Hi class, this is the Learning Blog for our Marian University International Organizational Behavior class. What I would like to see posted by each student each week is your reaction to a “Ripped from the Headlines” story that related in some way to organizational behavior. Be sure to include a hyperlink to the story you are posting about. Have fun, and start blogging!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Week 2
Post your week 2 articles and comments to this thread
I found this article interesting. Here is a worldwide company, IBM, finding a new market servicing needs that are being created by the outsourcing trends in business. It's an expensive lesson to learn but the new-economy does present opportunities within the supply and demand market but they are generally in areas that are developing or completely new.(hyperlink is not working, you'll have to type it in) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12223562
7 Steps to Better Brainstorming: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Seven_steps_to_better_brainstorming_2767 was a very good article that highlighted how upper management can generate more specific or detail oriented ideas as a result of brainstorming in a manner other than the traditional form. By asking specific questions, setting parameters and obtainable goals, and following up in a relatively quick manner I agree that management might be able to harbor better ideas from their employees.
I think for too long management has been relying on the old train of thought that brainstorming generates ideas. While it does generate some ideas-I don't think the ideas are as thought provoking as they should be, after all, people just have to show up and throw out ideas. If questions or parameters are introduced, I think it might empower employees to come up with better ideas that are more specific to the growth/development of the company-thus meeting management goals rather than just 'filling a quota'.
The first step of knowing the decision criteria is a given and not a revelation. It is the most basic skill of a facilitator. I do like second step; the "idea" of asking the right questions and the two characteristics. It is a clear re-statement of tried and tested methods used in effective brainstorming groups. The third step of choosing the right people is important but limiting your group to firsthand participants can limit the scope of responses. After all, paradigm shifts are often initiated by outliers. Within step four I found a nuggett(which could justify the whole article's worth) in the 3 to 5 people group size and the social norm behind it. Step six and seven are crucial to reinforce the value of the groups and their work but they are not very common in real practice. I have participated in such a brainstorming session and it was productive but it was very draining and the "pick the best out of the bunch" session was deflating while the lack of follo-up was a morale breaker! In the end, the facilitator still goes a long way towards making or breaking the quality of the session.
Below is a link displaying an article about WalMart and some ethical issues they face. The article talks about favoritism, where clearly a under qualified person was hired for a job. What blows me away is this type of thing appears to be a common occurance withing the WalMart Organization.Last year over 4,800 law suits, and they have 9,400 open suits currently. This all being said WalMart continues to be the retail giant withing the industry. I mean who doesn't at least shop somewhat at Walmart today, why because they offer great prices continuoulsy. I believe that an organization can become so big and such a household name that no matter how much neagtive press they receive, they will be sucessful. Why,because despite all the negativity that surrounds organization competive consumer price becomes the ultimite dictator. Right, wrong or indifferent it seems to be factual. I also couldn't inset as link please copy and paste into your web browser.
Greg in reference to your article. It seems the new trend in IT based companies is servicing. Not only developing systems is profitable but servicing systems is proving to be even more profitable. As companies and individuals become more and more inclined to use modern technolgy servicing these systems is of utmost importance. IT systems both hardware and software are very expensive in todays world eveyone is watching expenses keeping your systems up and running and current seem to be more important then always having new.
Below is a link to an article that talks about the Startup Visa Act. It talks about foreign entreprenuers who are sent back to their countries and not allowed the chance to potentially start a great business here in the U.S. This act will allow those entreprenuers the chance while also providing job opportunities to Americans. Do you think this act could help the U.S.?
In reference to Ron's article regarding ethical issues with WalMart; I believe many of us would like to purchase "made in the USA" items, but can't afford to do so. I also find myself shopping at WalMart for convenience, when I need something locally (WalMart caused the closing of most small retailers in our small area) I shop at WalMart. According to the article, they do have many lawsuits dealing with ethical issues, and along with that comes disgruntled employees. As the article stated, General Motors plays favoritism and in many businesses, who you know is extremely important. With WalMart employing over 2 million people worldwide in 2009, I would estimate their percentage of lawsuits may be in line with other businesses.
I have posted an article about retirement ages for board directors. The article talks about this coterversial age. Now company's are extending the retirement ages to hold on to the "seasoned vets" of the industry. Today 19% of big companies have expanded the age from 72 to 75 to allow them to keep their existing board members. The arguments are that on one hand the seasoned directors know the business and are experienced, on the other hand some business people believe that this isn't allowing new and innovative ideas from the younger generations. When considering not extending your age for retirement remember that people are still good at their jobs at an older age today and it is also extremely hard for a company to ask someone to step down. It is also hard to have board directors that outlive their careers and don't know when to exit. This also affects the upcoming business men and women. What would you do?
Ron I totally agree with you, except I think their negative press doesn't hit home. It's not everyday that you hear about Walmart's lawsuits or anyone you know involved. I think that if local newspapers and people got involved with this negative press it would seriously hurt Walmart. We are the people that shop at Walmart and we are the ones that don't hear the negativity. Sure some people have taken it upon themselves to learn this or learned about it in school or online but I am willing to bet that the majority of the everyday Walmart shopper has no idea. I think if the way Walmart treated it's employees was made known in the small towns that feed off of Walmart it would hurt their business. To me it is funny how they can keep this press in specific areas or that people in our area just don't care because of the good price.
This is an interesting article that talks about a survey done with HR professionals. The creators of the survey asked 1200 HR professionals to predict what was in store for the future in business and also what changes they planned on making within their own companies within the next year. Some of the changes included increased hiring, raising healthcare costs and expecting increased productivity per employee.
Tiffany, I really liked your article. I can certainly see both sides of the argument. However, I think it is important to get a good mix of ages and ideas in the board room. By the time someone "younger" gets to a position within the company where they are eligible to be on the board they obviously know their way around. Granted, seasoned vets will still have more experience but it's not like they are turning control over to someone who has no idea what they are doing. Personally, I don't think I would want to work until I was 75 years old but I know that there are other people who feel differently. I think this is a case by case basis depending on the people and the company that they are in.
This article discusses Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, and how knowing the culture in each region of different country's is the key to globalization for many businesses, but there are many variables involved in actually doing data collecting. For instance the article mentioned that they started out doing research on national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries. The people being polled or answering a questioner might only represent a very small portion of the region,so how accurate is the data & does it represent the whole culture of that particular region or just that small sample group? pretty cool little article I thought, and if, no when I doing business in other country's I will absolutely want to know as much about the culture as possible, so i might look my man Geert Hofstede up and find out about the cultural dimensions.
This article talks about the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center is helping to guide entrepreneurs. Basically they help newcomers to the small business world organize their ideas. They help them to pick their type of corporation, file for federal assistance, and also to expand. Basically the MSBTDC can help business owners develop their business organization or they can help them with their organizational and managerial challenges when looking to expand. I think it's a really great organization and so far the numbers they are reporting are looking good for the economy too.
I found this article interesting. Here is a worldwide company, IBM, finding a new market servicing needs that are being created by the outsourcing trends in business. It's an expensive lesson to learn but the new-economy does present opportunities within the supply and demand market but they are generally in areas that are developing or completely new.(hyperlink is not working, you'll have to type it in)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12223562
7 Steps to Better Brainstorming: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Seven_steps_to_better_brainstorming_2767 was a very good article that highlighted how upper management can generate more specific or detail oriented ideas as a result of brainstorming in a manner other than the traditional form. By asking specific questions, setting parameters and obtainable goals, and following up in a relatively quick manner I agree that management might be able to harbor better ideas from their employees.
ReplyDeleteI think for too long management has been relying on the old train of thought that brainstorming generates ideas. While it does generate some ideas-I don't think the ideas are as thought provoking as they should be, after all, people just have to show up and throw out ideas. If questions or parameters are introduced, I think it might empower employees to come up with better ideas that are more specific to the growth/development of the company-thus meeting management goals rather than just 'filling a quota'.
The first step of knowing the decision criteria is a given and not a revelation. It is the most basic skill of a facilitator. I do like second step; the "idea" of asking the right questions and the two characteristics. It is a clear re-statement of tried and tested methods used in effective brainstorming groups. The third step of choosing the right people is important but limiting your group to firsthand participants can limit the scope of responses. After all, paradigm shifts are often initiated by outliers. Within step four I found a nuggett(which could justify the whole article's worth) in the 3 to 5 people group size and the social norm behind it. Step six and seven are crucial to reinforce the value of the groups and their work but they are not very common in real practice. I have participated in such a brainstorming session and it was productive but it was very draining and the "pick the best out of the bunch" session was deflating while the lack of follo-up was a morale breaker! In the end, the facilitator still goes a long way towards making or breaking the quality of the session.
ReplyDeleteBelow is a link displaying an article about WalMart and some ethical issues they face. The article talks about favoritism, where clearly a under qualified person was hired for a job. What blows me away is this type of thing appears to be a common occurance withing the WalMart Organization.Last year over 4,800 law suits, and they have 9,400 open suits currently. This all being said WalMart continues to be the retail giant withing the industry. I mean who doesn't at least shop somewhat at Walmart today, why because they offer great prices continuoulsy. I believe that an organization can become so big and such a household name that no matter how much neagtive press they receive, they will be sucessful. Why,because despite all the negativity that surrounds organization competive consumer price becomes the ultimite dictator. Right, wrong or indifferent it seems to be factual.
ReplyDeleteI also couldn't inset as link please copy and paste into your web browser.
http://www.richardpublishing.com/walmart.html
Greg in reference to your article.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the new trend in IT based companies is servicing. Not only developing systems is profitable but servicing systems is proving to be even more profitable. As companies and individuals become more and more inclined to use modern technolgy servicing these systems is of utmost importance. IT systems both hardware and software are very expensive in todays world eveyone is watching expenses keeping your systems up and running and current seem to be more important then always having new.
Below is a link to an article that talks about the Startup Visa Act. It talks about foreign entreprenuers who are sent back to their countries and not allowed the chance to potentially start a great business here in the U.S. This act will allow those entreprenuers the chance while also providing job opportunities to Americans. Do you think this act could help the U.S.?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2011/sb20110314_886007.htm
In reference to Ron's article regarding ethical issues with WalMart; I believe many of us would like to purchase "made in the USA" items, but can't afford to do so. I also find myself shopping at WalMart for convenience, when I need something locally (WalMart caused the closing of most small retailers in our small area) I shop at WalMart.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article, they do have many lawsuits dealing with ethical issues, and along with that comes disgruntled employees. As the article stated, General Motors plays favoritism and in many businesses, who you know is extremely important. With WalMart employing over 2 million people worldwide in 2009, I would estimate their percentage of lawsuits may be in line with other businesses.
I have posted an article about retirement ages for board directors. The article talks about this coterversial age. Now company's are extending the retirement ages to hold on to the "seasoned vets" of the industry. Today 19% of big companies have expanded the age from 72 to 75 to allow them to keep their existing board members. The arguments are that on one hand the seasoned directors know the business and are experienced, on the other hand some business people believe that this isn't allowing new and innovative ideas from the younger generations. When considering not extending your age for retirement remember that people are still good at their jobs at an older age today and it is also extremely hard for a company to ask someone to step down. It is also hard to have board directors that outlive their careers and don't know when to exit. This also affects the upcoming business men and women. What would you do?
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703905404576164791847168546.html?mod=WSJ_mgmt_MiddleSecondHighlights
Ron I totally agree with you, except I think their negative press doesn't hit home. It's not everyday that you hear about Walmart's lawsuits or anyone you know involved. I think that if local newspapers and people got involved with this negative press it would seriously hurt Walmart. We are the people that shop at Walmart and we are the ones that don't hear the negativity. Sure some people have taken it upon themselves to learn this or learned about it in school or online but I am willing to bet that the majority of the everyday Walmart shopper has no idea. I think if the way Walmart treated it's employees was made known in the small towns that feed off of Walmart it would hurt their business. To me it is funny how they can keep this press in specific areas or that people in our area just don't care because of the good price.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/what-your-human-resources-department-will-do-this-year/1052?tag=mantle_skin;content
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting article that talks about a survey done with HR professionals. The creators of the survey asked 1200 HR professionals to predict what was in store for the future in business and also what changes they planned on making within their own companies within the next year. Some of the changes included increased hiring, raising healthcare costs and expecting increased productivity per employee.
Tiffany, I really liked your article. I can certainly see both sides of the argument. However, I think it is important to get a good mix of ages and ideas in the board room. By the time someone "younger" gets to a position within the company where they are eligible to be on the board they obviously know their way around. Granted, seasoned vets will still have more experience but it's not like they are turning control over to someone who has no idea what they are doing. Personally, I don't think I would want to work until I was 75 years old but I know that there are other people who feel differently. I think this is a case by case basis depending on the people and the company that they are in.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, and how knowing the culture in each region of different country's is the key to globalization for many businesses, but there are many variables involved in actually doing data collecting. For instance the article mentioned that they started out doing research on national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries. The people being polled or answering a questioner might only represent a very small portion of the region,so how accurate is the data & does it represent the whole culture of that particular region or just that small sample group? pretty cool little article I thought, and if, no when I doing business in other country's I will absolutely want to know as much about the culture as possible, so i might look my man Geert Hofstede up and find out about the cultural dimensions.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.argus-press.com/news_local/article_2fc76372-25d6-11e0-b6db-001cc4c03286.html
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center is helping to guide entrepreneurs. Basically they help newcomers to the small business world organize their ideas. They help them to pick their type of corporation, file for federal assistance, and also to expand. Basically the MSBTDC can help business owners develop their business organization or they can help them with their organizational and managerial challenges when looking to expand. I think it's a really great organization and so far the numbers they are reporting are looking good for the economy too.