Ineffective Reactions
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There are always good and bad ways to respond to conflict and problem solving. It was very interesting to me to read about the different types of ineffective reactions. We all have likely done at least one of these reactions not thinking about how ineffective it would be. I know I have done them on more than one occasion. When confronting challenges in the workplace, it is so important to make sure you are doing so correctly or it could lead to further conflict or issues. The four ineffective reactions are relaxed change, relaxed avoidance, defensive avoidance, and panic.These are not just ineffective in the workplace, they are also ineffective in life in general for issues. Defensive avoidance while it may appear harmless, it only allows the issue to fester until one or more parties explode. Relaxed avoidance just involves the idea that nothing bad will happen so why bother fixing the problem. Relaxed change allows people to take the quickest solution with little risk. Lastly, panic is never good because instead of dealing with the problem rationally you are just trying to fix it and be done with it. As managers allowing this type of reaction for any issue is going to cause more stress for you and your employees in the future. We may believe that relaxed avoidance will work in the situation, but what if it does not and this employee walks out because they believe their issue was ignored. Overall, I really enjoyed this section because of how much it can relate to our business lives as managers, but also to our personal lives as problem solving adults.
Decision-making styles
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It never occurred to me how much decision-making influences my workday. Or to better put it, how my decision-making style influences the choices I make. Over the past ten years of working in retail I have had all types of managers to observe and learn from. Reading through the chapter I kept catagorizing managers into the graphic with the four styles of decision making. Some were task/technical people, while others focused on people and social concerns, but my favorite managers were always in the middle of the graph. I know the book states that a manager can be a mix of styles, but I guess a good manager knows when to apply different styles to different decision-making situations. Maybe thats the reason why, at least from my perspective, my best managers were able to apply different styles over the years? Any thoughts?
By the way, I took the decision-making style quiz at the end and scored 5 points for directive & 4 points for analytical.
I suppose if I were to apply my first thought of this discussion post it would be that I need to start thinking about how my choices come across those that they impact. For instance, when a new strategy was being developed to improve our cashiers’ performance stats against other stores, I made a list of tips to improve our numbers. Some of the associates took this as an insult. As though it was implying they did not know how to do their job. I only wanted to help them gain better standings but maybe my delivery was botched. After reading through the chapter and really trying to apply the ideas to my own work, I think I could have highlighted where we were strong, and then followed up with ways to improve ourselves instead of giving out a list of things they need to learn how to do. …Now I am just thinking out loud.
Did anyone ever make a decision and have it backfire on them or cause any negative results?
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Chapter 11 discusses how personality of individuals can affect and predict the type of work one will do. What I found very interesting in the chapter is the section about the “Five Traits Important in Organizations.” Locus of control indicates how much people believe they control their own fate, and employees with internal locus of control will probably resist close managerial supervision and lower compliance.[1] I can see this trait in many individuals; Individuals with internal locus of control seem to do better with incentive pay and less supervision. Such jobs include sales, these jobs have high risks but high rewards. I also found interesting is sources of stress on the job, and how positive stress can be constructive. The American Institute of stress estimates that workplace stress costs the U.S. economy over $300 billion a year, missed work, and stress reduction treatment.[2]We have all been stressed in our lives in one time or another, combining work with personal live can be very difficult, this chapter went over symptoms of stress such as physiological signs, psychological signs and behavioral signs. Stress in the workplace can affect an employee’s performance and productivity. Stress can have an employee increase in absenteeism and quit the job all together, in some cases stress can have an employee resort to violence. It’s important for organization to have programs in place to identify stress and stress management programs. Such programs are time off for rest or personal development, assignment to new positions, extra staff at peak periods, increased free to make decisions, recognition for accomplishments, employee assistance programs, holistic wellness programs, career counseling, and support systems. Not all companies are able to provide these programs but no matter how small or big a company is should have some kind of stress related program in place.
Job satisfaction
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The text gives some data to show a job satisfaction that catches my attention. For instance, it says, “86% of 550 employees responding to one survey said flexibility to balance their work and personal life was in important aspect of job satisfaction.” Unfortunately, some of companies do not adopt it to their company policies, instead, they require all local employees must be physically working in the office regardless many of employees have long work commute hours. The company I work for is the example – many employees are not satisfied with their jobs, but they have to come to work for paycheck. The company does not realize that the forced policy will not make its employees work hard for the company. The consequence leads to many employees calling sick or to have high turnover. This phenomena also fits the data in the text, “ one study of 700 managers found 20% called in sick simply because they did not feel like going to work that day, the top three reasons for employees taking bogus sick days are for doing personal errands, catching up on sleep, and relaxing.” It also indicates that absenteeism may lead to high turnover, the statistics also shows the cost of turnover is about 30% of annual salary and for professional employees it is up to 150%. On the other hand, some successful companies, they trust their employees, and give flexibility to employees to balance their family lives and work. As the example I mentioned in my previous thread, one UK Company’s turnover rate of 2014 was 0 because of the company policy of banning overtime. The company has realized that only its employees are happy with their family and personal lives, then they can put all their efforts into their work instead of worrying about their family issues. The work efficiency is not evaluated based on how many hours employee spend in the office. The annual reveune report of this UK company was triple revenue in 2014 compared previous year, employee job satisfaction went up, and employee turn over went to 0.
Self Fulfilling Prophecy
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An interesting concept in Chapter 11 dealt with the tendency for some people to affirm a belief that someone will act in a certain manner. This self fullfilling prophecy seems to materialize most often with employees who are customer or client-facing. The book gives the example that a waiter might expect a person who is wearing a certain style of clothing to tip poorly. As a result, the waiter provides poor service since he is not expecting a big tip. At the end of the meal, a poor tip is given fulfilling his expectation. I feel as though many service professionals are guilty of this since they assume that past experiences will always be an accurate predictor of present situations.
Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Chapter 13 speaks about groups:
- How groups are formed
- The difference between groups and teams
- The different stages of groups and team development
- How to build and effective team
- The different conflicts that can come from groups
The section which I found interesting was, “Dysfunctional & Functional conflict: Do nasty bosses get better results?” That section stated that surprisingly it does. I find that hard to believe. It made me think of some of the bosses that I had experience with. I don’t think being a nasty boss gets an individual any better results in fact I think it is the opposite. All the bosses that I did not like I did not perform better at my job but in fact just the opposite. Going to work was a hassle when I did not get along with my boss. Speaking with co-workers I found that they felt the same way. Productivity was down and work was not pleasant. Employees would eventually quit as did I. Working with bosses that I did get along with was a much more pleasant work environment. I performed better in the company with better
