employee, rether it should be seen as mutually beneficial to both the employee and the the employer.
http://web.ebscohost.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=8&sid=532d8541-e0e4-48b4-b320-e3f16c511635%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=78093789
http://web.ebscohost.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=8&sid=532d8541-e0e4-48b4-b320-e3f16c511635%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=79700569
One of the challenges or problems I observed in my former job was that of staffing. There was a constant process of hiring and firing of employees. Management was struggling with finding employees that fit the job. This was not the case that management was bad in general, but it was obvious that they have a problem with there recruitment and selection process. I am able to say that was the problem because of some of the reasons I will be outlining. Moreover, it was very apparent that most of us was working there because of the paycheck. But we were glad we have the job anyway. Then the question is how do employees get hired for a job even if they a not fit for the job. Then I did not know, but after the class in Human Resource Management, it was clear that the company was not meticulous in there hiring process.
According to an article by C.O. Ajila, Professor at the department of Psychology, Obafami Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and Linus Okafor, Professor at the department of Business Administration, Bells University of Technology, Ota, Nigeria. Human Resource Management (HRM) is fundamentally about matching human resources to the strategic and operational needs of an organization and ensuring full utilization of those resources. Also it is concerned not only with obtaining and keeping the right number and quality of staff required, but also with selecting and promoting people who ''fit'' the culture and strategic requirement of the organization (Bello-Imam, Oshieonebo and Ojeifo, 2007). Its goal is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively (Armstrong,2006).
However, before we can achieve all the other HRM objectives, recruitment and selection will be the starting point. How deep is the company's investment on thier recruitment and selection process, will determine if the company will benefit from the advantages of HRM. In the case of my former employer, it was clear that they did not invest much in the recruiting and selection process. At least, I can attest to that considering how I was hired for the job.
Employees are vital asset in an organization according to Ajila and Okafor. Then if so vital, the process of hiring should be done with seriousness. The recruitment and selection processes should not stop at the process of advertising the job, collecting a pool of applicants and selecting from that pool base only on the evaluation of the biographical information available from Resumes, application forms or the sources. It should also include a comprehensive employee screening program (Testing). This process of comprehensive outlook of an employee in the form of in-depth interviewing and some form of testing, or real-time assessment and background checking was what my former employer was lacking. In my case, I think the interview took less than twenty minutes.
Although, testing without a clear objective is meaningless. Any employment testing should meet the criteria of validity and reliability. Validity means that the test measure exactly what it intend to measure and it is a good predictor of future job performance. Reliability means that the test is consistent in yielding the same result time after time. In all, the investment in Human Resource Management in the area of employment testing should not bring apprehension to the employee, rether it should be seen as mutually beneficial to both the employee and the the employer.
http://web.ebscohost.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=8&sid=532d8541-e0e4-48b4-b320-e3f16c511635%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=78093789
http://web.ebscohost.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=8&sid=532d8541-e0e4-48b4-b320-e3f16c511635%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=79700569
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